hi all. offline for a couple of weeks. spotty internet access here in st. louis. we’re visiting my folks while hubby’s in germany.

so i’m leaving you with the following info on farmer’s markets in the st. louis area.

Market in the Loop in Delmar — our favorite farmer’s market — go visit the classic St. Louis Bread’s Company and Racanelli’s Pizza
Kirkwood Farmer’s Market — they have fresh corn right now from Wood Rivers Farm (Illinois); yesterday we got home-grown strawberries and plums (some of the produce is imported from elsewhere though). love this in the fall, especially, with all the pumpkins and caramel-covered apples etc. just found out yesterday that Cafe Manila (a Philippine eatery) has moved there from South St. Louis — try the kebabs (our Filipino barbecue)!
Soulard Farmer’s Market in downtown St. Louis — this is where you find everything! when our oldest daughter was little we went there for the free-range eggs, really fresh veggies and flowers and those little doughnuts (about 1 1/2 inches wide). even now that my parents live in the suburbs my papa still makes the occasional trek down there to buy things like oxtails and such. it’s also right by Budweiser so the air smells of malt — a really yummmmy smell, even though i’m not a beer fan myself.

then there’s a farm that i forget the name of — but they have fresh blueberries and a great playing area for the kids; my then-preschooler went there for their field trip and had a wonderful time. i’ll post again if i remember.

see y’all after labor day!

This photo was taken in July when we were doing our 18th-19th century studies. Chicken Marengo is a dish that Napoleon’s cook made for him after the Battle of Marengo. A great account of what happened can be found here. Our recipe comes from Julia Child’s The Way to Cook. However, I am not typing it here as we’re leaving on Wednesday and I have a ton of things to take care of. I found a Chicken Marengo recipe at Epicurious.com, but it is not anywhere near the original. Luckily, I found this recipe from a Boston PBS station which is closest to the one in Julia Child’s book. There’s another one here that looks even closer to the original, but crayfish is a rarity in these parts, so I had to use shrimp anyway. It is a fun and unusual dish to prepare, and the kids liked the novelty of having shrimp, eggs and bread together with the chicken. Interestingly, the chicken itself is prepared in much the same way as we Filipinos prepare our apritada/afritada/fritada.

Triple exclamation points — for an over-the-top triple treat.

From the bottom up:
A decadent spoonful of Caramel Sauce, then Coffee ice cream floating in espresso, topped with a Bailey’s-flavored chantilly cream and dotted with chocolate-covered coffee beans. Kahlua Licor de Cafe poured on top as a final touch… a devilish concoction of a dessert for my hubby who had a heck of a week at work. I get to share because late evenings at work mean a horrendous schedule for Mom as well –

But, on to the recipes:

The Caramel Sauce

Equal parts of sugar and heavy cream (I used 1/4 cup each)

Caramelize sugar in a clean saucepan over lowest heat, swirling pan slowly until all sugar is melted. Continue to cook sugar, until it turns into a golden syrup — watch carefully — don’t let it burn! When it’s a nice golden color, add the cream and swirl the pan again to combine. Let cook for a few more minutes, until lightly thickened. Use immediately. (For this recipe, I only used a spoonful as the ice cream is already sweet. I just wanted something sticky and interesting at the bottom, a nice surprise. You can keep the rest covered in the refrigerator, then reheat gently for future use.)

The Coffee Ice Cream

I only made half a batch as we’ve been having entirely too much ice cream around here lately. Honestly, I was tempted to run the custard base through our coffee maker just to see how it would turn out, but I got rather scared of the consequences (having to clean out that coffeemaker to make sure no dairy has gotten stuck to crevices — waiting to develop mold — isn’t my idea of a fun weekend).

2 cups cream and/or milk — use any combination you like — I used half 1% milk and half cream, but you can use pure cream if you want it rich, or just use milk if you want to keep it light
1/3 cup sugar, divided
2 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup cold-brewed coffee concentrate (or use really strong coffee or espresso)

Mix half of the sugar with the cream/milk in a saucepan and cook very gently over low heat until steamy. Mix the remaining sugar in a bowl with the egg yolks and whisk well until a pale yellow. Whisk in half of the milk/cream mixture to the yolks in a stream. Return to saucepan and continue to cook until it begins to thicken — do not allow to boil or egg yolks will curdle. When thick enough (or around 180 degrees F), remove from heat (strain if you wish) and add vanilla extract and coffee concentrate. Chill 3 hours or so, until cold. Freeze in ice-cream maker using manufacturer’s directions. Transfer to airtight container and freeze until firm, about 3 hours.

About the cold-brewed coffee concentrate: Cold-brewing, some people say, is for wimps who can’t handle the strength of “real” hot-brewed coffee. We don’t suffer from acid reflux, but do appreciate the mellower flavor of the coffee once in a while — it’s also great for parties when we plan to serve iced coffee, and perfect for lazy weekdays when all we want is a cup and yet don’t want to settle for instant.

For more information on cold-brewed coffee, click here.

The Chocolate-Covered Coffee Beans

Melt 2 ozs. dark chocolate (I used 70% Scharffen Berger) in a very clean, small saucepan over lowest heat, making sure you don’t get anything in the pan while you’re making this (water droplets, especially, will be the kiss of death).

When the chocolate is melted, dip coffee beans (I used Organic Montana Morning) in the chocolate. Lift out with a candy-making fork, or in my case, two skewers used like chopsticks. (I tried to find a candy-making fork small enough to handle coffee beans at the cookeware store the other day but they didn’t have any.) Let excess chocolate drip back into pan and lay chocolate-covered bean on a wax paper. Allow to cool before handling. Dip two or three times, allowing coating to harden in between, if you want a thicker chocolate coating. Or use dark chocolate for a first coating and then a milk chocolate or even white chocolate for a second and/or third dipping — so you get a greater proportion of chocolate to coffee bean.

Coffee, sugar…. what else do you need?

Thanks to Ronald of lovesicily for the perfect theme and for hosting this month’s Sugar High Friday. Our thanks go to Jennifer, the Domestic Goddess as well who started this sweet tradition. It’s a most satisfying reward for getting through a hectic week!

Hi all, thank you so much for your prayers and concern. My mom is fine, they performed a cardiac catheterization yesterday and things went well. The doctors say it was so mild it probably wouldn’t even qualify as a real heart attack — thank God!!! Needless to say I can breathe again. Will be back blogging in a few days. (And then these posts have to be removed as my mom visits this blog daily and when she gets back to work and sees I’ve been writing about her she’ll be mortified.) Thanks again from the bottom of my heart.

my mom’s in the hosp. for a mild heart attack. can’t go there to see her but i’m taking a break from blogging for a few days:( thanks for your prayers.

Let me preface this by saying that I normally don’t cook like this:). It just so happens that we have a guest coming over and I had signed up for the Eat Local Challenge. What excited me about this month’s Paper Chef Challenge (from Owen at Tomatilla.com) was the opportunity to make a dish with flowers. While I have been growing flowers and herbs, I don’t make it a habit of using them for cooking. They are mostly enjoyed by my family in the garden, every now and then pressed into books, sniffed just because it feels good to do that, and occasionally cut for a vase indoors. Except for my German Chamomile (matricaria recutita) which I love as tea, I have not really harvested any other flowers for the kitchen due to allergies of family members…. this was a first — and the flowers eaten only by the non-allergy sufferers:D.

Continue reading »

Sorry, no pic yet. Used our old SLR and I still need to get the film developed!

Make the fruit mix-in:

2 1/2-3 cups cut-up peaches (choose ones that are ripe but not overly so, peel, pit and cut into 1/2-inch pieces; about 4 peaches)
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
pinch salt
1/3 cup sugar or Sucanat
1 1/2 tablespoons peach schnapps or vodka

Put the peaches, lemon juice, salt and sugar in a non-reactive saucepan. Let stand for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. Set on stove-top over medium-high heat and cook 3-4 minutes or until fruit is softened (to the degree of mushiness you like — I like mine pretty firm). Transfer to metal bowl, stir in peach schnapps, and refrigerate until cold, about 4 hours.

Make the custard:

4 large egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar or Sucanat
1 1/2 cups milk (I used 1%; if you want a richer ice cream use whole)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a bowl, whisk yolks with 1/3 cup of the sugar, until pale yellow. Cook milk, cream, and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes, or until warm. Whisk half the milk mixture into the yolk mixture. Blend well and return mixture to saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until mixture begins to thicken or thermometer reads 180 degrees — do not allow mixture to boil or egg will curdle. You want it hot and a bit steamy so cook just under a simmer. Remove from heat. Transfer to a metal bowl (run through a sieve if you like) and stir in vanilla extract. Chill in refrigerator for 2 hours or until peach mixture is ready.

When everything is chilled, strain peaches, mixing the strained liquid into the custard. Churn/Freeze in ice cream machine, following manufacturer’s instructions, about 20-25 minutes. Add peaches and churn a couple minutes more until combined. Remove to airtight container and freeze until firm, about 3 hours.

This was soooo good, even my kids who swear off fruit ice creams loved it!!!

Palm sugar can be found in Asian stores, in different forms. The Thai brand I used clearly says “palm sugar” on the container. It is also known as coconut sugar, Java sugar or jaggery (at Indian stores). You can also look for Mexican piloncillo/panela/panocha (comes in little cones). Or, if you really can’t find any of those use 1 cup dark brown sugar mixed with 2 teaspoons molasses. Last resort: brown sugar, maple sugar, or date sugar (the latter 2 choices at natural foods stores).

Since we have been blessed to live in an area surrounded by local farms — which we don’t take advantage of often enough — our family has decided to take the challenge and participate in Jen’s (at Life Begins at Thirty) challenge to eat local food, in association with Locavores.

• What’s your definition of local for this challenge?

  Stuff that I’ve grown this year — which includes tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, basil, beans and herbs.

  Food that can be purchased within 100 miles of my home, which is a suburb outside of Scranton, PA.

• What exemptions will you claim?

  I need to use things up from my pantry, fridge and freezer. I will try to stick to recipes that can be made with things that I already have or can buy locally, but may have have to get some Asian ingredients elsewhere as none of the local farms grow them.

• What is your personal goal for the month?

  To have 75% of the food we consume daily be supplied locally.

• What is going to be the biggest challenge for you in eating locally for the month of August?

  Not finding enough Asian produce and ingredients locally — we are Filipinos so 50% of our diet is Asian/Filipino.

• Is there a food that you would love help in finding locally grown or locally produced?

  yard long beans, Asian/Japanese/Thai eggplants, winged beans, lemongrass, Thai peppers (which I’m growing, but ever so slowly), other Asian vegetables like bitter gourd (momordica charantia — I planted some but they didn’t make it).

• Is there a locally grown or produced product that you would particularly like to recommend?

  Today, it will be Eckel’s Farm in Schultzville, PA, phone 570-587-1725. We got some corn and had them with lunch. They were on the small side, but the flavor was fabulous and the texture ultra-fresh; crunchy and juicy which my kids loved.

  Strawberries from Pallman Farms — the season is over but they will be selling turkeys come Thanksgiving! And they currently have a produce market open daily, but I’m not sure it’s locally-grown stuff — I’ll ask!
  Blueberries from Berry Fields Farm — They’re having a blueberry festival this weekend and we hope to go unless hubby’s working.

  Many more that I will highlight here!

Heheheee…. I just received an e-mail from Sassy that she’s answered the Cookbook Meme and she guilted me into answering the questions — I’ve had this in a draft and just had to finish it, so here they are!

# Total number of cookbooks I own: In my cooking lifetime I’ve probably owned about 150 or so, but every year, I buy a few more AND try to whittle down to 100. It would be great if I could get it down to 50. It’s SOOO hard esp. with all the great cookbooks out there! And I go for mostly classics instead of the trendy ones so most of them are keepers. My parents bought a condo last year and inherited the previous’ tenants cookbooks, about 1000+. So whenever I visit them in St. Louis, I bring some of the ones I don’t want in my shelves and exchange those for some of theirs.

Continue reading »

Q: Hope you don’t mind me asking your advice. I have a bunch of
fruit I was hoping to make a fruit crisp. Today in the
Washington Post was a delightful article on crisps.

My question is…could i substitute the wheat flour with oat flour without noticeable difference? And how about margarine for butter? If I start doing too many subs, will that just “uncrisp” my crisp?

I’m going to try it with the subs, but I thought you might know
from your experience what has worked.

A: I like a mixture of oat flour AND old-fashioned oatmeal AND chopped nuts, unless you’re allergic to nuts. I don’t miss the wheat flour at all. I’m not sure about the margarine though — are you substituting that to get less fat? I haven’t really cooked with margarine in a long time so i wouldn’t know. However i’ve baked with “better butter” — homemade butter mixed with canola oil — with good results. I suppose margarine could work okay since it’s also fat.

Her experiment turned out okay except for a soggy bottom. What I forgot to tell her (mea culpa) is that I don’t make “bottoms” anymore when I make fruit crisps, unless I want something there. It’s BOUND to get soggy especially when you use berries, even if you vary the material. I only do “tops”.

If you want crisp bottom-tender fruit-crisp top, the best way to achieve this is to pre-bake the bottom, pre-cook the filling, and chill the topping before using it. However, this may be too much work than most people want to do for a fruit crisp, so I offer my other easier-than-easy fruit crisp:

Use your favorite brand of granola!!!

Slice up whatever fruits and berries you like, add a bit of lemon juice and sugar (or honey if you like), perhaps some cinnamon if you like that flavor in crisps, but especially if you’re making apples, in which case throw a bit of nutmeg in there too, and maybe even a pinch of ground cloves. Let that sit for 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Spread the fruits and berries in a baking dish. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until heated through and to the degree of mush you desire:D. Increase oven heat to 425 degrees. Top with the granola, and bake for 7-10 minutes or until granola is golden and crunchy. (You don’t even have to bake it, after the fruit is cooked, you can just top it with granola and eat as is.) You could even toast the granola lightly on the stove-top while the fruit bakes in the oven, then put it together when they’re done!

The great thing about granola is that a lot of them are already wheat-free, so for people with wheat sensitivities, they’re so handy to have in the cupboard, esp. in the summertime when fruits are plentiful!

The one other tip that I had was that you could use a light olive oil (not extra virgin, because the flavor may be too dominant) in place of butter, but use just enough to moisten the ingredients a bit. Canola oil is another healthy alternative. I have not been too disappointed with baked goods where I’ve substituted canola for most or all of the fat, EXCEPT that I won’t do this where butter is the essential flavoring, as in BUTTER cookies. Canola cookies just don’t have the same appeal, does it.