Black Turnips // Black Spanish Radish

Found at CSA on Cemetery Road in Hadley, MA.
Splitting made this a cull, a throw away.

Fist-sized, like a large traditional beet.

Skin is elephant-rough, like a Russet baking potato.
Taste is similar to daikon radish.

I found a Polish wine writer who describes them as "black diamonds". .

Cauliflower, Black Bean, Olives

Cauliflower, black beans, red onions, green olives. With a roast chicken a bottle of Sicilian nero d'avola.

Breakfast Burrito adds eggs, feta with a wheat tortilla

Kimbap: Korean Sushi

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Quantities for making ten rolls, 80-100 pieces: 

-- 1 package of nori (10 sheets)

-- 3 1/2 cups uncooked sushi rice - makes slightly over 10 loose packed cups of cooked rice; 1 cup/roll

-- 3 x (3 Tbsp cider vinegar, 3Tbsp water, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 Tbsp sugar)- slightly more than you need.

-- 8 eggs, 3tsp soy sauce, 1/4 cup chopped scallions -- make four 8" omelettes, cut into 20 strips, 2/roll.

-- 3 medium red pepper, cut into 40 strips, sauteed: 4/roll

-- 2 cups chopped spinach, squeeze dry, sautee onion, add spinach, 1/4 tsp of sesame oil; 1.5 Tbsp/roll

-- 10 scallion strips, split;  2/roll.

-- 10 yellow daikon pickle strips; 1 per roll

• Cook rice according to instructions, should be fairly dry; cool in a big wide pan, and toss lightly, sprinkling with seasoned vinegar. 
• Prepare fillings: Sautee four egg omelettes and cut into strips. Sautee vegetables and make strips.  Make strips of green scallion and yellow daikon.
• Make ten rolls, using quantities above. Stack with seam side down.
• Cut rolls by halving, then doubling up and cutting four times to make eight pieces and two ends. 

We're from the government and we're here to help....

This giant hamburger hangs out by the Norwottuck Rail Trail in Hadley, and he does not eat cheese. Wave to him as you ride off your double cheeseburger or government inspired Domino's extra cheesy pizza.

“If you want to look at why people are fat today, it’s pretty hard to identify a contributor more significant than this meteoric rise in cheese consumption." - Physicians for Responsible Medicine.

The rest of the story here...

My Big Yellow Tomato

Church of the Holy Garlic

At Next Barn Over CSA on Rt 47 in Hadley,  the tobacco barn is now glowing with garlic -- a big improvement in my humble opinion.

Chickpea, Basil, and Color

Chickpeas and basil

 

 

 

Chickpea and basil with artichoke and shredded carrots or with orange cherry tomatoes from the porch --- either way, what a great mid-summer salad.

Fahrenheit 450 (Four Five Zero) or A Bradbury Dinner.

450F is perfect for three dinner elements:

Roasting meat : Spicy Chicken Drumstick
Roasting a bean and vegetable combination: Spanish Cauliflower/Chickpeas with Green Olives.
Baking bread in a dutch oven: No Knead Bread.

Time it right, and you've three for one saved energy, and got yourself a great feast to share with friends.Good red wine, and voila.

Fahrenheit 451 (four-five-one)  was one of many great books by Ray Bradbury. In it, firemen lit fires, burned banned books, and  "4-5-1" referred to the burning point of paper.  This was indeed a horror film --- beloved books curling up in wisps of smoke and ash. It was a perfect companion to Animal Farm, Soylent Green, and all the speculative fiction of that era depicting the totalitarian future.

Pesto: Arugula, Walnut, Garlic, Reggiano and Olive Oil.

This arugula pesto is an early spring alternative to basil pesto. It will taste spicy, even peppery. Unlike basil pesto which discolors on exposure to air this pesto stays bright green and tastes great even a week after you make it. 
Like regular pesto, you can chop together the hard ingredients first: a cup each of walnut and reggiano chunks, and perhaps five garlic cloves.  Add maybe seven cups of arugula and 2/3 cup of olive oil to make a pesto. Quantities are approximate, but the order holds.

Buon appetito. 

Chinese Cheese

Cheese. It always comes back to cheese.  Mindless consumption of cheese.  Cheese cheese cheese goes nonsense at the twentieth utterance, a little chai makes it Chinese and I end up with Chinese cheese.

Connie's Quinoa Frittata

This colorful frittata has sauteed onion bits, white steamed cauliflower pieces, and orange chunks of microwaved sweet potato, green steamed spinach, and cooked red quinoa stirred into a mixture of beaten eggs and cooked in a suitable cast iron pan with some vegetable oil. Cook like a spanish potato and egg tortilla, flipping over into a plate to cook the other side. Season to taste.

No surprise, Connie is a visual artist.  Thank you! 

Cheese Awareness Day

The two pound block of feta cheese I knifed open on April 1 was finished today in a most frightening way. I ate the crumbles of cheese with my fingers out of a container -- and finished it. Full stop.

Yellows: Turmeric, Annatto, and Saffron

Turmeric is great for pickling because it is water soluble and produces an amazingly bright yellow in daikon radish for example. It has a definite taste.Above, daikon radish and carrot with turmeric.

Annato seed barely dissolves in hot water, but in heated oil very quickly produces a deep, vivid yellow, shown below. It seems relatively mild in taste.

Saffron heated in water and in oil using same methods as with turmeric and annatto seemed completely wimpy!

Thus, turmeric for water solubles and pickling daikon. And for yellow Spanish rice, a bit of annatto in oil, rice, and water. Saffron will wait for another day.

Day Sixty Three

I knifed open a huge block of feta cheese two days ago.  Last night I came home, and just for the craving of taste, not because of hunger I took off a few chunks and ate them. Even worse I took off a few more chunks, cooked them up with eggs and ate with bread at eleven at night!

After it was all over I wasn't satisfied. I just wanted more.... 

Day Sixty One

I ate cheese yesterday, at a party, and the sin is having gone back several times beyond just tasting. I really didn't need this fall off the no-cheese wagon, and it was excellent -- a crumble mountain of very sharp cheddar -- oh god.  At least it didn't taste like plastic!

Hot pan, cold oil, everybody happy!

I recall a Chinese TV chef saying: "Hot pan, cold oil, everybody happy!" ---- except when you set off the smoke alarms. I imagine these Filippo  Berio Tuscan's dancers on my olive oil can are happy because they know oils smoke at these temperatures :

Hottest: 

• Avocado (520F), 
• safflower (510F), 
• soybean (495F), 
• extra light olive (468F)

Middle hot -- refined oils:

• peanut (450F),
• corn (450F),
• sunflower (450F)

Lower hot:

• canola (400F)

Lowest hot:

• extra virgin olive oil (300F),
• all unrefined oils (225)

Hanky Panky (Homemade Meat) Balls

I chopped up some London Broil in a KitchenAid food processor the other day.  Ten pulses on twenty cubes.  With Italian spices and some anchovies. It tasted just like ground beef except fresher!  Then I added an egg and some pepper, and a little bread, and water, and made meatballs. They were great.

Then I heard Mark Bittman say, in a Lamb Meatball video, "Always grind your own meat!"   Many years ago he had written a whole column about grinding.

The same day, I chopped up some half frozen white bread (after I washed the food processor of course!). Five pulses on twenty chunks. They turned Panko! Just like all the pictures.  I dried them out in a warm oven. I call them Hanky Panky breadcrumbs because they are not really Japanese.

I like grinding my own. I posted the breadcrumbs because ground meat pictures are too gross to post.

Penchalapadu's Poetic Potatoes

Oh its spicy, and fun:

Boil six big old potatoes, till cooked, but not too long.  
Peel and cut and chunk them -- hard to do this wrong.
Now heat your fave  oil in a big whatever pot, 
In go seeds o' black mustard 'n cumin  ... COOK until they pop! 

Chop your onions quickly, two cups or so will do.
Cook them in the oil, till they're soft through and through. 
Turmeric &  garlic & ginger, a teaspoonful of each.
Cook a bit and add potatoes -- yes! the finale's within your reach. 
 
A little red chili and black pepper to excite that yellow pot,
Garam masala, curry powder -- a tad of whatev' you've got.  
Finish with some salt--just enough to make tastes zing, .

Stir it up and cook on low till the bottom fries and sings.
.

-- So sayeth the recipe giver:  Paul Penchalapadu

Rutabagas 'n Turnip Heaven

Rutabagas are those suspiciously huge 'turnips' near the little turnips.
Rutabagas are also called swedes or yellow turnips.
Inside they are pale yellow and hard, while turnips are white and softer.
Rutabaga cook up sweet, and deep orange yellow.

These little turnips were pretty good too.

This year I am going to cook up a Westport turnip which they say is something special. 

Choux Bruxelles Sans Fromage au Tofu

 

"Sans fromage" sounds so much fancier than "no cheese".

Autumn Olive Sorbet

This is how it starts!

To Be Continued.....?

Well, its almost forty days, and I have not resumed cheese. I'd call it a success.

Next sin?  OK.  Confession: 

I have Dollar Menu-itis. Sometimes I plan poorly on road trips. I stop at a  McDonald's for coffee instead of bringing my own. I often have it black, and I like it. Sometimes I  have  a McChicken with no mayo. I like the salt.  On very evil days I succumb to a McDouble --- two greasy cheeseburgers minus the middle bun. I like the drippy fat and salt. I never order anything else, except sometime a cheesy yogurt parfait.

Day Thirty

Success. For the month I have indeed had cheese:

four tablespoons of Grana Padano,
a half inch cube of Gruyere,
a piece of lasagna,
a half inch cube of plastic cheese.

So. It has not been thirty days completely without cheese.

Day Twenty Nine

Almost there. Avoiding all food, including CHEESE!

Day Twenty Eight

Really, japchae, made with julienned onions, carrots, mushroom; and spinach; and marinated beef; mixed in sweet potato noodles that cook clear -- seasoned with sesame seeds, soy sauce, sesame oil. Never even thought of cheese.

Day Twenty Seven

Maine shrimp, loads of little local pink curly cues, brussel sprouts with caraway seed, roast potatoes --- and no cheese!

Day Twenty Six

My thoughts turn to Day Thirty One -- will I return to old habits? Or will I do another thirty days without cheese?

Day Twenty Five

Danger comes in funny places.... Whole Foods, Hadley -- gruyere samples. Then a dinner with friends - that innocent looking lasagna contains -- oh shock! -- cheese -- a one piece cheat.

Day Twenty Four

Another day without cheese, sort of. Today I bought temptation: Chevre, Grana Padano, and feta. Not for me, of course!

Day Twenty Three

Airy fairy grana padano on a scrambled egg sandwich -- excuse, alternative to salt! Oh cheat, thy name is rationalizing.

Day Twenty Two

Black bean yam burrito, yummy -- it didn't even need cheese!

Day Twenty One

" I and my snow camel declare this another day without cheese!"

Day Twenty

I made sun-dried tomato risotto using sushi rice. I added two tablespoons, two light as a fairy, airy tablespoons of grana padano! Sin oh sin, you are called cheese. Sushi rice is not quite so creamy as arborio rice.

Day Nineteen

Stuffed eggplant with sausage, eggplant, tomato, onion, breadcrumbs and a tablespoon of grated grana padano when rounded to the nearest cup measure is ZERO. So, I say, another day without cheese.

Day Eighteen

Butter is not cheese.

Day Seventeen

Cheese looks like plastic.

Day Sixteen

Asian food has no cheese.

Day Fifteen

See the cheese in Antonio's window in downtwon Amherst!! See the cheese sprinkles on the all veggie no cheese!! Oh, yummy.

Later in the day at a fartsy tartsy wine and cheese reception at the University Gallery my fingers, independent of me, snagged a cube of cheese and jammed into my mouth. My brain said: "It would be impolite to spit this out in a crowd of architects and designers, so chew it and suffer. " I did. It tasted like plastic.

Day Fourteen

As much snow fell as I've had cheese this month.

Day Thirteen

Pickles. Pickles. Pickles. Turmeric makes them yellow up. No big cheese craving, but some awarness I'd really like a piece of pizza, and it would be nice to have that tang of parmesan along with the veggies. Best not to even walk Antonio's -- even its for the all veggie, no cheese slice.

Day Twelve

I was at Bella Luna Saturday, and I didn't even think about cheese. I thought about stars.

Day Eleven

Cheese came into my presence on some noodles today. I cheated, stole a noodle, and licked a spoon.

Day Ten

Does milk count as cheese?

Day Nine

Funny, if you dont' think about cheese..... it disappears from your life.

Day Eight

Factoid of life:

I won't lose weight, even with no cheese, unless I up the physical activity!

Weigh-in: 138.6
Goal: 130

Day Seven

Pan, pan, pan. Picante pan, bicicleta y pan, pan, pan, pan.

"Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day" by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francis.

Day Six

Little Happy New Year!

Day Five

Red flannel hash. Imaginate!

Day Four

Bikes Not Cheese.

Day Three

Julie lives in Madison, WI with cheeseheads.

Day Two

I just got a personal email from Barack Obama. It pissed me off. But it kept my mind off cheese.

It said: "Gina, I cannot do it alone. I need your help."

True enough. Your 59 out of 100 Democratic senators, and your huge majority in the House have to bucky up, don't they? So, here's my question. Why do you not ask me to be your citizen lobby to call Democratic Congressmen and Sentators to support you?

NO, instead I get this demi-insulting punchline:

Can you help fuel our fight for the middle class with a monthly donation of $15 or more?

No. NO. NO. I will call, I will write, I will call out. But I will not send a single cent to a corrupt political party of either persuasion. John McCain's " Gina, Did you watch the State of the Union?" email arrived immediately after Barack's. It had the same punchline. But at least it was honest begging for re-election money.

Obama's email tells me that Barack's minions and maybe the president himself don't get it. There's huge power in his personal appeal, and in his policy proposals, yet he doesn't ask for my voice to help him move Congress. He asks for my money for a corrupt system, for a party that can't tie its own shoelaces, and whose holdout members openly disrespect him. The request contradicts, confuses, and in the end insults.

Hey, it keeps my mind off cheese.

Weighin:139.6

Day One

I took whatever cheese was in the refrigerator and stuffed it in the freezer, way in the back. Way way. I turn my thoughts to other foods.

Chestnut Bavarian Cream

• 3T. unflavored gelatin
• 3/4 cup plus 6T. water
• 6 large eggs, separated
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 1/2 cups scalded milk
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1 1/2 cups chestnut puree ( one 15 oz. can)
• 3 tsp vanilla
• dash of salt

1. Open the can of chestnut puree and break into tiny bits.
2. Prepare the gelatin by sprinkling 3T over 3/4 cup cold water in a bowl. Let soften for a few minutes then set the bowl in a pan of hot water to allow the gelatin to dissolve completely.
3. Prepare the milk by scalding 4 1/2 cups without allowing to boil.
4. Whisk the egg yolks and 1/2 the sugar in a large saucepan. Mix in the scalded milk whisking and stirring over low heat until the mixture is thick on a spoon, about five minutes. Take off the heat, transfer to a large bowl. Whisk in the dissolved gelatin, chestnut puree,vanilla and salt. Set aside.
   
5. Whip the heavy cream. Set aside.
6. Melt the remaining sugar and 6T water until it is a liquid syrup.
7. Whip the egg whites and add the sugar syrup in a stream while whipping, about five minutes.
8. Stir 1/2 whipped egg whites into the chestnut mixture in the large bowl. Fold in the remaining whipped egg whites and whipped cream.
9. Rinse A 3 qt. mold with water, Fill with the mixture, and chill covered with plastic wrap for at least three hours, preferably overnight.
10. To unmold, dip the mold in hot water for a few seconds. Cover with the serving dish, and invert the mold onto the dish. Decorate with chocolate shavings.

Cinnamon No Knead Bread

Dry

• 3 cups white unbleached flour
• 1/2 tsp. yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 to 1 cup raisins

Wet

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 Tbsp heavy cream

Pre-baking mix ins

• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• additional raisins

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. Mix in water, then heavy cream or melted butter.
3. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise at 70 degrees for 12-18 hours, till bubbly.
4. Scrape dough onto a greased or floured board
5. Pat down gently to a rectangle long enough to roll, approximately an inch deep.
6. Sprinkle sugar, cinnamon, more raisins, all the way to the edges -- whatever amount you like really.
7. Roll into a log and then shape into a boule.
8. Cover with a cloth and let rise for an hour or two.
9. Preheat the oven and covered dutch oven to 450F.
10. Gently drop the dough into the dutch oven, and cook covered for 40-45 minutes.
11. The bread may stick to the pan a bit but it should behave mostly like regular no knead bread that has no sugar.
    
12. The cinnamon integrated in the basic dough gives the bread a darkish tint very unlike the brioche style raisin swirl bread that is a light yellow.

This is the basic Jim Lahey/NYTimes no-knead recipe with a lot of cinnamon added to the dry mix. I added minimal sugar to the dry mix to avoid any fermented, alcohol taste. I added some heavy cream to reach the amount of liquid needed beyond the 1:2 water:flour ratio. You might try melted butter instead of heavy cream. The addition of the late stage sugar, cinnamon, and raisins adds to the sweetness and may produce a spiral. It will distribute additional raisins better in the body of the bread.