D.I.Y. Delicious: Recipes and Ideas for Simple Food From Scratch (3 page)
Read D.I.Y. Delicious: Recipes and Ideas for Simple Food From Scratch Online
Authors: Vanessa Barrington,Sara Remington
Tags: #Food
Before making drastic changes in your pet’s menu, I recommend speaking to your veterinarian and doing some research. There are a few things that are poisonous to dogs, like onions. But feeding your animals on your own goes back to the issue of trusting your own instincts and knowledge versus trusting the quality of the ingredients the pet food industry is using. I’ll put my money on the pet owner any day.
Though it’s beyond this book to provide pet food recipes, I’ve provided
resources
for learning more about various pet diets. At my house, I cook a weekly batch of quinoa, chicken, and vegetables for the dog that I alternate with raw chicken necks (never cooked chicken bones). I supplement with a multivitamin and my dog is healthy, has boundless energy, has no skin problems, and rarely needs to visit the vet.
Condiments, Jams, Sauces and Spreads
Maple and Mustard–Glazed Root Vegetables
Mustard and Bourbon–Glazed Pork Roast
Texas-Style Barbecued Brisket with Spicy Barbecue Sauce
Sustainable Seafood Stew with Meyer Lemon and Parsley Aioli Croutons
Red Wine Vinegar and the Cribari Family
Aunt Mil’s Jam-Filled Sugar Cookies
What’s the Deal with Processing Jam?
Pulled Pork Canapés with Fig-Rosemary Jam
Apple Galette with Persimmon-Spice Butter
Almond Butter Sandwich Cookies with Spiced Pear Filling
Spicy Southeast Asian Peanut Sauce
THE RECIPES IN THIS CHAPTER serve as the foundation of your D.I.Y. kitchen. The mustards, vinegars, and sauces are combined with one another and other items elsewhere in the book to add flavor and versatility to your cooking, without additives or unnecessary packaging. Think of these as your own homemade “convenience foods.” Time invested in making mustard, ketchup, vinegar, jam, or salsa is saved later when you utilize them to create simple and healthful meals. The first thing you’ll notice is how easy it is to make most of these foods. The second thing you’ll notice is how much better they taste than their supermarket counterparts—usually for much less money.
Customization is key. Learn how to make mustard from scratch, creating the flavor profiles you want. Your delicious, inexpensive, gourmet mustard can then be spread on sandwiches or whisked into homemade vinegar to make the best vinaigrette you’ve ever tasted. In minutes you can make a quick mustard glaze and use it to create a colorful and healthful side dish of roasted root vegetables or a simple and succulent pork roast. Perfectly spiced, fresh-tasting homemade ketchup easily becomes Texas-style barbecue sauce and can be incorporated into a homey stuffed cabbage recipe. Homemade jams appear in both sweet and savory preparations, and fresh nut butters can be used as is or made into desserts and sauces.
Homemade mustard has so much more flavor than store-bought and has many uses in the kitchen. Whisk it with bourbon to make a
glaze for pork
or with maple syrup to
caramelize root vegetables
, stir it into
vinaigrette
, or simply spread it on sandwiches
.
Mustard is simple to make, economical, and easy to vary to your taste. A word of warning: Your homemade mustard will always be quite a bit spicier than store-bought. You can control this somewhat by varying the ratio of brown to yellow mustard seeds (brown are more pungent). You can also add sugar, honey, maple syrup, or other sweeteners to temper the spice. You won’t need to use much in a recipe or on a sandwich to get a big mustard flavor, and the mustard will mellow with time in the refrigerator
.
Here is a basic formula with three variations, but I encourage you to create your own favorite recipe
.
TIME REQUIRED:
about 10 minutes active; 24 hours passive
YIELD:
makes 1 cup
¾ cup liquid (mixture of vinegar and wine, beer, or some other alcohol)
½ cup mustard seeds (brown or yellow)
About 1 tablespoon finely chopped aromatics (onions, garlic, or shallots)
About 1 tablespoon chopped fresh herbs (optional)
About 1 tablespoon sweetener (sugar, honey, or maple syrup; optional)
Salt
Put the liquid, mustard seeds, aromatics, herbs (if using), and sweetener (if using) in a nonreactive (ceramic or pottery) bowl and let soak overnight in the refrigerator.
In a blender or food processor, blend the mustard to the desired consistency. Depending on your equipment and inclination, this can take up to 5 minutes. Don’t expect your mustard to be as smooth as factory-made mustard. Season with salt as you blend. Transfer to jars and seal. The mustard will keep, refrigerated, for up to 3 months.
NOTE
:
If you don’t wish to use alcohol, replace the alcohol portion of the liquid with water. Mustards made solely with vinegar can be overwhelmingly vinegary
.
VARIATIONS!
BEER MUSTARD WITH THYME
½ cup hearty beer (not stout)
¼ cup champagne vinegar
¼ cup yellow mustard seeds
¼ cup brown mustard seeds
1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot
1½ teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
Salt
Prepare as for basic recipe
.
SHERRY-DILL MUSTARD
½ cup dry sherry
¼ cup sherry vinegar
¼ cup yellow mustard seeds
¼ cup brown mustard seeds
1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
Salt
Prepare as for basic recipe
.
HONEY MUSTARD
½ cup dry white wine
¼ cup rice vinegar
½ cup yellow mustard seeds
1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot
Pinch of allspice
1 tablespoon honey
Salt
Prepare as for basic recipe
.
This recipe provides a wonderful way to utilize your Grainy Prepared Mustard and makes it easy to turn humble root vegetables into an exciting side dish. Roasting the vegetables gives them a deep flavor and caramelizes their natural sugars. Since homemade mustard is quite spicy, it’s nicely tempered by the sweet maple syrup. The green onions bring together the sweet, spicy, and savory with a touch of freshness and crunch
.
TIME REQUIRED:
about 20 minutes active; 1 hour passive (excluding mustard preparation)
YIELD:
4 to 6 servings
3½ pounds mixed root vegetables (any combination of rutabagas, sweet potatoes, potatoes, carrots, beets, parsnips, celery root)
About 4 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
¼ cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons any version
Grainy Prepared Mustard
3 green onions, sliced on the diagonal (white and green parts)
Freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Peel each vegetable and cut it into bite-sized chunks of roughly equal size. In a medium bowl, toss each type of vegetable separately in oil to coat and add a few pinches of salt. Lay each type of vegetable out in a single layer on parchment-lined baking sheets, keeping like vegetables with like vegetables, since they will cook at different rates.
Roast until the vegetables are soft, brown, and beginning to caramelize, 40 to 50 minutes, checking them every 10 minutes and removing the vegetables to a large bowl as each type finishes cooking.
In a small bowl, whisk together the maple syrup and mustard into a glaze.
When all the vegetables are cooked, pour the glaze over them and return them all to the baking sheets. Roast until the glaze thickens and the vegetables are warmed through, an additional 5 minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl, add most of the green onions, and toss. Season with salt and pepper, toss, garnish with the remaining green onions, and serve immediately.
Pork Roast
Here is an uncomplicated, crowd-pleasing way to cook an inexpensive cut of meat. This recipe utilizes your Grainy Prepared Mustard and pairs well with a variety of side dishes. Leftovers can be used for
Pulled Pork Canapés with Fig-Rosemary Jam
, in sandwiches, on pizza, or stuffed into
Corn Tortillas
with
Simple Tomato Salsa
.
TIME REQUIRED:
about 25 minutes active; 3 hours passive (excluding mustard preparation)
YIELD:
6 to 8 servings
One 4-pound boneless pork shoulder roast (ask your butcher to roll and tie it)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
½ cup lightly packed brown sugar
¼ cup bourbon
3 tablespoons any version
Grainy Prepared Mustard
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Season the roast all over with salt and pepper.
In a heavy, dry cast-iron skillet over medium-high to high heat, brown the roast all over. Start with the fat side down, and turn with tongs until the roast is a deep caramel brown all over, 10 to 15 minutes. The fat from the roast should render, helping to brown the roast. (If the roast is very lean and you feel you need oil, use a tablespoon or so of refined vegetable oil suitable for high-heat cooking.)
Remove the roast to a plate and let the pan cool slightly. Pour off the excess fat and wipe out any burned bits. While the pan cools, in a small bowl, whisk together the sugar, bourbon, and mustard to make a glaze.
Return the roast to the pan and pour half of the glaze over it, turning the roast to coat it completely and using your hands to distribute the glaze evenly. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and roast for 2 hours, turning and basting every half hour with the remaining glaze.
Remove the foil and increase the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Continue to roast uncovered, until the glaze reduces and the pork is glossy brown and thickly coated with glaze, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Let the roast rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
I was pretty indifferent to ketchup until I learned to make my own. Commercial ketchup tastes mostly of sugar and is usually filled with stabilizers, additives, and high-fructose corn syrup. Real Ketchup tastes like tomatoes, with a nice balance of spice and a gentle sweetness. It’s familiar enough that ketchup lovers will like it but refined enough to make a great barbecue sauce for
Texas-Style Barbecued Brisket
. When added to the sauce for
Sarma: Serbian Stuffed Cabbage Rolls with Sauerkraut
, it adds just the right touch of childhood familiarity. Real Ketchup takes a while to cook down, but this can be accomplished while you’re in the kitchen (or nearby) doing other things. You just have to keep an eye on it and stir occasionally. Because it doesn’t have the shelf life of commercial ketchup, it’s best made in small batches
.
TIME REQUIRED:
about 20 minutes active; 1½ to 2½ hours passive, but watchful
YIELD:
about 1
cups
Two 28-ounce cans whole peeled plum tomatoes, or 3 pounds fresh
Roma tomatoes, peeled and chopped