In late autumn, after all the people have baked their pumpkin pies and made their pumpkin breads, the grocery stores sell their overstocks of canned pumpkin at very reduced prices. Sometimes people will begin to donate a lot of it, and sometimes it is in the church budget to go to the store yourself and buy up a bunch of it. I have seen the prices fluctuate between over two dollars a can during high-demand times, to a quarter just a few days later, after the holiday rush is over with. Since pumpkin is high in vitamin A, it is a very good buy for its nutritional benefit alone, even though it is a major ingredient in many tasty dishes.
Canned pumpkin isn't necessarily an actual orange pumpkin. There can be any sort of squash in that can, from actual pumpkins to butternut, acorn or other orange, solid-type squash. There is no hard and fast definition of what "pumpkin" actually is, so the canners can likewise. For this reason, before you put the canned pumpkin into your particular dish, you should give it a taste, to see if it's the sort that wants to be in a sweet or savory dish. In this case, the pumpkin will just have to tell you itself.
SWEET DISHES
Most people only understand pumpkin as a sweet side dish. For them, the idea that a pumpkin can be savory is unthinkable....if you have more of these people than the adventuresome types, don't make a big deal out of putting pumpkin into savory dishes. Just add it, and when they ask what was in it, tell them. Then they might become a bit more trusting of where you might take them, culinarily.
Everyone knows about the Pumpkin Pie. While it is not my favorite, it is still the epitome of the holiday season, and for many people, Thanksgiving celebrations and Christmas are not the same without their pumpkin pie. This is a food preference thing, and should be respected. I make my pies without the crust, so basically I make a cooked pumpkin pudding. In my humble opinion, the crust is just a huge expenditure of calories from my calorie bank that I just don't think worth the trouble. For other people, this idea of "no crust" is an untenable sacrilege that they can't even fathom. People will let you know what side of that fence they are on. Holiday foods can bring out the beasts in some, for sure!
For a quick pumpkin bread spread, you can mix one cup of white or brown sugar and one teaspoon vanilla in a 16 ounce can of pumpkin. Cook on the stove top or in a microwaveable dish for about a minute or two, until the raw flavor of the pumpkin is gone. This is great on peanut butter sandwiches, or mix it in with cream cheese to top fruit bread, bagels, french toast or just regular bread. Bread topped with this cream cheese spread is especially good as bruschetta with pasta covered in tomato sauce. This spread is also good stirred into hot cereal.
Of course, pumpkin is good as a smoothie, with ice cream or milk, and whirred in the blender. If you use milk, make sure to use sugar or honey as a sweetner. You can add oatmeal or flax seed to this to make it super-good for you!
You can, of course, make lots of pumpkin bread with it. My husband makes the best pumpkin bread, using the recipe from The Joy of Cooking. Instead of the fat, though, he uses applesauce, and coats the pan and the top of the bread with cinnamon sugar before baking. Yes, this has kept us married!
My husband also makes a wonderful cream cheese "cake" using the Cool Whip method. Sometimes, he will mix in a can or so of pumpkin, to make an autumnal dessert, which is delicious.
You can also use the pumpkin in tamales, as a sweet or savory filling, or as part of the masa ingredients and then filling the tamale with chicken.
There are also many recipes for pumpkin fudge, but I have yet to have one of those recipes turn out correctly. It is an excellent addition to rice pudding, or even just a homemade pumpkin pudding.
It is also possible to use pumpkin in the place of applesauce and fat in baked goods. Experiment to see what works best for you.
You can use canned pumpkin in place of sweet potatoes, along with marshmallows, brown sugar, vanilla and syrup to make a substitute for the traditional sweet potato casserole.
SAVORY PUMPKIN USES
Pumpkin makes a very good soup, mixed with a little chicken soup base and milk. This is a great tomato soup substitute with grilled cheese sandwiches, or hotdogs and cheese rolled in tortillas and baked. It also makes an excellent soup base. First you get an assortment of vegetables-potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, corn, lima beans, radishes, whatever you have. Put in a pan with enough broth to cover, and cook until tender. Season; simply, add salt and pepper, or this plus garlic and onion, or that plus curry seasoning. Add meat and pumpkin, plus enough milk to bring it to a stewy stage, and serve. Or you can take it up another notch and add a bit of cocoa powder (unsweetened, about a tablespoon per pound of pumpkin) and make a mole flavored stew.
Make your usual bean soup, or refried beans, and add pumpkin at the end of the cooking time. It is also an excellent addition to homemade chicken noodle soup or chicken and dumplings.
A woman in a woman's magazine recipe contest recently won a sizable amount of cash using canned pumpkin as the base for her cheese sauce. You could also use it as the base for your cheese sauce for topping enchiladas. It is good for so many wonderful things!
You can use pumpkin, heated, seasoned, and buttered, as the "bean" layer in a seven layer dip. You can also just serve the pumpkin hot, with a bit of salt, pepper and butter, as a replacement for mashed potatoes. A bit of nutmeg adds to it, but I am personally not a fan of nutmeg.
Use half pumpkin and half your usual tomato sauce to top enchiladas or to make tamale sauce.
WHOLE PUMPKINS
Whole pumpkins are bit different things to manage. You must cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, put them face down on a baking sheet and bake them until the inner flesh is soft and can be scooped out. While you are baking the pumpkins, you can bake the seeds, season them and eat them like snacks. Or, you can take the baked seeds and whir them in a pesto sauce as a substitute for tree seeds--handy, if you have a people around you who are allergic to tree nuts. I would not suggest putting them into fruit breads as a nut substitute, because the moisture of the bread turns the seed shells into shards instead of something good to eat.
Take the whole chunks of the pumpkin, add onions, cooked breakfast sausages, and a touch of maple syrup. Bake at 400 degrees, covered, until everyone is equally caramelized in there. This is a delicious breakfast dish.
You can turn a whole pumpkin into an edible soup tureen. Bake a pumpkin that has had its upper lid removed and the seeds taken out. Place it on an attractive platter, and fill with soup or chili. This is a fun method for serving the pumpkin, but make sure you put it on the platter, since I've never met a pumpkin that could be trusted.
Pumpkin is also useful for decorating in the autumn-for some people, it is not even Halloween without a Jack O'Lantern on their front porch, or even painted faces on a pumpkin. The good part about the carved pumpkins is that the squirrels also get to enjoy the season, too, by eating the pumpkin as it sits on your porch!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Finding Your Way Through The Maize
I don't know why it is, but it seems most people who donate items to their church food bank seem to be really into donating canned corn. My church was no different-we had someone donate cases and cases of canned corn. When you get tired of heating it up for the potluck, what do you do with the rest of it? (Besides give it away to kids for answering questions correctly in Sunday School--only to have it re-donated a week later. Which happened! )
At one point in history, the Spaniards thought themselves superior to Mexicans because the Spaniards ate wheat meal, and the Mexicans ate corn meal-wheat was thought to make a person more intelligent and civilized. The many political aspects of corn can be found in a book called "Que Vivan Tamales!" It is an interesting book, outlining the many political and social ramifications of corn throughout history-it's way more complicated than anyone could ever imagine.
Corn, today, has tons of appications, from food for people to food for animals, even to plastics and making fuel to run your car. It is a very versatile and valuable crop. It is also probably the first crop to be hybridized, by the first person who noticed that a grass had formed a cob with delicious corn on it. There is evidence to indicate that the ancients took out all the inferior forms and encouraged the pollination and growth of the superior forms-thus practicing hybridization.
An excellent illustration of corn's importance in modern times is the movie "King Corn". It is a documentary made by two young men in Iowa about corn and it's economic and social impact today. It is a must-see for those of us who are really into food. It is available on DVD, most likely through your local library.Corn, for all its simplicity to the average consumer, has always been and remains a very complicated crop.
In our modern era, corn, especially the canned kind, is a staple product. Socially, we donate it (apparently a LOT of it) to food banks and churches. It is welcomed, certainly, but then it can become an issue for the church cook to deal with the overage. It doesn't seem like a lot of corn until you start cooking it for others-then it seems you are inundated with it, and that inundation grows at an inverse proportion to the number of people who will want to eat it-again and again and again...
Whole kernel corn is excellent served hot or cold. Most people cook it and serve it with butter or olive oil. In my family, we always add equal amounts of sugar and salt, plus some black pepper, while cooking. Drain this and add some butter, or skip the butter and add the juice of a whole lime plus a teaspoon of chili powder-less, if you're not really into chili powder-toss very well and serve. You can add it to vegetable soup or make a soup based on it, called corn chowder. I put it into my curries for a sweet and crunchy note. You can add it whole to corn bread, or make scalloped corn with white sauce and cheese.
Whole kernel corn served cold with a bit of Italian dressing makes excellent Italian Corn Salad. You can also add salsa and chopped bell peppers and onions to make Mexican Corn Salad. You can also add a half can of corn into a banana smoothie-just make sure you really get it all mixed well, because you don't want to surprise the person drinking it TOO much!
The other type of corn that is usually donated is the dreaded Creamed Corn. I say "dreaded" because few people like this, and the cook has to generally camouflage this product in order to use it up. Creamed corns vary in flavor (sweetness) and thickness of sauce, so it is best to taste it first, and get a read on its texture. This is a product, though, that people usually are of one of two opinions on-either they love it or they hate it. There is little gray area of opinion on this product. The sugar content of it helps you determine how much you want to add to sugary things-since sugar is a liquid when added to other ingredients, and overage of sugar will make a moister product.
One of the best uses I have seen for this product is as the white sauce portion for macaroni and cheese. If you are a serious sweets-person, you will probably love that. Use it as you would any canned soup in tuna noodle casserole, scalloped potatoes, or any casserole. You can also whisk in four eggs per 16 oz and make a lovely baked custard. It can substitute for the fat and liquid in almost any corn muffin recipe-even brownies, if you whir it through the blender until all the corny bits are no longer recognizable. I am sure it would also work with cake mix as the milk and fat portion, though I've not tried that. You can also put it into banana smoothies; once again, make sure all the corny bits are no longer chunky. You can add it to a block of processed cheese along with salsa and make a nice dip for those football game days. Whir it up in the blender and use it instead of the canned milk in your pumpkin pie recipe. Or use it as a base for curries instead of coconut milk-less fat and more flavor! (Of course, it is not a good idea to spring a curry on unsuspecting church people-make sure they're hip to curry before you present it to them, because it is some powerful mojo in scent alone, nevermind the flavors-and too much for a lot of people to handle!) You can add it to slaws, on a two parts mayo (or Miracle Whip) to one part creamed corn that has been through the blender; add your usual dressing ingredients and mix this into the salad. Delicious!
If you have an abundance of corn on the cob, just cook it in a bath of a bit of milk, equal parts salt and sugar, and a bit of pepper. You can also add any aromatics that you might like-rosemary, for example, or onions-and just dress by rubbing a quarter of a fresh lime on it, and sprinkling with chili powder. Of course, in a church setting you'll probably have die-hard butter fans on hand, so you should have butter on hand for them. Poor things, they don't know what they're missing.
Hopefully, these are a few ideas for you to use up your "corny" items-and you'll make it through the "maize". Your prize at the end? A truckload of canned pumpkin? Uhhh, awesome?
At one point in history, the Spaniards thought themselves superior to Mexicans because the Spaniards ate wheat meal, and the Mexicans ate corn meal-wheat was thought to make a person more intelligent and civilized. The many political aspects of corn can be found in a book called "Que Vivan Tamales!" It is an interesting book, outlining the many political and social ramifications of corn throughout history-it's way more complicated than anyone could ever imagine.
Corn, today, has tons of appications, from food for people to food for animals, even to plastics and making fuel to run your car. It is a very versatile and valuable crop. It is also probably the first crop to be hybridized, by the first person who noticed that a grass had formed a cob with delicious corn on it. There is evidence to indicate that the ancients took out all the inferior forms and encouraged the pollination and growth of the superior forms-thus practicing hybridization.
An excellent illustration of corn's importance in modern times is the movie "King Corn". It is a documentary made by two young men in Iowa about corn and it's economic and social impact today. It is a must-see for those of us who are really into food. It is available on DVD, most likely through your local library.Corn, for all its simplicity to the average consumer, has always been and remains a very complicated crop.
In our modern era, corn, especially the canned kind, is a staple product. Socially, we donate it (apparently a LOT of it) to food banks and churches. It is welcomed, certainly, but then it can become an issue for the church cook to deal with the overage. It doesn't seem like a lot of corn until you start cooking it for others-then it seems you are inundated with it, and that inundation grows at an inverse proportion to the number of people who will want to eat it-again and again and again...
Whole kernel corn is excellent served hot or cold. Most people cook it and serve it with butter or olive oil. In my family, we always add equal amounts of sugar and salt, plus some black pepper, while cooking. Drain this and add some butter, or skip the butter and add the juice of a whole lime plus a teaspoon of chili powder-less, if you're not really into chili powder-toss very well and serve. You can add it to vegetable soup or make a soup based on it, called corn chowder. I put it into my curries for a sweet and crunchy note. You can add it whole to corn bread, or make scalloped corn with white sauce and cheese.
Whole kernel corn served cold with a bit of Italian dressing makes excellent Italian Corn Salad. You can also add salsa and chopped bell peppers and onions to make Mexican Corn Salad. You can also add a half can of corn into a banana smoothie-just make sure you really get it all mixed well, because you don't want to surprise the person drinking it TOO much!
The other type of corn that is usually donated is the dreaded Creamed Corn. I say "dreaded" because few people like this, and the cook has to generally camouflage this product in order to use it up. Creamed corns vary in flavor (sweetness) and thickness of sauce, so it is best to taste it first, and get a read on its texture. This is a product, though, that people usually are of one of two opinions on-either they love it or they hate it. There is little gray area of opinion on this product. The sugar content of it helps you determine how much you want to add to sugary things-since sugar is a liquid when added to other ingredients, and overage of sugar will make a moister product.
One of the best uses I have seen for this product is as the white sauce portion for macaroni and cheese. If you are a serious sweets-person, you will probably love that. Use it as you would any canned soup in tuna noodle casserole, scalloped potatoes, or any casserole. You can also whisk in four eggs per 16 oz and make a lovely baked custard. It can substitute for the fat and liquid in almost any corn muffin recipe-even brownies, if you whir it through the blender until all the corny bits are no longer recognizable. I am sure it would also work with cake mix as the milk and fat portion, though I've not tried that. You can also put it into banana smoothies; once again, make sure all the corny bits are no longer chunky. You can add it to a block of processed cheese along with salsa and make a nice dip for those football game days. Whir it up in the blender and use it instead of the canned milk in your pumpkin pie recipe. Or use it as a base for curries instead of coconut milk-less fat and more flavor! (Of course, it is not a good idea to spring a curry on unsuspecting church people-make sure they're hip to curry before you present it to them, because it is some powerful mojo in scent alone, nevermind the flavors-and too much for a lot of people to handle!) You can add it to slaws, on a two parts mayo (or Miracle Whip) to one part creamed corn that has been through the blender; add your usual dressing ingredients and mix this into the salad. Delicious!
If you have an abundance of corn on the cob, just cook it in a bath of a bit of milk, equal parts salt and sugar, and a bit of pepper. You can also add any aromatics that you might like-rosemary, for example, or onions-and just dress by rubbing a quarter of a fresh lime on it, and sprinkling with chili powder. Of course, in a church setting you'll probably have die-hard butter fans on hand, so you should have butter on hand for them. Poor things, they don't know what they're missing.
Hopefully, these are a few ideas for you to use up your "corny" items-and you'll make it through the "maize". Your prize at the end? A truckload of canned pumpkin? Uhhh, awesome?
Saturday, September 10, 2011
What To Do When Not Enough People Drank The Kool-Aid
One of the most common drinks in churches is some type of Kool-Aid like soft drink. You can make a punch out of it by adding any fruit juice, sorbet, or soda pop. The addition of dried, fresh or canned fruit makes it even more special, as will the addition of a cup or two more water and any type of gelatin dessert powder (which is a good save if you've run out of the powder and need more drink made up in a hurry.) If you want to make a milk punch, you can add gelatin powder or drink mix to milk, which children really like. Good fruits to add are any of the citrus family, except for the bitter grapefruit. Be careful adding small fruit, like grapes, which can pose a choking hazard. Bananas are just gross. Likewise raisins. Okay, now that we've solved the issue of having enough to drink, what do we do if there is leftover Kool-Aid?
Mixed Up Liquid Drink
You can always make ice cubes. Nice, but boring. What is more fun is adding more sugar, boiling it down until syrupy and add pectin to it to make jelly. (freezer jelly, not the canning type) Or, boil it down by half or until syrupy, with cored and peeled pears or apples in it to make poached fruit. (The leftover syrup from this is Delicious on pancakes, waffles or sno-cones!) Then again, in the case of red, orange or grape Kool-Aid, you can boil it down by half or until syrupy, add fifty percent plum jam, fruited ham sauce, cranberry sauce or jelly and a splash or two of white vinegar and chicken stock and make a wonderful sweet and sour sauce for chicken or pork. To take this a step further, you can add tomato sauce or catsup to it and make a very nice barbecue sauce. If it isn't syrupy enough, you'll probably have to add some cornstarch to thicken.
If your church is blessed with a good blender, you can always use the ice cubed drink to make smoothies, if you have some extra bananas or such.
In the case of the lemon, orange or lime flavors, you can boil these down by fifty percent or until syrupy, add them to similarly flavored gelatins, jams or jellies in a two to one ratio, (two cups liquid to one pack of flavored gelatin) freeze them and make a nice sorbet-with the addition of strawberries or other type of fruit, these are delicious. This works also if you have made a milk-type punch and you have some left over-freeze it, mix it with the gelatin or jelly, scrape it with a fork, and you have a lovely dessert. It melts quickly, so dish it up right at serving time.
If your church is blessed with an abundance of bread, chop it, mix up the drink with some milk, eggs and extra sugar (if needed) and bake up a flavored bread pudding.
Drink Mix Powder, Unsweetened
You can add a packet of orange, lemon or lime to pre-sweetened tea, or hot apple cider. You may need to add a little sugar to the cider, if it is especially sour.
Mix a packet of drink mix, a cup of sugar, and any sort of chopped fruit or berries to make the base for any fruit cobbler or pie, such as apple.
Powdered, Sugared and Un-
You can cook two cups of sugar and water to the hard-crack stage and flavor it with a packet of drink mix-any flavor will do. Likewise, you can use the pre-sugared variety for this-you may need to adjust the water a bit, though. One cup of water may do, where you would definitely need more water and sugar for the flavored packet alone.
Some Savory Uses As Well
Remember, the lemon powder in the small packets is still in its sour stage, so you can use it to flavor lemon filling for lemon pie, lemon sauce for chicken ( with chicken stock and either reducing it or thickening it with cornstarch) or for adding to plain gelatin, chopped chicken and assorted vegetables to make a sort of chicken aspic salad. A half-teaspoon of the lemon drink packet makes a lovely flavoring for any quiche, chicken salad or chicken soup, and you can mix it with pepper and garlic to season fish or chicken before baking, or when poaching as an ingredient the poaching liquid plus stock. Just remember, when using the actual powder, that a little goes a long way. Its concentrated mojo must be contained! Remember to always TASTE TASTE TASTE and adjust the seasonings as you go. What it tastes like before reducing the liquid is a mere shadow of its intensity after boilage. Taste again!
Craft and Other Uses
Drink mix powder can be used to color sugar for topping cupcakes, coloring homemade clay, use with water to make watercolor paints (that smell good!) and rubbed into your hair to temporarily dye your hair! You can also use it with cider vinegar to color Easter eggs!
Mixed Up Liquid Drink
You can always make ice cubes. Nice, but boring. What is more fun is adding more sugar, boiling it down until syrupy and add pectin to it to make jelly. (freezer jelly, not the canning type) Or, boil it down by half or until syrupy, with cored and peeled pears or apples in it to make poached fruit. (The leftover syrup from this is Delicious on pancakes, waffles or sno-cones!) Then again, in the case of red, orange or grape Kool-Aid, you can boil it down by half or until syrupy, add fifty percent plum jam, fruited ham sauce, cranberry sauce or jelly and a splash or two of white vinegar and chicken stock and make a wonderful sweet and sour sauce for chicken or pork. To take this a step further, you can add tomato sauce or catsup to it and make a very nice barbecue sauce. If it isn't syrupy enough, you'll probably have to add some cornstarch to thicken.
If your church is blessed with a good blender, you can always use the ice cubed drink to make smoothies, if you have some extra bananas or such.
In the case of the lemon, orange or lime flavors, you can boil these down by fifty percent or until syrupy, add them to similarly flavored gelatins, jams or jellies in a two to one ratio, (two cups liquid to one pack of flavored gelatin) freeze them and make a nice sorbet-with the addition of strawberries or other type of fruit, these are delicious. This works also if you have made a milk-type punch and you have some left over-freeze it, mix it with the gelatin or jelly, scrape it with a fork, and you have a lovely dessert. It melts quickly, so dish it up right at serving time.
If your church is blessed with an abundance of bread, chop it, mix up the drink with some milk, eggs and extra sugar (if needed) and bake up a flavored bread pudding.
Drink Mix Powder, Unsweetened
You can add a packet of orange, lemon or lime to pre-sweetened tea, or hot apple cider. You may need to add a little sugar to the cider, if it is especially sour.
Mix a packet of drink mix, a cup of sugar, and any sort of chopped fruit or berries to make the base for any fruit cobbler or pie, such as apple.
Powdered, Sugared and Un-
You can cook two cups of sugar and water to the hard-crack stage and flavor it with a packet of drink mix-any flavor will do. Likewise, you can use the pre-sugared variety for this-you may need to adjust the water a bit, though. One cup of water may do, where you would definitely need more water and sugar for the flavored packet alone.
Some Savory Uses As Well
Remember, the lemon powder in the small packets is still in its sour stage, so you can use it to flavor lemon filling for lemon pie, lemon sauce for chicken ( with chicken stock and either reducing it or thickening it with cornstarch) or for adding to plain gelatin, chopped chicken and assorted vegetables to make a sort of chicken aspic salad. A half-teaspoon of the lemon drink packet makes a lovely flavoring for any quiche, chicken salad or chicken soup, and you can mix it with pepper and garlic to season fish or chicken before baking, or when poaching as an ingredient the poaching liquid plus stock. Just remember, when using the actual powder, that a little goes a long way. Its concentrated mojo must be contained! Remember to always TASTE TASTE TASTE and adjust the seasonings as you go. What it tastes like before reducing the liquid is a mere shadow of its intensity after boilage. Taste again!
Craft and Other Uses
Drink mix powder can be used to color sugar for topping cupcakes, coloring homemade clay, use with water to make watercolor paints (that smell good!) and rubbed into your hair to temporarily dye your hair! You can also use it with cider vinegar to color Easter eggs!
Depending on the Kindness of Strangers
This blog is intended for use by people who are fairly experienced cooks-people who know the difference between sugar at the hard crack stage and the soft crack stage-but who just need a few ideas or reminders on what sorts of ingredients will work in which capacity. If you are not that experienced of a cook, this blog will give you a few ideas as long as you can remember, the only rule of cooking is that there are no rules.....just understanding ingredients!
I looked around and noticed that there was no place for someone like me, a person who cooked in a church kitchen with donated items, to find good recipes or recipe ideas. I often cooked without having the traditional ingredients for any recipe-and just had to cobble together something that fed a lot of people for very little money, using donated items as the basis. What happened? My cooking repertoire and abilities, considering I had very odd, mismatched and sometimes questionable equipment to work with (for example, no blender, no food processor and a stove I came to affectionately refer to as "The Bomb", which either did not heat up or went from 150 degrees to 600 in less than five minutes, depending on its mood) my skills began to expand-I loved every minute of it! I learned quickly to solve problems, make do and learn to learn as I went along. So, because I never found "how to cook if your stove is out to get you" recipes, I decided to make a blog about it myself. As I used to say when baking in that old oven, "Here Goes Nothing!"
I looked around and noticed that there was no place for someone like me, a person who cooked in a church kitchen with donated items, to find good recipes or recipe ideas. I often cooked without having the traditional ingredients for any recipe-and just had to cobble together something that fed a lot of people for very little money, using donated items as the basis. What happened? My cooking repertoire and abilities, considering I had very odd, mismatched and sometimes questionable equipment to work with (for example, no blender, no food processor and a stove I came to affectionately refer to as "The Bomb", which either did not heat up or went from 150 degrees to 600 in less than five minutes, depending on its mood) my skills began to expand-I loved every minute of it! I learned quickly to solve problems, make do and learn to learn as I went along. So, because I never found "how to cook if your stove is out to get you" recipes, I decided to make a blog about it myself. As I used to say when baking in that old oven, "Here Goes Nothing!"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)