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Tuesday,
February 9, 2010
This
Week's Theme:
Favorite Ingredients - Beans
Today's
Recipe: Wild Rice and Chickpea Salad
(Please see the Archive links in the column on the right
for previous recipes)
Today's
Sponsors
Many thanks to Pamela Schwartz for subscribing to
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Food
Funny
Many thanks to the Reverend
Dr. Brian Evans for this one:
A man went to the hotel
restaurant to order breakfast. He told the waitress
he wanted runny eggs, burnt toast, and cold coffee.
The waitress told him they couldn't serve breakfast
like that, to which he replied, "Why not, you did
yesterday."
Quizine
Question
Cynthia MacGregor, Editor
The spicy Mexican sauce known as
mole is best known for mixing spices with chocolate. But
what does the word mean?
Subscribers to the PLUS
Edition will receive the answer to today's Quizine
Question by email. For complete details see the
PLUS Edition page.
A
Word
from the Chef
A couple more accounts of
culinary victory, but first, the prize- winning
recipe Virginia Ridgeway told us about yesterday:
Veal Chops with Shiitake
Mushroom Sauce
4 one-inch-thick veal T-bone
chops
2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
1 shallot, chopped
12 oz fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1 C dry white wine
1 C veal or beef stock
1 C heavy cream
3 T chopped fresh tarragon
Salt, pepper to taste
Heat a large heavy skillet
then add about 3 T olive oil and brown the chops
about 4 to 5 minutes per side. Reducing the heat to
medium, add the chopped garlic and shallots to cook
while the chops are browning. When the chops are
turned (after cooking the first side) add the
shiitake mushrooms and stir them up. Let the
mushrooms cook, soften and take on color. Add the
white wine and veal stock and continue to cook the
chops on medium to medium high for about 20 minutes.
Remove the chops to a platter and keep warm. Turn
the heat up to high and reduce the sauce until about
1/4 to 1/2 cup remains. Add the cream and reduce
again until about 1/3 to 1/2 cup remains. Stir in
the tarragon and taste for seasoning. Add salt and
freshly ground pepper to taste. Plate the chops and
lap the mushroom sauce over them. Serve with roasted
new potatoes and steamed sugar snap peas.
I suggested they serve it
with their Merryvale 1989 Reserve Oakville Grade
Cabernet. (That was the shameless plug... must have
worked!) - Virginia
When my daughter was about
to turn 30 my son-in-law asked me to help him with
the party. My part was to prepare a meal for about
40 people. I wanted something really special but
after several web searches could not come up with
anything I deemed worthy of the occasion that would
be practical for so large a gathering. I did find a
stuffed chicken breast recipe that I could adapt
(the original had rosemary in it and I don’t care
for that particular herb). I did a few trial runs
taking them to my office for my workmates to
critique and offer suggestions. The final version
was chicken breasts stuffed with a ricotta cheese
and spinach mixture topped with bread crumbs and
Parmesan cheese and baked in a wine sauce. I served
it with pasta in a simple cream sauce and the meal
was a big hit. There were no leftovers and everyone
at the party told me how wonderful the meal was. My
family still requests it at family gatherings and
I've made it many times in the ensuing years. I
usually make 10-12 breasts at a time (12 large
breasts easily makes 24 servings) but any leftovers
are taken home by my children as it is almost as
good eaten cold the next day. - Dianne Eiler
My most successful kitchen
stories aren't recipes, but things I learned from my
mom. Kids would go home and change their Halloween
costumes to try to get one more popcorn ball back in
the day when it was okay for folks to hand those out
for Halloween. Mom always added a teaspoon of
vanilla to the corn syrup mixture (soft ball stage;
and she taught me to put the cold water for testing
the stage of the syrup in a coffee cup) before it
got poured over the popped corn.
Replace the oatmeal or bread
crumbs in salmon patties (croquettes) with two
fistfuls of crushed wheat cereal such as Wheaties
for more flavor. Note; average women-sized handfuls.
Once you have crushed them, break the two eggs to
bind over them, and after they have soaked for a
while, add the canned salmon, then use your potato
masher to thoroughly mix everything. The bones are
all very soft and high in calcium, so try to get
those crushed, unless your family already knows of
their softness so will chew on them along with the
rest of the food.
Parsley makes most savory
dishes better, from the potato salad I wrote of
previously to the salmon patties, as well as her
wonderful peas in cream sauce and hamburger cabbage
soup.
I did enter her instructions
for making strawberry shortcake in a contest at a
website for Old Farmer's Almanac, and the judges
liked that enough that I won a cookbook from them. -
Yvonne in Omaha, NE
In
Today's PLUS Edition
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Today's
Second Recipe: Peanut Soup
Today's bonus recipes from the WWR Archives:
Chicken and Winter Vegetable Casserole; Chicken with
Chickpeas and Almonds; and
Three Grain Salad
Readers'
Recipes: Pea and Feta Salad;
Chocolate-Strawberry Mousse; Rucola e Pecorino; and
"Pizza" Sandwiches
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Today's
Recipe
Wild rice and garbanzo beans
(both canned and dried) are two items I'm never
without. Here is one reason why:
Wild Rice and Chickpea Salad
1 1/2 cup (375 ml) wild rice
1/4 cup (60 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
3 Tbs (45 ml) lemon juice
1 Tbs (15 ml) Dijon mustard
1 Tbs (15 ml) honey
1 tsp (5 ml) ground cumin
1 tsp (5 ml) curry powder
Cayenne pepper to taste
2 scallions (spring onions), green and white parts,
finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 15-oz (425 g) can chickpeas (garbanzos), rinsed
and drained
1/4 cup (60 ml) golden raisins (sultanas)
Cook the wild rice in boiling salted water until
tender, about 45 minutes. Drain, rinse with cold
water, and drain again. Whisk together the olive
oil, lemon juice, mustard, honey, cumin, curry
powder, cayenne, salt, and pepper. Combine the wild
rice, dressing, and the remaining ingredients in a
large bowl and toss gently to combine. Serve at room
temperature. Serves 4 to 6.
Reader
Review
 Reader
Virginia Ridgeway writes:
I love it when everything
comes together. I had asked my lovely husband to buy
this cookbook for me for Christmas. I am currently
swept up in a curing meat adventure. I had been
curing and smoking my own bacon for a couple of
months and wanted to try my hand at pastrami making.
I had heard about Michael Ruhlman's Charcuterie and
figured it would have a lot of great information for
me. So, sure enough, I did get this book.
While I was off during the
holidays, I made a batch of Italian Sausage from the
book. Today I saw your Portuguese Kale Soup recipe
and thought, that's dinner tonight! (I conveniently
had just gotten a bunch of kale on Sunday.) I used
my Italian sausage in the soup and it was fabulous!
So again, many thanks to you Joe, for giving us a
platform to share recipes, share ideas, share
recommendations and to receive the same from you.
Click here for more information.
Tell us about your
favorite cookbook, kitchen tool, or gourmet
food by sending a brief review to
Review@wwrecipes.com
And please don't forget to include the link to
Amazon.com or
the ISBN or ASIN number.
Kitchen
Tip
Thanks to reader Laurel
Jackson for today's helpful hint:
I hardly quite know just
where to begin here other than to tell you about the
wonders of white (or perhaps any) vinegar… it’s
something I use regularly, particularly when it
comes to the dishwasher - tip a good cup plus into
your dishwasher on a regular basis. The next tip is
for your washing machine: we use a front loader
washer which is getting on in years. Instead of
using all that lovely "smelly stuff" fabric
conditioner, please use white vinegar - it'll save
you heaps and won’t clog up the "works."
Summer brings its own pest
problems and that’s where vinegar makes a great
contribution to keeping us sane. Right now (in
Sydney) it’s a bit humid and those little black ants
are trying to make a nuisance of themselves. We had
some running around on our counter tops. I looked
for their entry point (but wasn't able to find it)
and was almost going crazy – tried using lots of our
bay leaves, sprigs or rosemary etc., you name it I
had those all ‘round the place to no avail. I don’t
know what prompted me to pour some white vinegar on
a sponge and wipe around all surfaces but no more
ants. I could hardly believe the following morning,
not an ant in sight. I therefore declare white
vinegar the way to keep ants away. I'd recommend (if
you have this problem) to have a spray bottle with a
half vinegar/half water ready for your summer.
If you have a handy solution to a common kitchen
problem, please send it to
Tips@wwrecipes.com
Culinary Chronicles
Karlis Streips, Editor
Bird, bird, bird is the
word!
First of all, sorry to
anyone who read the headline and now can’t get Peter
Griffin’s version of the song on "Family Guy" out of
their head. Today’s specifically British food is
Bird’s custard powder...
Subscribers to the PLUS
Edition receive the complete Culinary Chronicle
delivered conveniently by email every day. See the
PLUS Edition page for details.
Ask the
Chef
Sue Tilcock of Lewisville,
Texas asks: I have a few recipes including some from
you that call for white pepper. Is there any
difference other than color between black and white
pepper and is it only for looks that white is called
for? Are they interchangeable?
The Chef answers: Black,
white, and green peppercorns are the berries that
grow in grape-like clusters on a vine (Piper nigrum)
native to Indonesia and India. Black peppercorns,
the world's most popular spice, are picked before
the berries are ripe and dried until the skin is
black or dark brown and wrinkled. It is the
strongest flavored of the three. White peppercorns
are allowed to ripen on the vine before the skin is
removed and the berries are dried, and are somewhat
milder than the black peppercorns. Green peppercorns
are picked under ripe and either dried or preserved
in brine, and it has a fresher, less pungent flavor
than the other two forms. The three can be used
interchangeably, causing only minor changes in the
flavor of the dish as noted. White pepper is usually
specified in order to avoid creating unsightly black
specks in the dish, especially in sauces and light
colored foods such as mashed potatoes.
Send your questions on
any topic, no matter how serious or silly, to
AsktheChef@wwrecipes.com - I can't answer them all,
but I'll publish one every day whether I know the answer
or not.
The
Last Morsel
Barbara Forsythe, Editor
I Crave Your Mouth
by Pablo Neruda
I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day
I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.
I hunger for your sleek laugh,
your hands the color of a savage harvest,
hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.
I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely
body,
the sovereign nose of your arrogant face,
I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes,
and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,
hunting for you, for your hot heart,
like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.
In "100
Love Sonnets: Cien sonetos de amor" translated
by Stephen Tapscott
Please address your comments regarding "The Last Morsel"
to editor Barbara Forsythe at
Barbara@wwrecipes.com
For an archive of all Morsels published in Worldwide
Recipes, plus Weekend Morsels for insatiable foodies,
please visit TheLastMorsel.com
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