The Bride Makes Cherry Wine, Step two

The Cherry Wine I made last month is ready for step 2, so I strained and bottled it. Then, in a bit of a Martha moment, I made labels for it. It's a beautiful color and tastes lovely, although it's supposed to sit for a while yet before drinking. I saved the cherries and I'm going to macerate them for a while in a little kirsch and simple syrup, then make ice cream with them. I'm thinking the wine will make a nice Sangria.

The Bride Makes A Vegetarian Curry: Spinach and Potato Curry

Here is another favorite vegetarian curry. You can use frozen spinach or a package of baby spinach to save time. This one has 2 Weight Watcher points, and is Core. And, best of all, it can be made with ingredients you have on had - if you keep spinach in your freezer.

Spinach With Golden Potatoes

1 lb spinach, or any other greens, chard, tatsoi, kale, whatever
1 TBSP vegetable oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 TBSP fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 red pepper, finely chopped - optional
1 1/2 pounds potatoes, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne, optional
1/2 cup water

1) Clean and blanch the spinach in boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes, then drain in a strainer and leave to cool. When it is cool enough to handle, squeeze out any remaining liquid. If using baby spinach or frozen spinach this step can be omitted.

2) Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat and fry the mustard seeds until they begin to splutter.

3) Add the sliced onion, crushed garlic, and chopped ginger and the red pepper, if you are using it. Fry for about 5 minutes, until the onions are soft, stirring occasionally.

4) Stir in the potatoes, chilli powder, salt and water and cook for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding more water if the water cooks down. You should have just a little bit on the bottom of the pan creating steam, but not drenching the potatoes.

5) Add the spinach to the pan. If you omitted step 1, the volume of the spinach may overflow the pan. Let it cook down for a minute or two and add the rest. Cover and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes until the potatoes are tender. Add more water if necessary.

6) Serve with rice and plain yogurt.

The Bride Makes Vegetarian Curry: 1 Aubergine Curry

I've been cooking vegetarian curries frequently this summer. They are low in calories and high in wonderfulness. I'm posting my two favorite recipes. No pictures, unfortunately. One serving is 2 WW points with or without mushroooms and without peas. Add the peas and it's 4 WW points. Any which way, it's Core. And it's really really really good whichever way you do it.

Roasted Aubergine Curry

4 servings.

2 large aubergine (eggplants)
2 TBSP oil (more or less)
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
2 onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 TBSP fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 fresh red chili, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 tsp salt
14 ounce can diced tomatoes, or 2 cups fresh tomatoes
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 cup frozen peas, optional
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms, quartered, optional

1) Apply about 1 TBSP of oil to the skins of the whole eggplants by rubbing it in with your hands. Prick the sides with a fork. Place in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. When the aubergine is soft, it's done. Take it out and let it cool somewhat.

2) While the aubergine is cooling, heat the remaining TBSP of oil and add the black mustard seeds. Leave them for a minute or two until they start to sputter. Then add the chopped onion, garlic and chili pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the onion is soft. Add the ginger, cumin, coriander, turmeric, cayenne and salt and stir through, allowing it to cook with the onions for another 2 or 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and simmer for about 5 to 10 minutes.

3) While the tomatoes are simmering, return to the eggplant which is now cooled enough that you can handle it. Cut them in half lengthwise and scoop out the flesh into a bowl. Discard the skin (and therefore 1 TBSP of the oil. Neat, eh?). Mash the flesh as best you can.

4) When the tomatoes have simmered for a while, add the aubergine mash and, if you are using the mushrooms and/or peas, add them now, too. Mix well. Reduce heat and cook for about 20 mnutes. Then add most of the coriander and stir through. At this point you can leave it to simmer at a very low temp until you are ready to eat it.

5) Serve garnished with the rest of the coriander and rice.

The Bride makes Walnut and Cherry Liqueurs

The Bride, following in Vivi's footsteps, has made two kinds of walnut liqueur. (Thanks for sending me the walnuts, Vivi and Girl child). The middle jar and the righthand jar are Vin de Noix and Nocino, respectively. I actually used the other recipe for the Vin de Noix, the one Vivi didn't use. It calls for 'bitter orange peel'. I'm working on getting it, but I just went ahead and made it without. And the Nocino on the far right - look how dark it has gotten. It started out clear with lovely green walnut quarters floating in it. I only made 1/2 recipe of each, because that's how many walnuts I had. If it's good, I'll have to get Vivi to send me more next summer.

The 2 gallon jar on the far left is Vin de Cerise, made from a recipe in the same French cookbook as the Vin de Noix recipe I used. This one we've made before and I love it. I highly recommend trying this while the cherries are available. I made the full 3 liters, but you could make less.

Vin de Cerise
3 liters of red or rose wine
1 kilo of black cherries
1/2 litre of vodka or eau de vie
500 grams of sugar

Crush the cherries (I put them in a strong plastic zip lock bag and smashed them with a flat meat tenderizer.) Leave the pits in place - much of the flavor comes from the pits. Put everything in a large jar. Mine is 2 gallons. Swirl the contents around every day for 15 days of maceration. After that, filter and put in bottles and let sit a little longer. The cherries that you filter out are really good with ice cream, once you pick the pits out.

Raspberry Cranachan (for Vivi from The Bride)

Raspberry Cranachan

This recipe is easy to make and full of flavor. You can use any soft fruit you happen to have. You can also adapt it as a breakfast dish, leaving out the whisky and substituting yogurt for part of the cream

3/4 cup oatmeal (not instant oatmeal)
1 pint raspberries
2 1/2 cups whipping cream
4 TBSP runny honey (a few seconds in the microwave will make it runny enough)
4 TBSP malt whiskey

Scatter the oatmeal on a baking tray and toast in a low oven or under a medium grill until golden. Watch it closely or it may burn.

Blend 50 grams of the raspberries in a blender until smooth. Whip the cream until stiff, then stir in the honey and whiskey and mix well but do not over-whip. Mix in 50 g of the oatmeal, then carefully fold in the raspberry purée to form a rippled effect.
Spoon the mixture into individual glasses or a serving dish, then scatter the rest of the berries and the remaining oatmeal on top.

What The Bride is doing with the home made ricotta

With the home made ricotta I made this afternoon, I am making the following pasta. I'm going to use a whole wheat pasta for health, but since I used whole milk and cream for the ricotta it's probably futile. I'm serving it with a sliced tomato salad with a garlicky dressing, and green beans from Appleton Farm.

Lemony Ricotta Pasta with Basil
from Apartment Therapy, the Kitchen blog

Serves 6

1 lb good quality pasta in a short twisted shape such as gemelli or penne
2 cups of home made ricotta (or a 15 ounce package of good store bought ricotta)
1 cup freshly grated good quality Parmesan
2 TBSP olive oil
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh basil, sliced thing as in a chiffonade.

Set a pot of water to boil. When it boils add a few teaspoons of salt and the pasta.

Stack the basil leaves and Roll them into a tube, then cut very thinly into strips. Put aside until the end.

In a metal bowl wide enough to fit over the top of the pasta pot, mix together the remaining ingredients. excluding the basil.

When about 2 minutes remain in the pasta cooking time, put the bowl over the pot and slowly stir the ricotta and other ingredients. You will see it loosening as you stir. When the pasta is cooked al dente, drain it and add the basil to the bowl of sauce and toss with the pasta.

Because this recipe is so simple, everything depends on using the best quality, fresh ingredients.

Yum.

How to fix sauces that 'break'

A while back, we had problems with a sauce 'breaking' and kind of had to fudge the results. I've just learned what to do when your sauce breaks, so I thought I'd post it here.  This is from Apartment Therapy - The Kitchen blog.

If your sauce is just starting to break, little droplets of fat will start to form around the edges of the bowl. When you see this, hold off adding more fat for the moment and add a little liquid instead. Use a teaspoon or two of whatever liquid you've used as a base (like water, wine, vinegar) and whisk vigorously.  The sauce should tighten up in a few seconds and the fat droplets will get suspended back into the emulsion. If the sauce isn't thick enough yet, you can pick back up with adding the fat one teaspoon at a time.

If your sauce has broken completely, the fat and liquid have separated and the sauce will look grainy and thin.  To save this one, you need to take a few extra steps.  In a separate bowl, whisk together one egg yolk and a teaspoon of whatever liquid you've been using as a base. Whisking constantly, add the broken sauce to this egg yolk one teaspoon at a time. This will form a fresh emulsion and a new stable sauce.  If you're making a warm sauce and the eggs start to cook, unfortunately there's not a lot you can do to save it. If you're down to your last egg or stick of butter, you can strain out the curdled egg and begin a new sauce using a fresh egg and the old sauce as we describe above.