Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Maple Scones

Recipe Source: The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Book.  The Countryman Press, Woodstock, 2003 p. 119 - 20.

This book, which I received as a gift from my Aunt Chris, may be one of the most useful gifts anyone has ever given me.  I refer to it constantly, even when I don't wind up using a King Arthur recipe.  I was kind of disappointed that our recent leaf-peeping trip to Vermont didn't take us to King Arthur headquarters (the trip was in all other respects wonderful).  Anyway, I recently took a trip to a sporting event with my husband and some other athletes.  The trip required us to leave at 5:00 AM, a time at which I'm usually just crawling into bed.  I was unlikely to be at all hospitable at that hour, so I wanted to show my affection for my companions in a less verbal way: by feeding them.  We had picked up some delicious maple syrup while we were in Vermont - I think everyone does - and I decided to showcase that with this recipe.

I did make some changes.  I had to use soy milk for the milk.  We generally only stock soy milk.  My husband puts milk in his coffee, which is downright blasphemous but we'll forgive him.  I never ever drink the stuff.  We used to buy real milk, but my husband's travel schedule is so unpredictable and decent milk has such a short shelf life I wound up throwing most of it away every week.  Soy milk keeps longer than dairy milk, so that's what we use.  I had actually bought real milk for another purpose, but... well... it went bad.  So I used soy milk instead.  Anyway.  I skipped the optional maple flavoring.  I also skipped the walnuts.  The walnuts were supposed to be toasted.  The oven was occupied.  The oven had been occupied for some time, it was going to continue to be occupied, and I didn't feel like messing around with stovetop toasting.  The scones were a big hit, both with our friends and with the people at the event that I shared the scones with. 

Maple Scones (makes 16 scones; approx. $0.45/ea.)

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup vegetable shortening

1 cup soy milk

1/2 cup maple syrup, plus more if needed

Equipment:

• 2 mixing bowls
• 2 baking sheets
• Pastry cutter

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
2. In one mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Cut in the shortening with the pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the milk and 1/3 cup of the maple syrup. 
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until you've formed a very soft dough.
6. Flour your work surface generously - they aren't kidding about this - and scrape the dough out of the mixing bowl onto the surface. 
7. Divide the dough in half. 
8. Gently pat 1/2 of the dough into a 7" circle about 7/8" thick. 
9. Transfer the circle to a lightly greased cookie sheet.  A giant spatula is helpful here.
10. Repeat with the remaining half of the dough, but transfer to the separate pan.
11. Using a sharp knife or pizza wheel, divide each dough circle into eighths. 
12. Carefully separate the wedges so they're almost touching in the center, but not wuite. 
13. Pierce the tops of the scones with the tines of a fork and brush with some of the remaining maple syrup.
14. Bake 15 - 18 minutes or untl golden brown.
15. Immediately remove from the oven and brush with the remaining maple syrup.  Use more if necessary, but be generous with the syrup. 
16. Let cool  and serve either warm or at room temperature. 

Recipe: Califlower in Lemon and Tarragon Sauce

Recipe Source (sauce): Atkinson, Catherine, Christine France and Maggie Mahew.  400 Sauces.  Anness Publishers, 2007 pp. 52 - 3. 

I grew up in a family of good cooks.  We always ate well, and dinner at my mother's house was a coveted invitation in my circle of friends.  That said, our dining habits were in a certain style, and that style was emphatically not fussy.  When we had sauce it was barbecue sauce (a homemade barbecue sauce that my mother no longer makes, much to the disappointment of many) (yes, mom, that's a subtle hint) or my grandmother's Red Sauce with lots of meat inside, served over pasta.  Other types of sauce have always seemed strange and exotic to me, even sauce (like the ubiquitous "white sauce") that seems commonplace to people from other backgrounds.  When I saw this cookbook at Costco, at a good price, I knew that I needed to take this opportunity to expand my education.

This sauce, or rather this combination of sauces, caught my eye at first.  My first encounter with the veloute sauce came from an older English cookbook lent to me by a good friend, and for some reason it appealed to me enough that I wrote it down.  The version of the sauce from this book seems a little less fussy, and was the base for the lemon sauce on the next page that appealed to me more.  I did make a couple of small changes.  I used homemade turkey stock for the veloute sauce, and I increased the amount of wine in the lemon sauce.  I used homemade turkey stock because it was cheaper than storebought chicken stock.  It was probably healthier to boot, although I'm no nutritionist and can't speak authoritatively on the subject.  I used a little extra wine because there wasn't enough left in the bottle to make it worth saving. 

I served this sauce with some steamed cauliflower, because the cauliflower was taking up more space than I wanted in my refrigerator.  There was some sauce left over; hopefully I'll find a use for it before it goes bad.  Anyway, I'm going to present the recipes all together here, which is why it somehow counts for both the original recipe and recipe review categories. 

Cauliflower in Lemon and Tarragon Sauce (serves 4; approx. $1.98/serving)

2 1/2 cups turkey stock

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons light cream

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

1 lemon

1 bunch fresh tarragon, chopped

1 shallot, finely chopped

6 tablespoons white wine

3 tablespoons heavy cream

2 tablespoons brandy

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Small to medium sized cauliflower

Equipment:

• 4 saucepans
• Steamer
• Small colander

1. Heat the stock until almost (but not quite boiling.)
2. In another pan, melt the butter.  Stir in the flour. 
3. Cook the butter-and-flour mixture over moderate heat, stirring constantly, for 3 - 4 minutes or until it starts to develop a pale straw color. 
4. Remove the pan from heat and gradually blend in the hot stock.  Stir constantly.
5. Return the pan to the heat and bring to a boil, still stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens.
6. Reduce heat to a slow simmer, stirring occasionally, until reduced by about 1/4. 
7. Skim the surface of the sauce occasionally. 
8. Remove the pan from heat and stir in the cream.  Set aside.  Note: Up until this point you have made a veloute sauce, which is a very nice sauce in its own right. 
9. Thinly pare the rind from the lemon, taking care not to remove any of the white pith. 
10. Squeeze the lemon juice from the lemon and pour it into a saucepan.  Discard the lemon.
11. Add all but 1 tablespoon of the tarragon to the pan, along with the lemon rind and shallot.
12. Add the wine and simmer gently until reduced by half. 
13. Strain the liquid into a clean pan and return to the stove.
14. Add the veloute sauce (steps 1 - 8 above), cream, brandy and reserved tarragon.  Heat through.  Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
15. Meanwhile, prepare the cauliflower by trimming it into florets. 
16. Steam the cauliflower over boiling water for 3 - 4 minutes or until tender.  Do not overcook the cauliflower.  Overcooked cauliflower smells very, very bad and may cause the neighbors to call about toxic chemicals emanating from your home.
17. When the cauliflower is ready, transfer to the serving vessel. 
18. Pour the sauce over the cauliflower and serve. 

Recipe: Cheese and Onion Loaf

Recipe Source: Ingram, Christine and Jennifer Shapter.  Bread: The Breads of the World and How to Bake Them at Home.  Anness Publishing, London, 2007 p. 135

I only recently became comfortable baking my own bread.  I'd always had this kind of nervousness around yeast breads.  I'm not sure why - after all, I've brewed beer and didn't find the fermentation process frightening then.  Still, I'd always avoided it until recently, and I now realize how much I was missing.  I've really come to enjoy baking bread.  I recently had the opportunity to bake a loaf for a group of athletes.  I knew I wanted something with a little more substance than just a basic white loaf, and this is what I found. 

Most of the changes that I made were procedural.  I used a stand mixer to mix the ingredients and to knead the dough.  I also omitted the loaf pan.  My husband has been baking bread for us for years, and he never uses a proper loaf pan.  As a result, I tend to think that bread baked in the traditional loaf pan looks a little too... manufactured, I guess.  At any rate, I shaped the loaf by  hand and really enjoyed the results. 

I must point out that we left the bread in the car when we got to the sporting event site.  The day was beyond cold, and the bread wound up partially freezing in the car.  As a result, the athletes did not eat much of the bread.  When we got unexpected (but very welcome) dinner guests the next day, we put the loaf in the oven with a little bit of water painted on top, heated it up, and it came out just fine. 

Cheese and Onion Loaf (serves 10; approx. $1.05/serving)

1 onion, finely chopped

3 1/2 tablespoons butter

4 cups unbleached white bread flour

2 1/4 teaspoons (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast

1 teaspoon mustard powder

1 1/2 cups grated aged Cheddar cheese

2/3 cup lukewarm milk - I used soy milk, because that's what we had

2/3 cup lukewarm water

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• Skillet
• Baking sheet
• Stand mixer with dough hook attachment
• Sifter

1. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in the skillet. 
2. Add the onion.  Saute the onion until it is light and golden.  Set aside and allow to cool.
3. Sift the flour into the bowl of the stand mixer.
4. Add the yeast, mustard, salt and pepper.  Stir well.
5. Add 3/4 of the grated cheese and the onion. 
6. Add the milk and water.  Blend to a soft dough.
7. Knead for about 10 minutes, until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.
8. Cover the bowl with a tea towel.  Let it rise in a warm place for about 45 - 60 minutes, or until doubled in size.  Our kitchen is a little on the chilly side, so this took a little longer than 60 minutes for me. 
9. Punch the dough down.
10. Lightly grease the baking sheet.  Shape the dough into an approximately loaf-like shape on the baking sheet. 
11. Melt the remaining butter and brush the top of your loaf. 
12. Sprinkle the top of the loaf with the remaining cheese. 
13. Cover with the tea towel again and let rise another 45 minutes or so. 
14. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 
15. Slash the top of the loaf with a knife. 
16. Bake for 40 - 45 minutes, or until risen and golden brown.  It will sound hollow when tapped. 
17. Enjoy! 

Recipe: Oyster and Chipotle Chile Soup

Recipe Source: Palazuelos, Susana and Marilyn Tausend.  Mexico: The Beautiful Cookbook.  HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 1996 p. 80

I found this book recently while on an expedition to Costco.  This recipe was one of the first that appealed to me.  I liked it because it was a little different from most of the other Mexican recipes I've seen.  I also liked it because of its flexibility.  The main ingredients - the oysters and chipotles - were preserved in cans, not fresh, which meant that if I needed to push the meal back a few days it wouldn't be the end of the world.  When a person's schedule is as unpredictable as ours, it's never a bad thing to have some very flexible recipes available using pantry ingredients. 

I did make a few changes.  The most major changes to the ingredients were a switch to canned tomatoes and a change to the chipotle chile.  I switched to canned tomatoes because it is November and I live in New England.  I can probably get my hands on fresh tomatoes at this time of year, but they'll be exorbitantly priced and will probably have all the tomato flavor of a Milkbone.  The original recipe called for pickled chipotle chiles, or rather the pickling liquid.  I couldn't find pickled chipotles at my local market.  I could fined canned chilies in adobo, so I substituted the adobo for the pickling liquid and chopped up one of the chilies for good measure. 

The third major change was procedural.  The original recipe called for the broth to be strained of all the solid vegetable matter before adding the oysters.  I dutifully strained out the vegetables.  I looked at the thin broth left in the pot.  I looked back at the vegetables.  I looked at the broth again.  The broth might have served for the sopa course in a formal Mexican meal, but this was supposed to be my only meal of the day.  There was no way I was going to be able to operate for the next 24 hours on that little bit of spicy red water.  The vegetation went back into the pot, which resulted in a much more substantial soup.  I was so well satisfied with the soup that while the flavor made me want another helping, I couldn't eat another bite.

Oyster and Chipotle Chile Soup (serves 4; approx. $3.23/serving)

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

6 tablespoons minced jarred garlic

4 stalks celery, chopped

2 28-ounce cans crushed tomatoes

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon thyme

1/2 teaspoon marjoram

2 bay leaves

24 ounces canned oysters, juices reserved

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons adobo, from canned chipotle chilies in adobo

1 canned chipotle chile, chopped

Equipment:

• Large pot

1. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat.
2. Add the onion and saute until translucent.
3. Add the garlic and celery.  Cook another 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Add the canned tomatoes and increase the heat to high.  Cook 5 minutes.
5. Add the oregano, pepper, salt, thyme, marjoram and bay leaves.
6. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, 40 minutes.
7. Add the reserved oyster juice and 1 cup water.  Cook another 10 minutes.
8. Add the chipotle, the adobo and the Worcestershire sauce.  Check the seasonings.
9. Add the oysters.  Heat through over medium heat.  Take care not to overcook the oysters. 
10. Serve.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.  For those of you who don't live in the US (or who aren't familiar with the holiday), Thanksgiving is a time for more than just eating too much turkey, stealing all the stuffing from your siblings and watching grown men in armor run around a field in freezing weather.  Thanksgiving is a day for remembering all the things, both physical and spiritual, that we have to be grateful for.  I've been very blessed in my life and the list of things and people I'm grateful for is too long to include here, so I'll simply say that I'm grateful for the things I have and the things I don't have, and the many wonderful people in my life past and present.  If you feel like it, leave a comment telling everyone what it is that you are grateful for today. 

Thanksgiving is also the unofficial, secular start of our holiday season.  I'd like to take a moment to wish everyone happiness and joy now and throughout the coming New Year. 

Recipe: Eclipse Cookies

Recipe Source: Stewart, Martha.  Martha Stewart's Cookies.  Clarkson Potter Publishers, New York, 2008 p. 213

When I was a kid, most bakeries had these cookies.  They were like flat little cakes and frosted.  One half of the frosting was white and one half was black.  We called these cookies "Half-Moons."  When I came to Boston I looked for them, and I've looked for them ever since.  I can occasionally find them in the bakery section of some of the larger Stop-and-Shop groceries, in the more Italian neighborhoods, but only pre-packaged and wrapped in plastic.  They're sold under the name "Black-and-White" cookies, which is the name Martha Stewart uses in her book, and they don't taste quite the same.  Still, they're better than having NO half-moon cookies, so I buy them on the rare occasions I go to Stop-and-Shop.  I had a major craving for them the other day, and so decided to make them myself. 

I hate to say it, but the Martha recipe wasn't quite right either.  I wonder if it's something as simple as the water?  I never thought I'd miss Syracuse water, especially since I won't drink it without a filter, but maybe that's the source of the difference.  Anyway, the only real substitution I made was the buttermilk, which I replaced with yogurt.  The reason for the substitution was very simple: this was not a planned recipe and buttermilk is not an item I stock on a regular basis.  Yogurt, on the other hand, is.  The yogurt doesn't seem to be the reason it doesn't quite work. 

The frosting, I must say, was a little over-lemony.  I like the taste of lemon very much, but not necessarily when mixed with chocolate.  The frosting also frustrated me to no end, but it's more my fault than the recipe's fault.  I added too much water to the frosting when I was mixing it, and as a result the white frosting was more like a glaze.  Honestly, it looked (and acted) like the stuff on Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  The chocolate glaze had a better consistency and tasted great.  After I tried three or four times to get the glaze to act like a frosting on the cookies, I gave up and made them all-chocolate frosted cookies.  They no longer looked like half moons.  However, the little bit of cookie peaking around the chocolate frosting on the edge kind of reminded me of an eclipse.  I therefore give you... (insert off-key trumpeting here) Eclipse Cookies.  They don't stay fresh for more than a couple of days, but you won't need to worry about that.  Trust me. 

Eclipse Cookies (makes about 36; approx. $0.11/cookie)

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup fat-free yogurt

2 cups confectioner's sugar

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon light corn syrup

2 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon water, plus more if needed (be very conservative with this...)

1 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

Equipment:

• Sifter
• Paper plate
• Stand mixer with paddle attachment
• Small bowl
• Whisk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt onto the paper plate.  If you'd rather not use something disposable, use a flexible cutting mat instead.  You can use a bowl, too, but the ability to fold the vessel will make cleanup much easier. 
3. Put the butter into the bowl of the mixer and mix until creamy, about 2 minutes.
4. Add the sugar.  Mix until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
5. Add egg and vanilla.  Mix well.
6. Mix in the flour and the yogurt in alternating batches (ie, first 1/3 flour, then 1/2 yogurt, repeat).
7. Roll tablespoons of dough into balls. 
8. Drop the balls onto lined baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart.  They will spread. 
9. Bake 10 minutes, rotating halfway through.
10. Remove the cookies to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.  If you can hide them from the dog, you can go watch the Celtics game.  This is what I did, and I don't even LIKE NBA ball. 
11. Make the icing.  Whisk the confectioner's sugar, corn syrup, lemon juice, vanilla and water in the small bowl until smooth.  You want a consistency slightly thicker than honey.
12. Add the cocoa powder.  Whisk well.
13. Frost cookies.  Let stand until set, 30 minutes. 

Recipe: A Very Rummy Pumpkin Pie

My mother has asked me to bake and bring a pumpkin pie to Thanksgiving this year, and I have agreed.  I am very happy to do this, and very eager, but there's one problem: I don't like pumpkin pie.  I therefore have no actual frame of reference for when a pie tastes good.  I did research a few different pie recipes, many of which called for very similar ingredients.  Unfortunately, when it came time to do the test batch, I lacked some of these ingredients.  My husband had also asked me to "add some rum" to the filling.  He did not actually specify the quantity of rum.  Maybe I should have guessed that he meant something along the lines of a shot of rum, but I didn't, and I added a lot of rum.  A lot of rum indeed.  I added about 3/4 cup of rum. 

I did a few things differently from most of my sources.  For starters, I used a puff pastry crust instead of a normal crust.  I'd made some cheater's puff pastry for a previous recipe (that I scrapped) and wanted to get it out of the kitchen.  I also substituted cardamom for the cinnamon in most pumpkin pie spice mixtures.  I did this less for the exoticism of cardamom than because my mom can't have cinnamon.  Unfortunately, I couldn't taste the cardamom to determine whether or not it was a good choice.  I tasted rum.  I also didn't have evaporated milk, due to an error on my part, and used light cream instead. 

All this probably makes this recipe seem like something out of Thanksgiving Horror Stories Volume Three, but that wasn't really the case at all.  While I didn't care for it, I don't care for pumpkin pie so I didn't expect to like it.  My husband enjoyed it.  My dinner guests seemed to like it.  When I make it for my actual family I'll probably use a normal crust.  I'll probably use less rum, too, but who knows? 

Very Rummy Pumpkin Pie (serves 8; approx. $1.10/serving)

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed (or make your own)

1 can pure pumpkin puree (unsweetened, please!)

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 eggs

3/4 cup light cream

3/4 cup dark rum

1 pinch ground cloves

Equipment:

• 9" pie plate
• Pie weights (optional: I line the crust with tin foil and fill it with dried beans)
• Large mixing bowl

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. Roll out the puff pastry until it can line your pie plate.
3. Line the pie plate with the crust.
4. Either weight down the crust with the pie weights or follow the directions under "Equipment."
5. Bake the crust for 15 minutes.
6. Remove the weights (and foil, if using) and bake another 15 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, whisk the remaining ingredients in the large mixing bowl. 
8. Reduce oven temperature to 325.
9. Fill the pie with the filling.  Bake about 50 minutes, until the center is mostly set but still a little wobbly. 
10. Let cool completely and chill.
11. Serve cold.

Recipe: Corn and Lentil Succotash

Recipe Source: Brigsten, Frank.  Bon Appetit vol. 49 no. 11 p. 198, November 2004

You nice folks are going to think that I must be the world's single most disorganized cook.  I have to admit that you probably wouldn't be far from wrong, at least over the past week or so.  Every time I went to cook a dish I found I was missing an ingredient - either something that I was sure I had, or something I'd just passed over in the store.  That's certainly the case with this recipe.  It was intended to be a Black-Eyed Pea Succotash, and I was very confident that I had black-eyed peas in my possession.  In my defense, I did look at the pulse section of my local Whole Foods just to be on the safe side, but they hadn't any.  That's fine, I said to myself as I stalked away from the aisle, cursing.  I have plenty at home.  Right?  Not so much.  If I have them, I cannot find them.  I'm sure they'll turn up again sometime when I least need them, like when I'm looking for something like pasta. 

I did have one type of pulse.  I had lentils.  I had an absolute boatload of lentils.  I'd bought them for that event I did back in September, when I'd planned to make a Byzantine lentil dish but had to scrap it when it didn't scale up well.  I'd been enthusiastic about the lentil dish because I got the lentils at an absolutely dirt cheap price.  I decided to go ahead and use lentils for this dish instead, despite it turning from an American Southern type of dish to a more Middle Eastern Fusion type of dish.  Oh well.  The lentils actually gave this a really tasty flavor and (I felt) really brightened up this dish.  It makes an absolute ton, but you can certainly save it and eat more of it later in the week.

I did make a few other changes as well.  I didn't have "hot sauce" - I suspect my husband hid his so he'd have some for himself.  I used a Thai hot chile paste and accidentally poured more of it than I needed to into the dish.  I didn't have creole mustard.  I had horseradish mustard.  I also didn't bother measuring the quantities of peppers, figuring that when it comes to raw vegetables more is really unlikely to hurt. 

Corn and Lentil Succotash (serves 10; approx. $0.69/serving)

6 cups water

1 cup red lentils

1 teaspoon salt

1 bay leaf

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1 1/2 tablespoons horseradish mustard

1 tablespoon honey

1/4 cup chile sauce

3 tablespoons olive oil

16 ounces frozen corn, thawed and brought to room temperature

1 red onion, minced

4 scallions, thinly sliced

1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced

1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced

Equipment:

• Saucepan
• Colander
• Small bowl
• Whisk

1. Bring the water and salt to a boil.
2. Add the lentils and bay leaf.  Return to a boil.
3. Reduce heat and simmer 35 minutes.
4. Drain.  Remove the bay leaf. 
5. Whisk the vinegar, honey, chile sauce and mustard together in the small bowl.  Set aside. 
6. Mix the corn, onion, scallion and bell peppers together in the serving bowl.
7. Stir in the lentils.
8. Add the dressing from the small bowl and toss well to coat. 
9. Serve. 

Recipe: Beet and Apple Salad

Recipe Source: Trutter, Marion.  Culinaria: Russia.  H. F. Ulman, 2007 p. 142

If you've read this blog before, you're already aware that beets are not high on my list of foods to eat.  Yes, they can grow in my area.  Yes, they're usually reasonably inexpensive.  Yes, they're seasonal and no, I don't care.  There's something about the smell of beets cooking that has always just turned me right off.  This was a vast disappointment to my husband, who is very fond of beets.  Fortunately for him, in March Helen of Food Stories helped me to understand that raw beets can be very tasty, or at least not actively offensive.  I made this dish for my husband recently, and he really enjoyed it. 

Now, the first change is obvious: I eliminated the cooking step.  Instead, I used my food processor's grater attachment to grate both the beet and the apples.  I also reduced the amount of beets, increased the amount of cannelini beans and used a little bit more green mix than was really called for.  I substituted rice vinegar for the white vinegar because my white vinegar had gone missing, which wasn't a bad thing as I generally prefer rice vinegar.  Finally, I eliminated the oil, as my husband prefers to avoid oily foods.  This was ultimately a pretty successful side salad and I'm sure it will be making another appearance on my table. 

Beet and Apple Salad (serves 4; approx. $1.86/serving)

1 beet, peeled

2 apples, peeled and cored

1 can (14 oz.) of white or cannelini beans, drained and rinsed

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

1 package salad mix

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

Equipment:

• Food processor with grater attachment

1. Use your food processor to grate the apples and beet. 
2. Arrange the greens on a serving platter.
3. Arrange the beans on top of the greens.
4. Add the apples and beets on top of the beans.
5. Drizzle with the rice vinegar.
6. Season with kosher salt and black pepper to taste and serve. 

Recipe: Clam and Butternut Squash Stew

Recipe Source: Samuelsson, Marcus.  Discovery of a Continent.  John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, 2007 p. 108.

I recently decided that I was craving shellfish.  This is not in and of itself unusual for me; I'm very fond of shellfish and only recently got over my fear of cooking them.  I wanted to make something a little unusual, and I figured that I would find something that fit the bill in the sampler of various African cuisines that Marcus Samuelsson gave us.  I was not disappointed.  This stew, the proper name for which I'm told is "Malata," captured my imagination and my taste buds.  For two weeks, though, it got pushed back.  Finally, though, I managed to serve this for a Sunday dinner, and I was not disappointed. 

I made a few changes out of necessity.  First, I replaced the peanut oil and the peanuts with olive oil and cashews.  I'm allergic to peanuts, so the change was necessary.  I chose olive oil because that's what I keep on hand, and I chose cashews because I find that they offer a similar texture to peanuts.  They also happen to taste really, really good.  I didn't have birds-eye chilies.  What I did have were long, thin green chilies that my husband harvested just before the first frost.  I had them on hand and they needed to be used, so in they went.  I used jarred ginger for the ginger, because it keeps longer than ginger root and is easier to use.  Samuelsson actually called for a specific number of littleneck clams, but I used two pounds of a different breed of clams from Maine.  It was more convenient to buy clams packaged that way, and it supports a local economy to boot.  I thought I had bottled clam juice on hand, but it seemed to have disappeared and so I used store-bought seafood stock instead.  I used a lot more thyme than called for, due to an inopportune sneeze, but the taste was actually very welcome in this dish.  Finally, I did not measure out the cups of spinach.  I just used a whole bag.  I was very happy with this dish, however little resemblance it might have had to the original.  (Apparently pumpkin and pumpkin leaves are more authentic, but pumpkin leaves are rather difficult to come by so Samuelsson used spinach instead.) 

Clam and Butternut Squash Stew (serves 4; approx. $5.56/serving)

1/3 cup olive oil

8 ounces roasted cashews

1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks

1 onion, diced

4 tablespoons minced, jarred garlic

4 birds-eye chilies, chopped

3 tablespoons minced jarred ginger

2 lb clams

1/2 cup seafood stock

1/2 cup dry white wine

2 tablespoons thyme

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 package fresh spinach

2 limes, quartered

Equipment:

• Large saute pan
• Bowl

1. Heat the oil in the saute pan over high heat. 
2. When the oil shimmers, add the cashews, the squash, the onions and the garlic.  Saute for about 10 minutes, until the onion is translucent.
3. Add the chilies and ginger.  Cook another 10 minutes or so. 
4. Add the clams, stock, wine, thyme and salt.  Cover and cook until the clams open, another 10 minutes or so. 
5. Transfer the clams to a large bowl.  Discard clams that don't open! 
6. Add the spinach to the pan, cover and cook until the spinach is just wilted.  This shouldn't take very long. 
7. Return the clams to the pan and cook until reheated through.
8. Transfer to the serving vessel and serve with the lime wedges.