Just A Picture

Red Lentil Soup with plain yoghurt and a lemon wedge for garnish

Chocolate Pinon Cheesecake

This recipe was inspired by the people in my last post. I took a basic cheesecake recipe of my mother’s, and added chocolate, cinnamon, chile powder, and pinon nuts. All but cinnamon are native to the New World.
The pinon nuts in this picture were bought from a man selling them out of his van at the side of the road. He showed us a pinecone and explained, “El pinon esta aqui en el dentro.” We understood from him that pinon nuts are harvested once every five years, which explains why the generous cup’s worth we bought cost $20. However they are very rich and their piney taste stays with you.
Actually, this recipe is just a first draft. It came out very rich and chocolately, and tasting a little bit complex, but we could not actually taste the chile powder. In future recipes, I (or you) might try cutting the amount of chocolate in half (or cutting the sugar further), increasing the chile powder or substituting cayenne pepper instead, or adding a little cinnamon to the crust.

Ingredients
Crust
¾ cup all-purpose flour + ¼ cup whole wheat flour
2 T sugar
½ t baking powder
¼ t salt
1/3 cup butter or margarine
2 – 3 T milk
Filling
1 - 2 T butter
1 12-oz pckg semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups)
1 lb (2 8-oz packages) cream cheese or Neufchatel cheese
1 cup sugar
1 t chile powder
½ t cinnamon
5 eggs
¼ cup pinon nuts

Method
Thaw the cream or Neufchatel cheese an hour or two before beginning the process.
Preheat oven 350 F.
Put 1 – 2 T butter and the semisweet chocolate chips in a saucepan on the lowest heat possible. While you are doing the rest of the recipe, stir occasionally and add splashes of milk as needed to melt the chocolate chips without allowing them to burn.
For crust, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter using a pastry cutter. Then add a little milk at a time, tossing with a fork each time, until the mixture is just moist. I added 1 or 2 tablespoons too much milk, so my crust dough was sticky and hard to handle. Form the dough into a mass, place it in the bottom of a springform cheesecake baking pan, and pat it out until it makes a crust that covers the bottom and an inch or two up the sides, more or less evenly. My crust was far from perfect, but the cake still came out OK. Cover the pan and chill the crust until you are ready to add the filling.
For the filling, beat together the cream cheese (I find it helpful to cube it first), the sugar, the chile powder and the cinnamon until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add the melted chocolate, a little at a time, beating until it is thoroughly mixed. Fold in the pinon nuts. Pour the filling mixture into the crust and smooth to make it even. I poured it into the crust first, then sprinkled on the pinon nuts and lightly folded them in. But this was difficult to do without disturbing the bottom of the crust.
Bake at 350 F for 55 minutes or until the center is just firm to the touch. Cool to room temperature, then chill the cake before serving. If desired, garnish with additional pinon nuts or even with chile peppers!

Native American Gourmet

Even though economics makes it unlikely that I will ever eat food catered by Red Mesa Cuisine, I love, love, love what they are doing. According to their web site, the two chefs, Lois Ellen Frank and Walter Whitewater, both of Native American descent, strive "to bring Native American Cuisine into the contemporary Southwest kitchens and to help sustain traditional foods, traditional agricultural food practices, as well as keep alive culinary techniques from a variety of Native communities." In other words, "Chefs Frank & Whitewater cook contemporary American Indian foods using ancient techniques and ingredients all with a modern twist." Whenever possible, they buy their ingredients from tribes in their area.
I found out about this when our local paper ran an article about Lois Ellen Frank, one that included some recipes. I think my birthday wish list is going to include her book, Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations.

Tractor Cake for A Three-Year-Old

You can find much better-looking tractor cakes if you Google it, but this is my version. We used two loaf pans, two small Pyrex bowls, and two cupcake cups to get the desired shapes. A lot of toothpicks holding it together. My little bro built the foil-covered cardboard platform on which we raised the cake. A great use of his architectural training to serve others. The grill and the headlights are licorice candy. The steering wheel is a peppermint patty.
The three-year-old immediately recognized it as a tractor cake and was very pleased.

Corn on the Cob Is Delicious and It Makes a Great Weapon Too

Another Thrown-Together Supper

... or last-minute inspiration, if you like.

Mock Gyros

The only reason I'm proud of this one, is that I just happened to have all the ingredients on hand. The secret weapon, the tzatziki, is a yoghurt-garlic-cucumber sauce. I had an 8-oz container of it because I got it as an impulse buy at Jungle Jim's. The Greek seasoning was in our house thanks to my sister in law. The bell pepper was from my mother in law's garden!

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
2 t Greek seasoning
4 garlic cloves (or more, to taste)
¼ of a red onion
1 small bell pepper
whole-wheat tortillas, or other wraps
tzatziki

Method
Use your hands to mix the Greek seasoning thoroughly through the ground beef. Shape beef into eight to ten little “logs.” Place logs in a frying pan and flatten slightly. Turn the heat on medium low.
Peel garlic cloves, cut off the stem ends if desired, but leave whole. Place in the pan with the beef. Wash and slice red onion and bell pepper, and add them to the pan as well. Cook on medium or low until the pink is almost gone from the beef; then flip the patties. Cook until the patties are well browned on both sides, the garlic is getting some brown spots and softening, and the veggies are relaxed.
Place one to two patties, plus some veggies, in each tortilla or wrap. Serve the tzatziki on the side so each person can add the amount they want of it. Serve with grapes. Serves four to six.

Super Easy Taco Seasoning

If you're frying up some ground beef but don't have taco seasoning, just use :

2 t paprika
1 t cumin
1 t salt
1/4 t black pepper
1/4 t garlic salt or garlic powder

Mix the spices together in a little bowl, then add to the meat a little at a time. Seasons one pound of ground beef.

Featured Flavoring: Saffron

Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world. It is harvested from the stigmas of crocus, which only produce a little bit each and have to be harvested by hand. All this I learned from exhaustive research that took me here and here.

These sites say that saffron has a distinctive flavor. I have never noticed one, except that it is maybe a little bitter, but it does seem to lend foods a nice aroma, and of course a beautiful deep yellow color. Indonesians make saffron rice (nasi kuning), which is pale yellow and is also faintly sweet because it is made with coconut milk.

The only recipe I have ever made that calls for saffron, is a Philippine chicken soup recipe that I got out of Extending the Table, the successor to the popular More with Less Cookbook. It's a simple soup calling for sauteed garlic, a little ginger, and green onions added at the last minute. I would post a recipe, but my copy of Extending the Table is temporarily lost after a recent(ish) move.

I owe the idea for this post to Dogimo, (one of my faithful food followers), who mentioned in a comment thread on his own blog that saffron is made from crocuses. I hadn't remembered that, but it seemed that someone with a food blog ought to know. Luckily, I have only exposed my ignorance in front of three people, tops. Now that I have posted about saffron, it might be fun to feature a different herb or spice every once in a while, posting a recipe with that herb or spice too. Stay tuned.

Rye-Molasses Muffins

Adapted, as always, from the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook’s generic muffin recipe.
The rye flour makes the muffins slightly crispy on top when fresh. They could be served with additional molasses on the side, but are very good with just a little butter. They are pretty good the next day, too.

Ingredients
1 ¼ cups flour
½ cup rye flour
¼ cup sugar
2 t baking powder
¼ t salt
1 beaten egg
¾ cup milk
¼ cup cooking oil
2 T molasses

Method
Preheat oven 400 F. Grease 12 regular size muffin cups. In a medium mixing bowl combine flour, rye flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture.
In another bowl combine the wet ingredients: the beaten egg, milk, cooking oil and molasses. I like to beat the egg using a small whisk or fork in a Pyrex 2-cup measuring cup, then add the milk, oil, and molasses and mix everything right there in the cup. You will have to stir vigorously for a while until all the molasses is dissolved.
Add wet mixture all at one to dry mixture. Stir till just moistened (batter should be lumpy). If you over stir, the muffins will not rise as nicely or develop nice cracks on top.
Divide batter among the 12 muffin cups. Bake in a 400 F oven about 20 minutes. Cool in muffin cups on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Use a butter knife to gently loosen around the edges of each muffin; pop them out of the tin; serve warm. Makes 12.

Jen's Dilly Potato Salad

Everyone has their own potato salad recipe, right? I’m posting this one because … I need something to post … aaand … some members of my extended family have said they like it.

Ingredients
6 – 10 potatoes
2 – 5 eggs
3 – 8 dill or sweet pickles, plus at least half a jar’s worth of pickle juice
½ an onion, any color, or 3 green onions
1 – 3 ribs celery
½ cup chopped fresh parsley (optional)
about 1 ½ cups mayo, Miracle Whip, or either one mixed with plain yoghurt
1 – 2 t dried dill weed
1 t salt
¼ t black pepper
2 T white vinegar
1 T to ¼ cup yellow or spicy brown mustard, if desired

Method
Scrub the potatoes under running water, picking off any sprouts. Place in a large saucepan. Arrange the eggs on top of the potatoes. Cover the whole thing with water, salt lightly, bring to the boil. Boil, partially covered, 20 to 25 minutes or until the potatoes are soft when poked with a fork. Drain in a colander and allow to cool until the potatoes are still warm, but cool enough to handle. Reserve the eggs.
Meanwhile, chop up the pickles until you have about ½ a cup of chopped pickles (or more – to taste). Place in a large bowl. Chop up the onion, celery, and parsley, and add to the bowl.
When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel the skin off each one with a sharp knife, chop to desired size, and place in another large bowl. I like to do one or two at a time. One you have some potato pieces in the bowl, add a little pickle vinegar so the potatoes can marinade while you chop the others. As you add potato pieces to the bowl, periodically add more vinegar and stir the potatoes around a little bit.
Once all the potatoes are peeled and marinating, combine them with the pickles, onion, celery and parsley in whichever bowl is larger.
In a small bowl, thoroughly mix the mayo, dill weed, salt, pepper, vinegar, and mustard if you are using it. Add to the ingredients in the large bowl, adding more mayo if necessary for a creamy result, and mix thoroughly. At this point, you can also add ¼ to ½ cup of sweet pickle relish if desired. I think this is gross, but my father in law loves it.
The very last thing you do should be to peel and chop the boiled eggs and add them to the top of the salad. I do this last so that the yolks will not get all smushed and distributed throughout the salad. You can add them either before you chill the salad, or right before serving, whichever is more convenient.
Makes 12 to 20 servings, depending on how much of each ingredient you used.