Calamondin Jam

The Calamondins in my potted indoor plant have been plentiful in their first season. Suddenly, they seemed to all be ripe, too many to add to salads. --- Time to cook citrus jam.

Calamondin are similar to kumquats, however, they lack the bitter quality of kumquats although they are about the same size. They just throw a puckery punch of orange flavor, and can be eaten with skin and flesh. They are so puckery that the best way to use them is… in a jam. A calamondin infused vodka would rival a limoncello.

I plucked them, washed them with a bit of baking soda and hot water, rinsed them, and sliced them up, removing the seeds and making sure to preserve all the juice they’d loose when cut up. They are cooked barely covered with water ‘until soft’.  In my case, I cooked them about 20 min, and then let them chill overnight. Since the calamondin membranes are a natural pectin and marmelade thickener, this ‘gel-ing’ happens in the wait period. Today, I measure the amount of base jam I had, equaled it with sugar, and cooked it for another 20 min.  Many tiny mason jars were filled (great gifts!) and 2 large ones for me. The cooking spoon taste taste says: insanely good! ---

They would be fabulous with raincoast crackers and soft goat cheese.

How to make calamondin jam?

1. one pound of calamondin
2. water
3. large bottom heavy pot
4. 3-4 cups sugar
5. 1/2 cup orange juice

For preparation, sprinkle the calamondin with about 1 TB of baking soda, and cover with boiling water for about 3 min. Wash thoroughly under warm, then cold water.

With a sharp knife, slice calamondin into small slivers, and removed the seeds. Cut on a plate to make sure to capture the juice (if this is taking too long, you can also chop them in a food processor and work with the pulb, however, the thin slivers of calamondin skin look a lot prettier).

Place all the sliced calamondin in a large, bottom heavy pot, and cover barely with water.

Simmer under gentle heat until calamondin are soft (ca. 15 min). Remove from heat, and chill in fridge for 24h (I did about 18h).

The pectin in the calamondin develops, and thickens the jam.

Add the orange juice, stir, and measure the amount of base jam you have (I had exactly 4 cups). Then, add that much sugar.

Under much stirring and gentle heat do simmer for another 20 min (max). The jam changes its consistency, the sugar melts and the mixtures becomes dark and candy like.

Prepare mason jars by sterilizing them (and the lids) in boiling water for 10min.

Fill mason jar with jam, close the lids, and turn jars on their head to make sure they are sealed through the hot jam.

After 10 min, turn mason jar around. Let cool and set.  Enjoy!

 

Flavorful Vegetable Broth inspired by Ottolenghi

Flavorful vegetable broth (for 4 people);
2 medium onions, peeled and cut into large pieces
3 medium carrots, peeled and cut into large pieces
6 sticks celery, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 inch ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
Vegetable oil
2 lemongrass stalks, very roughly chopped
8 prunes
1 red chili, roughly chopped
2 star anise
2 tbsp soy sauce
In a large pan, char the onion, carrot, celery, garlic and ginger in a tiny amount of oil. Cook for five minutes, or until the edges begin to colour. Add 2 quarts of water, the lemongrass, prunes, chillies, star anise, soy, lime leaves and coriander root. Cook on a low simmer for at least 45 minutes, to infuse. Strain the stock, and discard vegetable. Fill in a container and chill.


For a Thai soup (1 serving)
2 enoki mushrooms
5 shitake mushroom
handful rice noodles
1/4 red bell pepper, cut in thin stripes
a few edamame
Toasted sesame oil, to finish

Bring 2-3 laddles of the stock to a low simmer.  Add the enoki and sbitake mushrooms and the rice noodles and cook for 3 minute. Add the remaining ingredients apart from the sesame oil, and heat through for a minute. Taste, adjust the seasoning as needed, and ladle into warm bowls. Finish with sesame oil, not more than a few drops in each bowl, and coriander leaves.

Land of Lemon

About exactly a year ago I bought a Meyer Lemon container tree, in a beloved store in Belfast, ME. I removed all my table top photography set up from the biggest window and move the Meyer lemon tree there instead. With the good care of plenty of light, water, organic fish fertilizer feed, it blossomed soon with the most fragrant, intensely sweet, perfumed blossoms.

In the summer, the Meyer Lemon tree enjoyed a warm, fertilized, sunny life outside on the deck and the tiny blossomes developed into tiny green lemons, which grew and grew over the summer.

By October the remaining lemons had grown all the way to industrial strength lemons and could be take for super limes.

They moved back inside the house for the winter, and since have been spending again at a place in the light and close to the woodstove. Over the months, they turned from green to yellow. I’ve heard you know when you walk into the house and you can smell them then they are ripe. So, far I am waiting and enjoying the splendid sight of my Meyer Lemon land of lemon in the middle of winter in Maine,

(Don’t mind me kissing the lemons.)

Gnocchi with tomato feta sauce

Well, this is almost vegan, besides  a sliver of feta. Definitely got me out of the vegan rut. Gnocchi, simmered in a flavorful sauce of tomatoes, anchovies, garlic, kalamata olives, baby spinach and garlic.

Gnocchi with tomato feta sauce (1 serving)

• 1/2 –1 cup gnocchi
• 1/3 onion, diced
• 1 ts olive oli
• 4-5 kalamata olives, quartered
• 2-3 anchovy filets
• 1 cup of fresh or canned  tomatoes, pureed
• 1 garlic clove, microplaned
• handful baby spinach
• 1/2 inch slice sheep milk feta
• 2 TB of feta brine (or salt to taste).

In a small hot, heat 1/2 quart of water and heat the gnocchi.

In a saute pan, heat the olive oil and fry the onion until browned. Add garlic and sautee until fragrant. Add anchovies and melt into the sauce (1-2 Min). Add the tomatoes, baby spinach, gnocchi and feta plus brine. Simmer on medium for about 10 min. Serve!

Winter berry cake

The winter holidays are the time for fruit cakes, often dried fruit cakes. But with the invention of ice boxes, there is an option of winter frozen  fruit cake. This is one came out really well, especially complimented by its sides of a tangy cinnamon cream cheese frosting with a hot berry compote.

Winter Berry Cake

Cake

• 2 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt
• 2 sticks  (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 2 cups mixed berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries)
• 1 cup fresh cranberries, chopped

Powder Sugar Frosting (on cake):

• 1 cup powdered or confections’ sugar
• 2 TB of milk
• 1/2 ts vanilla extract
  

Cream Cheese Frosting (as side): (ca 4-6 servings)

• 1 8oz package cream cheese
• 1/4 cup of powdered sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• zest of 1/2 orange
• 2 TB fresh pressed orange juice

Hot berry compote  (as side): (ca 4-6 servings)

• 1 cup frozen fruit
• 1/4 cup water
• 3 TB red currant jelly (or orange marmelade)
• 1 TB powdered sugar
• 1 TB brandy or rum (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Generously grease a 10-cup Bundt pan, either with butter or a nonstick spray. Set aside.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk or sift 2 1/2 cups flour (leaving 2 tablespoons back), baking powder and salt together and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and lemon zest until light, about 3 to 5 minutes. Then, with the mixer on a lower speed, add your eggs one at a time. Beat in vanilla, too. Add 1/3 flour mixture to batter, beating until just combined, followed by half the buttermilk, another 1/3 of the flour mixture, the remaining buttermilk and remaining flour mixture. 

Prepare the berries: if the berries are too big, shortly chop them in a food processor or cut them with a knife into smaller pieces. Also, chop the fresh cranberries in the food processor, rather finely. In the bowl where you’d mixed your dry ingredients, toss the fresh and frozen chopped berries with the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour. With a silicon spatula, gently fold the berries into the cake batter (I actually used the stand mixer, and the cake turned rather pink, which I did not mind).

Plop the cake batter in large spoonfuls into the pan, because it’s so thick — in the prepared baking pan and spread the top smooth. Bake for  60 to 65 minutes. The cake is done as soon as a tester comes out clean of batter.

Set cake pan on a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes, before inverting the cake onto a serving platter to cool the rest of the way. Cool completely. 

 

Cake frosting: whisk together the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla, until smooth. Drip over the cooled cake.

Sides to cake: With a hand mixer, whisk together the cream cheese and its frosting ingredients (powdered sugar, orange zest, orange juice and powder sugar) until fluffy.

In a pan, heat the berries until hot, but not boiling. Add the sugar, jelly and rum (optional), mix to combine and keep warm until serving.

Roasted sweet potato, leek and celeriac soup

Yesterday I went back to the place I seem to go often: Chase’s Daily, for its excellent food. Roasted beet salad anyone? Since Chase’s dishes are seasonal, the soup has been sweet potato and leek for a few weeks.

This is a surprisingly elegant and flavorful, subtle soup. There are different possibilities to prepare this soup: roast the sweet potato first and use the leek raw in the soup (a perfect balance of sweet and tangy), use both sweet potato and leek raw (a more tangy, light soup), or roast both leeks and sweet potatoes first (a soup with a sweet depth). Leeks have a definite onion-y tang and balance out the sweetness of the sweet potatoes. Anyone who has bbq-ed leeks knows that they become vegetable candy sticks once they are roasted with a very mild onion tone.

For this soup, I roasted both the sweet potato and the leeks, and added a small piece of celeriac raw. The soup cooked for 20 min in home-made chicken stock and a cup of milk. The flavor was rounded out by salt, garlic and cumin. When  I had a similar soup at Chase’s Daily the other day, it was served with melted gruyere, which was fabulous.

Sweet potato, leek and celeriac soup

• 3 large sweet potatoes, peeled, and cut in large chunks
• 2 leek stalk, half of the green parts discarded, rest washed and cut into 7 inch parts
• 6 oz celeriac (root), peeled, diced (optional)
• 1/2 TB butter
• 1 shallot, peeled, minced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 quart chicken stock (or water)
• 1 cup milk
• 1 TB bouillon
• 1/2 TB cumin

Serve with melted grueyere.

Preheat the oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, and place the sweet potatoes and leeks on the baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 20 min (or leeks slightly charred).

Meanwhile, in a large heavy bottom pot, melt the butter and saute the shallot until translucent. Add the celeriac root and slightly saute. Add the garlic and saute the mix until fragrant. Take off the stove.

Once the sweet potatoes and leeks are roasted, add them to the soup pot. Put back on medium heat, slightly saute, and add the chicken stock, milk, bouillon and cumin. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat to a soft simmer. Simmer for about 20min. With an immersion blender, bring the soup to a smooth consistency.

 

Add some fresh  grated garlic. Serve with grilled bread and melted Grueyere.

A Sunday in Bar Harbor

Rain was predicted for today but in the end it held out until the evening, and it was a beautiful Sunday on Mount Desert Island. Instead of families with young kids Bar Harbor was visited by people from D.C. leveraging a recent windfall in extra vacation. Unfortunately, Acadia was closed.






Morning Glory Bakery, Bar Harbor

Harvest muffins with kuri squash, Swiss chard and feta (GF)

It was time to make muffins again, savory muffins, to take to work when the hunger strikes. I tried a new combination of an old favorite, the spinach butternut squash and feta muffins. This time I used winter chard, roasted kuri squash, fire-roasted red bell pepper, kalamata olives and feta. The theme was ‘Greek muffin’. The baby spinach is best option for this muffin, it holds its texture and adds a nice subtle flavor, but if you are out of baby spinach, kale and and Swiss chard will do.

Swiss chard, squash and feta muffins (gluten-free)

• cooking spray (or butter for the muffin pan) (makes ca 16-18 muffins)
• 1 TM of olive oil
• 255g cubed kuri/sunshine winter squash, cut 1/2-inch cubes
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4-6 large Swiss chard  leaves, chopped (stems discarded)
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds kernels, roasted, unsalted
• 1/4 cup kalamata olives, chopped
• 1 roasted sweet red bell pepper, cut into small dice
• 100g  cubed sheep milk feta (full-fat)
• 2 teaspoons whole-grain mustard
• 1 TB chopped fresh oregano (or 1/2 TB dried)
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 180 ml non-flavored almond milk
• 2 cups gluten-free all purpose baking mix (or regular all-purpose flour)
• 4 teaspoons aluminum free baking powder
• 1 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 405F / 200C, with rack in the top third. Grease 2 12-hole muffin pans and set aside.
2. Arrange raw cubed kuri squash in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with aluminium foil, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, and bake for 15 - 25 minutes so that the squash is mostly cooked, but not mushy or dry. Set aside to cool.
3. In a bowl beat the eggs and almond milk together, and add the mustard. (Tip: instead of salt, I often add 1 TB of feta brine).
4. In another bowl, mix the flour and baking powder, add in some salt and a generous dose of freshly ground black pepper,
5. Add flour to the egg liquid and mix until smooth.
6. Gently fold in the Swiss chard, sunflower seeds, olives, red bell pepper, and  feta. At last, fold in the baked squash.

1. Spoon the mixture into the muffin prepared pan, filling each hole 3/4 full.
2. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the tops and sides of the muffins are golden, and the muffins have set up completely. Let cool for a couple minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack. 

Curried hummus

This morning started out with rain, and plenty of stuff to do around the kitchen. First of all, the chickpeas cooked all day on low in the slow cooker yesterday needed to be converted into hummus. This time I used a farmers market inspiration of curried hummus and created my own version. – A classic hummus recipe but with a dash of curry and a tablespoon of maple syrup. Delight!

Curried hummus (ca 2 cups)

• 2 cups cooked chickpeas, liquid reserved 
• 1/2 tsp fleur de sel (or kosher salt), or to taste
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup tahini  (sesame paste)
• 2 Tbsp reserved chickpea liquid (or water)
• a few drops of Tabasco sauce, to taste
• 1/2 – 1  teaspoon curry powder (start with less)
• 1 TB maple syrup

Place all ingredients into a food processor (except the salt) and process until the hummus is finely pureed. Scoop into a bowl and drizzle with a good quality olive oil and serve.  

The annual hippie fest