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Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We peaced out to the south for Christmas, and ended up with a history-making amount of snow that stuck around for a history-making amount of time (see previous post for your daily dose of iron. I mean irony). We may have also eaten a history-making amount of sugar. So today, when I was looking for a hot beverage with the heartiness of hot chocolate but without a lot of sweetness, I turned to that old classic, warm milk. Or, if you frequent fancypants coffee shops, a “steamer.”
That brings me to my favorite part about being an adult – my taste buds have changed. These days I rarely, rarely meet with a food I do not like. (Liver is the big exception that leaps to mind.) I even like turnips, you know? Preferably with a creamy roasted garlic sauce on top. So I am working my way back through my childhood to try all the things I was always scared of or disliked. Including warm milk. Are you beaming, Mom? (She’s an unabashed fan of warm milk.)
Now, we unapologetically drink whole milk. So of course this tastes rich and creamy and hearty to me. That certainly doesn’t mean I’m against a fancypants aura, or a few variations which I will elucidate:
1. Add just a hint of honey. Maybe 1/2 tsp. per mug of milk.
2. Add a drop of a flavoring – just one drop, though, or it’ll be gross, I promise. I enthusiastically recommend almond, peppermint, and vanilla. If you have any other suggestions for me to try… send ‘em my way!
Did I tell you I’ve been reading some nutritional things lately? Yes. And one of the books is crazy about the idea of drinking raw milk because it’s richer in nutrients and enzymes that haven’t been destroyed by pasteurization. So I looked up pasteurization to find out if this qualifies – as in, if you drink your daily allotment of raw milk as a hot cuppa, will you be missing out on nutrients?
The answer is, “maybe.” Pasteurization is just one term for thermally processing milk to destroy bacteria (others spelled out in a sidebar in this article). It’s the option that heats the milk to 161.6 to 165.2 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 to 30 seconds. So you will probably not heat your milk that hot in a saucepan on the oven – as a matter of fact, I generally heat mine to just barely hot (less than 118 degrees). And one author at least declares that most enzymes in milk can survive up to 118 degrees.
On a side note, I also found out that Emperor Napoleon III hired Pasteur to save their alcohol industry from “the diseases of wine.”
You are allowed to laugh.
It’s a gray day here in Pennsylvania. The sunrise was gorgeously saturated orange (yes, I’m up early enough to see the sun rise in the winter. Blarg.), but since then it’s looked cold and lame. H0pefully it gets interesting around Christmas. Although somehow I doubt Alabama will dish out any fabulous snow storms to keep us all cosy and at home!
One of our Christmas traditions with my family is eating a chocolate orange. But as you may know, we’re trying to cut down on our food’s travel miles, and be fair trade and organic when we can. So we (well, me, I guess.) decided to investigate the good ol’ internet for chocolate orange fudge recipes.
We found one on epicurious. It does include orange peels, though, so the food miles aren’t greatly lessened. But oranges are at least in season now, and we got a big bag of them to celebrate Christmas with. (Just like back in the day when stockings were stuffed just with oranges and candy because who ate those things every day? And I can tell you, this fudge and those oranges were worthy of being presents in and of themselves.) And you can find fair trade cocoa powder at Giant, did you know? (Thanks to Charlene for enlightening us.) And organic sugar? (I have yet to really research this product, but am attempting to incorporate it into my buying habits on the general assumption that organic is good and that since it is so expensive we will just have to eat less sweets, which is also good.)
Have you ever made fudge before? If you are looking for a quick something delicious to take to a gathering or brighten up your holiday table, I highly recommend them. There are all kinds of recipes and flavors and I’ve never made a fudge that took more than 1/2 hour to make. So, cooks who would rather be crafting, give this a shot.
Orange Chocolate Fudge
2 cups superfine sugar
3 Tbsp. cocoa powder
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Tbsp. butter
zest from 1 orange (I usually make zest with a vegetable peeler, but after experience I’d recommend using a very fine grater if you have one, or chopping the zest very fine after peeling it off. This will minimize the amount of chunky bits you’ll encounter)
Butter an 8″ baking dish. In a pot combine sugar, cocoa, cream, orange zest, and salt and cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved. Then cook without stirring until a candy thermometer says it is 238 degrees (Farenheit, of course!). Remove from
Remove from heat and add butter, swirling pan without stirring. Cool fudge 5 minutes and beat with a wooden spoon until it just begins to lose its gloss (this step did not happen right for me? but I include it out of obligation). Pour fudge immediately into baking dish and cool 15 minutes, or until it begins to harden. Cut fudge into 1-inch squares and cool completely.
Olives and Oranges completion part 2. Make if you are tired of bland winter food – you should still be able to find these things, although probably not for too much longer. The radishes, horseradish, lemon juice, and watercress are a nice kick beside the steak and barley.
Flank Steak Salad:
6 large radishes, sliced thin
5 T olive oil
8 oz steak
salt
pepper
1 cup barley
1 small bunch of spinach
1 small bunch of watercress
2 1/2 T. lemon juice
2 T. prepared horseradish
Mix radishes, spinach, watercress, lemon juice, horseradish, and 3 T. olive oil together in a bowl.
Make the barley in a rice cooker — or, to make it on the stovetop, add 2 c. water to the barley and cook on medium for about 1/2 hour. Keep watch on it to make sure it doesn’t boil dry. When cooked through, drain if necessary and add to the previous mixture.
Brown the steak for 4-5 minutes in a hot skillet with 2 T. olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, turn, and season other side. Cook for about 5 minutes more for medium-rare. Transfer to cutting board and let rest 5 minutes. Cut into bite-sized chunks and add to salad.
Add more salt and pepper if desired. Serve immediately.
I am hereby pleased to report that “Finish what you started” month (aka December) is going well. Most of what I have finished, I cannot talk about because of secret sneaky Christmas things. But, you know, I have also finished a dress that’s been sitting on my sewing table since summer. So rock, rock on.
We also ate this recipe from Olives & Oranges. Although this cookbook probably feels a little neglected, it’s just out of intimidation. So I chose something easy, and it was DELISH. Whether or not you’ll be able to find cauliflower at market now, I’m not sure. I think we got the last one. We also improv’ed on the sauce a little, because for whatever reason I can never locate tahini at the grocery store. But it’s sesame paste, so I use sesame oil. Makes sense, yes? Sesame oil, I have recently learned, can be healthful in small doses. But it contains too many Omega-6 fatty acids for regular consumption (omega-3 are the ones that are good for you).
Roasted Cauliflower with Tahini/Sesame Sauce
Turn the oven on 400. Chop a head of cauliflower into bite-sized chunks and toss in olive oil, salt, and pepper. Stir it once or twice during the 45 minutes you’re supposed to cook it.
Tahini Sauce (as written in Olives & Oranges):
1/4 c. olive oil
1 1/2 t. sea salt
1/4 t. ground black pepper
1/4 c. tahini paste
1/4 c. water
3 T. fresh lemon juice
1 minced garlic clove
1/4 c. fresh chopped parsley
My hacked sesame sauce:
1/4 c. sesame oil
1 1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. ground black pepper
3 T. lemon juice
1 minced garlic clove
2 T. dried parsley
1/4 c. yogurt
For either sauce: mix it all together. Cover the cauliflower with sauce and serve. Good either hot or cold.
And good luck on your own “finish what you started” binges, my lovely readers.
What fearsome quest leads me to post so often this week? What dreadful force is driving me? Today, it’s really Greg’s quest that is driving me. His quest to find out why certain radishes are called French Breakfast Radishes.
We did not think French people eat salads for breakfast. We did not even think French people eat radish sandwiches for breakfast. And frankly, we still don’t factually know if French people eat radishes for breakfast at all.
But we would certainly make this recipe for breakfast. Or any other meal of the day. Maybe even twice. Partly because of our growing obsession with radishes, period (thanks, Grandma Beulah, for having me taste a radish sandwich that one time – now I cannot get enough radishes and Greg names radishes as his “all-star vegetable of the year”).
The best thing about this dish, though, is that it is like nothing else on earth and like no other radish thing I’ve ever tried. It lacks the bite of raw radish, but still has all the freshness. The flavor is almost creamy, rich because of the butter, but still tangy because of radishes inherent properties and the vinegar.
Stop the panegyric, right, and give you the recipe? OK. If you insist. *Heart*
Butter Poached Radishes
1 bunch French breakfast radishes (about 3/4 lb.), greens and bottoms discarded
3 tbs. unsalted butter
Salt and pepper to taste
3 dashes vinegar (red wine vinegar recommended – Greg used balsamic, though, and it was fab)
1/4 cup vegetable stock
1 tsp. fresh tarragon (we were out, so we used some dried basil)
Depending on size, halve or quarter radishes lengthwise. Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet until melted. Toss in the chopped radishes and season with salt and pepper. Sauté over low-medium heat until they become translucent, about 5 minutes.
Add the vinegar and sauté approximately another minute until the radishes turn a vibrant pink. Add the vegetable stock and the remaining tablespoon of butter and cook for another minute to glaze the radishes.
Remove from heat and tear fresh tarragon leaves directly onto the radishes.
I have mentally declared December “finish what you started” month. As in, sweater that I have been laboring over for far longer than National Sweater Knitting Month (NaSweKniMo for those of you obsessed with NaNoWriMo), crazy quilt blocks blocking the front door, bows renovated from old magazines covering the dining room floor, Christmas stocking stuffers stuffed into an old green bag…. That kind of “finish what you started” month. Yeah. The kind calculated to save my sanity.
I also thought I’d choose a cookbook to go through and try to make all the recipes that have been previously flagged as “MUST TRY!” There’s one in particular, called Olives and Oranges, that I have flagged but usually don’t have the ingredients for. (But when have I ever let that stop me from hacking a recipe?)
Is there any recipe you’ve been dying to make this month, or a cookbook you’ve been itching to delve into? Join me for the brand-new, PA local “finish what you started” month. And tell me all about it so I can flail around joyfully.
Yes, you may chuckle wildly at that recipe name. I do. And I’m not even a root’n toot’n cowboy. It’s a pizza variation with roots (sweet potatoes), fruits (apples), and gorgonzola cheese (I didn’t say it was a perfect parallel title).
Slice all your items thinly, pile ‘em on that crust, and cook at 400 for 30 minutes.
Happy Wednesday, folks. Maybe make it a pizza night.
