Cranberry-Orange Relish
Alright folks…first in line from the Thanksgiving spread is this humdinger of a recipe from the pages of Martha Stewart Living…yes, I’m one of them! I’ve been collecting these issues for years now, and, truly, most of the missing issues from my stacks are from the first year… I figure that I’ll have lots of projects to keep me busy in my old age… but, once in awhile, I notice a recipe that gets my immediate attention, as this one did! It reminds me of the best of what fusion cuisine has to offer: a beautiful bridge between two or three cuisines that stands as a testament to a universal love of good food, fresh ingredients, and hope for a peaceful future.
Although I hardly consider myself to be a food expert in any way, I have seen a few things. And in this little, brightly-coloured side-dish (which is really just fine on its own as a healthy snack!), I am reminded of the orange-walnut salads of Morrocco, the spicy-sweet-sour yum of Thailand, and the chaats and fresh chatnis of India, all combined with an ingredient hailing from the northern part of the globe: cranberries. (Wisconsin, the state I live in is, by the way, the U.S.’s largest producer of these nutritious darlings– so I have no excuse do I?) I made one small change in the original recipe though: instead of peeling and de-membraning the oranges before dicing, I washed them well and used the whole fruit. Certainly this makes for a more rugged salad, but then, there are far too many anti-oxidants (and flavour!) in citrus peels for them to go to waste, so if you feel you must peel, then please do so…
Cranberry-Orange Relish
2 C fresh cranberries
2 oranges
1/4 C red onion, minced
1 jalapeno (or other mild to medium-hot green chile), seeded and minced (just one?!)
2 t fresh ginger, grated, or sliced thinly and then cut into shreds
2 stalks of celery, sliced 1/4″ lengthwise and then across into 1/4″ dice
1/2 C sugar (more or less to taste)
2 T lime juice
1/4 C fresh spearmint leaves, sliced into ribbons
1/4 pecans, freshly roasted and chopped coarsely (Walnuts and hickory-nuts are closely-related, so these make a fine substitute)
1)Rinse the cranberries, drain and place in a food processor. Pulse a few times until roughly chopped, or chop by hand roughly into 1/4″ pieces. Transfer these to a large mixing-bowl.
2)Wash the oranges well and dry. Using a sharp knife on a clean board, slice them into 1/4″ rounds, then stack a few together at a time and cut into 1/4″ strips, and then crosswise into 1/4″ dice. Empty these and any juice that has escaped into the bowl.
3)Add the minced onion, jalapeno, chopped celery and shreds of ginger to the contents of the bowl. Mix well.
4)Stir together the sugar and lime juice until somewhat combined and pour this over the salad. Toss well, adjust sweet-sour balance to taste, and then chill for at least an hour or two, mixing well once again before serving. (The flavours continue to blend and mellow as days pass, and even now, at day four past the first serving, the leftovers are quite lovely…and…*munch munch*…gone.)
5)Just before serving, sprinkle the nuts and ribbons of mint-leaves over the top.
12 Dishes, Gives Thanks, Falls Exhausted…
I’m sitting quietly at home right now, cup of coffee nearby, reflecting upon the past two days. Allow me to share a little something with you: I can be hard-driven and ferocious when challenged. I will even lose sleep and compromise my usually-even temperament to achieve a solid standing when I feel insulted. So, what my overbearing sister began last week, I finished with a cooking marathon and noteworthy banquet.
My sister. She can be a dear at times, but the terms “bossy”, “controlling”, and “self-righteous” have frequently been attached to her. I really have no intention of using this blog-space to vent family drama- we are here to discuss food after all! But food is enjoyed within context is it not? And after all, I am a real person with little problems in my own little world, so in this post I will spew out some excellent recipes for you with just a little “dishing” on the side.
My mother has for many years been the ever-gracious Thanksgiving Day hostess. She will say time and again that it’s her most favorite meal to make. Years ago, most of the close relatives- both sets of grandparents, a few aunts, uncles and cousins- attended, as well as a few family friends with relatives too distant to visit easily. And then, over the years, grandparents left us, cousins were married and formed new families with new traditions- aunts and uncs following; my sister and I grew up, started dating and moved into our own homes. But she, my mother, and I always managed to come together for this time-honoured meal of the harvest.
But not this year. Since the birth of my nephew, my sister has begun taking over hosting duties for the two big holiday meals of Thanksgiving and Christmas. “Mom’s house is too dangerous for little Jack”, she claims. Our mother welcomes the break from cooking I think, finding new pleasure instead by haunting my sister’s heels as she attempts to direct the flow of dishes from her kitchen, giving little helpful hints here and there, and generally getting in my sister’s way to mop up a little dribble of gravy with a damp cloth and gleeful expression. In moments like these, my sister is apt to shoot me wide-eyed grimaces that convey a helpless annoyance at best. I dart in and out bearing plates and platters, my work as “master of sweets” being done the day before and sitting patiently on a counter-top at the far side of the kitchen, they and I staying far clear of my sister’s path.
But, this year, the feasting party had to go without both decently-made sweets and me. You see, my sister doesn’t especially care for Danny, my on-and-off boyfriend of the last four years. She absolutely forbade his joining us for dinner. Which is fine; it’s her house and she has that right. However, I think it’s very rude, so I declined her offer to come to dinner, but thanked her for the invitation anyway. I don’t really see the point in a messy argument. I withdraw and adjust. It was then that I decided to host my own dinner party.
If you don’t know this by now, at the moment I am living with my mother, and her gas oven with digital controls stopped working a few weeks ago. The range still works fine however. And this “handicap” has actually been a blessing because I can no longer bake Danny’s usual food-offerings of frozen pizza, nor am I able to bake for my mother’s sweet-tooth in the name of cakes, cookies, custards or pies…
Or roast a turkey.
But I can braise a turkey. So a menu unfolded…with just Danny and I attending at first. Then the dining-time was pushed later in the evening, and by then my mother would be returning home from my sister’s soire, for certain that would include some schnibbling (as she calls it) from the table by her. So…three was the count now. And then James called. As I told him of the little family squabble and subsequent change in plans and the final menu, I could feel a certain longing on his part. A longing that included an offer of a case of soda and $20 in store-bought desserts from him. His parents are dead and his sister lives in the next state. He despises her anyway. I can temporarily relate. So I invited him, and we had four now. Plus the wandering felines. And with my mother as witness to both spreads of her children, I became determined to outdo my sister at any cost!
So, on Wednesday evening I began cooking, and finally shut the stove off at 6am. Then I woke up at 11am and casually finished the remaining dishes, saving the mashed potatoes and stuffing for last minute. This was the final, accomplished menu:
1)Braised whole turkey breast with gravy- I placed it in a cast-iron pot with some water, a little oil and ghee, chopped onions, a little garlic, black pepper, rosemary, marjoram and thyme. Simmer covered, turning now and then until cooked. Remove the turkey and brown it in another pan if you wish- I didn’t. Reduce the sauce way down over high heat. Add flour mixed with milk to make a gravy. Adjust salt.
2)Mashed potatoes*- a must! Need I say more?
3)My mother’s home-made stuffing/dressing. She donated this as my sister decided to make her own this year. I rubbed some oil in my wok and fry-steamed it. Delicious as always.
6)Hungarian-style lima beans*
7)Spicy nutty cluster beans…but I used common string beans, which reverts back to the original recipe
8)Lithuanian mushrooms with beets*
9)Anita’s Ruby Pickles– it continued the red-pink theme at the table.
10)Whole-wheat dinner-rolls from a bakery (these were another offering from my mother…kind of her way of saying: yes, your sister is being somewhat of a —–, but I’d like to go and see my grandson)
11)Pumkin pie– from James. Store-bought, but not bad! Gotta have pumpkin pie….
12)Chocolate cake– also from James.
*(I’ll post recipes and photos for some of these dishes soon, and include links from this post to them as they are completed)
And I forgot all about that other table for the most part. And you know what? A good time was had by all! I forgot how much I love playing host; it’s been a few years. And I remembered something else I had forgotten: sometimes, family isn’t so much to do with blood, but with whom you surround yourself with, and who loves you as you are. And that’s enough to be thankful for.
And yes, I have no photos of the table. I was glad when the cooking was finished, I was hungry, and busy having a good time. So shoot me! 🙂
Hyacinth Beans
While on a canned green jackfruit hunt this past spring, I found myself patiently waiting in line to check out at a Thai-Lao grocery and happened to glance on the checkout-counter at a basket containing small plastic bags of various seeds for planting. Most I recognized: bitter melon, bottle gourd, basil…but one package in particular attracted my interest. I thought, “My gosh, these look just like val with that tell-tale stripe on the seam, but…but, they’re black!” Fascinated, I added a packet to my pile to purchase.
When it was my turn at the check-out, I inquired what these beans were called and what they were used for. The owner of the shop didn’t know what they were called in English, but stated that, in her culture, they were usually used while green, and that they had very beautiful flowers that were often used for tucking into hair-do’s and for fresh decorations for use around the home and for festivals.
Indeed, a little research on the internet when I returned home confirmed my suspicion. I immediately had inflated fantasies of growing these beans to their dark-hued maturity and proudly displaying them here and featured in traditional dishes in place of their pale sisters. But no…after they were planted, wily vines began to grow and grow. The vines bore beautiful purple-tinged leaves. And it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that the flowers came: a mass of pale violet that collected much admiration from my mother and the neighbors. May I pick a few? I sighed and consented of course. At this time of year very few blooms are to be seen: marigolds mostly. Dark, dark violet pods did indeed develop though, and though I kept checking, the beans inside were still young and green with not enough time to mature and be used to fulfill my blackened fantasy. Because, my dear readers, the first frost that is the deadline for tender harvest here in the bay of green will be tonight. (October 27th) Finito.
So… something valuable can be learned, and perhaps it is this: if you live in a place where the winter is long and you wish to grow a tropical legume, do start the seeds early indoors if you’d like an impressive fall harvest of endless pods and, with hope, some mature beans. However, if all you’d like to enjoy are the beautiful leaves and flowers, and maybe a few green/unripe pods, then do as I did and plant them casually…
At left on the ground are dragon’s tongue beans; white bitter melon vines twine over the left trellis and part of the right, mixing with a stray cucumber vine and hyacinth beans (which eventually take over). Globe thistle tries to stay out of the party in the center, but is harrassed by both the bitter melons and hyacinth beans.
Although the first name that I learned for these beans was the Marathi term val, I later learned that these were known variously in English as hyacinth beans, Bangalore beans, Indian beans, Egyptian beans or lab-lab beans, and avarekaalu in Kannada. More information can be read here and here, and seeds for planting (both purple and white) may be ordered here.
Shilpa of Aayi’s Recipes has a beautiful entry in her glossary with more information and names in other languages which may be found here, as well as a rather tasty-looking dosa recipe and a fortifying chitranna– both of which use these beans.
Asha of Foodie’s Hope has posted a lovely recipe here.
I also found a marvelous-looking saaru recipe and informative post here from Suma of Veggie Platter, and Srivalli of Cooking 4 All Seasons even has a fan club devoted to this time-honoured dish from a family friend!
After Halloween, Bitter Flowers…
I’m thankful that we are alive… that’s really the only thing I’ve ever learned from this, my favorite of all western holidays, a very pagan holiday with a long history that Christianity was never able to stamp out. I always take October 31st and November 1st off from work. Always always. And I enjoy it every year!
This one was a relatively quiet one for me. I didn’t attend the costume balls at any of the local clubs of the preceding weekend. I didn’t work on an elaborate costume of any kind. Instead, I enjoyed a quiet Wednesday afternoon carving 3 butternut squashes into small jack-o-lanterns, simultaneously doling out candy to trick-or-treaters when they knocked. There were more than usual this year, and let me tell ya: some of them were quite an eerie sight! The most memorable? A mother and her three young daughters- all dressed as witches, another mother and her two children dressed as Japanese spirits or something, and the next-door kid who donned a fantastic grim reaper (death represented as a black-hooded-and-caped skeleton wielding a scythe) costume, complete with remote-controlled blood that oozed down his face. Lovely. Have some candy.
Night fell, the holiday truly commenced, and I set my jack-o-lanterns outside to ward off any stray evil spirits. By 8 o’clock the trick-or-treaters became sparse, and because I was in a sociable mood and tired of being inside the house, decided to venture out to a local haunt. Halloween is one of the western gay community’s most popular holidays, and, although the weekend costume balls had come and gone, I felt sure that this particular Wednesday would still draw a crowd out into the night. I was right! It was nice to mingle with familiar faces, most of which I thankfully recognized!
I thought I’d also share a little recipe with you. My old friend May taught me this dish, so I assume this is a Hmong dish, but it could be Laotian, it could be Thai, it could very well be known and enjoyed throughout this region. Who knows- I’m not even sure of the proper name for this dish! I tend to call it Bitter Flowers, as this is what the finished dish reminds me of. Flowers. Very spicy and bitter flowers. If you are a person who would enjoy taking a piece of lemon-rind, sprinkling it with ground chiles and salt and devouring it with glee, then this dish is for you! It is essentially a stir-fry of bitter eggplants, those in the photo above being a popular type of these (nope, dey ain’t no pumpkins), but I know of two more: a type that is more egg-shaped with lengthwise ridges as well, and a teeny-tiny eggplant often called “pea eggplant” (as they look like large green peas). All three of these are remarkably bitter and widely available here all summer and autumn in the “Asian” markets and at the farmers’ markets. Heaps and heaps of them. And I usually make this dish a few times during the season, but this year I didn’t get to it until now, and barely at that as some of my stash had become soft. Luckily, most were still usable!
“Bitter Flowers”
1-2 T oil
fresh red chiles, seeded and sliced- I used 3, but to taste…
1 stalk of lemongrass, sliced very thinly at a diagonal (discard the dry outer leaves and use the paler portion near the root end)
Uh….a quantity of bitter eggplants– such as what would fit into a pair of cupped hands…sliced 1/8″ across into “flowers”
salt to taste (yep, salt…nam pla is not used in this dish- disturbs the colour scheme probably)
1)Heat the oil in a wok over med-low heat and add the chiles and lemongrass; stir-fry for about a minute, just enough to infuse the oil with flavour.
2)Add the bitter eggplant slices and stir-fry just until until a bit wilted, but not entirely soft; they should still retain their shape.
3)Remove from heat and add salt to taste. Serve hot or at room temperature with khao nyao (sticky rice) or any other rice on hand.
This is most refreshing in hot weather, or anytime that the appetite is a bit jaded. Perky, very perky. Oh. and before I forget: this simple recipe is also used for bitter melon.
May you all enjoy the bounty of the harvest, good health, and good spirits. Et men…er Amen. 😀
Elaichi et Cetera... 