Italian cauliflower

My college roommate's dad, Dennis Poland, used to make an egg-battered fried cauliflower dish that was delicious. I think that dish involved deep or at least shallow frying. The day before traveling to Cleveland I sauteed a similar dish in the skillet. It was so good (but fairly different than the inspiration) that I made it three times in the last week.

Italian-ish Cauliflower
3 cups frozen cauliflower florets
2 eggs
1/4 cup chopped sweet onion
2 Tbs fine bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon mediterranian spiced sea salt
Parmesan cheese
Vegetable oil
Optional: substitute one cup broccoli for one cup cauli, or add some chopped bell pepper as I did in this photo.

Saute until tender: cauliflower and onions in some oil and sprinkle with sea salt/spice mix.

Beat eggs and crumbs in a mixing bowl. Pour contents of skillet into bowl with egg mixture and toss to coat. Let stand a couple minutes and toss again. (I even prodded some of the florets with a fork to let the egg seep in.)

Add more oil to the skillet, then pour egg and cauliflower mixture into skillet. Cook until egg coating is set and browned.
Transfer to a serving dish and toss with a generous sprinkling of grated parmesan.

Thanksgiving Highlights

I haven't been blogging very much lately... and it's not that I don't want to. I think about blogging a lot. I dream about it. Day dream that is. But these days I've really been running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Or my wings cut off. And maybe one of my feet cut off too.

Well tonight I'm finally forced to sit down and do something fun-productive because Joe has the car and I'm stuck without any way to get back to work and do A) interviews for a holiday pops story B) write said story C) write tour of homes story D) fix my new column "Girl Eats World" about the cushaw squash E)Gather information for a new photo feature I'm starting Thursday F)edit and layout the wedding announcements G) Call people to set up interviews for the Madrigal Feaste story. There's probably an H) sitting somewhere on my desk, but for now that's all I can remember.

I really don't like December, and it's not even December yet.

OK enough whining. Let's look at some wonderful Thanksgiving highlights:
These are the cushaw squash pancakes I made the night before we left for Cleveland. We ate them in the car on the way there.

Joe and I got to see many of his relatives on our trip and enjoyed many, many home cooked meals. This is a small selection of the desserts we had to gorge on Thanksgiving Day. The cookie is a soft Italian Biscotti... They were lightly iced and had orange zest in the dough. Made by another Italian in Grandma Giammo's apartment building. Must get that recipe! Joe devoured half the tin for first breakfast on Black Friday. Behind the biscotti is tofu pumpkin pie... my mom's recipe made by Joe's mom, just for me (and Jack, who is also lactose intolerant.)
And here's an adorable chickadee, looking more colorful than I remembered them, at the Cleveland Metroparks Rocky River nature center-- a place I could probably spend hours sitting in the bent-branch rockers, ogling critters until the sun goes down. Some genius placed several feeders just outside a wall of reflective glass windows. I think it's one of my favorite spots on earth. The day after TG, the Parrino clan braved the cold to take a very short walk in the snow crusted woods and to sit in those rockers. We saw chickadees, nuthatches, tufted titmice, red bellied woodpeckers, hairy woodpeckers and downy woodpeckers, mourning doves, junckos and the pudgiest squirrel I've every seen. He didn't bound, he waddled.

Seafood pancake

I've been storing up photos from my cooking class at Akemi's for some time... this is from two weeks ago. Here is a rice flour and egg pancake with Chinese chives grown on Akemi's patio, scallop and shrimp.

Last Tuesday we filled Saya's apartment with smoke after an incident involving a pressure cooker and red beans. I forgot to take my camera, but maybe she'd be happy about that :-)

DiFabio's

Last night Brenden and Jennifer took us to DiFabio's in Madisonville. We've been talking about going since maybe last year! It was well worth the wait, and it was a good way to end the "wheat fast." On that night's menu: We ordered bruschetta and the Couchmans ordered mozzarella sticks. Of course we all tried some of each. The bruschetta really had a strong basil taste and the garlicky flavor also came through. The mozzarella sticks were just as they ought to be, with a chunky marinara sauce for dipping. We also had soft breadsticks (which I dunked in the left over bruschetta topping) and a very good family-style salad with house Italian dressing. It had little chickpeas, olives, peperoccinis, tomatoes, onions and croutons. Joe and Brenden both had the toasted ravioli, Jennifer had the manicotti and I had the angel hair with pesto and a big meatball on top. Little Emily Couchman ate a fruit cup and a box of raisins before joining us as we split desserts. Couchmans tried the pumpkin cheese cake, while Joe and I had a canoli with a teeny cup of dessert wine (which I thought tasted like robitussin, but kept sipping anyway). Notice, everything I just mentioned had wheat in it. And most of it had dairy. But I'm still alive to tell about it, so I guess God, through my intestines, had mercy.

DiFabio's also has a very nice atmosphere... red checked table cloths, warmly lit by candles. A cup of crayons to doodle on the butcher paper covering the checked tablecloth. One wall covered in colorful crayon drawings. Friendly staff, and very fast service. (Almost too fast, I felt like I was wolfing everything down! Oh. I guess I was.)

Looking forward to our next trip there. :-)

Hananoki

My first time trying Hananoki in Clarksville, Tenn., was a success. Though this "salad roll" was a little different. Notice there's no rice or seaweed in this roll, which is encased in cucumber coils. The center has imitation crab, shrimp and a very small bit of smoked salmon and some avocado. I didn't realize what I was ordering because I changed my mind at the last minute so Blair and I could get two different things and share. She ordered what I was originally going to get. THe volcano roll was so good that I forgot to take a photo. It was basically california roll with some "crunch" or fried panko bits on the inside. It was the reverse kind of sushi roll... and it had a big mound of imitation crab shreds marinated in a spicy sauce. And it had been torched so the tips of the crab mound were singed. Very tasty.

I also enjoyed their salad... the dressing was mayo free. I might have added a little sugar to it to make it perfect.

Faux rice cake and eggs

I thought Akemi and Saya were going to come over. They thought I was going to come over. No problem, that just meant we got to eat 2 snacks~!
The first course was dessert: We made "rice cakes" or mochi in Japanese (mwa ji in Chinese) out of milk and cornstarch. Note the absence of rice in that simple ingredient list :-) I found out that you can also make the cakes with soy milk. The toppings are some ground soybean flour (tastes like peanuts)mixed with sugar and some sweet red bean soup. The combination was perfect. And it's pretty healthy. Not much fat or added sugar.

To make:
200 ml milk or silk
2 rounded tablespoons cornstarch

Stir these ingredients together in a saucepan on high heat for a few minutes until it begins to thicken (don't stop stirring.) Take off heat and keep stirring. When it forms sort of a creamy pudding texture, stop stirring and let it cool for a few minutes. For toppings:
3 tablespoons soybean powder (buy it at an asian grocery, it's the color of cornmeal) mixed with 1 teaspoon sugar
or drizzle with honey. Not exactly sure how to make the red bean soup, but I think it just involves boiling some red beans in sugar water then letting it cool down.

I made this dessert again Thursday night after eating at Hananoki with KNE gals. Then Joe and I made it again for lunch Friday. We're hooked!

I don't really need to tell you how to make these, do I?
Boil eggs, dunk in ice bath, peel shells, slice eggs in half. Put yolks in a bowl, whites on a plate or tray. Mix yolks with rice vinegar, sugar, salt, oil, mustard and pickle relish to taste. Sorry, I don't measure things. Mixture should be fluffy, so add more liquids like pickle juice or oil to fluff if it still seems cakey. Scoop mixture back into whites and sprinkle paprika and dillweed on tops.

Ugliest dessert ever

Remember our pet cushaw? It had a red sticker with a recipe on it... and after cooking the giant gourd Saturday night, we decided to try it out. The result was an extremely ugly custard that tasted like a lighter and more spiced version of pumpkin pie filling. Joe really liked it. In fact I think he ate most of it while it was still cooling on the stove top.

Recipe for Cushaw Squash:
2 cups cooked squash
1 1/2 cups milk (could have used less)
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix everything together. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes. Reduce to 350 and cook until set. Let it cool before serving. Or don't.

Danny Vowell, I'm still waiting for the recipe

... and for seconds.

For Michele's goodbye dinner at Mary D's last weekend, Danny made peanut butter chocolate banana cream pie... and IT'S DAIRY-FREE! Who knew you could make pudding with water? Not health food, of course, but super-yummy. And, no, I didn't eat the crust.

You might be wondering why this slice has my name on it. Danny brought the leftover pie to work and I wanted to secure a piece before the vultures other new era employees descended upon this decadent dessert.

Hot pots and cold, wheatless nights

Been eating a lot of boiled things in the fondue pot lately. This photo is from last week, but I also had hot pot tonight. I thought I would have been creating a lot of wheat-free baked goods...I have some recipes I created from the first time I went without wheat in Taiwan. But I never got around to buying the flours I needed to do that. So here I am, on the last leg of the no-wheat experiment, without having really experimented much in the kitchen. My sinuses, sadly (or happily) are no different. So Friday night I'm going to pig out of pasta... semolina wheat pasta.

Anyway, back to hot pot. If you want to make one, simply boil some leafy greens (cabbage and romaine are good) and some seafood- tilapia fillets or imitation crab sticks or fish cake from an asian market. Add corn on the cob or cut up sweet potato. Cauliflower, mushrooms and tomato also work well in the mix. I also like tofu, but I've yet to meet a Southerner who will touch this most misunderstood curd. For an addictive dipping sauce, I mix sugar, rice vinegar, soy sauce and chopped garlic and green onions. But be warned that this will keep your breath stinky for a good 12 hours. So best to eat hot pot at night. Especially cold, wheatless nights.

Still life

These tomatoes have been green for 2 weeks now. They're premature, but saved from the frosts of last week. Will they ever blush? Or will they stay hard, green and stubborn? I am contemplating a green tomato relish. Just have to find the time.

Mum-roma

Hi Mom! Here's the mum I was talking about. Not only is it gorgeous, but I also love the way it smells. Reminds me of sugary Chinese chrysanthamum tea.

Persimmons

I know if I ever had any regular visitors, I've probably lost them by now. So sorry for my 2-week absence from blogging. It wasn't intentional. I just have been entirely swamped with my new job and my old job. Tonight is the first night I've decided to just ignore the dishes and the 15 pages of interview notes that need transcribing and just sit down and blog. And boy do I have a lot of things I've been storing up for The Moody Foodie. Take persimmons for example. I bought these lovely little tomato-looking fruits on our Korean grocery shopping trip two weeks ago. This picture is almost as old. If you've never had a persimmon, it's like a cross between a cantaloupe and a peach with the slipperyness of a concord grape. There's no discernable seeds, but you must remove the peel, which is slightly thicker than tomato skin. The cute, cartoon-like leaves also must be cut or pulled off.

The first time I ever ate persimmon was 7 years ago when I lived in California. I was staying with a family who welcomed me into their home and cupboards. One highlight of my visit was a tea party complete with fancy china and homemade scones. But I'm digressing. In the cupboard was a huge ziplock bag of sliced and dehydrated persimmons and figs. My mouth fell in love. I found myself visiting that ziplock bag frequently. I now know how expensive dehydrated persimmons can be and feel bad for plundering their store. Walworth family, if you ever read this, please know that week of recuperation was one of the fonder memories of my year in SoCal.

Shopping with the experts

This Tuesday Sayaka, Akemi and I took a shopping trip down to Seoul Oriental Foods in Oak Grove by Gate 6 of Fort Campbell. We spent over an hour poring through freezer cases of seafood, shelves of sauces and seasonings and cardboard boxes of produce before emerging, each with a basket full of goodies, and fancy ideas for dinner. It's not a huge store by any means. Maybe 1/10 of the size of Kroger. So you might be wonderng, as my husband was, "What took you so long?"

Ahh... but that's the way grocery shopping should be. It's sort of the "meandering through the fresh market approach" that makes many other countries so much more romantic than the U.S. See what kind of new treasure is on sale... test the Japanese radish and dig to the bottom of a gritty box to find a firm one. Pause to have a conversation about its uses... boiled in soup? Simmered with broth? Shredded for a light salad? And, as seen in the photo above, we needed time to whip out those electronic translators because we were definitely beyond ESL class territory!:-) Food words are complicated, but so much fun. I enjoyed this trip to the korean market immensely. And I brought home a few things to show for it.

Square rice paper wraps, a bag of fresh persimmons, miso in a recloseable tub, one diakon raddish, two kinds of fish cake, rice noodles, dried lemongrass (can't ever find fresh) and some non-gmo tofu.

Improvised meal

Just when you thought you'd heard it all about fusion food... comes a new experimental snack by me. :-) This is going to sound very gross, but it didn't taste that bad. And if you've sworn off wheat for a month, then it tastes really good. Introducing Italian fresh springrolls: The outside of the wrap is a vietnamese rice paper , soaked for 30 seconds in warm water. The inside is chopped chicken breast, broccoli and slices of fresh garden tomato tossed in parmesan and olive oil with a little pepper. Happily, the Asian-ness of the rice paper disappears and is overpowered by the bolder, saltier Italian flavors. I'm wondering if I could make manicotti with these things? Or lasagna? This might be the month of spring roll experimentation as I just bought some more wrappers.

Marathon food

Joe ran a half marathon in Columbus, Ohio, this weekend--which could be considered a marathon in itself for all the things we packed into it. Something I like about marathons (though I never intend to run one) is all the goodies at the end. Columbus knows what to put out... bananas, oranges, panera bagels...starbucks pumpkin lattes (OK, maybe that's not the best things to put in your system after running 13 or 26 miles, but they had 'em).
And after they emerged from the chain linked snack corral, there were plenty of tents with more freebee snacks. I discovered the gluten free, dairy free, soy free, gmo free, non processed, raw, added sugar free, kosher and vegan LARABAR... just nuts and spice held together by date paste. Like Baklava without the bad for you part.
This one had pistachio and cashew. Another, already eaten, had the flavor of cinnamon roll exactly.

Summer in fall

Still got lots of tomatoes on the plants... Must pick them before it's too late.

Spring in fall

Words later...

Nama harumaki

Every Tuesday, my Japanese friends Saya and Akemi and I like to get together to cook and practice English. On today's menu: Fresh spring rolls (Nama harumaki in Japanese). We filled square rice paper wrappers with shredded lettuce, cooked shrimp, bay scallops, cucumber sticks, sliced avocado and rice noodles. Sayaka also made Japanese-style Jell-O, with orange juice and tangerine slices. She said she didn't add sugar, but I thought the natural sweetness was enough. I liked it better than American gelatin.

Italian wedding soup

Sorry this is not a very pretty picture, but it is a very tasty soup that's easy to make. Here's my version of the recipe

Italian Wedding Soup
Meatballs:
1 lb lean gound beef
1/2 lb ground chicken
1/4 cup italian bread crumbs
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 egg
1 tsp dried oregano
Mix ingredients well then shape into tiny meatballs. (It will make A LOT of meatballs)
Meanwhile, bring 3 cans chicken broth and 2 quarts water to a boil. Drop meatballs into the boiling broth in batches of about 12-15 at a time. When they float to the top, remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

After cooking all the meatballs, add one block of frozen spinach and 1/4 cup finely chopped onion to the soup. When the spinach is thawed, add 1/2 cup orzo pasta and cook 6 minutes or until tender. Then beat one egg with 1 teaspoon parmesan cheese. Drip the mixture into the boiling soup while stiring. Turn off heat and add the meatballs.

Serve hot with crusty bread.

Rescued from the birds

I know we're into autumn already, but my tomato plants have been late bloomers. These are actually my first 3 successful tomatoes. Ever. In the entire history of me gardening. Sad, isn't it?

I had to pick the green one because yesterday I noticed that my prettiest tomato (not pictured) had a beak hole in the top of it and a smattering of wild grass seeds near the puncture, which oozed juice down the side of my precious fruit.

There's close to 20 green tomatoes out there... small and hard, not much bigger than cherry tomatoes. Any gardeners out there? Should I pluck them or let them grow? Will the frost or critters get them first? I do like fried green tomatoes...

In other news, things are going to get a little bit more moody around here because (A) I'm going on a temporary wheat-free diet to help with my chronic sinus problems. I did this for several months when we lived in Taiwan. Oddly, it really helped with my sinuses. I don't have any trouble digesting wheat, in fact, it's one of the easiest things on my stomach. So you might be seeing some wheat-free pancake and quickbread recipes in the near future.
(B) Starting a week from Monday, I'm no longer going to be a copy editor/designer. I accepted a job as features editor... which may mean I'll be insanely busy, but I think the job will fuel some new ideas about food as I get out in the community more.