August smoke and potatoes

Whew. It's been days, years, eons since the last entry on this blog. Are people still following? Did that grilled salad you now eat with potatochip-battered chicken wings (after you finish your broccoli soup) transform your belief in life’s potential? Well, if this be your truth, or you just miss reading these nugget-sized, sort of food related, rarely informative, but always well loved entries, today is helluva day.

It's been smoky over here in our forested Washington land. So smoky, that a sighting of sun rays invokes the same awe we used to show up with when a rare thread of smoke arched from a hill top. And smoke, dear friends, fucks up your center. Churns it, packs it down tight, and then stuffs it into your gut. When one arrives at peak smoke permeation, as we have, food becomes as rote as the forecast.  Even when friends import a box of luscious tomatoes across the smoky frontier, it matters not.

So, perhaps because bits of our souls are abandoning their posts with each smoke-filled day, we can't remember a meal we cooked and enjoyed since passover - which was in April. And we had a great meal at Passover. Which is why, I present to you, dear friends, a distant Passover memory, but a new Passover favorite:

Smashed Potatoes (from the Whitewater cookbook)
*In a nutshell, its a boiled potato, smashed,  sprinkled with salt, oil and cheese, then baked. Its silly to come across this recipe so late in life.

16-20 baby potatoes
4 T Olive Oil
1 t sea salt
1/2 C Parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 C green onions, chopped
1 t truffle oil (or you can skip this, because we ain't rich)

1. Preheat to 375
2. Boil potatoes until just done and can be pierced with sharp knife (about 30 minutes) then drain
3. Place potatoes on parchment lined baking sheet
4. Gently smash and flatten with a potato masher or back of a large spoon
5. Drizzle with 2 T olive oil and sprinkle with salt
6. Bake for 15 minutes, drizzle with remaining oil and cook for further 15 minutes, remove from oven
7. Raise oven to 400
8. Sprinkle potatoes with parmesan and green onions and return to oven til cheese is melted and golden brown (about 5 minutes)
9. Remove from oven and drizzle lightly with truffle oil (the stuff no one has)

A photo of fire day 1, when summer met its quick death.

Pickle gravy. It's so good.

Picklegravy is not for everyone. It is for those who carry a sacred, if not complex respect for the pickle. Those who have pondered digestible vessels they might use to consume more pickles.  It's for those to whom the phrase, "I fucking love pickles," is familiar and honest.

"One day, perhaps, the world may taste the pickles of history. They may be too strong for some palates, their smell may be overpowering, tears may rise to eyes; I hope nevertheless that it will be possible to say of them that they possess the authentic taste of truth….that they are despite everything, acts of love.” - Salmon Rushdie, Midnight's Children.

We should all read Midnight's Children again. It is a book committed to the history of pickles across the human experience and it's so very good.

Pickle Gravy
Ingredients:
1T olive oil
1/4 chopped red onion
1/4 C flour
1T garlic powder (3 -4 cloves garlic)
1/2 C chicken stock
1t hotsauce
1 chopped dill pickle
1/2 C pickle juice
some fresh parsely
salt
pepper

1. Brown red onion in olive oils, add garlic powder
2. Add chicken stock and flour, mix ingredient together with wire mixer until gravy is reduced to gravy texture
3. Add chopped pickles, pickle juice, hot sauce, and salt and pepper, keep on heat until reduced to gravy texture again
4. Top with fresh parsley

How does one serve picklegravy? What food is open to a smothering of this thick, brown, pickle-laden comforter? I understand your questions. It's a new frontier; the pickle has an unsung vigor, a stoicism that begets respect. Try it on baked potatoes (whole, fry, and hash form), scrambled eggs, or roast beef sandwiches. Maybe it's a dipping sauce? A dollop on caramelized onion and goat cheese bruschetta?

It's good. So good.

Winter Yum

Winter in Seattle is not so cold and clear and crisp as the some of the best winter days of my youth, for the most part. It's a little more grey and dark (admittedly, much more). It still leaves me hankering for hearty food but you need to get some brightness somewhere! That's why I love this recipe. It's both very satisfying but also very tangy and bright, not too dense and heavy. It's a little sweet from the squash, a little spicy from the curry, a little earthy and salty from the miso, and bright and tangy from the lemon and cilantro. And, pretty much all the main ingredients are available at local farmers markets in the winter. Seriously, try this dish, and if you don't have everything feel free to experiment with the veggies. I like it to serve it over quinoa. Rice, soba noodles, and many other things would probably also be good. I have no photos of this dish, so I'm going to include extraneous ones instead. In the grand tradition of this blog, here is my cat, personifying how winter here can make me feel:

For the record he dug this cave for himself.

Miso-Curry Delicata Squash with Tofu & Kale

2 small or 1 larger delicata squash
Olive oil (enough, sorry, I never measure anything but the recipe says 1/4 cup)
1/4 cup white miso
1 tbsp red Thai curry paste (I sometimes double this)
8 oz or 1 package tofu, cut into 1/2-3/4" cubes
4 new potatoes, cut into similar sized chunks
1 & 1/2 cups chopped kale (or up to one bunch; I prefer lacinto/dinosaur/black kale...it's a kale of many names)
2 tbsp lemon juice
Chopped fresh cilantro to garnish

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the delicata squash in half the long way and scoop out the seeds (you can toast them just like pumpkin seeds). Slice into 1/2" thick semicircles and then cut each semicircle in half (so each chunk is 1/4 of the full circle).

Stir together olive oil, miso, and curry paste. Combine the tofu, potatoes, and squash and toss thoroughly with about 1/3 cup of the sauce, or enough to coat. You want to have some leftover. Roast on a baking sheet or dish in as close to a single layer as you can get, for at least 30 minutes or until squash and potatoes are getting browned on the outside and tender on the inside. Toss every 15 minutes or so. In just the last 5-10 minutes of roasting, add the kale and toss well to coat it with sauce and return to oven. Stir the lemon juice into the rest of the sauce. When veggies are done, toss with remaining sauce and cilantro and serve.

Food for thought: The recipe actually calls for 1/3 cup toasted pepitas, but I never have them on hand so I haven't added them. It also calls to just use the kale raw which is probably great but I prefer the above method - just another option. For my last extraneous photo, a reminder of the special beauty winter can bring here on the westside, which you should have a renewed appreciation for after eating this tasty dish (regardless of your geographic location). It was taken around sunset on new year's day at the Nisqually wildlife refuge.

Delicata squash has been my favorite squash recently because you don't have to peel it. So easy to just roast and chow down on, and also a great size & shape for stuffing if you're into that kind of thing.

Note: Stolen/Adopted from Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson (I think).

Unpacking Pickles

You know what's great about pickling? You can do it anytime! 

I had this stereotype I was carrying around about pickling that it is a thing you do in the late summer or fall, using the freshly-ripened bounty of your own garden, and never any other way. 

Well, I am here to apologize to pickling. I am sorry about all the times I made assumptions about you, or expected you to speak on behalf all fermented foods, or caused you to feel tokenized in any way.

Let's just free pickling from the simplistic notion that it belongs to one time and one time only. We live in a complex reality and I think we really need to start building a framework to give some context to this and unpack our own positionality. 

In regard to pickles. 

Pickled green tomatoes (left) and cucumbers (right), canned in the fall using the freshly-ripened bounty from my own garden.

But seriously, you can buy all the stuff you need for pickling any time of year in any grocery store, AND you can use old glass jars (as long as you have the right lids) if you don't feel like investing in mason jars. 

Dill Pickles (cukes, little green tomatoes, green beans, whatever), courtesy of my mom's childhood

***You'll need a pot tall or wide enough to boil your pickling jars to sterilize them before packing.***

Start with:

1 quart water
1 pint vinegar
1/3 cup salt

Bring to a boil.  This is enough liquid to cover 4 quarts of pickles if the cukes are small and fill the jar well.  If you think you've got more than 4 quarts on your hands, the amounts below should be added to the above proportions for each extra jar (approximately).

1 and 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup vinegar
2 Tbsp salt

Cukes should not be more than 4 or 5 inches long.  Pack them tightly into sterilized quart jars and to each jar add the following:

2 heads dill
2 red pepper pods (dry)
2-4 cloves garlic 

Place horseradish or grape leaf over the top of the cukes (this step optional) and pour boiling liquid slowly over the cukes.  Seal by putting closed jars into your sterilization pot and boiling for several minutes.  Let cool and put jars in a dark place for 6-8 weeks before using.

Kimchi 

1 head of cabbage (there's probably a correct kind, but I've done red and green of many varieties and it's all turned out great)

1/4 cup kosher salt

1/2 cup rice vinegar

1 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp srirachi hot sauce

1 tsp ginger, grated

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 scallions, finely sliced

Cut cabbage into quarters, remove core and slice into 1/2 inch slices. Put into colander, add salt, mix well. Place over bowl and let drain until wilted (approx. 2 hours). 

In a large bowl, combine vinegar and sugar. Stir to dissolve. Add all the other ingredients except the cabbage and stir. Rinse cabbage of salt, dry, and add to vinegar mixture. Stir to combine.

Put into sterilized jar and pack down. Add water to cover. Close jar and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. The longer it's in, the spicier it is.

Pickling!

bakin n aprin

Swaying to the Beta Band in a thrift store apron, waitin for the brownies to rise. After hours of blue skies in the snowy mountains, I found the baking sweet spot.  A long day of hiking with skis latched to my feet, music rolling out from the speakers at my side. I am just tired enough to know that I f-ing deserve dessert, a big dessert. This evening it's a batch of blackberry truffle brownies, last night it was mexican hot chocolate snickerdoodles: spicy cayenne pinched into a gooey chocolate cookie.  No photos of these spicy little chocolate especiales, but I tell you this, they surpass those busty homemade oreos posted here in winters past. So, loveys, I miss you all. Along with this effing delicious recipe, I submit a short poem, the product of a brief yet sensuous romance between two cats (one of whom is named mehitable, according to the cockroach typing the story. The cockroach can't hold the shift button and depress a letter on the typewriter at the same time, hence the following excerpt is wanting for capital letters):

"persian pussy from over the sea
demure and lazy and smug and fat
none of your ribbons and bells for me
ours is the zest of the alley cat
over the roofs from flat to flat
we prance with capers corybantic
what though a boot should break a slat
mehitable us for the life romantic"
   - Don Marquis, 1927

Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles, recipe from the post punk kitchen:

For the topping (I skip the topping) :
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the cookies:
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons almond milk (Or your preferred non-dairy milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon chocolate extract (or more vanilla extract if you have no chocolate)
1 2/3 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper
2. Mix the topping ingredients together on a flat plate. Set aside.
3. In a medium mixing bowl, use a fork to vigorously mix together oil,  sugar, syrup, and milk. Mix in extracts.
4. Sift in remaining ingredients, stirring as you add them. Once all ingredients are added mix until you’ve got a pliable dough.
5. Roll dough into walnut sized balls. Pat into the sugar topping to flatten into roughly 2 inch discs. Transfer to baking sheet, sugar side up, at least 2 inches apart (they do spread). This should be easy as the the bottom of the cookies should just stick to your fingers so you can just flip them over onto the baking sheet.  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, they should be a bit spread and crackly on top but still fairly gooey. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

God speed, my dear friends.  

chicken parade

We've got some lovely lovely little chickens living in our front yard, but one of 'em kept pecking at the hens, gripping their wing in his beak until the little ladies cried in fear - or pain. So, little man had to die. I made a short video about the march to death. The killing mechanism was carefully chosen, have a look at my awkward commemoration of the experience:

Chicken Parade 

After the chicken soul dissolved into the great clouds above (that's what happens), we dabbled in fried chicken. Our first foray was f-ing delicious. Extra ordinarily delicious.

Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

1. the essential chicken pieces: wings, drumsticks, thighs, breast 
2.  1/4 C butter (or fake butter)
3. 1 C flour
4. 2 C crushed potato chips
5. Pinch of paprika

Steps to fryin some chicken:

1. Preheat oven to 425
2. Cut yer chicken up
3. Mix flour, crushed potato chips, and paprika in an old plastic grocery bag
4. Roll each piece of chicken in melted butter
5. Drop the butter soaked piece of chicken body in a bag full of crushed potato chips, flour, and paprika
6. Bake in an oven dish until crispy brown on outside and thoroughly cooked on the inside.

This is my first recipe with potato chips. ever. We tried non-potato chip chicken, it just wasn't as good.  Alternative chicken recipes are welcome - we are just two kids from Spokane tryin to make fried chicken.

cabbage cabbage cabbage

I know so little about coleslaw, truly I do. I enjoy it from a distance. It looks dang good on a sandwich, people I revere hold a place for it at every potluck, and it is surely deserving of its enduring presence on America's menu - "do you want coleslaw with your potatoes?" Yes, you do. Nonetheless, I have never attempted to prepare coleslaw in my own home. So, here it is, mayo-free and delicious, a damn good coleslaw recipe from, cough cough, Whole Foods.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sugar, (optional)
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/8 teaspoon dry mustard
• 4 cups finely shredded green and red cabbage
• 2 cups shredded carrots
• 1 cup thinly sliced green onions
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Ground black pepper, to taste

What to do:

In a large bowl, whisk together vinegar, sugar, garlic, cumin, oregano and mustard just until sugar is dissolved. Add cabbage, carrots, green onions, salt and pepper and toss gently to combine. Cover and chill for at least 4 hours before serving.

Go Packers Go.

It's possible that I wrote this post just to share this photo with you. It's possible.