Eli Cooks

Crabapple Membrillo

Eli — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 21:34:37 +0000

Membrillo is a Spanish quince paste. My version is made with crabapples, but uses the same basic method. Start by making crabapple jelly, then use the pulp from the jelly (the part you’d normally throw out) along with a bit of the juice to make this membrillo. It’s great served with cheese or spread on toast.

link to crabapple jelly post

Crabapple Membrillo
Heavily adapted from Simply Recipes

about 4 cups crabapple pulp, pressed through sieve (plus some juice)
about 4 cups sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Start with the pulp (the waste) from making crabapple jelly. Press the pulp through a mesh sieve until you’ve got about all that will go through and you’re left with just skins and seeds in the sieve. Discard the skins and seeds and keep the puree. Add a bit of the juice from the crabapple jelly – the strained juice before the sugar is added.

Measure the puree and juice. Put the puree, an equal amount of sugar and a bit of lemon juice (about 1 Tbsp per 2 cups puree) in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook, covered about 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until it’s really thick and has darkened a bit.

Line a small square or rectangle dish with parchment or wax paper. Pour the paste into the dish. Cover loosely with a tea towel and put in the fridge for 2-3 days, until the paste has dried and firmed up. You should be able to lift the block of paste out of the dish using the parchment paper and have it keep its shape.

Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and store in the fridge. Should keep at least a month in the fridge Serve with cheese.

Chili-Garlic Sauce

Eli — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 04:52:04 +0000

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything here, largely because, frankly, it takes a lot of time to get posts together in the way I have been. But I find that I miss having a record recipes I’ve made and what I thought of them, especially ones I’m likely to make again, like pickles and condiments. So, I’m going to start posting again, but much more informally.

So, that said, here’s a recipe for Chili-Garlic Sauce I made recently with hot peppers from my dad’s garden. I’m not sure exactly what kind they were; he couldn’t remember. They looked a bit like thai bird peppers, but a bit larger and very thin-walled, almost like smaller cayenne. The recipe is a mish-mash of several I found. I think it’s closest to Tuong Ot Toi – Vietnamese Chili-Garlic sauce – but it isn’t exactly that. It has some funkiness from the fish sauce, sweetness from the bell peppers and a nice lingering slow burn.

Chili-Garlic Sauce
You can use just about any type of chili in this recipe; obviously the results will be somewhat different depending what type you use. You can also add more sweet peppers or leave them out entirely, depending how hot you want it.

10 oz chilies
2 oz red bell peppers (I used melrose)
6 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp fish sauce

Mince the chilies, bell peppers and garlic. Mix everything in a small pot. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 5 minutes. Pour/scoop into jars and screw on the lids. (This size batch made 4 4 oz jars, which is the same as 2 1/2 pint jars.) Leave the jars sit out on the counter for about two days to ferment. At this point, you can process in a boiling water bath if you want to store them on the shelf, otherwise they’ll store in the fridge for about a year.

Crabapple Jelly (Urban Foraging 2)

Eli — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:30:10 +0000

I’ve been keeping my eye out lately for public fruit. I really like the idea that even in the middle of a city, nature can thrive and provide sustenance. So imagine my surprise when I realized that the trees in the parking lot of the grocery store a few blocks from my house are full of crabapples. I’ve lived here for more than 3 years and never gave them a second glance. Honestly, they’re kinda sad, misshapen little trees, but they’re full of little crabapples. What more can you expect from a parking lot?

A few nights ago, I took my daughter to the parking lot to pick crabapples. (Definitely a sentence I never thought I’d write.) We’d considered going to an orchard that day, but when I looked up the apples in season, I realized it was still a bit too early in the season for most of my favorites (Macoun, Cortland, Northern Spy.) So instead we had a quiet day at home, enjoying the beginnings of fall. She was a excited about picking apples, so this seemed a perfect compromise.

We walked down to the store with a bucket and picked almost four pounds of crabapples from those stunted little trees. We took them home and she helped pull off all the stems and flower bits from the ends. She had a great time swishing them around in the sink full of water to wash them. I couldn’t help but remember all the times I helped my mom and grandmother make jelly and jam as a kid. I can’t say there are a lot of ways her childhood resembles mine, but I’m happy this is one of them. I always loved helping out in the kitchen and so does she. She also loves helping with the laundry, but I have no idea where she got that.

Edit: A friend pointed out that with all this talking about foraging and cooking with my daughter, I didn’t actually say anything about how the jelly turned out. Oops. It turned out quite well, if I do say so myself. In addition to the lovely pink color, the flavor is great. I’ve never really liked apple jelly much; I’ve always thought most apple jelly tastes sweet and not like much else. This jelly has a distinct apple flavor with a little something extra, some tartness and floral notes, to keep it interesting. I’ve been eating it just slathered on toast with a bit of butter. As the first picture shows, I’ve gone through almost half a jar in less than a week.

Crabapple Jelly
Crabapples are basically really tart little apples with a bit of floral tone thrown in. Their tartness and high skin-to-flesh ratio make them perfect for jelly; they stand up the sugar without becoming overly sweet and they’re naturally high in pectin. (Pectin is concentrated in the skins.)
I’ve never seen crabapples for sale, so basically you need to find a tree to get some. Around Chicago at least, they’re pretty common as ornamentals.

3.5 lbs crabapples
Water
About 6 cups sugar, amount determined during cooking

Wash the crabapples and pull off the stems and flower bits. Either cut each apple in half or toss them in a food processor and give them a quick buzz. You want to be sure the flesh is exposed; since you’re cooking them down, it doesn’t matter if they’re cut evenly.

Put the apples in a pot and add enough water to just barely cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and simmer for about 1 to 1 ½ hours, until the fruit has completely turned to mush. If you have a jelly bag, put the fruit into a jelly bag to strain out the juice. If not, use a double layer of cheesecloth or even an old pillow case. (I used cheesecloth.) All the recipes I could find say the juice that comes out should be clear; mine was cloudy, but it cleared up when I boiled it.

Keep the juice and toss the pulp. (If you want try making crabapple membrillo, keep the pulp. And if you do, let me know how it goes. I tried and couldn’t get mine to set up.)

Put your jelly jars and lids into a cold oven and turn it on to 350 F.

Measure the juice and put the juice and an equal amount of sugar in a large saucepot. (I had 6 1/4 cups of juice, so I used 6 1/4 cups of sugar.) Make sure you have a lot of room at the top. It will foam up a lot. Bring the juice and sugar to a full rolling boil and continue boiling for 15 to 20 minutes. After about 15 minutes, take a spoon of it and put it on a plate in the fridge. After a few minutes in the fridge, if you can run your finger through it and leave a track with ridges to the sides, it’s ready. If not, boil it for another 5 minutes and try again. Once it’s ready, get your jelly jars out of the oven, ladle the jelly into the jars and immediately screw on the lids. You’ll want to wear rubber gloves or use potholders to work with the hot jelly and hot jars.

If you plan to keep the jelly in the fridge and use it within a few months, you’re done at this point. If you want it to be shelf-stable, process the jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Sausages with Peppers and Onions

Eli — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:36:55 +0000

It’s that time of year when it’s not really summer anymore, but I’m still loathe to admit it’s really fall. The trees still have their (green) leaves. I can get away with short sleeves most days. But there’s definitely a bit of chill in air, and the beach doesn’t have much appeal. This time of year I tend to stick to simple things in the kitchen. Have a few last chances to just eat tomatoes out of my hand. Spend more time outside before it gets too cold. So here’s a quick recipe equally at home in the summer or fall. Something tasty to eat before you get back to denying that it really is fall.

Sausages with Peppers and Onions
This is really more a method than a recipe. You can adjust any or all of the ingredients to your taste

a few Italian sausages (I prefer spicy ones)
a few bell peppers
an onion
a few glugs (maybe half a bottle) of beer
maybe some water

Heat a skillet over medium-high, add sausages and cook until brown on each side, about 2 minutes. Remove sausages and set aside.

Add the onions and peppers to the pan. Cook 5 minutes, covered, stirring occasionally, until just starting to brown. Put the sausages back in and pour in the beer, cover and cook another 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sausages are cooked through and the liquid is absorbed. You may need to add some water if it starts get dry before the sausages are done.

Salmon with Watermelon, Cucumber and Arugula

Eli — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:00:55 +0000

I think I’m becoming my mother. When I was growing up, anytime we went to a restaurant, she’d find something that she was sure she could make at home and spend half the meal wondering how to make it. More often than not, all plans to recreate Applebee’s chicken smothered in cheese, tortilla strips and ranch dressing (or whatever it was that day) were forgotten by the time we reached the car to go home. But I still think of it as one of my mother’s defining characteristics.

Well, a few weeks ago I uttered the dreaded words over dinner: “You know, this is really good. I bet I could make it at home.” I won’t say I’ve never thought that before, but it’s the first time I’ve actually said it out loud. And I proceeded to muse over how exactly I’d make it for the next several minutes. Well, clearly the only thing to do to stop this transformation into my mother* was to go home and actually make it. (I know, drastic measures right?)

It took me a few weeks, but I did make it at home. It definitely didn’t hurt that I had gotten a watermelon as part of the haul from my dad’s garden. This watermelon was one of the best I’ve had in years. Sweet, juicy, flavorful, with that almost-but-not-quite-grainy texture that perfectly ripe watermelons have. And it had seeds, which to me is a good thing. I definitely prefer watermelon with seeds to the seedless variety. The seedless variety never seem to have as much flavor. My personal theory on this is that if they’re selecting cultivars for their lack of seeds, they can’t be selecting for flavor, so the flavor is a bit lacking in the seedless varieties. I dunno if that’s really the case, but it makes sense to me.

* Not that I have anything against my mother, but I just don’t think I’d look so great with breasts and highlights.

Salmon with Watermelon, Cucumber and Arugula
Inspired by a dinner at Scoozi
This is a really simple preparation that would be equally at home on a weeknight dinner or as part of a fancy dinner party. The ingredients are all familiar, but combined in an unexpected way that makes the whole more than the sum of its parts.
I’d definitely suggest using skin-on salmon filets. The skin crisps up beautifully in the butter and few things in life a better than crispy fish skin.

2 salmon filets
1 Tbsp butter
3 1/2″ thick slices watermelon, cubed and seeds removed
1/2 a medium cucumber, halved and sliced thinly
handful arugula
lemon wedges

Heat a cast iron skillet over high heat. Add butter, then toss in the salmon, skin side down. Sprinkle the flesh side with salt. For a warm, slightly pink center, cook over high heat for about 3 minutes, then flip and cook about 3 minutes more.

Remove the salmon and pour off any excess fat. (Depending on the type of salmon you use, a good bit of fat might render out of the skin side as it’s cooking.) Turn off the heat and allow the pan to cool for about a minute. Add the watermelon, cucumber and arugula to the warm pan. Stir for about 30 seconds, until arugula is just slightly wilted, then remove from the pan.

Serve the salmon over the watermelon mixture with the lemon wedges on the side.

Summer-in-a-bowl Salad

Eli — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:00:00 +0000

No two foods are more evocative of summer to me than garden-fresh tomatoes and sweet corn. Both fall into the category of “available all year round, but why bother?”. Tomatoes go from juicy, tangy, sweet, vibrant and pleasingly misshapen to pallid, mealy, flavorless, numbingly uniform globes. The sweet pop of kernels in freshly-picked corn becomes starchy mush in the off season. The out of season versions just don’t hold a candle to the real thing. Put them both together and it’s like summer in a bowl. The kind of fleeting pleasure to savor while it lasts and remember (or look forward to) fondly the other 10 months of the year.

Summer-in-a-Bowl Salad
This isn’t so much a recipe as a guideline. The freshness of the ingredients is much more important than their proportions. Use the absolute freshest corn and tomatoes you can find.

fresh sweet corn, boiled and cut from the cob (I used 2 ears.)
tomatoes, cut into bite sized pieces (I used 5 tomatoes about the diameter of a fifty cent piece and cut them into quarters.)
small handful basil
salt and pepper
glug of olive oil

Mix everything and serve. If you can let it sit for an hour or so to let the flavors meld, great. Much more than an hour and the tomatoes will start to get soggy.

Zucchini Cristo

Eli — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:30:17 +0000

Longtime readers know that my dad is an avid gardener. I live a bit more than 200 miles from my parents, so I don’t get to take as much advantage of his garden as I’d like, but a few times a summer I head down there or they come up here. And I always get a few bags full of garden-fresh produce. It’s always more than the three of us can eat before it goes bad, but I try to make use of as much as possible.

This latest batch included several zucchini. I’ve always found simple sautéed zucchini a bit bland and watery. But cook it over high heat to dry it out a bit and give it some char, and I love it. The flavor is really concentrated by the heat and the carmelization gives it some needed depth. I love zucchini on the grill, but firing up the grill just for some zucchini seems a bit much. A cast iron grill pan does the job.*

*I have a two sided cast iron grill pan/griddle that fits over two burners of my stove. It’s really one of the workhorses of my kitchen. The grill pan gets a ton of use, especially in winter when I can’t use the real grill, and pancakes (a Saturday morning tradition with my daughter) are infinitely better on a cast iron griddle than a stainless steel skillet. Really, if you don’t have one of these, I’d really recommend it. As long as you have a gas stove. I don’t think it’d work so well with electric.

Zucchini Cristo
This sandwich is a take on a classic Monte Cristo, but with grilled zucchini standing in for the ham and pan-fried instead of deep fried. It’s great for a quick and satisfying lunch or weeknight dinner.

To make 2 sandwiches (with leftover zucchini)
1 medium to large zucchini, sliced
1 sweet onion, sliced
4 eggs
4 slices white bread
2 Tbsp butter
Swiss cheese

Grill the zucchini and onions over high heat. (Use a charcoal grill or a grill pan. If you use a charcoal grill, be careful not to let them char too much. If you use a cast iron grill pan, let it pre-heat over high for a good 5-10 minutes before you toss on the zucchini.) Set aside.

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Beat the eggs with some salt and pepper (about as much as you’d use for scrambled eggs.) Toss about a tablespoon of the butter in the skillet.

Dip both sides of the first piece of bread in the eggs. Toss the bread in the skillet, then layer the zucchini, onions and cheese onto the bread. Dip both sides of the second piece of bread in the eggs and place on top. Cook for about 2 minutes, then flip and cook about 2 minutes more.

Repeat for the second sandwich. (You’ll probably need to add more butter for the second sandwich.)

Sage Ice Cream

Eli — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:00:17 +0000

I’ve been making sage ice cream for a few years now, always to rave reviews. I like to put in just enough sage to taste some ethereal flavor dance across the tongue, but the exact nature eludes description. It’s definitely not the hit you over the head kind of flavor most people associate with sage, and I think that’s a big part of why I love it.

Sage Ice Cream
The yolks give this ice cream a wonderful richness and keep it from getting icy like so many homemade ice creams. It’s a lovely base for a plain vanilla or any number of flavors. I’ve tried other herbs or whole spices in place of the sage with great success. Have fun with it.

3 cups half and half
2/3 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
4-5 largish sage leaves
1 tsp vanilla

Bring the half and half and sugar to a boil. Remove from heat, add the sage leaves and let steep for 30 minutes.

Remove the sage leaves, bring the half and half back to a boil, then slowly whisk the half and half into the egg yolks. Add the vanilla, return to the pan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it’s thickened enough to barely coat the back of a spoon.

Cover and refrigerate until completely chilled. Freeze according to the directions on your ice cream maker.

Saag Paneer

Eli — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:00:08 +0000

Saag paneer (or palak paneer) is one of my favorite Indian dishes. Saag paneer is pretty ubiquitous in Indian restaurants, but it can vary widely from one restaurant to the next. What they (almost) all have in common is a base of chopped or pureed greens in a creamy, spice-laden sauce studded with pieces of paneer. There’s considerable variation in what makes the sauce creamy (cream vs butter vs yogurt), what spices are used (anything from “nothing but garlic and ginger” to “garam masala” to “just about every spice in your cabinet”), how much heat it has and even which greens are used (although spinach is by far the most common.)

There’s also the question of whether the dish is saag paneer or palak paneer. As far as I can tell, the difference is that palak paneer is made with only spinach and saag paneer is made with any tender greens. The most common greens for saag paneer are spinach, and a dish made with only spinach could be considered either palak paneer or saag paneer. But saag paneer is also commonly made with mustard greens, fenugreek leaves or a combination of those with spinach and/or other greens.

So, when a recent trip to Devon for dinner ended with a stop at Patel Brothers, I decided to pick up some paneer and give it a try at home. Some lovely chioggia beets from the farmers market lent their greens and dinner was served.

Saag Paneer
Cobbled together from Tyler Florence, Serious Eats and Coconut & Lime, among others.

You can use just about any combination of fresh and frozen greens for this recipe as long as you keep the total amount basically the same. I’d stay away from tougher or very bitter greens like collards, kale or dandelions. The flavor will change a bit if you use different greens, but it will still be saag paneer.
If there aren’t any Indian markets near you that sell paneer, the intarwebs have several recipes. (I haven’t gotten around to trying any yet, since it’s easy for me to just run out and pick some up.)

1 Tbsp whole garam masala
greens from 2 bunches of beets (about 12 oz), stemmed and roughly chopped
1 (8 oz) package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
3 Tbsp butter
1 (14 oz) block paneer, cut into cubes
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 small head green garlic (or 3-4 cloves normal garlic), minced
1″ piece of ginger, minced
1 jalepeno, minced
1 medium spring bulb onion (or small normal onion), minced
1 tsp turmeric
1/3 cup yogurt

Before you do anything else, toast the garam masala: In a dry skillet, heat the whole spices over high heat, shaking frequently, for about a minute. Remove from skillet and allow to cool completely, then grind in a clean coffee grinder.

Blanch the fresh greens in boiling water for about a minute, then drain and set aside.

Melt the butter in a medium skillet and fry the paneer over medium-high heat, browning each cube on 2 or 3 sides. Be sure to turn the cubes gently so you don’t break up the paneer. Remove the paneer from the skillet and set aside.

Add the mustard seeds to the same skillet (with the butter left from the paneer) and fry until they just start to pop, about 1 minute. Add the onion, garlic, ginger and jalepeno and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until translucent and just starting to brown, about 10 minutes.

Add the beet greens, spinach, ground garam masala and turmeric and enough water to moisten everything without having much standing water. (I added about 3/4 cup, but you might need more or less depending how thoroughly you dried your greens. Add it in 1/4 cup increments.) Stir until everything is mixed well. Turn the heat down to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Turn off the heat, stir in the yogurt, then fold in the paneer.

Serve with rice or naan.

Cherry Hand Pies

Eli — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:00:33 +0000

As soon as I publicly admitted that I’m not very good at making pie crusts and don’t have a recipe I really like, I knew I had to change that. (Truth be told, and bacon apple pie aside, I’ve avoided pies for years because of my crust-phobia.) Then I heard these cherries calling to me from across the farmer’s market. There were just two boxes of bright red Michigan sour cherries sitting among the bings, and I heard them calling just in time to watch one leave with someone else. My fate was sealed. I quickly swooped in to grab the last box. Afterall, what better way to end a pie drought than with cherry pie? Now I just needed a crust.

I turned to The Pie and Pastry Bible as a likely place to find a good pie crust. I quickly settled on the Flaky Cream Cheese crust, and as I was skimming the instructions, a thought came to me. I’ve known about the food processor method for pie crusts, but I’ve never owned a food processor, so I’ve just discounted it. But what I do have is a mini food processor chopper thing. (Something like this.) Why couldn’t I just do the pie crust in that? Sure, it’s small, but maybe I could do the crust in batches. And you know what? It worked. And was surprisingly easy at that.

The crust came out tender AND flaky. It rained little flakes of pie crust with every bite, just like a good pie crust should. Now that I have a good recipe, I need to start making up for lost time. Luckily, I still have a good bit of summer left to make more fruit pies. (I’ve always liked fruit pies best.)

And I’m glad I gave the hand pies a whirl as well. They’re like what a Hostess pie would be if it wasn’t made entirely of shortening and chemicals. Which is to say delicious, portable and perfectly sized. Great for a picnic or a quick breakfast, if you’re so inclined. (Hey, they’re full of fruit, so that makes them good for you, right?)

Cherry Hand Pies
I got to try out my new pastry cloth on this recipe, and it really does make rolling out dough MUCH easier. At $6, it’s well worth the money.

Flaky Cream Cheese Crust (recipe below)
1 1/2 lb (about 1 quart) fresh sour cherries, pitted
2/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
pinch salt

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Mix the cherries, sugar, cornstarch, salt and any cherry juice. Set aside.

Roll out the pastry crust to about 1/8″ thick. Use a ring cutter to cut the pastry into 4 to 5″ circles. (I used the largest ring from my set of cutters, which is 4 7/16″.)

Transfer the pastry circles to a baking sheet and spoon a bit of the cherry mixture onto each circle. About 6-8 cherries will fit on one circle, if you want it to close.

Fold one side of the circle over onto the other side to make a half circle. Use a fork to crimp and seal the edges. (If a bit of juice leaks out, don’t worry too much. It will bake up into a chewy/crispy cherry carmel. Just peel it off the pan and eat it.) Cut a few slits into each pie to allow the steam to escape.

Bake the pies for 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden and the juice is thick and bubbling out of the slits.

Flaky Cream Cheese Pastry Crust
Adapted from The Pie and Pastry Bible

8 Tbsp unsalted butter, cold
1 1/3 cup AP flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking powder
3 oz cream cheese, cold
1 1/2 Tbsp cold water
1 1/2 Tsp cider vinegar

Freeze the butter for about 30 minutes, until very firm. Toss the butter, flour, salt and baking powder into a chopper or food processor and pulse until combined. The texture should be like sand.

Remove about half the flour/butter and put in a bowl in the fridge.* Add half the cream cheese to the chopper and pulse until it resembles coarse cornmeal. Add half the water and half the vinegar and pulse until just combined. Put this half of the dough in the fridge and repeat with the other half.

Once the dough is made, flatten both pieces, stack them and fold the stack over on itself. (This will layer the two pieces in case there are any inconsistencies.) Shape the dough into a disc, wrap and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least an hour and up to a few days.

*Since I don’t have a full-sized food processor, the instructions are written for a small chopper. If you have a food processor, by all means, use it and do it all in one batch.