THE CRISPY COOK

Bejeweled Beans for my GF Football Fan

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:54:00 +0000

Despite my husband's funk as he watches his beloved Giants team falls further behind this football season, there must be a hallowed time for him each week to scream at the television set and revel in his sports lust. And there must be accompanying snacks.

Before the gluten-free lifestyle entered our household, the snack fuel for these weekly testosterone-laden sessions primarily consisted of beer and pizza. Now that barley malt and wheat crusts are verboten for my hubby, I try to make sure we have Redbridge Beer (made from sorghum, reminiscent of Killian's Irish Red Ale) around and some tasty dips and spreads for his tortilla chips and vegetable sticks.

I was planning to make some guacamole for his last viewing session, but my avocado was too far gone, so I rummaged around the cupboards for inspiration and decided to make a spicy bean dip for him. It was a hit with the old man, so I made sure to write down what I slapped together to share with you all.

This beany dip was spicy, easy and pretty, so I call it:

Bejeweled Bean Dip

1 (15.5 oz.) Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained (cannelli would work well too)
2 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. garam masala (substitute curry powder if you want a milder heat)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup snipped chives
1/2 red pepper, seeded and diced
1 Tbsp. mango chutney
Salt and Pepper to taste

Melt butter in frying pan and heat garam masala 1-2 minutes, or until fragrant. Add garlic, chives and red pepper, and cook, stirring, another several minutes, until red pepper is softened.

Add beans, and mash them up a bit, stirring and cooking another several minutes to heat through. Add mango chutney and season with salt and pepper.

Makes 2 cups. Great served warm with tortilla chips.

Go Giants!

November Cookbook Giveaway

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:46:00 +0000

The October cookbook offered up by the Crispy Cook was a vintage copy of Caroline Hightower's "The Pennypincher's Book of Fine Food". Martha my trusty scullery hound helped me to randomly select the winner of this prize (along with random.org), commenter #7, Cee. Congratulations Cee!

For this month's cookbook giveaway, I straightened up the ol' cookbook section at Old Saratoga Books, the used and rare bookshop that my husband and I own, and found this cute book: "The ABC of Gourmet Cookery" published in 1956 by the The Peter Pauper Press. This publisher specializes in diminutive gift books and the vintage editions of their titles have become collectible for their whimsical, beautiful and distinctive illustrations. "The ABC of Gourmet Cookery", illustrated by Ruth McCrea in vivid 50s style, contains recipes for each letter of the alphabet. From Arroz con Pollo to Hungarian Tomato Sauerkraut to Zabaglione, it's a visual treat.

To enter the giveaway just leave a comment below by midnight (Eastern Standard Time), November 30, 2009. I will randomly pick a winner from the comments below and ship the book anywhere in the world to the winner.

Good luck to all Gourmets!

Pastry-Wrapped Brie, Gluten-Free? Mais, Oui!

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:44:00 +0000

Francophilia reigns in our house. I took French lessons from junior high through my college years and revel in the sensuous sound of the French language whenever we visit Montreal or hear French Canadian visitors here in upstate New York. Dan and I honeymooned in Quebec City and my two daughters have picked French as their second language. Someday, I hope to cross the pond for an extended visit, but until then, armchair travels with books will have to suffice.

Peter Mayle's "French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew" is the current book pick for Cook the Books, the virtual book club for foodies, and like Mayle's other books about his adopted home, the writing captures his bemused impressions of the French landscape, the food, and the people. The Provence books capture life as an expat Englishman trying to adapt to a life where one's central priorities and the pace of life itself are quite different. And historic home renovations are not accomplished in a day, a month, a year, perhaps several years.

"French Lessons" is entirely about the French preoccupation with one's meals and the various food festivals that Mayle explores throughout France. We travel to many regions to celebrate frog legs, truffles, snails, spa cuisine, the sublime chickens of Bresse, Livarot cheese and other delights, and in my favorite chapter, "A Connoisseur's Marathon", are treated to the spectacle of the Marathon du Medoc, a long-distance road race in which 8,000 participants run 26 miles through the vineyards of Bordeaux. Only one quarter of the runners aspire to seriousness in the race (though the winner receives his/her weight in wine); the others are there to have fun, clad in crazy, cross-dressing costumes, and helping themselves to superior wines and gourmet snacks at civilized refreshment stations along the race course.

It is these kinds of vivid scenes, and Mayle's genial, self-deprecating sense of humor that made the book such an enjoyable read. Mayle describes his joy in reading a used book treasure that his wife bought him, "L'Escargot Comestible", in researching his upcoming snail festival sojourn:

"The text was scholarly in tone, and there were no unnecessary typographical flourishes. In other words, it was a serious piece of work, designed to inform students and breeders of the mollusk, rather than entertain snail diletantes like me. But serious work though it was, a Frenchman had written it. And so, inevitably, there was a recipe section".

I read "French Lessons" last month and it inspired me to attend two local food festivals in our area, Bennington's Garlic Festival and the Washington County Cheese Tour. After all that luscious cheese sampling, I wanted to try my hand at baking some pastry-wrapped Brie for a savory appetizer course for the mister and me one romantic day when both girls were out with their friends. Doing so when gluten is not your enemy is easy enough. Wrap one piece of store-bought Brie in some thawed store-bought puff pastry, heat it all up in the oven and then attack the gooey result with gusto. Alas, the gluten-free diner must approach this simple culinary project with the perusing of many wheatless pastry recipes and then attempt to cover their cheese without the whole crumbling, flopping over and sticking to rolling pins and countertops.

Surprisingly, I couldn't find a recipe online or in my arsenal of cookbooks for a gluten-free pastry-wrapped Brie. Clearly, there are unchartered waters here.

It was easy enough to find a luscious wedge of herb-infused Brie at the supermarket, but the pastry, which would have to be flaky when cooked and not outlandishly hard to maneuver around my cheese when raw, was a stumper. Eventually, I came upon this recipe on a cooking message board which seemed like a good launching point, though the pastry recipe was intended to house an appalling amalgam of kidney beans, maple syrup and raisins. I had a bag of white bean flour in my pantry and have made some garbanzo bean pie pastry in the past with success, so I set to it, with some tweaking here and there. Most notably, the pastry recipe called for 3/4 cup of cold water, which would have made an unworkable slurry rather than a good, workable crust, so that must be a misprint.

The experiment ended up a success (though the pumpkin pie I made with the remainder of my crust tasted a little too beany) and I would even have been proud to share a bite with Mayle himself. Here's how to make:

Baked Brie in a Savory Gluten-Free Pastry Crust

1 (1/2 lb.) wedge of Brie (I used President's double creme Herb Brie)

1-1/2 cups white bean flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 Tbsp. cornmeal
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt

6 Tbsp. shortening (I used Butter-Flavored Crisco)

1 egg, separated
1/4 cup cold water

Let Brie sit, unwrapped, at room temperature, while you make your pastry.

Mix together white bean flour, cornstarch, cornmeal, baking powder and salt in mixing bowl. Cut in shortening with pastry blender until it resembles coarse crumbs. Mix together egg white and water. Add enough water to pastry mix to make it a smooth, workable dough. You may not need to add all this liquid.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Maneuver pastry into a ball and then squash it down between two sheets of plastic wrap. Parchment paper will not do, as the dough will stick to it and cause inappropriate amounts of cursing in the kitchen.

Roll dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness in a roughly rectangular shape. Peel off top layer of plastic wrap and then play your wedge of Brie, top side down, over your pastry. Wrap your cheese in the pastry, pressing down the seams to make your pastry case as hole-free as possible.

(I found that this pastry was very workable, kind of like working with fondant or that old childhood standby, Play Doh. The heat from your hands makes the pastry seams come together very easily and the one advantage that this pastry has over regular wheat flour pastry, is that you can work it over and over without the dough becoming tough. Without the tough strands of gluten, you can keep handling your doughy mistakes over a long period of time. The dough smells very strongly of raw beans when raw, but it will change to a much pleasanter aroma when baked.)

Grease a glass pie pan with some extra shortening and then flop your pastry-wrapped cheese right-side up in your pan. Again, the dough is eminently pliable, so you can adorn it with fancy pastry scraps. I gave my Brie a pastry boutonniere for a little extra Gallic elegance.

Whisk up your remaining egg yolk and brush over the top of your pastry. You are now ready to bake your Brie!

Bake your production at 375 degrees F. for 15-20 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and melting Brie has popped the seams of its pastry shell.

Makes 4-6 appetizer servings.

We ate this for Second Breakfast on a rainy mid-morning, but I imagine that this luscious cheese experiment would be wonderful as a romantic meal paired with grapes, pears and a bottle of lusty red wine.

Note: This makes enough pastry to wrap 3 wedges of Brie. I used the remainder of my pastry to make a 9 inch pastry shell for a pumpkin pie (the crust edges burned so next time I would cover the rim with foil), but I would imagine one could freeze the remainder into pastry logs to freeze and roll out another day.

Please join in the fun when our current Cook the Books hostess, Jo of Food Junkie, Not Junk Food, rounds up the blog posts about "French Lessons" and the foods we cook up inspired by our reading. The deadline to do so is November 8th, and then it will be my turn to host this fun, bimonthly biblio-foodie fiesta. Anyone can participate in Cook the Books as long as they read the selected book and blog about it and some edible inspiration.

Gluten-Free Fruit Snacks Review and Giveaway

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:39:00 +0000

Betty Crocker recently sent me a couple of their fruit-flavored snacks to sample, and included a fun "Simple Joys" prize package that included some pick-up sticks, a light-up yo-yo and a frisbee. The fruit-flavored snacks are gluten-free, and were a hit with my two daughters, especially the roll-up "tape". I find them too sweet, but kids like the taste and the lurid colors.

As for the toys, the light-up yo-yo was the overall family favorite thing to play with. Martha the dog would have just snacked on the frisbee, so we passed it on to our local charity thrift shop.

For dog owners in a similar situation, we recommend buying a Nylabone frisbee for around $20 at your local pet shop. Martha loves catching it and can't chew off pieces, plus it has a nifty "bone" that sticks out of the top that she can latch onto when she fetches it back to us.

Anyway, I am pleased to say that I can offer a similar "Simple Joys" prize package to one of my Crispy Cook readers (U.S. residents only, though). Just leave a comment after this post telling me about your favorite childhood toy and Martha will assist me in randomly picking a winner from the comments after November 15, 2009.

Good luck to all!

I Heart Pumpkin: A Multiplicity of Gluten-Free Pumpkin Treats

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:38:00 +0000

I Heart Pumpkin. What a great bounty from the old pumpkin patch this year. I planted four hills of Rouge Vif d'Etampes, a French heirloom variety this year, and even after giving away pumpkins to various friends, I still have ten pumpkins adorning my kitchen floor (we have had our killing frost so my babies have to come inside).

After last weekend's pumpkin bonanza, where I got 16 cups of pumpkin puree out of a 30 lb. beauty that was almost as big as Cinderella's Coach, I cooked up a big batch of pumpkin treats for my family.

There was a moist and spicy loaf of Pumpkin Bread, which I studded with a cup of golden raisins:

And a couple of Impossible Pumpkin Pies using Susan the Fat-Free Vegan's great recipe. You mix up all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and then pour it into your pie pans. This pie comes out very custardy and makes its own crust on the bottom. No foolin' around with rolling out crumbling gluten-free crusts between waxed paper and then cursing while attempting to transition them into the pie pans.

Then came the roasted pumpkin seeds. They were so ridiculously easy to make, I wonder why I never tried them out. Here's what I did:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Rinse and remove pumpkin flesh from seeds. Pat dry.

Toss with corn oil to coat, sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Place on lightly oiled cookie sheet and toast in a preheated 300 degree F oven and toast, stirring every 15 minutes, for about an hour.

Voila! A nutty, healthy treat!

This trio of pumpkin delights is being sent over to Life, Gluten Free, who is the current hostess of Go Ahead, Honey, It's Gluten Free, a monthly blog event started by Naomi at Straight into Bed Cakefree and Dried. The theme of this month's round is "Pumpkin Treats" and I look forward to the roundup for other autumnal cooking ideas as nine other pumpkins await me in the Crispy Kitchen. Life, Gluten Free will post the roundup after the end of October, so do join me in stopping by for a tasteful peek at some more pumpkin fun.

Mom's Cheesy Cauliflower Casserole

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:20:00 +0000

My mom always thoughtfully makes special dinners for our family when we come to visit, even though Dan's gluten-free diet makes her nervous. And the vegetarian part makes her crazy so she and her husband try to entice him into partaking of the meaty dishes on the table and convert him back to the carnivorous realm.

We had a sumptuous dinner at my mom's the other day and she made a terrific cheesy cauliflower casserole that we all devoured. Here's her great recipe:

Mom's Cheesy Cauliflower Casserole

1 head cauliflower, cut up into florets

1/4 cup gluten-free flour mix (Mom used Bob's Red Mill all-purpose)
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
Pinch of salt
1 cup milk
1/3 cup sour cream
2 eggs
Grated Cheddar and smoked gruyere cheese (Mom says add as much as you like)

Steam cauliflower in boiling salted water until al dente.

Place in buttered baking pan.

Melt butter in saucepan. Whisk in flour. Add salt, sour cream, milk and eggs. Stir until creamy and until lumps are all gone. Add in cheese and stir until melted.
Pour over cauliflower in baking pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour, or until nice and bubbly and browned on top.

Makes 6-8 servings.

The Great Pumpkin Invades the Crispy Kitchen

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:17:00 +0000

Pumpkins and gourds have never been big players in our home gardens. The vines and umbrella leaves are so huge and I've really only thought of them for table use in pumpkin pies, so I never wanted to devote a whole lot of valuable garden acreage to their cultivation. One time we had a volunteer pumpkin vine running out of our compost heap from a decaying roadside stand giant pumpkin purchase, but planting them on purpose was never considered until this spring, when the voluptuous curves of the French heirloom variety, Rouge Vif d'Etampes, made its siren song from the seed catalogue.

This heirloom variety looks like a giant red cheese and after a slow start in the wet back garden (those cucumber beetles kept bedeviling my seedlings) they took over the entire patch and were very poor neighbors to my adjacent rows of string beans and cabbages. We had a nice harvest of varying size pumpkins, and they come in an array of red, yellow and orange shades, with varying degrees of ridginess.

The Rouge Vif d'Etampes variety is an old French market pumpkin, so naturally they make for good eating in addition to their stylish good looks. I decided to cook up one of my best-looking monsters (and one of the biggest, weighing in at 30 pounds!) and brought this lovely pumpkin inside.

My trusty scullery hound, Martha, was a little apprehensive about this Giant Vegetable, but a little peanut butter spread on the outside eased her mind.

The first order of business was to wash the outside and then attempt to carve the pumpkin into wedges for roasting. This was quite a feat and worthy of a Halloween horror movie. It involved a cleaver. And my biggest kitchen knife. I thought about a machete, or perhaps a small brush chainsaw, but Martha objected. The pumpkin grinned in a terrible rictus.

In the end, I would cleave deep into the pumpkin, then remove it and lever in my kitchen knife to hack off small wedges. The Rouge Vif d'Etampes is flattened (some might say squashed) so I found that trimming the tapered ends worked better to scoop out the seeds and strings. A grapefruit spoon was the instrument of choice for that project. I filled a roasting pan and my largest baking dish with a 1/2 cup each of water, laid in the pumpkin slices and then roasted them for 1-1/2 hours at 375 degrees F. And that only dealt with half of the pumpkin! So I repeated that process over the course of an afternoon.

When cooled, I scooped the pumpkin flesh from the skins and then pureed it in my food processor. That 30-lb. pumpkin made somewhere just shy of 20 cups of pumpkin puree! Some went into my already-stuffed-with-garden-harvest-freezer and about half was set aside for a second day of pumpkin mania.

There is a Royal Foodie Joust underway over at the Foodie Blogroll Forum and the three ingredients which must be jousted with to create a recipe are pumpkin, dark beer and sugar. I wanted to make something savory, rather than sweet, so after perusing a bunch of cookbooks and Internet recipes for pumpkin pasta recipes, I cooked up this very elegant variation on the old comfort food standby, macaroni and cheese with a Crispy crumb topping.

I am happy to report that this creamy, pale orange concoction was gobbled up by my Crispy Crew and was even better heated up the next day after the delicate flavors melded more. I made our recipe gluten-free with GF pasta, bread crumbs and gluten-free beer, which are now so much more readily available in local food markets. Here's my autumnal recipe:

Pumpkin Macaroni and Cheese with Crispy Crumb Topping

1 lb. gluten-free pasta (I used Sam Mills corn rigatoni - $1.50 bag at Odd-Lot)

2 large onions, peeled and sliced thinly
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt

1 cup Red Bridge sorghum beer

2 cups pureed pumpkin
1 cup Greek yogurt (or sour cream)
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

2 cups fresh, soft bread crumbs (I used half a baguette (the end parts) from Saratoga Gluten-Free Goods from my freezer)
2/3 cups walnuts
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh sage
Salt and pepper to taste.

3 Tbsp. softened butter

Cook pasta in boiling salted water until just al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside.

Heat oil in frying pan. Add onions and cook over low heat until softened, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with 1 tsp. salt and add beer. Turn up heat, bring to boil and then cook until beer is reduced by half, about 7-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, yogurt, brown sugar and Parmesan. Mix in cooked onions and blend well. Carefully mix in cooked pasta (GF pasta tends to be brittler than wheat pasta) and pour into a greased 9 x 11 baking dish.

Place walnuts, bread crumbs, and sage in food processor and whizz it up until crumbs are coarse. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle crumbs over macaroni in baking pan and dot with bits of softened butter.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes, or until topping is Crispy and golden brown.

Makes 8 generous servings.

This was truly a great recipe for our family. My kids liked the familiarity of the mac n' cheese, while Dan and I enjoyed the subtle flavors of beer-braised onions, earthy sage and pumpkin. Enjoy!

My only reservation about this recipe is that it ONLY used 2 cups of my vat of pureed Great Pumpkin, so I spent a bit of time baking stuff up the next day to use up more of my reserves. Stay tuned for more pumpkin recipes....

A Tour of the Autumnal Garden and a Bowl of Soup

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:51:00 +0000

Things are winding down in the Crispy Garden. I'm finally getting around to weeding some of the beds, I'm embarrassed to say, but the weather has been lovely and in between weeding, I'm tucking in various kinds of garlic to harvest next summer.

Those fecund Busillus frying pepper plants are still setting fruit,

I've got a forest of kale that will keep on chugging through the coming snowdrifts,

And this prehistoric patch of Brussels Sprouts awaits our consumption after the first frost, when the little sprouts are even sweeter.

I have my herb patch still soldiering on and a couple of lonely red cabbages. A single Tatsoi plant remained from my Spring planting, at least one that hadn't gone to seed, and was shivering under some fall leaves. So I grabbed it and into the cooking pot it went!

I had been thinking about this month's round of No Croutons Required, the vegetarian foodie event alternately hosted by Tinned Tomatoes and Lisa's Kitchen. The current challenge is to make a soup or salad using the contents of one's cupboards (and maybe a nip out to the autumn garden!). Frugality is the name of the game and participants may not go to the store to purchase ingredients specifically for their chosen dish.

My lonely bunch of tatsoi was the inspiration for this Chinese-style soup. I had read that tatsoi is often a soup ingredient in Chinese cooking, but hadn't yet experimented with it. I chopped the crunchy stalks off and diced them up to add to the soup pot a few minutes before adding the leafy parts and that made a nice counterpoint. The leaves got very silky and tender and were perfect in this hot, noodly broth.

Chinese-Style Noodle Soup with Tatsoi

10.5 oz pkg. rice stick noodles

1 small bunch tatsoi, washed several times (makes about 4 cups)

6 cups water
4 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thinly
2 vegetable bouillon cubes (Knorr's was gluten-free, but check ingredients for other brands. Better yet, use homemade vegetable stock)
1 Tbsp. finely chopped ginger
3 Tbsp. soy sauce (check to make sure it is gluten-free)

Cook rice stick noodles in a large pot of boiling water for 6-8 minutes, or until soft. Drain and rinse under cold water for one minute to remove starch. Reserve.

Remove stems from tatsoi and dice finely. Rough chop the leaves.

Bring 6 cups of water to a boil. Add garlic, bouillon cubes, ginger and soy sauce. Return to boil and then let simmer 10 minutes to cook garlic and ginger. Add tatsoi stems and cook, stirring often, another 5 minutes. Add leaves and cook only a minute or two to get the tatsoi to soften. The tatsoi leaves get velvety soft and the stems still retain a nice crunch. Add noodles and heat through.

Serve hot. Makes 6 servings.

I reheated this soup the next day and threw in some leftover diced smoked tofu and that made it a little richer. The noodles had also soaked up more of the soup stock and got very plump and soft.

In addition to sending a bowl of this garlic- and ginger-scented soup over to Tinned Tomatoes for No Croutons Required, I am going to wing a bowl over to Deb of Kahakai Kitchen for her weekly Souper Sundays event. It was that good.

Baked Stuffed Busillus Frying Peppers

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:40:00 +0000

What a weird gardening year. After an inordinately slow start with our cooler and rainier than normal Spring and Summer, the Fall garden season has been balmy and today, October 7th, we have yet to have a killing frost. The always fertile zucchini plants keep pumping out produce, though the vines are somewhat withered, and my bell and frying pepper plants just keep fruiting away. The trees are just shy of the peak of autumn color, but we still have summer veggies. Just plain weird.

Faced with this autumnal abundance, we have been eating a lot of peppers and eggs, peppered tomato sauce, raw pepper strips, and packing egg and tuna salad into small hollowed-out peppers for breadless lunches. Not to mention those countless numbers of diced peppers cryogenically preserved in my chest freezer and which fly out to bonk us in the head every time we open the overhead freezer compartment in our refrigerator.

To keep up with this pepper bonanza, I decided to make some stuffed peppers. I have a gorgeous bunch of Busillus pepper plants which are still blossoming away. They are very faintly hot when cooked and they make my hands tingle slightly after I handle them, so people with sensitive skin should probably wear gloves. And try not to rub their eyes right afterward either.

Some of the Busillus Peppers are turning a glorious red, but most stay dark and glossy green. Despite their unfortunate name (doesn't Busillus sound like a pathogen?), they are a new favorite in our garden. They are incredibly productive and taste wonderful fried up with onions and garlic as the basis for other dishes, but I wanted to feature them (and use a good number of them up) in a casserole for supper, so I came up with this version of the classic rice-stuffed peppers.

It was a satisfying supper and was even better heated up as leftovers for successive lunches. The queso fresco cheese gets soft, but doesn't melt as much as other cheeses, so if you want a gooier stuffed pepper, you could substitute Monterey Jack. The herb patch is still green, so I harvested some fresh cilantro, plucked some homegrown garlic from the garden shed and got creative in the kitchen.

Baked Stuffed Frying Peppers

1-1/2 cups enchilada sauce, divided (check ingredients to make sure wheat is not added as a thickener)

12 oz. queso fresco

2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 fat cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2-3 extra frying peppers, seeded and chopped

12 large frying peppers, tops cut off, seeds and ribs removed, and slit up one side

1 bunch fresh cilantro, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 cups cooked rice (make up a bigger pot of rice to serve peppers over later, mmmmm)

Line a 9x13 inch baking pan with 1/2 cup enchilada sauce.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Working in batches, blanch prepared peppers 4-5 minutes, or until skins are easily pierced with a fork. Drain and cool. Repeat with remaining peppers.

Cut queso fresco into wedges as below.

Heat oil in frying pan. Add garlic and cook, stirring, one minute. Add onion and chopped peppers and cook until softened, stirring occasionally, 7-8 minutes.

Add cooked vegetables to mixing bowl. Add rice, cilantro, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix in about 1/2 cup enchilada sauce to moisten. Stuff about 2 Tbsp. rice mixture into each blanched pepper. Place a wedge of cheese in the center and place in prepared baking dish. Drizzle peppers with remaining enchilada sauce. Cover baking dish with foil and bake in preheated 350 degree F oven for 45 minutes.

Serves 6 pepper lovers. Delicious over more plain cooked rice.

This seemed like the kind of recipe that would be enjoyed over at Weekend Herb Blogging, a weekly blog event run by Haalo of Cook (Almost) Anything At Least Once, where the focus is on the Vegetable Kingdom. This week WHB is being hosted by Susan the Well-Seasoned Cook, whose blog has lots of gorgeous photography and is the headquarters of My Legume Love Affair. Susan will have a roundup of all the Weekend Herb Blogging entries after Sunday's deadline, so be sure to swing by and see what everyone's playing around with in kitchens from around the world.

October Cookbook Giveaway

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:25:00 +0000

Last month the Crispy Cook offered a copy of "Toujours Provence", by Peter Mayle. The randomly selected winner is Natashya, the Canadian blogger behind the adventurous, tasty and beautifully-photographed Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. I've gotten to know Natashya a little bit through her thoughtful posts for the Cook the Books Club, where we are reading Mayle's newest book "French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork and Corkscrew". Please feel free join us in reading the book, cooking up something inspired by our reading and then blogging about it by November 8th. Anyone can submit a post in our bimonthly foodie book club. Anyway, congratulations Natashya!

For the October Cookbook Giveaway, I thought it would be topical to offer a book on frugal cooking and hereby announce that this month's cookbook is a gently used hardcover copy of Caroline Hightower's "The Pennypincher's Book of Fine Food" (NY: Simon and Schuster, 1968). Everyone can always use some economy in the kitchen and Ms. Hightower's book offers some grocery shopping tips and good advice for saving on the cost of food and drink, such as "The best way to save money on liquor is to serve dinner on time". Ha! I learned that the hard way at a few family Thanksgivings. Mostly, though, our featured cookbook is a good compendium of budget-minded recipes, from Curry Dip to Stuffed Eggplant to Onions in Honey and Lemon Souffle.

To enter the giveaway just leave a comment below by midnight (Eastern Standard Time), October 31st, 2009. I will randomly pick a winner from the comments below and ship the book anywhere in the world to the winner.

Playing Around with Curry Leaves

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:09:00 +0000

The curry leaf is a new favored ingredient in the Crispy Kitchen. I recently discovered the pleasures of the India Bazaar in Albany, NY, (1321 Central Avenue) where they stock a diverting selection of dried beans, spices, barfi (brightly colored "chickpea fudge"),Indian groceries, sacks of heavenly-scented basmati rice, and fresh produce. Bags of fresh curry leaves are something that I picked up on my last several visits, and upon the advice of the grocer, have stuck them in my pots of steamed rice for a wonderful scent and flavor.

Curry leaves look similar to bay leaves (my husband says they look like they fell off a house plant) being glossy green ovals with pointed tips. They come from a small shrub, Murraya koenigii, which is grown throughout India and South Asia. The leaves do get softened during cooking, so I leave them in my dishes, but you can remove them like a bay leaf from finished dishes and their pungent flavor and scent will remain. You can find out more about cooking with and the botanical and medicinal properties of curry leaves and other plants at this informative website.

One can freeze curry leaves, but like cilantro, their flavor is much reduced, so it is best to use them fresh. I recently tried out this recipe for Parsi Potatoes with Egg and it was lovely, sort of like an exotically-spiced Potato Frittata. The recipe was a bit time-consuming, but the flavors were spectacular.

I thought I would send this post about curry leaves over to Weekend Herb Blogging, the weekly blog event that celebrates the Vegetable Kingdom. WHB is headquartered by Haalo at Cook (Almost) Anything At Least Once and is being hosted this week by Serbian food blogger Palachinka. Head on over to see what other interesting leaves, herbs, fruit and other plant ingredients are being featured by great cooks from around the world at the WHB roundup after October 5th.

Gluten-Free Baking with Flour Arrangements

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:35:00 +0000

For this month's round of Adopt A Gluten Free Blogger I went for some baking instruction from Sophie of Flour Arrangements. She's a real adventuress in the kitchen and knows how to bake, which is something that particularly flummoxes me. I end up getting distracted in the assemblage of the myriad flours and leavening agents need for baking up GF things and usually end up missing a step or putting in a tablespoon of something when a teaspoon is called for. Clearly, I need more guidance in the kitchen to hone my less than "mad" GF baking skills.

So Sophie was my Baking Guide last weekend when I attempted two of her wonderful recipes. Both came out as luscious as advertised on her beautifully-designed and photographed blog and my GF husband was delighted to have two new treats to devour.

First on my agenda was Sophie's Cracker Recipe. I had some success in making some crispy Sesame-Rosemary Crackers and Chickpea Hearts in the past, but these looked thicker and had a nice combination of flavors, so dug out my rolling pin, bought a fresh roll of parchment paper and popped out a batch of Sophie's Crackers.

They reminded me of Wheat Thins in texture and had a nice hearty flavor. I made up a batch of Vegetable Cream Cheese to spread on them (I whizzed up 1 pkg. softened cream cheese with a few radishes, celery stalks, carrots, chives, dill, and part of a red bell pepper) and Dan tucked into the cracker stash with gusto. They are also not so fragile as to buckle under the heft of a slice of cheese.

Bursting with self-esteem over the success of this first Flour Arrangement project, I decided to tackle a yeast bread. I was enamored of her photo of her Gluten-Free Honey and Flax Yeast Rolls and liked incorporating the fiber-rich powers of the flax seed, so I devoted an afternoon to the coddling of these yeasty babies. Man, they were good! Once again, with Sophie's detailed instructions, I produced a winning recipe. The rolls were great warm out of the oven and nuked up the next day in the microwave (I froze the immediately uneaten rolls in a bag in the freezer so they wouldn't dry out). Next time, it will be a double batch!

The rolls are soft, yet chewy, with a nice crunch from the flax seeds and a honey-tinged, nutty flavor. It's a time consuming recipe, as most yeasty breads are, and one does need a full gluten-free pantry supply as you need 1/4 of this and a 1/4 cup of that, but the end result is really lovely. A lot of gluten-free baked goods are somewhat on the white and fluffy side, and this was a hearty and substantial roll that my husband particularly enjoyed. He misses the "chew" of glutenous breads and these rolls gave his choppers the right amount of workout.

Sophie's blog is a visual delight to peruse. It has a clean layout, appealing graphics, and widgets that pop up and allow you to easily print out recipes. Her writing style is funny and engaging, and it is easy to lose track of time while browsing her posts, like standing in front of a great big GF bakery showcase.

Sea at the Book of Yum is the founder and current host of this edition of the Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger Event. Check back during the first week of October to see the roundup of all the other GF blogger adoptions and to see how we took our test drives with their recipes.

Juggling Apples, Maple Syrup and Canine Pepper

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:29:00 +0000

A Royal Foodie Joust is on over at the Foodie Blogroll and in this monthly event, participants must come up with a dish that uses three ingredients selected by the previous month's winning Jouster. Natasha the Four-Star Foodie won the last Joust and selected apples, maple syrup and cayenne pepper as the featured ingredient trio. That set my blogger heart aglow as I love all three equally.

Years ago I had a friend who took some cooking classes from an instructor who would refer to cayenne pepper as canine pepper, and the substitute name has stuck in my mind ever since. A special pepper just for dogs! Or maybe that's what postal carriers should carry on their belts. I have since seen cayenne pepper spelled as cheyenne pepper on some cooking websites and that cracks me up too.

In a family with various dietary needs and tastes, it is not always easy for the Crispy Cook to come up with something we all really enjoy, but everyone cleans the plate when I cook up my teriyaki roast salmon. I thought it would be a delicious twist to substitute maple syrup as the sweetener in that recipe, but it took some pondering and some experimentation to incorporate apples and canine pepper into the dish.

There are a lot of apple salsa recipes out in the blogoverse, but they are not all created equally. I think the apple and green pepper combo just tastes swampy, and it was after dicing half a bag of Macintosh apples and swapping in a variety of different edibles, I came up with a crunchy, cool and spicy salsa that is a nice counterpoint with the richness of the roasted fish. The kids scraped their salsa off their portions, but the adult diners thought it rather a nice contrast of tastes.

Salmon was a bit dear at the supermarket, so I used its fishy cousin, Steelhead Trout, for my recipe and it was terrific. The meat is the same pink color and firm texture as the salmon and roasted up nicely.

Teriyaki Trout with Snappy Apple Salsa

1 (2 lb.) fillet steelhead trout, washed and patted dry
1 Tbsp. olive oil

2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 Tbsp. soy sauce (make sure it's gluten-free)
1 Tbsp. gingerroot, peeled and finely chopped
2 Tbsp. dark maple syrup

2 apples, unpeeled, cored and diced
1 small bulb fennel, trimmed and diced (makes 1/2 cup)
2 Tbsp. lime juice
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Pinch of salt

Pour olive oil in large baking dish. Place trout fillet on top, skin side down.

Make marinade of garlic, soy sauce, ginger and maple syrup. Pour over fish in baking dish and cover and refrigerate at least one hour before serving.

When ready to roast your fish, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place baking dish on top rack in oven and roast 35 minutes or until trout flakes easily.

Meanwhile, mix up your apple salsa. Toss apple and fennel with lime juice to coat and prevent them from browning. Add cayenne and salt to taste, but start with just a pinch of each, as it is easy to overwhelm the delicate apple and fennel flavors.

When fish is done, top with a dollop of salsa. We enjoyed our salmon over a bed of clear sweet potato noodles dressed with homemade pesto and it was a lovely dinner all around. The sweet potato noodles were a new gluten-free find at Albany's Asian Market and they have a springy texture and cool blue-green tint.

To see what other cooks are whipping up in their kitchens with apples, maple syrup and cayenne pepper, be sure to visit the Royal Foodie Joust before October 1st. Happy Jousting!

Washington County Cheese Tour

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:45:00 +0000

To bookend my enjoyable sojourn last weekend to the Bennington Garlic and Herb Festival this weekend was all about the cheese. Enjoying a Sunday drive down the country roads of Washington County on a gorgeous late summer day with burnished wildflowers and spectacular mountain views was a perfect treat with my youngest. We picked out three farms to visit around Argyle, New York on this weekend's Washington County Cheese Tour. We packed up our patterned socks and a portable cooler and had a lovely several hours petting goats, cows and dogs and sampling the dairy epicurean delights.

The first stop on our cheesy tour was Sweet Spring Farm on Saunders Road. You travel down an over-canopied one-lane dirt road before entering the break in the woods that nestles this goat farm and cheese plant. My girl got a little nervous about our lack of gasoline as we were driving through this entrance tunnel, but it was a beautiful farm indeed and swarmed with Cheese Tourists.

The Farm only had samples of its soft cheeses for sampling and for sale, and most were sold out when we arrived. They also didn't take checks so we were skunked as far as buying any of their herbed and peppered chevres and lovely feta, but we did taste a microspoon of them before clambering down to lure some of their cats and goats out of the barn.

After refueling the Crispy Car and getting some cash for future cheese fun, we hit The Argyle Cheese Farmer located on Randle Farm (on the fabulously named Coot Hill Road). This was a popular stop as well, especially with a gaggle of Harley Riders, and we sampled some cow's milk cheeses, including Pumpkin Spice Quark, Cheese Curds and a tasty Caerphilly Cheese. Caerphilly is a Welsh hard cheese with a buttery taste that is often used melted in Welsh Rarebit.

My Dairy Princess enjoyed petting a newborn calf

while I was enamored of an ancient border collie, Tor, who kept bringing me wood chips in his mouth. I'd throw them and he'd just look at me in puzzlement and bring me another.

Completely worn out by our efforts, we hit the cheesemonger shed with a vengeance and got some of that luscious Caerphilly, some Chive and Dill cheese curds (my kids won't eat ANYthing laced with my homegrown dill, but loved this product), and a ball of fresh mozzarella to make a caprese salad for dinner.

We wrapped our cheese tour with a visit to Longview Farm, where we were pleased to see a couple of our friends, including my book loving young friend Orrie, who sold me on a luscious slab of High Rock Cheese, a nutty Gruyere-style cheese made from goat's milk. Alas, they were sold out of chevre when we arrived, so we will have to seek out their other cheeses at the local farmer's markets.

We had a funny and informative tour of the goat barn, milking parlor and cheesemaking operations, and then we bid adieu to various barnyard friends, including a chicken that crossed the road.

After picking up some local corn, we came home and made dinner for the rest of the family, featuring corn on the cob, caprese salad, sliced garden cukes and peppers and a big cheese-tasting plate with some GF crackers. A very satisfying meal and a fantastic day trip. The Washington County Cheese Tour is an annual event and we hope to come back and visit the other two farms on the itinerary next year. I will do so with some cash in pocket and a full tank in the car though.

I thought this post would be perfect to send over to Chez Loulou, who hosts a monthly La Fete du Fromage in which participants feature cheese and particularly droolworthy examples of the cheesemaker's art.

A Mediterranean-Style Chickpea and Fennel Salad

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 07:43:00 +0000

The September theme for No Croutons Required is Mediterranean soups and salads. I had some finocchio (fennel) ready to pick in the Crispy Garden, so I perused my cupboards, cookbooks and some internet sites to come up with an entry for this fun vegetarian event started by Tinned Tomatoes and Lisa's Kitchen.

I liked this recipe that I found on Food & Wine, but lacking and not liking some of the ingredients, I played around with it and came up with an altered version that uses many ingredients commonly used by Mediterranean cooks, including chick peas, olive oil, fennel, and thyme.

The combination of cool, crunchy fennel and celery and mealy cooked chick peas was very tasty and I look forward to bringing this salad to my next warm weather gathering as it can be served chilled or at room temperature and keeps well.

Chickpea and Fennel Salad a la Mediterranee

1 (14 oz.) can cooked chickpeas, drained
3 stalks celery, diced fine
1 small bulb fennel, trimmed and diced fine (save some fennel fronds for garnish)

1 fat garlic clove, minced
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1/3 cup high quality, extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and Pepper
Handful of thyme, leaves stripped off
Handful of Italian parsley, finely chopped

Gently mix chickpeas, celery and fennel in bowl.

Make a dressing out remaining ingredients. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour over salad and let marinate at room temperature for an hour before serving.

Garnish with sprig of thyme and snipped fennel leaves.

Serves 6.

Looking forward to the No Croutons Required roundup after September 20th, when you and others get a chance to peruse the entries and vote for your favorite.

Pasta Presto Nights #130 Roundup

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:00:00 +0000

When I was first contacted about hosting Pasta Presto Nights and Ruth inquired as to whether I would be available for the week ending September 11th, I couldn't help but wince about the date. September 11 will be forever etched in my memory as a day of horror and sadness. I don't think one needs to be a resident of New York City, New York State, or the United States to feel touched by this date when so many families lost loved ones. One just has to have compassion.

Before I present the roundup of recipes, I would just like to ask that each of us reading this post think about how we could honor the memory of those who died on 9-11 in some small way. Perhaps it is as simple as remembering them in our thoughts and prayers; perhaps it is by rendering some small kindness to another person on this infamous day.

Turning back to the subject at hand, I was pleased to see the wonderful Pasta recipes that filled my email inbox from around the world. We have recipes from New Zealand, Canada, USA, Malaysia, Switzerland, Australia and the contributors used many subspecies of pasta, from orzo to ravioli to rigatoni, so we really covered the map with Pasta Presto Nights #130.

1) Little Inbox of the Malaysian blog, Eating Pleasure, took a classic dish and tried to make it healthier, and her version of Curry Noodles looks tempting indeed. She lightened things up with soy bean noodles and evaporated milk, and the result looks and sounds very inviting.

2) Gillian of So So Simple Food gave Delia Smith's Macaroni and Cheese recipe a test drive and pronounced it "sensational". Her New Zealand food blog has some gorgeous photography and I enjoyed her foodie tour of France from her recent travels.

3) Participating in her first ever blog event, Hannah from Melbourne, Australia, tackled Pumpkin Ravioli from scratch. Her blog, Eat it Good, has lots of photos to illustrate the ravioli-making process, which reminded her of past travels in Milan. Welcome to Pasta Presto Nights, Hannah, and with such impressive cooking skills, we look forward to more of your pasta creations!

4) Pam, at the Tennessee food blog Sidewalk Shoes, cooked up some cute little orzo pasta with a summery Orzo Cucumber Salad with Mint. She found inspiration for the dish on her cookbook shelves and a copy of "The Flavor Bible". Looks like a winning combination.

5) Your happenin' hostess also made a pasta salad using a "shopping" tour of my late summer garden in upstate New York. Some gorgeous fennel bulbs that managed to hide from ravaging bunnies and a head of roasted homegrown garlic got mixed into a salad with gluten-free corn noodles, sliced grape tomatoes and mozzarella balls for a Late Summer Pasta Salad with Roasted Fennel and Garlic over at The Crispy Cook.

6) Our wonderful Pasta Presto founder, Ruth of Nova Scotia, Canada, squeaked in under the deadline with a fab-looking Last Minute Pasta with Pancetta, Olives, and Roasted Tomatoes. Ruth's blog, Once Upon a Feast, also had a recent post with an interesting video link about a Brit cooking up pasta on the fly in a hotel room (though the gluten-free traveler in me did not approve of cooking tortellini in the hotel coffee pot and the mom in me hoped he didn't leave a big mess for the hotel maid to clean up).

7) Those cute little pasta bow-ties, or farfalle, are featured in a tangy Eggplant Marinara Sauce in an entry from Parita's World, in Basel, Switzerland. Parita roasted the eggplants first and then added their smoky flesh to her spicy marinara sauce. (Don't tell my kids, but I often sneak in roasted eggplant and other veggies, whirred up in the food processor to disguise them, into my spaghetti sauces).

8) Rigatoni with Spinach and Spicy Chicken Sauce is a quick and hearty dish whipped up by Sara over at the Washington DC-based, Imafoodblog. The one-pot dinner recipe sounds divine, with nice glass of red wine on the side!

9) Daphne is a new bride who cooked up a simple but sophisticated Smoked Salmon Ricotta Pasta on her Perth, Australia-based blog More than Words. Talk about being Pretty in Pink!

10) Hailing from Indiana, Heather the Girlichef thought pasta for breakfast was a great idea, and I would have to say that I concur with her astute assessment. Heather made use of a half-full box of fusilli and sauced it up with eggs, olive oil, Parmesan and spices for a luscious Egg and Pasta Scramble.

11) Deb from Kahakai Kitchen in Hawaii sent us over a plate of Shrimp Scampi with Corn and Orzo, inspired by a recipe in Clean Eating Magazine. Deb is one of my cohosts over at Cook the Books, a bimonthly foodie book club, where we have just begun reading Peter Mayle's book "French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork and Corkscrew". Feel free to join us.

12) Pasta with Grilled Tomatoes and Grilled Vegetables is the tempting entry submitted by Hillary at Chew on That. Hillary was tempted by the gorgeous Zebra Tomatoes and Chocolate Peppers (who doesn't like Chocolate?) she found at her local Chicago market and made them into a citrusy, smoky tomato sauce for her pasta.

13) Bits of Taste is a Malaysian blogger who offers up her version of Spaghetti Carbonara. Prowl around her well-designed blog for other recipes, particularly her Chinese favorites.

14) Pairing a late summer favorite, basil pesto, with tortellini, was the inspired idea of my fellow New Yorker, Joanne of Eats Well With Others. Her dish, Tortellini Pesto Pasta Salad, made use of her dad's carefully nurtured basil plants and sounds perfect for a quick evening's meal. Pesto Presto Pasta!

15) Anna at the Australian food blog Morsels and Musings made a Tamarind and Kaffir Broth. Anna used kaffir leaves from her own kaffir tree on her balcony and states that this soup "really hits her sour spot".
16) Sarah over at the Ontario, Canada blog What Smells So Good? was afflicted with the same garden woes as I and others in northeastern North America faced this season. Unusually damp weather blighted our beloved tomato plants and so instead of having window sills full of green tomatoes and armloads of ripe red tomatoes to cook down we have leafless, brown plants with only a few fruit left on the withered vines. Sarah made good use of some of these precious remaining cherry tomatoes in her Summer's Candy Pasta.

17) Cherry tomatoes are also the star in Chaya's Pasta with Lite Sauce over at her blog Sweet and Savory Says it All. Chaya also has another blog, Comfy Cook, which features Gluten-Free recipes, so I had a lot of fun exploring and bookmarking recipes over there.

Thank you to everyone who submitted a pasta recipe from their kitchens and thank you to Ruth for allowing me this opportunity to host Pasta Presto Nights. I was honored to serve as your host for this round and look forward to sharing even more recipes with you all in the future.

Sights and Scents at the Bennington Garlic Festival

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:16:00 +0000

My mom and I had a great little jaunt over in Bennington, Vermont at the Garlic and Herb Festival. The weather was great, there was good people watching and the blues band was foot-tappingly good. Mom was on the hunt for garden ornaments and edibles and I was looking for more garlic varieties to plant in October since this year's exploratory garlic harvest was so successful.

We saw lots of garlic vendors and chatted them up about different varieties, while sampling many a spicy clove. There were garlic pickle slivers to eat, pickled garlic and lots of vinegars, pestos, sauces and garlic-spiked barbecue seasonings to sample. We had a completely enjoyable day.

There were a couple of fellow Saratoga residents vending their wares at the Garlic Festival, including the very cute young couple that own Rutkowski Farms in Ballston Spa. I bought some Ukrainian Red Garlic from them, some of which we'll munch now and some of which we will plant. The Rutkowskis note that Ukrainian Red is a mild garlic that is especially nice minced into a bread dipping oil and you can see other cooking advice, recipes, and information about different garlic varieties on their lovely, clean website.

The good folks at Saratoga Garlic were also on hand to offer tastes of their luscious aiolis. My favorite was the Saffron Aioli, as documented in this Crispy Cook Action photo.

Mom bought a bottle of Sapling Maple Liqueur for us to toast with later that evening and it was a smooth and tasty product. It is 70 proof, so since I was the designated driver, I had only a dropperful for my snoot at the Fair, but later that night we all enjoyed a proper shot. It would be even more appropriate to sip before a fire in the woodstove, so I will be looking forward to buying my own bottle when I am back in Vermont.

We were full of garlicky ideas after the Festival and so Mom decided to prepare us some Creamy Mushroom Soup, spiked with a lot of garlic and some fresh herbs from her kitchen garden. It was really rich and full of flavor and full of maternal goodness.

Here's my Mom's recipe for:

Creamy Mushroom Soup with Garlic and Fresh Herbs

4-5 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped fine
2 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 (8 oz.) pkg. baby Portabella mushrooms, washed and sliced
Salt and Pepper

4 Tbsp. chopped fresh herbs (Mom used lemon balm, thyme, oregano, basil, and sage)

2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. cornstarch

1 cup warm milk
1/4 cup heavy cream

Melt 2 Tbsp. butter and olive oil in small frying pan. Add garlic, and cook on low heat, stirring often, until softened, about 10 minutes. Mom warns: "Don't let the garlic burn!"

Add slice mushrooms to pan and saute another 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Take off heat and add chopped herbs. Mom says: "Let the mushrooms have a little rest".

In a small soup pot melt 2 Tbsp. butter. Add cornstarch and stir. Take off heat and whisk in warm milk. If lumps remain after whisking, press sauce through a colander. Heat soup through and then add heavy cream. Just heat until cream is hot and serve immediately.

Makes four small servings. Lovely as a first course for dinner or paired with salad and bread for a light lunch.

I haven't had a soup recipe to send over to my Cook the Books buddy Deb of Kahakai Kitchen for her weekly Souper Sunday event, but this Creamy Mushroom soup will be shipped over there post haste. Look for Deb's roundup on Sunday, September 13.

Happy to be Hosting Pasta Presto Nights #130

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 12:02:00 +0000

I am delighted to be hosting Pasta Presto Nights this week. This weekly foodie event is the brainchild of Ruth of Once Upon a Feast, and is all about the noodle in its infinite and glorious varieties. Each week bloggers post their recipes for macaroni, pierogies, rice noodles, gnocchi and pasta of all kinds and I am looking forward to noodling around with all of you this week for Pasta Presto Nights#130.

To submit a pasta dish, here are the rules:

1) Make a pasta dish and blog about it by Thursday, September 10th.

2) In your blog post, make sure to include a mention and link to Pasta Presto Nights and to this post on The Crispy Cook so we can spread the Pasta Love around.

3) Email your entry to me (oldsaratogabooks AT gmail DoT coM) with the link to your post no later than Thursday, September 10, 2009 (midnight Eastern Standard Time) so I can post the tasty roundup the following day. Attach a .jpg or other image file with your email.

For my contribution to this week's Pasta Presto Nights, I sought inspiration from my garden. It's late summer and the weather has been unusually wet and with temperature variations all over the map, so the tomatoes were totally stressed out and afflicted with blight early in the season. My only remaining tomato babies are some yellow Brandywines (though they are watery and mushy this year from all that rain excess) and some grape tomatoes. I gathered about 1 pint of these grape tomatoes and a handful of basil, a fennel bulb and some of our first homegrown garlic and came up with a really luscious pasta salad to bring to a gathering of friends.

For our gluten-free noodle option, I used a bag of Sam Mills corn pasta. When they recently had some of this pasta on sale for $1 a bag at Ocean State Job Lot in Ballston Spa, we stocked up. It has a nice golden color and stands up well when cooking, so I used this brand, but you could use any shaped pasta for this dish.

Late Summer Pasta Salad with Roasted Fennel and Garlic

1 16 oz. pkg. of your favorite pasta shape
1 8 oz. container fresh mozzarella balls, drained
2 cups grape tomatoes, cut in half
3 Tbsp. fresh basil, slivered
4 cloves roasted garlic
1 large bulb fennel, trimmed, halved and roasted
Salt and pepper to taste
3 Tbsp. White wine vinegar
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

The first step is to roast up some garlic and fennel. I put a whole head of trimmed garlic (cut off the tops to open up vents to let the oven heat in) in an oven dish with my trimmed fennel bulb, drizzled them with olive oil and covered the pan with foil. They were baked at 350 degrees F for 1 hour. Let cool and squeeze roasted garlic from four of the cloves and reserve. Chop roasted fennel coarsely and reserve.

Cook pasta and rinse with cold water. Drain.

Toss pasta, tomatoes, mozzarella balls (I cut them in half to extend their goodness throughout the dish and because my youngest likes to pluck them out ahead of serving) basil and fennel. Whisk roasted garlic in with vinegar and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and pour dressing over pasta salad. Toss gently and let chill until serving.

Makes 8 servings.

Looking forward to YOUR delicious pasta entries!

September Cookbook Giveaway

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 12:39:00 +0000

Last month the Crispy Cook offered a copy of "The Popular Potato: Best Recipes", by Valwyn McMonigal. The randomly selected winner is Arlene, from The Food of Love, one of my fellow New Yorkers and someone who is a good friend though I have yet to meet her in person. Someday, Arlene! And congratulations!

For the September Cookbook Giveaway, I thought it would be fun to offer a book by Peter Mayle in celebration of French culture and the fact that the Cook the Books Club is now reading Mayle's latest book "French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew". We would love to have others join us in reading the book, cooking up something inspired by the author's prose and then blogging about it. The deadline for joining us in this combined passion for words and food is Friday, October 30th.

Anyway, the Peter Mayle book up for grabs this month in the giveaway, while not a cookbook, is chock full of the pleasures and eccentricities of being an ex-pat Englishman living in southern France. The book in question is "Toujours Provence" (NY: Vintage, 1991) and is a trade paperback in Very Good used condition (a bit of scuffing to the covers and some thumbed pages).

To enter the giveaway just leave a comment below by midnight (Eastern Standard Time), September 30, 2009. I will randomly pick a winner from the comments below and ship the book anywhere in the world to the winner. Bonne chance!

Putting A Monster in a Jar: Pickled Cauliflower

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:51:00 +0000

During this overly damp and cooler than normal growing season in upstate New York, we've had mixed success with our garden veggies. The zucchinis, beans, greens and cucumbers grew with tropical vigor, but other vegetables, like the tomato crop, suffered from the various viruses and pests that love wetter conditions.

We had a six-pack of cauliflower transplants in our garden and only two came to a head. But head they did. They were cauliflower whoppers and grew to be 14 inches in diameter. I used one earlier this summer over the course of a week, snagging florets for raw snacking, stir-frying others, and baking the rest with some grated knobs of cheese.

Then I was faced with another gargantuan cauli-monster and I thought of Dog Hill Kitchen's Gingered Sweet Pickled Cauliflower recipe. I've never canned with cauliflower, so I was eager to try out this recipe, which Dog Hill Mistress Maggie says is similar tasting to those jars of mixed vegetable pickles you sometimes see in the pickle aisle.

My monster cauliflower was thus preserved for winter months when our garden consists of a frozen, rabbit-gnawed couple of Brussels Sprouts stumps, topped with snow. I used a couple of Bucillus frying peppers from our garden instead of the prettier red chile pepper called for in Maggie's recipe, but otherwise, I was faithful in following this great (and long-bookmarked) recipe. Thank you Maggie!

I am submitting this pickled cauliflower post to Weekend Herb Blogging #199 which is being hosted by Mele Cotte. Weekend Herb Blogging is a weekly blog event that puts the spotlight on those members of the Vegetable Kingdom that sustain us, and is headquartered at Cook (Almost) Anything At Least Once.

Confections of a Closet Master Baker: A Biblio-Culinary Review and a GF Cheescake

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:04:00 +0000

Confections of a Closet Master Baker: A Memoir, by Gesine Bullock-Prado (NY: Broadway Books, 2009)

This is an engaging and lively account of the author's transformation from unhappy Hollywood film producer to happy, flour-dusted baker in America's smallest and funkiest state Capitol, Montpelier, Vermont. I was delighted to receive an advance copy of this book through the good folks at A Blithe Palate and Dispensing Happiness, who are cohosting The Edible Word event, wherein participants read a book, cook up some inspirational edibles and then blog about it.

Gesine (rhymes with subpoena) had an interesting upbringing as the daughter of an Alabama dad and German opera-singer mom. During her preschool years, she and big sister Sandy were reared in Germany, looked after by a collection of maternal relatives and nannies while mom was onstage. When Gesine was five years old, they moved to the U.S. and Mom (Mutti) seems to have retired from singing to rule the family with a strict regimen of health-conscious foods. No more Continental sweets unless it was a holiday or birthday. Instead, it was "a dietary lock-down of whole-grain, tofu-laced, sucrose-free hell".

Gesine grew up and moved in with Sandy, a struggling actress, to share an apartment while she went to law school. Sandy, whom the rest of the world knows as Sandra Bullock, achieved star status during this time and after passing the bar and going to a few dispiriting legal job interviews, Gesine signed up to work in her sister's new production company.

While working with the ebullient Sandy and meeting her future artist husband, Ray, helped "dull the pervasive ick of work", Gesine was still unfulfilled by her work, filling her free time with a frenzy of recreational baking. She bakes and bakes and bakes her way through various pastry arts until finally, while helping nurse Mutti through a terminal illness, she realizes that she is happiest in the kitchen. She and Ray chuck the Southern California lifestyle, pack up their fuzzy dogs and relocate to Vermont, where Gesine plans to attend culinary school.

A huge mail order for her specialty French almond-based macaroons that she had continued to pack off to Sandy and friends puts school on hold while she finds a commercial-scale kitchen in which to crank these out. Soon after, she and Ray buy a little building in the outer orbit of Montpelier and a bakery is born. The rest of the book details her daily adventures in catering to various customers, developing new recipes, and enjoying her new lifestyle. As a small business owner myself, I especially enjoyed the war stories about the mix of cranks and angels one gets in the shop each day. Gesine is a very descriptive and witty writer and can quickly place the reader right into each of the scenes she describes, whether it is sharing a cup of coffee and a pastry at tea-time with her Oma in Germany or performing the balletic pre-dawn bakery routines in a dark, chilly winter kitchen. Husband Ray Prado's delightful illustrations further season the book and they are humorous and affectionate portraits of scenes in Gesine's world.

Gesine offers a generous serving of recipes throughout the pages, and one can also find some recipes, further writing and even a video about how to make Golden Eggs on her blog, where you can absorb even more of her sparkling and sarcastic wit while she whisks and pours. Alas, it is at her blog, that I found out that Gesine's bakery is now shuttered while she is on hiatus working on other projects, so one cannot make a pilgrimage to Montpelier to sample some of her wonderful creations. (Montpelier is a fun town to visit, nonetheless, and I offer a little tour of bookshops and restaurants here).

Though I am more partial to the savory end of cooking, I really enjoyed this trawl through a baker's life. My only negative comment is that I found the many descriptions of Gesine's late mother disturbing. She strides about the book, clad in leather pants, stilettos and a Foxy Lady belt buckle at school functions (okay that's embarrassing but forgivable), seems to always have a critical comment for Gesine on her tongue, noting things down in her "endless ledger of unforgivable venialities" (that seems pretty harsh), and then humiliates her daughter in a school cafeteria scene that made my stomach clench (Mutti Dearest crossed the line there). I realize everyone's parenting styles are different, but reading these scenes made me uncomfortable. Gesine would always counter these maternal descriptions with a sentence about how much she missed her mom, but they added jarring notes to an otherwise interesting foodie memoir.

It was easy enough to select a recipe that I wanted to make from the book. I ran down the list to my dear husband, and without hesitation he chose the Espresso Cheesecake. Of course, Gesine's recipe would require some fiddling to make this gluten-free for our household. Thankfully, cheesecakes don't require much flour and the architectonics of gluten molecules to make them stand up. Mercifully too, my local supermarket stocks the gluten-free chocolate sandwich cookies needed for the crust so I didn't have to spend three days on this dessert project.

I got 2 cups of cookie crumbs ground up finely in my food processor and then added the 2 sticks of butter called for in Gesine's recipe. Maybe 2 cups of non-GF Oreo-style cookies absorb much more oil than my cookies did, or perhaps there is a typo in the cookie crust recipe for the Espresso Cheesecake. I think 1/2 stick of butter might have sufficed. I had an oily, liquidy bunch of chocolate crumbs that would just slither through the springform pan, so I ground up the second 8 oz. package of GF chocolate cookies to make another 2 cups of crumbs which I mixed in for the crust. Then I spooned up as much butter as I could off the top of the mixture, spooned it into the bottom of my pan and blotted up as much excess butter as I could with paper towels. In it went to bake (I put a foil lining on my cookie sheet underneath to absorb more oily excess) and then I blotted again as it cooled.

The rest of the recipe went smoothly and my family enjoyed this not-too-sweet, pleasantly caffeinated cheesecake just fine (I also subbed in white rice flour for the wheat flour called for in the filling). It is particularly nice with a cup of coffee on the side and garnished with some chocolate-covered coffee beans for extra Javanation.

I am looking forward to the roundup of book reviews and blog posts about this book on the Edible Word, which will be posted later this week. Thank you to the sweet hosts for the book and thank you to Gesine for a great read. I hope the author will continue to explore baking and will write some other books for us to enjoy about her creative adventures.

Weekend Herb Blogging #198 Roundup

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:24:00 +0000

Welcome to the roundup of blog posts and recipes that showcase the bounty of the Vegetable Kingdom in Weekend Herb Blogging #198. I was honored to once again host this popular and mouthwatering event. Bloggers from various corners of the world submitted entries using plant ingredients from Malaysia, Italy, Canada, Scotland, the United States, and Australia.

From Italy, we got an entry from Graziele of the very informative herb blog Erbe in Cucina. She grew some shiny red Shishito peppers, which she used in a stir-fry with shrimp, peas, sprouts and rice. Her post has information about growing these mild chili peppers and suggests several other ways of cooking them while they are green as well.

Muneeba (and her handsome cat Ozzy) blogs from Connecticut, USA, at her lovely blog, An Edible Symphony and prepared a fresh Zucchini, Tomato and Herb Tart to share with us. Her recipe calls for layers of sliced vegetables over a puff pastry crust, topped with an egg and cream mixture that gets baked until golden brown. A perfect seasonal recipe for us in the Northern Hemisphere.

Nate and Annie just recently moved The House of Annie from San Jose, CA to Malaysia and I certainly got a geography lesson researching the various locales in their blog post. Their blog post describes a lovely home-cooked meal they were treated to when they flew with their many suitcases from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching, the capital city of the Malaysian state of Sarawak, on the northern coast of Borneo. Their WHB entry describes a local fiddlehead fern variety, Paku, which was stir-fried with shallots, garlic, and belacan (shrimp paste).

Kalyn, from Kalyn's Kitchen, the founder of Weekend Herb Blogging, shares a colorful Bulgur Salad with Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Parsley, Mint and Lemon. Bulgur is an easy grain to cook with, as it just needs to steep in boiling water to soften. For a gluten-free alternative to bulgur (bulgur is a form of cracked wheat), try quinoa, which is becoming more easily available in supermarkets and natural foods markets.

If you haven't yet had a chance to visit Brii's Blog in English, you are in for a treat. Brii is an herbalist who week after week prepares intriguing conserves, pickles, liqueurs and other wonders in the kitchen using a variety of garden grown plants. This week Brii shows us all how to make Aromatic Salt from a variety of herbs which she advises to "give away generously". Be sure to see her gorgeous blog with all of its photos from her many Italian Alpine treks.

Mint is the star ingredient in a Thai-inspired Spicy Chicken and Mint Salad made by Pam of Sidewalk Shoes. Pam is a Tennessee teacher by day and passionate home cook by night. My Crispy Cook heart was also warmed by her love of reading and the great book reviews she sprinkles throughout the recipes and cat photos on her blog.

Up north in Ontario, Canada, Jerry of Jerry's Thoughts, Musings, and Rants made an intriguing Peach, Prosciutto and Goat Cheese Pizza. This sounds like a great combination of flavors and the added smokiness from grilling the pizza outside sounds even more heavenly.

Healthy and delicious recipes abound on Joanne's Eats Well With Others blog and this week the sidewalk fruit vendors in New York City tempted her with their blueberries. Joanne sends us all a slice of Blueberry Muffin Cake to make use of these seasonal berries.

Hailing from Sydney, Australia, our wonderful Weekend Herb Blogging Head Master, Haalo, of Cook (Almost) Anything At Least Once, introduces us to the Lebanese Cucumber. She cured some baby Qukes in lemon sea salt, caster sugar, lemon juice and herbs and they look mighty tasty. As Haalo notes, they make "a refreshing snack for the warmest of days."

Katie in Michigan made use of an overflowing box of veggies from her share in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm to make a spectacular looking Stuffed Pattypan Squash. Her blog Eat This, has lots of other fantastic gluten-free recipes using whole grains, with an emphasis on fresh produce, natural ingredients and sugar alternatives.

After submitting a lesson to WHB last week on how to can tomato sauce, Cinzia provides followup instruction for canning whole tomatoes with basil, or Pomodori Pelati. Her bilingual food blog, Cindystar, showcases many other glorious recipes and many great photos of life on shores of Lake Garda.

From her garden plot in Scotland, Mangocheeks offered up a delicious round of pakoras made with golden beetroot and coriander. Her blog, Allotment 2 Kitchen, has many other recipes featuring her homegrown produce and tasty bits about Scottish cooking.

Finally, from upstate New York, your host, The Crispy Cook, blogged about my daughter's heartache at a recent soccer game and how she requested a most humble dish for dinner, Comfort Corn. Not my fanciest dish, but one which offered up a little solace on a plate.

Another interesting round of Weekend Herb Blogging and one which introduced me to a few new blogs, recipes and unusual plant ingredients. I now pass the torch on to Mele Cotte, who will be hosting Weekend Herb Blogging #199 from August 31st through September 6th. Thank you to everyone who contributed these great recipes. I have already bookmarked several to make soon. See you at Mele Cotte next week...

Red Noodle Beans and Tofu

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 22:23:00 +0000

I've blogged about Noodle Beans before, since we grew them for the first time last year. They are a relative of the Black-Eyed Pea, though they taste like a string bean. They reach astonishing lengths, hence their other moniker, Yard Long Beans, though they still remain tender if you pick them before their girth exceeds 1/2 inch.

We grow the Noodle Beans on a pyramid-shaped trellis that Dan made me for a garden present several years ago out of some scrap oak flooring from his always-abundant hoard of scavenged building materials. They start slow but as soon as the air and soil temperatures hit tropical levels, the bean vines seem to grow several inches a day. When I am very still in the garden I am never sure if I am hearing the buzz of pollinating wasps or Noodle Bean tendrils unfurling.

We haven't been too experimental with our Noodle Bean harvests, other than steaming them and tossing them into stir fries, so when I found this recipe for Szechuan Green Beans and miraculously had all ingredients on hand, I gave it a test drive. I added a 10 oz. package of firm tofu, already cubed, (I drained it first) and tossed it into the wok to heat through for the last couple of minutes of cooking.

This was a luscious, rich and spicy double bean dish which I served over rice to accolades from the Crispy Crew.

I am sending a plateful of these tasty Red Noodle Beans and Tofu over to Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook, who is the founder and this month's host of My Legume Love Affair. Susan will post the roundup of (no doubt) many dozens of bean recipes after September 1st so be sure to check out all that leguminous love.

Comfort Corn

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 10:52:00 +0000

The soccer game was tied and there was less than a minute left on the clock. The serious-faced girl warriors were intent on winning this first pre-season game to secure their position on the junior varsity team and show their new coach that they warranted their status as starting players in the upcoming season.

A tangle of elbows and shins spun the ball back toward the home team's goal. A burst of speed from the opponent's forward brought the ball back through the defensive line and now the action was just between the goalie and the opposing forward. They each readied for the eventual kick and it was a strong, hard one. The goal keeper sprang to block the ball and it looked like she would fend it off, but it deflected off her outstretched hands backwards into the goal in sickening slow motion. The goalie's team lost, 4-3.

It was my little sweetie, my youngest daughter, that was that heartsick goalie, and while her teammates gathered round her to comfort her on the bench while she sobbed in frustration, she would need love and time to get over this grand disappointment.

That night, after a restorative shower, nap, many hugs and many phone consultations with her soccer mates, she requested that I make "that really good corn". I was surprised that this humble sauteed corn was a favorite of hers. It's just a no-brainer "recipe" that I slap together in a hurry when I need a quick supper side dish. It's not a fancy dish and usually one I reserve for the winter when the garden season is but a memory, but you can be sure that I whipped some up to help ease the sting of the morning's defeat.

This is just a basic skillet corn recipe with some diced onion and red pepper. I threw in some chives for the green color and because I remembered the advice from "The Last Chinese Chef" by Nicole Mones, which I read recently for the Cook the Books Foodie Book Club: "For someone grieving, cook with chives, ginger, coriander, and rosemary. Theirs is the pungent flavor, which draws grief up and out of the body and releases it into the air"

You could certainly use fresh corn kernels or canned corn, but my family seems to like it best with frozen corn kernels. Something about the nubby texture, I guess. I find frozen corn and petit pois are the best frozen vegetables, as they don't get mushy or watery when you cook them up.

Here then is a scandalously easy recipe for Comfort Corn, which worked a small bit of ease into my youngest's innards and made the morning's burden somewhat lighter. The embrace she got from the classy girl who ended up as the second starter goalie on her team was even better mojo though.

Comfort Corn

2 Tbsp. butter

1 small diced onion
1/2 small red bell pepper, diced

2 Tbsp. snipped chives (or frozen from the freezer)
1 bag frozen corn kernels (4 cups worth)

Salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in skillet. Add onion and red pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 4-5 minutes. Add corn and chives, and cook, stirring, until heated through. You can cover the pan once its warmed up and let it hang out until your other parts of dinner are cooked up.

Season with salt and pepper. My baby likes to add more onion powder over the top of her corn.

Serves 4.

This comforting veggie dish is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging #198. It is not as as glamorous as the Pickled Cauliflower recipe I originally intended for my post as host of this week's WHB round, but it seemed more needed this week. Weekend Herb Blogging is the brainchild of Kalyn's Kitchen and is now headquartered by Haalo at Cook (Almost) Anything At Least Once. I am accepting submissions until tomorrow, August 30th, at 11 am Eastern Standard Time.

Weekend Herb Blogging #198 - Crispy Cook Style

oldsaratogabooks@gmail.com (Rachel) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:46:00 +0000

This week I am hosting Weekend Herb Blogging #198, the weekly food blog event that showcases information and recipes about herbs, vegetables, fruits and other plant ingredients. The always educational Weekend Herb Blogging was first initiated by Kalyn's Kitchen in Utah, and now, in its third year, is headquartered at Haalo's ethereal food blog in Sydney, Australia, Cook (Almost) Anything At Least Once.

Last week's WHB roundup can be seen at The Cabinet of Prof. Kitty, and has an eclectic mix of posts from great home cooks around the world featuring rose petals, zucchini, mushrooms, cacao nibs, beets, mint, carrots, tomatoes, gooseberries, matcha, fennel, rosemary, salvia and laurel. Here are the rules for Weekend Herb Blogging as taken from Haalo's headquarters:

"1. Entries to Weekend Herb Blogging must be posts written specifically for Weekend Herb Blogging. This means they cannot be cross-posted in other events. Photos used in the posts however can be submitted to photo events like DMBLGIT.

2. Weekend Herb Blogging entries should have the goal of helping people learn about cooking with herbs or plant ingredients.

Only two types of entries will be accepted:
* Recipe posts where a herb or plant ingredient is one of the primary ingredients in the recipe
* Informative posts that spotlight one herb or plant ingredient, particularly including information about how they are used in cooking.
Naturally, posts can be a combination of both these criteria.

3. Posts must contain the phrase Weekend Herb Blogging with a link to the Crispy Cook for that week and to Haalo's WHB HQ.

4. The posts may be written anytime during the week (August 24-30) but you must email your host with WHB in the subject line by:
3pm Sunday - Utah Time
10pm Sunday - London Time
9am Monday - Melbourne (Aus) Time

5. In your email submission (to: oldsaratogabooks AT gmail DoTCoM) please include the following information:

* Your Name
* Your Blog Name/URL
* Your Post URL
* Your Location
* Attach a photo (250 px wide max)

This information will help your Crispy Cook host greatly as the recaps can be quite time consuming."

Looking forward to your wonderful submissions!

P.S. If you don't have a blog of your own, but would like to contribute a submission to Weekend Herb Blogging, I would be happy to post your blog entry at the Crispy Cook.