Chinese Style Vegetables

 I'm always trying to incorporate more vegetable into our diet.  This dish is a great way to pick up several plus the many health benefits of ginger, garlic and red chili peppers.  "What health benefits?" you may ask - cancer fighting, antioxidants, that can alleviate the pain of arthritis to name just a few. 

I should start off by saying that I know almost nothing about Asian cooking.  We used to stir-fry early in our married life, and Ed had just lived in Korea for a year, so I guess he had some credibility as we prepared those dishes.  Stir-frys are one of many recipes forgotten as we were raising our daughters.  They liked foods to be separate, not jumbled together, and certainly no sauce!  I'm sure those of you with children can relate. 


Ingredients

1/4 cup canola or olive oil
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 onion, sliced into thin wedges
1 red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
1 head broccoli, cut into florets and then sliced 1/4 inch thick
3/4 cup chicken or vegetable stock
1/4 head Napa cabbage (from top), sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 cup bean sprouts
4 green onions
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons chili sauce
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 tablespoon water

Directions

• Heat oil in a large frying pan or wok on medium-high heat
• Add ginger, garlic, and red pepper flakes, cooking for 30 to 60 seconds
• Remove and reserve the ginger, garlic, and pepper flakes.  I did this by straining the oil into a cup and returning the oil to the pan.  The spices will return to the pan later
• Cook the onion in the oil until translucent and set aside
• Add the red bell pepper and cook until almost tender, set aside
• Add the broccoli, stir-frying for two or three minutes
• Add the chicken stock, and cabbage to the broccoli, stirring and scrapping the bottom of the pan, until the vegetables are tender
• Add the bean sprouts and green onions, stirring to combine
• Add the soy sauce, chili sauce, and the reserved ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes
• Dissolve the corn starch in the water, stirring until no lumps remain
• Add the corn starch and water to the veggies and heat until the liquid thickens

Almond Parmesan Crusted Chicken

We're back in Poznan, missing our family, but looking forward to the new year.  To me, it's not about big, bold resolutions; it's about a return to the pleasure of a normal routine, finding the time to make better choices regarding meals and activity - all the things that are joyfully forgotten during holiday celebrations.

After finding this article on a friend's facebook wall, I'm incorporating vegetables into my diet in a big way.  The article talks about using the Hunter-Gatherer Diet to combat MS.  I don't have this disease, but it's hard to argue with the benefits a nine servings of vegetables and fruit a day.  The question will be can I find ways to make them interesting.  That will determine my success.  The Chinese style veggies pictured here will be posted in a few days.  Incorporating organ meat once a week; I don't know if I'm ready for that part of the diet just yet. 

My husband is cutting back on carbs for a week or so to break the cycle; "do widzenia" bread, potatoes, and beer.  I found a recipe that mentioned crushed pork rinds as breading for chicken breast, but alas, no pork rinds in our Polish market.  I was trying to think of something to add a bit of crunch and remembered that I had sliced almonds in the pantry.  Voila, the Almond Parmesan Crusted Chicken is born, and it was so tasty that we're fixing it again in a few days for dinner guests. 

Ingredients

1 chicken breast
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg, beaten

Directions

• Butterfly the chicken breast by laying it on a cutting board and slicing horizontally, ALMOST to the other side.  Open it up and pound with a meat tenderizer (mallet) until the breast is about 1/4-inch thick
• Season both sides with salt and pepper
• Heat the olive oil and butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat
• Run the almonds and Parmesan cheese in a food processor until the texture is breadcrumb-like
• Spread half of the nut mixture out on a plate
• Dip the chicken breast in the beaten egg
• Spread the chicken out over the nuts and cheese and sprinkle the remaining nut mixture over the top side of the chicken, pat the crust to secure it to the meat
• Put the chicken in the hot oil and cook until browned on both sides
• Divide into two servings.  You can keep this warm in a 200 degree oven (100 C) if you're fixing more than one breast

Serves: 2

Homemade Wine

My parents are quite the do-it-yourself-ers.  These handy folks built their own 3-car garage, two greenhouses (now home to orchids and year-round tomato plants).  They have been beekeepers, bakers of artisan breads, the list goes on and on.

At one time, they were growing their own grapes for wine making.  Water is an expensive commodity in the desert, so eventually the grapevines had to go.  Now they buy wine kits at the home brew shop, ranging in price from $90 to $150 that yield 30 bottles of finished product.  The kits contain the grape juice, yeast and all of the additives needed in the process.

I got to take pictures of a recent bottling session.  I can share with you a few of the things I learned:

• They've collected a lot of gadgets in the last  10 years that make the process much faster.  Bottling a batch used to take 3 or 4 hours; they now have it down to 45 minutes.
• Items worth having - faucet attachment for easy rinsing of bottles, One Step Sanitizer, bottle tree for sanitizing and draining, a siphon kit, bottle filler wand, and a compression corker.  If you want to make wine, these should be on your wish list.
• Red wine needs to be in a dark green or yellow bottle.  Otherwise you'll loose the color and flavor as the wine oxidizes from exposure to light.  
• Wine bottles with flat bottoms are the easiest to fill.
• The wine will be nicely drinkable about a year after bottling.  As it's going into the bottle, it reminds me of the wine we used to pay 35 pesetas (50 cents) for at the bodega in Spain back in the early 80s (provided you brought your own bottle, of course.)

Check out the video; you'll feel like you were there with us!  :)



My folks shrink wrapped a couple bottles of their wine for us to bring back to Poland.  We had the 2009 Amarone last night, and it was wonderful.  Amarone is the wine bottled the day we visited.  It's made with a combination of  partially dried grapes, yes, I guess you could say raisins! 

Gluten-Free Vegan Gingerbread Pancakes

with huckleberry syrup

One of my daughters is vegetarian, a choice that I've gotten pretty good at accommodating over the years, if I do say so myself.  When we got together over Christmas, she threw me for a loop with the announcement that she was more and more eating vegan.  Vegan stumps me - no butter, no eggs, no cheese, no fun, no ideas!

Don't get me wrong.  She looks trim, healthy, fantastic, and I'm glad that she's making thoughtful choices about her food and her health.  I just can't think of anything to fix that the rest of the family would want to eat.

Lisa to the rescue with a new cookbook she's picked up - babycakes: covers the classics, the second cookbook by Erin McKenna.  As the cover says, this book provides gluten-free, vegan recipes from donuts to snickerdoodles.  We tried the Gingerbread Pancakes, and I have to say they were delicious and would qualify as fun.


Ingredients

2 cups garbanzo and fava bean flour (I wasn't paying attention as Lisa read ingredients and used AP flour)
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon xanathan gum (didn't have - substituted a small handful of flax seeds soaked in equal volume of water)
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamon (didn't have, so we omitted)
1/ teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (this wasn't in the recipe, but how can you have gingerbread without ginger?)
2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup coconut or canola oil
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup molasses
2/3 cup rice milk (we used almond and added extra milk to get a good texture maybe because of the flour substitution)
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

• Preheat pancake griddle
• Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, xanathan gum, cardomon, clove, and ginger
• In another bowl, combine remaining ingredients
• Stir flour mixture into wet ingredients until just combined
• Spray or lightly brush griddle with oil
• Ladle or pour batter onto hot griddle; cook until bubbles form in pancake and pop
• Carefully, flip pancakes, browning other side
• Serve with desired toppings.  Lisa used soy butter, Ed and I, real butter and huckleberry syrup

Made: 25 6-inch pancakes

Kegerator - Homebrew without bottles

My parents have been making wine and beer for the last 10 years.  They seemed to make wine much more often than beer.  Dad said it was because bottling the beer was such a chore.  We discovered a way around that, and now there's always homebrew when we visit.

We found a kegerator at WalMart.  The kids all chipped in, and it made a gift that's used a lot.  The kegerator uses a 5 gallon, corny or cornelius keg and a CO2 bottle that's refilled at the welding supply store.

My dad uses homebrew kits that he buys at Brew Your Own Brew in Tucson.   If there's a need for beer between batches, our local brew pubs are happy to fill the corny keg. 

PS - if my mother is appalled by the wire running across the tap, I will gladly replace that photo if someone sends me a photo without the wire. ;-)

Christmas Tamales

The Mexican tradition of tamales at Christmas has carried over into many homes in southern Arizona.  My parents make their own in December, but we usually have them on the first time all of the family are in town; that usually means the night my brother arrives from NYC.

I asked if I could help with the preparation a couple of years ago.  It may have been before I began this blog because I don't remember taking any pictures.  My parents cook the meat one day and do the assembly the next.  Even so, it's labor intensive, and reminds me of pierogi making.  It's best done with many hands.  Even Rick Bayless says don't make them by yourself, adding that it's a ritual suited for a collective, special occasion.   I have a few in the freezer that will be packed for Poland soon.

Thanks, Mom, for sharing your recipe!

Chile Con Carne - Meat Filling for Tamales:

Ingredients

2 pounds lean pork
2 pounds lean beef
2 tablespoons (or more) lard
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 cloves garlic
2 cups red chile sauce (Las Palmas or any other good brand)
4 cups cold water in which the meat was cooked

Directions

• Cut the meat in small pieces, not more than an inch
• Braise in hot lard in small batches, so that it browns a bit, transfer to stock pot as each batch is braised
• Add salt, garlic, and enough water to cover
• Simmer unti the beef is tender (the pork will be done by then)
• Drain, reserving ALL of the liquid
• If all the lard is gone from the pan the meat was browned in, add a couple of spoons more and when it's hot, add the flour and cook to a golden brown.  
• Add the flour mixture, the chile sauce, and 4 cups of the reserved water (you'll use more of the reserved water below) back into the meat, stir and simmer another hour or so
• Cool enough to handle
• Shred each cube of meat, removing the garlic when you come to it
• The filling should be the consistency of slightly runny gravy
• Refrigerate until cold or overnight

Tamales:

Ingredients

5 pounds masa, or 5 pounds masa harina plus water to make a pliable dough
1 1/2 cups lard
1 cup beef stock, more or less (use the reserved water the meat was cooked in)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon salt
corn husks
chilled chile con carne
pitted green olives (optional)

Directions

• A heavy-duty mixer is needed for this.  
• Before you start, place the corn husks in warm water to soften.  The sink works best.  There are usually some silks remaining, remove all that you can
• Place lard in a large mixer bowl, beat until VERY light and fluffy
• Add masa (or the dough made from the masa harina), the baking powder, salt, and beef stock, mix thoroughly (probably 3-4 minutes).  It should be slightly fluffy, add a bit more liquid if needed
• Spread the masa mixture, just less than 1/4 inch thick, on a well-drained corn husk, covering about 2/3 of the husk, don't do all the way to the top or bottom
• Spread a heaping tablespoon of the chili con carne down the middle of the masa
• If you're using green olives, add one to the middle of the chile con carne
• Fold the two sides into the center and roll up
• Fold up the bottom, and place upright in a steamer (or freeze at this point - when ready to use, thaw and steam)
• Steam for about 60 minutes over low heat; they're done when the corn husks come away from the masa cleanly

Makes approximately 5 dozen tamales