YEAR OF THE HORSE

Year of the Horse

            Happy New Year!  No, I’m really not a month behind time for 2014, but rather I’m referring to the Chinese year of the Horse, which arrived on January 31^st.  This is year 4712 of the Chinese lunisolar calendar, in which the beginning of the year always falls between January 31^st and February 19^th according to our Gregorian calendar. The Chinese year is divided in 12 months, but the years come in 12 year cycles, each of which is represented by an animal. Last year of the Horse was in 2002.

Unlike western celebrations for the new year, which occur on New Year’s eve and somewhat less energetically on New Year’s day, the Chinese celebrations continue for 15 days.  So, if you missed January 31^st, there are still plenty of days left for celebrations. In China these celebrations include elaborate parades, banquets and family feasts. Elaborate Red Lantern parades conclude the last day of the celebrations, which occur when the moon is full. This year it occurs on February 14, which is our Valentine’s day, with romance encouraged everywhere.

No celebration is ever complete without food and families are known to prepare for weeks for the proper celebration of the Chinese New Year. Dumplings, especially Yuanxio dumplings, are a staple at this time. These dumplings are a small ball of a butter, black sesame powder, sugar and wine mixture inside a glutinous rice flour dough coating.  Nuts or dried fruit in the central mix are sometimes added for more flavorful dumplings.

My favorite dumplings however are the savory kind. Years ago I came across a dumpling recipe in a water conservation publication under a picture of the original Laughing Buddha in Hangzou, with implications for too many turns around the banquet circuit. Here is my easy, modified version of that recipe, fit for any celebration.

            Light and savory pork dumplings

Have ½ package (~50) of wonton wrappers at room temperature. In a medium bowl thoroughly mix the filling by hand: ½ lb. ground pork, 2 scant cups chopped bok choi with most moisture squeezed out with paper towels, 1 small minced clove of garlic, 1 tsp. grated fresh ginger, 1 Tblsp. soy sauce, 2 tsp. sesame oil and 2 tsp. rice vinegar or mirin.

Assemble the dumplings: place each wonton wrapper on a plate and with your finger rim all edgs with a bit of water. Place a heaping teaspoon of the filling in the center and fold the wrapper over to make a triangular packet. Seal by pinching the sides with your fingers and set aside with the sealed side on top. Fill all the wrappers. To cook: heat a 12 inch skillet on high heat with scant 2 Tblsp. peanut oil, remove from heat and quickly set the dumplings in tight rows in the oil. Return to high heat for about 2 minutes until bottoms start to brown. Add ¾ cup chicken broth, cover tightly and cook on moderate heat for 10 minutes. Serve hot with dipping sauce: ¼ cup soy sauce, 2 Tblsp,. white vinegar, 1 Tblsp. mirin or dry sherry and a shake of hot pepper flakes.

My favorite main courses for a meal with these dumplings are either Chinese spareribs or chicken wings.

            Oriental chicken wings

For dinner, the chicken wings can be left whole, but as an appetizer dish this works better if you remove the wing tips (reserve for next time you make chicken soup) and cut each wing in half. Marinade: in a large glass baking dish mix: ¾ cups light soy sauce,1/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar, 2 Tblsp. cornstarch, 3 Tblsp. white vinegar, 2 minced large cloves of garlic and finely chopped 1 inch piece of fresh ginger. Marinate a dozen or more chicken wings in this overnight in the refrigerator, turning at least once. Bake or roast in a 375 degree oven well separated on large rimmed pans 30-40 minutes, turning once to brown both sides evenly. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Together with a dish of rice and some stir fried vegetables, the dumplings and wings will give you an Oriental dinner worth celebrating the year of the Horse. May its kick bring more of joy and happiness than hard knocks.

(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)

AIM FOR THAT 8%

Aim for that 8%

            The New Year has emphatically crunched in with more ice and snow. To add to the discomfort, we are entreated by every Food magazine to ‘lighten up’ and include ‘more healthy eating’ in our New Year’s Resolutions.

Apparently those resolutions have been around since the time of ancient Babylonians, persisting through different cultures through millennia. Currently in the USA nearly half of us consider making them and one or more are likely to include dietetic aspirations.  Unfortunately, modern statistical surveys tell us that only 8 percent of individuals making those Resolutions are likely to keep even one of them. Maybe the practice of burning those written resolutions in a giant bonfire at Winter Solstice celebrations arose simply to prevent future guilt.

This is beginning to sound like a cautionary tale as one contemplates adjusting to our post-harvest and holiday excesses. Even memories of that chocolate eggnog could lead one to forswear anything but salads and thin soups for the rest of the year. Such cleansing rituals are likely to last but a week for anyone who appreciates good food.  So, best not to make any binding dietetic resolutions, but rather pick some other food related ones that might be more likely to yield results.

An excellent idea, once proposed to me, was that one should take the month of January to revise the stock of one’s pantry and freezer by cooking with items primarily at hand, and thus discover and put in circulation items lost in recesses of those two storage areas. It may be a bit dicey if you are a minimalist food shopper, but most good cooks find an amazing accumulation in those two kitchen storage areas, especially after the holiday season.

Fresh fruit and dairy products need weekly replenishing, but if you are a gardener, carrots, butternut squash, onions and potatoes are probably still languishing in cool storage somewhere. Besides, even packaged and canned goods have expiration dates and staple supplies need to be rotated. The extra meals or soups you cooked at harvest time and stored in the freezer also have a limited shelf life and the moussaka frozen in September can be a January timesaver and a delicious dinner.

This sounds like a resolution I might actually be able to keep and in the process discover some interesting variations on recipes created simply by availability and necessity. For starters, our extra holiday ham needed an update for a quick weekend supper, which led me to pair it with Charleston grits and gorgonzola in a tasty medley. The coarse Charleston grits are whole grain and take a little longer to cook than the quick variety, but are worth the effort for both taste and nutrition.

                        Charleston grits with gorgonzola

Rinse 1 cup Charleston grits with water, add 3 cups water, ½ tsp. salt and bring to boil. Turn heat down to low and cook for 25 minutes with occasional stirring. Stir in  3-4 oz. crumbled gorgonzola and continue heating until cheese is melted and well blended in the grits. Serve in flat soup bowls topped with the ham and mushroom mixture. Any extra grits can be stored in a small container in the refrigerator and served subsequently cut in slices and broiled for a few minutes.

                        Ham and mushroom ragout

Sautè 1 chopped small onion with 4 oz. sliced mushrooms in 1 Tblsp. butter for 5 minutes. Stir in 1 Tblsp lemon juice, ¼ cup dry  Marsala (optional) and 1 cup broth with 1 tsp. cornstarch, bring to boil and cook to reduce to half volume.  Stir in 2 cups ham cubed in small pieces and heat thoroughly before serving on top of the grits with gorgonzola.

A salad with vinaigrette and some fresh shredded parmesan was a simple accompaniment to this quick supper. We eased back on deserts with a baked apple topped with a sprinkle of brown sugar.

As an encouraging start, it seemed that the 8 percent aim might be actually achievable.

(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)

SNOWBOUND FANCIES

Snowbound Fancies

            Mother Nature certainly gave us a seasonal backhanded compliment last Sunday. We woke to a view of purposeful gusts of fine snow traveling through the tall birches, forming sculpted drifts on our deck and a huge snowdrift hovering on the edge of our roof, ready to dump an additional snowdrift on the patio below. Our two cats had their noses glued to the living room window, watching the drifts, fully convinced that the sky was indeed falling.

            Saturday’s forecasts had given us full warning of what was to come. The birdfeeders were filled and my husband was persuaded that if we wanted a Christmas tree, it needed to be cut and at least brought indoors before the snows arrived. Now, the morning bird activity outside was truly amazing. A flock of doves sat under the hanging birdfeeder, ruffled against the cold and squabbled for every seed that the small birds let fly from above. The nuthatches and dark-headed junkos seemed more focused than usual, while nothing seemed to slow the frantic flitting of the chicadees. A virtual pageant for the cats!

            New drifts formed on our driveway as soon as we were plowed out in the morning and I suddenly realized that Mother Nature had actually given us the gift of a snowbound day in the midst of our usual frantic Holiday season. We had a leisurely breakfast of blueberry pancakes, since there actually was no rush like the previous week with packages to mail, inevitable cooking for potlucks and events requiring attendance. There would be time to enjoy trimming the tree during the day and it would be possible to plan an unhurried meal at home.

            Dinner would be easy, since we had been on our December visit to Morse’s the previous week. This time of the year one might as well park any ‘locovore’ aspirations outside, when going there, since the place abounds in tempting delicacies from Germany, France, Turkey, Italy and too many other places to mention. However we still managed to come away also with a good supply of their excellent local sauerkraut and some farmer’s sausage. That and some scalloped potatoes would be the basis for a simple, but warming meal on this blustery day.

            But then I recalled a conversation with Karin Pratt from Friendship some weeks ago about the fact that in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it was ‘de rigeur’ to cook sauerkraut in beer. In fact, it was the only way!  This was intriguing. I knew of Weinkraut, the German way to cook sauerkraut with wine, but not beer.  Of course it made perfect sense, since Milwaukee is known for its beer and the Wisconsin wine industry is at best still emerging. The following experiment was definitely tasty with a subtly transformed flavor.

                                    Sauerkraut in beer

            Drain about 5 lb. of sauerkraut and rinse for a few seconds to remove excess salt. Brown ½ cup of the drained sauerkraut in 1 Tblsp. vegetable oil or bacon drippings for about 5 minutes. Stir in the rest of the sauerkraut, 1 tsp. sugar, 1 tsp. caraway seed and 1 bottle of lager beer. Bring to boil, cover tightly and cook on low for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add a small amount of water, if the beer evaporates at the end.

            But the meal required a desert, preferably with fruit and not too much effort. Fortunately apples from the refrigerator adapted to an apricot upside down cake without too much fuss.

                        Upside-down apple cranberry cake

            Melt 1/3 cup butter and ½ cup light brown sugar on low heat in a metal 9 inch cake pan. Stir in 3 Tblsp. white corn syrup. Peel and core 2-3 apples and slice in water with 2 Tblsp. lemon juice. The slices should be no more than 1/3 inch thick. Drain the slices and arrange in concentric circles in the buttery sugar mix. Insert some cranberries among the slices and some walnuts or pecans around the outside circle (nuts are optional). Prepare the batter by beating 1/3 cup soft butter with ½ cup sugar, then 2 eggs and ½ tsp. vanilla. In a small bowl combine 1 ½ cups flour with 2 tsp. baking powder and ½ tsp. salt. Stir into egg mixture alternatively with ½ cup milk. Spread batter over apples and bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes and then invert over a plate. Serve with or without whipped cream.

            All in all, one can always thank Mother Nature for her backhanded compliments in providing an occasional day for rejuvenation.

(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 DRESSING RE-IMAGINED

After Thanksgiving turkey dressing leftovers require a bit of re-imagining for an appetizing presentation.  Breakfast bakes present an excellent opportunity, since the basis of many of those is bread.  What could be better than using the flavored ready mix of dressing : cornbread/bread/linguine/pecans/mushrooms/celery/carrot as a basis for a breakfast bake.

However, the above version only requires you to reheat the dressing, top with a couple of eggs in a small chafing dish, add some slices of crisp bacon and a garnish of cherry tomatoes and parsley.  Voilà! An elegant breakfast without fuss!

KALE IS 'IN'

Kale is ‘in’

            Food trendiness is never predictable. And it is somewhat amusing to find celebrity chefs, who had spent their time with foams and spun sugar creations suddenly discovering fall greens, especially kale, as the next ‘in’ thing for the table. You can find kale featured in recipes from juice to salads to soups and side dishes.  Those of us who live in northern climes suddenly find our old recipes to be ‘au currant’ simply because of one of their main ingredients.

So, I find myself looking with new interest at my all but empty fall garden with only kale and collards still standing. Our recent cold nights have finally given them new sweetness and since they are the few local greens at this time of year, they provide a good addition to any menu. After all, they are members of the crucifer or cabbage family and not only taste good, but are a great and healthy source of lots of vitamins, phytochemicals and fiber.

This year’s crop in my garden seemed to get a slow start, hampered by uneven summer weather and a nasty crop of thrips that seemed to put holes in every leafy vegetable in the garden from sorrel to chard to collards. However, my green curled Winterbor F1 (Johnny’s seeds, Maine) finally took off in September and now the tall plants look like a beautiful frost rimmed curly bouquets on these cold mornings. The bottom leaves may be tough, but the large top harvested provides kale for a variety of uses.

I must confess of not having been enthralled by the prospect of massaging olive oil and lemon juice for a half an hour into raw kale for purposes of making a salad. Roast kale can be delicious, but the curly leaf variety is a bit tricky to control for the right texture.  However, one of the simplest ways to serve kale as a tasty side dish to many meats is a sauté followed by brief steaming with a decidedly oriental flavor.

            Sautèed kale with garlic and pine nuts

Wash 1-2 bunches of kale, remove stems and ribs. Roll leaves tightly and cut crosswise in less than ½ inch wide ribbons. In a small pan toast separately 2 Tblsp. sesame seeds and ¼ cup pine nuts. Heat 2 Tblsp. vegetable oil in a wok or a large pan to shimmer, then stir in 2 large cloves chopped garlic, the kale ribbons and 1 tsp. grated fresh ginger (optional). Keep cooking on moderately high heat with stirring until the kale is wilted. Stir in ½ cup chicken or vegetable broth, 2 tsp. toasted sesame oil and 1 Tblsp. soy sauce. Cover tightly and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove cover and stir in pine nuts and sesame seeds. Cook for another minute or two until the liquid is absorbed. Serve warm.

Kale is milder than cabbage and goes well in combinations with beans or lentils in soups. My hearty old fashioned white bean and kale soup is sure to please your family or a crowd.

            White bean and kale soup

Soak 2 cups of white dry cannellini or navy beans in cold water overnight. Sautè 2 chopped onions in 2 Tblsp. olive oil for 5 min., stir in 4 finely chopped garlic cloves, 4 cups chicken broth, one 14 oz can chopped tomatoes with juice, 4 cups water, 1 bay leaf, ½ tsp. dried rosemary, 1 Parmiggiano-Regano 3 inch piece of rind (optional), 1 tsp. salt, and ½ tsp. pepper.. Bring to boil and simmer uncovered until beans are tender about 45 minutes. Stir occasionally and make sure that the vegetables are covered at all times with liquid by adding more broth or water as needed. Add 6 large carrots cut in half and sliced in ½ inch pieces. Continue cooking for 5 minutes, then stir in 1 lb, kale, stemmed, deveined and coarsely chopped and 1 lb. smoked sausage sliced ¼ inch. Cook for an additional 15 minutes. Adjust salt and pepper and volume with additional liquid. Stir in 1 Tblsp. balsamic vinegar and serve or reheat the following day for an improved flavor.

With crusty bread and a salad this makes an excellent and tasty one dish meal for any day of the week, even if you are not concerned about being trendy.

(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)