art matters, and so does tea!

I am someone who enjoys a good cup of tea. being my father’s daughter, which I no doubt am, I’m a devout orange pekoe drinker. I can appreciate herbal teas and their subtle sophistication and freshness, and I wouldn’t dream of eating Chinese or Japanese food without green tea on the table, but good ol’ pekoe is my standby. and so you can imagine how excited I was (remember I get excited about food things easily and often) when Tetley introduced ‘Tetley Bold’ sometime last year. I bid farewell to steeping my tea for forty minutes under a crocheted mug-cozy or in a thermal cup. I also said tally-ho to using two teabags to get the right richness and intensity. Helllllllooooooo bold! I don’t know what they do, but they do it right. All the box says is that they take leaves harvested from high altitudes in Kenya and blend it with North Indian black tea. their website is kind of bollocks and doesn’t say more than that.

Alas, delicous, warm, potent tea fit for warming you up after the cold walk home from the bus depot, or super soothing you during a stressful week of midterms and essay due dates. I currently mix it with bed, the cats, a book on dada, and pony (also reading)… it’s pretty sweet.

chick’n ‘n dumplin’s – because it’s still sort of winter

I made stock yesterday and so it only made sense to make something soup oriented for dinner. chicken and dumplings is where we’re headed. I use a recipe I snagged from tyler florence via the foodnetwork. you could straight-up follow his, or try out my modified version. either way, you’ll eat well tonight!

homemade chicken stock is kind of the only way to go with this. because it’s such a simple dish with not a lot of ingredients, the quality of the stock is important. see the end of this post for how I make good stock

ok, and onto the actual dinner part! chicken and dumplings go like this:

butter
oil
1 onion, diced fine
3 or so carrots, sliced thinish
3 sticks of celery, diced fine
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 chicken
1/4 C flour
chicken stock
chicken base/bouillion/paste (to taste, this is just to fortify that chickeny goodness)
1/4 C whipping cream
1 med. sized zucchini, diced into cute little cubes
salt and pepper to taste
tiniest squizz of ketchup
2 bay leaves
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp good dijon (senf is my favourite)

. crank yer oven to 400 and put the chicken (which has been rinsed and patted dry, rubbed with poultry seasoning and pepper) in it.
. when it’s all roasty looking on the outside (and it doesn’t matter if it’s cooked through because you’re going to shred the bastard and cook the meat even more in a bath of veg and stock in just a moment) take it out and let it cool for half an hour… until you can handle it without burning your little wee selfy
. get a good sized pot on a medium low heat. throw some butter and oil in there
. toss in the veg, pepper, chicken base, spices, and dijon. let this sautée until the onions are glossy and translucent
. dump in all that good stock you made. there is ideally enough to come to a little over halfway up the pot. if not, add some water and chicken base to compensate
. shred the chicken and put in the pot. save the skin (or just eat it) and bones for making stock next time
. turn the heat down low, and simmer with a lid on it but askew for at least an hour. the longer the better
. get a small bowl and add the flour. dribble in some super cold water (enough to make it the consistency of honey) and whisk to combine
. dump the flour slurry into the stock and whisk immediately to avoid getting lumps. don’t worry if it doesn’t look thick, the residual flour from the dumplings will thicken it as well
. add the cream and super, super tiny squizz of ketchup… less than a tsp, ok? stir
. five minutes before you’re about to add the dumplings, chuck in the zucchini
. now is the time to prep your dumpling mixture
. get yourself set up with:

2 C flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
6 cracks of black pepper
2 eggs
1 tsp good dijon
*1/4 C chopped scallion (optional)
3/4 to 1 C buttermilk (to make butter milk, just add 1tbsp vinegar to every cup of milk needed and let sit for 10 minutes)

. in a big bowly, combine all the dry ingredients
. in another bowl, beat the eggs into the buttermilk, dijon, and possible scallions
. add the dry to the wet and stir until just combined. it will probably be a bit lumpy and quite thick. this is good
. grab two of your standard eating spoons, and spoon seemingly small portions of the batter into the stock. they will grow and puff up like no one person’s business, so be careful not to make them too big. spoon as much batter as will fit in the pot without crowding the little dumplings too much
let these simmer for 15 minutes, or until cooked through, with the lid on but askew

these things will be insanely hot, so ladle them up into your favourite bowl and wait a good five minutes before tucking in. they’re also way more filling than one might think, but they keep and reheat very well, so make sure to hang onto the leftovers and enjoy for the next day or two.

for goodly stock:
chicken bits
celery
carrots
onion
bay leaves
salt and pepper

to make it a bit easier on yourself, and to reduce waste, whenever you do anything with carrots, celery, onion or garlic, put all the end bits and stuff you would normally compost into a bowl in the fridge. in a week or two you’ll have enough veg to make stock without having to use the more desirable parts. same with the chicken (or any other meat, really), save the skin, bones, fatty stuff whenever you cook chicken. stuff it in a bag in the freezer, then bust it out when you’ve got enough to boil up.
. put the chicken and veg in a roasting pan and blast it into a hot oven, say 400-ish for about an hour
. when it’s good and golden – the darker the better – but not burned, obviously, take it out and chuck it in a big pot of cold water.
. get the pot on medium high heat, add the bay leaves and spices
. simmer for 3 hours. keep an eye on the level of the water, you want it to boil down by maybe a third
. let it cool completely so it’s super easy to scoop off the fat
. strain and you’re ready to go! use in the next couple days, or keep it in the freezer for whenever.

30 Helens agree… texture, is important – peanutbutter cookies

it’s sunday. you can’t go to a dinner you would like to go to, so make something sweet to take your place. peanutbutter cookies, you know the ones… a bit more affordable because they’re made with shortening instead of butter; are soft and have that brown sugar comfort thing going for them. this is my grandma’s recipie and I hope she’s cool with me sharing it with you. I never got to meet her, but I really cherish being able to share the food she used to make for her friends and family (like my mom, who passed it on to me). try these and see why.

½ C short’nin’
½ C raw peanut butter (no salt or sugar)
1 C brown sugar (demerara is best)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 C flour (½ C all-purpose and ½ C whole wheat is nice)
¼ tsp soda
¼ tsp salt

. cream the short’nin’ with the peanut butter
. add the sugar, vanilla and egg
. in a separate bowl, mix the flour, soda and salt
. sift the dry ingredients into the wet stuff and mix well
. roll the dough into balls (large egg size) and flatten with a fork on the cookie sheet. these don’t really spread out much when you bake them, so only squish ’em down to about 3/4″
. bake in a preheated oven for ten-ish minutes at 375. they should be goldenish but still a bit soft in the middle. texture is important.

about the ramen

wednesdays… bollocks. and so, ramen!

acquire your favourite, convenient ramen/ichiban and get yourself excited about turning this dusty package of crinkly noodles and super flavour salt into a tasty and not-so-awful-for-you dinner.

half an average sized carrot
half stick of celery
small bok choy
a couple florets of broccoli
smidge of scallion
medium firm tofu
some kind of left over meat (chicken, thick ham, bbq pork) or none!
an egg (the kind that came from a bird who got to run around and eat bugs and things)
splash of fish sauce
siracha or sambal oleke
smidge of miso paste
*optional: a pinch of grated ginger (I can’t stand it, but I’ve been told it’s very nice)

Have everything prepped and at the ready because this happens quickly.
. water in the pot, burner cranked to almost super high. mix the flavour/stock package (also the ginger if you’re into that) thing into the water and put a lid on it.
. cut up the veg into thin slices so it’ll all cook quickly and evenly.
. crumble or cube 1/3 of a pack of tofu (if you’re not using meat, use more tofu) into happy bite sized pieces.
. shred or cut up a few wunks of whatever your leftover mystery meat is, for me, it’s chicken!
. once the water has come to a boil, toss in the veg (but not the scallion), tofu, noodles, meat, and egg into the pot. turn the heat down to medium high and put the lid back on.
. let it boil away for two minutes, then add in a few splashes of fish sauce, miso paste, hot sauce, sesame oil… whatever you like to flavour asian dishes with. stir.
. take off the heat but keep the lid on for another minute or minute and a half depending on how soft/hard you like your noodles.
. slump the lot into a bow and garnish with chopped scallion and maybe some nuts if you’re feeling fancy.
if you don’t look this excited to eat, you’ve done something wrong.

super fab pumpkin muffins

I tried these back in october, and I’ve been making them every couple of weeks since. I originally saw it on foodbeast.com and trust me, it is sooo worth trying.

They are the best pumpkin muffins I’ve ever had. my little contribution is, for the topping, rather than just sugar and cinnamon, I like to mix in a bit of butter and make a crumble type topping that melts into lovely gooey nubs of autumn flavour.

BREAKFAST SALAD – feb fifth fenty felve

this morning I stumbled upon something so obvious, but so, so good:

BREAKFAST SALAD

I turned this

(which is good as is, but please, try this take on it)

. chop two massive (or more smaller) potatoes into chunks roughly the size of hubbabubba squares.
. get them in a big pot of slated water and boil ’em until tender but not falling apart – we’re not mashing these.
. while the toes are wubbling away, get a big frying pan on medium high heat. when it’s hot enough to instantly steam a drop of water, throw down some thick cut, streaky bacon.
. season with garlic powder, paprika, and pepper. the bacon will be best if you only flip it once (something me ma showed me). when the bacon is at your desired floppy or crispy goodness, drain on paper towel and set aside, but SAVE the grease in the pan.
. when the potatoes are finished, drain them in a colander. allow the heat inside them to evaporate the residual water, then carefully slide them into the hot bacon grease in the pan. You may need or want to add some additional bacon drippings, or butter, or oil because we basically want to do a very hot and quick fry on these suckers. stir as needed, you know, to get good gold coverage.
.while everything is getting hot and bubbly, finely chop half an onion and a small handfull of fresh parsley.
. also get yet another frying pan, smaller this time, on another burner and on a medium heat, let it get nice and hot.
. thinly slice some tomato into those gorgeous jeweled discs, and then again in gummybear-sized pieces.
. when the soon-to-be hasbrowns are almost at that lovely golden fried state, throw the onions in along with a bit of salt and the same seasonings that went on the bacon.
. of course, you’re really on the ball and excited to eat, so you’ve also got a carafe of coffee on the go, perfectly timed to be poured just after you serve breakfast. (I reccommend ethical bean – classic roast… it’s like chocolate cake)
. crack one or two or five eggs into the smaller, super hot pan atop some butter. quickly crack pepper on them and put a lid on the whole deal.
. have a small amount of water on hand and near the stove.
. chuck the parsley in the potatoes, stir and turn off the heat.
. drop about a teaspoon’s worth of that water in the eggs frying and get the lid on quick. the steam will cook the tops of the eggs but in a way that you can still get that gooey yolk happening. don’t leave them long… the hot hot pan should cook them in under two or three minutes. (miss mia taught me this, and I’m forever in egg-debt to her)
. drain the potatoes in a colander inside a bowl or on paper towel.
. get them eggs out of the pan and onto two plates. dump on some of the now drained hashbrowns, the tomato gems, and crumble the bacon on top of that.
. pour the coffee.
. grab your favourite breakfast salsa, ketchup, hot sauce, whatever.
. cut up the eggs beneath all the other goodness and mix it about in a glorious messy fashion until most of the bits have coated each other.
stuff your eager, drooling face with it.

for a nice breaky for two you will need:
2-4 good sized potatoes
6 rashers streaky bacon
bacon grease
butter – for frying
2-5 eggs (free run and organic is always best)
garlic powder
paprika
fresh cracked pepper
salt
1/2 an onion
fresh parsley (it really does make a difference)
1 tomato

* if one were to be so bold, so hardcore, so good with multitasking,  as to make and add hollandaise to this…
one may kersplode at the table.