Rhubarb in the Bag

I am a lucky girrrl.  Some friends of mine are currently enjoying spring in Ireland and France. While they are gone they asked me to sit on their house.  This I do not mind for many reasons.  I get to watch Mad Men, not just for the vintage 60s suburban kitchens (can't wait for the 70s) but also for Joan's pencil necklace.  Jackson and I get to stalk the herd of wild rabbits that have wiped out the young eggplant seedlings in the backyard.  Sadly due to Jackson's incredible agility and prey drive, there is no off leash pursuit since the fences surrounding the yard barely slow down his fierce devotion to Kill the Wabbit.  But the best thing about house sitting (until the pool opens) is the weekly CSA.  So far I've enjoyed baby spinach, eggs, broccoli, lettuce, chard, asparagus, and basil.  This week included something I'd never cooked with before - rhubarb.

Rhubarb is not exotic or new but it's just one of those ingredients that never made an appearance in the cooking adventures of my youth.  So it was a bit of a surprise to see it in the bag of spring offerings.  Rhubarb seems to me to be one of those old fashioned vegetables.  I'm sure my grandmother would know what to do with these stalks.  I do remember seeing numerous recipes in old church spiral bound cookbooks, usually involving pies, crumbles and cobblers.  The most common use was to pair it up with the first spring fruit, strawberries.  The strawberry's sweetness balanced out the rhubarb's wincing tartness.  I just didn't have enough to make a pie.  Luckily for me my recent batch of library cookbooks included Wild Flavors by Didi Emmons and the recipe for Coconut Rice Pudding with Rhubarb.

Coconut Rice Pudding with Rhubarb

Makes 6 servings

Rice Pudding:

1/2 cup brown rice

1/2 cup white rice 

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

Pinch salt

3 cups coconut milk (two 13-ounce cans will do)

2 - 3 cups soy milk, almond milk or half-and-half

Topping:

3 large stalks rhubarb (about 3/4 pound), thinly sliced

3 tablespoons sugar

1.  To make the pudding, combine the rice, sugar, cardamom, salt, 2 cups soy milk, almond milk, or half-and-half, and coconut milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Let the mixture come to a boil, then reduce the heat to very low, cover, and let cook until thick and the rice is tender, about 1 1/2 - 2 hours, stirring from time to time to keep the pudding from sticking to the bottom of the saucepan.  If it does stick to the saucepan, add more soy milk, almond milk, or half-and-half as needed.

2.  Transfer the pudding to a container with a lid and let it come to room temperature uncovered, then chill in the refrigerator, covered.

3.  Meanwhile, to make the topping, combine the rhubarb, sugar, and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan over low heat.  Let the mixture come to a simmer, and let simmer until the rhubarb softens while still holding its shape, about 5 minutes.  Transfer the rhubarb to a container with a lid and let it come to room temperature uncovered, then chill in the refrigerator, covered.

4.  To serve, spoon the rice pudding into clear glasses, then spoon the rhubarb mixture over the rice pudding.  

A couple of notes to the recipe above.  I used everything I had on hand so, 1 cup of brown rice instead of mixing the two, two 14 ounce cans of lite coconut milk, and 2 cups of 2% milk instead of the soy milk.

Additionally I wandered far afield of the topping recipe.  I wanted more of a rhubarb sauce instead of a slightly cooked rhubarb topping.  So 2/3 cup of sugar instead of 3 tablespoons and cooked it until it broke down into a chunky sauce.

Wow!  The coconut rice pudding is luscious on it's own but adding the distinctive sweet and sour rhubarb sauce turns it into an exquisite dessert.  Not only that but this sauce would be great on oatmeal, yogurt, and ice cream.  So thank you CSA farmers, rhubarb rocks.

The Joys of Spring

Remember this book?

Back in October I celebrated the arrival of Virginia Willis' second book but I've been waiting until now to make one special recipe. Grilled Stuffed Soft Shell Crabs with Lemon Gemolata.  What exactly are soft shell crabs?

The Atlantic Blue Crab (Callinecties sapidus or beautiful swimmer) has a life span of roughly three years.  During those years the crab molts or sheds it's shell in order to grow.  Since it takes a few hours for the crab's shell to become hard again, crabmen of the Chesapeake Bay have developed numerous methods of finding and harvesting soft shell crabs.  Luckily for me there's a couple of sources for unfrozen soft shells that show up here in Kansas City in early May.  However if the fishmonger is not in (as happened to me at this particular store), you may end up cleaning them yourself like I had to do because the fishmonger's assistant was too grossed out to barely touch the un-moving crabs.

Not that it was a problem since cleaning is fairly simple but should only be done just before you plan on cooking your soft shells.  Cut off the flap on the underside of the crab (it's either shaped like the Washington Monument (for males) or the Capitol Dome (for females).  Next lift up the pointy flap of each side of the top shell.  Underneath you'll find the lungs which you need to snip off with scissors.  Finally you need to cut off the front edge of the crab, just behind the eyes.

Usually the simplest way to cook soft shell crabs is normally your best bet.  Most folks dust them with a flour mixture, fry them and them plop them between two slices of white bread for a quick sammie.  Virginia keeps it simple also by grilling them with just a bit of shrimp filling and a little zesty lemon gremolota

Ideally softshells should be cooked and eaten on the day they were captured to ensure that lovely sweet crab meat taste.To a confirmed omnivore and a lover of all things Chesapeake Bay, it's a beautiful thing.  But not everyone enjoys the concept of eating the entire crab no matter how it's cooked.  This does not bother me in the least.

Just leaves more crunchy legs for me.

The Rabbits are so jealous

We have pea blossoms.  You know what that means?

Soon we will have peas.  I see you little pea pod peaking out of there...

Baba au Whiskey Cake and The Rieger Hotel and Grill and Exchange

Just a little sampling of a dessert I've never had before, normally called a Baba au Rum Cake.  This version was  with whiskey and served at a wonderful little restaurant called the Rieger Hotel and Grill and Exchange.  This was after scarfing down one of the best Reubens' I've had in a very long time.  It may have been the corned beef tongue or it just may have been that they understand what makes a great Reuben, careful grilling and the right proportion of meat to bread and other ingredients.  As for this adult dessert?  While it was wonderful, it wasn't exactly my thing.  That's not to say it wasn't done well, it was.  Just didn't connect with my inner dessert freak.  However if you enjoy whiskey soaked cake with whipped cream and creme anglaise, come on down.  The Rieger would love to satisfy your culinary needs.  And the bonus?  The cookbook library in the back.  It's a good thing.

Cooking Close to Home

I have been to the library. This is a good thing. Well, not good for the Barnes and Nobles or the late Borders Books of the world because if there's one thing I know, I have absolutely no self control when it comes to an armful of pretty new books. My personal economy suffers much less from multiple trips to the library. Which is where I found this excellent cookbook.

I have to say that I've noticed lately that a lot of cookbooks currently coming out are hitting the "localvore movement" theme fairly hard. This book is no different. I don't really mind but coming from a background where one grandmother lived on a farm her whole life, where my parents have always had a big backyard garden, where I was taught early that young children make great pickers at the Pick Your Own farm stands (strawberries, yah, green beans, boo) all this talk is old hat. I do have to admit that I don't think my mother wants to go back to raising, killing, plucking and cleaning her own chickens. Fresh eggs are great but chickens are a lot of work.

Having said that, this is a wonderful cookbook with lots of seasonal recipes that appear to be loaded with flavor. If you like a fresh fruit and vegetable heavy diet, you will find a lot to like. Since we're still too early for spring produce, I thought I try the Roasted Two Beet Salad first.

This recipe uses two colors of beets, red and golden, two of each. You're going to roast your beets, unpeeled, rubbed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper in a 375 degree oven for 45 to 60 minutes. To test for tenderness piece with a knife, if there is resistance, continue roasting until the knife slides in smoothly. Let the beet cool enough to handle and then peel off the skin. If you don't want bloody red hands, try some food safe rubber gloves. (Personally I think it's more fun to chase neighborhood children with beet red hands but that's just me.)

So while your beets were roasting, you can whip up the dressing by mixing 1/2 cup red wine vinegar, 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon maple syrup (or honey), 1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme. Now the recipe calls for lemon thyme but I have not seen too much of that in the grocery stores or my garden which is why we're going with the regular thyme. You can whisk that all together or you can do like me and put it in a mason jar, screw on the lid and shake it up.

Once your beets are cooled, cut them into a julienne. Again a bit of a deviation from the recipe which calls for mixing the beets with 1/2 cup sliced red onion and the dressing. Keep the two colors of beets separate. If you mix everything together, the golden beets end up red anyway so add half the onions and dressing to each color beet, refrigerate for an hour and serve the beets together on the plate.

If you're already a beet fan, you will love this recipe. Most beet salads go down the cheese/nut route so it's refreshing to have a salad that concentrates on the flavors of the beets paired with the acidic flavor of the dressing and the flavor of the thyme. If you're not a beet fan (tasted like dirt! And really why don't more vegetables taste like dirt? Carrots I'm looking at you.) more than likely you won't enjoy this. You might taste it off of someone else's plate but I doubt you'd make it for yourself.

Some of the other recipes I'm looking forward to making from this cookbook are Hearty Root Vegetable Chowder, Quebec Tortiere, and Fresh Peaches with Mascarpone and Blackberry Coulis. Oh yeah. You can also check out their website, Cooking Close to Home for seasonal recipes or to buy the cookbook for yourself. I highly suggest this for the added bonus of it being a Maple heavy cookbook. Now if someone can help me find Maple Sugar I would appreciate it.

Garden Hopes and Dreams 2012

Keeping my fingers crossed that the mild winter does not mean a repeat of last summer's scorching heat.

I have big hopes for my tender pea tendrils. I loves me some fresh from the garden peas. My brother hates them. That boy just ain't right.

This is an incredibly hardy collard plant that I planted last year and just left alone during the winter. Low and behold, tasty (or really bitter, I'll find out) new leaves. BACK OFF RABBITS!!

This is my wonderful bay leaf plant. Needs to be repotted but I love the flavor of fresh bay leaf in my chicken stock.

And LOOK! My rosemary plant if blooming. So pretty. Please wish me gardening luck that everything survives and thrives. Because I'm hungry.

Bwhahahahhahahah

Well, OK? Not exactly the first food products when I think of Southern Food but apparently I'm vastly behind the times.

Mapril Dim Sum Sunday

HAPPY MAPRIL!

HAPPY DIM SUM SUNDAY!

HAPPY MARCH MADNESS!

I had to throw that last one in there because the Kansas Jayhawks pulled off the upset last night and it's pretty much been insanity here in the prairie hood. But back to Mapril. As you recall, the inspiration for Mapril is to celebrate all things Maple in the dreary time that is the end of March and hopefully the end of winter and the beginning of April and spring. My good Canadian friend to the north, Susan of 29 Black Street, still has bits of ice and snow and gray in her world. She needs some hot pink flowers and lovely maple dishes to blow those winter blahs away. For some of us, spring apparently is done and we're heading into summer. Our predicted high today is 88 degrees so hot pink sunburn may be in my future.

I had three maple dishes lined up for Mapril Dim Sum Sunday. Sadly it was not to be and I have no one to blame except myself and not trusting my own damn common sense. You see when searching the internets for inspiration and ideas, I generally use Google image to find potential recipes. Generally my theory is if a photo makes me salivate then it must be, at the very least, a decent recipe. This has worked out fairly well in the past. Bit me in ass this weekend. You see I saw a photo and ended up at this recipe. They used a quick soak method of cooking beans but only had 30 minutes of post soak cooking time. This is where I learn culinary life lessons so you don't have to. Dried beans don't cook in 30 minutes. I don't think dried beans soaked over night cook to tender in 30 minutes. I don't know how long these freaking beans took because I spent all evening with them, gently tending to their needs. I finally decided that I actually wanted to get some sleep so I dumped them into the crock pot and went to bed. This morning found them tender but all the other ingredients cooked to mush. They are ok taste-wise. I'm sad for the cup of beautiful maple syrup that boiled away in the process. I am glad to know that I should stick with the chefs, authors, and websites that I trust. People who actually know how to cook, test and write recipes for the general public. My only guess is that someone was writing a recipe for a pressure cooker version of baked beans but forgot to cook in a pressure cooker because that's the only way this recipe is so not wrong.

Still, they do make for some pretty on this hot Sunday. Guess I'm the April Fool for making this recipe. Keep visiting the comments during the day to see who else decided to get all maplely (yes I know it's not a word...).

March Madness Southern Food Bracket

We've been keeping a close eye on Garden and Guns Southern Food March Madness . Sadly some of my favorites went down in flames. I still loves ya Soft Shell Crabs, She Crab Soup, Fried Okra, Fried Green Tomatoes and Peach Cobbler. I also can't believe that CORNBREAD(????) beat out Mac and Cheese or Shrimp and Grits lost to Hoppin' John. In the end I still see Fried Chicken taking the trophy. Wait....is there a trophy? Still time to vote but you better hurry.

Mapril Dim Sum Sunday

Susan of 29 Black Street thinks it's time for a little Mapril Dim Sum Sunday. I would have to agree because while it's an explosion of spring color here in the Midwest, up in Canada there's still ice and grayness. She could use some Mapril goodness. It's a quickie since we're going to do it this Sunday but hey...you could incorporate Peeps into your Mapril dish. Actually I was hoping for a special Angry Birds version of Peeps but looks like it's not happening for 2012. So make a dish with maple syrup, Canadian if you're trying to suck to Susan or good ole American maple syrup if you want to make me happy. Take a picture, post what you made and come back here on Sunday and leave a comment in the post I'll have up. We'll all come visit all your lovely Mapril creations.

But no cheating by ordering these awesome maple peeps from the Pieces of Vermont online store.

Simplicity

It's March 23. Last March we were still dealing with winter, grayness and snow. It was so bad that I was trying to cheer up my good Canadian buddy with a series of recipes celebrating Mapril. I was planning to do it again this year but winter was a no show here in KC. We've already had a week of weather in the low 80s. LOW 80s! Right now things are growing.

Things are blooming.

Things are....happening.

Them bunnies is FORNICATING under there, I SEES THEM!

As you can imagine, we are ecstatic about the weather but it leaves us confused as to seasonal cooking. It's too hot for stews and soups, way too soon for spring veggies. I pondered this as I was sitting on my couch and eating a banana. I love bananas. This particular banana, just beginning to turn ripe, triggered a flash of curiosity. This banana would taste good paired with rosemary. I didn't know how and it's not very often that I have these sort of insights regarding food. Real chefs do, they do all the time. They dream of food and wake up ready to make the recipes they dreamed the night before. I am not a real "chef". However I am a good googler. Not too much out there in planet google on "bananas with rosemary" except for one very lovely recipe. Yes ladies, it's the very pretty Eric Ripert in a short little video making grilled bananas with rosemary and maple.

I LOVE simple. AND it has maple. So I'm calling it, a MAPRIL 2012 recipe. Brush some softened butter on a cookie sheet or broiler pan lined with aluminum foil. Peel your slightly under-ripe bananas and cut them in length-wise. Brush the bananas with softened butter. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Brush with maple syrup. Top with rosemary leaves and broil roughly 4 - 5 minutes. When browned and removed from the broiler, lightly brush with bourbon.

Serve while still warm. Eric suggests this would be a good side dish for white meats such as chicken or pork and because your bananas are under-ripe and not yet overly sweet and you've roasted them, they are a starchy almost like a potato especially when you salt and pepper them. The rosemary is a perfect pairing with the flavor of the bananas and the maple syrup. I'm not totally sold that you need the bourbon but who am I to argue with Eric Ripert. No, I'll thank him instead for a stupid simple dish.

Photo Artistry

Have you ever wanted to turn your favorite photos into tiles? I have and now there's a way to do just that. ImageSnap turns your photos into tiles of many sizes. Like a backsplash for your kitchen? Maybe turn your favorite bird or butterfly photos into an outdoor tile grouping on your porch? Or maybe even chicken portraits of your backyard birds? The possibilities are endless.

March Madness

I know it's time for a whole lotta college basketball silliness. Office bracket pools and constant television coverage. FEH!! However there is one bracket I wouldn't mind putting some money down on.

It's Garden and Gun's Ultimate Southern Food Bracket. You can go to Garden and Gun to vote for yourself. While you're there enjoy a fantastic website for southern food. I'm guessing their hardcopy magazine is just as nice as the website. Will have to look for it in my area. And if you're like me, you'll be googling Frogmore Stew (which is neither froggy or stew-like). Also did they leave any of your Southern favorites out of the bracket?

GO SOFTSHELL CRABS!!

Photo by Helene Dujardin