Down to hEarth

Slow cookers. Faraway daughter found one hiding away on a shelf at her new home in Shanghai and is now curious as to the best ways to utilize this appliance. She has mastered the instant pot, wok, skillet, roasting pan - but now its the slow cooker. She wants to talk about how to make it useful and it took me a couple of days of thinking to get at an answer. Slow cookers are a great tool for two things: Starting a dish early in the day so you can enjoy it later and slow cooking a tough cut of meat into sublime tenderness. Most slow cookers have high or low settings that allow you to cook for a couple of hours or up to eight hours. It can also keep soups, stews, mulled cider warm for as long as you want. Slow cookers were a staple of the pot luck - when you wanted your baked beans to stay warm on the buffet for a couple of hours. Instant pots now do what the slow cooker used to do so well - the long, slow braising of a chuck roast or pork shoulder. Where the slow cooker still shines is ...

I  won’t include many photos in this less-than-elegant post about a standard Korean stew. There’s different ingredients every time I make it and there’s no precise cooking methods that need to be followed. But, I can eat this mildly-spicy, meaty soup for days on its own or with a bowl of rice. Please understand that this stew is best with “agak-agak,” which means “measure by taste or as you like it.” “About-about.” I never pay attention to how much of something I add, not very white of me.   The necessary components for my version of a kimchi jjigae are:  A pot full of water or chicken stock, or water with some chicken stock/cubes  A lot of kimchi, obviously - use a surprising amount. A lot. I have used 1kg-1.5kg for a big pot and Max has said “I want more” - so really go ham on the kimchi. The brine of the kimchi is also an important ingredient so save the liquid that it comes in Gochujang sauce, see picture. If I get a small squeeze container, I use about half. It’...

 Andy chooses the most interesting recipes to become an expert in. I LOVE that caramel was one of these choices.   INGREDIENTS 2/3 cup heavy cream, 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, 1 cup granulated sugar, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt  

 The basics of oatmeal are this: 1 cup of oatmeal to 2 cups water. Just double the water of however much oatmeal you are making. Just beware! A cup of oats makes a lot more oatmeal than you might realize! For my faraway daughter - this is what I do so she has oatmeal for a few days: 1 1/2 cup rolled oats  3 cups water pinch of salt 1 cup various dried fruits and nuts A tsp of maple syrup or cake brown sugar - or more up to how sweet one wants the oatmeal. A dash of cinnamon or mixed spice - cardamon is nice too Can also add cut up apple Process: Put water with a pinch of salt in pan and start heating. Cut up nuts, fruits, etc., and add to water. Add sweetener of choice as desired and a dash of spice. Don't add fresh fruit yet. When water starts to boil, add oatmeal, stir and lower the temperature. You want to see that it is bubbling a bit. Add fresh fruit now. Let oatmeal simmer for a few minutes and then put a lid on it, turn off the heat and walk away for about 15 minutes. I...

 Sauteed Spinach has always been a fast side dish - but take it to the next level of richness with a little cream... Looking around the internet at different recipes showed some basic common elements - with lots of different ways to make it just what you want. For me (and faraway daughter) this worked pretty well: Ingredients: 2 packages of fresh spinach - washed and spun dried. Not a big deal if a little wet 2 T olive oil or butter (or both!) 1-2 tsp flour or cornstarch 30 g or to taste chopped shallot or yellow onion 1 small chopped garlic clove (optional) juice of 1/2 lemon 1/2 cup cooking cream or half n half  Process: Add oil/butter to saute pan - heat low. Add shallots, let soften slightly then add garlic. I like to slow cook my shallots/onions to soften them up before caramelizing a bit. Don't burn them.  Add in the spinach and slowly cook it down until it is softened.  Add in 1 tsp of the flour - basically enough flour to absorb the oil/butter and coat the o...

Bringing flavors together in this dish was fairly straightforward. I have found  with Italian cooking that if the components like red sauce or a filling taste good - the overall dish usually is great. I know how I like my red sauce to taste: fresh and sharp with that tang of good herbs and garlic. I want the meat - whether sausage or ground - to be seasoned well. Fillings: use good pesto or fresh basil. Fresh cheeses. Good pasta - homemade if possible. Cooking outside of my own markets on the other side of the world means I have to try different products to get the right fresh flavors - and it has turned out to be pretty straightforward. For me, Italian cooking will aways mean using the best farm to table ripe vegetables and fresh ingredients. I'm learning that this is true for any cuisine. And when one sees large pasta shells at the store - one must do something with them, right? 1. Prepare the Red Sauce and the Shell Filling Red Sauce: Here in Malaysia, I go with what I can find....

I had lemon slices, fresh basil and the meyer lemon linguine.  I always have pesto in the pantry or fridge - there was shrimp in the freezer and leftover salmon in the fridge. Add garlic and shallots, a little wine - how can this be anything but delicious?  In a saute pan: Add 2-3 T of olive oil and heat up the pan. Add about 1/3 cup finely chopped shallots. Let shallots soften and just start to brown - and then add about 2T chopped garlic. Add 1-2 T butter and saute until aromatic. Add in 1.5 T good pesto sauce. Add half a lemon - chopped up with rind etc. The lemon melts into the saute. Add about 1 cup of white wine - I used a Sauvignon Blanc, salt and pepper - and simmer until liquid reduces about half way. Don't dry out the pan.  Optional: I added in about a 1/4 cup of chopped sun dried tomatoes and a good pinch of chopped basil (keeping most the basil to garnish after pasta is in serving bowls) Bringing this together requires cooking up the pasta before you add in th...

 Faraway Child and her husband love seafood marinara. I've never made it before due to the lack of seafood eaters in my household. Fish is fine - but clams and calamari? No way. So this was a fun experiment and I think we hit on a winner. Ingredients: 500 grams (3-4 cups) of canned whole tomatoes. I found Italian canned tomatoes and canned whole cherry tomatoes in 250 gram cans at BSC.  1 yellow onion - peeled and cut in half  2 garlic cloves - peeled and slightly crushed 1 cup white wine - split.  1 lime 2 lemons  1 tsp oregano salt to taste 1-2 Tbsp butter Seafood mix - prawns, clams, squid, fish. (16 clams/12-15 prawns/squid or deboned fish) pasta - linguine noodles work great. serve with extra lemon wedges and some cut up basil The sauce is based on Macella Hazan's simple marinara sauce recipe found all over the internet. Tomatoes, onions, salt, butter. Pretty easy and like most of Marcella's recipes - wonderful.  I add garlic and wine to the initial re...

 I was really making lasagna - and that dish did happen but its for a family gathering in a couple of days. I had left over red sauce, homemade pesto and some spinach. Sounded pretty good to me for pasta. Anyway - it tasted so good I thought I'd better write it down. The red meat sauce was a bit of a mix today. I used a pound of ground buffalo meat along with a pound of chicken mild Italian sausage (PCC). After this browned in some olive oil, I scooped it out of the pot and then added in a diced onion, leek, and a lonely shallot that had nowhere else to go. I like to cook onions and their ilk slow to soften, not burn. I add a little salt and pepper too. After the onion mixture is starting to get a little golden (and soft!) I add 3 cloves of chopped garlic. When the garlic gets aromatic, I add back in the meat and then follow that up with two 24 oz cans of crushed whole tomatoes and one jar of marinara sauce. I usually wash out the cans and jar with about a cup of water, adding that...

 It sounds so simple, right? Faraway child is cooking Thanksgiving dinner for some friends in Malaysia. Mashed Potatoes are a family favorite and of course she wants to make them from scratch. Er, I should say that she wants her loving husband to make them from scratch. Son, I swear this is easy! This dish just needs some time and patience! :) Making anything from scratch takes time. I love the boxed varieties too - but, honestly, nothing beats homemade mashed potatoes. You can start with different kinds of potatoes but I really like russet - or baking - potatoes best. White or Yukon gold are great mashed as well - you just need to peel them before boiling and then watch that they don't start disintegrating in the pot. Let's prep these potatoes as russet baking potatoes.   These are really big potatoes! scoring the tops   Baking potatoes range in size and sometimes its hard to figure out how much to buy. If a potato is the length of my hand - I want 1.5-2 potatoes pe...

Many years ago, a friend (ty BH) gave me this recipe and its been a family favorite ever since. It was one of the dishes that my faraway child asked me to help her cook in Malaysia and it turned out to be very easy to get all the ingredients from her local market.  RECIPE: 1-2 Tbsp. Vegetable oil  2 medium onions 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped 3 cups chicken broth 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro (coriander) or 1/2 tsp dried/ground coriander seeds 2 Tbsp. lime juice - or more to taste 1 tsp ground cumin - I like to add a bit more but I wait for final seasoning taste 1 tsp dried oregano 1/4 tsp. red pepper sauce (peri peri sauce would work great) - optional salt and pepper  1 small can of corn kernals. In the USA white "shoepeg" corn or hominy works great too 1 can (15-16 ounce) great northern beans - or cannellini beans I can (15-16 ounce) butter beans 2 cups boneless chicken thighs - chopped into bite size pieces. 1/2 cup flour - might take more to coat the chicken. Yo...

 I just have to write this down... because... wow... I went to roast a chicken in my dutch oven soup pot. I spatchcocked the chicken to save some time - and also because I could then make stock with the backbone and bits. With my handy-dandy new poultry shears, it was super easy, by the way. Feeling a bit lazy but also wanting to keep the chicken up out of the juices (fat) that would accumulate in the bottom of the pot - I sliced a whole onion into big thick rings, laying them on the bottom. In went the chicken, olive oil, garlic salt/pepper and - zatar spice.  Oven was at 350 with lid for about 30 minutes. I checked the temperature, removing the lid and left to roast another 15-20. The chicken was good - but the stuff in the bottom of that pot was pure gold. Caramelized onions, juices and fats from the chicken and spices. I added back in the raw back bone, water, loosely chopped up some celery and a few heads of garlic - and set to simmer. Those caramelized onions crafted su...

I love making stuffing. It is basically a savory bread dish served as a traditional side for Thanksgiving. I've found many types of bread dishes from a variety of cultures; and yet, this particular dish is all about the fall harvest. Wild mushrooms, vegetables, herbs with homemade focaccia and simmering stock. My local farmer's market is my guide - what are they selling at their last harvest market of the season? Onions, leeks, mushrooms, celery - all are available late November where I live in the PNW. I can get fancy and add in some of those oyster or chanterelle mushrooms - or just stick to everyday white mushrooms. It all works. The trick to good stuffing is to make each part of the dish tasty in its own way. Using a carton of stock? Simmer it with herbs and half a head of garlic. Try the stock - does it taste yummy? Buying bread from the market? Get a loaf of uncut sourdough and dry out big thick slices to cut up. No fresh herbs? Find dried sage and thyme in the spice aisl...

* Updated April 2022 as I visited my faraway child in KL...  This is a family favorite and one of my daughters, my faraway child, is craving this soup. The challenge is to bring what is a fairly simple chowder recipe to her high-rise apartment in Kuala Lumpur. I'm crossing my fingers that she can enjoy this tasty chowder while abroad.  We found everything - except crab. There are small clawed crabs in the market - but not what you want to sit and pick apart to make chowder. So we used scallops and one lobster tail (that wasn't worth the cost). My hope is that my daughter will play with the recipe to find ways to make it her own. Different chilies for the pesto; fish or other seafood for a crab substitute. Homemade fish or chicken stock made with green onions and ginger - there are so many ways that she will be able to experiment and have fun. For now, however, she wants the 'taste of home' - so we tried to make it as close to our NW favorite as we could. Let's get s...