Sheepish return...

So, a year? Wow. Basically, anyone beyond my family has probably given up checking this site for updates; even they might have abandoned me. I don't blame you. That's a long period of silence. It's not as though my kitchen is a gloomy pit of dust and cobwebs. (Truth be told, it's currently covered in dirty dishes from last night's dinner). I have no good excuse. So, after a brief "I'm sorry," I'm going to jump right in.

After a week of scrounging for meals from what I had in my house, I got paid, went grocery shopping, and made meatloaf. But, this was no ordinary meatloaf. I honestly love my mother's recipe for meatloaf; it is the epitome of comfort food when served with mashed potatoes and cooked carrots. However, beyond really wanting meatloaf, I've had a hankering for mushrooms and rosemary. There is something about those items that just screams winter. Or rather, as their scents drift through the house, they slowly wrap you in a warm blanket of aroma and whisper to you to curl up on your couch and enjoy their company. I'm so ensnared by their intoxicating combination that they play a pivotal role in my fall/winter cooking regiment. It might come to bore someone else, but I wouldn't know; I'm usually cooking for one. I have a feeling it would take a lot of coaxing from a special someone for me to refrain from their weekly use.

All this ruminating aside, let's get onto the recipe and the process. I started with my mother's basic recipe: 1 pound of ground beef, an egg, crushed cracker crumbs, salt, pepper, splash of tomato sauce, and a small finely chopped onion. My changes: I used Stone Wheat crackers instead of basic saltines (I thought their heartier flavor would go well and add more complexity) and replaced the tomato sauce with milk (a la our recipe for Swedish Meatballs). I also added: 3 portabella mushrooms which I whirred in my food processor and then sauteed with two minced shallots, a tablespoon of dried rosemary leaves crushed, pepper and salt. I chose to precook the mushrooms so that I could cook off some of their moisture. My mother's meatloaf is normally shaped into a loaf and baked in a cast iron pan on top of a circle of tomato sauce, the covered in the remaining tomato sauce. Add a loose cover of tinfoil and bake for about an hour at 350 degrees. My resulting mixture was too wet to hold its own shape, so I actually used a loaf pan (ungreased) and covered with tinfoil for baking. The result: a winter wonderland of flavor and a new addition to my comfort food collection.

Rosemary and Mushroom Meatloaf

1 tablespoon oil
2 shallots, peeled and finely chopped
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
3 portabella mushrooms, minced in a food processor
1 pound ground beef (I used 85% lean)
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
5 ounces Stone Wheat crackers, crushed to a fine powder (either in food processor or with a rolling pin)
1 egg

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
In a cast iron pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
Add the shallots and cook until translucent.
Add the rosemary, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper and cook until fragrant.
Add mushrooms and cook, stirring, until mushrooms release their moisture and most of the moisture cooks off.
Remove from heat and allow to cool.
In a large mixing bowl, place beef, onion, milk, remaining salt and pepper, crushed crackers, egg, and mushroom mixture.
Mix with your hands until everything is well incorporated.
Place mixture in a loaf pan, pat down gently, cover with tinfoil, and bake for about an hour, or until center is cooked through and no longer pink.

Guilt me into blogging...

So, I am talking with my mother last night and she starts teasing me about how I have not posted since January 6th. Sheesh. One problem with following a budget is, it's most economical to make one or two large dishes for the week. So that's what I've been doing. This week was Dry Curry, because it sounded good, and Swedish Meatballs, because I needed some comfort food. Dry Curry isn't a very appetizing name, but it's a very delicious meal. Swedish Meatballs have a very bad reputation, but when made properly are delicious, not grease ridden blobs. Let's hope the family does not attempt to remove my heart for sharing the recipe for one of our family favorites.

Dry Curry

1 tbsp oil
2 to 3 medium onions, finely chopped
5 to 6 carrots, peeled and finely diced
5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 tofu blocks (soft)
3 cans tuna, drained
5 to 7 curry roux blocks
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 c cilantro, chopped

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat, then add oil.
Once oil is hot, add the onions, carrots, and garlic.
Cook until onions start to get soft.
Add tofu, breaking it up with the back of a spoon, and tuna.
Make sure that the tofu and tuna are chopped up and evenly distributed in the pan.
Add curry blocks and cook, stirring often, until curry blocks melt and blend into the dish.
Taste. If more curry is needed, add them and allow them to melt.
Add salt and pepper and stir in the cilantro.
Serve over hot rice.


Swedish Meatballs
1 lb ground turkey or beef (I use turkey because I like lighter meatballs)
1 stack of saltine crackers, crushed
1 egg
dash of milk
1 small onion, finely chopped
salt and pepper
about 1/2 a nutmeg, ground

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix together well with your hands.
If using turkey, add 1 tbsp of oil to a large skillet. Do not turn on the heat.
Shape meat mixture into balls smaller than a golf ball, but larger than a ping pong ball.
As each ball is shaped, place in the center of the oil, then slide to the edge of the pan.
Once the pan is full (which may be before all the balls are shaped), turn heat to medium-high.
As soon as the meatballs start to brown, turn the heat down to medium and start turning. The goal is to brown all sides.
As the meatballs shrink, add more to the pan and brown.
Once all meatballs are browned, spread evenly in the pan.
Add about 1/2 c of water to the pan and cover. Turn heat down to low and let meatballs steam until centers are no longer pink.

Happiness

I've become the source of many negative comments and diatribes lately. As such, I thought it was best to start thinking of positive things (a la Crazy Aunt Purl, sort of...)

Example--
Negative: Does Maine even have a summer? It went from spring to fall.
Positive: Mmm, fall food! Rosemary, potatoes, squash, turnips, hearty breads, warm stews, spiced desserts, the list goes on and on. And I can knit too!

I got three family recipes from my mom recently - white bread, Swedish rye bread, and nut bread. I've found I need an oven thermometer. My first batch of white bread looked done, but was doughy in the center. The second batch, after reducing the temperature, was right (or so the people I gave it to told me). I will have to explore some new grocery stores as the one I currently frequent does not carry rye flour. I'm sad, but will persevere. My first batch of nut bread is a little burnt on the outside. I know I can bake, I just have to learn more about my oven so that I can work properly with it. (See me not swearing about said oven, but telling myself that I can work with it? I'm not even going to use the "cooking headaches" label for this post. That's positive thinking... at least for me it is. Don't tell me if it really isn't positive thinking because I don't want to hear it).

Cream of Turnip and Carrot Soup

The cool weather and my need to use some turnips inspired this recipe. Turnips can be a bit sharp in flavor, so I decided to use carrots to balance them. It worked very well. The soup is slightly sweet and savory. Since thyme works well with both turnips and carrots, I used that for seasoning. I also used some saved bacon grease to add a bit of flavor. The measurement for water comes from the amount of water I needed to just cover the vegetables and I used that measurement to determine how many teaspoons of bouillon I added. Make this if you want a light, but warm meal. I ate mine with some toast made from homemade white bread.

1 tbsp bacon grease
5 small to medium turnips, peeled and cubed small
5 medium carrots, peeled and diced small
2 1/2 c water
2 tsp chicken bouillon
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
pinch of thyme
1 to 2 c whole milk

Heat bacon grease in a soup pot over medium-high heat until sizzling.
Add turnips and carrots and saute for a minute or two.
Add water, chicken bouillon, black pepper and thyme.
Bring to a boil.
Turn down heat and simmer until vegetables are very tender.
Fill your blender with hot tap water a few times to make sure the glass is not cold.
Add soup, in small amounts, to the blender.
**Make sure that you do not completely seal the lid, or it WILL explode!!**
The best method is to remove the center of the lid, or keep it ajar so that steam can escape, then **tent with a towel** so that the hot soup does not splash on you while blending.
Blend the soup in batches, until smooth.
Return to the soup pot and place over medium heat.
Add enough milk to make the soup creamy.
Heat to desired serving temperature.

Roast Beef

Another of our family's comfort foods is Roast Beef. The last time we went to the butcher (http://www.brandonmeats.com/) it was still a bit cool outside, so I ordered two roasts. Then it became unseasonably warm (80 degrees, 80 degrees in March, that is wrong on so many levels), so I started trying to think of warm weather ways of preparing the arm roasts. But, it got cool again, so last night I made Roast Beef with mashed potatoes and cooked carrots. The cooking time for this one is long, and longer if you do it the way I did yesterday so that I could go to the gym (needed more time), but the results are a tender roast.

Roast Beef

1 beef roast (You can use any size or cut. The size will only affect the cooking time. I believe the one I used last night was around 3 lbs, and it was an arm roast.)
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
1 large bell pepper
1-46oz can of tomato juice
salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 275 - 350 degrees (higher temperature will reduce cooking time).
Place the roast in a large ovenproof skillet (we use cast iron).
Salt and generously pepper each side of the roast.
Add the onion and bell pepper.
Pour the tomato juice over everything until the roast is covered.
Place, covered with lid or aluminum foil, in the oven and cook until a fork, inserted into the middle of the roast, comes away without resistance (Yesterday I cooked the roast at 275 degrees for 3 1/2 hours.)

A gravy can be made of the tomato juice after the roast is complete. Simply remove the roast from the skillet and set aside, covered. Place the skillet on a burner set at medium to medium high heat. In a shakable container, put flour (the amount of flour depends on the amount of liquid in the pan, you'll have to experiment as we never measure this part) and enough water to make it runny and shake. Slowly whisk the flour and water mixture into the tomato juice and heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Once it is thick, pour into a gravy boat and serve.

Comfort Food pt.1

One thing I'm hoping to explore with this blog is the concept of comfort food. Anyone who has lived in another culture for some time will understand how one starts to crave certain meals from home that are unavailable. When I was living in China a coworker took a trip home and was kind enough to bring some herbs back to China for me. These herbs helped me make some decent (but by no means fantastic) meals for other expats. These meals were received with rave reviews mostly because it had been so long since any of them had had a home-cooked home meal. (I really must work on my vocabulary.) I find the close relationship between culinary culture and identity intriguing and I would like to work toward collecting comfort food recipes from a wide range of people, along with their best attempt to explain why that meal is comfort food for them and their family.
In my family, meatloaf is a standard in the area of comfort food. Typically we serve meatloaf with mashed potatoes (or simply boiled ones) and carrots. As you can see from the background, my father also adds ketchup, but he is the king of sauces. No meal is complete without extra sauce in his book. Meatloaf is a winter comfort food. It's something that my mom would make regularly when we were children. As kids, we were rather unadventurous eaters. (For example, our idea of vegetables included carrots, corn and peas, on occasion. Green beans were okay too.) The smell of meatloaf baking has a way of warming me up. It makes me think of chilly or downright cold weather and the satisfaction of a hot and substantial meal filling me up. Now, my mom, to make the meat fill more bellies, told me to add a whole stack of saltine crackers. Apparently she now only adds 1/2 to 3/4 of a stack of crackers, which she told me with a "duh, I've been doing that forever" tone.
I can't complain, because a lot of times they will ask what recipe I used to make such-and-such meal and I inevitably forget to add that I also doubled the herbs and spices or halved this, or added this for more flavor, and "didn't you realize that when you looked at the recipe??" I think the secret of a good cook and the reason nobody can get a meal to taste exactly like mom's is because she told you which recipe, but to know how she ACTUALLY makes it. You have to watch her make it. Otherwise you'll not do something that she's always done and forgotten to tell you about. Most likely it's been so long since she's actually looked at the recipe that she will assume that her embellishments are on the card.

Meatloaf

1 lb ground beef
1/2 to 1 stack saltines
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 egg
8 oz can tomato sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Place the ground beef in a bowl.
Using a rolling pin, crush the saltines into a fine meal.
Add saltines, onion, egg, a dash of tomato sauce, and salt and pepper to the beef.
Mix thoroughly (the best method is using your hands).
Pour about 1/2 of the remaining tomato sauce into the middle of a cast iron pan (either dutch oven or one with a lid).
Gather the meat mixture into a ball and toss gently between your hands to make a large meatball.
Shape into a football shape and place in the tomato sauce.
Pour the remaining tomato sauce over the meatloaf.
Cover and cook until done (about 1 hour).
Serve with boiled potatoes (or mashed) and cooked carrots.
If there are leftovers, meatloaf sandwiches are difficult to beat. Two slices of homemade white bread, slices of chilled meatloaf, salt and pepper (butter if you're really looking for decadence).