Nebraska Runzas

Though I sound like a Kentucky girl more often than not now, (I lost my battle against the local accent a couple of years ago), I will always be from Nebraska.

Omaha is famous for a few things: Warren Buffet (everyone in Omaha knows someone who knows someone who knows Warren), the NCAA Men's World Series Baseball (a giant drunken party), and indie music (311, Bright Eyes). Runzas should also be added to this list.

Anyone who grew up in Nebraska will be familiar with the fast-food chain called Runza, where you can pull up to the drive-through and get your runza craving filled in five minutes. I, on the other hand, live about 11 hours from the nearest Runza restaurant. If I'm going to have a bun stuffed with meaty goodness, then I've got to do it myself!

The runza came to the US through Germany, when the Volga Germans (who many Nebraskans are descended from) adapted it from the Russian Pirogi. It's pretty simple: meat, cabbage, onion and cheese rolled into yeast dough and baked to golden perfection. The version I grew up with, seen in Nebraska (and other parts of the great plains/mountain states) is made in a rectangular shape.

Sorry, interruption for a kitty picture! Princess is relaxing after a hard day of going in and out. Another cat showed up in the yard the other day, was quite the traumatic experience. Doesn't stop her from wanting to go back out! Princess is also from Nebraska - she was born in the parent's barn, raised with lots of love, and driven all the way down to Kentucky, just to be with me.

Back to business. Runza's are not exactly easy to make, despite the simple ingredients. There are many steps to it, but making the dough is the hardest part, mostly because it is time consuming. It's not something I can come home from work and whip right up.

There are secrets to making yeast-based dough. #1. You've got to activate the yeast. If you don't do this, then your dough won't rise properly. Don't just dump the yeast into the flour mixture! Activate it by taking pouring 2 TBS warm water into a bowl, make sure it's not hot, that'll kill it. If you put your finger in and pull it out going ouch, then it's too dang hot. Add some sugar, at least 1 TBS. Yeast is a living thing, and needs food. Pour the yeast in. Stir it, leave it alone. When foam forms on the top, it's ready. You'll probably hear it fizzing! I warmed the milk too, in this case, and placed it in the yeast mixture. #2 Once you've made your dough and kneaded it to death, then you must allow it to rise in a warm place. I like to turn the oven on, and then set the (metal) bowl holding the dough on top, near the ovens edge. Crack the oven door open, and then the leaking heat keeps the bowl warm, encouraging the yeast to do its work.

Roll out the dough, cut it into rectangles. Place a half a piece of American cheese (or more, if you like cheesy cheesy) on top of the dough. Fry up the ground beef, the cabbage and onion, and place on top of the cheese. Roll the dough around it, folding similar to a burrito. To make the seams stick better, wet your finger with water and brush it along the dough edges. Place in a 13" x 9" pan seam side down.

Bake. Eat. Be happy. Tastes like Nebraska. Reminds me of home.

Spaetzle with Goat cheese and Jarlsburg

John went to a Titan's game today with friends, leaving me behind. He woke me up this morning (way too early), and while departing, just before I rolled back over, he told me he WILL be back for dinner. So: Katie has time + John is coming back for dinner = Katie has herself a cooking challenge.

Today's adventure was German cuisine. German cuisine has developed something of a bad rep here in the US, for some reason. It's unjustified. German foodies are out there, however, and one of them is part of my inspiration for trying this! (Had dinner with her the other day, along with some other good friends I haven't hung with in a loooong time. I should be prosecuted for friend neglect, it wouldn't be unjustified.)

Spaetzle (pronounced schpetz-lah), a egg-noodle/dumpling, are a very popular German dish, originating in Bavaria. There are many shapes and sizes for these tasty little things, but all varieties have a few things in common - flour, eggs, and nutmeg. It's the nutmeg that gives them that unique taste.

I stumbled across spaetzle the first time by accident. While at the Taste of Owensboro a couple of years ago, I bet on a basket of German food goodies in a silent auction. I won (naturally), and included in my prize was a bag of spaetzle. Ever the food explorer, I didn't hesitate to make them, following the little recipe included, which was for Kaese Spaetzle, which is like a German mac-n-cheese. WOW was my recorded response after first bite. Kroger sells these little German gems, so I've made the dish many times since.

The challenge today is to make spaetzle from scratch. I've wanted to do this forever now! A while ago I bought myself a spaetzle-maker, but just haven't had the time to actually do it. No longer. It's game time!

Figuring out how to make it took some time. Messed with the batter forever, trying to get it right. The consistency of the dough is very important. It must be elastic, but not thick and stiff like bread dough. I took a photo of what it looked like when I felt it had reached the right state. Hopefully you can see the swirl of the dough, it needs to hold its shape somewhat when you pull out your mixing spoon, but not hold it hard. (Like soft peaks, when whipping egg white. Eventually it will lose it's shape.)

Here's a photo of the noodles as they cook and rise to the surface, ready for me to scoop them out. (Kind of blurry, sorry).

And here's a photo of the finished dumplings, ready to be mixed with parsley and cheese.

Besides nutmeg, I mixed a dash of white pepper and cracked black pepper into the mixture.

For the casserole: once I'd finished the dumplings, I placed them into a bowl, and immediately mixed in half of the shredded Jarlsburg and all of the goat cheese. In total this recipe uses a little over 2 cups of cheese! 3 TBS of goat cheese, and then an entire package of Norwegian Jarlesburg. If you can't find this cheese, or anything similar, than swiss cheese will work in a pinch.

I cooked some onions in butter until glassy (don't brown or caramelize them), and mixed half in with the spaetzle and cheese mixture. Next I greased a deep casserole dish, and placed my spaetzle mix in it. The rest of the jarlsburg went on top, and then the remainder of the onions.

Baked uncovered at 325 for 40 minutes. The result is what you see on top.

Lazy Spaghetti Sauce

Are you worn out? Worked all day? Out of time? Or maybe just good old-fashioned lazy? Despite all that, you still want awesome tasting spaghetti sauce? Then I've got the recipe for you!!
 

OK, setting used car salesman voice aside. This really is an awesome Italian tomato sauce (sunday gravy, posted about in an earlier blog, is the from-scratch version of what we American's call spaghetti sauce), and is extremely easy. You need only three things: a can of pre-made spaghetti sauce (blah), your favorite Italian salad dressing (Newman's Own Sun-dried Tomato), and red wine (have a glass on the side, while you're at it. Ain't nothing wrong with drinking on Wednesday). Mix these things together, and bam, from blah to tasty! People will think you're a cooking genius!

I, of course, add a few more ingredients to any version I make, but those three are the base. If it's too acidic, I add a little sugar. I always add some sort of spice, but not so much that it dominates the other flavors. For me, its a dollop of Sriracha. (Adding a touch of heat does amazing things for any tomato sauce.) Fresh herbs, yanked off my own plants. Dash of white pepper, some cracked black pepper. And I always add some sort of fresh vegetable: onions, bell peppers and tomatoes this time. Version before - fennel bulb, orange bell pepper, tomatoes, onion. Anything goes, I've even added carrots.

The version seen in the pan here is vegetarian, but normally I would add some sort of meat, like ground turkey or beef. Typically I'd make it in a deep sauce pan, too, but this batch of lazy spaghetti sauce was being prepped for 'Eggs in Purgatory'. Someday I'll have to blog about that recipe - very traditional, but rarely seen in these here parts.

Done quickly, and turns out beautiful. Lazy spaghetti sauce: good on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Saturday - John take me out to dinner please... I want sushi...

Panang Curry Chicken

Ah, tasty, tasty Thai food. Best food on the planet! (Well, if it's not the best, it's way up there.) John and I are both lovers of Thai cuisine - his favorite would be the traditional Pad Thai, mine the slightly less common Panang Curry.

There are five types of Thai curries that I'm aware of: Red Curry, Yellow Curry, Green Curry, Panang Curry, Massaman Curry. In a Thai restaurant you will see a sixth, 'Jungle Curry', but this is simply one of the above (massaman typically, I believe), without the coconut milk. Panang curry is by far my favorite, because of the peanuts. The differences between them are simply ingredients, with massaman being a combination of Red, Green and Yellow.

I've blogged about Panang curry on here before - Panang fish. This version is the classic 'stew' variety, like what you would see in a Thai restaurant, with chunks of chicken, vegetables (zucchini in this version, egg plant is another common addition), and carrots. More traditionally (aka how Thai people really make panang), it should use beef.

Besides peanuts, you can't have panang curry without Kaffir Lime Leaf. I ordered these delicately scented leaves from Importfood.com, my favorite shop for Thai food ingredients. The leaves were delivered fresh to my door just two days after ordering. They freeze perfectly. Cut them into thin strips and add near the end of cooking. I used scissors to slice them. Some Thai restaurants leave the leaf whole, like Bay leaf. 

I also ordered palm sugar and fish sauce from importfood, requirements of most Thai recipes. (Homemade pad thai sauce, here we come!) The palm sugar is soft and easy to chop up. The shape of it kind of reminds me HFS from 21 Jump Street, however...

John found this recipe a little too spicy! I, on the other hand, am a glutton for punishment. At a restaurant I would have ordered it 'Thai Hot' and been dieing from the inside out. Literally. Could have been spicier, is what I'm getting at. 

If you want it less hot, use less curry paste. More hot, add some more. The original recipe for this, adapted from SheSimmers, originally called for 1/4 to 1/2 cup of paste!! Poor John, (and perhaps myself), would have died. THREE TABLESPOONS. That is all you need of panang curry paste. Add some ground up red chiles, or jalapeno slices (this can be reduced too, for the super sensitive). I buy ground up chili paste in a convenient little tube at my local Kroger. It's in the produce section. 

So goooooood. Makes great leftovers, too. Like chili - curry gets better with time.

Cake Batter Cookies

Yes, that's right. Cake Batter cookies. Everybody likes cookies, everybody likes cake, why not do both??

Can you see the soft yellow coloring on these? I wonder what a white cake version would look like... Or red velvet, with white chocolate chips. Or spice cake cookies. Pineapple cake cookies!! OMG, too many thoughts at once.

Spent all day last Sunday, letting the cat in and out. Most important job ever, in case you didn't know. Poor thing, she only wants a cat door for Christmas. (No. She drags enough leaf bits, grass, and who knows what else in as it is. I can't keep up!) She is wearing her 'let me in' look here. About 15 to 30 seconds later, she's on the other side, wearing the imperious 'let me out' face. This one makes it all worth it. ;)

I read about making cookies with cake mix on Eat at Home, a fellow Kentucky based blogger.  She posts some awesome things. This one caught my eye, mostly because of the word 'cake', but also because of how simple it was! Only four main ingredients - a box of cake mix, eggs, canola oil, and yogurt. Then whatever add-ins you want. I used white and bitter-sweet chocolate chips. Yum yum yum.

Used Duncan Hines 'Butter Yellow' mix this first time.One of my worries was that they would turn out 'cakey'. Not at all! As you can hopefully see in the picture above, they spread like a Nestle Tollhouse cookie, and have a crisp exterior with soft interior. Everything a person wants and expects!

For my yogurt, I used Noosa Honey flavor. (I have to apologize to my friend M. She claims the right to all honey flavor in town, yet here I am, posting evidence of purchasing some.) Kroger in Owensboro recently started carrying this yogurt brand. If you've never tried it, I HIGHLY recommend. Best yogurt, ever, period, dot dot dot, etc. However, it's not exactly easy on the calories. To cut down on those (if you want. I mean, you're making cookies, might as well go for broke), use a low fat yogurt instead. For additional healthiness, replace some of the oil with apple sauce. Not sure what that will do to the cookie consistency, however, so be careful with the sauce.

They disappeared quickly, and that's just between John and I! Need to get back to the gym, stat.

As an addendum: what about brownie batter cookies??

Garam Masala, Sichuan Peppercorn and Pecan Encrusted Salmon

That's a loooong title! This dish came out really interesting, to say the least.

I purchased Sichuan Peppercorn recently, from importfood.com. Sichuan peppercorns are a relatively unknown spice here in the States, I found out about it reading food blogs. It is used prominently in Sichuan cooking, hence the name. It is also one of the spices in Chinese Five-Spice. In Chinese it is called huājiāo, meaning flower pepper. Sichuan peppercorns are NOT actually peppercorns, but rather the seed and husk from a plant related to citrus trees, and native to China. What's unique to this spice is the 'numbing' effect it creates on the tongue, creating a tingly sensation. You could clearly feel it doing so in this salmon dish!

On a canoeing trip in the ozarks, I purchased this beautiful mortar and pestle, and immediately had to put it to work on coming home. My camera phone does no justice to how beautiful it really is. (After some studying, I'm now saving for one of these. The camera makes a mountain of difference in the quality of photos, as I've been discovering. Photography is a complicated world, and I am but a beginner - I have no photography experience at all!! I feel that the road ahead is a long one.) Sichuan Peppercorn should be toasted and then ground, a perfect first crushing task for my new tool!

After toasting and crushing 1 TBS of peppercorns, (which gave the kitchen the most amazing aroma) I added 1 TBS garam masala, a dash of white pepper, a dash of cayenne pepper, and 1 TBS cinnamon. Cinnamon should be the dominant spice flavor. Feeling the urge to use my really-pretty mortar and pestle some more, I grabbed a handful of pecans, and crushed them up, too. Total pecans would have been about 2 TBS worth, very finely crushed, with just a few pea-sized chunks of pecan visible.

I briefly brined the fish before hand, using 1/4 cup sea salt, 4 cups water (half of that ice cubes) and 2 TBS rice wine vinegar. Ideally, meats should be brined overnight, but I only did mine for about 2 hours.

Also, you'll notice in the recipe that I did not dip in egg before applying the coating. There is no need to! I simply brushed some maple syrup on for sweetness, and then rubbed on the spice mixture. Once I had done that, I then turned on the oven and allowed it to warm up, so that the fish could rest. Doing this causes the mixture to adhere to the flesh. This will work for any coating. Even when doing an egg coating beforehand, I would recommend allowing the meat to rest with its breading on before baking or frying. It's the secret to getting coatings to stick.

Came out delicious, will make again some time. Served with baked acorn squash. I look forward to using my sichuan peppercorns in more dishes, soon!

Baked Acorn Squash

There are so many things to love about fall, especially down here in the hills of Kentucky. The colors are gorgeous this year! I just returned from a float trip in the Ozarks, meeting up with my father and a couple of his friends. My camera phone just doesn't do justice to how beautiful the trees were down there, so I left it out. Instead, I give you dad and I! (Photos of family is what's most important, anyway.) We are tiny, but it's really me.

*I just noticed that the title for this was misspelled. Looked at this thing just about 100 times, and still missed it. Whoops....

Another of my favorite fall things is the appearance of acorn squash in my local grocer's. I LOVE this vegetable, especially when it is baked with cinnamon, sugar and butter. Plus, it's shaped like a heart! Must eat more cute food.

I wanted to keep this recipe as simple as possible, so that the spices don't outdo the rich, nutty flavor of the squash. I do use real butter, but in this case, I substituted the classic brown sugar for a medium-colored agave nectar and pure maple syrup instead. Sugar is much worse for you than butter, amazingly enough. Agave nectar and maple syrup, not so much.

To speed up the cooking process, I poke holes in the squash, marking a line to where I'm eventually going to cut it in half.  Not only does this speed up the baking time, but it also makes it easier to cut through.

I place it in the microwave for 2 minutes, flipping it over half-way through. You should let it rest a few minutes before cutting it in half, (unless you're impatient like me. Then you'll be cutting it going Ow! That's hot! Ouch! Geez! Ow!)

Another trick - to prevent the halves from tipping over and dumping all the goodies out, cut off a small part of the shell beneath, cutting slightly into the fruit.

Simple. Delicious. Every time.

Yakiudon with Chicken

Many years ago, like, half a decade or so, I studied abroad in Japan. It was, in a word, AWESOME. Good food too. One of my favorite dishes remains yakisoba, a common street cart and festival food that I saw in Tokyo.

Yakisoba, of course, is made with chinese egg noodles. I didn't have any of that on hand, but I did have a bunch of udon. Unorthodox it may be, (I never saw pan fried udon in Japan, but this version, with thin udon, will be closer than if I used actual soba noodles), but I wanted the flavor of yakisoba, and without leaving the house! So, yakiudon it was.

No tonkatsu, either. Tonkatsu is the traditional sauce used to make yakisoba, and is a thick, rich, dark caramel-colored sauce, like sweet Worcestershire. Using Worcestershire sauce mixed with sugar would have been one way to go about this, but that would have been too easy. So, this is what I did, working with the sauce until it 'smelled right'. (Granted, this is a five year old memory, so who knows what it really smelled like. But I have faith in myself: I have a great nose for food.)

To get that thickened, caramel look, I used tamari, a type of sweeter, thicker Japanese soy sauce. Yakisoba has a bit of a spicy bite to it. I used a little bit of my always-on-hand Thai chile paste, but that didn't give the right kick. At the very end I added two big dashes of ground white pepper. Perfect. I also added mirin and hondashi, two essential Japanese cooking ingredients. Mirin give Japanese dishes that shiney appearance. It's a type of cooking sake, for the trivia nerds out there.

Turned out delicious, if not exactly authentic. You can't qualify it as anything but 'Japanese', however. Not with hondashi in it! :)