Of Buckwheat and Galettes

When Sara, Rowen and I visited Brittany, we were introduced to the wondrous cuisine of the region. http://www.frenchentree.com/france-brittany-restaurants-shops/home.asp Has a sample. Apples, butter, honey, cider, beer, fish, mussels, custard and crepes, oh, my! Good hearty food, friendly people.

One of the dishes I liked best was the galette. A galette is a crepe made out of buckwheat flour, in the local stores it was labeled ble-noir or saracen. I picked up a kilo of local buckwheat while we there, but I used it even before we left Europe. Good luck finding plain old buckwheat flour in Abilene. I had been using Hogden's Mills Buckwheat Pancake mix, but I wasn't happy with the results. Too thick and fluffy to be a proper galette. Imagine my happiness when Sara brought home some Hogden's Mills Buckwheat Flour! I made galettes today for lunch. Yummy!

Galette Breton
8 oz buckwheat flour
pinch of salt
2 cups water
2 eggs
1.5 oz melted butter
cheese, diced ham, bacon, tomato, mushrooms, onions, sausage, fried apples or whatever for filling
Mix everything together, making sure you got rid of the lumps. Let the batter rest for at least 45 minutes. (Some recipes say 2 hours) Pre-heat your griddle. Pour on some batter, spread it thin, let it cook. cover one half with filling, fold and flip. This takes some practice. I cheat and use a mondo pancake flipper. The galetterries use this long narrow wooden spatula, but end result is what matters, not the tools, in this case. Anyhow, cook until crispy brown. Serve hot with apple cider and a salad.

Going back to Jersey for September

I haven't been posting regularly, bad on me, I know. Anyhow, since my last post, we decided to head to Jersey to visit my folks. I say we, but itwas really more of a case where Sara said "If really want to, we can." From what Mom was saying, Mom-mom isn't doing well, so Mom and Tony coming out to visit was a no go. Dad and Sherrie (gotta luv second marriages) can't come out because college for my brother is heinous on a retired carpenter's budget. That left us going back East. My daughter hasn't seen her Grandpa or her graet grandma. Add in the fact that I'm going to Korea, I really wanted to go back to show Rowen and Sara off.

Now the trip looms large, of course. It's going to be a long drive, but we felt drive would be better than flying. I hope we're right!

So there's this wine

I haven't really posted about it, but I have morphed from a beer kinda guy to a wine kinda guy. Don't get my wrong, a good whitbier or stout will still have me belly up to the bar, but for drinking around the fire or on the porch, wine is where it's at for me.

It is with great sadness that I find that my last bottle of Dornfelder rotwein is in my cellar. We bought a case of this from our favorite winery, Schmitt und Sonne near Bernkastel in the Mosel valley. Luckily, the Class Six has some Dornfelder that I am itching to try.

I plan on trying more American wines to see what I like from the homeland.

Some recipes from last week

I realized I hadn't posted in a while. I also figured that I need to start taking pictures of the stuff I cook. I haven't done that yet, but I will soon.

For the 4th, Sara invited Shawn and Jeannette over and invited Otto over. A crowded house for us. Traditionally, I suppose one should make burgers and dogs, but I really didn't feel like making that so I made marinated some pork blade steaks instead. It's a slightly fatty cut, but it grills up really nice. I also made some potato salad, corn on the cob and zaziki.


Potato salad
8 peeled, chunked and boiled potatoes
4 hard boiled eggs, sliced
1 cup diced red onion
1/2 jar real mayonnaise (not miracle whip-blech)
dash vinegar
celery salt and pepper to taste
cooked bacon to crumble on top

Place all your taters, eggs and onion in a big bowl. Shake on some vinegar, celery salt and pepper. Mix everything around, making sure the spices are spread out. Start spooning out the mayo and mixing it in. Taste, add more spices if you want. Refrigerate. Crumble the bacon on top just prior to serving, otherwise it gets mushy.

Zaziki (Greek garlic, cucumber yogurt dip/spread)
8 oz plain yogurt or lite sour cream
1/2 large English cucumber
minced garlic to taste
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp white/rice/cider vinegar

Peel and chop your cucumber and place it in a bowl. Add in as much minced garlic as you like. Add in the olive oil and vinegar, mix. Mix in the yogurt or sour cream. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, overnight is better. Use it on burgers, fajitas, steak sandwiches, salads, as a dip.

German Style Marinated Pork Blade Steaks (Schwenkbraten)
2 lbs of pork blade steaks
1 red onion
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tbsp paprika
Sea salt
Thyme, black pepper, cayenne pepper and curry to taste

Slice the onions into strips and sprinkle with sea salt. Place the meat into a bowl and cover with the onions. Crush the onions into the meat, so the onion juice gets into the meat. Shake on your seasonings, except for the paprika. Stir the paprika into the olive oil, then pour the olive oil over the meat and onions. Cover the bowl tightly, or transfer everything to a gallon Ziploc bag. Let marinate over night. Bring to room temperature before grilling over an open flame. Serve on kaiser rolls, hard rolls, brotchen or baguettes. Top with German mustard, zaziki, ketchup, or curry sauce. Remoulade is good too.

Braised Lamb Shanks in Wine Sauce

Sara really likes lamb, especially when braised on cooked in the crockpot. I picked up some lamb shanks from the commissary when they were on sale and have kept them in the deep freezer until now. I adapted this recipe from one I googled.

Braised Lamb Shanks
4 lamb shanks
8 cloves garlic, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 can beef stock
1 cup red wine
season salt
pepper
olive oil

Cut slits into the lamb shanks and insert garlic slices into the slits. Salt and pepper the shanks to taste and brown them in a frying pan with the olive oil. Transfer the shanks to your crockpot. Pour a little beef stock into the pan and loosen up the crunchy brown stuff, pour that into the crockpot. Surround the shanks with chopped onion and mushroom slices. Pour the remaining beef stock into the crockpot. Pour the wine over the shanks and into the pot. Use a wine you would drink, not cooking wine (cooking wine is the devil). Cook on low for about 7 hours or until the meat is fork tender.

You can serve this over noodles with a salad or with steak fries and sauteed zuccinni. Cucumber and tomato salad is also a nice accompanyment.

Cucumber and tomato salad
1 peeled and sliced cucumber
1 cup sliced tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup (or so) Rice vinegar
2 tbs Equal
garlic salt to taste
Mix everything up in a bowl, chill in fridge for at least 45 minutes.

Even Rowen like this!

I served Dornfelder red wine with the meal. (Not for Rowen, she's 3 1/2) I really like Dornfelder, it's a sweet. low tannin red.

Messy Giussepes

My daughter, Rowen, is not fond of spicy food, even mildly spicy stuff like sloppy joes. I can up with the recipe by replacing the normal barbecue spices in sloppy joes with milder ones.

Messy Giuseppe's
1 lb ground lean ground beef (turkey or chicken is fine too)
1 shallot, finely diced
2 tbl Saigon cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
4 tbl brown sugar
4 tbl Worcestershire sauce
2 tbl cider vinegar
2 tbl balsamic vinegar
1 cup ketchup or honey barbecue sauce
1 cup water or apple juice
Handful of raisins or dried currants
salt to taste


Mix the ground meat, raisins and spices in a bowl. Mix your wet ingredients in a large measuring cup. Saute the diced shallot in a skillet with some butter until soft, add in your meat. Cook until brown. Drain off excess fat, if you want. Carefully pour in your wet ingredients. Heat to boiling, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Serve on open faced on an English muffin, topped with Munster or mozzarella cheese.

A Soggy, Sloggy Weekend

About 2 months ago Sara planned a trip to the Scarborough Renaissance Faire in Waxahatchie. According to the website, it's one of the biggest in the Southwest. She made hotel reservations, I got the tickets from the base travel agencey. We decide not to go in garb, mainly because I was worried about the heat, this is Texas after all.

Worried about the heat? Silly man, you should have worried about the rain! It rained and rained, turning the faire into a big soggy mess. Mud on everything. Muddy fairies, muddy queens, muddy musketeers and highlanders. Mud may be "period"but man is it a buzzkill. I still had a good time. The site is cool as hell, lots of little fanciful renaissance-ish stores and buildings. Funny acts and great music. Awesome food, too. I had some of the best tiramisu there. There is a bakery just as you get thru the main gates that is hella good as well.

If money were no object, I could have easily dropped in excess of 1500 bucks on clothes and weapons.

Rowen had a good time, despite the rain and being a little sick. There was a petting zoo, elephant and camel rides. Princesses, fairies, battling girls (what she calls women in armour), jousting juggling. Fun stuff for the monkey.

Then, even with the rain, belly dancers, bodices, corsets and thigh high boots. What more can a geek boy want?

Color me embarassed

This weekend I went to a SCA event hosted by my local shire. I had a great time. I got my butt whupped in the tournament, but I had some great pick up fights afterwards. I was also awarded "best death" by the ladies of the Amazon household. Even in death can a true warrior be victorious ;-) Some really good instruction on glaive and great sword by people who had a great grasp on the dynamics of the weapon form.

Here I had been ranting about the shire, like i said, color me embarrassed. Abilene still sucks, though.

No recipes this weekend, since i was camping out.

I HATE MY HELMET

There is just no way around it, I hate my bascinet. I cannot get the dang thing to fit right, even after a year. My old beat up homemade helmet fits sooooo much better. Patrick is just SOL if he shows up to the event this weekend, I'm wearing old faithful for the tournement.

When Otto gets back from Califronia, I need to see if his simple round top helm fits my noggin. If so, I'll be hitting up Ashkraft baker for one. Sara is so going to make fun of me. 3 helms in 3 years.

Mother's Day Chowdown

So yesterday was Mother's Day and I asked Sara to pick the menu for the day. Breakfast was easy, punkin' pancakes. I love my new griddle and flipper that Sara bought for me from Penney's. Not only does it make kickbutt pancakes, but it makes one mean stovetop frittata. But I digress. Punkin' pancakes, sausage and bacon.

Punkin' Pancakes
2 cups Krusteaz pancake mix ( or whatever you use, or scratch made pancakes)
1 cup water ( or a bit less than the mix calls for)
1 cup pumpkin puree (not pie mix, just plain ole punkin)
3 tbl brown sugar
Pumpkin Pie spice to taste
Mix until everything is mositened, cook on a hot griddle until brown. if you use krusteaz, you'll need a pretty hot griddle, they're really thick pancakes and you want to avoid that yucky uncooked batter in the middle

Now 1 cup pumpkin from a normal sized can leaves about 1 cup left. I was going to use it to make a smoothie, but I remembered what a dismal failure that was, so Sara suggested pumpkin bread. I came across this recipe for punkin bread which I used to make orange-punkin muffins.

Orange-Punkin Muffins
1 1/2 cups self rising flour
1 tbl baking powder
3/4 cup splenda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp corriander
1 tsp ginger
1 tbl saigon cinnamon ( definately use the saigaon cinnamon, soo much better than regular cinnamon)
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp orange extract
2 eggs beaten

mix the dry ingredients, then stir in the wet stuff. Preheat the oven t0 350. this reciepe will fit into 12 normal sized muffin cups or a normal loaf pan (if you wnat to make it bread) Bake the muffins for 30 minutes or the bread for 50-60, use the comes out clean method to see if they are done. Serve warm with lightly salted butter, yummy!

For lunch I just made some feta, grape tomato and english cucumber salad along with bumble bee smoked salmon on melba toasts. Easy and healthy! ( not my usual forte', I must admit )

For dinner, Sara picked a recipe from Brittany. Poulet avec cidre (chicken with cider). The recipe called for dry cider and apple brandy (Calvados), things i always kept on hand in Germany, but had to leave behind when we moved to Texas. I hit the commisary, class VI and the local package stores, I found cider (Woodchuck and Hornsby's), but no apple brandy. Apfelkorn, but that's apple infused corn moonshine from Germany, so that was right out. Undetered, I pressed on.

Poulet avec Cidre and Sour cream mashed taters
1 chicken, cut up
3 small shallots, sliced thin
2 apples, peeled and chunked
1 cup cider
4 tbls heavy cream ( Sara and Rowen have milk issues, so I used fat free evaporated milk)
1 generous shot apple brandy ( I used oak aged Glennlivet instead, still turned out yummy)
Butter, bacon grease, oil or lots of nonstick spray( the recipe book says to use either butter with sea salt or bacon grease)


Brown the chicken with the shallots and apples in your fat of choice, keep cooking and turning for about 20 minutes or so. ( Is that still browning?) If your pan is big enough, add the cider, cream and brandy, simmer covered for 30 minutes more. If your pans are size challenged, (like mine) transfer your chicken, shallots and apples to a big pot and simmer for 30 minutes.

For the taters, peel, slice and boil the potatoes (3 minutes in the pressure cooker). Drain, add sour cream and mash. Salt and spice to taste.

Sara really liked this meal, made us miss Europe. For desert, i sliced up some stramberries and a store bought cheese cake.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Ok, so it's supposed to have a picture. Ah, well it's time to watch the telly, so enough computer foolishness.

Flamin'hot potato salad!!!!!!

Holy crap was this stuff hot. Granted I'm a whitebread boy from South Jersey, but whoo! Anyhow, here's what happend. I nabbed some boar's head gen-u-wine casing beef franfurters and figured that potato salad would go good with grilled dogs.
So I cook the taters and decide that instead of relish and mayo, I'll use some horseradish mustard, garlic, onion powder, rice vinegar and 1/4 TEASPOON of Thai chili powder. Should be just a little spicey, right? No, sir-e-bob, this stuff was up there with kimchi for hot. I saved about a cup and rinsed the rest of the taters and made more conventional potato salad for Sara and Rowen. They said it was yummy! (Praise does not come easily from my wife and child) Here's the recipe for the hot stuff:

3 c. Sliced and boiled potatoes
1 c. mayo ( I like helman's)
3 tbl horseradish mustard (Grey Poupon)
1 tbl rice vinegar
1/4 tsp Thai Chili powder
5 hard shakes of the garlic powder jar
3 hard shakes of the onion powder

Put the potatoes in a big bowl, mix the other ingredients in a different bowl, pour them over the taters, mix gently so you don't mash your taters. Chill.

After being the fridge for about 6 hours, the salad was just spicey hot, not oh-dear-lord-jesus-i-have-just-ingested-napalm hot.

If you eat spicey stuff all the time, this might be pretty tame. Since Sara thinks spice means adding dill to the sour cream, I don't eat spicey that oftern. Even deep in West Texas.