Ode to Brian Jacques: A Redwall Feast

Yesterday I learned that Brian Jacques, author of the loved Redwall series, died this past weekend from a heart attack on February 5th.

Reading the Redwall books are some of my earliest and greatest memories — sitting in a beanbag chair in the Woods Hole Public Library and getting lost in Redwall Abbey sipping on October Ale. The best part of his books was undoubtedly the gluttonous detail on food. His descriptions of the Redwall feasts are, in my mind, some of the greatest food writing out there, and they are some of my earliest and best memories of food.

When I was 10 I got to see Brian Jacques speak at a local bookstore down the street from where I lived. It is probably indicative of my personality as a child (and my love of his books) that seeing him speak at a bookstore was one of my all time childhood highs. Dozens and dozens of children sat at his feet, in awe of the man that created the Redwall world for us to live in. Though I don’t remember the whole talk, one question will forever be vividly etched in my mind. A little boy sitting behind me timidly raised his hand and, in a voice fearful of the answer, asked Mr. Jacques if he was going to stop writing the Redwall books. I remember gasping with horror, at this point, at the realization that this man could conceivably stop writing at any moment, could throw down his pen and decree an end to the world he had made for us. The horror was palpable. But Mr. Jacques only smiled gently and said, “I’ll make you a promise. I will keep writing books, as long as you keep reading them.” The whole room heaved an audible sigh of relief.

I haven’t read a Redwall book in ages, but I was wandering through a store just after Christmas (the Rhode Island School of Design Museum Store, of all places), and caught sight of a book out of the corner of my eye — the Redwall Cookbook. I clearly had to buy it immediately. My parents seemed bemused as we drove home and I sat in the back seat of the car, flipping through the pages and reminiscing about the feasts of Redwall Abbey, happy as a kid in a beanbag chair.

I knew last night I wanted to honor Brian Jacques’ memory with one of the dishes I remembered well from the books, Mole’s Favourite Deeper’n'Ever Turnip’n'Tater’n'Beetroot Pie. So here is my ode to you, Brian Jacques, in food. Thank you for filling my childhood with books and mystery and adventure and food, and for inspiring a lifelong love of each.

Mole’s Favourite Deeper’n'Ever Turnip’n'Tater’n'Beetroot Pie
Adapted the teensiest bit from the Redwall Cookbook

1 pound potatoes, peeled and chopped
1/2 pound (4 medium) carrots, peeled and chopped
1/2 pound turnips or rutabaga, peeled and chopped*
6 tbs. butter
Salt
Pepper
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
Pickled beets, for serving (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Place peeled and chopped potatoes in saucepan, cover with water, and salt. Place the chopped carrots and turnips together in another saucepan, cover with water, and salt. Boil vegetables until soft, about 15 minutes.

2. Drain the vegetables separately, then return them to their pans and add 3 tbs. butter to each. Mash the vegetables until smooth and season with salt and pepper.

3. In a deep casserole dish, spread alternating layers of the mashed vegetables. Roughen the top with a fork.

4. Sprinkle the cheese on top and bake until cheese is melted and bubbly, about 15 minutes.

5. Serve with pickled beets!

*Note: I could not find turnips, of all things, in the store. I had some celeriac in my veggie drawer, so I used that instead. I felt a little bad substituting one of the eponymous ingredients, but this recipe is all about the root vegetables at heart (because of the moles, you know), so really any root veggies will do.

Foodbuzz 24×24: How to make a dumpling

Two years ago I was living in China. It was on a lark, really. I decided I needed a change in my life and wanted to learn a new culture, a new language, a new food. So I moved to Beijing for six months with this awesome boy I like. While I was there, traveling to far flung provinces and climbing Great Walls and studying Mandarin, I was forever on a quest to find authentic food and cooking experiences. The country did not disappoint. In no particular order, some top favorite culinary experiences included: exploring Beijing’s street food; eating Peking duck; learning to make kung pao chicken; eating kebabs on the streets of Kashgar; exploring Beijing’s ancient tea district.

My personal favorite, however, likely owing to my long-standing love affair with the food, was learning to make dumplings.

With the Chinese New Year coming up this week, I thought it would be a perfect time to celebrate the time we had in China with friends and dumpling-making.

For the evening, I prepped all the filling veggies ahead of time and then laid everything out so that guests could have their own dumpling-making station. I think the process worked great and, truth be told, dumpling-making is way more fun en-masse. I have tried to make 200 dumplings on my own and whilst the Chinese grandmothers make it look easy, I tell you it is no small feat. There is power in numbers and that holds very true for dumpling making.

Pork Dumplings

Serves 2 (or maybe 1, if you’re me)

minced pork, 1/4 pound
chinese cabbage, 1 1/2 cups, chopped
ginger, 1 tsp. finely minced
scallions, 1/5 tsp. chopped
salt
soy sauce, 1 tsp.
sesame oil, 1 tsp.
peanut oil, 1 tsp.
chinese cooking wine, 1 tsp.

1 cup flour
1/4 cup water (to start, add more as necessary)

1. Finely chop the cabbage and add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of salt. Let stand 15-30 minutes until cabbage is wilted and water has drained from cabbage. Squeeze excess water from cabbage and set aside — cabbage water will be used later.

2. While cabbage is sitting, make dough. Mix flour and water. Add water until dough begins to come together into a ball. Knead lightly for five minutes until dough forms into a smooth ball. Let dough rest for 10 minutes while finishing the filling.

3. Place minced pork in bowl. Add ginger, scallions, soy sauce, and wine. Slowly add in the cabbage water, mixing well after each addition. Mix with chopsticks or a spoon, stirring mixture continuously in one direction. The meat will slowly incorporate the water and come together. Note, you may not need all of the cabbage water. Mixture should not be too liquid. Add cabbage, peanut (or other cooking oil), and sesame oil. Continue mixing until well combined.

4. Finish preparing your dough for the dumplings by rolling your dough into a log, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. (A trick: to keep the log from flattening excessively, roll the log 90 degrees after each turn). When you have finished cutting the dough, flatten each dough ball into a disc with the heel of your hand. With a small rolling pin, roll out each disc into a wrapper 2-4 millimeters in thickness. You are now ready for filling! You can fill your wrappers anyway you like, but I have provided a little video below with some instructions on how to roll out, fill, and crimp your dumplings. See the photographs below for more details on rolling and cutting the dough, and of course feel free to comment with any questions.

5. To cook the dumplings you have several options.

- Steaming: For the dumplings below I steamed them using traditional Chinese steamers. To use these, line the bottoms with cabbage or other leaves (aluminum foil works, too!) to prevent your dumplings from sticking. Fill a wok or shallow pan with 1-inch of water and bring to a boil. Place steamer baskets in water and steam for 15-18 minutes or until done (note: be sure the water does not come through the steamer and reach the dumplings). Your water may run out; I keep a kettle of boiling water handy to refresh the pan when it gets low.
- Boiling: In the past I have boiled my dumplings. Place dumplings in boiling water. When dumplings float to top, add 2 cups of cold water. Let dumplings come to water once more and add an additional 2 cups of cold water. Repeat this once more, and your dumplings will be complete!
- Pan-frying: For pan fried dumplings, steam or boil as in the above steps. Steam for 10-12 minutes or boil, adding cold water twice. Heat 2 tablespoons cooking oil in a pan and transfer boiled/steamed dumplings to the hot pan. Pan fry until golden brown, turning to brown each edge.

6. Enjoy your dumplings with soy sauce or, my personal favorite, a dipping sauce of 1 part soy sauce, 1 part aged Chinese vinegar, 1/2 part garlic, and 1/4 part ginger.

Note: You can also purchase dumpling-skin wrappers at specialty or Asian grocery stores, to save you the step of creating your own dumpling wrappers.

The Chefs! For the record, I had an awesome night. I am so grateful I have such a group of loving and dumpling-loving friends who are excited about spending the night learning new things and eating to our hearts’ content. Thanks for coming, friends. Wishing you all the happiness you deserve in the New Year.

P.S. Note the abundance of Panda Hat. No, we are not just really big Giants fans. Pandas are the pride and joy of China and panda hats are sold abound on the streets of Beijing. Clearly we purchased many on our travels.

P.P.S. A HUGE thank you to Foodbuzz, an online community of food bloggers that helped to support this evening of dumpling-feastery for their 24×24 Event!

Hand-pulled Chinese noodles

The Dining section of the New York Times today features an article on the fine art of Chinese noodle-making. It brought me back to the days I spent with Craig in China, so I thought I would do a little trip-down-memory-lane to commemorate one of my favorite China experiences from two years ago.

One of the many things that we did on our six-month China adventure was take the train from Beijing to Xi’an, where there are the amazing terracotta warriors and, perhaps most importantly, a treasure trove of culinary delights in the lesser-known Muslim quarter.

Best of all in Xi’an, though — better than 8,000 terracotta warriors and better than insanely delicious street food in the Muslim quarter — was the noodle-making. We came across the noodle-maker in the video above on the avenue just outside of the famous terracotta warriors and I was instantly amazed. Watch the video. I dare you to not be amazed.

Ok. Trip down memory lane complete. Back more soon with actual recipes I dare to try (I’ve tried the hand-pulled noodles. Not as effortless as the video makes it seem, I assure you).

Rosemary Shortbread Cookies (aka… little pieces of sweet-savory heaven)

SO, I know I talked a big talk about the apple-cheddar scones. They really were that amazing. I hope I’m not burying myself into a hole by overhyping too many recipes on here, but off I go to dig:

Stop what you’re doing. And go make some of these. Maybe you are still on vacation, and you are, like me, spending the days playing board games and sitting by a fire and generally being pretty happy about life. You know what your afternoon needs? These cookies. Perfect with some afternoon tea and a book. Or maybe just by themselves, in your mouth.

Mikey, many thanks for making me aware of these delicacies. They are the perfect sweet-savory combination and I have talked enough about them. I am off to make them again.

Rosemary Shortbread Cookies

2 cups flour
1/4 cup rice flour*
1 T sea salt
1 T rosemary
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the flour, salt, rosemary, and sugar. Then cut in cold butter. You can cut the butter into the flour mixture using two knives or using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.

If you are me, at this point you will get frustrated that your dough looks nothing like dough and everything like a crumbly mess. Keep mixing the butter into the dough until you don’t see any chunks. Then using your hands, start working the dough until it comes together like a ball. As the butter warms it will be easier and the dough will start to come together. If it is too dry (mine was) you can wet your hands slightly with water and let that moisture help the dough come together.

When dough is well formed, shape into logs and cut 1/4 inch slices. Bake 9-10 minutes on ungreased cookie sheets, until edges and bottoms are very slightly browned.

*A note: The original recipe calls for 1/4 cup of rice flour, however I have used regular flour instead and it has worked just fine.

Enjoy!

Apple and aged cheddar scones

Blogging is the epitome of our ever virtualizing lives in which we spend an often overbearing amount of time looking at screens. But sometimes it has the power to connect people in a real way that would never have happened without the virtual. Case in point: these apple cheddar scones.

Over a year ago I read a tweet from a close college friend (hi Linda!) that led me to her high school friend, who has a food blog that I of course started reading regularly, because it is awesome. Last week I went to the Foodbuzz Blogging Festival and I noticed that Da was going to be speaking on one of the panels about her KitchenCorners blog, so I of course had to go and introduce myself and it made me oh so happy to meet Da in person, because she is lovely and a friend of Linda’s and an all around pleasure to be around.

I just learned that Da and KitchenCorners does a monthly cook-off, with prizes awarded to the winner! What an awesome idea. So I am interrupting the CSA Challenge to bring you these, the most extraordinary and delicious thing I have made in a LONG TIME. I kid you not. These are pure gold. Go and make them right now and thank me later. In fact, perhaps you can thank me by bringing me some of the scones you made, because mine are all gone.

The challenge food is apples, and I had recently seen this post on some apple cheddar scones. Not being a huge fan of sweet cooked fruit desserts I was immediately drawn to the savory. And being obsessed with cheese… Well, I couldn’t turn them down. So yesterday I spent the morning at the San Francisco Ferry Building (my happy place) perusing the many apple varieties of The Apple Farm and selecting some incredible aged cheddar from Point Reyes Cheese. It was all over from there.

Apple and cheddar scones
Adapted from The Perfect Finish via Smitten Kitchen

2-3 tart apples (I used Sierra Beauties)
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter
3/4 cup sharp aged cheddar
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 eggs
small amount coarse granulated sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Peel and chop the apples, cutting into 1/4 inch slices and then cutting again into halves or thirds (depending on how large your apples are and how big you want your apple chunks). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread apple chunks evenly on baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes or until apples are dry and just golden. Let cool in fridge (10 or more minutes) or freezer (five minutes).

Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Coarsely grate cheese. (Note: I used a very fine grater and wish I hadn’t, it left the scones with a much milder cheese taste than I would have liked. I suggest using a coarse grater, or even finely crumbling the cheese by hand, so that as it melts when cooking there are some more substantial cheese flavors. But then again… I love cheese more than anything. So maybe that’s just me). Cut chilled butter into 1/4 inch cubes. Place butter, cooled apple chunks, grated cheese, cream and one egg into stand mixer with paddle attachment. Begin mixing on low speed and add sifted flour mixture. Continue mixing on low until dough just begins to come together into a ball.

Flour your table or cutting board and roll out dough into a log. Using hands, shape log into a rectangle (approximately 1 inch high). Cut rectangle into four squares and then cut squares into eight equal sized triangles. Transfer scones to a parchment lined baking sheet. Whisk remaining one egg together with a pinch of salt and using a pastry brush, or, if you’re me, a paper towel, lightly coat the top of each scone with the egg wash. Sprinkle tops of scones with coarse granulated sugar.

Bake at 375°F for 30 minutes or until scones are firm to the touch and golden brown.

Eat and enjoy! If you are me, and a glutton, you will break the warm scones open and spread with a bit of butter and a slice of remaining aged cheddar cheese. And then you will die from happiness.

Updated to include a shameless plug! If you like the looks of these and want me to win the Kitchen Corners Cook-Off click HERE and comment your top three choices before Friday, November 19th! Be sure to include Apple and Cheddar Scones in your list.

Arugula and roasted butternut squash salad with lemon tahini vinaigrette

To go with the CSA Challenge Menu Meal #1 (Herb-Butter Roasted Chicken with Cornbread Pomegranate Stuffing) I made this arugula salad with roasted butternut squash and chickpeas. Smitten Kitchen is one of my go-to blogs when I am looking for inspiration so a lot of my CSA Challenge meal was inspired by Deb. This arugula salad recipe is inspired by her Warm Butternut Squash and Chickpea salad recipe. I was able to knock off two items on my CSA list — butternut squash and arugula — and the rest of the items (with the exception of tahini) I had on-hand in my pantry. My goal for this CSA Challenge is to spend as little money buying outside grocery items as possible. So far I am doing medium…

Arugula and Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Lemon Tahini Vinaigrette

1 bunch arugula
1 small or medium butternut squash, peeled and diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
kosher salt
1 can chickpeas
1/2 of a small red onion (optional)
1 medium garlic clove, minced
juice of one lemon
3 tablespoons well-stirred tahini
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spread diced squash on a baking sheet and coat with olive oil. Mix on baking sheet and sprinkle with kosher salt. Roast in oven for 30 minutes or until softened, turning over squash occasionally to mix. Remove when golden and soft and let cool to room temperature, trying to refrain from eating all of them at once.

While squash is roasting, mix dressing. Mince garlic and juice lemon and mix. Add tahini, then water and olive oil, whisking to blend.

Wash arugula and mix with chickpeas, roasted squash, thinly shaved red onion (if desired). Add dressing and toss until well-coated (26 times, if you ask my mother).

Eat and enjoy. Perhaps with a roasted chicken with cornbread stuffing…

CSA Challenge Progress

1 medium butternut squash
2 pomegranates
1 bunch arugula
3 heads bok choy
3 medium leeks
3 persimmons
1 bunch spinach
1 head bib lettuce
1 bunch chard
6 medium carrots
3 turnips
1 head raddichio

Herb Butter Roasted Chicken with Cornbread Pomegranate Stuffing

It’s funny that what started out as me blogging about how I don’t have enough time to use my CSA veggies turned in to one of the more elaborate and time-consuming meals I have made in quite some time. But what can I say, you all inspire me. I decided to start off the CSA Challenge with a bang and was inspired by the upcoming fall flavors to make some delicious meal that involved stuffing a bird. It so happened that my chicken and egg CSA from Soul Food Farm came in on Wednesday afternoon, so that decided it.

I love stuffing. I always have. It is the best part of Thanksgiving and it is a damn shame to me that the rest of the year is so painfully barren of the stuff. Sometimes in college during particularly stressful exam periods I would subsist entirely off of microwavable Stovetop Stuffing. Disgusting, you say, scornfully? No. DELICIOUS. I am not the kind of food-loving sort who scorns things like ketchup and mayonaise and, indeed, Stovetop Stuffing. I grew up drinking Carnation Instant Breakfast, my friends. So there is some love of processed foods in me, yet.

But I digress. I was saying: STUFFING. It is delicious, and the best and most delicious of all is, I would argue, CORNBREAD STUFFING. I’m telling you, nothing better. And you could go out and buy some cornbread, I suppose, but as I said I was on a rush of menu inspiration and I have come a long way from my Stovetop days and so I whipped up some quick cornbread from scratch. Cornbread is ridiculously easy to make. It’s unclear why I don’t make it every day, being as obscenely delicious as it is.

So cornbread was made, onions sauteed, pomegranate seeds and chicken stock thrown in, and voila. You have a stuffing fit for kings. Or at least fit to be stuffed into our delicious Soul Food chicken.

Click the jump below food-porn for the full recipes AND to find out the winner of the CSA Challenge Commenter Prize!

CSA Challenge: The Menu (Week 1)

The CSA Challenge menu is live! I spent much of today and last night drooling over cookbooks and recipes and planning out menus, which it turns out is way more fun than lying groaning on your couch. I feel very happy about this newfound productivity.

I have successfully created a menu, spread into nine dishes or four meals, which hopefully highlights all 12 delicious ingredients that might be spared the unfortunate fate of their earlier counterparts: Death by Refrigerator. I got home early from work today and so got a jump start on one of the more time-consuming menu items I chose (which ONE, you ask, eagerly? See above for a sneak peak photo of one of my secret ingredients). A full post on tonight’s dinner, and future meals, coming soon!

DAY 1
Butter herb roasted chicken with cornbread pomegranate stuffing
and
Chickpea and butternut squash salad over arugula with lemon tahini vinaigarette

DAY 2
Ginger fried rice with leeks
and
Sauteed bok choy in ginger garlic sauce

DAY 3
Root vegetable casserole (or perhaps Shepherd’s Pie… you are very persuasive, Liz…)
and
Spinach salad with poppyseed dressing

DAY 4
Baked radicchio and mozarella pasta
and
Bibb lettuce salad with goat cheese and balsamic reduction

BONUS DAY
Persimmon bread! (Doesn’t that sound like the craziest thing you’ve ever heard? I cannot wait).
his evening.

To recap, here is a list of this week’s veggies.

1 medium butternut squash
2 pomegranates
1 bunch arugula
3 heads bok choy
3 medium leeks
3 persimmons
1 bunch spinach
1 head bib lettuce
1 bunch chard
6 medium carrots
3 turnips
1 head raddichio

Also, you all left lovely comments and ideas on the last post, and many delicious recipe ideas, so I’m pretty sure I am going to have to have the CSA boxes keep coming so that I can use them all up. As promised, there is a prize coming to one of you! To all who commented, I am going to randomly pick one of you and you will be invited to partake in one of the upcoming meals, if you are local, OR you will get a gift sent to you, if not local. You know, just to thank you for being so participatory and reading my blog. I appreciate all the support and want to thank you with gifts of foodie love. So stay tuned next post to see if you’re a winner!

The CSA Challenge

I am growing frustrated. I want to be incredibly supportive of my local farms and I know that community supported agriculture is a great way to do that. But every two weeks I get a box of veggies delivered to my door, and every two weeks I find myself making room for those veggies in the fridge by throwing away the old rotting veggies I didn’t have time to use.

I feel awful about it and I was JUST about to go to the website and cancel my subscription and instead I turned to you, blog. Instead, I decided I need to change my behavior and do a better job with my veggies and so I have decided to begin (drumroll…) The CSA Challenge. Every two weeks, on Tuesday, I am going to detail exactly what I received in my CSA box. And I will plan a menu around that box. We will plan a menu together. And then I will blog about each of those recipes, throughout the two weeks. I’m hoping the planfullness (sure, I make up words) will be helpful to me. And the blogfulness will hold me accountable to follow through. And maybe even it will be of use to you, fellow Bay Area (and elsewhere) eaters who are looking for cooking inspiration every time your CSA box rolls in. So now… I begin!

This week’s box contains:

3 turnips
1 medium butternut squash
3 persimmons
2 pomegranates
1 bunch spinach
1 head bib lettuce
1 bunch chard
3 medium leeks
6 medium carrots
3 heads bok choy
1 head raddichio
1 bunch arugula

Here is my bounty, in all of it’s glory (before fridge):

So here is how this CSA Challenge will go. Tuesdays (every other, as that is how often my box comes) I will post the contents of that week’s box. Wednesday I will post my recipe plan and inspiration. And throughout the remaining days before the next box arrives I will post entries for each meal. If you have inspiration or thoughts for recipes, please share them in the comments section. If you have thoughts on how you have fared (or struggled) with managing your own CSA box, please share those thoughts too.

I am grappling with my desire to support local agriculture in a way that seems ideal — sustained buying direct from producers. But this ideal has butted heads with my unfortunate ingrained shopping habits that have gotten me used to purchasing exactly what I need whenever I want it. Philosophically I jumped on the bandwagon of supporting local agriculture years ago, but I am finding more and more that I need to fundamentally alter my habits of purchasing and making food. I need to be more planful, and less impulsive, and I need to make time for food. I find, often, that my plans to cook dinner five nights a week get derailed as I stay at work late and go off to second and third jobs and more often than not come home and collapse exhausted on the couch, thoughts of cooking healthy vegetable-rich meals far from my overscheduled mind. And thus my poor veggies grow increasingly sodden in my fridge. SO. Here is the beginning of me putting an end to it all. Send me your ideas on menu planning in the comments. Bonus incentive: Local Bay Area commenters stand to win a prize!

Grandma’s Poppy Seed Dressing (Wedding Bloggery, Part 2)

For my sister Alexis’ wedding this past September I made a variety of canned goods as the wedding favors, and have been doing a series of posts since then dedicated to each recipe. First up was Mixed Spiced Nuts. Now, Poppy Seed Salad Dressing. For this favor all credit goes to my Grandma, whose delicious poppy seed dressing recipe has been a go-to family standby for ages. When I was brainstorming recipes for the favors this was a clear winner — delicious, well-loved by everyone in the family, and ridiculously easy to make, especially in large batches. I cannot say the same about the other recipe choices I made (stay tuned for my butterscotch sauce post which includes colorful moments like breaking down at 2:30 in the morning with my mother after I ruined batch after batch of sauce). But this one was a winner. And it looked great in the Weck Jars I fell in love with.

The dressing’s sweetness pairs amazingly with the tarter tanginess of the red onions and I find myself loving this recipe on the simplest of salads — a Boston Bibb lettuce or some baby spinach. Occasionally I’ll spice things up with some shaved red onion and avocado, or throw in a little citrus with some grapefruit or orange. But for the most part it is hard to go wrong with any combination. Perhaps the dressing and a spoon? Delicious.

Poppy Seed Salad Dressing

1/2 c tarragon vinegar
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp salt
2 tbs grated red onion
1 c vegetable oil
1 tbs poppy seeds

Mix dry ingredients except poppy seeds. Slowly add the oil and vinegar, whisking to misk. Add poppy seeds.

Enjoy!

A note: occasionally I find it hard to find tarragon vinegar. Fear not! Substitutions work fine. I’ve also made the recipe with red and white wine vinegar and it has turned out delicious.