The Great Make Ahead Dessert, Simple Poached Apricots in Cardamom Syrup

 
   I have to admit, dessert is not the first thing I think about when I'm planning a meal. Of course there are those destination desserts... show stoppers when everything on the table is the big run up to the final blow-out. There are those times when I do plan the dessert first.. but they're rare. I think one reason I do this is because desserts weren't a big deal in our house when I was growing up. Dessert might most typically be a scoop of sherbert and a Stella D'Oro cookie.

   If you grew up in an Italian household you'll know Stella D'Oro. I'll never forget sitting in my Nonna's kitchen listening to Italian ping ponging around me (which I couldn't understand) while the adults argued about the latest news in L'Italo, sipped small cups of strong coffee (I was given a large bowl of warm milk and coffee) and crunched Stella D'Oro Roman Egg Cookies. Sometimes the cookies would be accompanied by stewed fruit of some sort. What Grandma doesn't push stewed fruit? It was a perfect late afternoon treat, and it's the memories of that that led me to this classic Indian dessert.

   Because after one is greasy with goat meat, and the only thing that will go down easy besides a "Lovers' Walk" is something light and aromatic, a delicate note was what was called for to finish the meal. So I decided to make Apricots in Cardamom Syrup served with some Almond Cardamom Cookies and a bit of sirkhand.*

*Sirkhand. Take a cup of yogurt and place it in a yogurt strainer suspended over a glass. Let it drain for at least 4 hours, or until it's slightly thickened. Mix in a bit of powdered sugar to sweeten it slightly.
 
   One great thing about this dessert is that it can be made a day or two ahead and refrigerated so that it's out of your hair the day you want to serve it. As long as you remember to bring it to room temperature before serving to avoid that charming "Grandma's-canned-apricots-right-out-of-the-tin-can-in-the-fridge" flavor.

Poached Apricots With Cardamom

Here's What You Need:

 1 and 2/3 cups of dried apricots (get the best ones you can)
 3 Tbs of superfine sugar
 One  1/2 inch piece of peeled fresh ginger
 4 whole green cardamom pods
 1 cinnamon stick
   
Here's What To Do:

Soak the apricots in 3 cups of water in a large saucepan or handi for 4 hrs or until they puff up
Add in :
 3 Tbs of sugar
 One 1/2 inch piece of peeled fresh ginger thinly sliced
 4 cardamom pods
 1 cinnamon stick

Mix everything together well until the sugar has dissolved and bring it all to a slow boil.

When it boils, turn the heat down to a simmer and cook gently until the liquid has gone down by half and the remaining liquid has become a thick syrup.
Pour everything into a bowl and refrigerate.

  Serve it up in small bowls.

I  passed around the cookies.

   Traditionally for very fancy affairs such as weddings, this dessert is topped with thin pieces of edible silver or vark. I used a dollop of simple, lightly sweetened sirkhand and served it all with warm Chai.

 
   So, the idea of simple, stewed apricots is elevated by the addition of aromatic spices to a real dinner party treat. Fancy schmancy! I'm going to look for some edible silver from a bakery supply place, or not. On second thought I'm afraid it might take me into that freaky deaky Sweet Genius dude territory.

   And I'll be saying stuff like, "A Truss! Ennui!  Are you a Sweet Genius? Amuse me!" and then "Here, now incorporate this Ben Gay! You have 5 minutes!"
 
   On second thought maybe I'll deep six the silver. I'm no Sweet Genius, that's for sure.

   Coming up next, Spinach and a Fistful of Shitakes is not a spaghetti western but a great vegetarian dish. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Of Goats And Guests!

   A couple of months ago I dared to blend the real and the virtual by inviting some Twitter friends and a producer we're currently working with to get together at our house for an Indian lunch. It's always a reach getting a bunch of people together who've never met each other before, and also meeting face to face people one's never met in RL before. It definitely has a very "Looking For Mr. Goodbar" vibe to it (minus the bar scene and the weird sex.) It's definitely a very 70's move dressed up in 21st century trappings.

  Turns out we had a great time. Everyone got along really well. So, not one to ever consider having too much of a good thing, we decided to do it again. Two weeks ago we had another meeting of Twitter and RL friends all of them involved in some aspect with food and wine. Once again, the only man ever to enter our door sight unseen, Charlie aka @bayareaglutton,

and his friend Poppy.
Gary Saperstein of Out In The Vineyard
 

The lovely Erin aka @endivechronicle and Mixmaster Phil aka @FoodAperture of Mutineer Magazine shown here consulting with Leo McCloskey of Enologix

   When we first hosted one of these lunches it started out as a Twitter dare from Charlie about cooking some goat. The first time I did this we didn't serve goat, but 2nd time around was the charm. I'd found a great source of local goat at  Carniceria Chapala and the game was on.

   The afternoon started off with The Howl cocktail mixed by Phil.

   With everyone in a festive mood, we moved to the table.The lunch was built around the main dish of Moghul Goat with Turnips. For the record, this recipe works equally well using lamb. So if this is one you might want to try and you find yourself goatless, it's not a problem. Go lamb. This is a great make-ahead dish, one less thing to worry about on the day you'll be eating it. I love stuff like that.

   I cooked this dish long and slow in a clay pot the day before and stashed it in the fridge overnight. The next day I skimmed any cold fat off the top and then slowly rewarmed it before serving it.This recipe serves 4 people (I doubled it to serve 9 easily).

Goat With Turnips

What you'll need:

 2 and 1/2 lbs of goat or lamb leg. Ask the butcher to cut it in slices, as the dish has far more depth of flavor when the meat is cooked on the bone. Trim off any big extra chunks of fat before cooking.

 2 onions
 4 shallots
 A 2 inch piece of peeled fresh ginger
 2 green chilies (I use serrano)
 4 Tbs of vegetable oil
 2 real bay leaves . (Okay, so what's a real bay leaf? I'm talking about Bay Laurel Leaves, for the best flavor not California bay leaves. They're easy to find at any market)

 1 teaspoon Kashmiri chili powder aka (1/2 tsp cayenne mixed with 1/2 tsp of paprika)
 2 Tbs ground coriander
 2 Tbs cumin
 1/4 tsp turmeric
 1/2 tsp garam masala
 1 Tbs tomato paste
 2 Tbs plain yogurt

 1 Tbs salt
 1 tsp ground black pepper
 1 lb baby turnips or big ones cut in halves or quarters

   I just loved those turnips. I went down the road to the Red Barn Store at Oak Hill Farm and found perfect fresh small turnips. They've got great sustainably grown organic produce and if you're up in Wine Country, drop by. You won't be disappointed.

Here's What To Do:

 Put the onions, shallots, ginger and chilies in a food processor and whir them into a paste.

 In a large kadhai, casserole or (clay) pot, heat the 4 Tbs of oil.
 When the oil is hot toss in the onion paste and the 2 bay leaves.
 Cook the onion paste over a high heat for about 5 minutes then turn the heat down and cook it for another 2 minutes.
 Make sure the onion mixture doesn't get too dark.
 Add the meat.

The best way to do this is to add it a bit at a time, making sure the meat is browned on all sides and coated with the onion paste .
When the meat looks lightly browned, add in :
 the chili powder
 coriander
 cumin
 turmeric
 garam masala

Stir it all together  and mix it in well.
Cook everything for about 2 minutes and then add in
the tomato paste

and the yogurt
 Cook for another minute or two and toss in the salt and pepper.
 Pour in 2 cups of water a bit at a time mixing it together well so that it's all absorbed.

   Stir it in well until you have a nice thick sauce. Put a lid on things  and simmer it all together on a medium low heat for a couple of hours. You cannot overcook this. As long as the heat is low, keep it simmering. This is what happens every time I cook one of these dishes!

 "It's not freaking getting tender!! It's hard as a rock! The meat will never get tender!!!!!! This is going to suck so bad! I can't serve this to people!"

  And then magically....it hits the event horizon or the turning point or the Heisenberg dilemma or whatever, but suddenly the meat is falling-off-the-bone tender. Really. That is what happens. I swear. Now maybe it's because I cook in clay, but I like to cook this stuff a bit longer at a lower temperature. I put it on the stove and sit down and watch a movie or whatever, check on it every once in a while to give it a stir and make sure nothing is sticking. I recommend cooking this the day before so there is totally no pressure, and any freaking out over the tenderness of the meat may be done in private.

  About the chilies and heat. I always check the flavors as a curry like this is cooking. If you notice that it's going to be too hot for you or whoever is going to be eating it, it can be cooled down by adding in more yogurt a bit at a time. Always be careful to thoroughly stir in the yogurt when you add it to avoid curdling.

  The final steps involve the turnips. Peel them and if they're large, cut them in halves or in quarters. If they're small they can be added to the dish whole. Add the turnips for the last hour of cooking and simmer them until both th emeat and the turnips are soft and ready to be served.

 Dig in!

 
 Of course there was Twitter activity and photos at the table.

We had a  wolf waiting for anything that might hit the floor.

   I've never been to any of the events that my fellow food bloggers have attended, and so this mix it up with the virtual and the real worked out just fine for the second time. And if as they say, the 3rd times the charm, for sure we'll be doing this again.

   Coming up next, an easy dessert traditionally reserved for weddings. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Happy Thanksgiving, And Bottoms Up!

 
   We had another virtual/real world blowout at our house a couple of weekends ago. We first tried this a few months back during the Summer. We invited some of our Twitter friends to mix it up with some RL friends and vice a versa. It was great, no one turned out to be wanted, an axe murderer or not who/what they said they were. So we decided to do it again. For the record @bayareaglutton still holds the record as the first person to be let into our house on a Twitter knowledge only basis.

   Among our guests were the lovely Erin and Phil Jimcosky  aka @endivechronicle and @FoodAperture of Mutineer Magazine. If you've not read Mutineer, it's not your Uncle Freddy's Wine Magazine. These guys are new and fresh on the cutting edge of all things drinkable. I strongly advise you to check 'em out. Of course this was a full frontal goatapalooza afternoon. I'll be posting the recipes and details later, but right now I want to feature something that I've never done before and that is a COCKTAIL!

   We never seem to serve these at our house since everybody is always after the wine and beer with Indian food, but when Phil offered to be the offical Mixmaster for the day, how could I say no. The conversation went something like this.

   "I could make some cocktails, something perfect for the meal." 

   "I don't have anything... well I do but I don't think it goes with anything."

   "Don't worry, I'll bring everything"

   "I have a cocktail shaker and I have cocktail glasses. They were a wedding present 100 years ago and they've never been used."

   "Do you have ice?"

   "Yes"

   So Phil came over with his bartending stash and set up on my kitchen table.

He started mixing.

What is this drink called?

The Howl:

It was the brainchild of Alan and Brian Kropf of Mutineer Magazine as a signature cocktail for the Di Rosa Winery Auction X event.  Phil said he learned the drink when he was helping Alan mix the the cocktail for what seemed like 300 people the night of the event.  It was his first time tending bar which led to him to develop a greater respect for bar tenders everywhere.

The Howl Cocktail

 Here's what you'll need to make this drink
 1 part gin
 1/2 part pear syrup
 1/2 part lemon juice
 1 dash lavender bitters

Here's How to Mix it
Add ingredients into a cocktail shaker and shake

Pour into a tumbler with ice.

Add a touch of club soda.
Add 1 dash of lavender bitters for aromatics.

Make sure everyone is served.

   And Cheers! Salud! Prost! Gan Bei!  Kanpei!  Salute! L'Chaim! Cent' Anni'! Ya'sou! Skal! Sante!



Have a Howl-ing great Thanksgiving for those of you celebrating. Coming up next adventures in goating and what is this man thinking about??

Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

We Have A Winner! And Some Thanksgiving Recipes

   Happy Thanksgiving week. For those of you eating at relatives.. I feel you, and watch your blood pressure! For those of you who are cooking at home, I salute you! I'm not going to be cooking this Thanksgiving as my parents decided that we're all going out to a restaurant this holiday. This is also the time of year when I'd be trawling the cooking magazines looking at friends' blogs, and perusing  my cookbooks searching for something interesting to put on this very traditional table. Over the years I've come up with a lot of good stuff, so In the spirit of wishful cooking I thought I'd pass along some recipes that we've loved.

Thanksgiving Recipes

  
Buttermilk Biscuits
 

Muhummara

Pumpkin Pie

Brussels Sprouts

Flourless Chocolate Cake, Gluten Free

Indonesian Spice Cake

Cinnamon Spice Cupcakes, Vegan

Baby Roast Potatoes In The Bag

Pear and Arugula Salad
Baked Samosas

Spinach and Corn
 

And Now For the Winner!

   I held a drawing this morning to give one person a chance to try some vegan palm shortening courtesy of the folks at Tropical Traditions  . They were nice enough to let me sample their product which arrived just in time as I was doing some cooking for a friend who was on a medically enforced vegan diet. Believe me, it really came in handy.

The winner drawn by random.org is Monique!

   I really like this shortening and I hope you do too, I'll be sending our winner Monique an email and will get this shortening right out to her just in time for holiday baking. Thanks to everybody who entered and to those of you celebrating, have a great Thanksgiving week.

  Coming up next..a dip in the cocktail pool and we go goat again. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

The Cookie Quickie

   I have to admit I am always skeptical of things that tell me I can do them fast fast fast! and they'll still be good. Hard and bitter experience has shown me that quickies aren't always besties. Most of the time they fall into the netherworld of "almost homemade," or "nearly not store bought," or whatever the word du jour is being used. The way I see it, I'm either buying it ready made or I'm making it myself. I'm either in or I'm out. That way I know I'll be happy with the results and if I'm not, well my bad.
 
   So when I got an email offering me a copy of a book called Cooking Light The Complete Quick Cook I was skeptical. Until I saw the author's names, Mark Scarbrough

...and Bruce Weinstein.

   In case you don't know who these guys are, they're the go to guys for all sorts of cookbook and food wisdom. They wrote a couple of books which I happen to own, namely Goat: Meat, Milk, Cheese and Ham: An Obsession With The Hindquarter. They're written on everything from Chocolate to Pizza to the dilemma of cooking for two. You might say they are the Yodas of cookbooks except non wrinkled and much much better looking, and if you've never seen a man dance with a Collie dog... visit their  website Real Food Has Curves, you won't regret it. It's full of knowledge. These guys know everything food.
   
   I also have to add here that Mark was the man behind the recent #goaterie madness on Twitter, and he is the main reason a large marinating hog jowl rubbed with spices is lounging on an oven rack in my fridge right now, slowly metamorphosing into guanciale (I hope.) He is a Pied Piper. One of those go on and "Do it!"  guys...



...and if you ever fall under his Twitter thrall, food magic happens and you will soon  be pickling  or marinating something. Know that.

   Their new book is a guide to getting good food on the table quickly and easily and home made. They walk you through the basics of stocking a pantry, buying in bulk, gathering all the basics one needs to make preparation of meals for busy people, painless and a whole lot cheaper than ordering out every night. This has got to be appreciated. In fact I'd go so far as to say this book can be a new basic for a lot of home kitchens. Got someone starting out on their own for the first time?  Give them this. Want to learn to save some money by cooking more meals at home and eating in? They got your back. Want to learn to make fast, healthy meals with very little time? These guys can school you. In short, this is a very very helpful book. It also arrived at our house just in time.

 We've been working for the last several months on a new script. We have a deadline and are about to turn the work in. We also have to eat. On top of that, a friend of ours has been ill and needed something to perk up his appetite. I had promised I'd make him some ice cream but ice cream by itself wasn't going to be enough. How about adding some cookies to that? Cookies, that I didn't have to hunt up a lot of ingredients for, cookies that I could make easily with what I already have in the house.

   Bruce and Mark had the answer, Spicy Oatmeal Crisps. I was planning on making some dark, dark European-style chocolate ice cream, and these zingy oatmeal cookies seemed just the ticket to meld with the dark chocolate flavor. Plus it was super super easy.

Here's what you need:
 3/4 cup of flour
 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
 1/2 tsp of baking soda
 1/2 tsp of allspice
 1/2 tsp of nutmeg
 1/4 tsp of salt
 1/4 tsp of ground cloves
 1/4 tsp of ground black pepper
 1 cup of packed brown sugar
 5 Tbs of softened  unsalted butter
 1 tsp of vanilla extract
 1 large egg
 1/2 cup of rolled oats.

Here's what to do:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Mix the flour and the next 7 ingredients together in a medium bowl.
In a large bowl mix together:
  sugar
  butter
  vanilla
Mix them together with a beater at medium speed until everything's all light and fluffy.
Add in the egg
Beat it well.
Stir in the flour mixture and the oats.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Drop the batter by level Tbs  about 2 inches apart and pop them into the oven  for about 12 minutes or until the cookies are crisp.
Cool them on the cookie sheets for about 2 to 3 minutes, then move them to a cooling rack.
Control yourself and enjoy!
This recipe makes about 2 dozen cookies.

 
   With a nice glass of  milk from local organic dairy Straus Family Creamery, these cookies are ready to go. And go they did. I split the cookies, actually a bakers dozen for our friend, the rest for us. The combo of the dark rich chocolate ice cream and the spicy crispy cookies was perfect. I had one idea whizzing around my brain this afternoon, and that was how perfect these would be sandwiched together with the ice cream, and I would have tried it if there were any left.  Not to worry though as these cookies whip up so easily there's simply no reason not to make them.
 
   In summing it all up, I have to say that Cooking Light the Complete Quick Cook, fills all needs from appetizers to desserts, from simple family suppers to full-on company blow outs. This is the book to carry anyone through the holidays and into the new year beyond.

 Coming up next, the goatapalooza clay pot virtual/real twitter lunch. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Yam Koftas, Gluten Free Holiday Party Poppers

   
    Ready or not, the Holidays are coming. Like it or not, the Relatives are coming. Like it or not you are going to have to feed people who show up just once a year, give you a cheap plastic panini maker "As Seen On TV." It's handle falls off the first time you use it. Or a Slap Chop, "Loooka that thing go!" and in return They WILL Be Fed. They WILL Be Snacked and Liquored up. After all, isn't  that what Pizza sticks and Chicken Fingers and Hot Pockets were created for? Of course it is. And then they will move on. Not to be seen for another 12 months. Think of them as cicadas with presents.

   But when the smoke clears, and the turkey carcass has been turned to soup, and you grab a breather with your real friends on what the stores call "Black Friday" but we used to call "Left Over Thanksgiving," then the fun begins. The pressure of pleasing picky in-laws, argumentative aunts and all the rest of them is gone and it's time to kick back, relax and share the season's best with the people who've got your back on a daily basis.

   This is not a fancy night. This is not about table cloths and the good crystal. This is not about fine silver or sitting at the Kids' Table. This is about simple. This is about easy. After all, when you've spent the better part if the week, baking, stuffing and basting, complicated is not on the menu. We always have Friday Thanksgiving at our house. Exhausted friends gather bringing left overs. Wine and beer, halves of pie, pieces of cakes and cookies and we have fun. No pressure.

   Which is where these yam koftas come in. Yams and sweet potatoes are popular this time of year. They've got two things going for them. They're cheap and easy to find. Usually they're all tangled up with maple syrup or marshmallows or something like that. Yam Koftas take those good old Holiday favorites in quite a different direction. Yam koftas are a savory. In Indian cuisine, they're usually served similar to meatballs, in a spicy curry gravy. However I like to turn yam koftas into a cocktail snack, a finger food, something to sit around and dip into something cool or spicy while you swap crazy relative stories with your friends.

   When I said easy, I meant easy. What you see in the picture below is all you need to turn out a batch of these tasty treats. Yeah, it's that easy.

Yam Koftas

Here's what you need:

 2 Medium sized yams
 1/2 cup of frozen peas (defrosted)
 1 large chopped shallot
 1 finely chopped  and seeded serrano chili
 2 Tbs of chopped fresh cilantro
 1/2 tsp of sesame seeds
 1/2 tsp of salt
 A pinch of pepper
 2 Tbs of corn starch
 1/4 tsp of baking powder

   Contrary to what you might think about Indian food being complicated, these aren't. Chances are you have everything in your kitchen right now to whip up a batch of these.

Here's what to do:
    
    The first thing that needs to be done is to cook those yams. Now, you could bake them in the oven, which takes a while. Or you  could do what I did, which is gave them a fast microwave bake.
   
   Wash and dry the yams. Poke holes in them all over with a fork. Set them on a paper plate  and cook them one at a time in a microwave set on high for 2 minutes, then turn them over and cook them for another 2 minutes. When the yams are cooked, scoop out the yam meat and place it in a bowl.

   Go all medieval on it.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, grease a cookie sheet and set it aside.
Add the rest of the ingredients to the mashed yams.

Mix them all together.

Roll the kofta mix into small balls and set the balls on the greased cookie sheet.

Bake the koftas until they're nicely puffed and lightly browned, about 30 minutes.
It's that easy.

   Serve the koftas with a nice dipping sauce, a chutney, a salsa or anything you might like. As I said, it's simple and easy after all the Thanksgiving fuss. Another great thing about these little treats... They're gluten free and vegan too, besides them being pretty dang tasty. Serve them along with the Pumpkin Koftas as a couple of great cocktail or appetizer snacks.

   Coming up next, the big Clay Pot Goat-a-palooza where once again the real and the virtual collide, including something different for this site... some banging holiday cocktails courtesy of @FoodAperture aka Phil From Mutineer Magazine.

   There's also a Giveaway courtesy of Tropical Traditions read all about it here. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori