SAVORY HOLIDAY TREATS

Savory Holiday Treats

            Having sent my annual Christmas bounty of cookies to grandchildren in three different states made me think of the memorable lines from C.C Moore’s wonderfully classic poem Twas the Night Before Christmas: “ The children were nestled all snug in their beds,  While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads”.  The amount and variety of sugared treats that are consumed during the Holidays by everyone is just amazing.  And yet, savory treats make a welcome change by design, choice or medical necessity for those with diabetes.

            Not to despair, savory Holiday treats need not be reduced to the basic vegetable platter with dip, or cheese and crackers, though cheese is often a flavorful ingredient in these treats. Nor do we need to spend hours of precious holiday time in the kitchen to achieve something different, savory and delicious. Some of these treats make wonderful appetizers, others can be of more substantial nature and all will be welcome as hostess gifts.  One of the easiest and quickest treats is a simple combination of mostly a flavorful cheese with a bit of flour, multipurpose or rice flour for gluten free.

                                                            Manchengo Crisps

             In a medium bowl toss together 1 ½ cups coarsely shredded aged Manchengo cheese with 1 ¼ Tblsp. flour. Drop by heaping teaspoonful, well separated, on parchment lined baking sheets.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 9 minutes until golden.  Cool completely on the pan and remove carefully with a metal spatula. Store in a tightly covered container. (16-18 crisps).

            Another treat that is easy and can be served as an elegant accompaniment to soups utilizes ready to use puff pastry sheets found at your grocer. These are Parmesan or aged Assiago cheese straws.

                                                Aged Assiago Cheese Straws

            In a small bowl mix ¼  cup finely shredded aged Assiago cheese, ½ tsp. dried oregano (or crushed rosemary) and 1 Tblsp. finely chopped fresh parsley.  Roll out one sheet of thawed puff pastry to 10 by 14 inch dimensions on a lightly floured surface. Cut in half lengthwise to give two 5x14 inch pieces. Brush both halves with an egg wash made of 1 egg whisked with 1 Tblsp. water.  Spread the cheese mixture over one half of the pastry and lay the other half, egg wash side down on top. With a rolling pin seal the two halves together and cut crosswise in ½ inch strips (~28). Gently lift each strip up and place on a greased  baking sheet after twisting 3 times, pressing down the ends. Brush again each twist with the egg wash and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Store in a tightly covered container until use.

            And finally, when invited to a dinner at friend’s house, a hostess gift that never fails to please is something that the hosts can use as breakfast next morning. Scones are one of my favorites, but instead of sweet scones, the savory variety has its own appeal.

                                                Bacon, Cheddar and Scallion Scones

            Fry 5 slices of thick cut bacon to near crisp, drain on paper towels and coarsely crumble. Slice thinly 4 scallions with the green tops. In a food processor place: 2 cups flour 1 Tblsp. Sugar, 1 Tblsp. baking powder, ¾ tsp. baking soda, ½ tsp. salt, 1 cup old-fashioned oats and pulse 15 times. Add ¾ cup cold unsalted butter cut into tablespoon size pieces and pulse about 10 times more. Put mixture in a bowl and toss with bacon and scallions. In another bowl slightly beat 2 eggs, stir in 2/3 cup buttermilk (or milk with a couple Tblsp. sour cream) and 2/3 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese. Pour egg mixture in flour and mix until just blended.  Place the thick dough on a floured surface, knead a few times and divide dough in two portions. Flatten each piece into a 6.5 inch disk and cut each disk in 6 pieces. Place on a parchment lined pan and brush each piece with additional buttermilk or cream. Bake at 425 degrees for 16-18 minutes until golden brown. Cool on a rack, serve or store in a tight container. These freeze well and can be reheated in the microwave for a brief time.

            While I do enjoy an occasional cookie or sweet, I must have been born a contrarian with a real preference for savory treats.

(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)

HOME BAKED HOLIDAY GIFTS

Home Baked Holiday Gifts

            Our Thanksgiving feasts are but an overstuffed memory, Black Friday and Small Business Saturday are past and now the Holiday season is truly upon us.  The nebulous thoughts of gifts for family and friends suddenly require a new focus.

            I will confess of jumping the season the day before Thanksgiving and doing advance shopping for a grandson at the Damariscotta Book store in order to tap the juvenile book expertise of the staff.  His yearly shifts in interest from knights to pirates to the Revolutionary war have left me inadequately prepared to find the right book for the occasion, but thankfully, the staff there always seem to come up with the appropriate selection.

            Fortunately some of his other tastes, like those for cookies, do not change from year to year.  It seems that all the grandchildren (and children for that matter) look forward to the cookie Holiday offerings from our house. Which means that after Thanksgiving I have to go to work and start baking. And although each year I try for another variety, there are the traditional and beloved varieties that raise the mournful cry of :”but you did not make,,my favorite this year”, if they do not appear in the mailed Christmas boxes. Strangely enough, one of the favorites is my chocolate chip cookies, which really have no special season.  Then there are the festive looking apricot-pecan-buttons, but the loudest protests come if I skip making my mother’s Latvian butter cookies in different seasonal shapes.  They are rich, addictively delicious, fragile, hard to ship, time consuming to make and worth every bit of the effort.

                                    Mother’s Latvian Butter Cookies

            Beat 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature with 1 cup sugar with an electric mixer until light. Beat in 4 egg yolks, one at a time until blended, then stir in 1 tsp. vanilla. Reserve egg whites for another use (see below). Then using a wooden spoon stir in 3 scant cups of flour, sifted together with 2/3 tsp. baking powder until well mixed. Chill dough for at least 2 hours or overnight. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. On a floured board roll out portions of the dough to less than ¼ inch in thickness.  Cut out desired shapes and arrange on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Separate out 2 more egg yolks, reserving the whites with the rest. Beat the egg yolks together with 1 Tblsp. water with a fork and use this glaze to brush the tops of cookies. Bake 12 to 14 min. until the tops are golden. Cool the cookies on the pan for a couple of minutes and finish cooling on a rack. Store in a tightly covered container.

            This leaves you with 6 egg whites, which will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of days and can be used by the thrifty cook as a basis for either an angel food cake or at least two other varieties of delicious cookies: Coconut Macaroons or Meringue Kisses, both absolutely fat free and delicious.  Unlike the butter cookies, these are easy to make and while Meringues are gluten free, the Macaroons can easily be made gluten free.

                                    Meringue Kisses

            Preheat oven to 250 degrees and prepare baking pans by spreading them with brown paper (a cut open grocery bag works fine). Do NOT grease the paper. Turn 3 room temperature egg whites in a 2 quart mixing bowl and beat until stiff peaks with curved tips appear. Beat in 1 cup of sugar in 6 portions, beating until each is blended. Now beat in 2 tsp. lemon juice and continue beating until peaks are stiff.  Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls on the prepared pans about 1 inch apart. Bake 25 to 30 min. until pale cream color. Turn off the oven and leave oven door open with the pans inside for another 15-20 minutes. Remove from paper with spatula and cool on a wire rack.

                                    Coconut Macaroons

            Stir together in a large bowl 2 ¼ cups shredded sweetened coconut, 3 heaping Tblsp. flour (use rice flour for gluten free), ½ tsp. salt, 2/3 cup sugar.  Thoroughly mix with 3 slightly beaten egg whites and ½ tsp almond extract.  Drop teaspoonfuls on parchment lined cookie pans and bake at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes until edges of cookies turn light brown.  Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container. These cookies are best when fresh with their soft chewy texture.

            Now all I need is a rainy (or snowy) week to get my Holiday Gift baking accomplished.

(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 Three B's Collards

The 3 B’s Collards

            Classical music lovers are going to be disappointed with this column, for the unlikely title does not imply that I have somehow discovered an obscure association between Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and collards. The three B’s refers to the much less august company of beer, bourbon and bacon as important in the culinary sphere as the revered composers are to classical music. 

            This all started as many of my kitchen adventures with what the garden has produced in season.  This year it was an abundant crop of collards, which I had not grown previously and now that the fall had taken care of the rest of the garden, this beautiful crop of lovely dark green leaves, still standing proudly in one of my raised beds, was challenging me to find an equally delicious way to cook them.

            Well, collards are a member of the cabbage family, laced with vitamins and all kinds of other healthy compounds, but unlike cabbage, broccoli and kale, collards seemed less approachable in ease of cooking. Of course, there is a long tradition of collards being one of the staples of southern cooking with smoked ham hocks and hours of simmering on the back of the stove.

            This led me to consult Southern Living magazine, that my North Carolina daughter in law thoughtfully subscribes for me every Christmas to make sure that my foodie horizons do not get too narrow here in Maine. Sure enough, periodically they publish a variety of collard recipes and some have even suggested that the cooking time does not have to be as extensive as one presumed it to be. One recipe did catch my attention, since it required not only bacon, but also beer and bourbon as typical Southern ingredients. To make a long story short, some experimentation and modification of the recipe produced a truly outstanding green vegetable side that would go well with Thanksgiving turkey, steaks, chops and even chicken.

                         Bacon, Beer and Bourbon Collards

            Wash, stem and trim 2 bunches of collards, then rolling up batches of leaves, slice them in ¼ inch threads and set aside. Cut 4 thick slices of bacon in half inch pieces and sauté in a Dutch oven until crisp. Remove and drain on paper towels. Pour off all but 1 Tblsp. of the bacon fat and sauté 1 large coarsely chopped onion for 5 minutes, stir in one minced garlic clove. Stir in 1 (12 oz) can of beer, 1/3 cup bourbon, ¼ cup sugar, 3 cloves, 1/3 tsp. crushed red pepper (or less if you want it less spicy), bring to boil and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes. With the pot on medium high heat, start adding the collards in batches, stirring until all leaves are wilted. Stir in reserved bacon and 1 cup of chicken broth or more to cover. Cover tightly and cook on low heat for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Adjust seasoning with salt, stir in ½ cup cider vinegar and simmer for a few more minutes.

            This dish keeps well in the refrigerator for several meals, is easily reheated and could even be served for lunch with a fried egg on top.

            For a cooked, green vegetable dish, the three B’s collards even garnered what passes as high praise from my husband. “Not bad” was his Midwestern type assessment, even though he thought that the bourbon might have tasted better in a glass with some ice.

(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)

TORTILLA DESERTS?

Desert Tortillas?

            Travel is supposed to be broadening, and I did not mean it in the sarcastic sense, which refers to the waistline or hips. Rather, we gather new ideas while seeing new places and different people as well as get a new perspective on the familiar. Tortillas have appeared in this column before in a variety of guises, but unexpectedly, this column was not inspired by a trip to Mexico. The unlikely place for my discovery and inspiration for Desert Tortillas was New Brunswick, Canada. 

            Returning from a leisurely fall trip around Nova Scotia, we stopped one night in Moncton and had dinner at the eclectic and unlikely named Montana Cookhouse. I should have known better than to listen to the desert menu after a large and flavorful barbecued beef rib. But, at the mention of a Tortilla Cheesecake, I naturally succumbed to curiosity and ordered one. It was huge, beautifully presented and to my downfall, absolutely delicious.  The simplest description would be: a 10 inch flour tortilla folded over a cheesecake filling in a half moon shape with the sides crimped shut, fried in vegetable oil and drained, placed on a large plate, smothered with caramel sauce and amply topped with whipped cream. Anyone even partially finishing this masterpiece was bound to feel AMPLE.

            Should you be also tempted to reproduce this extravaganza at home, it could be done with a smaller expenditure of calories. The advantage here of course is the ready availability of tortillas, so that a desert that would require the preparation of a very rich crust and careful selection and fitting of a pan, now only requires a smaller amount of the filling.

                                                Moderate Tortilla Cheesecakes

            With an electric mixer beat together 8 oz cream cheese, ½ cup sugar, ½ tsp. lemon extract, ½ tsp. vanilla,  2 eggs, 1 Tblsp. cream, 1 Tblsp. flour. Soften in microwave for 15 seconds four 8 inch thin flour tortillas.  Moisten the edges of each tortilla with egg beaten with ½ Tblsp. water and  place ¼ of the cheese mix in the center of each tortilla. Fold the tortilla in half, pressing tightly together the moistened edges. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and with a pastry brush cover the top with the rest of the beaten egg for a glaze. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes until the top is brown and the filling is set. Serve warm or cold with a line of  caramel or chocolate sauce across the top. If you want to gild the lily, a small dollop of whipped cream would look pretty.

            Having been inspired by tortilla deserts, the fall apple season beckoned to try a fruit version of this type of desert as an easier variable on pies and strudels.

                                                Tortilla Apple Turnovers

            Peel, core and slice in medium slices 4 large apples. Sautè the apple slices in 2 Tblsp.  butter over medium high heat for 5-8 minutes, turning the apples once with a spatula. Sprinkle with cinnamon and 1/3 cup sugar in the last minute on the stove. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly, Soften four 8 inch tortillas as above. Spread ¼ of the apple mixture along one side of each tortilla, sprinkle with a few raisins or chopped nuts if desired and roll each tortilla tightly around the filling, securing if necessary with a toothpick. Place on a parchment lined baking pan and baste the top with some cream or ‘half and half’. Sprinkle with grated nutmeg and bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm with a side of ice cream if desired.

            Good cooks have made various turnovers and filled baked deserts for centuries.  Adding tortillas to the long list of venerable pastries certainly makes a tasty and convenient sense.

(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)

Bring Back Election Day Cake!

            Poor Marie Antoinette got in BIG trouble for saying: “Let them eat cake”, but I will take the risk with the hope of increasing Election Day turnout this year. What I am referring to is the traditional Election Day Cake that originated in New England, but now seems to have gone out of fashion.

            I was first made aware of this tradition a year ago by my sister in law Joyce, who loves to bake with both an international and historic bent. A bit of research on my part uncovered a wealth of information as well as recipes.

The history goes back to Colonial times, when eligible young men were summoned for military duty to the nearest town. The stressed women of the town would spend days baking for the expected onslaught of hungry men, so called Training or Muster Cakes. After the Revolution, American voters would travel great distances and either bring their own provisions or be hosted by the towns where the election was held.

Thus evolved a yeast based large and dense cake with fruit, spices and raisins, sometimes augmented with brandy or sherry to keep up the strength of the voters together with vast quantities of ginger beer.  The cake was baked as a large loaf or in an 8 or 10 inch tube pan. The ingredients sound a bit like fruitcake, but the product is somewhat lighter.

The Election Cake first associated with Hartford Connecticut was so popular, that it was included in the 1796 edition of American Cookery, by Amelia Simmons. Here is her original recipe, though it might be a bit extreme for the average household.

            Election Cake (A. Simmons)

“Thirty quart flour, 10 pound butter, 14 pound sugar, 12 pound raisins, 3 doz. eggs, one pint wine, one quart brandy, 4 ounces cinnamon, 4 ounces fine colander (coriander?) seed, 3 ounces ground allspice;  wet flour with milk to the consistence of bread over night, adding one quart yeast; the next morning work the butter and sugar together for half an hour, which will render the cake much lighter and whiter; when it has rise light work in every other ingredient except the plumbs (plums/raisins??), which work in when going into the oven.”

No mention is made of baking conditions, but then you were expected to know how your oven would work with this many loaves of cake, enough to feed all the voters from a town. It was evidently a costly proposition, since there are records dating back to 1771 of Hartford’s General Assembly reimbursing an individual for the ingredients of an Election Day Cake. A more accessible modern day recipe is provided by the  Culinary Institute of America, in case you would like to serve this special treat at your house.

            Election Day Cake (Culinary Inst. of America)

Dissolve ½ cup sugar in ½ cup water and when cool pour over  1 ½  cups dried fruit (cranberries, golden raisins, blueberries), add ½ cup American whiskey and set aside. In medium mixing bowl combine ½ cup warm water with ½ cup milk, stir in 1 package rapid rise yeast combined with 1 cup whole wheat flour and allow to sit 30 minutes. Lightly spray and flour an 8 inch tube pan. Sift together ½ cup whole wheat flour, 2 cups all-purpose flour, ½ tsp. ground nutmeg, ½ tsp. ground cloves, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp. salt and set aside. Drain the fruit mixture, reserving the syrup for later use as a glaze. In a standing mixer beat together ¼ lb unsalted butter cut in cubes with 1 cup sugar, then beat in 3 eggs. Turn the beater with a paddle attachment to low and add the flour and yeast mixture (the sponge). Add the flour mixture and mix until well blended, stir in the drained fruit. Place the batter in the pan, cover and set in a warm place to rise, about 1 ½ to 2 hours. Bake cake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 45 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes and turn out on a wire rack to cool.  When cooled, brush on reserved syrup and cover with the glaze.  The glaze: combine 1 cup confectioners sugar with 2 Tblsp. reserved fruit syrup and stir until smooth.

So, let us revive this tasty and filling Election Day tradition!

(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)

"A CARROT A DAY..."

“A Carrot a Day….”

            To paraphrase a well known healthy adage, sometimes a carrot may be almost as good as an apple, especially if at this time of the year you suddenly come in possession of a lot of them. It has been a bumper crop for carrots in my garden!

            Taking one look at the bucket of carrots, my husband politely inquired if I was going to start a rabbit farm this fall or had I made acquaintance with some horses that need a vitamin supplement?   Alas, “No”, I had to reply, this was our own fall supply and was going to be stored in a cool part of the basement. Carrots keep well in a cool place for months and we tend to eat a lot of them both cooked and raw.

            As a healthy between meal snack or part of a raw vegetable plate they can’t be beat for providing vitamins and fiber, with the added benefit of not too many calories and a crunchy texture that makes you feel that you have been eating something of substance. Our grandchildren love them and I always keep a closed container in the refrigerator with peeled carrots cut in convenient stick lengths for easy snacking. Actually, clean regular carrots, cut in 2 inch pieces and carefully quartered lengthwise are easier to bite than the machined mini-carrots sold in bags.

            Cooked carrots are slightly sweet and add both good texture and flavoring to soups from chicken noodle to general vegetable to lentil and bean soups. The flavor is especially interesting when enhanced with a bit of orange or other flavorings like ginger.  One of my favorites is a carrot and ginger soup, which has a lovely color and some of the consistency of butternut squash soup so popular in the fall.

                                                Fall carrot and ginger soup

            Sautè 2 sliced leeks (white and pale green parts only) and one stalk celery with leaves in 2 Tblsp. butter in a 3 quart pot for 5 minutes, stir in 1 Tblsp. finely chopped fresh ginger for an additional minute. Add 3 cups sliced peeled carrots, 2-3 cups chicken or vegetable broth and a cored but unpeeled chopped apple, 1 tsp. salt, 1/8 tsp. pepper and enough water to cover all the vegetables. Bring to boil and cook on medium heat covered for 20 minutes. Allow to cool a bit and puree in a blender, adjusting to desired creaminess with additional broth or water. Reheat with 1Tblsp. white wine vinegar and serve sprinkled with shredded coconut.

I like to mix in chunks of carrot in a medley of roasted fall vegetables.  It is an easy and quickly prepared side dish for roasted or braised meats and has the advantage of  one pan preparation.

                                    Autumn vegetable roast

Peel and cube in large chunks: 3 medium potatoes, 2-3 carrots, 1 sweet potato, 1 seeded red pepper, 1 red onion cut in 6 to 8 wedges lengthwise, leaving the wedges attached at the root base. In small bowl combine 2 Tblsp. olive oil, 2 Tblsp. balsamic vinegar, 1 minced garlic clove, 1 tsp. chopped rosemary (optional). Toss the vegetables in small batches in the oil mix and spread on a sided large baking pan. Sprinkle with 1 tsp coarse salt and roast in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes, turning the vegetables once during baking.

For the ultimate carrot treat of course nothing beats a moist carrot cake that can truly be classified as an all time fall comfort food.  So, no rabbit farm for me, but we are certainly well supplied with carrots for all occasions.

             (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)

IT IS STILL GRILL TIME!

It is still grill time

September arrives and we tend to turn our brains on fall autopilot for food, which neglects the fact that the weather and our grills are still conducive to outdoor cooking.  The garden vegetables are still abundant and fall fruit has it’s own appeal.

Although at out house, it has been a struggle to stay ahead of the burgeoning chipmunk population (thanks to our warm winter), they seem to be one step ahead of me in harvesting berries and fruit this year. The pear at the house had only two pears this year and guess what, I did not get even one of them!  Fortunately the peach tree was loaded, so the human and animal residents all had their fill.

Fall grilling poses it’s own challenges. We have gone through most of our old favorite summer grilling recipes and one more chicken, kebab, hamburger or steak on the grill does not sound nearly as appetizing as it did in May.  And then there is the still wonderful and abundant corn on the cob.  I was originally taught that corn should come straight from the stalk to the kitchen, shucked and cooked only for 3 minutes in furiously boiling water to give the sweetest and most tender kernels. If you had to keep it for a few hours before cooking, refrigeration would help.  And then, those of us who relished Rex Stout’s mysteries, learned that his amazing gourmet, orchid fancier and private investigator Nero Wolfe had a specialty way of cooking corn on the cob in their husks.

This summer food magazines abound with appetizing pictures of grilled corn. I had grilled corn in its husk after soaking for half an hour before, but grilling corn out of the husk (again after soaking for half an hour in iced water) sounded a bit iffy. Would the kernels get tough when slightly browned in spots?  The only way to answer that was to try and the results were wonderful.

                        Grilled shucked corn

Shuck the fresh corn and submerge in iced water for at least 30 minutes. Place on a well-oiled grill on medium heat (400 degrees) and cook with the lid closed about 12 minutes, turning every 3 minutes so that all sides are grilled with a few areas lightly toasted.  Serve with butter and salt, but this grilled corn will be so sweet that any other condiment seems superfluous.

Pork seems more appropriate for fall than summer, but because of food safety reasons we have been reluctant to cook it on the grill.  Pork should be served thoroughly cooked and grilling can dry out lean meat to the point of shoe leather.  However, a bit of seasoning and careful turning gives a flavorful meal.

                        Grilled double thick pork chop

Season a double-thick natural pork chop with garlic salt, Southwest or other seasoning, rub and refrigerate for an hour.  Grill on an oiled grill on medium heat with the lid closed for 12 to 15 minutes total, turning several times. Baste with barbecue or other grilling sauce on each side the last couple of minutes of cooking time. Slice across the grain and serve with additional sauce or horseradish, if desired.

Peaches, still easily available in stores this time of the year, go especially well with pork dishes. Cut a still firm peach in half, remove the pit and place on a well-oiled grill, cut side down, the last couple of minutes while the pork is cooking. Remove from the grill and serve with the meat. For an extra treat, drizzle the peaches with a maple syrup-lemon juice mixture (1 tablespoon each).

Enjoy the fall grilling season!

(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 Zucchini Challenge

            Leaving the garden unmonitored for four days in August is bound to cause trouble and it did!  The cucumbers I had been saving for making my dill pickles had gotten rather large and one was easily the size of my fist. But my lovely ridged Italian zucchini, which we have enjoyed in tasty stir-fries, or very young – just sliced with a dab of blue cheese as an appetizer had way exceeded my bounds in size for picking zucchini. They were as long as my forearm!  What was worse, there were several of them!

            This called for some determined action and I gave myself  the  “Zucchini Challenge” to come up with a dinner where every course included zucchini in some form, without being too obvious about it and yet being varied and delicious, rather than a monotonous one flavor deal. It is fortunate that zucchini is so malleable to flavors and can easily be disguised in texture.

So, setting Joe’s restaurant near Lancaster Pennsylvania as my ideal, where everything in the menu contained mushrooms as an ingredient, I set out to design my menu.  Starters: young zucchini slices with a dab of Roquefort and savory Madeleines made with shredded zucchini, Parmesan cheese, flour and eggs. Soup: Creamy zucchini ‘shape-up” soup with zucchini-rosemary-multi seed bread. Main course: zucchini-almond gratin. Salad: bib lettuce-orange sections-thin sliced zucchini with lemony peanut vinaigrette. Desert: hearty cinnamon-raisin-pecan cupcakes, with shredded zucchini substituting for the original shredded apple in my recipe. For anyone feeling that they really missed meat, I would serve sliced ham garnished with thin slices of zucchini twists.

An extra benefit in all these dishes is that zucchini has almost no calories by itself and whenever it substitutes for something else, you save some of those carbohydrate calories.  A wonderful example is the soup mentioned above, which can be served cold or warm, tastes like a more flavorful vichyssoise, but has only a fraction of the calories.

                        Creamy zucchini ‘shape up’ soup

In a 3 quart pot sauté 1 large onion and 1 stalk of celery with leaves,  coarsely chopped in 1 Tblp. olive oil for 5 minutes.  Stir in 1 tsp. thyme, then add 1 unpeeled large pickling cucumber (or seeded regular cucumber) and 1 pound zucchini, all coarsely chopped.  If zucchini has seriously matured, remove the seeds. Add 2 cups buillion and enough water to cover. Bring to boil and cook for 20 minutes until vegetables are soft. Remove from heat and add ¼ cup chopped parsley.  When cooled, add 4 chopped scallions with green part, 1/8 tsp. Tabasco, 3 Tblsp. rice vinegar and process in blender in batches with 2 cups non-fat yoghurt. Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper to taste. Serve garnished with chopped red pepper and/or Caesar croutons.

                                    Almond-zucchini gratin.

            This is another recipe that uses a lot of the vegetable.  In a large bowl mix 4 cups coarsely grated zucchini or yellow summer squash with 1 ¼ cups Italian bread crumbs, 2/3 cups grated cheddar cheese and ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese. In 2 Tblsp. butter sauté 1 large chopped onion with ¼ tsp. garlic powder and 1 tsp. thyme for 5 minutes, add in 1 tsp. salt, ¼ tsp. pepper and ½ cup slivered almonds to heat and stir into the zucchini mixture. Turn all in a buttered 8x8 inch casserole. In a small bowl beat together 2 large eggs and ½ cup milk. Pour over the zucchini mixture in the casserole, making sure that it is evenly moistened. Sprinkle with grated sharp cheddar cheese or cover with thin slices of Provolone and bake in 350 degree oven for 40 minutes until top is browned and the filling is set. This dish freezes well and can be reheated.

            Benjamin Franklin is purported to have said: “’Waste not, want not” and I tend to agree if the results can all be delicious.

(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)

Blueberry Sorcerer’s Apprentice

            The hapless Sorcerer’s Apprentice in Paul Dukas amazing musical portrayal, unforgettably played by Mickey Mouse in Walt Disney’s “Fantasia”, had basically two problems: 1) insufficient planning for completion of the project and 2) too much water! The following tale has similarities in: 1) too many blueberries and 2) insufficient planning for the completion of the project!

            Each year at this time I like to replenish our winter supply of Maine blueberries in the freezer and in the form of delicious syrupy blueberry jam that graces everything from pancakes and waffles to ice cream and pudding. Well, with one thing and another August arrived and I still had not placed my order for a blueberry flat and to my horror found that Beth’s farm market was no longer taking orders, since the season had come early this year (like everything else). However, I was kindly advised to call back tomorrow afternoon, in case they had some extra. To cut a long story short, I called, they had them and of course I got them home.

            Except for two problems.  We still had a houseful of summer visitors. And I had forgotten how large is a 10 pound flat, and I had spoken for two. The following day as our guests were walking out the door, I was already busily filling quart boxes of blueberries for the freezer, since they freeze well unwashed and in the winter a quick thaw in cold water gives you blueberries ready for a pie, muffins or pancakes. The first flat filled all the extra space in the freezer and suddenly the second flat sitting on the kitchen counter gave me visions of Mickey pacing furiously trying to recall the magic that would stop the coming buckets of water being poured in the caldron. My problem was not water, but blueberries that would not quit!  It was time to start cooking.

                                                Natural Maine Blueberry Jam

            Wash and pick over 8 cups Maine blueberries and place in a large stainless pot with ½ cup fresh lemon juice. Bring to boil with occasional stirring. Reduce the heat to medium and with stirring add 7 cups of sugar. It helps to add the first 4 cups, stirring to dissolve and then add the last 3 cups that have been heated in the microwave for 2 minutes to facilitate dissolving all the sugar. After the sugar is fully dissolved, continue to cook on medium heat with constant slow stirring for 25 minutes. Fill into sterilized jars to within ¼ inch from the top and seal with a sterile lid. As the jam cools, the lid will pop indicating that it was vacuum sealed and you can store the jars at room temperature for a year. Often the supply will be eaten long before that time. Since the jam has no pectin added, it is more syrupy than jelly.

            The first batch gave me seven 8 ounce jars and I would have liked to quit, except there were still a lot of blueberries. Unlike Mickey, I had no angry master sorcerer appear and invoke magic to halt the activities. I had to go on!  So, I made the second batch of jam with 8 more jars, after which I was more than ready to call it quits. Except – there were still more blueberries!  My friend the refrigerator, fortunately took care of them until next day, when after breakfast  (with fresh blueberries of course), I baked my husband’s favorite fresh blueberry pie.

            I hope my friends like blueberry jam for Christmas!

(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)

SIMPLIFY SUMMER

Simplify Summer!

            To quote Mr. Gershwin: ”Summertime and the living is easy…”. We don’t shovel snow, we don’t have to slog in the mud, the black flies are gone, summer shorts with  tee shirts are the uniform of the day and the blue of Maine summer sky on a sunny day never ceases to amaze and inspire me. 

Our garden is doing beautifully with the early start this spring and the produce has come in consistently with abundance of greens, peas, cucumbers and now beans, summer squash, beets and even a few delicious cherry tomatoes and fingerling eggplant.  However, this litany of homegrown fresh produce successes comes with a price and I don’t mean the weeding. Harvesting is an ongoing process that requires persistence and time to get this bounty to the table or in the freezer for winter.

While I admire and relish each crop in succession, to be honest, it takes quite a bit of work and the concept of “living is easy” seems sometime to get lost.  But one can not live on fresh salads and raw vegetables, although there are food fads that aim to do just that.  So, it is with some reluctance that I admit to taking some shortcuts in my kitchen when summer visitors or events require food. Sometimes home-made does not have to be entirely “from scratch” and sometimes even not from my garden.

Recently a niece introduced me to a cornmeal pancake and waffle mix, It originally produced some very fine blueberry pancakes, but a few weeks later morphed in my kitchen in quite something else: zucchini-Parmesan corn friters that went very well with sour cream and bratwurst as the main part of a supper. The mix I used was Red Mill whole grain mix, but other brands are likely to work as well.

                        Zuchini – Parmesan corn fritters.

Mix together a slightly beaten egg with: ½ cup water, ¾ cups cornmeal pancake mix, ½ tsp. baking powder, ½ tsp. onion powder, ½ cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese and ½ tsp salt and a dash of pepper. Fold in 1 ½ cups coarsely shredded zucchini. Heat 1-2 Tblsp. canola oil in a large pan and drop batter by a tablespoon to form slightly flattened fritters. Cook on medium heat about 4 minutes on a side. Drain on a paper towel and serve immediately.

Summer fruit makes a great desert in any form, but sometimes a creamy desert, short of a cheesecake, seems appropriate.  Being rather partial to pies, I recently made my banana cream pie with a summer topping that was as colorful as tasty.

                        Strawberry-banana-cream pie.

Bake a single crust of prepared pie crust in a 10 inch pie plate and allow to cool.  Soften 1 envelope of unflavored gelatin in 3 Tblsp. cold water.  On medium heat cook 1 3oz package of  banana cream pudding with constant stirring in 2 cups of milk to boiling. Stir 3 Tblsp. of the boiling pudding into the softened gelatin to dissolve and add the mixture back to the pudding. Allow pudding to cool about 20 minutes with occasional stirring.  Beat ½ cup whipping cream until soft peaks form, sprinkle with 1 tsp. sugar, continue to beat until stiff peaks form and fold thoroughly into the pudding mixture. Pour about ¼ of the pudding-whipped cream mix in the bottom of the cooled pie. Slice 1 ½ to 2 bananas in thick slices and layer on the pudding. Pour the rest of the pudding on top, making sure that all banana pieces are covered.  Refrigerate for about 4 hours.  Before serving, decorate the top of the pie with halved strawberries alternating with milk chocolate chips. Simply festive and delicious!

“Summertime, when the living is easy….”.  Maybe with a few more shortcuts in the kitchen I may attain that goal of delicious meals with a minimum of energy expenditure.

(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)

LEFTOVERS TO THE RESCUE

Leftovers to the Rescue

            The tick got me!  Despite ample warnings about their proliferation this year because of our mild winter and careful inspection of ones person when returning from the woods, somewhere during trimming of some overgrown rhododendrons in our yard one managed to get its lunch, dinner and breakfast at my expense. It unfortunately left as a tip a small infectious microorganism that causes Lyme’s disease.  As anyone who has had the misfortune to get Lyme’s disease will tell you, it is no picnic, especially during the summer, when friends and relatives stream through your front door to admire the lovely Maine scenery.

            The antibiotics are wonderful in stopping the infection in a few weeks, but the aftereffects linger on.  With sapped energy levels and swollen joints, everything seems to take at least twice as long. You need to sit down after doing most anything, but  -  you still need to feed everyone! So I have learned to be very economical with effort for cooking and in the process have learned a thing or two that will actually be useful otherwise. The secret weapon in this case is cooking more than enough for one meal and using the leftovers (no it is not a dirty word) to create other tasty meals with very little effort.  Desert is the easy part with summer meals, since melons and other summer fruit abound and are perfect for a light finish to any meal.

            Summer is great for grilling and chicken, steak or even butterflied grilled pork tenderloin paired with fresh corn and a salad will give a delicious meal with little effort. The bonus comes with cooking extra that provide ready cooked meat for at least one additional meal. Steak, sliced thin with a side of sour cream, horseradish and chive sauce makes an excellent cold supper base paired with my four bean summer casserole, which can be served hot or cold the second day.

            Grilled cooked chicken of course provides endless possibilities for improvisation. My recent tantalizing discovery was cumin and jalapeno flavored chicken wrapped in a tortilla. For a cold supper I like my canellini or garbanzo bean chicken salad.

                                    Spicy chicken tacos

            Have ready two cups of shredded grilled chicken. Sautè a thinly sliced medium onion in 1 Tblsp. olive oil for 5 minutes, add ½ tsp. cumin seeds continuing to sautè for 1 minute.  Stir in 1 Tblsp. finely chopped pickled jalapeno slices, the shredded chicken, ½ cup white wine or chicken broth, 1 tsp. soy sauce. Heat through and sprinkle with 1Tblsp. chopped parsley before folding in corn or flour tortillas.

            These are good with a cucumber salad dressed with sour cream, splash of rice vinegar, dill, chives and salt and pepper.

                                    Canellini Chicken Salad with Feta

            In a bowl mix together 2 grilled skinless chicken breasts cubed, 2 cans drained and rinsed canellini or garbanzo beans, ½ large red pepper cubed, 2 large scallions with greens thinly sliced, 2 Tblsp. chopped flat leaf parsley, 2 tsp. chopped capers, ½ tsp. toasted cumin seeds.  Toss with dressing: juice of 1 lemon, 3 Tblsp. sherry vinegar, 1 Tblsp. white wine vinegar, ½ tsp. honey, salt, pepper, scant ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil. Chill 3-4 hours, toss with 3 oz. crumbled Feta cheese and decorate with halved grape tomatoes.

             Cool and delicious meals with a minimum expenditure of energy will be my motto for the rest of our unusually warm summer.

(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)

Printed in the Lincoln County News –7/19/2012

Celebrate Your Taste Buds

Celebrate Your Taste Buds

            Flavors have been broadly categorized as sweet, sour, salty, bitter and savory or sometimes called meaty or umami. It has also been known for more than a century that humans differ in their individual sensitivity to bitter, such as the bitter flavor in cabbage or Brussels sprouts. With the information from the Human Genome Project an entire field of scientific research has now identified a multiplicity of genes responsible for producing the sensors (receptors) on your taste bud cells.  

Not only do we now know that there are several sensors that detect the sweetness in a cookie, saltiness in a pickle, sourness of a lime, bitterness of beer and meatiness (umami) in your 4^th of July hamburger, but also how specific mo Each time you sit down to a delicious meal or pick up a tasty snack your mouth goes to work overtime.  Your teeth may do the chewing, but thousands of cells in your onion shaped taste buds on your tongue do most of the work by eagerly extending their sensors to sort out the flavors that make food one of the joys of life.

lecules from these foods react with these sensors to relay a further message to your brain. If you hated Brussels sprouts as a child and your sister or brother found them inoffensive, you apparently inherited a different combination of genes for that particular receptor to bitterness.

            Extending the taste receptor survey to animals, scientists have come up with fascinating findings.  I was amazed to find that our two cats for instance would have no taste for anything sweet, since they have no sweet receptors on their very pink tongues. Neither apparently do most of a group of non feline species of the order Carnivora, including sea lions, otters and hyenas. The proffered explanation is that dietary preferences had allowed their genes to be mutated to a non-functional form with time. What was claimed as a surprise was that bears have well functioning sweet receptors on their tongues. Which of course should have been no surprise to anyone at all who has read of Winnie the Pooh’s great love of honey!

            Such technicalities aside, I am searching for a variety of ways to challenge our taste buds with different servings of the abundant lettuce and green’s crops from the garden these days.  The rains have vastly out-produced what the slugs could not eat and daily harvests include several types of lettuce, curly endive, escarole, beet greens and arugula.

My favorite vinaigrette is: ¼ cup olive oil, 3 Tblsp. wine vinegar, 1 tsp. Dijon mustard, ½ tsp. soy sauce, ¼ tsp dried thyme, a pinch of  pepper and a shake of garlic powder. This dressing goes well with a mix of greens and thinly sliced scallions. Tasty variations have come from addition of crumbled Feta or thinly sliced Assiago or Parmeggiana Regano cheeses.

            My curry dressing is spicy and a bit lighter, but pairs well with chopped peanuts or pecans and the variety of greens from the garden. Curry dressing: ¼ cup olive oil, 3 Tblp. fresh lemon or lime juice, 1 tsp. cider vinegar, ½ tsp. sugar, ½ tsp. soy sauce, ½ tsp.  Madras curry powder, ¾ tsp. dry mustard and ½ tsp. hot mustard.

            As with all scientific discoveries, our taste buds/receptors are now in line for potential manipulation by the food industry and some fancy chefs are already experimenting with “molecular gastronomy”. However, the combinations of summer fresh flavors in delectable salads next to meat and vegetables from the grill, still remain unbeatable for pleasing anyone’s taste buds.

(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)

LATVIAN MIDSUMMER's SOLSTICE FEAST

- Latvian Midsummer’s Solstice Feast Jāņi

            We all appreciate the long days of summer, but especially this has been true in Northern lands, where days are uncomfortably short for long parts of the year.  So, since pre-historic times the summer solstice has been celebrated vigorously with: song, bonfires, dance, flower wreaths for the women and oak wreaths for the men, search for the mystical flowering fern that blooms with silver flowers at midnight, plenty of drink and of course – food.

            Such wonderful ethnic traditions survive even in Maine, where last Sunday many of those with ethnic Latvian background by birth or marriage gathered to participate in some of the old customs even absence of a bonfire to stave off the onslaught of summer’s crop of mosquitoes.  I’m not sure about anyone searching for the flowering fern at midnight, but old folk music filled the house and the beer flowed freely, though it did not come from a barrel, home brewed with a centuries old recipe.

But the food could not have been better, had it come from a top line old Latvian culinary compendium.  For starters there were the traditional piragi (little bacon rolls), sliced hard salami and cheeses, including the traditional home made and molded Janu cheese with caraway and dark sourdough rye with sweet butter.

 The mouthwatering main spread ranged from home smoked salmon and oysters, anchovies, herring in sour cream, a spread of sausages with sauerkraut, two types of potato salad featuring dill plus rosols- a potato based salad with beets apples and herring. Then the decorative pork and veal in aspic (galerts) with sour cream and horseradish, Latvian brown peas (texture of garbanzos) with pancetta, a great tender lettuce salad with creamy dressing, as well as home pickled cucumbers and beans.

 

This substantial feast was capped off with a huge decorative ‘klingeris”: yeast sweet dough with raisins, cardamom and almonds shaped in the form of a giant pretzel and coffee.

            For a meal in the category of ‘potluck’ this was the ultimate, especially accompanied with good cheer and fellowship celebrating the Solstice with time honored traditions.        

ONLY ASSEMBLY REQUIRED

Open faced 'mini' sandwiches

As Murphy’s Law would decree, I managed to get behind a woman in the grocery checkout line with a two huge carts full of items that only could signify a major celebration party or a dozen plus relatives arriving for their annual summer vacation in Maine.  It was going to take a long time, so I cheerfully inquired about which of these events she was about to cater at her house. The answer was given proudly with a broad smile: “It is for my son’s graduation party”.

The leisurely wait gave me time to think of all the upcoming summer events from graduations, family reunions and all those wonderful opening nights of friends art exhibits, each requiring at least some food offering, preferably in the finger food category. Something that can be carried on a napkin, does not drip or fall apart, can be easily eaten in no more than two bites,can be made ahead and will look good for a couple of hours.

Aha!  Some version of a sandwich! The sturdy lunch sandwich has survived brown bagging for centuries and tea sandwiches look dainty on trays, but are sometimes difficult to guess about their contents. However the third alternative, open faced sandwiches, can come to the rescue for everyone who may be able to boil an egg, but lack more impressive culinary skills. Many Northern countries display colorful assortments of open faced sandwiches in cafes and shops and thus provide us with a ready made answer to our criteria for the perfect finger food. Best of all, ingredients can be obtained in a good deli and a little time and playful assembly of ‘mini’ open sandwiches will earn you applause from any hostess.

Bread for this purpose needs to be dense, in order to slice it thin and not have it become soggy once it has been covered. Cocktail rye works well cut diagonally in triangles and so does thin German rye sold in packaged square slices, which can be divided in sixths. Both cream cheese and softened unsalted butter work well as the basic spread for these breads before assembling any toppings. For white bread use baguette, the small and dense variety cut thin or dense English toasting bread slices, which should be cut in quarters without removing the crust. Use only unsalted butter as a spread for these breads, since cream cheese will make them soggy upon standing.

Toppings are the fun part, from plain to extraordinary with your imagination and pocketbook setting the limits. The simplest are cold cuts, such as smoked turkey, ham and salami, which can be decorated with a green olive, slice of cucumber, pickle or even thin pickled jalapeno pepper. For cheeses pick sharp cheddar, provolone or smoked gouda and decorate with half a grape tomato. The humble slice of an egg takes on a sophisticated taste on cream cheese, when decorated with sliced black olives and chopped chives, or for the daring - an anchovy. Another colorful combination on rye is cottage cheese topped with sliced radishes and chives.

Some elegant open sandwiches, which would not even be amiss at a wedding reception, can be made with smoked salmon or smoked shrimp. The salmon goes very well topped with thinly sliced red onion, some capers and a sprig of dill. Smoked shrimp can be displayed decoratively with small strips of roast red pepper and chopped dill.

The recent popularity of deviled eggs as pretty finger food at gatherings can’t hold a candle to the fantastic mouthwatering selection you can create with open “mini’ sandwiches, without even being able to cook. Well, you may have to boil that egg for the egg sandwich.

 (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)