Big Cluster Maple Granola

Well, this whole eating meat thing has been fun…But it’s time I start acting like the granola I really am, so what better way to return to my veg head than with a warm batch of homemade granola?

 

For Christmas, Mamma Hendo gave both Dad and I our own copies of The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman. The recipes come from Perelman’s small kitchen in Manhatten. It is a truly wonderful cookbook, filled with detailed recipes, anecdotal, witty directions and tantalizing photographs of each and every recipe. 

 

So I went to the kitchen to gather the ingredients, and I was so excited that there were actually oats, olive oil, an egg and cinnamon in the house that I got a little carried away and thought I could just improvise with the other several ingredients. You see, in my kitchen in college we rarely have any ingredients found in any sort of edible recipe, forcing us to invent makeshift dinners of whatever’s around in the kitchen. Thankfully, my dad reminded me of the importance of a recipe. Disgusted with how far I was about to stray from the recipe, he told me to get dressed so that we could go buy the missing ingredients. “Never experiment with a recipe until you have followed it.” 

 Then the fun really started! I started measuring and combining ingredients! Yay!

Combine all ingredients except for the dried fruit and the egg white. Tossing to coat evenly. Whisk the egg white in a small bowl until frothy. Stir in the granola mixture. 

I needed my dad to teach me how to separate the yolk from the white.

Next, spread it in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

While I was carefully distributing the granola with my spatula my dad stepped in saying "God made hands for a reason"

Bake at 300 degrees for 25 minutes and then use a large spatula to turn over sections of the granola. 

Bake for about 25 more minutes. 50 minutes in total. When the granola is evenly browned and feels dry to the touch, transfer the granola from the oven to the cooling rack. Cool completely. Once it is completely cool, sprinkle in the dried fruit. 

The granola keeps at room temperature in an airtight container for 2 weeks. It keeps even longer in the freezer, if you're the stockpiling type.

YUMMMMMMMYYYYY!!!!!! I will definitely be repeating this recipe. Next time I will press the "batter" more on the parchment paper so that the granola clumps together better. Mom and Dad both love it and I already want to make more tomorrow so that I can bulk up before returning to my makeshift college kitchen.

Tracey's Chicken Wings

As Hailey noted - this is an old family favorite - and with me it goes back a lot longer than that. Tracey was a college roommate of mine and she got this recipe from her mother. When we were in college back in the dark ages (mid 1970's) - chicken wings had yet to be discovered as the favorite appetizer/stylish bar food that they would eventually become. They were basically toss outs, sold almost like soup bones, and pretty much only cash-challenged college students and Chinese restaurants bought them. We had a grocer down the street where we could get all of the chicken wings we wanted for something like ten cents a pound. We got a lot of them. There were many months that after paying the rent and the utilities we would have enough cash left over to buy a mess of wings, a 20 pound bag of potatoes, some fine red wine at $3.79 a gallon and a case of Rhinelander beer that sometimes went on sale for $2.99 a case but usually came in at an even four bucks. Oh yes - we were living high style to be sure - but were it not for this recipe I might have starved to death.

Of course you start with the wings - they were on sale today at $2.29 a pound - a long way from the dime a pound in the mid-70's.But then they do come in a pretty little meat tray now and not just stuffed into a plastic bag. Begin by cutting each wing into three pieces - cut at each of the two joints and you end up with the wing tip, the middle portion, and the thickest part of the wing, that part which is closest to the bird, literally the upper arm of the chicken. The upper arms make marvelous little drumsticks.

Now my original hand-written recipe just said "cut off wing tips and discard" but you can always toss them into a plastic bag and freeze them, using them the next time you make chicken stock (what? you don't make your own chicken stock? oh but you should!). Whatever you do with the wing tips - you don't need them for this recipe - we're only using the middle portion and the mini-drumsticks.  Place them in a non-reactive (plastic or glass) bowl.

Now we make the marinade - and here's most of the lineup - we'll need frozen orange juice, lemon juice, ground ginger, crushed garlic, soy sauce, granulated sugar, table salt, and Tabasco sauce.

Mix all together and pour over the chicken wings. Let these bad boys marinade for at least an hour but two or three hours is even better.

When ready to cook spray a glass baking dish with canola oil. Place the wings in a single layer and reserve the marinade.

Place the wings on the center shelf of an oven preheated to 325 degrees. Bake for one hour, basting with reserved marinade every 15-20 minutes. Now the one hour this is just a guideline - the meatier the wings are or the more you stuff into the pan - will all cause the cooking time to be extended. I knew from the outset that these would take a bit more than an hour but especially since Mrs. Hendo decided to make a batch of croutons at the same time which meant opening the oven door at least a half-dozen times to make sure they weren't burning, it ended up taking about an hour and a half. But no worries - bonus croutons from that French bread that was trying to go south on us.

Here they are after the second baste - and you need to be careful about how much of the marinade you're adding to the pan - you don't want too much liquid nor do you ever want them to dry out.  This is a good start, but there is still a lot of color to come.

At the third basting their getting close - but they still don't have the right color.

Okay - four bastes at 20 minute intervals and these bad boys are ready - the glaze is a dark brown and just  on the verge of burning.

What you're really going for is a golden "crust" of almost candy-like glaze, but the sweetness is tempered by the citrus juice.  Serve with plenty of napkins - this is finger food. They reheat well and they're good as cold leftovers too.

These babies are ready for the table - and note the fancy serving dish - hey, it was just us the three of us for dinner and we had waited in great anticipation for an old family favorite - I could have served these things off a garbage can lid and I'm not sure anyone would have noticed!

Thanks Tracey - wherever you are - who would have thought that over 35 years later I would still be cooking our college version of chicken wings? Now about those 20-pound bags of spuds - do you have any idea just how many ways there are to cook potatoes when you're a broke college student? A lot - but those recipes just don't seem to have the lasting allure of a good batch of wings.

Tracey's Chicken Wings

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ginger
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 clove garlic (crushed)
1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
1/4 cup soy sauce
5 drops Tabasco

Combine all ingredients.
Cut off wing tips & discard.
Cut remaining wing into two pieces.
Marinate in mixture for 1 hour.
Bake at 325 for 1 hour, basting with mixture every 15 minutes.

What's for dinner tonight?

An old family favorite! CHICKEN WINGS!

Yummmmmmmmyyyyyyy!

This was always my favorite meal growing up. I would beg for Chicken Wings and quickly fill the bone bowl to the very top. This orange, gingery, flavorful glaze creates the perfect blend of moist and yet crispy. (Maaaaaybe I can try the recipe for the glaze on some chicken-less chicken substitute when I get to Salt Lake, but we are making them Paul style in his kitchen today)

Here is the recipe. Hand-written by my dad on an oil stained page. While I love new cookbooks filled with silky pages and professional photographs, there is something really special about the well seasoned cookbooks like this one. I love pages like this in old, well-used cook books, that's how you know the recipe is good. (You can tell my dad's mom was a first grade teacher because his penmanship is absolutely perfect!)

They may not be vegan, but they shall be made with love and gratitude for family, flavors and tradition!

We're a good team in the kitchen! Happy Holidays to all!

Best Ever Cranberry Sauce - Really!

Sooner or later I would hope we all graduate from buying canned cranberry sauce to making homemade.

Now in my progression I started by buying a bag of fresh cranberries and followed the basic recipe on the package - a cup of water, a cup of sugar - boil all for 10 or 15 minutes. It was exquisite. A year or two later I got fancy, you know, substitute orange juice for the water and maybe add a splash of triple sec just for good measure. How gourmet can you get? Let the rave reviews begin.

But with such an incredible ingredient as cranberries I just knew there had to be the ultimate cranberry sauce recipe lurking out there somewhere. I branched out for the past few years - always making one batch of "regular" cranberry sauce (the bag recipe plus some orange liqueur of some sort) and a batch of whatever variation caught my eye that particular year. Seems like almost every cooking magazine we take will have a "best cranberry sauce ever" recipe every fall. I sometimes wonder what happens to all the past "best ever" recipes. Perhaps it would be better to name them "best so far" but that's just me.

This year I found a truly good recipe from my friends at allrecipes.com - Cranberry Sauce Extraordinaire - and it really is about the best cranberry sauce we've ever had, certainly the best so far, and very possibly the best ever as I can't really imagine feeling the need to experiment any further.

Here's the lineup - fresh cranberries, an apple, a pear, an orange, chopped pecans, mixed dried fruit and a bit of both cinnamon and nutmeg (and still that splash of either triple sec or some other orange liqueur). Depending on what time of day you're making this - feel free to have a snifter of that liqueur yourself, it clears the pipes and allows you to sing along with the Christmas carols!. It's oddly reminiscent of those fruit-flavored cough syrups that you had as a kid.

I always start with a bag of Ocean Spray cranberries - really, are there any other brands? I suppose there are but I'll always be loyal to Ocean Spray for stepping in and keeping the cranberry bog industry alive on the southwest Washington coast.

Peel, core, and dice both an apple and a pear. It needs to be a fairly small dice, somewhere between a quarter inch and a half inch.

Peel one navel orange and puree in either a blender or a food processor.

Chop (somewhere between course and diced) one cup of mixed dried fruit - whatever your fancy is. I use a mixture of apples, pears, plums, peaches and apricots. Use whatever you have - raisins would work just fine.

Now you'll need a cup of chopped pecans - I prefer an almost fine-chop and if you're so inclined toast the pecans for a minute or two in a saute pan over medium-high heat. Don't feel like doing that step? That's completely okay too. Don't feel like adding pecans at all? That too is okay.

Okay, now it's really easy. This bad boy starts out just like the basic recipe on the cranberry bag: bring one cup water and one cup sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add all other ingredients and toss in a teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg and a half-teaspoon of salt (and don't forget that splash of orange liqueur - today I'm using orange Curacao).

Cover and let simmer (and remember that simmer does mean simmer!) for 30 minutes. Remove from heat. Let cool for a few minutes and then pour into a serving dish. I've been searching for a really cool vintage jello mold for my cranberry sauce, just haven't found it yet! Don't tell my sister-in-law, I decided to use the "sanitary cheese preserver" that she gave us - it's meant to store blue cheese but I'm thinking it will be just fine as a cranberry serving dish.

Make up to three days in advance - time certainly helps meld the flavors.

This stuff is the shit! (I've been led to believe that "being the shit" is a compliment). In old-speak; this cranberry sauce is nothing short of spectacular. I need look no further - it really is the "best ever" for us.

The complete recipe (less of course that tasty orange liqueur!) can be found here:  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cranberry-sauce-extraordinaire/

Homemade Roasted Vegetable Stock

Christmas is a comin' and so is Christmas dinner and the preparations are already underway. We're boring on Christmas dinner, it tends to be a repeat of Thanksgiving which is to say that we'll be having roast turkey. Oh sure, some years we branch out and bake a ham or a prime rib but if the truth be told the Hendo family are turkey fans at the holidays. I brine my turkeys, I know others think that's an unnecessary step, but I know what works for me and as long as you are using a natural, unprocessed turkey, I wouldn't dream of not giving it a good sitting in brine.

My brine recipe will be the topic of another post, suffice it to say that one of the ingredients is a gallon of vegetable stock which is today's project. Oh sure, it's on sale at the grocery store right now so I could easily just buy the stuff that Swanson makes and be done with it. But homemade stock is incredibly easy, it tastes infinitely better, and I'll save some money by making it myself.

Here's my line-up - it should make Hailey proud: carrots, celery, turnips, green peppers, onions, shallots, garlic, Italian parsley and sliced mushrooms.Hell, they're even all organic - or so the bin says at the grocery store but sometimes I think that's just a ploy to charge an extra dime per pound. You can use almost any vegetable you have in the pantry or the fridge, just shy away from those very strong-flavored things like broccoli or cabbage and you'll be fine.

We start with a course chop on everything that's "sturdy". No need to dice these fine, we just want to increase the surface area that we're working with. And best of all - I don't peel a thing except for the turnip.

First come the carrots, a full pound:

Follow this with a bunch of celery. Don't add the leaves but don't dare toss them either. We'll add them to the liquid after everything has roasted in the oven.

Next comes the turnip - the one thing that I actually peel (although I'm not sure why, I believe someone once told me the peel would make the final broth bitter).

Now a couple of green peppers - cored and (mostly) seeded.

The shallots are next and note that there is no need to peel them. Just slice off the ends and at least quarter them.

The onions get the same treatment as the shallots - skin on, ends off. Both the shallot and onion skins will help color the final broth.

Just trim the top off of entire head of garlic - no need to peel - we're just going to let it roast and then squeeze out the cooked garlic when we add it to the stock. You know we call a whole garlic a head which contains individual cloves. Did you know that in some countries they call the head a foot and the cloves are called toes? Neither did I but so says the Internet.

Finally we add the one non-sturdy ingredient in this phase; a half pound of thickly sliced mushrooms.

All of this gets tossed into a roasting pan and liberally drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with a little fresh ground pepper and kosher salt. Give it a good stir and pop it into a 400 degree oven. You're going to want to roast this for an hour to an hour and a half - stirring it every 20 minutes - until the vegetables are soft and the onions have begun to caramelize.

Ah yes - a bit over an hour later and this looks just about right.

Transfer all into a large stock pot, being sure to scrape every bit of goodness that you can from the roasting pan.Gently squeeze the garlic goodness into the pot. This is one of the fun parts - the garlic goodness comes squishing out much like toothpaste from a tube. Discard the outer crust from the garlic.

Now we add some aromatics - like those celery leaves we saved and a handful of Italian parsley. Toss in a half dozen whole peppercorns, 2 or 3 bay leaves, 5 whole cloves and a couple of teaspoons of dried thyme, and whatever else seems right to you. As I was looking for the thyme I spied some freeze-dried scallions and some Herbes de Provence so I added some of them too.

Then add the water - I need a gallon of this stuff so I'm adding about 18 cups of water to allow for reduction. Now I suppose I could have gone down to Matrimony Spring to fetch my water - the spring that the county health department tried to close down a couple of years ago due to unusually high coliform  bacteria counts - but sorry Hailey, I'm just getting this directly from the tap. I like our municipal water in Moab just fine.

Bring to a low boil on medium heat, turn to low, and let simmer, mostly covered, for about an hour.And simmer means simmer - not a rolling boil - you're coaxing flavors out, not scaring them to death. After the simmer, drain through a colander. Since I'm using  this as a brine ingredient I don't worry about things like peppercorns making it through the holes in the colander - if you're using this as a soup stock you may want to use a sieve with a finer mesh. Now you could do all sorts of things with the cooked (and now mush) vegetables, like give them a spin in a food processor to make some sort of binder or thickening agent for a future dish - me? I'm throwing it away. Those valiant vegetables have given up their all! They have done their duty.

Now I wanted to show you just what a lovely color the finished broth is. The only clear container I could spy that would hold the entire batch was my mother-in-law's antique crystal punch bowl. I'm just guessing here but I'm thinking that maybe Mrs. Hendo wouldn't have seen the logic in that display. So I'll ladle a little broth into a measuring cup instead.

Score! Over a gallon of homemade vegetable stock. More than enough for my brine recipe with enough left over for all those moments when cooking a holiday dinner that you just need a little liquid in something. Oh did I mention that it tastes wonderful? Well it does. Rich yet light, and tones of every one of the ingredients. Very nice. Oh sure, if I was planning on using it as s soup stock I would likely have added a splash of Worcestershire, a bit of sesame oil, and maybe just a splash of soy sauce. As an all-purpose vegetable stock it is just right.