Fried Plantains

Slice and fry in enough peanut oil to immerse the bottom edge. We used setting 4 on the electric stove.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

This recipe came from a friend of a friend. I'm not sure of the original source, but this seem less doughy than most pancakes to me. Low carb, high fat, easy to make, everyone likes them. I made 1 dozen 4 inch pancakes from this recipe, 67 cal per serving. 

Original recipe:
1 cup creamed cottage cheese (about 1/2 pound)
4 eggs
5-6 level tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons butter, melted but not browned

pinch of salt

Modified recipe:
1 cup creamed cottage cheese (8 oz)

2 eggs

1/2 banana

5 Tbs flour (1/3 cp)

scant 1/4 tsp baking soda

2 tablespoons butter, melted but not browned

pinch of salt

water to thin

Using a spatula, rub the cottage cheese through a fine sieve set over a small mixing bowl. Beat the eggs with a fork or whisk only long enough to combine them, and stir them little by little into the cheese. When they are completely absorbed, beat in the flour, a tablespoon at a time, then stir in the melted butter and salt. If the mixture appears too fluid - it should hold its shape briefly in a spoon - stir in a little more flour, a teaspoon at a time, until the batter reaches the proper consistency.

Or you can just dump everything into a blender :).

Lightly oil the bottom of a heavy 10 - 12 inch skillet, and place it over high heat. When a drop of cold water flicked
across it splutters and evaporates instantly, drop in the cheese mixture, a large tablespoon at the time, leaving about an inch between pancakes, they will spread out.  Our cast iron skillet equilibrates at the lowest setting after a very long warm up period.

Lightly brown the pancakes for about 2 minutes on each side.

Serve at once for breakfast or cool and refrigerate or freeze for a meal later in the week. You can add a sweet topping, but I like them plain.

Fish Tacos Friday

This is more of a weekly habit than a recipe, but it has become de rigueur during the time we have been living in SFO. This is actually my brother's recipe, but he doesn't blog, so I will be the recorder.

Fish Taco Fridays (FTF) is what we have done for many Fridays. It is often, but not always served with margaritas which deserve a dedicated post.

1 lb fish (often salmon from Trader Joe's, but can be any firm tasty fish)
6 Primavera tortillas

Prepare and arrange condiments

Condiments:

• diced garlic & onions
• shredded cabbage
• cilantro leaves
• 1-2 jalapenos, cut in long thing strips
• diced tomatos (optional, if in season)
• radishes (optional, if in season)
• salsa of your choice

Bread fish lightly with fine cornmeal & spices (roasted cumin, chili, ...)
Fry fish in peanut oil, set aside

Fry tortillas in butter

Assemble and consume with margaritas (or beverage of your choice).

Salmon Patties

Blame it on the rare hot weather, the abundance of tomatoes & fresh vegetables or just plain homesickness, but I've been doing more Southern cooking lately.

Tonight will be Salmon Patties as I remember them from my childhood - almost. Actually, I can't stand anything from my childhood without substantial modification. Except tomatoes and peaches.

I used the Whole Foods brand of salmon, but I think any reasonable brand or type would do. I mixed the 2 types because I couldn't decide. There is no significance in this strange behavior.

• 1 14.75 oz can of Pink Salmon with liquid
• 1 7.5 oz can of Red Sockeye Salmon with liquid
• 2 eggs
• 1 box Ak-Mak crackers (20 crackers)
• seasoning to taste - one time I used:
• 1 tsp ground roasted cumin seeds
• a generous grind of black pepper
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• a dash of ground cayenne
• 1 Tbs El Yucatan Chipotle Sauce (smoky, a little hot  & sweet

Crush the crackers as fine as you care to, mix with other ingredients and feel free to experiment. Smash up and mix well to get the lumps out. Use more or less crackers, or add water, milk or other liquid if needed. No salt is needed, the salmon and crackers have enough already.

Shape into patties - I used a 1/3 cup portion per patty. Press in hot skillet to about 1/2 inch thick.

Fry in light oil (peanut, safflower, ...) in medium heat until browned on both sides. This should not be rushed. Give the eggs time to get cooked under not too hot heat.

Pepper Vinegar

Recently,my brother reminded me of the pepper vinegar that was a staple in my house when I was growing up. At some point, my dad started growing the peppers and making his own. I hadn't seen either the prepared vinegar or even the peppers for some time. Not a trendy item in the city, I guess.

About 3 weeks ago, we found beautiful bunches of pepper plants that looked very much like the peppers in the vinegar bottle - or at least that's what I remembered them looking like.

We only bought one bunch, which was way too few to fill the nice bottle I wanted to use, so when I saw more this week, we bought three bunches. It takes quite a few bunches to fill a jar with peppers. Too bad you can't eat the leaves - or can you?

To make your own pepper vinegar, just get a jar full of nice clean peppers, add white vinegar to cover and wait 3 weeks. This is a staple for turnip, collard or mustard greens in the South. You can replace the vinegar several times when the vinegar starts to be used up.

I heated the vinegar before pouring over the peppers and keep my pepper vinegar in the fridge. I also added peppercorns - probably less than 2 tsp to this jar.

Tofu Carrot Miso Dressing

I found this recipe on the internet and snagged it. I did not add the salt and used red miso (with mackerel dashi - yum!) instead of yellow. It was tasty.

This recipe makes 1 1/2 cups - I made a double batch. If we can't eat it all, I'll bring it to work and share.

1/2 cup grated carrot

1/2 cup silken tofu

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 tablespoons red miso (soybean paste)

2 teaspoons chopped peeled fresh ginger

1 teaspoon honey

1 garlic clove, crushed

Bitter Melon & Beet Greens

Let me state up front that most people will not like this. I would never offer this dish to anyone that has not already tried bitter melon because it is, well, bitter. Some people think bitter melon is an acquired taste, but I loved it the first time I tried it. I think young people do not like it, although my 3 year old granddaughter ate grilled bitter melon at a cookout. Granted, I had told her that 'you will not like this' and she may have been proving a point.


We picked up 2 bunches of baby beets with their greens and one bunch of bitter melon greens at the Noe Valley farmer's market last weekend. $ per bunch - what a deal.

We made a fine meal that afternoon with the beets, greens and a baked potato. I think potatoes go very well with bitter melon. We are making the same dish again this weekend - minus the baby beets. The beets were about twice the size this week, so we are reserving them for another meal.

First separate the little baby beets from the greens. I parboiled the beets and left the skins on since they were tiny.

Then cut up the beet green stems into 1.5 inch lengths and stir fry them with a little oil and LOT of garlic and ginger. I some of added the beet juice from boiling the beets and let it reduce a bit while the stems cooked.

The little beets were cut into halves or quarters, depending on the size and the beet greens were chopped into a manageable size. At the same time remove the bitter melon leaves from the primary stem. Do not keep the little tendrils, although they are pretty, they will never become tender enough to eat.



After the beets stems were mostly tender, add the beet greens and cook for a few minutes. You can season with soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, pepper and whatever you think would work. We added a bit of red wine in the batch today. Might work. Cover and steam.

Sweet Coconut Rice

This recipe came from a newsletter by yoga instructor Darshana Weill. We tried it for a Sunday breakfast and really enjoyed it. It is perfect for those cold, dreary weekend mornings when you really don't want to hurry out.

• 1 cup sweet brown rice
• ½ cup barley (or millet, oat groats or other crunchy grain
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 ½ cups water (1 cup if using light coconut milk)
  

Rinse the rice (and possibly other grain). Place all ingredients in a saucepan.
Bring to a boil then lower to a simmer, cover and let cook for 55 minutes.



We sometimes add raisins & nuts at the end. Darshana suggested trying spices; mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, turmeric, curry, cumin (about 1 tsp of each), or a Bengal spice teabag. We haven't tried that yet.

Happy Girl Kitchen - Fermentation Workshop

We had a great time today going to a 'Fermentation Workshop' given by Happy Girl Kitchens. This was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday, and we learned how to make sauerkraut, kimchee and kombucha from our favorite source.

The workshop was given in Oakland in a beautiful old Victorian house.

It was a fun group and they fed us a yummy meal - featuring sauerkraut and kimchee. I'm still on the fence about kombucha, but Wikipedia says there is scientific evidence that drinking it might make your liver more efficient. I'm wondering if maybe the kombucha is just introducing more toxins into your system which could skew the results. Do you know any 100 year+ folks that regularly drink kombucha? I'll try it, but I'm still taking my vitamins.

Here are some pics from the workshop.






We brought home our jars of kimchee & sauerkraut to ferment. The house smells like kimchee, but it will be tasty!

North African Roasted Cauliflower

This recipe is derived from the recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks, the Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special. This is even better the next day. Here is the cauliflower we found today at the farmer's market.

Ingredients:

• 1 large cauliflower head, cut into florets
• olive oil to coat
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp ground caraway sees
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 450F.

Toss the cauliflower with oil & spices, place on a roasting pan. Bake until the cauliflower is tender and begins to turn golden brown, about 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.




The original recipe suggested topping with diced tomatoes and parsley. This is not necessary. just incorporate the cauliflower into your meal standalone or as part of a composed salad. Cilantro would be nice. We had this with leftover chickpea and leek soup.