Almond Roca

From Mom. Just asked her to send it to me and I thought I'd post it here so we can all access it!
Almond Roca

1. Toast 1 ½ cup slivered almonds until light brown (about 10 – 15 minutes at 300 degrees), stirring occasionally. Let them cool and then grind them in food processor, stopping while you still see some chunks. Disengage and shake the processor bowl so that the large chunks rise to the top. Rake the chunkier half into one container and sprinkle them onto a cookie sheet, so that you cover about 2/3 of the sheet in its center. You will be pouring hot butter/sugar into this cookies sheet, so put a towel underneath if you need to protect the surface under the sheet. Put the fine-ground remainder in another container.

2. Place in a large (2 qt. size or so) microwave-proof container 2 sticks of salted butter, 1 1/3 cup of sugar, 1 T. Karo and 3 T. water. Microwave this for 3 minutes uncovered. Stir it with a spoon until the ingredients are uniformly distributed. Then cover the container with saran wrap and microwave for another 9 minutes, 30 seconds, or until the contents are a toasty brown. DO NOT STIR!

3. Pour the contents, without stirring, onto the cookie sheet, covering the almonds. Some liquid will separate. (None does if you use unsalted butter, but the taste suffers, and none does if you simmer the ingredients on a cooktop, but that takes 2 hours. One possibility is to add about 1 t. salt to the 2 sticks of butter as you melt them.) After the candy has cooled somewhat, you can tip the sheet so that the separated liquid flows off.

4. After the candy has cooled completely (you can hasten this by putting the cookie sheet on top of crushed ice), melt about 6 oz. of semi-sweet chocolate in the microwave and spread it on the candy, sprinkling on the finely ground almonds as you coat each side. Cool the candy and break it into pieces.

Mysterious Purple Goo

Formerly known as coconut milk. Just thought I'd share, as this is the coolest looking mold that has graced my fridge in quite some time.

Christmas Eve Breakfast!!

Please fill in the blanks!

Wheat-free waffles: rice and other flour, Jo? Eggbeaters? Roasted almond oil?
Black raspberries from the garden? Grapefruit? Cantaloupe?
Hot chocolate with whipped cream?
Other ideas? Is there such a thing as tofu sausage? We all have long drives ahead . . . .

Time: This is big. Jo will arrive at the house at around 6 a.m., probably. Do you want to sleep some before breakfast? When do you need to get to the Zills? Suz, when do you want to leave for Charleston? Can we pick a time that lets Suzanne and Michael sleep some and lets Jody get to C'ville and back in time for the Zill-a-thon?

Vegan Stuffed Squash

I had some folks over for dinner last night. More specifically, it was my book club. My book club is composed of late 20/early 30 something women, and I am the only grad student, which is nice for a change (though two of them are scientists). Its not a "serious" book club. We read generally enjoyable, easy going novels. We've ventured into a few classics with mixed success. The Tropic of Cancer was a failure, for example. Now we are reading and Isabelle Allende book. I've never read anything by her before, so I'm pretty excited about it.
We don't actually spend most of the time discussing the book, though. Its mainly an excuse to get together and chat and eat good food. And good wine. Last night we had book club at my apartment. I made a salad of persimmons, oranges, shaved fennel and greens with a lemon mustard vinagrette. For the main course I made this stuffed squash recipe and it turned out really well. I read a few recipes on the internet but forgot to print anything out so I improvised a lot. I should also note that there was a lot of extra filling and even more extra rice. I like having extra rice leftover, but if you don't you should make less than I say to here. The overall result is a very hearty, filling vegan dish that even Oliver admits was satisfying.

Vegan Stuffed Squash

4 acorn squash
2 cups red rice
1 large shallot
2 carrots
1 can (or equivalent) garbanzo beans
small head of cauliflower cut into small florets
1/3 C dried currants
1 C apple juice (or diluted if you'd prefer the dish to be less sweet, though I thought it was perfect this way)
1 T grated ginger
2 t cinnamon
2 t cumin
1 t coriander
dash of nutmeg
dash of white pepper
1 t sea salt

Halve the squashes and seed them well. Brush cut side and skins with olive oil. Roast at 425 for 30 - 40 mins or until tender.

Cook the red rice (I always add a touch of butter to keep it from sticking to the pot).

Meanwhile, saute the shallots (corsely) minced in olive oil. Chop the carrot into thin slices and cook until soft. Add the spices and cook for minute to toast the spices. Then add the apple juice. Add the Garbanzos, currants and cauliflower. Cover and steam until the cauliflower is cooked (about 10 mins for me).

Add the rice to the vegetables. Just add as much as you like to end up with a good veggie to rice ration. Fill each squash half with as much filling as possible. Garnish with chopped parsley.

I also think that toasted almond slices or pine nuts would be good in the filling but one of the book club members is allergic to nuts. The same book club member is currently debating whether or not to go to her boyfriend's family Christmas celebration. It's at her boyfriend's Aunt's house, who happens to be Meryl Streep, and she is concerned she won't be able to play it cool around Meryl. Interesting predicament.

Petulant Persimmon Pucker

I tried to make persimmon chutney from Hachiya persimmons. The kindest thing I can say is that maybe Fuyu (the squatter ones) wouldn't turn so mealy. My results had that unpleasant quality of seeming to separate and perform odd chemical reactions on my tongue. Reeves said it was the most astringent thing he'd ever eaten. I liked the tartness of it, but the texture was forbidding. Another departure I took from the recipe may have been negative: in lieu of 1/2 c. sugar, I used about the same amount of date/almond/sherry/orange zest paste leftover from T'giving. That paste is very sweet, so I thought it would work, but maybe the almond grit exacerbated the mealiness. Anyway, the ingredients were interesting. Here's the recipe, which was contributed to some webpage from a retirement home:

• Slice 2 lemons and leave them in 2/3 c apple cider vinegar overnight. I was dubious about including the rind of the lemon, but Joy of Cooking does that with its chutneys.
• Peel (by blanching for 5 min) 4 persimmons and dice them.
• Boil the foregoing for 40 min, or until it thickens, along with 1/2 t. hot pepper powder, 2 cloves garlic, minced, 1 T. ginger, minced, 1/2 c. oil (I stuck with Canola) and 1/2 t. salt.
• 1/2 c. of currants are optional. I substituted the date mixture for 1/2 c. sugar.

Am I the only person who might think the foregoing worthwhile? I'm tempted to try it with the Fuyu and with maybe a little sugar and the currants.

Butternut squash and chickpeas

This from Laura, our admin wizard in tax clinic, with some modifications.

• 1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch dice. I microwaved mine for several minutes to make it easier to peel. It's important to get all of the threads out - - otherwise they shrivel and burn in the oven - - mildly tasty, but ugly.
• maybe 8 oz, or half a bag, of chickpeas, soaked to swell then cooked completely (maybe 1 hour) in veg stock,
  
• combined with 1/4 c. olive oil, 1 T. curry (I used some leftover homemada masala mix, and it wasn't strong enough), 1/4 t. cayenne, salt and pepper. I later used 1 kernel allspice, 1 tsp roasted cumin, 1 tsp coriander, some nutmeg and 1/2 t. red pepper.
  

Spread that mix on a baking sheet, pour on some of the chicken stock used in cooking the chickpeas, and roast in 375 oven for 1 hour, or until tender.
Mix 2 c yogurt, 1/2 c chopt cilantro and juice of 1/2 lemon. Drizzle it over the cooked vegetables.

This dish could take all sorts of spicing.

The creation pictured is Suzanne's. Instructions on how to post the photo were, also, courtesy of Suzanne.

Butternut Squash Risotto

Made this in an attempt to emulate a dish I got a few weeks ago in Cambridge--turned out fabulously!
Preheat oven to 400 degr.
Peel 1/2 butternut squash and cut into ~3/4" cubes.
Toss squash with ~2T evoo, 1/2t black pepper, salt in an edged pan.
Roast for ~30 minutes or until soft.
Meanwhile, saute 1 chopt onion in 1T evoo.
When onions have started to become clear, add 2 cloves minced garlic.
Add 2T red wine vinegar once the onions are pretty well cooked.
Add 1c brown rice and ~2c stock (as the rice cooks, ~35 min, continue adding stock until you've added ~4c total.)
Cook rice in stock uncovered for ~25 min. Add chopped greens (I used chard) and season with a pinch of saffron, ~1/2t white pepper, ~1t chopt rosemary.
When the rice has finished cooking, stir in the butternut squash and 1c shredded parmesean cheese.

**update--just made this without parmesean cheese and it turned out beautifully! I topped it with a fried egg instead which made it into more of a meal.