Citrus Marmalade

Citrus is still on my mind a lot these days. It's in such abundance here in California right now.

I seem to remember some story about orange abundance being the genesis of marmalade.

While marmalade is great on toast or scones it has other uses as well.

Add a teaspoon to your salad dressing or to some vinegar to top your steamed or sauteed greens. It's great as a filling for layer cakes, or fruit tarts, in frostings or glazes. Add some to your marinades, to some soy sauce for a dipping sauce.

Here is my marmalade recipe, as with most marmalades, it is a two day process. 

It makes about 7 to 10 half pints. You can make a smaller batch if you want. It is not a clear marmalade like some recipes and not as bitter as some. Feel free to use other kinds of citrus.

Ingredients

Part 1

4 cups mandarin sections, chopped in the food processor

1 cup mandarin peel chopped into thin slices

1/2 cup lemon peel chopped into thin slices

4  mandarin juice

1 cup rangpur lime juice

1 cup lemon juice.

Part 2

?? cups sugar *

1) We have a Satsuma seedless mandarin tree that's why I make they the majority stockholder in my marmalade. You could use oranges as well. I juice them in my Champion juicer, saving the peels to chop later. I use the food processor for the mandarin pulp.

2) The lemons and lime I juice with a regular electric citrus juicer. I find a carrot peeler works well to make strips of lemon peel.

3) Put all the juice, pulp and peel in large pot.

4 )Bring to a boil and simmered  for an hour.

5) Cover and let sit over night.

6) Measure your mixture and use an equal amount of sugar.

7) Bring to a boil and allow to simmer for about an hour. If you make a smaller batch it may take a shorter time. I do the plate in the freezer trick to see how it is jelling. I have made so much jam I also just know when it is ready to can.You can also use a thermometer, jell temp is about 220 F. It does stiffen once it has cooled so don't over cook it. 

8) If you are going to can it do the magic canning thing with sterilized jars, lids and rings.

Process in your canning kettle for 5 minutes. 

I know it sounds like a lot of work...so look up other recipes on the internet or buy your marmalade from me ;-)

Fresh Spring Rolls

If you have eaten Thai or Vietnamese food at a restaurant, you have probably seen fresh spring rolls on the menu. Unlike their deep fried cousin, they are packed with fresh raw vegetables. They are also a great vehicle for that fabulous peanut sauce I make.

With a little patience fresh spring rolls are easy to make and you can fill them with whatever you have on hand or what is in season. They will impress anyone at your next potluck or dinner party.

You will need to find the rice paper wrapper. These days most large or natural food grocery store have them in their Asian section or go to one of those amazing Asian food emporiums like Ranch 99.

We like our rolls stuffed with thin rice noodles or rice sticks sometimes called maifun. You can find these in the same Asian section of your grocery store.

Fresh Spring Rolls

Ingredients:

rice wrapper
thin rice noodles ( soy sauce, sesame oil)
ripe avocados
fresh cilantro
grated carrot
finely sliced cabbage
other possible fillings: baked tofu, cooked crab meat, fresh spinach leaves, fresh basil leaves, green onions, cucumbers, shrimp, bean sprouts, mint leaves, lettuce leaves.

1) Usually the rice noodle package comes with more that you will need even for a dozen spring rolls. Don't be shy about breaking off a third of the noodles, remember too, they will expand. Bring water to a boil, toss in your noodle and cook for 1-2 minutes.
2) Drain your noodle and toss with a tablespoon of sesame oil and 2 tablespoons of soy sauce. This is optional but I find the noodles pretty bland without something on them. Set them aside to cool while you prepare the vegetables.

3) Grate the carrot, finely chop the cabbage, stem the cilantro, peel and slice the avo.
4) Now you are ready to assemble them. I like to use a plate to soak the rice wrappers. They take about 30 to 60 second to rehydrate, make sure they are completely covered in water. Do them one at a time, as you take one out, put another one in.

5) I like to have a couple of clean dishtowels handy. One goes down under the rice wrapper and the other I use to blot it before I fill it. Handling the rice wrappers are a bit like handling wet paper towels. They rip easily if you are not careful. Small holes are OK, big ones are not ;-)

6) DO NOT OVER FILL your wrapper, that is the key to success. You are not going for the burrito grande !! Just layer your veggies with restraint, slightly to the top of the wrapper.
7) Fold the top of the wrapper toward you, then each side toward center, then wrap the bottom flap up. Place on a plate flap down.

8) Repeat until all your filling is gone. You will find you get the hang of it after the first few.

9) You can serve them whole or cut them in half on the diagonal. Use the peanut sauce I mentioned above or make your own version. These wrappers last for several days in your fridge !! They are great the next day for lunch !

Curried Chickpea Soup

Last weekend I went to lunch with some friends to a delightful mediterranean restaurant called Zameen.
My friend and fellow foodie wanted to try to recreate the chickpea soup they serve there. They call it Moroccan Madness, and when asked the staff said it was flavored with curry, coconut milk and tomatoes.

Here is my attempt, it's very simple to make and very tasty in it's own right.
By the way chickpea and garbanzo bean are the same thing, chickpea has French origins and garbanzo is from Spanish descent.


Curried Chickpea Soup

Ingredients

1 15 oz can garbanzo beans

1 chopped onion

1 tablespoon olive oil

1-2 tablespoons curry powder

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 cup diced tomatoes or 1 small can tomato paste

1 15 oz can coconut milk

1-2 cups water or veggie stock

juice from half a lemon

salt and pepper to taste

You can certainly cook your own beans, I went for fast and easy. I also like the lighter coconut milk.

1) Chop the onion.

2) Saute in olive oil in a large pot.

3) As it softens add the spices, cook for several minutes.

Here is my homemade curry powder !

4) Deglaze pan with 1/2 cup water, working your wooden spoon or spatula to get all the dark bits up.

I had a cup of diced tomatoes in juice from another recipe so I used that.

5) Add coconut milk, tomatoes, lemon juice and the beans. At this point you can save out some of the beans to add back whole later.

6) Simmer 30 minutes.

7) Once the soup has cooled enough, puree adding more water as needed to desired thickness, add back the whole beans to the puree.

8) Salt and pepper to taste and reheat before serving. You can top it with green onions, or some yogurt!

Ode to Citrus and a great lemon bar recipe.

As I walk around my neighborhood this time a year it is hard to ignore the lemon and orange trees laden with fruit. On the central California coast, it is the time of citrus abundance !! It's the time to celebrate this very versatile type of fruit, especially since it is the only fruit really in season right now.

I know you still see apples at the farmer's markets, but do stay away unless you must have an apple pie or applesauce. They have been in cold storage for several months and are soft and mushy. I know strawberries are showing up in store, probably from way down south, but it's still too early for them to have much flavor.

There are so many type of citrus to explore.

I made curd last week from the mandarins off my tree and some limes from a friend. The combination was sensational, the lime provided the tang that my mandarins were missing.

This weekend after picking half a bushel of huge Meyer's lemon's from a friend's tree, I made a big batch of my favorite lemonade, refreshing but not too sweet.

My sister grows Rangpur limes, which would fool anyone into thinking they are tangerines, except when you taste them. I juice them, to use when I make my sunrise marmalade, combining them with my mandarins and Meyer's lemons.

Don't forget to use citrus in savory dishes as well. I love to grate lime or lemon zest into my kale salads. In fact I don't make a separate dressing, just the citrus juice, citrus zest, olive oil and salt that I use to massage the kale with. Then to bump it up another notch, I add segments of mandarins or oranges to the kale. You can do this with a regular green salad as well.

I have made mandarin vinegar and lime infused olive oil this winter so far. Both of these items are so very simple and yet take full advance of the citrus on hand.

On my list for today: preserved lemons , after 7 to 10 days I'll have wonderful salty, sour lemons to use in marinade, salad dressing or my favorite yogurt sauce.

Last but not least, I finally found a simple and very satisfying lemon bar cookie recipe. I looked over a lot of recipes from the Food Network, Smitten Kitchen, even Martha Stewart, they were all too complicated or used too many eggs or had comments that made me cringe and move on ;-)

I found this one from Joy of Baking.

Lemon bars

Do remember to take the butter out a few hours before you make them.

Ingredients

The crust

1/2 cup ( 1 stick) butter

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 cup unbleached flour

a pinch of salt

The filling

1 cup white sugar

2 large eggs

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice ( 2 large lemons)

1 tablespoon lemon zest ( or just us whatever you get from the two lemons)

2 tablespoons unbleached flour

1) Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray an 8 by 8 inch baking pan or glass dish with cooking oil spray.

2) In the bowl of your electric mixer or with a hand mixer, cream together the butter and powdered sugar.

3) Add the flour and salt, mixing until it is crumbly and just comes together.

4) Press into the bottom of your pan.

5) Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until lightly brown around the edges. Cool on a rack.

6) While the crust is cooling, beat together the eggs, sugar until nice and smooth.

7) Grate the lemons and juice them.

8) Add the juice and zest to the egg/sugar mixture and combine.

9) Fold in the 2 tablespoons flour.

10) Pour the filling over the crust.

11) Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until the filling has just set, the top will be slightly brown.

12) Cool on a rack, then in the fridge to make them easier to cut.

13) Dust with powdered sugar before serving. YUM !!

Creme caramel, no it is not creme brulee...

The other day I decided to make French onion soup and the obvious dessert for me was creme caramel.

Creme caramel is the French version of  custard or flan with caramelized sugar on the bottom ( unlike creme brulee which has a light crust of caramelized sugar on the top and a very different rich custard beneath).
It is a standard dessert in every restaurant in Paris. I spent eight years of my childhood in Paris. My mother loved this simple dessert and would try it whenever we ate out ( or that's the way it seemed to me.)

This recipe is straight from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. Yes, her recipes have lots of steps and can be intimidating, just like life, take it one step at a time.

Lining the dish with caramel.

Ingredients
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons water

1) I use one large ceramic baking dish that holds at least 6 cups, you can also do small ramekins.
The recipe calls for the dish to be warm. I fill the pan it sits in with hot water while I make the caramel.

2) Place the sugar and water in a small heavy bottom saucepan and stir to dissolve the sugar.
3) Cook over moderate heat and allow to come to a boil. Watch it carefully !!

4) It will turn caramel colored fairly quickly.

5) When the sugar has turned color, remove the pan from the stove and pour into the dish which has been removed form the hot water, swirl it around so that it covers the bottom of the dish.

(Sidebar, cool thing...have you ever had a dessert with spun sugar ?? My sister used to make this fanciful yule log dessert complete with meringue mushrooms and spun sugar spider webs. It was impressive... you can use the caramelized sugar to make those spider webs.)

Making the custard. 
Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Ingredients
2 1/2 cup milk
1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup white sugar
3 eggs
3 egg yolks

1) Bring the milk with the vanilla bean if you are using one to just below a simmer in a saucepan.

2) Cover and allow to steep while you prepare the rest of the mixture.

3) For the next part you can use a Kitchenaid with a whisk attachment or do it by hand with a whisk.

4) Place the eggs and egg yolks in a mixing bowl, slowly mix in the sugar until light and foamy.

5) Continue beating while you very slowly add the hot milk ( minus the vanilla bean). This can be tedious and messy, just hang in there. Add the vanilla extract if you did not use a bean.

6) Strain the mixture into your dish with a sieve, this removes any weird little eggs bits or forgotten vanilla beans ;-)

7) Boil enough water to fill a baking pan that will hold your dish.

8) Place the pan and the dish of custard on the lower rack of your oven, then carefully pour in the boiling water.
9) Reduce the oven temperature to 325 and bake for 40 to 45 minutes.

10) I prefer to to serve my creme caramel chilled or at room temperature.  Either way it should rest for several hours or overnight in the fridge. Since I make it in a large dish, I don't bother to unmold the whole thing. Instead I scoop out the portions, serving them in small ramekins with the caramel sauce drizzled over. You can remover any caramel that sticks to the bottom with a tablespoon or two of boiling water.

The only problem with this dessert is that it disappears too quickly !!

What to make for Valentine's Day.

Reservations always come to mind on Valentine's Day...

If you cook a lot like I do, going out to eat is a special treat.

If you decide to stay home or need to because of work, the kids or money, there are still ways to make that evening meal a special one.

Set a nice table, use good dishes, fresh flowers and some candles.

It's definitely the time to splurge.

Make something you love but usually don't have, maybe a nice piece of fresh fish or crab or a rich dish of pasta.

Here are a few ideas from past posts.

I recently posted about crab manicotti. With crab in season this would be  fabulous, to make it vegetarian just replace the crab with some steamed spinach. Serve with a simple green salad.

If life is too busy for something with lots of steps: roasting a whole chicken is so easy, makes the house smell good and it you have kids they will love it too. Serve it with your favorite roasted vegetables or a beet salad, and cornbread.

For a beautiful plant based meal, try the red lentil soup, if you have lots of time make the stuffed flatbreads to go with. If time is short serve with store bought naan and a kale salad.

Now for dessert !!
If chocolate is your true love, have a fresh simple dinner and crown it with a rich sinfully chocolate dessert.
Molten Chocolate Cakes are very quick and so decadent, especially served with vanilla ice cream.

Or the flourless chocolate cake, my friend Susan makes is exquisite and can be made in advance.

If chocolate is not your thing how about a cheesecake tart or a ginger cake with hot caramel sauce.

If my ideas don't quite fit your tastes, browse this blog for more inspiration.

Food made with love and shared with the ones we love is the best valentine there is :-)