Asparagus

I just sliced a handful of asparagus out of the backyard and ate it with bread and mustard and green olives. Fabulous!

Quote of the Day

A significant part of the pleasure of eating is in one's accurate
consciousness of the lives and the world from which the food comes.

-Wendell Berry

Supper Pie

Last night I made a vegetable pie and it came out great! First I made the quick press-in oil crust using one cup of whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup corn oil, 1/4 cup cold water, salt to taste, 1/4 cup sugar (acts like glue) then I stirred it all with a fork and pressed into my clay pie dish. Then I sauteed, in olive oil, three onions and two stalks of celery with their top greens. I added a cup of leftover pumpkin puree and a leftover boiled potato that I sliced. I added salt and dried red chili pepper and then I grated cheddar cheese to cover the whole top of the pie and baked it at a preheated 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Delicious.

Bake Barter

I'm looking to give one of my sourdough breads or homemade cakes to anyone who can help me transport a few box loads of free cow manure from the nearby dairy farm. Pickup trucks work best!

Wheat Pimp

My friend Brittin Eustis, whom I affectionately call the Wheat Pimp, supervises and cultivates the growth of organic wheat and other grains in the United States. I asked him why whole wheat flour + whole wheat pasta taste so much better than I remember it tasting when I was first starting to bake bread in the 1970's.

To answer your question about the changes to organic whole wheat pasta, in the 70's the pasta was largely made from organic hard red spring wheat which originated from Ukrainian Steppes. The traditional pasta is made from semolina which is milled from durum wheat, and that wheat came from North Africa and Mesopotamia. Hard red spring wheat is mostly for bread making and has strong gluten characteristics as well as high protein. It is not necessarily suited for sourdough fermented breads unless it meets certain characteristics. It is great for making bagels. Durum is suited for pasta, is yellow in color, and has a translucent endosperm. Semolina is a granular meal that is milled from the endosperm of the durum kernel. When it comes to whole wheat products made from these grains, the taste difference is largely due to the ratio of bran to endosperm. Hard red spring wheat has a larger proportion of bran to endosperm because the kernels are smaller. The flavor of the hard red spring wheat is distinctly more "grain like" because of tannins and phenolic acid in the bran layers. Whole wheat durum flour is much lighter in color and taste due to the higher ratio of endosperm to bran. It also has lower levels of tannins.

The best flour for making whole wheat pasta is made from kamut, a grain that is actually a precursor to modern day durum. The kernel is very large, and it has strong gluten and protein. I understand from my friend Bob Quinn, who started the breeding program in the US for this variety of wheat, that kamut makes a really nice sourdough bread, and it is very popular in Europe.

Here are some references for you:
North Dakota Wheat Commission
Kamut Korasan Wheat

Best regards,
The Wheat Pimp

Sally Sampson

When my friend Jenny turned me onto Sally Sampson's books I immediately fell in love with her writing. Her voice is intimate, poetic and honest in the tradition of my favorite food writers; Marion Cunningham, Laurie Colwin, MFK Fisher. She lives in New England and has published over a dozen cookbooks. Have a peek, and enjoy! Sally's website

Wood Flour

I went on a tour of the mill in Groveton and they made this stuff called wood flour. Now I thought it was pulp for paper and I asked the manager and he said no, our biggest client for this stuff is McDonalds. And he said what do you think they put it in? And I thought oh my goodness, the bread, the meat? He said non-dairy shakes. He said why do you think they're nondairy?
-Jack McEnany

Quote

Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.
-Carl Sandburg

Potatoes

What I say is that, if a fellow really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow.
-A. A. Milne

Simple Sweet Rice

Rinse two cups of short grain brown rice, cook in salted water in a heavy iron pot for an hour simmering on low. Enjoy with honey and cinnamon.

Salad

According to the Spanish proverb, four persons are wanted to make a good salad: a spendthrift (for oil), a miser for vinegar, a counselor for salt and a madman to stir it all up.
-John Gerard, Jesuit Priest (1564-1637)

Life

Life is a combination of magic and pasta.
-Federico Fellini

Ingenuity

On my walk to the dairy farm the other day I saw a garden with upside down clear plastic liter soda bottles strategically placed in rows in the soil. The bottles were serving as miniature greenhouses each one was covering a seed for growing peas.

Ceviche

Ceviche (also spelled as cebiche or seviche) is a citrus-marinated seafood dish, popular mainly in Latin American countries. Every so often I get a craving for the clean fresh taste of Cod!
Try this recipe! You'll love it.

1 to 2 lbs. firm, fresh white fish such as Cod, cut in 1/2 inch chunks.
Juice of 12-15 limes freshly squeezed, enough to cover the fish!
1-10 cloves garlic, minced
2 to 3 teaspoons salt (to taste)
1 small hot pepper, seeded and minced
1/4 cup freshly chopped cilantro
1-2 large red onions, thinly sliced or chopped
serve with toast, home made crackers, popcorn or slices of cold cooked sweet potato, or fried green plantains.

Layer the fish, salt, onion, pepper, and garlic in several layers in a glass bowl or empty quart canning jars. Pour the lime juice over mixture to cover. Refrigerate for three hours or overnight. The lime juice cooks the fish. Keeps well. Serve at room temperature on crackers, with popcorn, corn nuts, sliced cold sweet potato, or fried green plantains. Very colorful!

Colorful Quiche

Last night I started out making a whole wheat oil crust for an apple pie but changed my mind and made an onion quiche! For the crust take three tablespoons of water and whisk with 1/4 cup of corn oil. Add salt to taste. Add a cup of whole wheat flour and mix it gently with a spoon or your fingers, and then press it into a clay pie dish. Done! It's that easy! Look in your fridge to see if there are any leftover vegetables and cheeses and meats to use.
I chopped four onions and placed on the unbaked crust. Then I whisked 8 eggs and added Adobo seasoning. I poured egg mixture over the onions. Threw in a handful of pitted green olives (with pimentos) and a handful of chopped carrots for color! I baked it for 45 minutes in preheated 375 degree oven. Play! Have fun! Invent! Enjoy!

Eggplant Tomato Sauce

This sauce tastes meaty! Cube one average-sized eggplant, salt it, and let it sit in colander while you get started on everything else. Chop two ribs of celery, a few white onions, and a few cloves of garlic and saute in a big pot with olive oil and some dried red chili peppers crumbled. Then rinse the eggplant, shake it dry and add it to the pot. Cook it all a bit then add three cans of diced tomatoes and a splash of cheap port or leftover red wine for sweetness and flavor. Add dried or fresh oregano, a bay leaf, and some fresh basil and parsley if you have it. If you like capers you can add them too. Chop up some pitted black olives. This sauce will be fabulous on whole wheat pasta and even better the next day and progressively better through the week! So when you make a lot of it you'll be glad you did! Grate Asiago, Romano or Parmesan cheese on top. I like the sauce at room temperature eaten on a cracker or eaten on a slice of toast with grated cheese on top as bruschetta!

Wholegrain Pretzels

4 c. whole wheat flour
1 1/3 c. warm water (wrist temperature)
1 package of dry yeast (rapid rise)
1 teaspoon honey
2 teaspoons coarse salt or kosher salt

Preheat oven to 425°F. Grease large baking sheet. Proof yeast in water and honey. Then add flour and salt. Add enough flour to make moderately stiff dough. Knead 5 -10 minutes. Cut into 12 pieces and roll each into a pretzel; place on greased baking sheet and sprinkle the coarse salt on top. Let dog into the back yard and play fetch for a few minutes. Come back in and bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove pretzels from cookie sheet to wire rack. Serve warm and, if desired, with prepared mustard.

Wholegrain Bagels

I love whole grains, and blending flours with seeds is fun too. I am a dough head! There's not much you can do wrong with dough, it's not an exact science. It's a forgiving one! Just dive in and PLAY! No matter what, these will taste great and smell great! We buy 50 pounds of flour every month from JAR Bakers Supply in Lincoln RI. It's only 14 bucks for 50 pounds! We get the medium grind whole wheat flour. It's so fresh and good. If you think 50 pounds of flour is too much for your household needs, consider asking a few neighbors to share the bag. You'll be glad you did.

1-2 teaspoons or 1 package of Fleishmann's active dry yeast
1 golf ball sized blob of sourdough starter (optional)
2 c warm water (wrist temperature)
2 tsp sugar or honey to feed the yeasties!
3 1/2-4 c whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (or more to taste)
You can always add more flour, rolled oats, wheat bran, and cornmeal. You can also add sesame, poppy, and flax seeds and even grind them up together and add them. Try raisins or sunflower seeds too.

Dissolve a package of yeast in warm water in a large bowl; let stand 5-10 minutes. It might get foamy. Then add sugar or honey, stirring well. Stir in 2 cups of the whole wheat flour (or the flour blend) and 1-1/2 teaspoons salt; mix well. Add starter blob if you have it. Gradually stir in the rest of the flour to make a dough. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead 5 to 10 minutes, turning and dusting with more flour as needed. Place dough in a bowl, cover with towel and let rise in a warm place 1-2 hours or until doubled in bulk. Punch dough down, and cut dough into 12 equal pieces. I use a bagel/donut cutter because I love kitchen tools. Otherwise roll each blob of dough into a smooth ball and punch a hole in the center of each ball. If you have an apple-corer that works well for making a hole too.

Bring about 2 quarts of water with a teaspoon of salt to boil in a big pot or Dutch oven. Boil bagels about 3 minutes on each side. Use a slotted spoon or slotted spatula for scooping out the boiled bagels. Place bagels on your lightly greased baking sheet, or directly on your hot baking stone. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 1 dozen. Eat some warm! Let the others cool on a rack. The flavors will "land" and they will taste fabulous the next day toasted, buttered, and sprinkled with cinnamon and honey. I also like them just plain. They taste like soft pretzels. I break them apart and dip them in kosher salt. They are a great travel food and they freeze well too. Enjoy and share with those you love.

Sharing Starter

Bread deals with living things, with giving life, with growth, with the seed, the grain that nurtures. It's not coincidence that we say bread is the staff of life.
-Lionel Poilâne artisan baker

I am going to learn to make bread to-morrow. So you may imagine me with my sleeves rolled up, mixing flour, milk, saleratus, etc., with a deal of grace. I advise you if you don't know how to make the staff of life to learn with dispatch.
-Emily Dickinson

I've been sharing my sourdough starter with friends and I am so excited for them to discover the joys of baking their own bread. I tell them it's like farming in your own kitchen!

Fifty Gallons

My pal singer songwriter guitarist gardener Rodney Maxwell told me he is making maple syrup. He said it takes fifty gallons of sap to make a gallon of maple syrup! I immediately thought that's about the same ratio as writing.

Safe Sampling

I am making a variation on chicken Marbella with the ingredients I have in the house. Port in place of white wine, black olive taupinaude in place of green olives, white sugar in place of brown sugar. I wanted to taste the marinade since I had done so much improvising but I had already put the raw chicken breasts into it. So I took a few tablespoons of the marinade and put it in a tiny glass dish with a cover (preventing splatter) and heated it up in the microwave to cook it. Then it was safe to taste test it, adjust the recipe, and repeat. You can also heat the sample on the stove top or in the oven. Just be sure to bring it up to boiling and you're safe!

Kasha!

Kasha is buckwheat groats. It is a fabulous grain. Take a cup of kasha and rinse it, put it in an ovenproof dish, add 2 cups of water, a pinch of kosher salt, and bloop of olive oil, and cover. If you're putting this in a cold oven, cover and bake for an hour at 350 degrees. In a preheated oven bake it for 30 minutes.You can also simmer it on the stove top for twenty minutes just like a hot cereal. In a large skillet saute a few sliced onions in olive oil, then add a splash of cheap port and soy sauce, then add the cooked kasha. You can combine it with leftover rice or noodles too. Enjoy!

Potato Salad

This recipe is a 30 year old favorite. It was in a little yellow cookbook that came with my first Presto pressure cooker. I still have my beloved cooker and I still make this potato salad a few times a year. It is good hot, cold, and luke-warm. Double the recipe - you'll want leftovers. This is always a hit at summer picnics too.

4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
1/2 teaspoon celery seed (optional)
1/4 cup vinegar (I like red wine vinegar)
1/2 cup water
1 large onion, chopped
6 large potatoes diced (red potatoes or Yukon gold are my favorites)
Add a few ribs of chopped celery and raisins if you have them handy.

Add ingredients to cooker, mix well, close cover and cook 5 minutes with pressure regulator rocking gently. Cool cooker at once. If you don't have a pressure cooker I'm sure you can bake this in a Dutch oven or cook it on the stove top in a heavy lidded pot. Save the leftover flavorful seasoned potato stock for adding to cooked beans or using as soup stock.

Lemon-Sesame Chicken

Years ago, during college, I worked in the kitchen of Leo's, a local restaurant and bar (now defunct). They served fabulous food. I am proud to say that is where I met my husband, and where I learned to cook. It was the best kitchen job I'd ever had.

I made this Lemon-Sesame Chicken recipe for Bill on our first date. I brought him over to my little third floor apartment on Oakland Avenue on Smith Hill. Unfortunately I had marinated the chicken for three days and (as he recalls) I served it in the marinade (not wanting to waste anything!) It was dreadful, it tasted like it was marinated in Mr. Clean! Bill never complained, being the gentleman that he is, but I was horrified! If you make it right, it may lead to marriage! And if you make it wrong it may too!

Lemon-Sesame Chicken

1 bunch of fresh scallions, chopped
8 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and minced or thrown in the blender with marinade
1/2 cup sesame tahini
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (it's worth making your own!)
salt and sugar to taste
4 skinless and boneless chicken breasts halved

Mix tahini and lemon juice with whisk or buzz in a blender (if you use a blender or food processor you can add the raw garlic cloves to this). Place the boneless skinless chicken breasts in a bowl, pour the mixture over, cover, and marinate for 5 hours or overnight in the fridge. Grill or bake in 350 degree oven until done. Sprinkle with the fresh scallions!

Chicken Marbella

At Leo's, waitresses were instructed to say "fruits" rather than prunes when we had Chicken Marbella as a special. Why not say plums? Chicken Marbella is amazing.

From the famous Silver Palette Cookbook.

4 chickens, 2 1/2 lb. each, quartered (I use boneless skinned chicken breasts)
1 head of garlic, pureed
1/4 c dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 c red wine vinegar
1/2 c olive oil
1 c pitted prunes
1/2 c Spanish green olives
1/2 c capers with a bit of juice (Job Lot has them for cheap!)
6 bay leaves
1 c brown sugar
1 c white wine
1/4 c chopped parsley

Combine all ingredients except brown sugar and white wine, and marinate overnight. Arrange chicken in pan, spoon marinade over, and sprinkle with brown sugar and wine. Bake 50-60 min at 350 degrees, basting often. Enjoy this meal with those you love! Serves 10. The leftovers are even better cold over brown rice or whole wheat noodles.