A friend gave me a gorgeous cantaloupe and I thought about all the things I wanted to do with it. Usually I would make 2 or 3 different things, including fruit salad, maybe a smoothie, maybe wrap slices in wedges with a little prosciutto… mixed it into a summer salad.

However, we are kicking off a stunning heatwave in Minnesota, so I regrouped under the circumstances and made a frozen version of one of my favorite combinations of fruits – Cantaloupe, Blueberries (both of which are Superfoods) and fresh mint.  This is light on the dairy, but it does use a little heavy cream.

It’s nice to be back food-blogging again after being away for a good part of the past 2 months on travel: I’ve been to Chicago, North Dakota, Washington DC, Idaho, Denver, South America, and I think I’m forgetting one or two places. Michigan at the end of the month. I gathered cattail pollen this year, so if the pollen survived the trip back from the northern plains, that might very well be my next recipe. Here’s how I made the sherbet:

Cantaloupe Sherbet
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Pinch salt
1 cantaloupe (about 2 1/2 pounds), seeds and rind discarded and the flesh chopped (about 3 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup frozen blueberries, wild if you have them
1 Tbsp mint, minced or chiffonade

In a blender or food processor purée the first 4 ingredients, scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula, until it is smooth.  Pour the mixture into an ice-cream freezer and process according to manufacturer instructions, adding now the cream and mint. When the sherbet has frozen, remove to your serving or storage container & scatter and fold-in the blueberries, not over mixing.
Freeze to temper further, or serve at once.

A Buckle- presumably- buckles as the rich topping of butter flour & sugar melts and bakes with the steam rising up from the baking fruit.  It is quintessentially American fare, going back to well before the Industrial Age, and it has always no doubt been welcome on the table of farm kitchens and Boston Brahmans alike.

Here is a recipe I adapted to use up some apples I had on hand, and some beautiful blackberries that a friend gave me yesterday.

photo courtesy C. Katt

An Indian menu for non-Indians:

Spicy, Pan-fried Fish Chettinad, from  Madame Jaffrey’s cookbook, ‘Flavors of India’ (Carol Southern Books, 1995)

Cauliflower/potato/cashew curry, adapted from *Joy

[* 1975, p 361-62, Joy of Cooking, Irma Rombauer, et al]

Fragant rice (basmati) (cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, black pepper)

Tea

Fresh Raita (also Jaffrey)

Paratha bread, from the local market & heated in the oven

Three Pickles:  Tamarind, bitter lemon, green mango

We ate ocean perch in a spicy marinade, sauteed,  with fragrant saffron rice, and cauliflower & potato curry with cashews, cooked in Ghee.  Also, various pickles, from bitter lemon, and hot mango-, to sweet tamarind.  Everything was brought together with a fresh mint and cucumber Raita.

Indian cuisine has close connections with The Ayurveda tradition, which means that food is also medicine, hewing closely to  Chinese beliefs.  Turmeric in particular is a potent cleansing agent, and key to many basic curry blends.  Here are the recipes we used:

Spicy, Pan-Fried Fish Steaks Chettinad

For 2 fillets:

1 Tbsp ground coriander

1 Tbsp cayenne pepper

¼ tsp ground dried turmeric powder (very cleansing)

½ tsp ground cumin (preferably roasted whole & ground)

1 tsp salt (or less)

3-5 tsp lime/lemon juice

An equal amount of water (I ignore this)

2 nice fish fillets, or steaks

2-3 Tbsp any good vegetable oil

Make a paste with all these ingredients and let the fish marinade in the paste for at least 15 minutes, up to 3 hours.  Eventually saute them 4-5 min on a side, depending on the thickness of the cut, It will be spicy, sharp and pleasant.

Fragrant Rice

1 c dry Basmati Rice (essential that it  is Basmati)

A 2” stick of true Cassia cinnamon, broken

One whole pod of cardamom- black or green- depending on your preference

Several (4-9) grains of Black Pepper

½” piece of fresh ginger

2 generous pinches of dried saffron

½ tsp salt (I often reduce salt proportions)

Rinse the rice in several changes of water, taking out the starch.  Then add a small can of coconut milk into a measuring cup, and add sufficient water for a total of 1-1/4 cups, and bring everything together up to a boil.  You can also substitute plain water with an equal measure of stock, for added richness and flavor.  Allow to simmer for an additional 12-14 min, with a lid over everything.  It’s done.  Let it relax before you fluff it all with a fork, and cover it with a tight lid, or some foil until service.

Cauliflower & Potato Curry

This is an adaptation of a preparation from *Joy.  I have taken liberties with a traditional recipe, but it is still very recognizable.  We used to prepare something very close to this at The Riverside Cafe, many years ago.

½ head cauliflower, de-stemmed & broken into medium florets

A large red potato, cut into generous cubes (maybe 1”)

Steam each vegetable separately until al dente and shock in cold water.  Drain.  This is a short-cut, but useful.

Meanwhile, add to a wok over medium-high heat:

2 Tbsp Ghee (clarified Indian butter.  It has a higher than average smoking point)

2 tsp grated fresh ginger

2 tsp grated garlic

2 c minced onion

½ a jalapeno pepper, or one fresh red cayenne

(I spun the onions and fresh pepper in a food processor until it was a light pulp)

Add the cauliflower and potatoes to the mix and add:

1 big Tbsp good curry powder (I used a hot blend)

1 scant Tbsp all purpose flour

Stir-fry everything for 3-5 minutes, and then add:

1 small can of coconut milk

¼ cup chicken stock, or any good stock

½ tsp salt

½ cup broken roasted and salted cashews

Continue cooking until everything boils gently (important, because of the flour), stirring frequently.  Turn the heat down to a simmer and it will be ready to serve in about 4-5 minutes.

Raita

This is a cooling condiment, also improvised for our lunch:

½ peeled, de-seeded and coarsely grated fresh cucumber

2 Tbsp minced fresh mint

1-1/4 cups natural (plain) yogurt

½ tsp salt, to taste.

Whisk or stir all of the ingredients together.

“Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey. A kiddley divey too, wouldn’t you? (sung with colloquial pronunciation “wooden shoe?”)”

-courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mairzy_Doats

I blindly grabbed for a cookbook this past weekend and basically turned to the cookie section (my cookie jar was empty, and therefore ready to be filled) and I made oatmeal cookies.  Not just any oatmeal cookies either.  I didn’t realize my mistake until well after the fact– these were reduced fat cookies, and I was gob-smacked, they were so good.

This means that they are not only heart healthy because of the oats, but they are also designed to have an even higher healthfulness-quotient.  Honestly, they are one of the best cookies I can remember, and they have chocolate, which only makes them better.  The recipe comes from the Joy of Cooking.

Oven:  375F

Mix the dry ingredients:

1-1/4 c flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Beat together

1/4 c corn or canola oil

2 Tbsp butter, softened

1 c dark brown sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg white

1/3 c light or dark corn syrup (I used light, but dark could only be better)

1 Tbsp milk

2-1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine the wet and dry ingredients and add:

2 c old-fashion rolled oats

1 c  chocolate chips.

Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes, to allow the dry ingredients to hydrate.  It will be a soft dough, and this recipe will make 3 dozen cookies, if you portion them at one tablespoon each.  I pushed them down slightly with my fingers dipped in water.   Make sure you space them well apart and bake them for 7-10 minutes on lightly greased baking sheets, rotating them half-way through baking.  After you remove the baking sheet from the oven, allow the cookies to cool slightly on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before transferring them to cooling racks.  These might become one of your favorite cookies too.

Come to think of it, next time I make these, I will substitute 2 Tbsp cocoa for an equal amount of flour.  And I will add a tsp of organic espresso powder.  More later.

You all know exactly what I’m talking about.  You have a junk drawer too

Recently I made a batch and asked my friend Debbie to taste the recipe.   She was already familiar with them, and happy to help out.  They’re small apple pancakes, either baked on the stovet0p with a slice of apple in the batter- or filled with applesauce in the middle, as they’re cooling.  We ate them with jam in the middle, dusted with confectioners sugar.

It’s a ridiculously rich, yeast raised batter, spiced primarily with cardamom and lemon peel, and therefore recognizably Scandanavian.  You spoon the batter into a special skillet with deep indentations.

They cook fairly quickly, but if you only have one pan and a crowd of people, someone, or a small team will have to be a martyr and simply do nothing but make the ebelskivers, but in the end your sacrifice will earn you unfailing appreciation.

If you haven’t made them before, the only real trick you have to master is actually flipping the little cakes in the pan neatly.  It takes practice, sometimes quite a bit of practice- so you have to be patient with yourself at the beginning.  I use a little spatula and a dessert fork- that method works well for me; you could probably also use a nice long wooden skewer to just catch the edge in order to make the process a little easier.

Sprinkle with a dusting of confectioners sugar, and at the table, split them open with a spoon and fill them with a little preserves or applesauce- anything that you like as a sweet filling actually.  But be careful- you can easily lose count how many of them you eat!

Danish Aebleskivers- I’ve been using this recipe for 35 years

3-1/2 c flour

5 large eggs, separated

1/4 cup sugar

2 c milked, scalded and cooled

1/2 c butter, melted

1 cake of yeast (or 2-1/4 tsp dry, proofed in 1/4 c of the milk, with a pinch of sugar)

grated rind of 1 lemon, or 1 tsp vanilla (I always use the lemon)

optional crushed cardamom

Put flour in a large bowl and make a well in the center, and place the egg yolks, sugar, 1-3/4 cup milk and melted butter.  Work together well with spoon.   Add proofed yeast, flavoring and salt.  Beat everything until smooth.  Now beat the egg whites till stiff and fold into mixture.  Set aside until doubled.  Heat the well seasoned and greased ebelskiver pan over medium heat until hot  and put a spoonful of the batter in each well and carefully check to see if they are browning after about 2 minutes or so.  They actually bake fairly quickly, so when you turn them, try to do that quickly as well.  They will  be done in another 2-3 minutes.  Regulate the heat carefully on the pan, because sometimes it will get too hot.  Between batches brush a little more oil or melted butter in the pan to prevent sticking.

Put a little powdered sugar on top, fill with your favorite filling and enjoy!

Four of us got together a couple of weekends ago. (Catherine, Jon & Gary and me) and we baked a small brace of pheasants that my brother in law harvested before Thanksgiving.  Pheasants are Asiatic in origin:  Excellent, extremely lean game birds.  I had supper 30 years ago with a Native friend at a famous  Austrian Minneapolis restaurant (I’ll remember the name of the place at 2AM this morning), and I was jealous and excited when his Pheasant Wellington arrived.  Later I learned that it was based on the classic Beef Wellington preparation.

That evening, I had a stew of wild mixed fowl, so I had no reason to complain.  We tasted each others’ entree, but I honestly never imagined that I’d get a chance to try and recreate his Wellington thing. The Dubious Citty Katt- and her international food conspiracy- was the one who made the whole Pheasant Wellington a reality.

I told her on a Friday that I had a Xmas present of frozen fully -dressed-out, wild pheasant from my sister’s husband (he is an excellent hunter), & remembered out-loud the Pheasant Wellington idea to her.  In only a day or 2, we were making  liver pate and duxelles (a rich mushroom paste) , according to her instructions.

Gary and Jon joined the project, so we had the birds, some salad and a mess of dandelion greens sauteed with green apples, and we ate it all with Anna’s expert crab apple jelly and ginger preserves, instead of a a rich sauce.

If you’re lazy like me, go to the store & buy some frozen puff-pastry dough.  Don’t be scared of it, even though you have every right to be scared.  I was at first.  Buy a box of it for $3.99 and let it thaw in your fridge overnight.  Consult your Beef Wellington recipe collection and look up Pheasant Wellington online.  (*I looked at the Joy of Cooking, and James Beard’s American Cookery too).

Now, make some chicken liver paste.  This is what you’re going to spread over the top of the seared and cooled pheasant, before you place it on a blanket of duxelles ( please continue reading) over an expanse of puff pastry, to within 1″ of its edges.  I rolled out the pastry to probably 14 x 9, and cut off the top 5th with a pizza cutter, and reserved it for show-off filigrees of vines and leaves.

After all this, heat a 9″ cast iron skillet with a spoonful of olive oil, 2 Tbsp of Bacon fat and 2 Tbsp of butter.  Melt it altogether and throw in a good sized, minced shallot, along with twice that amount of minced onion.  Don’t stop there:  Add a generous grind of black pepper, some grey salt,  and pulverize dried thyme between your fingers.

Catherine brought a few spoonfuls of Grand Marnier (a French, cognac-based orange liqueur) and we added that.  Let the chicken livers cook until done,  10 minutes or less, and then let them cool as quickly as possible.  There is more to be done with them soon.

Now you will need a pound of mushrooms, trimmed, brushed and minced  into atoms in a CuisineArt, before you place them a generous iron or stainless steel skillet over medium high heat.  There are versions of making duxelle that instruct you to put the minced mushrooms in a kitchen towel and you have to wring the moisture out of them before sauteeing, but we didn’t go to that extreme.  Your skillet will have a spoonful of olive oil, a couple of Tbsp of butter and a couple more Tbsp of either duck fat or (chicken) schmaltz.  Remember, pheasant is very lean.  So throw in a 1/4 cup of cream too.  1/2 & 1/2 is fine.

Mince a large shallot and a small onion, with a couple bay leaves, a generous grind of black pepper and let everything start to sweat and sizzle in all that hot fat.  Grind a little nutmeg in there too- the pheasant will benefit from it, which is probably not as true if you were making the beef version.  Cool the duxelle as quickly and completely as possible.   Your duxelle must be completely cool when you spread it over the pastry, otherwise you’ll have a big mess.

Conventional Beef Wellington preparations use a whole beef tenderloin, but this blog entry is a jazz improvisation.  So I used probably 2 small, deboned birds, approximately equal to 2 small game hens (which are in truth very youthful chickens).  I quickly seasoned and seared them brown- for just a couple of minutes on each side- and they cooled, along with everything else.

We made 2 small pastry coffins of pheasant, liver pate inside on top, mushroom paste on the bottom.

Everything was surrounded with the super rich puff pastry crust on the outside, and the birds inside were completely encased by the duxelle and pastry, vented with the 3 traditional round vent-holes and baked first at 425F for 10 minutes, and then 375 for another 1/2 hour.

So there you are.  A collection of novices experimenting with a justly famous dish.

cookbooks!

Native

Seaweed, Salmon and Manzanita Cider, Dubin & Tolley.  What an amazing book.  This brilliant gem, beautifully photographed, tells you about REAL Native American cooking.  This is a combination of heritage food, POV home cooking, and thousands of years of wisdom.  Get it, order it, search for it- this was a gift from a friend in California, and these focus on foods from the tribes there.

Colonial

To Set Before the King:  Katharina Schrott’s Festive Recipes First-hand intelligence practically from the table-sides and kitchens of the Habsburgs.  Nothing much more to say.

Groundbreaking publications (19/20Centuries)

Buckeye cookery, ed. Estelle Woods Wilcox.   If you came of age in the 60’s or 70’s, you were probably aware of this book.  It is a friend to self-sufficiency enthusiasts.  However, it is also a valuable document for all of us.

Classic American

A Shaker Kitchen, Norma MacMillan.  Learn something more about the Shakers, besides their famous Shaker Lemon Pie.  A pious and simple tradition, producing simple, breathtaking food.

Comprehensive Cuisine

The Art of South American Cooking, Felipe Rojas Lombardi.  This is a stunning, thick volume of culinary treasure.  Think:  Southern Cross meets Joy of Cooking.

Vegetarian

Simple Food for the Good Life, Helen Nearing.  A goddess from the Pantheon of American Back-to-Nature movement speaks.  She & her husband (Scott) are intelligent, belligerent, humorous icons.

Baking

The Book of Whole Grains, Marlene Anne Bumgarner. I’ve had this cookbook for probably 30 years, and I love it and refer to it often.  It’s not strictly a baking book, but it does have a wealth of recipes categorized into 10 chapters of one whole-grain each; and then additional chapters for nuts/seeds; and finally legumes.

World Food

Japanese Cooking:  A Simple Art, Shizuo Tsuji, intro MFK Fisher.  This 450 page bible of Japanese cookery in English language is illustrated with simple line-drawings; it earned the praise of MFK Fisher AND Craig Clairborne.  This reflects the science, detail and aesthetic of a renowned food tradition.  This is definitely a specialty book.

Reference

Greast Garnishes, ed. Su-Huei Huang.  This is a book of Chinese food garniture- and the connections to the history of the Imperial Court are inescapeable.  Bi-lingual in Mandarin and English with colorful, detailed photos.

Desserts

Chocolate, Linda Collister.  This is a beautifully photographed collection of classic chocolate recipes- it’s a modest 125 pages or so, but it is described by The Guardian as one of the best chocolate cookbooks you’ll ever own.  I think that’s probably true.

Food Writers

First of a pair:  “Love and Kisses and a Halo of Truffles” James Beard’s correspondence with Helen Evans Brown, ed. John Ferrone.  I love reading collections of letters.

Quirks

This isn’t a quirk, but a follow-up to the previous category.  Epicurean Delight:  The Life and Times of James Beard, Evan Jones.  Two giants of American food and writing in one volume- this is quite  a biography, and James Beard lived quite a life.

A few more cookbooks from my bookshelves

Native

Hopi Cookery, by Juanita Tiger Kavena. ‘A compendium of more than 100 authentic recipes of the peace-loving Hopis’ says the book cover.  Recipes include Pinto Beans with Watermelon Seeds, Blue Corn Dumplings-and Piki-, the famous tissue-thin cornbread of the Hopiit.

Colonial

Old New Orleans Cooking (I’m researching the identity of the author)- This modest 60 page volume from the first half of the 1900s contains ‘hundreds of secret recipes that helped this historic city to establish its fame.  I received a photo-copy of the fragile volume in 16 double-sided pages.  From Jambalya and Crayfish Bisque, to 3 kinds of Pralines, you had better believe this is authentic, old-school N’awlins cooking.

Groundbreaking publications (19/20Centuries)

Miss Beecher’s Domestic Receipt-Book (1846), Catharine E. Beecher.  By an American writer, suffragist,  anti-slavery activist, proponent of Kindergarten eduation and a member of one of the most prominent families of the era.  An authoritative volume of early American cookery, with no index or illustrations.

Classic American

Farm Journal’s Country Cookbook (Revised, Enlarged Edition), by the Food Editors of the Farm Journal, ed. Nell B. Nichols.  When you think about old-fashion American country food, this is one of the sources you would be well-advised to seek.  It can often be found in a good used-bookstore for a pittance, and it will turn out a rich selection of history and know-how.

Comprehensive Cuisine

The Jewish-American Kitchen, Raymond Sokolov.  I have pored over this beautiful and interesting recipe book- and I have referred to it elsewhere on this blog- namely when I overcame my fear of making Chopped Liver.  It is almost a coffee table book, with big, beautiful photos, clear writing, and amusing style.

Vegetarian

the vegetarian epicure, by anna thomas.  The title and author may appear in modest, lower-case letters, but this is a collection of 262 recipes that made itself known in CAPITAL LETTERS, since it appeared in the early 1970s.   It’s smart, sophisticated, down-home and international all at the same time.

Baking

World Sourdoughs from Antiquity, by Ed Wood.  This is  a history of cuisine and an actual cookbook.  Lots of amazing recipes, as well as a culinary reconstruction of  both ancient and early modern bread making techniques.

World Food

The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook, Gloria Bley Miller.  Craig Clairborne, a famed restaurant critic and gastronomic writer for the New York Times, said of this book, “A labor of Love…Should be treasured by anyone with a serious interest in the Chinese cuisine.”  He’s right.  True Bird’s Nest Soup?  Ten Precious Rice?  Braised Porkballs & Lilly Buds?  It’s all here.  I used to live in China for a half-year, and I did manage to learn some cooking techniques and recipes- but that was merely scratching the surface.

Reference

Wild Plant Family Cookbook, by Particia K. Armstrong.   This book seems to be 1/2 reference, 1/2 actual cookbook; and it is a staggering achievement.  It features and highlights wild foods from the Midwest of the United States- foods that have been consumed here by Native Peoples for thousands of years before colonization.

Desserts

Biscuits & Slices; and a bonus volume:  The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits, from the Australian Women’s Weekly Home Library.  These large sturdy paperback editions reflect an aspect of- and love for sweets that are unique to English sensibilities- these cookies and bars are appropriate for High Tea, after-school and midnight snacks.  Some metric measurements (see below).

Food Writers

Kitchen Confidential, Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, Anthony Bourdain.  This book became a literal and literary overnight sensation.  And anyone who has watched Chef Bourdain’s TV series (No Reservations) will see that this nearly world-weary, brilliant funny foodie is a formidable figure in world food consciousness. 

Quirks

Metric Cooking for Beginners, Binevera Barta.  Liters, mL, grams, kilograms and Celsius in your recipes bumming you out?  I found this instruction guide-cum-recipe manual from the 1970s  for a dollar at a used bookstore.  I do have a combination kitchen weight scale that I use, and some of my measuring implements also show metric gradations.  If you use international recipe sources at all, some are strictly metric.  You can always get yourself a metric calculator too- that might actually be easier, but it can set you back US$40 (cf http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FONJN6?ie=UTF8&tag=sciencemadesimpl&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000FONJN6 )

image courtesy of http://www.clipartof.com/details/clipart/229985.html

What does this have to do with Squash Cake.  Well I received a gift of 2 gorgeous squashes, and a beautiful bottle of maple syrup, so I decided to make good use of them.  Squash cake is a warming, spicy and good-for-you treat.   I think one of the squashes is a kabocha, and I’m guessing that this brilliant orange fruit is an Ambercup.  You can see a good pictoral guide at this web-address:  http://whatscookingamerica.net/squash.htm

This is basically the same as pumpkin cake- I use any winter squashes interchangeably:  Pumpkins, Acorn, Turbans, Hubbards, Butternut- you name it.  Some are lighter, some are meatier, some have a pronounced flavor.  I split one small squash, seeded it,

cut it into slender wedges and baked it on a tray covered with foil at 350F for about 45 minutes, and then allowed it to cool.  That makes it easier to remove the skin and mash it with a fork.  Canned or frozen pumpkin makes a perfectly good substitute, and it is less labor intenstive.

Prepare a 10-inch tube-cake pan or bundt-cake pan by greasing and flouring it well.  I have an old-fashion Kugelhopf pan, which makes a pretty cake, and  I like to use butter for the flavor.  Preheat your oven to 350F.

Ingredients:

2 cups refined or turbinado sugar

4 large eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground allspice (I grind this one fresh)

2 cups squash or pumpkin puree

Beat sugar and eggs until light, using medium/medium-high speed with an electric mixer.  Add oil and incorporate thoroughly.  Sift all the dry ingredients together and add to the batter beating for about a minute, followed by blending in the squash puree.  That is truly how simple this recipe is.

Pour into the tube pan and bake at 350F for 1 hour, and do not open the oven door or disturb it for the first 20 minutes.  The cake will pull slightly away from the sides, and you can test it at the hour-mark with a wooden toothpick or wooden skewer.  Cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes before removing to  a cooling rack.  Allow to cool completely before putting on a plate- and this cake is good either with a sprinkling of powdered sugar, or cream cheese frosting.  You can also probably bake this very successfully in a 9″ X 13″ cake pan, or 2 round cake pans (I’d recommend 9″ pans).  In this case, adjust your baking time, but I suggest keeping the temperature at 350F.