i make it myself

Cinnamon Twist Bread

This is one of my favorite breads when I have milk and eggs on hand. It makes great toast, and a super snack (for the dough girl) when less than a day old.

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Milk
• 2-4 Tablespoons Shortening or Olive Oil
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 2 Teaspoons Salt
• 4.5 Teaspoons Instant Yeast
• 1/2 Cup warm water
• 2 Cups Entire Wheat Flour
• 4 Cups Bread FLour
• 2 Eggs, slightly beaten
***
• 1/3 Cup Raw Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

Instructions

• Warm/scald milk. Add shortening, sugar and salt. Cool to a good yeast temperature.
• Stir 3 Cups flour, eggs, 1/2 Cup water and yeast into milk mixture. Mix.
• Add enough remaining flour to make a soft dough that leaves the sides of the bowl.
• Cover and let rise about 1 1/2 hours
• Punch down, let rise another 1/2 hour.
• Turn onto board, divide in half. Round into balls. Cover and rest 10 minutes.
• Grease two loaf pans.
• Roll each half into 12 x 7 rectangle. Sprinkle with 1/2 sugar/cinnamon mixture. Sprinkle with 1-2 teaspoons water. Roll up starting with narrow end. Place in loaf pans.
• Cover, let rise (in the oven - mid to upper level) until almost doubled: 45-60 minutes.
• Remove cover, heat oven to 375º. Bread should be done in 35 minutes from a cold oven. (And my oven takes a good 15 minutes to reach that temperature.

Source: Homemade Bread by the Food Editors of Farm Journal, © 1969. Page 18. Recipe slightly modified.

Cassoulet

OK we finally tried a new recipe and a brand new-to-us dish – Cassoulet: a (dry) bean casserole. It was great – I think we ate half of it in one meal. Another way to use wonderful dry beans.

The recipe we used as our base is from Cook's Illustrated magazine, November-December 2009 pp. 18-19. We altered it from the get go as we forgot to soak the beans overnight. Plain sausage was substituted for Fresh French garlic sausage, Bacon ends for salt pork, celeriac for celery, Great Northerns for Cannellini. The rest of the non-meat ingredients came direct from our food storage.

Ingredients

• 1 pound dry Cannellini beans (great northern)
• 2 medium celery ribs (celeriac)
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme (it's winter here - our own dried thyme)
• 1.5 pounds Fresh French garlic sausage (we used 4 oz - meat as garnish...)
• 4 ounces salt pork (4 oz bacon)
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil (olive, of course)
• 1.5 pounds pork shoulder, cut into small chunks (4 oz - meat as garnish...)
• 1 large onion
• 2 medium carrots
• 4 medium cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 pint canned tomatoes
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1/2 chopped fresh parsley

Instructions

Soak rinsed beans in 3 quarts water overnight. 6 hours was not long enough, which required baking an extra 20 minutes in the oven.

Place sausage in saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer for 5 minutes. Remove sausage from water and slice into pieces when cool.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in dutch oven over medium high heat until beginning to smoke. Add sausage pieces and brown on all sides. Remove from dutch oven. Do the same for the pork shoulder pieces.

Place onion, carrots and celeriac into dutch oven. Stir constantly until onion is translucent (2 minutes). Add garlic and tomato paste (30 seconds). Return sausage and pork to dutch oven. Add the wine and deglaze. Stir in tomatoes and bacon.

Add broth and drained beans. Add up to one cup water if beans are exposed. Increase heat to high and bring to simmer.

Cover pot and place in oven heated to 300º. Cook until beans are tender - circa 1 1/2 hours.

Skim fat from surface and remove bacon. Meat may be cut up and put back into cassoulet. Season with salt and pepper.

Increase oven to 350º and bake 20 minutes, uncovered.

Take bread crumbs and combine with 2 tablespoons oil. Add parsley, salt and pepper.

Sprinkle 1/2 cup bread crumbs over cassoulet. Bake covered 15 minutes.

Remove lid and bake 15 minutes.

Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup breads crumbs over cassoulet. Bake another 20-30 minutes until topping is golden brown.

Let rest 15 minutes before serving.

New Red Bean Recipe

We have been looking for new (to us) recipes using dry beans as a side dish. And we found one! It is from Cook Now, Serve Later, the same place as our 'refried' bean recipe (although they say it is really a bean "dip".)

Puree of Red Beans, Bacon and Onions

Ingredients

• 6 cups water
• 1 pound dry kidney beans
• 4 slices bacon
• 2 medium size onions
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1 medium sized carrot
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano and thyme, crumbled
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary (or 1 teaspoon fresh)
• 1 1/2 cup (dry) red wine
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon salt +/- to taste
• 1/8 teaspoons black pepper

Instructions

Bring 5 cups water and washed kidney beans to a boil over moderately high heat. Remove from heat and keep covered for one hour.

Add remaining cup of water to beans and bring to a boil over moderately high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered until beans are tender. (one to one and a half hours)

Meanwhile in a skillet, cook bacon until crisp. Transfer to a towel.

Reserve one tablespoon fat (+/-), add carrot and onions. Saute until golden, add garlic near end. Add spices, wine and bay leaf. Simmer for 30-45 minutes until only a thin layer of liquid remains [more liquid would be ok]. Discard bay leaf.

Drain liquid from cooked beans, reserving 1/2 cup. Add onions to beans and mash with potato masher. The end result should have the consistency of whipped potatoes. [This does not mean all beans must disappear - depends what you like for consistency]. Add reserved bean liquid if needed - hence it is ok to have the onions with more liquid.

Yum!

Baked Corn (from dried sweet corn)

Last summer we experimented with drying sweet corn on sheet pans on top of the freezer and refrigerator. Seemed to dry well and we stashed it away in a glass canning jar.

I had searched for recipes and found some that required grinding the corn and soaking it. Things that put me off making it at the time. Yesterday I searched again and found a different recipe that I decided to try. The baked corn turned out pretty darn good. Enough so that I want to dry more corn this year.

Here is the recipe from GroupRecipes.com. It is for Amish Baked Corn Supreme.

Ingredients that serves 8 (serves four -note to self: use 1.5 qt glass baking dish).
• 7.5 oz (4 oz - about a cup) dried sweet corn
• 5 cups (2.5 cups) cold milk
• 3.5 Tablespoons (2 T) melted butter
• 2 tsp (1 t) salt
• 3 Tablespoons (4 t) sugar
• 4 (2) eggs

Directions
• Beat egg(s), add rest of ingredients and mix well.
• Butter baking dish of appropriate size, pour in mix.
• Bake 375º for 60 minutes.

Simple and tasty!

If the corn is a little "chewy", we found that by serving it the next day allowed it to become less chewy. Also added a fat teaspoon of dried onion flakes... maybe more the next time.

Sprouting Wheat

I've been meaning to try my hand at sprouting. The idea was to give the chickens some greens in the middle of winter. However, the more I read, the more I realize what a fantastic food sprouts are for people as well. : ) Below are some pointers on wheat sprouting found on the interwebs. Now if we just like the taste of the results...

From The Sprout People
Wheat Sprouts

Sprouting Instructions Yields approximately 1 Cup (1/2 lb.) of Sprouts
• Put 2/3 Cup of seed into a bowl or into your Sprouter.
• Add 2-3 times as much cool (60-70 degree) water.
• Mix seeds up to assure even water contact for all.
• Allow seeds to Soak for 6-12 hours.
• Empty the seeds into your sprouter if necessary.
• Drain off the soak water.
• Rinse thoroughly with cool (60-70°) water.
• Drain thoroughly.
• Set anywhere out of direct sunlight and at room temperature (70° is optimal) between Rinses.
• Rinse and Drain again in 8-12 hours.
• And, perhaps one more... Rinse and Drain in 8-12 hours.

You may Rinse and Drain again at 8-12 hour intervals for several days. However - we prefer to sprout only to the point where most of the seeds have sprouted tiny (1/4 inch) roots, which is typically after just 2 or 3 Rinse and Drain cycles. As always, we suggest that you taste your crop at EVERY RINSE - including the very first - just after the Soak period. Grow them for as long as you like (as long as you continue to Rinse and Drain every 8-12 hours) and find out for yourself when they are most delicious! If you grow for a week you'll have grass growing as well as roots.

Your sprouts are done 8-12 hours after your final rinse. Be sure to Drain them as thoroughly as possible after that final rinse. The goal during the final 8-12 hours is to minimize the surface moisture of your sprouts - they will store best in your refrigerator if they are dry to the touch. Transfer your sprout crop to a plastic bag or the sealed container of your choice - glass is good too - and put them in your refrigerator. Note: Grains do not store well in refrigeration so you should try to grow just what you need. It isn't actually that they store poorly, it is just that grains are cool weather crops, so though they slow down quite a bit, they continue to grow - even in the refrigerator.

From Why Sprout? the following info:

• Wash seed thoroughly, picking out any foreign material, and obviously blemished seeds.
• Soak seed in lukewarm water (90-95 F) for 2 to 4 hours, or at room temperature (68-72 F) overnight.
• Drain and rinse. Place in sprouting containers if different from the soaking container.
• Maintain a sprouting temperature of 70-80 F during the entire sprouting period (about 5 days) for best quality sprouts.
• Sprinkle thoroughly with lukewarm water (70 F) every 4 to 6 hours, allowing the water to drain completely each time. Watering frequency may be reduced to 6-8 hour intervals per day during the fourth and fifth days.

And simpler yet...

• Get a coffee jar, peanut butter jar or other type of jar that is about one quart size. Don't use too many seeds or you'll get clumps of seeds that do not sprout.
• Put a square of cheesecloth or nylon stocking over the mouth of the jar and secure it by putting an elastic band around the opening of the jar. Pour water on the seeds to cover them plus a couple of inches and let the seeds soak overnight.
• After soaking, drain the water through the screening. Twice a day, pour water onto the seeds, swish it around and drain the water off.
• Tilt the bottle on its side and let the seeds spread around on the sides of the jar to give them lots of room to expand.

The sprouting process takes about 4-5 days. On the last day, when the sprouts are about 1 inch, put the jar in a sunny window for about 4 hours. The leaves will turn green during this time from the development of chlorophyll and then your sprouts will be ready to enjoy!

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This evening I shall clean some local soft winter wheat, and put it to soak. Either the chickens or us - or both - will give them a try...unless I goof and they rot. : (

Black Beans and Rice

Since we are looking for more dry bean recipes, we gave this a try yesterday. It's simple and, wow, oh so tasty. We now have something besides baked beans as a side dish.

This takes about 2 1/2 hours preparation time.

It makes 4-6 servings.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup dry black beans
• 2 Tablespoons Oil
• 1 Cup chopped Onions
• 2 Cloves finely chopped Garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes or habanero pepper (seeded and chopped)
• 1 Cup diced tomatoes (optional)
• 2 Cups cold water
• 1/2 Cup Stock
• 1 Cup long grain rice
• 1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Rinse and wash beans. Add water to cover in a saucepan, bring to a boil. Boil 2 minutes and remove from heat. Let stand for an hour. Bring to a boil and simmer until beans are tender, about 40 minutes.

About 15 minutes before beans are done,heat oil in large saucepan, add onion, garlic and pepper flakes. Cook, stirring, until tender (5-8 minutes). Stir in tomatoes (we did not do this the first time), water, stock, salt and rice. Bring to a boil, stir in the drained black beans. Cover and cook over medium low heat until water is absorbed - about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 10 minutes.

Source: All New, All Purpose Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer et al. Recipe page 276 - slightly modified.

Caribbean Red Bean Stew with Pork

Ingredients Part 1

• 1.5 cups dry red beans
• 1 small onion
• 1 leafy celery top (or dry celery leaves)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 3 inch cinnamon stick

Ingredients Part 2

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 4-16 ounces pork, cubed
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 2 cups cubed potato
• 1 tablespoon coarsely chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons hot paprkia (or paprika and 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper)

Directions

Rinse dry beans, combine with Part 1 ingredients in large pot with 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until beans are tender (about an hour). Drain, reserving 4 cups liquid. Discard vegetables and seasonings.

In a large saucepan, heat oil and brown pork over medium heat. Add the rest of ingredients except for paprika. Cook until onions are golden (about 15 minutes). Add paprika and stir. Add cooked beans and reserved liquid. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until pork is tender and stew is thick (about an hour). Serve hot!

Slightly modified from: The All New, All Purpose, Joy of Cooking. Page 283

Chicken and Snow Peas

Generous serving for 2; three hours elapsed preparation time

Ingredients
• 4 oz chicken (breast)
• 2 tablespoon Olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped medium fine
• 1 Cup celery or celeriac, chopped
• 1-2 Cups snow peas
• 1/2 Cup Rice
Mariande
• 1/4 Cup Soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoons Sherry
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 1 Tablespoon ginger
• 2 Tablespoon Cider Vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1 Tablespoon Sesame Oil
Cooking Sauce
• 1 Tablespoon Sherry
• 2 Tablespoons Oyster Sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Sesame Oil
• 1 Tablespoon Cornstarch

Instructions
• Combine all marinade ingredients except oil.
• Add cubed chicken and stir, then add oil and marinate for two hours.
• Combine cooking sauce ingredients and set aside.
• Start rice
• Heat oil in skillet to almost smoking.
• Drain mariande from chicken and put in skillet.
• Stir fry chicken until pieces have some nice color, then remove from skillet.
• Add celery and onion to skillet, cook about 5 minutes.
• Add snow peas. Cook 2 minutes.
• Stir in reserved marinade. Cook 1-2 minutes.
• Add cooking sauce and chicken, and heat until thickened and chicken warmed.
• Serve over rice.

Focaccia

Takes about three hours

Ingredients
• 1 medium (9 oz) potato (bigger potato makes a fluffier focaccia)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
• 2 1/2 cups AP flour
• 1 cup whole wheat or graham flour*
• 1 Cup warm water
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
Topping
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 3/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
• 2 Tablespoons fresh rosemary
• 5-6 Fukagawa onions (scallions)
• 3/4 to 1 Cup Parmesan cheese

Instructions
• Peel and boil potato until tender.
• While potato boiling, mix yeast, 1/2 warm water and 1/2 flour until combined. Cover and set aside.
• Drain potato and cool.
• Add rest of ingredients, including riced potato, mix until dough comes together and is smooth and elastic.
• Cover and let rise for an hour (more does not hurt)
• Turn dough onto a sheet of parchment. With wet fingertips, spread out to approximately 12 x 12 size.
• Cover and let rest 45 minutes to an hour.
• Prepare topping. Heat oven to 425º
• Dipple focaccia with wet fingertips. Drizzle oil around and scatter topping over it.
• Place on stone in oven. Bake circa 18 minutes, then rotate and remove paper from bottom. Bake another 5-7 minutes until golden brown.
• Gorge yourself on the most wonderful bread. Makes super sandwiches too!

*Using whole wheat will make the focaccia somewhat heavier, but still very tasty, and much healthier.

Grilled Corn Salad

Note: Make a day ahead

Ingredients
• 8 ears or 1 pint corn
• 2-3 (red) peppers
• 1 Tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 (red) onion
• 1/4 Cup cider vinegar
• 1/4 Cup Olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon Dijon (spicey) mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoion salt
• Optional: hot sauce or pepper flakes
• 2 cups cooked pasta
• thyme (fresh if possible)
• oregano (fresh if possible)

Instructions
• Coat ears with oil and grill until mostly brown - or fry corn in skillet.
• Grill or fry onions and peppers.
• Marinate onions in Balsamic vinegar
• Whisk dressing (vinegar, oil, mustard, salt and pepper) and add corn and peppers.
• Marinate overnight in frig
• Next day: Cook pasta and cool.
• Add fresh oregano and thyme 2-3 hours before serving.
• Just before serving, add onions.
• Serve room temperature or cold - either way is delicious.

Adapted from The Way We Cook by Sheryl Julian and Julie Riven