Showing posts with label maple syrup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label maple syrup. Show all posts

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Pork and beans with Alton Brown's pickled pork for #SundaySupper


I hadn't intended to participate in this week's Sunday Supper, which is all about favorite chef-inspired dishes. I was busy, overwhelmed, and trying to keep up with the regular day to day. I just couldn't think of a chef's recipe that I would want to do. The research seemed daunting. And then I got the reminder email about posting #SundaySupper recipe titles to the group. And I smacked myself on the forehead. Just that morning, I had started pickling some pork, using Alton Brown's recipe. Uh, oh yeah, duh. Silly me. Serendipity strikes again.


I haven't cooked that many celebrity chef recipes even though you could call me a cooking show addict. I especially enjoy the shows where they pit chefs head to head: Top Chef, Iron Chef, Next Iron Chef, Chopped, The Next Food Network Star. Love 'em. My husband and I try to come up with ideas for the mystery basket. Ideas that we have never tried, unfortunately.

One food show that was particularly important to us was Alton Brown's Good Eats. It taught us so much about the precise methods of cooking just about anything you could think of and make it good. The show also covered food history, culture, and science. For geeks like us, it was irresistible. And it was funny. AB was such a goof on that show, so much so that we were surprised to learn about his extraordinary skill and professionalism as a producer (which we discovered on The Next Food Network Star). (And I also enjoy his natty Southern gentleman style.)

However, more important than the specific lessons in cooking various items of food or the history and science was the insight that to cook really well requires precision, knowledge of the ingredients, knowledge of the techniques. This may seem obvious, but it isn't. In some ways it was a revelation: To get superior results, you have to understand how different kinds of pans heat food differently, that some foods need to be cooked at low temperatures for a long time and some need high heat for just a few seconds, and so much more. Understanding the differences and learning to apply patience or be careful about timing really does make a difference. It was exciting because there was room for growth. It's still exciting because the only way to go is toward continual improvement if you are willing to learn.

Another key to learning as a cook is to take risks and experiment, to try things that don't sound good or to try new methods. This dish is a perfect example. The first time I heard of pickled pork, I had doubts. It didn't sound good to me at all. Sounded kind of scary actually, like those giant jars of pickled eggs you see sometimes. Thankfully, my husband went ahead and tried it about a year ago (I am in no way to be commended for my kitchen courage in this story, but the mad scientist definitely is); cooked long and slow with some beans, tomatoes, onions, and herbs, the pork transformed into a rich, filling dish perfect to take the edge of a cold night's chill. You won't believe the rich smell that rises when you remove the lid from your Dutch oven.

This dish is not difficult or labor-intensive to make but it takes a lot of time. The initial pickling of the pork takes three days, then the dish itself needs to simmer 2 to 2 1/2 hours. But it's worth it. You will divide the pickled pork in half and freeze the unused half for another day. The pork and beans, served over white rice, last a few days (unless of course, you go back for seconds and thirds, as we did last night).

For the pickled pork recipe, head over to the Food Network's website for Alton Brown's recipe. I followed this nearly exactly (skipped the celery seed; didn't have it, didn't want it). For the rest of the recipe, read on:

Ingredients

  • 1/2 batch of Alton Brown's pickled pork, drained (drain and freeze the other half for another use)
  • 2 1/2 - 3 cups cooked beans (1/2 lb dried beans, cooked); I used cranberry beans, you can use pintos, white navy beans, cannelini beans.
  • 1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes, briefly chopped in a food processor
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 2 Tbsps olive oil
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp salt (or more to taste, but add near the end of the cook time to avoid oversalting)
  • 1/4 tsp black peppercorns
  • 1 Tbsp dried thyme
  • 1 Tbsp whole-grain mustard 

Directions

  1. If you use dried beans, Pick-A-Pepper just turned me on to a great, no-soak method of cooking beans that cuts cooking time to 2 hours (at most) and leaves you with soft, creamy beans. I went ahead and cooked a whole pound at once and froze the second half in leftover cooking liquid.
  2. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. 
  3. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a Dutch oven until it shimmers. Add the chopped onions, cook until they are soft and just starting to brown a bit. 
  4. Add the rest of the ingredients. Stir them together gently until evenly distributed. Cover the Dutch oven and place it in the oven. 
  5. Leave it in the oven for 2 hours. Taste to test the seasoning (careful, it will be very hot). Add salt to taste. Remove from the oven. 
  6. Let it cool while you cook some white rice to serve it over. Then eat it and love it. And try to avoid going back for seconds. I dare you. 
Please check out all the other great chef-inspired dishes on offer from #SundaySupper. Lots of tasty dishes and inspiration are on offer:

Starters or Snacks:

The Main Dish:

Amazing Sides:

Sweet Endings:

Wine Pairings: 

Please join the Sunday Supper group via Twitter for #SundaySupper throughout the day on December 2, 2012. In the evening, Sunday Supper members will meet at 7 PM EST for the weekly #SundaySupper live chat. All you have to do is follow the #SundaySupper hashtag, or you can follow us through TweetChat. Also check out and pin to the #SundaySupper Pinterest board, which has more than 1,600 pins with all kinds of tasty dishes. 
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Sunday, November 11, 2012

Pancake mix with apple cider syrup and candied walnuts: A gift from the kitchen for #SundaySupper


A friend mentioned that Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away (at least here in the United States). I was shocked. And perturbed. Really perturbed. Not panicked. No, not yet, but I won't deny that I am a little annoyed that the holidays crept up on me like that. Again. Every year, I think, "Next year will be different. I will be organized, on top of things, efficient, effective, and stress-free." Ha! Yeah right.

Oh well. Time to start thinking and planning and making it all happen. But I've grown sick and heartweary of stuff. I've hit the mall a few times recently and found myself overwhelmed (and a little depressed) by the choices, the glitter, the tack, the endless push for a more wonderful holiday than anyone else or ever before. Every year, I find myself in a spiral of anxiety in which I seek the perfect holidays, beautifully and completely decorated, with an abundance of perfect gifts. And every year, I wind myself up more and more and spend more, far more, than we should, ending up with a lot of stuff and a lot of regret. I am ready to get off that ride. It's making me a little sick.

One way to make the holidays more meaningful is to make gifts. Homemade gifts may not be as pristine and glittering and cool as storebought gifts, they may be a bit clunky and lumpy, but they feel good to make. Of all the gifts we can make and give, gifts from the kitchen are often most appreciated. The receiver can enjoy them immediately, and they leave little to no clutter. (Speaking of clutter, here's a lovely poem on that topic from Saideh Pakravan, a member of my freelance networking group.)

One of my favorite gifts to give is a special breakfast, in this case homemade pancake mix with apple cider syrup and candied walnuts. None of the components is hard to make (although the apple cider syrup does take a lot of time); the most difficult task will be figuring out a nice way to present them. Here are the ingredients you will need, the instructions, and the instructions you will write down so the recipient can make the pancakes.



Ingredients

FOR THE PANCAKE MIX*

  • 2 cups white whole wheat flour (you can substitute with all-purpose flour if you like)
  • 1 cup oat flour
  • 1 cup corn meal
  • 2 Tbsps granulated sugar
  • 2 tsps baking powder
  • 1 tsp coarse salt

FOR THE APPLE CIDER SYRUP

  • 1 gallon fresh apple cider (preferably from the farmers market; I am a big fan of Beechwood Orchards' cider because they use a blend of apples, which means the cider isn't too sweet)

FOR THE CANDIED WALNUTS

  • 2 cups walnuts, coarsely chopped
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon


Instructions

FOR THE PANCAKE MIX

Part 1: Combine the ingredients in a lidded box. Close the lid and shake the box vigorously. (By the way, you can double, triple, or quadruple this recipe and keep it stashed in your freezer for your own pancake breakfasts.)

Part 2: Write these preparation instructions down for the recipient of your gift:

  1. For 3-4 servings, combine 1 cup pancake mix with 1 1/2 cups milk and 1 egg. 
  2. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter on a hot, buttered griddle and cook each side until golden brown. 
  3. Serve with apple cider syrup and candied walnuts. 

FOR THE APPLE CIDER SYRUP**

  1. Pour 2 and 1/2 cups apple cider into a large stockpot. Measure the depth of the liquid with a spoon or something similar. 
  2. Add the rest of the apple cider to the pot. Bring it to a boil and then reduce the temperature to a slow simmer. Let it simmer and reduce for 5-7 hours. 
  3. In the last hour, start checking on it more frequently, because it's quicker to overreduce when it gets closer to the end. When you've reached the depth you measured, the syrup is done. Let it cool and pour it into jars. It will keep indefinitely in the refrigerator. 

FOR THE CANDIED WALNUTS

  1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat (I could use some of those for Christmas, hint, hint).
  2. Lightly chop the walnuts, if they aren't chopped already. 
  3. Combine the maple syrup, salt, and cinnamon in a thick-bottomed pot and bring to a boil. Stir frequently so that the syrup doesn't burn. Let it thicken a bit (about 5-10 minutes). 
  4. Add the chopped walnuts to the syrup mixture. Stir until the nuts are completely coated and heated through. 
  5. Spread the nuts out on the baking sheet and break them apart if needed. Let them cool. Don't worry if they don't harden completely, or are a little sticky; they will still make a terrific pancake topping. (These would be a great topping for almost any dessert, actually.)

This week's Sunday Supper is all about gifts from the kitchen. Almost 50 gift ideas are on offer from breads to sweets to soups, so please go ahead and check these out for more ideas for homemade holiday gifts. Also, don't forget to join in the Sunday Supper Twitter chat by following the hashtag #SundaySupper at 7 p.m. EST.


Breads and Breakfast



Condiments and Ingredients



Soup and Snacks



Sweets



Drinks


Don't forget to share your own recipes for Gifts from the Kitchen on our #SundaySupper Pinterest board.


 * The pancake mix recipe is slightly adapted from The Harvest Eating Cookbook by Keith Snow. Do not forget to check out his Harvest Eating website for lots of seasonal eating ideas and recipes. 
** For more ideas for what to use apple cider syrup with and a recipe for boiled cider baked beans, check out the Washington Post recipe. 

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Saturday, July 9, 2011

Blueberry jam with maple syrup and lemon zest

For some updates on techniques and a recipe for plum-peach jam with basil, click here. 

I haven't posted in a while. For the Independence Day weekend, Mike, Sebastian, and I drove to Auburn Hills, Michigan (a little north of Detroit) to visit Mike's sister, her family, and their dad for the holiday (the drive takes 10 and a half hours; my little boy is a champ!). Instead of cooking and eating good local food, we subsisted mainly on junk food and candy bought at rest stops along the Pennsylvania and Ohio turnpikes, feeling bloated and gross the whole way. (Sebastian, of course, loved this, but the guy is four, so I can't blame him for having tastes geared primarily toward straight-up salt and sugar.) I did have one really excellent meal: My brother-in-law Russ made some amazing fall-off-the-bone ribs and served them with BBQ sauce, grilled corn, and baked beans. We gorged ourselves on these delectable treats and moaned with discomfort for several hours after dinner. It was totally worth it.

Before we left, I had wanted to make a batch of blueberry jam to make sure that the harvest didn't go by without preserving at least some of it, but I ran out of time. I love blueberries. They may be my favorite berry. I am especially fond of wild lowbush blueberries, but they are hard to come by here in Virginia. When I was a kid in Sweden, I spent much of my time roaming around the woods like a small wild animal, getting damp and muddy and pretending I was a hero of some kind: a knight one day, Robin Hood the next. In my long rambles, I discovered treasured spots where wild blueberries grew in great masses, and I spent many hours seated among the plants, plucking berry after berry and savoring each one. I miss my blueberry spots, especially now that I cook. If only I could wander out into the woods and collect and gather blueberries, bring them home, and preserve them for winter. (I was told once that my Icelandic grandfather Sigurdur was a legendary berry picker; he could fill baskets faster than anyone, fingers moving so fast they blurred.)

But I must settle for domesticated highbush berries, which produce larger fruits that are not quite as deeply flavorful (still good, but not magic). Thankfully, one of my favorite farms, Reid's Orchard, grows berries and fruit organically (although they aren't certified), using integrated pest management techniques and caring for their soil and land in a way that will preserve it for the future (and it shows, just take a look at their peaches--they taste and smell as good as they look).


After recovering from the Michigan trip for a few days, I finally made it out of the house to get food on a steamy Thursday. I went to the Herndon farmer's market and decided to get some blueberries from Reid's. I lucked out because they had a lot of them, so I bought six pints. I had had this idea of making jam flavored with maple syrup and lemon zest. Foods from the same area often taste particularly good together--and sugar maples typically live where blueberries grow, so the combination sounded good. Obviously lemons and blueberries violate that principle, but they are good together. The acidity of the lemon just sparks the flavor of blueberries (as lemons do with so many things).


It was actually so hot and humid the day I bought the blueberries that my camera fogged up. 
So here's how I made my blueberry jam with maple syrup and lemon zest. I started with

  • 3 liters blueberries, picked over to remove any soft berries, stems, leaves, or anything else you wouldn't want to eat, rinsed, and finally drip-dried for 10 minutes or so (better yet, use a scale, you should have 1.5 kilos of berries) 
  • 700 milliliters sugar
  • 200 milliliters real maple syrup
  • 1 lemon, washed
  • 1 tablespoon pectin, mixed with a little water to make a smooth paste

I spread a layer of sugar on the bottom of the pot I planned to use for jamming.


Then I layered blueberries over the sugar, added another layer of sugar, and zested some lemon over the sugar.


At the second layer, I added the maple syrup instead of sugar and zested some more. 


I added more berries and ended with a final layer of sugar and zest. (In other words, one layer of sugar on the bottom of the pot and one to top it all off.)


I covered the berries and sugar with the lid (ants are quite a problem in summer) and let it sit for a little over an hour (you could let it sit up to 24 hours in the refrigerator). Then I set the pot on low heat. At first, not much happened but eventually I could see a rim of liquified berry juice starting to rise around the edges of the pot, followed by a completely wet mass slowly simmering away. (Note that this isn't a project you do quickly, it can take several hours to reach the jelling point. Pick a lazy, rainy day when you aren't going to leave the house to make the jam. Maybe make some bread while you are at it.) 


  
I added the mixture of pectin and water to the pot and let the mass just simmer away. (At one point, I did get a boil over, so I had to turn down the heat a bit. Almost anything that's made with a lot of sugar has a tendency to get feisty if too much heat is applied.) I skimmed regularly. (Once when making jam as a kid, I made the mistake of not skimming. It left the finished product with a very unpleasant, bitter aftertaste. So if you decide to make jam, don't skimp on skimming.) Oh, and here's a tip to ease your skimming: Keep a bowl of cold water near the stove, dip your skimmer into the cold water before you skim, and then clean off the scum in the cold water, and skim again. You will probably want to replace the water from time to time. 


While the mass simmered, I cleaned and sterilized my jars in boiling water. (You can re-use your jars, but you must use new lids every time. The rubber that creates the seal doesn't hold up to multiple uses. You can probably find boxes of lids where you would buy other canning/jamming equipment.)

You can keep the jars in the hot water on low while your jam continues to simmer. Eventually, I started testing my jam to see if it was ready. How to test for readiness? Get a teaspoon of the liquid in the pot and spread it on a plate. Let it cool for a few minutes, and scrape your spoon through the smear on the plate. If the liquid immediately fills in the lines where the spoon scraped through, you are nowhere near done. If the lines don't fill in immediately, but do eventually, you are getting closer but you aren't there yet. If it bunches up into a jelly-like mass, you are ready to go.

When the spoon scrapes through, the liquid immediately refills the line. This is nowhere near done. 

The liquid isn't filling in as quickly now. The white of the plate shows just a little longer. Progress, but not done. 

The liquid no longer fills in where the spoon has scraped through, and you can create a little clump of jelly. Finished!
When the jam had reached the point where it was finished, I added the juice from the lemon (both for flavor and to help preserve the jam). (I strained it to make sure I wasn't adding seeds.) Then the next step was to add the jam to my warm and clean jars, close up the jars, and boil the jars to vacuum seal them. 



One thing to remember when you add the jam to the jars: Always leave at least an inch of space at the top of the jar. Otherwise, you won't be able to create an effective vacuum. And the vacuum is one of the main reasons that these jars will last for up to year. (That is, if you don't eat them before then. I am almost out of the strawberry jam I made already!)

I've wrapped my jars in newspaper because I don't have a rack to keep the jars stable (yet). 

Ah, pride and joy!
Update: To make sure your jams and jellies are safe to eat, check out the National Center for Home Food Preservation. 
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