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Holiday Leftover Meal Ideas: New Year’s Sticky Rice and New Year’s Blackeye Peas

December 31, 2013 by arfoodie

This decadent sticky rice is simple to make and easy to substitute with holiday leftovers.

This decadent sticky rice is simple to make and easy to substitute with holiday leftovers.

I opened my fridge this morning, and there it sat, taunting me.

The ham.

Ugh, I’m so tired of you. I had a bagel (GF, of course) instead.

But, before said ham is relegated to the freezer until I want it again, it’s going to have one more incarnation: New Year’s Blackeye Peas. It would have been even better with the bone, but my mom made the ham this year and kept that prize for herself.

You’re likely in the same boat, a fridge full of bits and pieces that need to get used or frozen pretty darn soon. Go ahead and do that; don’t be wasteful! Bag up and freeze what you can’t deal with, and make a few fabulous New Year’s dishes with what you can. I have a couple ideas that might help.

Leftover Nuts, Dried Fruit, Fresh Herbs

I discovered a quite lovely Christmas potluck dish a couple weeks ago when heading out to a party. This rice dish features walnuts, dried cranberries, fresh parsley and basil, which were beautiful and delicious in a red-and-green sort of way. I added orange marmalade to the original recipe for color, flavor and a bit of sticky-rice texture. I also toasted the walnuts, which you should totally do no matter what kind of nuts you use.

For New Year’s, just use whatever nuts and dried fruit you have left over. I’d say the parsley should stay, but also add some fresh basil if you have it. You might even experiment with the marmalade; I dare you to use the last of your holiday pepper jelly!

New Year’s Sticky Rice
(Modified from Parsley-Herb Rice with Cranberries recipe by Midwest Living)

  • 1/2 cup walnut pieces (pecans, almonds or pine nuts would work as well)
  • 1 1/2 cup long grain white rice, brown rice or wild rice blend (i.e. Lundberg brand; do not use anything with a seasoning packet!)
  • 3 cups water or chicken broth
  • 2 T. butter
  • 2 T. olive oil
  • 1/2 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped
  • 2 T. fresh basil, chiffonade
  • 1/4 cup orange marmalade
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries or other dried fruit, cut to similar size

In a skillet over medium-low heat, toast the nuts until just fragrant, stirring every so often so they don’t burn. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

In a medium saucepan, combine the rice, butter, oil and water or chicken broth and bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low. Cook until the rice is done (white rice should take 15-20 minutes, brown rice or wild rice blend closer to an hour). While the rice is cooking, prepare the parsley and basil and combine them in a small bowl in the fridge.

When the rice is done, turn it out onto a sheet pan and spread it out to cool slightly. This helps the rice maintain its structure and not get smashed when mixed with the other items.

When still just a bit warm, gently mix the rice in a large bowl with the marmalade and cranberries or other fruit. Just before serving, fold in the parsley, basil and nuts.

Best served at room temperature.

****************************************************

Ham and Ham Bone

Every year, my mom buys a ham for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner at her house. Every year, I ask the same question: Is it bone-in? Because I know, if it is, she’ll be making something like this come New Year’s Eve. I make it at my house, too…Good luck all around!

Since Mom kept the bone this year, mine won’t have the (cover your ears, vegans) unctuous, gelatinous awesome that comes from a long simmer with the porcine hip bone. But even with the ham scraps alone, this makes for a festive and relatively easy dish to ring in the year.

New Year’s Blackeye Peas

  • 1 pound dried blackeye peas (even better, order some cowpeas)
  • 1/2 lb. bacon, cut into small pieces
  • 2 T. butter
  • 1 large white onion, diced
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
  • 4 stalks celery, diced
  • 1/2 lb. ham pieces, cut into small bites, with bone if you have one
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 2 quarts chicken broth or water (or enough to cover the peas and other stuff by 1 inch)
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Hot sauce to taste

The night before cooking, pick through the peas for rocks and such (I honestly very rarely do this, but they say you should…meh) and rinse in a colander. Place in a large bowl and cover with fresh water, and cover with a towel or plastic wrap. Let the peas soak overnight.

On cooking day, rinse the peas again in the colander to remove all the toxins that come out during soaking.

In a large skillet, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove the bacon to a separate bowl and drain all but a couple tablespoons of the grease. Add the butter, onion, garlic and celery and cook over medium heat a few minutes until softened.

Place the peas and all the skillet veggies into a large pot, along with the ham pieces and the bone if you have it. Add the bay leaves and cover everything with the chicken broth or water. Bring to a bare simmer and let it cook for one hour. Check the texture of the peas and see if they are soft; you can continue to cook them much longer if you like. (This part may be done up to 8 hours in a slow cooker on low.)

When the peas are tender to your liking, remove the bone and bay leaves. Smash about 1/4 cup of the peas against the side of the pot, or use an immersion blender (being careful not to puree too much) to thicken the liquid a bit. Season to taste with salt, pepper and a bit of hot sauce. Garnish with the reserved cooked bacon.

These peas are fabulous right away, but they’re even better after being cooled and reheated the next day.

Filed Under: Gluten Free, Main Course, Side Dishes Tagged With: blackeye peas, blackeyed peas, Christmas, ham, ham bone, holiday, leftovers, New Year, New Year's, rice

Homemade Raspberry Marshmallows

December 9, 2012 by arfoodie

I can’t remember exactly what got us on the subject, but the Big Kid got awfully focused on our making homemade marshmallows a couple weeks ago.

I’m sure I mentioned it, in passing, not realizing I would be morally bound and obligated to make said marshmallows within a 2 hour period.

I was pretty much okay with that.

After a bit of online researching, I decided on Alton Brown’s recipe, with a few tweaks of my own to fancy it up. Because, you know, Fancy Pants Foodie. Big Kid and I decided on raspberry extract instead of the traditional vanilla as a start.

The resulting ‘mallows were lighter than expected, having opted against recipes calling for egg whites to lighten them up. We also swirled some food coloring on the top before they set, making them awfully festive. I think this needs to be a teacher gift or some such for Christmas. Anyone have a great homemade cocoa recipe?

I think this basic recipe has a lot of room for fun IMG_7848flavorings and garnish. You wouldn’t want anything too chunky on top, but I’m thinking mint extract and/or finely crushed candy canes would be great. For these raspberry ones, I think I’ll look for some freeze-dried raspberry powder for the tops, or to mix into the dusting powder if it’s really fine. Just a thought.

Oh, and a tip I picked up from reading other blogs: Don’t go crazy scraping all the “batter” out of your mixing bowl. And DO. Not. TOUCH. IT. You will be bound in a sticky maze of marshmallow goo. Being duly warned, I did okay with an oiled spatula and drawn-back fingers.

Pro tip I figured out for myself: When you’re cutting the finished marshmallows (dusted food-safe scissors worked well), make sure the bowl you’re throwing the finished marshmallows into doesn’t have a puddle of water in it from its last washing. Just saying.  That handful did make a lovely small batch of rice crispy treats, though.

**********************

Raspberry Marshmallows
Slightly adapted from Alton Brown’s recipe

  • 3 packets unflavored gelatin
  • 1 cup ice cold water, divided
  • 12 ounces sugar (about 1 1/2 cups, but get a scale!)
  • 1 cup light corn syrup
  • 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
  • 1 tsp. raspberry extract
  • Americolor or similar paste food coloring, red or pink
  • Toothpick
  • 1/4 c. cornstarch
  • 1/4 c. powdered sugar
  • 2 T. freeze-dried raspberry powder, optional

In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment ready, pour the gelatin into the bowl. Add 1/2 cup of the cold water and stir a bit, then leave it to bloom, or dissolve.

Meanwhile, in a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan, place the remaining 1/2 cup water and the sugar, corn syrup and salt together (no need to mix, really) over medium-high heat. (I really can’t tell you what that means, just not all the way up.) Cover and cook for 3 minutes. (Again, can’t tell you why, but Alton says so.) Uncover and reduce the heat a bit, and affix your favorite candy thermometer to the side. Or, use a Thermapen. I did both, and they were pretty close. When it reads 240 degrees, pucker up.

Note: Here’s where you tell the kids to back up, stop wrestling the dog, etc. You seriously don’t want this stuff to touch you. I’ve seen burns that chefs have from melted sugar, and they’re not pretty. Moving on.

Turn the stand mixer to low (as to not splash said liquid lava sugar) and drizzle in the syrup against the side of the bowl. Once all the syrup is in the bowl and it has thickened up a bit, you can turn up the speed to high. Still, watch yourself.

Let the mixer do it’s thing for a while. Meanwhile, mix the cornstarch and powdered sugar together in a small bowl. Grease a 9 x 9 metal pan with cooking spray (Alton said 9 x 13, but that’s all I had, and I liked the size marshmallow I got) and dust it with the sugar mixture. Tap out the excess, keeping some for later dusting, and set aside. (Note: You could use your raspberry powder along with the sugar and cornstarch here, if it’s very fine. You could give it a spin in the food processor if it isn’t dusty enough.)

After about 10 minutes, just give the stuff in the mixer a look and see if it looks marshmallowy. Put your hand against the outside of the bowl and see if it is just warm to the touch, significantly cooler than the lava it once was. These are signs that it’s done. (Alton’s recipe says 12 to 15 minutes, but mine was done at just about 10. I’m afraid much longer than that and I would have lost some volume and fluffiness.)

Turn off the mixer. (Duh.) Using some cooking spray, grease down a rubber spatula. Without touching the stuff with your fingers (!), remove the whisk attachment and pour the mixture into your prepared pan and flatten it as best you can with the spatula.

Make no more than two or three small drips of your food coloring (this stuff is strong!). Using the toothpick, swirl the color all over the top of the pan of marshmallows. Be sure not to leave any large drops of color intact.

If you like, dust the top with some of the raspberry powder.

Let the marshmallows sit uncovered overnight. The fridge is not a good idea; leave them on the counter.

The next day, use some food-safe scissors (preferably ones that come apart for washing) dusted with some of your powdered sugar mixture to cut the marshmallows into 8 strips, then 8 pieces each. As you cut, place the strips and then the finished pieces into your bowl of powdered sugar and cornstarch to dust the sticky sides. Then shake them off a bit and store them in an airtight bag or other container.

Consume without shame for the next few days, or give away. Or both.

Filed Under: Desserts Tagged With: Christmas, gifts, homemade marshmallows, marshmallows, peppermint, raspberry, swirl

Kicked Up Rice Crispy Treats

December 13, 2010 by arfoodie

Yes, I still owe you photos and details from the last of my just-finished semester at Arkansas Culinary School. But meanwhile, I thought I’d share a little lovely from my kitchen:

Minty-Fresh Rice Crispy Treats

My daughter was recently lamenting that, because of my heavy load at school, we hadn’t cooked together much lately. I agreed. She suggested Rice Crispy Treats as my absolution. The day after my last final, this was our creation.

As I’ve previously shared, she likes to add crazy ingredients to things as much as I do. We started with the obvious…M&Ms. Red sprinkles. Even a little white chocolate over one side, because she didn’t think she’d like it.

Then we decided to go a little crazy: mint extract. Just 1/8 teaspoon or so (I don’t really measure) was perfect.

Delish!

I’m starting to plan my attack for teacher gifts, and I’m thinking this year’s will include some Rice Crispy Treats. But don’t be alarmed if I go really crazy.

I’m thinking white truffle oil, browned butter and pine nuts.

Hold me back!

Filed Under: Desserts Tagged With: baking, browned butter, Christmas, holiday, mint, pine nuts, rice crispies, rice crispy treats, truffle oil

A Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Baking Adventure

December 21, 2009 by arfoodie

The second, more "experimental" batch of GFCF muffins, with coconut, nuts and brown sugar.

Earlier I wrote about making some Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Muffins for my DS’s teacher. They turned out pretty decent! Here’s the whole story, for anyone who cares, along with the “recipe,” if you can call it that.

At Kroger, I picked up some flours that I knew were acceptable, but I wasn’t ready to invest in all the supplemental ingredients (Xanthan gum, for example) necessary to make a good consistency. So I trucked on over to the health food store in search of a mix of some sort. I usually don’t believe in mixes, but in this case, I was willing to concede, if only for the sake of completing my mission. And sure enough, I found this, a GFCF Vanilla Cake Mix by Namaste Foods.

The first batch, just cake mix with chocolate chips added.

I wanted to add chocolate and found the dairy-free chocolate chips by Enjoy Life, which are also GFCF acceptable. So, I put the mix in the bowl of my stand mixer, and I found it to be awfully lumpy. The health food shop keeper said this often happens, just because of the nature of the products used. I sifted the mix through a wire sieve, pressed out all the lumps, and dumped in the rice grain part that was too big to go through. After adding the wet ingredients (egg, oil and water), I mixed in the chips, along with some nutmeg and cinnamon. (My recipient doesn’t have any allergies, but you should check before doing any add-ins.)

One dozen of these in the oven, and I’m getting my typical itch to experiment. Thing is, that itch can be dangerous when it comes to special diets. Luckily, my teacher friend doesn’t have any allergies, so I decided just a few “experimental” muffins wouldn’t hurt. I wrote out every ingredient, just in case. The next batch, I stirred in some coconut and walnut pieces.

A second-batch muffin, cut open. The goodies are much better suspended in these.

These had a wonderful texture, and the coconut seemed to help suspend the chips, which partially sunk to the bottom of the earlier batch. I’m guessing one cup of coconut (to the remaining half-batch of cake mix) and 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts. I sprinkled brown sugar on the tops, but this didn’t turn out like I planned, as the batter rose over the sugar. It did leave kind of a neat brown swirl in the top, though.

One problem…since I didn’t plan for experimentation while at the store, I only had “regular” coconut and nuts…with additives. BHT and some other preservative junk. I wrote it all out for my friend, and I told her she could feed those to her hubby if necessary. 😉 Lesson for you: Ask first, then shop accordingly. If it’s for a surprise goody, then get all pure products.

She sent me a note later and said she was really happy about her surprise, and that she and the girls enjoyed them. (I am assuming this means the additives were OK, or at least OK enough for someone-else-made-it status.) Give it a try yourself, if you know someone with gluten issues…or even if you don’t! They’re darn tasty, and I’m eating an “extry” as I write this tonight.
Gluten Free Recipes on Foodista

Filed Under: Desserts, Uncategorized Tagged With: baking, casein-free, Christmas, GFCF, Gluten-free, holiday, muffins

Christmas Baking with Fancy Pants (With recipe for Sweep the Floor Cookies)

December 18, 2009 by arfoodie

Greetings after a long hiatus! Cookies on Foodista

Chinese takeout box gift receptacle (cool, huh?) and Starbucks Ginger Molasses Cookies. You can fit four or five in the box.

I’m still getting back in the groove after our seasonal crud and recovery. Things have been hectic, as I’m sure they are for you as well. Tis the season! If necessary, let’s read my last post (the semi-depressive yet redemptive Thanksgiving offering), and we’ll take cleansing breaths together.

The past few days, I’ve eased into my annual tradition of baking for Christmas. I’ve even been looking for cake baking classes near me as I want to improve my culinary skills! All of the kids’ teachers get baked goodies for gifts, sometimes along with coffee, a mug, or something like that. (This year, I think only Morgan’s school teacher got the whole schmear.) This year’s menu:

  • Starbucks-style Ginger Molasses Cookies
  • Spicy Pumpkin Carrot Muffins
  • Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Chocolate Chip Muffins (two versions)
  • Sweep the Floor Cookies (recipe below)

The Starbucks knockoff Ginger Molasses Cookies were a huge hit last year, so they came back for an encore. They are firm yet chewy, so they pack well in the super cute Chinese-takeout-style boxes I found a while back at Walmart. The link above is to the recipe I used from Recipezaar (now Food.com), with a minor adjustment…use just a dash of ground cloves rather than the amount listed, and add a 1/2 teaspoon or so of freshly grated nutmeg. Use a Microplane for this. Being the total foodie nerd, I have the big, flat one and the little, just-for-nutmeg one that leaves a curved divot in the nut. (Yay, Microplane! I wish they would offer me a giveaway. Hint, hint.)

The Spicy Pumpkin Carrot Muffins you may remember from an earlier post. They were fairly popular at a recent church event, so I thought I would make a few extra to have around. I’m taking some to the DD’s school party tomorrow, for the adults to nosh during the festivities. I made a mini-muffin, non-spicy, non-nut, non-fruit version for the kids. Hey, it’s still got crunchy brown sugar on the top!

I know you’re just dying to know the story behind the Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Chocolate Chip Muffins. Well, maybe not, but I’ll wager that at least one or two GFCF folks will find this by search. It can be hard to find easy, yummy recipes to fit this growing segment of the special-diet population. One of the teachers in our 2yo DS’s mother’s day out class eats this way, along with her daughters. So I set out – with only today to shop and bake – to create something yummy just for her. More on this here…it was such a fun adventure and deserves its own post!

I hesitate to give a recipe for the Sweep the Floor Cookies, because the whole purpose (and its name, coined by the hubster) is to use whatever. You know, those half-bags of baking whatnot you have lying around your pantry and freezer. A half-bag of Craisins? Awesome. Butterscotch chips? Bring it. Forgotten bag of nuts? No problem. My Fourth of July version used white chocolate chips, Craisins and dried blueberries. This week, I used Craisins, walnuts, and these tiny caramel filled chocolate pieces I had squirreled in the freezer. Didn’t work so well, because the caramel seeped out and burned on the baking sheet. So don’t use those.

In any case, the base is pretty much a ranger/oatmeal cookie, with a few foundational tweaks. Then you load it up with as much stuff as you think the dough will possibly hold! One time I added so much junk that I had to mix in a second batch of dough. The end product was so beyond a recipe it was ridiculous…it was good, but I had no idea how much of what was in there! Anyway, here’s the basic idea for you to experiment and enjoy:

Sweep the Floor Cookies

  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
  • 1 – 2 TOTAL cups of add-ins of your choosing (choose 2 – 4)
    Ideas: Rice crisp cereal, any kind of baking chips, dried fruit, nuts, crushed or small candy…

Cream the butter in a stand mixer using the paddle attachment (medium to high speed) until light and fluffy. Reduce the speed and add about half the flour. Add in the sugars, egg, vanilla, baking powder and soda and beat until combined. Add remaining flour and beat until just combined. Turn the mixer off and add the oats, coconut and add-ins. Turn the mixer on in short bursts, just enough to gently mix in the add-ins. Use a #20 disher or drop by rounded tablespoons onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake about 8 minutes at 375 degrees. Cool for a minute on the sheet before moving to a wire rack to completely cool. YUMMMM!!!!

If you’d prefer more hands on help with recipe ideas and developing you cookery skills, there are courses you can attend for a variety of different cuisines, for example Saavor baking classes teach you the art of baking at a beginners or professional level.

I think that’s enough for today. Sorry again for being away so long. Lots upcoming, and I hope to get back in the groove of blogging about local chefs and trends as well. Being in school will probably help. And that’s coming soon!

Filed Under: Desserts Tagged With: baking, casein-free, Christmas, cookies, GFCF, ginger, Gluten-free, holiday, molasses, Starbucks

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