Candied citrus peel

Even though it's in no way local, I tend to eat a lot of citrus in winter, when there are interesting varieties in the stores and bright and lively produce is in low supply. Sometimes I zest the peel for muffins, etc., but usually I throw the peels in a bag in the fridge and hope I use them for something eventually. When that time comes, I sort through the bag, throw out all the old peels that have inevitably become rock hard or are starting to get moldy, and make candied orange peels. It's nice to give away as a little gift, or to put in scones, cookies, and other baked goods. It's simple to make, but a lot of recipes out there seem to be missing a couple of key steps. So here's how I do it.



1. Because you're working exclusively with the outside of the fruit, the part that got exposed to and sprayed with whatever was used to grow it, this is one recipe where I feel it's even more important than usual to buy organic.

2. A lot of recipes say to use a peeler to separate the outside of the peel from the pithy part. I think that's a pain, and really kind of defeats the purpose of making the peel into something you want to eat. Instead, I recommend using tangerines or clementines, because they have much thinner peels than a lot of orange varieties.

3. Whatever you're using, give them a rinse, cut off any spots, and cut them into thin (less than 1/4 inch) strips an inch or two long. This recipe was about 6 tangerines and 3 oranges, but you don't have to be exact.



4. Throw the peels in a pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Boil for about 5 minutes, drain the water, and repeat. This removes much of the bitterness in the peel and pith and softens them up. I was raised in a 4-5 boilings household, because my mom is adamant about getting all the bitterness out. But I kind of like the bite of it - it's going to end up super sweet either way - so I just boil twice. You also want the peel to get pretty soft, and this doesn't take as long with thin tangerines as with thick oranges. Again, it doesn't have to be exact.

5. Next, dump the peels into a bowl or something, and make a heavy syrup in the pot. You want a 2:1 ratio of sugar to water. For this many peels, I used 1 1/2 cups of sugar and 3/4 cup of water. Add them to the pot, and bring to a boil. You want to bring this syrup to the soft thread stage, which is about 232 degrees. If you don't have a candy thermometer, just bring it to a boil and then continue boiling for about 5 minutes. I wasn't very exact with my temperature, and it turned out great, so don't worry about it. You're not making caramels here.

6. Add the peels to the sugar syrup and cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes. The syrup will be mostly cooked down/absorbed. Take it off the heat and drain the excess syrup (I saved this in a jar in the fridge).



7. Now you need to let the peels dry out for a while - 12 hours or so at least - so spread them out on a cooling rack or something else that will allow air to circulate around them. I put mine over a cookie sheet, because some will fall through and they'll drip as they dry. If you skip this step they'll just get clumpy and gross when you try to toss them in sugar.







8. After at least 12 hours, when they're a bit drier and aren't as sticky, put some sugar in a ziplock bag and add the peels a handful at a time. Toss them around until coated, then put on another cookie sheet to dry out more. Add more sugar to the bag as needed, and repeat until all of the peels are sugared up.



9. Let the peels dry for another couple hours, then they're all set to use or store. I keep mine in the fridge, but I don't even think that's necessary. At this point they're pretty well preserved. Enjoy!

Some bbq, some muffins

I recently made the barbecue sauce from Veganomicon - it's easy, and it uses liquid smoke, which is one of my favorite ingredients. What a weird thing for someone to have invented. I've used the sauce in a few things, but also froze some, because the recipe makes a lot. I don't bother to puree mine, cause I don't mind little pieces of onion. But I do chop it really small and cook it for more than an hour, so it gets thick and the flavors have a chance to blend.



I never quite know what to do with it once I have it, though. I mixed some with cooked black-eyed peas and rolled them up in collard leaves that I'd cut the ribs out of and blanched in boiling water. It was pretty, especially with sweet potatoes, and it all worked together, but it was kind of hard to eat.






I also had some bbq seitan on quinoa, with roasted winter vegetables. I'm not a fan of winter, but I really do like food that grows underground. The seitan was nothing special, just gluten, chickpea flour, nutritional yeast, and broth, boiled in small pieces for an hour or so. But the bbq sauce made it more interesting.

Thankfully, the rest of it should last for a while in the fridge, because I don't know how I'm going to ever use that whole recipe's worth. It isn't going to be barbecue season in Minnesota for a long, long time.



I also really love some hard-to-find winter fruits. Persimmons are only available in a lot of midwest stores for a couple weeks in early winter, if at all. I was able to get my hands on 4 fuyu persimmons - they're the small flat ones, not the big pointy ones - and put them in the freezer til I wanted to make persimmon bread. I veganized this recipe a while ago, really it just requires an egg substitution. I grew up eating this, but most people I know don't have a clue what to do with persimmons. And beyond this recipe, I don't have many ideas either, except that it's weird slimy/gelatinous texture makes great smoothies.



Persimmon Muffins or Bread (makes about 10)

Preheat oven to 350

Mix:

- 4 fuyu persimmons (or 2/3 cup of any type) - peeled, seeded, and blended or pressed through a seive

- 1/3 C raisins soaked in about 3 T brandy, orange juice, whiskey, or water

- 1/3 C vegetable oil

- 2/3 to 3/4 C brown sugar (depends how sweet you like things)

- 1 1/2 egg substitutes (1/3 C water or milk sub + 1 T flax meal works well)

Mix:

- 1 1/3 C white flour or combination white and whole wheat pastry

- Dash salt

- Scant teaspoon baking soda

- 1/4 teaspoon each cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg

Add: dry to wet

Bake ~ 20 or 25 minutes in a greased and floured pan for muffins (til a toothpick comes out clean) or a bit longer if baking in two small loaf pans

Ode to my cast iron pan, and some random dinners

Not too long ago I finally got a cast iron pan, and I'm not sure how I cooked without one for so long. Somehow I didn't realize how non-stick and amazing cast iron is. I thought I'd share some action shots of my favorite pan, making magic with some farmer's market potatoes and kale. I've also heard that you actually get a significant amount of iron added to your diet from using cast iron, but haven't bothered to verify. I'd rather just assume it's true.



I'm also a relative newcomer to mushroom appreciation. I grew up a pretty hard-core mushroom hater, and it was one of the few childhood dislikes that survived into adulthood. But then I moved to the Northwest and tried wild mushrooms - chanterelles, oysters, and a few other crazy things that grow in the woods. Turns out they're not gross at all! I think foraging for something oneself will always make it taste better, and I credit mushroom hunting with my newly open mind. Not open to button mushrooms, though. They're still on the not-for-eating list.

I got 2 varieties of oyster mushrooms at the farmer's market a while back, and made a couple of things with them. This is oyster mushrooms and turnip greens with polenta. I just sauteed a couple of shallots and some garlic in a little olive oil (in my super awesome cast iron pan), added about 1.5 cups sliced oyster mushrooms, cooked them for about 10 minutes seasoned just with salt, pepper, thyme, and rosemary, then added a splash of white wine and a couple handfuls of chopped turnip greens and cooked another 5 or so minutes. It was really good.



This was just the rest of the mushrooms cooked similarly, but with onions instead of shallots, no turnip greens, and some roasted potatoes. The polenta was a better match, even though it was my first attempt.



I had leftover polenta, and after it firmed up in the fridge overnight, I sliced it and sauteed it, then put it on marinara sauce. It looks kind of silly I guess, but it was pretty great.

More pies, and a correctly oriented picture

This seems like a good time to rehash some pies I made last Summer. Oregon is as good for berry picking as Minnesota is cold in Winter, so I picked a lot of berries last Summer. Then I had to move, so freezing them wasn't an option. They ended up dried, infused in vodka, and baked into pies instead.

U-pick blueberry farms are great, and I picked a ton of them, but wild huckleberries are amazing. This pie had both. It was really good despite the fuzzy dim pictures.
For real though, if you're in the Northwest, go huckleberry picking. Even if you can find them at the farmer's market they cost about $8 for a pint. We picked about 3 gallons in a day. Take that, farmer's market!





There's a magic place with a grove of unsprayed cherry trees near Portland, and if you're in the know you can pick buckets and buckets of rainier and bing cherries for free. It's even legal! If anyone knows where that happens in Minnesota, let me know and I'll meet you there. Usually I thicken fruit pies with arrowroot, just a few tablespoons for a pretty big pie. This was mostly rainier, because we picked more of those than bing. I know sweet cherries aren't traditional for pie, but I just used less sugar and it turned out great.



Look! I figured out how to turn pictures! Just to show I'm not totally inept. I promise once I run out of old pictures this blog will be less about how great Portland is. Minnesota has berries too, and it will have pies of its own.

I'm starting a blog!

I'm starting a vegan cooking and food blog, so I thought I'd start with some pictures of food I've made recently. This Fall my family had its first vegan Thanksgiving, and they were all troopers. Even the seitan roast was a hit. Luckily the Madison farmers market goes year-round, so we were able to get our veggies and some fancy oyster mushrooms from a variety of Wisconsin farms.



We ended up making seitan, potatoes with cashew-mushroom gravy, brussels sprouts, roasted root vegetables (those didn't make the picture, unfortunately, because they took forever and were still in the oven), sweet potatoes, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. It was pretty standard for a vegan thanksgiving, but everything turned out well.



I think this was my brother's plate, because we all agreed it was the most orderly.
The pie had a caramel pecan topping, and the recipe's from the Voluptuous Vegan.



I have a better picture, but it's sideways and I don't know how to turn it. So much to learn:



I have a lot of more recent food experiments and pictures, but since no one will likely be seeing them until I figure out a few more things about having a blog, I'll hold off on posting more. Thanks for stopping by!