The Practical Pantry

Once again, I got a little behind in posting the weekly recipe columns. Here are the ones from last month:

• Make tea for two
• Microwave your seafood
• Melt chocolate, melt hearts
• Celebrate the Super Bowl

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Whenever I tell people that I can count the number of foods that I dislike on one hand, I always add the disclaimer that there are plenty of foods that I’ve never tried. Blood oranges have always been on that never-tried list. Today, I am able to take them off.

I knew what to expect for color when I cut into my first blood orange. What I wasn’t expecting was the smell. The best way I can describe it is as oranges on steroids. It smelled good.

With my first bite I thought it tasted like an orange that had been soaked in raspberry juice. It was really good. And although blood oranges probably won’t replace my breakfast fruit, I think I’ll enjoy them as a midafternoon snack.

If you haven’t given blood oranges a try, I recommend them. Not only do they look cool, they also are full of vitamins and minerals.

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I could say many wonderful things about the states I have lived in or near, especially in regards to the foods of those regions. But today, my love letter is to Maine. Or, more specifically, to the farmers that help make this state special.

A while back, a major milk company dropped several Maine organic dairy farmers. Instead of accepting defeat, these farmers accepted a little help and gave birth to MOOMilk.

I finally got a chance to buy MOO — Maine’s Own Organic — Milk. It’s more expensive than regular milk, but similar in cost to national brands of organic milk that may have spent over a thousand miles on a truck before arriving at the store.

I couldn’t think of a better way to try MOOMilk than in chowder. This particular recipe is easy and flexible. Make it with bacon or without, with a teaspoon or a tablespoon of butter, with fish or canned clams. The only thing you really can’t change is the milk.

Quick and Easy Chowder

1 slice of bacon, pork or turkey
1 small onion, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
1-1/2 cups milk
3/4 to 1 pound potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (gluten free if necessary)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 to 3/4 pound fish or 1 10-ounce can whole baby clams, undrained
Ground black pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the bacon, onion, and celery; cook, stirring, until celery softens, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add milk, potatoes, Worcestershire sauce, and thyme; simmer until potatoes are almost tender, about 10 to 15 minutes (depending on the size of the potatoes). Add fish and cook until fish becomes opaque and flakes easily, or add clams and cook until heated through and potatoes are very tender. Season with pepper to taste. Makes 2 to 4 servings.

For more on MOOMilk, check out MOOMilk’s website as well as this podcast of a talk given by one of the farms involved.

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Until this week, I’d never had a flat-iron steak. They are becoming popular on restaurant menus, but I rarely order steak in a restaurant because I enjoy cooking steaks at home. I don’t often see flat-iron steaks at the store, so I just hadn’t gotten around to eating one.

That all changed this week when I saw flat-iron steaks for $2.99 a pound. These particular steaks were topped with a garlic-peppercorn seasoning that had a smell so amazing it permeated the plastic wrap and called out to me. I brought it home, put it in my grilling machine, and cooked it.

But not for too long.

I like my steak to have a nice, red center. Not only do I enjoy them that way, it also gives me some leeway with leftovers. I can reheat the steak without turning it into shoe leather.

My flat-iron steak was very tender and absolutely delicious. And upon further research, I found that it typically sells for about $3 to $5 a pound. It’s a cut of meat I recommend, and at those prices, I would choose it over sirloin and other more expensive cuts whenever possible. And it’s versatile, so you can feel free to grill it, stir-fry it, pan-fry it, or even use it for fajitas.

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Three weeks ago I made a post about being back, done with holiday traveling and ready to work on the blog.

That didn’t go as well as I’d planned.

I got busy with a lot of work, and somehow the Pantry ended up on the bottom of my to-do list. I didn’t miss any column deadlines (click here to see the recent ones) and I continued to take lots of food photos, I just got bad at posting things. Very bad.

I still want to work on redesigning some things on this site, but I’ll need a few more weeks for that. In the meantime, here is one of my favorite (and quick!) main dishes to make after a long day of work.

This recipe makes 2 servings. To double this recipe, purchase a larger ham steak and a 15- to 16-ounce can of fruit cocktail. When thickening the sauce, double the cornstarch and water as well.

Ham Steak with Fruit Sauce

1 6- to 8-ounce boneless ham steak
1 8.25-ounce can light fruit cocktail (in light syrup or natural juices)
1-1/2 to 2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons cold water

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add ham steak; cook according to package instructions, about 3 minutes per side for thin steaks and 8 minutes per side for thick steaks.

Meanwhile, drain the fruit cocktail, putting all of the juice into a small saucepan over medium-high heat. In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and water. Bring juice to a boil; stir in the cornstarch mixture. Cook and stir until the mixture thickens, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add fruit and simmer until heated through. Serve over ham steak. Makes 2 servings.

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I did a lot of traveling over the holidays. I had planned to keep writing while away but that didn’t quite work out. I have, however, been working on ways to improve this site in 2010. So maybe you’ll see some changes in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, I wanted to report on my awesome Christmas present. Many years ago, my aunt gave me a small George Foreman grill. I love it, but I hate cleaning. Every time I had to clean it, I told my husband that I really wanted one with removable plates that went in the dishwasher. For a while, he cleaned it whenever we used it. Then, on Christmas day, he gave me one with removable plates. I tried it last night, and it’s as awesome as I thought it would be.

Even though cube steak is easy to make in a frying pan, it’s even easier in a grill. Especially when said grill does not need to be cleaned manually. And let me tell you, I was really happy to be able to throw these plates in the dishwasher:

I think I’m going to love this grill.

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Last weeks’ recipe column has a recipe for Smoked Salmon Spread. To make this recipe a little fancier for a New Year’s Eve get together, turn them into Smoked Salmon Tarts. All you’ll need is a couple of packages of frozen mini fillo dough shells and a little extra time for baking them.

Smoked Salmon Tarts

1/2 cup sour cream

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

4 ounces smoked salmon, minced

1/2 teaspoon dried dill

1/8 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

2 green onions, thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

Salt and pepper to taste

2 2.1-ounce packages frozen mini fillo dough shells

Fresh or dried parsley to garnish, optional

Thaw frozen fillo dough shells according to package directions. In a medium bowl, blend sour cream and cream cheese until well combined. Add salmon, dill, Worcestershire sauce, green onions and garlic; mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Place a spoonful of sour cream mixture in each pastry shell. Serve at room temperature or bake in oven preheated to 350 degrees until heated through, about 5 to 8 minutes. Top with parsley before serving if desired. Makes 30 tarts.

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Holidays are a great time to throw calorie caution to the wind and indulge in some buttery treats. Few things are as buttery as a batch of these rich snickerdoodles.

Snickerdoodles

Take these cookies out of the oven while they still look slightly undercooked. For best results, use real butter. Adapted from Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Topping:

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

In a large bowl, cream butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer. Add egg and vanilla; beat until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture; mix well. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, combine granulated sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon for the topping. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and roll in the sugar-cinnamon mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets; press gently to flatten slightly. Bake until set, about 8 minutes. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheets, then remove to wire racks to finish cooling. Makes 20 to 22 cookies.

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It should come as no surprise that I like shopping for gifts for friends that enjoy cooking. Usually I like to give a combination gift, such as a pizza cookbook with a pizza pan, a Chinese cookbook with jars of ginger and oyster sauce, and a grilling cookbook with a vegetable grill basket.

When I got a cast-iron Dutch oven for Christmas a couple of years ago, I didn’t think of this as part of a potential combination gift for others. Now I realize that might be because I hadn’t yet found the right thing to pair with it.

Cast Iron Cookbook: Delicious and Simple Comfort Foodis one of those cookbooks that looks great on a coffee table. Fortunately, it’s also great in the kitchen. The recipes are clear and easy to follow, and the book offers more than just recipes. The photography is appealing, and the inclusion of old ads and recipes from Griswold Kitchen’s “Aunt Ellen” are a fun glimpse into the history of cast-iron cookware.

If you have a hard-to-shop for person that enjoys cooking, consider a cast-iron combo gift. That way, they’ll think of you every time they serve a dinner like this:

I made Mammy Lape’s Roast Beef with an inexpensive shoulder roast (on sale this week for $2 a pound at the local supermarket) and it was amazing. Not only was the meat tender and delicious, but the gravy — made with a puree of the roasted vegetables pictured above — elevated the meal to something special.

Mammy Lape’s Roast Beef

Excerpted from Cast Iron Cookbook: Delicious and Simple Comfort Foodby Joanna Pruess. Copyright (c) 2009, reprinted with permission from Skyhorse Publishing.

1 (4 1/2-pound) piece beef chuck about 2 to 2 1/2 inches thick, tied

Unbleached all-purpose flour, for dredging, + 1/4 cup flour for the gravy

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 stalks celery, trimmed and coarsely chopped

1 large yellow onion, peeled and quartered

1 medium carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped

2 1/4 cups chicken or beef stock

1 cup whole milk

Preheat your oven to 325°F.

Flour all sides of the meat, patting to remove the excess, and season with salt and pepper. Heat a 10-inch cast-iron Dutch oven over high heat until hot but not smoking, 3 1/2 to 4 minutes. Add the oil and the beef and sear the meat well on all sides.

Add the celery, onion, and carrot but no liquid. (The pan juices will provide enough moisture.) Cover the pot and place it in the oven for 5 hours, turning the meat once after 2 1/2 hours. Remove from the oven and transfer the meat to a bowl or platter. At this point, you can let it cool and remove any fat or simply finish the sauce and serve.

With a slotted spoon, transfer the vegetables to a food processor and process until smooth; return them to the pan along with the stock. Combine the milk and remaining 1/4 cup of flour in a small jar and shake vigorously to mix. Bring the liquid to a boil and add as much of the milk mixture as needed to thicken the gravy to the right consistency, starting with about three-quarters of the mixture. Taste to adjust the seasonings.

Cut the meat in slices and serve it with the gravy spooned over it on the plate. Or break it into chunks and return the meat to the gravy to simmer. Serve over noodles or mashed potatoes.

Cast Iron Cookbook: Delicious and Simple Comfort Foodwas sent to me by the publisher. I’ve had my Lodge cast-iron Dutch ovenfor a couple of years and I love cooking with it.

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The challenge: I have a lot of recipes that start with a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup. While there’s nothing wrong with those recipes for most people, those with a gluten intolerance usually find “wheat flour” in the list of ingredients on the can.

Fortunately, Progresso Creamy Mushroom soup doesn’t contain gluten* and it works good in a lot of these recipes. So I challenged myself to make one of my favorite recipes, Quick Pasta Primavera, with this soup.**

The recipe: I have made the original recipe dozens of times. It requires adding some milk to the condensed cream of mushroom soup to thin it out. Since Creamy Mushroom soup is ready to serve, it doesn’t need any milk. All other ingredients except for the pasta stayed the same.

Creamy Pasta Primavera

1 18-ounce can ready-to-serve creamy mushroom soup,
such as Progresso

2 cups broccoli florets, fresh or frozen

1 large carrot, julienned

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 garlic clove, minced

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

3 cups cooked spaghetti or rigatoni, gluten free if necessary

Place soup in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add broccoli, carrot, Parmesan cheese, garlic, and pepper; mix. Cook, uncovered, until vegetables reach desired tenderness, about 10 to 12 minutes. Stir in spaghetti; heat through. Makes 4 servings.

The result: The sauce is a little bit thinner than using condensed soup and milk. But I didn’t mind, especially since the Progresso Creamy Mushroom has more of a mushroom flavor. It also has chunks of mushroom, which add texture as well as eye appeal.

Sam Mills corn pasta** is a regular staple in my house. I don’t think anyone needs to be on a gluten-free diet to enjoy this nice change from wheat pasta. However, this was my first time using the spaghetti instead of rigatoni or spirals. While the spaghetti tasted good, I don’t think it held up to the sauce as well as the larger shapes. I probably will stick to the rigatoni in the future and save the spaghetti for light, tomato-based sauces.

Overall, I will continue to enjoy this recipe with ready-to-serve mushroom soup, especially when I catch it on sale at the grocery store.

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*Progresso Creamy Mushroom soup is not certified gluten free. Please be sure that you or the person you are cooking for are comfortable with the ingredients and the manufacturer. As always, make sure the other ingredients in the recipe are gluten free as well.

**The products featured in this recipe are products I use in my own home. I did not receive compensation from any of the companies.

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