Classic Currant Scones

I had a hankering for currant scones the other day. The yen resulted from remembering how much I adored the book The Secret Garden as a little girl. I distinctly recall feeling ravenously hungry while reading about the hampers of wholesome country fare that Dickon's mother would pack for him and Mary and Colin to devour while they played in the garden, hidden behind its ivy-covered walls. Mmmmm.

Berkeley is a mecca for scone lovers -- between the Cheeseboard's dizzying selection and the tasty scones that Acme Bread Company churns out daily, we're basically surrounded by mouth-watering options. But I decided to make my own, partly because it sounded fun, partly because it looked easy, and partly because I'd never made them before and was curious about the process.

I'm pleased to report that this was one of the easier, more satisfying baking experiences I've had lately. The scones are simple and quick (and I even did the more complicated, time-consuming version that involves butter and eggs -- cream scones are even simpler) and they look, smell and taste lovely.

I used the Joy of Cooking's recipe though I substituted Meyer lemon zest for orange as that is what I had to hand and it seemed an even better fit to me. You could easily substitute dried cherries, cranberries, apricots or other fruit for the currants if you prefer. Cheerio!

Classic Currant Scones

Makes 8 to 12 

Ingredients

* 2 cups all purpose flour

* 1/4 cup sugar

* 1/2 tsp salt

* 2 tsps baking powder

* 6 Tbsps (3/4 stick) cold, unsalted butter

* 1/4 tsp Meyer lemon or orange zest (optional)

* 1/4 cup dried currants or raisins (currants will be better!)

* 1 large egg

* 1/2 cup heavy cream (plus more for brushing)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Sift he flour, baking powder, sugar and salt together in a large bowl:

2. Cut in the butter using either a pastry blender or 2 knives, until the largest bits are the size of small peas and the rest resemble breadcrumbs. Add the currants and stir briefly to combine.

3. Beat the eggs in a small bowl with the heavy cream and the zest. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients (you can make a well in the middle of them to pour the egg/cream into), then combine with a fork or wooden spoon until all the dry ingredients have been moistened. Pull together into a ball of dough by kneading against the sides of the bowl until it sticks together and the sides of the bowl are relatively clean. Try to handle the dough as little as possible as it will get stiff otherwise.

4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat it out into an 8" round. Cut into either 8 or 12 wedges, depending on how big you want the finished scones to be. Place the wedges on an ungreased baking sheet and brush the tops with 2-3 tsps of heavy cream then sprinkly lightly with sugar or a mixture of cinammon and sugar.

5. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the tops are nicely browned. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. These are delicious on their own, as well as toasted with butter or cream cheese.

You might also like:

• Apple Bundt Cake
• Banana Bread
• Pear Bread With Lemon & Pecans
• Sweet Potato Biscuits
• Zucchini Bread

Where I Find Great Recipes

I've been battling insomnia lately (and losing.) As a result, I've been feeling too tired to cook much. But I would hate to leave you in the culinary lurch so I thought I'd share some of the food blogs, sites, and cookbooks that I find most inspiring in the hopes that some of them will inspire you, too. Please share any books, blogs and sites you recommend via comments as I'd love to expand my stable of go-to sources.

Online

The internet has definitely changed the way I approach finding recipes and vastly expanded the possibilities. At this point, I'd say most of what I cook is inspired by something I saw online. Here are some of the places I check regularly.

• 101 Cookbooks - a great option for super healthy, tasty, creative vegetarian recipes written by Heidi up in beautiful Marin County. She's also got a great aesthetic so the pictures are tasty, too.
• Simply Recipes - a nice, solid source for good recipes - lots of variety, always tasty written by Elise. I like the focus on family recipes.
• Food Blogga - good source for a wide variety of recipes (meat and vegetarian). Susan posts frequently so there's always something tasty-looking to check out.
• Recipes for Health - this is a selection of recipes with a focus on healthy, tasty, vegetable-focused dishes that is written for the NYTimes.com by Martha Rose Shulman. (I have to admit that I sometimes make these recipes less healthy by adding more cheese than they call for, etc.)
• Smitten Kitchen - I only discovered this blog a few months ago and have already cooked a number of things from it. Writen by Deb in NYC. How she manages to post so often with an infant is a mystery but I'm glad she does!
• Bitten -- Mark Bittman's food blog on the NYTimes.com. There are often interesting, new things posted here as well as old standards. Lately, he seems to have a lot of guest bloggers posting but I like his posts best.
• La Tartine Gourmand - this is hands-down the most beautiful food blog I read. Written by Bea, a french ex-pat who lives in MA with her husband and adorable little girl, it is truly an aesthetic pleasure. I have to admit that I have not yet cooked or baked anything from it yet but it is definitely a feast for the eyes.
• Epicurious - this is a great resource -- it's made up of recipes from Bon Appetit, Gourmet and a few other sources. I usually turn to this when I have some ingredient I need to use or if I have a vague idea of a recipe and want concrete examples.
• Food Blog Search - Although I sometimes resort to Google, I like this search option better because it allows me to search only food blogs, returning more specific and higher-quality search results.

Cookbooks

But there is also something to be said for the printed word! For one thing, it's incredibly helpful to have the actual recipe in front of you on the counter while you're cooking instead of having to run back to the computer (for those of us who are too lazy to hook up the printer...) These are some of my very favorite cookbooks.

• Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone - this is like the bible of vegetarian cookbooks - very thorough, easy to read and delicious. Written by Deborah Madison, formerly of the Greens restaurant in San Francisco. One of my favorite things about it is that it's written for people who eat meat, as well as those who don't (it does make a difference!)
• The Joy of Cooking - conventional as it may seem, this is my go-to resource for questions, basic recipes, etc. I have the updated version which is WAY better than the old one and includes lots of tasty ethnic foods in addition to the everything else under the sun that is included in the original version
• From The Cook's Garden - this cookbook is one of my favorites - I want to cook every single recipe in it. It's written by Ellen Ogden who used to run a seed company in Vermont (since sold) and her love and knowledge of vegetables shows through on every page.
• Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet - this book is delicious on several levels - the photos, the recipes and the writing are all incredible. It's sort of half travelogue, half cookbook with the most amazing photos you've ever seen. I've been in love with South East Asia ever since I first visited in college and am grateful for the wonderful recipes in this book that take me back there without having to spend 18 hours on a plane... Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford, the author and photographer, have published a number of other scrumptious books like this including one on flatbreads of the world and one about China that look equally delicious and intriguing.
• The Williams Sonoma Collection - I have three of the cookbooks in this collection (soups, breakfast, and cookies) and love them all, despite their slightly corporate-y nature. I like them because they are accessible yet delicious, short (longer cookbooks have the downside of being overwhelming...), filled with good recipes (there is not a one that does not look good to me), and I love the layout - great photos and easy to read.
• The Silver Palate and The New Basics Cookbooks - these are good, solid cookbooks that offer tasty meat and vegetarian options and a lot of very tempting desserts.
• Beard on Bread - almost every (successful) loaf of bread I've baked has come from this wonderful little cookbook. James Beard's writing makes the daunting process of baking yeasted bread seem not only manageable but also enjoyable. His simple yet thorough instructions got me through my first ever loaf (his basic homestyle bread) and I always come back for more good recipes.
• Beard on Pasta - my mom gave me her copy of this along with his bread book years ago and it's served me well the few times I've made pasta from scratch.  Not surprisingly, I like it for exactly the same reasons I like the bread book.

Other

• Sunset - this magazine is right up my alley. In addition to food, it covers gardening, home projects and travel (all focused on the southwest with a big emphasis on California.) They've also gotten more and more focused on sustainability and local ingredients of late. I have found a number of excellent recipes in this magazine. Although I subscribe to the magazine, I also search the recipes on their site at times, too.
• Eatwell Farm CSA's Newsletter - since we've been doing our year of local cooking, the recipes that are included in the newsletter that comes with each produce box from our CSA has been very handy.
  
• Friends and Family - the other obvious place I find inspiration is from the foods my friends and family cook. There's nothing like eating something delicious to make you want to try it out on your own.

Homemade Breakfast Sausage -- Fast & Flavorful

I have been craving breakfast sausage for over a month. But no matter how badly I wanted that unique combination of spices and greasy meat I just could not bring myself to buy a package of Jimmy Deans. I tried to kill the craving with some hand-crafted Fra'Mani breakfast sausage but while good, they just did not taste like breakfast sausage.

I was getting desperate when I remembered that I'd seen a recipe for breakfast sausage penciled into the end pages of the copy of Putting Food By that I inherited from my husband's grandmother, Marcia.

I thumbed through the cookbook's spattered pages until I reached the sausage recipe and was pleased to find that it was remarkably simple. After a quick Internet search to cross-reference Marcia's recipe with a few others, I felt confident enough to begin.

There were two big surprises in this sausage-making endeavor.

First, it is incredibly easy to make breakfast sausage (I'm talking patties here, not links...casing would add a whole new layer of complexity that seems totally unnecessary and also a little gross.) All you do is chop up some herbs, mix them together with a few spices and some ground pork, form the patties, and fry them up in a nice hot skillet.

Second, marjoram is partly responsible for the taste I associate with classic breakfast sausage - who knew?!

I served these for brunch alongside hash browns and a spinach and scallion scramble. Craving satisfied!

Homemade Breakfast Sausage

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

* 1 lb of ground pork (use the best pork you can get -- look for something antibiotic and hormone-free, ideally from a smaller, local farm)

* 1 tbsp of fresh sage, chopped

* 2 tsp of fresh marjoram, chopped

* 2 tsp of fresh thyme, chopped

* 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes

* 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper

* 1/4 tsp garlic powder

* 1 tsp of brown sugar or maple syrup

* 1/2 tsp of salt

* 1/2 tsp of black pepper

Directions

1. Mix all the ingredients together well (I ended up using my hands as the fork was just not getting me anywhere though you could also use a food processor to really combine everything.)

2. Form the patties and fry over medium heat for 5-6 minutes or until nicely browned, then flip and repeat on the other side.

You might also like:

• Frittata With Chevre, New Potatoes & Fresh Herbs
• Grandpa Joe's Eggs
• Homemade Granola
• Pear Bread With Lemon & Pecans
• Spinach, Onion, Thyme & Cheese Quiche

New Standards For Organic Milk - A Step In The Right Direction

Yesterday, the USDA released new, stricter standards for organic dairy. The rules clarify that organic dairies must be pasture-based (the old rules were rather lax in that regard, merely requiring "access to pasture" that could be interpreted in any number of ways.)

One way we can tell that these rules are heading in the right direction is that Aurora, the mammoth company behind the private label "organic" milk brands sold by Wal-Mart, Safeway, Giant, and Costco, argued forcefully against them...

For more information, you can read the full USDA press release or this recent Grist article on the controversy surrounding the new regulations prior to their release.

For now, I'd still go with the suggestions I outlined in my post on how to choose the best milk.

You might also like:

• How To Choose the "Right" Milk
• Forget Free-Range, Buy Pasture-Raised Eggs From a Local Farm
• Buy BPA-Free Tomatoes & Beans

Pear Bread With Lemon & Pecans

Lately, we've been making a lot of pears for our 9-month-old son, Will. We cook them with a little water until they're soft and mix them with oat cereal for his breakfast. He loves them! They strike me as the perfect baby food -- pure and sweet with the loveliest smell -- it's delicate and almost floral.

Watching Will enjoying his pears made me realize that I wanted to enjoy some pears, too. And that brought up memories of a lovely pear bread my good friend Anna used to make when we all lived in Washington, DC. She would invite us up (she lived one floor above us) to her little apartment for a thick slice of this delicious treat, still warm from the oven.

After some research, I decided to go with the Joy of Cooking's recipe though I've made a few minor modifications below to improve the texture a bit as I feel the original version was a little too wet, a bit too sweet, and not quite well enough risen enough for my taste. I am happy to report that my adjustments appear to have fixed all of those issues.

This bread is lovely - subtly redolent of ripe pears, with a nice mix of spices and a pleasant nutty crunch from the pecans. It's delicious plain and decadent toasted and spread with sweet butter or cream cheese. I used  Red Anjou pears but any ripe, flavorful pear will do.

As always, I encourage you to use the highest quality organic ingredients you can find/afford.

Lemon Pear Bread With Pecans

Makes One Loaf

Ingredients

* 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

* 3/4 cup sugar

* 1 tsp baking soda

* 1/4 tsp baking powder

* 1/2 tsp salt

* 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

* 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

* 1 1/2 cups grated peeled ripe pears, with juice (you'll need 2-4 pears, depending on their size)

* 1 stick butter, softened or melted (you can also substitute 1/2 cup vegetable oil if you prefer)

* 1 tsp grated ginger (optional)

* 1 large egg

* 1 tsp vanilla

* 1 tsp grated lemon zest

* 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

* 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan and set aside.

2.Whisk the first seven ingredients (all the dry stuff) together well in a medium sized bowl. Then whisk the rest of the ingredients, minus the pecans together in a larger bowl. Fold the flour mixture into the wet ingredients in the larger bowl just until the dry ingredients are moistened thoroughly, then stir in the chopped pecans.

3. Scrape the batter into the loaf pan and spread it evenly. Bake for one hour to one hour and 15 minutes (this will depend on your oven -- mine only took an hour but the Joy of Cooking recipe says 1:15 - 1:20) until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

4. Let cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes before removing the bread from the loaf pan and then let cool completely on the rack.

A few more recipes you might like:

• Apple Bundt Cake
• Banana Bread
• Sweet Potato Biscuits
• Zucchini Bread

Greening Your Kitchen: Buy BPA-Free Tomatoes, Beans, etc.

Once I started researching BPA-free products, I learned that this s**t is far more pervasive than I'd previously thought! One major area of concern is the fact that almost all cans are lined with plastic that contains BPA, and there is also BPA in the lining of almost all jar lids, as well. While there is clearly a desperate need for Congressional action on this issue (so please sign my petition!), in the meantime, we can do our best to limit our exposure.

The best way to do that is to buy your beans dry (they're cheaper and  better tasting) and make everything from scratch using fresh veggies. However, these more time-consuming options are not always realistic for most of us. So what do we have to work with?

Sadly, our BPA-free options are pretty darn limited at the moment. Hopefully, companies will start to realize that not only is removing toxic substances from their packaging the right thing to do but also a good way to make money since more and more people want BPA-free goods! But here is what is available right now.

Beans 

Buy your beans from Eden Organics, the only company that currently does not use BPA in the lining of its canned beans or chilis. Here is what they have to say about their cans:

"All 33 Eden Organic Beans including Chili, Rice & Beans, Refried, and Flavored, are cooked in steel cans coated with a baked on oleoresinous c-enamel that does not contain the endocrine disrupter chemical, bisphenol-A (BPA). Oleoresin is a non-toxic mixture of an oil and a resin extracted from various plants, such as pine or balsam fir. These cans cost 14% more than the industry standard cans that do contain BPA. The Ball Corporation tells us that Eden is the only U.S. food maker to date to use these BPA free cans and we have been since April 1999."

Tomatoes

Unfortunately, there are currently no BPA-free canned tomatoes available because highly acidic foods like tomatoes apparently require super strong (highly toxic) linings. So even good ol' Eden Organics has been forced to continue using BPA in the linings of its canned tomato products. 

However, Pomi uses Tetra Pak packaging for its tomato products and Tetra Pak does not include BPA. Pomi sells chopped and strained tomatoes as well as marinara sauce. Pomi's tomatoes are packaged in Italy so the carbon footprint of these tomatoes is gonna be pretty big. The Tetra Pak packaging also looks to be unrecyclable - two strikes against it in my opinion. I guess we get to pick our poison on this one -- planetary or personal...

Trader Joe's also sells a Tetra Pak packaged tomato sauce (which may even be Pomi's marinara in a TJ's box...) and thanks to the magic that is Trader Joe's, they're probably also a good deal cheaper than the Pomi brand.

If you're not excited about the Pomi/Trader Joe's tetra pak tomatoes, you can also limit your exposure to BPA somewhat by buying tomatoes/tomato sauce in glass jars. They are not BPA-free because BPA is used in the lining of the frikking jar lids, but given that the tomatoes or sauce are not that likely to touch the lid of the jar, my highly scientific guess is that tomatoes packed in glass jars are probably a lot healthier than canned tomatoes. There is one company, Bionaturae, that makes its glass jars without BPA in the lining of the lids. However, their lids are lined with a a PVC-based organosol lacquer and since PVC is another toxic chemical we are all supposed to avoid, this does not really inspire confidence. Makes me feel like lobbing rotten tomatoes...

So there you have it. Please write in with any other additional info you may have on this topic. And please do sign my petition asking Congress to get off its butt and reform the Toxic Substances Control Act ASAP.

Special thanks to Alicia at the Soft Landing for her great post on BPA-free tomatoes :)

A few more posts you might like:

• Got BPA? Switch To Glass Storage Containers 
• Say Buy-Bye To Bottled Water 
• Which Brand of Milk Is Best?
• Forget Free-Range, Buy Pasture-Raised Eggs From a Local Farm
• No More Toxic Alphabet Soup For Me
  

Spinach & Cheese Strata (Eatwell Recipe 47)

It's been a while since I've made brunch but now that baby Will takes a nap at roughly the same time every morning, I figured I might be able to pull it off. The key would be preparing the main course ahead of time. 

I decided to try out this new recipe that I'd read about on Smitten Kitchen a few weeks ago, in part because it can be assembled up to a day in advance and in part because it looked damn good!

A strata is basically a savory layered bread pudding -- this one is held together by eggs and enriched with spinach, sautéed onions and two kinds of cheese. It comes out of the oven bubbling hot and meltingly delicious. As you're eating it, you will encounter little pockets of various types of yumminess -- a slice or two of soft, sweet onion, an extra gooey patch of Gruyère, a refreshing clump of sautéed spinach leaves...

If any of the strata manages to survive the brunch feeding frenzy, it also reheats well. I used fresh spinach since it's still easy to get in these parts but you can also use frozen without any ill effects, just make sure you wring out all the water. I used the eggs we'd just received from our CSA, Eatwell Farm and encourage you to seek out pasture-raised eggs near you (see my recent post on choosing the best eggs for more info.)

The recipe below is adapted from the February 2003 issue of Gourmet via Epicurious (ach Gourmet, why did you have to leave us???) By the way, I encourage those of you who are mourning the loss of Gourmet like I am to check out Gourmet Unbound, a collaborative blog devoted entirely to cooking and sharing recipes from past issues as a way of keeping the goodness alive.

Spinach & Cheese Strata

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

* 1 (10-oz) package frozen spinach, thawed

* 1 1/2 cups finely chopped onion (1 large)

* 3 tablespoons unsalted butter

* 1 teaspoon salt

* 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

* 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

* 8 cups cubed (1 inch) French or Italian bread (1/2 lb)

* 6 oz coarsely grated Gruyère (2 cups)

* 2 oz finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (1 cup)

* 2 3/4 cups milk

* 9 large eggs

* 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

* 1 Tbsp Worcerstershire sauce

Directions

1. If using fresh spinach, wash it thoroughly and dry well. If using frozen, squeeze handfuls of spinach to remove as much liquid as possible, then finely chop.

2. Sautée onion in butter in a large heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring, until soft, 4 to 5 minutes. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and nutmeg and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Stir in spinach, then remove from heat (if using fresh spinach, continue cooking until the leaves have all wilted.)

3. Spread one third of the bread cubes in a buttered 3-quart gratin dish or other shallow ceramic baking dish and top evenly with one third of the spinach mixture. Sprinkle with one third of each cheese. Repeat layering twice (ending with cheeses).

4. Whisk together milk, eggs, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl and pour evenly over strata. Chill strata, covered with plastic wrap, for at least 8 hours and up to a full day (to allow time for the bread to absorb the custard).

5. Preheat oven to 350°F. Let the strata stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Bake the strata, uncovered, in the middle of the oven until puffed, golden brown, and cooked through, 50 to 55 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. 

A few more recipes you might like:

• Spinach, Onion, Thyme & Cheese Quiche
• Late Summer Frittata With Sweet Pepper, Tomato, Onion, Basil & Sausage
• Frittata With Chevre, New Potatoes & Fresh Herbs
• Grandpa Joe's Eggs
• Homemade Granola
• Poached Egg Sandwich With Watercress & Shallot

Like this recipe? Click here to browse through more Eatwell Recipes.