Blue corn cakes

Serves 2

The elusive, slightly assertive flavor of blue corn meal sets these pancakes apart.

3/4 cup blue corn meal
2 tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons dry milk powder (Bob’s Red Mill, more fine-textured than most others; or omit and use milk instead of water below)
1 egg
1 cup water
1 tablespoon oil

Measure the corn meal, flour, salt, soda, sugar and dry milk into a medium bowl and stir to combine. Beat the egg with the water and 1 tablespoon oil. Add to the dry ingredients and mix gently. Let stand 10 minutes before cooking.

Heat a griddle over medium heat. Use a tablespoon or a serving spoon to pour batter onto griddle (make the cakes small). Cook slowly over medium heat for maximum crispness.

Serve with maple syrup or warm applesauce.

Recipe created in 1999

From Beans to Sweet Potatoes

I spent the morning in the kitchen. I don't go to work until 3 today.

I made myself get up early to start the maple baked beans and load the bread machine for pumpernickel rye. Then I went back to bed for a while.

Later, added water to the beans. This recipe cooks at 375, so the oven was available for other things. Toasted some nuts for the pumpkin bread and our morning oatmeal. Roasted two thick pork rib chops, brushed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with salt and pepper.

For the pumpkin bread, I substituted sweet potatoes I had steamed a few days earlier. I pulled back on the sugar, taking out about 2 tablespoons from the cup called for, because the sweet potato was so sweet. I riced the sweet potatoes to ensure a smooth texture.

I used the butter I had made from the cream I harvested from the nonhomogenized milk (see Real Milk). It melted gently in a small cast iron skillet set over the oven vent.

Out came the pork chops, in went the pumpkin/sweet potato bread. Heat reduced to 350; there's an hour left on the beans, and I think the slightly gently heat will be OK.

Still to make: A salsa/salad of fresh tomatoes, red onion, avocado, XV olive oil. I think I will use balsalmic vinegar and capers.

Recipes:
Maple Baked Beans: Helen Witty (I don't have a citation for the cookbook, sorry)
Dark Pumpernickel Rye Bread: Bob's Red Mill
Pumpkin-Nut Bread: The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook
Oatmeal with toasted walnuts: Franny
Tomato-avocado-red onion-caper salad: Franny
Pork chops with olive oil and balsamic vinegar: Franny

Real Milk

Real Milk

There are two brands of organic milk commonly available in supermarkets here in Portland -- Horizon and Organic Valley. Horizon is a mega-dairy based in the Midwest, and its products are usually ultrapasteurized, which creates a cooked taste I don’t like.

Organic Valley is also a national concern, but it uses local dairies -- in Portland’s case, dairies in Washington state. The product I’m in love with is non-homogenized milk. It has a (very) thick layer of cream at the top.

I don't need all that cream, so I use a demitasse spoon to pull as much of the cream as I can out of the 1/2-gallon bottle, which is plastic and has a screw top. I put the cream in a jar and keep it in the freezer, adding more cream as I buy more milk.

When the jar gets full, I make butter using my food processor. Basically, I dump the cream in, add some water, and process. It takes no time at all (less than a minute), because there’s hardly any liquid in it. In fact, I have to add the water to make the mixture viscous enough to churn. There’s a Web page (link to webexhibits.org/butter/doityourself.html) that describes the general process, although it takes far less time to make butter with this concentrated cream than with the whipping cream used in the recipe there.

The result is like Plugra, or European-style butter. Because it has more fat and less water than conventional butter, it makes superior baked goods. And of course it tastes great. I divide the butter into 1/2-cup portions and freeze them.

Anyway, the remaining milk must still have some fat in it, because it tastes rich even after it's skimmed, it tastes like the milk you get in Ireland, very creamy and fresh.

I’ve bought it at Zupan’s and New Seasons, but the folks at New Seasons must make a point of shaking the bottles, because the one I bought there didn’t have the layer of cream.

If you don’t want to mess with the non-homogenized milk, Organic Valley sells homogenized milk with various fat contents in gallon jugs. Also, Alpenrose cows aren’t treated with BGH/BST, so you can buy that brand. Safeway has recently decided to ban BST from the milk that goes into its Lucerne dairy products. And Trader Joe’s has a pretty good organic milk that’s not ultrapasteurized, as well as conventional milk that is BGH-free.

I was fine with the Trader Joe's milk until I discovered the superior taste of the Organic Valley non-homo milk. Without a second thought, I jilted TJ's for my new love, and it's been a honeymoon ever since.