Adventures in saffron, #2

Last night I improvised a pork curry couscous.

Couscous

1 c dry couscous
1 c water
1-2 t butter or olive oil
1-2 t curry powder
1 c frozen veggies — I used peas and carrots

Put all ingredients, except couscous, in a covered saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add couscous, cover, and remove from heat. It will be ready in five minutes.

Pork curry

3 boneless pork chops, sliced into thin strips
1 T olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1-2 T curry powder
1/2 – 1 t rosemary
2-3 T yogurt
2-3 T milk
Pinch of saffron steeped in a little boiling water
1/3 -1/2 c beef or chicken broth

Cook the spices in the olive oil in a skillet to release the flavors. Add the strips of pork and cook through. Add other ingredients, including the prepared couscous, and heat through.

It was very tasty.

Some recent food

Corn pudding in squash:

I left out the aniseed (didn’t have any), and the cheese.

Apple cake. Used Busy Day Cake recipe from New Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, with half the sugar. Tossed apple slices with some more sugar and cinnamon, then layered batter and slices for this cake. It took longer to bake, I guess because of the moisture content of the apples.

The start of some tomato soup. Sauteed garlic in a little butter or oil, then added the quartered tomatoes from the garden. After it’s all cooked down nicely, I put it through a fine mesh strainer to remove the peels and seeds.

Food adventures

I’ve been thinking lately about vegetables. Part of it was the health screening — said I need to eat more fruits and vegetables and I realized I really don’t get as many servings as I’m supposed to. Part of it is Amy’s changing tastes, and frequent rejection of vegetables. I’m thinking variety — in kinds of vegetables and in recipes and presentation — will help both of us.

For example — she will eat her veggies if I give them to her first while I finish making the rest of the lunch.

Also, I should put some on her plate whether she wants them or not, and not bug her about eating them or not. Calm persistence is more persuasive than irritated insistence, and if I don’t give them to her because she says she doesn’t like them, she’ll never change her mind and try them anyway.

On Friday, I made tomato green bean couscous. Sauteed garden green beans in minced garlic and butter. Cooked couscous according to package directions, in water with a slice of butter. Cut up garden tomatoes and drizzled them with olive oil and basil. Mixed it all together — easy and delicious.

Today I made this lentil soup — yes, I even bought saffron. I made it with spinach. The soup is interesting — much more bright / tart than I usually care for. Some of that is likely the yogurt, and a lot of that is probably that I used frozen garden tomatoes, rather than canned — garden tomatoes seem more tart and bright tasting than store canned tomatoes. I think crumbled bacon and beef broth would improve the recipe, but then again it wouldn’t count as meatless then.

Saffron is interesting. I’m not sure yet that it’s a flavor fabulous enough for the price, but now that I’ve got some I’ll try some other recipes here and there.

Amy ate her soup and asked for more. Mark didn’t care for it but ate it.

We had it with the egg bread from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook — with 3/4 whole wheat flour, 1/4 white. First time I’ve used the dough hooks on my hand mixer, and they did quite nicely until the last bit of flour, and by then it was ready to knead.

Another one I want to try is this corn pudding in acorn squash.

Because there is more than food

My apologies for those of you who could care less what I eat.

I decided to track my eating for some undetermined length of time, to get a more accurate idea of how I really eat (not just how I think I eat). Keeping track might also make me think a little more wisely when making food decisions.

If you’d like to track your eating, too, please join in.

Otherwise…

1. Amy says: “I don’t like to touch animals that crawl.”
“I do want to watch puppets, though.”

The sentences are unrelated, but struck me with their sophistication.

2. Trying to avoid more diaper rashes occurring, we’ve been having Amy sit on the potty for five minutes before bed. Might have to give up on the idea — she’s resisting. Maybe if we just accept that an hour after bedtime we’ll have to change her diaper again, she’ll eventually come around and want to poop in the potty again.

3. For the last four days I’ve actually gotten up and exercised before breakfast. There’s not really a better time — mid-morning is prime Amy time, nap is prime me time, after nap we’re all too unmotivated, after dinner I want to relax. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to exercise before breakfast — that I’d be too hungry to work that hard. But it’s actually fine. And I even like it. And I have more energy the rest of the day. And I’m not even getting up all that early — I’m already awake because Amy wakes around 7 or 7:30, so I might as well get up. (If you care, I’m doing Pilates Sculpt; the warm-up, one or the other of the standing workouts, and the last three parts. It’s much more sculpt than Pilates, but that’s okay.)

4. Today I dusted and oiled my sewing machine. How pleasant it is to be sewing often enough to need to oil it more than once a year. Unless it’s already been a year. Hmmm. Not sure. This week I’ve fixed a fallen-apart seam in an Amy shirt hem, added two inches of fabric to lengthen one of her skirts (it was crotch length — even with attached shorts underneath I think that’s inappropriate), cut and started stitching some more cloth napkins, attached an applique patch to a friend’s shoe over a hole, started stitching some hat straps for her kid, and cut and pinned some new hems for another friend’s pants.

5. Barter! The pants hemming I’m trading for help making my dress form. I’m excited. Need to get back to cutting the paper tape strips. The other altering, along with some pants tailoring for the friend’s husband, is possibly going towards a used bike from their shop. I like bartering.

Food and faith

Wow, this is a thought-provoking post.

A new sourdough bread recipe

I tried a new recipe for sourdough bread.

I started in the morning making two cups of starter — in the afternoon it seemed bubbly enough to start the bread dough. I made it with half whole wheat and half regular flour. Amy helped me a little here and there, and we decided to make a little loaf out of the piece she was kneading. Hers came out prettier than mine — I think I needed to slice the top of mine more deeply.

It’s pleasantly sour, but not too much, which is fine because it’s not the sour that interests me in sourdough, but the health benefits.

The crust and crumb are both quite nice — this would make good sandwiches as well as breakfast toast or dinner bread.

Pie

I think this is one of the prettiest pies I’ve made. I cut out a star for the center steam hole, and thought about cutting out crust stars for decorations, then remembered I had some small cookie cutters. No stars, but the little people are cute.

I did the crust differently this time. I grated the frozen butter directly into the pile of flour, and just tossed it around.

The hardest part for me is always adding the ice water — even when I have too much water, it’s almost always crumbly and dry. I had to knead it a little before it would roll out nicely.

The bottom was a little soggy — needed more flour in the filling, and to have the top crust decorated so I could pop it on and get it in the oven immediately.

But the top was actually flaky — very nice surprise for an all-butter crust.

Of course we made pie treats with the extra dough.

Spinach chicken alfredo skillet

Tonight’s dinner was a successful improvisation.

I put some frozen spinach and a hunk of butter in a skillet, and stirred it over medium heat until the spinach was thawed and the butter melted.

Then I added some milk, leftover chicken chunks, a generous pile of grated parmesan, some basil, oregano, garlic, and pepper, stirring until the cheese was melted. Dusted with flour and stirred again.

Meanwhile, baked some Jiffy cornbread.

Amounts are very much approximate:

1 c frozen spinach
2-4 T butter
1/3-1/2 c milk
1.5 – 2 c leftover chicken in chunks
1/8 t pepper
1/8 t garlic powder
1/4 t dried oregano
1/4 – 1/2 t dried basil
1/2 – 1 T flour

Black Bean Chili

A little improvised, with help from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook.

Soak 1/2 cup dry black beans overnight, or: boil for two minutes and let stand an hour or so.

Saute half an onion and two cloves of garlic in some olive oil.

Add a pound of ground beef and a little salt — brown.

Put beef, onion, garlic, into pot with beans, 8 oz tomato sauce, 16 oz diced tomatoes (with their juice), maybe 2 tablespoons chili powder, a dash of cayenne, and a little black pepper.

Simmer several hours, covered. Uncover for the last fifteen minutes or so, if you want it a little thicker.

This is the first time I’ve ever made chili, and it might be the best I’ve ever tasted. Or maybe it’s just because I don’t like green peppers or kidney beans.

Pizzelles

Italian cookies flavored with anise and a touch of lemon.