junior kitchen

Summer in South Florida means mangoes, and in our family, mangoes mean homemade chutney.

This recipe comes from Nai-Nai, who uses a newspaper clipping from the 1960s as a rough guide - there’s plenty of dabs of this and pinches of that involved in the process.   Chutney is usually served as a flavorful accompaniment to Indian curries, but we’ve embraced the South African tradition of using it in something like a British ploughman’s lunch… as a sandwich with sharp cheese on crusty bread - thick-sliced, if you can get it. A proper cheese-and-chutney sandwich is sweet, tart, savory, sharp, fruity and sticks to the ribs quite nicely.   But it’s hard to get the right kind of chutney. Store-bought varieties tend to taste more like mango preserves or some kind of apple butter relative.

This recipe (or guide) creates the real stuff.

Ingredients

• 4 pounds firm mangoes, peeled, seeded and cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks
• 3 cups cider vinegar
• 2 cups dark brown sugar
• 2 cups chopped onions
• 2 cups seedless raisins (we used both golden and dark)
• 4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 3 inches of fresh ginger root, sliced finely
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground mace
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon crushed dried hot red pepper
• salt to taste

Once the mangoes and garlic have been peeled and chopped and the ginger scraped and sliced (which takes longer to do than to write), place everything in a big pot over high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the mango chunks are tender but still intact. Ladle the chutney immediately into jars.

We don’t use any particular canning techniques and the chutney stays good for two years or more (it usually gets eaten first!). But feel free to consult with canning enthusiasts from elsewhere.

Making sorbet is easy. All you need is some kind of fruit, sugar, water, and a little bit of lime juice. And in summer - at least in our house - having something sweet, refreshing and ice cold is an absolute necessity.

We recently made two kinds of sorbet at the same time - a mango strawberry sorbet (very loosely based on this recipe) and a lemongrass tamarind sorbet (based on this one). Mangoes and lemongrass are things we had handy. If you’ve got peaches or mint (or any kind of fruity thing, or any kind of leafy thing), you could easily switch the recipes around a little.

Mango-Strawberry Sorbet Ingredients

• 1/2-inch ginger
• 2 large mangoes, peeled & chunked
• 1 cup frozen strawberries (more or less)
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• Juice of one lime

Lemongrass-Tamarind Sorbet Ingredients

• 1/2-inch ginger
• Three stems lemongrass, chopped fine
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 cups water
• 1 egg-sized lump frozen tamarind pulp (substitute juice of 1 lime)
• Juice of 1/2 lime

	Because we approach sorbet making a lot like the making of smoothies, we start with ginger - about half an inch of a root for each recipe, chopped and mashed. Daughter likes using a steel measuring cup as a hammer, while we enjoy cleaning flecks of mashed ginger off the walls.
	Make a simple syrup by bringing water to the boil and mixing in sugar until it dissolves. Add ginger. For the lemongrass sorbet, you’d simmer the lemongrass in the syrup for 5 minutes, then remove from heat and add tamarind. Let cool.
	Blend the fruit, add the lime and syrup (straining out the solids). Let sit for 10 minutes or so.
	At this point, you could just put the puree + syrup in a pan in the freezer, then break it up and refreeze. Or, you can get your 30-year-old ice cream maker out of the storeroom, head to the porch, put the puree in the tub and the tub inside the bucket and start spinning!
	Make sure your ice is in manageable chunks. Break the bigger ones. With gusto. Add layers of ice and salt as the tub spins. The more salt, the colder it gets, so don’t overfreeze it - four Tablespoons should do.
	After 25 minutes or so, the contents of the tub will be soft-frozen. Scoop into a container and freeze until it’s hard. If you’re doing two batches, wash the tub and reuse the same icy brine with a little new ice.

Eat and enjoy!

The kids and I tried something different in the kitchen this week and made dog treats. Our dogs have some pretty foul breath so I decided a biscuit that included mint might help them out. The dogs liked them and it really did improve their breath.

Warning - if you leave these biscuits out on a cooling rack they resemble drop cookies and sometimes folks like Kitchen Dad and my niece pop things in their mouths without asking first. The result: very minty breath but not too impressed with the taste.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 2 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 2 Tablespoons fresh mint

Cut up the mint.        

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Drop spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until solid in the middle.

Serve when cool to the touch and you will have very happy minty dogs!

This.

Yes, it looks like a perfect summer food. No, we will not be attempting it in our family’s kitchen.

Because it is also a bit too much.

What is it? You’ll have to click to see for yourself.

Just brace yourself first.

– Kitchen Dad

Well, it’s summer here in Florida and the days are hot and humid. There has not been much cooking going on around here lately. Lots of salads, cheese, fruit and of course glorious omelets. The trend is anything that requires turning on the stove for more than a few minutes is being placed on the back burner (get it, back burner, heh!) until the farm is up and running again. That’s not to say we’re not trying out new recipes. We’ve tried making ginger beer and are… ummm… still working the kinks out of that one, and I hear talk from Kitchen Dad that a fruit sorbet is in the planning stage. We’re not going anywhere this summer so hang in there with us while we wilt away the days. I promise that we’ll have some new recipes up soon!

This dish, from one of Junior Kitchen’s favorite cook books, was modified slightly but was truly yummy. You know you have a hit on your hands when the table is silent because everyone is so busy eating. Don’t let the length of the recipe put you off! It’s not as involved as it looks at first glance, especially if you make the soup ahead of time.

For the soup/sauce

• 1 cup of black-eyed peas (We had fresh ones on hand but you can use dry ones; just be sure to soak them overnight. The original recipe calls for pigeon peas, but these were handy - and delicious.)
• 2 Tablespoons peanut oil or canola oil (We used peanut oil.)
• Generous pinch of ground asafetida (Found at Indian groceries.)
• 1 teaspoon whole brown or yellow mustard seeds (We used yellow)
• 1 medium mild onion, cut finely
• 1 fresh, hot chili pepper, cut into slivers.
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 1/4 pounds ripe tomatoes, finely chopped
• 4 Tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt, give or take
• 1 tablespoon lime juice (The original recipe calls for tamarind pulp, but offers lime as a substitute.)

Put the black-eyed peas in 3 cups of water and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer on low very gently for one hour. Mash the peas against the sides of the pan and set aside.

Put the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. When hot, put in the asafetida. Five seconds later, put in the mustard seeds. Wait another 5 seconds and add the onion and chili pepper. Stir and cook 2 minutes or until slightly brown. Add the curry powder and stir twice. Add the tomatoes and stir for a minute. Add the cilantro, salt and 3/4 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Cover, turn the heat down to low, and simmer for 7 to 8 minutes, or until the tomatoes are soft. Now add the tomato mixture to the cooked black-eyed peas. Add another 1 1/2 cups of water and the lime juice. Stir and bring to a boil. Cover, turn the heat down to low, simmer for 15 minutes, and the soup’s done. It can be cooked ahead of time and reheated when needed.

For the Garnishes

• 4 Tablespoons peanut oil
• 1 medium onion, cut into slivers
• 2 fresh red or green chili peppers
• 2 hard-boiled eggs

Put the oil in a small frying pan and set over medium-high heat. When hot, put in the onion. Stir and fry, turning the heat down as you proceed, until the slivers are dark reddish-brown and crisp (this took us a little over five minutes). Remove with a slotted spoon and spread out on paper towels. Save the oil in the small frying pan. Cut the chilis into fine slivers. Peel hard-boiled eggs and cut them into quarters. The original recipe also called for fresh bean sprouts as a garnish, but we didn’t have any and didn’t feel like getting any. The onions are really essential, though.

For the Pasta

• Salt
• 3/4 pound pasta (We used Chinese wheat noodles and spaghetti mixed together; fettucini would be a good substitute, too)
• 1 whole hot red chili pepper (We substituted a generous pinch of dry pepper flakes.)

Just before you sit down to eat, bring 4 quarts of water to a rolling boil in a large pot. Add 1 1/2 Tablespoons salt. Stir. Drop in the pasta.

While the noodles cook, put the frying pan with the reserved oil on medium-high heat. When hot, put in the mustard seeds. As soon as the seeds start to pop, a matter of seconds, put in the red chili. Stir once or twice, or until the chili darkens, and pour the oil and seasonings into a large bowl. Add about 1/2 teaspoon salt and mix. As soon as the pasta is ready, drain it and put it into the bowl with the oil. Toss thoroughly.

To serve, stir the soup from the bottom and put about 3/4 cup in each of 6 soup plates. Divide the pasta and put a mound in the center of each plate. Scatter the garnishes evenly over the top. Serve immediately.

Summer. Salsa. Easy.

Put on chips. Put over beans. Put in burritos.

(Eat straight out of jar.)

Ingredients

• 6 tomatillos
• 2 or 3 tomatoes
• 2 Tbsps olive oil
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• Red pepper flakes
• 2 large cloves garlic
• A bell pepper
• 1 large onion, or two small ones.
• 1/2 cup cilantro
• 5 leaves of fresh sage (probably 2 tsp)
• Do you have Mexican tarragon, oregano or basil? Why not toss some in!
• 1 lime
• salt & pepper

^{Note: the ingredients here are all measured by eye. This is not rocket science; it’s salsa. If it tastes right, do it.}

First, heat a little oil in the pan over medium-high heat. Peel the papery stuff off the tomatillos and scrub ‘em. While you do this, toss the cumin seeds and pepper flakes in the pan, toast until they darken (about 30 seconds). Add the tomatillos until they start to blacken on one side. Don’t turn them - you kind of want them overdone on one side and underdone on the other side. Add whole garlic cloves. After two minutes or so, toss in a coarsely chopped tomato or two. By the time the tomatoes are soft, remove them from the fire.

Meanwhile, take the remaining tomato, the pepper and the onion and chop coarsely. Separate half of it and reserve. Put the other half with the cooked stuff and shlorp it all into a food processor or blender. Process or blend it with snipped up cilantro, sage and whatever other herbs you think would taste good. (Small hands love snipping herbs with scissors, which makes them turn out just right.) Pour into a bowl and mix with the reserved raw veggies.

As the final touch, squeeze in lime juice, add salt and pepper to taste and serve. Or, even better, stick it in the fridge for a day or two. Like most sauces made with tomatoes, it gets tastier with time to steep.

Salsa. Good. Eat.

A quick note between recipes:

You might be interested in what’s happening over at Lost Parent Diary. Especially the series of posts about finding lost bits of time in the back of the couch.

We all need to find some of that time….

This recipe was fun to make and we got a chance to use a lot of cucumbers that we had from the farm. Kitchen Daddy has a deep addiction to kim chee - this is a version that uses cucumbers instead of bok choy or napa.
——-

Scrub the cumbers thoroughly. Cut in half lengthwise, then cut into pieces 1/2 inch thick.

Sprinkle the sliced cucumbers with 1 Tb of the salt and set aside for 10 mins, then wash and drain them.

Chop the scallion coarsely. Add the garlic, chili peppers, ginger, and remaining salt. Combine these ingredients with the cucumbers and place in a bowl. Add the water and stir.

Then, let it ferment - cover the bowl and place in a warm spot. Marinate for at least 48 hours, although if the weather is cool it will sometimes take several days longer to really get going. In order to prevent the pickle odor from spreading, either place in a secluded spot or cover with with several layers of cloth.

Finally, put in jars, chill and serve cold as a relish.

In case anyone out there is worried about children being allowed to play with knives, I would have to say again it’s what you’re comfortable with. Our daughter has been extremely agile with cutting things since she was small. It’s just something she’s really good at and we’re comfortable letting her do it because she’s really careful and holds a knife properly. She knows the Julia Child method: pinch the blade with the thumb and index finger of the cutting hand, while keeping the fingers of the holding hand nearly vertical, using that first knuckle as a guide and the fingertips away from the blade.

That said there is no way we’re comfortable letting our son use even a butter knife. He uses safety scissors when cutting and that’s as much as he can handle. He’s very handy stirring things and pouring ingredients. So I guess it comes down to watching what your children are good at and their level of understanding.

This drink is refreshing and cool when the heat of summer is getting to you. It was a BIG hit with the kids. One can never go wrong when sugar is involved. We’ve officially named it Cucumber Breeze because it was such a breeze to make.

• 1 cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks
• Juice of 2-3 limes
• Sugar to taste (1/4 c or so is good)
• water
• ice

Put cucumber, sugar and lime juice in blender with enough water to reach an inch and a half below the top. Blend well. Strain the pulp out of the mixture and serve over ice.