Thursday, February 25, 2010

Recipes, tried and true

On a much lighter note than my previous post, I've been thinking about and appreciating my mother and my mother-in-law recently. As I find my own way through life and particularly in the kitchen, I lean on the advice and learnings of those who have many more years of experience. And I enjoy following some of the advice, questioning other pieces of advice to understand the "why" of it and in some cases forging my own path.

As one example, let me share briefly about my history with hard boiled eggs. I had such limited success for so long getting them to just the right state where they were easy to peel. My mom's recipe was something like: bring to a boil, boil for 10 minutes and then cool them down. I did that for a long time, with slight variations and adding salt for fresh eggs from time to time. But it still seemed to be hit or miss.

At one point I asked Jason's mom - must have been some time when deviled eggs were being made and dozens of eggs were peeling beautifully (I can't remember). What I gathered from her example was to turn them on high and forget about them, then turn off the burner when they were discovered boiling like mad, forget about them again, then boil them again (on high) for a little while longer because it seemed like they hadn't boiled enough yet. So I've worked hard at perfecting this recipe and my success is much higher! I turn them on high and leave. When they are sputtering like crazy I come back and turn off the burner. I normally then bring them to a boil again and try my best to forget about them again, just not for too long. I have to improve on the actual forgetting part, but I've had beautiful hard boiled eggs almost every time, unless I try to micromanage the process too much. (I should note that my mom has no trouble with her recipe, and her hard boiled eggs tend to peel beautifully.)

Now to a more recent example, this one only involving my Mom and me. I recently bought a pound of alfalfa seeds and a pound of radish seeds from Mountain Rose Herbs (http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/) I was determined to learn to sprout seeds, as it seemed like a great thing to add to sandwiches and have around in the winter. But they seemed labor intensive and I was nervous about trying, proven by the fact that I'd never tried them even after enjoying them at home often. But Mom was visiting soon after the order came in and so she and Kali got them started and then she headed home, giving me the instructions to water and drain them once (or twice) daily and then when they are big enough set them in the sun to green up. She thought it would take in the 4-5 day range.

We were talking on the phone days after she left and she asked how the sprouts were doing. I had no idea!! They were sitting in our dark pantry and that was the very first time I had thought about them since she had left our home. Oops!!

And so it continued. They were watered about every 2-4 days when something would trigger my memory and finally they filled the jar, still smelled fine and we "greened them up" by the window. What a relief to know that I can do it about as far off from the instructions as I can imagine and still come up with wonderful sprouts.

Last evening for supper we enjoyed sandwiches with green spinach rolls, pesto, provolone cheese and sprouts. Kali ate about half her sandwich and then moved to gobbling sprouts plain (our quart jar was empty by the end of dinner). We have two more jars started. This time it is on my list to "water sprouts" but I'll just bet they won't turn out nearly as nicely as they did when I forgot about them...

2 comments:

  1. Just have to jump in with boiled egg theories. I find that several-weeks-old eggs peel so much more nicely, because they have larger air pockets. Eggs straight from the hen are almost impossible.

    When we have plenty of eggs coming in, I keep them in order so that I can use the oldest box for boiling and the freshest box for fluffy cakes.

    Sprouts intimidate me. But what a good way to get greens in winter! You make me believe it may be possible.

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  2. Janelle! we've been doing sprouts for about 6 months and are loving it! we've got a variety of types... what do you have and i'll bring you some others to try?! mung beans are my favorite!

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