EclecticCook.com

The Good Egg Project – Farm to Table Tour

Karen — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 04:29:57 +0000

With two kidlets, a full time job, dust bunnies to vanquish and this blog thing that needs my attention every so often, I don’t get out much. And so I was schoolgirl-giddy when I was offered the chance to head to sunny Phoenix, Arizona to take part in the first ever Farm to Table Blogger Tour, presented by the good people at the American Egg Board as part of the the Good Egg Project. I’m sure you all remember the people who brought you the Incredible Edible Egg?

And so in early March, nine bloggers from around the country descended on Phoenix, Arizona, armed with cameras, laptops and a burning desire to spend a few precious days footloose and kid-free.

The cast of characters from left to right: Clint Hickman, Jeffrey Saad, Anne-Marie from This Mama Cooks!, Anitra from The Mama Zone, Laurie from Doublebugs, Shanda from The Parents with Style, Tonia from All America Mommy, Marla from Family Fresh Cooking, Kristina from MOMFormation, Ann from Healthy Tasty Chow, and in the egg chair is Thomas Schoaf, the Mayor of Litchfield Park, Arizona.

But wait, there’s more! Also attending the event was Jeffrey Saad, National Spokesperson for the American Egg Board, restaurateur, and the runner up on season 5 of The Next Food Network Star. He’s also handsome well-spoken, and makes running shoes look hot.

Let’s not forget the delightful Howard Helmer, Guinness world record holder as the world’s fastest omelet maker, American Egg Board spokesman for over 40 years, and expert charmer extraordinaire.

Last but not least, Clint Hickman, Bill Hickman, Sharman Hickman and matriarch Gertie Hickman, collectively known as Hickman’s Family Farms granted us the unique opportunity to see the inner workings of a large scale egg farm. Do you hear bells ringing? Is your memory jogged? What you may be recalling is the episode on Dirty Jobs which featured the Hickman’s Family Farms. Curious? Catch the full video here, just scroll down to see the clip.

As you can see, we got all gussied up for the occasion. Nothing says class like white paper lab coats and blue booties, baybee! At the center left is nutritionist Mary Lee Chin who not only kept us company at the farm but also gave us an eye-opening lecture on egg nutrition.

Did you know:

Next to mother’s milk, eggs are one of the highest quality proteins available, providing us with all 9 essential amino acids.
Eating a good breakfast has been shown to help kids get better grades and higher test scores.
An adult can enjoy an egg a day without significantly impacting their risk of heart disease.
Eggs are an excellent source of choline, a nutrient essential to developing fetuses and infants.

For those of us living in the bigger cities, Clint Hickman was kind enough to show us what a chicken looks like with it’s feather’s still on and not shrink-wrapped.

Eggs-actly what I said.

Quick! Can you spot the bloggers? I’ll give you a hint: They are wearing hairnets, white coats, and have digital image recording devices permanently grafted to their fingers.

Anitra flips out! Actually we all flipped out. Everyone got to flip an egg, and most even ended up back in the pan.

What’s that? You want more? Well you’re in luck! Farm to Table Tour – The Complete Collection is available for your viewing pleasure on The Eclectic Cook’s Flickr Photostream

Oh! There is one more picture I need to show you.

Flowers. And Green grass. In early March. I can’t begin to describe how delightful it was to see flowers and green grass, especially after the long, cold and crappy winter we all just slogged our way through. This was a picture that inspired a recipe. Stay tuned over the next few days for: How to Make The Perfect Omelet – Omelet with Fresh Herbs, Goat Cheese and Edible Flowers. I threw in all of the tips and tricks that I learned from watching the best of the best, the omelet king, Howard Helmer. I have proof. The very last picture here features me, Howard and my omelet creation. See if you can guess who’s who. I’ll give you a hint: I’m not the one that’s yellow, covered in garnish, and sitting on a plate. And just in case you already know how to make the perfect omelet and aren’t too fond of goat cheese, did I mention the Giveaway?

I’d also like to send out a big heartfelt thank you and even a few squishy hugs to Erika and Serena, for finding me at the airport, for making us feel so welcome, and for reminding me (in case I got sunstroke and forgot) that I had to get back on a plane and home to my family.

Finally, I’d like to leave you with a few thoughts.

There is no dancing around the fact that large scale farming operations of all kinds have born the brunt of scrutiny and criticism over the past few decades for their industrial agricultural procedures, much of it justified, much of it because of practices stemming from the environmentally unfriendly mentality of an era long gone. But the hard truth is that our human population is continually growing and we need to find a way to feed us all. Most people realize that the industrial agricultural practices of past decades are unsustainable for farmers, consumers and for the planet, and a shift towards sustainable agriculture is not only necessary but inevitable. A definition of sustainable agriculture from Wikipedia:

“Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming communities….The term sustainable agriculture means an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will, over the long term:

Satisfy human food and fiber needs
Enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends
Make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls
Sustain the economic viability of farm operations
Enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.”

As we exit the first decade of the 21st century, we find ourselves in a world with instant access to information, some good, some bad, and some very ugly. Some might argue that this information free-for-all is not in society’s best interest, but I would respond that we are entering an era of informed choices and personal responsibility that can only lead to better decisions. I give a big basketful of credit to Hickman’s Farms in their continuing efforts to embrace the concept of sustainability in their farming practices, to connect directly with their consumers, and to let us all take a look behind the scenes so that we can make those informed choices that are our personal responsibility to the future.

Whoever you are and whatever you think, we can all benefit from this little pearl of wisdom from the Good Egg Project:

Eat good, do good every day.

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©EclecticCook.com, 2010. | Permalink toThe Good Egg Project – Farm to Table Tour | 18 comments |

Starting Herbs from Seed: Bringing Some Spring into February

Karen — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 07:05:53 +0000

It’s been a long, dark, damp and cold winter this year, and I find myself wanting to spend most of my time hibernating in a warm cozy den of blankets, with a hot cup of tea set down close enough to grab without exposing more than an inch of forearm to the cold living room air. It doesn’t help matters that my husband is psychologically allergic to winter and turns into a crotchety get-off-my-lawn old man at the first hint of snow in the air.

A few weekends ago I found myself annoyed by a cold draft of air making its unwelcomed way into my cocoon of pillows, blankets and Battlestar Galactica DVD’s. The source of the draft turned out to be the above mentioned crotchety old man fiddling with my blanket, trying to get my attention. Apparently, he’d had just about enough of this Canadianesque winter and was going to do something about it, and I was going to help him. Even if it killed me. After skillful cajoling, veiled threats, and some seriously unfair blanket theft, I graciously allowed myself to be persuaded to get dressed and venture out into the cold. You see my darling blanket-stealing husband had an epiphany of sorts; since spring was stubbornly refusing to show itself outdoors (I blame the groundhog), we would just have to find a way to bring spring to the indoors.

It was late in the evening, and we had to journey long, and journey far (Walmart). We fought our way through the last-minute Valentine’s Day shoppers, the giant boxes of chocolaty candy and the toppling towers of red and white stuffed animals emblazoned with the word “love” in 15 different languages. When we finally arrived at the blissfully empty island of tranquility that was the gardening section, we loaded up the cart with packets of seeds of every herb we could find. All nine of them. Joy of lazy gardener joys, right next to the seed packets was a display of handy-dandy Jiffy seed starter kits, complete with compressed pellets of Canadian peat moss. Just add water, seeds and presto, insta-garden! We then zipped through the lighting section, picking up a pair of florescent light fixtures and some daylight balanced bulbs. We fought our way back through the now desperate throngs of husbands and boyfriends to the self-checkout isle, paid a surprisingly small amount of money, and escaped with our bounty.

The next day we bought an industrial shelving unit, survived assembling it, and created our indoor greenhouse in an unused corner of our basement. I supposed we could have waited to start the seeds to be sure that they wouldn’t be ready too early to go into the herb pots I usually plant with purchased seedlings every year. But I’m all about instant gratification, and if any of the herbs take off and mature too early to go into the garden, I’m sure I’ll be able to find something creatively culinary to do with them. Can you say fish with baby dill and lemon?

It’s been 2 weeks since our midnight seed escapade, and except for the parsley and rosemary, all of our herbs have sprouted. After much time spent herb watching, I’ve discovered that if I move in real close to the tiny sprouts, close my eyes and breathe in deeply, I can just about smell summer.

And on the bright side, winter is more than half over for most of us south of the 49th parallel. Very soon (and not soon enough), we’ll all be able to pack up the blankets for the summer, throw open the windows and watch our herbs grow in the sunshine.

What You Will Need:

Seeds: Your choice

Containers: Use purchased containers or old plastic cups. Punch holes in the bottom for drainage.*

Plastic tray for drainage basin.*

Potting mix: A soiless potting mix (peat moss) is best.*

Labels: Tape or paper labels are essential for those of us older than 35. Labels are optional for twenty-something’s with a photographic memory.

Plastic Covers: To create a mini-greenhouse, trapping moisture and heat.*

A Light Source: A cheap fluorescent fixture works just fine.

Water

A small fan to circulate air, prevent mold, and strengthen stems (optional)

*Use a fabricated seed starting system, such as Jiffy brand, to make things a little easier on yourself

Plant seeds according to the package directions. Seeds will be planted at different times depending on the time it takes them to mature, and the date you are going to plant them outdoors. Keep the soil moist until germination. Once the seeds sprout, turn on the lighting system and give them 12 to 16 hours of light per day. As the seeds mature, pick out the weaker seedlings, leaving only the strongest in each pot. A few weeks before you transfer outdoors, start leaving the plants outside for a few hours a day. This will “harden” then, and prepare them to survive in the big, bad outdoor world.

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©EclecticCook.com, 2010. | Permalink toStarting Herbs from Seed: Bringing Some Spring into February | 11 comments |

Chicken Noodle Soup Remedy

Karen — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:15:33 +0000

My day didn’t go exactly as planned, yesterday. Which isn’t all that uncommon for me since that fateful day a little over eleven years ago when I gave birth to my first child.

Over the years I have discovered and mastered a key parental survival skill; the ability to change course and speed on a dime and without a grumble; at least not where the children can overhear you. Which is why I dropped (gently) what I was doing at work, got in the car, and drove for a half an hour to my daughter’s school when the nurse called to inform me that my little rug-monkey had a fever, a sore throat and needed her mommy to pick her up as soon as possible.

My mother’s prescription for whatever ailed me was a steaming-hot bowl of Campbell’s chicken noodle soup, with salted-top saltine crackers coarsly crumbled and added in while it was still bubbling on the stove. This step was extremely important, as the crackers would soften up and become the pseudo-dumplings that made everything right with the world.

In keeping with family tradition, it is required that I make chicken noodle soup whenever one of my girls is sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching has a stuffy head or fever. Unlike mom, I have always made my soup from scratch.

That may have been a mistake.

You see I’ve painted myself into a corner. If a daughter gets sick and I suggest a nice, easy-to-open can of Campbell’s soup, I get pouted at.

“But the last time was sick, she got real soup.”

Oh dear…

“How come she gets real soup and I don’t?”

Here it comes…

“Don’t you love ME as much as you love HER?”

I really can’t win.

So I’ll just be in the kitchen. Cooking soup.

I won’t lie to you; this isn’t a 30 minute meal. But if you start making it just after onset of symptoms, it’s usually ready to eat by the time the Tylenol kicks in, the fever breaks, and the patient is starting to feel just the teeniest bit hungry.

You will get a nice big bowl of chicken meat from your bird, and a really ugly carcass with leftover meat bits clinging to it. This is the best part. Honest. Throw that sucker back into the pot with your aromatics, and let it simmer away until you finally remember you have something cooking on the stove.

After that things get a little ugly . Strain all of the cooked bits out of your rich, chickeny stock. You can use cheesecloth, but I use a clean cotton kitchen towel. I rinse it before use to get rid of any residual detergent. Soapy soup is not what I’m going for here.

FYI: This is the same recipe I use when I have chicken scraps to use up and it makes a darn fine chicken stock.

Chop up some fresh carrots and celery.

Any noodle will do ya, but I love a thick and substantial egg noodle. If the patient is complaining of a sore throat, I might use a smaller, easier-to-swallow soup noodle. Maybe. If I felt like it.

Then you will need to corral your youngest daughter when she gets home from school and have her pose with the exceedingly sharp knife so that you can get a picture of real hands cutting real food, so that people don’t think that your ingredients magically chop themselves. Then you must quickly remove said knife from said little hands before they magically become a finger shorter.

Chicken. Chopped. Sort of self explanitory, really.

What all of this boils down to is a warm, rich and hearty soup that I’ve been told makes the sniffles just a bit more bearable and the aches just a little less achy. And if consumed in sufficient quantities, it can even make a pouty, sick girl smile, just a little.

So tell me, what food do you make that helps someone you love feel better when they’re sick? What makes you feel better when you’re sick?

Chicken Noodle Soup

For the stock:
4-5 lb whole chicken
1 medium onion, skin removed and halved
2 cloves garlic, smashed
½ tsp whole peppercorns
1 bay leaf
2 or 3 whole allspice berries (optional)
1 carrot, quartered
1 celery stalk, quartered
2 sprigs parsley
2 tsp kosher salt
3 quarts (or more) water

For the soup:
8 oz egg or other soup noodles
4 cups chicken, diced, reserved from making stock
1 carrot, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 batch chicken stock (see above)
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Place all of the stock ingredients in a Dutch over or other heavy pot. Add water to completely cover the chicken, about 3 quarts. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium low and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Turn off heat and remove chicken from pot. Leave the vegetables in the stock. Allow chicken to cool until you can handle it easily. Remove the chicken meat from the carcass and set it aside. Return the carcass to the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 1 ½ hours. Allow stock to cool slightly, then strain through a double layer of cheesecloth or a cotton towel set over a strainer. Return stock to the pot and add diced chicken, fresh carrots and celery. Bring to a boil and add the egg noodles. Cook until noodles are tender (according to package directions). Remove from heat adjust for seasoning with salt and pepper, and add the fresh parsley. Serve with crusty bread or crackers.

Printable Recipe

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©EclecticCook.com, 2010. | Permalink toChicken Noodle Soup Remedy | 28 comments |

Roman Egg-drop Soup – Stracciatella

Karen — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:10:06 +0000

Me and Italian food, we go way, way back; all the way back to the dusty, faded, Polaroid-tinted memories of my early youth in the 70’s. I spent my single digit years in one of Montreal’s most ethnically diverse neighborhoods, Park Extension, or Park Ex to those who have more pressing matters to attend to and don’t have time for three syllables.

Park Extension has always been a gateway neighborhood for new immigrants to Canada, and in the 70’s, the cultural landscape was largely made up of people from Greece, Italy and other Mediterranean countries. It was and still is a lower income working-class neighborhood, poor of means, but still rich in tradition and a strong a sense of community.

Both Dad and Mom worked outside the home, which wasn’t all that common in those days. There were no school buses to take me to and from school, no after school programs, and I walked home for lunch every day because the school didn’t have the staff or the facilities for the children to eat there.

Just in case you were wondering, yes, we had electricity, yes, there was indoor plumbing, and no, we did not use clay tablets to write on.

I do remember one extra special day, a day when there was a solar eclipse schedule to happen right at the time we went home for lunch. Apparently the school believed that if young children were caught out on the street during the eclipse, they would succumb to the urge to look at the sun, and their eyeballs would melt right out of their heads, or something to that effect. So for that one day only, I was allowed to eat lunch in my classroom with all the other antsy, excited children and one slightly bemused and frazzled teacher. This was undoubtedly the most thrilling thing to happen to me in my young life up to that point. Unless you count getting my first goldfish, may he rest in peace. My second goldfish followed a few months later, after I had learned a few things about feeding, tank cleaning, and goldfish carcass disposal.

Sorry, the mind just wanders when you get to be as old as me. Right, so where was I?

With Mom working days and Dad working the hours a fireman works, I needed safe harbor after school and at lunch when they weren’t home. Mr. and Mrs. Ciaramellano and their two children lived next door to us. Literally next door, since we shared the same front balcony. I was instructed by my mother to head directly to their house at lunch time and after school. I did this unerringly and without question, because I was a good little girl, and because I greatly valued the hide that my Father would flay off my backside if I didn’t. Mrs. Ciaramellano didn’t speak English very well, but that was ok, because I didn’t speak Italian very well either. She sure knew how to cook though, and that’s what was really important to a hungry six year old. After the walk home from school, I barely had the chance to knock before she would be opening the door to usher me in, always with the prerequisite kiss to each cheek. I would then follow her and her white apron to the kitchen from which the most wonderful aromas always escaped. Sometimes she would let me help make the pasta or gnocchi for that night’s dinner, and I remember the joyful sense of accomplishment I felt the first time I rolled a piece of gnocchi off the tines of a fork and it looked just like the ones she had made, and not like an albino garden slug. She tended a vegetable garden on her postage stamp sized piece of cultivatable land, and grew herbs and even fruit trees in pots she would haul back into the house every winter. I can still smell and taste the deceptively simple sauce she would cook from her garden tomatoes and herbs. Served over a bed of freshly made pasta, it was a bowl full of the earthy-fresh flavors of a well loved summer garden.

This stracciatella soup is another one of those simple yet soul-warming dishes that are at the heart of Italian cooking. Eggs and parmesan cheese are whisked into the rich broth of slow cooked bollito di manzo to make a soup that will warm you up from the tip of your nose to the tips of your toes.

And to you, Mrs. Ciaramellano, wherever you are, I say thank you; for your generosity of spirit, and for teaching me to love and cherish good, simple food.

If you have the time and the inclination, take a peak at this wonderful series of pictures on Flickr of Park Extension today from urbanphoto.net.

Roman Egg-drop Soup – Stracciatella
Adapted from Livia Tistarelli via Gourmet

4 large eggs
¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
¼ tsp pepper
¼ tsp nutmeg
8 cups of broth from bollito di manzo

In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, cheese, nutmeg, pepper and 1 cup of the cold broth. Bring the remainder of the broth to a boil in a medium saucepan. Pour in the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 minute, continuing to whisk. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve with additional parmesan on the side, if desired.

Printable Recipe

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©EclecticCook.com, 2010. | Permalink toRoman Egg-drop Soup – Stracciatella | 12 comments |

Polenta Mascarpone and the New All-Clad with d5 Technology

Karen — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 01:48:42 +0000

When someone at All-Clad tells you that something new and revolutionary is coming, you tend to perk up and listen. I definitely perked. And when someone at All-Clad asks if you would pretty-please mind trying out this new and revolutionary thingy and giving them some feedback on what you think about it, who am I to say no? This would be how the shiny new All Clad 3 quart saucepan with d5 technology found itself a new home on the shelf next to my cast iron skillet.

The Technology:
What is this revolutionary d5 technology that sounds like rocket science, you ask? Here is a nifty diagram:

The d5 is for the 5 bonded layers as opposed to the usual 3. The inside layer is corrosion resistant, non-reactive 18/10 stainless steel. The inner stainless steel core is sandwiched between 2 aluminum layers which are responsible for the even heat distribution and the ability of the pan to quickly attain and maintain its temperature. The outer layer is shiny enough to use to put on your makeup. Oh and it’s magnetized, so you can use it on induction burners. Not that I have an induction burner. In fact I’m not really sure how an induction burner works. But I felt I should mention it, and so I did. As you can see from my pictures, they’ve also redesigned the handles on the pan and the lids, which I really like. The new design makes it easier to use potholders or towels to grab the handles.

And that’s about all any cook who doesn’t have a PhD in Metallurgical Engineering needs to know about that. I’m guessing that what you really want to know is what this all means in kitchen speak.

The Performance:
To put the saucepan through some paces, I decided to make polenta, which can go really, really wrong in the wrong kind of pot. Not that I would know anything about sticking, burning polenta. Nope, not in my kitchen. If you feel inclined to give it a try, you can find my decadently creamy, cheesy polenta recipe at the end of this post.

I really think I could have walked away from the cooking polenta for 30 whole minutes and not have had a single bit of it burnt or stuck to the pan. It would probably be a lumpy mess, but it would be an unstuck lumpy mess. As it was I whisked it only occasionally during the cooking and had no problems. Zero, zip, nada. I did have to lower the heat a bit once the pan got going, or risk a volcanic polenta eruption. This tells me that the heat retention capabilities of this cookware have not been exaggerated, which can mean having to adjust cooking temperatures for your recipes. If you are used to cooking a dish on medium high, you may have to knock that down to medium once the pan heats up.

If you don’t want to get those little scratches like I have on my pan above, just use a silicone whisk instead of a metal one. Me, I’m perfectly content with my scratches; they show that it’s a well used, well loved pan. And they in no way affect the performance.

To sum it up: No hot spots, even cooking, better heat retention, lower cooking temperatures and it’s darn nice to look at too. And did I mention that I have run it through the dishwasher a few dozen times by now, and it’s just as pretty as the day we met?

Miscellaneous (But Still Useful!) Info:
As someone who is working her way through a bad case of tennis elbow - which I got from playing Super Mario Brothers on the Wii, not from playing tennis – I do have to mention that the saucepan is surprisingly heavy. I’m not talking cast iron heavy, but it could probably take out a small mammal if I accidentally dropped it on one. This is, of course, an indicator of a great piece of cookware, but my elbow isn’t quite as convinced.

The Bottom Line:
I find myself using this saucepan for just about everything saucy, soupy and stewy, and it invariably performs without fail. My other saucepans are thinking of leaving me, and frankly, I wouldn’t be at all sad to see them go. I have a stainless fry pan, but I am putting a new d5 pan on my wish list for the very near future.

Where to Buy:
As of December 26, 2009, the new All-Clad line is available exclusively at Williams Sonoma.

Full Exposure Disclosure:
And finally, just so you (and the FTC) know, if I had turned out that I didn’t like the saucepan, I wouldn’t be writing about it. I did get to keep it, but the people at All-Clad would have had to pry it out of my cold, dead hands to get it back anyway.

The Recipe:

Polenta Mascarpone

5 cups water
3 tbsp butter
⅓ cup heavy cream
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
1 cup yellow cornmeal
½ cup mascarpone cheese
½ cup parmesan, finely grated

Bring water to a boil in a heavy saucepan. Add butter, cream, salt and pepper. Whisk in the cornmeal and continue to whisk until fully incorporated and free of lumps. Cover and cook over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and stir in the mascarpone and parmesan. Serve immediately.

Printable Recipe

Try serving this creamy, rich polenta with a big heaping spoonful of my Bollito Di Manzo – Italian Boiled Beef with Tomato, Anchovy and Caper Sauce.

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©EclecticCook.com, 2010. | Permalink toPolenta Mascarpone and the New All-Clad with d5 Technology | 10 comments |

Bollito Di Manzo – Italian Boiled Beef with Tomato, Anchovy and Caper Sauce

Karen — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 04:38:03 +0000

I’ve learned eleven really important things over the past few weeks:

Just because this is Kansas does not mean that that it can’t get cold enough outside to freeze my eyelashes together.
Sometimes, snow will stay on the ground for way more than a day in Kansas.
I need winter boots. With a soft, fluffy lining.
I fully and completely understand the term “wind chill”.
The warmest part of my dog is her belly.
My dog squeals like a stuck pig when cold feet contact warm belly.
Braising meat on the stove for a good long time will really warm up my kitchen.
The condensation from all that braising liquid will freeze my patio door shut, and my dog will invariably need to go to the bathroom at that exact moment.
When my dog really needs to go to the bathroom, she will use her cold nose as a weapon to get me up off the couch.
It’s a long, cold walk through the unheated garage to the other backyard door.
I really need to make sure the children are out of earshot before grumpily threatening to sell the family dog on eBay.

If you’ve been dying for a recipe good enough to freeze your patio door closed, look no further! If you haven’t, or if you are one of those extremely annoying people who live someplace where the thermometers don’t even have temperatures below 32°F marked on them, I suggest you stick around anyway. I promise you, it’ll be worth it. This recipe will take care of dinner on the first night, and make a great soup for lunch or dinner the next day.

You’ll need some beef, beef bones, various vegetables and a broiler.

A little time under the broiler makes the magic happen.

Boil for a ridiculously long time and you will be well rewarded. Check out that broth. Yes, it really was as rich and beefy as it looks.

Bollito Di Manzo – Italian Boiled Beef
Adapted from Livia Tistarelli

2 lb beef chuck roast or brisket
2 lb beef soup bones
3 quarts water
1 large onion, Quartered
2 large carrots, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 cup canned, diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
1 tsp black peppercorns
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp fresh basil (1 tsp dried)

Place the beef, beef bones, onion, carrots, celery and garlic on a roasting pan or rimmed cookie sheet. With oven rack about 6 inches from broiler, broil the beef and vegetables for about 5 minutes per side, flipping once. The meat and vegetables should be nicely browned, but not cooked through. Place the roasted meat and vegetables, and the remaining ingredients in a heavy pot or Dutch oven. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium low and simmer, covered for about 3 hours or until meat is pull-apart tender. Remove the meat and slice thin or chop. Strain remaining the stock through a fine sieve or double layered cheesecloth, I use a cotton cloth. Discard the vegetables and beef bones. Reserve one cup of broth and store the remainder in the refrigerator to make stracciatella soup (Recipe coming soon to a blog post near you).

Printable Recipe

The boiled beef is traditionally served with various condiments such as salsa verde. But since I’m about as traditional as burgers and fries on Thanksgiving, I decided to do things my way, as usual. Sometimes this works out wonderfully. Sometimes – not so much. Just ask my husband.

If you Really, REALLY feel the need to do things the old fashioned way, this recipe for salsa verde from Whole Foods is really quite good.

If you’re feeling a bit more adventurous, scroll down for my Italian Boiled Beef with Tomato, Anchovy and Caper Sauce recipe. It also has crushed red pepper flakes which are absolutely essential, since they help to defrost the windows. I served this over Polenta, but you could also serve it with a penne or tagliatelle pasta, if you really want to go there.

The essentials. Without them the sauce is nothing. Less than nothing. Like, negative even.

If you really like the salty, fishy taste of anchovies, feel free to use 2 or (gasp!) 3 fillets. Mince ‘em up fine.

Ditto for the capers.

If you are feeling especially daring -and you don’t have children that hate them with a passion only a preteen can muster- you might want to add in some black olives.

Italian Boiled Beef with Tomatoes, Anchovies and Capers

2 tbsp olive oil
1 med onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 or 2 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
1 tbsp capers, chopped
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1 cup broth from bollito di manzo
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp dried basil
¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Salt and Pepper to taste
Boiled beef from bollito di manzo recipe, coarsely chopped

Heat the olive oil over medium high heat in a large, heavy bottomed skillet. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a few more minutes. Add the remainder of the ingredients, except for the boiled beef. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered until sauce has thickened, about 10 minutes. Stir in the boiled beef and simmer until heated through. Taste for seasoning and serve over polenta or pasta.

Printable Recipe

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©EclecticCook.com, 2010. | Permalink toBollito Di Manzo – Italian Boiled Beef with Tomato, Anchovy and Caper Sauce | 12 comments |

Crispy Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies

Karen — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 06:36:07 +0000

It’s Christmas cookie season! Everyone is so excited!! I’m trying to blend in and pretend that I’ve been baking cookies for Christmas all my life!!!

But that’s not exactly true. Actually that’s about as far from true as Russia is far from Alaska. I remember just two kinds of cookies around the Christmas holidays; a buttery almond cookie and a spice cookie. These cookies didn’t come out of Mom’s oven, either. They came from the Greek market, or from random Greek friends dropping by for a visit. It’s sad, I know, I feel sorry for me too. As wonderful a cook as my mother was, she was not a baker. I think this lack of baking talent must be genetic, because it has only been through sheer force of will, perseverance and the ability to overcome absolute failure that I have managed to produce baked goods from my oven that are suitable for human consumption.

There is one advantage to my lack of Christmas baking tradition; I can bake any kind of cookie I want, call it a Christmas cookie, and nobody is going to argue with me about it. At least not where I can hear them. So this year I made oatmeal cookies, and you know what? I’m going to make ‘em again. For Christmas. Because I can.

First off you need to get yourself some of these little pretties. I saw these dried blueberries at the supermarket about two months ago and I got so excited that I bought a package. Then I left them on the counter for a few weeks while I tried to decide what to do with them, moving them around every time I had to clean the counter. When that got old, I relocated them to the refrigerator because it seemed like the right thing to do. Last week, epiphany struck in the form of a recipe for crispy oatmeal cookies that came across my computer screen.

The cookies are light, crisp and simply flavored with a little vanilla, which is the perfect canvas to showcase the slightly tart and sweet dried blueberries.

If you don’t have a cookie scoop, you really need to get yourself one. They come in all sizes and are the perfect tool for making cookies and meatballs, and for filling empanadas, wontons and potstickers. The one I used here scoops one tablespoon.

The cookies crisp up nicely once cooled, and if you can manage not to eat them all, they will keep for at least a week in an airtight container.

Crispy Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies
makes about two dozen cookies
Adapted from an Adaption of The Art and Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet.

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup dried blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or a silpat. With a mixer, cream together the butter and the two sugars until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. In a second bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add this mixture to the butter and sugar and mix until just incorporated. Do not over mix. Stir in the oats and blueberries until just until combined. Using a tablespoon scoop or a spoon, place dough in mounds on the prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake one sheet at a time for 15 to 16 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.

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Just Chili

Karen — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:14:42 +0000

Sometimes it really is the simplest things that make me the happiest.

In our home during October and November, the days are always filled to overflowing with activities; birthdays, anniversaries, school events, commitments at work, finding a cure for cancer, establishing world peace, etc, etc, etc. The weeks zip by and the weekends disappear in the blink of an eye. Before I can say “pass the gravy, please”, Thanksgiving is knocking at the door and Christmas is just a few blocks away.

I find that it’s during these busiest of times that the little things mean the most; like taking just a few extra minutes at night to brush my daughter’s hair because she is in the middle of telling me all about the latest boy/girl scandal at school; or giving in to that lazy impulse and having popcorn and ice cream for dinner while snuggled under blankets, catching the latest episode of Glee; or maybe, just this once, leaving the to-do list in the bottom of my purse, piling kids and dog into the car, and heading to the park to gather pine cones.

With Thanksgiving on the calendar next week, I find myself compiling my mental list of things I am always and forever grateful for. Right after family, friends and home come those little, stolen “perfect moments” that give me a warm glowy feeling from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. And right after that comes the Dog (capital D), who keeps my feet warm and cleans the kitchen floor every night after dinner.

In the spirit of warm, glowy feelings, I will share with you my recipe for the ultimate comfort food; chili. Nothing too fancy or too complicated, just combine ingredients in your favorite comfort food pot, put it on the stove and forget about it until the house starts to smell really good and your tummy starts to grumble. This is a snapshot of an ever-evolving recipe, filled with love, warmth and a generous pinch of “me” added in for good measure.

Did I mention the beer? Canadian beer, of course!

Just Chili

1 tbsp grapeseed or canola oil
2 onions, diced
5 or 6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp chili powder
2 tbsp brown sugar
1tbsp cumin
1 tbsp chopped chipotle chiles in adobo
2 tsp oregano
1tsp thyme
1 tsp ground coriander
½ tsp chipotle chili powder (can substitute cayenne)
3 lbs ground chuck
1 6oz can tomato paste
2 28oz cans crushed tomatoes
1 bottle beer, I use a lager
1 ½ cups beef broth or stock
2 cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
Salt to taste

Sauté the onions and garlic over medium heat in a Dutch oven until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the chili powder, cumin, chipotle chiles, oregano, thyme, coriander and chipotle chili powder. Cook for another few minutes, until the spices are fragrant. Add the beef and cook over medium-high heat until browned, about 10 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for a few more minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes, beer, beef broth or stock, brown sugar and the kidney beans. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer partly uncovered until chili has thickened, 1½ to 2 hours. Taste for salt and adjust as needed. Serve with crackers, grated cheese and vinegar or lime juice to add a splash of tang, if desired.

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Thai Curry and Coconut Butternut Squash Soup

Karen — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:57:04 +0000

I have a bit of a problem. I don’t think it requires a twelve step intervention, but still, it complicates my life sometimes. I really can’t pass up a good sale at the supermarket. Laugh, giggle and find general amusement at my predicament all you like, but don’t judge me until you’ve walked a mile with my grocery cart and have 4 butternut and 6 acorn squash in your refrigerator.

This penchant for purchasing well priced produce doesn’t seem to extend to other areas of my life as a consumer. I love a good sale on bathroom tissue as much as the next person (especially since my family seems to go through bathroom tissue faster than a calf goes through milk), but I don’t have 10 cases I bought on sale sitting around waiting to be called to a higher purpose.

But if I see a sale on something edible, I tend to buy first and think later. Sometimes this produces great results, like the key lime pie I made when key limes were on sale. But it also led to the sausage crisis in my freezer that I’m still digging my way out of, and I have 2 jars each of roasted red peppers and tahini in my pantry that are languishing away after I had a roasted red pepper and tahini mental creativity block and gave up trying to find ways to cook with them.

Now about those squash….

I firmly believe that inspiration for a great recipe can come from absolutely anywhere, and since I’m almost always right, you can pretty much take my word for that. But if you need some convincing, I offer you the story of the Thai Curry and Coconut Butternut Squash Soup recipe.

Once upon a time last weekend, I was busily searching for some kind of recipe or inspiration for the abundance of squash I have impulsively saddled myself with, when my children decided that they absolutely had to sit next to me and play the “Ask mommy 10,000 questions we don’t really care about the answers to because we are bored and it’s raining” game. So I sent them on a Google mission to find me a fun recipe for butternut squash. After the veggie in question was produced for their inspection and familiarization, off they went, and all was again peaceful in my house. For about 3 minutes.

“Mommy, how ‘bout this recipe?” my eldest daughter shouted from the basement. “Well, I can’t really see it from up here, honey.” I replied. “Mama! I found a recipe!” my youngest bellowed, “Can I show you?” My youngest daughter calls me Mama. I don’t know why, and I haven’t been brave enough to ask her. “Ok girls, bring me your recipes” I said, closing my laptop, magazines and cookbooks, determined to get back to my hunt for the perfect squash recipe just as soon as it stopped raining and I could kick the kids out have the children play outside and get some fresh air.

And so they brought up the reams of paper they had printed out, and I dutifully ooo’d and ahhh’d as required by my mommy contract. Then I found a hidden treasure, a recipe for Thai-Style Butternut Squash Soup from an unlikely source: Walt Disney. To be more specific, it was on the Disney Family.com website, in the food section. Go figure.

After a recipe revamp and a trip to the Asian market, I cooked up this rich and creamy, mildly spicy, slightly sweet and tart butternut squash soup. I probably could have eaten the whole pot, but I had to save some for the pictures, and maybe a bowl or two for the children. They did find the recipe after all. It was only fair.

Thai Curry and Coconut Butternut Squash Soup
Adapted from Disney Family.com

1 large butternut squash, about 2 pounds
1 tbsp oil, I use grapeseed
¼ cup onion, minced
1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
2 cloves garlic
1-2 tsp Thai Red Curry paste, more if you like it hotter
6 kaffir lime leaves, middle vein removed and torn into pieces
4 cups chicken broth
1 13-14 oz can unsweetened coconut milk
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
Toasted coconut for garnish (optional)

Preheat over to 400°F. Cut the squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Brush the cut sides of the squash with oil and place cut side down on a baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until very tender. The squash should have a creamy texture. Once the squash has cooled enough to handle, scoop the flesh out of the peel using a spoon.

In an heavy bottomed pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion, ginger and garlic and sauté until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the curry paste and cook for a few more minutes. The curry will start to give off a wonderful aroma. Stir in the chicken broth, coconut milk, salt, squash and shredded lime leaves. Simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the lime juice. Puree soup with a hand mixer or in a blender. Serve garnished with unsweetened coconut toasted at 400°F for 2-3 minutes, or until golden brown.

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Nanaimo Bars: The Real Deal

Karen — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:17:06 +0000

There are two three many things I miss about Canada; My friends, Tim Horton’s coffee, Montréal Smoked Meat Sandwiches, and the ubiquitous presence of Nanaimo bars at every donut shop and coffee house in the country. Every once in a wonderful while, a friend will send me a tin of Tim Horton’s coffee. My husband even had a tin shipped in for my birthday one year when I was feeling particularly homesick. But I had not had the gustatory pleasure of biting in to a lusciously sweet, decadently rich Nanaimo bar in over 5 years. FIVE YEARS. This was not an acceptable situation, and it needed to be addressed ASAP.

I consulted my bestest internet friend, Google, who gave me a whole whack of Nanaimo Bar recipe ideas (about 80,600 in 0.22 seconds). I settled on this one. This recipe comes to us via Joyce Hardcastle and the City of Nanaimo, British Columbia’s website. It is the 1986 Ultimate Nanaimo Bar recipe contest winner. So it has to be the really, really, REALLY official best recipe, right?

One of the few changes I made to the recipe was to reverse a step and add the hot cocoa and butter mixture to the beaten egg for the bottom layer. When I added the egg to the hot mixture, it cooked and curdled on me. Twice. I may have been a bit peeved. If you can make it happen, by all means go for it!

I’m sorry, I tried. Despite my best efforts in Lightroom, but there was just no way to make this picture of the bottom layer look more appetizing. It is what it is, folks. Just keep repeating to yourself “Chocolate, almonds and coconut, oh my”. It worked for me, almost.

The recipe calls for “Vanilla Custard Powder”, for which I substituted vanilla pudding. I did this because I have no idea what “Vanilla Custard Powder” is, nor do I have any idea where I might find it. A quick search of the baking sections of my two favorite grocery stores produced zip. Rather than bang my head on my cutting board in frustration, I just moseyed on over to the pudding section and grabbed me a box of vanilla pudding. I suggest you do the same. It’ll work just fine, I promise.

As for the origins of this tasty treat, according to legend and the City of Nanaimo, British Columbia’s website, “about 35 years ago, a Nanaimo housewife entered her recipe for chocolate squares in a magazine contest. In a burst of civic pride, she chose to dub the entry not “Daphne’s Delights” or “Mary’s Munchies”, but “Nanaimo Bars”. The entry won a prize, thereby promoting the town as much as her cooking.”

If this brief explanation doesn’t satisfy your curiosity, you can take a gander at the exhaustive (and I really do mean ex-HAUS-tive) dissertation on the origins and history of the Nanaimo bar at practicallyedible.com.

As for me, I’m not nearly as concerned with where they come from as I am about where they end up, which is on my plate.

Before you settle in with a cup of tea to read that Nanaimo bar novel over at practicallyedible.com, I would suggest that you take a peak at a lovely little corner of the internet called Mangos, Chili and Z, which just happens to belong to an even lovelier lady by the name of Lea Ann.

She recently did me the honor of asking me to be her first interviewee (interviewie? Interviewe?) for a new segment she will be doing called “Just Grilled”. I don’t know why she picked me. I don’t think she’s had any recent head trauma… But hey, you can always just breeze through the interview real fast and scroll on to the great recipes and wonderful writing that is her blog!

Nanimo Bars
Adapted from Joyce Hardcastle

Bottom Layer
½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
¼ cup sugar
5 tbsp cocoa powder
1 egg, beaten
1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs
½ cup finely chopped almonds
1 cup coconut
Combine the butter, sugar and cocoa powder in a double boiler and heat until melted. Slowly drizzle the hot mixture into the beaten egg, whisking constantly until thickened. Stir in the graham cracker crumbs, almonds, and coconut. Press the mixture firmly into an ungreased 8″ x 8″ baking pan.

Middle Layer
½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
3 tbsp whipping cream
2 tbsp vanilla pudding powder
2 cups icing sugar
Cream together the butter, cream, vanilla pudding powder and icing sugar until light. Spread over bottom layer.

Top Layer
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate
2 tbsp unsalted butter
Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler over low heat. Once cool but still liquid, pour over middle layer and chill in refrigerator until set, about an hour.
Cut into squares using a knife dipped in hot water. For easier (and neater!) pieces, dip the pan very briefly in hot water and then turn out onto a plate. Flip over using a second plate and cut into squares.

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Oh and PS: This is my entry for ‘A Sweet Celebration‘ hosted by ‘Fun & Food Cafe‘.

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