Veggie Joes...with a twist

In the crock pot this week, lentils!

I'm trying out a slow cooker recipe for veggie joes, a vegetarian take on the sloppy joe. No, I'm not a vegetarian, but I do like to try new and interesting foods. Lentils are tasty, and sloppy joes are also a tasty item. So, the idea of making a sloppy joe from lentils seems pretty good to me. They'll be full of protein and healthy carbs, too.

I did tweak the recipe...as usual. It called for ketchup, and I never have this in my house. I fact, I never eat it when out either. There is just something about a sugary tomato paste that doesn't appeal to me. I also reduced the Worcestershire sauce and added a new spice...dum-da-dum-dum! Curry. Why? Lentils. That's why. Lentils scream to me that they like curry, and I never deny a food its heart's desire when it screams like that.*

Here's a picture and the recipe (for prosperity and in case I decide to make it again)

Veggie Joe Masala

2 cups dried lentils, sorted and rinsed

4 cups H2O

6 medium carrots, chopped

6 medium celery stalks, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1 1/2 cups of chopped tomato (or 12 oz can of stewed tomatoes)

4 tablespoons brown sugar

3 tablespoons yellow curry powder

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Heat the lentils and H2O to boiling. Reduce the heat. Then cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Mix the remaining ingredients with the lentils in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 10-12 hours.

To serve, stuff a pita pocket with 1/2 cup, or you can use burger buns.

Snowless snow day

I had a snow day yesterday, sans snow. The city of Austin had rolling blackouts, and my office had to close because of the power outage. Between the office never being able to heat up and the server having to reboot every 30 minutes, there was just no point in being at work.

So, I stayed home, watched Groundhog Day and baked. The first step was deciding WHAT to bake though. It was 20F, and I didn't feel like bundling up for the grocery store. Instead, I looked in my pantry to see what I could improvise. I found white chocolate chips and pecans...and that was as far as my eyes had to search. It was an easy sell for me. No snow on a snow day = white chocolate then. Fair enough. :-)

To spruce up this combo, I used Mexican vanilla and cinnamon, and here is the resulting recipe:

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon Mexican vanilla extract

1 large egg

2 cups (12-oz. pkg) white chocolate chips

3/4 cup chopped pecans

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in small

bowl. Beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla extract

in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in egg. Gradually beat in flour

mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans. Drop by rounded

tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 8 to 11 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on

baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

The cookie...well...it just might be my new second favorite. I'd say favorite, but the snickerdoodle will always have my heart. This was a really, really good cookie though, proof being that there are no more left today. :-)

Chli Revival

It's spicey. It's warm. It's chili and cornbread...in a pie? Yes! Can I get an Amen?! It's the chili revival.

To freshen up this dish, I made pot pies. Just a little bit of chili in each dish, topped with some cornbread batter. Then baked following the cornbread recipe. I did bake it for the minimum time first and then 5 minute intervals, checking after each 5 to make sure they didn't burn.

The results: YUM! Proof: these pot pies are already gone. :-)

On my mind today...

"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth."
- - Muhammad Ali

A man known best for comments like, "Float like a butterfly sting like a bee " and being able to defeat his opponents in the ring, Muhammad Ali is also a champion humanitarian. He advocates for volunteerism and has worked in many countries...battling hunger and helping to provide medicine for millions in need.

I love the dichotomy of his character, fighter and altruist, and I wish more sports figures today would follow his example. In all truth though, we can all take a cue from Ali....stop fighting every once in awhile and actually do something that matters.

Brrr...time to warm up the kitchen

It's one of those rare winter days in the Texas hill country. Yes, we have about 3 months of winter, but a normal winter day here has temperatures in the 50s or 60s. Today, the high is predicted to be 43, and it's going to be like this over the coming week...with a low of 23 on Tuesday. I cannot express BRRRRRRrrrrr enough. My hot Texan blood isn't designed to endure these cold days, and this means one thing. It's time to make chili.

Now, I'm not new to the chili-craft but do have a problem when it comes to making it. What happens is an assortment of ingredients that are thrown together, and I don't write down the recipe. So, I hardly ever make the same batch of chili more than once, and it's difficult to duplicate a batch that I really liked months later. That changes today.

On this week's chili menu is a southwestern style turkey chili, and here's the recipe.

~~-------++--------~~

3 lbs ground turkey 85-15

1 lb lean ground turkey 93-7

30 oz can black beans

27 oz can pinto beans

12 oz package of frozen SW style corn

2 8 oz cans tomato sauce

28 oz can crushed tomatoes

14.5 oz can diced tomatoes with chilis (Rotel style)

1 cup vegetable stock

1/4 cup blackstrap molasses

1/2 cup HEB San Antonio Chili seasoning

2 TBSPN cayenne pepper

It's really simple. Brown the meat in a skillet, one pound at a time, adding some of the chili seasoning to each batch. While the meat is browning, combine the remaining ingredients in a large crock pot, and add the browned meat. Set the pot to cook on high, and cook for about 4 hours.

~~-------++--------~~

Notice that I added Rotel and a couple of tablespoons of cayenne. This is going to be 5 alarm batch, and that is how it should be (although I did add molasses to cut the heat just a little with some sweetness). It also has beans, and I know that Texas chili should NOT include a legume. To me, tradition can sometimes be a good guide but should never be followed rigidly, and since I like the contrast of textures in my chili, I make it with beans (and corn this time). :-P

Normally, I serve chili with cornbread, but this time, hubby and I are going to try it on brown rice. It's a little healthier, which will help with our goals to lose weight after the holidays. Taste testing so far indicates spicy and full of good flavors. Once the chili is done, I'll write an update on how it is.

Here's a teaser pic in the mean time.

-- also playing the depth of field in photography today....tips used are to lower the aperture and increase the zoom. So, I lowered the aperture as low as it would go, 2.8 or 3.5 when I zoomed in on an object.

Adventures of the Curd Kind

Lately, I've been thinking about baked goods. Nothing over the top (of the crust), just your ordinary items available at the local market, like all the variations of breads and pies, and the first that came to mind is the lemon meringue.

Of course, the first part of every pie is the crust, and having a mother who can bake with one eye closed, one hand tied behind her back and monkeys taunting her (AKA me and my brother begging for cookies) has brought me to believe in this about crust -- never bother with store-bought. Why? Pie crust is one of the simplest things to make, as long as you keep a few things in mind, but that's for another post.

Now, lemon meringue. It's easy to get a slice of this pie at most diners or bakeries, but too many times have I seen one of these sugary, lemon curds gone wrong when homemade. The meringue is too short, or the crust is too tough. Even worse, the filling is a tart, citrus soup. So, I set out on a mission -- to create the best recipe for this simple but oh-so-easily-disastrous confection.

To start, I tried a family recipe which won't be posted here. The taste was alright, but overall, it was not a good pie. Typical of many I've tried, the filling was soupy, and the meringue was tough. Upon looking over the recipe closer, I noticed that it only called for 3 eggs, and the meringue didn't include any cream of tartar. So it was no wonder that the recipe failed, and pushing forwarding on my mission, I tried another from Alton Brown.

This recipe uses 4 eggs instead of 3 and includes cream of tartar, and the pie did come out better. It wasn't perfect though, and the filling separated. Determined to complete this quest, I threw out the soupy pies and started over. This time, I increased the egg content even further and also tried a new meringue. Some other key changes include using a wooden spoon, quality zest, lower baking temperature and increased cooking time. The results were amazing. With just a few changes, I was able to make a lemon pie that had a nice curd. My recipe is below, and I've emphasized my alterations in bold.

Best Ever Lemon Meringue Pie

5 egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue)

1/3 cup cornstarch

1 1/2 cups water

1 1/3 cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest (only use the outermost part of the peel for the zest, avoiding any pith. This may require an entire lemon to get enough for the recipe)

1 (9-inch) blind-baked pie crust

1 recipe Meringue, recipe follows

Preheat the oven to 325

Whisk the eggs yolks in a small bowl and set aside. In a sauce pan, whisk cornstarch, sugar, water and salt. Turn the heat on to medium and stir mixture frequently with a **wooden spoon**. Bring to a boil and let boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat, and add half the mixture to the eggs. Gently whisk to combine, and then add the egg mixture to the remaining mixture in the sauce pan, also gently whisking to combine.

Turn the heat down to low and return the pan to the burner. Cook, stirring constantly, for one minute. Remove from heat and gently stir in the butter, lemon juice and zest. **Return to the burner and cook for one more minute, stirring constantly.**

Pour mixture into the prepared pie crust and top with meringue while the filling is still hot. Spread the meringue to the crust to prevent shrinking, and bake till meringue peaks are golden, approximately 20-25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for at least 4 hours before serving. The pie should be completely cooled before cutting.

Meringue

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

5 egg whites

Place egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl. With a whisk attachment, beat egg whites until soft peaks form, and then gradually add sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form.

Viola!!

Easy as Pie Part 1: Crust

The first in my Baked Installment: Pie Crust...easy to make and equally easy to ruin. Here are the tips my mom shared with me when I picked up my first rolling pin (with a few of my own additions over the years):

1. Keep all your ingredients cold. I cannot emphasize this enough. So, again. Keep all your ingredients COLD!!! This helps to keep the butter/shortening/lard from melting in your dough, and those globs of fat you'll see in the rolled out dough will make your crust nice and flaky.
2. Use a healthy* portion of fat. Most recipes for crust call for only 3 TBSPNs of butter, but this just isn't enough. Why would we want to skimp here anyway? It's not as if we're thinking about our waistlines when making pie! So, make it good...and make it buttery. I use 1/3:1 ratio for my butter and flour. If your recipe calls for one cup of flour, then use 1/3 cup of butter. Then, use an additional 2 TBSPNs of lard or shortening.
3. Add the cold water a little at a time. Check the dough after each tablespoon to see if it's too dry, and keep going till you have a firm dough. You'll see some loose flour in your bowl, and that's alright. You just don't want a gooey mess.
4. Work the dough as little as possible. Why? As you massage the dough, this creates gluten strings which are great for maintaining th structure but not for a flaky texture. So, we don't want these. Work the dough just enough to combine everything. Then, you'll form a ball and roll the dough out to fit your pan.
5. When rolling out the dough, first press the rolling pin into the dough about 3-4 times to help flatten it. Then, roll up and down. Turn the dough, roll up and down. Repeat till your dough is about 1/4" thick.
6. Set in the pan. Trim the edges, and chill for 15 minutes.

Inspired by a friend who recently asked me to show her how to make crust, and written for prosperity sake. Maybe others will find this helpful, too.

*healthy in the sense of ample, not the calorie-counting sort.