Rice Cooker Polenta

I wanted to make polenta tonight, but after I read recipes in a couple different cookbooks that involved stirring for 30-60 minutes, and thought there might be an easier way. The Joy of Cooking recipe steams in a double boiler, so it occurred to me that a rice cooker might work. It turns out that it wasn't an original thought, plenty of others have done it. I adapted some of the recipes I saw and came up with this. It worked out pretty well, but could use some more flavor. Parmesan would be the easy thing to add at the end.

1 cup corn meal (½ cup coarse, ½ cup fine)
4 cups water
1 tsp. salt
2 tbl. butter

Stir all ingredients together in the rice cooker. Close the lid and press the button. Stir it a couple times to make sure it's not too clumpy, and let it sit on "keep warm" for a while after the cooking cycle finishes.

Spider Cake

This is another long time favorite I've never posted before. Apparently "spider" is an old New England term for a cast iron pan.

New England Spider Cake
2 cups milk
4 teaspoons white vinegar
1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup yellow cornmeal
¾ cup sugar
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup heavy cream.

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine milk and vinegar in a bowl and set aside to sour. In another bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking soda and salt. Whisk eggs into the soured milk. Stir into dry ingredients and set batter aside.

2. Melt butter in a 12-inch cast-iron skillet. Pour in the batter. Pour cream into the center, slide skillet into the oven and bake until golden brown on top, about 45 minutes. Slice into wedges and serve warm.

Yield: 8 servings.

From the New York Times Magazine

Spiced Roast Chicken, Penang Style

This was a really nice take on roast chicken. It didn't seem terribly Malaysian. I didn't bother boiling the potatoes before roasting them (why would you do that?).

Kevin's Spiced Roast Chicken with Potatoes, Penang Style

1 whole free-range chicken, 3½ lb. (1.4 kg)
1/3 cup (2½ oz./75 ml) soy sauce
2 tablespoons double-black soy sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
3 bay leaves
2 pieces cinnamon stick, each 4 inches (10 cm) long
6 whole cloves
5 small red or yellow onions (about 1 lb./455 g total), each no more than 2½ in. (6 cm) long, halved
1½ teaspoons coarsely crushed black pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1½ lb. (680 g) small potatoes such as Yukon Gold, Peruvian blue, or Maine, no more than 1½ in. (4 cm) in diameter

1. Remove and discard the fat inside the chicken (reserve the head and feet to use in stock if they were attached). Rinse the chicken and thoroughly pat it dry inside and out with paper towels. Tuck the wingtips behind the shoulders.

2. Place the chicken in a bowl large enough to hold it comfortably. Pour both soy sauces and the Worcestershire sauce over it. Add the bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and onions. Using your hands or a large spoon, turn the chicken a few times, making sure that some of the liquid, spices, and a few onion halves are slipped inside the cavity. Rub the inside and outside of the chicken with the pepper. Let the chicken marinate, uncovered, at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours. Turn the bird over every 15 minutes or so to distribute the marinade evenly. Its skin will darken a few shades from the soy sauces.

3. Toward the end of the marinating, preheat the oven to 450°F (220°C).

4. Place the chicken, breast side up, in a shallow roasting pan. Scatter the onions around the chicken, making sure that 1 or 2 halves remain inside the cavity. Rub the chicken inside and out with the softened butter. (I like to rub some underneath the breast skin as well, which helps make the breast meat juicier.) Pour the remaining marinade over the chicken, placing the cinnamon sticks and a few of the cloves inside the cavity. Cover the pan loosely with aluminum foil.

5. Roast the chicken for 20 minutes, then turn it over. Tilt the pan toward you and, using a large spoon or baster, baste the chicken and its cavity with the pan juices. Cover the pan once more with the foil and continue roasting for another 20 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, scrub the potatoes but don't peel them. Fill a 3-quart saucepan three-fourths full with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the potatoes and cook at a rolling boil until they are just tender when pierced with a fork, 5 to 10 minutes. Drain the potatoes well in a colander.

7. Add the cooked potatoes to the roasting pan. Combine them gently with the onions already in the pan and baste them well with the pan juices. Turn the chicken over again (it should be breast side up this time) and baste it once more. Continue roasting the chicken, uncovered now so that it can brown just a bit, until it's cooked. The total cooking time will range from 1 hour and 10 minutes to 1½ hours. To test for doneness, using a fork, pierce the skin at the thigh joint and press down gently. The juices should have only the faintest tinge of pink. Or, you can insert an instant-read thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh, not touching the bone. The chicken is ready when the thermometer registers 170°F (75°C).

8. Place the chicken on a serving platter. Pour half of the pan juices over it and allow the chicken to rest for at least 10 minutes before carving (this allows time for the juices to be absorbed by the flesh). Place the potatoes and onions around the chicken or in a serving bowl. Pour the remaining pan juices over the potatoes and onions. This chicken is best when served slightly warm. The flavors will be more pronounced and the flesh juicier.

Serves 4

From Cradle of Flavor, found at Goodies First.

Mung bean balad with star anise and lime

This was good, but oddly titled, since there is no garlic in the recipe. Did they mean scallions? Raw garlic might be a little strong. The carmelized sugar and lime juice wasn't as intense on the salad as I thought it would be, even with the juice of 2 limes. I would probably double the sugar and use 4 limes next time to make it more interesting. The anise taste was strong, but not overpowering.

Mung Bean Salad with Star Anise, Garlic and Lime

1 cup dried mung beans
2 tbl. sugar
4 star anise pods
Juice of 1 lime
2 tbl. canola oil
2 scallions, greens and whites, minced
pinch red pepper flakes
4 heads Belgian endive, ends discarded and shredded

Place beans in colander, rinse, and pick over them. Put beans in large stockpot, cover with cold water, and soak for at least 4 hours, or overnight. Drain beans.

In a large, heavy pot, cover the beans with cold water and bring to a boil. Skim the surface when the water reaches a boil. Cover and cook for about 1 hour or until the beans are tender, skimming the surface occasionally to remove any scum that rises to the surface. Drain into a colander and rinse under cold running water to cool.

Cook the sugar, stirring constantly, in a heavy skillet over low heat until it dissolves and caramelizes, about 3 min. Add the star anise and lime juice and stir until the sugar completely dissolves. Remove from the heat.

Place the mung beans in a large bowl. Add the caramel mixture, then the oil, scallions, and red pepper flakes. Stir well and let cool to room temperature. Remove the star anise. Serve the beans on shredded endive.

From Grains, Rice & Beans (found at Just Vegetable Recipes)

Roochi's Kedyeree

This recipe is from Susan, and we've been using it a lot in the past few years. It's very good served with yogurt and mango pickle. We usually have some kind of bread, either naan or roti paratha, or pitas in a pinch.

1 cup basmati rice
½ cup moong dal (split, hulled mung beans)
½ cup red lentils
1 tbl. diced chile pepper
2 cup chopped onion
1 tbl. cumin seeds
3 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
½ tsp. celery seeds
½ tsp. turmeric
1 tbl. salt
6 cups water
4-5 whole cloves
1 tomato, cut in wedges

Soak rice, moong dal and lentils in water for ½ hour. Drain and rinse.

In pressure cooker, saute onions, chile & cumin sees until onion is soft, but not browned. Add garlic, turmeric, celery seeds & salt, saute for a minute or so. Add 6 cups water and rice mixture, stir to combine. Add cloves and lay tomato wedges on surface. Close pressure cooker, bring to full pressure 5 min. Turn off heat and allow to cool until pressure is down (about 20 minutes).

Royal chocolate fudge cake with raspberries

I cleaned off my desk and finally found this old favorite recipe. I promised Mary a copy of this recipe last May (Hi Mary!), and just now found it again to type up. Sorry!

½ cup butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla
1¼ cups sugar
4 eggs
4 heaping tablespoons cocoa
½ cup flour
½ tsp. baking powder
handful of chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 10 inch round cake pan or springform pan.

Food processor: Combine all of the ingredients except the chips in the bowl of a food processor. Blend for 30 seconds, scrape down the sides, and blend for another few seconds. Add the chips, and pulse briefly to blend them in. If mixing by hand, whisk the eggs and vanilla into the slightly cooled butter, then mix in the sugar. Blend the dry ingredients, then beat in slowly and thoroughly, giving it 30 extra strokes after it looks completely mixed. Beat in the chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into the pan, and bake for 25 minutes or until a cake tester in the center comes out clean, but the cake is not dry--be careful not to overbake. Allow to cool in pan, then remove.

Frosting/Topping (not sure what to call this)
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 or 4 T. butter (depending on how soft you want it to turn out)
½ tsp. vanilla
optional: can add 1 T. Amaretto, Rum, Bailey's Irish Cream, etc.

Melt together over low flame in a small pot, stirring as it melts, then beating until smooth and well mixed. Turn off the heat, and leave it for approximately one minute, whisk again, and pour on like a drizzle. If you wish to spread it more like frosting, allow to cool slightly longer, until spreadable.

I usually top the cake with raspberries, then drizzle on the chocolate mixture. It also works to split the cake into two thin layers, putting raspberries and chocolate mixture in the middle, and some more on top.

This cake is a specialty of my friend Paula, who often mails it to people--make the version with two layers and the goodies in the middle, wrap really well in plastic wrap, and freeze. Once frozen, pack it well and ship immediately. It arrives in good shape a couple of days later!

Scallop and Bacon Chowder

This recipe is from Bon Appetit, and I only modify a little bit. Found on epicurious. I only sometimes make the parsley oil to top it.

1 cup (packed) fresh Italian parsley
¾ cup olive oil
½ teaspoon salt

8 ounces bacon, coarsely chopped
2 large leeks (white and pale green parts only), thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
2½ cups frozen corn kernels
1½ pounds russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 8-ounce bottles clam juice
8 oz. water
1 cup whipping cream
1 pound bay scallops, connective tissue removed

Blend parsley, oil, and salt in blender until smooth. Pour into small bowl. (Parsley oil can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before using.)

Cook bacon in heavy large pot over medium-high heat until crisp and brown. Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towels to drain. Pour off all but 3 tablespoons drippings from pot. Add leeks, garlic, and thyme to pot and sauté until leeks begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Add corn and sauté 2 minutes. Add potatoes, clam juice, and water; bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. Add cream, scallops and bacon and simmer until scallops are just opaque in center, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle chowder into bowls. Drizzle 1 teaspoon parsley oil atop chowder in each bowl and serve.

Crunchy Baked Pork Chops

As seen on America's Test Kitchen (free registration, but you have to turn down multiple offers), made by the same people who write Cook's Illustrated. I don't see Cook's Illustrated that often, but I always find it interesting. I like the approach of systematically trying out recipes and ingredients to see what really works. It does sound a little like Andy Rooney sometimes, "Don't you hate it when your oven baked pork chops are dry inside and greasy outside...", but it's often useful.

I forgot to add the parsley, thyme and parmesan until it was too late, but it was very good without it. The herbs would have been nice, but it seems like the parmesan might have made it too rich. Served with fried okra.

Crunchy Baked Pork Chops

4 center-cut boneless pork chops , 6 to 8 ounces each, ¾ to 1 inch thick, trimmed of excess fat
4 slices hearty white sandwich bread , torn into 1-inch pieces
1 small minced shallot (about 2 tablespoons)
3 medium garlic cloves , minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 tablespoon)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Salt & pepper
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
½ teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour plus 6 tablespoons
3 large egg whites
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Lemon wedges

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350°F. Dissolve ¼ cup salt in 1 quart water in medium container or gallon-sized zipper-lock bag. Submerge chops, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate 30 minutes. Rinse chops under cold water and dry thoroughly with paper towels.

2. Meanwhile, pulse bread in food processor until coarsely ground, about eight 1-second pulses (you should have about 3½ cups crumbs). Transfer crumbs to rimmed baking sheet and add shallot, garlic, oil, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Toss until crumbs are evenly coated with oil. Bake until deep golden brown and dry, about 15 minutes, stirring twice during baking time. (Do not turn off oven.) Cool to room temperature. Toss crumbs with Parmesan, thyme, and parsley.

3. Place ¼ cup flour in pie plate. In second pie plate, whisk egg whites and mustard until combined; add remaining 6 tablespoons flour and whisk until almost smooth, with pea-sized lumps remaining.

4. Increase oven temperature to 425°F. Spray wire rack with nonstick cooking spray and place in rimmed baking sheet. Season chops with pepper. Dredge 1 pork chop in flour; shake off excess. Using tongs, coat with egg mixture; let excess drip off. Coat all sides of chop with bread crumb mixture, pressing gently so that thick layer of crumbs adheres to chop. Transfer breaded chop to wire rack. Repeat with remaining 3 chops.

5. Bake until instant-read thermometer inserted into center of chops registers 150°F, 17 to 25 minutes. Let rest on rack 5 minutes before serving with lemon wedges.

Hungarian Baked Cabbage

I like this recipe in general, but it was way too heavy on paprika. It reminded me of another Barbara Kafka recipe with an over-the-top quantity of a single spice, radiant bok choy, which was overdosed on turmeric. I would try this cabbage again, reducing the paprika to a sprinkle or omitting it entirely.

½ medium green cabbage, quartered, cored, and cut accross into ½-inch-wide strips (6 cups)
3 tbl. unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp. salt
¼ cup dry white wine
¼ cup sour cream
2 tbl. (!!) mild paprika
2 tsp. caraway seeds

Toss the cabbage with butter to coat in a roasting pan. Roast at 500°F for 15 minutes. Toss and stirr the cabbage, and roast for another 15 minutes, until starting to brown. Sprinkle with salt.

Combine the wine, sour cream and spices in a small bowl. Place the roasting pan with the cabbage over medium heat. Pour in the sour cream mixture. Deglaze the pan, stirring the cabbage, for about 5 minutes or until hot. Do not let it boil or the sour cream will curdle.

from Vegetable Love, by Barbara Kafka (as a variation of Mildly Cardamom Cabbage)

Jicama Salad

4 oranges
2 cups (½-inch) julienne-cut peeled jicama
1 cucumber (about ½ pound), peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, and thinly sliced
2 cups cubed peeled cantaloupe
½ cup vertically sliced red onion
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
¼ cup fresh lime juice
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon hot chili powder

Peel and section oranges over a bowl; squeeze membranes to extract juice. Set sections aside; reserve ¼ cup orange juice. Discard membranes.

Place the orange sections, jicama,and next 5 ingredients (jicama through mint) in a large bowl. Combine the reserved orange juice, fresh lime juice, salt, and chili powder. Pour juice mixture over jicama mixture, and toss gently. Cover and chill 2 hours.

From Cooking Light

¡Tamalada!

We decided to have a tamale-making SuperBowl party yesterday, which was a lot of fun. Making tamales is a lot of work, and it's best to have help, and split it up over time. I cooked up two kinds of meat, red chile pork and chicken molé, ahead of time. The basic recipe and pork filling were from Rick Bayless' Mexico: One Plate at a Time.

Red chile pork filling

6 ounces dried guajillo chiles, stemmed, seeded and each torn into several pieces
6 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
¾ teaspoon black pepper, preferably freshly ground
½ teaspoon cumin, preferably freshly ground
4 pounds lean boneless pork (preferably from the shoulder), cut into ½-inch cubes
Salt

In a large blender or food processor (or working in batches), combine the chiles, garlic, pepper and cumin. Add 4 cups water, cover and blend to a smooth puree. Strain the mixture through a medium-mesh strainer into a medium-size (3-quart) saucepan.

Add the meat, 4 cups water and 1 teaspoon salt. Simmer, uncovered, over medium heat, stirring regularly, until the pork is fork-tender and the liquid is reduced to the consistency of a thick sauce, about 1 hour. Use a fork to break the pork into small pieces. Taste and season with additional salt if necessary. Let cool to room temperature.

Chicken molé filling

Mix one 8.25-oz.jar of Doña Maria Mole sauce with 2 cups chicken broth. Heat and whisk until smooth, and add the shredded meat from a 5 lb. boiled chicken.

Cheese filling

Mix shredded monterey jack cheese with pureed canned chipotle peppers to taste.

Batter
10 ounces (1⅓ cups) rich-tasting pork lard (or vegetable shortening if you wish), slightly softened but not at all runny
1½ teaspoons baking powder
3½ cups dried masa harina for tamales mixed with 2¼ cups hot water
1 cup chicken broth

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the lard or shortening with 2 teaspoons salt and the baking powder until light in texture, about 1 minute. Continue beating as you add the masa (fresh or reconstituted) in three additions. Reduce the speed to medium-low and add 1 cup of the broth. Continue beating for another minute or so, until a ½-teaspoon dollop of the batter floats in a cup of cold water (if it floats you can be sure the tamales will be tender and light).

Beat in enough additional broth to give the mixture the consistency of soft (not runny) cake batter; it should hold its shape in a spoon. Taste the batter and season with additional salt if you think necessary.

We used 3 batches of the batter recipe. For the first batch, I had a ½ cup of lard rendered from the pork roast, the rest was all commercial hydrogenated lard, which isn't much different from shortening. Some people are really particular about their lard. We had lots of people to shape tamales and roll them into corn husks. They steamed for about 70 minutes, standing up vertically in a pasta strainer pot. They were all different shapes and thicknesses, but they were good! Served with jicama salad, rice and beans.

Candied Ginger Shortbread Hearts

Originally from Gourmet, and found through epicurious. I don't know what the deal is with heart-shaped shortbread (see this recipe, too!). I usually shape this into a log of about 2 inches diameter before refrigerating, then slice it into ¼ inch thick slices and bake. It's easier, and with the ginger these look pretty and interesting anyway, so they don't need the shape.

Makes about 40 cookies

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
½ teaspoon ground ginger
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup finely chopped candied ginger

confectioners' sugar for sprinkling the cookies

In a bowl with an electric mixer cream together the butter, the brown sugar, and the ground ginger until the mixture is light and fluffy and add the flour and the salt. Beat the dough until it is just combined and beat in the candied ginger. Halve the dough, roll out each half ¼ inch thick between sheets of wax paper, and freeze the dough on baking sheets for 10 to 15 minutes, or until it is very firm. Working with half the dough at a time, remove the top sheets of wax paper and cut out cookies with a 2¼-inch heart-shaped cutter. (The dough should be cold so that the cookies retain their shape.) Arrange the cookies 2 inches apart on the baking sheets, bake them in batches in the middle of a preheated 300°F. oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until they are pale golden, and transfer them to a rack. Gather the scraps, reroll the dough, and make more cookies in the same manner. Let the cookies cool completely and sprinkle them with the confectioners' sugar, sifted. The cookies keep in an airtight container for 5 days.