Apple Jicama Chutney and A Thanksgiving-Inspired Sandwich

Do you know the difference between conserves, fruit butters, jams, jellies, marmalades, relishes, preserves, and chutneys?  I sure didn't, until I did some research in my handy, dandy Cooking A to Z.  I am still not up to reciting the differences on command, but I certainly enjoy the nuanced distinctions between each item (probably due to my word nerddom). This same text defines chutneys as "fruits of vegetables cooked very slowly with sugar, vinegar, and spices" (318).   I wasn't originally thinking chutney for this sandwich but rather a lovely accompaniment of green apple and jicama salad.  However, my jicama had been waiting for attention for a bit too long and wasn't as crisp as I would have liked.  (New to me:  jicama should be stored like other root veggies and NOT in the fridge in order to maximize life expectancy.  Thanks, Wikipedia!)  Consequently, I decided to go with a warm preparation, and, having recently made a tomato chutney, this adaptation was born!

Apple Jicama Chutney (very loosely inspired by the Apricot Chutney in Cooking A to Z)
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. cumin
1 small onion, diced
2 Granny Smith apples, diced
1 Jicama Root, diced
1/4 c. maple syrup
1/2-3/4 c. water
1/2-3/4 c. apple cider vinegar

Mix in a saucepot.  Bring to a boil -- reduce heat to simmer until mix is reduced by about half.

Use a marinade, spread, dip, etc.  This might also be cool to serve as a side -- a la a savoried up applesauce with a bit of crunch.  Makes about 2-3 c.

From the Test Kitchen: Garlic and Sage Sausages browning in the fry pan (from Carla Kelly's Vegan Al Fresco)

I topped the sausages with the chutney and brussels sprouts (5 to be exact), which I sliced thinly, sauteed in 1/2 t. oil, a bit of water, 1/2 t. maple syrup, and flashes of salt and pepper (my go to brussels prep, usually in larger quantity).  Then, I topped toasted pieces of the Butternut, Sage, and Garlic bread with chutney, then with sausages halves, and finally the brussels.

The review: If you know me well, you know that I fail equally at accepting compliments and recognizing my positives.  So, prepare...  This sandwich rocks...and, if only for this evening, I rule. :)  This is both holiday in a sandwich and holiday leftovers to the max.  Why wait until Thanksgiving?  Brussels, butternut, and apples are all in season!

Eat me; I am delicious.

Potatoes, Garlic Chives, and Poaching

Last week, we came back from the farm with a hearty bag of potatoes.  After an entertaining lesson from another volunteer in unearthing them with our toes and then digging up the many different varieties (red, white, purple) by hand, I couldn't stop dreaming of potato leek soup.  This autumnal and overcast day was the perfect opportunity for this delicious recipe.

This recipe (Jae Steele's from Get It Ripe) became a favorite in the colder months of last year; maybe it's because it's the first batch of this cooler season, but this soup is even more luscious than I remember, but I rather think it is the peak potatoes. Tonight's meal was also another great vehicle for the garlic chives from my garden.  To think, once upon a time, I couldn't understand the appeal of potato soup!

We also finally tasted the Butternut, Roasted Garlic, and Sage bread.  Let's just say it is a darn good thing that potato soup is so filling; otherwise, it would have been a "Loaf down!" evening for sure!

Again, the bread recipe was a modified version of the "Potato Bread" recipe in Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. It makes two large loaves, also works as buns, and freezes/thaws beautifully. In addition to subbing 1 c. roasted butternut for the 1 c. potato she calls for, I added the leaves of one sprig of rosemary, eight fresh sage leaves, and 1 bulb of roasted garlic which I roughly mashed after squeezing out the cloves.  Love that you can see the flecks of butternut and garlic if you look carefully.  Oh...and though it may look like this bread rocks a rhombus lifestyle, please know that it simply got slanty due to our overly eager, and thus hasty, cutting and toasting!  Tomorrow, this bread will enfold Garlic and Sage Sausages (a testing recipe for Carla Kelly's upcoming Vegan Al Fresco cookbook) with Apple Jicama Chutney.  Eeeeeee!

In preparation for the sausage making, today's technique was poaching:

Carla's recipe called for "Poached Garlic," and while anything garlic has me at hello, I had only ever seen poaching happen on the Food Network (usual with something I wouldn't eat).  According to Cooking A to Z (a technique-oriented book I borrowed from one of my chef friends -- thanks, Ed!), to poach is "to cook food gently in liquid that is hot, but not quite boiling (...the surface of the liquid will show some movement, with small bubbles just starting to appear)." (450).  The book refers mainly to poaching animal products and most often in some kind of stock, but it is interesting to think of the many applications if all that is really required to poach is some heat, some liquid, and some large pieces of whatever you'd like to have participate in a flavor exchange with the liquid.  Hm...looks like some poaching-based infusions are in my future!  For today, however, I couldn't believe how easy the poached garlic was to do (with the added bonus of making the kitchen smell amazing! ). It is also a fantastic alternative to roasting garlic with the benefit of infused oil to use elsewhere in the same (or a later) meal.  Woohoo!

To paraphrase the late, but eternally great, Paul Harvey, "Now, I know the poaching story"... and so do you, if you didn't already!  Learning is so cool. :)

Happy MOFO Day 1: Husk Cherries and Squash, Garlic, and Sage Bread

And so it begins...again.  Happy Vegan Month of Food 2011!

This wonderful event of communal spirit and blogging frenzy has even more eager participants than previous years and a diverse spread of blogging themes and categories.  To check out the many options, just click on the MOFO banner to the right. To those participating along with me, WOOHOO!

On this blog, I plan to explore different techniques, revise family classics, and hopefully introduce some new produce into your kitchens.  I'll bring lots of love for local products from the farm and from farmers' markets, as well as explorations of mindfulness from the kitchen, the mat, or wherever they happen to occur.

Without further ado, meet...the Husk Cherry.

I first encountered these delights at the farm I help out at on the weekend.  At first, I was a bit skeptical of the short row of ornamental-looking bushes.  This skepticism did not dissipate with the instruction that the cherries on the ground were actually the ripest or that they had a question mark Dum-Dum like taste to them.  Case in point: my hub, who tried it first, said ham 'n cheese, while another farmhand said that he got pineapple.  True, the hub was probably giving me a hard time, as he watched me peer critically at the cherry between my fingers and then grimace slightly at the odd feeling of squeezing out the fruit.  Still, despite my initial hesitation (and an unripe first bite), I have come to love these amazing fruits and their versatility.

If you can find them at your local farmers' market, enjoy them as an alternative to tomatoes in your salad or in savory dishes.  I've sliced them in half and used them in combination with chopped pistachios to provide the"crumb" to a butternut squash, greens, and quinoa balsamic bake; we also enjoyed them sauteed with brussels sprouts and pea shoots in a white balsamic and maple syrup sauce, which I served over a harvest grain blend.

For more information about these delicious bites, click here.

A potato bread revision...in progress.

Last year, I had this crazy notion to turn one of my favorite breakfast sides into bread -- thus, the sweet potato and sun-dried tomato bread was born.  In preparing for meals this upcoming week, I had a similar inclination -- instead of a beloved butternut risotto recipe, why not make a bread inspired by this dish?  So now, based on the Potato Bread recipe in Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, the butternut, sage, and roasted garlic bread is in progress.  Hope you'll check back tomorrow to see how it turned out!