Tales from the Shark Tank

I really don’t mind winter. I find it pretty, if sometimes severe. I’m not crazy about driving on ice, and snow-shoveling is a thing I avoid if humanly possible, but I can deal with cold a whole lot better than I can heat.

The cold does have one very practical benefit, though. I can use my car as an auxiliary freezer. It doesn’t matter if that gallon of stock is still boiling hot; I’m not going to strain a compressor or thaw something else by virtue of proximity. It might raise the temperature inside a car a degree or two temporarily, but when the current outside ambient is significantly below freezing, that’s sort of irrelevant.

So that’s what I’ve done. I have a gallon of stock from the bones of the turkey we had at my in-laws, cheerfully chilling in the back of my minivan where there’s a nice flat surface. In the meantime, I don’t have to stay up until it’s cooled down enough to refrigerate. I’ll bring it in tomorrow, scrape off the frozen fat, and put the rest in the refrigerator. Over the next little while, it will become soup, or stew, or whatever else my imagination can come up with. I still have a quart of turkey meat picked off the bones before I dumped them in water, which is rejoicing in the freezer. I’d say that’s pretty good, overall.

I didn’t have a springform available to me to bake a cheesecake last time I wanted to.  All I had was a ceramic pie plate, which wasn’t going to hold the whole thing.  So okay; the recipe divides, as most recipes do.  Only one problem; when it came time to separate eggs, I forgot I was dividing.  There I was, with four egg whites in the mixing bowl, if not on my face.  I decided to adapt.  The resulting cheesecake was very good indeed, and different enough to qualify as an entirely new recipe.   It seemed to me that the fact that it disappeared by noon the 26th with only four people eating it was testimony to its general yumminess.

This requires a 9″ glass or ceramic pie pan for heat-holding qualities.  Metal doesn’t work as well.

So without further ado….

Vanishing Macademia Nut Cheesecake

4 oz (about 1/2 cup) chopped Macademia nuts
2 tsp butter, softened (if your butter is cold, just cut off a small pat and let it stand in the pie plate while you gather the remaining ingredients.)

2 8 oz packages neufchatel cream cheese, room temperature (yes, it has a pound of cream cheese. Deal.)
1 Tbsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp grtaed lemon or orange peel (optional)

4 egg whites (separate and save the yolks for whatever you use egg yolks for. I made eggnog.)
1/3 – 1/2 cup sugar, depending on your sweet tooth.

Topping:
1 cup sour cream (low fat works. Fat free doesn’t.)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

preheat oven to 325^o F.

Use your fingers to smear the butter around the pie plate. Sprinkle Macademia nuts across the bottom of the pie pan. Make sure they’re fairly evenly spread, since this is your crust.

Whip cream cheese in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. I use the whisk attachment on a Kitchenaid mixer. Beat in flavorings. Set aside. Wash the whisk attachment well – adhering fat will keep the egg whites from beating up properly.

In a second bowl, beat egg whites on medium-high speed until it starts to look soft and billowy. Gradually add sugar, continuing to beat until the whites hold a stiff peak or one that only curls over a little, but are still shiny. A little under beaten is better than over beaten, so err on the side of caution.

Pour about a quarter of the meringue mixture into the bowl with the cheese mixture. Fold in as gently as possible. Add half the remaining meringue; fold in. Add the final portion of meringue and fold in, making sure cheese and meringue are thoroughly blended. Pour into the prepared pie pan.

Bake for 30-25 minutes; top should look set, and will very likely split. Don’t worry; that’s what the topping is for.

A few minutes before the cake is ready, blend topping ingredients. When cake is ready, remove from oven. Turn oven up to 425⁰ F. Spread topping mixture over hot cake; replace in oven. Bake for about 5 more minutes, until the topping looks set.

Cool enough to put in the refrigerator. Serve chilled with sliced strawberries.

I am much amused. A young woman (18), the daughter of a woman I mentored when she was in her teens, just e-mailed me. She has started up her own Pagan coven, and was looking into what foods would be appropriate for a harvest festival, as she would be hosting their Mabon Circle. (I keep telling people I’m not the Encyclopedia Galactica, and they keep not listening. But I digress.)

So I did a little hunting, and e-mailed her a bunch of Sukkot recipes. There’s a vegetable stew, and roast chicken with root vegetables, and a barley bread with dried fruit, and eggplant stuffed with mushrooms and barley. Best source I could think of for harvest-festival recipes, y’know?

Sekanjabin was invented by the Arabs in the middle ages, as a beverage that makes it easier to deal with heat.  It starts out as a syrup, to be mixed into cold water.  It serves much the same purpose as sports drinks are supposed to, but without all the undecipherable chemicals.  Those eleventh century Moors knew what they were doing; the stuff not only works, it tastes wonderful.

The basic recipe calls for sugar, vinegar, water and mint.  With the heat index at 100 F., now was a good time to make a batch, and me being who I am, I couldn’t resist messing with it.  The result is good enough to share.

Ginger Sekanjaben

• 1 1/2 cups honey
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 cup cider vinegar
• pinch salt
• juice and grated rind of 1 lemon
• 2 inch piece of fresh ginger, sliced
• handful of fresh mint (about 5 generous sprigs)

Mix honey, water, vinegar and salt in a heavy pan.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Reduce heat to simmer.  Add lemon and ginger.  Simmer 30 minutes.

Remove from heat.  Stir in mint.  Let cool to room temperature.

Strain.  Pour into a suitable jar.  Dilute to taste; I use about 1 tsp per cup of water.  The syrup does not require refrigeration.

Our son, being bored and in a mood to decorate a cake, asked that I make one. I, being of a mind to encourage the creativity but not wanting to overdo the indulgence quotient, decided to make angel food. We’re a small family (three humans), so I’ve invested in some appropriately sized cake pans. The 7-inch tube pan does half-size sponge and angel cakes beautifully, and a pair of 6-inch round pans will make a half-size layer cake. (I know, I could just bake a single layer instead of 2, but he likes the way a 2 layer cake looks, so I just make it smaller.)

So I went looking through my cookbooks for an angel food cake recipe. Each one used twice as much sugar as egg-white by volume. That meant that a full size cake would contain 12 egg whites, 1 1/4 cups of flour and 3 cups of sugar. No wonder it tastes of nothing else! Low fat it may be, but that is all that can be said for it. By comparison, my favorite yellow butter cake contains 3/4 cup of butter, 1 1/2 cups of sugar, 3 cups of flour and 4 eggs.

So just on a hunch, I pulled my grandmother’s 1957 Joy of Cooking off my shelf. And I was right. Same amount of egg white, a little more flour, and half the amount of sugar. So that is the cake I made. It didn’t bake up with the crackly macaroon-y brown crust of a modern angel cake recipe, but I consider that no particular loss. And it has an actual flavor. You can taste the lemon juice, vanilla and almond extract in it. In other words, it isn’t just sweet inflated cardboard. It’s an actual cake, and one I’ll enjoy eating.

1957 Angel Food Cake

Preheat oven to 325^o F.

1 1/2 cups egg white
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract (or 1/2 tsp. vanilla powder)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups cake flour, sifted before measuring

In a large, clean dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar. Beat until they increase in volume, then gradually add lemon juice, salt and extracts. Continue to beat until they just form clear peaks. Gradually add sugar while beating at medium speed, then beat a little longer, until lifting the beater leaves peaks that fold over a little at the tip, and the whites are still very shiny and moist looking.

Carefully fold in flour, a couple of tablespoons at a time, until no visible flour remains. Pour into an ungreased 9 or 10 inch tube pan. Run a butter knife through in a spiral to break up any big bubbles and to level the batter. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the cake starts to pull away from the sides of the pan and is lightly browned on top.

Invert the pan over a bottle and let the cake cool completely before removing from the pan. Enjoy.

Update: I made a half-size cake. I wasn’t sure Da Boychick would like angel-cake, nor if he would like mine since what he’d had at his grandparent’s house came from the grocery. General results of experiment: I need to make another cake for him to decorate tomorrow.

A couple of days ago, I said I’d be trying cookies made from chocolate peanut butter.  They are cooling on the rack as I speak.  I believe the technical term is YUM!  The texture is sort of fudgy-brownie when they’re still warm, and slightly crisp when cool.  The taste is like what a peanut butter cup would be if it were made with really really good chocolate. They’re wonderful with either tea or milk.  This one’s a definite keeper.

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER OATMEAL COOKIES

• 2 cups (1 16 oz. jar) natural peanut butter with chocolate  (The kind with peanuts, salt, chocolate, cane sugar, and nothing else.)
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar, firmly packed (You know the drill, right?)
• 2 cups oatmeal

Heat oven to 350^o F.

Blend all ingredients together.  Put in the refrigerator and chill until it is no longer sticky.  (Overnight is good.)  Scoop up teaspoonsful and put on a cookie sheet.  (I line mine with non-stick foil – wonderful stuff!)  Flatten in the traditional peanut-butter cookie pattern with a fork dipped in granulated sugar.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until firm enough that they don’t crumble when you take them off the cookie sheet and put them on the cooling rack.

Enjoy!

Prep time: 5 minutes
Chilling time: at least 4 hours
Yield: 4 1/2 dozen cookies

This afternoon at the grocery, I found natural peanut butter blended with dark chocolate.  Peanut buter and dark chocolate – what’s not to like?

I promised cookies for an after-school program my son is participating in next Tuesday.  I have a kickin’ peanut butter oatmeal cookie recipe, and that’s what I’d planned to make.  So having succumbed to impulse, I’ll be making it with the dark chocolate peanut butter.  I’ll report on the success (or not) of the experiment in a couple of days.

I was talking to a friend the other day, and mentioned that I’d made myself a banana cake.  I wanted something with at least some nutritionally redeeming features that would indulge my sweet tooth.  Knowing me very well, she asked if it was from a recipe, or if I’d made it up.  “No, this one’s not mine; I pulled it off the ‘net” I told her.  “I just changed a couple of things.  I cut the amount of butter and sugar, used brown sugar instead of white, added an egg, put in some wheat flour….” and then, hearing what I was saying, ran down.  “I guess it is mine” I concluded.  I changed over half the ingredients as to amount, type or both, added several, and changed the mixing technique.  I doubt the person who originally posted it would recognize their cake in mine.  So….

BANANA OATMEAL SNACK CAKE

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla powder (or 2 tsp extract)
• 1/2 tsp orange extract
• 1/2 tsp ginger or cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white wheat flour (regular whole wheat will work, but has a stronger flavor)
• 3/4 cup oatmeal or mixed grain cereal
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 over-ripe medium bananas, mashed
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup extra dark chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup golden raisins

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Spray a 10″ round cake pan with non-stick spray, and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar.  Add flavorings and eggs and beat well.  Combine flours, oatmeal, baking powder and baking soda.  Combine mashed bananas and buttermilk.  Add dry ingredients alternately with milk/ banana mixture, ending with flour.  Stir in chocolate chips and raisins.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until it passes the classic toothpick test.

Enjoy!

Being in need of comfort food and wanting to have something moderately healthy that fit that description, I set about making myself rice pudding last night.  Mom’s rice pudding was nice, but I thought a bit of creativity was in order, just because, well, it’s more fun that way.  It came out so well I’m putting it here.

APPLE RICE PUDDING

Heat 1 quart of milk in a heavy pot with a lid.   Add 2 Tbsp. turbinado or brown sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla power (or 1 tsp liquid vanilla), 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and  1/2 cup brown rice.  Cover and start cooking.  Peel and chop up 2 tart apples, like Granny Smiths, and add to the pot.  Put the lid back and cook on very low heat for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 300 F.  When the rice has cooked somewhat, stir the pudding, replace the lid, and put it in the oven.  Bake for 2 hours.  Remove and eat.   It’s a little chewier than the usual rice pudding, but the texture isn’t bad, just different . Hot, it was lovely with vanilla ice cream.  Cool, this morning, it made a really nice breakfast, as it’s not too sweet.

As to ingredients:  For milk I used organic 2%.  It really does taste different than the standard mass produced stuff.   The rice was sweet brown rice, a short grain rice that breaks down in cooking and so is used for desserts (hence the name), but long grain would work.  It would just be another degree more chewy than it comes out with the sweet rice.

And I have another quart of milk to use up before it goes bad.  I think the next experiment will be with mixed chopped dried fruit, slivered almonds, almond extract and a little ground ginger.  But that will wait.  Right now I want to take advantage of a sunny day with a good breeze and moderate temperatures and go for a walk.