Beet chips... which really turned into potato chips

     I love Wednesdays.  Wednesday is when the Food and Wine section in our local newspaper, The Santa Cruz Sentinel comes out.  On Wednesday, February 19th, the SC Sentinel had an article on how to make beet chips.  Having read about beet chips in other cookbooks, I decided to try to make it and went out and bought a bunch of golden beets.  As it turns out, New Leaf only had tiny golden beet bunches, so I sliced some potatoes and put those in there as well.

Beet Chips by Matt Landi, produce director for New Leaf Community Markets. http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/food/ci_22620966/matt-landi-county-bounty-root-matter?IADID=Search-www.santacruzsentinel.com-www.santacruzsentinel.com

Jenn Lynne of Happy Boy Farms in Freedom says her recipe for beet chips isn't exact but pledges it's a good one. 

Bunch of fresh beets
Olive oil
Sea salt

1. Preheat over to 425 degrees.
2. Thinly slice your beets, toss in olive oil and sea salt and spread on a rimmed baking sheet.
2. Cook until they begin to burn on the edges, which makes for a better end texture, 15 to 20 minutes. Watch closely. You can remove chips as they become lightened in color. Transfer to a wire rack; chips will crisp up as they cool.

Mostly potato chips

Close up of potato chips

     Anyways, these tasted quite good but (except for a few) weren't really crunchy.  More like roasted potatoes/beets than chips.  I think I should have just left them in for longer, but knowing the funkiness of my oven I just removed them before they all burned to a crisp.  Try it at home and let me know if it comes out any better for you.

Coconut Flapjacks

     I had leftover toasted coconut, coconut milk and coconut topping from the sticky rice with mango recipe.  Then I had a brilliant idea: why not make coconut pancakes and use the coconut topping on the top instead of syrup?  Looking around in my cookbooks, I found a recipe for Coconut Flapjacks from Mark Bittman's Food Matters.  Well, why not?

Coconut Flapjacks from Mark Bittman's The Food Matters Cookbook

Notes from the author: "Coconut and its milk provide so much richness that you can make these pancakes without any eggs or dairy at all.  Fresh or dried fruit is a great topping here, but I like the slight crunch of sugar crystals combined with a few drops of lime juice.  Or if you want to take these the savory route, add a tablespoon of curry powder to the batter"

Ingredients: 

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut

1/2 tsp salt

One 14 oz can coconut milk (light is fine)

1 1/4 cups warm water, or more as needed

Vegetable oil, for frying

Raw (turbinado) sugar, for serving

Lime wedges, optional

Procedure:

1) Heat the oven to 200 F.  Combine the flour, coconut, and salt in a large bowl.  Stir in the coconut milk and warm water.  The batter should be fairly thin but not watery; add a little more water if it seems to thick.

2) Put a large skillet or griddle over medium heat.  When a few drops of water dance on its surface, add a thin film of vegetable oil and let it get hot.  Working in batches, spoon the batter onto the griddle or skillet, making any size pancakes you like.  Cook until bubbles form on the top and pop, 2 to 3 minutes; you may have to rotate the cakes to cook them evenly, depending on your heat source and pan.  Flip the flapjacks and cook until they're browned on the other side, a minute or 2 more.  As they finish, transfer them to a platter in the oven while you cook the remaining batter.  While they're hot, sprinkle the tops with a little sugar and serve with lime wedges.

     These made a really dense pancake that surprisingly fills one up quickly.  Of course, I didn't do the keep them warm in the oven or top with turbinado sugar and serve with lime wedges.  Instead, I just put them on a plate (they kept warm enough) and topped with the coconut topping and, eventually, the toasted coconut (I forgot about the toasted coconut the first time I served them).  Very good.  Filling.  And pretty darn healthy for you!

Coconut Flapjacks

With the coconut topping leftover from Sticky rice with mango

Look, it made a heart!

Rocky Road Cookies

     Funny how I always seem to be behind on my blogging.  I made these cookies for the first time a week or so ago and then made them again (out of the same dough) a few days ago.  They are delicious!  I receive many (too many, honestly) e-mails and magazines about food.  This recipe came from one of the many food e-mails.  Since it sounded pretty delicious, I decided to check it out.  I was quite pleased to discover that it was dairy-free.  I just had to try it.

Ooey Gooey Rocky Road Cookies from http://thegingersnapgirl.blogspot.ca/2012/03/ooey-gooey-rocky-road-cookies_19.html and http://www.fifteenspatulas.com/ooey-gooey-rocky-road-cookies/
from Fifteen Spatulas

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients:
3 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 extra large egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
2.5 ounces chopped or slivered, toasted, almonds (to toast almonds, heat oven to 350 and place almonds on foil lined baking sheet and bake until golden, about 10 minutes)
1 cup mini marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.  In a large bowl sift powdered sugar and cocoa powder.  Whisk in salt.  Add egg whites and vanilla and whisk until combined and batter is smooth.  Stir in chocolate chips and almonds.  *Chill batter in refrigerator for 1 hour to help prevent spreading in the oven.  Using a medium size cookie scoop, portion out 12 cookies on each baking sheet.  Place 4-5 marshmallows on top of each cookie.  Place the baking sheets in the freezer for 5 minutes (or fridge for 10-15 minutes) to chill cookies to prevent them from spreading too much in the oven.  Bake cookies for 12-13 minutes.  Allow to cool on the baking sheets for at least 5 minutes and then transfer cookies to wire rack to finish cooling.  

     These cookies are heavenly and naturally gluten & dairy-free.  I would definitely recommend looking at both of the sources as there are some differences between them.  For example, the ginger snap girl says to use chopped or slivered almonds while fifteen spatula says that you can use sliced almonds.  I wish I had read both as I went out of the way to buy slivered almonds when I could have bought sliced almonds.  They also differ slightly in what and when they tell you to refrigerate.  The above recipe says to refrigerate the batter before and after you put it onto baking sheets.  The fifteen spatula one says to pop it in the freezer for five minutes before you bake it.  To be honest, I didn't even bother with all of that refrigerating.  For one thing, I simply don't have enough room in my fridge.  For another thing, I wanted them now and didn't want to wait all that time for them to get cold.  It didn't make that much of a difference, as far as I could see.  The first time I made them, they were under-cooked after 12-13 minutes so I put them on for a few more minutes.  Alas, when the dough seemed cooked the marshmallows were toasted.  The second time I made them (I had leftover dough from the first batch), the consistency of the batter was a bit weird after days in the fridge so I just made one big cookie. However, this time I pulled them out earlier so the marshmallows had a better consistency.  Either way about it, these are ooey and gooey and definitely chocolately.  Almost a bit too chocolatey for my taste, not being a big fan of uber-chocolate things (e.g., chocolate ice cream or chocolate cake).  But, if you like a lot of chocolate, make these cookies.  Scott loved them!

Pre-baking

Out of the oven

A close up of toasted marshmallow goodness

Chili con Poco Carne

     I was surprised to look back at my blog and find that I had already blogged about this particular recipe (specifically, about the vegan version of this recipe).  See http://insearchoftheperfectmacaroniandcheese.blogspot.com/2011/04/vegan-chili.html However, since I had made this recipe out of a library book that I then had to return, I don't have the recipe written down in the blog.  I now own that book (The Food Matters Cookbook by Mark Bittman) and, remembering how much I liked the vegan variation so much, I decided to try to make the original recipe with meat.  And, boy, is it amazing!

Chili con Poco Carne from Mark Bittman's The Food Matters Cookbook

Notes from the author: "A perfect example of how a little bit of meat can go a long way.  For a vegetarian version, just leave out the meat- better yet, try the variation.  Either way, this recipe, which reheats beautifully, makes extra for your fridge or freeze.

Makes: 6-8 servings
Time: About 1 hour with cooked or canned beans

Ingredients:

3 tbsp. olive oil
1 lb. beef chuck, pork shoulder, or lamb shoulder, cut into small cubes
Salt and black pepper
1 large onion, chopped
2 tbsp. minced garlic
1 large or 2 small eggplants, cubed
1 zucchini, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 cup quartered mushrooms or a handful of rinsed dried porcini
1 (or more) fresh or dried hot chile (like jalapeno or Thai), minced
1 tbsp. cumin, or to taste
1 tbsp. chopped fresh oregano, or 1 tsp. dried
2 cups chopped tomatoes (canned are fine; include their juice)
4 cups cooked or canned kidney, pinto, or black beans, drained, liquid reserved
2 cups vegetable stock or water, or more as needed
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro or parsley, for garnish

Procedure:

1) Put the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  A minute later, add the meat, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is well browned all over, about 10 minutes.  remove the meat from the pan and pour off all but 3 tbsp. of the fat.

2) Put the pot over medium heat.  Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until just softened, about 3 minutes.  Add the vegetables, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring frequently, until they begin to soften and become fragrant, adjusting the heat so that nothing scorches.  After 10 to 15 minutes, the vegetables should start to brown a bit and dry out.

3) Add the chile, cumin, and oregano and stir.  Add the tomatoes with their juice and enough of the bean-cooking liquid to submerge everything (use some stock or water if you don't have enough) and return the meat to the pan.  Bring the mixture to a boil, then lower the heat so it bubbles steadily.  Cover and cook, stirring occasionally and adding more liquid if necessary, until the meat is fork-tender and the flavors have mellowed, 30 to 40 minutes.  Add the beans and more liquid if necessary, and cook just long enough to heat the beans through, only a couple minutes.  Taste and adjust the seasoning.  Garnish with the cilantro and serve.

Here's the vegan variation, in case you are interested:

Chili non Carne: Omit the meat from Step 1.  At the beginning of Step 2, add 2 chopped red bell peppers and 2 tbsp. tomato paste along with the garlic and onion.  Let the mixture brown a bit, stirring frequently so the tomato paste doesn't burn, and proceed with the recipe.

I made this recipe very slightly different from the way it is written above:
     I used more meat than written, as the pork shoulder came as one tied-together lump of meat.  1.8 lbs instead of 1 lb.  Also, I discovered something about pork shoulder: Pork shoulder is very fatty.  Don't be a lazy doofus like me and think that one should not trim off the fat before one starts to cook it.  Despite what I thought, pork fat does not melt off into the pan.  I thought I could just pour off the fat later once I cooked the pork.  Instead, it stays right on the meat.  This, of course, means that when one adds the meat back in, one has to go through each piece laboriously and trim the fat from the meat with one's fingers.  Because eating big pieces of fat with a little bit of meat attached is just gross!  So trim the fat off ahead of time.
     Being a stew, I knew that the exact proportions of vegetables wasn't really that important.  I used two crookneck squash instead of zucchini as that was what I had in the house.  I also added in some beet greens because I wanted to use them and I figured they'd be good in the chile.  I added in the whole can of chopped tomatoes because I didn't feel like measuring it.  I had some leftover frozen chicken stock, so I used that instead of vegetable stock.  I have no idea how much stock was added in.  Same with the beans.  I happened to have a bunch of leftover cooked black beans.  Just threw them in there.  I think I used four carrots instead of 2, because they were small and I felt like it.  I also used about 6 New Mexico Green Chiles because they are a superior chile.  Highly recommend that addition if you happen to have fresh New Mexico green chiles (or frozen ones, like we do).  They add in so much flavor!  I think the cumin really makes this dish.  At the end, we didn't have cilantro or parsley around, so we didn't do the garnish.  And it was okay!
     Anyways, as you can see, it is a very flexible recipe that really comes out amazingly.  This is definitely something that I would make again!  Plus, you do get a lot of leftovers for the next day!  Mmmmm....

Chili con Poco Carne.  See all the delicious vegetables in there?

Covered with daiya cheese (A type of vegan cheese).  

Banana nut bread

     Don't you love it when you get inspiration from the ingredients you have laying around the house?  Case in point: Two very brown (almost black) bananas that we had lying in our fruit bowl.  Old bananas instantly make me think of banana nut bread, as the very best banana bread is made from very ripe bananas.  As it turns out, the recipe needed three bananas, so I ended up using two very ripe bananas and one regular ripe one, but it all came out wonderfully!

Banana Bread
By Mark Bittman
From the How to Cook Everything^® app

Introduction:

The best banana bread is a balancing act: It requires a fair amount of fat to keep it moist and lighten the crumb; a little whole wheat flour gives it some substance. And in my opinion the result should be sweet, but not overly so. Though coconut is my favorite secret ingredient, feel free to omit it or add more nuts, raisins, or other dried fruit instead if you like. This bread keeps better than most quick breads, though it probably won't be around too long.

Ingredients:

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, softened, plus butter for the pan
• 1½ cups all‐purpose flour
• ½ cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed with a fork until smooth
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans
• ½ cup shredded coconut

Procedure:

1. Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9- x 5‐inch loaf pan with butter.
2. Mix together the dry ingredients. With a hand mixer, a whisk, or in the food processor, cream the butter and beat in the eggs and bananas. Stir this mixture into the dry ingredients, just enough to combine (it's okay if there are lumps). Gently stir in the vanilla, nuts, and coconut.
3. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, until nicely browned. A toothpick inserted in the center of the bread will come out fairly clean when done, but because of the bananas this bread will remain moister than most. Do not overcook. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes before removing from the pan.

Courtesy of John Wiley & Sons. Copyright © Double B Publishing Inc. All rights reserved.

Banana nut bread, slightly under-baked

     Notes on this version of the recipe:  The recipe you see above is from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything app for the iPod.  I actually made this recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything book.  My version of the book has a yellow cover and was published in 1998.  His newest version has a red cover and was published ten years later.  Now, I had been quite curious about this version, but didn't want to shell out the money to buy the newest version of a book I already had.  Fortunately, when I bought my iPod, I found there was an app for "How to cook everything."  Curious, I bought it and loved it!  I get to have my go-to cookbook at my fingertips when I travel without having to lug the whole darn thing around with me (the book is quite hefty!).  Plus, I get access to all of the new recipes.  Best of all, it only cost like $10 and you can e-mail the recipes to someone.  This is so much easier than copying the recipe by hand for my blog.

     In the original version of this recipe, his introduction is as follows: "I love banana bread (especially toasted, the next day, with peanut butter), but I have been making them for thirty years and I do think this one is the ultimate- the coconut is what does it, although the butter helps too."  It also specifies to use grated dried unsweetened coconut, which I think is an important specification as I don't think the recipe would quite be as good with the ultra sugary shredded coconut you get in the baking section of grocery stores.  By the way, it really is delicious toasted the next day with peanut butter.  

     

     Notes on an ingredients substitution:  I am trying to go dairy-free for a month to see if dairy affects me adversely at all.  I started on February 7th (and cheated around Valentine's day) and will end on my husband's birthday, March 7th.  So, instead of butter, I used Earth Balance's organic coconut spread.  You could not taste any difference in the final product, but it was definitely a lot more difficult to mix in the batter than butter would have been.

     Notes on how the recipe came out:  Delicious!  Alas, even though I tried the toothpick test (and it came out clean), I under-baked it and so the center top part was more dough than bread.  Too lazy to re-bake it, I just ate it dough and all.  I'd recommend baking it.  Not as delicious to eat banana nut bread dough!  And, to confound the problem, the bottom started burning.  Gotta love ovens...

     I've made this recipe once before and I remember Scott just thinking it was "okay."  He didn't really think the coconut added all that much to the recipe.  However, this time around, he absolutely loved it coconut and all.  I personally think the coconut really does add to the recipe.  I could not stop eating it and neither could Scott.  How quickly it was eaten in our house.  And now I have three bananas in my fruit basket that are turning a lovely shade of brown.  Perhaps some banana nut bread is in my immediate future...

Sticky rice with mangoes (attempt #2)

     Not having been 100% satisfied with my previous attempt to make my favorite of all Thai desserts (see http://insearchoftheperfectmacaroniandcheese.blogspot.com/2012/07/adventures-in-thai-cooking.html), I decided to make it a second time trying a new recipe.  Perhaps my (relatively) new Thai cookbook, Thai Cuisine Beyond Curry by Chef Chai Siriyarn would do the trick.  I got this cookbook from my favorite Thai restaurant in San Francisco, Marnee Thai (http://www.marneethaisf.com/), that my friend Andrew and I discovered on a whim a few years ago.  Amazing food!  Alas, the first time I went to the restaurant I saw they offered a cookbook written by the Head Chef/Founder, but I didn't buy it.  I immediately regretted the fact, but couldn't find the cookbook anywhere.  So, when Scott, Andrew and I went back to the restaurant this summer, I knew that I would have to buy the book.  It is quite a fun book (it even tells you how to make your own curry pastes) and comes autographed by the author.  If you are ever in San Francisco, I definitely recommend going to Marnee Thai.  Buy the cookbook if you are at all interested in Thai cooking.  And prepare to have fun!  Now, onto the recipe:

Sticky rice with mangoes (kao niaw ma muang) from Thai Cuisine Beyond Curry by Cahi Siriyarn of Marnee Thai Restaurant

Ingredients:

2 cups sticky rice, soaked overnight or at least 4-6 hours
1/3 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tbsp. salt
2 pandanus leaves

Coconut Topping:
1 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tbsp. rice flour

1 tbsp. mung beans, to serve
2 mangoes, sliced, to serve

Procedure:

1) Drain the soaked rice and place in a steamer lined with cheesecloth.  Steam until grains are soft, about 20-25 minutes (20 minutes if the rice was soaked overnight).

2) While rice is steaming, combine coconut milk, sugar, salt and pandanus leaves in a bowl; mix well.  Microwave for 2 minutes to dissolve salt and sugar; set aside.

3) When sticky rice is done, transfer  from steamer to a bowl.  While rice is still hot, add the coconut milk mixture.  Using a rubber spatula, stir to coat the grains quickly and evenly.  Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 15 minutes for  rice to absorb the sauce.

4) To make the coconut topping, combine coconut milk, sugar and salt in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat.  In a bowl, blend rice flour with 1 tablespoon of water and mix well to dissolve the rice flour.  While the coconut sauce is simmering, slowly drizzle in the rice flour slurry and stir constantly.  Return to a boil, immediately remove from heat and set aside.

5) Soak mung beans in hot water for 1 hour.  Drain, pat dry and toast in a nonstick saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until they are light brown and crispy.  Set aside.

6) To serve, place a small amount of sticky rice onto a plate with mango slices arranged on the side.  Pour 1-2 tablespoons of the coconut topping over sticky rice and sprinkle with toasted mung beans.

     And how did it come out?  Certainly a lot better than my first recipe.  Unfortunately, the first time I tried it I was still in the throes of a cold and so I couldn't really taste anything.  It tasted like it should be a lot better, but I couldn't really tell with my nose all stuffed up.  Fortunately, I had a lot of leftovers which keep for a surprisingly long time.  Some time later (I forget how long), Scott and I were requested to bring dessert for an Asian-themed dinner over at Lynnelle and Derek's.  So, I made a little more coconut topping, bought some fresh mangoes, and brought it over.  When I tasted it the second time, I could immediately tell that it tasted a lot better than my previous recipe and a lot closer to restaurant quality.  However, I still feel like there is still something missing, like the flavor is not quite as intense as I would like.  It is hard to put my finger on it.  I'll have to order this dessert it from a restaurant and do a mental comparison.  Now, on to the nit-picky details about the recipe itself:

     First of all, I have a little bit of a bone to pick with how this recipe is set up.  It doesn't mention soaking the mung beans until step 5 (almost the last step)!  This means that, if you are like me, and don't read the recipe ahead of time as carefully as you should have, you are stuck with an almost ready to go recipe but no mung beans to put on top!  Frustrating (and a good lesson about reading the complete recipe ahead of time)!  Not only that, but after waiting an hour, I found out that I wasn't the biggest fan of the mung beans on top in the first place.  For starters, the mung beans I had have their skin on so the flavor wasn't quite the same.  I don't feel they add much to the dish at all, although Scott loved having them separately as a snack.  So, when I had to make this dish a second time, I used the toasted coconut topping that from my first sticky rice and mango recipe.  I like it much better as a topping.
     I also didn't find "pandanus" leaves at the Asian market, but I did find "pandang" leaves in the frozen section which I am pretty sure are the same thing.  I think the leaves do add in some flavor, but it is hard to tell.  I once again had the problem of not having the right type of steamer (see my amok recipe), so I used my rice cooker.  Fortunately, it came out just fine. I did like the addition of the rice flour to the coconut topping.  It makes the topping a lot thicker and so the dessert resembles it's restaurant version even more.  Now, if only I could figure out why this isn't 100% like the restaurant version.  It's very frustrating, but still very good!

Sticky rice with mangoes

Potato pancakes

     After making all that sauerkraut, I thought it would only be appropriate to have a German-style meal of Bratwurst sausages (two kinds), sauerkraut and potato pancakes.  So, here you go:

Potato Pancakes, version II (from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything)

Ingredients:

About 2 lbs. baking potatoes, such as Idaho or Russet, peeled
1 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. any oil or butter

Procedure:

1) Grate the potatoes by hand or with the grating disk of a food processor; drain very briefly, pressing lightly.  Mix in salt.
2) Heat the oil or butter over medium heat, preferably in a large, seasoned cast-iron or non-stick skillet.  Drop potatoes in by large spoonfuls, flattening the pancakes with the back of the spoon.  Don't try to turn them until they're brown and crisp on the first side.  Turn and continue cooking until brown and crisp on the second side, about 6 to 8 minutes total.

     And that's it.  Those who have been reading my blog would probably guess that I didn't peel the potatoes.  They'd be right.  And potatoes are super easy to grate in the food processor (have I mentioned how much I love that thing?).  I should mention that Mark Bittman also includes a traditional potato pancake recipe (latke) in his book as well as a variation to this recipe which calls for one big potato pancakes, but I just did the simple one used here.  I had had this recipe in the past and remembered enjoying it.  Alas, for one reason or another (I think my stove just doesn't produce enough BTUs for really hot cooking), it took forever for the pancakes to cook.  And, by the time they were cooked, they were mostly crisp all the way through and not the crispy-on-the-outside but potatoey-on-the-inside that I was looking for.  So, I would make it again, but perhaps not on the stove.  Or perhaps, next time, I'll try the latke variation.  Either way about it, the version I made was too crispy and oily.  Oh well.  The sausage and sauerkraut variation was very good.

One of my better potato pancakes

Sausages and a bit of a burnt potato pancake.  As you can see
from the juices left on the plate, I had already eaten all of my sauerkraut.