Coleslaw with Cashew Spread

Have I mentioned that work has gotten crazy busy again?  Well it has and I am stressing but I am determined to continue posting as much as I can this time.  No more 8-month hiatuses for me.

In my last post I showed you how to make cashew spread and I mentioned that I have been using it for coleslaw.  Using cashew spread instead of mayonnaise and raisins instead of sugar makes for a healthier dish, one that I can enjoy all the time rather than having it be more of a special occasion kind of treat.

As with most of the salads I make, this recipe is more of a suggestion in terms of ingredients and amounts and I have been known to improvise.  For example, I have been thinking this would be really good with blueberries or apples instead of (or even in addition to) the raisins.  I only recently started adding the broccoli since I made a commitment to eat more of it and have been buying it and using the florets on a weekly basis and needed to find a use for the stems.  (If I am not putting them into coleslaw I will cut them into sticks and eat them like carrots as a snack.  They are also tasty that way.)

I like using buttermilk instead of regular milk because I almost always have it on hand and am looking for ways to use it between baking sessions.  Because of the lovely tang it provides, I do not add vinegar to the dressing.  If I were using regular milk I would add a tablespoon of vinegar to it.

I cannot recommend this version of coleslaw highly enough.  I have made it every week for the past month, and have no plans to stop any time soon.  I have eaten it for breakfast, at lunch and with dinner.  Because there are no eggs as there are with regular coleslaw, it keeps for about a week (longer for me, but I tend to play fast and loose with "best by" dates.)

Home Cookin Chapter: My Recipes
COLESLAW WITH CASHEW SPREAD Makes 6 large servings

1 large carrot, grated
3 stems from a bunch of broccoli, grated (optional)
1/2 small head purple cabbage, thinly sliced or shredded in the food processor*
1/2 small head green cabbage, thinly sliced or shredded in the food processor*
1/2 medium red onion, diced
1 cup golden raisins (or regular, if preferred)
salt and pepper to taste
1 batch cashew spread (approximately 1-1/4 cups)
1/2 cup buttermilk (milk would also work)

*or any equivalent of 1 small head of cabbage

Combine all of the vegetables with the raisins in a large bowl and season to taste.

Stir the buttermilk into the cashew spread. Add it to the mixed vegetables and mix well. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Serve at room temperature.

5/23/2016

Exported from Home Cookin v.8.67 (www.mountain-software.com)

Cashew Spread

Happy Memorial Day for those of you in the USA.  I am going to celebrate the day with a cookout at the beach with friends.  What could be better than that?

I was planning to make coleslaw as my contribution to the meal but someone beat me to the punch so I will be bringing dessert and gazpacho.  Which is fine (really, it is fine).  Except that I wanted to make my new version of coleslaw that has me very excited.

One of the issues I have always had with coleslaw is that you have all of those healthy good-for-you vegetables like cabbage and carrots and onion, and then you drown them in mayonnaise and sugar.  (Yes, I know there are other versions but this is the one I grew up with and the one I like, ok?)  As I have moved away from processed foods and added sugars that has been problematic for me.  I would make it and I would eat it, but I never really considered it a healthy vegetable dish and thought of it as more of a treat.

The last few times that I made it I used homemade mayonnaise thinned with buttermilk and I added a handful of raisins instead of using sugar.  I felt better about eating that, but I still did not feel that it was as healthy as it should be.

And then I was listening to a series of interviews about food issues and someone mentioned cashew milk.  And someone else mentioned the benefits of eating raw cabbage.  [cue Melanie Griffith in Working Girl] and then I started thinking raw cabbage - cashew milk - raw cabbage - cashew milk and it just kind of came to me that I could maybe use a thicker cashew milk instead of mayonnaise in my coleslaw.

So I went online to see if it had been done before (of course it had) and I found lots of recipes for something called cashew mayonnaise that included all kinds of interesting ingredients.  As usual I took what I liked from them and left out what did not seem a good fit to me and I made my first batch.  Which was ok, but I had used cider apple vinegar and that overpowered everything far more than it does when I use it for my homemade mayonnaise.  The second time I used lemon juice and I liked that much better.

And as I thought, it makes a killer coleslaw that not only tastes great but is much more healthy than the mayonnaise version.  And it is perfect for picnics and cookouts because you don't have to worry about it sitting out in the sun all day the way you would with the mayonnaise version.  Win-win!

You will find that all of the versions of this recipe posted all over the internet call it "Cashew Mayonnaise."  I refuse to call it that because the two have virtually nothing in common.  Mayonnaise is the emulsion of egg yolks and oil.  Cashew spread is basically pulverized cashews.  Others may want to call it mayonnaise and that is certainly their right, but I just cannot bring myself to do it.

This is not a substitute for mayonnaise.  But it is delicious and versatile in its own right and I will be making it often.  If you give it a try I suspect that you will be making it often, too.

Home Cookin Chapter: Spices Spreads Dips Sauces
CASHEW SPREAD 1 cup organic cashews, soaked for 2 to 4 hours
1/4 cup avocado oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup water, plus more as needed

Drain the cashews and put them into a blender. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend together until smooth.

adapted from recipe found at http://rockingrawchef.com/cashew-mayonnaise/

exported from Home Cookin v.8.67 (www.mountain-software.com)

Yogurt and Harissa Roasted Chicken

I am not eating much meat these days, but I could not resist the chance to roast some chicken with the harissa I made for our March spice potluck.  I just knew it had to be tasty, so I went looking online for some suggestions.  What I found mirrored the ingredients I was already contemplating so I winged it and came up with my own version.

The result was a juicy tender bird that was quite flavorful; however, I would use more of the harissa in the marinade.  But I just added more as I ate it, so it was not that critical. 

Here is the bird with the yogurt marinade added just before getting closed up and put into the refrigerator for the day.  It was a quick enough process that I was able to find the time to get it ready in the morning before leaving for work, so by the time I got home it was ready to go right into the oven and be roasting while I made some whole wheat couscous with zucchini to accompany it.

Yogurt and Harissa Roasted Chicken would make a lovely dish for company, but it is easy enough to make any time.  As a matter of fact, I have already made it twice.
Home Cookin v.8.67 Chapter: Meat Fish and Eggs

YOGURT MARINATED ROAST CHICKEN WITH HARISSA
1/4 cup whole milk yogurt
2 Tbsp ginger garlic paste, or 1 Tbsp each of chopped garlic and chopped ginger
1 teaspoon ground cumin
salt to taste
1 whole chicken
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp preserved lemons (optional)
2 Tbsp harissa, or to taste

Salt the chicken generously and place in a large zip-top plastic bag. Add the rest of the ingredients and massage them through the bag into the chicken. Refrigerate and let marinate for at least 2 hours up to overnight.

Preheat the oven to 425° F.

Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and let it sit out for at least 15 minutes (but no more than two hours). Remove the chicken from the plastic bag and place it on the rack of a roasting pan.

Roast the chicken for 15 minutes at 425°, then lower the heat to 350° F. and continue to bake until the interior temperature of the thigh reaches 160° F.

Remove the chicken from the oven and let it rest for 15 minutes befrore carving.

adapted from a recipe found at www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alexandra-guarnaschelli/yogurt-marinated-grilled-chicken-with-harissa-recipe.html

exported from Home Cooking v.8.67 (www.mountain-software.com)

Shakshuka for Two

I was reading this post from my new blogger friend Eve at Eating Is Important [it is!] and I have decided that I must make that Nut and Seed Tart just by virtue of that photo of the almonds, cashews and sunflower seeds alone. It looks so delicious and so healthy. (I know, I know, it is not so healthy once you add all the sugar and butter, but in a fair and just universe surely all of the benefits from the seeds and nuts will cancel out the damage. At least that is what I will tell myself when I make it.)

Further on in the post she mentions making a shakshuka recipe from Smitten Kitchen, and it reminded me that I have been collecting different shakshuka recipes from around the web and some cookbooks and I had been wanting to make it for a while now.

One thing that usually stopped me is that all of the recipes call for at least six eggs and make enough to feed an army.  It does seem like the perfect group/brunch type meal and Eve did not even particularly care for that recipe, but it was Saturday morning and I was hungry and I had just bought the cutest little 13-ounce packages of crushed tomatoes my neighborhood grocery store started carrying and has been selling on special for .99 cents a box and I started thinking that was the perfect amount of tomato for a two-serving dish.

I love these cute little packages, and 13 ounces is the perfect amount for many of the dishes that I cook so I don't have all of these little jars of leftover tomato for which I have to find a use before they go bad or I forget that they are there.  They have been on special since they first appeared at the store a few months ago and I have been stocking up on them.  I now have a pantry shelf pretty much fully devoted to them.

I decided there was no reason I could not scale the recipe down for two eggs.  I have a skillet that is just the right size, so I decided to give it a try.

I was quite pleased with the results.  Eve wanted more spice with hers, but I enjoyed the subtlety of just the cumin and paprika.  The harissa probably helped, as well.

This was so good I made it the next weekend, and now I make it every few weeks.  It is the perfect weekend breakfast/brunch.  The beauty of it is that you can adjust the amounts for as many or as few eggs as you want to use.

Home Cookin Chapter: Meat Fish and Eggs

SHAKSHUKA FOR TWO 2 jumbo eggs
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 medium onion, chopped
2 small or 1 medium zucchini, chopped
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp paprika
1 13-oz pkg whole, diced or crushed tomatoes
1 Tbsp harissa, or to taste

Heat oil in small skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the zucchini and cook another 2 to 3 minutes.

Add the tomatoes. Season to taste with the salt and pepper and add the cumin and paprika. Cook the mixture at a simmer until it has thickened considerably.

Make two wells in the mixture and crack the eggs into the holes. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until the eggs are set to the desired consistency.

Top with harissa and serve with lightly toasted bread, if desired.

3/27/2016

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

Food Revolution Summit

If you do not know about the Food Revolution Summit coordinated by John and Ocean Robbins, you should check it out.  It started this past Saturday and runs through the week.  You can catch the replays for a short time here:  http://summit2016.foodrevolution.org/replays/

I was somewhat skeptical when I first started listening, but I have been impressed with what I have heard so far.

The replays won't be up for long, so if you have any interest at all you should check it out NOW.

Indian Mint - Cilantro (Green) Chutney

I've had a busy weekend so this will be another short and sweet post.  I made this green chutney as an accompaniment to a dish someone else was bringing to my spice group potluck last night.  It was fast and easy and was one of the hits of the night.  The mint and toasted coconut adds another dimension of flavor that rounds out the grassy tone of the cilantro.

As usual, I looked up several recipes and combined the ingredients that seemed like they would go together best.  It went particularly well with both of the aloo tikka dishes that folks had brought, along with some of the other dishes.

The themed spice was amchur.  I made an amchur chutney that I used to make sweet buns.  I will post that recipe after I have had a chance to write up the recipe.  They were also a pretty big hit and I will be making both the chutney and the buns again.

But in the meantime, this quick no-cook chutney is a cinch to make and would go well with just about any kind of stew or dal.

Home Cookin Chapter: Spices Spreads Dips Sauces

INDIAN MINT-CILANTRO (GREEN) CHUTNEY
2 cups chopped fresh cilantro
1 cup chopped fresh mint
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 serrano peppers, chopped
2 Tbsp shredded unsweetened coconut, toasted
1-1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and process until smooth, adding water as necessary to reach desired consistency.

adapted from recipe found at http://www.food.com/recipe/green-chutney-indian-mint-cilantro-chutney-156498

exported from Home Cookin v.8.67 (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

Sweet Potato Harissa Sourdough Bread

The one thing I knew when I was making the harissa for my spice group's potluck was that I wanted to make bread, but I wasn't sure how I wanted to do that.   I thought about just adding a couple of tablespoons of it to the dough as I was mixing it, but it is such a vibrantly colorful sauce that I did not want to dilute its visual appeal so I decided the better way to go was to roll it into a rectangle and spread a layer over the top, then roll it up into a log and shape that into the loaf.  The process is similar to making cinnamon rolls, but instead of cutting the rolled up log into pieces, you fold and layer it into a loaf pan.

The next thing I had to decide was what kind of bread I wanted to make.  I wanted something that had a little extra flavor, but not so much that it would compete with the harissa.  I had made a sweet-potato sourdough yeasted bread with cinnamon and mace for our mace potluck, and I kept going back to that.  Sweet potato and harissa go well together so I knew was on the right track with that.  And while cinnamon and harissa and sweet potato seem like a no-brainer, I was afraid that might give the bread a sweeter profile than I wanted, so I decided to repeat the themes of the harissa and added cumin and coriander.

I made the bread the same day I made the harissa so I had quite a bit of the liquid from the soaked chilies, and in one of those brainstormingly brilliant moments that we can usually only hope for I decided to use the soaking liquid instead of water to add a little more heat to the dough.

I was under a time crunch when I made it and the dough resisted being rolled out to the proper thickness.  If I had had more time I would have let it rest longer and that would have solved the problem, but I did not so I had to wrestle it into shape; therefore the harissa did not spread over as wide of a surface as I would have liked and it did not roll up as tightly as I would have liked either.  The end result was not as spectacular as I would have liked because of that, but the flavor was spot on and it disappeared quickly.

This recipe requires a little work, but the end result is well worth it.

Home Cookin Chapter: My Recipes
SWEET POTATO AND HARISSA SOURDOUGH BREAD
Note:  I adapted this recipe for use with starter.  If you want to use yeast, you can use these ingredients in place of the first 3 ingredients:
2 packages dry yeast
1-1/2 cups warm water
5 to 6 (600g to 720g) bread flour

160 g (app 3/4 cup) sourdough starter
265 g (app 1-1/8 cups) water (from soaked dried chilies if you have it)
520 - 640g (app 4-1/3 to 5-1/3 cups) flour
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp coriander
2 Tbsp softened butter
1 cup cooked sweet potato puree*
2 Tbsp harissa, or to taste
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk or water

*To make the sweet potato puree: Peel a large sweet potato and cut it into 1-inch pieces. Steam until tender, 15 to 20 minutes, then smash with a potato masher or puree in a food processor.

Add the water to the starter and mix well. Combine the salt, cumin and coriander with 240g of the flour and whisk together until well mixed, then add to the starter mixture and stir it together. Add the sweet potato puree, stirring well, and then add the rest of the flour, about a half cup at a time, until a loose dough forms.

Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead in the butter a half tablespoon at a time, adding more flour as necessary to form a smooth elastic dough. Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a greased bowl, turning to make sure the entire ball of dough has been greased. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and then cover the bowl with a towel. Let rise until doubled in size, about one and a half hours. Punch down the dough and let it rise for another 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425° F and grease two loaf pans. Divide the dough in half and roll each half into a rectangle about a half-inch thick. Spread the harissa as thinly as possible onto the surface, leaving about a quarter inch around the edges. Roll tightly lengthwise and then coil into the greased pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Mix the egg with 1 tablespoon of milk or water and brush over the surface of the loaves.  Place the pans in the oven and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the loaves sounds hollow when the sides are tapped. Remove the loaves from the oven and turn them out of the pan. Let cool for an hour before serving.

Adapted from a recipe found at https://web.archive.org/web/20150922150559/http://homecooking.about.com/od/breadrecipes/r/blbread20.htm, which was reprinted with permission from I Hear America Cooking by Betty Fussell (Viking Penguin 1997).

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

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.