rhubarb souffle

When presented with too many leftover egg whites recently (probably as a result of making too much ice cream), and not having enough for an angel food cake, I began to scour my cookbooks for interesting recipes. In the Silver Spoon cookbook, I came across a recipe for rhubarb souffle. Given my love for rhubarb, this immediately seemed appealing. Also, the entire concept of making fruit souffles seemed to create endless possibilities. It essentially involved making a rhubarb compote on the stove top, then stirring the compote into whipped egg whites. That the recipe said to stir and not fold the rhubarb into the whites seemed odd to me, as well as clearly destined to deflate the whites, but somehow it seemed to work. In retrospect, there isn't a drop of fat in the recipe, which probably explains it. It miraculously also seemed to be more stable than past souffles I have made. Lifting it out of the oven, it looked amazing, like a giant pink meringue.

Rhubarb Souffle, The Silver Spoon
7oz. rhubarb, sliced into thin matchsticks
1C. powdered sugar
3T. superfine sugar
4 egg whites (120g)

Sprinkle powdered sugar ove r the rhubarb and sit at room temperature 2 hours. Preheat oven to 325 deg F. Grease a souffle dish, or other oven-proof dish with butter and coat with sugar. Add superfine sugar to 2T. water in a sauce pan, and bring to a boil. Add the rhubarb and cook for 2 minutes. Beat the egg whites until stiff; add rhubarb mixture and beat for 1 minute. Pour into prepared dish and bake for 25 minutes.

spring-early summer ice creams

I hauled out my ice cream maker recently, in a blatant attempt to demonstrate to Jon that ours is in desperate need of replacement. When we received it as a gift nearly 10 years ago, it seemed to be a complete extravagance - who really makes their own ice cream? Apparently, us. We have used it so much that the container is warped to the extent tht the top barely manages to stay on when it's churning, and we long ago had to tape down the button with packaging tape. Last year, Jon ordered a new blade to replace the one that had cracked and been repaired with duct tape (this was sweet, but also irritating, since this was one of my arguments for replacing the machine). So far this spring, I have made three ice creams; fresh mint, strawberry and mint/basil. There really is something special about homemade ice creams. Last year we developed a chocolate-strawberry-balsamic recipe, inspired by a gelato we used to purchase at Zingerman's. I am going to make it this year with my strawberry jam - hopefully it turns out as good. Tonight I am eating the strawberry, and thinking that it would make a good combination with the mint/basil in the freezer.

napa cabbage

I feel very fortunate to have been exposed to two new vegetables recently: kohlrabi and napa cabbage. When we got the kohlrabi, it arrived with pea tendrils, and I was miraculously able to find a salad recipe which used both. For the napa cabbage I improvised a recipe from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, and despite missing several ingredients/not quite having enough of a few things, it was amazing. I imagine it would be even better made as described.

Napa and Savoy Cabbage Salad with Peanut Dressing
1/2-3/4lb napa cabbage, sliced
2-3 carrots, grated or julienned
1 cucumber, sliced into matchsticks
3-6 scallions
1/2lb savoy cabbage, sliced
2T. chopped mint
1T. sliced basil leaves
1/4-1/2C. peanuts (optional)

Peanut Dressing
1/4C. roasted peanut oil
2 1/2T. apple cider vinegar
1T. soy sauce
1 garlic clove, minced
1 serrano chile, diced
2 scallions, diced
2T. mint leaves, chopped
2T. basil, chopped
2T. cilantro, chopped
pinch salt

Make dressing: combine everything and mix together. Add salt to taste.
For salad, toss together vegetables and herbs. Pour dressing over top and toss to mix. Sprinkle with nuts if using.

Note: the recipe as written calls for thai or anise basil, which I didn't have on hand. I also made it without the nuts, and it turned out fine. The amounts of herbs can be varied to ones liking, and it can be made without the chile, but it is not nearly as good.

strawberry jam

We finally got a day of sunshine, after what seemed like a beautiful spring turned into an entire month of rain in June. Somehow, the strawberries managed to pull through. We've been getting quarts from our CSA share every week, and we picked over 20 pounds of strawberries in Concord last weekend. We ate so many both our fingers and mouths were red and sticky, and even my tummy was starting to hurt (only a little). I tried a new tart recipe that I was not very satisfied with. Then we made jam. I made two kinds of jam from a recently purchased book, Jams Jellies and Chutneys, by Thane Price. My first batch was strawberry-rhubarb, which I added fresh grated ginger to half of, and vanilla bean to the remaining half. Both of these tasted amazing, and of the moment I cannot decide which I like better. The larger batch was pure strawberry jam, and the recipe was interesting in that the sugar, berries and lemon juice were mixed, then macerated overnight. Following this first incubation, the mix was boiled, then incubated for 48hours. A friend recommended that I try Ball's no-sugar required pectin; I was extremely excited about this, since my major objection to many preserves is that they are just way too sweet for my liking, and that the sugar disguises the pure fruit taste. After purchasing the pectin, I noticed that the recipe enclosed called for some form of juice (mostly apple or grape, depending on the fruit); I had neither, and since I wasn't planning on going sugar-free, but just sugar-less, I chose to ignore this addition. All of the preserved set fine, and I used half the amount of sugar indicated. I may try less next year, but I didn't want to completely ruin my first shot.

Happiness = an egg on top

Nothing is more thrilling than an egg on top. It sounds odd, but putting an egg on top of an otherwise basic dish really turns it into something special. The penultimate 'egg on top' dish is the Korean bibimbop. I distinctly remember the first time I encountered this particular dish. I was in college, and a woman I worked with picked it up for lunch. At the time I had little exposure to ethnic food outside of greasy Chinese, having grown up in the rural Midwest where ethnic food meant Italian. Imagine my mother's shock when I came home requesting hummus, which I was first exposed to at my dorm cafeteria. When I saw Kristin eating the bibimbop, not only did I think it looked odd, but it did not smell remotely appealing. Then, somehow, the third or fourth time she ate it I suddenly acquired a craving. As takeout goes, this is as good as it gets. I like to eat it in or out, vegetarian or not, and I love the kimchi and other sides that come with it. I love it so much that I rarely stray from this menu item, which is atypical. However it's done, it has to have the egg on top. I eat an egg on top of greens, lentils, pasta and rice dishes. I like eggs in any format, but when it's on top, it has to be sunny-side up. Happiness on a plate.

overnight waffles

Unlike my husband, I am not much for sweets in the morning. Weekdays fruit on plain yogurt with a sprinkle of granola is about as sweet as it gets, and I definitely do not like sugary cereals. For weekend breakfast, I usually go for an omelet or an egg sandwich. I do like waffles on occasion, so recently I managed to think far enough in advance to make the overnight waffles from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. I had noticed this particular recipe, and countless other overnight recipes when rifling through cookbooks on Sunday morning, but of course it was always too late to make them. A few weekends ago, I finally made the recipe, and they were both super easy to mix up, and crazy delicious; they were hands down the best waffles I have ever made. Another appealing aspect of this recipe is that the waffles are not overly rich/heavy, unlike many other breakfast foods. I am going to try using different flour types in the near future, maybe part buckwheat.

overnight waffles

1/2t. instant yeast
2C. all-purpose flour
1T. sugar
1/2t. salt
2C. milk
2T. butter, melted and cooled
1/2t. vanilla extract (optional)
2 eggs

The night prior to cooking, combine dry ingredients, then stir in milk, butter and vanilla. Cover and let sit out at room temperature overnight. Preheat waffle iron, and brush lightly with butter or oil. Separate eggs, and stir yolks into batter. Beat whites until they hold soft peaks, then fold into batter. Spread ~1/2C. into waffle iron and bake until done, around 2-5min. per waffle, depending on your iron. I like to serve mine topped with yogurt, berries, granola and drizzled lightly with honey or maple syrup; an alternative is apple sauce mixed with yogurt.

**I like to make a big batch, then freeze the remainder; they crisp up beautifully in the toaster oven.

mint: my new favorite herb

I have always liked mint tea, and in ice cream, hot chocolate and mojitos. Beyond that I had only rarely cooked or baked with it. This all changed last summer when I bought a bunch to sprinkle over a bowl of roasted chiogga beets. I love beets, but it this was a revelation, along the lines of my strawberry-basil epiphany. The mint provided a distinctive, refreshing flavor that when mixed with the beets didn't quite taste like mint, but was more amorphous. I think I had shied away from mint previously because I thought it would overwhelm anything mixed with it. What followed was roasted cherry tomatoes with mint, strawberry-rhubarb compote with mint, and a near requirement for mint with roasted beets. I've since been buying a bunch every month at the store, and am really hoping the seeds I planted pull through. I am thinking of making a fresh mint ice cream this summer. Oh, and a rhubarb ice cream.