I needed a load of fresh paprika today for a pot of paprikash I was making, so I headed over to my favorite spice store in the whole world, Savory Spice Shop. I never get out of there with just the item I went in for, and today was no exception. Most of my purchases were things I am familiar with. But one new item caught my eye: mango powder.
I have heard of mango powder before, having seen it used on "Spice Goddess" and other shows. But, I've never used it myself or even tasted it before. It is technically not a spice, though it is used like one. It's the ground-up powder of dried, unripe mangoes. I have learned that it is used in Northern Indian cooking but not in many other cuisines. Mango powder is tart and tangy and not sweet like you might expect. It can be used to add a tang to foods, not unlike the way we use lemon or lime in some dishes, but without adding extra liquid.
Bal Arneson, the Spice Goddess, uses mango powder in chutneys and in her vegetarian burger recipe. Elsewhere I saw a recipe that used it in a seasoning blend for battered and fried eggplant. So far I have only tried it in a chutney. It was a nice tangy flavor but I can see that it would be easy to overdo it; the flavor is strong. I am planning on making a curry with the mango powder in a couple of days to see what sortof interesting flavors I can create. I'll report on that when that happens.
Anybody out there ever cook with mango powder? What did you do with it?
Happy eating!
Monday, June 20, 2011
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Soy-Ginger Baked Beans
I woke up craving some sort of hearty bean dish today, but I had just bought tofu at the store with plans on sauteeing it and serving it with an Asian-style dipping sauce. How could I fit beans and the tofu dish together? Insipiration hit when I thought I would do Asian-style baked beans. I figured that ginger and soy would make nice flavor additions to a more traditional baked bean sauce.
The problem is, I'd never even made regular baked beans, much less Asian-style. But, I compiled a list of ingredients I thought sounded right and gave it a shot. What the heck, right? What I ended up with is the dish below. It actually turned out great! I'm thrilled. It's a little sweeter than I normally would like baked beans, but I think that the extra sweetness helps counter the sharpness of the ginger.
I used dried Eye of the Goat beans (my precious Rancho Gordo), and prepared them myself by boiling them as described below, but it would be fine to use canned beans instead to make the preparation time shorter -- just substitute water for the pot liquor, but be aware you may be losing some flavor there.
Soy-Ginger Baked Beans
1.5 c dried beans (*see below) (about 3c prepared beans)
2 Tbsp each: veggie oil and sesame oil
1/2 med sweet onion, diced
1 thumb ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/4 c ketchup
2 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 c soy sauce
dash chipotle powder (or other chile powder to taste)
salt and pepper to taste
1 c reserved bean pot liquor, plus extra
In bean pot, casserole dish, or large cast iron pan, heat oils over a medium burner. Cook onions until translucent; add ginger and garlic and cook one minute. Stir in tomato paste. Stir in remaining ingredients and mix well. Stir in beans. Add enough pot liquor to make a thin sauce. Go easy on the salt as there is plenty in the soy sauce and the sauce will be condensed.
Cover pot with lid or foil and transfer to oven; bake at 375 for 40-50 minutes. (Add a little more pot liquor if needed to thin out the sauce if it gets too thick as it cooks.) Uncover beans and cook another 10-20 minutes or until desired doneness. Enjoy!
*Prepare dry beans by soaking them for a few hours, and then boiling them with enough water to cover by a few inches, and some aromatics, such as carrot, onion, garlic, bay leaf, peppercorn, etc., in a cheesecloth. Simmer beans gently until al dente. Discard aromatics and drain beans, reserving pot liquor.
The problem is, I'd never even made regular baked beans, much less Asian-style. But, I compiled a list of ingredients I thought sounded right and gave it a shot. What the heck, right? What I ended up with is the dish below. It actually turned out great! I'm thrilled. It's a little sweeter than I normally would like baked beans, but I think that the extra sweetness helps counter the sharpness of the ginger.
I used dried Eye of the Goat beans (my precious Rancho Gordo), and prepared them myself by boiling them as described below, but it would be fine to use canned beans instead to make the preparation time shorter -- just substitute water for the pot liquor, but be aware you may be losing some flavor there.
Soy-Ginger Baked Beans
1.5 c dried beans (*see below) (about 3c prepared beans)
2 Tbsp each: veggie oil and sesame oil
1/2 med sweet onion, diced
1 thumb ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/4 c ketchup
2 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 c soy sauce
dash chipotle powder (or other chile powder to taste)
salt and pepper to taste
1 c reserved bean pot liquor, plus extra
In bean pot, casserole dish, or large cast iron pan, heat oils over a medium burner. Cook onions until translucent; add ginger and garlic and cook one minute. Stir in tomato paste. Stir in remaining ingredients and mix well. Stir in beans. Add enough pot liquor to make a thin sauce. Go easy on the salt as there is plenty in the soy sauce and the sauce will be condensed.
Cover pot with lid or foil and transfer to oven; bake at 375 for 40-50 minutes. (Add a little more pot liquor if needed to thin out the sauce if it gets too thick as it cooks.) Uncover beans and cook another 10-20 minutes or until desired doneness. Enjoy!
*Prepare dry beans by soaking them for a few hours, and then boiling them with enough water to cover by a few inches, and some aromatics, such as carrot, onion, garlic, bay leaf, peppercorn, etc., in a cheesecloth. Simmer beans gently until al dente. Discard aromatics and drain beans, reserving pot liquor.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Julia Roberts and Chef Hats
There is a Julia Roberts movie called "The Runaway Bride," where she keeps leaving her fiancees at the altar over and over. Then Richard Gere reveals to her that her big problem is she changes her personality to fit her various dudes' likes and dislikes instead of having her own. Apparently all she needed was a lecture about eggs (instead of about two decades of intensive therapy. Ahem). I am not a fan of the movie, or of Ms. Roberts, and if it weren't for the egg-lecture scene, I'd wipe it out of my memory entirely.
The idea of the scene is, this middle-aged woman apparently has no idea how she likes her eggs, and with each guy, he says, 'oh she likes them this way, just like me." So she goes off to figure out how she likes her eggs and then her life problems are all solved. Yay!
My point is, everybody (who is not a pathetic 1-dimensional fictional paperdoll) does have his own way he likes to have his eggs. There are almost infinite ways to prepare eggs and people can get very opinionated about exactly how they are prepared. Eggs are a traditional culinary symbol because of this. There is a saying about the folds in a chef hat, that the folds represent the number of different ways that the chef knows how to cook an egg ... and there should be a hundred folds. I find it interesting that an egg is one of the most basic foods that we use - it comes in its original form; even milk is more processed - and its uses are more varied than any other food.
I use eggs for all kinds of things, but when it comes to having an egg straight-up for breakfast, I definitely fall in line with the standard idea that I like it a particular way. Omelettes are great, sometimes I do my version of juevos rancheros, and occassionally I partake in some cheesy scrambled eggs. But 9 times out of 10 it's this particular way I've been doing eggs for over 20 years.
There's not a name for it, I just call it egg and cheese on toast. It's pretty simple, and like most egg dishes, it's about how the egg is cooked. I like mine over-easy, but I get a little picky about exacly what "over-easy" means. I use a ton of butter and let it just start to brown. The egg has to be cooked on low-ish heat so that the egg white can get cooked all the way through and get a little brown on the edges without the yolk cooking at all. I always turn the heat off or almost off before flipping the egg over carefully (because if the yolk breaks it's not perfect, and I'll start over) and letting the residual heat cook the whites around the yolk, again without cooking the yolks at all but just warming them a touch. I like the whites to be completely cooked without the yolks cooked at all.
When I flip the egg over, I put a piece of cheap-o American cheese on it so it can start to melt, and then slide that whole thing onto a piece of toasted cheap-o white bread (you know, the cheap Wonderbread stuff). It's still upside-down so that when I eat it, the yolk can get all in the bread. It's good with all the extra brown butter from the pan, too. Yummy!
So that's my own personal take on the everybody-likes-eggs-their-own-way thing. I'm sure you have your own specific way you prefer your egg, too. Feel free to tell me all about it! Maybe you have a delicious idea to share. Unless you are Julia Roberts, in which case, keep it to yourself.
Happy egg eating!
The idea of the scene is, this middle-aged woman apparently has no idea how she likes her eggs, and with each guy, he says, 'oh she likes them this way, just like me." So she goes off to figure out how she likes her eggs and then her life problems are all solved. Yay!
My point is, everybody (who is not a pathetic 1-dimensional fictional paperdoll) does have his own way he likes to have his eggs. There are almost infinite ways to prepare eggs and people can get very opinionated about exactly how they are prepared. Eggs are a traditional culinary symbol because of this. There is a saying about the folds in a chef hat, that the folds represent the number of different ways that the chef knows how to cook an egg ... and there should be a hundred folds. I find it interesting that an egg is one of the most basic foods that we use - it comes in its original form; even milk is more processed - and its uses are more varied than any other food.
I use eggs for all kinds of things, but when it comes to having an egg straight-up for breakfast, I definitely fall in line with the standard idea that I like it a particular way. Omelettes are great, sometimes I do my version of juevos rancheros, and occassionally I partake in some cheesy scrambled eggs. But 9 times out of 10 it's this particular way I've been doing eggs for over 20 years.
There's not a name for it, I just call it egg and cheese on toast. It's pretty simple, and like most egg dishes, it's about how the egg is cooked. I like mine over-easy, but I get a little picky about exacly what "over-easy" means. I use a ton of butter and let it just start to brown. The egg has to be cooked on low-ish heat so that the egg white can get cooked all the way through and get a little brown on the edges without the yolk cooking at all. I always turn the heat off or almost off before flipping the egg over carefully (because if the yolk breaks it's not perfect, and I'll start over) and letting the residual heat cook the whites around the yolk, again without cooking the yolks at all but just warming them a touch. I like the whites to be completely cooked without the yolks cooked at all.
When I flip the egg over, I put a piece of cheap-o American cheese on it so it can start to melt, and then slide that whole thing onto a piece of toasted cheap-o white bread (you know, the cheap Wonderbread stuff). It's still upside-down so that when I eat it, the yolk can get all in the bread. It's good with all the extra brown butter from the pan, too. Yummy!
So that's my own personal take on the everybody-likes-eggs-their-own-way thing. I'm sure you have your own specific way you prefer your egg, too. Feel free to tell me all about it! Maybe you have a delicious idea to share. Unless you are Julia Roberts, in which case, keep it to yourself.
Happy egg eating!
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Birthday Food
It's my birthday and I am celebrating, as I celebrate most things, with food.
Technically my birthday gift from Dan was the Aerogardens. But I also told him I wanted to go to a local farmer's market for my birthday. I've been wanting to check out some farmer's markets for a while but it seems something (dialysis, migraine, etc) always gets in the way. This morning we were finally able to go to the Cherry Creek Farmer's Market. It wasn't bad. I was suprised at how little actual produce was there. A good portion of the booths were selling prepared foods such as empanadas and sandwiches. However, we did find lots of good things to sample and buy.
We picked up a jar of local clover honey. We also found some delicious jalapeno jelly that I am anxious to try with cream cheese on toast. A few booths had beautiful loaves of bread. There is nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread, right? We bought a lovely loaf of pumpernickel rye with which I plan on making veggie reubens. Another booth had corn tortillas flavored with various seasonings, and we grabbed a package of the chile flavored ones. The only produce we bought was some delicious looking California berries. Being from Michigan, I'm still getting used to the price of berries out here, but these were definitely cheaper than at the grocery store.
The farmer's market was packed with people and many of them brought their dogs. There was live music and several food trucks. I want to check out some other farmer's markets and see what sorts of things they have.
This evening we had a birthday dinner at Garcia's, my favorite Tex-Mex place in the area, with my in-laws and our friends Phil and Jenn. Now, though, I'm back home and hooked up to my dialysis machine. It might seem strange, but this much activity in one day is just exhausting for me. I'm going to rest so I hopefully have the energy to use my farmer's market finds in some cooking tomorrow.
Happy Birthday to me.
Technically my birthday gift from Dan was the Aerogardens. But I also told him I wanted to go to a local farmer's market for my birthday. I've been wanting to check out some farmer's markets for a while but it seems something (dialysis, migraine, etc) always gets in the way. This morning we were finally able to go to the Cherry Creek Farmer's Market. It wasn't bad. I was suprised at how little actual produce was there. A good portion of the booths were selling prepared foods such as empanadas and sandwiches. However, we did find lots of good things to sample and buy.
We picked up a jar of local clover honey. We also found some delicious jalapeno jelly that I am anxious to try with cream cheese on toast. A few booths had beautiful loaves of bread. There is nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread, right? We bought a lovely loaf of pumpernickel rye with which I plan on making veggie reubens. Another booth had corn tortillas flavored with various seasonings, and we grabbed a package of the chile flavored ones. The only produce we bought was some delicious looking California berries. Being from Michigan, I'm still getting used to the price of berries out here, but these were definitely cheaper than at the grocery store.
The farmer's market was packed with people and many of them brought their dogs. There was live music and several food trucks. I want to check out some other farmer's markets and see what sorts of things they have.
This evening we had a birthday dinner at Garcia's, my favorite Tex-Mex place in the area, with my in-laws and our friends Phil and Jenn. Now, though, I'm back home and hooked up to my dialysis machine. It might seem strange, but this much activity in one day is just exhausting for me. I'm going to rest so I hopefully have the energy to use my farmer's market finds in some cooking tomorrow.
Happy Birthday to me.
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