cooking

Every single time I make fruit crumbles I wonder to myself why I am not making them every single day. The answer, of course, is that I would prefer to remain just plump rather than cross over into grotesque obesity. I don't think I'm going out on a limb to guess that a daily breakfast of fruit crumble will rapidly get me there...

Beautiful crumblescape...

Apple crumble:
1/2 cup flour + 1tbsp
1/2 cup oats
1 stick of butter (very cold)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp white sugar (if desired)
1/2 tsp of whatever spices you want (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger)
about 2 cups of fruit (apples, blueberries, plums, apricot, pear etc. etc.)

Pre-heat oven to 350. Generously grease a 9" tart pan. In a large bowl combine your fruit with the extra spoons of flour and sugar, toss to coat.
In a small bowl, fork sift flour, oats, brown sugar & spice. Use a pastry cutter or just a knife and fork to cut-in the butter until your mixture is small pea-size chunks of flour & butter. Work fast so the butter doesn't get too warm. If you have a lot of dry flour that isn't incorporating well, you can add a tbsp of maple syrup or honey to help it along.
Evenly layer your fruit in the tart pan, top with butter & flour mixture. Bake for about 45 minutes, until fruit is bubbly. Serve hot with ice cream or cold for breakfast. Grow fat & happy.

Fruit combinations:
Cortland Apple and Cranberry
Blueberry Plum
Green Apple Raspberry
Pear Raspberry
Oh, I could go on all day... you get the idea.

Martha Stewart's Apple Brown Betty
Apple crumble search results on Cooks.com
World's Healthiest foods 'suspension of disbelief' no butter cobbler
101 Cookbooks Cherry Cobbler (& Best looking...)

Yesterday I did set foot in a supermarket. I only purchased eggs (1.69/ 18) so I'm not feeling too bad about it. Our house guest needed some lemons for her morning lemon juice drink and we went by the health food store for melatonin for jet lag.

Today the pickin's are a little slim, but I think we will be ok (eggs make a big difference...)

Breakfast: poached eggs on toast
Lunch: peanut butter & jelly and chopped veg
Snack: Mrs. M-H's brownies and milk
Dinner: asian noodles with leftover sesame chicken

Today, my brother has agreed to be a guest columnist, which I am just so excited about!!!

Ed's Banana Compote-

2 days ago my good friend Scott had about 30lbs. of bananas that were going bad. So what to do when you are offered about 25 bananas that have a shelf life of 48 hours? First I peeled and froze ½ of them, another 5 went into a nice banana bread. This left me with about 7 or 8 bananas. In searching through my collection of cookbooks, I came across this recipe in The Culinary Arts Encyclopedia of Cooking 1987 and made a few changes. The Culinary Arts Encyclopedia of Cooking is a must have in any kitchen. I picked up mine for $2 at Goodwill. Some years are probably better then others, but with over 4,000 recipes, I have some time to get there.

Ingredients:
1 cup water
½ cup sugar
½ cup Apricot Jam
¼ cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoons cinnamon (optional)
6 ripe Bananas (sliced into ¼ inch rounds)

Prepare the Apricot Sauce: Dissolve ½ cup of sugar in 1 cup of water over medium heat. Add ½ cup Apricot Jam and stir until the sauce becomes thick. Go for the consistency of maple syrup, not caramel. When finished, set aside.

Cook the Bananas: In a large skillet, melt ¼ cup unsalted butter on medium heat. Add 1 teaspoons cinnamon if you are a cinnamon lover. Cover the entire bottom of your pan with banana slices. You will not be flipping the bananas so you can really pack them in there. The original recipe says cook until the edges of the banana start to turn brown. The challenge with this is getting the bananas to brown without having the butter start burning. I waited until the bananas turned gold, almost looking super ripe.

Combine: Pour the Apricot Sauce evenly over the top of the bananas. Turn the heat to high. Cook for 5 minuets uncovered and then about 3 minutes covered. The idea is to release enough steam that the sauce and bananas together look thick, and not watery.

Set: Pour the mix into your favorite glass or ceramic bowl

Chill: Place in the fridge, allowing the compote to chill and set. (I waited 24 hours here, but I think you can get away with 6, 4 in a rush

Present: Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream to soften the flavor, garnish with some frozen blueberries and strawberries.

The Cheese Weasel is the nerd Easter bunny who leaves a slice of American cheese under the keyboards of good IT geeks on April 3. I don't know how I got into the habit of calling these Cheese Weasels. I think I just never had a particular name for them and 'cheese buns' don't really give you a sense of the fabulousness awaiting you...

2 1/2 teaspoons regular instant yeast or active dry yeast*
1/2 tsp. honey
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water
3/4 cup lukewarm milk
3 tablespoons butter, softened or melted
about 1 cup shredded best-quality cheddar

In a large bowl, combine yeast, honey, salt, and flour. Add the water, milk and butter, and mix until cohesive. Knead the dough on a lightly oiled surface till it's smooth and supple. Its ok if the dough is a bit sticky, your rolls will be more tender with a stickier dough.
Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and set the dough aside to rise till doubled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours.
Divide the dough into 16 pieces. Shape each piece into a thick disc. Place the cheese in the center of each disc and pinch the dough closed around it.
Lightly grease a 9 x 13-inch baking pan. Space the rolls in the pan (pinched side up), cover them with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow them to rise for another hour or so, until they are puffy and touching one another.
Bake the rolls in a preheated 350°F oven for 20 minutes, or until they're golden brown. Remove them from the oven, set them on a wire rack to cool, don't eat them right out of the oven, the cheese especially will be too hot and burn the top of your mouth...

We are very lame old people and cannot generally be relied upon to make it to midnight on New Year's Eve. So last night we had a cocktail party, at cocktail hour (4-7, although Dubai cocktail hour is more like 2 - 7...). Here's what we ate...

Corn muffins, with apricots cooked in. Just pop half an apricot into a jiffy corn muffin. If you live in Dubai you have to get Jiffy Corn Muffin mix in the pork section, its got lard. Its easy to make your own corn muffins if you are a veg. or non-swine eater...

Curried Turkey salad on nut bread. Turkey, mayo, sesame oil, soy sauce, cashews, green apple, turmeric and curry powder. Veg version, use crushed up chickpea for turkey.

Deviled eggs with asparagus. These are always good but not as much fun without a pastry bag...

French bread bruscetta, with buffalo mozzarella from Italy, basil from Holland, Syrian olive oil and at least local tomatoes.

Sister-in-law salsa and chips.

An interesting cheese the DH brought from Italy called Bastardo del Grappa along with some salami and a lot of nice Italian wine. (Does big giant international airline realize that their big giant company issued suitcases come back to this country stuffed full of pork and alcohol?- probably, they know all...)

Ok so they are headed this way, pitchforks and torches in hand. The Hon. Nurnberg has pointed out that food can help diffuse this situation- so we shall bake!

Here is a Facebook link to my sister in law's amazing banana bread, if you can't get to it and want it message me and I'll post it here (with her permission...).

And then I think I'll try a chocolate pound cake. I have trouble with these, I made one for Easter that had a very nice flavor, if you could get past the brick-like texture... More than one person pretended they liked it but couldn't hide the fact that they were unable to chew it, which was sort of funny. Maybe I could repeat this and then fling chunks of it off the roof at the angry villagers to repel them?

I might squeeze in a cranberry walnut loaf. I have a freezer full of cranberries...

So I'll go to Dunkin' Donuts (internet distraction- this link takes you to a design-your-own donut widget...) and get a couple of boxes of coffee. Too bad it wont be hot enough to pour down the parapets at them...

After this, the next person who tells me my kids shouldn't be homeschooling 'because of the socialization' is going to get a hard smack in the face, just sayin'.

I think the number one problem with the Tur-duck-hen was treating it like cooking any old turkey. I have a tendency to do that, just sort of figure 'how hard could it possibly be?' and not pay too much attention to the project. So here are some lessons learned, I wont post a picture of the thing, too sad.

Examine and wash each bird the minute you get home from the butcher. I left it until Christmas morning, if I hadn't, I would have realized that holding it together was going to be a problem.
Because it is deboned, the meat is going to be sort of flavorless unless you season it very very well, well beforehand. I simply salted it but I think it should have been dry brined or otherwise coated in herbs and salt.
Know your oven. I used the one in my parents house, which does run hot. Years of the Father cooking at 'incinerate' seem to have broken the thermostat.
If it smells like it is burning, it is. I kept attributing this to random leftover grease in the oven.
Find and use a recipe. We were trolling the internet for information on Christmas morning with the kiddos running around our feet playing with their new toys. NOT conducive to precision.
The stuffing has to be kind of dry, omit it all together. Duck is greasy. Your stuffing will soak up all the duck grease.
Tur-duck-hen is expensive. It cost us about $90 to make a big pot of soup.

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. I did, in spite of the mess.

Mama loves mango... papa loves mango.... that's really supposed to be mambo, but its a theme around here. We've taken to throwing mango into just about everything.

Mango Chicken Salad
1 leftover breast of chicken
12 oz mixed salad greens (mizuna & arugula add a nice peppery flavor)
1 large mango- cut into chunks
cucumber slices
mint
carrot shreds

for the dressing:
3tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp sesame oil
salt
pepper
1 tsp thai chili garlic sauce

Mango milk shake
2 very ripe mangos
1 pint best quality ice cream
1tsp cardamom
Blend- super decadent. For a less caloric version substitute plain yogurt and 2 tsp honey.

- Knead chunks of mango into oatmeal bread dough for a yummy breakfast.
- Freeze mango chunks, blend with iced green tea.
- Mango & pistachio granola

Because of this whole Julia Child thing, I really want to cook. I really want to cook for a lot of appreciative gourmet types. I really want to serve my cooking on china with linen table cloths, excellent wine and sophisticated conversation (truth be told, sophisticated conversation usually leaves me fuming, but I'm working on a vision here...).

The fact of the matter is, however, that I am home in Dubai in a semi-furnished house with three young children who are currently sleeping from four in the afternoon until two in the morning. Our tableware runs the gamut from chipped Ikea plates and Nutella jelly glasses to company-issued flatware which is falling apart... We need to make a few changes in order to bring the dinner party vision to fruition.

In the meantime I'm eating spicy lentil soup in the belief that spicy food will hasten the shedding of Eastern Standard time and get me onto GMT +4...

Curry Lentil Soup
1 carrot
1 large shallot
2 cloves garlic
1 thumb ginger
1 stalk of celery
1 tsp. olive oil
1 cup red (or French) split lentils
4 cups vegetable stock
8oz sliced mushrooms (button, shiitake, crimini etc.)
1 tablespoon yellow curry paste or more to taste.
2 cups cooked brown rice
green onions
coriander

In a large stock pot, saute the vegetables in the olive oil until softened and slightly browned.
Stir in the lentils until well coated with oil
Add the vegetable stock and turn the heat down to a simmer.
When the lentils are soft, add mushrooms and the curry paste.
Simmer until the mushrooms are cooked through.
To serve, mix in 1/4 cup cooked brown rice, top with green onions and fresh coriander, a dollop of plain yogurt or a splash of lemon juice would be nice too.

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Baby Chuck and I just made pumpkin custard.

2 cans pumpkin puree
1 roasted sweet potato
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup cream
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup maple syrup or (date syrup if you are in the UAE)
1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup whipping cream
2 tsp sugar
1tsp vanilla extract or (rum if you are in America)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup maple syrup or (date syrup if you are in the UAE)

Mix your walnuts and syrup in a small bowl- set aside
Whip the whipping cream with the sugar and vanilla until it holds firm peaks. Refrigerate

In a blender, combine the pumpkin, potato, eggs, milk, cream, sugar, syrup & cinnamon. Pour into well greased 10"x2" baking pan. Bake at 350 for approximately 40 minutes or until top is browned and custard is pulling away from sides. Serve cold with whipped cream and nuts in syrup.

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Lately I've come around to shopping at the Union Co-op rather than Spinney's or Carrefour. I admit it is pathetic that it has taken me this long, but I was kind of intimidated by the Co-op. Depending on who you talk to, membership in the co-op may or may not be available to non-Emiratis. Nobody at the co-op is going out of their way to help you, except the smiling Indian guy who is whamming cans of beans onto your loaves of bread. And all the 'yes-madam'-ing at your fancier ex-pat markets can be kinda seductive.
BUT, and it's a big but, I've come to the conclusion that Union is FAR FAR superior in the freshness and quality of what they are selling AND they clock in about an average of 30% cheaper! What's not to love? For a 30% lower grocery bill and better food, I'll accept some sneering.
Chana masala spices were the clincher for me. I picked some up at Spinneys. I didn't examine the box very carefully. If I had, I would have found that it had been opened and re-glued and was literally crawling with several types of bugs! YUMMY!
Union co-op seems to be moving enough of this kind of stuff that nothing has bugs in it and I get the sense that there would be hell to pay if a supermarket was trying to sell such garbage to local grandma's.
Chana masala is a cooked chickpea dish that I tried a few months ago at an Iftar buffet. Here's my super simple version, quite tasty.

In a medium saucepan cook together 1 tbsp corn oil, 2 small red onions, 2 small tomatoes, 1 clove garlic, 1 thumb of ginger, 1 green chili. Cover and cook on low until reduced to about 1/3 of the volume. Add 1 can of well-drained chickpeas, about 1/4 tsp (to start) indian red chili and chana masala spice, plus salt and pepper. Stir to coat and add 1/4 cup light coconut milk. Cook on low until warmed through and chick peas are beginning to lose their shells. Top with fresh coriander.
Serve over rice or with chapati.

Today we had brunch with some friends at the mOre Cafe in the Gold and Diamond Park off Sh. Zayed Road. Brunch at mOre is a fairly impressive affair. You can order the buffet if you think you might like to take a shot at bursting your stomach or you can order off their extensive menu.

With everything from Nicoise salad to burgers to pancakes, mOre definitely tries to please everyone and generally succeeds with fresh-tasting, simply prepared foods. Their chefs aren't taking any risks but the food is definitely tasty.

If you get the buffet, as my DH did, before you even leave your seat to go check out the buffet table, a plate of eggs Benedict is whisked in front of you with a basket of bread, and a huge fruit plate. This alone is enough to feed about 8 people, but of course you cant do that with it. When you are done, if you can cram in one more bite, there are some delicious cakes, we sampled carrot and zucchini which were both yummy.

I have a cultural thing about buffets, I find them kind of gross but intriguing at the same time... I don't really want to try all these different foods together in the same meal and so, in this way, the mOre mandatory eggs benedict before buffet table makes an odd kind of sense to me.

mOre cafe supports local arts by allowing painters to display their work in the cafe. Something we definitely need here in Dubai.

My only complaints about the cafe are that the acoustics are absolutely awful. Although it was less than half-full, it sounded like nothing so much as an elementary school cafeteria. Our pleasant waiters had a terrible time hearing us and we them, which led to mix-ups over coffee, mustard and missing utensils. It is so noisy in there, that while I'd definitely order food from mOre for catering or delivery, I'd think twice before going back there to eat a meal at peak hours.

$$ ***