Rookie Cookery

Eating Fossil Fuel

Eating locally grown food is good for the environment as well as the local economy. An article on Alternet called Fossil Fuel for Breakfast details the true cost of getting food to our plates. It's worth reading, along with the comments from readers. While I would not want to eliminate all transporation of foods from around the world, I think it is worth choosing seasonal and local foods as much as is possible.

Like a fallen souffle

....my computer has finally done it: Crashed. I suspected it was coming, and sure enough....it finally gave up the cyber-ghost.

It will be a few days or weeks until I am back up and running. Until then....enjoy some links and archives! OH, and back up your files. I think my most important stuff is on CDs but time will tell.

Peace out, everyone.
--Andrea

Colcannon recipe with corned beef a la Goldilocks

I can't let St. Patrick's Day go by without sharing this recipe for colcannon, a traditional Irish dish featuring mashed potatoes with ham and cabbage. The recipe comes from an Irish woman named Christabel Rossiter, whom I saw interviewed by Tyler Florence on his Food Network progam on the "ultimate potato" last year. While I plan to cook this again tonight, the photo is from last year when I first made this dish.

COLCANNON RECIPE

yields six servings

3 pounds potatoes, scrubbed
2 sticks butter (NOTE: many reviewers suggested half this amount)
1 and 1/4 cups hot milk
fresh ground black pepper
1 head cabbage, cored and finely shredded
1 one pound piece of ham or bacon, cooked the day before
4 scallions finely chopped
chopped parsley to garnish (optional)

Directions: steam the potatoes in their skins for 30 minutes. Peel them using a knife and fork. Chop and then mash the potatoes, removing lumps. Add a stick of butter (or less to taste!) in pieces. Gradually add the hot milk, stirring smooth, and the pepper.

Meanwhile boil the cabbage in unsalted water until the color turns darker. Add two tablespoons of butter to tenderize it. Cover with a lid for two minutes. Drain thoroughly, then chop the cabbage into small pieces.

Cover and boil, then simmer the ham for 45 minutes until tender. Drain, remove fat and chop. (Note: I plan to use bacon tonight, which I will fry in a pan.)

Add cabbage, scallions, and ham to mashed potatoes and stir gently until combined. Serving suggestion: serve in individual soup plates, making an indentation in the center and adding a bit of butter. Sprinkle with parlsley.

There you have it--the traditional colcannon recipe. Last year I used turkey ham, but this year I plan to use bacon, but reserve some without for my non bacon eating husband. Along with this I will serve:

CORNED BEEF A LA GOLDILOCKS

Is Goldilocks Irish? I don't know. Let's just say I used the Goldilocks method of cooking corned beef today.

First, I placed the beef brisket in my crock pot, as I did last year. But it was too small! I cut off the end of the beef brisket, and poked it down with a spoon, and covered it with water and seasonings. But it still looked too crowded. Would it even boil? "This crock pot is too small!" I said.

So I pulled out my only enameled ironware casserole pot, placed it on the stove top and shlepped the hunks of brisket and water from the crock into the pot. I added more water. It barely covered the beef. Nervously, I brought it up to boil. But it was still too small, and I watched as it boiled over as expected, ready to pounce on it to bring it to a simmer. "This is still too small!" I said.

Then I got out my just-as-narrow, but much deeper, pasta pot, and in a motion than can only be described as "ungainly", I transferred the meat with tongs, and then the hot water, into the third pot.

This one was just right!

Sure and begorrah. (transaltion: "Sure and by God")

French Yogurt Cake, four ways (including sugarless)

OK, I went a little crazy. Ever since I read about Clothilde's Gateau au Yaourt on Chocolate and Zucchini, I have been wanting to make this cake. Maybe because it is reportedly the first cake a French child learns to bake, and that appealed to me, the Rookie Cook. I was also attracted to the simplicity of the recipe, and the variable ways of dressing it up, or leaving it plain. I also like the fact that it is a one layer cake, and could be made when company is coming and you don't want a lot of left over cake. (Humor me. It could theoretically happen.) Here is what I did.

First: although it looks like a lot of cake in the photograph, in fact I baked only two 9 inch rounds of cake, then in some cases I sliced a round in half and stacked one layer on top of another to make layers. Clothilde's recipe is for one single layer of cake, and since I wanted to test a few variations, I went ahead and doubled the recipe. However, for one layer I substituted Stevia for the sugar, making a cake my diabetic relatives could (and did!) enjoy.

FRENCH YOGURT CAKE RECIPE VERSION WITH SUGAR

This is straight from Clothilde's web site and makes one 9 inch round of cake:

2 eggs
1 cup whole, plain unsweetened yogurt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon light rum

NOTE: I didn't have any light rum, so I used brandy. It seemed fine to my uneducated (spirits-in-cooking- wise) palatte.

ANOTHER NOTE: Clothilde gives the instruction that one can use the yogurt tubs as a measuring device, substituting one tub for one half cup measure, if you are using 4 oz. tubs, for example. Check her site for the explanation.

YET ANOTHER NOTE: The sugarless version of this cake is exactly as above, but substitute Stevia for the sugar. Make sure it is a form of Stevia that measures equivalently for sugar. The brand I bought at Trader Joe's is mixed with Lactose, a milk sugar, and works fine if no one eating the cake is lactose intolerant. In my mind this is far superior to artifical, chemical sugars such as Splenda or Nutrisweet, which I will not use due to toxicity concerns.

Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you exhibit A:

This was my favorite. The cake, dusted with confectioner's sugar. Simple, not cloyingly sweet, a lovely little treat.

In the first picture, there it is, side by side with Exhibit B: which is dusted with Chocolate Cocoa Powder. This was OK, but not great, because while I used good quality cocoa, it was also a bit too bitter for the cake. A semi-sweet or sweet cocoa would have been better, methinks.

Exhibit C is the layered version, with spreadable fruit preserve (in this case, home made persimmon jam) as the glaze and filling. This was yummy too.

Exhibit D was essentially the same as C, except that this was the cake made with Stevia, and the persimmon jam was a home-made version also sweetened with Stevia (recipes forthcoming).

CAUTION: If you look at the first picture of cakes, you'll see that the Stevia cake in the upper right corner looks a tad soggy in the middle. Because it cooks differently, I think it could have used a bit more time in the oven. However my home critics were appreciative of the cake anyway and called it a success. Next time I hope it's better.

So there you have it, friends and neighbors. With all these choices (and plenty more you can dream up besides,) you'll find that you can have your cake, and eat it too! "Merci" to Clothilde for a keeper of a recipe.

I'm baaaaack.....

OK, so I haven't been posting in a long while. Weeks, even. Here's the short and sweet explanation.

Since the beginning of the year I have been wondering the following things: Should I continue to blog? And if so, what theme or direction do i want to take? (If I do indeed continue to blog, I think I know the answer to that second question now).

Then there were the personal issues that required my attention, including someone I love being seriously ill. In addition, I have been experimenting with my own diet, with very enlightening (and positive) results. I'd like to share some of that on the blog too--but in the short term it did not make for very interesting recipes to share.

Meanwhile I do have a backlog of pictures and cooking experiments to share, while I try to get a grip on the larger picture. Thanks to those of you who have checked in from time to time. I'll try to make it worth your while.