Recipes4Survival,

I despise milk.  I never liked it, never drink the stuff, as a matter of fact I have an aversion to it.  Let me put it another way, I despise milk with a capital H.  I’m literally uncomfortable if a drop should touch me or having to wipe up spilt milk is something I have a momentary lapse of reason about.

In any case, with Passover quickly approaching and a neglected banana looking like an oozing  jumbo vanilla bean in a prone position  on my kitchen table I got a brilliant idea the other night to make banana pancakes.

I halved a recipe I found for pancake batter from scratch; 3/4 C flour, 1T baking powder, 1 T sugar, 1 t salt, 1 egg scrambled, 1 T melted butter and 3/4 C milk.  Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl, make a well for the liquids – scrambled egg, melted butter & milk. Once the pancake batter is well mixed I mashed in the banana.  I put the batter in the refrigerator for about 15 mins. Not because I was told to but remember this is done when making batter for crepes.

The pancakes came out beautifully.  I made quite large ones.  I melted a little Trader Joe’s earth balance an organic buttery spread in a non stick pan, poured the batter into the pan. Flip the pancake once bubbles form on the edge and within the pancake.   I topped the pancakes with Trader Joe’s lemon curd, served and ate them immediately with a cup of hot lemon ginger tea.

Here’s the long and the short of it, There are very few things I make that use, call for or require milk.  The last time I had milk in the house it was left behind by an Italian couple that sublet my place a few summers ago.  It didn’t take much more than a quick search that I soon became the queen of panna cotta. Thanks to panna cotta and ice cream I probably get the recommended daily allowance of milk in a year.

I think I’ll be going there this time too, meaning I’ll be making panna cotta. I’m going to make a pineapple one. More on that later, but here’s the punch line, even tho I only buy a pint of milk, when I do – I FREEZE the milk between uses. Yes, cooking with it requires a bit more planning but, hey, I couldn’t help but share what I think is a great Recipe 4 Survival – tactic and resourceful tip.

With much love I share this with you.

CHA!

D.

Not so pretty ~ but oh good.

I came across these small, fist sized, not so pretty looking artichokes at the Manhattan Fruit Exchange in Chelsea Market earlier this week on one of the coldest days this season.  The motto, Frost Kissed Artichokes, not so pretty ~ but oh good, written in Sharpie and with a very reasonable per pound price I grabbed four of them.

I cut the top off of two of the four artichokes with a serrated knife and then snipped the thorny top off of each leaf with a heavy duty kitchen scissor.  As The Utilitarian Chef, gadgets are one thing I don’t feed into but good kitchen sheers are one of the few pieces of equipment I think is great to have in ones kitchen. So is a serrated knife.

Frost kissed artichokes preparation

I was reheating left over sushi rice I had from my first try at hako/press sushi, I got a press box as a holiday gift, so I decided to thrown these two artichokes into the steamer along side the rice. I added a pinch of Kosher salt, a wedge of lemon and a 2 dents of garlic to the water that came to just below the bottom of the steamer in a heavy bottomed pot. Artichokes are ready in 15 – 20 minutes. The rice was certainly ready.

While the artichokes and rice were steaming I flash wilted well washed, dark green, curly kale in a very hot saute pan with just a little olive oil.   I also whipped up a cup of organic mayonnaise and capers – for the artichokes.

I served the wilted kale on top of the rice and put the artichokes in another bowl.  All I can tell you is, these Frost Kissed, battered looking artichokes are so Dlicious I ate the first one w/out even dipping one leaf or nibble of the heart into the traditional sauce I made for it. Another surprise from these Dlectable chokes is that  when you get to the heart and have to remove the thistles, they’re so soft they wipe away with a swipe of your finger.

Get them, the season is short.  You can eat the whole thing: leaves, heart and stem – right to the bottom.

After a LONG hot weekend and witness to money foolishly spent on groceries I almost fell into that trap tonight when I looked at the bag of produce I returned from the E end with thinking I needed feta cheese to make a ‘Shepard’s salad ‘ . I had a perfect, oversized August tomato, a cucumber, a red onion, a lemon, (a nectarine, an orange and a peach).

Checking out of the market, the self scanning, self service computerized register wouldn’t read my debit card.  It didn’t take long for me to realize I was going to make a perfectly fine cucumber, red onion & tomato salad, sans fromage.

I’m also not going to call this Shepard’s salad just because I’ve seen it in numerous neighborhood Middle Eastern chow joints.  I’m calling this salad,  East End Salad.

SO you know the ingredients: Cucumber, red onion, tomato, lemon for juice, olive oil, vinegar and Salt of D Earth.

Now to MAKE THE SALAD

Cut a section out of the red onion, slice across the top and chop for minced pieces.

Sprinkle w. S&P but if you’re really lucky – Salt of D EARTH which everyone should have. Please contact me for SALT of D Earth – all organic salts, a variety of peppers,& herbs.

NOTE: salt helps to draw moisture out of vegetables, especially cucumbers & cabbage.

Next the cucumber – peel and 1/4 the cucumer lengthwise.  You can do this in shorter sections from the cucumber if you’re not so confident of your knife skills. I  used your everyday, regular cucumber, no fancy hothouse variety. Once the cuc is 1/4d remove the seeds by slidding the knife under the ‘row’ of them if you will. Slice the 1/4d section, in 1/2 pieces  across the  1/4d sections for bite size pcs.

In this salad I only used 1/2 of the tomato I had because you’ll see it is quite the gorgeous specimen.  In any case, cutting the tomato, again, 1/4′d sections, pull out the pulp, seeds and interior walls and thinly slice each section of tomato lenght wise and then a cross, again to make bite size pcs.

Squeeze some lemon juice from a section of a nice sized lemon.

I think that’s it – sprinkle with olive oil, more salt & a small amount of vinegar, maybe 3 or 4 Tablespoons, Dpending of course on your palatte.

So, the next time you see a Shepard’s salad in your friendly,neighborhood, Middle Eastern chow joint, order the fava beans – they’re much more time consuming and expensive to make.  Be resourceful, wise and eat well.

Keep it SIMPLE, keep it CLEAN.

Tomorrow morning I’ll make a fruit salad with the nectarine, orange & peach.

CHA!

FoodD*