Ginger Blast Tea makes a great summertime cooler
By REBEKAH DENN, P-I REPORTER
Published 10:00 pm, Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Chef Stephanie Speer gave us this account of how to make the Ginger Blast drink that fans remember from the old Green Cat Cafe on Capitol Hill:

Take a quarter-pound of ginger, take all the skin off, and slice it into circles. Cuisinart it "so it's nice and edible." Then mix the puree with four cups of lemon juice, one cup of honey, and a teaspoon of cayenne. "It's as simple as that!"

Speer recommends several ways to serve the blast: Drink it straight as shots, brew it with hot water for Ginger Blast Tea, or mix it with soda water and ice for a summertime cooler.

Makes 20-30 meatballs

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pound bulk Italian sausage
• 2 teaspoons dry minced onion
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese grated or (2 ounces)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Method

Mix all of the ingredients in a large bowl using your fingers. Mix until the meat no long feels slimy from the eggs. Shape in golf ball size meatballs and place on a large baking sheet with sides. Bake at 375º for 15-20 minutes until the meatballs are done all the way through. Rinse in a colander to remove any egg and cheese that has leaked out.

Departures

Instead of using minced onion, I used onion powder. I forgot the parmesan. No rinsing was needed. These turned out great. They tasted good all by themselves, but I served them with "Cream sauce for meatballs," which was quite good.

2014-12-14: Just made the recipe a second time. Remembered the parmesan this time. Have to say it didn't seem to make much difference in the taste. Perhaps because I used cheapo parmesan in a can? In any case, the recipe can clearly be made without the parmesan.

Again I paired it with cream sauce for meatballs. That's okay, but it is not an ideal pairing with the Italian spices of the sausage.

I think it would be more interesting taste-wise to use instead of Italian sausage, standard farmer's sausage, and then mix in a cup of rehydrated cranberries or a cup of lingonberries. That would work better with the cream sauce.

2016-01-10: I made this again for the 4th or 5th time. It's definitely a go-to recipe now.

2020-04-01: I made these again. This time only used beef because Food City had no ground pork. Still very tasty.

2024-03-24: Made them in the Speedi on bake/roast at 350°F for 11 minutes. Didn't have parmesan, so I used feta instead. Had to cook them in two batches.

I decided to this recipe a try since my last attempt at Brussels sprouts was surprisingly good. It's easiest for me to buy Brussels sprouts in 12 oz frozen packages, so I re-proportioned the recipe by cutting down the quantity of sprouts, but nothing else.

Ingredients

• 12 oz. frozen Brussels sprouts, thawed
• 3 Tbs unsalted butter
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 Tbs fresh lemon juice

Method

• Halve the sprouts, unless they are really big, in which case quarter them.
• Melt butter over medium high heat, put in sprouts, salt, and cook 5-10 till they are spotted with carmelized brown spots.
• Add cream, wait till it boils, then turn down the heat to a simmer.
• Simmer the sprouts for 20-30 minutes, covered, stirring occasionally. The cream should become a very light brown.
• Remove from heat. Check for flavor. Add salt or pepper to taste if desired. Mix in lemon juice.

Result

I liked 'em.

Source: http://orangette.net/2006/12/the-best-thing-since-brussels-sprouts/

2023-04-20:  Made 'em again, but my memory misled me, so I used 24 oz of Brussels sprouts and browned them in olive oil.  When they were caramelized, I drained the oil and threw in some butter for the flavor.  i doubled the other ingredients, which might not have been necessary.  Really liked the result.  Salt-lovers might want to add some, but I enjoyed the subtle flavors of not having too much salt.

Fry's Grocery has in the butcher case pre-spiced Malibu chicken breasts that look pretty good and are about $3.49 a pound, which is currently a reasonable price. "Malibu" just means the savory/peppery spice rub on them. I bought a couple and asked the butcher how to cook them. He said 15 maybe 20 minutes at 350°. Idiot. I don't think he has actually cooked these things. They are pretty thick, and it took me 30 minutes at that temperature, with one opening of the oven. Next time I'll 25 minutes before checking. I think 30 made them just a bit dry.

Ingredients

• 2 pre-spiced chicken breasts

Method

• Put them on a baking sheet in the oven for 25 minutes at 350°.

Result

Not bad at all. The spice rub may have had too much salt in it. Either that or my tongue was mistaking some of the spices for salt. I'll definitely try this again with their lemon pepper breasts.

Serves 5-6

Ingredients

• 24 oz frozen brussels sprouts, thawed and halved
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 6 oz feta cheese, crumbled
• 1/2 cup pecans
• 1.5 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1.5 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• Olive oil
• Salt & pepper

Method

1. Soak cranberries in just-boiled water for five minutes. Drain.
2. Heat brussels sprouts, cranberries, and olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Season with salt & pepper. Cook for 8-10 minutes.
3. Toss with maple syrup and balsamic vinegar until sprouts are coated.
4. Toss in feta and pecans

This is the first time I've liked a dish with brussels sprouts. Actually forgot the pecans this time, but it was still good. Next time I'll make half the quantityI made this time.

2015-03-10: This time I used pomegranate molasses instead of maple syrup. That was good. It might be interesting to use mulberry syrup some time.

Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients

• 14 ounces coconut milk
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 lime, juiced
• 2 teaspoons sriracha
• 1 teaspoon salt

Mix everything in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-low heat. Reduce to simmer for 10 minutes.

Results

I really liked this dressing. It had a tiny bite to it that would probably be light enough for people not used to spicy foods. It is meant to be served over Thai chopped salad, but I served it over steamed cauliflower, which worked pretty well. It would also be a good sauce for a simple curried chicken dish. Probably wouldn't work with steamed brocolli, but it might with steamed cabbage.

Here's another variation:

• 14 ounces coconut milk
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon Mae Ploy green curry paste
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries

2014-12-03: Now I have used this stuff as a condiment for steamed brocolli. It worked great. The curry I used in this case was a tablespoon of Mae Ploy green curry paste, a spice of the gods if there ever was one, and I added a quarter cup of dried cranberries in the cooking process, forgetting the other ingredients, which turned out to not be necessary when using Mae Ploy. Using that same version I have also used it as a dressing on a spinach only salad. It rocks. And then I drank it from a small bowl simply as a soup all by itself. Even that way it rocked.

Here's another variation:

• 14 ounces coconut milk
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon Mae Ploy green curry paste

2014-12-13: You can't make a sauce much simpler than this.

I've been meaning to make chocolate-covered bacon for some time using the recipe mentioned on Primal Toad. Today I did it. Here's my variation.

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb. of thick-cut bacon. Don't use the skinny crap they sell in dairy case. Get it from the butcher.
• 3.5 oz of good quality chocolate, chopped
• 1 tbsp of butter

Method

1. In a small frying pan melt the butter over low heat.
2. Add the chocolate, stirring to smooth it out.
3. Dip the bacon in the chocolate. Transfer it to a wire cooling rack. Put it in the fridge for a couple of hours to firm up.

This turned out pretty good, although it probably won't become part of my regular diet.

I picked up a tri-tip roast from Costco. It weighed 3.13 pounds. The directions said to cook it at 425° until it gets to 145° in the thickest part. Alas, it didn't give a time reference. I took a look at my meat cookbook. It recommended 450° for 20 minutes and then some other behavior I ignored.

So I guesstimated 30 minutes. Checked. Not close. 40 minutes? Closer. I took about 45 minutes before it got to about 135°, which is when I removed it. Then I let it rest for 15 minutes to let it finish cooking and redistribute the juices.

I'll have to reconsider the time. I haven't eaten enough of the roast yet to figure out whether the middle was too raw, but I think next time 40 minutes for a similar size roast would be good enough.

2014-11-21: I've been eating the roast for several days now. It actually turned out really, really good. The middle has a bit of pink left. Very tasty. It rocks. I bet 40 minutes without interruption would work great for this weight.

Turkey bigos with cumin and chipotle

The recipe for unstuffed cabbage is one of my favorite these days, and I keep on trying a variety of variations. Today's version uses ground turkey and canned tomatillos. "Bigos" is a Lithuanian/Polish dish with chopped cabbage and meat, so I'm claiming it for my generic name for the dish.

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 lbs ground turkey, as fatty as you can find it
• 1 chipotle, say about the size that would give you 1 tbsp ground
• 1 tbsp whole cumin
• 1 tsp black pepper kernels
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 28-oz can of tomatillos
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 small head of cabbage, chopped

Method

1. Fry the onions until soft in a big frying pan.
2. Add turkey. Fry till mostly cooked.
3. Grind chipotle, cumin and pepper in a spice grinder
4. Add spices to meat and onion mixture.
5. Put garlic through a garlic press. Add to the meat/onion mixture. Cook for about a minute.
6. Drain tomatillos, reserving the brine. Run the tomatillos through a blender. Add to the meat/onion mixture. Add maybe a half a cup of the reserved brine. Add salt.
7. Add chopped cabbage to mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until cabbage is soft. Serve.

This turned out adequately, but no great shakes. Next time I do it, instead of adding 1/2 cup of the brine, I'll add a cup of chicken broth (from powder or bouillon cubes), which I think would change it from being merely okay to tasty.

When I was in Russia last summer, I was looking for palm oil to make plov. To my surprise I spotted горчичное масло mustard oil in a Bekhetle. Mustard is used widely in India as a cooking oil. This is not the intense mustard oil used as a spice, but the vegetable oil derived from the mustard plant as a cooking oil. That caught my interest, so I bought a bottle and brought it back to the States. Turns out that in the States you cannot label this stuff as cooking oil because back in the 70s the erucic acid it contains was associated with toxic effects on the heart at high levels. (Thanks to the Wikipedia article for that info.) No negative effects in humans have been scientifically demonstrated. My general attitude to low-level associations with bad health is to say, “I don’t have time to be worried about this low-level crapola.” In various areas it is the traditionally preferred cooking oil. So I purchased myself a bottle.

Tonight I cooked with it for the first time, trying it in a dish where I thought it would show off its unique taste fairly simply: a bit of stewed cabbage. Here is what I did.

Ingredients

• mustard oil
• 1/2 of a large head of cabbage
• 1 tbsp powdered onion
• 1 tsp powdered garlic
• 1 tsp caldo de pollo (powder)
• 1 cup of water

Method

1. In a 12" pan (measured top rim-to-rim) cover the bottom of the pan with mustard oil. Turn the electric burner to half way. Chop the cabbage. Add the cabbage to the oil.
2. In the meantime mix the caldo with the water and heat it to just shy of boiling in the microwave, which will cut down your cooking time.
3. The cabbage should fry gently, stir it occasionally. You don't want it to brown, just to begin softening. When it is approaching softness, add the onion and garlic. Mix. Let cook for a minute.
4. Then add the caldo broth. Cook until the cabbage is soft.

Result

This turned out fine: a subtle cabbage dish. I had been expecting a much more aggressive mustard/brassica flavor, but that turned out not to be the case. I'd make it again, even for guests who didn't like spicy or aggressive food. I find myself wondering whether the version I bought was a particularly mild form to suit the delicate Russian palate. So I'll finish off the bottle, and then I'll be the stuff here in the US. Here it is not allowed to be sold with food labeling. Instead it is sold as massage oil, but people cook with it anyway. Cooking with massage oil... now that would bring a smirk to my face... and I can think of several people I would love to serve it too.