02/14/22 - Starwich Cookies

03/10/19 - Pineapple Upside Down Cake

More recently, we decided to make our own version. We use Edna Lewis's caramel cake recipe for the cake and an improvised pineapple topping that starts on the bottom.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE CAKE BATTER

• 5 tbsp butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla
• juice of 1/2 lemon

1. Cream the butter. Smoosh it with a fork. Smoosh it with the flat of your hand. It helps to get leave the butter out of the refrigerator for an hour or so. That makes it easier to smoosh.
2. Use a fork and smoosh in the sugar until it is dissolved in a gritty mixture.
3. Stir in the two eggs. This will make it creamier.
4. Add one cup of the flour, the baking powder and the salt. Start smooshing it into the mix.
5. When the flour starts to mix in, add 1/3 cup of milk, the vanilla and the lemon.
6. When this starts turning into a soppy mess, add the other cup of flour.
7. When the soppy mess has dried a bit, add the final 1/3 cup of milk.
8. Keep stirring until you have a smooth cake batter.

• 4 tbsp butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 can crushed pineapple
• 1 can crushed pineapple or pineapple rings
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Optional: maraschino cherries

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Butter the cake pan and line it with parchment. We just fold one sheet to cover the bottom. There's no reason to line the sides.
3. Melt the butter in the microwave and pour it into the cake pan.
4. Spread out the brown sugar and sprinkle in the salt.
5. If you want a pretty topping, you can make a pattern with pineapple rings and maraschino cherries.
6. Drain and squeeze the crushed pineapple and fill in any gaps or just use 1 1/2-2 cans worth to line the entire cake pan.
7. Pour in the cake batter.
8. Bake for about 15 minutes. Ovens vary. It might take 20 minutes.
9. When you can stick a butter knife into the cake and it comes out with no uncooked batter stuck to it, the cake is done.
10. Let the cake cool.
11. Turn the cake pan over. The cake should slide out. The bottom will become the topping.

07/10/16 - Lately

11/20/13 - Butternut Squash Pizza

06/09/13 - Pork Belly and Melon Salad

INGREDIENTS

• 3-4 lbs of pork belly (obviously, this can vary)
• 4-6 whole star anise stars
• lots of coriander seeds - 1/4 cup maybe
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2-4 tbsp sherry
• 6-8 whole allspice
• 1-3 cups of fresh cilantro, mint, basil or some combination
• 2-3 shallots (or, in a pinch, 6 scallions)
• 1/2 cantelope, honeydew melon or even (less than 1/2) watermelon
• 1 -3 thai bird chilis or fresh jalapeno, to taste
• optionally 1/4 cup peanuts, 0-3 tbsp sriracha sauce
• 1-2 tbsp nam pla
• 1-2 tbsp sesame oil
• 2-4 tbsp fresh lime juice (at least one lime's worth)

1. Put the pork belly in a pot and add water to cover it. Add 2 star anise stars and 2-3 tbsp coriander seeds. Cover and bring it to a boil and let cook gently on the stove top or in the oven for 60 to 90 minutes. Let it cool in the liquid and refrigerate overnight.
2. The next day, remove the pork belly from the cooking liquid and put it in a braising pan (e.g. a dutch oven) with a lid. Make a bath for it with sherry, 2 tbsp soy sauce, crushed allspice (not ground), 2 star anise stars and 2-3 tbsp coriander seeds. Bring to a boil on the stove top and put it in a 350F oven with the lid partially open for 3-6 hours. Cook until the liquid is cooked to a syrup and the fat has browned.
3. Cut up the pork belly into crispy chunks and put it in a big salad bowl.
4. Add the pork belly to the cilantro, mint, and/or basil.
5. Clean and slice 1-2 shallots and add to the pork belly.
6. Cut the melon into chunks and add to the pork belly.
7. Clean and slice (finely) a jalapeno or a few Thai bird chiles and add them.
8. If you wish add some peanuts, scallions, or sriracha sauce.
9. Dress the salad with 2-3 tbsp nam pla, 2-3 tbsp sesame oil, and at least one lime worth of lime juice.

01/14/13 - A Simple Mock Choucroute

At its simplest, a choucroute is just a hot dog with sauerkraut, but there are refinements. For example, we boiled the sausages in beer and we boiled the sauerkraut in beer. We put the kraut and sausages in a glass oven dish, topped it with a d'Artagnan smoked duck breast and baked it for a half hour to render some of the duck fat.

It was pretty good. In retrospect, we should have added a few juniper berries, but overall, the dish was a success.

07/15/12 - Pea Report - Spring Comes To Port Angeles

Just boil the potatoes until they are almost cooked through, but not quite. Microwave the peas for a minute or two. Then drain the potatoes, add the peas, a half cup or so of chopped dill and a cup of milk. Bring the milk to a boil and finish cooking the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper, and you're done.

05/14/12 - Russian Easter

• our own home made pork, garlic & carroway seed sausage
• buckwheat blini pancakes saturated with butter and more butter
• Trotsky's Bane - tequila shooters w/tabikko
• pelmeni dumplings stuffed with pork, beef & dill
• Enemies of the Czar - Reuben sandwiches with corned beef, swiss cheese and Russian dressing

If you want to try any of these dishes in your own home, see our Russian Easter recipes page.

03/11/12 - Clark Family Beef Cheeks

• 4 tbsp olive oil (or so)
• 2 lbs (or so) beef cheeks with the fell removed, plus any oxtails you may have flopping around
• 6 medium carrots, chopped
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 6 celery stalks, peeled and chopped
• 1 tsp cocoa or chocolate nibs or other unsweetened chocolate
• 2-3 cups dry red wine
• 1 large can whole tomatoes (28-32oz)
• salt and pepper to taste

NOTE

This is a pretty generic beef recipe. You can cook beef cheeks, oxtails, short ribs and probably other cuts that benefit from long, slow braising this way.

1. Use a pot, with a cover, that you can use on the stove top and in the oven. We use a big old Le Creuset. Heat it up on the stove top with a few tablespoons of oil and brown the meats on all sides. Do this is in a few batches, so you can caramelize the meat a bit. Raise the temperature gently, but you want that Maillard reaction. After browning each batch, put the meat aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 325F.
3. Brown the vegetables over slightly lower heat. Don't panic if a brown crust forms on the bottom of your pot. Just use a plastic spatula and it should dissolve with the water beig released by the vegetables.
4. Put the meat and any juices back in the pot. Add the cocoa powder and the wine and bring to a boil. Let it cook down a bit, but you'll want enough liquid so that the meat is largely submerged. Gourmet says to cook the liquid down to half its volume. We just boiled it for five or ten minutes and declared it ready.
5. Then add the tomatoes with their liquid, some salt and pepper. Bring to a boil again, then put the pot, covered, in the oven for at least THREE hours. It can't hurt to cook it longer. Braised beef cheeks are not about cooking a pointe.
6. Let it cool and stash it in the refrigerator overnight, or better yet, for a day or two. Remove any fat, reheat and serve.

02/10/12 - Butter Clams

02/04/12 - Lemon Curd Coconut Cake

Lemon Curd

• 3 large lemons
• 4 ounces (1 stick) of butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 lightly beaten egg yolks (save the whites for the boiled icing)

1. Set up a double boiler.
2. Grate the rinds off all three lemons and put the peel in the double boiler.
3. Squeeze all three lemons and put the juice in the double boiler.
4. Add the butter and sugar to the double boiler. Stir until the sugar dissolves and the butter melts.
5. Stir in the three lightly beaten egg yolks.
6. Stir and stir and stir while the mixture slowly cooks. It took us nearly 20 minutes, but eventually the curd darkened and thickened. We like our lemon curd rich and thick.

12/07/11 - Half and Half Cookies

We offer our recipe, based on the Gourmet, December 2005 one. We've made a minor change to the icing. It actually tastes a lot better if you use bar sugar (extra finely ground sugar) rather than confectioner's powdered sugar. The later contains a fair bit of corn starch, and it throws the flavor off. We've also been putting a fair bit of orange peel in with the white icing which gives it a rich orange flavor which really constrasts with the chocolate. (We're not purists.)

09/25/11 - A Farmers' Market Recipe

• 3 cups finely shredded cabbage
• 1/2 cup finely shredded carrots
• 1/3 cup thickly sliced green onions (including tops)
• 2 teaspoons chopped garlic
• 1/2 pound ground beef or pork, browned w/ salt & pepper to taste
• 1 thick, light-textured baguette, cut into 4 sections
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves

• 1/2 cup rice vinegar, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
• 8 teaspoons of garlic chili paste

1. In a bowl, mix cabbage & carrots with 1/4 cup rice vinegar, the salt, and sugar; let stand about 30 minutes.
2. In a food processor or blender, combine remaining 1/4 cup rice vinegar with green onions, lime juice, ginger, garlic, and five-spice powder. Whirl until smooth
3. Split baguette sections lengthwise almost all the way through, leaving halves attached at one side. Spread about 1 tsp. chili paste on 1 cut side of each. Add on top, then add cooked pork on cabbage mixture and cilantro leaves.

09/07/11 - Pickled Tomatoes

The recipe is pretty simple. There is the pickling liquor made by boiling 5 liters (or quarts) of hot water, 8 tablespoons of kosher salt, 2 cups of white sugar and 2 cups of white vinegar. For each one to two quart jar add 4-5 cherry tree leaves, 2-3 currant bush leaves, 2-3 tablespoon chunks of fresh horseradish root, 1-2 horseradish leaves, 5-6 cloves of garlic, 1 dill flower "umbrella", 10 black peppercorns, 4-5 whole allspice berries, and 2-3 cloves. All right, maybe it's not that simple.

Bring a big pot of water to boiling. Stuff as many tomatoes as you can into each jar. Feel free to squeeze them a bit, but don't reduce them to a pulp. Then, pour boiling water into each jar to sterilize the tomatoes and the pickling spices. Then, using a strainer to catch anything that tries to escape, drain each jar and top it off with the hot pickling mixture. Be careful to shake the jar around a bit to get out any air bubbles. Quickly screw on the lid and flip the jar over.

Store all the jars, upside down, wrapped in a heavy blanket. They'll stay hot for at least two days, cooking and ripening all the time.

08/29/11 - Watermelon Salad Recipe

• 1/2 a small watermelon, just the meat, cut into mouth sized chunks
• 1 large purple onion, thinly sliced
• 1 big fistful of fresh coriander, chopped
• 4 oz mozzarella cheese cut into 1/2" chunks
• 1 large or 2 smaller tomatoes, cut into 1/2" chunks
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 - 4 tbsp rice wine vinegar, to taste
• black pepper

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a big bowl.
2. Serve.

07/03/11 - Orange Cardamom Cookies

We like to use freshly ground cardamom, and often use a bit more than the 1 1/2 tsp recommended. It's great stuff. Our recipe goes something like this:

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 pound unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons grated orange zest
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon salt

1. Work the butter until it is soft. Then work in the sugar.
2. When the mixture is creamy and a bit fluffy, work in the cream and egg yolk.
3. Add the flour, orange zest, cardamom and salt. (Don't leave out the salt.) WOrk the mixture into a grainy dough.
4. Make the dough into four "pancakes", rolling them to about 1/4". Wrap them in plastic and let them rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
5. Roll the pancakes out to about 1/8" thickness and either cut them into cookies with a knife or use cookie cutters.
6. Bake on parchment covered cookie sheets at 350F for about 8-10 minutes.

06/06/11 - Moroccan Meatballs

• 2 lbs of ground beef, grind it finely if you grind it yourself
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 1/4 cup chopped coriander
• 1 medium sized onion or 2 small ones, finely chopped
• 2 pinches of cayenne pepper
• salt
• olive oil for cooking the meatballs

• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• one large can of tomatoes
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 6 or 8 eggs

1. Combine all the meatball ingredients (except the oil) and mix them well. Form them into one inch meatballs and pan fry them in the oil.
2. Combine all the sauce ingredients (except for the eggs) in a large pot or pan. Pour in any juices from the meatballs. Cook uncovered for about 30 minutes until it is reduced to a rich gravy.
3. Toss the meatballs in the sauce and continue cooking for another 10 minutes.
4. Break the eggs and gently pour their contents into the sauce between meatballs so they poach. When the eggs are cooked to your taste, the dish is ready to serve. (It took our eggs about 20 minutes to cook through.)

04/12/11 - Halibut Pot Pie With Fennel

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 lbs skinless halibut filets
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 fairly large heads of fennel or more smaller ones
• 1 cup peeled and sliced shallots
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 lb spinach leaves (or more if you really like spinach)
• 1 - 2 lbs potatoes, suitable for mashing (e.g. not hard red ones)

1) Boil the potatoes in a pot of water until they are tender. When they are ready, drain, mash in a big bowl adding salt and pepper to taste, and set aside. You can go ahead with the other steps while the potatoes are cooking.

2) Cut off the fennel tops and slice the bulbs into 1/4" (roughly) slices. Slice the shallots, if you haven't already.

3) Melt the butter and saute the fennel and shallots until they start turning a bit golden. This caramelizing gives them some sweetness. (It usually takes us 10-15 minutes, but your stove may vary.)

4) Sprinkle with flour, salt and pepper. Toss and cook for another 2 or 3 minutes.

6) Cut the fish into 2 inch squares. If the spinach is in big, broad leaves, you might want to cut them up a bit, but it doesn't really matter. Add the fish and spinach. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes.

7) Preheat the broiler. Put the fish, fennel and shallot mixture into an oven proof baking dish. Spread the mashed potatoes across the top.

8) When the broiler is ready, put the baking dish on an upper shelf in the oven and let bake until the potatoes start to turn golden brown, usually about 10 minute, though this will vary with your oven and your potatoes.

03/23/11 - Country Captain Chicken

• Lightly floured and seasoned (with paprika) fried chicken thighs
• Curried red and green peppers with bacon, red wine, tomatoes, currants, mango chutney, onions and garlic
• A topping of coconut, almonds, butter and lime jice

12/21/10 - Christmas Party

Our Godzilla Christmas angel was aglow with atomic fire. Our cookie tree aglow with candles, and our guests aglow with choucroute garnie, bourbon sodden fruitcake, brie en croute with cranberry chutney and, of course, our thermonuclear egg nog. It's the same recipe we use for Godzilla's atomic fire.

Yet another magical, i.e. blurry, Kaleberg Christmas.