Potluck Casseroles for Winter

Potluck Casseroles.

            December has arrived and my last turkey-blue cheese-sourdough sandwich is but a delicious memory. We are fully in the midst of the community, friends and family Holiday Season, which means lots of gatherings with good cheer and of course FOOD.  Most of these gatherings seem to thrive on the concept of “Potluck” with the idea that the many food offerings will feed the crowd without any one person having to do all the work. Also, within the potluck format we hope that there will be enough variety to suit everyone’s tastes and with luck, dietary restrictions.

            This means that my 9x13 inch casserole that sits in a wicker tray gets a lot of use this season.  However, there are both limitations and opportunities for its contents. First, the amount of time I have available for preparation. Second, the kind of gathering I’m attending. After all, it would not be considerate to serve beef roulades to an Indian family or a ham-based casserole for a Hanukkah gathering. Third, it is an opportunity to cook a dish to share that would be too much for two people for an everyday meal. And finally, of course there is the cook’s prerogative to fill the dish with something that she would like to eat.

                                                Cooked Sauerkraut with Sausage.

            An all time quick casserole is cooked sauerkraut topped with pieces of smoked sausage. Because of our excellent local source of fresh sauerkraut, this is one of my favorite minimal effort dishes.  Drain 2 quarts of raw sauerkraut, rinse and place in a pot with 1 cored and chopped apple, 1 Tsp. sugar, 1 tsp. caraway seed and water enough to barely cover the sauerkraut.  Bring to boil and cook for 1 hour on medium heat, stirring to mix once or twice. Add a bit more water if the sauerkraut becomes dry. Spread the cooked sauerkraut in a baking dish and top with chunks of smoked, spicy sausage.  Place under the broiler until the sausage is nicely browned and serve.

                                                Baked Rice Pilaf with or without Chicken.

            This is a recipe for a very rich baked rice pilaf with chicken, but if you omit the chicken it will please your vegetarian friends. Chop 1 onion, 1 ½ stalks celery, 2 carrots and sauté the vegetables in 1 Tblsp. olive oil and 1 Tblsp. butter for 5 minutes. Add 2 ½ cups rice, stirring to coat the rice. Add 5 cups of (water and 1 tsp. salt) or vegetable broth and cook for 15 minutes. In the meantime sauté: 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans in 1 Tblsp. butter and set aside. In the same pan sauté 1 cup chopped mushrooms with 1 clove chopped garlic and ½ chopped red pepper, stirring in salt and pepper and 1 Tblsp. lemon juice in the end. In a large pan quickly brown 1 inch pieces of cut up 2 large chicken breasts and season with salt and pepper (omit if making a vegetarian pilaf). In a large bowl combine the cooked rice, nuts, mushrooms, chicken if used, 1 ½ cups grated Parmesan cheese and 2 eggs beaten with ¾ cups vegetable broth. Bake covered 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Uncover and sprinkle with 1 cup grated Jack cheese and return to the oven for an additional 10 minutes.

            One look at most potluck tables will tell us that good cooks abound in our communities and the temptation to overfill our plate with “just a little bit of everything” is hard to resist.  However, if you are concerned about your waistline, the old adage “discretion is the better part of valor” still holds - even at potlucks!

(I. Winicov Harrington lives in Waldoboro and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)

Thanksgiving and More...Published as Thrifty Good Food Column in The Lincoln Co. News

Thanksgiving and More…

            By the time you read this, you are not likely to need more commentary on how to prepare the “feast that was”!  The leftover turkey, stuffing, vegetables, cranberries and mashed potatoes crammed full in the refrigerator are ample enough reminders of that wonderful event, at least at our house.

            While the sight of all these leftovers can cheer any frugal gourmet, that first look can also be daunting. The practicalities of wisely using this bounty can be challenging to say the least, especially if you want the results to be both appetizing and not just a microwave copy of the same meal. We all thrive on variety and this is the time to practice some simple but ingenious methods to achieve both visual and taste varieties. What is more, turkey once prepared can provide many easy and economical meals and can be a real boon to the weekly food budget.

            An excellent and totally different presentation can be achieved by converting many of those ready-made ingredients from your ‘after-Thanksgiving’ refrigerator into a turkey tamale pie. The south-of-the-border flavors are guaranteed to perk you up after a hard day of weekend shopping.

Turkey tamale pie.

            Sauté one medium onion and ½ green pepper, chopped, in 1 Tblsp. olive oil until soft, stir in two minced cloves of garlic and continue to sauté for an additional minute. Stir in the contents of 1 (14 oz) can chopped seasoned tomatoes with juice, 1 tsp. sugar, 1 tsp. salt, 1- 2 Tblsp. chili powder and cook on low for about 5 minutes. Stir in 3 cups cubed turkey meat, ½ cup leftover gravy (optional), ½ cup chopped olives (green or black), 1 can (14 oz) black beans drained and rinsed and a cup of cooked vegetables such as corn or green beans. Pour mixture in a buttered baking dish. For topping use 1-2  cups leftover mashed potatoes combined with ½ cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese. Drop spoonfuls of topping as you would biscuits or spread in thin rows to make a lattice.  Sprinkle everything with additional shredded sharp cheddar cheese and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. In absence of leftover mashed potatoes: make a cornmeal topping. Cornmeal topping: stir ¾ cups cornmeal in 2 cups cold water, 1 Tblsp. butter and ½ tsp. salt. Bring to boil and cook stirring until thick. Remove from heat, stir in the shredded cheese and proceed as above, spreading the corn mixture in thin rows. Serve with a salad and you have a totally different meal from Thanksgiving.

            A very different flavor can be achieved by combining cooked turkey cubes with a creamy mushroom sauce.

                                    Turkey mushroom success.

            In a pan melt 2 Tblsp. butter, stir in 2 Tblsp. flour and constantly stirring on medium heat add 1 cup milk. Stir to keep smooth, until thickened. Add: ½ tsp. salt, ¼  tsp. dry mustard, ¼  tsp paprika, ½ tsp. dill seed (optional), 1 Tblsp ketchup, 2 cups cubed cooked turkey, one 4 oz can sliced mushrooms (drained) and 1/3 cup shredded sharp cheese. Stir on low heat until blended and hot. Serve on pasta, rice, warmed leftover stuffing or just toast. 

            Turkey really is one of the most economical and versatile of meats. So, after Thanksgiving I have come to conclude that roast turkey should appear more often on our tables than just on these feasts in November and December. An opinion most heartily supported by the concurring purrs of our two new resident felines.

(I. Winicov Harrington lives in Waldoboro and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)

Turkey Trot Time

            Looking out from our window on a recent morning, I was amazed by the sight of several wild turkeys that were doing what looked like a dance at the edge of our meadow. Actually it was probably the high wind that was impeding their foraging, so that they would flap their wings to get a more secure foothold, but in the process they seemed to be engaged in a frolic.

            There actually is a human dance version of the Turkey Trot that was popular in the early 1900’s, which involved a lot of intricate movement to fast ragtime music.  In our modern world the name “Turkey Trot” has become synonymous in many towns and cities with distance races around Thanksgiving time, often livened up by the imaginative costumes of the runners.

            I’m afraid I was not thinking of either the dance craze, nor the closest holiday “Turkey Trot” race.  My thoughts were jolted with a much more practical matter. What to serve for Thanksgiving this year?  Regrettably in reference to those turkeys in our meadow, it was going to be one of their domestic relatives.  Turkey and Thanksgiving just naturally go together at our house.

            Since my kitchen does not have a double oven, the 12-14 pound turkey will have to be roasted by the high temperature method to allow oven time for other preparations. For the high temperature method, rinse and pat dry the thawed turkey, seasoning the inside with salt and a few chopped celery tops.  Pour a cup of water in the bottom of the roasting pan and place the un-stuffed turkey on a rack in the lower one third of the oven, pre-heated to 425 degrees. Roast for one hour, turn the pan and roast for an additional 40 minutes. Baste with a glaze or just lemon juice and the drippings and roast for an additional 20 minutes. Total roasting time 1 and ¾ to 2 hours. Remove the bird to a plate and loosely cover with foil to rest for 30 minutes. This gives you time to make the gravy and other side dishes.

            Side dishes are where some variation each year is allowed at our house, as long as there are mashed potatoes to go under the rich turkey gravy. This year we’ll have sweet potatoes emphasizing their natural flavor, without the cloying sweetness often accompanying this dish.

                                    Savory Roasted Sweet Potatoes.

            Cut 2 large peeled sweet potatoes (or yams) in wedges ½ to ¾ inches at the thickest portion. Make similar wedges from a peeled red onion, with the wedges being held together at the root end.  In a large bowl mix together 2Tblsp. olive oil, 1 Tblsp. balsamic vinegar, ¼ tsp. garlic powder, ½ tsp. brown sugar, ¼ tsp. ground ginger and ½ tsp. ground cumin.  Toss the sweet potato wedges in the mix until well coated and spread out on an aluminum foil lined large cookie tin with sides. Toss the onion wedges in the oil mixture and distribute between the potatoes. Sprinkle all with coarse salt and roast in a 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes, turning the vegetables once after 20 minutes with a spatula. The sweet potatoes can be prepared before the turkey, kept covered on the pan until serving time and just heated under the broiler for a couple of minutes.

            Although a roasted turkey, banked with fresh sage sprigs is a picture in itself, having some colorful sides on the table adds visual pleasure. There will naturally be fresh cranberry sauce, a dish of this summer’s dilly beans, but the green fall vegetable can be a challenge. This year’s warm fall has provided the option of kale, still plentiful in the garden and local stores, which unlike collards requires a minimum of preparation.

                                    Sautéed Kale with Pine Nuts.

            Wash kale leaves and chop coarsely, discarding the stems and any wide ribs to give 4-5 cups of leaves. These can be prepared ahead and stored in a plastic bag until use just before dinner. In a wok or deep pan, sauté ½ sweet onion chopped in 2 Tblsp. olive oil for 5 minutes, until golden. Add 1 minced clove of garlic and sauté for another minute. Add ½ of the kale leaves, 1 Tblsp. chopped capers, and 2 Tblsp. pine nuts.  Sauté for about 3 minutes stirring, add the rest of the kale and continue to sauté for an additional 3 minutes and season with salt and pepper. Cover the pan for 1-2 minutes with heat remaining on medium. Serve sprinkled with additional toasted pine nuts.

            With all this good food ready to go on the Thanksgiving table, family and friends in attendance, one can only agree with the lyrics of the song by Little Eva “Come on, let’s Turkey Trot, Let’s get it while it’s hot”…

 (I. Winicov Harrington lives in Waldoboro and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)

THE SEASONAL TABLE - Thrifty Good Food

THE SEASONAL TABLE

            Late October, almost November!  As I savor the last tomatoes from my garden slowly turning from green to red on my kitchen counter, I reminisce about the variety of local summer bounty and am forced to consider our seasonal table with its varied flavors.  For a household in Maine (or the Northeast USA in general) preferably “cooking from scratch” for a healthy diet and favoring local ingredients, this can be a seasonal challenge with the approach of winter.

            And yet, such challenges tend to bring out the inventor and experimenter in a cook.  When Alice Waters set out to use local produce in her creations, she had the fresh variety and plenty of California at her fingertips in the local markets at all times. Although I’m likely to think of her with envy in February in Maine, the seasonal demands can make us more creative about our daily menus, if for no other reason than boredom with routine.  We are greatly aided by the abundance and availability of regional and international recipes as well as food that can be stored in a preserved or frozen state.  And I will admit to not being a purist locovore to the extent of banning an occasional banana, as Barbara Kingsolver did in her admirable experiment described in “Animal Vegetable Miracle”.  Rather, I like to think of seasonal foods providing us the basis for a variety of taste experiences and possibly even a variety in nutritional requirements/benefits throughout the year.

            The taste experiences I like to write about generally originate from my own kitchen and hence require at most modest shopping expense and cooking expertise. These would be meals served to family and friends. Some recipes, I confess originate from an unexpected overabundance in my garden.  Since growing a garden requires investment of personal time and labor, it would be unseemly to simply discard such bounty.  Hence, the requirement for new and sometimes creative uses of it.

            A recent case in point was brought up by my fall digging up of a row of beets. These were Chioga and yellow beets, two mild varieties that were destined to be served sliced and buttered as part of a main course for a local progressive dinner. However, the inner beet greens looked fresh and attractive on their own and certainly too good to discard in the compost pile. Thus evolved my Barley-Beet Green soup.

                                    Barley – Beet Green Soup

Cook ½ cup thoroughly rinsed barley in 3 cups of water with ½ tsp. salt for 30 minutes on medium heat. Meanwhile, in a 3 quart pot sauté 1 chopped onion for 5 minutes, add 1 minced clove of garlic and sauté for an additional minute. Add 2 cups water, 3 cups chicken or vegetable broth and bring to boil. In the meantime wash beet greens, trim leaves and discard stems. Cut leaves coarsely (4-5 cups) and drop in boiling broth, bring to boil again, lower heat and continue boiling covered for 8 minutes. Drain the barley and add to cooking greens and continue to cook for another 5 minutes. Stir in 2 Tblsp. rice vinegar, adjust flavor with salt and pepper. Serve with a spoon of reduced fat sour cream or yoghurt for a satisfying, slightly tangy low calorie soup.

                                    Buttered Chioga and Yellow Beets

            Scrub the beets and trim stems but not the root, leaving ½ inch stems attached. Cover beets with cold water in a pot, bring to boil and cook for 30 minutes or less, depending on size.  When cooled to touch, peel and slice in a bowl. Top with butter, sprinkle with a little salt, reheat and serve. These will taste milder than roasted red beets.

            Beets are a seasonal fall vegetable and can be also served as part of salads and soups. Pickled beets will keep as a colorful addition to winter meals, and I will likely remember to make some Barley-Beet Green soup next spring, when the new crop of beets needs to be thinned in the garden.

((I. Winicov Harrington lives in Waldoboro and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)

Fall Pleasures-Column Published in The Lincoln County News-

Fall Pleasures

            This week saw the passage of the Vernal Equinox and hence we are officially in the fall season.  Even those who ignore the fine print in the calendar can tell.  The midweek traffic on Route 1, always a reliable harbinger of the change in seasons, tells us that summer is over!

            This means that we can once again re-connect with our neighbors for more than just a quick “hello” at the post office or grocery store. With visiting family and summer house guests gone, there is actually time to have a pleasurable mid-week simple supper with neighbors to catch up with their lives and compare notes on past summer events.

            We spent one such evening recently and found that, with the abundant garden harvest of this year, it was quite simple to assemble a meal that was both easy on time and effort: some appetizers, a hearty soup with popovers and simple desert.

            To liven up the ubiquitous cheese and crackers, appetizers included a plate of cucumber slices topped with blue cheese and small rounds of salami topped with a slice of new dill pickles. The main course was my harvest meatball soup, which is more like a vegetable stew and allows you to serve everything in a single soup bowl, with contents only limited by your imagination.

            Harvest Meatball Soup.

            It may be easier to start with the meatballs, since they need to be added when the soup is finished cooking. Start with ¼ cup dry bread crumbs soaked in 3-4 Tblsp. milk. For gluten free meatballs you need to use gluten free bread crumbs. Once the crumbs have absorbed the milk, stir in 2 Tblsp. chopped onion, 1Tblsp. Worcestershire sauce, 1 egg, salt and pepper and 1 pound lean ground beef.  Thoroughly mix the crumb mixture in the meat.  Make the meatballs rolling them in the palm of your hand, using a full Tblsp. of the meat mixture for each.  Set the meatballs, not touching, on a larger cookie pan with sides and bake in 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Remove from pan, drain on paper towels and cover until ready to add to the soup. Makes 24 meatballs.  

While the meatballs are baking, in a 4 quart pot sauté a large coarsely chopped onion in 2 Tblsp. olive oil for 5 minutes.  Add 2 chopped stalks of celery (with leaves), 2 chopped cloves of garlic and continue to sauté for an additional 5 minutes. Add: 4-5 cut-up cored-unpeeled tomatoes (or a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes with liquid), 3 cups water and 26 oz. beef cooking stock. Bring to boil and add the following vegetables cut to bite size: 3 peeled carrots, 2 peeled medium potatoes, 2 small yellow squash, 1 cup fresh string beans. Season with ½ tsp. thyme, 2 Tblsp. chopped fresh parsley, 2 Tblsp. chopped fresh basil (optional) salt and pepper. After the vegetables reach boiling, lower the temperature to low and continue cooking for 45 minutes. Add a 14 oz. can of drained rinsed garbanzo or white beans, 1 cup of frozen or canned corn and the prepared meatballs. Heat to boiling and serve with grated Parmesan cheese.  It makes for a thick and colorful plate that is as tasty as it is filling.

Never having forgotten the popovers I first encountered at Jordan Pond so many years ago, I love to make them for breakfast or to go with soup.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Grease popover pan thoroughly and place in the oven for about 3 minutes. In the meantime in a large bowl beat together 3 eggs, 1 ¼ cups milk, 1 Tblsp. melted butter and combine with 1 ¼ cups flour and ¼ tsp. salt. Remove the hot pan from the oven carefully and quickly divide egg mixture between the 6 cups. Return pan to the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for another 15 to 17 minutes.  Remove from oven and serve immediately.

Having written about gluten free popovers in one of my previous columns, here is the gluten free version. The recipe is the same except instead of flour use 1 cup of my gluten free mix (bulk preparation: 2 cups brown rice flour, 2/3 cup potato starch, 1/3 cup tapioca flour) and ½ tsp. baking powder. The gluten free popovers won’t pop as high, but will still be tasty and look like popovers.

A neighborly supper, capped off with good companionable conversation and a simple desert, such as my Maine Peach Melba (poached peaches, topped with ice cream and blueberry jam), is bound to please every time.

(I. Winicov Harrington lives in Waldoboro and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)