Spiced Pear Relish

• 6 Firm Barlett or Anjou or whatever pears you can find. Core, peal and finely chop.
• 1 medium onion, very finely chopped. I like white.
• 1/4 cup kosher or other big grain salt.
• 2 large jalepeños.  Seeded and Minced.
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1.5 c golden raisins
• 1 Tbl minced, peeled fresh ginger
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 1 tsp yellow mustard seed

1. In a large bowl, toss the pears w the inion, salt and jalepeñeos. Cover and refridg over night.

2. Drain pears into a colander and rinse the.  In a large saucepan, combine the pears with the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.  Simmer over low heat for 25 minutes or until thickened.  Let the pear relish cool.  Serve cold or at room temp.

3. Sometimes I add a little mint or brightener...

mac and cheese, first go

last summer chad was having the good idea that someone should make mac and cheese for thanksgiving.  i teased him a lot for this.  so today, i made a go at mac and cheese to bring to thanksgiving.

1. cook pasta
way ahead of when you want to make the mac and cheese, cook your pasta.  i used strangled priest.  once i drained it, i put it in the fridge in a bowl. it could be there as long as over night, but at least 4 hours or so.

2. start to heat oven to 350 degrees.

3. fry pasta
put way too much olive oil and butter in a dutch oven like pot.  (i love my crueset pot).  when hot, add the pasta and stir and fry until you have a satisfactory amount of "crunchy brown" pieces.


4. mash garlic
using a masher or knife, mash about 4 or 5 cloves for 1lb of pasta.

5. grate cheese
tonight i used gruyere.  whatever the size is they sell at my local market, rainbow bridge.

6. add garlic and some of cheese
when pasta was close to done, i added the garlic and stirred.  i added some of the cheese and stirred.  i also grated parmeson cheese into frying pasta.  i removed from heat.  if i was not "making mac and cheese" i would have stopped here and eaten this.  yum.

7. make creme sauce
melt butter and add equal parts flour.  stir until roux is light blond  color.  slowly pour in milk or creme.  (tonight all i had was half n half, so i used that).  add the rest of grated cheese to milk mixture.

8. mix, salt and bake
pour creme cheese sauce onto pasta.  stir.  gruyere is pretty salty, but i added some smoked salt too.  i grated some more cheese onto top of pasta and put it oven for 20 minutes.

Extreme Ginger Carrots

Old recipe, new method and new flavor angles:

1. peel and cut carrots  into shape you like. tonight i did them the way ed brown taught me.  slicing as i roll them to get some interesting shapes.  tonight i used 3 farmer's market sized bunches.

2. heat olive oil or preferred oil in a pan and brown the carrots.  i like them so the look like they were roasted.

3. while browning, finely grate a lot of ginger.  tonight i think i added too much, maybe close to 1/2 cup, but no one seemed to mind.

4. finely grate 2 oranges.  squeeze the juice from these two oranges.

5. mix orange juice with some tamari soy sauce, maple syrup and cayenne to taste.  proportions depend on your desired taste.

6. once carrots are browned to your liking, stir in the ginger. then eventually add the juice mixture.  allow to come to a boil, then turn heat way down, cover and let simmer on low until desired softness of carrots has been reached.  usually about 45 minutes or so.

7. tonight the balance of ginger and cayenne was a little intense, so i added a smidge more maple syrup.  also, the sauce was super potent.  to tone down, i might have added a little water to the juice mixture.

8. in the past, i have minced up shallots and added with the ginger.  tonight i fried up the shallots separately like in Vietnamese cooking. then to serve, stir in a little of the fresh orange rind.  chop up some mint and scatter on top with fried shallots.

Wilted Spinach and Kale Salad with Ginger Rosemary Lemon Dressing

Made this from what was in fridge.  Worked out pretty well.

1. Mince some ginger and fry up in too much olive oil.
2. Add mashed garlic and rosemary just for a few moments.
3. Transfer to large wooden salad bowl and mash together with ground pepper and salt and a little meyer lemon zest.
4. Squeeze out 1.5 or less or more meyer lemons into bowl and mix with ginger paste.  
5. Taste and add a little maple syrup to balance the lemon.
6. Heat some oil up again and brown some slivered almonds.  When golden, set aside. 
7. Artistically slice a few carrots.
8. 1/4 Moon half a small red onion.
9. Thinly Slice some black kale.
10. De stem fresh spinach from Steve's Farm
11. Mix carrots, onions, spinach and kale with the Ginger Dressing in the bowl.
12. Crumble Feta Cheese and Toss.
13. Heat some more olive oil.  When hot, pour over salad to wilt the greens.  Toss Well and then toss in the almonds.

Thanksgiving Again

Everytime I cook Thanksgiving Dinner, I feel like I am starting from scratch.   It's like I've never done it before.  This year turned out pretty good so I figured I make some notes to help me next year.

The Turkey
1. Delya Gates Raises Delicious Turkeys
Got our turkey from Delya up on Fairview right here in Ojai.  I was skeptical cuz it looked like a Supermodel turkey.  Long legs and flat chested.  I was worried that there would be no meat.  The 9lb. was the perfect amount for 4 peeps with just enough meat for some sandwiches tomorrow.  And, most importantly the bird tasted great!

2. Salt and Sugar Brine

• Dissolve 1 cup sugar and 1 cup salt into a gallon of water. Add some cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, crazed black peppercorns.  Warm to make sure it all dissolves and then cool.  Use ice if in a rush.
• Place turkey breast side down into a garbage bag inside a white foam cooler.  Pour in brine and add another gallon water + to cover bird.  Seal and put in garage if cold enough.  
• 9 hours later, remove and put in fridge uncovered.

3. The Mark Bittman 45 minute method

• Set oven to 400 or so
• Remove backbone and open turkey up
• Lay in roasting pan and smear with butter
• Tuck in garlic cloves and herbs
• Pour a little water into pan
• Place in oven and set timer for 23 minutes
• Turn bird in oven and set timer for another 23 minutes
• Check bird and allow to cook for as much longer as necessary dep on size

The Stock

• Brown the Giblets
• Add some big pieces of onion, carrot and celery
• Deglaze with chosen liquid
• Add Broth from store
• Add Aromatics like Rosemary and such
• Bring to boil and allow to simmer until you start to need it
• Drain

The Stuffing

• Get Olivia’s homemade herbed breadcrumbs from Farmer and the Cook
• Melt too much butter and remove some (2 sticks)
• Add chopped onion and celery (1 cup each)
• Add pine nuts and chopped pecans (1 cup or so total)
• Add salt and herbs and pepper
• Stir in breadcrumbs and add back in butter to toss (6 to 8 cups)
• Stir in Chopped Parsley
• Stir in Stock (about a cup)

The Carrots

• Get Fresh Carrots from market
• Cut in cool shape like Ed taught you
• Saute in Pan until starting to turn golden
• Add chopped ginger and shallot.  Continue to saute
• Add Orange Juice, Maple Syrup and Soy Sauce and Water
• Turn heat to super low, cover and allow to braise
• When ready to serve, toss with mint and orange zest
• Can be made ahead, but get super super soft

The Mashed Potatoes

• White Rose? Potatoes from Market
• Pealed and chopped in half (so left pretty big)
• Placed in cold water and brought to a boil
• Boil for 25 minutes or until potatoes are practically falling apart
• Drain and put right back into hot pan and put on burner, allow to dry out
• Begin to Mash with masher
• Eventually add in buttermilk/butter/heavy creme mixture you melted
• Continue to mash until fluffy and light

The Green Beans

• Prep by cutting ends off
• Right before about to eat, steam for just a few moments so beans stay crunchy
• Toss with some butter, salt and chopped herbs, like dill

Gravy

• My gravy did not work at all this year.  Never got thick.  Even went to the trouble of making a roux. So no notes here except to get better advice next year.

Cranberry Sauce

• Buy Olivia’s Ginger Cranberry Sauce again.

Desert

• Thank you Knead Bakery for the Pecan Tart and Apple Creme Fraiche Tart!
• Thank you Whip Cream!

One of my favorite Summer Salsas

Mince:
1 clove garlic
1 serrano
1/2 a red onion
some cilantro

Chop:
a small bucket of cherry tomotoes or one large regular tomato

Mix together with some salt, olive oil and a squeeze of lime (lemon will do)

Serve with the "Have a Chips" or make your own chips for best results.

Sausage Pasta Soup with Chiptole and Herbs

Again, you don't need to start with bacon, but I did.

1. Start a pot of salted water on a path to boil.
2. Mince up a few slices of bacon and put in thick heavy pot like a Crueset.
3. While bacon cooks, thinly slice up an onion, chop up some carrots in desired shape and chop up some celery in desired shape.
4. When bacon has rendered its fat, add sausage to pan. Tonight we used Mild Italian Turkey Sausage from Rainbow.
5. When Sausage is done, remove and add more fat if necessary to pan. We used olive oil tonight.
6. Add onions, carrots and celery. Stir and allow to cook to your liking. I like them browned.
7. Add stalks of thyme, a bay leaf, some chopped rosemary and what ever else you want. I also added a lot of ground black pepper. Stir and allow herbs to get in there.
8. Add 1/2 cup of Muir Fire Roasted Crushed Tomatoes and stir.
9. Add two canned chiptoles in adobo sauce and some of the adobo sauce.
10. By this time water should be boiling. Add your pasta. We used Strangled Priest Noodles. They take 8 minutes.
11. Add the broth to your soup pot and bring to a boil. Allow to simmer a bit. Add the sausage back in and salt to taste. Add chopped parsley if you like.
12. Drain pasta when done.
13. To serve, put some pasta in a bowl, and pour soup over it. Sprinkle bacon on if you made it.