Cook seeks fresh ideas for multiple generations of eaters
It’s May, known from long ago as the month of “sheer loveliness.” As we celebrate this loveliness, what better place than at the table, inside or outside?
Dixie Soehl feeds a hungry extended family every night, and today she admitted, “I have run out of variety. I have fed them everything Mexican, all kinds of pasta and particularly macaroni and cheese, and barbecue from grill or crock pot. My family includes a grandfather, two forty-somethings, three teenagers and a grade-schooler.” In this call for help she added that she would love menu ideas and also recipes.
M.S.M. wants to know, “Is there a way to make high-quality vanilla extract at home?”
BROCCOLI STEMS
Ginny Gaines wrote to “address the request about discarded veggies. This recipe is from Nathalie Dupree’s ‘Matters of Taste.’ This is a great cookbook with snippets of interesting stories for which Nathalie is famous. She was great fun to watch laughing, spilling things, making one think it was OK to have a couple of disasters in the kitchen. This recipe is quite tasty, and allows you to use the stems of broccoli.”
Quick Broccoli With Garlic
1 head of broccoli
1⁄4 to 1⁄2 cup of butter or
olive oil (you choose) 2 garlic cloves chopped Freshly ground pepper
Trim off the tough ends of the broccoli stalks. Peel the rest of the stalk to just below the florets, then cut the stalk off and slice 1⁄4 inch thick. Bring a frying pan or large saucepan of water to the boil, add the sliced broccoli, and cook 3 minutes over high heat. Break the head into florets and add them to the stalks to cook 2 minutes more. (I let them cook a few minutes longer, maybe 2.) Rinse with cold water to set the color and refresh. Drain. Set aside until time to serve. Heat the butter or olive oil in a frying pan, add the garlic, and cook a few minutes. Set aside. When ready to serve, reheat the pan, add the broccoli, and toss over medium heat until coated with the garlic and butter or oil. Season with salt and pepper.
Obviously, this can be made immediately with no setting aside with either the broccoli or butter. It’s fast and very good.
BEANS AND TUNA
Beans and tuna arrived in an envelope without a name. Its sender began, “To Health Nut/Hungry Husband, here’s a quick, nutritious, delicious bean recipe.”
Cannellini Bean and Tuna Salad
1 can cannellini (white kidney) beans, rinsed and drained (see note) 1 can solid white Albacore tuna in water, drained and flaked
3⁄4 cup red onion, sliced in
thin half moons Salt and freshly ground
pepper to taste 3 tablespoons good olive
oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Toss beans, tuna, red onion and salt and pepper with olive oil and vinegar. Refrigerate leftovers. This is best enjoyed at room temperature.
Note: You may substitute Great Northern beans for cannellini; however, they are softer and don’t hold up as well when tossed.
PAGE-TURNING FAVORITES
From Mignon Ballard’s novels, here are two more page-turning favorite recipes.
Mimmer’s Squash Casserole
1 1⁄2 pounds small summer squash (about 2 cups cooked)
1 medium onion, chopped, divided (save half for casserole) 3 tablespoons butter
1⁄2 cup milk (fresh or
canned)
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup toasted breadcrumbs or soda cracker crumbs
1⁄4 to 1⁄2 cup grated
Cheddar cheese (optional)
3⁄4 teaspoon salt
1⁄4 teaspoon pepper Extra breadcrumbs Extra butter Paprika
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cook squash and 1⁄2 onion in salted water until tender; drain well and mash coarsely with fork. Add butter, milk, eggs, crumbs, cheese, 1⁄2 onion and salt and pepper. Pour into greased casserole dish, and sprinkle with extra crumbs. Dot with about a tablespoon of butter and sprinkle with paprika. Bake for 45 minutes, uncovered. Makes 6 to 8 servings.
Cissy’s Turtle Bars
Crust:
2 cups flour
1 cup firmly packed brown
sugar
1⁄2 cup butter, softened 1 cup whole pecan halves
Caramel layer:
1⁄2 cup firmly packed
brown sugar
2⁄3 cup butter
12 ounces milk chocolate chips
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine flour, brown sugar and butter for the crust; mix well and pat firmly into an ungreased 9- by 13-inch pan. Sprinkle the pecans evenly over the unbaked crust. Prepare the caramel layer by combining the brown sugar and butter in a heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture begins to boil. Boil 1⁄2 to 1 minute, stirring the whole time. Pour over the pecans and crust.
Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until the crust is light golden brown. Remove from the oven, and immediately sprinkle with chocolate chips. Allow to melt, and then swirl with a knife. Cool and cut into bars.
Makes 3 to 4 dozen.
FRESH GINGER
The fresh ginger conversation continues. Mary Zelle wrote, “I loved using fresh ginger. But often a ‘hand’ of ginger would start to grow mold before I used it up. Then I heard how to keep the ginger.
“Cut or break the ‘hand’ into ‘fingers’ or chunks. Put in a glass jar, and add white wine to cover the chunks. Cover [with jar lid]. This will keep indefinitely in the refrigerator. When the ginger is all used, you can add more, or just pour the wine into whatever you’re cooking.”
Another reader suggested fresh ginger in a mug of hot tea. And how about freezing ginger? I’ve got a finger or three of galangal ginger in the freezer as we speak. Ginger seems to be showing up everywhere — most recently to us, in ginger lime Diet Coke. For that matter, a little lime shows up everywhere too, as the finishing touch to dishes from various ethnic kitchens.
IN PRAISE OF GARLIC
There is a man who thinks his childhood was limited by an otherwise-stellar mother who never used garlic in her cooking. But he is making up now for the lack. So shall we all experiment? One can rise above his garlic-less childhood, remembering that halves of melons for each person as well as liberal butter and cream were staples in that very same household. And isn’t that what we all do: take the best gifts our childhood gave us, in every category, and season to our own taste? And then add our own riffs on the culinary themes of our generation?
Next week, right here? Let’s.