The Wall Street Journal had a funny list of 27 Rules of Conquering the Gym – which while often unsaid are pretty spot on.

15. If you’re motivated to buy an expensive home exercise machine, consider a “wooden coat rack.” It costs $40, uses no electricity and does the exact same thing.
….
19. If a gym class is going to be effective, it’s hard. If you’re relaxed and enjoying yourself, you’re at brunch.
….
27. There is no secret. Exercise and lay off the fries. The end.

One of the other things I’ve been aiming to stick to in the new year is following some of Mark Bittman’s advice about reducing meat intake and going to a more veggie diet. While I don’t intend to become a vegetarian (just yet at least) making vegetarian meals more often is part of the plan as well as making other meals more veggie focused. To aid in this effort grabbed the How to Cook Everything Vegetarian Edition iPhone app and flipped through it (also plan to buy the paper copy as despite sharing the material they aren’t exactly substitutes). I am surprised to learn from friends that they aren’t that familiar with the original How to Cook Everything cookbook and am always thrilled to point them to it as a reference. Its the first place I usually go for basic dishes and everyday simple things. I’ll probably posting more on some of the new dishes I try out so heads up on that.

The sadness of all this is that I rarely get one of these scones because I always get the sweet potato turkey hash for breakfast when we go, meaning only if we splurge for some take out biscuits to eat later will I have one of these – and never in its fresh from the oven state.

A month or two ago while making some biscuits, I thought, hey why not toss in the ham and cheese to these? Not having ham and cheese I had to wait awhile until I remembered the whole affair again at the grocerry store.
Problems emerged immediately though, what kind of ham? what kind of cheese? I thought I’d like to use Virginia ham (to some country ham), a salty, cured ham, which could be added in moderation to deliver texture and intense flavor, but I was foiled when the store doesn’t sell it. (They did have deli ham called Virginia ham, but from my guess it wasn’t what I was thinking of). Instead I settled on a package of pre-diced prociutto (we were at Kroger, so our options were a bit limited in this department – although I should add this was at the new Clintonville Kroger, which is really nice – just not a gourmet destination I guess). For cheese grabbed some gruyere and emmenthal, being unable to decide, so went with the classic fondue duo.

To make the biscuits I made up a batch of biscuits inspired by Sam Sifton’s recipe a while back in the NY Times, been really happy with his recipe, don’t follow it exactly as I am going from memory, but basically I made a half recipe in the food processor, adding the cheese. Into a bowl to add the milk and then in the proscuttio.

I try to minimally handle biscuits and to that end I don’t cut them out with a biscuit cutter, instead cutting them with a knife into squares (in this case 4 big biscuits). The proscuitio and cheese biscuits turned out amazing, I think next time I will leave in some bigger chunks of cheese to get some pockets of cheese (I’ve since done this and can attest it is a good idea), but the little squares of proscuttio were delicious. The recipe is quick enough to make on a work morning if your not a dash out the door person and delicious enough to make for a special sunday brunch.

picture from Cooks Country

Saw this recipe the other day on WOSU our local PBS station on an episode of Cooks Country. The recipe is for Apple Cider Chicken, which uses bone in chicken pieces, seared in a pan, where a braising sauce is then made, with the chicken then going back into the pan to finish in the oven in a kinda shallow braise allows the skin to stay super crispy and for an amazing sauce that braises the bottom half of the chicken into deliciousness. The recipe is quick to which is nice on a weeknight and was on the table in no time leaving us a nice lunch of leftovers for the next day. (I used a whole chicken the I cut into a fairly standard 10 pieces – legs, thighs, wings, and cutting each half breast in half again to give four quarters of the breast meat – all left on the bone of course).

The technique in the recipe is one that is really useful and could be used in countless other ways, using the pan to sear, sauce and bake makes for easy cleanup (something I am not very good at).  The other reason the recipe sounded  so good to me was to achieve the apple flavor the recipe uses apple cider, apple brandy and apple cider vinegar and we already had some Ohio cider already sitting the in fridge as well as a bottle of Ohio’s own Tom’s Foolery Apple-Jack (recently made available here in Columbus at Weiland’s - where and enthusiastic clerk pointed it out to us and didn’t take any convincing on his part to take it home).

Tom’s Foolery Apple-Jack is an apple brandy made right here in Northeastern Ohio and the stuff is small batch (they say micro batch actually as they say it would take four years to maker the amount that small batch folks make).  Either way the stuff is fantastic (more fruity I would say than a calvados, but with the complexity and warmth you’d expect from a brandy) and finding out that there is another great local distiller is very exciting stuff and I am really pleased that Weiland’s down here in Columbus carries it (there aren’t too many places in Ohio to buy it – I think Weiland’s is the only place in Columbus).  Hopefully the trend of creating artisan spirits continues and people will continue to support the fantastic local liquor scene.

Ok so back to the chicken.  After about fifteen minutes cooking the chicken in the skillet, made the sauce by cooking the onions and scrapping up the fond from the chicken.  Next in goes some garlic, thyme, cider, the brandy and some diced apples, bring it to a quick boil and the chicken goes back in and into the hot 450 degree oven that crisps the chicken even more.  After the oven you finish the sauce with a bit more brandy and a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar.  The sauce is reminiscent of a good french onion soup (but applely) and was fantastic and worthy of eating on its own with a spoon.  Served it with some potatoes from the oven and some green beans that are easily prepared while the chicken is in the oven.  Forgot to take a picture of the results as we started to devour it so quickly, so the top picture is courtesy of Cooks Country.

We couldn’t cook a whole pound of jalapeños into anything unless we were making poppers one night (not a bad idea actually) so preserving them came to mind, and jalapeño jelly sounded like the perfect destination.  Looked up some recipes on the internet and being fairly novice at canning tend not to stray from the tried and true ball recipes.  So using this recipe for jalapeño jelly from the Ball cookbook started up the water bath and washed some jars and got busy making the jelly.  The jelly is super easy as you may guess if you peaked at the recipe (jalapeños, sugar, cider vinegar, pectin), we departed from the recipe in not pureeing the jalapeños and instead leaving them in a small fine dice using the food processor and omitted the food color.

The results are amazing.  The huge amount of sugar and pectin as well as the 10 minutes of boiling the jelly mello the jalapeños to a really pleasant heat level where even the most timid of eaters could enjoy the mild punch.  The natural color looks kinda like a pickle relish – a muted green and the flecks of the jalapeño are suspended in the jelly.  The jelly is of course perfect on cream cheese and a cracker, but can bring back a blast of peppery summer throughout the winter to a number of dishes by mixing into sauces or using as you would a chutney.

Recently I taped the Kimchi chronicles on PBS, which oddly enough features Jean George Vongerichten and his wife Marja.  Well actually it’s not that odd because it turns out his wife is Korean and hence the TV show.  Watching them put together some Korean food got me excited to cook up some at home and the other day picked up some pre-marinated boolgoi at Trader Joes.  While I am sure there is better boolgoi out there of course, it’s a pretty easy way to whip up an easy meal, grill it real quick over a super hot fire and put in a lettuce wrap with some rice and some gochujang (I have heard you pronounce it with a bit of a K sound – more on this stuff later).

Okay well not having planned ahead I didn’t have too much to go with the boolgoi, or so I thought.  Rummaging around in the fridge found we had some small asian cabbages that while not the classic napa cabbage for kimchee, figured I could turn into a good quick kimchee.  I loosely followed Mark Bittmans recipe, after a couple of hours of salting and a thourgh rinsing I chopped up the cabbage and mixed with nom pal (fish sauce), some red pepper flakes and siracha, sugar, garlic, some leeks I had that I softened in boiling water and some ginger grated on the microplane of course.  I tossed that all together and put it in the fridge overnight.  After reading a couple of recipes that mentioned the one ingredient you could not substitute for and must buy when serving ssam or boolgogi is gochujang – Korean red chili paste.  I realized that I should get some gochujang to do it right so  I stopped at one of the Asian markets by my house (Yao Lee in Clintonville) , that I heard had some Korean stuff to grab a jar of gochujang and also grabbed some bean sprouts and cilantro (I also was looking for ssamjang, but they didn’t have any of that and actually only had one kind of gochujang, since then I heard to go to a store up near Henderson & High for Korean stuff).  For those who don’t know gochujang is made by adding powdered red chili peppers and glutinous rice powder to soybean paste, and aging this paste.  Apparently until somewhat recently every family in Korea would make their own and the stuff is used on almost as many things as kimchi is over there.  The gochujang has a complex, fermented flavor loaded with umami.  Some describe it as miso crossed with hot sauce.  The stuff is good whatever you call it.

Any back to the meal, the meal went as follows, made some quick pickled carrots with a rice vinegar, sugar and soy mixture with matchstick sized carrots, put on a plate macho, cilantro and the bean sprouts in nice piles for people to help themselves, made sticky rice using italian short grain rice, tossed with a little sugar, soy and rice wine vinegar.  I found a few flour tortilla, taco sized, in the fridge (not homemade ones, those wouldn’t have lasted) and also warmed those up after grilling up real quick the boolgogi.  The meal turned out great, but the tacos really shined.  The combination in one bite of the meat, cilantro, kimchi, bean sprouts, pickled carrots and the amazing gochujang in a soft warm tortilla is quite amazing – I can see why this is the rage in L.A. and other places.

I will be doing this again soon, but next time I will actually plan to serve tacos.  America is clichély a melting pot, but it truly is and things like Korean tacos are a great reminder of how good quirky fusions of cultures and cuisines can be.

“THE CHALLENGE: This September 17, you’re invited to take back the ‘value meal’ by getting together with family, friends and neighbors for a slow food meal that costs no more than $5 per person. Cook a meal with family and friends, have a potluck, or find a local event.

WHY: Because slow food shouldn’t have to cost more than fast food. If you know how to cook, then teach others. If you want to learn, this is your chance. Together, we’re sending a message that too many people live in communities where it’s harder to buy fruit than Froot Loops. Everybody should be able to eat fresh, healthy food every day.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED: Sign up for the challenge! You can cook a meal with friends and family, find a local event, or host your own event. When you sign up, we’ll send you $5 cooking tips.” (To sign up or read more visit Slow Food)

Since I am out of the country right now and figured I wouldn’t be able to make a meal on the correct day figured I’d give it a go in advance a couple weeks ago.  $5 a person gets a lot easier if your doing it for larger numbers than two people or if you plan on a couple of meals, but I figured it could still be done pretty easily.

So with that partially in mind I put some dried chickpeas in some water to soak overnight one evening.  [If your used to working with canned chickpeas/garbanzo beans, you gotta start using dried.  Not just because they are cheaper, they are better and while they do take some forethought, its not much and cooking them takes some time but no effort - just get in the routine and you won't be bothered.]  So anyway, the dried beans actually got two nights soaking  in the fridge, no worries, still come out fine, were not being real fussy here.  No mater how many times I toss the dried little beans into a container, I have a hard time remembering how much they swell up after soaking, so usually I have to go fetch another container after a few hours if I put them in small container.

So fast forward to two nights later, get home from work and decided that we should put the beans to use, making some falafel and some hummus.  The first thing I did was get some dough going for pita bread, a really simple bread to make and that doesn’t need too much time.  I made them using half white and half whole wheat flour, yeast, water, salt and a bit of olive oil.  Knead, let rise for at least an hour and then roll out into pitas, let those rest and finally bake on a pizza stone.  With the pita dough rising I turned to the beans.

The falafel will get fried of course and the beans for those don’t get pre-cooked, the hummus needs the beans to cook so I fill a pot with water and bring it to a low boil with the beans and then drop the heat and cook for a bit (45 mins? didn’t pay too much attention honestly).  Hummus is so easy (if you like the stuff and buy it pre-made, you gotta start making it yourself – its easy, amazing and to stick with the theme here…cheap), my version basically throw in a little garlic, some cumin, some paprika (smoked is good), some salt, some lemon juice, tahini and olive oil and  pulse in a foot processor adding water or olive oil depending on what your going for texture wise (you can also use a blender for a less textured creamy version – one I personally like, but others don’t seem as keen on).  The hummus will improve as the flavors blend so put it in the fridge overnight if you got time, or in my case while you make the falafel.

Speaking of the falafel, they are also pretty simple, I put in the food processor: the soaked chick peas, garlic (you can use a lot), some onion, a bunch of fresh parsley or cilantro or both, cumin, ground coriander, a bit of cayenne,  lemon juice, salt, a bit of baking powder and a bit of flour.  After getting it well combined in the food processor let it rest in the fridge for 20 mins or so, I fry it up (usually a shallow fry for me which results in more patty like shapes)  I use a small doser (the things that look like ice cream scoops – great tools for the cook who cant have too many gadgets) to quickly make a whole bunch, dropping them from the doser straight into the skillet I use to fry them up.

To serve the whole thing I serve some chopped up veggies as toppings to make a pita, say chopped tomatoes, onion, some chopped parsley or cilantro if you didn’t use it up already, some sliced banana peppers (we had a bumper crop in the garden, actually all the veggies were from the garden except for some lettuce, so those kept the cost down – not sure if thats cheating – I guess it kinda is, but I you could get away with just using a couple items), chopped cucumber and lettuce (you can do anything though, pickled veggies or a cabbage slaw are great), and then some kind of sauce, either a thinned out tahini sauce, which is pretty traditional or one of my favorite the ubiquitous mayo/yogurt combo sauce (the white sauce in the bottle found at falafel shops around a lot of Europe) made with a mixture of the two plus some garlic.

At the last minute I popped the rolled out pita into the hot oven and in about 3-4 minutes had amazing fresh pita, filled with all of the above and a some more for dipping in hummus.  So yeah, if you bought all the veggies I discussed above and some other things it would definitely get potentially expensive, but if you pick and choose you could get a nice selection of toppings/salad (or if you had more people say 4, you could easily buy a ton of veggies to top them off / make a salad for $20 total).  Of course I didn’t factor in the spices in my meal cost as well although if you did a fractional cost of the price of them from Penzy’s they don’t amount to much and you could simplify your seasoning and they would still be great – probably just garlic, salt, pepper and say cilantro would work for making some tasty falafel.

There are plenty of creative ways to make a $5 dinner as I’ve been reading on some other folks blogs, and you can easily get some meat in that $5 meal as well unlike the above meal, the key is of course to remember that you don’t need 12 oz or more of steak a person and using the meat to flavor other components is a great way to stretch it.  Also buy at those ethnic markets, they aren’t wasting their money on advertising and are very competitive on price – even if you not making Indian, Asian or Mexican food, they can be a great source for affordable ingredients.  So hopefully a whole bunch of folks are getting in on the challenge and figuring out that you don’t need a large corporation involved to create great, affordable value meals.

Breakfast Tacos!

So to improve upon my breakfast tacos I decided this morning to make some fresh flour tortillas, in the Texas style. While many may say that flour tacos are an Americanized bastardization of the corn tortilla, they would be wrong.  True corn tacos dominate mexico, but there is some flour tortillas in the north where wheat grew.  Anyway, thats neither here nor there as breakfast tacos, at least as we are using it is an American creation or adaptation, so using the flour tortillas is of course entirely appropriate no matter what you consider the flour tortillas.

Banana peppers from the garden and onions

I have only made tortillas a few time and usually make corn ones out of masa for taco purposes, but due to the breakfast nature of my tacos I wanted to use flour and I came across this recipe on the Homesick Texan blog (recipe and link below).  The recipe was interesting as you’ll see it has both milk and no lard or shortening – the milk unexpected and the other decidedly missing (and go read her post on the tortillas as she was on quest to duplicate the TX tortilla).  Eitherway sounded easy so I gave it a try.  Indeed it wasn’t hard, I think next time I’ll roll out them out a tad thinner than I did (they were a hybrid between almost a think pita and a thick tortilla) one of the great things about TX tortillas is their thickness but I may have gone a bit too thick.  Either way they are delicious – pillowy, fresh and with some nice charred spots from the hot cast iron skillet.  They nicely housed my breakfast tacos and made a great start to a Sunday.

Texas Flour Tortillas (adapted from The Border Cookbook by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison)

Ingredients:

Two cups of all-purpose flour (can make them whole wheat by substituting one cup of whole-wheat flour for white flour)

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1 teaspoon of salt

2 teaspoons of vegetable oil

3/4 cups of warm milk

via An end to my quest: flour tortillas | Homesick Texan.

Last year I took a trip to Spain and brought back an amazingly cheap (around 5 euros on clearance ) paella pan that I found on clearance at El Corte Ingles (where I found myself frequently shopping with their open late grocery store – a rarity in Spain).
Anyway since then I hadn’t gotten around to giving the pan a spin but the other night we finally did. Due to bad weather ended up indoors, which led to some less than ideal results as the pan isn’t made to lie flat on a smooth electric stove top and that led to hotspots and burning when I tried to form the all important crust (soccarat). That said I was happy with the flavor overall despite being fairly inexperienced with making paella, but do plan to do it outside next time – and there will be a next time.

The basics of what I did are below:

Cooked up some cured chorizo to render a bit of fat. (they have some dried Spanish chorizo at Weilands here in Columbus)
Browned chicken pieces (legs here) and removed.
Cooked up a sofrito (onions, then garlic and then grated tomato – used 2 tomatoes and 1/2 an onion, 3 cloves garlic)
Added rice (short grain, of course Spanish Bomba or Calispara work, but could use arborio or others as well)
Cooked slightly added wine, then smoked paprika, stock, saffron and chicken, sausage and baked for a bit. Then added more liquid because my pan was so short compared to rice volume and tucked in mussels and shrimp and added peas.
Baked then stove top for crust (don’t burn like I did).
Garnish with parsley and lemon
Enjoy with some chilled wine or a cold nice dry sherry (manzanilla would be nice).

Dessert was some vanilla ice cream with some pedro ximenez poured on top.