Blog Housekeeping

Okay, so I’ve finally gotten my blog and my domain name and my e-mail account to all be on the same page together.  Yay!

So sheilamcclune.com should bring you here, and e-mails to sheila(at)sheilamcclune(dot)com should reach me.

I’ve only been trying to do this for a year.  I could get the domain name and the blog to talk to each other.  Or I could get the domain name and the e-mail to talk to each other.  But I couldn’t have both at once.

But I have it working now.  Yay!

Just don’t ask me what I did now that’s different from what I’ve been doing, because I don’t have the foggiest.  And that might cause me to whimper.

Recipe Wednesday: Blasts From The Past

I’ve got some new cooking adventures to tell you about (including the easiest curry you’ll ever make), but Beloved Husband and I keep eating all the evidence before I can remember to take pictures of it.  So that’ll have to wait until a less hungry week, I guess.

Meanwhile, the two of us have embarked on a new project.

It started when I acquired a metric boatload of e-book versions of historical cookbooks for free via the interwebs.  (That’ll be a separate entry later, I think.)  Anyway, I was organizing them, and being totally gleeful about obtaining a copy of Fannie Farmer’s Boston Cooking School Cookbook (which I have in hardcopy, but it’s stored away in a box at the moment).  My glee only lasted until I opened up the e-book…and discovered that it had been processed via OCR (Optical Character Recognition)–and that not only had the people who’d posted the book on the interwebs not bothered to clean up some of the typos, but every single fraction in the book had scanned as gobbledygook (yes, that’s a technical term, I’m quite sure).

And, since almost every recipe uses fractions in the ingredients list…it meant that the book was all but useless.

Well, nuts.

So I went back out onto the interwebs.  And I found a couple of sites that had better versions, but not as downloads–you have to be connected to the internet to access them.  I want a copy I can store on my netbook and have handy even when I’m someplace where there’s no wireless (like my in-laws’ house, for example).

A bit more poking finally yielded a scanned version of the book where the scans had been saved as whole-page images, rather than having been OCR’d.  Which works fine as far as addressing the fractions issue…but when I want to look up a specific recipe, I can’t do a search on the title, or on an ingredient.

So what I decided to do in the end was to use the whole-page version to correct the fractions on the e-book version.  I discovered a program called Sigil, which essentially allows you to open up an e-book file and tinker around under the hood.  It’s actually pretty cool…and I’m planning to use it to edit a few e-books I’ve downloaded that had typos in them.

But…when I sat down to work in earnest, I discovered two things:

One, flipping back and forth between the two versions of the book was giving me motion sickness.  And there’s no question of just keeping both apps open side-by-side on my trusty netbook’s tiny screen.  (Now if I could haul my two mega-monitors home from work, I’d be a happy camper.  But alas, I can’t.)

After a bit of hemming and hawing, I came up with a solution:  I asked Beloved Husband for help.  So now, once a week or so, we sit down with our two computers, and he reads to me from the page-image version, and I make changes to the e-book version.

Of course, we hadn’t been at this long when we discovered a major problem:  The page-image version was from the 1898 edition of the book, and the e-book version is from the 1918 edition.  A surprising amount stayed the same in those twenty years, but there are enough changes to keep us on our toes.

We’ve been at it for a little over a month now, and we’re through the chapters on soups  (Soups With Stock and Soups Without Stock are two separate categories, by the way, with subcategories within each.  Who knew?)

So far, the worst-sounding recipe we’ve found is for mock turtle soup, where you use a calf’s head instead of turtle.  I was okay with it until I reached the part where the instructions tell you to cut off the face  and dice it.  Something about dicing a calf’s face just squicked me out. {shudder}  I’m sure there are folks who would consider it a delicacy.  Well, they can have my portion.  And Beloved Husband’s, too.

As we continue our journey through Fannie Farmer, I’ll post some other notes and observations.  And of course, once I have a corrected version of the e-book, I’ll find some way to make that available to people.

But that’s what we’ve been up to.

What sorts of cooking projects are other folks working on?

Recipe Wednesday: If At First You Don’t Succeed…

Not every recipe I try comes out perfectly the first time.

Case in point:  Last week, after our shopping expedition to the oriental market (see last week’s entry), we decided to take the plunge and try making Hot and Sour Soup, one of our favorite dishes.  We’d found a couple of recipes we could reference, and we stocked up on the ingredients we’d need.

Then we looked at the recipes and decided on what changes we wanted to make.  I’ve developed a sensitivity to mushrooms (sadly).  So we crossed those off the list.  Beloved Husband isn’t a fan of things like mung beans or bamboo shoots.  So off those went, too.

Which left us with pork, egg, and tofu.  Not a very colorful soup, but as long as it tastes good, that’s okay with us.

And then we carefully prepped everything.  We pressed the tofu to remove excess water.  We cut the pork into matchsticks and marinated it.  We built the broth, layering in ingredients.

And it looked more or less like you’d expect it to look–a dark brown broth with bits of tofu, egg, and pork swimming in it.  (My bowlful had sliced scallions sprinkled on top for color.)

But one bite told us:  Too much vinegar.

We’d gone to the effort of hunting down Chinese black vinegar, since that’s what the recipe called for.  For the record, Chinese black vinegar is a very strong, very fragrant vinegar.  Also very sour.  So we’ve decided that next time, we’re going to use two tablespoons of vinegar instead of five, and we’re going to use half Chinese black vinegar and half rice vinegar (which is much milder).  We figure we can always add a bit more later, if there isn’t enough.  But when there’s too much, there’s not much you can do about it.  I’ll report back on the results once we’ve tried it again.  (And it wasn’t totally inedible; it was just a lot more sour than either of us likes.)

Another not-completely-successful recipe we tried were Shu-Mai.  We started off with the recipe from America’s Test Kitchen, but again made modifications to suit our likes and dislikes (and also because we forgot to get the gelatin called for in the recipe, so we subbed egg instead).

This time, we had mixed results.  Beloved Husband didn’t want shrimp or vegetables in his shu-mai, so his batch ended up being a little bland–basically just pork and seasonings.  (They did look very nice; unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures.  Next time.)  When we make these again, I plan to add small amounts of vegetables he likes (spinach, perhaps, or a bit of finely-chopped broccoli), along with extra seasonings (and the gelatin we’d have put in if we’d had it).

On the other hand, my batch turned out very well.  Because I didn’t have a lot of pork on hand once we’d made the soup and Beloved Husband’s shu-mai, I decided to substitute a piece of flounder I had in the freezer instead.  Nor did we have the chestnuts called for in the original recipe.  So I put in some scallions and Napa cabbage.  Finally, my filling turned out a bit soupy, so I stirred in some panko crumbs to give it some body.

The results were extremely tasty.  I’d definitely make these again.  And I’ll even share the recipe with you:

Seafood Shu-mai

1/2 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 lb. white fish (e.g., flounder)
2 ribs Napa cabbage
1 scallion
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons mirin (or sweet sherry)
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
1/2 egg (yes, I know it’s awkward)
3-4 tablespoons panko crumbs
1/2 package round gyoza wrappers

Rinse shrimp and fish and pat as dry as possible.  Cut the fish into 1″ chunks.  If the shrimp are large, cut in half.  Place shrimp and fish in the bowl of a food processor and pulse 6-8 times, until the meat is fairly finely ground.  Transfer to medium mixing bowl and set aside.

Cut the Napa cabbage and scallion into 1″ chunks and place in bowl of food processor.  Again, pulse until fairly finely chopped (aim for 1/4″ pieces), about 5-7 pulses.  Add to fish mixture.

Combine soy sauce, cornstarch, mirin, rice vinegar, and sugar and pour over fish mixture.  Add ginger, salt, pepper and egg and mix until well blended.  Sprinkle in panko crumbs, one tablespoon at a time, and stir.  The mixture should hold its shape, but still be fairly soft.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or waxed paper.  Wet the edges of the gyoza wrappers and put about a tablespoon of the filling in the center of each.  (Work with 3-4 at a time to make the process easier.)  Leaving some space open at the top of each dumpling, pinch the sides shut, pinching into halves, then quarters, then eighths.  Gently squeeze the top of the dumpling so the wrapper sticks to itself, and use a knife or the back of a spoon to compress the filling that’s trying to come out of the top of the dumpling.  You should end up with something that looks like a little bag, with filling even with the top edge, and slightly bulgy on the bottom.  Set on parchment-lined baking sheet while you finish the rest.

Line the baskets of a bamboo steamer with parchment paper, poking ~20 holes in the paper to let the steam get through.  Place shu-mai in the baskets.  They should not touch each other.

Place steamer over boiling water and steam for 10-15 minutes, or until internal temperature of the dumplings reaches 160F.  Serve with chili oil sauce (a recipe I’ll post once I’ve tweaked it to my satisfaction) or dumpling sauce.  Makes 18-20 shu-mai.

So out of three recipes we tried, we came out with one keeper, and two that need a little tweaking (though we know where to start with that, at least).

What recipes have other people tried that maybe didn’t work out so well on the first outing, but which you later tweaked and cooked successfully?

Recipe Wednesday: A Walk On The Wild Side

Last weekend, Beloved Husband and I decided we needed to take a trip to our local Large Asian Supermarket. The one closest to us is an H-Mart, a chain with stores mostly on both coasts, but a few scattered here and there across the midlands.

I love shopping at Asian supermarkets for a number of reasons.  For starters, they have great produce.  Stuff you can’t find anywhere else:  lychees and weird squashes and things you’re not even sure what they are.  And fresh herbs in good-sized bundles, rather than the anemic plastic packages found on Western supermarkets.  Varieties you’ve never seen before, like five different kinds of eggplant.  FIVE.  Most local markets only have anemic examples of the common type at best.  And even the “normal” stuff–apples, oranges, potatoes–looks better and fresher than what you find in the American chains.

Then there’s the seafood.  Fresh fish in types you might never even have heard of.  Ginormous shrimps–for $6.99/lb.  Sashimi-grade fish.  Even eel.  You might find some of those things at the overpriced specialty markets, but at much higher prices.

We actually went in looking for some key ingredients.  We’d found a recipe for hot and sour soup that called for Chinese Black Vinegar.  Finding it–amid rows and end-caps of bottles mostly labeled in languages we can’t read–proved to be something of a treasure hunt, but in the end, we emerged victorious.  And with a few other interesting-looking sauces in hand as well.

This time out, we also learned that going into H-Mart on a Sunday is a bit like going into Costco on a weekend.  All across the back of the store, tasting stations tempted us into trying things like rice cake, seaweed salad, and fish cake (the latter two of which I brought home with me).

Another thing most Asian markets stock in glorious profusion are frozen dumplings and stuffed buns of just about any kind you can imagine.  We keep saying that one of these days we’re going to go raid the place, then come home and have a huge dim-sum party.  I’ll need to pick up a few more steamer baskets before then, though.

Speaking of which, Asian markets are also great places to look for cooking equipment and serving dishes.  They’ve got rice bowls and chop sticks and woks and steamer baskets and…well, you get the idea.  And the prices are usually quite reasonable.

Perhaps the thing that amuses us the most, though, is that H-Mart (unlike some of the other Asian markets) has aisles set aside for foods from other ethnic cuisines.  So they have an Indian section, and a Middle Eastern section, and a Hispanic section, and yes, even an American section.  And while selection within those sections isn’t very deep–they have one brand of canned hummus, for example–it’s very broad.  So you can find things there that you might not even find at an ethnic market specific to that cuisine.  I was amused to fine decaffeinated Lady Gray tea, something I’d been seeking, in their “British” section, and some verjuice (juice made from unripened grapes, often called for in medieval and Renaissance recipes) in their American section.

So far, all I’ve made using what we brought home from our expedition was a salad of bean thread noodles.  I’m not thrilled with how it came out, though, so I’m going to tweak the recipe some more before I share it.  However, plans for supper tonight include making that batch of hot and sour soup, along with steaming some pork buns and maybe making some pork shu-mai.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

What other experiences have people had shopping at ethnic markets?  Any exceptionally good (or even bad) ones?

Recipe Wednesday: Spice of Life

Last week I talked about stocking foods in my pantry.  I like to keep certain staples on hand to use as the basis of meals, and as emergency meals (in a pinch).  Things like canned goods, pasta, frozen meats, etc.

But equally important, at least to my mind, is having a well-stocked spice cabinet.  Adding a pinch of this and a pinch of that to otherwise-boring foods can bring them to life, and make them interesting rather than ho-hum.

But if you’re like me, you look at the prices of the teeny little jars of spices in the grocery store and think, “Yeah, if I didn’t actually want to have any money left for food….”

There are a couple of ways to deal with this.

Where I live, I’m lucky enough to have access to a couple of really good spice shops.  They sell spices either in jars or in plastic bags.  One will even measure out specific amounts of spices for you.  Why is that a good thing?  Well, for starters, you don’t have to keep paying for the spice jars over and over again.  You buy the jar once, then get just enough to re-fill it, which saves you a significant amount of money.  Also, it doesn’t even need to be an actual “spice jar”.  I keep my spices in 4-oz. canning jars.  They stack neatly, have wide openings that let me reach in and grab a pinch, can be labeled on top or side, and fit neatly in a drawer (which is where I currently store most of my spices).

And the second is that you can buy only as much as you’ll use before it goes bad.  While it’s true that spices don’t necessarily “spoil,” they do lose flavor over time.  In general, leafy herbs (thyme, sage, parsley, and so on) won’t hold their flavor for more than a year.  Ground spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger might be good for a little longer, but definitely not more than two years.  Whole spices, like black peppercorns and whole nutmegs will last the longest.  And anything that’s been in your cupboard for more than five years needs to be thrown out.  Period.

Other places that might sell herbs and spices in bulk are health-food and natural-food markets like Sprouts or Whole Foods.  If you’re really lucky, you might find an old-fashioned food co-op, an ethnic market, or a new-age boutique with an herb and spice counter.

And if you don’t have any of those options available to you, I’d suggest mail order.  Three companies I’d recommend are:

• Penzeys Spices
• World Spice Merchants
• Savory Spice Shop

Like most cooks, I have certain herbs and spices I consider essential, and that I try to keep on hand at all times.  My essentials include:

• Thyme
• Sage
• Rosemary
• Italian seasoning
• Bay leaves
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Ginger
• Cinnamon
• Cloves
• Nutmeg
• Black pepper
• Kosher salt
• Sea salt
• Mild curry powder

With just that list, there’s a lot you can do.  Don’t be afraid to experiment; if you’re not sure how a spice will taste in a dish, sample a little bit on a spoonful of food before you throw it in.  Be conservative with your spicing, as you can always add more, but you can’t take the spices out once they’re in.

Note also that I recommend garlic and onion powders rather than salts.  It’s far too easy to end up with a too-salty dish when the salt comes mixed with the seasonings.  And yes, when possible, I prefer to use fresh garlic and onion, but sometimes you just need a dash of flavor, or you want something that will spread evenly throughout the dish.  But I also make sure my powders are as fresh as possible, so they has plenty of flavor.  Likewise, fresh herbs would be preferable, but they’re not always available or affordable.

(I also have a list of more exotic things I like to keep on hand.  But I think I’ll save that for a later post.)

So in order to save money and have the freshest spices available:

• Buy the smallest amount you think you’ll use in the next year.
• Buy in bulk and re-use existing jars.
• Buy herbs and spices as whole as possible:  leaves rather than powders, seeds rather than ground.
• Buy the essentials first, and augment as finances allow.
• Season carefully.  Try a little at first, and add more if it works.

What spices and herbs do other people consider essential?  What other tips do you have for buying spices on a budget?

 

Recipe Wednesday: Stocking Up

Hullo, blog.  (pets gently)

I know.  I’ve neglected you dreadfully.  And I am sorry.  I’ll try to do better.

Things haven’t been terribly exciting, I’m afraid.  In fact, the most exciting thing we’ve done in the past few weeks is to go grocery shopping.

I know, right?

On the one hand, grocery shopping can be frustrating, and expensive, and exhausting.  Especially if — like most folks with 8-to-5 jobs — you have to do your shopping on the weekend, when the stores are crowded and they’re out of everything that was on sale this week.

But it can also be very satisfying.  I know I’m probably weird, but it actually makes me feel good to haul home my load of groceries, and re-pack the “family-sized” package of meat into smaller portions for freezing, and line up all of my canned goods, and stow all of the produce neatly away in the veggie bins.

And there’s a certain amount of satisfaction in looking at the pantry — which, in my case, is a set of shelves on my enclosed back porch — and seeing all of the potential meals lined up and waiting to happen.

I’ve gotten into the habit of picking up certain staples and storing them away for the proverbial “rainy day”.  So should the zombie apocalypse happen tonight, Beloved Husband and I have enough pasta, tuna, and cream-of-whatever soup to keep ourselves in tuna casserole for at least a month.  Should we have an unexpected encounter with a skunk, there are enough tomato products to bathe us thoroughly.  We’re almost as well-stocked on creamed corn, canned carrots, and cranberry sauce.  And just for fun, there are stray cans of things like stir-fry veggies, baba ghanooj, and coconut milk.  (FYI, 1/2 lb. sauteed shrimp + 1 can coconut milk + 1 can carrots + 1 teaspoon curry = a very tasty soup!)

And yes, we have ramen.  Because sometimes, you just want ramen.

Likewise, there are certain staples we try to keep in the freezer.  1-lb. packages of ground beef, boneless skinless chicken breasts, pork chops, and bacon, for example.  And even though Beloved Husband doesn’t like seafood, I generally keep some shrimp and fish on hand.  I usually try to keep some ham tucked away, too, but we used it last month and haven’t replaced it yet.  And at the moment, we still have a whole (small-ish) turkey in there.  Because, hey, when you can pick up that much meat for $5 at Thanksgiving time, you do.

I try to keep a good base of ingredients on hand so that with the addition of just a few fresh things (vegetables, salad, fruit, etc.), I can produce a meal.  (I also try to keep my spice cabinet well stocked, but I think that’s next week’s entry.)  There are times when this has come in handy, like when Mother Nature suddenly dumps three feet of snow on you and you can’t get out of the house for several days.

So what sorts of things do other people keep in their pantries?

Writing Thursday: NaNoWriMo Ate My Brain; or, How NOT To Do NaNoWriMo

Hello, blog.

{shuffles feet}

It’s been a while.

I know, I know.  I never call, I never write, I never even send e-mail.  I’m sorry.  I’ll try to do better, really I will.  It’s just that sometimes, I get distracted.

Like in November, when National Novel Writing Month–a.k.a. NaNoWriMo–rears its ugly head once again.

Now, I’ve done NaNoWriMo before and managed to keep at least a little bit of a grip on my life.  But somehow, this time around, it Just. Ate. My. Brain.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, the idea behind NaNoWriMo is simple:  Write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days–during the month of November, to be precise.  The goal is to learn to set your Inner Editor aside, to just write now and worry about editing later.

It’s not really all that hard.  You only have to write 1,667 words a day, every day.    That’s not that much; about two and a half to three pages, single-spaced.  Which isn’t nothing, but it’s normally quite manageable, especially if you take certain steps first.

For example, you really should:

1. Have at least a rough outline of where the story is going.  Even if you’re a pantser (someone who plots “by the seat of their pants”), like me, you ought to have at least a vague sense of which direction the story’s headed.  By no means should you wait until 11:59 pm on Halloween night before you even decide which of the seven or so stories you’ve got rolling around in the back of your head you want to write this year.  (I’m not saying I did that, mind you.  I’m just saying you definitely shouldn’t do it that way.)
2. Have at least some idea who your characters are.  Which is not to say you have to have complete character sketches or interviews with each of your main characters and most of the minor characters as well.  Nor do you have to have a detailed back-story for each.  But you really, really, really should have more than just a first name for your main character, and you really, really, really ought to have some idea of who your secondary characters are.  Just sayin’.
3. If your story is set in a fantasy world, you really ought to take the time to at least sketch out a map of where your cities are in comparison to one another.  And if your world includes magic, you ought to at least think about how the magic works, even if you don’t write down a bunch of formal rules.
4. And finally, you really shouldn’t plan to get in your car after work on November 1st and drive halfway across Kansas, then spend the next four days doing things like touring the Cosmosphere (unless you’re writing a sci-fi story with rockets.  Then it’s “research”!) and attending a steampunk convention, and driving home.  Even if one of your favorite bands (*cough* Abney Park *cough*) is playing.  Because that’s just crazy-talk.

I’m not blaming Captain Robert for my NaNo problems. But if Abney Park hadn’t been playing in Wichita, just 7 hours or so away… (Note: this picture is actually from their concert in Denver this fall. Because of NaNoWriMo, I haven’t gotten my pictures from Wichita uploaded yet.)

So, yeah.  I failed at NaNoWriMo prep this year.

I was 5,000+ words behind by Day 5.  By all rights, I should have failed at NaNoWriMo altogether.  I’m still a bit surprised that I didn’t.

There were certainly days when I felt like giving up.  Days when it felt as though I was carving each and every word out of granite.  With a bobby pin.

But then I remembered this piece of sage advice about writing:

It’s like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
–E. L. Doctorow

That’s exactly how it felt–as though I was picking my way through the night, never seeing any further than my headlights would reach, but always able to see at least someplace to go next.

The other thing that helped was that this time, for the first time, my Beloved Husband decided to do NaNoWriMo with me.  Which meant that instead of having to try to carve time out of the family schedule for writing, this time, writing was the family schedule most nights.  And I have to say that there’s something very comfortable about sitting in a room with one’s spouse, clicking away at our separate keyboards, each on our own separate journeys, but still traveling side-by-side.  (We were within a few hundred words of each other for most of the month.)

What finally saved NaNoWriMo for me was the fact that on about the 23rd of November, my main character did something I didn’t quite expect, but that turned out to be a defining moment, not only for her, but for the entire story.  After that, things started to flow more naturally, with less of a struggle.

Looking back now, I can see that about 2/3 of what I wrote during November was really the back story and character sketches I should have been doing in October.  So there’ll need to be some editing (no surprise there).  I had a hard time finding my main character’s voice, though I think I’m finally starting to get a handle on her.  She’s got just a touch of snarkiness to her.  Though after three years of writing in my steampunk/Victorian universe, I’m having a hard time remembering that her dialogue needs to be simpler, more direct.  I’ll get it figured out, though.

So that’s why I’ve been away for so long.  I’ll try to keep up better now.  ’K?