Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Rosie's December Garden.

 Volunteer kale in the garden.

 Gomphrena and allysum.


 Roses are still blooming.

 Pretty pink camellia in the cilantro. 


 Lysimachia (creeping Jenny), baby leopard plants, in front,
shamrocks in back.

 Papyrus.

 Fatsia Japonica.



Saturday, December 26, 2015

Rosie Is Published.

Please check out my column

Rosie had a clamoring for clams.


Friday, December 25, 2015

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Rosie Makes Wonton Soup.

Daughter Hawthorne called this morning.
She'd just been talking to a friend
who's been in the hospital and just got home,
and her friend blurted out,
no doubt under the influence of powerful painkillers,
"I haven't eaten for 7 days!
All I want is some of Miss Rosie's Wonton Soup!"

Rosie is on a mission.
A Wonton Soup mission.
 
Rosie's Wonton Soup


 Filling ingredients:
1/2 pound ground pork
1/4 cup raw shrimp, mashed into a paste
1/2-inch knob of ginger, peeled and minced
1 scallion, sliced
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp toasted ground Szechuan pepper
1 TB tamari sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 egg white, beaten
1 1/2 tsp corn starch

For filling:
 Combine above ingredients.
Place a scant teaspoon on each wrapper
and fold and seal, using beaten egg..
Do not overfill.
Keep wontons covered with a damp towel.

For a how-to on filling and wrapping wontons,

Makes about 30 wonton wrappers

NOTE:  This amount of filling filled about 30 wrappers.
I only used a dozen filled wontons for a quart of soup,
figgerin' on 3 wontons per cup.

I'm saving the remaining 18 wontons
for a fried appetizer, with assorted dipping sauces.

Cooking the wontons:
 Bring a large pot of water to a rapid boil.
Gently drop 6 wontons into the pot.
 After a few seconds, use a slotted spoon
 to loosen any that have stick to the bottom.
When the water comes to a boil again,
let boil for 3 minutes.
Pour in enough cold water to stop the boiling.
When the water comes to a second boil,
cook 2 minutes longer.
Remove wontons and drain.

For the Wonton Soup: 
(Serves 4.)
1 quart homemade chicken consommé
  2 scallions, sliced
12 stuffed and cooked wontons

Heat the consommé to a simmer.
Ladle into bowls.
Add 3 wonton pouches into each bowl.
Sprinkle green scallions over top.

NOTE:  Do not store any leftover soup with wontons in it.
The wonton will kinda bloat in the soup
and make it starchy and cloudy.

Do you really think you'll have leftover soup?


Mise en place

Make a past out of the shrimp.

Combine all filling ingredients.

 Mashy-mushy!


Aren't these pretty?
I must admit, I did not fashion these.
Hawthornelet-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named
watched me struggling pitifully to form these little pouches.
He shook his head at me, tsk-tsking.
Well no.  He doesn't tsk-tsk.
Let me rephrase that -
he looked at me like I was the village idiot
that he had to babysit for a few hours.
I was pushed aside
 and he went and formed 30 perfect little filled pouches.


Ta Daaaaaa!!!!!
Successful mission.
Wonton Soup delivered!

I hope this was healing for my Whittle Daughter.

But wait!
That's not all.
Rosie had extra stuffed wontons.
So, the next day, I fried them.
Peanut oil.
350° about 2 - 2 1/2 minutes or until golden.
Remember, never crowd the pan when frying.

 Crisp, blistered little pouches filled with goodness.

 Serve with a little soy and sweet sauce.


Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Rosie Makes A Cranberry And Fermenting Banana Pound Cake.

It's post-Thanksgiving.
I still have cranberries languishing in the fridge.
Two of the male Hawthornelets were here, so I overbought on bananas, anticipating the boys would  consume them all.  They did not. The bananas are rapidly maturing in my bright, white bowls Glowria gave to me.

I enter this data into my feeble brain, and I come up with a cranberry/banana poundish cake.  I still have the reduced pomegranate sauce from Thanksgiving to give anything a little oomph and a certain je ne sais quoi to the dish so I'll be incorporating that too.

Cranberry Banana Pound Cake
6 eggs, room temperature
1 TB vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup cream
2 sticks butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup cranberries
2 TB confectioner's sugar
2 extra ripe bananas

  • Butter two loaf pans.  I used a glass 8 1/2 x 4 1/2- inch pan and a slightly smaller aluminum pan.  Place oven rack at lower middle and heat oven to 300°. Whisk eggs and vanilla in a medium bowl. Sift flour, salt, and baking powder in another bowl.Whisk sour cream and cream together in a third bowl.
  • Using a stand mixer with a paddle, beat butter medium-high until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes, scraping down sides.  Reduce speed to medium and gradually pour in sugar.  Increase speed to medium high and beat about 5 minutes, until fluffy and pale.  Scrape down sides as needed.
  • Reduce speed to medium and slowly stream in egg and vanilla mixture.  Scrape bottom and sides and continue to mix about 2 minutes.  Batter will look slightly curdled.
  • Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in 3 additions, starting and ending with flour, alternating with sour cream mixture in 2 additions.  Scrape down bowl as needed.  Give the batter a final stir by hand.
  • Toss cranberries with confectioner's sugar, coating evenly, then gently fold into batter.  Tap pans a few times to release air bubbles.
  • Bake at 300°, 1 hour 30 minutes for larger glass baking dish, 1 hour 20 minutes for the slightly smaller aluminum pan.  Toothpick-test as always.  Rotate pans halfway through baking and tent with foil if necessary.
  • Let cakes cool in pans on wire rack 20 minutes, then invert and cool completely on rack, about 2 hours.
 

Very fine crumb pound cake.
I like the texture.





When you're baking, it's always best to have a mise-en-place.
Everything measured and ready to go.




The bigger pan took about 10 minutes longer.
Toothpick-test!