Oboy Obol

Is it just me, or does this seem a little silly?

Do watch the video. Because, you know, everyone gets those urges in the middle of eating a bowl of cereal.

Photo taken from Obol.com

Recall of the Week: Jennie-O Ground Turkey

I have been going back and forth over whether or not it is feasible to have a "Recall of the Week" series.

I mean, it's not likely that there could be that many recalls, right?

Wrong.

I wonder how long it will be before these recalls are seen as just the nature of how we do business in this day and age. Or has that already happened?

Photo from Minnesota Public Radio's website

Baking Class: Soft Molasses Cookies

Before I took on the challenge of ginger snaps, I took a stab at re-creating one of my favorite cookies, Archway's molasses cookies, which I love, but will no longer buy, and would not buy even if they hadn't perverted that beautiful round shape with those stupid petals. They were soft and spicy and, other than the Dutch Windmills of which I have fond childhood memories (and which, the last time I tasted them several years ago, were nothing like my memory), the only Archway cookie that I would buy.

The last time I went looking for them I could not find them, nor could I find any Archway cookies on the shelf. A quick internet search confirmed that they had, indeed, closed in 2008. I was mildly disappointed, but was already not buying very many processed foods so it was not a terrible loss. I later discovered that Lance was buying the company so the brand was revived, but by then I was to the point where I basically could not put anything in my shopping cart that had HFCS, transfats, or chemicals in it.

So I decided that it might be interesting to see if I could find a recipe.

I found two recipes, both in Nick Malgieri's Cookies Unlimited. I have found the recipes in this book to be hit and miss, and this experience kind of highlights that. The first recipe was sounded like it might be the recipe for which I was searching, but it turned out to be a disappointment. The cookies, pictured left, were hard and smooth and tasted more of flour than molasses. I had not yet found my molasses cookie.

There was also a soft molasses cookie recipe in Malgieri's book, so I decided to try that. The result, pictured above, was also disappointing to me when I pulled them out of the oven. They were too soft, and too puffy, and had a cake-like texture and they also didn't have much of a flavor outside of flour. But I liked them well enough to take them to work and let the guinea pigs my co-workers taste them.

And to my surprise, everyone liked them. Some liked the ginger snaps much better, but there were a few who actually preferred these. And I must say, like gingerbread, after a few days they tasted much better. The texture got a little heavier and the molasses flavor got stronger.

There was one more recipe I had earmarked to try, from Tish Boyle's The Good Cookie, but when I read it over I realized it was basically a ginger snap. So I think I will let go of the search for the perfect molasses cookie (it was probably the chemicals and preservatives that made it so soft and chewy anyway) and go with the ginger snaps when I want a crispy, crunchy snap, and the soft molasses cookies when I want something a little softer.

I have not been the biggest fan of Cookies Unlimited, especially when measured against The Good Cookie, but in all fairness I should say that I have found some good recipes, that I will make again. This is one of them.

Home Cookin Chapter: Cookies

PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH SOFT MOLASSES COOKIES
Makes 40 cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup molasses
1/3 cup hot water

Set two cooking racks in the top and bottom parts of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 deg. F.

Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and spices in a large bowl and whisk together until completely blended.

In a different bowl, using cream together the butter and the sugar. You can use a stand mixer, a hand mixer, or good old elbow grease to do this. Add the egg and beat until the mixture is smooth, then add the molasses and beat that into the mix.

Add the dry ingredients and the hot water, alternating half of the flour mixture, then the water, and then the rest of the flour mixture, using a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl between the hot
water and the rest of the dry ingredients. Make sure the dough is well mixed.

Drop the dough by tablespoons onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, keeping them 3 inches apart from each other. Bake them for 12 to 15 minutes, until they have risen and are firm. Slide
the paper onto a rack to let them cool and then take the cookies off of the parchment paper.

from Cookies Unlimited, by Nick Malgieri (HarperCollins, 2000

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

Golden Gown

Eat your heart out, Project Runway: http://home.comcast.net/~ryannovelline/10.html#X

Not food related, but it does look good enough to eat.

Recall of the Week: Cantaloupe

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm248103.htm

:sigh:

I can't even talk about it anymore.

Tossed Greens Salad with Fried Egg

Sometimes, it's the simple things that make life most enjoyable. Sometimes, all I want for dinner is a simple tossed salad. Red leaf lettuce, arugula, frisee, radish, tomato (up there at the back, you can just barely see one peeking out), sunflower seeds and dried cranberries tossed in a home-made mustard and apple cider vinegar vinaigrette is a little piece of heaven.

Throw a lightly-fried egg on top and that little piece of heaven got much, much bigger. Crack the yolk and let it mix with the greens and the vinaigrette and you just might have reached nirvana.

Whole Wheat Pasta

Here's the good news: white whole wheat flour makes great pasta. I used my usual half-pound recipe, but I started with less flour. I put a cup of flour in the food processor, two eggs, and a generous pinch of salt and let it rip for a few seconds until it clumped together into a ball. I scraped the too-wet dough onto a well-floured counter and kneaded it, adding more flour until it reached the right consistency - tacky, but not sticky. I let the dough rest for half an hour and then rolled it out. I was afraid it would not roll out well, but it was as easy to roll out as the all-purpose flour dough.

The roasted red peppers in wine sauce was decent, but nothing about which to write. When I come up with a better sauce, I will tell you about it.

Healthy School Lunches Are Possible

In case there was any doubt, it is possible to prepare healthy, fresh meals and stay within the pitiful budgets with which they are allocated, at least here in Chicago.

This story in yesterday's Tribune highlights the work of Paul Boundas at Holy Trinity. Check it out if you want a little bit of feel good.

Photo from the Holy Trinity Website.

Hat tip - Eater National

Afghan Lamb with Spinach

There's green and it's lamb, and that's about as Irish as it's going to get. This is a bit of a stretch, I fully admit it. When I started thinking about St. Patrick's Day, and what I could make, I was not particularly inspired to find anything Irish to make. It's not because I don't appreciate Irish cuisine. It's because we had a St. Patrick's Day potluck at work and for various reasons I ended up making my Sweet and Sour Cabbage Soup, and I've already written about that and I forgot to make the soda bread I had planned to make for this post. Maybe if I set a reminder now I will remember to do that next year, heh heh.

But I did make this lamb dish the week before last and it was truly delicious. The spices are fragrant, but not at all overpowering. They lend a rich warmth to the lamb that is both flavorful and satisfying. The yogurt adds a tangy creaminess that holds up to the spices better than sour cream would. And the wilted spinach provided a velvet dimension to the warm spicy flavor. In a word: YUM.

I originally found this recipe posted to the rec.food.recipes newsgroup, which is now pretty much defunct. As a rule, the recipes posted to this site are unattributed. This is where the GIYF (Google Is Your Friend) rule applies. I googled the recipe and discovered that it came from a cookbook published back in 2000, when Afghanistan was just another exotic Middle Eastern Country and there was no stigma attached to eating their food.

I had originally bought the lamb to make Lamb and Cabbage Stew with Fresh Shell Beans, but I had also bought lamb chops and the butcher mis-labeled the packages so I defrosted the chops instead of the stew meat, so I had Lamb Chops with Cabbage and Shell Beans, and it was disappointing enough that I didn't even want to think about the stew meat, so it sat in the freezer for a few months until I knew I had to do something with it, but didn't want to make Irish Stew. So I went searching through my untried recipe database and saw this and knew the time was right.

There were two Afghan restaurants in my neighborhood before 9/11. Unfortunately, they both disappeared not long after that sad day. I miss them, but now that I have dipped my wooden spoon into the pot, I plan to explore this cuisine more. It is more subtle than its Arab counterparts, with a warmth that spreads slowly from the center, rather than exploding on the tongue. It's quite lovely, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Home Cookin Chapter: Untried Recipes

AFGHAN LAMB WITH SPINACH4 to 6 servings

2-1/2 lb lamb stew meat
1/3 cup olive oil
3/4 pound onions, diced large
4 tsp chopped garlic
2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp crushed red pepper, or to taste
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 24.5-oz can tomatoes, drain & chop
1 cup rich brown veal stock or 1 cup rich beef stock
1/3 lb fresh spinach, wash & drain
1/2 cup yogurt
1 Tbsp grated lemon peel
Salt, to taste
1/4 cup pine nuts, roasted at 350 F for about 3 minutes

Sear lamb in the olive oil in a cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven. Add the onions; saute them for 2 minutes; then add the garlic and sauté it for 1 minute. Put in the turmeric, nutmeg, cardamom, crushed red pepper and cinnamon and sauté the mixture for 1 to 2 minutes more, being careful not to burn the onions or garlic. Add the tomatoes and veal stock and stir.

Cover the dish and bake at 350 F for about 1 hour, until the meat is tender and begins to break up. Remove the dish from the oven and add the spinach, stirring until the spinach is wilted and blended in. Allow the stew to cool slightly.

Add the yogurt, lemon peel and salt to taste. Sprinkle with roasted pine nuts.

Serve over rice pilaf.

from Afghan Food & Cookery, by Helen Saberi (Hippocrene Books, 2000)

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