SPINACH & HERB SAUCE

One of the joys of getting older is your body deciding you’re now going to pay for all the fun you used to have. Last year I had elevated blood sugar. This year my husband needs to adjust to a low-acid diet. Wheee.

Low-acid means cutting out, among other things, tomatoes. You never really realize how many foods are tomato-based or have tomato products in them until you have to eliminate them from your list of favorite things to eat.

Hence, I came up with this sauce for pasta. It contains loads of greens, is a low-fat as you choose to make it, and goes very well on pasta, baked potatoes, or as a pizza sauce. It’s also a beautiful emerald color. I like this on cheese tortellini.

SPINACH AND HERB SAUCE

• 1 tablespoon butter/oil/margarine
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 2 cups milk (I used nonfat but your choice)
• pinch nutmeg
• salt to taste
• 3 cups lightly packed spinach leaves
• 1/2 cup chopped Italian parsley
• 1/2 cup lightly packed fresh basil leaves
• 1/4 cup light packed cilantro leaves (optional)

Over medium heat, melt butter in frying pan about 10″ across. Add flour and stir into the butter. Cook over medium heat for a few minutes, then pour in the milk. Stir to blend the milk with the butter-flour mixture. A whisk will come in handy to break up lumps.

Continue to cook mixture, stirring, until milk boils and thickens. This is not a very thick sauce but it will be like heavy cream. Add a pinch of nutmeg.

Add the greens all at once and cook, stirring, until they are completely collapsed.

Remove from heat and let cool a few minutes.

Pour into a blender container and blitz until mostly pureed. You can also use a stick blender but the greens tend to get stuck on the blades – which is okay, it just takes longer to puree.

Return sauce to pan and heat. Taste again for seasoning.

The sauce is ready to use now, but adding some cheese to melt into it is a very good idea. Blue cheese is particularly delicious.

Makes about 3 cups sauce.

MY MOTHER’S RELISH

My mother used to make this relish. I loved the smell of cloves and cinnamon and the sweet-sour tomato-vegetable flavor. Although it was called Quick Meat Relish, I don’t remember us ever having it with meat – just on simple boiled beans. But it would go very well with pot roast, game, hamburgers, pork chops, anything grilled or barbecued. It could also be mixed into mayonnaise to make a sandwich spread.

She kept  it in the refrigerator, but with the large amount of vinegar it is safe to can for longer storage. I found virtually the same recipe with far less vinegar (curiously named Barbecue Sauce) on the website for the National Center for Home Food Preservation  – so this recipe is sufficiently acidic.

This is not intended to be an exhaustive treatise on home canning. It is absolutely imperative that any home canning be done safely. My mother told me about a woman she knew long ago who canned some green beans – when she tasted them they didn’t seem right so they threw them out for her chickens to eat. She died of botulism – and so did all the chickens.

There are numerous reliable books on the subject as well as websites such as Clemson Cooperative Extension or the National Center for Home Food Preservation .

• 

MEAT RELISH

• 2 28-ounce cans tomatoes
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped bell pepper (my mother used green peppers because that was what was available but I used red)
• 1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar (5%)
• 1/2 to 1 cup brown sugar (I used 1 cup)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon each powdered cloves and cinnamon
• Healthy pinch of cayenne

Combine all ingredients in nonreactive pot. If the tomatoes are whole, break them into small pieces. Bring to a boil and cook at a slow boil for 15 minutes or until thickened.

Ladle into hot canning jars and seal with rings and lids. Process in hot water bath 20 minutes for 8-ounce or pints. Makes about 5 pints.

YOGURT-CUCUMBER SALAD

Photo by Chantal Garnier on Unsplash

Farmer’s market.

Tent with woman selling pickling cucumbers.

Home again.

Now what?

Quick search of fridge reveals neglected Greek yogurt. Herbs going crazy on the first day of summer.  Result: this salad.

Goes great with

Mexican food

Indian food

Middle Eastern food

green salad

grilled fish or chicken

kebabs

baked potatoes

falafel

pita bread

Buffalo wings

with feta cheese mixed in

Pretty much anything summery.

Herbs were my choice but feel free to substitute others like parsley, cilantro, basil. Regular yogurt can be substituted if drained through cheesecloth in a colander for a couple of hours. Regular cucumbers can be used if seedy centers are scraped out. Substitute green onions for the red.

Don’t add salt: the cucumbers will weep and make the salad watery. This is on the sour side.

YOGURT-CUCUMBER SALAD

• 3 to 4 cups  Greek yogurt, more or less
• 5 or 6 pickling cucumbers (Kirbys), peeled and chopped small-ish
• couple of slices of red onion, chopped smallish
• 2 garlic cloves,  mashed and then minced
• 6 mint leaves, very thinly sliced
• 3 or 4 hefty springs of fresh dill, chopped fine
• good snipping of fresh chives, chopped fine
• 1 teaspoon cumin seed, ground
• pinch of cayenne or similar

If there’s much liquid on the yogurt, drain it off by plopping yogurt in a wire colander and let the excess drain off for 15 minutes or so.

Mix everything together. Refrigerate until serving.

Lamb and Grapes

So I was grocery shopping and saw bags of grapes on sale. You know the bags – they have perforations and zip-lock tops, and are always crammed with as many grapes as can possibly be stuffed in, sort of like college students and phone booths (and if that doesn’t date me, I don’t know what will). I took about 2/3 of the grapes out of one bag and distributed them through the remaining bags on the shelf, and still came away with far more grapes that I really wanted. I like grapes but… not THAT much.

Got home, washed the grapes (the perforated bags are useful for that), put them in a nifty grape-leaf-shaped bowl, and we went to work eating them. By the end of the third day there were remaining about 48759 grapes, give or take a few. They were starting to think about becoming raisins. What to do?

It just so happened I also had a package of lamb chops. I’ve been making fresh mint sauce for lamb but I thought the grapes might make a sort of agrodolce sauce.  Lamb and grapes ought to be natural together due to both being staples in Greece, Italy, and France.

Sauces and preparations with  grapes are referred to as Veronique – i.e. poulet Veronique, trout Veronique, but those use white (green) grapes and also often a hefty amount of cream. I didn’t know what using red grapes without cream would be called so I am calling it

Lamb Chops Red Veronica

• 5 or 6 lamb chops
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups stemmed seedless red grapes
• spring of fresh rosemary
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• vinegar (I used balsamic) and sugar/honey to taste
• salt and pepper to taste

Season the lamb with salt and pepper on both sides, and let come to room temperature. When ready to cook, brown the chops on both sides and continue cooking until rare or medium-rare (if you cook them well-done, you’re a monster). Set aside to keep warm (on a heatproof platter in a warm oven is good).

Saute the garlic in the pan drippings for a few moments, stirring and scraping up the browned bits to prevent sticking and browning.

Then throw in the grapes and the rosemary.

Stir frequently and cook over medium heat until the grapes finally give in and are squishable. Mash them a bit to create the sauce. Taste the sauce and add vinegar and/or sugar/honey to make it sweet-sour, plus salt and pepper as needed.

Pour over the chops. Here I had them on a platter with leftover mashed potatoes formed into patties and browned.

The same preparation would be good with pork chops, chicken, turkey, duck, venison, rabbit, or just about any game. This would also work with chopped apricots or peaches.

87 Cents a Pound

Back in the 1960s and 70s there was a guy named Merle Ellis who wrote a column called The Butcher in the San Francisco Chronicle (later picked up by newspapers nationwide). It was all about how to get the best deals at the butcher counter. In one column he dispensed a jewel of wisdom I have never forgotten:

If you see any meat or fish for under one dollar per pound, buy it and worry about what to do with it later. 

I’m sure I am paraphrasing, but that was the message.

When I walked into the supermarket last week I immediately came face-to-face with a refrigerated case full of half-hams marked 87¢ per pound. Merle Ellis.

I bought two ten-pound hams.

It should be said here that my husband was not quite as thrilled initially with my purchase until he realized he’d been buying sliced ham at the deli for $4 or $5 per pound. He then admitted that it was a pretty good deal.

Dorothy Parker said eternity is two people and a ham, but here the ham seems to be disappearing at a shockingly rapid pace.  I cut one ham in two more-or-less equal-sized pieces & put half in the freezer; we are eating from & cooking from the other half.  The second ham is still in its original wrapper and will keep in the refrigerator at least until February, or whenever we decide to cook or freeze it (ham keeps wonderfully well.)  We seldom have it the rest of the year, so it’s a treat in very late fall and winter (traditional hog-slaughtering time). We’ve been making it into scrambles and ham sandwiches and just big ol’ chunks of ham eaten as is, but I made a couple of dishes that we really liked.

The first is a sauce that I used on Brussels sprouts, but I think it would also be good on shredded sauteed kale, cabbage, beet greens, green beans, broccoli, and whatever else might come to mind (warm spinach salad?). At this time of year the intense deep flavors of winter vegetables sometimes needs a little perking up, and this was really, really good as well as insanely easy.

DEVILED BRUSSELS SPROUTS

• 1/2 cup ham fat and ham, cut into very small (less than 1/2″) pieces
• 1 cup apple juice or apple cider
• 2-3 teaspoons mustard (I used Plochman’s Whole Grain)

Put the cut-up ham into a dry frying pan over medium-high heat and fry, rendering the fat, until the bits are browning and crispy. Add the apple juice and continue to cook until reduced by half and the juice is turning syrupy. Stir in the mustard.  Toss with hot cooked Brussels sprouts.

In lieu of ham, some cooked and mostly-drained bacon or sausage would work very well.

The other thing I made is just a fast riff on the Pennsylvania Dutch dish schnitz un knepp, which is pork or ham cooked with dried apples.

This isn’t even a recipe. Cut some ham into pieces about 2″ X 1″ (more or less) and put in a dry frying pan to brown a bit.  Thinly slice some apples (I used Fuji) into the pan, add some apple juice, and toss and fry until the apples are tender. Serve with French toast or pancakes or crepes.

 

 

 

 

BLACK BEAN & MANGO SALSA

I bought a couple of Ataulfo mangoes with no particular plans for them.

Just a very few of the mango varieties out there:

Then it turned out there was a baseball game on TV and we would need something to snack on. So I made Black Bean & Mango Salsa. It’s now my husband’s favorite dip for chips – better than guacamole or the tomato-based salsas and pico de gallos I’ve made in the past. I guess this could be filed under Caribbean, Mexican, or world cuisine.

Lots of chopping here, but this is a great way to practice mad knife skillz, since it’ll all be tumbled together at the end anyway. And speaking of chopping: I saw a food demonstration of how to efficiently chop garlic, and it works better than a garlic press. Use a large chef’s knife (a small paring or steak knife will not work) and salt. This video describes it all (until he starts flogging garlic in a jar, which is convenient but does not taste like fresh garlic).

BLACK BEAN AND MANGO SALSA

• 2 small (Ataulfo) or 1 large (Tommy Atkins, Haden, etc.) mango, peeled and diced small
• 1 Anaheim chili, roasted, peeled, minced (see this for the how-tos)
• 1 Jalapeno chili, roasted, peeled, minced (as above)
• 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
• 5-6 fat garlic cloves, minced (do not be tempted to skimp on the garlic!)
• 1 can (about 16 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 small red onion, peeled and minced (about 3/4 cup)
• 3 or 4 ripe tomatoes, diced small –  about 1 generous cup of chopped tomato (Romas are great for this, but other tomatoes work too – even cherry tomatoes if you don’t mind extra chopping)
• juice of 1 fat lemon or 2-3 limes
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• salt to taste (if you did not use salt to mince the garlic)

Chop/prep everything and toss into a bowl as you go. Mix it up and let sit for about 20 minutes, then taste and adjust  seasoning (more lemon? More heat? More salt?).

Eat. Great with chips but also on tacos, chicken, pork chops, grilled fish, green salad, whatever.

Variations:

• Substitute peaches, apricots, nectarines, plums, or papaya for the mango.
• Substitute other chilies for the Anaheim and Jalapeno.
• Use raw minced chilies instead of roasting them.
• Add fresh minced sweet basil.

And finally: I found this video and I have not tried it, but it looks like it would work. Just be sure to hold onto that glass (or use a plastic glass) because nothing is more slippery than a mango.

ASIAN CHICKEN LETTUCE WRAP SAUCE

Sometimes you need to pull a rabbit out of your hat. On occasion you find that what you pulled out actually was more like a weasel or a marmot, but now and then it does turn out to be a rabbit, just as you’d hoped.

I’m preparing food for a cocktail party, which has to be all finger foods. I thought Asian chicken lettuce wraps would be good, never mind that I have never made them before. The filling part is easy enough – diced chicken, water chestnuts, peanuts, cilantro, scallions – but the dressing was another story. You can buy all kinds of bottled dressings and some of them taste okay, but it’s fun to mix your own. If you have a well-stocked pantry with Asian ingredients, it’s fast and easy.

Here is what I came up with. This started with a recipe for Vietnamese Chicken and Mint Salad from Nigella Bites by Nigella Lawson, and took off from there.

SAUCE FOR ASIAN LETTUCE WRAPS

• 2 small red Jalapenos, minced
• 3 fat garlic cloves, pressed or minced
• 2 Tablespoons minced fresh ginger
• 3 Tablespoons sugar
• 2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 2 Tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
• juice of one lime
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1 Tablespoon nam pla
• 2 Tablespoons Thai sweet chili sauce
• 1 teaspoon black bean garlic sauce
• 1 star anise

Combine all ingredients. Store in refrigerator. Remove star anise before using. Toss with diced chicken or shrimp for Asian lettuce wraps or as a salad dressing.

Notes:

Use chili flakes, Sriracha, cayenne, or other hot peppers in place of the Jalapenos.

Nam pla (fish sauce) is available in Asian markets or well-stocked supermarkets. If necessary you can substitute soy sauce or tamari.

Black bean garlic sauce is available in Asian markets or well-stocked supermarkets. Leave it out if you can’t find it.

Thai sweet chili sauce is available in Asian markets, supermarkets, and Trader Joe’s. It is a thick sweet-spicy sauce that has a couple of million uses.

THE GREEK LAYERED SALAD

Now then: my previous post was about Crazy Feta, which is absurdly good by itself. But it is a key component of a salad they probably don’t actually make in Greece, but maybe that’s because it hadn’t occurred to them. They have lamb roasting on a spit, stuffed grape leaves, feta, ouzo, spanakopita – what else do you need?

Once more, the credit goes to Jessica at How Sweet it Is for coming up with this amazing combination. She says it’s a dip that could be used on chips or in wraps or sandwiches, but I served it as a salad, a messy messy layered salad.  I varied mine a bit from hers. I would expect anyone to vary their versions too.

Once you have the components made and/or bought, it’s just layering in a bowl.    You could also arrange it on a giant platter like those layered Mexican dips and surround with bread and pita chips.

Things you will need to either make yourself or purchase already made:

The aforementioned Crazy Feta.

Hummus.

Tzatziki.

Okay, got your dips made? Putting this together is fun.

LAYERED GREEK SALAD

• 1 1/2 cups tzatziki
• 1 can (about 15 ounces) pitted Kalamata olives
• 1 1/2 cups hummus
• 1 can (about 15 ounces) artichoke hearts or artichoke bottoms in water
• Crazy Feta
• 1 zucchini, chopped
• 1/2 cup roasted bell peppers
• 1 large delicious ripe tomato, chopped
• 1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, chopped
• 1/4 cup minced sweet red onion
• sumac 
• za’atar

In a deep clear bowl, layer in this order:

tzatziki on the bottom of the bowl (drain off excess liquid)

drained, chopped olives

hummus

Drained and chopped artichoke hearts

Crazy Feta

Chopped zucchini

Roasted bell peppers (these were yellow)

Chopped tomatoes

Chopped cucumber

Minced onions

Sumac

Za’taar

Cover and refrigerate up to eight hours. Drain off any excess liquid that may accumulate.

This served 10 people as a salad as part of a dinner. There was about 2 cups left over, which we smeared on sourdough bread the next day.  If served as a dip, this would probably serve 15-20 people.

A few notes:

• I made hummus from one can of garbanzos and one can of cannellini beans, sesame oil, lemon, garlic, and plenty of cilantro. Not traditional but I liked it better than garbanzos alone.
• A block of plain feta can be crumbled and used in place of the Crazy Feta.
• If you are fortunate enough to live near a Middle Eastern market, you can get the sumac and za’atar there. I bought mine at The Spice Shop.  Penzey’s also sells them (I can highly recommend Penzey’s spices and service) as well as probably plenty of other outlets. They are not absolutely essential here, but I wanted to add something extra to the tomatoes & cucumbers without salting them (which would cause them to get watery).  If these spices are too exotic, sprinkle the tomatoes with pepper and oregano.
• Trader Joe’s carries both pitted Kalamata olives and artichoke hearts in water, as well as tzatziki, hummus,  and feta.

Now go forth and make this.

CRAZY FETA

I can’t take credit for this. All thanks go to Jessica at How Sweet it Is for this amazing mixture of deliciousness. I will take credit for being a Google ninja and finding it, though.

So you see, I was having my annual Summer Solstice dinner on June 21, which was – surprise!  – the actual Summer Solstice. I think Middle Eastern and Greek food goes especially well in the summer, so I was looking for those kinds of dishes. (For some reason I only have one cookbook dedicated to that region, and it seems to be on loan somewhere.) And that was when I found the directions for a Greek Layered Salad, which also comes from Jessica at How Sweet it Is.

But it was the Crazy Feta that really sold  me. All by itself, this stuff is so fantastic; made into a Greek salad, it approximates Nirvana.

Here is what you do.

CRAZY FETA

• 1 pound feta cheese
• 1 head of garlic
• 3 Jalapeno peppers
• juice and zest of 1/2 a lemon
• olive oil
• pepper

Slice the top quarter off the entire head of garlic, just enough to expose the cloves (do not peel away the papery skin). Place head on a sheet of aluminum foil. Drizzle with a very small amount of olive oil, then wrap the foil around the garlic and place it at one end of a small baking dish. At the other end, put the Jalapenos. Put the dish in the oven at 400 degrees.

Turn the Jalapenos after about 15 minutes.  After about 30 minutes, remove the dish from the oven.  Place the peppers in a paper or plastic bag and let them steam about 15 minutes. Then cut the stem end from the Jalapenos, remove the seeds, and remove the blistered skin. Chop peppers finely.

NOW WASH YOUR HANDS THOROUGHLY. DO NOT TOUCH YOUR EYES OR ANY OTHER TENDER BODY PART FOR AT LEAST THREE HOURS.

I couldn’t find blocks of feta packed in water at the Grocery Outlet, but I did find these two packages, which totaled 1 pound.Works for me.

Mash the feta with a big fork. Add the zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon, the minced Jalapenos, and about 1/4 cup olive oil. Then take the roasted garlic and squeeze the sweet caramelized cloves right out of their skins into the bowl.

Mash mash mash. You want this to be spreadable and dipable but not runny. You may need more olive oil.  Taste and add pepper (and salt, if necessary).

When the consistency seems just right to you, pull out a bag of chips and cram everything into your face  cover and store in the refrigerator for one week.

This is an essential ingredient in the next recipe, Greek Layered Salad.

NEW YORK HOT DOG ONION SAUCE

I’m seeing a lot of articles lately about “The 50 Best Hot Dogs in America.”  Best, of course, is subjective, but these photos make all of them look pretty damn good. Here is a slideshow to get you salivating.

I don’t eat a lot of hot dogs because even the best ones aren’t what you’d call healthy. We’ve been getting Hebrew National Reduced Fat; they’re not quite as nutritionally reprehensible as some other brands. Grilled over charcoal – because we like to add our own carcinogens – they are pretty tasty.

• 

When I lived in New York City in a different life, a hot dog from a cart on the street was a great treat. I think they were fifty cents at the time; they now run about $1.75.  There were three acceptable toppings for the dog (which was kept warm in a tub of greasy water): mustard (deli mustard – none of that fancy-schmancy Dijon), sauerkraut, and onion sauce.  It was perfection.

The onion sauce is what New York expats dream about, and what visitors come away craving.  Apparently Sabrett’s bottles it for sale, but why buy that when it’s cheap and easy to make your own? I found a recipe here on the internet and made it the other night. It turned out pretty good. It’s easy to make and good on a lot of things besides hot dogs. You’re going to be grilling hot dogs this summer anyway; make a batch and try it – whether you’re eating Nathan’s, Sabrett’s, or Smart Dogs, it’ll be great.

NEW YORK HOT DOG ONION SAUCE

• 2 red onions, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• sprinkle of salt

Heat the oil in a wide frying pan. Add the onions and salt and cook slowly over medium heat, turning as needed, until onions start to brown on the edges. If they burn, throw them out and start over. When onions are starting to brown, add the garlic and cook another few minutes (do not brown the garlic).

Meanwhile, combine in a small bowl:

• 1/2 cup water
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch (stir to get lumps out)
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste OR 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (like Tabasco, Tapatio, Cholula, etc.)
• big pinch cinnamon

After adding the garlic to the onions, pour in this liquid mixture. Cover the pan, lower the heat, and simmer for 1 hour. Check now and then and add water if necessary to keep it from sticking or burning. You want to end up with onions in a somewhat thickened sauce – not runny and not gummy.

After 1 hour, it’s ready to eat. This keeps nicely in the refrigerator for a few days, covered, so you can make it ahead of a BBQ. Try it on hot dogs, of course, but also burgers, steak, scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes instead of gravy, steamed rice, or wherever a slightly sweet, slightly savory condiment would go well. If you chopped the onions instead of slicing them, this would make a nice dip to go with chips.