Brooklyn Forager

One year, I will be set up in both my larder/freezer and local food connections to take part in the Dark Days Challenge.  I'm finding some interesting ideas as I watch others follow through and trust me, locavores, I am taking notes.

For now, I take the day-by-day ingredient-by-ingredient approach to keeping things local and seasonal.  One recent lunch got me pretty close.  Upon examining the fridge and the pantry, I realized that I had New York apples, New York Cheddar and a jar of Passion Wasabi Mustard that was purchased for us locally in Hawaii.  My tortillas were from Trader Joe's, although a product of some far off place.  Altogether, not an unsuccessful impromptu local meal for a cold dark season. 

Apple and Cheddar Quesadilla with Wasabi Honey Mustard

• 2 whole wheat tortillas
• 1 tbsp Passion Wasabi Mustard (or other favorite mustard)
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup freshly grated New York extra sharp cheddar
• 1 medium crisp tart apple, cored, halved and sliced 
• olive oil, in mister

1. On one tortilla, spread mustard within 1 inch of edges.  Sprinkle half of the cheese.  Top with apple slices.  Add remaining cheddar cheese and top with second tortilla.
2. Lightly mist a nonstick frying pan with olive oil and heat to warm.  Place quesadilla in pan and heat until slightly melted.  Flip and repeat. 
3. Enjoy!

In order to get ready for a little football game you might have heard about, I decided it was time for some chili! This might be the furthest into cold weather that I've gone without making chili ever.  It was definitely time.  Usually, I swear by Don Henley's recipe (yes, that Don Henley) which is a real Texas chili (read: no beans) and I generally tweak it slightly depending on my mood and how healthy I am trying to be.

This fall/winter season, I've been eyeing a Black Bean & Beef Chipotle Chili recipe that looked really unique and satisfied the deep love affair I've been having with chipotle peppers.  Since I made the shepherd's pie with beef earlier this month, I figured I'd switch things up and make this chili with turkey instead.  Then it turned out that I didn't have any black beans ready to go.  So I used the technique from the first recipe, tweaked it in accordance with Don Henley's recipe (no chili is complete without beer for me now...) and then added my own flair.  And so tonight, a new recipe is born.

One word of warning - my preparation is pretty spicy, even for us.  Adjust the chili powder and chipotles and use regular tomatoes to make it more your style.

And on a personal note, my philosophy of supporting everything local was obviously thwarted this year.  My football philosophy, however, is this - when in doubt, root for a Manning! It works for me.  Go Colts!

Chipotle Turkey Two Bean Chili

• 2 15 ounce cans kidney beans, drained and well rinsed
• 1 15 ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and well rinsed
• 1 15 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes with green chilis
• 2 medium chipotle peppers plus 1 1/2 tbsp adobo sauce
• 1 lb extra lean ground turkey
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 red onion, minced, divided
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp chili powder
• 3 tsp cumin
• 1 bottle of beer
• 1 lime
• 4 tsp cilantro
• 1 medium ripe avocado

1. Place 1/3 of the bean mixture in the food processor along with the tomatoes and chipotle peppers and process until smooth. Set aside.
2. Heat oil over medium heat in a large stock pot or dutch oven.  Cook turkey until no longer pink.  Remove from pot with slotted spoon.
3. Add 1/2 of onion and all garlic into pot and cook until fragrant and softened, about 3-4 minutes.
4. Add cumin and chili powder and cook quickly, about 20 seconds.  Immediately add bean mixture, remaining beans, turkey and 1/2 bottle of beer (drink the rest!).
5. Simmer over low heat for at least 30 minutes or until ready to eat. Keep an eye on the thickness if you continue to simmer.  This is a very thick chili.  If it's too thick, add more beer and open yourself another!
6. While simmering, place avocado, half the cilantro and remaining onion in bowl for avocado topping.  Squeeze half of the lime into the avocado and the other half into the chili. Add remaining cilantro to the chili.
7. Grate cheddar cheese to serve as an additional topping if you choose.

I've been doing a lot of indulgent cooking, but I have strayed from my commitment to indulgently healthy cooking.  I don't think those two have to be mutually exclusive.  I also generally disagree with the movement to use food-like substances to recreate indulgent favorites as lower calorie meals.  Enter Clean Eating.  I love this magazine.  I love what they stand for.  I have committed myself to turn to it more often this year for specific recipes and to reinforce the Clean Eating philosophy whenever I cook.

This week, I made the Shepherd's Pie from the Comfort Food issue.  I made it somewhat less healthy by using 85/15 organic grass-fed beef instead of ground turkey, but I've been craving beef recently so I went with it.  I also substituted butternut squash for the carrots because I had some extra squash to use up. Finally, I upped the garlic because rarely does a recipe meet my hands without some extra garlic thrown in to the mix.

In general, I really liked this recipe.  It was filling and comforting and still tasted clean.  My husband made his usual critique - it would taste better with curry powder or Asian spices of some kind.  It is not spicy, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have nice flavor.  I may try an Asian-inspired version to complement my meat loaf one of these days, but for now, this recipe will do.

 Clean Eating Shepherd's Pie  with Buttermilk-Chive Mashed Potato Crust (adapted from Clean Eating Magazine)

• 1 lb Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
• 2 cloves garlic, whole, plus 1 clove garlic minced, divided
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 1 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
• sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
• 4 tsp extra virgin olive oil, to taste
• 1 lb organic grass-fed ground beef (or lean ground turkey breast)
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 butternut squash, chopped (or 3 medium carrots, halved and sliced into half moons)
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 1 tsp fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 3/4 cup frozen peas

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Bring potatoes and whole garlic cloves to boil in a pot of water set over high heat. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Drain well.  Mash potatoes and garlic with a potato masher (or your favorite mashing device) until smooth.  Add buttermilk and chives and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Set aside.
3. While water is boiling, heat 1 tsp oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add beef or turkey and cook, stirring often and breaking meat into small pieces with wooden spoon.  Cook until just done, about 8 minutes. Drain and discard fat, set aside.
4. Heat 2 tsp oil in same skillet over medium-high heat.  Add onion, squash, celery and rosemary and cook until soft, stirring occasionally.  Add reserved meat, broth and tomato paste and cook until liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes. Stir in peas.
5. Transfer mixgture to a shallow 2-quart baking dish and cover with mashed potatoes in an even layer.  Run a fork over top of mashed potatoes in both directions or swirl with the back of a spoon.  Brush top with remaining 1 tsp oilve oil.
6. Bake in oven until filling is bubbling and top is golden brown, about 30 minutes.  Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

I love red wine risotto.  My husband does not.  So, when he ran off for the weekend with the boys, I settled in to indulge myself.  I have a few versions of this recipe that I like to make, one being Giada De Laurentiis' version and another being a variation with chorizo.  In a quest to make it a bit lighter and a good meatless option (not to mention my lack of chorizo on a cold evening), I used another favorite Giada risotto recipe as a base, her Champagne risotto, and came up with a nice and easy version that gave me a dinner and a lunch for my weekend home with the pup.

Note on cooking with red wine: the maxim is true - recipes taste best with a wine you would drink rather than some cheap cooking wine.  However, in a pinch, I keep the remains of a drinking bottle of wine vacuum sealed in the fridge to use in recipes.  It is not ideal, but I find it works for me since I use splashes of wine in my cooking often enough to keep the bottle relatively fresh (a little red wine makes even a jar of marinara sparkle).

Red Wine Risotto with Peas (adapted from Giada De Laurentiis)

• 3 cups mushroom broth or low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3/4 cup Arborio rice
• 3/4 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano
• salt and pepper, to taste

1. Bring chicken stock to a simmer on the back of the stove.
2. Melt butter in saucepan.  Add garlic and shallot and cook until fragrant.
3. Add Arborio rice and toss to completely coat the rice in butter mixture.
4. Add red wine and stir constantly until wine has reduced almost completely.
5. Add 1/2 cup chicken stock and stir constantly until reduced almost completely.  Continue with remaining broth in 1/2 cup portions.
6. When rice is soft with just a touch of chewy texture, add peas, cheese and seasoning.  Garnish with additional cheese if desired (I pretty much always desire).  Serve and try not to eat both servings all by yourself!

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca. 

I'm a day late, so I'm going to get right into it.  The first challenge was to make graham wafers/crackers from scratch.  I struggle with baking in general as I am largely more into the creative process and less into exact measurements.  That's why I do these challenges.  Needless to say, my graham crackers came out less than perfect, although this time I'm not 100% sure where I failed.

I prepared the dough with all-purpose flour (I skipped the gluten-free aspect of the challenge this time around) and exactly as the instructions indicated.  The first place I might have run up against an issue was that my 1-inch cubes of butter were not quite so precise.  They were a bit bigger and not super even.  I had a hard time mixing the dough due to the frozen blocks of butter sending things flying.

I set the dough to chill overnight and came back to it the next day.  Here's where I knew there was a problem.  The dough was pretty sticky as suggested, but not all that wet and was in fact crumbling under my rolling pin.   As such, I couldn't quite get it rolled out to the 1/8 inch thickness indicated in the recipe.

That said, my graham crackers came out as pretty tasty graham cookies that my husband gobbled up freely before I reminded him that there was more to come and I needed at least some crumbs leftover

The second part of the challenge was to turn our graham crumbs into Nanaimo Bars which apparently are a hit in Canada.  I'd heard of these creatures and they look decadent, so gladly took on the challenge.

I must say that this part of the challenge turned out remarkably better than the graham cracker portion.  I had two issues, neither of which stopped me from making a decent Nanaimo Bar.  The first was that I'm really trying to focus on getting healthy and eating "clean" and preparing the bars really brings home the amount of butter that I had to soften to room temperature.  The second issue was that when I hear 8x8x2 pan, I use this one specific pan that we have.  But it's really more like 8x9x3 roughly.  The ingredients probably fit perfectly in an 8x8x2 pan, but I had some problems with the pudding mixture, so it ended up more thin than some of the lovely pictures that I saw on others final posts.

Alas, these minor issues not withstanding, it all came together.  After I spread the cocoa, butter, sugar, coconut, hazelnut (I have a potential almond allergy that I don't like to push) and graham crumbs mixture in and topped that with pudding butter and melted chocolate, I came up with a cute little Nanaimo Bar.  They were tasty.  Very sweet.  Very un-"clean".  But a nice little indulgence  And I figure that the thin layers mean that maybe my version is not quite so bad after all!