DIY Condiments: Harissa

I first posted this recipe back in 2016.  Nothing has changed about it since then but it is so delicious I decided to post it again, since I featured it on Instagram.

Homemade is so much more fresh than what you can buy and tastes so much better.  And it’s so easy to make. I was hankering after a Tunisian soup recipe that calls for it so I decided it was time to make another batch. This will now go into pretty much everything I eat until it’s gone, at which time I will have to make it again.

As I suspect you will, too, if you decide to make it.

Home Cookin v9.81 Chapter: Spices Spreads Dips Sauces HARISSA 8 dried guajillo chilies, stemmed and seeded (about 2 oz)
16 to 20 chilies japones, or other small hot chilies (about 1 oz)
1 tsp caraway seeds
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp dried mint leaves (optional)
3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
1-1/2 tsp kosher salt
5 cloves garlic
Juice of 1 lemon

Put chilies in a large bowl and cover with boiling water. Cover and let sit until softened, at least 20 minutes. Heat the caraway, coriander and cumin in a small skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about four minutes. Keep the seeds moving in the skillet the whole time. Remove from the heat and let cool. Place the spices in a grinder with the mint and grind to a fine powder.

Drain the chlies and place them in a food processor. Add the spices, salt, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil and puree until the mixture is smooth, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. This will take 4 to 5 minutes, as you want to make sure there are no large flakes of the dried chilies in the mixture. Store the harissa in a glass jar covered with a layer of olive oil. Refrigerate, and replace the oil after every use. Makes approximately 1 cup.

adapted from recipe found at http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Harissa

exported from Home Cookin v9.81

DIY Condiments: Yucatecan Pickled Red Onions

I have had the recipe for these Yucatecan Pickled Red Onions for a while and I couldn’t stop thinking about the pickled red onions that came with the salad at one of my last pre-Covid meals out at Taste of Peru. Once we were in lockdown it seemed like a good time to try it. They are ready in four hours, which is a plus. They have no sugar which is also a plus. 

They are tart and delicious. Serve them as a topping for just about any dish - avocado toast, hummus, eggs, tacos, chicken, salads - they go with everything!

I used the recipe as I found at Saveur online so I will just link to it here.

If you are looking for a new way to spice up your dishes you should give this a try.  It's quick, simple and so so delicious!

DIY Condiments: Make Your Own Peanut Butter

Here is the recipe for making your own peanut butter.  Pay attention as it is incredibly complicated and you are liable to make many mistakes.

Place a pound of peeled roasted peanuts into the bowl of your food processor.*

Process for about four to five minutes until you have peanut butter.  If you are adding salt, start with 1/4 teaspoon and add it while the peanuts are processing after about three minutes.

*If you want to make chunky peanut butter, remove 1/4 cup of the peanuts and chop them to your desired consistency and then add them in at the end.

That's it.  Don't screw it up!

Quick Ketchup

Now that I am making my own ketchup I keep it in the freezer as I don't use it very often.  I mainly use a tablespoon or so at a time for cooking and it is easy enough to chip it out of the jar.

I used up the last of it a while ago, though, and have not needed it during the summer so I decided not to make more right away.  And then I decided to make Okonomiyaki over the weekend and I needed ketchup for the sauce.  I had neither the time nor the inclination to make a batch so I decided to try to make just what I needed with tomato paste and spices, figuring it would be fine for mixing with mayonnaise and soy sauce.

And you know what?  I think I like this better than the other version.  And I can whip up as much as I need whenever I need it.

I used this Tomato Powder from the Spice House to make my tomato paste.  It provides for a deeper and fresher tomato flavor than the canned tomato paste, and I can make as much or as little as I need so I don't have to try to figure out what to do with the rest of the can after I have spooned out the one or two tablespoons that I usually need for a recipe.  It also makes a flavorful thickener when you have a little too loose of a sauce for your sauteed vegetables.

If you ever find yourself in need of a little ketchup and you just squeezed the last little bit out of the bottle, this quick fix will come to your rescue.  And you might even find that you like it better than store bought.

Home Cookin v9.70 Chapter: Appetizers Spreads Dips Sauces
QUICK KETCHUP 2 tsp grapeseed oil
1/2 cup tomato paste, preferably made from tomato powder
1/4 cup water, or more as necessary
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground allsplce
1 tsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp cider vinegar

Heat oil over medium heat in small skillet. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, for a minute. Add the water and blend well. Add the spices, brown sugar, and vinegar and mix well. Lower the heat and let the mixture simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes, adding water as necessary.

10/29/2017

Exported from Home Cookin v9.70 (www.mountain-software.com)

DIY Chili Powder

This is a no-brainer about which I am somewhat embarrassed that it took so long for me to make.  In my defense, I have never been a big fan of chili powder.  Although I grew up in Texas, I was not exposed to much Mexican food (what we called Mexican food anyway; it was actually Tex-Mex) until after we had moved to Dallas from Houston when I was in the sixth grade.  I do have one memory of going to a small fast food-type restaurant in Houston when I was in elementary school where my father ordered tacos for everyone and I did not care for them at all.  The tacos consisted of dry pieces of beef folded inside of circles of something soft that looked almost like a pancake but tasted nothing like one.  This was long before the ubiquitous presence of Taco Bell (I am not sure there even were any in Texas at that time) so I did not even know what a taco was supposed to be.  Needless to say it was a long time before I had the slightest desire to sample any more Mexican Food.

A few years later in Dallas, my older sister and I want to Austin with my father and spent a week on his business partner's houseboat on Lake Travis.  It was not my first trip to Austin but it was the first trip I was old enough to remember.  We spent the whole time on the houseboat with his partner's wife and sons while my dad and his partner sold artificial trees at a truck sale in a furniture store parking lot (yep, that is what my father did for a living at that time).  The only time we went out that I can remember was for lunch at a Mexican restaurant, which was absolutely delicious.  I do not remember what we ate but I suspect it was enchiladas, rice and beans.  All that I remember is that it was spicy and fresh and delicious and I loved it.  Although I had not paid much attention to the scenery on the drive to the restaurant, on the way back I noticed that there seemed to be a Mexican restaurant on every corner.  "Gee," I thought to myself, "there must be a lot of Mexicans who live in Austin."  (Although we had covered Texas history in fourth grade and I knew that we had taken the land from Mexico, not having had much contact with anyone from the Latin American community I think I assumed they had all gone back to Mexico when that happened.  It was not until I took a Chicano politics course in college that I realized how truly ignorant I had been.)

Back in Dallas we would occasionally go to El Fenix or El Chico and order the enchilada plate.  This was about the same time that my mother discovered crispy tacos and Lowry's taco seasoning mix and taco night was brought into our monthly meal rotations and my brother, coming home from college in Austin, introduced us to his version of nachos - plain doritos with cheddar cheese melted on them topped with jalapenos and brioled.  Not long after that we discovered avocados, and guacamole replaced Lipton's Onion Soup dip as the party dish of choice.  Back in Austin for college I explored as many Mexican restaurants as I could, where I discovered such wonders as migas, huevos rancheros, chiles relennos, mole, breakfast tacos, and chorizo.  A friend of one of my housemates from the valley cooked up my first ever taste of fajitas in the fireplace of the huge house we were renting west of campus and another housemate introduced us to cilantro and life was complete.

What does this trip down memory lane have to do with chili powder? you may ask.  Very little, as a matter of fact.  There were only two dishes I made where I used chili powder.  The first was the chili that I had grown up eating that my mother made with a recipe she brought with her from Chicago that had tomatoes and beans in it and was basically just ground beef, onions, a can of tomatoes and a can of kidney beans with a tablespoon of chili powder added to it.  And when I finally got brave enough to make enchiladas I used chili powder in the sauce.   Chili powder has such a specific flavor profile that I associate so closely with chili that I do not find that I have much use for it outside of those two dishes.

So a bottle of chili powder could easily last me a few years.  In fact, I only recently used up the last of the bottle I bought somewhere around 2013.  And by recently, I mean sometime within the last year and long enough ago for me to have forgotten that I did not have any when I went looking for it to use in a new recipe I wanted to try and that is when I remembered that I did not have any.

So I decided that it was time to just make my own instead of buying it pre-blended.  As usual, I looked at several recipes online until I found a combination that made the most sense to me.  What I ended up with was the perfect blend of garlic, cumin, paprika and oregano.

You might notice that there is something missing from this recipe, and that would be the chili.  That was an intentional oversight.  Ever since I discovered that ever pepper has a unique flavor profile and a different kind of heat I have been collecting them.  It is no longer enough to have cayenne and red pepper flakes only in my spice cabinet.  In addition to the whole dried guajillo, pasilla, ancho and chilies de arbol (not to mention my latest discover of Korean chili threads) currently in my whole dried pepper drawer, I have ground aleppo, urfa, aji amarillo, and pasilla peppers as well.  I was trying to decide which one to add to my chili powder when I realized that if I didn't add any of them to the basic mixture, I could add whichever one I wanted when I was ready to use it, which effectively gives me five (at the moment) kinds of chili powder I can have at my disposal that would best suit the flavor profile of the dish I am making.  I actually even left out the cayenne on this mixture for the same reason.  So what was at one time something I would only use once or twice year has become something I find myself reaching for all the time.  And it takes literally minutes to make.

CHILI POWDER 2 Tbsp paprika
2 tsp oregano
1-1/2 tsp cumin
2 1-1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, if desired

DIY Tahini

Here's one more testament to the concept of necessity being the mother of invention. I had an eggplant, a lemon, and parsley so I decided it was time to make baba ghanouj. I roasted the eggplant, juiced the lemon, grated the garlic, chopped the parsley and sliced the scallions. But when it was time to add the tahini, I realized that it had been over a year (maybe even over two years) since I had used it. I opened the jar and took a sniff. It smelled ok, but it had an odd texture. I was afraid to use it.

That happens often to me with tahini. I will use it frequently for a while, and then I will forget about it. And it is expensive - too expensive to waste the way I had to waste this batch.  Not to mention that I was stuck with all of the other ingredients ready to go.

What to do? I always have sesame seeds in the freezer, so the thought occurred to me that I could try to make my own tahini.  I wasn't sure it would work, so I pulled out the small food processing attachment to my stick blender (and let me just say again how much I LOVE my stick blender) and started with 2 tablespoons of seeds. I had to keep opening it up and pushing the seeds down, but it did start to look a little like tahini.  I added a little olive oil to help smooth it out and ended up with a thick paste that looked more chunky than creamy, but it did the trick and saved my baba ghanouj.

Happy with my success, I went online to see if I could improve the process. I did find a few suggestions that made sense. The first was to toast the seeds before grinding them. That not only made a difference in the flavor, but seemed to help break down the seeds into a paste.

I now make my own tahini.  It does not taste better than store-bought, and actually has more ingredients than most (the ones I checked all just have sesame seeds listed under ingredients).  But it tastes the same to me as store bought and I can make it in the quantities that I need, as I need it.  That makes it well worth the effort.

You don't really need a recipe for this, since the ratio of olive oil to sesame seeds is dependent on how thick you want your tahini to be.  Just put the sesame seeds and olive oil into the food processor and let it rip until you have the consistency you desire.

I did find this post by Kimberly over at The Daring Gourmet to be helpful, and so might you.

DIY Condiments: Harissa

One of the things I love the most about my Spice group is that it forces me to step out of my comfort zone and encourages me to be creative with new ingredients.  It also helps me add to my increasing repertoire of things that I make myself rather than buy pre-made.

Harissa is no exception.  It has been floating in and out of my radar for the past ten years or so.  But whenever I looked at the tubes or cans of it that I saw for sale at the Middle Eastern stores where I found it, all I could see were the HOT PEPPERS at the top of the ingredients list.  I like spicy foods, but I fall on the wimpy side of the tolerance range.  I like to add a little heat to my flavors more than I like adding a little flavor to the heat.

I also discovered years ago that I am not a fan of jarred and canned prepared salsas and sauces.  There is something about the changes that canning brings to food that I do not like.  It takes away the freshness, and everything has a musky aftertaste that diminishes the natural flavors of the other ingredients.  So just from looking at the pictures on the outsides of the jars and tubes of harissa I was pretty sure I would find that they had too much heat and the wrong kind of flavor for me.  In the end, harissa became another one of those flavors that stayed on my "someday I will try this" list, and I was quite happy to let it continue to float somewhere down near the bottom of that list. Until last month, when the coordinator of our Spice Group announced that harissa would be the spice for our March potluck. 

I knew pretty much from the get-go that I was going to make my own, so while I was not particularly thrilled at the choice of spices it always makes me happy when I make something new.  I rolled up my figurative sleeves and pulled out my favorite spice books and  looked at several recipes online so I could compare them to see which ingredients are required, which are preferred, and which would be best avoided.

All of the recipes I found contained at least two different kinds of chilies, garlic, cumin, coriander and olive oil.  Many of the recipes contained caraway seeds and some called for lemon juice.  One or two had mint.  Some included roasted red peppers and onions.

As I mentioned earlier, I prefer some heat to my flavor rather than flavor to my heat, so I decided to use all of those spices.  I was not sure about the mint, but I figured if I used just enough to add to the flavor without being in any way obvious it would be a good thing.  The additional roasted red pepper and onion seemed more Eastern European than Northern African to me so I decided not to use those.

The next question was which chilies to use.  I was somewhat limited to the chilies that were available to me and finally decided on guajillo chilies, which were in many of the recipes that I saw, and something called Chilies Japones with which I was not at all familiar but they were small and red and the only non-Mexican chilies they had at the store that day and the package said they were hot so I figured they should work.

It turned out to be quite easy to make the harissa, and the end result was quite delicious.  It is as hot as I imagined it would be, but it is also full of flavor.  For the potluck, I made bread with the harissa swirled throughout it.  It was quite pretty and surprisingly good.  For myself, I am already finding many uses for it.  It is delicious on just about anything and the heat dissipates throughout the whole dish and enhances it the way a good hot sauce should.  I already find that I cannot imagine life without it.

If you decide to make your own, and I strongly recommend that you do, the main piece of advice I would give is to make sure that you process it until it is completely smooth.  The first batch I made looked good in the bowl but as soon as I started using it I found myself spitting out large pieces of the chilies.  When I made the second batch I threw the first batch in with it and made sure to process everything until all of the chilies were well and truly blended in with the other ingredients.  It made all of the difference.

Home Cookin Chapter: Spices Spreads Dips Sauces
HARISSA
8 dried guajillo chilies, stemmed and seeded (about 2 oz)
16 to 20 chilies japones, or other small hot chilies (about 1 oz)
1 tsp caraway seeds
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp dried mint leaves (optional)
3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
1-1/2 tsp kosher salt
5 cloves garlic
Juice of 1 lemon

Put chilies in a large bowl and cover with boiling water. Cover and let sit until softened, at least 20 minutes.

Heat the caraway, coriander and cumin in a small skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about four minutes. Keep the seeds moving in the skilllet the whole time. Place the spices in a grinder with the mint and grind to a fine powder.

Drain the chlies and place them in a food processor. Add the spices, salt, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil and puree until the mixture is smooth, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. This will take 4 to 5 minutes as you want to make sure there are no large flakes of the dried chilies in the mixture.

Store the harissa in a glass jar covered with a layer of olive oil. Refrigerate, and replace the oil after every use. Makes approximately 1 cup.

adapted from recipe found at http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Harissa

Exported from Home Cooking v.8.66 (www.mountain-software.com)

DIY Condiments: Candied Ginger

The second spice-related potluck that I attended for the Spiced-Up Meetup group that I recently joined featured ginger.  As with any theme-related activities in which I participate, I like to look for dishes that stretch my culinary skills and challenge my creativity.  Often, that means I look for savory uses for those ingredients most closely-associated with sweet, and vice versa.

Ginger is one of those spices that straddles both sides of the sweet/savory spectrum quite evenly, so I was having a hard time choosing between sweet or savory.  I finally decided to focus more on stretching my skills than on challenging my creativity and concentrated on finding something with which I had little experienced.  I remembered that I had seen Nigella Lawson pull out some ginger marmalade for a dish she was preparing on her show and I was immediately intrigued by that, and just as immediately forgot about it.  But now that I was racking my brain trying to think of something new to try with ginger, it popped back into my memory and I decided to take a stab at ginger marmalade.

When I started looking up recipes, though, I realized that I am not ready to tackle actual marmalade yet.  I do see jams and jellies in my future, but I am just not there yet so I decided to make a quick ginger jam.  There weren't a lot of recipes out there, but the one I found at livestrong.com looked viable.  So I bought about a pound of ginger and got to work.

I peeled and chopped the ginger.  I chopped it as finely as I could, but was not sure how fine it should be, as the recipe was not specific about that.  I put it into a saucepan with the lemon and sugar and turned on the heat.

And it became almost immediately apparent to me that it was not going to turn into jam.  Unlike fruit, ginger does not break down as it cooks.  I realized then how much I rely on the breakdown of the fruit to determine the consistency of the few freezer jams I had made so far.  So I cooked it, and I cooked it, and I cooked it some more.  Because the ginger held its shape, I couldn't really get a sense of how thick the liquid was getting.  By the time I realized that it was never going to come together in the way that I had been expecting it to, the liquid had cooked almost completely down and I was not sure what would remain.  And there was a LOT of it.  I had no choice but to put it all into a bowl and pop it into the refrigerator.

Once it had cooled and I could taste it and analyze it, I realized that what I had made was more candied ginger than ginger jam.  Super sweet and biting hot, it was one of those times where it was a happy event, however, and I realized that I could still use it with my intended dish, just not exactly as I had intended it.

I had planned to make ginger scones and top them with a dollop of creme fraiche and the ginger jam.  I couldn't really use the ginger as a jam, but I realized I could combine it with another fruit, so I threw together a batch of strawberry jam to which I added about a tablespoon of the ginger.  It was quite tasty, and a big hit at the potluck.  It was such a big hit, in fact, that it disappeared before I could put one together for a picture.

I did have scones left over, as I had made a double batch), so I was able to enjoy the scones with creme fraiche and some of the candied ginger by itself, which was delicious as well.  I was able to manage to snap a photo of that, as you can see.

I am so happy that I have discovered how easy it is to make candied ginger.  I had a lot of it, but there is so much sugar in it that it stores well and I can dole it out in small amounts whenever I want to indulge in a little sweet treat.  I also was able to gift a few fellow bakers with some and still have enough to last me a while.  It's a huge payback for such a small effort.

CANDIED GINGER

1 lb ginger root, peeled and diced into small pieces
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

Combine all of the ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat slightly and cook until the liquid has basically boiled down and just covers the ginger. Let cool.

10/27/14 based on recipe found at http://www.livestrong.com/article/449479-how-to-make-ginger-jam/

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

Sometime back in the late seventies, my sister introduced the family to a new salad dressing she had discovered.  I no longer remember where or how she found it, but at the time it was only available in packet form, and you added the packet ingredients to mayonnaise and buttermilk.  It sounded horrible, but one taste was enough to raise it front and center as the dressing of choice for our family.

And it turned out that we were not alone.  Within a few years Ranch Dressing was ubiquitous, and all of the major brands had their own versions of the stuff.  Of course, the bottled versions tasted nothing like the original, but the convenience of not having to mix it up made it the more frequent choice, and over time I forgot how the original version tasted.

And then I stopped eating processed foods and learned how to make this lovely vinaigrette. Because it is a versatile enough recipe that I can mix it up with different kinds of vinegars, oils, mustards and herbs, I rarely feel the desire to use any other dressing.

What I do feel the desire for, however, is to find more uses for mayonnaise when I make it.  I only make mayonnaise when I have a specific use for it and it does not have a long shelf life so if I do not need it all I have to find ways to use what is left over.

Enter Buttermilk Ranch Dressing.  It had long occurred to me that it should be fairly easy to make, as the packaged mix was added to mayonnaise and buttermilk, so the last time I made mayonnaise and had some left I did a quick search online and found an easy peasy recipe posted by Elise on her wonderful site Simply Recipes.

There are two differences between her recipe and what I made. The first is that I used homemade mayonnaise. The second difference, as you can see immediately if you compare our photos, is that I used more herbs in my version. Hers also looks a bit thicker than mine, but I don't know whether or not that is just the way it looks, or our measures were slightly different, or this batch of my homemade mayonnaise was thinner.

Whatever the differences, the end result was complete and utter deliciousness. Now that spring has arrived and I can get greens at the City Market, I have made this three times in the past few weeks. I even made mayonnaise specifically for the purpose.

But you don't have to make your own mayonnaise to enjoy the benefits of making your own ranch dressing. Even if you use prepared mayonnaise it will taste so much better than any prepared version you will find on your grocer's shelf (and have less chemicals in it if you care about that sort of thing). You can find the recipe here.   Enjoy!

DIY Pickles

I really wasn't planning to make pickles.  I know pickling is hot right now, but it just wasn't something that interested me all that much.  I like pickles well enough, although I am rather particular in my tastes; there are only one or two brands out there that I will eat.  They have to be crisp, and not too sour.  So making them wasn't even remotely on my radar.

Until I saw the beautiful batch of pickle cucumbers Iron Creek Farm was selling at the Green Market.  They were so firm, so green, and so well, pickle-like that I decided right then and there that it was time for me to make some pickles.  They also happened to have seeded dill at another stand that day so I grabbed that as well.

I looked through various recipes, not even knowing enough about them to know what recipe to use.  But the recipe in the Second Avenue Deli Cookbook looked easy to follow and did not require a lot of equipment.  I knew I was not ready to try anything that required sterilization or water baths, and this recipe just calls for you to put the cucumbers in a jar with some brine, garlic, and spices and let it sit for a few days.

And here is the jar just moments after I filled it.  It is actually more involved than just filling up the jar with the cucumbers and brine.  First, you have to cook the brine.  You bring the water and salt to a boil and then let it cool down to room temperature before you use it.  Because the brine is not hot, the cucumbers don't cook, so they stay fresh and crispy.  Just the way I like them.



Here is the first volunteer from the jar, three days later.  I wasn't sure it was going to work, but lo and behold the brine permeated through the cucumber and I had me some bona fide garlic dill pickles.  The first batch I made I used too many of the spices, but after some minor adjustments I had the combination that I liked.  Although ready-made pickling spices would work just as well.

The garlic cloves get pickled too, and I've been using them where I would use raw garlic or I'm cooking something that benefits from an extra bit of acid.  They were not blanched, though, so be warned that they are raw cloves of garlic and as strong, if not stronger, than regular raw cloves so you do not want to be eating them right out of the jar.  Just saying.

These pickles were such a success that I naturally found myself looking for other things to pickle.  After a batch or two of refrigerator pickling projects, I'm about a heartbeat away from full-on canning.

If you have been curious about the pickling process and want to try your hand at it, this is a good way to start.  The only special equipment you need is a jar that is big enough to hold the pickles.

GARLIC DILL PICKLES
10-12 small Kirby cucumbers, unwaxed, that are close in size
6 Tbsp kosher salt
2 quarts water
10 whole garlic cloves, unpeeled
1/3-1/2 bunch fresh dill
1 Tbsp pickling spices (or 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp whole black peppercorns, 1/2 tsp coriander seeds and 1/2 tsp dill seeds)
3 bay leaves
1 hot dried red pepper

Clean the cucumbers under running water, being sure to scrub them clean. Combine the water and salt in a large pot and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and allow the mixture to come to room temperature.

Wrap the garlic cloves in a towel and lightly crush them with the back of a knife.

Pack the cucumbers tightly into a wide-mouthed jar and then add the rest of the ingredients, then pour the brine over them. Close the jar and shake it to evenly distribute the spices.
Store the jar in a cool unrefrigerated place for 4 to 6 days, depending on how sour you want them. The longer they stay out, the more sour they will be. Open the jar once a day to skim off any foam.

Pickles will last in the refrigerator for a few weeks.

Adapted from The Second Avenue Deli Cookbook, by Sharon Lebewohl and Rena Bulkin (Villard, 1999)

DIY: Garam Masala

The past two weeks has been a perfect storm of distractions, mild if any inspiration, and, most importantly, a Blogger dashboard update that has not gone smoothly.  If I finally figure it out there will be one hell of a recall post, but for now I have given up on it.

In the meantime, I noticed that it does not look like I have ever discussed garam masala on its own merit.  It translates to warm spice mix, and that's exactly what it is.  There are no chilies in it, so it is not spicy hot; it just has a lovely blend of aromatic spices that are commonly used in Indian cuisine, such as coriander, cumin, cardamom and cinnamon.

Although it can be added at the beginning of a dish along with the other spices that are cooked with the onions, garlic and ginger before adding the rest of the ingredients, they are often added at the end instead, where they provide an extra depth of flavor and, well, warmth.  When I first started experimenting with Indian cooking I would just use sweet curry powder whenever a recipe called for it, but after a while I started to wonder how much of a difference it might make so I bought some and discovered that it did have a discernible impact no the dish.

After I had accumulated enough of the individual spices that go into the mix as I was learning more about Indian cooking, I realized I could make my own.  And I must say, now that I have been using it for a couple of years, that it is well worth seeking out the ingredients just for this purpose.


  There's nothing like the aroma of spices toasting in a cast-iron skillet on the stove top.  Of course, you don't need a cast-iron skillet for this, any small skillet will do, but I purchased this small skillet pretty much for the sole purpose of toasting spices and I love having it.  I also use it to toast nuts in the oven.

What you see toasting in the skillet here is cinnamon bark, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, cardamom pods, black tellicherry peppers and a bay leaf.  I toast them until I can just start to smell them, take them off the heat, add a little bit of ground nutmeg and put them into a small bowl to cool off (if I leave them in the skillet they will continue to cook and might burn so I always empty the skillet immediately no matter what I have cooked in it).  After about five minutes they are cool enough to put into my spice blender (I use one an inexpensive coffee grinder I bought years ago and now have dedicated to spices).  I grind it into a fine powder and put it in a small jar.  It lasts for a few months.

There are as many recipes for garam masala as there are people who make it.  I looked at several and came up with my own blend, which I will post here.  You should think of it as more of a suggestion than a recipe, though, and adjust the spices to your taste.

You don't have to be an expert at Indian cooking to use this.  You can add any amount from a teaspoon to a tablespoon at the end of cooking just about any vegetable or bean dish.  It's also good with eggs.

Home Cookin Chapter: Spices
GARAM MASALA Makes about 1/4 cup

8 cloves
4 tsp cumin seeds
3 green cardamom pods (whole)
1 2-inch cinnamon stick
2 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
Pinch of grated nutmeg (optional)
Heat a small skillet on medium. Add all the spices except the nutmeg and dry roast the spices, stirring constantly. After about 5 minutes, the spices will darken and begin to release a unique aroma.
Remove the skillet from the heat, then add the nutmeg. Transfer the spice mix to a bowl and allow to cool for about 5 minutes.
Using a spice grinder, grind the spices to a fine powder. Store in an airtight jar. The spice mixture will keep for up to 3 months.

Exported from Home Cookin 6.46 (www.mountain-software.com)

And can I say once again how much I am REALLY NOT liking the Blogger update?

How To Make Fresh Paneer

What makes this version of palak paneer different from the one I wrote about here? Just one main thing, really. In this version, the paneer is home made. Yep, I made it myself. And guess what? It was super super easy. And so much better than the pre-packaged paneer I bought last time I made this. It is soft and creamy and tasted so fresh that I had a hard time not eating it all right away instead of cooking with it.

It took about half an hour to make, and then another two hours to press the liquid out of it. I was amazed at how simple the process was, and how quickly it came together. In fact, it is almost the same process as making ricotta, on which more later.

A half gallon of milk makes about a pound of cheese. For paneer, you bring the milk to the boiling point in a large heavy pot. Remove it from the heat and slowly pour in the juice from 2 lemons (around 3 tablespoons if you need a more precise measurement). You can also use vinegar, but the lemon juice gave it such a freshness that I don't think you will get with vinegar (but don't worry, you will not taste any tartness or sourness from the lemon).

Stir the mixture for a few minutes, until the curds separate from the whey, and then drain the mixture through a cheese-cloth lined strainer.

With this first batch I made, the curds were minuscule and I wasn't sure it was going to work. But I poured it through the cheesecloth and did, indeed, get this lovely batch of cheese.



Once it has cooled a little and the whey has drained out, wrap the cheese in the cheesecloth, squeeze out as much whey as you can, and shape it into a square (wrap the edges of cheesecloth to the side of the square rather than on top or bottom so it doesn't leave marks in the cheese) and put it on a flat board, then weigh it down with a brick, a large full can, or a cast iron pot. I used my cast iron dutch oven and it worked perfectly. Let it sit for two hours, then unwrap it from the cheesecloth. It is ready to use at this point, or you can wrap it in plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator for about a week.

The cheese is easy to cut into cubes for frying. From what I have seen, this is the best method when using paneer. Frying gives the cheese a crisper texture and a toasty flavor. I was amazed at how well it stayed together, and I think this is where I was most impressed with myself for making my own cheese.




A word of caution: if you are going to fry the paneer before using it, use a non-stick or a well-seasoned cast iron skillet. It is pure protein and will stick like crazy to any other surface. I learned that the hard way.

That is why these cubes are smaller than the cubes in the picture above. A good layer of each got left behind in the pan when I tried to turn them. At that point I transferred them to my non-stick skillet and the whole process went more smoothly.

I am doubly thrilled to have learned how to make my own paneer. First, it tastes so much better than store-bought and second, the only store that I know that carries it is all the way across town and it is so much more convenient to just buy the milk and some lemons and make it myself.

Next up: Ricotta!

DIY Trail Mix

I love my granola, but even though it is much healthier than pre-packaged granolas it does have quite a bit of sugar in it. Which unfortunately means that it is not the healthiest thing to be eating every day. In addition, while it is easy to make, it does take some time so I have to plan for it if I want to be sure I have it on hand for breakfast.

With that in mind, I decided to go back to eating regular oatmeal for breakfast, adding trail mix and dried fruit. In the past I would just buy a bulk trail mix, but since I had so many of the ingredients already on hand I thought it would be just as easy to make my own.

And it was. I preheated the oven to 350 degrees, put my mix of nuts on a rimmed baking sheet, and baked them on a middle rack for about 25 minutes, checking every 10 minutes to make sure they weren't burning. I did almost burn one batch and they were not good. They were edible and too expensive to throw away, but I will never make that mistake again. I set the timer and I check.

What I love about making it myself is that I control the ratio of the kinds of nuts, and the fruit. I use the expensive nuts more sparingly and go wild with the less expensive. I also have all of the nuts available for other uses, which I would not be able to do if I were buying the pre-mixed packages.

I don't know if making it at home is less expensive than buying the pre-packaged version. That would depend on each batch, and what you ratio of more and less expensive nuts you used. But when the prices range from about $3/lb to $15/lb for the various sees and nuts, you know the pre-packagers are using mostly the cheaper ingredients and averaging higher on the pricing.

But the main reason I like making my own mix? It just tastes better.

HOW TO MAKE TRAIL MIX
Note: You can use any combination of nuts and seeds, in any amounts.
2 cups raw sunflower seeds
1 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1 cup raw almonds
1/2 cup raw pecans
1/2 cup raw walnuts
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup raw hazelnuts

Combine all ingredients in a rimmed baking dish. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until nuts are golden. Check and stir every ten minutes.

Let cool and mix with the raisins and cranberries. Store in an airtight container for a few weeks.
Preheat oven to 350 deg. F.

DIY Condiments: Garlic Ginger Paste

I learned this trick from watching "Aarti Party" on the Food Network. Aarti Sequeira won Season 6 of the "Next Food Network Star," and is the only winner that I actually thought should win. She had a fresh point of view and was personable and, more importantly, I thought I could learn something from her. And I have learned many things from watching her show. (Although she is in some danger of falling into the Rachel Ray/Sunny Anderson terminal cuteness trap. Please stop giggling so much, girl!)

The best thing I have learned from her is this tip about ginger and garlic. I'm not proud of this, but one of the main things that keeps me from cooking more Indian food (and Chinese too, for that matter) is that it is such a hassle to cut both the garlic and the ginger. I don't mind chopping one or the other, but something about the thought of having to cut both often seems like more effort than it is worth, so unless I have planned to make a dish that requires both, it does not lend itself to a spur-of-the-moment I-need-something-quick kind of thing. In addition, I always end up having to throw away that knob of ginger that is inevitably left over. There is something about the texture that develops when I throw it in the freezer, as many experts recommend, that puts me off too much so I can't do that, and it is a lot of trouble to chop it all and freeze it in ice cube trays, which is what I was doing to avoid having it go bad. I wasn't all that happy with the results from that, either, but it was the best I could come up with to deal with problem.

And then I was watching "Aarti Party" and she grabbed a jar out of the refrigerator, brought it over to the stove, and explained that it was equal parts of ginger and garlic chopped up with some oil in the food processor that she keeps around all the time. Made me sit up, that's for sure.

And then she pulled it out for another dish on another episode. And then she pulled it out again. The third time is the charm, and I decided this was something I should try. I got a 3-inch knob of ginger and a head of garlic. I peeled and chopped the ginger and peeled an equal amount of garlic cloves and cut them into fourths. I put them in the processor attachment of my stick blender and poured a little olive oil into the bowl, then I let her rip.

The result? Nothing short of miraculous. Having both the ginger and the garlic already minced and available whenever I need them makes it so much easier to throw together a curry, dal, or stir fry. Now it is one of the first things that pops into my head when I deciding what to cook.

I have heard that garlic loses much of it's healthy properties if left too long after it has been cut, so I have avoided all of those jars of pre-minced garlic over the years. I did give a thought to that when I decided to give this a try, but I still use enough garlic in other dishes on a regular basis that I cut as I need, so I do not worry about that.

This mixture will keep for weeks in the refrigerator. Having it around has broadened my options every time I have to decide what to make for dinner. I've only recently started keeping it on hand, and I already can't imagine what I would do without it.

TO MAKE GARLIC GINGER PASTE:
Peel a 3-inch knob of ginger and cut into 1/4-inch pieces. Peel and quarter an equal amount of garlic cloves. Place in a small food processor or chopper and add 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Process until a rough paste has formed, being sure to leave visible pieces of garlic and ginger. Place in a jar and store in the refrigerator. It should keep for a few weeks.

How To Make Peanut Butter

The last time I was in Austin I was browsing the cooking section of the bookstore (yes, there are still bookstores out there and yes, I go to them) and my eyes were caught by a book called Make the Bread, Buy the Butter, by Jennifer Reese. I picked it up and thumbed through it. Now that I am making so many things myself, I was curious to see what she had to say about it, especially the idea that there are some things one should not try to make from scratch.

I already had my own, informal and relatively unformed, list of those things that are best bought, but that list is constantly changing as I learn how to make more and more of my own food. Five years ago I would never have thought I would be making my own mayonnaise; two years ago the idea of making my own mustard, ketchup, and Worcestershire sauce would have been unthinkable. And I have been making my own bread, granola and crackers (yes, crackers) for years now.

I thought it would be interesting to compare my experiential list to hers. And mostly, I agreed with what she said. There are certainly some things better left to the experts. Until I get a bigger kitchen, canning is not in my future, nor do I see myself making a home for cows, goats and chickens anytime soon. And while I do plan to experiment with cheese and yogurt, I doubt I will go past the basic simple paneer and ricotta, possibly mozzarella. But nothing that needs to be aged or kept in a dank, dark cave.

Jennifer Reese started her project when she lost her job and was mainly looking for economical ways to feed herself and her family. While I care about my money and how I am spending it, my primary motivating force is keeping the foods that I eat as chemical and preservative free as possible. On the way, I have discovered that I actually prefer the taste of homemade to store-bought, and I can often (though not always, I admit) taste and feel the difference between the two. That was not always the case. When I first started making my own condiments, for example, they tasted nothing like the mayonnaise, ketchup, and ballpark mustard that long were my standards. And salad dressings never tasted right. But after a period of not having the commercial brands around, my attempts tasted better and better, and now I do prefer the taste of what I make myself. Like everything else, it is a process.

Nothing comes out the same every time, but it is all good, and when it is really good, it can be transcendent. As with life, if you aren't willing to experience any of the lows, you won't be able to enjoy the highs.

I was pleased to discover that peanut butter fell into the "make it yourself" category in the book, as I have been making my own peanut butter for the past six months, and I was interested to see her recipe.

I don't remember all of the details of it, but I do remember that there were several ingredients, including oil. The first time I made my own peanut butter I added oil, but I soon realized that it was completely unnecessary. All you need to make peanut butter is peanuts. Maybe salt, if you want it to be a little salty.

But you should never need to add oil to peanut butter. It can look like you do, because when you first start grinding it up it makes a thick paste of the ground peanuts that doesn't look like it will ever break up. But if you are patient and let the food processor continue to do its work, the paste does break up and you end up with the smoothest, creamiest peanut butter, one that looks and tastes exactly like the natural brands that are on the grocery store shelf.

A lot of my friends (and family) don't buy natural peanut butter because it is so hard and messy to stir together the nuts and oil that have separated after sitting on the shelf for so long. One trick I learned from my brother to solve that problem is to store your jar upside down on the shelf, so that all of the oil is on the bottom when you turn it over and open it. But if you make your own, that will never be a problem because there is no separation when it is fresh, and if you put it right into the refrigerator, it stays together. And because everything is already well integrated, you don't get that impenetrable mass of peanut paste that you sometimes get when you didn't combine it evenly.

It took me a few tries to get it to the right consistency, so I thought it might be helpful to offer a step-by-step tutorial of the process, with photos to show how it should look throughout the process. All you need is a pan, the peanuts, and a food processor. Do note that this will not work in a blender. I have it on good authority that it will burn out the motor.

This might sound like a lot of work, but it doesn't take long at all, and the food processor does all of the work. The whole process takes less than an hour (slightly more if you roast the peanuts, but you can do that as early as a few days ahead).

The first thing you need to do is to get your peanuts. I buy roasted valencia organic peanuts in bulk at Whole Foods, but you can really use any roasted (not dry-roasted, though)peanuts. I like a dark roast, though, so I put them in a pan and roast them at 350 deg. F. for about 12 minutes, and then let them cool. Sometimes there is still some of the red peel on the nuts. I will go through them and remove as much as I can, but I do not get overstressed about it. A little won't hurt.

After the nuts have cooled, place them in the food processor bowl. I usually use a pound of nuts. That fits nicely into the food processor, and the finished product goes right into a leftover peanut butter jar from when I used to buy it.

If you have more than one setting on your food processor, put it to the highest setting and turn it on. Let it go for a few minutes, until your peanuts have been ground into teeny little pieces that look like this. While you can just let the processor go until you have peanut butter, it is a good idea to stop every once in a while and see how it looks, especially at the beginning, when you are still not sure how it supposed to look at each stage of the process.

At some point the peanuts will start to clump together as they are whizzing around the food processor bowl. Eventually, it will solidify into a solid mass on one side of the bowl that looks it will never budge and just might possibly burn out your motor. This is the point where most people believe it needs some oil to get it going. They would be mistaken. You can let it keep going and it will eventually work through the mass or, if you don't believe it will ever make it through, you can turn it off and let it pulse every few seconds. The stopping and starting of the motor will slowly move the lump around the bowl until it is evenly spaced around the bowl and moving smoothly again.

Eventually, it will look like this. You can still see the pieces of peanut, but you can also see that the oil has separated out and it is starting to get smooth. Let it run for another 2 or 3 minutes, but be careful. I have heard that it is possible to overwork it and end up with a liquid that cannot be saved, but I have not had that happen yet and I have let it run for up to 3 minutes.

And just when you think it will never happen, the last little pieces of peanut disappear and you are left with a bowl full of beautiful, smooth, creamy peanut butter, just like this. If you prefer crunchy, set aside half a cup or so (to your taste) of the peanuts and grind them to the desired size. Follow this process withe rest of the peanuts and then stir in the ground peanuts.

DIY Condiments: Homemade Jam

A few weeks before summer's end Treasure Island had organic raspberries on sale for a ridiculously low price so I bought a couple of pints. (Although, after reading the piece I wrote about here I am no longer sure they really are organic - bummer.)

I wasn't until after I got home that I began to wonder just what I thought I was going to do with them. While I love the flavor, I am not so fond of the fruit. But I am fond of raspberry jam, so I decided to make some.

I had already been experimenting with making my own jams from both fresh and frozen fruits. It is surprisingly easy. You just cook the fruit down with sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest until it has reduced to the thickness you want. It started with the strawberry jam I made a few years ago, but it didn't take off until this year. So far I have made blueberry jam, the raspberry jam you see here, and several batches of fig jam. All have been delicious, especially on my flaky buttermillk biscuits.

These are what I believe is called "freezer jam." I am nowhere near the idea of canning. Not that I haven't thought about it, mind you. I just don't have the space, either to do the canning or to store the end results. This jam will last a few weeks in the refrigerator, and it can be frozen (hence the term freezer jam). So when I make a batch, I usually freeze half of it immediately, since I am not likely to eat that much jam in such a short time.

Does this mean I will never buy jam or jelly again? Probably not. But it does mean that I can have it whenever I need it, as long as I have some fruit around the house.

And, more to the point, I know exactly what is in it when I make it myself.