Aperol

It has slowly seeped into my consciousness, by means of various restaurant cocktails and general reading, that Aperol is delicious. I will have to try and acquire some. To that end, two recipes for later reference:

Aperol Spritz
1 1/2 ounces Aperol
3 ounces Prosecco or sparkling wine, chilled
Sparkling mineral water or club soda, chilled
1 lemon or orange slice

Pamplemousse (from Orangette)
½ oz. Aperol
2 oz. freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, pulp strained out and discarded
2 oz. dry white wine

Fill a tall glass about halfway with ice cubes. Add the Aperol, juice, and wine, and stir to blend. Strain into glass.

oranges in red wine syrup

So I had a cup or so of red wine kicking around left over, and I finally did something with it. Turned out yummy.

Boil leftover red wine with 2 cloves, 1 cinnamon stick, 6-8 peppercorns, and 2 roughly 1″ chunks of piloncillo (or a couple tablespoons of brown sugar) until it becomes syrupy.

When cool, pour it over some segmented oranges in a bowl, and let macerate a while.

I think this would be a lovely dinner party dessert in glass cups to show off the jewel tones of the fruit and syrup. I’d allow 1 orange per person, with maybe one extra for the bowl.

acorn pancakes

A while ago tallasiandude went through an obsession with acorns and whether or not you could eat them. He collected the godawful quantity of them that fell in our yard, then cracked them (with a hammer) and cleaned off the bitter skins, and then soaked them (for a near eternity). Finally he dried them and ground them in the food processor to make a beautiful deep brown flour.

We made them into pancakes. You can do it with only acorn flour, but these are very flat like crepes and really not what you want unless you are doing some kind of hard-core survivalist cuisine. Adding even a tiny amount of regular all-purpose flour will give you the fluffier pancake texture while still retaining the slightly gritty texture and nutty flavor that proves you’re eating acorns. Which, by the way, are quite delicious.

Here’s the recipe, so I can finally throw out the piece of paper on which it’s scribbled:

1 cup acorn flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp butter (melted)
1.25 cup milk
1 egg (beaten)

quick turkish-esque bean and tuna salad

A delicious main-course salad I happened into while using up leftovers.

large can butter beans, drained and rinsed
can of tuna, drained
jar of marinated artichokes
big handful of dill, chopped
1/2 cup or so of ajvar

Mix all this up together with a drizzle of olive oil, some brine from the artichoke jar, and black pepper and hot paprika if your ajvar isn’t the hot spicy kind.

mustard is awesome

So I have something of a condiment problem in general, insomuch as the doors of my fridge contain almost exclusively condiments, with some extra and oversized items kicking around on the main shelves. And I do USE all these things, it’s not just a compulsive acquisition problem.

Surprisingly, given this, I have very little patience for pointlessly exotic condiments, like Mama Mona’s Homestyle Cranberry-Horseradish Mustard and so forth. Just mix some goddamn mustard with preserves and be done with it, jeez.

However, it has come to my attention recently that my condiment dictatorship does recognize a remarkable number of distinct mustards that should be kept available at all times.

  • Swedish mustard – lightly sweet, for example Lars or Slotts. Good with New England boiled dinner.
  • German mustard – scharfer senf. Spicy, good with sausages. Most awesome in tubes.
  • Boetje’s mustard – from Illinois. Good on everything.
  • Gulden’s spicy brown mustard – for deviled eggs and cocktail frank recipes. Sometimes I deviate and get Plochman’s grainy instead.
  • French’s yellow mustard – for your hot dog and hamburger, and to tint your deviled eggs.
  • Grey Poupon dijon mustard – I don’t like the ersatz dijon from Trader Joe’s and usually stick with the classic.
  • Kosciusko Polish-style mustard – the king of all mustards. Delicious in every application.

call me Barry Allen

Today I ran 2.973 miles in 30 minutes. For those of you doing the math at home, that is really close to 10 minute miles. Hell to the YES, bitches, I am Speedy Gonzales over here. I could barely squeak out 1 mile in 10 minutes when I was in high school, and then only because they forced us to in PE class. La la la, yay for me… and on top of it all, it is warm out, and sunny, and there are crocuses AND snowdrops in my yard. Things are looking up.

whoopie pies

Haven’t made these yet, but I need to type the recipe up somewhere. From the Penzey’s catalog.

1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract

filling:
1 stick butter, room temp
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 cup marshmallow fluff
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two large cookie sheets, set aside. In large bowl, beat the egg and oil. Gradually add the sugar and keep beating till pale yellow. In another bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. In a measuring cup, combine the buttermilk and vanilla. While mixing, alternate adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk to the egg and sugar, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Drop the batter by tablespoons onto cookie sheets. These will spread a lot, so make 6 cookies per sheet at a time. Bake 8-10 mins until the top springs back when lightly touched. Remove to wire racks to cool. When cool, spread filling between two cookies to make sammiches.

For the filling, combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and beat until light and fluffy.

sweet-salty daikon pickles

I got this recipe from my mother in law after she served them to me during a visit and I went bonkers for them. I just typed it up for a friend who went bonkers for them after having them at our NoodleFest, so I figured I should post it as well.

1 lb daikon

peel and cut into quarters the long way (or whatever size/shape seems like it will make nice pickle pieces). Slice thin, btwn 1/8 and 1/4″ to taste.

mix the slices with:
1 Tbsp salt (kosher, and you can go a little lighter on this maybe I think)
1 tsp szechuan peppercorns
2 pcs star anise (I think they mean 2 whole ones but I use up my broken pcs for this)

Let this sit with a heavy weight on it for 2 hrs; remove weight and drain liquid. Wrap turnips in a cloth, press again with heavy weight for 1 hr.

Unwrap turnips and mix with:
2.5 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp soy sauce

Marinate 1 hr.

I think you can short the press-and-drain a little bit, but you do want to get the liquid out pretty well as it gets runny enough as it is.

I have been digging the last of these pickles with congee. Hope yours come out good!

anyone got peeps in Melbourne?

One of my foodwhore pals is going to be housesitting in Melbourne (Croydon, to be specific) for a month sometime soon, and she’s on the lookout for congenial types who might A) point her in the direction of delicious things and/or B) join her for a meal or grocery shopping junket. She’ll find things on her own but it is more fun to have random hookups occasionally with friends of friends (or friends of random internet food-obsessives who read my blog).

I have not had a comment on the blog for ages so I wonder if maybe it’s broken? If so, email me at foodnerd -at- paisleysky -dot- net.