"HUNKER-DOWN" TIME

“Hunker-Down Time”

          Snowstorms and even blizzards in early spring, that make you stick close to the hearth, are not un-known in Maine. The current one, created by a rogue virus and constant alarming news updates is different. There are no swirling white flakes. The roads and sidewalks are not in need of shoveling. It took a little longer to arrive in Maine, but suddenly our world has become inducive to staying close to the hearth.

          We find children on protracted leave from school. Vacations, most travel and social events are cancelled, and working from home has become mandatory in some cases. University classes and even some churches can only be attended ‘on-line’. Distancing has become the word of the day for the foreseeable weeks. It is “hunker-down-time”.

           This enforced relief from the ordinary rush of our daily lives may feel like a novelty for a time, but becoming a couch-potato can be debilitating. It is a bit too early to start a garden, but it might be an opportunity to try something new in your kitchen and surprise your family with something delectable.

          Our early spring is still cool enough to savor a hearty soup, especially one that improves with reheating and can provide multiple meals.

                             Portuguese black bean soup.

          Rinse ¾ lb. black beans, cover with cold water and bring to boil in a pot for 2 minutes. Set aside for 1 hour, drain and set aside. (Alternative: soak beans in cold water overnight). In a 4 qt. pot sauté chopped: 1 onion, 1 stalk celery, 1 carrot and 4 cloves of garlic in 1 tblsp. olive oil for 5 minutes. (If available – include a ham hock or ham bone.) Stir in: 1 tsp. oregano, 1 tsp. thyme, 5 cloves, 1 bay leaf, 6 peppercorns, 2 tsp salt, 1 16 oz. can chopped tomatoes or 8 oz tomato sauce and 4-5 cups water. Bring to boil and cook for 45 min. to 1 hour until beans are soft. Remove any ham bones and bay leaf. Stir in 1 ½ cups chopped chorizo, 2 tblsp. red wine vinegar and 1 tblsp. balsamic vinegar (optional). Serve hot with finely chopped chives or parsley on top.

          Dishes combining pasta and greens have a certain eye appeal, so I was recently intrigued by a recipe in Food & Wine magazine that combined pasta with radicchio. Unfortunately, the heavy cream and abundance of cheese in that recipe were designed for a lumberjack diner. Here is a slimmed down version for 2.

                             Baked pasta with radicchio

          Cook 2 cups short tube pasta or small shells in salted boiling water, drain saving 1 cup of the water and set aside. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large high-sided skillet sauté ½ thinly sliced red onion in 1 tblsp. olive oil and 1 tsp. butter for 10 minutes. Stir in: ½ small head radicchio thinly sliced, 1 chopped clove garlic, ½ tsp. salt and 2 tsp. red wine vinegar. Continue stirring and cook for 1 minute until radicchio is wilted. Stir in 1 tblsp. flour and the reserved pasta water making a sauce on low heat. Remove from stove  and stir in: ¾  cup cottage cheese, 2 oz. shredded Assiago cheese and the reserved pasta. Mix well and toss with 1 ½ cups diced smoked farmer’s sausage (or torn small pieces of 4 oz. prosciutto). Transfer to a greased deep pie dish and sprinkle with 1 oz shredded Gruyêre. Bake for 30 minutes until lightly browned. Allow to sit for 5 minutes before serving.

          Spring will come and this too shall pass!

          (I. Winicov Harrington lives in coastal Maine 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 RETRO-DINNER

A Retro-Dinner

          The burgeoning cookbook market and mad pace at which restaurant chefs compete with each other for new novelty recipes and taste combinations occasionally sends the home cook on a nostalgia trip.  A recent overnight visit from one of our sons gently nudged me in that direction.

The dinner had to be gluten free so after some Roquefort with rice crackers and a curried pumpkin bisque (nod to more current cuisine) we settled in for a homey dinner of cabbage rolls. An unlikely offering to be encountered in trendy big-city restaurants, but something he could remember from his growing-up years.

          Beef Cabbage Rolls

Lightly core a small head of green cabbage. To remove and soften the leaves immerse the cabbage in a pot with boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes, turning the cabbage head if the water does not completely cover it. Carefully remove the hot softened leaves and repeat the process until you have all the softened leaves. Do not discard the water. In a medium bowl mix: 1 beaten egg, 1 tsp. salt, ½ medium onion finely chopped, pepper to taste, 1 tblsp. Worcestershire sauce, ½ tsp. sugar and 1 lb. lean ground beef. Chop 2 large onions and set aside. In another bowl mix: 16 oz tomato sauce with 6 oz tomato paste, ¼ tsp. pepper, 1 tsp. salt, 2 tsp. sugar, 2 tblsp. vinegar, 1 tblsp. Worcestershire sauce and 1-2 cups of the reserved water. In a 3-4 quart pot put in ½ of the chopped onions and spread with some sauce to cover. To assemble the cabbage rolls:

Place a spoonful of the meat mixture on the thickest end of a softened cabbage leaf and fold the rest of the leaf around it as an envelope or a packet and place seam down in the pot. Continue placing additional rolls adjacent until the bottom of the pot is covered. Spread the rest of the onions on top and another thin layer of the sauce. Apply another layer of rolls and sauce until all the meat is used. Any left-over cabbage leaves can be thinly sliced and layered on top. The final layer should be the tomato sauce and any additional cabbage water to cover. Bring the pot to boil, partially cover and simmer for 2 hours, making sure that enough liquid remains to cover the cabbage rolls. Can be made ahead and the flavor will improve on reheating. Serve with dilled boiled potatoes.

          Retro-dinners deserve a retro-desert. When the boys were growing up, time in the kitchen was a premium. Tapioca pudding was a frequent desert at our house, since it was quick to make and could be varied with different toppings of fruit or jam. And these days it has the added premium of being gluten-free. A cranberry-pear topping made a colorful and tart topping.

 

                             Fluffy Tapioca Pudding

          In a medium pot lightly beat 2 egg yolks (set aside the whites in a small bowl) with ¼ cup sugar, 4 ½ tblsp. tapioca and 3 cups milk and allow to sit of 5 minutes. Beat the egg whites with a hand mixer until soft peaks form and slowly beat in 4 tblsp. sugar until the eggs form stiff peaks.  Heat the milk and tapioca mixture on medium heat with constant stirring until the mixture comes to a full boil. Remove from heat and stir in 1 tsp. either vanilla or almond extract and thoroughly fold in the beaten egg whites. Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes before spooning in serving dishes. Parfait glasses are particularly nice for this, if you wish to add a spoonful of the topping in the bottom before filling and the just add a spoonful of the topping at the time of serving. Chill for several hours or overnight.

                             Cranberry-Pear Topping

          In a small pot bring to boil 1 cup washed fresh cranberries, 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup sugar, 1 cored and peeled pear diced, 3 strips of lemon zest and 1 star-anise seed (optional). Cook on medium heat for 15 minutes until all the fruit is soft. Chill and use with the pudding or topping for any other desert or even French Toast.

          Groceries love to promote cabbage during March for St. Patrick’s Day. A true Irishman would never sanction this, but cabbage rolls could make an alternative for the traditional fare for that day. Naturally, Guinness and Jameson’s can have NO! alternative choices.

         

(I. Winicov Harrington lives in coastal Maine 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)

FEBRUARY - SWEET CONTRASTS

February – Sweet Contrasts

          The month of February usually gets a ‘bum-rap’ for being the bleakest month of the year. Maybe because it comes safely distanced from the excitement of our December holidays and the promise of spring only depends on that furry creature’s vision of his shadow on Groundhog Day. It seems merciful that it is the shortest month of the year, thus making the monthly paycheck appear more generous even in a leap year.

          In Maine we are lucky to get some wonderfully bright sunny days after a snowstorm to brighten the season. Then there several days in February we can celebrate: Valentine’s Day, Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays rolled in President’s birthday plus Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday. If that is not enough, there is actually a calendar that lists something to celebrate for every day of February. Believe it or not, the 3^rd week in February is “International Flirting Week”!

          Celebrations usually include something sweet. A box of chocolates is always welcome on Valentines day, but here is a special pie that should impress anyone at your table, though it may un-do some of last month’s dieting efforts.

                             Rum Chocolate Pie

          Unroll a prepared pie crust in a 9 inch pie plate, bake according to package directions and cool. Separate 2 eggs yolks in a small bowl and save the whites in another bowl. Beat the egg yolks with 1/3 cup sugar and a pinch of salt. Heat ¾ cups milk with ¼ tsp. nutmeg in a double boiler, stir the hot milk into the egg yolks stirring well and return the mixture to the double boiler. Continue stirring until thick. Dissolve 2 tsp. unflavored gelatin in 4 tblsp. rum and set aside. When pudding is thick, remove from heat, stir in 3 tblsp. of the gelatin/rum and place in an ice bath to cool. When thickened stir in 2 additional tblsp. rum, fold in the 2 beaten egg whites, pour into the pie shell and chill. In meantime melt scant ½ lb. milk chocolate with 3 tblsp. water, cool slightly. Whip 1 ¼ cups heavy cream with ½ tsp. vanilla. Add half of the cream to the slightly cooled chocolate together with the remaining gelatin/rum. To the remaining whipped cream beat in 1 tblp. sugar. Take the cooled pie out of the refrigerator and spread with the whipped cream, then layer the chocolate mix on top of the cream. Chill thoroughly.

          For a less caloric festive presentation, pears baked with cranberries make a wonderful and colorful desert.

                             Oven Baked Cranberry Pears

          Sort and wash cranberries and discard any discolored berries, set aside 1 cup. Very thinly slice ½ washed lemon and discard ends. Peel 4 ripe, but firm Bosc pears, cut in half, core and combine in a 2 ½ quart baking dish with the lemon slices and the cranberries. In a small pot over medium high heat combine: 1 cup sugar, ½ cup water, 2 tblsp. cider vinegar. ¼ tsp. ground cinnamon, 1/8 tsp. ground cloves and ¼ tsp. ground ginger.        Bring mixture to boil to dissolve sugar and pour over the fruit. Cover the dish  tightly with foil and bake in a 350 degree F oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until pears are tender when pierced. Serve warm or at room temperature.

          Here is a festive drink for those cold day celebrations or just a quiet afternoon or evening by the fire.

                   Mulled Apple-Cranberry Cider with Rum

          In a stainless or enameled pot combine:5 cups cranberry juice cocktail, 3 cups apple cider, ½ cup light brown sugar, juice of ½ lemon, long strips of zest from 1 orange, juice of the same orange, 4 cinnamon sticks, 16 whole cloves, 6 allspice, ½ tsp. ground nutmeg. Bring to boil with stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Add ½ to 2/3 cup dark rum and simmer for an additional minute. Serve with a half orange slice in each cup. (Can be made ahead without the rum and reheated before addition of the rum).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

This year we have 29 days of February, so let us enjoy each and every one of them with those sweet distractions.

(I. Winicov Harrington lives in coastal Maine 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)