Cranberry sauce

Homemade cranberry sauce versus The Mold

At our house, some people like homemade cranberry sauce, but for other people it’s not Thanksgiving without the kind of cranberry sauce that dumps out of the can in one piece and stands up in the bowl in one quivering glistening cylinder. So we always have both on the table. This is a recipe for the homemade kind.

I don’t just serve it at Thanksgiving, though. I buy several bags of cranberries when they’re available, in November and December, and freeze them. Then all winter we can have cranberry sauce on squash souffles and duck, and I can make mock cherry pie. Don’t wait – after Christmas, it’s almost impossible to buy cranberries.

How to make cranberry sauce:

In a medium sized saucepan, put half a bag of frozen cranberries over medium heat. Add a cup of sugar, and enough water to come about halfway up the cranberries. Mix, and let it cook for about fifteen minutes, or until the cranberries have melted and then burst and formed a lumpy mass. Take the cranberry sauce off the heat and put it in a pretty bowl. It will get thicker and more gelled as it cools.

You can also make cranberry sauce in a microwave. Pour half a bag of cranberries into a bowl. Add a cup of sugar and enough water to come about 1/4 of the way up the cranberries (not very much water). Mix, cover with a plate, and microwave about three minutes, or until the cranberries burst as above.

If you want to get fancy, you can add additional things to the cranberry sauce as it cooks. A teaspoon of lemon zest is good, or a handful of raisins. Or try adding fresh ginger, or a teaspoon of cloves or cinnamon, or a teaspoon of pepper, or red pepper flakes.

Vegetarian or Vegan?

Cranberry sauce itself is vegan, of course, but what can you put cranberry sauce on that’s also vegan? Try it on baked potatoes, or bread stuffing, or make a mock cherry pie.

What can I do with leftover cranberry sauce?

Cranberry sauce will keep in a tupperware for several weeks in the refrigerator. It’s good on squash soufflé, or with caramelized cabbage. (But neither of those is vegan.)

Corn pudding

Great with turkey, venison, or duck – or with sauteed mushrooms, or squash

Cut the sweetness of this pudding with something strong-tasting. Add cranberries, applesauce, or zucchini for a great dinner.

How to make corn pudding:

In a medium-sized saucepan, boil four cups of water. Preheat the oven to 425. Slowly add one cup of polenta (coarsely ground cornmeal) and stir with a wooden spoon for one minute. Turn off the heat and let it sit while you separate three eggs. Mix the yolks into the polenta, along with a cup of raw corn kernels, a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of red chili pepper flakes. Beat the whites until they are fluffy, and gently mix them into the polenta. Pour all this into a greased baking pan and bake until set, about fifteen minutes. Serve hot, drizzled with a little maple syrup if you like.

Vegetarian or vegan?

Yummy and vegetarian. A good meal to have for dinner as a family, or to serve when people come over. You can have it done when the guests arrive, and just keep it warm to serve it whenever you like.

Can I keep this for later?

This will be better fresh, I think.

Corn on the cob

Fresh, fresh, fresh corn

When I was a kid, everyone emphasized how important it was to have your corn as fresh as possible. My mom used to boil the water first, and then send me and my brother out to pick the ears of corn from our garden, so the corn could go straight from the stalk into the boiling water.

Newer breeds of corn keep their sweetness better than they did a generation ago, and it’s possible now to eat good sweet corn even a day or so after picking. Still, get your sweet corn at the farmer’s market, not the grocery store, if you can, and cook it as soon as possible after you get it.

How to make corn on the cob:

Boil a large saucepan full of water over high heat. Meanwhile, shuck four ears of corn. When the water boils, drop the ears of corn into the water and cook for five minutes. That’s it.

Serve the corn hot with butter and salt. It’s good with hamburgers or veggie burgers, or serve corn with broiled salmon.

Or the modern way

Yeah, you can also stick it in the microwave for about 3 minutes, to steam the corn inside the husks, and then peel them off. This is fast but the husks will be very hot when it comes out. Works better for just one or two ears; if you have a whole mess of corn, it’s quicker to boil the water.

Vegetarian or vegan?

Naturally vegan, if you don’t put butter on it.

And will corn on the cob keep?

Yes, if you cut it off the cob you can keep it for a week or so in a sealed tupperware in the refrigerator, or you can freeze the tupperware full of corn very successfully, and have fresh corn all winter to toss into corn pancakes or spicy corn.

Coleslaw

Something fresh and tasty in winter

Coleslaw only takes a few minutes to make, and it’s very good for you, and most people like it. It’s excellent with any kind of fish.

How to make coleslaw:

Get out the food processor. Cut the tops off two carrots and cut them into quarters. Put them in the food processor and grate them with a quarter of a head of cabbage. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the grated carrot and cabbage out into a small bowl, and add two tablespoons of olive oil, the juice of half a lemon, and a pinch of salt. Alternatively, add two tablespoons of Greek yogurt instead of the olive oil, and a drop of mustard. Serve cold (or room temperature).

Vegetarian or vegan

Coleslaw is completely vegan, if you make it with the olive oil. If you want another vegan way to cook carrots, try candied carrots. For another vegan side dish, try beet salad.

Can I keep coleslaw for later?

Well, you can eat it for the next few days, but it begins to look a little tired. It’s better fresh.

Candied carrots

Kids gobble these up

The sugar, and the sweetness of the caramelized carrots, makes these a big favorite with kids. The biggest problem is that I get tired of cutting up carrots and never make enough of them, and then I have the kids fighting over them. But hey, kids fighting over carrots – that should be the worst of my problems!

Cane sugar or beet sugar?

We’ve been arguing about this for a couple of years. Cane sugar is often picked by children, and beet sugar is picked by machines, so we usually get beet sugar. We can’t taste the difference. Whole Foods has fair trade sugar, and that’s probably the best choice if you can afford it.

How to make candied carrots:

Preheat oven to 400 F. Peel and slice up seven or eight full-size carrots (a lot more if you are using smaller carrots from the farmer’s market) into thin sticks by cutting them in half lengthwise, then in half crossways, then in half lengthwise again. As you cut the carrot sticks, dump them on a cookie sheet with about 1/4 cup of olive oil on it.

When all the carrot sticks are cut, use salad tongs to toss the carrot sticks in the olive oil. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar over the carrots and toss them again. Bake the carrots in the oven ten minutes, then take them out and toss them in the oil again.

Return the carrots to the oven and bake until they are soft and beginning to get a little bit black and crunchy around the edges. Serve hot, maybe with twice baked potatoes or salmon.

Instead of the sugar, you can also season these with cayenne pepper, or with cinnamon, or with cumin. They’re also good just plain, with no spicing or sugar.

Vegetarian or vegan

Just naturally vegan! Enjoy!

Can I keep this for later?

Yes, candied carrots will be just as good after a couple of days in the refrigerator, if you keep them in a plastic bag or tupperware so they don’t get dried out. Microwave them to warm them up for lunch.

Brussels sprouts

Think of them as tiny little cabbages

I was a brussels sprouts skeptic for a long time, long after I had gotten to like pretty much all other vegetables. I still don’t really like them boiled with butter on them, I’m afraid.

But when I realized you could cut them up before cooking them, they didn’t seem so scary anymore. If you’re nervous about eating brussels sprouts, try shredding them like coleslaw at first. Shredded brussels sprouts work great in this recipe.

How to cook brussels sprouts:

Cut off the bases of a pound of Brussels sprouts and chop them all up into shreds. At the same time, take a cup of dried figs and chop them into little pieces as well. In a medium-sized frying pan, heat 1/4 cup of olive oil over medium heat. If you don’t mind bacon, add 1/4 pound of chopped bacon to the olive oil and cook; otherwise skip this step.

When the bacon is cooked, add the brussels sprouts and figs. Also add 1/4 cup of water, and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer covered about ten minutes or until the brussels sprouts are nearly tender.

Then take off the cover and stir occasionally until the liquid evaporates off. Add a tablespoon of red wine vinegar and stir. Serve hot.

Vegetarian or vegan

Brussels sprouts and figs are vegan; if you add bacon then they’re not :).

Can I keep brussels sprouts for later?

No. They’re really only good fresh.

Bread stuffing

The only use for Wonder Bread?

My mother made this sweet bread stuffing with a loaf of Wonder Bread, because it becomes so soft when it gets wet. Sometimes I still use regular store-bought white bread to make this stuffing, but you can also do it perfectly well with whole-wheat bread, or with bread you baked yourself. These days I like that better.

How to make bread stuffing:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Take half a loaf of bread – Wonder or otherwise – and tear it into bite-size pieces in a bowl. Put the bowl in the sink under warm running water until the bread is completely soggy. Squeeze out the water and turn the soggy bread into a large mixing bowl.

Add four eggs, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of kosher salt, and mix. I like to also add 1/2 cup of raisins and one apple cut up into small pieces. Mix.

Grease the bottom and sides of a bread pan with olive oil or butter. Bake about 45 minutes or until a knife plunged into the center of the pudding comes out clean. Serve hot.

Or, to use this stuffing as a real stuffing, take a chicken or turkey. Rinse out the inside cavity with clean water, and use a ladle or large serving spoon to fill the inside up with this stuffing. Roast the chicken or turkey as usual, and the stuffing will also be cooked.

Doing the stuffing inside the chicken will add flavor, but of course then the stuffing won’t be vegetarian anymore. If you don’t use it as a stuffing, you could really serve this as a dessert.

Can I keep bread stuffing for later?

Yes, bread stuffing is good for about a week, reheated in the microwave, if you keep it in a sealed tupperware in the refrigerator.

Beet slaw

Looks like jewels

This beet slaw is a super easy side dish, goes with lots of different dinners, and shines like a bowl of precious stones on your table. Also, it’s delicious and unexpected.

Be careful, though, what you touch while you’re working and serving beet slaw. Beet juice stains really badly. Watch out for your dishcloths, your clothes, and your tablecloths!

How to make beet slaw:

Cut off the tops and the long tails, peel two beets, cut them into chunks, and grate them in the food processor. Add the juice of half a lemon, 1/8 cup of olive oil, and salt to taste. Serve cold, maybe to go with unstuffed cabbage or lamb stew.

Vegetarian or vegan

Beet slaw’s completely vegan, no worries! If you want another vegan way to cook beets, try this beet salad with lettuce.

Can I keep beet slaw for later?

Well, you can eat it for the next few days, but it begins to look a little tired. It’s better fresh.

Beet salad

Pink Rice

Guise (Club du Vieux Manoir)

One summer, volunteering on a low-budget project to restore the castle of the Dukes of Guise in northern France, we had the worst food I have ever eaten in France. The French kids eventually rebelled, complaining that we were starving.

The project director responded by mixing up a huge cauldron of white rice and canned beets – bright pink – and daring us to eat it all. Which we tried to do, and failed. The food went back to being terrible. Despite this scarring experience, I still like boiled beets, though not with rice.

How to make beet salad:

Peel three beets, composting the greens and the tails, and cut them into bite-size pieces. Be careful not to get beet juice on your clothes, because it will stain permanently. Fill a small saucepan half full of water and bring it to a boil over high heat. Then put the beets in, and reduce the heat to medium. Simmer the beets for about twenty minutes, until they are soft.

Drain the beets and rinse them under cold water until they are pretty cool. Put a bed of lettuce on a plate, and arrange the beets on top of the lettuce. Sprinkle crumbled feta cheese on top of the beets for a very pretty salad.

You can make one big beet salad, or plate a lot of small ones individually, which will be even prettier.

We like beet salad with moussaka or cassoulet, or with vegetable latkes.

Vegetarian or vegan

Beet salad is vegan until you sprinkle the cheese on; if you want to keep it vegan or lactose-free sprinkle crumbled hazelnuts or walnuts instead of the feta cheese.

Matzoh from scratch

Can’t find matzoh anywhere?

It has sometimes been my misfortune to live in places where you just can’t buy matzoh – or anyway, where you’d have to take long bus trips to other parts of town to buy matzoh. Fortunately, you can make your own matzoh at home, if you’re careful and quick.

Matzoh in 18 minutes

Passover rules for matzoh give you exactly 18 minutes to make the matzoh, from the moment the water hits the flour to when you take the crisp matzoh out of the oven. This is to be sure the dough doesn’t begin to rise. While I didn’t quite hit this 18 minute mark the first time I tried, by the second time I was, in fact, able to make matzoh in just about 18 minutes. Give it a try!

How to make Barley Matzoh:

The timing doesn’t start until the water touches the flour, so do everything else first. Preheat the oven as hot as it will go. Get out two cookie sheets. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mix 3 cups of barley flour (look in the bulk or health-food sections of your grocery store) with a large pinch of kosher salt. Get ready 1 cup of water and a wooden spoon. Scatter some flour on a clean work surface, and get out a rolling pin.

Now look at the clock and start timing. Quickly mix the water and barley flour until the dough forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Turn out the dough on the floured surface and knead it for a couple of minutes.

Divide the dough into golf-ball size balls and roll each ball out with the rolling pin, then put it on the cookie sheet. You can make five or six of these matzoh, then put the cookie sheets in the oven to bake. When the matzoh are browned and crisp, they’re done. Did you make 18 minutes?

Will these matzot keep?

You’ll probably eat all of them at the Seder, but yes, if you wrap them up in dishtowels and leave them on the counter, they’ll still be good the next day for the second Seder.