Matzo Brei : One of Life's Perfect Foods

Recent conversation with Kidlet #1 over a breakfast of matzo brei:

Kidlet #1: This is good, what's it made of?

Me: Crushed matzo crackers and egg.

Kidlet #1: What's that?

Me: An unleavened bread. They're like giant crackers. My dad used to buy them for me when I was a kid.  I'd put a ton of margarine on them and eat them for a snack.

Kidlet #1: Cool. Are you going to write about it on your blog?

Me: Maybe.

Kidlet #1: Do you still call us kidlets?

Me: Yeah...but I guess I should change it now that you guys are teenagers. What should I call you? 

Kidlet #2 calls out from the living room: Starlord56! Starlord56!

Ummm, ok.....so I'm NOT going to call them Starlord56 (although I do kind of wonder where the heck he got that idea from?) but I do think they're due for an update. They're hardly "kidlets" anymore at 12 and 15 years old.  Kidlet #1 is taller than me and just started shaving for goodness' sake! So maybe I'll just start referring to them as Teen Z (Kidlet #1) and Teen B (Kidlet #2)?  That should suffice, right? ☺

Anyhow, this weekend try making some matzo brei for breakfast (or a snack), you'll love it.  My favorite recipe is Ruth Reichl's, although I use a little less butter than she recommends (her recipe uses 6 tablespoons).  Reichl once described matzo brei as, "one of life's perfect foods."  I think she's absolutely right, the dish is quite delicious in its simplicity.

Matzo Brei

Ingredients

4 matzos
4 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Instructions

1. Crumble matzos into a large sieve placed over a bowl to catch crumbs, then hold sieve under running cold water until matzos are moist and softened but not completely disintegrated, about 15 seconds. Gently press out the excess water.

2. Transfer to bowl with crumbs, then add eggs and salt and mix gently with a fork.

3. Heat butter in a 10- to 12-inch skillet over moderately high heat until foam subsides. 

4. Add matzo mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until eggs are scrambled and matzo has begun to crisp, about 3 minutes. (I usually flip them halfway through, I like them slightly crispy on both sides.)

* Sometimes I like to mix it up by adding in some sliced spring onions or a shake of garlic powder. Or go sweet and sprinkle it with a some cinnamon and brown sugar or a wee bit of maple syrup. There's a matzo brei for every taste.

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Sunday Funday Baked Hummus Dip

Can you believe October is already almost over? It's been a busy, busy month here at the casa. For one thing, I turned 40! Yep, the big 4-0. Gah!  To celebrate Mr. S. whisked me off for a fun, romantic getaway in SF the weekend before. We had a terrific time. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt, poked around Japantown, hit up the CA Academy of Sciences and even saw the Blue Angels zoom by. We also stocked up on a few bags of our favorite coffee from Philz.  Mmm!

View from our hotel room

 

Claude, the albino alligator at the CA Academy of Sciences

 

Philz, It's the Best!

On my actual birthday day, I woke up to this awesome scene in the dining room:

 

 

...plus a dozen balloons in my car. 

Then for dinner, Mr.S. planned a lovely night out at Mulvaney's with our friends, Michelle and Pete, for me. Followed by the most luscious, delicious salted caramel cake from Freeport Bakery. If you haven't tried this cake, get yourself to Freeport Bakery right now! It'll make your toes curl, it's soooo amazing. Seriously, it's like cake heroin. Sweet, sweet cake heroin. Ummmm yeah, so let's just say there were no leftovers from this cake in our house. ☺

On a healthier note, I've been making this baked hummus dish a lot on Sundays.  Mr.S and the kidlets have been immersed in watching the 9 billion football games that are on TV. So while they're watching that, Pepper and I are usually watching, "The League," on Netflix in the other room.  (If you haven't seen this show, check it out. It's absolutely hilarious...and this comes from somebody who equates watching football to going to the gyno. Neither are fun.)

 Regardless of what we're doing, we all seem to love snacking on this dish.


Sunday Funday Baked Hummus (adapted from Iowa Girl Eats 5 Layer Baked Hummus recipe)

Ingredients

10 oz. Sabra Roasted Garlic Hummus
3 Jennie-O Hot Italian Turkey Sausages (removed from casing)
2 medium leeks, white & green parts only (cut the leeks in half lengthwise, then slice thinly)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
salt & fresh ground pepper
1 teaspoon McCormick's onion powder
1 large clove of garlic, minced
6 oz. Trader Joe's Feta with Mediterranean Herbs


Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Stir up the hummus so the roasted garlic bits get incorporated into the hummus. Spread the hummus mixture evenly into the bottom of a 10x7 baking dish.

3. In a large pan, brown your turkey sausage.

4. Add in your sliced leeks and garlic. Season with salt, fresh ground pepper and onion powder. Sauté until softened.

5. Take sausage-leek mixture and layer it over the hummus.

6. Sprinkle with feta.

7. Place in oven for 20 minutes.

8. Serve hot with chips or warm pita bread.

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Holiday Appetizer : Sausage Balls

Holy moly, we're almost at the end of 2013! Can you believe it? This year went by so fast! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I spent Xmas with Mr.S.'s family. They do a big Christmas dinner at Mr.S.'s, everyone brings a few dishes and his parents make a delicious ham. This year I was in charge of lemon bars, sausage balls and green bean casserole (that last dish wasn't by my choice, it was requested). I was excited about making the sausage balls. I found the recipe last year in a magazine while at the hospital. It was a recipe submitted by the Voltaggio brothers (of Top Chef fame) for a Thanksgiving issue. It sounded intriguing so I took a photo with my phone and looked it up online later on. The recipe is quite easy to make (just a handful of ingredients), can be prepared ahead of time (just pop them in the oven right before guests arrive) and perfect for a holiday party finger food. I found that the sausage balls taste great when paired with a dipping sauce (honey-mustard, sweet chili, or even an aioli goes great with these). Also, the leftovers are fantastic when used in an egg strata the next day (just sub in the sausage balls for the bread and cook as usual). I threw in some leftover ham and cheese from the previous night's dinner when I made ours. Mr.S . and Kidlet #1 loved the sausage ball-strata.

Holiday Sausage Balls (adapted from Redbook Magazine)

Ingredients

3 cups Bisquick pancake mix
1 lb. bulk country or breakfast sausage (not in casing, crumbled)
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage

fresh out of the oven

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 400°F.

2. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper so that the sausage balls don't stick.

3. Combine all the ingredients in the bowl of a large stand mixer. Use the paddle attachment and mix everything thoroughly.

4. Use your hands to form 1 1/2 inch balls and place on the parchment paper. Make sure the sausage balls are spaced out evenly.

5. Bake for about 20 minutes until they are puffed and a golden brown.  Transfer to a wire rack or platter and allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Serve warm with your favorite dipping sauce.

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Ingredient Spotlight: Nanami Togarashi

I recently came back into touch with a friend whom I had not seen or spoken with in several years. One of the first questions she asked me when we hung out last week was, "What new condiments can you recommend?" Now readers, I have to be honest with you...I have a severe condiment problem. I'm a condiment hoarder. I love them, my fridge is full of them and I use them all. It ranges the whole gamut: umeboshi paste to truffle salt to yuzu hot sauce and furikake; it's all in there mixed together with the Sriracha, Korean Gochujang, Maggi Seasoning, and good ol' Heinz Ketchup. It's nice, it's wonderful...it's also taking over my fridge! Anyhow..............I thought long and hard and emailed her back about "Nanami Togarashi." I totally have a spice crush on Nanami Togarashi right now.

Nanami Togarashi typically contains coarsely ground red pepper, ground sansho peppercorns, roasted mandarin peel, black sesame seed, white sesame seed, hemp seed, ground ginger and nori. It's spicy (but not crazy-spicy) and has a lovely citrus-centric flavor to it. I love dashing some Nanami Togarashi on my udons, ramens, sneaking it into my dark chocolate desserts and even sprinkling some on pork products (ribs, mmmm!) ; but most of all, I enjoy pairing it with fresh avocado. One of my favorite afternoon snacks is- sliced avocado topped with lime juice, a bit of sea salt and a few shakes of Nanami Togarashi. Mmmmm!  I love how the simple seasonings enhance the natural flavor of the avocado. It's delicious and quite addictive.

If you're interested in trying it, you can purchase Nanami Togarashi at most Asian stores (Oto's carries it here in Sacramento) or you can get it on Amazon. A bottle should run you about $5, but a little goes a long way.

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Ninniku Miso-Zuke (Japanese Miso-Cured Garlic)

 

I'm not sure about you all but I've been absolutely dying the last few days from allergies. DYIN', I tell ya! I haven't had allergies this bad in at least 5+ years. They were so bad that I had to spend all of yesterday in bed sleeping. I felt like I was enduring some version of 50 Shades of Allergy Hell. I'd occasionally get up to slam some Allegra-D and Sinex or snort some Flonase, but nothing was working. I spent my day sucking on hits of  Cepacol Hydra drops like they were all-day suckers and at night...oh, the nights were the  worst! I ended up resorting to taking Nyquil (the dreaded green flavor even) so that I could get some relief from the incessant and unladylike hacking, gacking and occasional phlegm-laced vomiting. I was (am) a total mess.

Source: www.nataliedee.com

 

Today's the first real day that I could taste something so I decided to have some rice and ninniku miso-zuke (aka miso-cured garlic). The saltiness of the miso and the tempered bite of the garlic (which is simultaneously sweet and savory) tasted exquisite to my tongue which had been deprived of any flavor the last few days. Ninikku miso-zuke is super easy to make, you just need three basic ingredients: miso, mirin (a sweet rice-wine) and fresh garlic cloves. The hard part is just leaving the batch alone and allowing it to ferment. This summer I might try and be ambitious and try my hand at tofu misozuke, which I've heard people rave about and compare the texture to being like "triple cream blue cheese" or "a cross between butter and foie gras." How delicious does that sound?! I'll keep you posted if I get around to it.

Ninniku Miso-Zuke

Ingredients

handful of  fresh garlic cloves
1 cup miso paste- I prefer to use aka (red) miso, but a sweet shiro (white) or barley miso could be used too
1/4 c mirin
1 clean, dry wide-mouth quart jar

Instructions

1. Separate the garlic cloves. Trim the garlic ends, remove the outer skin and also peel off the thin filmy membrane layer.

2. Blanch garlic cloves for 1-2 minutes in unsalted water. Pull them out and pat dry them with a clean paper towel.

3. In a small bowl mix together your mirin and miso thoroughly.

4. Place a thin layer of miso at the bottom of your jar then make alternating layers of miso and garlic cloves. (Note: You don't want the cloves to touch.) Continue the layering process until you run out of ingredients or reach the top. Finish the top with a miso-mirin mixture layer and make sure all the garlic cloves are covered with miso.

5. Latch your jar and place it in the fridge. Allow it to pickle for at least 1 month. The garlic gets better with age. Keeps good up to 3-4 months.

6. When you're ready to eat the garlic, just pull out the amount you want to eat, rinse off the miso and serve. Use as an accompaniment to a meal or just eat them as a snack. I like to shove a few into the middle of my onigiris or dice it up and mix it with butter when I'm sautéing.

* Tip #1: As you clear each layer of garlic, the miso is still good and can be used in your recipes that call for miso.

* Tip #2: You can buy mirin and aka miso at most Asian speciality stores. For Sacramentans: Otos' Market on Freeport Blvd. carries both.

* Tip #3: Take the time to use fresh garlic in this recipe. The pre-peeled garlic that you can buy in bags at Costco and other grocery stores isn't as fresh and you'll notice a difference in taste.

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Crunch & Munch : Spicy Roasted Chickpeas

Looking for a healthier alternative to the traditional buttered popcorn while catching up on your Netflix? Or are you just craving something new to nibble on while watching your favorite sports team kick some butt? Try roasted chickpeas. Sounds a bit strange, I know, but these crunchy little bites are high in fiber, filling and most of all - tasty. The cool part is that you can gussy them up with a spice (or spices) of your liking.  Garlic powder, garam masala, curry powder, smoked parika...experiment, be adventurous, go crazy---try them all! For mine, I went with a chili-lime version. They were absolutely addicting. I did have a small (and I do mean small) amount leftover and ended up tossing them on top of a salad for dinner...delicious!

* Just be warned if you've never cooked with cumin before...it's quite odorific and your house could end up smelling like armpit for a day or two. Open some windows before placing your baking sheet in the oven...I learned the hard way.

Spicy Roasted Chickpeas
(Adapted from Willow Bird Baking's Chile-Lime Roasted Chickpeas recipe)

Yields: about 1.5 cups roasted chickpeas

Ingredients:

2 (15-ounce) cans of chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans) - drained, rinsed, and blotted dry

3-4 teaspoons chili powder*

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon lime juice

3/4 teaspoon sea salt

1-2 teaspoons cumin*

*Note: start with the lowest amount of spice, then add more to taste.


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray it with PAM or mist with olive oil.

3. Combine olive oil, chili powder, lime juice, sea salt, and cumin in a bowl. Mix throughly.

4. Add chickpeas. Stir well.

5. Spread chickpeas out in a single layer onto the foil.

6. Bake chickpeas for 45-50 minutes, flipping every 15 minutes or so. Keep an eye on them to ensure that they don't burn. Take them out when they’re really crunchy.

7. Eat immediately.

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Oh Fudge!

Kids are wily. Last week when I dropped by Mr S.'s abode, I should have known something was up when Kidlet #1 greeted me at the door with a big smile and a compliment. He smoothly transitioned into asking me if I knew how to make fudge. When I replied that I did but that it had been several years since I had made pans of that rich, chocolaty treat (I used to make it at Xmas time); I could see his 11 year old brain tickering away...after a moment or two, he hesitantly inquired whether I'd make some. Being that I'd hate to be the one to trample on a child's dream (and he was looking at me with big, blinky eyes) I acquiesced. Plus fudge is one of the easiest desserts to put together, you don't even need to use an oven. So, Kidlet #1 and I struck a bargain-- if he was good for a week, then I'd make some fudge and bring it over. It's a week later now and guess what I was making in the kitchen this morning? I'll give you a clue, Kidlet #1 was as sweet as fudge all week.  :)

Ingredients

1 t of vanilla extract
2/3 cup evaporated milk (not to be confused with sweetened condensed milk)
1.5 sticks of unsalted butter
3 cups of granulated sugar
16 oz. bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
7 oz. jar of marshmallow cream (do not sub with regular marshmallows)
1/4 cup sliced, roasted almonds

Instructions

1. Line a 13"x9"x2" baking pan with foil. Then spray with cooking spray.

2. In a heavy pot, stir together sugar, butter and evaporated milk. Bring to a rolling boil.

3. Once it reaches a boil, let it go for 4-5 more minutes, stirring constantly.

4. Turn off the heat, stir in chocolate and marshmallow cream.

5. Mix thoroughly. Add the vanilla then stir some more.

6. Pour into the lined pain.

7. Sprinkle liberally with sliced, roasted almonds.

8. Place pan in the fridge to harden.

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Easy-Peasy Apricot Leather

When I was a kid, I used to love it when my mom would slip a Fruit Roll-Up (aka "fruit leather") in my lunchbox. There was that satisfying, "Screeeeeeeeech!" as you ripped it off the cellophane and all the possibilities! It was the one time it was ok to play with your food. You could wad it up and shove the whole thing in your mouth, cut out eye-holes and make it into a mask or build unidentifiable creatures out of it. Well, with a bag of apricots languishing on my counter and a sense of nostalgia in my heart I decided to embark on making some homemade apricot fruit leather yesterday.  It turned out to be super easy and the kidlets loved it (as did the adults).

Ingredients:

apricots
lemon juice
sugar (honey can be substituted)

[4 cups of diced fruit yields about 1 large cookie sheet of fruit leather]

Instructions:

1. Rinse the fruit. Set 2-3 apricots to the side (for fiber). Peel the rest. (* see directions at bottom).

2. Remove pits and roughly dice fruit (including the unpeeled apricots).

3. Place the diced apricots in a saucepan on medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar and lemon juice at a time, to desired level of sweetness. (I made 2 sheets of leather and used about 1/2 cup of bakers sugar and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice).

4. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Allow mixture to simmer for about 5 minutes more.

5. Remove mixture from stove and puree in food processor/blender.

6. Cover a cookie sheet with plastic wrap. Pour the puree evenly onto the plastic wrap to 1/8" thickness. Make sure that none of the plastic wrap is folding over onto the puree.

7. Place on oven rack at lowest setting (ideally 150 degrees, but my oven only went down to 170). Prop oven open a wee bit with a wooden spoon so that air can circulate and dry it out.

8. Bake for 8-12 hours until the mixture dries out. (When the mixture stops being tacky to the touch and feels dry, it's done).

9. Slice leather into strips (I used a pizza cutter).Peel from plastic backing, roll it up in parchment paper and secure with a rubberband. Store in an airtight container.

* How to Peel Apricots Easily

1. Submerge apricots in boiling water for 20-25 seconds.
2. Remove and place in a bowl of ice water for 20-25 seconds
3. Gently slide skin off.

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"You Say Tomato and I Say Tomahto..." : Fresh Pico De Gallo

It wasn't a great season for tomatoes in Sacramento this year, but the tomato seedlings Mr. S. planted did bear us a decent amount of fruit. Seen below (being fondled by my lovely assistant) are some of the tasty salsa tomatoes that came in (one of two different varieties of tomatoes that were planted). I'm not a big fan of super-liquidy salsa, so I decided to make some pico de gallo with the tomatoes instead. Pico de gallo is ultra easy to throw together and is great with tortilla chips, atop a quesadilla or my favorite...sprinkled on an omelet.

I dug up a recipe on Simply Recipes and voila! In mere minutes, we had some fresh pico de gallo for a Sunday afternoon snack. (Note: I subbed in 5 salsa tomatoes and sprinkled in a bit of cumin to jazz it up).

Fast & Fresh Pico De Gallo

Ingredients

• 2-3 medium sized fresh tomatoes (from 1 lb to 1 1/2 lb), stems removed, finely diced
• 1/2 red onion, finely diced
• 1 jalapeño chili pepper (stems, ribs, seeds removed), finely diced
• 1 serano chili pepper (stems, ribs, seeds removed), finely diced
• Juice of one lime
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Optional: oregano and or cumin to taste

Directions

1. Start with chopping up 2 medium sized fresh tomatoes. Prepare the chilies. Be very careful while handling these hot peppers. If you can, avoid touching them with your hands. Use a fork to cut up the chilies over a small plate, or use a paper towel to protect your hands. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and hot water after handling and avoid touching your eyes for several hours. Set aside some of the seeds from the peppers. If the salsa isn't hot enough, you can add a few for heat.

2. Combine all of the ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Taste. If the chilies make the salsa too hot, add some more chopped tomato. If not hot enough, carefully add a few of the seeds from the chilies, or add some ground cumin.

3. Let sit for an hour for the flavors to combine.

Makes approximately 3-4 cups.

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