Cooking with Fresh Cranberries: Fresh Cranberry Scones & Cranberry Salsa

I couldn't resist picking up a package of fresh cranberries at the market last week, I had never cooked with fresh cranberries before and since they have such a short season I thought it would be silly to pass up the opportunity to play around with some new recipes. Did you know our neighboring state of Wisconsin is Americas largest producer of cranberries? I just learned that too. I also learned that eating a raw fresh cranberry by itself is the opposite of good, no wonder you can't find dried cranberries without any sugar added.

I made a batch of these cranberry and orange scones yesterday and freezed all but six of them since Joel and I can't or shouldn't eat an entire batch of scones by ourselves. I simply placed them on a baking sheet after I rolled and cut out the dough and put them in the freezer. Once they had frozen through I layered them with parchment paper in an air tight container. Now anytime we want fresh scones it will be a breeze! I'm actually going to try this with regular biscuits, what a joy to get a freshly baked treat without cleaning up the layer of flour that inevitably coats my entire kitchen!

Try using a lemon instead of an orange, or you could certainly eliminate any citrus at all but next time I think I'll enjoy using a nice Meyer lemon to give it a POP of flavor rather than the subtle sweetness of the orange.

Fresh Cranberry Scones
15-18 scones

4 cups plus 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar + 3 tablespoons sugar (cut sugar back to 1/4 cup if using dried cranberries)

2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
3/4 pound cold unsalted butter, diced
4 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup cold heavy cream
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries (or one cup if using dried)

1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons water or milk, for egg wash
 

Sugar Glaze

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, plus 2 tablespoons

4 teaspoons freshly squeezed orange juice

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix 4 cups of flour, sugar, the baking powder, salt and orange zest. Add the cold butter and mix at the lowest speed until the butter is the size of peas. Combine the eggs and heavy cream and, with the mixer on low speed, slowly pour into the flour and butter mixture. Mix until just blended. The dough will look lumpy. Combine the cranberries and 1/4 cup of flour, add to the dough, and mix on low speed until blended.

Dump the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead it into a ball. Flour your hands and a rolling pin and roll the dough 3/4-inch thick. You should see small bits of butter in the dough. Keep moving the dough on the floured board so it doesn't stick. Flour a 3-inch round plain or fluted cutter and cut circles of dough. Place the scones on a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Collect the scraps neatly, roll them out, and cut more circles.

Brush the tops of the scones with egg wash and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are browned and the insides are fully baked. The scones will be firm to the touch. Allow the scones to cool for 15 minutes and then whisk together the confectioners' sugar and orange juice, and drizzle over the scones.

Next, I tried my hand at some fresh cranberry salsa. Next time I'm going to make sure my hot chili pepper is actually hot because my finished dish really needed some heat behind it to call itself "salsa". What I ended up with was almost more of a relish. Blah...I've never been a cranberry relish fan. Sure turkey and cranberry relish taste good together, but after one bite I've had enough. Turkey should be served savory (with lots of GRAVY!) not sweet. But that's just my opinion. If you have a food processor this is super easy to make. Unfortunately, I have never replaced mine after leaving it behind in Seattle, so I tried dicing the cranberries with a knife and needless to say more ended up on my floor than my bowl. This salsa is tasty on top of any number of dishes, try adding it to your protein for a subtly sweet and spicy addition to your meal.

My genius of a husband wondered if this wouldn't be good with pomegranates instead (also in season) and I think he's really onto something! If using pomegranates there would be no need to add extra sugar as they are perfectly sweet enough on their own.

Fresh Cranberry Salsa

1 1/2 cups cranberries, diced (fresh or frozen) 

1/2 apple, peeled and diced

1 Serrano or jalapeno chili to taste 

4 tbsps sugar 

1 orange zest

2 tbsps fresh cilantro, chopped

1 dash lemon juice (to keep apples from turning brown)

1 dash salt

We are getting super excited about Thanksgiving! We are going sans turkey of course, but I'm looking forward to all my favorite side dishes; mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, roasted veggies, and mac & cheese....my mouth is watering just thinking about it. Time to find my comfy pants!

Keeping Warm with Quinoa Stuffed Carnival Squash

 

 

On a very cold and windy day in late November two people sought refuge in the Lincoln Park Conservatory in Chicago. The warm and humid climate was a welcome escape from the bitter winds that whirled beyond the greenhouse windows. A tropical paradise indeed...

    

Turning on the oven after being outside on a day like to day is very welcome. The heat still lingers hours after the oven is turned off and the smell of roasting onions and garlic permeates into the fabric of my sweater; there are worse smells that can cling to you. Tonight I roasted pineapples and cauliflower together with a puree of green chilies, garlic, onions, carrots and celery. The twice baked potatoes served along side it made for a warm and hearty meal. The pineapple lost its tartness in the oven and the subtle sweetness went along great with the savory cauliflower.

However, that's not the recipe I'm sharing tonight. I finally found a use for the carnival squash I've been using for part of my Halloween decorations. With the pumpkin carved and finally discarded it's time to cook them up. Carnival squash come in a variety of sizes, I used two smaller sized squash and they cooked up nicely after about a half hour in the oven. I stuffed them with some quinoa, vegetables, and Gruyere cheese for a simple but elegant evening meal.

 

My focus on this blog has certainly been vegetable based mainly because I'm not going to cook anything my own husband won't eat, so that means a lot of creativity and ingenuity is required in the kitchen. I love it. So it was not too terribly hard to read Eating Animals because I don't do a lot of it. And with Thanksgiving right around the corner and millions of turkeys on the chopping block it seems like appropriate reading material.


My love of books has often had me thinking that I should add a section to this blog of book recommendations; sometimes you read something that's too good not to share. Like my style of cooking has changed over the years, so has my taste in reading material. Where I once devoured most any genre of fiction, I now find myself seeking out more non-fiction material and the current book in my backpack, Eating Animals by Jonathon Safran Foer has me thinking seriously about the state of the current animal industry and rethinking things I already thought I knew. For anyone looking for a matter of fact way of looking at factory farms and the near extinction of traditional animal husbandry, I encourage you to read this and come to your own conclusions. No lie, it's hard to read. We, as Americans, have a huge appetite for animals and its only fair to see how the industry can keep up with the demand.

Try out this recipe next time you're looking for a hearty vegetable based meal that would satisfy most animal eaters.

My favorite part about this recipe is the quinoa stuffing. I'm in the minority for not being in love with winter squashes, but I like cooking with what's in season, and I LIKE them, I just don't LOVE them. It's fun to eat stuffed foods and this is great served alongside roasted potatoes (cook them right along with the squash!) and a nice green salad. Now you've got yourself a fantastic dinner!



Quinoa Stuffed Carnival Squash
Serves 2

1 large or 2 medium carnival squash, cut in half with seeds scooped out
1 cup quinoa, cooked
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup white wine
1 1/2 cups Gruyere cheese, shredded
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Lightly oil the insides and season with salt and pepper. Place the squash cut side down in a baking dish filled with 1/4 inch of water. Bake for 25-30 minutes until flesh is tender.

Meanwhile, cook quinoa in a broth of your choosing (I love the vegetable bouillon paste by Better Than Bouillon). While your quinoa is cooking saute the mushrooms for 3 minutes before adding the carrots. Cook another 3-4 minutes then add onions, celery, and garlic and cook until onions are translucent and tender, about 4-5 minutes more. De-glaze the pan with white wine and add the vegetables to the cooked quinoa along with 1 cup of the shredded Gruyere cheese. Add the lemon zest, juice, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Stuff squash with the quinoa mixture and top with the remaining cheese and bake for another 5 minutes until the cheese is melted. Serve warm.

The Latest Expeditions in Bourbon & Butternut Squash

Wow, it's been a second since my last post (I say that a lot). But I always find myself back here because although I don't take great pictures, I'm not an exceptional writer, and certainly not a professional chef, this blog gives me a creative outlet that I need in my life.

While I haven't posted any new dishes in a while I've still been keeping my kitchen stove hot with new recipes I've found, with varying success. When I'm relaxing around the house I always have the TV turned to a cooking show and the Goat Cheese, Lentil and Brown Rice Rolls from Giada de Laurentis caught my eye.  Since I didn't feel like actually looking up the recipe I went to the market and got what I thought would go well with what I already had in the house and a general idea of what I caught on the show. Basically all I did was open a can of lentils, cooked up some jasmine rice and mixed it well with some goat cheese, freshly grated Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper. Then I parboiled the leaves of green chard and rolled the lentil and rice mixture into the softened greens. I dumped half a jar of my favorite marinara sauce (which is hands down Rao's Arrabbiata sauce) in a baking dish, placed the rolls into the sauce, dumped in the remaining marinara sauce and topped it with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. After baking it in the oven until it was warmed through I served it up to some friends with slices of toasted french baguette and they devoured their plates in minutes! It was surprisingly delicious and something I look forward to making in the future.

I think it's interesting how my cooking style has changed through the years, I use to spend way too much time cooking elaborate meals and now anything that's quick and easy but delicous is really appealing to me. That's why I was kicking myself for not remembering my hatred of cutting up tough winter squashes. After being inspired to make Ina Garten's Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Curry my lapse in memory came quickly to the surface after the tiresome act of peeling and dicing a butternut squash. The pain of cutting up that stupid squash has me shaking my head, never again! If I ever want butternut squash again I will spend a few extra dollars and get it pre-cut at the market by people who have sharper knives than I do. While I swore off butternut squash for the rest of winter, this recipe for Winter Squash Soup with Curry and Coconut Milk on Orangette really caught my eye and I think I have to try it. Coconut milk and fish sauce in a squash soup?? Yes, please! I'll let you know how I like it.

My latest failure in the kitchen is one that I take especially hard being half Vietnamese. I found a great wok at an estate sale just down the street and I have been eager to improve my fried-rice skills. Like a good home cook I had cold rice on hand and loads of veggies in the fridge and a cornstarch based sauce to pull it all together. But no luck. Despite taking all the advice I've ever heard about stir-fries, make sure the veggies are diced the same size so they cook at the same time, use cold day old rice, cook it quickly while stirring constantly making sure all your ingredients are prepped and easily on hand, it was still a no good mushy mess. Of course it tasted good but it was so far off from restaurant quality that I was really bummed. In the future I'm simply going to stir fry my veggies and place them on freshly cook warm rice rather than try to cook the rice and veggies together. Unless someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong I'll skip the mushy mess next time. No picture here, I'll spare you the grisly details.

Recently Joel and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary and celebrated by taking a road trip to Kentucky to find out how bourbon is made. Joel is partial to Wild Turkey while my favorite is Maker's Mark and we had a great time learning (and of course tasting) how our favorite bourbons are made. 

I even got to dip my own bottle of Maker's 46 in red wax!

These fermenting vats of mash don't smell very good but the science behind it is awesome. They release so much carbon dioxide that when we got too close and breathed in the lack of oxygen almost knocked us on our feet!

 

 American bourbon has to age for at least 5 years in charred oak barrels in order to be called bourbon. The shear amount of barrels stored in warehouse upon warehouse is quite impressive. I guess we Americans like our bourbon...

Unfortunately I have no culinary delights to share with you from our trip, in fact we had one of the worst meals of our lives at a small diner in Lebanon, Kentucky where you can still sit down and smoke while you eat your meal. But hey, if it's good enough for Turtleman it can't be all that bad, right??

Umm, wait. Yes it can. And it was. Turtleman is that guy from Animal Planet who goes around chasing wild animals out of peoples houses using his bare hands, I don't think he has very high culinary expectations and the geriatric party of 6 chain smoking certainly didn't help things.  

Overall, it was a great trip and the fact that I spent it with my husband of 5 years made it all the better. I'll be back soon (I promise) with photos and a recipe of my latest food expeditions. Until then!