Yellow Coat/Red Tricycle

Greetings, I hope you're all enjoying some form of spring weather! We have started hitting 50 degrees pretty consistently and it feels like we've all been half-dead since December compared to how we feel now. Once we have green leaves and grass maybe we'll start taking our happiness for granted, but at the moment we revel in it and give our minds a tumble through the sunshine whenever possible.

With the relative warmth we have spent a good deal of time out on the little dead-end road next to our house where Spencer has a basket ball hoop and London can manage some speedy riding on the smooth pavement.

I think we'll be trying a garden again this year. I drove half an hour to a CSA last year, which was fun, but now London is old enough to keep herself busy while I work in the yard and Spencer really gets into helping with the vegetables. Ahh, just the thought of summer... How about you? Do you have sketches tucked into seed catalogs, does your mind wander through rows of tomatoes while you're stopped at red-lights?

DIY Coconut/Pecan Milk/Flour

On the left, we have pecan milk/flour. On the right, coconut. Yes, made at home, in my kitchen. 

 First of all, it is good to be back with you. I lost a fight with the End of December and the Depths of January (those bullies, gangin' up on people like that) and have been climbing my way back to civilization since. There's still a lot of cold water down there, but the topper-most feet are feeling warmed by the sun. Here's hoping for a good March. 

 

So anyways! Yeah! Look at all that good fat separating to the top, like the real deal.

Here's how I did it.

DIY Coconut Milk

1 coconut, drained, baked for 20 minutes at 350 (or until the shell has cracked)

4 cups boiling water

food processor

 damp tea towel

After your coconut has cooled remove the flesh from the shell and grate about half of it. Roughly 2 cups of finely grated coconut was a pretty manageable amount. Place it in a glass or ceramic bowl.

Pour the boiling water over it and let it stand about 2 hours. 

Scoop out about half of the pulp and put it in your food processor. Add about 1 cup of the soaking water and whir on highest for a few minutes, yes three, or more. 

Pour this creaminess into your damp tea towel, which you should have lining a large bowl.

Wring as much liquid into the bowl and out of the coconut as you can. Put the nearly dry pulp in a small bowl (more about that later).

Scoop out as much of the pulp as you can and whir with just enough water to keep it creamy. Repeat the tea towel procedure, pouring any leftover soaking liquid through the towel and into the bowl. Really squeeze the stuff as dry as you can. 

There's your milk! It isn't as thick as the canned stuff but if you adjust the amount of the boiling water you can change that. 

DIY Coconut Flour

Pulp from one batch of milk

parchment paper

baking sheet

Line your sheet with parchment paper and set your oven to the lowest setting possible, usually around 170 degree Fahrenheit 

Place your pulp on the sheet and break up the clumps with your fingers. Spread it out as evenly as possible.

Dry in the oven until the moisture is gone. Every ten minutes take it out and give it a stir with your fingers. Rub it around and if it feels at all steamy give a few more minutes. Mine took around an hour, but if you squeeze it harder than I did it might take you less time. 

Let it cool and store it in an airtight container.

Pecan Version

This I did pretty much the same way except I used 2 cups of pecans to roughly 3 cups of boiling water. I let them soak over night and them went through the same process as the coconut. 

It took a lot longer to dry out the flour and the texture ended up being more like grapenuts than flakes. I had to repeatedly break up the clumps with the fingers, but it smelled amazing every time I took it out of the oven so I didn't mind. 

The milk is delicious warmed with a little honey. 

So there you go! I project to propel you through the last weeks of winter. 

See you around. 

Dutch Style Red Cabbage

So sad. I am down to my last few items left over from this years farm share. Some parsnips, a few potatoes, and two red cabbages.

But on the up side, this was delicious! A great peasant meal. We ate it with baked sweet potatoes and some toothsome sourdough rye. I often end up thinking after meals like this "Wow, those peasants sure know how to eat!" It was a wonderfully satisfying combination for a snowy and bitterly cold (11 degrees...) day.

Dutch Style Red Cabbage from Nourishing Traditions

1 medium red cabbage, shredded
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp raw honey, or maple syrup for vegans
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 cup of water
2 apples, peeled and quartered (I sliced them)
2 tbsp. butter, or coconut oil
1 tbsp. raw wine vinegar ( I used apple cider vinegar)
you could also add some raisins for extra sweetness if you'd like

Rinse the cabbage and place in a heavy pan. In a small pan mix the bay leaf, cloves, salt honey and cinnamon with the water and bring to a boil. Pour over the cabbage and cook gently about 20 minutes. Add the apple (and raisins if you want) and cook about 10 minutes. Remove cabbage with a slotted spoon to a warm serving dish and toss with the butter and vinegar.

Serve with simple food and marvel at the culinary prowess of those peasants.

Roasted Red Pepper Panzanella

A return to food! Oh how I've missed it. As it turns out, I like writing about food almost as much as eating it (living vicariously, nix the calories?). And last night I finally had it together enough early enough to try a recipe that I have been eyeing for a while now.

This salad came together pretty easily and quickly. I had roasted the peppers right after lunch and then let them sit until I was ready and that was perfect. Watching peppers roast is always one of those things that sounds so easy and effortless when I read about but it usually seems to takes longer than they say and I'm always afraid that if I turn by back they'll go from crisp and fresh to crisp and incinerated in seven seconds flat(not true). So if you feel you may have that tendency as well, I suggest the roasting happens early and leisurely.

4 large red or orange pepper
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
1/2 small onion thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 tbsp. fresh oregano and basil, chopped
1/2 loaf country style bread (I used my oatmeal molasses) torn into chunks
1 ounce thinly sliced soppressata
4 ounces fresh mozzarella, torn into pieces

Roasting the peppers:

Preheat the broiler. Rub the pepper all over with olive oil. Broil them until you've blacked the skin on four sides. You'll have to watch them and turn them a little more often as they warm up.
Transfer them to a large bowl and cover it with a plate. This will steam the peppers and loosen the skins for later. They can sit at room temp all afternoon, if need be.

When you're almost ready to eat:

Turn the over to 400 degrees.
Peel and seed the peppers. Cut them into 2 inch strips and toss them with onion, garlic, vinegar, half of your herbs, and about 4 tbsp. olive oil, in the same large bowl with some pepper juices left over.

Toss your bread chunks with a couple tbsp. olive oil and spread on a cookie sheet. Toast them for about 8 minutes, stirring them every now and them until they're crisped on the outside, but a little soft on the inside. Let them cool.

Now you can arrange everything on a platter. Toss the soppressata with your peppers and throw the cheese around haphazardly. If you like, you can out the croutons on first and pour all that pepper sauciness over them so that they absorb the flavor. Or you can arrange them amongst all the other ingredients to keep them crisp.

I served this with some pasta, soft boiled eggs, and sourdough.

Enjoy! If you tweek it your way let me know how it goes...