For Milehigh

Paul and I have this some weekends for lunch, it's fabulous. :)

Chile-Garlic Grits

2-3+ cloves garlic, minced

2/3 c grits (this is really 2 scoops of grits from the white spoon I keep next to the stove)

2-3 T smoked paprika (you want enough to make the grits orange-ish)

1-2 T nutritional yeast

Saute garlic in olive oil or butter for 30 seconds or so. Add the grits and some water - I usually keep a kettle of nearly boiling water going while I cook grits so that I can add more if they need to cook a little longer. Boil until cooked to the consistency you like. Add paprika - any powdered chile you like is good here - and yeast.

I love alliteration!

J asked me to make some munch-able dessert for the LSU game; thus, the great cookie experiment round 46.

Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies

1c butter

.25c brown sugar

.75c maple syrup

3 eggs

1t vanilla

1.5t baking soda

.75t salt

1.5t cinnamon

.25t allspice

.25t nutmeg

1T cocoa powder - 'cause I saw it

2.5c whole wheat pastry flour

1c chickpea flour

2c chocolate chips

2c pecans, chopped

Cream butter and sugar. Stir in eggs one at a time, then the maple syrup. Stir in vanilla-cocoa powder. Stir in the chickpea flour, nuts, and chocolate. Lastly, stir in the wheat flour. Bake @ 375-400 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Let cool for 5-10 minutes.

Semi-Fail

So I was trying to recreate the creamed lentils Paul and I ate at the Bay Leaf - an indian resurant. I totally failed to recreate the dish but what I made was really good. I took the little I knew about making indian style lentils, making indian curries, and combined that with internet suggestions for making creamed lentils. One of the recipes on the internet required 8 hours of simmering lentils which mildly flabergasted me. That recipe discarded, the rest of the recipes were very similar: onions, garlic, hot peppers, ginger, 4 different lentils, mung beans, tomatoes, cumin and corriander.

Four-Jewel Creamed Lentils or Lentil Slop (makes 14 cups)

1 onion, chopped

1 garlic head, minced

1 hot pepper, minced

3 Tbs ginger, minced

1 c red lentils

1 c brown lentils

1 c green lentils

1 c mung beans

2 28 oz. cans of crush tomatoes

1 Tbs cumin seeds (3/4 tsp if ground)

1 Tbs corriander seeds (3/4 tsp if ground)

Saute onion, garlic, ginger, and hot pepper in oil until begining to brown. Add lentils and mung beans. Cover with 2 inches of water above the lentils and simmer for ~30 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and salt to taste. Simmer until thick enough to eat over rice.

Green Bean Scene

 It's time again for our annual inundation of green beans. During this season we have: the traditional green beans and potatoes, green beans teriyaki, green bean curry, green bean salad, green bean tempura, roasted green beans, and green bean satay. Though I love green beans (ours are actually purple), I eventually tire of the texture of green beans and made up this soup for those times.

Green Bean Soup - French Style 

2 onions, chopped

5-7 garlic cloves, chopped

2 Tbs thyme leaves (use 1 tsp if dried)

1lb potatoes, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

2lbs green beans, trimmed

1/2 c parsley, chopped

6-8 c stock or water

1 lemon, juice and zest

Saute onions, garlic and thyme in oil until the onions are softened. Add and brown potatoes, carrots and celery. Add and simmer green beans, parsley, and stock for ~30 minutes or until green beans are soft. Add lemon juice and zest. Puree soup until smooth. Salt to taste.

Makes ~14 cups.

What makes this "French Style" are the mirepoix, thyme, parsley and lemon. If I had wanted to do "Mexican Style," I would have changed the carrot and celery for some type of chile (probably chipolte since I love them), the thyme for oregano, the parsley for cilantro and the lemon for a lime. The style depends mainly on what mood I'm in, what I have on hand, and which nationality I wish to offend with my generalizations on their cuisine.

Strawberry Jam

Dad has been bringing me strawberries ever since they've had then at the Denham farmer's market. I've thoroughly enjoyed them - eating them raw; making sorbet; cooking them into random dishes and this week making jam. It's been a while since I made strawberry jam since I wasn't thrilled with my last foray into making strawberry jam. However circumstances - only having half a jar of homemade blueberry jam left and having six pints of fresh strawberries - compelled me to try my hand again at making strawberry jam.

I've leveled up some in jam-making since my last attempt - the last strawberry jam being my first jam ever. I was amazed at how much easier it was to make the strawberry jam, now that I have some vague idea of how to make jam. I had six pints of berries so I knew I needed one box of pectin and that one cup of the sugar seems to get used up with the jam making process. The extra sugar for the jam making process is where I went wrong previously. The "trick" is that you have to get the jam as sweet as you want and then add another cup of sugar for each box of pectin you use.

Strawberry Jam

6 pints raw strawberries, halved or chopped
3 cups sugar
1 box pectin

Pour sugar over the cut berries, stir and let them alone for an hour or so; stirring occasionally if you like. Once some juice has been drawn from the strawberries by the sugar, simmer the berries until the they are translucent. Let the berry mixture cool until it is room temperature (you can stick it in the fridge overnight). Now, this is the tricky part you want to add a little bit of berry mixture to the pectin to make a paste and then slowly dilute the paste with more berry mixture until you've added ~2 cups of the berry mixture. By doing this, you're trying to avoid getting lumps of pectin in your jam. Add the pectin mixture to your berry mixture and stir to combine. Boil for one minute and then can if you wish.