52 Churches

With all due apologies to my own, genetic aunties, who like very mild midwestern and British foods, one of my favourite things about the internet is that my Indian Aunties can teach me to make the dishes I want to make, but don’t know how to.

Here, my chana masala looks like it got dolled up for a glamour shots session. This is not because of vaseline on my camera lens, but because of the steam coming off the very freshly cooked chana masala.

My Indian Auntie, Manjula, demonstrates how to make the chana masala on YouTube . . . which is the next best thing to having an Auntie here in my own kitchen. At minute 3:25, she shows me something I didn’t know was a step in the cooking of tomatoes and oil: the separation of the two.

I also have Indian Uncles to consult.

A lot of our food adventures begin in this way:

Farmerteen: What’s that?
Jen: Brussels sprouts.
Farmerteen: What do they taste like?
Jen: I don’t know.
Farmerteen: Why?
Jen: My mom doesn’t like them, so she never served them to us.
Farmerteen: We should try them.
Jen: Okay.

Then we buy a few, accost people at the register and ask how they make them, do a little internet research, thumb through a couple of cookbooks, and then saute them in garlic and butter (because every thing tastes better in either garlic and butter or sugar and butter). As it turns out, Brussels sprouts taste like little teeny cabbages . . . they’re quite pleasant lightly sauteed to a stunning green.

The picture above isn’t Brussels sprouts, though. It’s a picture of Kumquats.

Farmerteen: What’s that?
Jen: Kumquats.
Farmerteen: What do they taste like?
Jen: I don’t know.
Farmerteen: Did your mom not like them?
Jen: I don’t know if my mom’s ever heard of them.
Farmerteen: We should try them.
Jen: Okay.

Kumquats are eaten whole, raw. (Lots of people also make a jelly, or at least a jar of sugar-pickled kumquats — we did not). They’re screamingly sour right at first (it’s the juice), and then the sweetness of the skin takes over as you chew the rest of it up. They’re little, so we eat one or two at a time. I took the second picture in front of a medium orange, so you can get an idea of the size. (The bowl is one you might serve a toddler icecream in).

Since we did Fuhrman in February, I’ve stopped thinking about foods being “breakfast foods” or not, and I eat a lot of different things for breakfast (often leftovers).

On this particular morning, I was having a bean chili with my coffee.

What more can I say that’s not already encapsulated in “Rocket Market Cheese Terrine with Mixed Greens and Rosemary Flatbread”?

The cheese terrine is a soft tangy cheese, sundried tomatoes, and pesto wrapped in mozzarella and sliced into thin slices. It’s available from the Rocket Market up on Spokane’s South Hill.

Sometime late last year, I read about making flavoured vodka, and I set about to make a bacon-infused vodka, which involved crumbling really well-done bacon into a jar of vodka in my fridge, and then skimming off the fat.

While my brother, a former bartender was here visiting, I made these diminutive Bloody Marys with some tomato juice and the bacon vodka.

He thought they were pretty wrong, but, at about 1.5oz each, it’s not wrong for a whole drink.

Update, May 31, 2009:
Turns out, I’m not the only person who thinks bacon vodka is a smashing idea. Bakon just hit the shelves.

Leftover Kale Frittata on toasted bread with salsa, to spice up the morning!

One of my favourite Spokane Valley restaurants, Ambrosia, serves a butternut squash ravioli in a browned butter sauce with craisins and sage.
The sage is cooked in with the butter and just a teeny bit of cinnamon, and the whole thing is quite lovely, but, at $15 a plate, it’s a little more pricey than everyday eating.

In this case I also added a handful of raw cashews.

It’s not a very Fuhrmany meal (butter, carby veggies, refined carb pasta), but it is quite yummy.

Enter frozen butternut squash ravioli (or, sometimes, handmade, really pathetically lumpy looking ravioli by Jen), butter, fresh sage, and cinnamon.

You’ve probably seen quinoa on the shelf at the store, and in the bulk section, and wondered, “What is that qwee-know-ah? Would I like it?”

Quinoa (pronounced “keen-wah”) is a grain that boils up fluffy and light, a little like cous-cous. It’s delightful as a substitute for rice. Try the red variety (shown above), or the white (a blander color, but plenty of flavour).

I’m not really sure what this is, exactly . . . but I think I did this:

I think I went out to Ding How in Liberty Lake and had the yellow curry.
I think, the next day, I looked at the paltry bit of “stuff” in the lovely curry sauce, and decided to add to it. So I think this is yellow curry sauce with the addition of peppers and onions and tofu and kale.

It might be my own attempt at yellow curry (which went okay, but is still a little “off” relative to the curry I really like.

My variation on a lovely theme is to increase the amount of kale and reduce the amount of egg and cheese in Orangette’s Kale Frittata. It’s my method of getting a dish I really like a little more in line with Fuhrman, and in line with my weight loss goals.

This was a breakfast or a lunch of Kale Frittata, sliced melon, and panzanella.