Scratch Cooking October 25th

I had an epiphany this weekend; I should always dress like I’m in an Alfred Hitchcock film. Okay, let me explain. I was at a costume party on Saturday and the theme was Alfred Hitchcock. Out came my grandmother’s black leather gloves, pocket book, pill box hat and lamb’s wool coat. In the pocket book, along with a mirror and comb, I actually found my grandfather’s business card from when he had a dry cleaning business. On the back was an address and phone number my grandmother had written when phone numbers still started with 2 letters as opposed to numbers.

Anyway, the red lipstick, the gloves, the dresses, the wraps, the men in dapper suits like Cary Grant, we all looked really good. But here’s the problem; it normally takes me 20 minutes to get ready for anything and getting ready for this party took me over an hour. The under garments alone take 20 minutes! And then there’s the powder and the lipstick and the eyelashes. I don’t know how our mother’s did it and managed to make a meal. No wonder post-war American women got hooked on cooking short cuts, they were spending all their time getting dressed!

Despite all the time powdering my nose, I did manage to get some cooking in this weekend.

Friday my daughter stayed home sick, so I made some apple pancakes for breakfast. A note here on things you never need to buy -  you never need to buy pancake mix, muffin mix or cake mix. All they are is a combination of flour, sugar and leavening. Anyway, I always keep some homemade gluten free muffin mix in the freezer (a combo of flours, sugar, spices and leavening) and I mix it with egg (or ground flax see in hot water), milk (or almond milk), some flavoring, some spices and some kind of fruit. In this case, I added chopped apple, cinnamon and vanilla and fry them in some canola oil. Because of the leavening in the muffin mix, they come out very thick, like a cross between a fritter and a pancake. Pour on some pure maple syrup and they are addictive!

Saturday I made some oatmeal bread. It’s the same recipe I use for the milk and honey bread, I just replace 1 ½ cups flour with rolled oats. The oats make it sweet and chewy and perfect for PB&J.

Today, I had a few projects going, all involving cream. The first was lemon and ginger pots de crème. Pots de crème are small cups of custard. They are a quite luscious. Here’s the recipe I used:

1 ¼ cups cream

¾ cup sugar

¼ cup ginger

½ cup lemon juice

½ teaspoon grated lemon rind

1 egg

4 egg yolks

Heat 1 ¼ cups cream with ¾ cups sugar and stir until sugar dissolves. Once sugar dissolves, remove from heat and add ¼ cup sliced and peeled, fresh ginger that’s been blanched in boiling water for about 30 seconds. Remove the cream and ginger from the heat, cover and let sit at room temperature for one hour.

Remove ginger slices and whisk in egg yolks and egg. Whisk in lemon juice and pour through strainer. Add lemon rind and pour into custard cups. Put the cups in a pan filled ½ way with hot water. Bake at 325 for 40 minutes. It should still be soft in the middle. Remove from pan and let cool. Serve at room temperature with fresh berries or candied ginger.

For dinner, I made a gratin of potatoes, cauliflower and spinach.

5 mixed color potatoes

1 large cauliflower

2 cups spinach

1 shallot

Olive oil

1 cup cream

1 cup ricotta

½ cup milk

Salt

Pepper

Nutmeg

Slice potatoes and cut up cauliflower. Boil in salted water for 20 minutes. In the meantime, chop shallot and sauté in 1 -2 tablespoons olive oil at medium heat for 5 minutes. Add washed spinach leaves and cook until wilted. Drain potatoes and cauliflower and layer in a buttered 9 x 13 inch pan. Squeeze out spinach and put on top.

Mix cream, ricotta, salt, pepper and nutmeg and pour over vegetables. Pour milk on top and bake at 325 for 30 minutes. Kick heat up to 350 and cook for another 15 – 20 minutes or until it starts to look golden.

It would have been great with some kind of simple fish, but I am cutting back on fish at the moment. I recently saw Sylvia Earle from Blue Ocean Institute on the Colbert Report and she says that, in order to be environmentally friendly, there are only 3 kinds of fish we should be eating at this point – tilapia, cat fish and carp. And only farm-raised, at that. That’s because the methods of catching wild fish are so destructive and so many species have been dangerously over-fished. I’m thinking maybe it’s time to just take a break from fish and seafood altogether and go back to a stricter kind of vegetarianism.

So instead, the gratin stood alone and you know what, it was plenty! Especially with those pots de crème waiting for us for dessert!