Gift Basket Fun

I’ve often made gift baskets on the theme of the Indian cooking hobby I enjoy. I’ve called them Beginner’s Indian Cooking Baskets. They’ve been exceptionally popular at fundraising auctions to which I’ve donated them, always garnering the top suggested bid. They’ve included basic spices, the small recipe book that I’ve created with my friends, a larger, commercially published Indian cookbook, and varying other basics and items necessary for making some of the recipes in the book and “garnished with fresh cilantro” and a bag of fresh Nan bread.

I was reading online about creating gift baskets and came across a gal wanting ideas for creating gift baskets for family members on her list. The idea of a Generational Gift Basket occurred to me as a fun idea.

You could include:
A taste of things that were old family favorites.
· A favorite family snack wrapped in a cellophane bag with ribbon (Nut’s and Bolts, a savory snack, was always served at my family’s parties. Cellophane bags can be had at craft stores.)
· A special unusual treat enjoyed by older family members. (My grandma loved gooseberry jam; some gourmet food shops have small “taster” jars.)
· An unusual family favorite sweet treat (Divinity, an older candy, was always made by my Mom and Grandma at holiday time.)
· An unusual item that had appeared at family meals. (My family’s big gathering always featured Jell-O with small marshmallows. A box of Jell-O and the marshmallows would be fun.)
· Huckleberries played a special role in my family. Maybe something Huckleberry, a candle or food or candy item.
· A cellophane bag tied with a ribbon filled with some cookies made from a favorite family recipe. (In my family it would be my Dad’s Mom’s Oatmeal Cookies, in my husband’s family it would be his Mom’s Mint Hideaways.)

A few or more family recipes hand written, typed or photocopied a into a little booklet or hole-punched and tied with ribbon or put in a cute recipe box. (I photocopied the actual pages of a “steno notebook” that was filled with family recipes and had the copy center "bind" them with plastic binding.)

A special photo/s of older family members (the recipient may not have) in frames. (Nice frames can be bought inexpensively throughout the year at yard and estate sales).

A membership to Ancestory.com.

A book to write in "family tree" info.

Please share any ideas you may have, I’d love to hear them.

From Turkey To Chutney With Loving Grandparents And Huckleberries Along The Way

We are going to my sister-in-law's for Thanksgiving and she wants to do all the cooking. From me she wants hors d oeuvres including the family fav - deviled eggs. I think I'll do a platter of eggs, exotic olives and other unusual things for light and interesting munching. (Any ideas out there? Comment away!) I've never cooked an entire Thanksgiving meal in my life and have never cooked a turkey. That could be a sad commentary on a deprived upbringing but no, it was just being around people all my life who loved to cook and, most likely, not having children. I think I might try to see if sis-in-law would like me to bring a dessert like an old family recipe of Pineapple Ice Box Cake (vanilla wafer crumbs topped with a butter/powdered sugar/egg mixture topped with whip cream and crushed pineapple mixture and topped with more crumbs).

The Pineapple Ice Box Cake goes way back in my family and is purported to have been created by my Grandma Allen. The town newspaper even interviewed her once about her cooking and published the recipe. Funny--local fame. She and my grandfather (LD we called him, short for Lorenzo Dow) were such good folks; I don't remember anything negative related to them. Grandma's thing was cooking. During the war years, when ingredients were rationed, people would save their ration coupons and give them to her and she would make wedding cakes. Growing up, I lived in walking distance from my grandparents. She had one of those white enameled "baking centers" where flour, sugar, etc were in built-in bins that pivoted forward. They had a root cellar, entered by a trap door from the kitchen, lined with shelves of goodies that were "put up" when in season, mostly fruit and jams and jellies. I remember my mother telling me about her brothers being able to eat a whole quart of peaches in one sitting. I remember Grandma lamenting how hard it was to get gooseberries like she used to pick in the back woods of Idaho. Of course, Huckleberry Jam (made from Idaho's Blue Mountain Huckleberries picked on family excursions) was "gold standard". Huckleberry pies were featured at all big gatherings and a slice of huckleberry pie was a common daily offering to friends who stopped by for pie and coffee (something that happened often). Apricot jam was a favorite of my Grandma and lots of pickled beets (yum-I still love them and they bring back fond memories.) They always had a huge garden and I remember her loving beet greens. I didn't appreciate them at the time and have been meaning to make some to try. I don't remember her or my folks making relish but I bet if they had known of the Indian concept of Chutney (combining fruit with onions and ginger - a sweet/savory mix) they would have liked it. Spices, though, didn't go beyond salt, pepper, (and maybe onion powder later on) and the "holiday spices" of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves - ah, they did use cloves in the pickled beets).

To my Indian friends, American middle class folks seem so spice-deprived. It’s true, and our family certainly never "developed a taste" for them. My husband still has trouble getting his taste buds to "embrace" a lot of the Indian spices. I've evolved and love a lot of the more "exotic" tastes. I was reading a cookbook last night featuring Ayurvedic (eye-your-vay-dick) recipes (it's a "healing regimen" originating in ancient India still practiced today that centers around food and different spices or ingredients for different constitutions and different conditions.) Spices are a prime component and tied to health. I wonder how Americans got so bland, maybe it was our roots in England - a cuisine I hear is pretty bland. (How did British cuisine not get influenced by Indian cuisine with all their occupying of the country? I do hear, from friends who hang out in Britain, though, that Indian restaurants are more prolific than others and have fabulous Indian dishes. So they must have developed a taste for it.) If I would have walked into a house as a kid and smelled the concoctions I now make, I don't know what I would have thought; I would certainly have been intrigued.

Well, food stream-of-consciousness this morning. I do, now, finally get the thing about reading cookbooks like novels. So much culture, history, etc is reflected through food.

A Salad Afternoon

I just read a great essay on the history of the salad in Saveur (in my opinion, the best of the food magazines) . It seems the French sort of began the trend but served them after the main course. For me, Iceberg lettuce, a can of shrimp, a teaspoon of lemon juice and Best Foods Mayonnaise, is a favorite salad. Or, Iceberg lettuce, a can of tuna, grated cheddar cheese and Best Food Mayonnaise another favorite. OK, one more – Iceberg lettuce, julienned salami, julienned Provolone cheese, chopped hardboiled egg and a very tangy homemade Italian dressing I make. I know that Iceberg lettuce has been referred to as “the polyester of vegetables” but I was raised with it and love its hearty crunchiness. Some of the other greens just seem wimpy. If they are done well, though, I always like a green salad of any type.

For a personal salad memory, my husband turned me onto mixing dressings – try French and Blue Cheese sometime. Lately I’ve been keeping a plastic tub in the refrigerator with things like Mandarin oranges, black olives, black beans, hard-boiled eggs, dried cranberries, cheese of some sort, Feta cheese and other goodies ready to add to the greens. Whipping up a salad is easy and, Yum City! Eating out, one of my favorite salads is from the Red Robin Restaurant, Barbeque Chicken Salad – Iceberg lettuce with strips of barbequed chicken, black beans, avocado slices, tomatoes, with Ranch dressing and garlic toast on the side.

Growing up never once, that I remember, did I have a salad as a main dish. And, other than a can of shrimp sometimes added to Iceberg lettuce (with Best Foods Mayonnaise, of course) no piece of fish or meat every touched the lettuce unless the main dish pork chop somehow sidled over to the salad on the plate.

According to the history of the salad article, they really didn’t take off in America until after the middle of the last century. Some fancy restaurants had them regularly, but middle class dinner tables didn’t sport them much. Olive oil was sold only in small amounts in pharmacies for medicinal purposes and softening skin. A “history of the avocado” article in Saveur said that an avocado, in 1920’s America, would have been the equivalent to $9.00 in today’s money. Maybe it was things like that that held up salad’s popularity.

Currently my plastic salad tub is stocked salami, Provolone slices, Feta, Cheddar and a couple hardboiled eggs. With black beans, olives and dried cranberries in the cupboard I'm ready to go. Maybe one day I’ll branch out beyond good ole Iceberg. A while back I had a lobster salad with some chopped cabbage mixed into the salad greens along with the most intriguing salad accoutrement I’ve had in a while - candied pecans – now there’s something I’ve got to remember to add to my salad tub!

My Favorite Tangy Italian Dressing
(This is supurb for a Chop Salad mixture of salami, provolone and chopped egg)

1 cup vegetable oil
½ cup red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. sugar
3 pressed Garlic cloves
½ teas. dried oregano
¼ teas. dried basil
¼ teas onion powder
¼ teas salt

Campbell's and Ketchup

Food and it's preparation is such a compelling thread in most people's lives. Something that is a shared experience. It would be fun to be a food historian. My husband Hank has enjoyed writing his food columns for eight years celebrating good food and humorous tales of food and life. We attended an author lecture last year by a woman who's book "recommended staying as close as possible to the origins of your food." It was quite an interesting historical look at how people have gotten further and further away from the origins of the food they eat. When canned food first emerged in the early part of the last century, people were extremely wary of it, largely shunning it. I guess it didn't take long, though, to get swayed by convenience. Campbell's Soups and ketchup must have been amazing culinary short cuts for 1950's cooks.

I've been spoiled over the years with my husband's creativity as a cook. He loves food and cooking and experiments a lot with herb and sauce combinations. Interesting because he/we grew up in an era, the 1950's, where Campbell's soup was the amazing new ingredient. His mom's collection of recipes had a bunch using cans of soup. (I typed them all up as family gift one year - and actually crossed stitched covers for the cookbooks!) She really got into the "new" recipes of the 1950's. She had clipped recipes from sides of boxes and from magazines, a couple written on the back of bowling score sheets. It was fun typing them all up. Hank remembers Golden Mushroom Soup over pork chops. For variation and a 'special' version she would use Cream of Celery Soup. The only soup his mom made from scratch was potato soup with about "12 cubes of butter" added. Her clam chowder would be clams in the potato soup. One of his favorite of her dishes was roasted red potatoes baked then roughly mashed with gravy and meat slathered on top. When she made shish ka bobs, for dipping she made her special "Indian sauce", ketchup with curry powder mixed in. Her green salads (tomato and lettuce) were dressed with mayonnaise, when she got fancy, she mixed ketchup into the mayo for Thousand Island Dressing.

I can't remember my folks using Campbell's Soups in recipes. Maybe because Cream of Mushroom was the "magic" new ingredient and they didn't like mushrooms. (Not realizing it doesn't taste like mushrooms when in most dishes.) A cream base for a dish was accomplished by shaking some flour into some bacon grease and adding milk (probably half and half), sort of a Bechemel with flavor. That was the base of tuna casserole, with cheese added. That was the base of SOS (made with chipped beef and served over toast). I'm trying to think of a "fancy dish" my folks made......(thinking).....Well, I guess they didn't experiment much and just stuck to the tried and true. I remember new potatoes and fresh peas in cream sauce (their Bechemel with flavor). Scalloped potatoes were made with potato slices layered with flour and butter chunks throughout then topped with milk and baked. Fried chicken was a favorite but merely dredged in salted flour and fried in bacon grease or Crisco in an electric frying pan.

Ah food, it surprises me how intrigued by it I've become in the second half of my life.

Question of the post (click on the word "comments" below)....Did your family keep bacon grease for cooking and, if so, in what and where?

Yakisoba - that familiar and delicious festival food made easy

Ever go to a community festival and smell the yummy aromas of the booth that makes that vegetable-meat-noodle stir fry? Ever buy a plate and devour every bite wondering about the exotic secrets behind such a seemingly simple dish. Well, I’ve discovered the exotic secrets aren't so exotic and the dish is very easy – the trick is two ingredients that might not be found in your local supermarket.

My husband has discovered a little hole-in-the-wall place, Eastlake Teryaki. It's mainly takeout, and despite the name, serves great Vietnamese type dishes. Their Pho’, a yummy broth with noodles, julliened meat and other goodies served on the side to be added now rivals tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches when he doesn’t feel well. It has replaced the War Wonton Soup (wonton soup with shrimp and pork and all kinds of mushrooms and vegetables swimming in it) we used to get from the Uptown China in Seattle's Lower Queen Anne. Another dish we've enjoyed from Eastlake Teryaki is Yakisoba. Now we’re back to the yummy noodle vegetable stir fry you’ve enjoyed at those festivals.

I happened to be wandering through a Vietnamese supermarket the other day. (An unusual appointment took me to a new part of town.) It was fun especially since I’m interested in Indian cuisine. Indian’s make things with rice flour and tapioca flour and small bags of it were available right along with the regular flour. They had fresh ginger in bundles precut into 2” pieces (I bought a bunch and froze). In the dry noodle section I found inexpensive good sized packages of the bean threads that I use in the Korean dish that I now fix once in a while. In the wet noodle section (there is a joke there somewhere) I came across “Yakisoba Noodles”. Right there on the package was a recipe for the dish and it looked awfully simple so I bought a package. As it turned out, the “secret sauce” isn’t so secret or hard to find, in fact it was one that Hank uses for other things periodically and had brought home from Uwajimaya sometime back. It’s called Tonkatsu or Fruit and Vegetable Sauce. It’s kind of the consistency of dark Karo but denser.

Now, in possession of the noodles and the sauce, the time was right when I found myself with numerous errant vegetables that needed using. So, yesterday I began julienning, first carrots, then a little broccoli and cauliflower, then a bunch of green onions, then a sweet onion (sliced very thin) and finally about a quarter of a green cabbage. I definitely had the 3 cups of vegetables that the recipe asked for. I was so happy, using up the veges that would have gone bad and learning to make this yummy festival dish (plus learning to save the $8 the Vietnamese place charges for it.)

Here’s the recipe. (It makes a large amount so this is where my friend, Deb Taylor Hough's "cook ahead and freeze" concept is great. I had Zip Locks on hand and now have easy lunches or yummy noodle sides for dinner, plus I shared some with a neighbor.)

Yakisoba
Can be made vegetarian the way it is often served at festivals. You can add left over meat or juilianne some meat and fry it.
Ingrendients
Meat cut into small pieces and fried (I had baked a chicken so just put chicken pieces on the plates of noodles when served.)
32oz (2lb.) bag of fresh Yakisoba noodles (they can be kept refrigerated or frozen)
3 cups of julianned vegetables
½ cup Tonkatsu Sauce (also called Vegetable and Fruit Sauce on the bottle I have)
½ to 1 cup water.
Vegetable oil for frying

Instructions
Fry meat and set aside. Heat oil in the pan to high for stir frying the vegetables. Add vegetables and stir fry until tender. Place the noodles on top of the vegetables and add water to steam, heat and loosen noodles. When they are loosened begin stir frying them with the vegetables and add the meat and Tonkatsu Sauce. Stir fry until all ingredients are blended and hot.

A Lesson on Simplifying Indian Cuisine from an American Gal who isn’t even a cook!

For over four years I’ve enjoyed a serious hobby, cooking Indian cuisine. It happened because I made some special friends through my Dad's senior center, Mina, Doris and Sheila, who all grew up and spent many years in India before coming to America. Before that, cooking was never a creative endeavor for me; my husband (who finds it creative) did most of it. Sort of like math, I never really “got” the underlying principles of cooking and was always intimidated trying to “fly by the seat of the pants”. You’d see me shopping for ingredients, recipe in hand.

But, I’m a curious sort. I became intrigued by the dishes my friends introduced me to when we’d enjoy lunch at an Indian restaurant, I’d query them, interested in understanding more about Indian culture and food. Mina suggested that I buy ingredients for certain recipes and come over. Together we’d make some traditional Indian dishes. Numerous afternoons while enjoying tea, we’d construct exotically aromatic, tantalizing dishes that she’d made for years. They opened a new world for me. Under her tutelage I began to understand some of the “underlying principles” or alchemy that had eluded me with American cuisine.

Making Indian dishes is now, for me, an exciting and very creative endeavor. Some weekend mornings I almost need my Indian food “fix” both the creating it and eating it. I often share my concoctions with neighbors and friends. They are often amazed at how delicious is something that, had they looked at the recipe, they may never have tried. There are certain ingredients such as Mina's favorite, Patak's brand mild curry paste, that even my husband has incorporated into some of the dishes he makes. (He uses it not for an overt curry taste but for adding an interesting dimension to things like spaghetti sauce.) And he really enjoys certain dishes like White Fish Simmered in Coconut Milk with Onions and Spices.

Off and on in this blog I’ve shared some of the Indian recipes I’ve tried. I thought that maybe some readers might enjoy some of the things I’ve learned about how to simplify Indian cuisine. My friends have shared quick tips for creating the same taste with less work. I am in no way an expert, but I am a novice American cook who is not intimidated by Indian food and spices. I’ve learned some easy to fix dishes that have flavors that would “knock the socks off” your friends if served. I’ve learned dishes that every single American friend “who thought they weren’t fond of Indian food” has loved. I’ve learned how to blend simple, frugal ingredients (Indians do amazing things with vegetables) into dishes with a sophisticated dimension.

So, blog readers, here is a first “Lesson” I hope might unlock for you some “secrets” of Indian cuisine, show you how simple it can be and maybe encourage you to expand your cooking repertoire

Recipes for Indian dishes can look complicated but there is a fairly simple, underlying process that exists in many recipes.

In recipes for many meat or vegetable based dishes you will see a triad of Ginger-Onion-Garlic. This triad is fried up and into it goes the spices being used, then into that goes the main ingredients. (I'm going to illustrate that using the recipe below.)

I get an online newsletter from About.com column on Indian Cooking (Here’s a link to sign up or look at it - http://indianfood.about.com/od/thebasics/a/regionfood.htm

I came across the recipe shown below. The basic food ingredients here are potatoes and peas. (Talk about an interesting way to use frugal ingredients that are on hand in most kitchens).

Basically they've got hot oil going into which they brown some cumin seeds and green chili chunks.
Then they dump in and fry the Ginger-Onion-Garlic triad
Into that they dump all the spices (measured out ahead) and diced tomato. (In this recipe, diced tomato adds more substance and dimension to the triad) and simmer till blended.
Then they add the potatoes and peas and simmer till done.

Basically it's TRIAD + SPICES + MAIN INGREDIENTS

Indian spices do not exist in most American cupboards (the only one I remember was a bottle of curry powder that sat in our spice cupboard never used, I’m sure, the entire time I was growing up) and the tastes may be unfamiliar at first, but we American cooks can learn from their process. And, if desired, natural food markets that sell spices in bulk often have most of the spices called for in Indian dishes. Also, if you don't have certain called for spices (in the recipe below you'd have to get dry mango powder at an Indian market) just leave it out. And remember, the "finely chopped coriander is cilantro.

Below the recipe is a very simple American twist (no Indian spices) take on this recipe. I just made it and it's delicious.

Aaloo Mutter
from www.about.com column on Indian cuisine
(The gal that writes the newsletter made a spelling error i the fourth line of the Preparation that I got a kick out of so left in. )

Ingredients:
· 2 tbsps vegetable/sunflower/canola oil
· 1 tsp cumin seeds
· 2 green chillies slit (use mild chilis or omit if hot isn't desired)
· 1 large onion diced
· 1 tsp grated fresh ginger (sold fresh or already grated in jars in produce sections)
· 1 tsp crushed garlic
· 2 large tomatoes diced
· 2 tsps coriander powder
· 1 tsp cumin powder
· 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
· 1 tsp red chilli powder
· 1 tsp dry mango powder
· 5-6 large potatoes peeled cut into 8-10 pieces each
· 1 cup shelled peas (you can use frozen peas as well)
· 1 tsp garam masala
· Salt to taste
· 2 tbsps of finely chopped coriander to garnish
(I have found that adding a can of chicken broth is good, added half after adding the potatoes and peas and as much of the other half that you like toward the end of cooking for desired moistness.)

Preparation:
· In a wok/pressure cooker heat the oil and add the cumin seeds to it when hot. They will sizzle and soon turn slightly darker.
· Add the green chillies and when they stop sluttering add the onions.
· Sauté the onions till they turn soft. Add the ginger and garlic pastes and sauté for another minute.
· Add the tomatoes, coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric, red chilli and raw mango powders and sauté for a minute.
· Last of all add the potatoes and peas and half a cup of water (this is where I add 1/2 can chicken broth instead of water) Add salt to taste.
· Cover the pan and cook till the potatoes are soft adding as much of the rest of the chicken broth as desired.
· When the potatoes are cooked, turn off the fire, sprinkle the garam masala over the dish and cover immediately.
· In a few minutes open, garnish with the finely chopped coriander leaves and serve.
· If you are using a pressure cooker, time the cooking such that the potatoes do not get mashed.

Aaloo Mutter American Style

A very simple American twist on this recipe would be to fry up the triad (I had 1/2 large onion, 1 teas. crushed garlic, 1" piece grated ginger) then add any spices you like or just salt and pepper (I added Johnny's Seasoning salt and a tiny bit of chili powder for zing) along with some diced tomatoes (I used a chopped tomato I had on hand) then add the chopped potatoes (I used 2 Russet) and peas (I used frozen and I added 1/2 can of chicken broth at first and the other half after it had cooked down a bit on 300 degrees in an electric frying pan) cook till done. If you are unfamiliar with using fresh ginger, it won't be an overt taste, just an interesting back taste.

It was a delicious potato dish by itself, then I got carried away and added some teryaki steak and green pepper chunks (already cooked; left over from fajitas.) Voila! A simple hash style dish with dimension.

Amazing Left Over Veges Indian Style

One thing I’ve appreciated about Indian cuisine is how creatively vegetables are used. I could never imagine how vegetarians got much variety until I began to enjoy the rich variety and complex tastes of vegetable dishes created with Indian spices. One day I had some carrots and celery that I needed to use. I took a look through my repertoire of Indian recipes and actually figured this one out on my own. PCC stores have the needed spices, Garam Masala, cumin powder and chili powder, in bulk so you can buy just the amount you need inexpensively. Get your fresh ginger at a supermarket. If you don’t want to grate the ginger, most large supermarkets have small jars of already grated ginger in the produce section along side jars of already crushed garlic. When you prepare this dish, the aroma and the taste do things to carrots and celery you won’t imagine. My boat dock neighbors love it when I fix Indian dishes and often “stop by” to check out how things are going.

Amazing Left Over Veges Indian Style

4 carrots sliced into ¼’ rounds
2 celery stalks sliced diagonally
1 small tomato, coarsely chopped (I used a Roma tomato)
½ medium onion chopped
1 large garlic clove, crushed or ½ teas. from jar
1” to 1 ½” fresh ginger grated, or ½ teas. from jar
½ teaspoon Garam Masala
½ teas. cumin powder
¼ teas chili powder

Steam carrots or place covered by water in a microwave for about 6 minutes.

Heat 1 Tbsp. oil and a little butter in a frying pan. Add onion and celery and fry till onion turns translucent. Add garlic and ginger and stir fry for 1 minute making sure they don’t burn. Add spices and mix well. Add carrots and continue to stir fry until all are coated and flavorful.

You can substitute different vegetables for the celery and carrots. And, a cooking tip: You can freeze chunks of fresh ginger for very easy peeling and grating when you need them.