A is for Apple

Much to my delight Apple Hill officially opened right after Labor Day. Now if the weather could get just a wee bit more crisp so that it feels more like fall when we go up there. Mmmm...I can't wait to make some apple galette and try my hand at apple butter. Not to mention, sipping on a mugful of hot mulled cider (yum!).

Things to check out:

Epicurious published a nifty little "know your apple varieties" guide today:  A Visual Guide To Apples

Apple Hill also runs their own website that lists the growers, upcoming events and a link to their free Cider Press online mag:   Apple Hill Growers  
Looks like there's a lot of fun activities for kids.

What do you look forward to most at Apple Hill?

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Itadakimasu! (Let's Eat!) : Japanese Curry

I'm still on a Japanese comfort food kick at my house and nothing hits the spot on a chilly day like a plateful of fresh karē raisu (カレーライス). Japanese curry rice is sweeter than thai curry and thicker than Indian curry. It's also a dish that entices both adult and childrens' tastebuds. Chocked full of protein and veggies, it's one of the healthier, quick fail-safe dinner dishes you can make too.


Karē Raisu   (Japanese Curry Rice)

Ingredients:

2 large carrots, peeled & sliced into half-rounds
1 large potato, peeled & cubed
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 T cooking oil
2 lbs chicken breast, cut into bite-sized chunks
6 cups of water
1 (8.4 oz.) package of medium-hot S&B Golden Curry Sauce Mix (It's the best brand)

Instructions:

1. Cut the chicken breast into bite-sized chunks.

2. Dice carrots, potato and onion.

3. In a large skillet, heat cooking oil. Then sauté meat and onion in oil until lightly browned, about 3-5 minutes. Add carrots and potato.  Discard excess oil.

4. Add 6 cups of water and bring to a strong boil. Reduce heat, partially cover and simmer until meat (and potato) is tender, about 20 minutes.

5. Break Golden Curry Sauce Mix (roux) into small cubes and add to pot stirring until it is completed dissolved.

6. Simmer for another 5 minutes or so stirring constantly.

7. Serve over freshly cooked white rice. If you want to serve it in the traditional Japanese fashion, top it with a small portion of fukujinzuke for a contrast in taste and color.

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Oka-san's Gyoza

Now that the weather's cooling down, I've been craving Japanese comfort foods like crazy- gyoza, curry rice, omurice and ramen just to name a few. So what better way to celebrate this early autumn weather than to have a gyoza making party? It was a bit chaotic in my small kitchen but I had a great time pinching gyoza wrappers, munching on Japanese snacks and catching up on goings-on with four of my lovely lady friends. Also, just by happenstance everyone had opted to make different types of fillings so there was an array of flavors to choose from come tasting time. For my gyoza attempt, I went with my mom's traditional pork gyoza recipe. They came out great but I still think they taste better when my oka-san (mom) makes them.

Oka-san's Pork Gyoza

Ingredients

2 packages of gyoza wrappers (the round kind)
1 Napa cabbage, de-ribbed and minced
1 lb. ground pork
1 t table salt
1/2 t sugar
2 t sesame oil
1 T freshly grated ginger (use a microplane grater)
2 T green onion (green part only), minced
2 T nira (minced)
5 cloves garlic, finely minced

Instructions

1. Wash, de-rib and mince the cabbage. Place in a colander and sprinkle with salt. Let it sit for about 5-10 minutes.  Firmly squeeze the cabbage to remove any residual water, this keeps the cabbage from becoming soggy during the cooking process.

2. In a large bowl, mix the cabbage, pork, garlic, nira, green onion, ginger, sugar and sesame oil together. Use your hands to really mix it in and work it. Ball it up and throw it against the bowl a few times. This helps to spread the ingredients out and tenderize the meat.

3. At your work station: place a large plate, small bowl of water and a container for the completed gyoza (I used a Pyrex casserole pan).

4. Start with 4 gyoza skins on your plate. Place a tablespoon of filling at the center of each skin. Then wet your index finger and trace the edge of half of the skin. Fold the dry half over the filling, creating a seal.  Pinch the skin in the center and then continue to make pleats down each side or start on one side and work your way across. Don't worry if your first few come out looking like a wolverine chewed on it, it gets easier as it goes.  Here's a great tutorial, if you'd like to perfect your technique.  Gyoza Tutorial

5. Place each completed gyoza in your "done" pan.

6. When complete, you can either freeze them or cook them. If you choose the latter, get a large skillet ready.  Place a teaspoon of oil in the skillet at medium-high heat. Once it's hot, place your gyoza on it (spaced so they're not touching). Cook until the "bottoms" turn brown.

7. Then pour 1/4 cup of water into the skillet (be careful!), cover, lower the heat and allow the gyozas to steam cook.

8. When the water's gone, the skins appear translucent and the meat seems firm, it's done. Remove from the pan and place on a papertowel covered plate.

9. Serve hot with your favorite dipping sauce (mine's : equal parts soy sauce and rice vinegar with a splash of chili oil and sesame oil).

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We Be Jammin' : Blackberry Freezer Jam

Mmmm, blackberries...I love them. They're sweet, they're tart, they're juicy...they just scream summer. And in August, they're at every supermaket, farmers' market and roadside stall. But like the ant in the "The Grasshopper and the Ant," I needed to start preparing for the colder months when blackberries aren't so plentiful (or cheap). Canning's the logical way to set aside the berries but all that sugar and they'd be a bit mushy...I was in a bit of a quandry. What to do, what to do.... A friend of mine suggested making freezer jam and then luck would have it my local Target had Ball's Instant Fruit Pectin on sale, so I went with that. This stuff is amazing! You can make jam in a few minutes without having to use the stove and you don't even have to sterilize the jars (just wash them well). Not to mention that you use MUCH less sugar, the jam tastes fresher and it has more of a fruit-like texture to it.

If you aren't familiar with freezer jam, check out this great NPR article on it:  Freezer Jam: A Baby Step to Canning

Blackberry Freezer Jam

Ingredients

4 cups of crushed blackberries (I used a potato masher. You can remove the seeds by using a sieve if you wish, but I left mine in)

1.5 cups of sugar ( do not use less/more or substitute another type of sweetener, it's what's needed to make it gel)

5 (8 oz.) containers (you can use freezer jars, (straight-sided) jelly jars, any sealable plastic containers)

1 package of Ball's Instant Fruit Pectin (1.59 oz.)


Instructions

1. Stir sugar and pectin in a bowl.

2. Add crushed fruit and stir well.

3. Ladle jam into clean jars and let it stand for 30 minutes.

4. You either eat it then or freeze it.

5. Freezer jam can be frozen for up to 1 year. Once thawed, it must be kept in the fridge and it's good for up to 3 weeks.

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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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Heavenly Hummus

You've heard of the Midas Touch, right? Well, my friend Cate has what I like to refer to as the Hummus Touch. She touches plain old garbanzo beans...and "POOF!" they metamorphize  into some mind-blowing, magically delicious hummus. Mr. S.'s eyes glaze over in hummus lust whenever her hummus is mentioned...seriously, it's the best tasting hummus you'll ever have. If you don't believe me, follow this recipe and find out for yourself but don't say I didn't warn you!

Ingredients

3 cups of garbanzo beans (buy dried chickpeas and rehydrate them, they taste so much better than the canned beans...it's worth the hassle.)
1 can of white kidney beans (save the liquid)
1 large lemon
4-6 garlic cloves (pressed)
2-3 T tahini
4-6 T olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Prepping Chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans)

- Place dried chickpeas in a large bowl, pick out any debris or unsavory looking beans.

- Rinse the beans a few times under the tap.

- Place the beans in a large bowl (use a big one because the beans will swell as they absorb the water), cover with plenty of water and leave to soak overnight. You can leave them in the fridge if you wish, but I usually just leave the bowl on the counter.

- The next day, drain the water and place the beans in a pot with clean water.

- Bring the beans to a boil then reduce the heat to low and allow the beans to simmer for about 15 minutes.

- Skim off and discard any foam that appears on the water's surface.

- Remove the pot from heat, drain into a colander and rinse well with cold water.

Hummus Instructions

- Hummus is easiest to make in a food processor, but a blender will also do the trick. However, you might have to halve the recipe to fit (this makes a TON) it in a blender.

- Put beans in blending machine of choice, add pressed garlic, juice of half a lemon, tahini and a little bit of the reserved bean liquid (maybe 2-3 tbls) , enough for it to blend fairly easily, but not so it’s runny. Try adding a little at a time, until it’s running fairly smoothly but there are still little flecks of beans.

- Taste and add more lemon juice, tahini, salt and pepper (to taste).

- When the taste is to your liking, with the machine running pour the olive oil in very slowly in a little stream, this makes the hummus fluff up a bit as the oil is emulsifying the mix and it gives it a nice texture. ( Just make sure you’ve added all the other wet type of ingredients lemon juice, tahini, bean liquid before the oil otherwise it can wind up runny. )

- You can jazz the hummus up by topping it with your favorite accompaniment- a tasty, puree of roasted red peppers, fresh parsley and a drizzle of olive oil or perhaps a sprinkling of za'atar or some cumin and cayenne...the possibilities are endless.

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'Shrooming : Mushroom Soup

According to whomever decides this crap, September has been deemed National Mushroom Month.  Since I didn't want to have the mushroom mafia after me  for not paying proper homage to the almighty fungi, I decided to whip up a batch of pipin' hot mushroom soup.

[Note: If you are looking for a healthy, light soup...this is not the soup for you. It's heavy, decadent and a true "comfort food" dish.]

Mushroom Soup
(* adapted from a recipe in "Comfort Me With Apples" by Ruth Reichl)

Ingredients

1 lb. portobello mushrooms, destemmed & sliced
1 lb. crimini mushrooms, sliced
2 small yellow onions, diced
4 cups beef broth
1/2 cup red wine
2 cups heavy cream (or half and half)
1 cup whole milk
8 T flour
1 t ground nutmeg
1/4 t thyme
2 bay leaves
1 stick of unsalted butter
salt
pepper

Instructions

1. Melt butter over medium heat in a heavy saucepan.
2. When foam subsides, add onion and saute until golden.
3. Add mushrooms and saute until brown.
4. Stir in flour and then slowly whisk in broth.
5. Add seasonings.
6. Heat cream/milk on the stove or in the microwave and slowly add to pot. Whisk again to ensure that everything is incorporated.
7. Add wine. Whisk yet again. (Is your arm getting tired yet?)
8. Simmer on low for ten minutes (do not boil).
9. Taste. Modify seasonings as needed.

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