Choppin' Broccoli

Okay, I admit it, every time I make broccoli, I think of Dana Carvey in this skit....whatever happened to Dana Carvey?  Last I remembered, he was in Wayne's World....and then I can't remember the last time I've seen him around. But when I make broccoli, he is right there with me in the kitchen, as is Adam Sandler when I make sloppy joes. Man, just even hearing that youtube video once has that song burn into my brain cells for the rest of the night...you too?  It definitely cancels out the broccoli.  But anyway, tonight's post is about the broccoli I made for dinner, as recommended by my neighbor Martha.  It's from Cook's Illustrated, but I made it less fussy than how they do it.   It's great!  My son said it tasted like buffalo chicken wings, but with broccoli and he actually ate some.  

 

Stir Fried Broccoli with Chile Garlic Sauce
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon dry sherry
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons Asian chili-garlic sauce
2 medium garlic cloves , minced or pressed through garlic press (about 2 teaspoons)
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon plus 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 1/2 pounds broccoli , florets cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1/4 teaspoon sugar

Instructions
1. Mix water, sherry, soy sauce, sesame oil, cornstarch, and chili-garlic sauce together in small bowl.
2  Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just beginning to smoke. Add broccoli and sprinkle with sugar; cook, stirring frequently, until broccoli is well-browned, 8 to 10 minutes.
3  Push broccoli to sides of skillet to clear center; add remaining vegetable oil, garlic and red pepper flakesre and cook, mashing with rubber spatula, until fragrant, 15 to 20 seconds. Stir to combine garlic mixture with broccoli.
4.  Add the sauce that's in the bowl stirring constantly, until florets are cooked through, stalks are tender-crisp, and sauce is thickened, 30 to 45 seconds. Serve.

Can Jam Herbs: May Wine Jelly

As I write this post, I should make a note of the weather. Right now it's a balmy 41 degrees here in Ann Arbor, and it's my sad duty to report that I saw snowflakes flying this morning when I headed to the farmer's market. There was asparagus at the market, and a few stalks are up in my tiny little herb garden, but despite that fact, I think we've returned to winter. I took this picture outside in my flower pot of pansies. and I was shivering so bad, I am surprised I got at least one picture that looked okay. The National Weather Service has issued a freeze warning for tonight. It's a good thing that pansies can take it. Whoever called wimps a "pansy" didn't know what they were talking about!

This month's Can Jam challenge is herbs. Most everything I can contains herbs, but I wanted to try to can something I have never canned before, so I decided to try to make jelly. I'm not a huge fan of commercially prepared pectin - I like to render my own pectin with lemons and apples, but I had a box of powdered pectin left over from a canning project from a while ago that I wanted to use up. I had read about wine jellies and wanted to give one a try for my first foray into jelly making. One of the goals of Can Jam is to preserve local foods, so I looked in my garden and determined that I had some oregano up already, exactly one leaf on my sage plant, and a small amount sweet woodruff in the front shade garden, and it got me thinking about May Wine.

May Wine is a traditional German drink made in spring and drunk on May Day (May 1). It's made of a sweet wine with added sugar and some sprigs of dried sweet woodruff.   It's considered a spring tonic of sorts.  It there is something I need right now, it's a spring tonic. You might know sweet woodruff - it's a groundcover that looks like something out of some 1960s wallpaper....

See what I mean?

I have made and drunk May Wine - it tastes just like spring smells...grassy and new.  Now, how to make that into a jelly?  I could envision eating some toast and butter with some May Wine jelly in the morning for breakast, sitting out on the back deck with a pot of Roos Roast, the best coffee in the world.  I can already smell the lilacs and honeysuckle in bloom around me - the birds are singing, etc.  Where to start?  May Wine is usually made from sweet German wines, so I made a trip to my local grocery store and found this local wine and it was on sale for $8/bottle.  Pelee Island Winery Late Harvest Riesling....it's local, even though it is made in Canada.  It seems odd to call a wine made in Canada as local, but trust me when I say that Pelee Island isn't  too far south from here.    Yes, you heard me right, south.  Some parts of Canada are actually SOUTH of the U.S.  Check it out! It's true!!  Remember that old Journey song Don't Stop Believin' where there's the line about "He was just a city boy...born and raised in south Detroit"?  I'm here to tell you and Steve Perry (BTW nice leopard print top in the video, Steve!)  and the rest of Journey that there is no such thing as South Detroit - because directly south of Detroit is Windsor, fool.  That's Windsor, Ontario.   It's in CANADA...

Okay, I feel better now that I have shared that with you.   Let's get back to the May Wine Jelly.   I made the start of some May Wine by steeping about 10 sprigs of dried sweet woodruff that I stole out of my neighbor's flowerbed (mine isn't as plush as hers) in a bottle of that late harvest Riesling overnight. The sweeter the wine, the better.  The woodruff needs to be dried, or it won't properly flavor the May Wine, so I dried it simply by putting it in the microwave on high for a minute between some paper towels.  This works well for any kind of herb.   If you were going to make May Wine, you'd steep the woodruff in the wine and then sweeten the wine with some sugar and drink it on the rocks.   Since I was adding sugar to my jelly, I didn't add any to the wine. To make wine jelly, I followed a typical wine jelly recipe that included some sugar and lemon juice and boxed pectin.   Wine jellies need to be boiled a bit longer than non alcoholic based spreads because the extra boiling time concentrates the wine flavor and evaoprates a bit more of the alcohol, which can interfere with the jelly setting up.

May Wine Jelly
3 1/4 c. white wine that has been steeped in sweet woodruff, strained
1/2 c. lemon juice
1 package 1.75 oz. powdered pectin
4 1/2 c. sugar

Prepare canner, lids and jars.  In a large deep saucepan, combine wine and lemon juice.  Whisk in pectin until dissolved, and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently.  Add sugar and return to a full rolling boil, stirring contantly, for 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and skim off foam.   Working quickly, pour the jelly into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Wipe rim. place lid on jar and adjust bands.  Process for 10 minutes and let cool.

The verdict?   The jelly tastes really grapey, and springlike.   It's a bit sweeter than I would have liked - I don't advise messing with the amount of sugar because it is needed for the pectin to set up and I am unsure if it would do well because of the alcohol in the wine without enough sugar.   It is the easiest thing I have ever canned in my life!  I can't wait to try some more herbal wine jellies to use as glazes for meat and vegetables.   In the fall, I always have more herbs in the garden than I know what to do with.  Thank you Can Jam!
 

Breakfast sausage and egg sandwiches

My kids love a breakfast sandwich in the morning before school.   I buy high fiber English muffins, low fat cheddar, and farm fresh eggs. and I've been making my own breakfast sausage.   I cheat - I don't grind my own meat, instead I buy a pound of ground pork and mix it with a pound of ground white meat turkey to make it lower fat.  I like this Alton Brown recipe  for the spices.  Come Sunday night, I am too grumpy to mix up the spices every week, so here is the breakfast sausage spice mix I made up for the sausage spices.  I know that Alton says to use fresh herbs, but I used dried.  Here's my recipe:

1 lb. ground pork
1 lb. ground white meat turkey
4 T. breakfast sausage spice mix

Mix all ingredients together the night before - usually Sunday night for me.   Freeze half of the sausage to use next week.   On Monday morning, make 10 sausage patties and cook them all in a cast iron frying pan while drinking copious amounts of Roos Roast.   Reserve 2 patties, and put the others in the fridge to reheat for the rest of the week.  Toast 2 English muffins, top the bottom half them with a sausage patty and some cheddar.   

In the frying pan, fry two eggs to the cherubs' current egg preference (currently eggs over easy but this can and will change AT ANY TIME.  Do not expect to be warned!)  Top the sausage patty and cheese with the egg, and then top with the other half of muffin.  For the remaining days of the week, fry a couple bacon slices to render enough fat in the pan to fry the eggs, or use butter.   Heat the sausage patties made on Monday in the microwave.   Fry eggs as usual.   Repeat as necessary!  After the cherubs are done with their breakfast, sit at the kitchen table in your bathrobe and eat some toast and drink one more cup of Roos Roast.  

Contemplate the day while reading whatever it is you might be reading currently while you wait for your eldest to get out of the shower.  Yell about missing the bus to roust eldest cherub out of shower, and blow dry your own hair to drive her out of the bathroom.  Listen to shreiking while cherubs can't find jeans to wear/band instrument/missing math homework/backpack.  Threaten to have carpool partner have to drive cherubs to school and assess $10 school transport fee. 

Miraculously cherubs make the bus, use remaining 10 minutes to don engineering uniform (for women, currently it's Nine West pants in black, brown or gray, comfortable shoes, top that doesn't show too much cleavage) and don minimal amount of makeup - engineers never wear too much make up.  Survey hair grayness and determine whether you look 46 years old or not.  Decide not, pack your own backpack and meet your carpool partner to take part in yet another rousing day at the orifice.