Lillie and the Golden Beets

Lillie's new favorite veggie is the golden beet. I used to boil them but now we rub them with extra virgin oil and crack on some sea salt and pepper...then wrap them in foil and roast in the oven on 350 for 40 minutes. 

We have a few golden beet recipes listed on P&C including this one from the image below - Lillie trying golden beets for the first time.

Vietnamese Summer Rolls for Everyone!

Vietnamese summer rolls are a light and healthy, kid-friendly meal that can be enjoyed any time of the year. Fresh and not fried, they are made at the table one at a time. 

The Vietnamese name for these fresh rolls is Goi Cuon which translates literally into "rolled mixed salad." Creating these hand-held salads is an adventure in itself and the girls love to see who can wrap together the perfect roll. 

Vietnamese Summer Rolls (Goi Cuon)


2 raw pork loin chops
1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tsp sesame oil
2 carrots, peeled
2 small cucumbers 
2 cups bean sprouts
1 head butter or Boston bibb lettuce, washed
2 handfulls of fresh mint 
2 handfulls of fresh basil
1 package summer roll wrappers
1 package vermicelli noodles
1/2 cup roughly chopped peanuts
Kosher salt




Rinse and pat dry pork chops.  

Remove fat from pork chops and slice thin.

Heat sesame oil on medium heat in a sauté pan until shimmering. Carefully place pork slices into the pan so they lie flat and aren't touching. Sear 2 minutes on each side. Remove with tongs and place in a small bowl for serving. 

Boil salted water and place shrimp into pot once you have a rolling boil. Cook for 3 minutes and remove. 

Let the shrimp cool and then cut them in half lengthwise. 

Julienne carrots and cucumber into long skinny strips. 

Soak noodles for 5 minutes in hot water. Drain and place in serving bowl with tongs.

Now its time to make the dipping sauce. The traditional Nuoc Cham served at your local Vietnamese noodle house is a little too fishy and funky for the girls so we make a peanut sauce instead. A little Vietnamese fish sauce is added to give it a more complex flavor. 

Peanut Hoisin Dipping Sauce

1 tablespoon sugar
1/3 cup hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tbsp shallot, minced
1/2 tbsp ginger, finely grated
1/2 tbsp Vietnamese fish sauce
1/2 lime, juiced
3 tbsp water
3 tbsp peanut butter

Warm the oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic, ginger and shallot and cook until lightly browned, about 30 seconds. 

Add remaining ingredients, whisk well and simmer for 1 minute. If necessary, add additional water until the mixture has a thick, creamy consistency.


The last step is to roughly chop the peanuts and place in a small serving bowl.

Place every bowl and plate of yummy goodness on the table along with a large bowl of hot water. Not too hot for those little fingers! 

Time to eat! The first step in constructing a summer roll is to soften the wrapper using the bowl of hot water.

This will take a few tries to get it just right - don't worry, you have lots of wrappers in the package! Carefully rotate the wrapper until it is almost soft and place it flat on your plate. If the wrapper starts to stick to itself, just submerge it in the water for a few seconds and try again.

Now it is time to fill up the summer roll. There is no right or wrong order so stack the filling according to your taste buds. I usually put the shrimp and the herbs on the outside so you can see them through the translucent wrapper. Be careful not to overfill or you will need a fork to eat it! 

After the shrimp comes the lettuce!

Hooray for noodles!

Veggies and pork too.

Herbs and sprouts, please.

Finally some peanuts for good luck. 

Now it is time to fold. The trick here is "the tighter the better" although the girls seem to be doing fine with their loosey-goosey approach. 

The first few are always a little rough around the edges but practice makes perfect! In the end, its all about trying new things and having fun. This is a perfect meal for that. 

Bring the bottom edge of the wrapper up and over the filling and tuck it under. Fold the sides in or you can leave them open if you prefer.

Roll up and over one time.

Tuck once more and roll again! There you have it. 

Now you can slice it or just dip the whole thing into the peanut sauce. 

How many can you eat?

Lobsters on the Grill

Even a quick trip to Maine must have a lobster in it! We picked up some bugs right off the boat and fired up the grill. I cut them in half straight down the middle and brushed them with some clarified butter filled with herbs, shallot, lemon and garlic. 8 minutes on the flesh side and 2 on the shell. The tails were so tender and full of flavor and the claws were fantastic as well! We served them up with roasted fingerling potatoes, grilled asparagus and corn for good measure. Thanks to Jason and Anna for a great visit!

Ethiopian Stew for Two

One of the most memorable and interesting meals I've ever had was the dish Doro Watt at the Ethiopian restaurant Addis Red Sea in Boston. The chicken stew was filled with exotic flavors and spices served on top a crepe-like bread. It wasn't spicy but had more flavor per square inch than anything my taste buds had ever encountered. Instead of a knife and fork, you used your hands to tear off a piece of bread and then pinched up a piece of chicken and some rich sauce. The entire meal was eaten from small wicker chairs low to the ground and the table was a giant wicker basket in the middle. The African music and ambiance perfectly complimented the food. The experience and that dish were so memorable, I decided to recreate it for the girls in the hopes that my adventurous eaters would be ready for the challenge and a culinary trip to Ethiopia. For me that is what life is all about - trying something new. 

This traditional, classic dish has a few steps to it but they are all worth it in the end! The flavors are exotic yet familiar – similar to some Indian curries. If you have never tried African food before, this is a safe and fantastic first step.

I have never cooked this dish before so I was a little nervous starting out. The first step was to do some research online. There were so many variations that I was able to cobble together the pieces myself and taste it as I went. A little more cardamom here, a little more ginger there...

After putting together the rough recipes, we headed to the farmer's market for herbs and spices. I was lucky to find some fenugreek seeds and some black African cardamom.

The only ingredient I couldn't find was Teff – a small grain indigenous to Ethiopia used in making the crepe-like pancake that goes along with most Ethiopian dishes. I found some suggestions online to use buckwheat flour and some yeast as a substitute. It worked perfectly!

As always, the girls were ready to help in the kitchen. We smelled and ground all the spices, whisked together the injira, flipped the crepes and tasted the dish as we went along. Cooking with them is so cool. 

DORO WATT

1 large red onion, diced

POS (Pinch of Salt)

¼ cup SPICED BUTTER

1 teaspoon fresh-ground cardamom

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 cloves

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons ginger, finely chopped

1 tablespoon BERBERE

2 ½ cups chicken stock

6 boneless chicken thighs

¼ cup red wine

Juice of 1 lime

1 lime, sliced into wedges

2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and quartered

Using a large saucepan, cook the onions in 2 tablespoons of the spiced butter over medium heat. Stir occasionally and cook for about 10 minutes until onions are golden. Lower heat to medium low and add the remaining butter, garlic, ginger, black pepper, cloves, cardamom and berbere and cook another 10 minutes until the onions are nice and soft.

Bring to a simmer and add chicken stock, red wine and the chicken thighs. Simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes until the sauce has thickened a little and the chicken is starting to fall apart. It won't be a thick sauce so don't be alarmed.

Stir in the lime juice, season with salt and serve over the injera with slices of lime and egg and extra injera on the side.

Ethiopian Spiced Butter (Nit'ir qibe)

1 pound unsalted butter

½ cup red onion, coarsely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

¼ cup ginger, finely chopped

1 teaspoon ground fenugreek

1 teaspoon toasted cumin seeds

½ teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom seeds, black African cardamom if you can find it

¼ cup fresh oregano leaves

8 basil leaves

Melt butter over low heat, stirring often. Skim foam off the surface as it rises and continue cooking until no more foam appears. Add all remaining ingredients and cook for an additional 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and decant the butter off the spices using a sieve.

Berbere Spice Mix

½ cup ground chili powder (I use Anahaim chilis because of their subtle, kid-friendly heat)

½ cup paprika

3 teaspoons ground ginger

3 teaspoons onion powder

2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 ½ teaspoon ground cardamom

1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

3 tablespoons salt

Sadie and her African black cardamom pods

Grind as many fresh spices as you can with a mortar and pestle or an electric spice grinder. Combine all spices! Save the rest as a rub for pork, chicken, steak, etc.

BUCKWHEAT INJIRA

1 cup buckwheat flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 tbsp instant yeast

3 cups warm water

Whisk together ingredients in large bowl, cover with cheesecloth and let sit outside for at least 24 hours. Ladle one cup into crepe pan over medium heat and rotate quickly to cover entire surface. Flip in a minute or two after surface starts to solidify. Injira should be soft and not crispy on the outside.  

Time to eat! 

We sat outside and ate a late lunch. The girls absolutely loved the dish! Lillie even said that it was "Better than tacos!" That is saying quite a bit. 

They love eating with their hands and this is a great way to do just that without getting too messy. The communal focus of Ethiopian cuisine is a great approach to dining with your family. What a great adventure!

Homemade Ketchup

I stumbled upon a homemade ketchup recipe in Jamie Oliver's latest cookbook and was surprised that I never even considered making my own. The latest organic offering from Heinz is rich and delicious on fries and hotdogs - why mess with perfection. A challenge was born.

The basic premise is to cook down some veggies, spices and herbs until the concentrated flavor hits the delicious meter. This was more challenging that I anticipated. In the end, I changed up the recipe quite a bit. The flavor was more complex but not tomatoey enough so the next day I added 3 cups of V8 and cooked it down for another 2 hours. The end result was an intense roasted veggie and tomato concoction that will go toe to toe with any store bought brand.

Homemade Ketchup, Round 1

1 large onion, chopped

1 celery root, chopped

2 unpeeled organic carrots, chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

3 tbsp chopped parsley

3 tbsp chopped celery leaves

2 tbsp chopped fresh ginger

1 shallot, peeled and chopped

2 cloves

1 tbsp coriander seeds

1 tsp ground pepper

1 pound fresh tomatoes, rough chopped

15 oz. can fire roasted tomatoes, undrained

1/2 cup turbinado sugar

1 cup red wine vinegar

3 cups V8 juice

1 bunch fresh basil - leaves and stems seperated

3 cloves garlic

salt

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Rough chop veggies and combine with ginger, garlic, pepper, parsley, coriander, cloves and basil stems in a large pot with 1/4 cup of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Cook over medium low heat, stirring every few minutes for about half an hour until softened.

Add fresh, canned and juiced tomatoes and bring to a boil.

This was Lillie's favorite part - seeing the fresh tomatoes enter the pot and making that flavor connection.

Reduce heat to medium low again and simmer gently until the sauce reduces by half. Stir every few minutes.

Add the basil leaves and then puree sauce in a top-load blender or with a immersion blender.

Push through a sieve into a clean pan and add vinegar and sugar.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer again until the consistency is similar to bottled tomato ketchup. Stir often with a silicon spatula along the bottom surface to keep from clumping and burning. Season to taste - I added another tsp or two of salt and a little more sugar. A splash of vinegar to boost the acidity might have been added too...

Let the ketchup cool and then use your funnel to transfer to clean jars and bottles. Store in your fridge for up to 4 months.

Once chilled, apply liberally to french fries, corn dogs, hot dogs, tater tots, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, onion rings, scrambled eggs...