Butter Revival

Perfect, easy curried lentils

2010-07-27T17:20:00.001-07:00

Easy Dal (Curried Lentils)

1/2 cup dry lentils (I prefer french green lentils, they have the best texture)
1 cup water
3/4 cup (half of a can) coconut milk
1 tbs sugar
1/2 tbs curry power
1tsp garlic powder
1 tsp (or more) turmeric
1 tsp (or more) cumin
1 tsp (or more) cayenne pepper
a generous pinch or two of salt

Note: the "or more" means you can add more of this for a spicier dal. Nick and I love really spicy food, so I just shake a bunch in, and also add a couple drops of chili oil.

Rinse the lentils and place in a bowl with the water. If you happen to be strange like me and have whey laying around, add half a tablespoon to make the lentils more digestible (and less farty...). Let stand and soak for 1 hour. This step can be skipped, but it makes the food easier on the stomach.

Pour lentils and water into a small pot. If the water is really dirty, you can drain it and replace back to the same level with clean water. Bring lentils to a boil, then put on low heat and simmer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, add all the other ingredients (coconut milk and spices). Let simmer, covered, for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. I usually uncover the last 5 or 10 minutes because Nick likes a thicker dal, but it's traditionally pretty soupy. Remove from heat and you're ready to go. It's best served over basmati rice.

This usually makes two servings (very generous ones). It's very healthy, since lentils are high in magnesium and calcium and potassium. Eating pepper reduces plaque deposits in veins. It also forms a complete protein, and will keep you full for a while. Not to mention, if you make it spicy enough you can clear out your sinuses. As the recipe stands it's not very hot spice, but there is a noticable curry flavor. If you're a curry lover, you can easily increase the powder to a full tablespoon.

Cost per serving, if served with basmati rice: around 75 cents.

Unrelated to anything

2010-04-20T21:53:00.001-07:00

Cowboy Beans

2010-03-01T21:12:00.000-08:00

This is from a lady who has several very yummy recipes on her website.

These are called cowboy beans. Be aware, though, that different slow cookers cook differently. I should have left mine on high for hours! Even having it on high the last two hours of cook time, I had to cook it another 2 or 3 past that before it was done. As a result, other ingredients were mooshier than they should have been. Still excellent, though!

Cowboy Beans:
INGREDIENTS

3 cups of dried pinto beans

1 onion, diced

1 bell pepper (any color) diced

2 tablespoons of red pepper hot sauce

2 tablespoons of chili powder

2 teaspoons of sea salt

1 teaspoon of spicy brown mustard

1 teaspoon of ground black pepper

1 can of Rotel diced tomatoes (the cilantro and lime flavor works well with this recipe)

1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar

Water

HOW TO PREPARE THIS DISH

1. The night before: Sort the pinto beans and put them into a large crock pot. Pour in a splash of apple cider vinegar, and then pour in water. Put in enough water to cover the beans over by one inch.

2. Cover the crock pot, leave it off, and leave it alone until you wake up the next morning.

3. The next morning: Drain the soaked pinto beans, rinse them, and then add fresh water. Again, the water should cover about an inch over the top of the pintos. Add in the diced onion and bell pepper, cover the crock pot, and set it to cook on "low."

4. About two hours before supper time: Mix in the hot sauce, chili powder, salt, mustard, black pepper, Rotel, and 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar, and let the mixture continue to cook (covered) on low until supper time.

Enjoy!

Texas chili --> texas sloppy joes

2009-12-16T21:31:00.000-08:00

I'm staying at my brother's place in Tacoma for the week. He likes chili. But he doesn't like beans. So that is to say, he likes texas chili. A land where they have been known to believe that adding tomatoes and beans to chili is to adulterate the meaty goodness.

Now enter me. I have a vegetarian (well, now eats fish) boyfriend. I make bean heavy, meat free chilis. And I wanted to make chili today. So I used my brother's love of texan chili as an excuse to try something new. The end result has good flavor (though not quite the level of spice I like; it should hurt a bit). But I'm all about texture, and the ground beef being the main player made it not okay as a stand-alone, in my book. So I improvised! I slapped it on a bun and called it a sloppy joe. And it rocked!

Here is what I did. I sort of used a few recipes, but I'm bad at following directions =D

Texas Chili:

My picture. Sorry for the poor quality.

3 strips thick cut, fatty bacon
1 6-oz can tomato paste
2-3 lbs leaner ground beef (I used 7%) (venison would be a fine sub here, just add an extra strip or two of bacon)
1 medium onion, chopped up as small as possible because I hate the texture
somewhere between 2-5 cloves of garlic, depending on your preference, minced
3 Tbs chili powder
1 Tbs paprika (I would add more a second time around!)
1 Tbs cumin (more of this, too)
1/2 Tbs salt (more to taste later if you want)
A good grinding of pepper... I didn't measure
12 oz dark beer
3 cups water

1. Get a big pot. This is all you'll need for the cooking. Yay chili!
2. Heat the pot up, then drop in the bacon strips. Fry until a little below what you would do normally for eating. Take out the bacon and set aside. Keep as much of the drippings in the pot as you can.
3. Add the ground beef. Brown in the drippings on a lower heat. While this is browning, chop up your onion. Once meat is almost all brown, add the garlic and onion. You can turn the heat up a bit here. Allow to cook until all meat is brown and onion is soft.
4. Add all the spices. Stir, then add the tomato paste. Stir well to coat all the meat. Add the beer, stir, and turn down heat. Allow this to cook for a couple minutes. While this is cooking, cut up your cooked bacon into smaller pieces (I did around the size of a nickel to a quarter).
5. Stir in the water, and add the bacon pieces. Mix everything together well, and put the lid on. Bring to a low boil, then turn down to a simmer. At this point, partially cover the chili and allow it to cook for two hours. Stir occasionally. I stirred probably no more than 6 times. I don't think it hurt for the lack of attention. Just keep cooking it down until it reaches a consistency you like for your chili. I like mine thick. After cooking for an hour to an hour and a half, taste some of your chili. Add more salt or pepper or spice if you want.

Enjoy! I heated a roll, split in half, and then topped it with the chili to make a little sandwich. I hope you enjoy it!

Today

2009-10-24T22:54:00.000-07:00

I know I have not put up a post yet. I am sick, and my one year anniversary is tomorrow. I'll get to posting when I get a chance. Hint: the post will involve either cheese or chicken.

Sweet, sweet tea

2009-10-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

This recipe has no butter. It is also more of a summer recipe in most people's minds. Whatevs. =)

Three summers ago I went to the south. The South, that is. Mississippi and Louisiana (and if you don't pronounce those with a southern drawl in your head from hear on out, you should just stop reading this blog. Seriously.) Try it now... "Loooz-y-ana" and "missah-sippay".

But I digress. I went to the south. A bombshell had recently gone off in my life, and my mom wanted to whisk me away. Anywhere. Since she was already going down toward that kudzu-strangled region, I joined her. I brought several things back with me from my experience in the south: a broadened understanding of the confederate flag, a desire to pronounce Louisiana correctly (hey, I hate when people mispronounce Oregon, so it is the least I can do. Seriously people. Ory-gun. Accept it already). I also brought back an affinity for sweet tea. Grits can stay in the south. But my oh my did they get sweet tea right.

Upon returning home, I searched several recipes for a sweet tea recipe I would like. I finally found this one, but I sadly cannot attribute it. I don't remember whose it was. Some little site in cyber space. Not a big recipe site. For starters on this recipe, go to the store and buy orange pekoe and cut black tea. This sounds fancy but really isn't. I bought my box of 100 tea bags for $1.05 at my local winco. With the number of bags needed for the tea, and the amount of sugar, I calculated it out that each gallon I make costs me around 8 cents. I would say that is better than the super market jugs. This one also doesn't have High Fructose Corn Syrup (which I avoid. My reasons are a rant for another time). Try to get the tea bags tagless if you can find them. Otherwise you'll have to clip them all off.

Louisiana Sweet Tea

1. Bring 4 cups water to a boil in a pot with a lid. Upon boiling, turn off the heat, add a pinch of baking soda (this will prevent bitterness) and toss in 3 tea bags.
2. Cover the pot, set it on a back burner, and let sit for 10 to 15 minutes. I like doing 14, but everyone likes a different strength of tea.
3. When the time is up, squeeze out the tea bags over the pot and throw them away.
4. Get a one gallon container. An old milk jug or juice container works, but I would recommend buying glass. No taste transfers. This will also keep your tea fresh for longer.
5. Put a couple cups of warm water in the bottom of the jug. Add anywhere from 1/4 cup (for iced tea) to 1 cup (for very sweet tea) of sugar. Stir to dissolve.
6. Set the jug on some kitchen towels. You will miss a bit when you pour. Well, I always do anyway. Pour the tea concentrate from the stove into the jug.
7. Add cold water until the jug is full. Stir, close, and put in the fridge. Let cool completely before drinking.
8. Enjoy!

Joy oh my!

2009-10-09T09:37:00.000-07:00

I have a very exciting announcement in the realm of butter in my life! I got a kitchenaid mixer!! (Okay, so I didn't, my boyfriend did, but it shapes up to the same thing!) Next on my agenda? Brioche! Hopefully with cheese. We'll see how that goes. Brioche is the sort of thing you need a mixer to make. It's a little french muffin type of deal. But, oh, it is so much more.

Short post this week, due to hunting season, but more to come later!

Eggs in a Raft

Everyone knows putting an over easy or over medium egg on top of a piece of toast is a great way to enjoy breakfast. Eggs on a raft takes that idea and makes it cuter, tastier, and more buttery. Hoorah!

1. Make a piece of toast. It shouldn't be too well done. It should retain some flex, with just a bit of crispy.

2. Cut the center out of the piece of toast. The hole should be a bit larger than an egg yolk.

3. Heat a pan over the stove, and melt some butter in it. Just a little nub will do, enough to make an egg with. Once the pan is hot enough, drop the toast in.

4. Crack an egg into the hole in the toast. Cook as you would an egg, flipping in between (Unless you like sunny side up; a bit hard to do on a raft).

5. Put the raft on a plate. Make sure all the butter from the pan gets on the plate with the egg and toast (it's the best part!). Salt lightly, and dig in. I recommend breaking the yolk and smearing it all over the bread and then busting in with a fork. To each their own, though. Enjoy!

And don't mistakenly assume that eggs on a raft should be confined to breakfast. While it is true that "breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper" is sound nutrition advice, eggs are good for any meal. And that is my final word on that.

The Butter Revival

2009-10-02T09:05:00.000-07:00

The last few decades, western cultures have moved to a universe made up of margarine, bleached flour, milled sugar, white bread, and processed cheese food (not kidding, saw that in a lunch meal once). Since these sterile, science driven decades of food transfiguration, we have realized that nature (and our fore bearers) probably had it right. Food as close to the ground as we can get is the best way to go. Calories and fat are not satan's handymen. Where we get our nutrients are as important as what we get. A calorie from a home grown tomato does not equal that of a cheeseburger.

We have also found that we just can't beat nature (or God, whichever you prefer) at her own game. It is like the move to replace nursing with formula; everyone was under the impression we were doing the best for our children. It has since come to the world's attention that, no matter how many times we reformulate, there are some things formula just can't do. Like transfer immunities. Or stimulate the same level of brain activity that occurs during nursing. Because of all these things, we have returned to "the Breast is Best".

I firmly believe we can't beat nature (or God) at his own game when it comes to nutrition, as well. I figure, if humans have been eating this food for hundreds or thousands of years, it must be alright. I am calling for a butter revival. I want to shed this burden of tasteless, "space age" food to go back to the food of our roots. Home cooking, comfort food, the food of love. I want to eat meat and veggies and fruit and grains and dairy. I want to look at a food item and know it is FOOD, no label reading involved. I want to trust that evolution (or creation, if you prefer) has tuned us perfectly to the food available. The food we were meant to eat.

Agree? Then I fully invite you to join me on my quest for the butter revival. Part food blog, part recipes, part bitching about stuff, and for sure a lot of butter, so please join me! I promise at least one post every friday; that is for sure. Apart from that, I'm sure it will vary a lot. I am a 20 year old college student, taking far too many credits. But I love to cook, and I love to blog. I have had one other blog for over a year and a half now. Not every one of my recipes will feature butter. I do love to bake bread and things of that nature, so there *will* be butter. I do eat a balanced diet though, and I tend to use olive oil for many cooking tasks.

So let's start with our very first recipe!

My mom wanted me to make a rum cake for her birthday. I felt it would go against various natural laws to use cake and pudding mix like almost EVERY recipe calls for (HELLO guilt from my mom). So I called up my boyfriend's sister, a baker extrodinaire, and she shared this recipe.

At this point, I have a horrifying confession. Prior to this morning, I had never bothered to learn how to properly cream butter and sugar. TERRIBLE, I KNOW. This step pretty much decided whether your cake is all fluffy and light and delicious, or dense. But this is my mom's birthday cake, for christsake! I can't be lazy when making my mom's birthday cake! Hello guilt! We've covered this already! So I read a website, and watched a video on youtube from epicurious. And I borrowed my boyfriend's electric mixer.

Quick back up for story time. I have to leave hunting this afternoon, and only have a short break between my classes. Meaning I had to make it before my classes this morning. So up I got, at 7. I set my 4 sticks of butter on the counter (unnnngh) and headed to take a shower. I figured, they'll get the right temperature as I shower. Slightly more chilled then room temperature. I also used this as an excuse to take a niiiiiice long shower. Hello, all the hot water for the building. Climbed out, and put on unders and a bra. Wrapped my hair up in a turby twist. And then I thought, wait, this will undoubtedly be messy. No one is around. I'll just make the cake in my underoos! And so I did. (Lordy I love living alone).

And so I added my sugar and butter to the bowl. One cup butter, two cups sugar. Put the mixing blades in the mixer, plugged it in, here we go! And promptly blew sugar and butter chunks all over my kitchen. Which is also my living room, since I have a studio apartment. Hello picking chunks out of my couch for three weeks. Anyway. Valuable lessons here people; if your butter is too cold, it won't blend right. Mine was too cold. I have since read that in this case, you should grate it, wait a couple minutes, and then go to town. Also. When creaming butter and sugar? Start with blending just the butter, then add the sugar gradually. Or you will end up looking like me, sugar up to my eyebrows. (Won't switch you into just your underoos though, have no fear). In case you share my dirty little secret and have never creamed butter and sugar? It should take a good 8 minutes. Use a rubber spatula and push everything down into the bowl and occasionally scrape the bottom. Forgive yourself if you feel the need to dip in a pinky and have a taste. You're checking the consistency! You had to make sure it wasn't grainy, and had become smooth! See? You were being a responsible cook. Good job!

I did plan ahead enough to have all my other ingredients measured out and waiting for me. I had my four eggs cracked in a bowl with a pour spout, since we have to add them one at a time. I had the baking powder, baking soda, and salt all mixed in a little bowl. And my flour measured out. I also had my buttermilk, vanilla, and rum in one measure cup. This way, I would pick everything up and add it while still blending. This part actually went pretty well, believe it or not. I then buttered and floured my bundt pan (which I had to buy specially for this cake) and poured the batter in.

Cook for one hour at 350. (I actually pulled mine out about 4 minutes early. I was afraid it would burn). At about 15 til you need to take out the cake, prepare your glaze. Put your two extra sticks of butter and a cup of sugar in a saucepan over low heat. Bring it to a boil, stirring occasionally. Add the rum. For your own sake, turn on your fan before adding the rum. I forgot to. Hooooooo boy. Remember, we need to have our wits enough still to finish the rest of the cake. Leave the bottle of rum alone and turn on your fan. The rum will also steam and bubble some when added, so be sure not to burn yourself. Bring out the cake, stab the hell out of the top (well, actually, bottom, but top for now.. the part open to the sky) with a toothpick. Now the fun. Pour the glaze allllll over the cake. Cover it with a plate (or don't, whatever) and let it sit at least two hours.

Yay! Now you have something that will make you sugar high and drunk at the same time! And oh lordy, the butter. Let's not forget the butter.

Rum Cake From Scratch
Cake:
1 c butter
2 c sugar
3 c flour
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking powder and soda
pinch of salt
1 Tbs dark or spiced rum
1 c buttermilk

Glaze:
1 c butter
1 c sugar
1/2 c dark rum (hoo yeah)

1. Cream butter and sugar
2. Add eggs, one at a time and mix in
3. Add baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whip.
4. Alternate the flour and the cup with buttermilk, vanilla, and rum while mixing. Mix until smooth.
5. Bake in a greased and floured bundt pan at 350 for 1 hour
6. At about 15 or 10 minutes until your cake comes out, prepare the glaze. Melt butter and sugar over low heat. Stir occasionally until a boil is reached. Turn off heat and add rum. Have on a fan, and be sure not to burn yourself on the steam.
7. Bring out the pan and poke holes all over the surface of the cake. Pour hot glaze over. Let sit at least two hours before flipping the cake.
8. To flip, place a plate on "top" of the bundt pan. Now flip the plate and pan, so that what was once top is now bottom. Lift off pan. Viola!