I'm on a tea kick. I've been trying to drink less coffee and more tea, and so far it has been a pleasant journey. I bought loose leaves at Kalustyan's in "curry hill" recently, which is a lot cheaper than buying bagged tea, it seems.



Lately, it has been HOT in our apartment and I've been really into making big batches of iced tea and sweeting it with a little bit of honey OR the infused simple syrup we made a trillion years ago for NYE (recipe to follow). This sweetener is perfect, actually, because you don't need to use a lot and it is spicy and perfect for tea!



I am impatient, so waiting for the tea to cool is the hardest part. I usually brew some in the morning, stick it in the freezer, go for a run, and when I come back, I can enjoy some refreshing, cold tea. Yum!



I recently discovered this great place called Tea Spot in Greenwich village on Macdougal street, but while looking it up online, I clicked on the wrong link and came across a blog with the same name which is pretty cool. Anyway, the REAL Tea Spot has so so so many teas and plenty of seating for the work-from-home/coffee shop/library gal like me. There are also some NYU students here and there, and people on awkward dates. Perfect.



Maybe I'm not searching hard enough, but I have to say, it has been hard to find some decent, cozy coffee shops in NYC. I know that sounds absurd, but unless I feel like shelling out $20 for lunch, coffee, tea and snacks to earn my electric socket and "free" WiFi, there aren't a ton of welcoming study places. It certainly makes me miss the Haymarket in Northampton and of course, the one and only Bookmill.

Granola bars, sort of

I was on a granola bar kick for a while, because I needed healthy, portable snacks. I wanted to mix things up by adding some (dairy free) chocolate chips, so I looked up recipes and came across a few. Don't laugh, but I used a combination of Rachel Ray's "No Bake Chewy Granola Bar" recipe and some other food blogger recipes. Rachel's recipe calls for rice crispy cereal. I used a gluten free, brown rice cereal instead. I used 1/4 cup brown sugar instead of 1/2 (I used extra honey). I also added peanuts to make up for the other ingredients I was missing. I didn't have raisins or granola, so my bars fell apart a little, but were still the perfect combination of salty and sweet.




Ingredients:
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter (I used Earth Balance)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 cups granola,
1 cup rice cereal
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup thin pretzel sticks
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup peanuts




Process:
1. In a medium saucepan, combine the brown sugar with the honey and butter. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, then lower the heat to medium-low and simmer until the sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat.
2. Add the granola, rice cereal, raisins and pretzels to the saucepan and fold the ingredients to evenly coat with the sauce. Transfer the granola mixture to a 9-by-13-inch ungreased baking pan and press firmly to evenly fill. Gently press the chocolate chips onto the top of the granola. Let the granola mixture set in the refrigerator until firm, about 15 minutes, then cut into 2 1/4-by 3-inch bars.

Whole Grain No Knead Bread

I used the same recipe for the white no knead bread to make a whole grain version. I used 2 cups of unbleached (white) wheat flour and then used rye, whole wheat and brown rice flour as well as seeds (flax, sesame, poppy) to make up the remaining 3.5 cups. The dough was pretty sticky for some reason, and I had to add more and more flour to fix that. Next time, I should use more white flour from the start.



I made two versions--one slow rising dough (Bittman's. It takes 12 hours to rise, omg) and the quick rise dough from before. I sprinkled seeds directly on top of the quick rising bread, which made it even more delicious. BUT, I forgot to put corn meal on the bottom of the pot, so it stuck and then broke. sad. Trial and error.

veggie stock update

We consulted our chef neighbors about veggie stock. As it turns out, you should only cook vegetable stock for 45 min., not a couple of hours. Chicken or other meat broths should cook longer so that the bones soften, but vegetable broth does not take nearly as long. Oops.

--J

Cous Cous on the Loose Loose

Couscous (pronounced /ˈkʊskʊs/ or /ˈkuːskuːs/)

So many grains so little time. I grew up eating couscous. Couscous with pistachios, couscous with apricots, couscous alongside asparagus and grilled salmon. I still love this grain dearly, but have to say I prefer the nutty, protein rich quinoa over couscous, unless were talking about Israeli couscous. Im sure many people are aware that couscous has it's roots in Moroccan cooking, and feels very much at home in a tagine with roasted veggies. In Libya, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, couscous is generally served with carrots, potatoes, turnips, etc.. cooked in a spicy or mild broth or stew but, I am here to introduce you to a different type of couscous... Israeli couscous. Israeli couscous is a small, round semolina pasta that should not be confused with the tiny, yellow North African couscous. Sometimes called pearl couscous or maftoul, it resembles the pasta shape ancini pepe or as my Bubee calls them "bebbles".



We have been cooking with bebbles a lot lately! Yesterday, I got home from work early because of the 2nd monster blizzard to hit Brooklyn. We had some beets and sweet potatoes that J roasted on Tuesday, and they needed to be consumed. I had some dandelion greens in the fridge that were begging to be sauteed with garlic and oilve oil. So, with all these ingredients I weighed my options... I reached to a mason jar that contained a scant 1/2 cup of Israeli couscous and put it on the stove to cook. I cook Israeli couscous like I cook pasta, boil till tender and then drain. While the bebbles were cooking, I chopped some garlic and sauteed the dandelion greens and added the beets and sweet potatoes. Once the couscous was cooked, I added it to the veggie mix and here is what happened



My couscous turned PINK I had a feeling that would happen... These babies tend to have a tendency to make a dish blush


The following is my recipe for Bubbee's Blushing Bebbles or if you're into the whole brevity thing, COUSCOUS. The food so nice they named it twice.

Ingredients

1/2 cup of Israeli couscous (we get ours in bulk at Fairway)
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1 bunch or organic dandelion greens
1/2 cup roasted red beets
1/2 roasted sweet potatoes
Olive oil for sauteeing

Methodology

In a pot, boil water as you would for pasta (about 1 1/2 cups on high heat). Add the couscous and boil till tender. While the water is heating up, chop your clove of garlic, wash and cut he dandelions greens, and heat up a skillet with enough olive oil to sautee the greens. Once the skillet is hot, add the garlic, stir until fragrant and add the greens. Sautee the greens until the wilt but retain their bright green color. At this point the couscous should be done, if it isn't be patient, twiddle your fingers, water the plants... Ok ok, add the beets and potatoes to the greens and warm them up bit using the residual heat from the greens. Once your couscous is tender, drain it. Add the couscous to the greens, beets, and sweet potatoes and mix it all together on low heat. The couscous will turn pink.



Serve immediately and enjoy!

-R.

Veggie stock

To make good soup, you generally need good stock. We've used boxed veggie stock plenty of times, but it gets expensive and usually isn't as delicious. Making stock is really easy and it's a great way to get rid of old veggies. We made this stock on a blizzardly Sunday . Not only were we able to use this to make delicious minestrone soup, we cleaned out the fridge by using tons of random veggies!



You can use nearly any vegetable. We used mushrooms, carrots, carrot greens, celery, leeks, green beans, fresh herbs (dill, rosemary) onions, and some beets, which gave it a dark, reddish color.



I don't generally follow a recipe for stock. I used 15-17 cups of water for this stock, and as many veggies as possible. Just use more water than veggies.



Cook for a few hours. Strain. Store. And use to make soup for the week.

No knead bread

I really want to learn to bake delicious bread. I stayed on campus one summer, sans meal-plan, and lived in a house with someone who made bread every Sunday so she could have sandwiches every day. Was I jealous? Of course. Did I try to learn? No. I saw the yeast and her intense kneading techniques and got freaked out. I could not imagine waiting for dough to rise for hours—I was a busy lady!

No knead bread has become all the rage. Mark Bittman wrote a NEW YORK TIMES article about it in 2006 and countless food bloggers have detailed their experiences. I found this recipe at HONEY AND JAM and she followed a recipe from IVORY HUT. All of their loaves look incredible—brown, crusty, delicious. My first attempt was decent. I probably should have baked it longer—it got crusty, but not terribly brown. There is always next time. All-in-all, this was very easy. I mixed the dough together and let it set while I was at work, at which point R came home from work and helped with the next steps. Team work!





















Ingredients:
3 cups of lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons coarse salt

6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Process:
--Mix water, yeast and salt in large mixing bowl. Let this sit for a little while, then add flour and mix with a wooden spoon until combined. You do not need to knead this (duh), but I mixed it a bit with my hands and shaped it a bit.
--Leave this dough covered (but not airtight—I made that mistake and it popped open) for a few hours. I left mine for about 4 hours. When it has risen, the dough can be used or stored in the fridge. I baked half and saved the other half for pizza (omg, yes! Pizza dough! So many options!).
--Take a chunk of the dough, about the size of a grapefruit and gently pull sides down to the bottom, rotating until it becomes round and smooth. Let sit for 40 min uncovered. Next, dust some flour on the loaf and slit the top.
-- Twenty minutes before baking, put cast iron skillet or pizza stone in the middle rack and put a broiler pan underneath. I don’t have a cast iron skillet or pizza stone, so I used a cast iron pot with a lid. Preheat oven to 450.
--Slide loaf into pot and pour 1 cup of hot water into the broiler pan. Put lid on pot and shut the oven door to keep steam inside. Bake for 30-40 min until brown and crusty, remove and let cool.

I'm actually not a huge fan of white bread, country white bread, french white bread, whatever. As I mentioned, this was my first attempt, so I didn't want to mess around with the recipe too much. Now that I know I can make bread, I am going to experiment with different grains. I know you are excited.

--J