cooking up a filipino boxcar hog

if you get the reference in the title, you’ll also know that it’s an incorrect quotation.  kevin has a rare gift of recomposing the lyrics to nearly any song he sings.  being german, a musician, and a bit of a perfectionist, this drives me a little bonkers.  so, to get back at him just a little, i adulterate these lyrics of one of kevin’s favorite crooners, tom waits.  not that i’ve changed them that much.  the actual lyrics are as weird as the title i’ve provided.  you can do the research if you feel so compelled.

anyway, when i’m really cooking up a storm in the kitchen, this is the phrase kevin uses to describe it.  and boy, wednesday was one of those days.  especially notable, was that i allowed and encouraged kevin to help.

kevin bakes bread

kevin is now finished with school for the summer, so we have long afternoons to do things like bake bread.  “wow, bread is really complex”, was a near quote after the process was finished.  yes, young jedi, the art of baking bread is not learned overnight.

that was what we started with.  thanks to a bread-baking book cast aside as my friend jill packed up her house, we set upon baking some old fashioned dinner rolls.  especially intriguing are the 8 suggested ways that this dough could be put into the oven.  passing up ‘fan-tans’, figure-eights, and snails, we went with the braid.

while the dough was rising and falling, we set upon the dessert course.  we had a couple of handfuls of apricots about to shrivel out of their skins.  in paging through the massive ‘silver spoon’ italian cooking bible, i stumbled upon a recipe for ‘apricot cream’.  mmm.  sold.

starting the recipe, we were already short 2 of the ingredients: gelatin leaves, and the superfine sugar.  i thought the regular sugar would suffice, and did a little guessing with the gelatin.  i substituted 2 tsp. of regular gelatin powder and crossed my fingers.  the first step was fragrant and lovely.  it reminded me of the smells wafting out of my grandpa’s old home-made fruit dryer in early summers in the okanogan.

the step that was a little puzzling to me was: “combine the cream and ice cubes and beat well”.  i don’t have a mortar and pestle, perhaps this would have saved me.  i use my food processor for just about everything else, so why not this?  it’s like a blender, right?  nope.  it made such a bucking movement and chugging noise, i thought it was going to explode.  in fact, it kind of did.  luckily, kevin was helping in the kitchen and got to wipe ice cold cream off of the whole stovetop and every spice container sitting on top.  thanks, kev.  so, i think you can just use cold cream.  the next step about the egg white i did straight up in a double boiler.  the final step could probably be done in a food processor, because i was still a little trigger shy, i used my hand mixer.  i put it in dainty little wine goblets and stuck it in the fridge for a couple of hours.

the main course was pulled from the moosewood cookbook.  kevin and i both have fond and less than fond childhood memories of casseroles, but this one seemed hard to not love.  broccoli, cheese, mushrooms, cheese, onions, cheese, sour cream, cheese, noodles, cheese… you get the picture.

Broccoli Mushroom Noodle Casserole Recipe

30 minutes prep; 45 minutes to bake. Serves 6.

Ingredients

12	oz egg noodles, wide and flat
2	tbs butter
2	cups chopped onions
3	cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch	fresh broccoli, chopped
1	pound mushrooms, sliced
1/2	tsp salt, to taste
1	tsp black pepper, ground to taste, lots
1/4	cup dry white wine (optional)
3	eggs
3	cups cottage cheese
1	cup sour cream or butter milk
1 1/2	cups bread crumbs, finely grated, or wheatgerm
1	cup cheddar cheese, packed, medium or sharp

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350*. grease 9×13 inch baking dish.
2. Cook noodles till half done, drain and rinse, set aside.
3. Melt butter or margarine in a large skillet, add onions and garlic. Saute for a bout 5 minutes over medium heat the add broccoli, mushrooms, salt and pepper. continue to cook, stirring frequently until broccoli is bright green. Remove from heat.
4. In Large bowl, beat together optional eggs, with cottage cheese and sour cream or butter milk. Add noodles, sauteed veggies and 1 cup of bread crumbs, Mix well.
5. Spread into prepared baking dish, top with remaining bread crumbs and if desired grated cheese. bake covered for 30 minutes adn uncovered 15 minutes.

adapted from the Moosewood Cookbook.  

YUM!  went perfectly with our braided bread:

in addition to those who were invited, we had one unwanted guest who tried to sneak in on the salad.

as much love as i have for his kin, this snail got a one way flight out the back door.

the wine i used in the casserole was vinho verde from portugal.  according to the internets, “The name literally means “Green Wine” (red or white), referring to its youthful freshness that leads to a very slight green color on the edges of the wine.  The region is characterized by its many small growers, which numbered more than 30,000 as of 2005. Many of these growers train their vines high off the ground, up trees, fences, and even telephone poles so that they can cultivate vegetable crops below the vines that their families may use as a food source.”  i like that.  and i like the wine.  great for summer!

and then, there was the moment of truth for the apricot cream.

i made it look nice, anyway…

and it was scrumptious!

and i almost forgot to mention, i cooked the apricots in their skins.  peeling them seemed like too big a task for the benefit, and i think i was right.

so, there you have it.  the whole hog.  it was a grand meal, complete with troy’s sweatband, tales of tim’s recent return from climbing in iran, and followed by carmen’s second ever game of settler’s of catan.  which she won.  against all of those terpstras!