I'm thankful, however, for a few things that are getting me through it all: Jimmy has been wonderful--waiting on me hand and foot.  And to stop from being insanely bored, I spent a lot of time futzing around with the HTML of the site and am quite pleased with the new Caviar and Codfish layout (please let me know what you think!).  Then there's the handful of recipe posts that I've got sitting on the back burner, just waiting to be written and the photos to be uploaded.  These posts (along-with a few Tivo'd cooking shows---Jamie at Home, Mexico: One Plate at a Time---that I haven't had the time to watch until now) should keep me busy.  And finally, there's gingerbread.  I knew that after my shot, the chances of being laid out were pretty great, so I made sure to bake something this weekend.  And something is right.  This gingerbread is warm, spicy, and not too sweet---the perfect treat to get me through.

While this gingerbread is certainly healing, I can also imagine it for a sophisticated tea-party treat.  Less sweet than your holiday gingerbread, using only a small amount of brown sugar and molasses, this cake focuses more on buttery moistness and its dominating fresh ginger flavor. The pear to use in this cake should be firm but fragrant, so it keeps its shape while baking but also has a sweet pear taste.  Pair it with a nice oolong, break out your good tea set, and you've got the blueprint for a perfect, breezy autumn afternoon.

Dark Gingerbread Pear Cake

Makes one 9-in cake//from Gourmet, October '08

Anyone notice the picture of this cake in Gourment Magazine?  It was a flat cake with the pear bits on the bottom - not how the cake comes out when made according to the magazine's directions.  What's up with that?  Am I missing something?

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup molasses (not robust or blackstrap)
• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 cup grated peeled ginger
• 1 Bosc pear

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch cake pan, knocking out excess. Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and salt. Melt butter with water.

Beat together brown sugar and molasses with an electric mixer until combined. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well. Beat in flour mixture at low speed until just combined. Add butter mixture and ginger, beating just until smooth. Pour into cake pan.

Peel pear and cut into 3/4-inch pieces. Scatter over batter. Bake until a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Cool slightly.

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 cloves
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup olive oil
2 eggs
1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Sift together dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients and combine with the dry mixture. Pour batter into a prepared loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour.

3 tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion diced
2 cups carrots cut in 1/4 slices (about 6 purple carrots from my garden)
2 cloves of garlic sliced
1 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped (1 tsp dry)
1/2 tsp salt (more or less depending on how salty your broth is)
1 cup quinoa
4 cups broth (chicken or vegetable)
1 cup water
1-2 cups tomatoes chopped (and juices)
1 bunch swiss chard chopped into bite sized pieces

In a large pot heat oil over medium heat. Toss in onions and saute for 5 minutes or so. Add garlic, carrots, salt and thyme and continue to saute until the onions are soft and golden, and carrots have softened slightly, about 3-5 minutes more. Add the quinoa and stir. Turn heat up to high and add the broth and water. Bring to a boil then turn the heat down, cover and simmer for about 8 minutes. Toss in the chard stems, cover and continue to simmer for about 3-4 minutes. Stir in the chard greens and tomatoes with juices. Simmer uncovered for another few minutes until the greens and the quinoa are tender. Season with salt and pepper if desired.

This should make 4 generous meal portions or 6 or so side portions. If you have leftovers you may need to add a little more water when you reheat it because the quinoa will absorb most of the liquid when you store it in the refrigerator.

boxofbirds

I'm amazed at how beautiful my first souffle attempt turned out.  I had thought it was going to be a bit of a disaster...I'm TERRIBLE at baking.  It didn't get quite as tall as I was anticipating, which is something I think I can improve on next time, particularly after watching the souffle episode from my Jedi master, Alton Brown.  If you don't know already, Alton Brown is to cooking as Bill Nye was to science.  It all makes so much sense when he tells me what I'm doing and why what I'm doing works.  The best part is that all of his shows are up on YouTube, so I can watch them right when I need them, even more helpful since I don't have television.

I used some Parmesan Reggiano I picked up from the REAL cheese section of our grocery store, as well as a Chèvre, which I think is made locally, but I'll have to double check the brand.

Things I would do differently:

Use cold butter instead of the room temperature butter in the dish
Perhaps be a bit more careful about the coating the pan in cheese part, it really was a bit of an afterthought
Use an actual hand-mixer to beat the eggs (so, I was kinda lazy, and kinda just whisked it by hand for a few minutes instead of hunting down the mixer.  Sue me, it was 9:30 at night)

The timing worked out well doing both the souffle and working on the latkes at the same time.

I snagged the latkes recipe from a Williams Sonoma potato cookbook (which I can't find on their site anymore) Erik bought for me...I'm WILDLY into potatoes, I would eat them every meal if I could.  Which, luckily, back when I lived on my own I generally DID eat them everyday, since they're wildly cheap and so difficult to screw up.

The recipe calls for about 2lbs of peeled potatoes, and a decent sized yellow onion.  Split the potatoes and the onion into thirds and grate 2/3 of the potato and 2/3 of the onion with the big-hole side of a cheese grater (well, OK.  So the WS cookbook assumes you have a food processor with a shredder blade to do the work for you...but I'm poor, remember?)  The onions will be a bit of a pain to grate, since it's all layery like and onion should be, but I only like onions a little bit, so I wasn't too upset about throwing a little bit of onion away when I was too worried about putting a little bit of Amber into the latkes (not sure if Erik's into cannibalism or bloodplay yet, so I decided to leave myself "out of the mix" as it were.)  If you'll miss the extra onion, get a bigger onion so you'll have more to work with.  put the shredded product onto a big cookie sheet covered with paper towels to soak up all of the extra liquid.  Give it a good mix-around with your hands (err, spoon, assuming you're using the WS recommendation.)  This will keep the potatoes from discoloring from being in the air, because of the yummy onion juices.  Next you're going to cut that extra 1/3 of potato and 1/3 of your onion into tiny, tiny cubes.  Like, chicklets gum sized.  Well, you might not need it that small, but I'm OCD and I cut them all uniformly tiny.  Then you'll want to reunite the chopped parts with the grated parts, and give it all another really good mix with your hands.  Then, cover the top of the latkes mix with extra paper towel and start squeezing out all of the liquid.  Then get a second pan, cover that with paper towel, and squash it all out again.  In a bowl, combine two beaten eggs, 3TB flour, 3/4t baking powder and some salt and pepper (preferably fresh ground...but I ran out of chunky salt and peppercorns in my little hand crushers, and I haven't gotten around to refilling them yet.  But I would be using them if I could.)  Next, you want to toss all of the potato/onion into the bowl and give it a good mixing with your hands.  Turn on your oven to a low heat so you can pop the finished latkes into the oven while you're making the rest of them; although if your oven is full of souffle, this might not be the best plan.  Erik and I ended up eating the latkes as they were finished, in waiting for the souffle to be finished, so we never had any to worry about keeping warm.  You will want a plate covered in (yup, you guessed it) more paper towel to help drain off all of the oil that's going to be left on the latkes when you pull them out of the pan.  Speaking of which, you've gotten a frying pan with some oil in it starting to heat up, right?  I kept the heat a little above medium, but not quite halfway to high, which kept them from burning.  The best advice I can give you is this: More oil is BETTER.  When I tried using less (vegetable) oil to cook the latkes, they weren't as beautiful and golden brown everywhere.  If you keep a good 1/8th of an inch of oil or so in the bottom of your pan, the latkes will look MUCH better when finished.  To cook, you just take a spoonful of your mix, squash it up against the side of the bowl to try to drain any extra liquid that might be hang out, and plop the spoonful into the hot oil.  After a few minutes it'll get all nice and golden, then you just flip it and wait until it's finished.  We covered these with all sorts of yummy things we had in the fridge; raspberry jalapeño jelly, a cream cheese/red pepper blend, cock sauce, deli style mustard, etc.  They're really good with just about anything.

Ingredients:

1. 1  15-ounce package rolled refrigerated unbaked piecrust (2 crusts)
2. 2  medium baking apples, cored and chopped
3. 1/2  cup chocolate
4. 1/4  cup packed brown sugar
5. 2  tablespoons butter, melted
6. 1/8  teaspoon salt
7. Powdered sugar (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Let piecrusts stand according to package directions. In a medium bowl, combine apples,  brown sugar, melted butter, and salt. Set aside.

2. On a lightly floured surface, unroll one piecrust at a time. Using a round 3-inch cookie cutter, cut out dough. Reroll scraps once to cut enough additional rounds to make 24 total. Press dough rounds into 24 ungreased 1-3/4-inch muffin cups. Spoon about 1 tablespoon of the apple mixture into each cup. Add a layer of chocolate 'net' onto each cookie.

3. Bake in the preheated oven about 18 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Remove from muffin cups and cool completely on a wire rack. If desired, sprinkle cookies with powdered sugar. Makes 24 tartlets.

Storing:

Layer cookies between waxed paper in an airtight container; cover. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Deesse Notes:

It's originally an apple-toffee tartlet, wel I changed it into chocolate one because the one with toffee is unacceptably sweet. And choose less-sweet chocolate if possible. I highly recommend you to use 50~60%-cocoa chocolate.

Rate & Comment:

★★★★☆
Small in size, lovely, pretty good for party, quite easy to make it.

Hello, beautiful.

Bread is my second favorite thing to make, behind pie. But it's my favorite thing to eat. Especially warm with butter. Hot chocolate doesn't hurt either. (The portmanteau just sends me over the top.)

Lordy, I want to write more -- some lovely prose about the delights of bread, but I keep starting at the picture. The golden brown crust. The spongy middle. And I keep thinking of the flavor -- not overpoweringly banana-y, with the mildly nutty pecan, and sweet apple here and there, and just the slightest hint of cinnamon. But the pecans are soft, and the apple isn't too crispy, nor too mealy, keeping the texture relatively consistent, with just a bit of variety for fun. Moist, but not gooey. Soft, but not crumbly. I LOVE YOU, BANAPPLE-NUT BREAD! Marry me. Better yet, be my breakfast.

Make your own, I highly recommend it. The recipe? The recipe is modified from Betty Crocker's Banana-Nut bread so start there. Then do the following:

• Reduce bananas used to 2 medium (~3/4 to 1 cup mashed)
• Add one medium Gala apple, peeled, cored and diced (~1/4-inch pieces); I smashed the pieces up a bit with the bananas
• Add 1 tsp cinnamon to batter

Heaven is just a loaf pan (or two) away.

Ingredients:

Three red, yellow, or orange bell peppers

1 T Extra virgin olive oil OR 1 T water

1/4 Medium onion

1/4 green bell pepper, minced

1 large clove garlic, minced

salt and pepper to taste

2.5 cups cooked brown rice

1 small can tomato paste

1 spring fresh Rosemary, minced

1/2 large zucchini, grated

1 cup VEGGIE stock/broth

Directions:

Preheat Oven 350 degrees

Cut tops off of peppers and remove membranes and seeds: set aside hollow peppers and reserve the pepper tops for another tasty meal later!

In a small pan, saute garlic, onions, green bell pepper in extra virgin olive oil or Tbs water.  Saute a med-low until onions are translucent. 

Meanwhile, combine cooked rice, tomato paste, salt, pepper, and rosemary in a medium bowl and mix until rice is distributed thoroughly.  Once saute is ready add it to the rice mixture.

Next, simply fill each pepper with the rice mixture and enjoy the aromas!  They only get better!  Once each pepper is stuffed, place the three peppers in an 8X8 baking pan. 

Pour the VEGGIE stock/broth in the bottom of the baking pan so that the peppers are surrounded in broth.

Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes.  Then remove foil, add shredded rice 'cheese' flavored shreds on top of each pepper.  Cook peppers for 15 more minutes, uncovered. (Peppers should cook for 50 minutes total).

*Adding the rice 'cheese' after 35 minutes is optional.  Foil needs to be removed at the 35 minute mark regardless! 

The rosemary is really a nice touch! The flavors marinate in this recipe so nicely and it is a great dish!  Serve with salad, and a veggie as a side dish such as steamed yellow squash or a sweet potato!  I followed my meal with Chocolate Ice 'Cream' which I made the night before... but your dessert choice will have to be up to you!  If you can even fit dessert!  Enjoy!

California Black Mission Fig & Cardamon Aquavit

Bosc Pear, Madagascar Vanilla Bean and Black Peppercorn Aquavit

Concord Grape Sorbet

Golden Bell Pepper Sorbet

Stay tuned!

Oatbread.

1 liter Water
3 deciliter Oatgrains
2-3 teaspoons of Salt
50 grams of Yeast.
1.7 liters of Wheat flour
2 deciliter of mixed Seeds

- Soak the oatgrains and the salt in warm water for a while.
- When the mixture cooled off to the right temperature (for fresh yeast approximately 37 degrees), add yeast (dissolved in a little water), the wheat flour and the seeds.
- Stir with a wooden ladle to a smooth batter (rather loose).
- Let it ferment under a cloth approximately 45 minutes and pour out on a plate with the help of a ladle or steak shovel to 4 breads.
- Cook at 200 degrees around about 35 minutes.
- Brush bread with melted butter and let it cool down under a cloth.

I used a little bit too much flour, I would recommend not doing that it's suppose to be quite loose.. The fresh bread with just butter on it tastes absolutely amazing...

First, and much to my delight, I remembered that Antony Demetre uses Swiss Chard in a gratin. I've been making this for years now, but always using curly kale as it is impossible to get chard in the shops. I can't wait to try it with my own crop!

If you prefer something fancier how about Yotam Ottolenghi's Swiss Chard cakes with sorrel yoghurt sauce?

Don't ask me what they're like? I've never been able to find sorrel anywhere! If you have some though, give it a go and let me know.

And finally, another one I haven't made yet (because I'm usually cooking for 2), but which looks great, especially the combination of chard and beetroot, Skye Gyngell's Rump of lamb with roasted beetroot and swiss chard. (Be warned - for this recipe the meat needs preparation 24hours in advance)

Torta di nocciole (Hazelnut Cake)
Can be served with Moscato D'asti

1 Tb baking powder
3 eggs, separated
200g (7oz) sugar
125g (4oz) butter, melted and cooled
200g flour
200g hazelnuts, toasted, skinned and coarsely chopped (stick 'em in the blender!)
grated rind of 1 lemon
4 Tb milk

Beat baking powder with the egg yolks, add the sugar, butter, flour, hazelnuts, lemon rind and milk, and mix thoroughly. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then gently fold into the mixture. Pour into a buttered, floured 8in cake tin and bake in the over at 180°C (350°F) for 35 minutes* or until browned and a skewer comes out almost dry.

Traditionally this is a breakfast cake that you can serve with powdered sugar and yes, even the Moscato D'asti wine. However.... it is also quite tasty as a dessert with a quick homemade chocolate sauce. Just melt a chocolate bar (70-75% is good) with about 4 tablespoons of milk in a double boiler and there you have it. Drizzle or pour on your cake.., and enjoy!

*Marco, my Food & Wine teacher, had us bake ours in 2 cake tins and only for 20 minutes. They came out absolutely perfect. I attempted to reproduce the cake in my apartment this last week and baked it for 40 minutes.. the center was still gooey because I used the wrong pan to bake it in. Regardless, it was to die for!

Next... there will be an annoying © mark showing up on my pics, just in case there's another soul out there who might want to borrow a picture but forgot to ask permission.  I just like to know in what way my pics are being used, that's all.  Ü

Finally... in celebration and introduction of a new and festive season, I invite you to serve up these delicious autumn pancakes.                                      

Pumpkin Pancakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
¼ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 2/3 cups buttermilk ( I used coconut milk, cause that's what I had)
¾ cup pumpkin puree
4 tablespoons butter,  melted

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, pie spice, and salt.  Whisk until completely incorporated.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar and eggs until well blended.  Stir in the buttermilk, pumpkin, and butter.  (I suggest adding a tsp of vanilla and ½ a tsp of cinnamon as well.)   Add the dry ingredients into the wet and whisk until smooth. 
Heat a griddle or cast-iron pan over moderately high heat.  Brush lightly with oil.  Working in batches, drop batter by ¼ cupsful onto the griddle.  Cook pancakes until bubbles form on top , and bottoms are golden brown, about 2 ½ minutes.  Serve hot with maple syrup.

-Molly

Pumpkin Biscuits!

* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
* 1 tablespoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
>> OR 2 TB pumpkin pie spice
* 1/2 cup butter, sliced
* 2 cups pumpkin puree
* dash of vanilla

directions!

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Butter one large cookie sheet.

2. Stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and vanilla. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the pumpkin and mix to form a soft dough.

3. On a lightly floured surface pat the dough out to 1/2 inch thick. Cut out biscuits with a round 2 inch cutter. Place biscuits on the prepared cookie sheet.

4. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve warm from the oven.  YUM!

• Ingredients:
• 1/2 cup Olive Oil
• 2 1/3 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1 vidalia onion (or large white onion)
• 1 green bell pepper
• 3 large stalks of celery
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups okra
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp cajun seasoning
• 8 oz. Andouille sausage (medium)
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 5 1/2 cups chicken stock
• 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tbsp dried parsley (or 1 tbsp fresh)
• 2 tsp peppercorns
• 1/8 tsp crushed red pepper
• white rice

First of all, go to the grocery store and buy some fresh produce and meat, organic if you can afford it. I find that organic veggies and meats taste better and "fresher" than their non-organic counterparts; however, I am a graduate student living on a tight budget, so I can't afford to buy organic all the time. For this recipe, I splurged on the veggies but bought non-organic meat (and it was STILL expensive!).

Now that you're back home, make sure you have some counter space and a fairly clean and empty sink, because you're going to make a big mess and fill your sink with dirty dishes from cooking and then having your friends over to eat because you made too much gumbo. Kitchen clean? Good. Now we can begin.

Start by getting out a cutting board and a large knife and rinsing all your vegetables, and have some bowls or plates handy to put the vegetables and meat on when you're done chopping them. Start by dicing your onion; the size of the pieces doesn't matter too much, but try not to make them too gigantic or it'll take them forever to cook. If you have trouble with onions making your eyes water a lot, my mom recommends burning a tall candle near your work surface - the flame burns off some of the gas that makes your eyes water. I personally don't have much of a problem with vidalias. Once you're done with the onions, chop the green pepper and celery into small-ish pieces. I cut the bell pepper into fairly small pieces so it would cook faster and the celery into bigger pieces because I like to get big celery chunks when I eat soups and stews, but it's really up to you. Put all the onions, peppers, and celery on one plate. Chop the okra into thin rings.

Now that we're done with the veggies, set them aside. Put the okra in the fridge because we won't need it for a while. I covered my veggie dish with a paper towel so the onions wouldn't bother me while I was working. Rinse off your cutting board and knife, as both will probably be sticky from the okra, and get ready to chop some meat!

I started with the sausage. Mine came in a 14 oz. package, so I cut it about 2 inches down from the halfway point and used the bigger piece. I didn't want huge bites of the Andouille sausage because it has a bit of a kick, so I cut the sausage in little semicircles.

Sorry about the blurry picture. My hands were a little wet.

Now that you're done with the sausage, get started on the chicken. Clean any remaining fat off the breasts and chop the chicken into cubes a bit larger than bite-sized; they will shrink a little as they cook.

Now we're all set! Go ahead and clean your cutting board and knife, and quickly peel and chop your garlic into small pieces. Clean the countertop too - you'll need the space. I got everything I would need for the next few steps out ahead of time because I knew I'd be rushing around, but you don't have to.

Now get an average-sized soup pot out and start heating it on medium to medium-high. I used my grandmother's old soup pot that was bequeathed to me when I got my first apartment - it's about 20 years old, is missing one handle, and is the best pot ever. It's probably about 8 quarts.

Making the roux:

Add the 1/2 cup olive oil and let it heat up for a minute or two - it doesn't need to be sizzling, just warm. Then add the 2 1/3 cups flour; I added the full amount this time, but in the future I think I'll bring it down to 2 cups. Whisk the flour and oil together thoroughly.

Continue to whisk, almost continuously, for about 15 minutes. You have to keep whisking because otherwise the roux will burn on the bottom and then you have to start over. Don't burn the roux!

It's been 15 minutes, and my roux hasn't changed! My arm was tired, and I began to despair. I decided that I had used too much flour, and had to add a some more oil to compensate.

A roux is supposed to be much wetter than this. Adding oil should make it all better. By the way, you also use a similar roux process to make gravy, except you use the fat from whatever meat you just made instead of olive oil. Now whisk in the added oil....

Oh, no! My loose and wobbly whisk that I've had since my freshman year of college finally broke! Oh, well, guess I'll have to use my trusty wooden spatula. (I saved the head and grabbed it with a paper towel to use in the roux's final stages.)

Now that the roux is the right consistency, keep whisking (or spatula-ing) until the roux turns the color of caramel (or light milk chocolate if you want your gumbo to be browner, but be careful not to burn it!).

The roux will begin to sizzle and the parts that touch the bottom of the pot will start to brown. That's how you can tell it's done. You'll have to start whisking again pretty fast at this point or it will start to burn.

Once your roux is finished, turn the heat down to medium and add the onions, green peppers, celery, garlic, cajun seasoning, peppercorns, crushed red pepper,and parsely. I didn't actually measure the parsely - I just threw it in until I thought it was enough - but I tried to approximate a measurement above. If you don't have peppercorns, replace them with about a teaspoon of ground black pepper. Mix all of this stuff in with the roux (it will be hard to stir) and cook the veggies until the onions start to go translucent around the edges, stirring occasionally. It'll be about 5-10 minutes.

While this stuff is cooking, prepare the chicken stock. I used 4 cups of organic chicken stock from the store and supplemented it with almost 2 cups of chicken bouillon. Whatever you use, get about 2 cups of it nice and hot in the microwave once the veggies are almost done.

Then, once the veggies are ready, add the hot broth and mix well. Since it's hot, the roux that's coating the veggies should dissolve easily and you shouldn't have many lumps. Keep mixing until it's lump-free; it will get amazingly thick. This is normal. Turn the heat down to medium-low. Add the rest of the broth once the roux is dissolved, then add the worcestershire sauce and bay leaves. Stir well; it'll be very thick and resemble the thickest stew in the world.

While this mixture is heating up and the ingredients are getting friendly, get out a frying pan and start cooking the meat. Once it's warmed up, partially browned, and not looking so pitiful and raw, we'll add it to the gumbo.

Once the chicken cubes are white on all the edges, toss the meat into the pot. Or pour it if you're not a daredevil. It doesn't have to be fully cooked because it will finish cooking inside the gumbo; we just wanted to get it up to the same temperature as the rest of the gumbo and make it look pretty. Take the okra out of the fridge so it has some time to get up to room temperature.

Now your work is all done! Keep it on low, uncovered, for at least an hour. You can push it to 2 hours but I wouldn't cook it much longer than that. Stir it about every 15 minutes to prevent it from burning on the bottom of the pot. About 20 minutes before you intend to eat, add the okra. Mix it in well and cook it for no more than 30 minutes; we don't want it to overcook because it might turn to mush. If you wanted to add shrimp, it would need to be added at the same time as the okra. I myself am too poor for shrimp.

Congratulations! Your gumbo is complete! Turn the burner off, put a lid on it to prevent bugs from flying in, make some white rice to serve it over, and enjoy! My fiance and I live together, but this pot of gumbo was too much for us to eat alone. We invited some friends over and shared the joy. I still have leftovers.

Notice the fork. This gumbo was thick enough that no spoons were necessary.

I made this gumbo with minimal spice, because I don't always care to have my mouth burned off and because the people I was planning on serving this to have widely different tastes when it comes to degree of spiciness in food. I have one friend who can't handle hot food at all. So keep your audience in mind when you add the cayenne pepper; if you and your buddies all love hot food, go ahead and add more, but be careful. It's always better to need to add some red pepper or tabasco sauce than to not be able to enjoy your gumbo because it's too hot.

Recipe for Twice-Baked Shortbread

During an early fall picnic in Prospect Park, this honeybee was attracted by the first spiced cider of the season and fell into a cup. I scooped her out, and once dry she helped clean up the droplets left in the cup. She was not, however, much help with the crossword.

I share the bee's enthusiasm for warm cider fragrant with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, though I have yet to tumble into a cup of it. (Maybe I just need to find bigger cups.) Once the weather cools down and the greenmarkets fill with apples, I start lugging home cider to mull, drink cold, and use in other recipes.

The credit for this recipe goes to Ian, who loves cider more than any person or bee I've met. I usually just toss everything into a pot and strain it out, but he's devoted enough to tie whole spices in cheesecloth and carefully crush them to extract more flavor.

Mulled Cider

• 1/2 gallon apple cider, non-pasteurized
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 8 cloves
• 1 whole nutmeg
• Cheesecloth
• Cotton twine

Cut a 6 inch square of cheesecloth, double thickness. Place all the spices in a ziploc bag and smash with a meat mallet, steel travel mug, or whatever you have handy. Transfer the spices to the center of the cheesecloth square, gather the corners, and tie with a piece of twine. Pour the cider into a large nonreactive pot and add the spice bundle. Bring almost to a boil over high heat, then when the cider steams, reduce heat to low and simmer at least 15 minutes. The spices will continue to infuse the cider the longer it sits. If you like, you can add a 2-inch strip of lemon rind (bright part only) to the spice bundle. Don't add any additional sweetener, since the cider is sweet enough on its own.

I've stopped measuring. All quantities are approximate:

1.7 cups of flour

1/2 tsp salt

tiny bit of yeast

3/4 water - only use enough water so that all the flour is incorporated, and the mixture is slightly damp looking, but not wet and not dry

Let sit covered, but not airtight for about 12 hours

Start preheating oven to 450F with covered pot. Then scrape dough onto floured surface, fold twice, set seam-side down and then lightly dust with flour. Let the dough sit there until oven is preheated.  At temperature, slash bread top, pick up dough and put into pot. Cover. Bake for ~25 minutes. Turn oven off. Let sit for about 5 minutes. Cool.

I took a picture but I forgot to transfer it to my computer. Later.

By

VIKRAM KARVE

When I was a small boy in the nineteen sixties Pune was a “Tea Town”. Everyone drank tea and all over the town there were chiefly two types of tea for the laidback discerning gourmet Punekar to relish – AMRUT TULYA CHAHA at the ubiquitous Amrut-tulya Tea Shops in every nook and corner of Pune, and the peerless IRANI CHAI served by the numerous Irani Restaurants all over Pune City and Camp like Café Naaz, Lucky, Good Luck, Volga etc.

Amrut means Nectar, and Tulya means Comparable, so “Amrut Tulya” means “Comparable to Nectar” and indeed, true to its name, Amrut-Tulya Tea is comparable to nectar –  sweet, ambrosial, like the elixir of life! Amrut Tulya Chaha is not brewed in the traditional Tea service style – the tea is “cooked” in front of you.

Come, my dear Tea Lover, let me tell you how to make Amrut Tulya Chaha - The Art of Tea – Pune Style.

Assemble the following Ingredients for Two cups of Amrut Tulya Tea “Special Chaha”

Assam CTC Tea or, if you live in Pune, get the famous CTC+OP “Family Mixture” Tea Powder from your favourite “Tea Depot” in the heart of Pune City.

[By the way, the acronyms are: CTC – Crush, Tear, Curl; OP – Orange Pekoe; BOP – Broken Orange Pekoe].

Full Cream Buffalo Milk [I like Chitale’s]

Fresh Water

Sugar

Fresh Ginger Crushed [Better still you can crush the juicy fresh ginger with the chimta directly in the water-milk concoction to let the ginger juices flow out and blend in smoothly]

Cardamom – peel, crush and powder the pods

[NB – Amrut Tulya Tea is not your traditional Masala Chai so please don’t add any Tea Masalas or spices like clove, cinnamon, black peppercorns or herbs like gavati chaha (lemon grass?), tulsi leaves etc. and neither is it the “khada chamach” or “cutting” Chai so please don’t boil away to glory – remember, you must achieve Amrut Tulya Chaha of just the right consistency!]

In a brass vessel [or stainless steel, if you can’t get a brass vessel] mix one cup of water and one cup of milk. Add four teaspoons of sugar. Put on the stove. Medium heat.

Squeeze in a bit of crushed ginger and add a pinch of cardamom powder and the peel.

Lightly stir, let it warm, and bring to a boil.

Smartly add two teaspoons of tea powder and keep stirring gently to ensure the boiling concoction does not spill over. Keep boiling till the tea attains beautiful bright golden-orange colour – the moment you see a reddish tinge, give the heavenly brew a loving last stir, twirl the vessel, and sieve the Amrut Tulya Tea Special Chaha directly into the cups.

Sip the delicious tea slowly and mindfully, roll it on your tongue, let it emulsify in your palate, close your eyes, absorb, discern the flavour, the rich taste, relish every sip lovingly.

Tell me, isn’t Amrut Tulya Chaha lip-smacking tasty and soul-refreshing? Blissful ambrosia, an experience of nectar, isn’t it?

Now you know why they call it Amrut Tulya – comparable to Nectar!

VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright © Vikram Karve 2008

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

vikramkarve@sify.com

http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve

Vegan Strawberry Pancakes

1/2c Whole Wheat flour
1/2c AP flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/8 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Brown Sugar
1 c Soymilk (If you want these to be non-vegan, just use regular milk!)
2 tbsp Safflower oil (or any vegetable oil)
1c Pureed strawberries (I used frozen strawberries and they worked just fine!)
1/4 tsp Strawberry Flavoring.. this is VERY optional. The pancakes were great without them, I just tried it for the last few to see if it made a difference. They were better with it, but didn't miss out without it.

This is really easy, I'm tellin' yah!

Preheat your skillet to medium heat. While it's heating up, mix all the ingredients together until they're smooth. Once you have everything together, spoon it onto the skillet in whatever fashion you choose. I like to use a #30 IceCream disher to get the same size and portion for every pancake. You can use whatever you wish. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side and serve with your favorite syrup!

Enjoy.

I want to make these every morning. They're so darn easy! I hop you guys try this one out. This is a keeper.

Vegan broccoli rice au gratin:

• ½ c long grain brown rice and wild rice blend
• ½ c water
• ½ onion, finely chopped
• 2 c broccoli, broken in to flowerets with finely chopped pieces of stem
• ¼ c potato leek soup
• ½ c nutritional yeast flakes
• ¼ c grated soy cheese
• 1 T garlic powder

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Prepare rice and set aside. Bring water to a boil and add onion. Add the broccoli once the onion has become translucent. Cook the onion and broccoli for 2-3 minutes and then add the potato leek soup, nutritional yeast, soy cheese and garlic powder. Lower the heat and stir until well-mixed. Stir in the rice and pour resulting mixture in to a casserole dish. Bake the mixture for 30 minutes. Serves 2.

It was very savoury and had an excellent smooth and "cheesy" texture. The nutritional yeast provides an excellent boost of vitamin b12 and protein!

-Aly