Extra Schmaltz!

Doing some research for the weed science class I'm TA-ing, I stumbled across a wonderful food blog ( Mahanandi ) of the cuisine of southern India, specifically a recipe that uses amaranth leaves ( right here ). Amaranth is considered a weed in the US, but the grains and greens are used worldwide in cooking. The recipe is for 'chana dal', which are similar to chick-peas, but much smaller and faster-cooking. I found them at the co-op, but I've also seen them at the large grocery store here. Soak them overnight for best results. Also, you could use spinach instead of amaranth, but the amaranth is so good that you should try to find it (I got mine at the Chinese grocery) or collect it from the garden yourself. I think I like it more than spinach, and from now on I will harvest the weedy volunteers in my garden. You should do your best to follow the recipe on the original site--I had to make a bunch of substitutions, but it still turned out really well and even looked just l...

On a recent cold rainy fall day, I had something of an epiphany for how to use a whole chicken I had that was about 45 seconds away from starting to turn. I was tired of soup, but I wanted sauce, spice, and flavor. Solution: Stew. I also forgot pictures because I was too cold, hungry, and grumpy. I quartered my chicken and browned the quarters in my heaviest pot in some olive oil. I should have removed the wings because they ended up disintegrating and just adding boney bits. Oh well. Once the chicken had some decent browning going on, I poured on a can of whole peeled tomatoes. These are basically the best thing ever for making sauce from scratch, because they have a minimum of processing and are 95% as tomatoey as fresh tomatoes, at maybe 1/5th the price. The rest of the veggies were carrots, peeled and halved; some small white onions quartered and little pearls kept whole; and lots and lots of garlic (maybe 8-10 cloves). Sinus-clearing action was called for, so I added half a dozen ...

Tonight we have the first frost advisory of the year here in Ithaca, so it's a good night to stay home and have a comforting meal. Also, I didn't feel like doing my homework, so I basically got food (at the farm and farm-stand) and cooked the whole day. I even took pictures this time! Tonight's meal was truly all-American, all-Yankee, in fact. A navy bean is also known as a Yankee bean, so the soup is self-explanatory. The Parker House rolls originated at a swanky hotel in Boston; I made the cloverleaf version. The concord grape pie may be more hard to believe, but it does exist and is a regional delicacy. Concord grapes are a 'labrusca' variety, which means they're descended from the native North American grape. I'm not sure if you can find concords in MN, but I hope so, since the pie smells delicious (it's still cooling, so I don't know how it tastes). I think that you can use any other black-skinned grape whose skins slip off readily. Yankee Bean ...

Here is a recipe from Alex: Stuffed Fried Eggplant This is actually something I made up, though I based it on something I ate in Turkey(this is actually much better). It may actually be identical to the dish "Imam Bayaldi," but it looks like there are many variations on that dish anyway. I only made one eggplant, since it was left over from another meal - it didn't take long at all, maybe 30 minutes. Ingredients: Little Mini Eggplants(I had just one - the more, the easier the whole thing is, obviously) - ie, about 4-6" long, not including stem.* Onions (enough to fill the hollowed cavities of the eggplants.) Garlic Hot peppers(to taste) Cumin Optional(but delicious): Pomegranate molasses("dabas rumaan")(Worth having in the house anyway- very good with salads, or drizzled on top of the baba ghanouj from Lillian's recipe. Available at nearest Middle Eastern grocery store, or ethnic food aisle. Different from grenadine, I believe.) Cut onions into thin str...

Considering it was the 'day of rest', we at the Byway did anything but. We got up, made a big breakfast (french toast, bacon, and fruit salad), and then set to cleaning the basement. It looks SOOO much better now! The shale foundation still seeps water when it rains (as it is currently doing), but now at least we got rid of most of the clutter, cobwebs, and fixed a dryer ventilation problem. To reward all our triumphant and weary workers I decided to make a nice dinner. I'd been wanting to make a sweet kugel, what with the high holy days rolling around (not that I'm religious--I just like the food), and I thought this would be a good night for it. I wanted to accompany it with a beef roast, but since Melanie can't eat beef we had a pork roast instead. I really have a habit of making one dish from a kosher or halal culture and accompanying it with pork--probably because pork is so versatile and I'm burned out on chicken. This will be lengthy: Roast Peppery Po...

Here is a fantastic side-dish that has the added benefit (?) of smelling like every Jewish home I visited as a kid. It also uses buckwheat groats (when cooked, called kasha), which is a nutritional and agricultural powerhouse. Like quinoa, buckwheat is a seed rather than a grain, and contains tons of high-quality protein and many vitamins and minerals (and if you go by the articles about it, cures and prevents nearly every ill). Buckwheat is a great cover-crop for farmers and it grow very quickly. The recipe calls for bow-tie noodles, which--face it--are just plain fun. It goes really well with roasted chicken. This is modified from The Art of Jewish Cooking by Jennie Grossinger: 1/2 box of bow-tie noodles, cooked in salted water 1/3 c. butter or schmaltz 1 large onion, diced or sliced finely 1 tsp. thyme 1 tsp. black pepper salt to taste 1 1/2 c. roasted buckwheat groats, whole or cut 2 1/2 c. boiling water 1 1/2 tsp. salt 1 egg, beaten First, cook your noodles. Heat up a large pot an...

This recipe has countless variations, so I present the version that mom taught me. Some people add tahini, but I think that ruins it--I like the zingy flavor this version has. This recipe is best made in late summer, when you have the grill going. 2 or more pounds eggplant, preferably small tender ones 3 bell peppers, green or red 1/2 red onion, diced finely 1 lemon, juiced 1/3 c. good olive oil 2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped finely salt and pepper - be generous with both 1/2 tsp. ground coriander pinch of sugar pinch of cayenne Place the eggplants and 2 of the bell peppers on the grill and roast until blackened all over. You can use a gas stove or a broiler, but make sure to pull the batteries out of the smoke detector! Remove from the grill and place in a plastic bag for several minutes until they're cool enough to handle. Remove the roasted skins from the eggplants and peppers, and chop them finely into a bowl. Rinse the onion in cold water to reduce its stinkiness, then add to...

I'm posting this picture 5/27/2012 (4 yrs 8 months after the original post)--just to prove that this recipe delivers again and again over the years! This is a hearty, simple meal that will feed you all week long. I make it with a pressure cooker because it is SO much faster that way, but you can simmer it on the stove if you prefer. The recipe is based on one from the cookbook that came with my pressure cooker. I didn't take photos because I find that bean dishes look horrible in them so you'll just have to use your imagination. First soak one pound of red beans overnight. I use "small red beans", but they're kind of hard to find, so you could use pink beans, roman beans, pintos, or even red kidney beans for this. If you didn't soak them overnight, you can put them in a pot of water, bring it to boil for one minute, and then turn off the heat and let them sit for 4 hrs. When you cut a bean in half there should be no pale starchy spot in the middle. ...