Prudent Foodie

Grandma's Swedish Meatballs (Mormor's Köttbullar)

You may be wondering why the Prudent Foodie, known to be a fan of the food at IKEA, would be writing an ode to Mormor's meatballs (köttbullar)when you can run right down there and buy a big bag for nearly nothing.  First, of course, I'm thinking of that vast (hee hee) audience out there reading this post which lives in the outer darkness too far away from an IKEA to easily obtain these little jewels.  Second, though inexpensive, and very handy to have in the freezer, those IKEA meatballs are a mere shadow of the real thing, which are quick, easy and inexpensive to make.  Fun to do with kids too - if yours are the sort that aren't queasy about getting their fingers slimy.  I lived in Sweden (here) for a quite while as a child, and loved my mom's meatballs whose recipe this is.  Now my daughter loves her mormor's meatballs, and the wheel of food traditions moves through another generational arc.  So, make a pile of these meatballs, to enjoy with your family, and think about your grandmother! 

Meat Balls

1 lb ground beef or veal (or, if you like, use half ground beef, and half ground pork)

1 small onion diced fine (or 1/2-1 cup of finely diced onion)

2 small pieces of bread (stale is fine) torn into fresh crumbs, or 1 larger piece (basically, you want 1/2 - 1 cups soft bread crumbs). 

2/3 milk

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg- I prefer to use fresh and grate my own, but the stuff in the jar is ok

1 tsp salt

1/4- 1/2 tsp pepper

a little butter

Gravy

3 TB of flour

1 cup water

pepper

sour cream

Saute the minced onion in a little butter, or microwave it covered for a minute or so to cook it.  In a small bowl pour the milk, and the piece of bread you have torn into crumbs.  Let the bread soften in the milk.  Meanwhile, put the ground meat, lightly beaten egg, sauted or microwaved minced onion, salt,  pepper and grated nutmeg in another bowl and mix with a fork, or just stick your hands in and squish it up. Add the milk and bread mixture and squish or stir to combine. If you have time, chill the mixture in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes. This makes it easier and less messy to form the small balls from the ground meat.  If you don't have time dust your hands with flour to keep the meat from sticking to your hands.  Melt 2 TB butter in a large frying pan on medium-low heat.   Meanwhile, roll the meatballs into small balls about 1" in diameter and start placing them in the pan, starting at the outside. Fill the frying pan, and cook until they are browned on the bottom, then gently turn to brown on all sides and cook through.  When the meatballs are cooked, remove to a warm plate, and make the gravy by scraping the pan to bring any brown bits up, then add the flour and cook, stirring or whisking continously over low heat to make a roux from it and the fat and pan scrapings.  Add the water, salt and pepper and cook over low heat until the gravy thickens.  Add some sour cream to desired taste and consistency.  Pour over the warm meatballs and serve with potatoes.  Var så god!  Dee Dee

Beef Stir Fry with Green Beans and Tomatoes

It seems like I am always, always in a hurry.  In fact, this summer it's worse than usual, since my daughter, at 14, has reached the witching age at which very few all day summer programs are offered.  So it seems that I spend all my time running to and fro, making it hard to get things done at home or office.  And, it has  finally gotten hot, making cooking light food that doesn't overheat the kitchen very appealing. Stir fry is the answer to both of these prayers, plus, as every Prudent Foodie knows, it's easy on the pocket (as well as the diet), since you need so little meat.

This week, I bought a "shoulder tender" at my favorite butcher's; an inexpensive, boneless ($3.99/lb) cut of beef that comes in roughly half pound chunks, without really knowing what I was going to do with it.  One evening, when I was in a hurry, using up that beef tender in a stir fry  seemed like a great idea.  In the past, I've recommended using Trader Joes marinades to make things simpler, but I had a bunch of tomatoes and green beans hanging around, so a more traditional, less sweet sauce seemed in order.  I also discovered after I had gotten started that all my ginger had been mummified in my refrigerator, so I can guarantee that it's truly optional.

This recipe will also be great come winter as a way to make use of some produce from your Locavorious share, should you be a lucky member!  Simply substitute your thawed green beans, and coarsely chop a partially defrosted tomato.  Just reduce the cooking time for the green beans, making for a quick and easy way to enjoy the taste of Michigan summer when it's just a memory.  

Beef Stir Fry with Green Beans and Tomatoes

1/2 pound beef shoulder tender

1 clove garlic minced

1 TB fresh ginger, minced (optional)

1-2 whole tomatoes chopped coarsely, and de-seeded if you are feeling picky

2-3 cups green beans, trimmed and sliced

1/4 tsp dried red chili flakes or slice a fresh red or green hot pepper in to small rings or dice

juice of 1 small lime

2 tsp sugar

3 TB soy sauce

2 TB wateroil for stir frying - best to use  a high temperature oil like peanut or grapeseed oil, but corn and soy will do also

1 tsp roasted sesame oil (optional)

Slice the beef shoulder tender into small thin pieces, cutting across the grain.  Mince the garlic and peel and mince the ginger if you are using it. Wash, trim the ends and slide the green beans into 2-3 inch pieces.  Chop the tomato coarsely. You can remove the seeds if you like, but it's not necessary.  If you are using fresh chilis slice into thin rings, or dice if you are using a bigger pepper.   Add the oil to a wok, and heat before you add the beef. When the oil is hot, toss in the beef and cook, stirring so you turn it over, until cooked. Ths will take just 3 or 4 minutes.  Transfer the beef to a separate plate or bowl.  Add additional 1TB of oil to the wok., let it heat up, and toss in the ginger (optional), garlic, green beans and peppers. Stir until they are lightly cooked, another 3 or 4 minutes. Add the tomatoes, soy sauce, lime juice, water and sugar and stir a few minutes to cook the tomatoes.  Add the beef, and cook long enough to make sure the beef is warm. You can finish with the toasted sesame oil if you are using it.   Serve with rice and enjoy.  DeeDee

Thai Style Green Tomato Salad

What with all the cold weather we are having this summer, I have a  vast surplus of unripe tomatoes (some with dry rot already), and a matching shortage of ripe tomatoes.  At the end of the fall last year, I gathered nearly 10 dozen tomatoes to ripen in my south facing window sill, but I'm afraid this year there will be even more - and my window space has not expanded. So, I'm thinking about tasty things to do with green tomatoes starting now, 'cause that's the Prudent Foodie thing to do, and honestly, I am just not that into fried green tomatoes.

I'm actually pretty proud of this week's idea, which is to make a green tomato version of the Thai green papaya salad found at so many restaurants these days.   In my estimation, green papayas and green tomatoes have something in common - neither of them have all that much flavor, which is why they do such an outstanding job of providing a platform for the yummy Thai dressing!  This is a super quick and simple dish, which is one of its major charms, and I've tried to keep it easy.  The recipe is adapted from several sources, so if you feel the compulsion to add green beans to your salad (as found in some recipes for green papaya salad), give it a shot!     I served it with salmon, which was a great combination, but it will be good with rice dishes, pork, chicken, etc. 

Thai Style Green Tomato Salad

3-4 green tomatoes

1 carrot

1 small lime

2-3TB Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce

1/4 tsp dried red chili flakes, or preferably 1 tsp thin slices of small, hot green chili peppers

1-2 TB sugar - many recipes recommend palm sugar, or raw sugar, but I used white (don't tell!)

2-3 TB water

1/3 cup coarsely chopped roasted peanuts (unsalted is fine, as there is plenty of salt in the fish sauce

1-2 TB chopped cilantro

1 scallion, white parts only diced very fine

Put the fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, water and chile pepper slices in a small bowl and stir well.  you can vary the amount of sugar, fish sauce and water according to how strong you like your flavors.  Set aside while you prepare the veggies.  Slice the green tomatoes into long, thin strips, removing the seeds and watery gel.  You could also put them in your cuisinart shredder, but I cut them into sort of coarse julienne by hand.   Grate the carrot in a food processor  or hand grater, or just run a good carrot peeler back and forth producing peel pieces.  Chop the cilantro and peanuts.  Put the tomatoes, carrots and cilantro in a bowl, pour the dressing over it and toss well.  Put the ground peanuts on top.  Serve as a side salad or appetizer.  I loved this dish, and think that your thai food loving friends will thank you!  DeeDee.

Shortcake

Gosh, this may be the first time that I'm actually writing about a dessert.  In general, I come from the fear and loathing school of baking - well not really fear, I guess but loathing, certainly.  This is because baking requires accuracy and repeatability of one, and I'm generally all about "a little of this, a little of that, don't have this, try that instead..." and that just doesn't cut it with baking.  When I do have to bake, I usually rely on Nigella Lawson, and her fabulous, foolproof  "make the whole thing in the food processor cakes." 

What does this all have to do with shortcake you may wonder?  Well, shortcake, like biscuits, scones, and pie crust is more like cooking than baking - if you follow the directions generally, you will get  a good result!  I personally feel like shortcake is one of the most abused desserts in America - people use those nasty little store bought sponge cakes, or angel food cake, instead of a short cake, and then apply unripe strawberries and cool whip to it instead of fresh fruit and vanilla infused whipped cream from local grass fed cows.  I actually use my old Betty Crocker cook book from the early '70's as the basis for my shortcake recipe, and then work from there.  DeeDee's recommendation - don't bother with any Betty Crocker cook book much newer than this;  just like the Joy of Cooking, the newer editions feature lots of recipes with prepared foods (cans of soup, etc.) as major ingredients, and cannot be relied on as sources of good, basic recipes and techniques for scratch cooking.  Getting back to shortcake though:  strawberries are only one of the things that are good served this way.  What got me going on shortcake was the peaches and blueberries in the Farmer's Market this weekend.  My mother used to make peach and blueberry shortcake - mmm,mmm,mmmm.  So now, I'm bringing that to you - courtesy of my Mom and Betty Crocker, with a few little customizations of my own.

Shortcake is really just a sweetened baking powder biscuit, or a less sweet scone writ large in the pan.  Like scones, the addition of appropriate stuff can improve it; my favorite is to toss in some finely diced candied ginger.  But, depending on the fruit you plan to use - you could do something different.  Here are some ideas:  chop up some high quality chocolate chips, and put them in your shortcake; use raspberries for the fruit.  Make a little bit of streusel topping and sprinkle over the top of the shortcake dough before you bake, and use blueberries, or even early golden plums for the fruit.  Throw in some chopped almonds, and use apricots and sour cherries... you get the picture.  

Peach and Blueberry Shortcake

6-8 peaches, more if you are using small ones

1-2 cups blueberries, washed and picked

1/2 to 1 cup sugar - amount depends on your taste for sugar, and the sweetness of the peaches

Peel the peaches if you like - you can use the boiling water method, or I personally find that a really good quality peeler like OXO works just fine.  Cut and slice the peaches.  It's a good idea to ask at the market if the variety you are using is free stone (meaning the seed comes out easily).  Place in a bowl, and pour in the blueberries.  Pour the sugar over it and set aside, covered with a lid or plastic wrap if flies are a concern.  You are sweating the fruit to create a sauce, so this needs to be done a 30 minutes to a couple of hours ahead. 

Shortcake

2c flour

1/3 cup shortening or butter

1/2 tsp salt

3 tsp baking powder

2-3TB sugar

3/4 cup milk

2-3 TB finely diced candied ginger (optional)

Preheat oven to 450F.  Butter an 8 or 9" round cake pan.   In a bowl, use a fork or pastry cutter to combine the dry ingredients, blending them together until they produce a fine meal.  Or  you can throw it all in a food processor, but this is so easy it is hardly worth having to wash all those parts.  Pour in the milk, and mix with the fork until just blended (lumps are ok, do NOT overmix). Turn it out into the cake pan, and spread with the fork.  It does not need to be smooth on top, you will get a lumpy surface.  Bake for 12-15 minutes depending on your oven.  It should be golden brown when ready.   Let cool.  To serve, cut wedges, slide them in half and put the bottom piece in a bowl.  Spoon some juices out of the fruit bowl and pour on the piece of cake in the bowl to moisten, then add fruit.  Put the top piece on, and put more fruit on top, and add whipped cream.  Serve to drooling and applause.  

I meant to take a picture of this and put it in this entry, but as usual, I forgot!  So you can make this, then take the picture and send it to me and I'll add it to this post!  DeeDee