Choose Your Own Adventure: Granola

If I were ever to write a cookbook, it would be a Choose Your Own Adventure (R). I'd need to work out some copyright nonsense first. Basically, the premise would be that there are a whole bunch of things that you can make that are basically variations on a theme. Bread, granola, mac and cheese, scones...it goes on and on.

So granola. It's really one of the easiest things to make. You need about 6 cups of grain. Usually I like to base it on rolled oats. For the granola I made last weekend, it was just over 5 cups of oats, about 1/2 cup of millet and about 1/3 cup flax. Other good things to add at this point are barley, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, etc. Whatever you find that strikes your fancy in the bulk foods aisle.

No nuts or fruit yet. Those come later.

So I've got my six cups of grain in a big bowl, and the I need some sweet and some fat. The sweet makes it stick together and the fat makes it get all golden and toasty. I use about 1/3 cup of each, but many recipes call for more - if you like big clumps, then more sweet and fat would be in order.

For this particular granola, I used 1/3 cup of canola oil and about a 50-50 ratio of honey and maple syrup.

Other fats that I've successfully used include peanut butter, melted butter, other oils (something with a bit of sesame oil might be really nice. For sweets, brown sugar, orange juice, etc. Careful when you're picking your sweet and fat to balance the liquidity: brown sugar and peanut butter wouldn't be a successful mix (but peanut butter and maple syrup, or brown sugar and canola oil would both work well).

Bust out the food processor, and add any other flavorings you want. For this one, I added vanilla and pink peppercorns. Pulse until it's all emulsified.

Now, take the spatula and start tossing the liquid into the oat mixture. Putting it all in a big ziploc and then shaking might also be successful, but I haven't done it that way. Spread it all out on a jelly roll pan.

Bake at 300 degrees (you've been preheating, right?) for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and stir in nuts (in this case, 1/2 c of chopped blanched almonds). This is also where you would put in coconut. Smooth out and throw back into the oven for another 15 minutes.

Stir in dried fruit (we used sour cherries), and let cool. Store in the fridge. I don't know how long it lasts, ours usually is gone in a week or so.

The great thing about granola is that I never make it the same way twice.

Granolas that have been particularly successful:

orange juice-canola oil-vanilla with coconut and dried pineapple for a tropical surprise.
peanut butter-maple syrup with cashews and craisins

and it's wonderful for pretending it's spring already...

Upcoming in my kitchen...Homemade Pizza Crust!

Holy cow, Batman, it's time for homemade pizza crust!

Admittedly, I've been spoiled by the ridiculously inexpensive pizza dough available at Cangiano's and at Meat Farms in PJ (Love the wheat dough!). I'd been meaning to find a quick homemade dough to try, for that inevitable day when pizza inspiration strikes only to find that there's no pre-made dough in the fridge.

As usual, TheKitchn has the answer. Here's the link to their homemade thin crust pizza dough. As soon as I've made this myself (likely next week), I'll post a review.

Pudding Pie

Instead of a birthday cake, yesterday I made a pudding pie.

I had forgotten how much I like pudding.

The three other boxes of pudding that somehow jumped into my basket at the grocery store are not long for this world, I'm afraid.

Michael, the inspiration behind the pudding pie revival, has suggested using the pistachio pudding in a chocolate cookie crust. I can't wait.

Corned Beef and Pickling Spice

St. Patrick's Day. Growing up, this meant boiled corned beef, boiled cabbage and (you guessed it) boiled potatoes.

No offense to my Irish relatives, but I'm not sure I'd have waited until the famine to immigrate, if this was the normal offering.

My plans for a slightly revised Irish-inspired holiday meal were thrown a bit off kilter due to the broccoli and fennel still nesting in the refrigerator from last weekend's veggie buying spree at Meat Farms. Therefore, no cabbage or potatoes were made for tonight; instead, pan sauteed broccoli with red pepper flakes were combined with onions and corned beef that were braised overnight (last night) in the slow cooker.

As meat done in the slow cooker is known to do, the corned beef was amazingly tender, and almost fell apart at a touch. What really set the taste over the top, though, was the pickling spice. Thanks to Wendy, I went out in search of non-pre-seasoned corned beef brisket a few weeks ago (Pathmark of all places, had the lowest price). Her recipe was to take a brisket, toss it in the slow cooker with pickling spice, onions and a little bit of water, set it on low for 8 hours and voila! Yummy flavored corned beef.

What she didn't tell me, though, was how amazing the pickling spice really is. I was pretty lazy about the whole process, and just dumped three tablespoons of the spice on top of the brisket. Then I got a whiff of the smell: cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and a whole host of other aromatics that almost made me dizzy with delight. This sensory overload is what cooking is really all about.
There's still half a bottle of pickling spice, as well as another brisket in the freezer. I'm curious about different ways to cook the brisket to amplify the flavor (pan seared, then braised? brined?), as well as finding ways to use the pickling spice to it's fullest potential.

Slow Cooked Goulash - Yummmmm

This is actually a joint posting, as Michael has agreed to do a guest spot here on BrooklynFoodies. I'll humbly offer apologies now for the vegetarians in the audience, as this is most certainly a dish best suited for the carnivores in the crowd. Perhaps there's a way to convert this dish, but I'll leave those ideas to Morgan.

First and foremost, the recipe: Crockpot Beef Goulash. (Personal aside here: it never ceases to amuse me that the boy who was raised almost exclusively in New York continues to use recipes found on "Southern Food.")

Second, the occasion. Actually, for this, there wasn't really an occasion. We had shunned the typical Italian restaurant option for Valentines, instead deciding to tempt our palates at Schnitzelhaus, an authentic German restaurant in Bay Ridge. We weren't disappointed (ok, I was a little, but that was because I was foolish enough to order what was basically spaghetti and meatballs. I know. It was a bad idea.), as Michael's order of beef goulash was amazing...succulent, silky and, dare I say it, robust in flavor without being too pushy. (Given that description, there's a much funnier joke to be told, but this is neither the time nor the blog in which to do so.)

As ever, we enthused over the fact that we should learn how to make this at home, though I wasn't even quite sure where to start, as this was a far cry from the goulash that I had grown up with (sorry, Mom). However, one whiff of this amazing dish as it slowly simmered in the crock pot overnight, and I was beginning to think that Michael may have been on to something. (Side note number 234: I was really amazingly ill when he cooked this dish, and the fact that it smelled even halfway appetizing to me was stunning. It was really the only thing that was remotely appealing for about 72 hours.)

Michael's improvements on the recipe (since really, I've been doing the writing):

• Use more tomato paste (double) than the recipe calls for
• Use beef gravy in place of most of the water
• Add whole button mushrooms
• Don't spare on the paprika

That said, this is a dish that we would certainly make again, and recommend to our fellow meat lovers. Morgan, any suggestions on how to make this dish a little more veggie friendly?