La Farinata

I got this recipe from a Washington Post article.

Summary:

This hors d’oeuvre makes a great afternoon snack or party starter. Chickpea flour is available at some larger Giant stores and at Whole Foods Market; look for the Bob’s Red Mill brand.

Use fresh rosemary or freshly dried. Deborah Thawley uses extra-virgin olive oil for all her recipes because she says it lends more flavor.

MAKE AHEAD: The batter needs to rest for at least 30 minutes and can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.

Makes 2 medium pancakes (8 to 12 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chickpea flour
• 1/2 cup cold water, or as needed
• Good-quality extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt or kosher salt
• Leaves from 1 or 2 (3-inch) sprigs of rosemary (see NOTE)

Directions:

The process is similar to making a regular pancake.

Combine the chickpea flour and enough of the water in a mixing bowl to make a thick batter, stirring to dissolve any lumps. Add the remaining water until the batter is the consistency of tahini or thick pouring cream.

Add a teaspoon of oil and the salt; mix well. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes, or cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days.

Just before serving, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large nonstick skillet (10 to 12 inches) over medium-high heat. then add the rosemary. When the oil is hot (after about 30 seconds), the rosemary will start to "jump" in the skillet.

Pour half of the batter into the skillet. It should cover the bottom of the skillet to a depth of about 1/8 inch. Cook for 1 or 2 minutes, until the pancake is set crisped and golden underneath. Carefully turn over and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Slide onto a serving plate. Cut into wedges, sprinkle with salt and generous grindings of pepper. Serve immediately.

Cover and refrigerate the remaining batter for up to 2 days.

NOTE: If making a second pancake right away, you'll need the leaves from a second sprig of rosemary and another 2 tablespoons of oil for the skillet.

Results: I'll be honest, I had my doubts about this. It seemed too easy, and I've ever had chickpea flour before so I was pretty sure that this recipe for La Farinata would turn out to be a recipe for disaster. I was able to make two pancakes. The first one was a put gummy and dry, and I think it was a heat control issue. For the next pancake, I let the pan heat up more before I poured the batter. You don't want to heat it too much, though, if you're using a non-stick skillet since at that temperature the Teflon could start to give off fumes if you let it sit on the stove too long before adding the batter.

The second pancake was much better. It was the texture of a thick American flapjack, not as puffy but still a little puffy. I have no idea if this is the right texture for this dish since I've never had it before, but it was good. And, if you're wondering where to get chickpea flour, I found some in the organic section for way less than I was expecting. It was about $3 for a 1 lb, 6 oz bag.

Kohlrabi

I've sort of been scared of kohlrabi. It looks scary, it's got an extra h in the word that's just sort of loitering... it's an intimidating vegetable, but it's also one of the veggies I saw most often at the farmer's market, especially up here. I finally decided to get some. Turns out that it's a German vegetable that grows pretty easily most places. Here's what Cook's Thesaurus says:

kohlrabi = cabbage turnip = stem cabbage = turnip cabbage Pronunciation: kohl-RAHB-ee or kohl-RAH-bee Notes: A kohlrabi resembles a turnip, only it's sweeter and more delicately flavored. It's light green and sometimes sold with its edible greens attached. It can be eaten raw or cooked. Choose small ones, and peel before using. Substitutes: broccoli stems OR celeriac (especially in remoulades) OR turnips OR parsnips

I tried it both ways, raw and cooked. It was mild both ways. When it was raw it was sort of sweet, but not like sugar, more like honey. Cooked it just sort of tasted like a cooked turnip. To cook it I trimmed the ends and peeled it like I would peel a melon. The potato peeler didn't work on the big kohlrabi I got. If it was really long or round, I cut it in half crosswise, then used a big sharp knife I just sort of carved around the edges to get off the tough skin. Then I just roasted it like a root vegetable (cubed or sliced evenly, tossed with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roasted at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until soft). You can also saute the greens like you would spinach. They tasted pretty normal.
All in all, I wouldn't say it was all that interesting, except in raw form.

Job!

Hurray, I got a job! I'll be an "executive administrative assistant" at CESA 10 (CESA=Cooperative Educational Services Agency, and there are 12 in the state). Basically I'll be doing very similar work to what I did before, doing teacher professional development and training. It's not a bad commute, about a 20-minute drive. Granted, not as good as my previous 20-minute walk, but there are some pretty rocks and a Culver's frozen yogurt on the way.

At this point, its a temporary job. I'll know in the summer if it turns into permanent, it's sort of dependent on some grants or something. Anyway, very exciting!

I went to the DMV today to get a Wisco driver's license and register my car in WI. This has all been a little frustrating because:

1. I just renewed my license in June in Indiana because it was going to expire, and I really didn't think it would be a good idea to drive across three states with a loaded car and an expired license when me moved here at the end of July.
2. I'm hoping to buy a new car soon, and I would have ideally put off getting the license except the registration on my old car is expired, and to renew the registration I had to get a WI license.
3. I thought I hadn't had a WI license from when we lived here before, and in order to get a WI license for the first time, you either need your birth certificate or a valid passport.
4. My birth certificate was in MD (I got it Mom, thanks!)
5. My passport expired in May.
6. My mom had to accost her mail carrier into taking the birth certificate after he declined to take it from her mail slot the first time and just shoved it back in. The next day Mom kept an eye out for him and made him take it.
   
7. It turns out that, even though I did not drive a single time in the two years that we lived in Madison, I had in fact had a Wisconsin driver's license, so I didn't need the birth certificate anyway.

Anyway, they were all very nice, of course, at the DMV, and the approximate wait (according to the electronic sign outside the door) was 0 minutes. So in the end it wasn't so bad. When I stepped up to get my picture taken for the license I asked the woman if I could smile because they wouldn't let me smile in Indiana, and the picture looked totally awful. She laughed and said, "yes, you can still smile in Wisconsin." I find this statement to be profound and quite true on more than one level.

Mayan (?) Hot Chocolate

Today felt like a cooking day, so I decided to make a spinach and butternut squash salad when I remembered that the recipe insert in this Sunday's paper had a recipe that they called Mayan Hot Chocolate. It also feels like a hot chocolate day, and the first ingredient was butternut squash, so I figured I could just set aside some squash from the salad (of course, not tossing this squash with oil, salt, and pepper before roasting it) and give it a shot.

Puree 2/3 cup of mashed butternut squash and 1/2 cup 2% milk in a food processor. Place in a saucepan with 2 cups milk and 6 ounces of chocolate morsels. Heat until chocolate melts. Serves 2.

I don't know what I thought it would taste like, but I didn't expect it to taste like butternut squash mixed in with some hot chocolate, which is what it does taste like. It's got some fibrous chewiness that I'm not sure is worth the extra trouble. I'm also not sure that the Mayans made their hot chocolate with squash, but as I wasn't there I can't say for sure. The salad is good, though.

I did a freelance article (and got paid!) for the local business magazine, a lot like the magazine I wrote for in Madison. The article is online if you're interested. You have to flip to page 17. I just reread it. There are a few sentences that I should have changed, they seemed awkward. Oh well. I guess if they had bothered the editor he would have rewritten them.

I did some figuring, and I would estimate that I've done somewhere around 200 interviews since I graduated from college. This was probably the easiest.

Ginger Snaps

I really really wanted to make Chris's mom's recipe for Gingerbread cookies last weekend, but it was in my email and our internet had decided to stop working during the snow storm. So, I couldn't do that, but I had my heart set on gingerbread, and I already had the ginger, so I dug this recipe out from Alice Water's Simple Cooking.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (9.5 oz or slightly more) flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1½ teaspoons ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper (optional)
  
• 11 tablespoons butter, salted or unsalted, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ cup molasses
• 1 large egg, at room temperature

Directions:

1. Stir together the dry ingredients.
2. Beat the butter just until soft and fluffy. Add the sugar and continue to beat until smooth.
3. Stir in the vanilla, molasses and egg.
4. Mix in the dry ingredients gradually until the dough is smooth.
5. Divide the dough in two equal portions and roll each on a lightly-floured surface until each is about 2-inches (5cm) around. Don't worry if they're not perfect; you can neaten them up in a second.
6. Wrap each in plastic wrap then roll them lightly on the counter to smooth them out. Refrigerate for two hours, or better yet, freeze the cookie logs until firm (30 minutes or so).
7. To bake, preheat the oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
8. Slice cookie dough into 1/4-inch rounds with a sharp knife. Place sugar-side up on baking sheet, evenly-spaced apart. Leave a couple of inches between cookies since they'll spread while baking.
9. Bake for 10-14 minutes, rotating the baking sheets midway during baking, until deep-golden brown. The cookies will puff up a bit while baking, then settle down when they're done. Bake on the lower end of the range for softer cookies, and more for snappier ones, depending on your oven.
10. Let the cookies cool two minutes, then remove them with a spatula and transfer them to a cooling rack.

Results:

I really liked these. I under-baked them a little at 9 minutes, they should definitely stay in for at least 10. They were definitely not snappy. I didn't add the pepper, but I think I might the next time. Undoubtedly not as good as Kathy's recipe would have been, but now that the Internets are working again I'll give that a shot soon.