Aaaand... it seems as though winter's settling in. The weather forecast is calling for snow showers overnight, with daily highs barely eking above freezing. And, to rub it in that this really is December, we picked up the year's last delivery of fresh, local, organic produce last night. So it's a few more days with good brussels sprouts and some other assorted vegetables before it's back to strategic hunting at the grocery stores.
It's also time to think about things that had been more or less ignored when we could get nigh-endless amounts of fresh food. Particularly anything that requires the oven for extended periods of time. If I'm going to heat the house, why not get a little something on the side?
The latest Penzey's catalog arrived in the mail the other day. Chances are slim that I'll actually order anything - inasmuch as I loaded up on spices in an order a few months ago, supplemented with a bag full of hot chillis while I was in Madison - but the recipes are always worth a look. For a business based on providing a wide range of top-quality spices, there are a few things about their recipes that surprise me.
- They really don't play up the exotic aspect, even though they do a brisk business in spices I've not yet tried. (Ajwain, anyone?) Many of the recipes focus on comfort foods. This issue includes roast turkey and stuffing, for example.
- The recipes tend to use a minimum of Penzey's spices. In this issue, the Egg and Bacon Casserole only uses a teaspoon of mustard powder. Even I'd be tempted to add some fresh herbs or black pepper.1 Instead, it gives a definite impression that these are good, basic recipes that a practiced cook could easily modify to taste, rather than a means to sell spices that'll only be used once.2
- In general, the recipes are pretty damned good. We're still using the Happy Brownies recipe we'd picked up from them years ago, because it's both simple and excellent.3 And honest. There aren't shortcuts like boxed mixes; recipes call for butter, not margarine.
Yes, it's definitely good enough. Firmer than a traditional stovetop oatmeal, it has a slightly custardy consistency that binds it all together. And since there's no need to worry about sticking to the pan, it's more or less foolproof. Mix everything together, toss it in the oven, and sit back to make the difficult decision of: tea or coffee?
Baked OatmealThe only revision I've made was to replace the 4 egg whites in the initial recipe with 3 whole eggs. I'm not sure of it's noticeably richer, but it saves me the trouble of finding something else to make with just yolks. In the future, I'd probably also spice it more like I do granola - some nutmeg and anise in with the cinnamon, and maybe some diced caramelized ginger to replace part of the raisins/dried cranberries. I think the vegetable oil is probably also unnecessary - though replacing it with some melted butter could be a nice touch.
Serves six to eight
Adapted from Penzey's Spices - Christmas 2007 catalog
IngredientsDirections
- 2-3/4 cups rolled oats
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup raisins or dried cranberries
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- ½ tsp. salt
- 3-1/3 cups milk
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1 tsp. vegetable oil
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, combine the oats, sugar, raisins, walnuts, cinnamon and salt, and mix well. In another bowl, combine the milk, eggs, oil and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until well combined.
- Pour the mixture into an 8x8 inch glass baking dish. Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until the center has set and is firm to the touch. Allow to cool slightly before serving.
* * * * *
1Chilli peppers of some sort, too. I'll add them to anything I can get away with, because a little capsaicin makes everything better. Sharon's developing a taste for spicier food these days - intentionally - and there's a reason I keep the red pepper flakes beside the salt and pepper.
2A good number of the sweet baking recipes use cinnamon as the primary flavoring. Who doesn't keep cinnamon around? We tend to swap it out for a mix of spices - sometimes a Penzey's blend, sometimes our own - but even your average grandmother wouldn't be alienated by any of it.
3It's good enough to have made its way into the family recipe book we're giving my brother and his wife as a (belated) wedding gift, alongside cookie recipes that predate my grandparents.
4 comments:
1) i have Aijwan from Penzey's. I use it in chili and in Indian-style dishes, espeicially lentils. it's good in anything made with beans, pretty much. my newest spice obsession is corriander. i like to blacken a piece of fish that has been dredged in ground corriander and ground black pepper. so good with a little wasabi-flavored aioli.
2) I, too, wish that Penzey's would play up their exotic selection more in their recipes. So many of the more innovative things they suggest are meat-centered meals. All of their veggie recipes generally amount to: take this vegetable; steam or roast it; add a littl of this Penzey's blend; add butter or olive oil. Blah blah blah boring. their christmas cookie recipes are always good, though!
Mmmm... coriander. I use it all the time, too, in everything from spice rubs to curry pastes to soup stock. It's one of those Penzey's items - like ancho chilli powder and black pepper - that I buy in pound bags. Ajwain, like fenugreek and the other Indian spices, is still on my to-try list. Should I get any Indian cookbooks as gifts this year, it'll be high time.
Right now, I've been using a lot of their smoked Spanish paprika and their amazingly fragrant Szechwan peppercorns. I recommend them both.
You're absolutely right; they do have a distinct, traditional Midwestern feel to the recipes. Meat at the center of the plate, with simply cooked vegetables to one side, followed by something sweet. But, inasmuch we both already know how to cook vegetables of all stripes, at least we know not to bother looking at anything but the baking recipes.
It turns out that baked oatmeal is also good on sunday morning. Thanks for the recipe Brian.
We're luckily that Abel & Cole deliver all year round, though we're definitely knee-deep into root vegetables now. Last night we tried Jerusalem artichokes for the first time, and celeriac and swede (rutabega) have been in nearly every box for the past month. I really like that it forces me to cook with vegetables I'd never normally pick up at the store, but are still really damned tasty.
And along the same lines of weird oatmeal stuff, I"ve been told that if you put 1c oats plus 2c boiling water (and whatever sundries you want) into a thermos before bed, you get really tasty porridge in the morning, with zero prep. I normally don't mind cooking breakfast, but it's less appealing when I have to climb out into the cold to turn on the LPG first and we've already got 40-50 thermoses lying around anyway...
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