October 24, 2011

Ubiquitous Lentils

Lentils
Ubiquitous spicy lentils

I make this dish when I remember to cook lentils, because the recipe makes a lot of lentils, and the dish can go in everything. These ubiquitous lentils were used to top a salad, as a side dish to enchiladas, they were stuffed inside calzones, and were consumed after Friday happy hour. I've been cooking up plain lentils and beans lately to have on hand to add to many other dishes. Pre-cooked plain beans and lentils can be added to soups, pastas, salads, top pizzas, thrown into burritos or quesadillas, or put on toast. Canned varieties are a fine substitute, but home-cooking them is easier and cheaper. I must have been thinking about Herbivoracious's Mexican cowboy beans when I made this, so I'm dedicating these lentils to that delicious blog.

I just got done reading Mark Bittman's essay Cooking Solves Everything: How Time in the Kitchen Can Save Your Health, Your Budget, and Even the Planet. If your familiar with Bittman, you'll know he writes about food and cooking with a real food real ingredients mentality. As a cook, it was inspirational and reminded me how important it is to share cooking, in whatever fashion, with others because home-cooked meals made from largely unprocessed foods are rare. If you cook simple healthy foods on a daily basis you have the ability to impact behaviors of others around you because cooking and feeding people involves people to react to what you are putting in front of them whether it tastes good or bad.

Cooking and sharing meals changes the perceptions of the how and what of cooking meals. Cooking impacts health because by cooking on a daily basis you have the ability to cook healthy foods and serve yourself normal portions of food, and avoid prepared foods that derive the majority of their flavor from salt (either as sodium or MSG), fat, sugar, and other flavor enhancers. These foods, the bulk of which are highly processed, or restaurant and fast foods, are bad for health. Bad. Bad. Bad.

Cooking, while not as obvious as it seems, supports local food economies. Bittman argues that cooks, that cook a lot get selective about ingredients, and are tuned into the cost of the food they are buying; they purchase seasonally, not because they are dedicated locavores, or trendy foodies, but because cooks purchase and select the foods they cook with. Most grocery stores, while they stock huge varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables, run the best deals on seasonal produce. The best part about this, is that it's usually right in front of you as you go into any grocery store.

I have been following the Food Day events that have been going around nationally. My friend, Alyse, helped organize the NC Food Day where they organized over 1060 lbs of fresh fruits and veg for needy families. The Food Day campaign aims to raise awareness and action on local foods policies to support local food economies, promote sustainable agriculture, protect the environment by exposing big agribusiness marketing and manufacturing, and improve nutrition and chronic disease knowledge. It fits closely with the Bittman's essay because cooking is a one-step action to supporting better health and stronger food economies.

Ubiquitous Lentils

Ingredients:
olive or peanut oil for sauteing
1 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
a tad bit of beer to reduce (optional)
2 tomatoes, chopped, or diced plain canned tomatoes
salt to taste
1 chipotle pepper, chopped
1 tsp herbs (optional, such as oregano or thyme)
1 tbsp cumin
2-3 cups cooked lentils, more or less, or 2 cans of lentils, rinsed and drained.
water to bring everything together, or broth
Fresh squeeze of lime

Directions:
1. In a wide and deep saute pan, cook onions and garlic together in olive oil over medium-high heat. After they start looking golden, reduce them a bit with a splash or two of beer. You can use any variety you like. You don't have beer? No worries, just skip. Cooking and quaffing a beer are side by side activities in my book. I tend to drink a lot of Belgian strong golden ales (such as Duvel), so I used a few splashes just to see what it would taste like, it was good.
2. It will sound fancy and smell good. Stir in the tomatoes, salt, chopped chipotle peppers, herbs and cumin. Stir it all around, and then add the cooked lentils.
3. Add in the broth or water and cook until combined and reduced down a bit. Should take about 20 minutes, or less. Squeeze with lime and serve. Can store up to a week in the fridge.  

October 16, 2011

5-bean chili with Leffe brown beer and chipotle peppers



I try to cook beans from scratch because I like that they aren't too processed, but I use canned beans too. To make it easier to use dried beans, I'll share how I normally prep them. I either soak the beans, in a huge bowl filled with lots of water, first thing in the morning, or I soak them overnight. If you soak them in the morning, you can cook the beans when you prep dinner; if you soak overnight, you can cook them first thing in the morning. They can cook, mostly ignored, in a large soup stockpot, or pressure cooker, or crock-pot (see this post on cooking beans and lentils). Once done cooking, you can store the cooled beans and broth in the fridge until ready to use. If you start doing this 2 days per week, you'll have lots of healthy beans to throw into random dishes. For example, stirring in a cup of mixed beans into a pasta dish, topping a salad, filling a burrito with them, or beans on toast. Or perhaps some spicy chili for a cool fall day?

I've used the Belgian Leffe brown beer for this because it has a balanced subtle sweetness, and I like the malty notes it left in the chili. Use any brown or amber beers (or really any beer you feel like dumping into a soup pot) with a nice body and aroma. Plus it's always cool to cook with beer. 

5-bean chili with Leffe brown beer and chipotle peppers
Ingredients: listed in order of use
Yield: 4 servings, about 1 and 1/2 cups

1 and 1/4 cup dried beans, (any mixture of dried black beans, chickpeas, kidney beans, pinto beans, white beans) soaked and cooked; Canned beans are totally fine too. Use 2 or 3, 14 oz cans of different canned beans.
1 tsp olive oil
1 red onion
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup Leffe dark beer, slightly more if foamy at first (let it reduce by half), 
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
2 Tbsp chili powder (recipe below)
1 small canned chipotle pepper, about 1 tbsp chopped pepper, add more for extra heat
remainder of beer
1 cup canned diced tomatoes
1 cup corn, frozen or canned
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
cilantro to garnish
1/2 tsp salt (to taste if not enough)
yogurt and shredded cheese (optional for garnish)

Chili powder:
1 T of smoked paprika
1 T cumin
1 T oregano (or other mixed herbs such as thyme, mint,)
1/8 tsp cayenne powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
This is a variation that can be adjusted to your taste and preference. The smoked paprika is very delicious in this dish. I'd recommend adding a tsp to the chili just before serving. Mix all the spices together in a small bowl and set aside until ready to use.

Directions:
  1. Saute onions and garlic in the olive oil. Once the onions turn a bit golden, add in 1 cup or more of the beer. It will foam and settle down, releasing a delicious smell. Let it reduce by half, then add in the green bell peppers.
  2. Add in 2 T of the spice mixture and the chipotle peppers (a chopped chipotle pepper should be about 2 tbsp).
  3. Add the cooked beans to the pot along with the about 1 cup of the bean broth. If using canned beans, rinse and drain them (it removes the salty brine taste), and use 1 cup water instead. Pour the rest of the beer into the chili, along with 1 cup of chopped tomatoes. Stir to combine, turn up heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Before serving add in 1 cup of canned corn (if using frozen corn add it in 10 minutes before the chili is done). Stir in rest of beer and 1tbsp of lime juice.

Top with a dollop of plain yogurt, shredded cheese and garlic bread.

October 11, 2011

Butternut squash and pear soup


This is an excellent soup, I often heat some up for breakfast in the morning with a slice of toast. I make this soup as soon as butternut squash hits the markets. No blender, no problem. Just mash the contents with a potato masher in the roasting pan and add them in. It makes a chunky soup, but soup is soup. Since the main ingredients are roasted first then made into soup, this makes an excellent soup to make on the weekends, or if you have some free time at home. The prep is all in cutting the squash, but most of the time is spent idly.

Butternut squash and pear soup
Yield: 4-6 servings, 1 or 1 and 1/2 cups each.

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash, chopped in half and seeds removed, leave the peel on.
3-4 pears, peeled and cut in halves, seeds removed
large handful fresh thyme, washed and left whole
4 garlic cloves, unpeeled and left whole
olive oil as needed
coarse salt
1 red onion chopped fine
1/4 cup white wine
2 cups vegetable broth, or water
1/2 cup milk (soymilk or cream is fine too)
salt as needed

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400º F or 200º C. Wash and scrub the squash and pears. For cutting the butternut squash, leave them unpeeled. I like to lay the squash down and cut it in half along the shortest width, the middle of the squash. Then take each side, place them cut side down on a cutting board so they don't slip, and cut them in half; the top half into two halves, and the bottom into two halves exposing the seeds in the middle. Scoop out the seeds and save them. You can roast them (see note at end of post). For the pears, peel them, cut them in half and remove the seeds and stem.

  1. Wash the thyme and leave it whole.
  2. Peel the garlic cloves and leave them whole. You can give them a quick smash if you want.
  3. Pour about 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of olive oil in a roasting pan. Place the pear halves, butternut squash halves (the fleshy part should be touching the bottom of the pan), garlic cloves, and thyme in a roasting pan. Pour about 1-2 teaspoons of additional olive oil on top and sprinkle with coarse salt.
  4. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes to an hour. The longer roasting time will help the juices caramelize, the squash is done when golden brown on top and is easily pierced with a fork or knife. Let cool on countertop.
  5. When the squash is cool enough to handle, peel the skin off. It should come off very easily. Remove the thyme from the stems. Leave everything in the pan.
  6. In a medium size soup stockpot, heat up about 1 tsp of olive oil. Add in the chopped red onions and cook until nice and golden. Add in wine and let reduce. Add the squash, thyme, pears, garlic and all the roasting juices.
  7. Add in vegetable broth and bring to a simmer. If you have an immersion blender, turn down the heat and gradually blend everything together. Alternatively, you can place half the contents in a blender (allow space in the cover for steam to escape, and repeat as necessary), and blend together. Returning the blended soup to the pot. Once it reaches a creamy silky consistency, stir in the milk or cream, and heat up.

Note: When the squash is done roasting, you can lay out the washed butternut squash seeds on a baking tray and roast them on low heat. I just add a tad bit of oil and a sprinkling of salt. They take about 20-25 minutes at 200º F.

October 10, 2011

Apple and pear galette

Apple and pear galette
A freshly baked apple and pear galette. 

Apples and pears
Apples and pears

galette dough
Galette dough

What is a galette? I've made several galette pies in the past year and to me they are a simple rustic way of making a pie with savory or sweet fillings. The galette dough uses the same techniques as making pie dough but there is no fluting or rolling in between wax or plastic papers. Even better, it doesn't need a pie plate or other baking pan to be set in. I've baked it on the back of a baking sheet, and a pizza stone. It's simple, straightforward, and it's lazy, which are words that I can get behind when baking.

I picked the pears while on a bike ride, but the apples and pears should be in season so this is certainly a pie to welcome autumn. The best compliment I got for this apple pear galette was that it was delicious because it wasn't cloyingly sweet. To me that is a compliment: fruit pie that tastes more like fruit and less like sugar.

Now if you want the recipe just skip down the next few paragraphs until the end. But perhaps you know me well enough and will agree:

I've decided I'm (going to try) avoiding all pre-packaged and prepared sweets and dessert-like foods that were not prepared at home. I mostly do this with foods that I cook (I make exceptions for things like canned beans and tomatoes). I am not a health freak, but my reasons probably have a health/nutrition basis. In a nearby grocery store, I can find mixes for all the items that I can bake, but I can't find half of the raw ingredients. Why? The baking aisle is 3/4 filled with packaged pre-prepared baking kits, and other ready-made baking goods, but actually contains 1/4 of raw ingredients. It's kind of the same exact trend with home-cooked foods, right? The grocery store is filled with ready-made, pre-packaged, heat and eat meals - all marketed and placed strategically for you to take home, and yet the raw goods just sit there waiting to make it into your basket. Every aisle that actually contains raw foods, is outcompeted by ready-to-eat junk. By raw ingredients I mean minimally processed real foods. Any food that has to make a claim to it's healthiness on the front of package needs to be thrown in the trash. It pisses me off that there are entire aisles dedicated to junk foods and sodas. My local grocery store can stock an entire aisle of sodas, but can't carry one brand of almond paste? Has one brand of baking soda? Has one brand of whole wheat flour? Contains two types of raw oatmeal (e.g. the sole ingredient is listed as oatmeal) in the cereal aisle that has hundreds of processed sugary cereals that sit right along with it (the oatmeal is cleverly placed on the bottom aisle)? Contains two types of plain yogurt, and has the next 2 meters dedicated to sugary probiotic processed yogurts all making the same health claims?

While government and industry hash it out, actions that I can take on the local-consumer level are actively avoiding purchasing the crap products, and asking the grocery stores to carry more raw ingredients, and purchasing from stores and sellers that do carry healthier items. Grocery stores should get behind national nutrition guidelines, promoting and selling healthier foods, and making the choices easier. The easy part for me is to blame the food industries with their endless budgets for food research and development, but they are selling their products, are actively trying to locate food trends to hook new customers, and are actually selling their foods that line the shelves of grocery-store aisles. While I have, and will probably continue to use many convenience items (breakfast cereal, ready-made pie dough, bread, frozen pizzas), I do not think that convenience items should replace raw ingredients. Take a look around your grocery store. It is alarming how many foods have been replaced, or outcompeted.

End of rant. Hello Monday. Hello leftover apple pear galette. Now, ready to make some pie dough from scratch (flour, sugar, salt, butter, water)?

Galette pie dough
Yield: 1, 13-14" galette pie crust adapted from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.
2 cups all-purpose flour (whole-wheat pastry flour is fine)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tbsp sugar
10-12 tbsp butter
1/2 cup ice water (you will probably not use all of it)

Basically, pie dough is fairly easy to make, but you need patience and practice. You need very cold butter, ice water, and flour with low amounts of gluten. Fat adds flavor and flakiness, the water brings everything together and helps the flour attach to the butter globules (contributing to flakiness). The water also helps to keep the butter cold so that you get a crust with flakiness. You want to avoid whole-wheat flour because it has too much gluten and will create a stretchy dough - which is ok for bread, but not good for pie crusts. We'll prep the butter first, then we'll let it chill in the freezer for a few minutes while we get the flour ready. Then we'll add cold butter to the flour, and cut it in, and finally water is added last to begin the assemblage of flour/butter crumbs to a rollable dough.

Directions:
  1. Dice up the butter into small chunks. I have used 7 tbsp to the full 12 tbsp; I find a mixture in between is sufficient. If you use all-purpose flour you will need less butter (around 9 tbsp); if you use whole-wheat pastry flour, or a mixture of whole-wheat pastry with all-purpose, you will need more butter (around 10-12 tbsp). I like having the max amount ready because you can always store the un-used butter. Place the small diced chunks of butter on a plate and pop them in the freezer. 10 minutes should suffice.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together 2 cups of all-purpose flour, salt, and sugar.
  3. Fill a 1 cup measuring cup with ice cubes. Fill the cup half-way, let stand 1 minute.
  4. Remove the butter from the freezer. In the large mixing bowl, add in 2-3 tbsp of cubed very cold butter, working with a fork or pastry cutter, cut in the butter. The cold plate helps keep remaining butter cold. Add in 2-3 tbsp more (repeat as needed) and continue. If doing by hand it will take you up to 10 minutes to work the flour until it has pea-sized chunks and looks coarse and mealy. Use patience, and take your time. I use a fork, and just push the fork into the butter/flour mixture with my thumb.
  5. Once the mixture has good pea-sized chunks, add in 1-2 tbsp of water at a time and using your hands begin to mix everything together. The dough should begin to come together. It is better to have a drier dough than a wet dough, so if some of the dough does not form into the ball, just add in drops of water and press into the bowl. You'll get the ball to come together. Flatten the ball into a disc, place it on a plate, and store in the fridge until ready to use. Now, prep the apple filling while the dough rests.

Apple and pear filling
3 to 4 cups apple and pear slices, peeled and sliced thin (use a tart apple, or a variety of tart apples, usually from 4-5 medium/large fruits)
juice of 1/2 of a lemon (lime is fine too)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
pinch salt
1 and 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp amaretto, or sweet wine

Egg wash (optional)
1 egg white
1 tbsp milk
1 tbsp sugar for sprinkling

Directions:
  1. Set peeled and sliced fruit in a large bowl. Squeeze 1/2 of a lemon to prevent the slices from turning brown.
  2. In another bowl, add sugars, cinnamon, flour, salt, and nutmeg. Stir to combine.
  3. In a sifter, sift the flour and spice mixture over the sliced fruit. Turn the fruit slices to coat everything.
  4. Stir in amaretto or sweet wine. Avoid overmixing.
  5. Combine egg white and milk, stir together and set aside. The egg wash will be brushed on last as a glaze, or a sheen, to the un-baked pie. Sugar can be sprinkled on top of the egg wash to give it a nice finish. This step can be omitted. 
  6. Bake the galette at 400º F for 40 minutes or until the top is golden. Place another sheet below to catch any drippings.
Now putting it all together:

October 5, 2011

Beer Post: Orval

One weekend per year Orval holds an open door day where they allow a guided visit of their brewery. Orval is a Cistercian monastic community. Nestled into the southern Ardennes at the far southern tip of Belgium, the Orval abbey is breathtaking. A regular visit to the abbey allows the visitor to see the abbey ruins, and to tour the visitor center where the history of the abbey is explained, and there are brewing and cheese-making exhibits. Just down the road is an inn where you can sample some Orval beer and cheese.

Normally, brewery visits are not offered; the visit at Orval during the open door day was a self-guided tour. Signs explain the process of brewing, although they are in Dutch and French only. You can sign up from the Orval website; they usually begin the process a few months before their open door day. I'm going to keep my rambling short. If you aren't around during the time of the open door days, you can still visit the public areas of the abbey. Check their website for additional details.

Driving is probably the most straightforward way of visiting. Public transport is possible, but not easily accessible since trains from the Brussels area can take up to 3 hours to arrive, and busses may run infrequently. I'm not sure about biking because I haven't found any organized bike routes through the Wallonian regions. The abbey is very well maintained, Orval beer is some of the most delicious and unique in Belgium, and while exploring the ruins won't take all day, the area has plenty of hiking.

Orval Abbey

Orval Abbey


Love the Orval paraphernalia. 

Stained glass with brew kettles
The stained glass is impressive.

Open door day at Orval, Sept 16, 2011


Fermentation tanks




Checking out the abbey ruins.


Mathilde Fountain
Story of the fountain and the history of Orval here (including trout with the ring). 

Orval abbey ruins


Orval abbey ruins