Coconut Granula

No white food? Tell that to the currently coconut-crazed food world. Thinking about using up my giant pillow-sized bag of Costco coconut…I shake my head no at tempting visions of macaroons, and instead make granola.  I've made various iterations of it for years, not so much cause I like to eat it— but because my husband does. And the house smells good when it's in the oven.

There are gazillion ways to do it; my version is sort of a mashup of old-school Harrowsmith/Moosewood cookbooks and modern-day Smitten Kitchen. (She also has a very nice recipe for a sort of reverse-granola;  nuts with beaten egg white and a pulverized granola coating.)

My version is nut-heavy, and light on the dried fruit. Knowing now what I never knew back then about glycemic indexes and other such tedious dietary topics; I've also dialed back the sugar, honey, maple syrup or molasses from a cup or more in the good old days—to about 1/4 cup sweetener per 5-6 cups rolled oats. Fat—about the same; 1/4 cup of melted coconut oil with ghee is good. And, to give it a bit of that nice sticky quality, I always melt a couple of tablespoons of nut butter into the warm oil.  Also, a tablespoon of either coconut flour or dried milk powder tossed in as you mix it all together boosts the sticky factor nicely. So. To sum up. 

Granula…my way

5-6 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup of oil
1/4 cup brown sugar, plus your choice of: honey, maple syrup or molasses, about 2 heaping tablespoons
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flaked quinoa (optional),1/2 cup ground flax seed (or substitute wheat germ if you are reliving 1972. "Quinoa? Flax? what the—huh?")
1 cup coconut (pre-toast lightly in oven—don't skip this step!)
1/4 cup sesame seeds (optional)
2 generous tablespoons peanut or almond butter
1 and a half cups of assorted nuts: flaked or slivered almonds, hazelnuts, pecan pieces, walnuts or pepitas
1/3 cup raisins, cranberries, dates or dried cherries
Optional flavorings: 1 tsp cinnamon, vanilla or almond extract (or all 3!)
1 tablespoon coconut flour or dry milk powder

Method:
Pre-toast coconut and nuts/seeds. Just enough to freshen them up and give the coconut a hint of blonde. Set aside to cool.
If your oil is solid, melt it in a heat proof container large enough to add the sweeteners, plus the nut butter.(You'll need room for fairly vigorous stirring)
Toss dried milk powder or coconut flour over the oats in a large bowl. Drizzle the still-warm oil, sweetener, nut butter emulsion over top. Stir with spoon or mix with your hands.
!Don't add the coconut or dried fruit yet! And don't wash the big bowl, you'll need it again.
When oats and emulsion are nicely mixed; spread thinly on the biggest sheet pan you've got. You don't want it crowded because it'll be messy when you stir, and takes longer to achieve desired texture.
Bake 250 to 300 degrees. After 15 minutes to half an hour, stir, bringing the outer edges of the mix to the middle. Back into the oven for 15 minutes to half hour. Keep an eye on it; when you start getting that toasty colour, it will only need a few minutes more. Pour toasted mixture back into mixing bowl when cool enough to handle, then add coconut, dried fruit and ground flaxseed. Return to the oven for 5 to 10 more minutes. 
Let cool completely before storing in jars. And to keep that crunch intact; store your granola in the freezer. It's delish.

Sugar Sugar

I'm taking a break from sugar abstinence.  The urge to bake is just too overwhelming this time of year. And the urge to eat… well, that's another blog post.  

My cookie hero is San Francisco's Jean Scardina. At 79, in 2008, she was interviewed by Amanda Hesser regarding her astounding annual cookie production—500 dozen, 16 varieties, a christmas tradition dating back to 1951.  My favorite quote from the article… "This is my own madness, and I can't see dragging anyone else into it", when queried whether she ever accepted any help in producing this staggering output of neatly decorated cookies.

Anyway, mine don't look as good as hers, but they'll do. I'll have a half dozen tins of assorted to give away, and then put the cutters away for another year. 

Chocolate Jitterbugs (from the Ikea Fika book)

Dough | 1 cup (225ml) all purpose flour, 1/4 cup cocoa powder, 100g. butter, 1/4 cup superfine sugar, 1/2 an egg yolk. Meringue | 1 egg white, 1/2 cup superfine sugar

Method: Sift dry ingredients, mix with room temperature butter, yolk and sugar. Wrap and chill for at least 1 hour. Roll dough inbetween parchment sheets to 6 x 12 inch rectangle. 
Beat white till foamy, incorporate sugar slowly. (For firmer meringue do this over water in a double boiler). Spread cooled meringue over dough, roll up lengthwise, wrap and chill at least 15 minutes.
Cut slices approx. 1/3 inch thick, place on parchment covered sheet, bake off in a preheated 350 F. oven for 10-12 minutes.

Baked

I haven't made banana bread in donkeys' years… avoiding bad carbs along with everyone else.
But having grown up in a household where butter, sugar and flour were like a holy trinity, it was a slow and painful transition to not automatically reach for a mixing bowl and a wooden spoon to bake, usually a couple of things (hey, the oven's on already)—several times a week. My mom baked quite a bit… and I spent many hours going through her cookbooks and handwritten recipes, sorting them and, I thought, bringing order to chaos.  She would just roll her eyes.
I still have a few recipes in her handwriting, and look at them with pleasure. The pound cake recipe probably came from my paternal grandmother. It was her signature dessert, one that I indulge my dad in regularly—since it prompts such pleasant associations for him. "Cherry pound cake! I haven't had this in years!" Well, actually, no…you had some last week, but—hey, glad you're likin' it, dad.

DIY, or, Recipe For Disaster

First, organize your supplies:

 ① milk chocolate (Ikea /hazelnut optional)
② crystallized ginger 

(I kind of like this over-bright photo 'cause that chunk of ginger is reminiscent of the glowing planet headed for the earth in this film.)

Loosely assemble the pieces.

I think you know what happens next.

Baked

Back to school baking resumes.  Pie for breakfast, anyone? And chewy rolled oat cookies, adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe. My friend prefers them wheatless but I add 3 tblspoons of flour; it seems
to help them hold together.

Ingredients
1 and 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cook), 6 tblsp butter (approx 1/3 cup), 1 egg, a big dash of vanilla, 1/2 tsp baking soda and salt, 1/2 cup raisins and/or dried cranberries, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/3 cup packed brown sugar, 3 tblsp ground flax meal, 3 tblsp flour.

Method
Grind 1/2 cup of the oats in food processor into coarse flour, (I also pulse the raisins into small bits for a nicely unlumpy cookie). Cream the room temp butter and sugars, add remaining ingredients. Chill for at least half an hour, drop balls or slice off a chilled dough log onto parchment lined sheet. Bake at 375 for about 10-12 minutes, watch closely as these are flattish cookies and the edges will burn if you don't keep an eye out.  Let cool completely before lifting them off the sheet.

Bad

This post is for you, Laura.

Not that Laura is bad, of course. It's just that we share a history of people, places and things because we are sisters, and what follows is a thing which when eaten, is undoubtedly bad.  

No quinoa, hemp or soy was harmed in the production of this thing.  

It has no name; we called them pineapple-ham-thingies. (We being a group of seven siblings with a mom who cooked a lot of food but when she ran out steam was sanguine about tossing us a plateful of this.) 

And who could blame her.

Um, Recipe: 

Ingredients: Buns, cheese slices, ham slices and pineapple rings.

Method: Toast buns. 

Layer ham. pineapple and cheese slices.  

Broil until the melty fake cheese acquires the degree of blistered patina you prefer. 

Eat once approximately every 15 years.

Not Bad

Not bad at all.

Spaghetti with Shrimp and Meyer Lemon

This brand of no-wheat spaghetti was… acceptable. Not great, but good-enough.  It lacked that toothiness you get from a good quality durum-wheat pasta. I like a little bit of bounce-back when you bite down, this stuff offers not much resistance.

So, to proceed.

• 2 tablespoons olive oil, , juice of 2 meyer lemons, and 2 tablespoons butter.

• Frozen tail-on, deveined white or pink Pacific shrimp, 10-16 depending on size. Mine were from Safeway, an organic frozen product - that when thawed under cold water and patted dry yields a satisfactory shrimpy taste.

• Slivered yellow red and orange peppers.  Mine were small; they looked like this.

• Minced garlic and shallot, Old Bay Seasoning, pinch red pepper flakes and lots of black pepper. Oregano or thyme, whichever you have. I always have lots of greek oregano because it goes wild in the garden and I'm constantly picking and drying it.

Boil the spaghetti and drain. Saute the peppers in oil til softened slightly, add a pinch of nice salt.  Add the shallots, shake it up or stir, let it go half a minute, add garlic, then move the pepper mixture to the edges of the pan if you have a really big one, or set aside if it's weensy.

Add half the butter to the pan, and saute the shrimp. These cook fast, so don't overdo. I flip them once, then toss the pepper mixture, drained pasta and juice of lemon back into the pan with the other half of the butter. Grate pepper and scrumble your green herbe of choice over top.

Ta da. Guaranteed husband-pleaser if he likes shrimp.

P.S. If you have an open bottle of white wine lying around it will of course be a happy addition, and make it a bit more 'saucy', if that's your preference. No wine? A splash of white balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar or mirin will do the same trick.

B is for…

Butter; as in these macadamia-nut butter cookies (recipe below), bourbon; the kind they drank in Deadwood! (and the kind I'll be tasting tonight), and the brown daisy-ditzy print on my favourite thrifted Danish cookie tin.

Nut-butter Cookies
These are an amalgam of a couple of recipes —  my usual way of cooking and baking. Cruise the cookbooks and magazines, take a peek at Pinterest — then make something up.

• half cup butter
• third cup nut-butter (I used macadamia)
• 1 cup rolled oats* 
*whizzed into coarse flour in food processor
• 1 square bakers chocolate
• quarter cup whole almonds 
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup sugar, equal parts white and brown
• 1 egg
• half cup flour + 1 tsp baking soda

Cream butters and sugars, stir egg and vanilla together and add to butter/sugar mixture. 
Whiz the oats a bit, (pulsing 4 or 5 times was enough to make a crumbly flour) then add it to the wet mixture.
Now toss your almonds and rough-chopped chocolate into the processor and pulse it a few times, add to wet mixture.
Stir vigorously then add stirred or sifted flour/baking soda… (muttering to yourself, "Take that! gluten-free dweebies!")
Chill, roll into balls, flatten slightly on parchment covered sheet.
350 degree oven, about 9 minutes. 
Now these don't yield a whole lot of cookies, you'll get maybe 2 dozen… but at my house that's a good thing.
To paraphrase Warren Zevon here:
"Enjoy every cookie". 

If it's March this must be minestrone

It's amazing what a little bit of this can do.  I decided to make a minestrone; can of white beans, check - broth, leeks, carrots, celery, check - green stuff from the winter garden, check - small tubetti or other small pasta, check.  Then… Lazy Cook took the pot that moments ago warmed up leftover bowtie pasta with squash, spinach and a creamy 2 cheese drizzle, did not wash the pot, and sweated the tomato paste to begin the new brew. Dirty Minestrone. Horrifying? Yes. Also delicious.

So, for the soffritto, any or all of the following: leek, onion, carrot, fennel, celery, parsnip… in your choice of fat and then don't forget the tomato paste, 3 or 4 tablespoons.

For the broth, vegetable or chicken, topped up with water to yield about 2 and a half litres of finished soup.

For toothiness, diced potato and/or rutabaga, tubetti or any small pasta shape you like the looks of. 
Tofu or seitan would probably work, too.

For the greens, I went with chard and beet greens. Spinach, rapini, collards, or kale would also be fab.

Seasoning, lots and lots of fresh-grind black pepper, oregano, parsley, a bit of crushed fennel seed, dried savoury and a fistful of parsley. Fancy sea salt is nice but taste first, it depends on how salty a broth you used.

For the finish, diced roasted red pepper if you have it, a splash of pinot gris, and top it with a parmesan toast. (or two, or three, as the case may be. Ahem)

Things that are round

Biscuit tins…

and a wheat-free peanut butter cookie 

(wish i could say I ate just one)

Things That Are Round Cookies

adapted from this recipe 

3/4 cup peanut butter, (I used chunky)

1/4 cup butter (because old habits die hard), 

1 egg plus 1 egg white,

1/2 tsp vanilla,

1 scant tsp baking soda

1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup confectioners sugar

generous 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/3 cup coconut flour

(you can twiddle with these dry ingredients to suit yourself, substituting sorghum or oat flours)

1/4 tsp salt, and a half package chocolate chips

I didn't have to flatten the first batch cause the freshly-mixed dough was quite loose, but chilled dough the next day did need the fork and flatten routine.

Bake about 10-12 minutes on a parchment covered cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven. 

More Molasses

Going through my recipe box—a couple of things are really apparent…

1) Never met a ginger-molasses cookie recipe i didn't like, it seems

2) The ratio of dessert recipes to entrees is kind of embarrassing. 

It also left me wondering about use of the word 'scant'. It now sounds so-o 
archaic, but used to be common in hand-written recipes or cookbooks
published by ladies' auxiliary groups.  Love reading those books.

And speaking of archaic.  
FLOUR! SHORTENING!and REFINED SUGAR! 
Sigh.