What's Cookin? ... Oatmeal

I'm reviving my occasional series of recipes for my old friend JCL from another blog. So they are all here (all the ones worth eating, anyway) I'll occasionally cheat and import an old one... like my oatmeal recipe.

It's confession time. I hated all cooked cereals right up until I lived in Scotland. Even in summer, Scotland is cold and a bowl of hot, creamy oatmeal in the morning does more to keep a body warm than any volume of hot tea. Unfortunately, Americans can't buy truly fresh porridge oats. Our choices, even the imported varieties, need an extra whollop of help.

When buying oats for porridge, buy the brand that most looks like a 'meal.' It should look like coarsely ground grain, not flakes or hard little chunklets. (Those have other uses.) Our favorite variety is Bob's Red Mill Scottish Oatmeal which is the real deal; stone ground in a real water mill. I'm still trying to find out whose. (I have my suspicions!)

The following recipe is as good for dinner on a lazy evening as it is for breakfast on a cold morning. You will not feel snackey after even a small bowl!

Ingredients
1 cup oatmeal
3 cups water
pinch salt
walnuts
rasins
flax seeds
dried cherries
milk
sweetener

Into a 1 1/2 quart sized pot, place your carefully measured oats and a three-fingered pinch of salt. Now take a big handful of walnuts and break them up a bit. Toss into the pot. Throw in the same volume of raisins but be sure they aren't just a big lump. Measure your flax by thinly covering the surface of the oats. Finally, add cold water. Turn the heat on under your ugly gruel. Medium-low is best. Never stop stirring... slowly... until your oatmeal is thickened. Oats are done when the bubbles are thick and leave a hole when they pop.

Do not believe the package when it says to add oats to boiling water. You will spend all your time breaking up lumps and think making good porridge is difficult. Good porridge is brain-dead work.

Now pour into bowls... this makes two large servings or three regular ones... and add sweetener to taste. I like brown sugar or mesquite honey while Mr. Fuzzy likes sorghum molasses. Next, add milk to bring the consistency back to smooth and a bit runny. Finally, top with a handful of dried cherries.

Eat and have a happy tummy!

Variations: Substitute pecans for the walnuts or dried cranberries for the cherries. Or go overboard and use all of the above. If you're able to plan ahead make the Rolls Royce of porridge and soak the oats overnight in 1 1/2 cups milk.

Final tip: if you've added too much water don't worry. Porridge is one of those foods that was traditionally "kept on the fire." Just keep cooking, gently, until the correct consistency is reached. You almost can't add too much water at the start! If you make too much put it in the fridge, add more water, and cook slowly until it's porridge again.

Eating Aubergines

I still like the word.

This is for my Etsy friend AMK who asked what to do with eggplants. They're a lot like squashes and usually about as flavorful (or not.) If you've got a favorite recipe you could try substitution. Your dish will turn out differently but it's one place to start. The long ones are often sold as baby eggplants at farmer's markets. Like all baby veggies they're super tender but not as flavorful as the more mature fruit.

We Fuzzys like our food fairly simple. Eggplant sliced and lightly coated in olive or sunflower oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper then grilled on the barbeque is a favorite. Don't try this approach with an out-of-season specimen as you won't get any flavor if it wasn't there to beginning.

A second approach is to fry them southern style. This works for practically any vegetable and your husband and kids will even eat sweet potatoes done this way. Mr. Fuzzy does, at least. Slice the eggplants about 1/4 inch thick, toss them in buttermilk, and then dredge in fine cornmeal. You can add salt, pepper, and herbs to the meal if you like but it's not required. (We like tarragon in ours.) Fry in hot oil... olive, canola, sunflower-- whatever you prefer ... until they start to brown, then turn and finish. You'll need about half an inch of oil.

Finally, you can hide the things in any tomato based sauce. I dry our excess, turn it into a powder, and use it in winter sauces.

PS- If you have a negative reaction to the solanine in the skin soak the sliced eggplant in salted water for 15 minutes or so. The offending chemical will be neutralized.

Kentucky Eggnog

It's that time of year again, dear friends. Time to think about mixing up some eggs, milk, and booze to make the holiday season hold a little more cheer. As usual, we've left it a little late but our nog will be ready and oh-so-smooth by New Year's Eve. This year we're making a double batch and distributing it to a number of good friends and favorite waitresses by the pint jar.

I know one or two of you out there might be wondering how safe it is to leave milk and eggs in the fridge for so long... Good nog must mellow at least two weeks to taste smooth and four to six weeks is pure liquid bliss. (Until the hangover kicks in, anyway!) Watch the video above (From Science Friday) to see what happens to the dreaded salmonella bugs in a batch of real eggnog. You'll be surprised!

So, hurry up and make this stuff if you want to enjoy the real thing. The following is enough for a party. You can cut it in half or double it. If you want more than that you're a lush and you'll just have to mix up separate batches. Do follow the directions exactly...

Papaw's Kentucky Eggnog

Ingredients
12 large eggs
1 C sugar
1 Qt whole milk
1 Qt heavy (pouring) cream
2 oz rum (plain)
1 Qt bourbon

Technique

Separate the eggs. In a huge serving bowl, beat the yolks with 1/2 cup sugar until light lemon colored. In another bowl, beat the whites and 1/2 cup sugar with an electric beater until very stiff. Fold the whites into the yolks. Then GENTLY fold in the milk and cream. Finally, add the liquors. Refrigerate at least 2 days before drinking but two weeks or more is much better. Don't try to cut back on the liquor as it preserves the drink. If kept cold the nog remains drinkable for at least 6 weeks.

"Recipes are Common Property"

The kind lady who owns the Bobcat Bite in Santa Fe once said that to me when I asked for one of her signature recipes... "The World's Best Cole Slaw." You can have it too if you buy the book Hamburger America. (FYI Order the pork chops or the chilli if you want to look like a local.)

Now what was I saying??? Oh yes, recipes and cooking... my current occupation and lifelong obsession.

Laussanne, I bought the only dehydrator available in Floyd. It's a Back to Basics brand one and it does a pretty good job. It drys at 120 degrees F. more or less. Apples take about 12 hours with the humidity we've been having. Maybe next year I'll get a big fancy machine after I make Mr. Fuzzy do too much research on the things. They're bloody expensive!

Language Wench, you know I'd never deny you a good thing, so here's the recipe for Grammie Starbird's Vegetable Relish.

Ingredients
3 1/2 med-lg onions
1 small cabbage
5 large green tomatoes
6 green peppers
3 sweet red peppers
1/4 C pickling salt
---------------------------
3 C sugar
1 Tbsp mustard seed
1/2 T celery seed
7/8 tsp turmeric
2 C cider vinegar
1C water

Chop up the first set of ingredients, sprinkle with the salt, and let stand overnight. Rinse and drain. If you have a meat grinder, grind everything through the coarse plate. Add the 2nd set of ingredients. Boil 5 minutes. Fill hot, sterilized, jars to within 1/4 inch of the rim and process in boiling water 10 minutes + your altitude adjustment. Makes about half a gallon.

Don't do what I just did... forgot the water and vinegar. Now I'll have to try decanting the stuff, cooking it with the vinegar & water, and re-process. oh well. Should have quit the late night processing with the 13 pints of chutney.

Kentucky Manna

For our British friends, this is what I call "American Ethnic Food." In this instance, it's a genteel Southern delight best experienced at the Beaumont Inn in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. Theirs is a twelve on a ten-point scale and also where I got the recipe. If you ask for it today they'll tell you it's a closely guarded secret but... Ha! Ha!... I have an old recipe book of theirs from the 1950's. So here it is... Kentucky manna:

Ingredients:
2 cups corn (fresh or frozen)
8 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons sugar (rounded)
4 tablespoons butter (melted)
1 quart (4 cups) whole milk*
4 whole eggs (beaten)

Here's the recipe as written:

"Stir into the corn the flour, salt, sugar, and butter. beat eggs well, put them in the milk. Then stir into the corn and put into a pan or pyrex. Bake inside of oven slowly -- about 40 or 45 minutes. Stir from bottom 3 times while baking."

I mixed everything in my big roasting pan, then added the liquids and stirred really well. You want to get the flour well distributed. I call a "slow" oven about 250 degrees, maybe 300. I baked at the lower temp because milk isn't edible if it burns. My pudding took about an hours this way and was utterly perfect in consistency. You absolutely must stir several times, bringing the goop up from the bottom, to get it all to cook evenly. What you end up with is a tender custard with corn nicely distributed throughout.

* Use the best quality eggs and milk you can get! This is a supremely simple dish and what goes in definitely determines what comes out. As you know, I'm a fan of low-temp pasteurized milk from organic, pastured cows. It has more flavor!!! I'm also a great believer in using eggs from pastured poultry. Not only do they have more nutrients than caged or "floor raised" hens, they have beautiful yellow yolks and tons of flavor. (I can also drop an egg on the counter at six inches and not have it go splat.) Yes they are more expensive but you'll probably be buying them from a real person who will immediately spend that money in your community. Oh, and eggs last at least a month in the fridge whether they've been washed or not so it's a good buy even if you don't eat them all the time.

Sour Bramble Jam

For all you fans of Crafting With Cats here's a recipe to make up for all the ones you've been missing since I abandoned that blog. This recipe makes 6 to 8 cups of jam.

Mr. Fuzzy likes his blackberries sour so I came up with this recipe when he said my "very low sugar" recipe was way too sweet. (As in a 3:16 ratio instead of 1:1!) You'll need a large surface area pan to make this in less than 12 hours so I use our largest roasting pan set over two burners. Even then, plan to spend the day at home... it's worth it! Here's a good video tutorial series if you've never done any caning before. If you're impatient at least watch parts three and four.

Ingredients
1 gallon blackberries
1/4 cup bottled lemon juice*
a little water
1 1/2 cups 100% white grape juice concentrate
1 package "No Sugar Needed" dry pectin

Special Equipment
A pan with a large surface area
gallon stock pot
large pot of water for water canning
sauce pan
canning jars & lids (lids must be new!)
canning tools (funnel, lifter..)

*
Santa Cruz Organic, not the stuff in the plastic lemon!

Method

You can use fresh or frozen berries for this recipe. Picking your own and not being too particular about needing the most perfect, deep black, fat berries is a real help to getting this to be puckerlicious.

Measure berries, lemon juice and a little water ("more or less" is OK) and put into your stock pot. Heat until the berries produce juice... it won't take long. Now transfer to the big open pan. Turn up the heat to medium-high and stir occasionally to keep fruit from sticking. Add the grape juice concentrate, turn the heat down to a slow boil / simmer. Cook until the berries reduce by at least half but preferably until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Stir regularly while this is cooking down and don't be afraid to use the spoon to scrape up what's sticking to the bottom.... it'll incorporate nicely! If you have to walk away for a few minutes just turn the stove off and let the steam rise then turn the heat back on when you can watch the pot (while folding laundry or teaching your dog to roll over.)

Once the berries have cooked down nearly as far as you can stand to watch the pot... a few hours... start the water canner. You've got a couple gallons in there so it takes a while. I like to wash & put my jars in there as they need to be hot and should boil for 10-15 minutes to sterilize before filling anyway. Make sure the water comes 1" over the tops. Put the lids into the small sauce pan and add hot water. Simmer a couple minutes just before you're ready to fill the cans. This softens the sealing stuff and prevents shock.

Ok, now you're all set with your jars. You might have decided that this took WAY longer than expected and turned the heat off under your fruit goop for 15 minutes, which is perfectly OK. Bring it back up to a boil that doesn't fully abate when stirred and sprinkle the pectin over the entire surface of the fruit. Mix in quickly and let it come back to a boil for at least 1 minute. Turn off the heat.

Lift jars, fill to about 1/4" of the rim, cap them, and process 10 minutes (plus your altitude adjustment) in boiling water. Count the processing time from when the bubbles are steady, large, and burst at the surface. Carefully lift out and don't move those suckers until they are stone cold. Down here, the seal 'pops' closed in less than a minute but my recollection in Santa Fe was it could take hours.