Batter-Splattered

you win some, you lose some

Doesn't this look good?

It's cod with seasoned couscous baked in a foil packet in the oven. Looks just wonderful, right? It has the pretty lemon slices on top and the pretty sprinkled parsley.

But.

It is completely devoid of flavor. No taste to it, whatsoever. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Which is weird because it has all sorts of flavorful things packed into it -- lemon, a little butter, currants, sliced almonds, coriander, paprika, a dash of cayenne...

Huh.

What is this recipe's problem? Thank god I tried it before you did. Now you don't have to waste your time and your cod on it. I took a bullet for you, my friend.

But now take a look at these babies:

This recipe for apple and currant oatmeal muffins was on the back of the package of currants I bought for the shameless recipe above. Thank goodness it redeemed itself in some small way. Because after picking my way through the tasteless fish and couscous it sure was nice to pull these out of the oven for dessert.

These muffins are really, really good. Especially hot out of the oven. They have oats and currants and diced apples and lots of spices. They're small. They're cute. I think I'll keep this recipe! I'll need something to remember them by because I think my husband took this bag to work with him today -- I could find no trace of it in the kitchen this morning.

Apple and Currant Oatmeal Muffins

Makes one dozen muffins

1 cup zante currants or raisins
1 cup cored, peeled and chopped apple
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup milk
1 egg beaten
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup uncooked oats
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar

Directions:

COMBINE currants or raisins with apple, oil, milk, egg and sugar in a medium mixing bowl.
STIR together flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and salt in a separate bowl.
STIR into raisin mixture just until combined.
DIVIDE batter equally into 12 greased or lined muffin cups.
SPRINKLE top of batter with 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar per muffin cup.
BAKE at 400 for 20 minutes or until golden.  

Cod and Cauliflower and Whale-Watching

Last weekend I went on a day cruise in search of gray whales migrating north on their way from Baja, California up to the Bering Sea. It was a very rare sunny day in Seward, Alaska -- the captain said it had been raining for two weeks straight -- the luck I have, I tell you.

 

That sea lion on the top there? That's how I feel on this long holiday weekend. Just lolling about.

In the end we didn't spot any gray whales. But we did see a humpback whale and we got to float about and watch a pod of killer whales feeding on fish. My friend Annette took that particular opportunity to argue with some of the many small children on board the boat, particularly one talkative little boy trying to share his knowledge of marine mammals.

Little boy: "See that one over there? The one with the tall straight dorsal fin? That's a male."

Annette: "No, it's not."

Little boy: "Yes, it is! The females have shorter curved fins."

Annette: "No. That's not true."

Little boy: "Well, that's what my marine mammal book says."

I was all like, I don't know, Annette. He seems pretty sure of himself. And he has a book.

He slinked off, thoroughly dejected.

He must have been pretty stoked though later when the captain said over the intercom: "And if you'll look at the killer whale at two o'clock, that's a male. You can tell by the long tall dorsal fin."

After watching those whales feed on fresher than fresher fish, I came home with a fierce hunger. Luckily, I had some fresh cod in the fridge just waiting to be cooked up. And along with it, I made an old favorite, this cauliflower salad with white beans, feta cheese, fresh rosemary, and tangy vinaigrette dressing.

The original recipe is here. Their version calls for thinly-sliced Belgian endive but I usually leave that out, partly because it's good without it and partly because the markets here are hit-or-miss when it comes to finding something so exotic. Exotic for Alaska, anyway.

My favorite step in this recipe is the first -- you saute chopped fresh rosemary in olive oil till it's nice and fragrant then set it aside until you're ready to throw all the other ingredients together in a big bowl. By then, the whole house is full of that lovely aroma of olive oil and rosemary.

I usually make a huge bowl of this, even though there's only two of us to eat it (even my meat-loving other half loves it). That way, I can take leftovers to work with me for lunch -- because the cauliflower is uncooked, it stays crispy for days.

The cod recipe is here. It has a tasty shallot-lemon vinaigrette that you're supposed to split between the fish and a salad of fresh herb leaves. This time around, I just made a half recipe of the vinaigrette though and skipped the herb salad.

The flavors of these two recipes go together so nicely and they're both so easy to prepare.

Cauliflower, White Bean and Feta Salad

Serves six

1/3 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 medium head of cauliflower, trimmed, cut into small florets (about 3 cups)
1 (15-ounce) can white beans (such as Great Northern or navy beans), drained
2 large heads of Belgian endive, trimmed, halved lengthwise, then thinly sliced crosswise
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (about 3 ounces)

Combine oil and rosemary in small saucepan. Stir over medium heat just until fragrant, about 1 minute. Cool.

Whisk lemon juice, vinegar, lemon peel, salt, and pepper in small bowl.

Combine cauliflower, beans, endive, chives, parsley, and rosemary oil in medium bowl; toss. Mix in cheese. Add lemon juice mixture and toss to coat. Season salad with salt and pepper. 

Sauted Black Cod with Shallot-Lemon Vinaigrette

Serves two

Mix in small bowl to make vinaigrette:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup minced shallots
1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Sherry wine vinegar
1 teaspoons (packed) grated lemon peel
Salt and pepper to taste

Sprinkle with salt and pepper:
2 6- to 7-ounce black cod fillets with skin

Heat in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat:
1 tablespoon olive oil

Cook fish until just opaque in center, about 4 minutes per side. Arrange fish on plates and spoon vinaigrette over each.   

strawberry galette

 

On the plane home from Portland my friend and I stared hungrily at a recipe and photos of this strawberry galette in the pages of the May Martha Stewart Living magazine. On the side, it has a basil-infused whipping cream and fried and sugared basil leaves.

I had to make it.

But I must admit I didn't fry and sugar any basil leaves. Because I'm lazy. It's time you knew that about me. I kind of wish I had though. I bet those would have made for some very pretty photos.

The basil whipped cream was lovely. Not overwhelmingly basil-ish. It just has a nice herbal twist at the end when you taste a bit of it.

And my galette didn't turn out looking anywhere near as pretty as Martha's minion's galette but I could have told you that would be the case before I even started. Oh and I used some of my own dough because I had a single crust of it stored in my freezer.

Strawberry Galette

Serves 6 - 8

FOR THE BASIL CREAM

3/4 cup heavy cream

1/3 cup loosely packed fresh basil, chopped

2 tablespoons sugar

3/4 cup mascarpone cheese

FOR THE FRIED BASIL

2 cups vegetable oil

18 to 24 large fresh basil leaves

Sugar, for sprinkling

FOR THE DOUGH

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for surface

1 1/8 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon sugar

8 ounces (1 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons ice water

FOR THE GALETTE

1 pound strawberries, hulled

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 large egg yolk

1 tablespoon water

1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Make the basil cream: Combine cream, basil, and sugar in a heatproof bowl. Set bowl over a small saucepan of simmering water, and stir until sugar dissolves, about 4 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or up to 2 hours for a more pronounced basil flavor). Strain through a fine sieve into a bowl. Add mascarpone, and whisk until medium peaks form. Cover, and refrigerate until ready to serve, up to 2 hours.

Make the fried basil: Heat oil in a deep skillet to 325 degrees. Fry basil, a few leaves at a time, for 12 seconds. (The leaves will cause the hot oil to spatter; step away from the pan while they cook.) Drain leaves on paper towels, and let cool completely. Sprinkle both sides of the leaves with sugar. (Basil can be stored at room temperature overnight.)

Make the dough: Pulse flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor to combine. Add butter, and pulse until mixture forms coarse crumbs. Add ice water, and pulse until just combined (dough will still be crumbly). Shape dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or overnight).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a floured surface, roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out a 10-inch round, and transfer to a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Make the galette: Cut strawberries lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Reserve end pieces for another use. Toss slices with 1/4 cup sugar and the cornstarch, and immediately arrange them in concentric circles on dough. Start 1 inch from edge, overlapping slices slightly. Fold edge of dough over berries. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Whisk together yolk and water. Brush dough with the egg wash, and sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. Dot berries with butter. Bake until crust is golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes.

Transfer to a serving plate. Serve warm with basil cream and fried basil.

Moosetroganoff

If there's anything my other half loves more than red meat it's big fat noodles (culinarily-speaking, of course). I don't like to think about it but I'm pretty sure he ate five full servings of this, polishing off whatever was left in the pan after I scooped out my meager bowl-ful.

It was just that good.

I used moose for this because I'm dealing with a big freezer-ful of it and the husband swears he's bringing home another ungulate this fall so I better make some room. If you do your meat shopping at the store you can, of course, use beef.

 

Moosetroganoff

Serves six

3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cup beef broth
1 pound of moose or beef, trimmed, sliced 1/4 inch thick across the grain, then cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup thinly sliced shallot
3/4 lb cremini mushrooms, trimmed and halved (quartered if large)
3 tablespoons sour cream
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Accompaniment: buttered wide egg noodles

Melt 1 1/2 tablespoons butter in a skillet over moderate heat and whisk in flour, then cook roux, whisking constantly, 2 minutes. Add one cup of broth (reserve the rest for later) in a slow stream, whisking constantly, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, whisking occasionally, 3 minutes. Pour into a bowl, scraping pan clean, and keep warm.

Pat beef dry and season well with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon butter with 1 tablespoon oil in skillet over moderately high heat until foam subsides. Sauté beef in two batches until browned but still pink inside, about 1 minute. Transfer to a plate with a slotted spoon.

Heat remaining tablespoon butter with remaining tablespoon oil in same skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté shallot, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and sauté, stirring occasionally, until liquid mushrooms give off is evaporated and mushrooms are browned, about 8 to 10 minutes. Return meat with its juices to skillet and stir to combine, then transfer to a platter.

Whisk sour cream into the sauce, then whisk in the mustard, dill, salt, and pepper. Pour sauce over beef and reheat, slowly adding more broth if you wish to make it a little saucier.

Serve over buttered egg noodles..

  

currant events

Next time, I promise I'll have a recipe to share with you but for now...

I just got a whole lot more excited about my new backyard!

I moved in around Thanksgiving when everything was very very snowy. Snow-er-ific. Buried under a blanket of snow. (Have I mentioned it was snowy?). Well, it was snowy.

So I never got a chance to check things out there in the yard. But I had high hopes because there was a greenhouse and a vegetable box. AND there was plenty of undisturbed land that used to be a forest (good for foraging, my favorite summertime activity). AND there were plenty of high-bush cranberries here and there and everywhere.

But I kept tromping through the yard all winter long looking for signs of my personal favorite, as far as Alaska berries go: the red currant.

It's not that I don't appreciate the high bush cranberry. It has that tarty tartness that I find hard to resist. And my friend Angie made that high-bush cranberry hootch under her kitchen sink. I was fond of that and she keeps getting requests for more from family and friends.

But it all pales in comparison to my true love, the red currant.

That's why I was so happy to discover this sprouting in abundance in the backyard: 

 

Hello, lover.

That, my friends, is the blossomy precursor to red currants. That little mauve string of blossoms is the harbinger of all that is fair and good in the berry world. And best of all:

They're everywhere in my backyard!

I don't know how I could have missed them before. You can tell their branches because the twiggy stems have this dark birch-like bark that peels vertically. I couldn't find any this winter but now I spot them everywhere. I guess it doesn't hurt that they're one of the few plants with leaves sprouting.

On other fronts, backyard-speaking, I planted the vegetable box with lots of goodies this past weekend: cauliflower, peas, lots of lettuces... i'm forgetting a bunch.

And look at all this good stuff in my greenhouse, just waiting to be planted.

Oh and I have a dog who, as it turns out, doesn't mind following me around the yard for hours as I garden, just so long as I fling a frisbee every now and then.

She's cute, right? And look at that big happy pink tongue. But let's face facts. I'll admit it freely that she just threw up on that moose. She loves that moose. You should get one for your dog.

Yeah. She just drank a buttload of water, then threw up a little on the moose, then scooped the moose up in her mouth and brought it to me (she's a retriever).

Oh. And, uh. What's she doing here?

That's right. She's chewing on nature.

That bitch better step off.

Oh and hey, while we were on the topic of yards, check it out:

 

Those are my neighbors.

Plus, there was a lovely view this evening. It was sunny overhead (as it should be) but dark and stormy over the mountains in the distance.

That's a little gnome I scored in Portland for $3 at the Walgreens near my friend Kelly's house.

It has mushrooms.

I kept eyeing up the gnomes throughout the week I was there. I think you have to agree with me that that is a scream of a deal for a gnome. But then I kept wondering: am I a gnome person?

I didn't think so.

Up until that point at least.

But that gnome was like a siren beckoning me to a rocky shore. I got one and wrapped it up and packed it into my carry-on. Luckily, that wasn't one of the things the TSA guy confiscated from me when I got searched by hand whilst going through airport security. I was such the dummy and packed all sorts of liquid hand soaps from Trader Joe's into my carry-on. Who packs liquid in their carry-on?

Well. Apparently, I do.

I don't know why but I love bringing hand soaps back from vacation. Kinds you can't find in stores at home. With each squirt I'm reminded of vacation. Tell me it makes sense to you too.

Liquid? Carry-on? What was I thinking.

postcard from Alaska

This would only happen here. My favorite part: "... but I can only take a haunch. I got only a small knife and a bicycle."

I went on a beautiful gray whale watch cruise this past Saturday and on the drive back to Anchorage, I pulled over to watch a hundred or so people doing their hooligan fishing alongside the Seward Highway.

It must be spring -- or maybe it's more like late spring / early summer -- because outside my office window in downtown Anchorage the parks and rec people are hanging baskets of flowers on the lampposts all up and down the street.

The farmers markets are open for the summer!

Suddenly I'm hungry for cod. A nice alternative to the $1000 fish.