Wheat Bread

On this fine Labor Day weekend, I knew I'd be making some of this vegetable soup. But when I woke up this morning, I realized I had no bread or croutons of any kind.

In addition to being Labor Day weekend, it was also the University of Minnesota's Welcome Week. I've lived in this area long enough to know to shun all things related to U of M students moving in. Unfortunately, this includes the entire Quarry Place Shopping Center, which happens to contain my closest grocery store.

So I just decided to avoid that clusterf*ck entirely and make my own bread. This is only like the third time I've made bread from scratch, and it's getting better each time. This was actually pretty good, as I followed some foolproof Smitten Kitchen instructions. Bellow is my recipe.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups white flour

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 cup crushed bran cereal

1 tablespoon of salt

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 tablespoon turmeric

1/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

3/4 cup warm milk and/or water

Add the yeast to the warm water/milk. Combine all other ingredients and mix well. Add yeast mixture and mix well with your hands or an electric mixer. Once all the bumps are out. Form a ball with the dough. Cover and let sit somewhere for several hours. When you see that it has risen, knead the dough well. Let sit for another hour. Knead well and then form a loaf with three slits on top. Bake in bread pan at 450 degrees for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 425 degrees and cook for another 15 minutes or so.

Habanero

Another week, another impulse buy at the farmers market. What am I going to do with 20 habanero peppers? Who cares when they cost $3!

But seriously, what am I going to do with them... I suppose I could share with friends, so let me know if you want any.

So far I made some spicy baba ganoush.

As you might guess from the photo, I roasted both the eggplant and the habanero for this recipe. I figured it would tone down the intense spiciness of the habanero. I also had the foresight to deseed that hot little pepper.

That method seemed to work. So I did the same for this raw vegetable curry, which I served with brown rice and a fried egg. This "curry" was made from leftover gazpacho ingredients (i.e. tomatoes and bell peppers). It was so spicy that most people probably would not have been able to eat it. I, however, loved it.

Gazpacho

The most difficult thing about this recipe was getting to the farmers market before noon on Saturday. You see, a trip to the Northeast Minneapolis Farmers Market was absolutely vital for my gazpacho because store bought tomatoes would never do. For me, gazpacho is dependent on the quality of your ingredients, all of which are in season right now.

While I ventured out on a Saturday morning for tomatoes and cucumbers, the market had a lot of other useful produce for this dish. I bought these white peppers, but I don't know their actual name.

They sort of taste like bell peppers. I also bought some fresh garlic, which I had never cooked with before.

Anyway, this is my (first) recipe for gazpacho. It's pretty easy to play with the quantities of the ingredients, and I'll definitely be making gazpacho again soon.

Ingredients:

6-7 plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped

1 medium sized red onion, coarsely chopped

2-3 small cucumbers, coarsely chopped, not peeled

2-3 cups of chopped bell pepper, any color or kind

1/2 cup parsley

4-5 cloves garlic

3/4 loaf french bread, torn into chucks

The juice of 1/2 lemon

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

A few dashes each of: dried oregano, dried thyme and coriander

2 teaspoons salt

Pepper to taste

Enough tomato juice to cover your veggie/bread mixture

In a food processor, you need to lightly process all of your vegetables. I did this on the "pulse" setting, one vegetable at a time. I used my food processor to shred the bread chunks and garlic too.

Add all vegetables and bread to a large bowl. Add olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, spices, salt and pepper. Cover with tomato juice, mix well and chill overnight.

Sea Scallops with Pineapple Cucumber Salsa

You know you're getting old when you're Target browsing habits change. It used to be all about cloths, cosmetics and ridiculous women's magazines. Now, you give me 15 minutes to fill a prescription and I'm all over the cooking section.

I picked up these scallops at Target on just such an occasion. They appear to be high quality, though my knowledge of real seafood is surely lacking. At least the freezer pack they came in is releasable.

Ingredients:

7-10 sea scallops, bought frozen but later thawed

Oil for searing

1 medium-sized cucumber, coarsely chopped

1/2 medium-sized red onion, coarsely chopped

1 8oz. can of crushed pineapple

1-3 green chillies, diced

A few dashes of tabasco

1/2 teaspoon vinegar (optional), I used apple cider vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

First, you wanna make that salsa. Assemble your veggies, pineapple and spices. Then mix well. Sear the scallops in a frying pan over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes on each side. Top scallops with salsa an serve.

Corn and Mystery Vegtable Pie

The mystery is because this was kind of a freezer cleaning recipe. I actually expected it to be bland and kind of weird. But as soon as I took my first bite, it reminded me of something awesome. That's right, I used the last of my pie crust dough!

That part was way delicious, and much less messy than I expected when I rolled it out. The vegetable puree was the weird part. No one remembers this but me, but I made some vegetable stock a few month ago. The veggies I used for that were strained, blended, frozen, thawed and used in this pie.

Ingredients:
3 large leeks (just the greens), coarsely chopped
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
1 small potato, quartered
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
Salt and pepper to taste
Enough pie dough to cover the bottom of a pie pan+ enough flower to roll it out
3 pieces of corn
1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon honey
Tabasco sauce
1/2 cup bread crumbs

Roll out your pie dough and press it into a pie pan. Poke holes with a fork, and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Soak the corn in the water for 10 minutes and remove kernels from cob.

Boil leek greens, potatoes, carrots and spices until soft (30 minutes at a low heat). Add a little salt. Strain well and puree in a blender or food processor. Reserve liquid for vegetable stock. Place pureed veggies into pie cross, spreading as thinly as possible across the bottom.

Mix cheese, corn, milk, salt and pepper. Add Tabasco and honey to taste. Add this to the top of the pie, and top it all with the bread crumbs. Bake at 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes. Just make sure the eggs are done...

Chilled Lettuce Soup with Homemade Croutons

Ok, so the croutons aren't totally homemade. I bought some rye bread, and as usual it sat around for a long time before I realized I wouldn't be able to eat the whole thing. So I decided to make croutons! My own seasoning and everything...

The soup is legitimately very healthy though. I found ways to add flavor, and it really does taste much better when well chilled. My recipe is very different from, but still adapted from, this one my Mark Bittman.

Chilled Lettuce Soup
2 head of romaine lettuce, thinly sliced
1/2 large red onion, sliced
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
3 cups chicken stock, low sodium or homemade
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup tahini
1 1/2 cup ice water
Salt and pepper to taste

Saute onions and seeds for about 5 minutes in olive oil. Do not burn. Add your stock and lettuce. Cover and cook at a medium heat until lettuce is wilted. Add tahini, salt, pepper and ice water. Somehow, manage to get it all into a blender. Blend until you've reached a nice consistency.

The tahini gave this light soup a creamy flavor similar to this one. Serve with these croutons.
Croutons
3 cups of stale bread, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil cooking spray

In a large baking sheet, spray bread with cooking spray. Add spices, salt and pepper. Toss so that croutons will be evenly coated, but make sure they all lay flat on the pan. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees, taking them out to toss once.

Just watch these carefully, so you don't scorch them. In my opinion, rye bread tastes pretty good as slightly burnt croutons.

Fourth of July Foods

In case you haven't guessed, I'm not really much of a grill master. I blame the fact that I don't own a grill (no balcony in my apartment) and my tendency to use more vegetables and less meat. So if you don't think there's enough meat in this post about foods on the 4th, then I'm sorry. Believe me, there was still plenty of grilled chicken to go around...

Besides, those are pineapple chunks wrapped in bacon up there. I got this idea from Mark Bittman, who suggested pineapple wrapped in prosciutto as part of his "101 Fast Grilling Recipes." Nea did all the cooking. Here she is getting excited.
I did make a side dish that was great for garnishing grilled meats. This pickled onions recipe yielded a tasty, vinegary side.
Finally, it's a Fourth of July tradition at my house for my Grandmother to prepare a dessert trifle. She's always kind enough to pretend I helped in some way, though she's the master. Anyway, it's delicious with yogurt, angel food cake, berries and jello.