Whatever is Lovely

~ Bergamot Orange ~ 60 Comments

We just finished our third week of school and it has been one of the best organized start ups I’ve ever been part of.  This is Allan’s third year as director and there is a thing about the third year at something.  It’s when you reach cruising speed and really start to get payoff for the difficult work of the start up phase.  All constituents of the school seem to be extremely happy and on board with the school’s direction.

When we cancelled school at noon last Friday because of a scheduled protest at the U.S. Embassy, across the street from the school, we hastily grabbed a few things and headed out to start the weekend a few hours early, giddy to enjoy what I call football weather:  sunny and cool.  We kept tabs on the embassy protest through the news agencies, never considering the embassy fortress with its maximum security walls and marines on duty could be penetrated.  We were stunned to see that a protester got to the flag pole, took down the American flag and raised the black flag of the Salifist Islamic party.  Hearts sank as a little later we heard that the recreation center area, which houses a pool facility and gym that we share with the embassy, was on fire.

But then the unthinkable happened.  This angry mob that had now swelled to around 1,000 people headed toward our school.  They breached our security fence and began what would be several hours of burning classrooms and looting them of every item of value.  Computers, band instruments, running shoes, nothing of value was overlooked.  Our school guards had to flee in fear of their lives and repeated, desperate pleas to the police and military to intervene produced no response for about three hours, enough time to finish off our campus.  Young looters casually walked away their arms loaded with booty.

Facing the devastation of a place we have poured our hearts into is crushing.  Lying awake a night wondering why the Tunisian government provided no support is haunting.  What does that mean?  Where do we stand?

Grief has these predictable stages.  Denial is always first and we were certainly in that state all through the first night and then the acceptance set in and so did the mourning.  Saturday, we faced reality either visiting school or scrolling through pictures on Facebook  trying to figure out whose classroom the charred remains represented.  There were constant phone calls and emails from friends in Tunisia and around the world to offer condolences and help to rebuild.

But anger is the next stage and I understand it.  Some people have begun to refer to our Tunisian hosts as “these people”.  Evidence of bad behavior from reckless driving to maids that finger items from their employers is lumped together with this event and drawn into a generalization .  I don’t think so many people believe it was motivated by righteous indignation for Islam, but was more of a misdirection of attitudes toward America, founded or not, coupled with the opportunity to steal some stuff.

I’m not angry.  I don’t know who to be angry at.  Educated, thoughtful Tunisians like our coworkers and landlords have been expressing their own frustration and humiliation over the behavior of a non representative minority who have now set back economic development in this country at least another year or two.  Who wants to come here and open a business if they can’t count on the government to help protect them and if there isn’t a good quality international school for their children to attend?

This morning my front gate bell rang.  I wasn’t expecting anyone and when I asked who it was, a man answered timidly, in French, but I couldn’t understand him so we stood there for a full minute, quietly breathing on either side of the gate until my son came down and told me he was expecting a man bringing a bass bow for him to borrow.  We opened the gate and there was a lovely man with a treasure for Anton.  I said to him with a little French and a little English, “I’m sorry, we’re scared.”

He said back to me in his broken English, “We’re embarrassed.”

I’m looking in my heart, in my true feelings, and I’m not actually scared, not in a big sense.  The government protection wasn’t there for us this time, but we have strong reasons to believe they are committed to our presence here and they will try to do much better.  The looters were a bunch of bored young men who saw a chance to make a few dinars selling a trombone at the Frip, the public flee-market, on Sunday.  The Salifists, the conservative Muslims who got this started, are difficult, but I think that going way too far this time may have forced our newly elected Islamist party to draw a line with them and begin to be less vague about how conservatively they intend to run this country.  It may have forced a good conversation by setting a bad precedent.

It’s going to be a week of confronting ugliness.  Kids will be out of school for at least a week while we roll up our sleeves, clean up what we can salvage, and determine what services we can offer.  It is going to be physically and emotionally draining so I am taking today to tend to myself and our home.  I want to go into the week in good health with love for the community and reserves to offer those who need them from me.  As per my ritual, I went to my corner produce vendor this morning and filled my shopping bags with beautiful fruits and vegetables from the Tunisian countryside.  Tunisia isn’t all broken, it’s really just our international community at the moment.  We don’t need to live like we are hostages; we’re really not and in so many ways, nothing is different from the way it was last Friday morning.  This cornucopia of beautiful produce is symbolic to me of all of the good things and people I so love here and it reminds me that I have the strength to start this all back up again.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Philippians 4:8, NIV

Crab Cakes

~ Bergamot Orange ~ 1 Comment

I realize that we are getting very Bubba Gump about our crab this summer.  I keep going on about every treatment of crab we have utilized, but one purpose of this this blog, for me, is to document my experiences and cooking so I can retrace them when needed and I need to get this recipe nailed down.

We have had a lot of thick crab cakes at restaurants lately, approximately 1 inch, and formed and cooked in a ring so just the flat sides are browned.  These are nice, indeed, but with our salads we wanted the crispy crunch of an all-around breading of Panko or bread crumbs.  Once again, my husband was the cooking hero, sourcing the recipe and making up spectacular cakes.  He would tell you he did nothing, but he has done some outstanding cooking this summer.

This recipe is an adaptation of Ruth Reichl’s recipe from her memoir, Comfort Me with Apples.  I recommend this book and her first book, Tender at the Bone, if you have loved the influence Ruth Reichl has had in the formation of your cooking.  I miss her input.  I am linking the recipe from Simply Recipes as there are some useful process photos at this link.  A revelation for us was the blog author’s comment about chilling the mixture before cooking.  This was definitely successful for us.

The difficult thing with crab cakes is that they don’t hold together that well when forming them, and they can easily fall apart when frying them. The trick is to handle them delicately to begin with, and then chill them on a breadcrumb-lined pan for at least an hour before cooking them. Just that time in the fridge will go a long way in helping them stay together as they cook. There isn’t a lot of binder in this recipe, so it needs the chilling time.

Allan cleaned and froze 10 1/2 lb. bags of lump crab meat for our boys to eat this year.  Isn’t he a great dad?  Now they can easily find the recipe when they get hungry for their dad’s crab cakes.

Pirogis… On Such a Summer’s Day

~ Bergamot Orange ~ 2 Comments

Yes, if you’re like our family, the comfort food of summer is a batch of doughy, fried, carbohydrate-filled pastries for dinner.  Actually, we didn’t just wake up one day simultaneously craving pirogis.  We were led to this place along a path of crab for breakfast, lunch, and also, dinner.  In good summers, we catch a lot of Dungeness crab right off of the island shores in Legoe Bay.

Our forager genes kick in hard during the summer and we hate to let any of the crustaceans get by us.  My husband and oldest son are willing to sit and pick out pounds of lump crab meat that has been eaten in omelets, cakes, spring rolls, salads, and burgers, along with a little surf and turf.  When the boys and a friend pulled up the pots two nights ago and came home with another 10 crabs, we knew we needed to reach out for one more application for the season.

As luck would have it, Gabe and I were in a second-hand shop and found a real time saving tool.  This gadget is circa 1984 and was advertised on TV!  Can’t you see the light in the eyes of the mother who received this pirogi press for her Christmas present that year?

Allan’s family has a big tradition of pirogi making.  The matriarchs on his father’s side carried on this eastern German ritual and pretty much yearly, a pirogi-making extravaganza is called and we all dutifully show up to roll, cut, fill, and pinch for hours.  Then we sit down to eat our body weights in fried dumplings and wish for at least a smidgen of salad to help pull it all through the alimentary tract.

After indulging in heavenly pirogis in Krakau last winter, I have been wanting to make them myself, but every time I try to get my mind around doing it, I weaken in the face of  all the separate preparations, the hours of formation, and the inevitable improperly sealed blobs that break open in the boiling water.

I have to give most of the credit for this pirogi festival to Allan and Gabe.  They cracked the crab, mashed the potatoes, pitted and thickened cherry filling, mixed the dough and then Gabe got busy and perfected the rolling, filling, and molding while Allan boiled and fried.  Where was I?  I had some errands to run off-island with Anton, but believe me we jumped in to clean up the kitchen and freeze what we didn’t eat.  By the way, internet advice suggests that these freeze perfectly, raw.  Just freeze them individually on a baking sheet and then dump them together into a freezer bag.  It seems that they cook even better when they are tossed, frozen, into the boiling water.

I really liked this pastry.  It was easy to work with and fried up light and crispy.  For our crab perogis, we tossed together lump crab meat, Parmesan cheese, and minced raw onion.  They were very reminiscent of crab wontons, but there’s nothing wrong with that.  You might want to earmark the recipe for next January when you will be a little more hungry for filling food.

Beautiful Days, Fantastic Friends

~ Bergamot Orange ~ Leave a comment

We are so blessed with all the sweetness of life.  We have this spot on the earth where we can simply sit on our patch of land and watch the ocean and the birds the animals and vegetation surround us and we don’t have to do much about anything, beyond notice.

And then people come to us.  We assume it is because they like us, but it feels good when they’re here to see them have their own enjoyment of the place and leave taking some refreshment from it.  They drive off looking a little wind-blown and smelling of campfire smoke and crab, which lingers with one all the way home.

These two photos carry the sensory memories I want to store away for when I’m back in Africa.  The first one is a grass and mint soup with wild foraged berries served at one of the best restaurants in the US, just up the road:  The Willows.  The second is our crab catch, just from today.  It is fun to see my hunter/gatherer (I’m not sure which one catching crab is) males return from the sea with their pinchy bounty.

A simple side I made for a gathering this week was a take on corn on the cob seen on the menu at Pok Pok in Portland, a wildly popular,  Chang Mai style restaurant   If you have travelled in Southeast Asia, you know the sort of ambiance they were going for:  outdoors, functional tables and chairs, odd strings of  Christmas lights in the rafters to make the place a little fancy.  You also know that in a place like this the food is going to be fire-cracker hot and it was.  All that was missing from our SE Asian expat days was the sweat slowly trickling down our spines and into the bands of our underwear and the Tiger beer.

I rarely eat corn.  About 10 years ago a friend, on a diet, impressed upon me that corn is what farmers feed to hogs to fatten them up.  Corn never looked very innocent to me after that.  If, however, you find some delectably sweet, tender, summer corn, you can treat it the same as having dessert, go whole-hog, if you will.  In that case, you should bathe it in coconut creme, chili, and lime.

Finally, I will share a blog introduced to me by delightful house guest/dinner mate, Jing Fong.  She works for Yes! magazine so she is already predisposed to looking at life through a glass-half-full lens.  A Cup of Jo is a snack of happy, creative living.

 

 

Loving Our Farm

~ Bergamot Orange ~ Leave a comment

We are trying to capture a few precious days of still here on our Lummi Island farm.  Summer finally arrived and with clipped grass and enough inside cleaning to feel comfortable, we are enjoying the simple elegance of this place.

When you wait for a whole year to return to a place you may have a lot of goals to accomplish with it in a short time.  We have had summers like that, for sure, but this summer we aren’t feeling particularly ambitious and more jealous of capturing a little serenity.  However, we want to launch some improvement to the place that we can enjoy in seasons to come.  We agreed to add a small orchard to compliment the ancient, craggy trees that have lived here for at least 1/2 a century.  Every year we lose limbs and some years, entire trees so we need to reinvest in our orchard.

 

 

 

 

 

What a rewarding project for a few short hours.  First there was no orchard and then there was an orchard.  Now fingers crossed they will survive the ocean winds and the incessant nibbles of deer.

We chose several of what amount to a snack-pack of trees.  Our cherry, plum, and pear trees have grafts of 5 different varieties on each tree.  If you are an experienced orchardist and know this to be a poor choice of tree, please don’t tell us.  We are enjoying a Garden of Eden fantasy about strolling through our tiny, fruit paradise and picking a different variety with each handful.  I guess our biggest worry should be that we don’t lose the branch bearing our pollinator, though the garden shop owner couldn’t tell us which one that would be.  We will just know when we never, ever get a pear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are cooking almost every dinner on our cowboy campfire pit, over charcoal.  The smell of charcoal smoke is soothing in the evening and we are getting some good results here.   This recipe is from July 2012 Bon Appetit.

Chicken Under a Brick with Avocados and Chiles

This technique encourages even cooking with the crispiest skin imaginable. The key to success is to cook the chicken over medium-low coals so the skin slowly renders out the fat.

6-8 Servings

Ingredients

  • 1 3 1/2–4-pound chicken, backbone removed
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt plus more
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper plus more for seasoning
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
  • 3 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves
  • 1 large fresh poblano chile, quartered, seeded
  • 1 large red bell pepper, quartered, seeded
  • 1 red onion, cut into 1/2″ slices
  • 1/4 cup (or more) red wine vinegar
  • 2 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 1 cup fresh basil leaves
  • 4 avocados, halved and pitted
  • 1/4 teaspoon chili powder

Preparation

  • Open chicken and place on a work surface, skin side up. Using your palms, firmly press on breastbone to flatten the breast. Season chicken all over with 1 Tbsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. black pepper, and cayenne. Place in a baking dish; rub with 1 Tbsp. oil, sprinkle with lemon zest, and scatter rosemary over. Let stand at room temperature for 1 hour.
  • Build a medium-low fire in a charcoal grill, or heat a gas grill to medium. Place chicken, skin side down, on grill and place a brick or heavy skillet on top of chicken to weigh it down. (This will expose more skin to direct heat, making it crispy; the chicken will also cook faster.) Cook until skin is crispy and golden brown, about 15 minutes.
  • Using tongs, set brick aside. Turn chicken, cover grill, and cook for 10 more minutes. Continue cooking and turning chicken every 10 minutes, covering grill between turns, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh registers 165°, about 50 minutes total. Transfer to a carving board; let chicken rest for 10–20 minutes. (Resting will make for juicier meat.) Transfer to a carving board; let chicken rest for 10 minutes before carving.
  • While chicken rests, add more coals to fire if necessary to increase heat to medium, or heat gas grill to medium-high. Season chile, bell pepper, and onion with salt and pepper. Grill (or use a grill basket) over medium heat, turning occasionally, until softened and charred in spots, about 12 minutes. Transfer onion to a medium bowl. Transfer chiles and peppers to a work surface and cut lengthwise into 1-inch slices. Add to bowl with onion. Add 1/4 cup vinegar to vegetables and toss to coat.
  • Heat 2 Tbsp. oil in a small skillet over medium-low heat. Add garlic and cook until soft but not browned, about 4 minutes. Add basil and stir to wilt. Add basil mixture to bowl with onion. Season vegetables to taste with salt and more vinegar, if desired.
  • Rub cut side of avocados with remaining 1 Tbsp. oil, season with salt, and sprinkle with chili powder. Grill, cut side down, until avocado is gently warmed and flesh is golden brown, about 3 minutes. Serve chicken with vegetables and avocados.

 

Biscuits with Sausage and Espresso Gravy

~ Bergamot Orange ~ Leave a comment

We were in Portland a couple of weeks ago where we had many great meals, but I guess it was the final meal that stayed in our memories.  It was a breakfast of biscuits with espresso gravy.  I have cooked with coffee grounds before.  I have a great recipe for a coffee-marinated pork loin that continually surprises me by its smokey flavor and the coffee has the same presence in this gravy.

The blog The Chubby Vegetarian published a nice recipe for this breakfast.  I think the vegetarian version also looks fantastic and will try it too, one day, but today, we had some fresh pork sausage to use.  The biscuit recipe is flaky and easy,  I used all butter and the leftover biscuits were quickly finished as shortcakes with some local, ripe strawberries.

Happy Sunday brunch!

3-2-1 Buttermilk Drop Biscuits

Makes 10-12 biscuits

  • 3 tablespoons baking powder
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 – 1 1/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Using your fingers, cut in the shortening until pieces are no larger than a pea. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Add the milk. Using a rubber spatula, fold the milk into the dry ingredients — but use as few strokes as possible. The less you stir the dough, the more tender your biscuits will be.

Using a medium ice cream scoop, scoop up a 1/4-cup portion of dough and drop it onto a parchment or silpat-lined baking sheet. Repeat until all dough has been used. (You should get about a dozen biscuits from this recipe.) Be sure to leave an inch or so between each biscuit, but don’t be too particular about their shape — drop biscuits are supposed to be rustic. Bake for 15 minutes or until the craggy edges are brown and crispy.

Espresso Red-Eye Gravy

2 tablespoon butter
1 lb. bulk pork sausage
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
salt (to taste)
1/4 cup espresso (or strong coffee)
1 tablespoon flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon maple syrup

Brown the sausage along with the black pepper, red pepper flakes, and salt (if needed).  Pour off most of the sausage fat, then add the espresso to deglaze the pan. Cook until most of the liquid has evaporated. Push the sausage mixture off to one side of the pan. In the clearing, add the 2 tablespoons of butter. Once it is melted, add the flour and whisk the two together. Allow this mixture to cook for a minute until the flour becomes fragrant. Whisk in the milk and maple syrup. Stir constantly until mixture begins to boil. Reduce heat to low and cook an additional five minutes until mixture is thick.

A Montana Fourth

~ Bergamot Orange ~ Leave a comment

Celebrating the Fourth of July, as it should be done, for our family,  revolves around a trip to Montana.  In Montana reside my parents, my sister and her family, and my brother David’s family.  Billings, Montana is also about equidistant between Colorado and Washington which is the spread of my siblings and me.

This brother, David, also happens to own an idyllic box canyon ranch, stocked with Icelandic horses and many other fantasy features of a true western lifestyle.  It is flat-out fun and we love going there, because we love both our family and Montana.

It felt like the extended family made a greater effort than ever to get there this year and one of the things we all said we enjoyed the most about our time together was how we took turns with the meals.  For our part, there was a dinner based on Thomas Keller’s Buttermilk-Fried Chicken that was quite popular, especially with my 23 year old nephew who is living on his own now and really appreciates a home-cooked and free meal.

I also made an Ina Garten plum-apricot crumble to contribute to the Fourth of July barbecue.  This dessert was not-too-sweet, with extra crumb topping, and the plums and apricots bubbled together to form a pleasing pink color.

The main attraction, however, was the breakfast burritos made by my niece, Camilla, and her husband of almost one year, James.  Camilla has struggled with food allergies for many years and has explored cooking with a far greater variety of grains than I ever have.  She owns her own grain mill and for these tortillas ground hard Montana spring wheat, kamut, and spelt.  Camilla and James made and froze the tortillas and the Chili Verde Con Cerdo ahead of time and then cooked the eggs and bacon on the morning of the fourth.  We were absolutely groaning from the deliciousness and it was so much fun to share an interest in food preparation with them.

Breakfast Burritos

Flour Tortillas

  • 4 cups flour (choose any kind of flour such as wheat, kamut, spelt, etc…)
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 1/2 cups hot water
  1. Mix all ingredients until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
  2. Take a gallon-sized zip-lock bag and liberally add olive oil.  Place dough in the oiled bag and extract as much of the air as possible before sealing.  Roll dough around in the oiled bag to cover it well then let it sit in a warm place for 20 minutes.
  3. Form dough into golf ball sized portions and lay on a parchment covered baking sheet.  On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into tortillas.  Heat a dry nonstick skillet to medium heat and cook tortillas on both sides as they are rolled. Stack them on a plate as they come off of the pan and cover the stack with a dry dish towel.

Makes between 12-15 tortillas

Serve with any of the following: scrambled eggs, bacon, ham, cheese, onions, green chilies or potatoes.  Smother with Chili Verde Con Cerdo.  Top with additional grated cheese and sour cream.

Finally, what would a family reunion be without cute little boys playing with kittens and eating ice cream sandwiches?

Count it All Joy

~ Bergamot Orange ~ Leave a comment

We do such interesting work.  I used to compare a school year to a train journey, but it is much more like flying a plane on a long-haul flight.  We begin with staffing and stocking the school.  Then we board the customers and take off.  Once we reach cruising altitude we proceed to serve them for the duration of the flight, trying to give them just what they need along the way.  Some time in May, we begin our descent involving graduation, goodbyes, and preparations for the next year.  Finally, we land the plane, deboard the passengers, wishing them a pleasant stay, and essentially turn the vehicle over to the maintenance crew.

Like the way you feel after you’ve been in the air for many hours, we have to find our land legs after putting the seal on a school year.  I’m still carrying some details around in my head.  I was seriously awake at 2:30 AM last night thinking about a final parent letter I want to send out today.  It will take a few days or weeks for other priorities to take over.

We are T-17 hours now till Allan and I get on our jet plane, for real, to go home.  Today, I’m marinating in the satisfaction of this place, this time in our lives.  If we didn’t have the call of family and home to go to, I could see staying here for a Mediterranean summer.  It would be filled with hours reading at the beach, taking outdoor showers, climbing around Roman ruins we’ve yet to discover, and buying and cooking produce from the countryside.  That could be a lot of fun.

Here are a few moments from the past week that are still in my heart today:

The calm confidence with which my fifth graders completed a productive last week of school.

One last backyard visit, under their ever-bearing lemon tree, helping our friends Rick and Thalia finish their stock of French wine before leaving for Senegal.

A week of getting to know our sweet, bright godsons and enjoying their discovery of Tunisia.

A week with said godsons’ parents who I have now known for 30 years.  They aren’t hesitant to look into our closets, both literal and metaphorical (“Hey Julie, I was looking for a hairdryer today and noticed that you haven’t gone through menopause yet.  Let’s talk about that.”) and freely throw open their own closet doors at the same time.  We’re blessed with their friendship.

A Father’s Day call home to my parents, hearing them sound so good.  Please God, let it continue.

Finally,  my daily Skype calls home to my boys on Lummi Island where they assure me of all the cleaning and grooming they are doing at our house and property.  I love those boys and I will be grateful if the house is clean, but I just want to be with them.

 

 

Poppy Seed Cake with Grilled Peaches

~ Bergamot Orange ~ 1 Comment

Ten days from today, we’re on our plane flying home to Lummi Island.  This is my last week to cook through some ingredients that I don’t want to leave until I come back in August.  Last summer, when I returned, our household helper informed me (you should have heard that multi-lingual exchange accompanied with pantomimes) that some of my spices had termites so she threw them out.  I would have found that a little unbelievable except one week later, my son was about to sprinkle some pimente forte on his pizza when he noticed that little white things were wiggling in it and threw it away, too.  That local chili powder is almost too hot for humans to eat, yet it is a perfect breeding medium for bugs?

I had a large quantity of poppy seeds after spending my winter vacation in Prague and Germany.  Using them at the rate of a teaspoon here and there wasn’t even making a dent in my stash.  I needed a recipe that was pretty much based on poppy seeds.  I found this one that had been developed by caterer Vered Guttman and which was printed in the Washington Post.

Poppy Seed Cake

12 servings

Ingredients:

  • 14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for the pan, at room temperature
  • 4 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • 1/4 cup flour, plus more for the pan
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 cup plain unsweetened applesauce or yogurt
  • 7 ounces (about 2 cups) twice-ground poppy seeds (see following notes)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour a 9-inch springform pan.

Combine the eggs and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer; beat on medium speed for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the flour and the baking powder in a small bowl.

Reduce the mixer speed to low; add the butter and applesauce, then gradually add the flour mixture and the twice-ground poppy seeds to form a very wet batter. Pour into the pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with only crumbs. Transfer the pan to a wire rack; let the cake cool completely before removing the springform ring.

For this recipe, you have to double grind about 2 cups of whole poppy seeds in a coffee or spice grinder.  It actually takes some intensity to break them down.  As you might imagine, they are so round and hard they just whirl around for a few seconds until some heat builds up in the grinding chamber and they gradually start to crack.  Here is the contrast of whole poppy seeds and what they look like after one grinding.

Then, this is the color and consistency after the second grinding.

Now, what does that remind me of?  Let me see?  Of yes, a cat litter box!  When you start to get that clumping consistency, you’ve got what you’re grinding for.

I made this whole cake on Sunday morning and then took it to two parties, one barbecue lunch and one garden dinner.  When I told the other guests the quantity of poppy seeds in the cake, I could feel their nervousness.  I knew they were wondering if it is OK to eat pure ground up poppy seeds and if they were going to become high as there were some jokes about not taking a drug test in the next week.

I did some research to find out what effect on health or nutrition poppy seeds have.  I was surprised to learn that they contain actual nutrients and aren’t just decorative.  Here are the highlights:

Health benefits of poppy seeds

  • Poppy seeds contain anti-oxidants.
  •  The seeds are especially high in oleic and linoleic acids which help lower LDL or “bad cholesterol” and increase HDL or “good cholesterol”.
  • Poppy seeds’ outer coat is rich in dietary fiber.
  • Dietary fibers bind to bile salts (produced from cholesterol) and decrease their re-absorption in the colon, further helping lower  LDL cholesterol levels.
  • The seeds are an excellent source of B-complex vitamins such as thiamin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, riboflavin, niacin, and folic acid.
  • Poppy seeds contain good levels of minerals like iron, copper, calcium, potassium, manganese, zinc, and magnesium.
  • Dried poppy seeds contain very small levels of opium alkaloids when consumed in food, producing minimal effect on the human nervous system.

This cake is a real surprise.  It looks like it is going to taste like chocolate, but it tastes of molasses and buckwheat flour, two ingredients absent from the recipe.  It is very moist and keeps well for a few days.  We had it with these grilled peaches and the caramel sauce was key to pulling this dessert all together.

Cinnamon-Grilled Peaches

Ingredients

  • 4 large ripe freestone peaches (I peeled them, first)
  • 8 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks (I used actual licorice sticks- nothing to do with the candy)
  • 8 fresh mint leaves
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup dark rum
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • Pinch salt

Directions

Rinse the peaches and blot them dry with paper towels. Cut each peach in half and discard the pit. Then, cut each peach into quarters. Using a pointed chopstick or metal skewer, make a starter hole in the center of each peach quarter, working from the pit side to the skin side. Skewer 2 peach quarters on each cinnamon stick, placing a mint leaf between the 2 quarters.

Combine the butter, brown sugar, rum, cinnamon, and salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Let the glaze boil until thick and syrupy, about 5 minutes.

Prepare and preheat the grill to high. Brush and oil the grate. Next, place the skewered peaches on the hot grate and grill until nicely browned, 3 to 4 minutes per side, basting with the rum and butter glaze. Spoon any remaining glaze over the grilled peaches and serve at once.

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Cumin Stew

~ Bergamot Orange ~ Leave a comment

My friend, Karen, had my husband and I over to dinner a couple of weeks ago.  The occasion was that she had been concealing a couple of octopuses in her freezer and her household helper was going to make them into a stew.  Karen needed some help eating this.  I went over, frankly, because I enjoy Karen’s company and because I’m up for a local home cooked eating experience.  The simple tomato based soup we had was so good that I hounded Karen until she could provide me with the basic recipe.

This is a rich, spicy broth that can take essentially any kind of protein.  Most highly recommended are organ meats or octopus.  We found some nice squid this week and after giving them a cleaning and a quick grilling to impart a little extra smokey flavor, they, too,  were excellent.

This soup can easily come together on a week night, after work and will pack nicely for lunch.  If you are unfamiliar with harissa, it is a hot pepper paste that Tunisia is famous for.  It comes in a tube and if you need me to bring you any, you need to let me know in the next two weeks.

Cumin Stew or Kamounia

Serves 2, generously

A little commentary from Karen:  “Traditionally this sauce is used on organ meats – a mixture of diced heart, kidney and liver. No thanks! I love it with octopus, but you can use other seafood or a mixture of seafood, and it’s good with stewing beef, too.”

All measurements are approximate. I would double this recipe.

  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 2 tbsp. tomato paste
  • 4 tbsp. olive oil
  • 2 C. water
  • salt, pepper, and harissa to taste
  • 250 g. or 1 lb. of seafood or meat
  • 1-2 tsp. cumin

On medium flame, sauté the onion in enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Do not brown.

Add the meat and continue to cook for five minutes, stirring often.

Add the tomato paste, stir well and simmer for five minutes.

Add two cups of water, salt, pepper and harissa to taste.

Simmer until the meat is very tender. With octopus, this means either very briefly or for at least 45 minutes to an hour. Anything in between produces rubber. For this dish, I think the long simmering would be best. When it is cooked, the olive oil will be floating on the top.

At the end, add 1 or 2 teaspoons of freshly ground cumin and stir in well.

Serve with bread.

When I get back here in August, the octopus fishermen will be out in full force.  I promise to properly take up the topic of cleaning and preparing octopus then.