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Posts tagged ‘cooking’

Dec 20

Winter cocktail: Caramelized eggnog with dark rum

I’m back! I know it was just a few days ago that I was saying goodbye until after the holidays, feeling like I couldn’t see the light at the Tunnel of Kitchen Despair, but the clouds have parted and HERE I AM. Look at all that fuss I made! (Oh god, please let the Tunnel be behind me.)

And I didn’t want to wait for this any longer, because (for some reason that always escapes me) the nog window is open for only so much longer, and I don’t want it to pass you by.

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Nov 27

Baked oatmeal + persimmons, toasted coconut, and vanilla

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Here I am, the day before Thanksgiving, not talking about Thanksgiving food. This would be a perfect breakfast for an otherwise long weekend full of heavy dishes and indulging, and it would be particularly great to serve if you have guests in the house, but that’s just a coincidence. The main point is that this is a wonderful breakfast for when you have a bit of time in the morning – partially because it needs some time in the oven, but mostly because its very nature seems to most fit a slow, cozy, restorative sort of start to the day.

It’s rare, these days, that we have those sorts of mornings at home – between working, house guests, and out-of-town weekend plans, only once or twice since we’ve been in Madison have we had a morning with nowhere to be. So, when two weekends ago we had a cold, gray day with nothing on the schedule until the afternoon, I knew immediately that I’d turn to this recipe. Oatmeal, baked slowly with spices, maple syrup, milk, and an egg, plus fruit and/or nuts and/or any other toppings you might think to add. I knew going in exactly what I wanted to add – cubes of persimmon, toasted coconut, pumpkin and flax seeds, and vanilla. I’d been adding those things to my regular, everyday oatmeal in the mornings, and I couldn’t get over how well they all went together.

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Nov 19

6 Comments

What you need to know about wild rice (and an easy pilaf to get you started)

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I’ve been feeling a little remiss in my duties as a Minnesotan lately, considering how little I’ve talked about wild rice over the years I’ve had this site. We don’t eat it as often as we should, and that’s probably where the guilt actually lies, but I’m determined to remedy the situation and so here I am.

I know I’ve mentioned wild rice here and again, but let’s back up and get a good handle on the whole business. Wild rice (which is not actually a rice, but we’ll get to that) looks like very long long-grain rice covered by a thin brownish-blackish skin. When properly cooked, that skin breaks open and most of the grains begin to curl in on themselves, which many recipes refer to as “blossoming.” The grains still have their bran intact, which gives it a toothsome, chewy texture similar to brown rice and other whole grains. It has a toasty, nutty, earthy flavor, and can often smell and taste slightly like black tea. The flavor and texture it adds over other rices and grains is worth the extra effort required in cooking it, and it’s interesting to add to soups, breads, salads, and other dishes in a way that other grains seem to act more as mere filler or heft.

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That said, I’m from Minnesota. I get it. I’ve eaten wild rice my whole life, and in a million different ways. I’ve always known the difference between real wild rice and the other stuff, just like someone from the Northwest knows about wild salmon and someone from New Mexico knows about real green chile. Wild rice isn’t nearly as pervasive of a thing as those other two, so don’t feel bad if you have no idea where I’m going with this – just know that there’s a difference. Read more

Oct 31

Vietnamese braised eggplant

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We’re entering that brothy, stewy time of year I love so much, and this recipe has been added to our rotation for the season since it’s delicious, relatively simple to put together, and perfect for making in larger batches to divide over a few meals. We don’t cook a lot of Asian food at home, but this is definitely one of the most delicious and simple ones we make. It’s inspired by one I made last spring in a cooking class in Central Vietnam, where they fill clay pots with vegetables, aromatics like garlic and lemongrass, and a sweetened fish sauce broth, and cook it all over a low fire. These were unlike any of the other dishes we ate in Vietnam – warming and filling like Pho and other noodle soups, but instead packed with vegetables, intensely flavorful, and served over rice – and I knew the concept would be more easily adaptable to making back at home. Read more

Oct 22

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Brussels sprout gratin with whole-grain mustard and caramelized onions

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I did something exciting to these brussels sprouts. I did something fantastic to them, in fact, though in a way that might make some people feel a little nervous. “Gratin” means cheese and cream and butter, see, and sometimes those things induce a bit of anxiety. There’s also gussied-up breadcrumbs and caramelized onions, which don’t tend to turn people away, but the rest can b ea bit prickly.

But if you’ve been here for a bit of time you’ll know that I’m a pretty fervent defender of the butters and creams of the world; always ready to push for the sorts of things our great-grandmothers would have eaten (was that not someone’s – Michael Pollan’s, perhaps? – advice; to eat only things made of ingredients our great-grandmothers would have understood as a child?). I just have trouble getting worked up over something made with ingredients I could (at least conceivably) get from a farm, and I generally choose to fully immerse myself in and enjoy these things rather than worry about how much or how little I’m allowed to have. I live a pretty healthy lifestyle, in general, and a gratin here or there will not be my undoing.

So, here I am turning perfectly innocent brussels sprouts into something a bit devious. If your eyes and hearts are turning toward the holidays already, then by all means let me kickstart things for you.  Read more

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