Mediterranean Millet Dip

Grains are great — you can grind them into flour and bake with them, you can toss them into stir-frys and use them as the basis for pilafs and salads, and you can thicken just about anything with them.  (There are tons of other ways to use grains, but as one of my favorite childhood authors was prone to saying, “That’s another story, to be told another time.”  Too bad Michael Ende never wrote a sequel to The Neverending Story!)

As long as your grain is well-cooked, you can purée it.  This holds true for rice, millet, quinoa, teff, oats, wheatberries, etc.  Some grains have a higher smush-ability index than others, though: the bigger the grain, the more smoothly it mashes.  For this recipe, I used leftover cooked millet because I wanted a fairly lump-free texture.  You could use leftover chunks of bread, too, but if you do that, make sure you’re using a whole-grain, neutral-flavor bread and not a loaf full of refined sugar and/or something strong like caraway seeds — there’s plenty of flavor in this Greek-inspired recipe!

Mediterranean Millet Dip (which happens to be gluten-free, although you can use any grain/bread of your choice)

Blend together in food processor until smooth:

1 cup cooked millet
1/2 cup Feta, preferably made of sheep’s milk and in brine
1 T. apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 tsp. honey
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. coriander
1 tsp. dried mint
3-4 cloves garlic that have been slivered and sautéed in extra-virgin olive oil for 2-3 minutes over low heat

Serve at room temperature with a plate of bite-sized raw veggies (carrots, celery, zucchini), crusty bread, and/or good-quality tortilla chips. You could also garnish the dip with a few Greek olives.

Note: you can use this trick of grain-thickening with any dish that calls for thickening with bread.  The classic chilled Spanish gazpacho soup, for example, can easily be made with a cooked grain instead of bread.

Enjoy!

Hashmarked Potato Masher

The only thing better than getting your hands on a fancy new kitchen gadget is realizing that you can use an old kitchen gadget to do the same job.  (Thus saving you $$ to buy more new kitchen gadgets.)

Enter the potato masher.  Not only does it do its eponymous job, it mashes anything else that’s soft enough to give way to its crushing hash marks:  chickpeas, bananas, avocadoes.  Don’t want to get your food processor garlicky and oily?  Make hummus with a potato masher.  Don’t want to have a line across your palm as a result of trying to smush bananas for banana bread?  Use a potato masher.  (And you can just keep right on using it to stir the batter.)  Want silky-smooth guacamole?  Turn skinned avocado halves into green cream with a potato-turned-avocado masher.

Potato mashers also work wonders with cooked and softened fruits like apples (apples + masher = applesauce), various berries (blueberries + masher = jam) and tomatoes (tomatoes + masher = stewed tomatoes).  And don’t forget about them when you want to imprint marks on the top of bread or piecrust — depending on what kind of pattern your masher has, you might be able to use the finished product as a tic-tac-toe board!  (With raisins and peanuts as the markers.)

Huh.  Maybe we shouldn’t call them “potato” mashers any more — maybe they should be “all-purpose” mashers.

Old-Fashioned Crank Pasta Maker

Sure, you’ve got your fancy new pasta makers with their plugs and motors and cords … in fact, some of them might be so darned newfangled that they’ve transcended outlets and gone cordless.  Wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a Bluetooth pasta maker out there somewhere.

But you know what works best?  An old-school, crank-it-out kind of pasta machine.  You clamp it to the counter, smash the pasta dough into an oblong with your hands, and run the pasta through the wide roller about three times, folding it over in thirds each time so that it will fit the width of the roller.  Then you just peg the crank into the spaghetti- or linguini-proportioned roller and crank out your pasta.  Hang promptly (see versatile tool below) or gently let plop into a pot of boiling water and cook for 3 minutes.  (If you let the pasta dry out overnight and then store it, you’ll have to cook it for at least 5 minutes, probably more.)

Basic pasta dough isn’t too terribly complicated, either — combine 1 cup flour with 1 egg and a tablespoon or two of water, then stir to incorporate.  (Add another tablespoonful of water if the dough seems too dry.)  Turn dough out onto floured countertop and knead for about 10 minutes, adding more flour as necessary to keep dough from sticking.  Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let sit for about 20 minutes before breaking into smaller batches and running them through the pasta machine.

Note:  it’s crucial to keep the dough from drying out, so as you’re making pasta out of one batch of dough, keep the other dough balls covered with a damp kitchen towel.  Either hang or boil noodles within a minute or two of cranking them out — if you let them sit in a heap, you’ll have a tangled knot of dough.

Another note:  it’s entirely possible to make your pasta gluten-free if you’d like.  I used 1/2 cup buckwheat and 1/2 cup brown rice flour (hence the dough’s dark color) to make these noodles.  The only caveat is that whatever flour you use has to be fine-ground; while rough-milled wheatberries might be full of handy elastic gluten, they would make terrible pasta.

High-Tech Pasta Hanging Method: Two Chairs and a Broom

If you do opt to hang your pasta and dry it, a broom and two chairs are outstanding tools for doing so.  Just be sure to clean off the broom handle first!

Let noodles dry overnight and then carefully package them in either an airtight tin or glass container.  You might want to line the container with something soft (like a paper towel) to help maintain the structural integrity of the noodles.

Enjoy!

A Griddle at Work

Last weekend, I attended the Epicurean Classic culinary event in St. Joseph.  Wow…if you’ll pardon the pun, I was whisked away.  The chefs were amazing, the food was spectacular, and the kitchen gadgets were dazzingly shiny.  (Imagine four separate fully-outfitted kitchens al fresco underneath huge white tents — how great would that set-up be in your backyard?)  Even the chefs were enchanted with the array of whizzing, whirring, and whipping accoutrements provided by Kitchen-Aid.

But you know what?  Sometimes the simplest things are best.  My mother and I had ooh-ed and ahh-ed over the stovetop grilling trays the chefs had been using and had decided to get a few of our own…but then my mother showed up with an old-fashioned griddle in hand.  “I haven’t used this in at least 11 years,” she said, and handed it to me.  “Found it when I was rummaging through my pots and pans yesterday.  You might as well try using it.”

A new (to me) kitchen tool!  I couldn’t wait to make pancakes the next morning.  And was I glad I did — every single one of them turned out beautifully.  (Before, I had been juggling two or three different-sized pans at once on various burners, and since pans and burners adhere to the Snowflake Rule — no two are exactly alike — I had gotten some burned pancakes, some perfect ones, and some probably-could-have-been-better ones.)  Being able to easily handle flatbread-making is an even bigger bonus for anyone who’s going gluten-free and is therefore making the switch from puffy leavened yeast breads to flatbreads and quickbreads.  Who needs a sandwich loaf when you can fry up a batch of tortillas, chapatis, or inerja at a moment’s notice?

The verdict:  do yourself a favor and get a griddle.  All you’ll need is medium heat, a bit of butter or coconut oil to grease your griddle, and a bowl of batter, and you’ll be turning out the most perfectly-hued flapjacks north of the Mason-Dixie line.

Enjoy!

Pre-Modern "Crackers"

A few weeks ago, a Mexican amiga showed me how to make tortillas from scratch, something I’ve always wanted to learn.  It’s amazingly easy!  Just mix masa harina (a corn flour that’s been treated with lime) with water and salt until it’s the right consistency, then shape into balls, press flat with a tortilla press, and fry over medium-low heat.  ¡Qué fácil!

After a trip to Bed Bath & Beyond, however, I realized that finding a dang press was going to be a lot more difficult than using one…at least one that wasn’t muy caro.  So I did the next best thing:  I used two glass bowls — one turned upside-down and one rightside-up — instead of a press.  If you have plates with a nice flat bottom (no ridges!), you could use those, too.  Just be sure to place plastic wrap on the contact surface of each bowl/plate to prevent the dough from sticking.  (It peels off the wrap beautifully and is very easy to transfer to the hot pan.)

It turns out that this technique of mixing a flour with water and salt and then pressing and cooking it works with any kind of flour–you can use chickpea flour to make a kind of  Indian chapati, wheat flour to make more of an American cracker, teff to make something resembling Ethiopian injera, etc.  Grinding your own flour and then using it right away results in the very grainy, old-fashioned kind of  flat biscuit you see in this picture.

If you want to add a bit of puff to your crackers/chapati/injera, add about 1 tsp. of baking powder for every cup of flour.  Then add 1/2 tsp. of salt to the flour and about 1/2 cup of water.  Mush the mixture between your fingers until it is pliable but not too wet.  If it’s too dry — different flours absorb water at different rates — add more water.  You should be able to easily divide the dough into balls and then press them out between your bowls or plates.  If it doesn’t press well (i.e., it’s too wet or too dry), just re-incorporate the dough, add more flour or water, and try again.

Fry the flattened-out pieces in coconut oil or ghee over medium-low heat until one side is light brown.  Flip and brown the other side.  Serve piping hot.

Enjoy!

Blueberry-Cinnamon Ice Cream

Ice cream has to be one of the true joys of summer.  (If you’re like me and love pumpkin ice cream, it’s also one of fall’s pleasures.)  As much as I enjoyed the occasional scoop or two, however, I was getting dissatisfied with commercial ice cream–waaaay too much sugar and way too many unnecessary additives.  (Guar gum?  Monodiglycerides?  No, thanks.)  True to form, I got obsessed with the idea of making my own.  The result was membership in a cowshare program to get local, grass-fed, raw milk and cream; research into alternative natural sweeteners like honey, agave, and maple syrup; and a $35 investment in an ice cream maker.

The good news is, you don’t have to go quite that far to make some top-notch ice cream.  What you do need is the maker itself and then various proportions of the following:

* good-quality milk (whole, from grass-fed cows, preferably unhomogenized)

* good-quality eggs (from pastured hens)

* whatever fruit you might like to include (it’s easiest to work with frozen fruit that’s thawed out in the fridge overnight)

* whatever sweetener strikes your fancy (preferably honey, agave, or maple syrup)

* any other flavoring you’d like to add (vanilla, cocoa powder, cinnamon, top-notch chocolate, etc.)

Follow the directions given in your ice-maker kit in terms of proportions and churning/freezing time.  (I make a bit less than a straight substitution for the sugar to a natural sweeter:  if it calls for 1/2 cup of sugar, I use 1/3 cup of agave/maple/honey.)  The easiest way to prepare the base is to blend the fruit in a blender or food processor and then add enough milk and cream to reach whatever amount of total liquid the recipe calls for.  Then add your eggs, sweetener, and whatever other ingredients you’d like to include except for chunky/whole ingredients.  Those go in at the tail end of the freezing process.  Blend everything and pour the mixture into the ice cream maker.  Continue per the manufacturer’s instructions.

Note:  homemade ice cream gets harder than conventional ice cream.  When first made, it has the texture of a curling soft-serve cone, but freezing will make it harden more than what you’re used to.  I actually prefer the texture of it–it’s more refreshing somehow, plus I know that the reason it isn’t perfectly scoopable is because of all the chemicals and fillers that aren’t in it.

Enjoy!

Flour/Spice/Coffee Grinder

What a handy kitchen tool!  Although it’s sold as a coffee/spice grinder, I bought this to grind my own flour.  Thanks to its fast-spinning blade and its relatively-small size (trying to grind a puny cup of grain in a Cuisinart is like trying to roll a bowling ball down the length of a strip mall), making your own flour with this grinder is a snap.  There are several advantages to doing so:  having top-quality flours, having a wide choice of flours, and the fact that whole grains can be safely stored for a much longer period of time than flour can be.

The latter ties in with the first point–as soon as a grain is ground, it begins to lose its nutritional density.  It will also go rancid more quickly because its oils are exposed to light and air rather than being protected within the grain.  Grinding your own flour as you need it means that you’re using the freshest, most nutritionally-rich flour you can get your hands on.  And while you may think of flour as always being wheat, almost any grain, dried legume, dried tuber/root, or nut can be ground and made into flour:  rice, barley, quinoa, teff, green peas, chickpeas, white beans, tapioca, potato, almonds, hazelnuts, etc.

I’ve made my cornmeal into corn flour to use in gluten-free pizza and have ground whole flaxseeds into flax flour to add to my smoothies.  Whole wheat berries become whole-wheat flour; millet grain becomes millet flour.  Groats (whole oats) become oat flour.  Your options are endless!  Why spend a fortune on “freshly-ground” flours (and hours hunting for them) when you can do it yourself?  This little Krups grinder was just $15 at Bed, Bath & Beyond (admittedly, I had a $5-off coupon).  This tool is especially useful if you are on a gluten-free diet…or if you’d simply like to expand your horizons when it comes to things like crêpes, biscotti, cookies, brownies, or anything else that involves flour.  Check out this post for more on gluten-free flours.

Happy slicing!

Reusable Parchment Paper

This is fantastic stuff! If you’re a baker at heart, you’ll love lining your pans with reusable parchment paper: it’s sturdier than the traditional throw-away version, it’s a snap to clean (just wipe it with a damp dishcloth), and it’s good for the environment and your pocketbook. The best thing about reusable parchment, though, is non-curliness of it. No more struggling with trying to make a previously-rolled piece of parchment lay flat in your pan. The reusable kind generally comes folded in a plastic package, which means that it behaves quite nicely when you slip it into place. Wish I had thought to develop this handy tool!

- Several wooden cutting boards (see article on cutting boards for more information)

- Knives (and knife sharpener!)

- Vegetable peeler

- Mushroom brush (a must if you’re a mushroom fan!)

- Citrus juicer (I think I use mine nearly every day, either to squeeze fresh orange juice to drink or to squeeze lemon/lime juice to use in dressings, sauces, marinades, etc.)

- Potato masher (this is great to mash anything–potatoes, beans for bean dip, chickpeas for hummus, bananas to use in baked goods, etc.; in some instances, you can use a potato masher instead of a blender)

- Serrated spoon (this is great for getting the seeds out of apples and other fruits, or in scraping every drop of juice from citrus rinds)

- Salad/tossing spoons (these are critical when mixing salads–they’re large and rounded and won’t crush/bruise the lettuce the way forks or smaller spoons do–and they also double as serving spoons)

- Garlic press (also great for pressing the juice out of a small chunk of fresh gingerroot!)

- Colander/drainer (this isn’t just for pasta–also use it to rinse small fresh fruits, like blueberries and strawberries)

- Cheese grater (use this to grate zucchini, apples, carrots, etc.)

All of these items are fairly inexpensive and make great gifts for new cooks!

Handy Utensils

A Hand Blender in Action

(If you want to see what a hand blender looks like, go to a website like bedbathandbeyond.com and look under “kitchen/kitchen electrics/blenders.”  You’ll probably find hand blenders at the tail end of the blenders/small appliances section; they can be as little as $30 or as much as $100.)

So yes, when we’re only comparing the fine points, a sharp knife will cut you faster than a dull one will, but when we look at the overall picture, you’re less likely to wind up putting yourself on the culinary cutting room floor with a sharp knife than a dull one.  Sharp knives are more accurate and therefore lead to fewer errors…not to mention a much more professional finished product.  And if you have to cut through something very hard, like a soup bone, you may need to haul out a hammer and use that to tap the top edge of the knife while the blade is positioned to cut.  (Or you could ask your butcher to cut it for you when you purchase it.)

• You can’t put wooden boards in the dishwasher to thoroughly sanitize them
• While bacteria can certainly lodge in plastic or wood, wood is more porous and tends to give bacteria more of a home in which to flourish.  Also, knives have a tendency to cut deeper into wood than plastic, thus giving those nasty little bugs prime real estate.

Some folks dispense with wooden boards altogether, but I prefer the cutting feel of them.  Besides, it’s easier to know which board to use if you’re dealing with two different materials.  Just remember:  if you’re dealing with meat, reach for the plastic.

• De-lump gravies and sauces
• Make a smooth roux
• Fold delicate ingredients together
• Combine dry ingredients–this functions like sifting

Whisks are made out of metal, plastic (safe for non-stick cookware), even bamboo.  Some varieties are straight tines with a ball at each tip.  Whatever your need, you’re sure to find a whisk to suit you.