October 28, 2020

Dear friends,

I’m sure I told Tony we were having quiche for dinner. Maybe not. Otherwise why would he shrug when I asked how it liked it: “It’s not sweet enough,” he said. “Your apple pie is better.”

It’s was quiche, for heaven’s sake, not dessert!  And it was darn good. I rate it among my all-time favorite quiches, although that may be the pumpkin talking. Yes, I had to do something with all that pumpkin I lugged home last week. In fact, I bought two more — an orange Hubbard and another Cinderella — so I’ll be eating pumpkin all fall.

My favorite way of eating it now is to roast half-inch-thick slices until brown on the bottom and soft all through. I usually eat it as a side dish or straight from the fridge as a snack.

Last week as I pondered quiche for dinner, my eyes fell on the plate of roasted pumpkin and carton of mushrooms in the refrigerator. Why, yes, those would do nicely. I rolled out the pie dough and sauteed mushrooms with sherry while the shell baked. I lined the baked shell with a layer of roasted pumpkin slices, then mushrooms, then shredded Gruyere cheese. Eggs beaten with milk and a pinch of nutmeg were poured over all.

Let me tell you, the combination of pumpkin, mushrooms, sherry and nutmeg may be good enough to get me through the second — or is is third? — wave of Covid. The quiche was comforting, filling and everything I need right now. Maybe you, too.

I saved a few calories with nonfat milk, and it didn’t ruin the texture or flavor. I used the largest pie plate I have, a 10-inch deep-dish Fiesta.  If you don’t have one, use a deep-dish 9-incher, adjusting the around of pumpkin and mushrooms to fit. Keep an eye on it and remove it from the oven when the center no longer wiggles when gently shaken.

PUMPKIN-MUSHROOM QUICHE

1 to 1 1/2 lbs. raw pumpkin, seeds and strings removed
Olive oil spray
2 tbsp. olive oil
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cloves chopped garlic
3 tbsp. dry sherry
Salt, pepper
3 eggs
1 cup milk (skim, 2 percent or full-fat)
Pinch of fresh-grated nutmeg
1 9- or 10-inch deep-dish, blind-baked pie shell (see note)
1/4 cup shredded Gruyere or other Swiss cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove the tough skin of the pumpkin with a sharp vegetable peeler, and cut the meat into half-inch-thick slices. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet sprayed with olive oil spray (or lightly brushed with oil). Spray or brush the top of the squash pieces with olive oil. Roast at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, until squash is tender and undersides are brown. Set aside.

Heat a wide, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Swirl in the 2 tablespoons olive oil. When hot, add mushrooms and sauté until softened (about halfway done). Add onion and cook until limp, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and cook a minute longer. Add sherry and stir and cook until liquid has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

In medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and nutmeg; set aside.

Arrange a single layer of pumpkin slices in the bottom of the baked pie shell. Scatter mushrooms evenly over the squash. Sprinkle cheese over the mushrooms. Pour the egg, milk mixture over all.

Bake in the lower middle rack of the oven for about 20 minutes, until the center is set when the quiche is gently shaken. Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into wedges. Makes 6 servings.

Note: To pre-bake (blind bake) the pie shell, roll and fit the pastry into the pie dish as usual, crimping the edges. Prick all over with a fork. Line with foil (bottom and sides) and weight with 1 cup dry beans or pie weights. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove foil and weights. Bake 5 minutes longer. Cool.

GUT CHECK

What I cooked last week:
Fresh cream of tomato soup with thyme; roasted sliced pumpkin; pumpkin and mushroom quiche; Japanese pork curry with basmati rice (with Tony); bacon and tomato sandwiches with pesto; Cuban sour orange pork pot roast with olives, cubed potatoes and carrots; more roast pumpkin.

What I carried out:
Gyros and onion rings from Papa Gyros in the Wallhaven area of Akron (pretty good); a Coney dog and diet root beer from B&K Root Beer in Cuyahoga Falls; an egg roll, fried cheese wontons and pork chow fun (a stir fry with wide noodles) from China Star in Akron.

THE MAILBAG

Your pumpkin battle brought a smile to my face! I have been there before. But when it works, it is more than worth the travails. I’m told it has everything to do with the type of pumpkin.

When you are ready to experiment with Thai curries, I highly recommend two resources: (1) recipes and technique from fun cooking vids at www.HotThaiKitchen.com; and (2) spices, veggies, pastes, etc from Paing Family Asian Groceries at 986 Brown St in Akron.

Paing Family specializes in groceries for the large Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Thai communities in Akron. It is a complete source for specialty foods for that part of Southeast Asia. You will find those special Thai pumpkins there.

I’ve been having great fun lately grinding Thai curry pastes and cooking up classic Thai dishes. With these two resources, every dish (so far) tastes as good as it did in Bangkok!

Dear Jeff:
I want to come to dinner at your house! Thanks for telling me about Paing Family Asian Groceries. I will visit the next time I’m downtown.

From Noreen C.:
Your pumpkin disaster reminded me of mine. When my kids were young, my husband took the kids to my in-laws’ for an entire glorious day. Silly me, instead of putting my feet up and opening a book, I decided I’d try my hand at making an authentic gingerbread house. I had been inspired by the Akron Tree Festival.

Well, several hours later, with the kitchen in a total mess, I had several pieces of unusable gingerbread. They were odd-shaped and terribly warped. I could have cried over my loss of time and the great clean up that needed to be done. Never again.

Dear Noreen:
Hey, the kids are grown and we retirees have nothing but time on our hands during this pandemic. Maybe it’s time to try again. I’ve been thinking about it.

From Joy:
I wonder if your problem with the stuffed custard pumpkin was due to using a regular pumpkin instead of a kabocha-type pumpkin also commonly referred to as squash in many parts of the world.

Kabocha squash/pumpkins are available in our Asian markets this time of year as well as our grocery stores and our local farms although the grocery stores and farms  label them as squash.

I’m also able to buy pie pumpkins which are much smaller than normal pumpkins. They also have a sweeter-tasting flesh than regular pumpkins and usually cost around 2 for $5 or $3 each.  

I either steam or roast my pie pumpkins then mash roughly or puree, then freeze so I’ll have a nice supply of filling for pies and other baking/cooking projects that call for pumpkin, in my freezer.

Honestly. If I were you, and if you’re able to find a smaller-sized kabocha pumpkin/squash in one of your Asian markets which would most likely be the closest in taste to the smallish green pumpkin/squash Thai street vendors use, I’d say, give your pumpkin and coconut custard attempt another go.

Dear Joy:
Kabochas are the squash used in the photos I’ve seen of the dessert. I’m not crazy about the texture, though, and being naturally contrary, decided to use a different variety. Obviously, that was a mistake. 

October 21, 2020

Dear friends,

Yes, I have kitchen disasters. Last week was one big pumpkin fiasco until the end, when I made a lovely coconut pumpkin pie with fresh ginger. It was worth the journey.

My problems started with a couple of pumpkins I bought at Dunkler’s in Akron, with the intention of filling them with coconut custard and steaming them. This is a Thai dessert that is sliced in wedges and served in Bangkok as street food. Or so I’ve read.

I have never been to Thailand, but traveling by food isn’t a bad substitute. I’ve wanted to make steamed Thai pumpkin-coconut custard for years. Should be easy, I figured.

I chose the smallest pumpkin, a squashed little beauty that looked like Cinderella’s carriage. It was about 7 inches in diameter. I also carted home a slightly larger, round, gray number with faint blue undertones that I read is popular in Australia. The Dunkler ladies said they didn’t know whether the pumpkins I chose were edible. I said I’d report back.

I made a custard mix with five eggs and three-fourths cup of coconut milk and poured it into the cleaned-out pumpkin (no small task). The custard barely came halfway up the sides, so I blew another five eggs on a second batch. I set it in a “steamer” jerry-rigged from an extra-large stock pot and an upside-down smaller pan. Before the timer dinged, I heard a whoop from the kitchen and Tony’s frantic “Get out here.” The custard had risen like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, towering four inches above the pumpkin and spilling over the sides.

All was not lost. Not yet. Not until I tried to remove the custard-stuffed pumpkin from the stock pot.  The top half of the pumpkin neatly separated from the bottom half, spilling more custard into the drink and completely ruining the aesthetics. It could not be cut into wedges. I had to scoop it out of the pan with a spoon.

The steamed custard was rubbery but tasted good, and the Cinderella pumpkin itself was outstanding. I’ll be buying more. Later I roasted slices of the gray pumpkin and it was good, too, although not quite as sweet and full-flavored as the Cinderella.

I ate pumpkin for breakfast, lunch and dinner all week. I didn’t hate it. In fact, on Friday I started over with the pumpkin-coconut project. This time I used canned pumpkin, mixed it with coconut milk and eggs, and baked it in a pie shell. I added dry and fresh ginger because it goes so well with both coconut and pumpkin. The pie was a beaut, but I wasn’t done. I toasted some shredded coconut and sprinkled it around the edges. Now I was done.

I really love this pie. The pumpkin flavor dominates, with gentle background notes of coconut and ginger. The texture is so creamy it almost tastes whipped. I’ll be making one for Thanksgiving.

COCONUT-GINGER PUMPKIN PIE

1 unbaked pie shell
1 egg beaten with 1 tsp. water
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. powdered ginger
1 tbsp. shredded and minced fresh ginger (use the large holes of a box grater, then mince with a knife)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs plus remaining egg wash
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup full-fat coconut milk (not “lite”)
1/3 cup toasted coconut (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Brush the bottom of the pie shell with some of the egg wash (egg-water mixture). Reserve remaining egg wash. Place pie shell in oven and bake for 7 minutes, just until the egg glaze is set. Remove from oven and set aside.

In a bowl, whisk together pumpkin, salt, cinnamon, both gingers and sugar. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs. Add remaining egg wash, then whisk in vanilla and coconut milk.

Pour filling into pie shell. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake about 50 minutes longer, or until filling is set (does not wiggle when pie is gently jiggled). Cool completely at room temperature. Decorate with toasted coconut if desired.

GUT CHECK
What I cooked last week:
Pork loin chops simmered with sauerkraut, pickled beets, chopped salad; sheet-pan chicken thighs glazed with hot pepper sauce and carrots, peppers, potatoes and garlic cloves with miso sauce; stuffed pepper soup; coconut-ginger pumpkin pie; apple pie and an apple galette.

What I ate from restaurants, etc.:
A chocolate chip-caramel cookie from Mustard Seed Market (my post-mammogram treat); Coney dog and diet root beer from B&K Root Beer in Cuyahoga Falls;  salmon roe, shrimp sashimi, tamago and a California roll from Sushi Katsu in Akron.

TIDBITS
I had had enough. Tony watched in horror as I left Aldi’s checkout line and sauntered over to the produce department where a shopper was re-bagging the entire display of grapes. I’m not kidding. She had at least 10 bags of grapes open and was holding clusters in each hand, deciding which were perfect enough to place in the bag she would buy.

I have seen Aldi shoppers do this covertly in the past, but this woman was shameless. She deserved the best and by God she was going to get it even if it meant repackaging every grape in the store.  I watched for a few beats and then asked incredulously, “Are you sorting the grapes?”

With no remorse, she told me I must not be familiar with produce stands, that “People do this all the time.”

“That’s awful,” I told her. “Who would want to buy grapes you’ve had your hands all over?” I badgered her. Loudly. In retrospect, I was lucky she didn’t punch me. But as I said, she was the last straw.

I saw a sign recently at a farm stand telling customers not to handle the produce like they do at supermarket. I wish Aldi would post a sign. I don’t expect workers to reprimand customers — we know how that has gone with some anti-maskers — but a sign might discourage the practice. Until then, no grapes or cherries for me at Aldi.

THE MAILBAG

From Ann M.:
I only make two soups, generally not a fan of soup. But beef barley is my go-to nine  months out of the year. Generally made like your vegetable-beef soup, except I have stopped using potatoes and started using high-end barley (like Bob’s Red Mill) for more texture. Also not a fan of pieces of tomato so I use vegetable juice, which gives great depth to the soup. Sacramento vegetable juice is a great price and easy to find. It’s my secret flavor enhancer. Well, it used to be a secret, now you know!

Dear Ann:
And now a lot more people know. You have never steered me wrong, so on my next shopping trip I will buy Sacramento tomato juice. Thanks.

October 14, 2020

Dear friends,

About halfway through making a pot of soup from this and that, it hit me: I was making vegetable beef soup! Until then, my only sortie into the vegetable-beef genre had been with a red and white can. This was the same soup but 100 times better. It was a Ferrari to Campbell’s Ford Fiesta.

Elevating favorite dishes I grew up with such as meatloaf and mashed potatoes is how I got into cooking. I remember a night when I was about 14 and tried to duplicate the mashed potatoes described in “Spencer’s Mountain,” a novel I was reading. I mashed the potatoes with butter and milk as usual, then piled them into the shape of a volcano, and sent rivulets of melted butter streaming down the sides. “What in Sam Hill are you doing?” my father bellowed.

I think he would have eaten my vegetable beef soup without complaint. It has that soul-stirring depth of flavor that comes from building a soup from the ground up. I browned little cubes of beef until the bottom of the pan was sticky with the fond — the browned bits that give a soup or sauce its backbone. Then I sweated some onion and garlic, seasoned the whole thing with thyme and deglazed the pan with red wine.

All that was left to do was add cubed vegetables, beef stock, water and tomatoes — and later, wonder why I had ever thought vegetable beef soup was boring.

VEGETABLE-BEEF SOUP

Olive oil
1 1/2 lbs. trimmed bottom sirloin in 1-inch cubes
Salt, pepper
1 large onion, roughly chopped
5 large cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tsp. dried thyme leaves
1 cup dry red wine (leftover is fine)
3 cups beef broth
2 cups water
1 can (32 oz.) whole plum tomatoes in sauce, chopped
1 bay leaf
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 large carrots, peeled, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
8 to 10 leaves kale, washed, tough ribs removed, leaves chopped

Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat in a soup kettle. Blot meat dry and season with generously with salt and pepper. In batches, brown meat cubes well and transfer to a bowl. Reduce heat to medium. In same pan, adding more oil if necessary, sauté onions until almost translucent. Stir in garlic and cook 5 minutes longer.

Return meat and collected juices to pan. Stir in thyme. Add red wine, increase heat to high and stir, scraping browned bits from bottom of pan. Continue to cook until wine is reduced by about half. Stir in broth, water, tomatoes with their saucec and the bay leaf. Add potatoes and carrots. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir in kale, cover and simmer 15 minutes longer, until meat and vegetables are very tender. Taste and add more salt if necessary.  Makes about 4 quarts.

GUT CHECK

What I cooked last week:
Pan-fried city chicken with yaki soba sauce, baked potatoes and lima beans; scrambled egg, tomato and pesto on rye toast; coq au vin with many cloves of garlic and roast delicata squash; baked spicy tofu with stir-fried peppers, eggplant and Swiss chard in miso vinaigrette with steamed rice; coconut custard steamed in a pumpkin; charcoal-grilled strip steaks, tossed salad with miso dressing, stir-fried zucchini and mushrooms; spaghetti with venison sauce.

What I carried out:
A Detox Smoothie from Tropical Smoothie Cafe in Cuyahoga Falls; a small vanilla cone from Dairy Queen; Korean barbecued steak tacos and chorizo street tacos from the Funky Truckeria in Norton.

THE MAILBAG

From Mary:
What brand of rice steamer do you have?  I’ve gone back and forth whether to buy the cheap model or the better one that specifies the type of rice.

Dear Mary:
We have an inexpensive Japanese brand (Tiger) my mother-in-law bought at an Asian store — probably either Tink Hol in Cleveland or Tensuke Market in Columbus. It has two settings — “cook” and “warm.”   It automatically toggles to “warm” when the rice is done. I’ve cooked several kinds of rice in it — medium-grain Japanese, basmati, jasmine, seasoned yellow rice — and all came out fine. I’ve had the cooker for at least a dozen years. Unless I’m missing something, a basic cooker is the way to go.

From Ann F.:
I, too, tried your roasted tomato sauce using paste tomatoes from Acme Farm Market on Greenwich Road near Wadsworth ($8 a peck and they are huge!). I used ground pork instead of beef (my mom’s sauce always started with pork) and this is the first time my son Will liked a meat sauce!  My father-in-law was also complimentary. 

I have about half the peck left and I am going to try grill-roasting the stuff and do it again.

Dear Ann:
Thanks for letting me know. Smoky tomato sauce sounds great.

October 7, 2020

Dear friends,

I’m trying not to bulk up like a bear preparing for hibernation, but it’s hard. In the fall I feel an almost primal urge to eat winey stews, comforting roasts and potatoes by the pound. You, too? Do you think our bodies, responding to some outdated survival instinct, want to put on weight to see us through our ancestors’ lean winters?

I do, and I won’t have it. I lost 20 pounds this summer and I’m keeping it off. I’m not giving up my favorite fall foods, I’m just eating them in reasonable portions. I had two rather than three pieces of pizza for dinner one night last week. Instead of snacking on chips another evening, I filled my hollow spot with roasted Brussels sprouts (yeah, that sounds sad). And instead of blowing my calorie budget on a sturdy steak and ale pie, I ate half for dinner one night and saved half for lunch the next day.

A British-style steak and ale pie is rich enough for most of us to spread over two meals and still satisfy a fall appetite. Tony, of course, ate his entire pie but he didn’t return to the kitchen later, as he usually does, for a bowl of ramen.

I used a dark ale in the thick stew, which I made with venison because our freezer is full of it. You may use whatever beef roast is on sale, as the British do. “Steak”  sounds good, but you wouldn’t want to waste it in a stew.

I like this recipe because the filling may be made up to a day ahead and the pies assembled with purchased puff pastry a half-hour before eating. Also, you can make the pies as big or as little as you want, depending on whether you plan to hit the gym or hibernate this winter.

I used 2-cup Fiesta oven-proof bowls for the pies, and ladled about 1 1/2 cups stew into each before capping with puff pastry. One sheet of puff pastry, with a re-roll, will cap three 6-inch-wide bowls. The British pub staple fills you up and looks gorgeous fresh from the oven with its flaky dome.

STEAK AND ALE PIES

3 tbsp. oil
2 lbs. beef chuck or other inexpensive cut, trimmed of fat and in 1-inch cubes|
Salt, pepper
2 cups roughly chopped onion
4 cloves garlic, slivered
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 tsp. dried
1 cup dark ale
2 cups beef broth
2 large carrots, trimmed, in 1/2-inch pieces
1 lb. potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 lb. mushrooms, large ones halved
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1 box (or more) frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 egg beaten with 1/4 tsp. salt

Heat oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat. Season beef cubes with salt and pepper. When oil begins to shimmer, brown meat on all sides in batches and transfer to a bowl with a slotted spoon. Add more oil if necessary and sauté onion until transparent. Scatter in garlic and sauté until garlic is cooked and onions begin to brown.

Return meat to pan with the onions. Reduce heat and stir in Worcestershire sauce and thyme. Add ale and beef broth. Add carrots, potatoes and mushrooms and mix well. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until meat is fork-tender, about 1 hour. Uncover and maintain a simmer. Sift cornstarch over stew while stirring, until liquid  thickens slightly. Keep warm.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll one sheet of pastry on a lightly floured board to about half the beginning thickness. With a paring knife or a bowl 2 inches wider in diameter than your individual pie bowls, cut two circles from the pastry. Roll the scraps and cut a third circle. Cut a steam vent in the center of each pastry disk. I used the rigid plastic opening of my pastry bag as a vent cutter. Repeat with the remaining sheet of puff pastry if you want to make six pies, or cut circles for only as many pies as you need.

Ladle stew into individual oven-proof bowls or pie pans that hold at least 11/2 cups. Two cups is ideal. Place pastry over each bowl, sealing and crimping the edges. Place pies on baking sheets. Brush the tops with the egg-salt mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, until pastry is golden brown. Makes up to 6 pies. Refrigerate or freeze leftover stew.

GUT CHECK

What I cooked last week:
Peach frozen yogurt; roast delicata squash; steak salad with sauteed mushrooms, roast delicata squash, toasted walnuts and home-pickled beets; scrambled egg, ham, tomato and pesto on toast; Japanese pork curry with rice; pan-grilled Hungarian pinwheels (rolled pork and Hungarian sausage) from Al’s Quality Market in Barberton, red wine sauce, roasted Brussels sprouts, baked potatoes; scrambled egg and tomato on toast; vegetable beef soup.

What I carried out:
Ham and pineapple pizza from Rizzi’s Pizzeria in Copley.

THE MAILBAG

From Maureen D.:
Regarding your tomato sauce in a flash, my daughter made this today and said it was delicious. Her tomatoes did NOT collapse, though. I don’t have enough tomatoes to make it this year. 

Dear Maureen:
I should have explained that the time it takes to roast tomatoes until they slump depends on how firm the tomatoes are. But no matter how long they’re roasted, the sauce will be delicious.

From Pam M.:
Your tomato sauce recipe is genius!! I am embarrassed to admit I have never made my own tomato sauce before.

However, I can only eat so many of my Sweet 100s cherry tomatoes at a time, so when they pile up, I roast them with onion and garlic, and herbs from my garden, drizzled in quality olive oil.

I guess I could cook it down and purée it and have sauce, but honestly, I love it as it is over pasta of any kind. Or chicken. Or eggplant or zucchini. With some nice Parmesan or melted mozzarella, it is delish! I freeze the leftovers and use them when summer tomatoes are long gone.

But next batch, I’ll zing and cook down to make some sauce. And I just got an email offering me a bunch of regular tomatoes, so for sure, I will try it your way!

Dear Pam:
I don’t think cherry tomatoes would be a good choice for sauce, but your roasted little tomatoes sound great. I used to do that with Sungold tomatoes. This year I planted purple cherry tomatoes that have just started ripening. They are in an unheated greenhouse and are racing the weather, so I doubt I’ll have enough to roast.

From M.D.:
In your roasted tomato sauce, you say to remove blossom scar — but you don’t core?  Is that correct?

Dear M.D.:
Correct. It’s all juicy tomato in there.

From Molly C.:
Jane, which market still has tomatoes? I’m longing for a few more truly home grown ones if they’re surprisingly available. Thank you. 

Dear Molly:
Try farm markets connected to a farm. Some are still selling the last of the harvest. I like Dunkler’s at 1350 Collier Rd. in Copley, not far from where White Pond dumps into Copley Road. Most of the produce is grown there and the prices are low.