Try Something New Today

whole cheremoya

inside of cheremoya

This is a cheremoya, or custard apple. It is a weird tropical fruit from Ecuador/Peru/Chile, with a scaly looking pattern on the skin. There is a small store near where we live right now that always has interesting produce, and this was my latest acquisition. Lovemuffin enjoyed it, but the flavor is a little too weird for me. To me it tastes a lot like lychees, which I also don't care for, too floral, but my "Field Guide to Produce" says that the flavor is a combination of pineapple, papaya and banana. It has a couple of close relatives with similar flavors, the sweetsop, soursop and atemoya. If you are going to cut up a cheremoya to serve later, you will want to sprinkle it with lemon juice to keep it from turning brown. The Field Guide to Produce recommends freezing the fruit and eating it like ice cream, either just the plain fruit, cut up, or blended with lime juice and honey to make a sorbet. Maybe I'll try that this week, see if I like it better.
I hope this spring brings you lots of weird fruits as well as the courage to try them all.

the inside naturally seperates into sections, some of them have seeds

fig and almond bread

I made the New Zealand Almond and Fig Bread from "The Bread Bible" (Berenbaum) and it was delicious! Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure. We ate pretty much all of it before I could get pictures because our camera was MIA yesterday. But I managed to get two pictures of the last bit of crust this morning before I ate it.

inside of fig and almond bread

outside of fig and almond bread, with apricot jam and chopped almonds

I thought that the recipe called for too much figs and almonds for the amount of dough and it wouldn't hold together, but it did just fine. It also said to put apricot glaze on the outside, which I think is unnecessary, it makes it too sticky for cutting and eating. It calls for a little bit of whole wheat flour and I usually buy King arthur whole wheat flour because it is white wheat, but the store didn't have any last time, so I got the other other brand, which is red wheat and tastes stronger. I don't like it. But the bread turned out okay in spite of that. Anyway, I would recommend this recipe and the book, if you can get a copy from the library.

Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup

This soup is earthy and creamy and chewy and delicious all at the same time. I think you could substitute some regular white rice for the half of the wild rice, since wild rice is pretty expensive, but they cook at different rates and I always have a problem with regular rice in soups, it keeps taking on water and expanding and getting more and more mushy and you have to add more water to make it soup again. But wild rice doesn't do that. It does expand a little with sitting, but not significantly like regular rice.

wild rice and mushroom soup

Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup
1 cup wild rice
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock, plus more to make it soupy
about 20 medium sized mushrooms
1 onion, diced
1 cup cream
salt, pepper to taste

Boil the wild rice in the stock in a large-ish pan until it is mostly cooked, it will still be kind of crunchy/chewy, but the grains will start to burst and the liquid will be mostly evaporated-about 50 minutes. While that is cooking, chop the mushrooms into smallish pieces, put in a dry, hot pan and cook for few minutes until the mushrooms shrink and release water. When it seems like they have released all of their juices, add a little bit of oil to the pan and sauté the diced onion in it until it is soft, mix in the mushrooms with the onion and sauté for another minute, the mushrooms should brown a little more and be very fragrant, the onions should be tender and translucent. Add the mushrooms/onions to the wild rice, add the cream and additional stock if needed to make it the right amount of soupiness that you like, bring to a gentle boil for a few more minutes until the soup thickens a little bit; the wild rice grains should be bursting, but they will still be chewy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Makes 4 servings.

Flaxseed Goo

The weirdest thing happens when flaxseeds get wet, they make the water turn into something like mucus. It has a super gross texture and it is nearly impossible to get rid of.  But I've heard that you can use ground flaxseeds mixed with water as an egg replacer in vegan baking, and soaking the whole seeds is supposed to make them easier to digest. But you have to admit, it's pretty gross.

"Pigs in a Blanket"

Does anyone know a clever name for vegetarian pigs in a blanket? I can't think of one, and from my quick internet search, it seems that no one else has either. These were my Lovemuffin's idea, but somehow I ended up making them. The "pigs"are the Tofurky Italian Sausages, the ones with the tomato and basil. I cut them in half and the bread is Trader Joe's herbed pizza dough. I rolled them in semolina flour to make it easy to take them off the baking pan.

no pig in these blankets

Gnarly Sourdough

I made this sourdough bread last night as part of an attempt to develop a very basic, easy sourdough loaf that I can throw together any time. It tastes pretty darn good, but it sure is ugly. First of all, I had the hardest time getting it to rise without letting the outside of the dough get dry and crusty, so when I formed the loaf, a lot of crusty dry dough got incorporated inside, so it has some weird bubbles and folds. But the weirdest thing is that the crust did not turn brown in the oven. The outside of the bread is exactly the color shown in the picture, it isn't just some weird lighting problem. Does anyone out there have any idea why a loaf of bread does not turn brown when baking? It has honey and whole wheat flour in it, so it should definitely have browned a little bit more than it did. 

Green Mashed Potatoes

Green potatoes with sautéed veggies  

This is a pretty brilliant way I discovered to get myself and  Lovemuffin to eat greens, the really healthy greens, like kale, swiss chard, and mustard greens. I have tried it with all three of those types of greens, and I personally prefer it with kale, the flavor and color and texture seem the best with kale. And a little extra butter never hurts. They are perfect for Saint Patrick's Day, or for whenever you need something to do with potatoes besides making them boring white and fluffy. 

Green Mashed Potatoes
7-8 good sized russet potatoes
1 bunch kale, chard, or mustard greens, or any other sturdy greens of your choice
1 onion, chopped (optional, but highly recommended)
2-3 cloves garlic, minced (optional, but highly recommended)
Grated cheese to taste, such as parmesan, asiago, romano, pecorino, or a combination
Butter, Milk, Salt and Pepper to taste

Peel and chop potatoes, start boiling them in well salted water. While that is starting, rinse and chop the greens, discarding or chopping thick stems finely. Add the chopped greens to the potatoes, let it all boil together until the potatoes are tender enough for mashing.
While the potatoes are cooking, sauté the chopped onion in a little oil, if desired, adding the garlic when they are mostly soft and translucent. Set aside to add to the mashed potatoes later.
Drain the cooked potatoes and greens, and then mash with milk and butter and cheese until it is the desired consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste, add the onions, if using. Serve with a little extra butter and/or cheese on top.