Challah for World Communion Sunday

Here are a couple of overgrown challah loaves with Holland whole blue poppy seeds, just out of the oven, for World Communion Sunday. They are 2-1/2 lbs each. If you would like the recipe, leave me a comment or drop me an email.

Seasonal Vegetables at Oakley's Bistro

For any of you who think of vegetarian eating as lots of beans and brown rice, I submit the meal I had last night at Oakley's Bistro pictured at right. The four items on the plate, starting in the top left corner and proceeding clockwise, are:

• Mushroom ravioli with a wonton wrapper
• Vegetable Lasagna
• Parmesan Pudding
• Cabbage roll with couscous and pine nuts

Above the plate to the right are some wonderful creamed spinach and leeks in a little cast iron pot. If you find yourself in Indianapolis, I would highly recommend Oakley's Bistro for a creative and frequently changing menu.

Cabbage rolls

[Francie made these delicious cabbage rolls last night. Her notes and recipe follow.]

Inspired by our first experience of cabbage rolls by Ukrainian friend Mariyah. Although I understand Ukrainians regularly make vegetarian cabbage rolls and meat versions only for festive occasions, we were started on the more indulgent versions & so make the "feast" version!

We had two large cabbage heads from Seton Harvest, so we made tons! They can be frozen before baking (just after assembling), but we cooked all of ours up & are looking forward to sharing them with a couple of other households! The size varied, as the cabbage leaves vary in size, but we made over 7 dozen rolls!

Hubbards' Cabbage Rolls

1 lb uncooked brown basmati rice
1 Tbsp. butter (optional)
2-1/2 cups water + 5 qts. water
4 lb ground meat (lean beef or combination of ground chuck, pork & veal)
salt & pepper
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 small onions, chopped fine
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp+ dried oregano
2 heads cabbage, cores removed
4 eggs, beaten
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes (no salt added)
1/4 cup fresh dill, chopped
2 cups light sour cream
cayenne pepper to taste

1. Bring 2-1/2 cups of water to boil. Cook rice (with butter if you choose) in the water for 35 min. Then let rice cool.
2. Brown mixture of meat in a large pan over med. heat. (If you make this quantity of meat, you may want to brown it in two batches, so as to not overcook some of the meat.) Strain meat for grease, put in a large bowl & season with salt & pepper & set aside. *I will use more salt & pepper next time.
3. Bring 5 qts. of water to boil in a stock pot. Add 2 Tbsp. salt and both heads of cabbage. Boil cabbage for at least 6 min. Pull cabbage heads out with strainer or "spider" carefully so as to not pour boiling water on oneself. Set aside on plates to cool. Keep water warm.
4. Wipe pan dry & saute onions over med. heat in olive oil until they are soft, about 4 min. Reduce heat to med. low and then add the garlic to pan & cook addl 2 min. Crush dried oregano into the pan & heat for an addl min. Stir the contents of pan into the beef. Add cooled brown rice & eggs. Stir until well combined.
5. Begin to pull translucent & pliable leaves off of the cabbages once they're cool enough to touch. (I used kitchen shears to cut the thick stems at center of leaves off entirely with a v-shaped cut. Saved stems -- thicker pieces of cabbage -- to put in next batch of soup!) Leaves are less cooked as you go deeper into cabbage head. Once getting down to leaves which are not soft enough to roll, put the cabbage heads back into hot water & resume cooking for 5 min.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
6. While cabbages are heating more, begin rolling with soft leaves already cooled. Put a single leaf on a plate. Place spoonfuls of the meat mixture into center of leaf -- my largest leaf took 5 heaping Tbsp and smallest cabbage leaf took 2 Tbsp. Fold ends of cabbage leaves in and roll sides up. Place seam-side of roll down in casserole dish and proceed to fill dish with rows of rolls.
7. Spoon crushed tomatoes over rows of completed cabbage rolls. Sprinkle with fresh dill.
If there are addl cabbage leaves left or torn pieces, place between tomato topping and foil. (Aluminum foil will break down if touching the tomatoes!)
8. Bake each pan of cabbage rolls for 35 min.
9. Serve with cayenne pepper, salt, black pepper and sour cream at the plate!
10. To store leftovers in fridge, put layer of waxed paper between rolls & aluminum foil.

Roasted Fennel and Red Onions

This picture of Oliver holding our freshly unearthed fennel bulb sparked enough comments on Facebook that it seemed a fennel primer was in order.
As wild and unruly as this plant looks, there are really only three parts to deal with: fronds, stems and bulb. The feathery fronds can be cut from the stems and used like other herbs. Trim the stems to look like celery, and use them the same way (chopped in soup, for example).
Cut the stems from the bulb, and then cut off the root end. With the root end on the cutting board, make crosswise vertical slices, removing and discarding the hard core in the center. For this recipe, I make the slices about 1/2" thick. Give these slices a good rinse, as fennel, like leeks, can hold a lot of dirt.
What you do from here depends on how you feel about the licorice-like flavor of fennel. If you eat the slices raw in a crudité, you will get the full, assertive flavor. Roasted, in the recipe below, the flavor mellows, and melds with the sweetness of the onions.

Roasted Fennel and Red Onions

1 (or 2) fennel bulbs, sliced as described above
2 large red onions, peeled of all papery layers and cut into 3/4" wedges
2 T olive oil
Salt
1 T balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 425˚. Toss fennel and onions with the olive oil in a roasting pan and season with salt. Roast for 35 minutes, stirring after 25 minutes. Drizzle with the balsamic, toss again and roast for an additional 5 minutes, until caramelized and tender. Taste for seasoning and serve hot or warm.

(Adapted from Jack Bishop's Vegetables Every Day)

Sweet Roasted Butternut Squash & Greens over Bow-tie Pasta

This time of year the greens are piling up from Seton Harvest, so it is always nice to find a new way to use them. The recipe below is popular with all three of our kids, so you should be able to get some greens into your kid's diet, if that is part of your plan.

Admittedly, butternut squash is not exactly in season, but you won't mind once you taste this recipe from Lynn Rosetto Kasper and Sally Swift's winning little book, How to Eat Supper. [Much thanks to Francie on this one, who both cooked the dish and typed the recipe in!]

Sweet Roasted Butternut Squash & Greens over Bow-tie Pasta

(10 min prep time; 35 min oven time)

5 qts salted Water in a 6-qt pot

3 – 3 ½ lb Butternut Squash, peeled, seeded & cut into bite-sized chunks*

1 med to large Onion, cut into 1-in chunks

2 big handfuls Escarole (or Curly Endive, Beet greens, Yukina savoy – what we were using from the farm -- or even Spring Mix greens) washed, dried & torn into small pieces

1/3 tight-packed cup fresh Basil leaves, torn

16 fresh Sage leaves, torn

5 large Garlic cloves, coarse chopped

1/3 cup good-tasting Extra-virgin Olive Oil

¼ tsp Red Pepper flakes

1 tight-packed tbsp Brown sugar (light or dark)

Salt & fresh-ground Black Pepper

1 lb Bow-tie Pasta

½ cup Half-and-half

1 to 1 ½ cups (about 6 oz) shredded Asiago cheese

1. Slip one large or two smaller shallow sheet pans into the oven. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Bring the salted water to a boil.
2. In a big bowl, toss together all the ingredients for the roasted vegetables (2^nd grouping of ingredients) for the roasted veggies. Be generous with salt & pepper.
3. Pull out the oven rack holding the sheet pan. Taking care not to burn yourself, turn the squash blend onto the hot sheet pan & spread it out. Bake for 25 min or until the squash is tender, turning the veggies two or three times during roasting.
4. As the squash becomes tender, drop the pasta into the boiling water & cook it until tender, but with some firmness to the bite. Drain in a colander.
5. Once the squash is tender, turn on the broiler to caramelize it. Watch the veggies closely, turning the pieces often. Anticipate about 5 min under the broiler. You want crusty brown edges on the squash & wilted, almost crisp greens.
6. Scrape everything into a serving bowl. Add the half-and-half, hot pasta & 1 cup of the cheese. Toss to blend, tasting for salt & pepper. Add more cheese if deserved. Serve hot.

*Addl tip for peeling winter squash from Kasper & co-author Sally Swift: Tough skin & hard flesh make winter squash annoying to peel, but there is a relatively easy way to sidestep most of the work & the dangerous knife slips. With a chef’s knife, halve the squash lengthwise. Flip it cut side down and cut it crosswise into 1-inch thick slices. Now it’s easy to trim away the peel & seeds from each slice. Cut the crescents of squash into 1-inch chunks, and you are done.

Seasonal Ingredient Map

I just stumbled upon a cool new tool to help you find seasonal ingredients, wherever you are. Epicurious.com has a new seasonal ingredient map that gives you a sense of what's in season now, as well as handy links to their kitchen dictionary and recipes for each item. In April, for example, the site lists asparagus and spinach as in season in Indiana. If you are in California, you can expect to see artichokes, asparagus, beets, cherries, Kohlrabi, lettuce, mushrooms, spinach, strawberries, and tangerines. I'm not sure when tangerines are in season in Indiana, but I'll keep you posted!

Great Lattes, and a Free Espresso Machine

Are you the sort of coffee drinker that gets panicky or depressed when Starbucks announces the closing of 600 stores across the country? Do you drink a Grande Caffé Latte four, five, or more times a week? Would you like a free espresso machine? Then read on.

A Grande Hazelnut Caffé Latte at our local Starbucks is $3.94. For that seemingly miniscule amount of money, you get 2 shots of espresso, 12 or 13 oz of steamed milk, and about 1oz of hazelnut syrup. And with espresso machine / grinder combinations costing $1000 or more, why would you even bother?

The answer is twofold. First, you can make the best espresso drinks you are likely to taste anywhere, right in your own home. Second, as you will see below, if your household drinks 2 a day, five times a week, you pay for that fancy machine in the first year.

What makes a great espresso? High quality Arabica beans, lightly roasted the same day the coffee ships. An exceptional example is Daterra Farm coffee, a single-origin coffee from the Cerrado region of Brazil, processed and roasted by the appropriately-named Terroir Coffee. Like a wine from a Premier Cru Bordeaux vineyard, single-origin coffees reflect the soil and character of their particular region. Cerrado produces a delicious coffee with the least acidity, an ideal trait for espresso coffee.

The darkest Daterra Farm roast (which is really a medium roast) is called Calabria, and it is a fine choice for large milk drinks like caffe lattes. Kenneth Davids, editor of CoffeeReview.com, says it "dominates milk with a smoky heaviness that resolves quickly into a milk-sweetened version of…dark chocolate." When this coffee is roasted only days before grinding, and ground seconds before brewing, the resulting espresso shot can be a life-changing experience.

Of course, to transform those roasted beans into that beautiful shot, you will need some equipment. The coffee brewed for this article came from a Rocky burr grinder and a Silvia espresso machine, both made by Rancilio. To make that sixteen-ounce hazelnut caffé latte at home, you would need the following:

2 oz Dattera Farm Calabria Style Espresso	$1.12
12-13 oz Horizon Organic Milk	$0.75
1 oz Torani Hazelnut Syrup	$0.16
Total	$2.03

At that price, if your household drinks two per day, five times per week, your yearly savings would be $991.73. The first year you can pay for Rocky to grind your beans and Silvia to brew your espresso; what you do with the money in subsequent years is up to you.

For you sticklers who point out that electricity, water, and maintenance are not figured in the calculations, please note that neither is the fuel savings of driving to the coffee shop, and then being "upsold" a pastry. If you are one of those disciplined souls for whom coffee is more communal experience than nagging addiction, forget the above and head to a great local coffee house like Penny Lane. Your time and money will be much better spent.

© 2008 J. Andrew Hubbard