Paper Chef was re-invigorated a few months ago (now with its own blog!), and I’ve been meaning to participate in it ever since, but I kept missing it for various (lame and not-so-lame) reasons. But not this month! I finally pulled off an entry.

The idea behind Paper Chef is that you have a weekend (nearly a week now) to design and execute an original dish — or an original take on a classic — using four ingredients revealed at the kick-off. Three ingredients are chosen randomly from a list, and the fourth is chosen by the host / judge for the month.

I didn’t exactly follow Hank’s specifications (this month’s judge). The ingredients for Paper Chef 31 are fresh oregano, walnuts, chickpeas or chickpea flour, and a fish steak. I’m not big on walnuts, but I have a ready supply of pecans (from my dad’s backyard trees) so I planned to make that substitution. Also, he listed certain kinds of fish steak, but I already had some salmon in the freezer so I used that instead of buying one from his list. But I just now (while typing this up) see he was actually more keen on it being a fish steak than fillet. I guess I’m really off base, but not for the reason I thought. Woops!

I decided to use chickpea flour to make a breading for the fish. “Chickpea flour” makes me think of Indian food, so I wanted to go with some Indian spicing - but the oregano sort of throws a monkey wrench in that plan. But I proceeded apace nonetheless. Poking around in the cupboards turned up some hazelnut meal, so I decided to use that for the nuts (rather than toast and grind some pecans). I had some fresh oregano from my CSA share, so I was set (even though slightly off track from the Regulation Ingredients). Read on for what I made.

hazelnut meal - chickpea flour swirl

Mix together:

• 1/4 cup chickpea flour
• 1/4 to 3/8 hazelnut flour
• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp powdered cumin
• 1/8 to 1/4 tsp cayenne or powdered chiles

Grind together in mortar and pestle (or with a spoon, if your m&p is still packed away due to a long-lasting kitchen remodel):

• 1 Tab fresh oregano (or more!)
• 1 tsp cumin seed

and add to the flour.

I dredged the fish in the flour mixture, then remembered some ill-fated attempts to try breading without eggs. So then I beat 1 egg with a glop of milk (2 tablespoons, perhaps?), put the fillet in that, then dredged again in flour.

Heat up skillet, film with olive oil and add a tablespoon of butter.

Cook salmon in skillet.

And this is where things kind of went wrong. I don’t know if my skillet was too hot (I wasn’t using my ideal sauté pan - the person who’d made eggs for breakfast had not washed it!) or one of the ingredients was prone to burning or what, but the breading burned. Both sides! However, all was not lost. It didn’t taste burned - in fact, it was really quite good! The crunch of the breading was nice against the fish, and the cumin was distinguishable but not overwhelming. Cumin with salmon: this I will do again!

If I’d made this meal on the weekend instead of after work, I might have made “chickpea pancakes” or “chickpea pizza” from my favorite cookbook, but instead, I served this with naan (sticking to the Indian angle!). And to throw in a “traditional” flavor, I also served tossed green salad.

I didn’t take a picture because it looked pretty sad in its charred stated - I suppose I could have passed it off as “blackened salmon” but that wasn’t my intention, so I skipped the photo.

Here’s an alternative idea that I didn’t make: Prepare Spanish-style Spinach with Chickpeas (fabulous dish!), adding in a big handful of oregano with the greens. Prepare fish steak in a straightforward fashion (salt & pepper, then grill or broil or sauté). Serve on top of the greens and chickpeas, and top with toasted walnuts and/or a drizzle of walnut oil. Too bad I didn’t think of this earlier - I could have used up more greens from my fridge! Hmmm, maybe I’ll do it this coming weekend…

A few months ago, I learned about Project Spectrum from Kathy. It’s a no- pressure, creative outlet, celebration of color. I was especially intrigued by a comment to incorporate the element into the work beyond the color, e.g. the fire of a kiln to produce ceramics. After following the Flickr group for a week or so, I took a deep breath and decided to dive in. The first two months (Frebruary and March) were “Fire” - red, yellow, and pink. As it turns out, I don’t do much with these colors in general. However, I was taking a ceramics class, and even though the red glazes in the studio don’t appeal to me much I could get to “fire” that way. I did manage to contribute a few items, including some “ice into fire” photos accomplished through color manipulation. (My full set on Flickr is here - currently my 5 “fire” items, but I’ll be adding to it over the year).

Next up: earth - greens, browns, metallics. I’m much more of a green person, and clay naturally fits into an earth theme, so I’m likely to be much more productive for this segment!

2008 is the International Year of the Potato and January 2008 was declared NATIONAL RUTABAGA MONTH by the Advanced Rutabaga Studies Institute (ARSI). I’m pretty sure the latter doesn’t have the same level of backing as the Potato folks (one has the backing of the UN, the other hosts their site on tripod - that’s the first clue), but they do have a streaming rutabaga webcam! How fun is that! (Fun in the whimsical sense, not in the side-splitting raucous entertainment sense…)

All of this is timely because the recently reinvigorated Paper Chef featured these four ingredients: potatos, rutabagas, tomatoes, and bacon. My first thought on reading that was “potato-rutabaga gratin! But what to do with the tomatoes?” My second thought was “do I still have a rutabaga in the fridge, from my CSA?” Clearing out the produce drawer revealed no rutabagas, but plenty of turnips (way past their prime storage life, but they are local and organic and still appear to be in fine shape…).

Anyway, for a variety of reasons, I didn’t pull things together to participate, but if I had, this is what I would have done:

half pound potatos, cut into chunks (peeled if so desired, but I probably wouldn’t)
nice sized rutabaga, peeled and cut into chunks equivalent in size to the taters
sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
4-6 slices good quality bacon

Cook some bacon to generate bacon grease. Crumble the bacon and set aside. Preheat oven to 400 F. Toss the potatoes and rutabaga with some bacon grease (or olive oil, if you don’t want to be true to Paper Chef and are concerned about the source of your fat calories) and green chile salt (if you have it, I do) or powdered red chiles and salt. Roast in the oven. At about 30 minutes, stir the root chunks and toss in your diced up tomatoes. Cook another 15 to 30 minutes, until the roots are fork tender. Toss the bacon crumbles on for the last few minutes in the oven. Serve warm.

So I guess this truly is a “paper” chef entry, since it exists only in theory (electronic chef? imaginary chef?).

If you want to see what real participants made, go read the round-up at Lucullian Delights.

The Paper Chef competition is a monthly food blogging event that brings out the creative juices in chefs around the globe. Cooks are challenged to use 4 specific ingredients (3 drawn at random from a list, the other chosen to reflect a theme). The event returned this month after a long hiatus. I wanted to participate, but couldn’t get into the ingredients: chiles, eggplant, smoked swordfish, and “something you have at home.” Heck, I could cover the “something you have at home” with the eggplant or chile, I’d gotten both at the farmer’s market the previous day. This time of year, I always have a hankering for chile rellenos (stuffed green chiles), and we’d recently traveled to the Albuquerque area which left me with a craving for green chile sauces, so I knew that ingredient would be easy.

The first head scratcher for me was the smoked fish. I’ve eaten it before, but I don’t seek it out and have never cooked with it. Leeway was granted for vegetarians to use “other smoked ingredients” - would it be lame to claim to be a vegetarian for the day, and use the smoked paprika that I have in my spice drawer?

To top it off, I’m not that keen on eggplant - I’ve liked it when others have prepared it, but I haven’t had much luck on my own attempts. I turned to my cookbooks for eggplanty inspiration. Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian has a recipe for “stuffed baby eggplants” (imam bayeldi, from Turkey). So one of my ideas was to make a smoked fish style stuffing for eggplant. Kind of an eggplant relleno. Daunting, though, to invent a smoked fish filling. The same cookbook has “smoked eggplant” (bharta, from India) - that would be killing two ingredient-birds with one stone! (ooh, bad pun)

So I thought and pondered and came close, but didn’t make a meal before the deadline. But after all that pondering, I couldn’t hold off the green chile cravings any longer. I bought a lot at the market this past Wednesday, and decided to turn them into sauce. Today I roasted them, and since the grill was on, decided to roast two eggplants as well. I also had some buffalo burgers from the Farmer’s Market, so I decided to make green chile burgers with a side of bharta.

Green Chile Sauce
More of the Best from New Mexico Kitchens, p 9

1/3 cup canola oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
~1 cup minced onion
2 Tab flour
2 cups water
2 cups chopped green chile
salt to taste (I used ~ 1 tsp)

Saute garlic and onion in oil in heavy saucepan. Blend in flour with wooden spoon. Add water and green chile and mix well. Add salt. Bring to a boil and simmer, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes.

According to the recipe, the onion is optional, but i used it. I’m not sure I’ll use this recipe again, but if I do, I will use less flour. I’d like it less thick - more like salsa than thickened sauce. The chiles had a nice heat level - enough zing to wake up my mouth, but not enough to hurt. Kinda makes me wish I’d made rellenos!

Smoked Eggplant (Bharta, from India)
Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian, pp 183-184

4-5 Tab peanut or canola oil (I used 1 Tab peanut, 1ish Tab canola)
1 cup finely chopped onion (I used 1 small/medium onion)
1 (2×1 inch) piece of fresh ginger, peeled and “grated to a pulp” (i chopped very fine instead)
1 cup peeled and chopped very ripe tomatoes
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/8 to 1/4 tsp cayenne
3/4 tsp salt
1 large eggplant (1.5 lbs), roasted, peeled, and coarsely chopped
2 to 3 Tab coarsely chopped fresh cilantro

Put the oil in a frying pan, preferably nonstick, and set over medium-high heat. When hot, add the onions. Stir and fry until the onions are brown around the edges. Put in the ginger and stir for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes. Stir and fry until slightly reduced, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the cumin, cayenne, and salt. Stir to mix. Now stir in the eggplant. Turn the heat to medium and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes (I covered the pan and put on simmer). Add the cilantro and mix well (no cilantro on hand, I skipped this step). Serve hot if serving as part of the main course, at room temperature as a dip, and chilled as a spread.

According to Jaffrey, this is a common village dish in Punjab. “A village meal might well consist of this bharta, some mustard greens, flat whole wheat breads, (rotis), and a tall glass of buttermilk or lassi. … Bharta also makes a very good spread.”

I cooked this in the (unwashed) pan that had been used to make the green chile sauce, and I think it picked up a little bit of the flavor and a touch of heat. I thought it was amazingly good, very rich tasting. I’m not sure if that’s from the oil, or the eggplant (I’m not enough of an eggplant connoisseur to know how it affects a dish.) I ate some on bread (sesame semolina from a local baker). I also had green chile on my buffalo burger (local producer) and some (local) cucumbers and (local) cantaloupe-ish melon. The buffalo was fine - I couldn’t really taste a substantial difference between it and beef, even before I buried it under green chile. (I’d asked the vendor if my picky-burger-eater would notice the difference. He said “probably not if he’s using ketchup.” However, I didn’t have hamburger buns or sourdough bread on hand, so picky-burger-eater had a [natural Trader Joe's] dog instead. The other two don’t even do burgers.) Jonski Papa wasn’t at dinner (out watching the Michigan - Notre Dame game) so I haven’t yet gathered a second opinion on the bharta, but I might have a go-to eggplant recipe for now!

Local ingredients in this meal: chiles, onions, garlic, water :^), eggplants, tomatoes, buffalo burger, cucumbers, Howell melon, sesame semolina bread.

Four Guys and a Guy, originally uploaded by CaZaTo Rents.

We’re home from our trip to Costa Rica. I plan to blog about some of the events soon, although I’m still waiting on most of our pictures from the worksite. In the meantime, here’s a silly photo of the guys in Monteverde (more precisely, the nearby Santa Elena).

Time is running out to vote for the “New Seven Wonders of the World.” Looking at the list makes me wonder what is the definition of a “wonder of the world.” For example, Easter Island and Stonehenge seem to be categorically different from the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty. But is that just because they’re shrouded by mystery and the mists of time? We don’t know how those big heads were carved, but perhaps to the people who created them, it was a big “ho hum, yet another feat of modern engineering” moment. I recently heard a radio piece about this, and some detractors fear it might serve to ‘ruin’ any natural wonders that might win, if they attract big onslaughts of tourists. And now that I’ve gone through the process of voting, and have seen all the options for “get news about New 7 Wonders toys / t-shirts / products / tours!” I can see their point. But at the same time, I figure I can’t complain too loud or long about the final result if I don’t at least submit my choices…

In other news, today is the last day to provide input into the so-called “citizen’s” petition that would change, among many other things, the formulation of chocolate. The thing that most annoys me is that it was proposed by a bunch of grocery manufacturers and interest groups. Why was it submitted as a “citizen’s” petition? Perhaps because the FDA can act much more quickly, and with less oversight, on such items. See more at this NYTimes Op-Ed piece, or earlier coverage at Candy Blog. Guittard has provided a template that you can use to submit comments to the FDA, but June 25th [the date of this posting] is the last day.

If you enjoy good chocolate, you probably enjoy how it melts in your mouth. This is because of the cocoa butter, an intrinsic component of chocolate as we know it. Unlike many other fats, cocoa butter is solid at room temperature and melts at body temperature, and that’s what gives chocolate such a great mouth feel.

By current standards, you can’t make a chocolate bar without cocoa butter. Remove the cocoa butter and you can’t call it chocolate. (But paradoxically, darker chocolates have more cocoa mass and thus less cocoa butter, which is why it might seem less ‘creamy’).

But even of that technical mumbo jumbo. If a group of manufacturers have their way, they will be allowed to replace cocoa butter with other fats, like vegetable oil. Needless to say, the subsitutes are much less expensive, so despite the claims that “consumers have no expectations” about chocolate, and it’s all in our best interest, this is clearly about profit. No big surprise there, I guess.

Manufacturers are already allowed to make a concoction like this, but they are not allowed to call it chocolate (some have called it “mockolate“!) So the main thing this proposal would change is their marketing options. Given the current market appeal of chocolate (especially dark chocolate) as a kindof-good-for-you snack (what with all the claims about anti-oxidants and flavonoids and good fats and so on), such a change is tantamount to deception, all in the name of profits.

If you want to read more about this, check out the Don’t Mess with Our Chocolate site or the Candy Blog by Cybele May. She’s written a particularly good commentary about it that got published in the LA Times on April 19th.

If you want to help protect chocolate, you can comment at the FDA web site. But act quickly! The deadline for public comments is April 25th.

In the immortal words of Larry-Boy: with great chocolate comes great responsibility - let’s keep it great!

I found a note in my newspaper that led me to the web site for a team design project, with the theme “one-handed kitchen.” Learn about the designs and vote for your favorite here. If you have kids who aspire to be inventors, you should share it with them. (C-boy asked “are there jobs like this where you get to make things up?” so we talked about that prospect briefly.)

As a somewhat-one-handed kitchen user of recent weeks, my thought on looking at all of these was “but how is this going to help me carry my heavy-with-hot-waster pasta pot to the sink and dump it into a strainer?”

Last month, I asked my shoulder doc if I should be taking calcium supplements to help with bone healing. He said things along the lines of “if you’re getting a balanced diet with leafy green vegetables, calcium supplements aren’t really going to affect the healing” but also “all women should take calcium supplements anyway.” But then he wouldn’t recommend anything specific - he just told me to talk to my primary care doctor. I happen to like leafy greens, but don’t associate them with the fall. So I’ve been buying spinach at the market, and last week I picked up some bok choy. I see in From Asparagus to Zucchini that bok choy is touted as the garden vegetable highest in calcium. Since this recipe was so tasty, I guess I’ll get some more bok choy and make it again!

Sesame Soy Braised Bok Choy

1 head bok choy
2 Tab peanut oil
1 Tab grated ginger
1 Tab minced garlic
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 Tab toasted sesame oil
2 Tab soy sauce
2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sugar
salt and pepper
2 Tab sesame seeds

Trim the root end off the boy choy head. Slice the leafy portions of the plant from the stalks. Cut both the leaves and the stalks into large matchstick-size pieces, keeping the two piles separate. Heat very large, heavy skillet or wok until it looks hazy over the surface, 2-4 minutes. Add peanut oil and swirl it to coat the pan. Add bok choy stems; stir-fry about 5 minutes. Add ginger and garlic and stir-fry briefly. Add bok choy greens, chicken stock, sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until bok choy is tender and glazed with sauce, 5-8 minutes. remove cover, sprinkle with sesame seeds, increase heat to medium-high, and cook until excess liquid evaporates, 2-3 minutes. Adjust seasonings to taste. Makes 4 servings.

Even though I forgot the sesame seed step, I really liked the way this turned out. For chicken stock, I used the pan juices from the chicken parts that were roasting in the oven - very tasty! (especially that from my chicken, which had been marinaded with a cranberry balsamic salad dressing). The bok choy ‘head’ (more like a bundle) must be smaller than what they tested the recipe with, because the sauce seemed like way to much. I retained a quarter to a third of it to use it another dish.

Earlier in the day when surfing blogs, I came across this description of the “Spice is Right” event that just wrapped up. When i roast potatoes, I typically like to toss them with green chile salt - but today I was inspired to try something new (although I didn’t have the time to make an official SiR entry). Thinking about the sweet-tart cranberry balsamic on the chicken, I was leaning towards ’sweet’ spices. Cinnamon seemed too ordinary somehow, so I decided to try Chinese five spice. It turned out really surprisingly well - a nice way to tie the bok choy to the chicken.

Recipe created for Paper Chef #22, in the home category. Inspired by “Oven-Baked Rice” on page 152 in New Food of Life by Najmieh Batmanglij. If my rusty linguistics fieldwork skills are to be trusted, in Persian this dish would be named shirazi polow-ye zereshk-o kadu halvai. [pictures to come later]
Oven-baked Rice with Barberries and Butternut Squash, served on a bed of spinach

makes 6-8 servings
prep time: 1 hour 40 minutes (more if you pre-soak rice)
cook time: 2 hours 30 minutes

3 cups long-grain basmati rice
2.5 lbs chicken (i used breasts)
2 large onions, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tsp ground saffron, dissolved in 2 Tab hot water
1 lb 4 oz (565 grams) butternut squash (i used only the top portion of a butternut to simplify knifework, and this is what it weighed)
3 Tab oil
1 cup dried barberries (most of my 3 oz package)
1/2 butter (or oil or ghee)
1.5 Tab sugar (i used raw sugar)
2 cups plain yogurt
2 egg yolks
1 tsp ground cumin

1. Clean and wash 3 cups rice 5 times in warm water. “It is then desirable but not essential to soak the rice in 8 cups of water with 2 tablespoons salt, for at least 2 hours.” (Mine soaked about 1 hour, the duration of the initial chicken cooking [step 2].)

2. Place the chicken and 1 sliced onion in a saucepan. Do not add water. Cover and simmer over low heat for 50 - 60 minutes. If using a whole chicken, bone and cut into pieces. (I did not bone my chicken.) Sprinkle 1 Tab saffron water over the chicken. Set aside, reserving juices.

3. Meanwhile, clean sand from and soak barberries. (Place berries in a colander and place the colander in a bowl of cold water. Let soak for 15 minutes. (Any sand will settle to the bottom.) Rinse then drain.)

4. While barberries soak, peel squash. Cut into 3/4″ cubes. Brown slices in 3 Tab hot oil for 5 to 10 minutes (they should get brown and soften somewhat, but do not need to cook through.) Remove squash, then brown the remaining onion in the same pan until golden brown and soft, at least 10 minutes. When onion is done, stir together with squash and set aside.

5. Bring 8 cups of water and 2 Tab salt to a boil. If you soaked the rice, wash and drain it again. Pour the rice into the pot. Boil briskly, uncovered, for 6 to 10 minutes. Stir gently twice to loosen any rice that might be sticking. Bite a few grains - if the rice feels soft, it is ready. Much of the water will be absorbed. [Cookbook says to drain and rinse yet again - I skipped this step, which may explain the saltiness of my rice.]

6. While the rice is cooking, preheat oven to 350F.

7. While the rice is cooking, saute the cleaned barberries in 2 Tab of butter for 1 minute. Do not overcook! Remove from heat, add the sugar, and set aside. Set aside 2 tab of barberries for garnish.

8. Melt remaining butter in a deep ovenproof dish. (I couldn’t find my largest casserole dish, so used two smaller ones.)

9. Take 4 spatulas full of rice and combine with yogurt, egg yolks, and the remaining saffron water. Place this rice mixture in the ovenproof dish. Arrange chicken pieces on top. Spread the barberry mixture over the chicken. Arrange the squash and onions around the chicken. Cover with remaining rice. Sprinkle cumin over the rice and pack it down into the dish, using a spoon. Pour remaining chicken juices over the top of the rice.

10. Place lid on top of oven-proof dish to prevent steam from escaping, or cover with aluminum foil. Bake in the oven for 2 to 2.5 hours, or until the crust is golden brown.

11. Remove the dish from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes (do not uncover) on a damp surface.

12. While polow is cooling, saute chopped spinach (and arugula) in butter or oil (preferably in the skillet used to cook the barberries, in hoopes of picking up residual flavors). Sprinkle with cumin to taste. Add a splash of pomegranate vinegar at the end.

13. Loosen the rice around the edges with the point of a knife. (If you have an immobilized arm, you’ll need to have someone else do the next step!) Place a large serving platter on top of the dish. Hold the dish and platter firmly together and turn over to unmold the rice. Garnish with the reserved barberries. Serve hot, over or near the spinach. Nush-e Jan!