FoodNerd!

An awful lot of stuff happened this year.  Nothing truly bad, but it’s been a struggle to keep up — a lot of unexpected home repairs and a really big investment in dance event organizing and more to do at work than average — and the result was no time at all to post on the FoodNerd.

Sorry about that.  I imagine you’ve all gone off by now and given up on me, and I couldn’t blame you.  But if you have me in your RSS reader or otherwise stumble back across me, welcome back.

The most recent kitchen adventures have been related to the winter holidays:  ajil and milk punch.

Ajil is an Iranian trail mix that is made and eaten on the winter solstice night, when people stay up all night to ward away evil.  I found the recipe in a recent issue of Saveur, and it sounded awfully good.  I thought it might make a nice hostess gift for people on our trip to LA.  So I went to the Armenian markets in Watertown to see if I could dig up the necessary ingredients.  No one seemed to know what I was talking about when I asked for sugar-coated slivered almonds, but at the last store I found them on my own, in a huge display of every kind of candy or dried fruit you could imagine.  They had dried mulberries too, which look just awful, like dusty old stuff swept out from under the fridge, but they taste pretty good so don’t be alarmed by their appearance.  The salted whole pumpkin seeds are wonderful if you treat them like a salt lick, but I can’t work out any method for actually extracting the seed, so I punted and just used shelled pepitas instead.  I also altered the recipe by adding in some shelled pistachios along with the ones in the shell.  Roasted chickpeas are kind of bland and dusty-tasting on their own, but they are a nice element in the mix of stronger-flavored nuts and fruits.  The end result is quite delicious, and very pretty with the greens, golds and browns punctuated with tiny flecks of bright white.

Ajil

1 cup roast salted pumpkin seeds
1 cup whole salted pistachios
1 cup whole salted pistachios in shell
1 cup sugar coated, rose-water flavored slivered almonds (noghl)
2/3 cup dried mulberries
1/2 cup roast unsalted almonds
1/2 cup dried salted chickpeas
1/2 golden raisins
1/2 cup dried currants
8 mission figs
8 turkish figs

Milk punch is a historical drink with roots in the 1700s.  I first had it at Backbar in Union Square, where it was a crystal clear, sweet, bright thing with strong notes of clove.  It was so delicious and unusual that I wanted to try making some myself for a party, so I googled recipes.  Nothing sounded quite like Backbar’s version, so I made up my own recipe.

I started with Basil Hayden, just because bourbon is delicious and I had some in the house.  I used zest of 2 lemons and 1 satsuma mandarin, plus 1 cinnamon stick, 6 allspice and 4 cloves, plus a grating of nutmeg and a spent vanilla bean husk.  The zest and spices are heated in a quarter-cup of the bourbon just to boiling, then poured back into the bottle and left for 48 hours, shaking occasionally.

Then you strain the infused liquor into a big bowl or pitcher, ideally something with a pouring spout, and add 1.25 cups fresh lemon juice and 1.25 cups rich simple syrup.   Then scald 2 cups whole milk just under boiling point, and add it to the booze/citrus mix.  It will curdle right away, but let it sit about an hour.

Then strain through cheesecloth or muslin.  Then strain it again through a coffee filter.  If you can, strain again through another coffee filter to get it as clear as possible.  Pour it into clean bottles and keep it in the fridge, if you can keep people away from it long enough to have some to store.  Your 750 mL bottle of bourbon will double in volume, so you’ll want another empty liquor bottle to store the other half of your batch.

This came out a pale yellowish-brown, and quite tasty in a lemony holiday-spice sort of way.  The bourbon flavor comes through, but even people who don’t care much for bourbon have enjoyed this: the sweetness, smooth mouthfeel, and spice give it a wide appeal.  I’m guessing Backbar used a vodka base, and less citrus juice, or perhaps they just have an industrial strength filtration method that gets theirs so clear.  In any case, the method rewards experimentation and swapping of ingredients to your personal taste.  I’ve just started a second batch with the same recipe, but with peel of 3 lemons and no satsuma, and a splash of vanilla extract, since I lack both oranges and spent vanilla beans at the moment.  There’s also a few lovely options using gin and other flavor profiles from Randy Wong, whose basic method I pilfered.

We made a cheesecake from the leftover boozy-spiced curds, which aside from a grainier texture than we’d prefer was really rather delicious.  I recommend it if you can’t bear to toss out the filtered curds.  The pair make a nice combination for a party or potluck, as they do taste good together.

So far I have been surprisingly able to stick with my omission of starches for a couple of weeks, with exceptions only when there was nothing else to eat, or I was at a restaurant with things I needed to sample (twice). At home, I’ve not caved. I astound myself.

I have very occasionally allowed a tiny bit of brown rice (I needed a gazpacho thickener; it’s not especially successful, as it doesn’t melt in like bread does) and potatoes. Corn is so far legal, and frankly I won’t leave fresh summer corn off the menu in any case. The pasta and rice I have not really missed much so far.

Braised greens make a remarkably able substitute as a neutral underlayer for things like curries. Ditto steamed yellow squash. And these have worked fine even before dancing, though I am legitimately hungry again by the time I get home.

The hungarian dill zucchini is like crack — I will dip into it when I feel snacky. Going to have to keep it in steady rotation. Same thing for hummus, a spoonful of that straight up can fix the kitchen-prowl problem by being filling and savory and speedy.

turns out that yellow squash, Trader Joe’s cooked wild salmon, and coriander chutney mixed together in a bowl is DELICIOUS.

Damn it all straight to hell.

I have in the past had some success losing weight by eliminating wheat and grains in general from my meals (I’m looking at you, mid-90s Zone Diet), so I went and sort of half-assedly tried it again the last week or so. And it is depressing to report that I do seem to feel a lot better when I do this. More energy, less lethargic in the brain, better digestion, and I even look a little thinner even though I am most certainly not.

So there you go. Drat.

I guess for a while I am going to have to cut out the grains when I’m cooking for myself, and most of the sugar (easy for me, as I mostly lack a sweet tooth anyway), and only make special dispensations for unavoidable situations such as a trip out for pho. And really, I guess I am going to have to do that even after I fit back into my 90s jeans, since it’s not just the girth, it’s the sense of well-being. Sigh.

also, last week I made some hellaciously good potato salad. I have been eating the leftovers all week with a bit of cheddar for lunch.

5 lbs potatoes, cut up and boiled, sprinkled with 1/4 cup white wine vinegar once drained
12 hardboiled eggs, cut up
about 2 plants worth of dill
various mustards & mayo & miracle whip
a minced vidalia onion
salt & pepper

This kale salad with feta and avocado and hummus dressing sounds really good and I might try to make it next time I get some kale from the parental homestead.

UPDATE: I made this with shredded kale (maybe 8 leaves), half a small tub of hummus, a slab of feta, half a yellow pepper, 8 olives and some quick-pickled cucumbers and their brine. Remarkably tasty, and astonishingly filling and sustaining. It also keeps just fine overnight, which is kind of miraculous for a salad.

The Chicago Italian Beef Sandwiches that I made for Mixed Signals this year were a rampaging success. Making allowances for differences in giardiniera and breads, this stuff tasted just the way it should, the way it tastes at Al’s or one of the other stands in Chicago. Beefy, salty, lightly fatty, fragrant with garlic and oregano, vinegary and spicy from the pickles, and just barely holding its structural integrity due to immersion in the delicious broth.

I used this recipe because there were lots of comments from born-and-raised South Siders who swore it was the genuine article. I followed it closely, though I did double it and make two 5+ pound rump roasts, I studded the roasts with garlic, and I doubled the gravy for each batch to end up with a quadruple recipe of juice.

That juice reeked in a terrifying manner of oregano, to the extent that I was worried I’d overdone it, but after an hour or less of simmering, I sieved out the oregano and the garlic, and added in 4 more bouillon cubes and 6 cups more water. I was worried that canned beef broth would taste of the can, so I used all bouillon cubes, and I’d do the same next time. This wound up just perfect, not too strong of oregano, not too spicy from the hot sauce, not too salty.

The roasts smelled absolutely dreamy, and honestly they would have been delicious just as they were, sliced and served. But I put them through the meat slicer — home meat slicer FTW, again! — and then into the cooled broth to soak. Due to logistical pressures, they were only in for a few hours the day of the party, but I think that was plenty. I didn’t notice any lack of flavor in the meat itself, and it didn’t overcook due to too long a stay in hot broth.

I put the broth and meat into the crockpot to serve it, which worked out well. A quick 4 minute trip in the microwave got it up to temp, and then I left it on low, which kept things hot without toughening the beef.

Giardiniera and hefty rolls were handcarried from Chicago last week, and we augmented with some other sub rolls from Costco that we left out for a day to stale up. Everyone seemed to like it, but the best compliment was from another former Chicago dweller who made a point to thank me for making something just like he used to eat when he lived there, something he missed pretty bad. I know the feeling.

On a whim I bought some 3-layer Trader Joe’s hummus which had plain, red pepper and cilantro hummus. It was delicious and I developed a minor obsession with the cilantro layer. My mind wandered. I wanted a whole tub of cilantro hummus, but Trader Joe’s didn’t make one.

Slightly later I was in Patel Brothers buying some red lentils to feed another minor obsession with cooking dal as a way to incorporate more reputedly healthful spices into my diet. And I wandered by the chutney rack, and the lightbulb went off: maybe I could stir some coriander chutney into plain hummus and get something akin to the delicious bottom layer.

Turns out I was right, and the resulting treat is even more delicious than the original, since the chutney lends a bit more tanginess and spiciness.

Now I buy organic plain hummus and plop in unholy dollops of cilantro chutney, and put that stuff on salads instead of dressing, and dip carrots in, and put it on Triscuits. NOMS.

And I’ve also learned that cilantro chutney is fantastic on a ham sandwich. Sometimes I think that is the truest test of a condiment: Does it taste great on a ham sandwich?

I have been reading that turmeric and other spices used commonly in Indian cooking are very good for you, being anti-oxidant and helpful in fat-burning and so forth. So I have been thinking perhaps I’ll make a bit more effort to cook some more Indian-style dishes rather than my usual oscillation between mitteleuropean, Central Asian and Far Eastern cuisines.

Of course I am lazy, so the first manifestation of that was to dump some Madras curry powder into some cottage cheese and sprinkle in some kalonji that I dug out of the back of the spice drawer, and call it a snack.

And dang if that wasn’t a hell of a tasty snack. So much so that I did it again for breakfast, with a side of the half-made red lentil dal that I started last night. Yums.

sliced banana, dried cherries, salted almonds, pumpkin seeds and a sprinkle of cinnamon. yummy and filling. I also ate a hardboiled egg before I tucked into my fruity treat.