Figs

Our June and part of July was definitely dominated by our fig harvest. Our little tree was producing like never before! When we planted it 11 years ago, it was a merely a little stick, maybe a foot tall.

Every day for a few weeks we picked a couple of bowls of figs. Luckly they don't all ripen at the same time.

I bought a food dehydrator and dried what I thought where huge amounts of figs.

We indeed had a couple of big containers filled with dried figs and then Daniel discovered a recipe for a rye sourdough bread with dried figs, which is excellent and freezes really well. So, we've already used most of the dried figs and have decided that next year, we'll dry even more of them. 

Of course, we also made a lot of fig jam, some with lavender, another batch with thyme and also a few jars with orange blossom water.

All of them delicious! 

We made a rustic fig tart, 

fig pizza with goat cheese, caramelized onion and pine nuts, 

but the best recipe that Daniel found this year is for Roasted Fig Agrodolce. We made several batches for the freezer and it is delicious just on crackers or - like in the photo below - as an appetizer on toasted baguette with goat cheese or cream cheese. Next year, I'll definitely make more of that to freeze!

To be honest, I was glad when the fig season was finally over, but I'm happy we get to enjoy the jams, the dried figs and agrodolce in the freezer yet for some time to come.

❧ Silke

Chocolate Truffles

I'm always looking for handmade gifts that are easy, special and good for all kinds of occasions. Recently, I discovered chocolate truffles. I used to make them for gifts quite a bit many, many years ago, but then I forgot about them. Although I'm not sure how I could. They are so delicious!

So when Daniel recently mentioned them as a possible gift to take to a birthday dinner, I thought it was a great idea! Since then, I've tried three different recipes with varying results:

1. The first I tried was by Ree Drummond. They were easy to roll into little balls, but I found that using sweetened condensed milk instead of cream made them very sweet. Too sweet for my taste. I also didn't dip them in chocolate, but dusted them with cocoa powder.

2. Then I tried one I found on the Bon Appetit website. They were quite good, but for some reason they stayed rather soft. Maybe because it used 9 oz of chocolate to 1 1/4 cup cream.

3. Today, I made a recipe from the King Arthur Flour website. So far, I like this one best. It uses 12 oz of chocolate to 1 cup of cream, which makes for a very nice texture. I mixed dark chocolate with a little bit of semi-sweet and dusted them with Trader Joe's drinking cocoa powder. Good choice! And a perfect gift!!

No matter what recipe you use, always go for really good quality chocolate. Plus, you can add all kinds of flavorings to the ganache and also vary the toppings. The websites all have great ideas. I happen to like the traditional truffle best!

Here's to chocolate! And to you...

❧ Silke

From the Kitchen

As many of you know, I love creating in the kitchen! Not necessarily my own recipes, but creating delicious food from a variety of good ingredients. And my first love has always been and still is baking. My mother was an excellent cook, but she didn't like baking and so I got to do all the baking, much of which I learned from my grandmother and my aunt Inge.

If you like baking bread of if you want to start baking your own bread, but don't have the hours to watch the dough rise repeatedly, these two bread baking books are for you! I use them all the time - and when they say "five minutes a day," it's quite true! The loaf I made here is their European country bread, which I altered a little by increasing the amounts of rye and whole flours. It is soooo good! Each recipe makes enough dough for several loaves. You keep the dough in the fridge and bake the bread as you need it during the week. Fantastic!!

This next cookbook I got at the library. I got a very cheap copy at one point for my kindle (it was one of the almost free bargains one day), but I wanted to check out a hardcopy to get a better feel for it. It's all about preserving - canning, pickling, curing or smoking. Very interesting and it has a few really good recipes I want to try.

Now here's a new cookbook that is quite amazing. It reminds me of the way my mother and grandmother often cooked while I was growing up - farm to table. I read the entire book and want to make almost every recipe in it! Here I tried the mussels cooked in hard apple cider with leeks and apples. They were amazing!!

Ok, these next two pictures are also recipes from this last book. But I need to give you a little background story first. When I was growing up my dad was always into healthy living (and he still is). We kids were not always convinced, especially when we all "got to" drink cider vinegar with honey for a while. Of course, now I know how good all of these weird things really are! The cider vinegar, the grainy bread, nuts and seeds, whole grain everything, etc.

Among other things, my mom made our own yogurt for quite a while, which I always liked way better than the store bought kind.  So again, as I mentioned in my last post, I feel like I am coming full circle now making my very own yogurt. I decided to buy a starter culture for a yogurt that ferments at room temperature. Once this batch is done, I can use a little bit of it to start the next batch.

And then there's kefir! I remember my mom and dad getting a milk kefir culture from some friends of theirs and making and drinking kefir for a good long time. We kids thought it was disgusting. It looked like cauliflower to me and the taste was not something I liked at all back then. The culture I got here is for water kefir, which I've never tried. Both the yogurt and the kefir need a couple of days to be ready, so when they are, I will update on how the experiment is going...

And lastly ... a new love: oatmeal from steel cut oats! How amazing. How creamy. How delicious. How warming. And how had I never tried this before?! It's definitely a staple in my pantry now, especially during the colder winter months!

Here's wishing you a week filled with good food!

With lots of love,

❧ Silke

Cranberry Sauce

It's the first thing I always make for Thanksgiving dinner and it always feels like the official beginning of the holiday season to me.

I found this recipe in a 1994 issue of Bon Appetit and have made it ever since. I thought I'd share it with you.

Cranberry Sauce

1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup raspberry vinegar
1/4 cup water
1 12-oz package fresh cranberries (about 3 cups)
1 cinnamon stick
1 tablespoon thin orange peel strips

Combine first 3 ingredients in heavy medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Mix in cranberries, cinnamon stick and orange peel. Reduce heat, cover partially and simmer until berries burst, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Cool completely (sauce will thicken as it cools). Discard cinnamon stick. (Can be made up to 1 week ahead. Cover and chill.) 

Makes about 2 1/3 cups

Super easy. And so delicious. Enjoy!!

❧ Silke

Paella

Several friends on Facebook have asked for my paella recipe, so I thought I'd write it down and post it here so I can find it as well if I need it again. I studied several recipes (everyone seems to have a different version) and came up with one that we really like and that works well and isn't too complicated. The one I followed most closely was a recipe for grilled paella (click here to see it).

Paella

16 large shrimp (about 12 ounces), peeled and deveined
1 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika (pimentón dulce)
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
8 ounces Spanish chorizo, cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil, as needed
1 medium yellow onion, small dice
2 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 cup diced canned tomatoes with the juice
1 large pinch saffron threads
2 cups paella rice (about 1 pound), sometimes labeled bomba or Valencia
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for seasoning the shrimp and chicken
4 cups (1 quart) low-sodium chicken broth
16 mussels, Manila clams, or a combination, scrubbed (or more)
squid or any other seafood you’d like to add
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
2 medium lemons, cut into 8 wedges each, for serving

Place the shrimp in a medium bowl, add 1/4 teaspoon of the paprika, and season with salt and pepper. Toss to combine and refrigerate.

Place the chicken in a medium bowl and season generously with salt and pepper; set aside.

Heat a large deep pan over medium high heat. Add the chorizo to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sausage is starting to brown and the fat is rendered, about 2 to 3 minutes. Using tongs or a slotted spoon, transfer the chorizo to a large bowl; set aside.

There should be a thin layer of rendered fat in the pan. If there’s not enough, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the seasoned chicken to the pan in a single layer and sear, stirring occasionally, until both sides of the chicken pieces are golden brown, about 6 minutes total. Using tongs or a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken to the bowl with the chorizo; set aside.

Add the onion to the pan, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, remaining 3/4 teaspoon paprika stir to combine, and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Add the cup of diced tomato with the juice and cook until the mixture has slightly darkened in color, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan, about 3 minutes.

Meanwhile infuse half the hot chicken stock with the saffron. Add the rice and measured salt and stir to coat in the tomato mixture. Add infused stock and leave to cook on a medium heat, stirring from time to time.

After 20 minutes the rice should be nearly cooked. At this point add the reserved chorizo and chicken, pour in the rest of the stock along with the peas, prawns, the mussels, clams and squid if you are using them. Arrange the shellfish hinge-side down on the rice, pushing each mussel or clam a little bit into the rice.

Place a lid on the pan and cook for 10 minutes more without stirring. You want that rice to get just a little crisp on the bottom of the pan. And you want all the clams and mussels to be opened.

Remove the pan from the stove, cover with foil, and let stand for 5 minutes. Before serving the paella, discard any unopened shellfish and sprinkle the dish with the parsley. Serve with the lemon wedges.

Serves 8

Notes:

It really helps doing all your prep work ahead of time, especially getting all the seafood ready. And the veggies as well. Then when it comes to cooking time, you can just add the things and it won't be stressful.

The smoked paprika is what gives it that very distinct flavor. It used to be hard to find, but now many grocery stores carry it.

If you can't find paella rice (I ordered mine from Amazon), I read that you can substitute arborio rice.

Also, it's a great dish to play with the ingredients depending on what you like. I'll definitely be making it again!!

❧ Silke
P.S. I have so much going on right now and so many thoughts swirling around in my head, I'll have much more to share with you next time!! 

Happy First Day of Fall!

Fall is here and I'm doing the happy dance! And - like a miracle here in the warm south - we are having a truly fall-like day.

It is cloudy and slightly rainy, blustery and cool. I cannot describe to you how giddy that makes me...

And outward signs of fall are here as well. Just look at our fig tree below. It's almost bare! It starts losing its leaves in August when we are still sweating profusely. Every year I think it must be sick or confused, but it always turns out to be right on fig-tree-time getting ready for winter.

Our crepe myrtle leaves turn the prettiest colors before they fall.

And the crepe myrtle tree is also starting to look bare. Both the fig tree and this one look beautiful all winter long without leaves and their gorgeous branch structures showing.

Fall also means that the berries on our beauty berry bushes are turning their bright bright pink color. Don't they look unreal? And guess who likes to eat them? The mockingbirds. We never see them in our backyard unless these berries are ripe. I recently read that you can make really tasty jelly from the berries and that the whole bush has serious mosquito repellent action. I might have to sew some clothes from the leaves for me for next summer...  Seriously considering it!

Tucker, one of our outdoor kitties is happy as well that it's getting cooler. Ok, you can see it's not really cold yet - I'm still barefoot and wearing flip-flops, but it's cool enough to know that summer is on the way out! That's good enough for me. And Tucker.

Fall is my "favoritest" (to quote Derek from the wonderful Netflix series by that same name) season. It holds the promise of all that I love: Knitting and crocheting soft and warm goodies. (These beauties are in my Etsy shop just waiting for you!)

Baking! Oh, how I love to bake! I've now made these delicious and good-for-you blueberry muffins a couple of times and they are yummy. You can find the recipe by clicking here.  I substituted coconut palm sugar for the brown sugar, left out the cinnamon on the second batch and used frozen wild blueberries. The muffins freeze great to have on hand for a little snack now and then. In fact, I might need one right now!

And soup! I could eat soup every day!! And this one is particularly easy and delicious. So delicious that I'll share the recipe with you!  (The bread is the Swedish Limpa Bread - excellent!! -  from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. If you want to make hassle free breads, check out their website. They also have all kinds of gluten-free recipes for those of you who need to watch your gluten intake.)

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Green Chile Cream
from Dinner at the Authentic Cafe

One 2-pound butternut squash
3 T olive oil
2 medium-size shallots, minced (2 T)
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground white pepper
2 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup mild honey, such as orange
2 t kosher salt (I use sea salt)

1. Preheat oven to 400℉.

2. Rub the squash with 1 T of the oil, place it in a small shallow baking pan, and roast until the skin splits and the squash is tender when pierced with a knife, about 1 hour. Let the squash cool slightly, then peel it, cut it in half, and remove the seeds and the inner membranes to which the seeds are connected. Mash the pulp. You should have about 3 cups.

3. Heat a large, nonreactive saucepan over low heat. Add the remaining oil and heat it, about 1 minute. Cook the shallots, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 1 minute, then add the spices and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute.

4. Place the squash pulp in the same pan and cook it, stirring constantly to prevent sticking, for 2 minutes. Add the water and bring the soup to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and add the honey and salt.

5. Simmer the soup, stirring often to keep it from sticking, for 30 minutes. Puree the soup in a blender, food processor or in the pan using a hand-held blender.

6. Ladle the soup into bowls and place a dollop of Green Chile Cream on top. Serve immediately.


Green Chile Cream

1 medium-size poblano chile
1 medium-size jalapeño chile
1 t olive oil
1 1/2 T sour cream or crème fraîche
1/2 t kosher salt
pinch ground white pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 400℉. Rub the chilies with the oil and place them in a small shallow baking pan. Roast them until the skin begins to blister, about 20 minutes. This may be done at the same time you are roasting the butternut squash for the Roasted Butternut Squash Soup. Do not overcook the chile or the flesh will become to fragile to handle. Place the chilies in a small, nonreactive bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let them "sweat" for 5 minutes. Peel the outer skin from the chilies and remove the stems and seeds.

2. Place all the ingredients in a blender or food processor (I cut everything up quite small and then use my hand-held blender to blend it) until very smooth (we personally don't mind it a little chunky).

***********************
This may look involved, but it really isn't. If you roast the chilies along with the squash, then that's all done at the same time. The rest is easy peasy. And so good! The soup is almost sweet and the chile cream has a nice kick - a perfect combo!

I hope you are having at least as good a day as I am having!! Enjoy this Autumnal Equinox with it's balance between night and day, light and dark.

With much love and fall-giddiness,

❧ Silke

P.S. I can still tell that I had a clerical job for many years - I typed up that recipe like the wind! The wind!! I totally rock. ;-)

An Oldie but Goodie

We've been collecting cookbooks for well over twenty years. And over the years we've gotten rid of some and added others, but this one we kept (along with a few others from the Moosewood Restaurant - all of them excellent).

Yesterday, this book suddenly came to mind and when I picked it up it was like seeing an old friend. I have made so many delicious meals from this. I decided to make a Cauliflower Marranca recipe, which I had not made before, a casserole prepared with mushrooms, onion, cauliflower, garlic, basil, millet and cheese.

When I was at the store, I saw that they had red okra. Now I'm an okra fan to begin with and so it was clear that I would not be able to resist the red variety. When I cut them open, on the inside they look much like the green ones and just as pretty (although I was secretly hoping they'd be red all the way through).

I stewed them with a little bacon, onions, and tomatoes. Yum! A perfect accompaniment to the excellent cauliflower casserole. 

Excuse the foggy photo - steam was rising from the plate and I didn't notice until I downloaded the photos this morning... In the background you can see the inside of the Moosewood Cookbook - it looks handwritten and also reads that way and is interspersed with fun drawings and much humor. Definitely a keeper!!

Since I last wrote, which was quite a while ago, we've been to Atlanta (I'll share a few photos soon) and I also just finished another painting, which I have to photograph today as soon as it gets light out. 

Daniel starts teaching again on Monday and our lives will return to more of a routine, which for me will mean checking in with all of you more often and posting here on a  more regular basis. 

Today is going to be another very hot and humid day, but after that summer is cooling down just a little and finally in October we will start to feel the first cool promise of fall, my favorite season. I cannot wait!! And I have all kinds of creative plans... 

Wishing you a beautiful day!! And if it's fall already where you are, send me some, ok?!

❧ Silke

Why I Love the Internet!

One of the many reasons why I love the internet with it's wealth of information at my fingertips is ... food! Finding recipes in a matter of minutes - it has enriched my cooking in so many ways.

Yesterday, I entered "cucumber, red pepper, radish recipes" and up came this amazing bulgur salad that I made last night. I was lucky in that I had every other ingredient on hand and it was delicious! Perfect for using up leftover produce. And I'm sure you can use whatever fresh veggies you think would sound good with it. Definitely a keeper recipe.

I also had a pint of grape tomatoes that needed to be used, so I tossed them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted them in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. I tossed them with some chopped basil (my absolute favorite fresh herb, followed closely by fresh sage) when they were done. Add to that crusty bread and a few good black olives and you have a healthy and delicious  summer dinner.

All thanks to others so generously posting their recipe creations online!

Bon appétit!

❧ Silke

Smelling Great!

Do you like to smell good things? I do! And yesterday was one of those days fill with good smells. In the garden (front and backyard) the jasmine is in full bloom and smells divine.

The gardenias are starting to bloom and that as you know if you've ever been near one, that flower has an amazing scent.

Then last night I was making a salmon recipe I had found online, which used lime zest. You can just imagine the great smell of that! I kept leaning in to inhale and get as much of the citrus scent as possible.

The lime zest was mixed with garlic, grated jalapeño and olive oil and then spread on the salmon and baked in the oven. Delicious!! That accompanied with a warm asparagus salad and it was a perfect meal. 

You can find the recipes here and here.

Bon Appétit!

❧ Silke

Do You Like Green Beans?

Just the other day, I was admiring people who post original recipes on their blogs and websites and I thought how I usually just cook with cookbooks. But then on Saturday I made these green beans that make all the time and never had a recipe for - only an inspiration from some green beans we ate at a restaurant once.

The pork chops and mashed potatoes in the photo were from Jamie Oliver's Meals in Minutes cookbook (I'll do a separate blog post on that sometime). They were both delicious!! The potatoes were mashed with grainy mustard and olive oil, which was new to me and oh, so good! And with it I made "our" green beans. We love them so much I thought I'd share how I make them.

There are no fixed ingredients, so just wing it as I do if you want to try these. It tastes best with fresh green beans and I cut them into 2 inch pieces (about that). I heat some olive oil in a sauté pan, put it over medium-low heat and add the beans.

I turn them once in a while until they start to get soft and a little brown, which takes a while. If they get brown too fast, I lower the heat a little and add a bit of water to help them get soft. (If you are in a time crunch, you can microwave the beans for a few minutes with a little bit of water to start the cooking process.)

When they start to get soft, I add lots of minced garlic (lots!) and whatever else I might like. This time I had some leftover grape tomatoes and added those to slowly cook with everything. Sometimes I add some Herbes de Provence or rosemary or thyme. Or some hot peppers. You can grate some parmesan over it all when it's done. Or add lemon juice. You see, the variations are plentiful! Definitely season with salt and pepper.

The trick is to cook them for a long time until they are soft, brown and are starting to caramelize.

They are delicious!!

Enjoy!!

❧ Silke

Just because...

... it rained most of the day and the sky was gray and it was somewhat cold, I am thinking of soup and remembered that I hadn't yet shared with you the chicken & wild rice soup recipe I made the other day.

I found this slow cooker recipe on Pinterest. Remember what I told you how Pinterest always launches me into action?! What made me want to try this immediately was that this soup is made with coconut milk and turmeric, which I found intriguing. It was delicious!! The recipe made a lot, so I ate leftovers for a couple of days and then froze the rest. We'll see how it survives the freezer...

If you want to give it a try, you can find the recipe here.

Bon Appétit!

❧ Silke

Of Cookbooks and Good Meals...

For a long time now I have had a love affair with cookbooks. And with cooking. And baking for that matter.

I am one of those people who actually reads cookbooks. I can read a recipe and I know how it will taste and if we'll enjoy it. I also know when I read it how I can alter it if I don't have all the ingredients.

But it's more than that. Many cookbooks transport me to a different world, a different culture - like this one I just checked out at our library. The recipes are as intriguing as the photos are beautiful!

Some people cook only to feed themselves and their families and many people I know don't cook for themselves at all when they are on their own. I do. I get the same pleasure from cooking these meals as I do from eating them.

This meal of wheat berries with swiss chard (the yummy caramelization is from added pomegranate molasses) and little turkey burgers (with grated zucchini, mint, cilantro and other spices) was easy and fun to make and delicious to eat - with plenty of leftovers!

I cook to feed my soul as much as our bellies. And I cook because it's another creative outlet for me, one that engages all of my senses.

But don't get me wrong. It's not just about the cooking - I LOVE to eat, to try new tastes and old favorites, fancy meals as well as comfort food.

This cookbook is a keeper - that's for sure!

I with you a beautiful day filled with food that nourishes your body as well as your soul!

❧ Silke