Kale, Sausage, Beans

Tonight we made yet another incarnation of what's becoming our quick weeknight standard:

This stir fry includes:

- kale
- beans
- sausage
- garlic & other spices
- whatever's been kicking around the fridge too long (today it was kalamata olives)

Remade:
01-25-2014 for dinner at David's house - used purple kale
06-08-2014 enhanced with red peppers, lemon juice, and bacon fat:

Persimmon Bread

N. occasionally likes to volunteer with an awesome organization, Village Harvest, that picks excess fruit from backyards in Silicon Valley and donates it to the hungry.  However, only perfectly intact fruit is accepted by the food banks.  Anything damaged is kept by the volunteers.  This is how we ended up with lots of mildly imperfect hachiya persimmons:

Due to the quantity of this loot, we immediately started looking for ways to use persimmons in baking.  This is how we came across James Beard's persimmon bread recipe, as adopted by David Leibovitz:

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2005/11/persimmon-bread/

In the process making this, we learned that the hazelnuts we have in our fridge are actually super delicious when roasted :)

The final result is extremely rich, moist dessert bread that has strong hints of whisky:

Deep Chocolate Brownies

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Deep-Chocolate-Brownies-242608

Brussels Sprouts Fricasse

On a tip from a friend, we came across this recipe:

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=715063

It was based on a dish from this video (~12 min in):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GokR2C9wy0

As a work in progress:

Remade on:

2013-12-1

2013-12-8

2014-1-2

2016-10-29 (we thought lemon juice might be a nice idea)

Fresh Dungeness Crabs

N. bought three live dungeness crabs of a boat Pillar Pt Harbor today ($6/lb - 5lb).  They made fun pets for a bit, as they struggled to climb on top of each other in the cooler that served as their temporary aquarium in our kitchen.  After a couple hours, the activity level in the cooler rapidly decreased.  It was time to turn pets into dinner.

J. cooked them, using the following as a guide:

http://www.sunset.com/food-wine/flavors-of-the-west/dungeness-101-how-cook-crab-00400000024256/

Here's J. getting ready to cook one:

Here it's getting pushed down into our largest pot, with a vegetable steamer below it:

A cooked crab:

A gutted and halved crab:

They were served along w/garlicky chili butter.

Remade on:
2014-12-14 with three 2lb+ crabs

Sauerkraut

N. likes to ferment things. She has previously tried making sauerkraut, and was quite pleased with the results. (J was not -- he is not a sauerkraut fan, though.) Her method is taken from the book Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz.

Ingredients:

One head of cabbage

One carrot

Some salt

Some caraway seeds

Method:

Shred the carrot and cabbage with the food processor, using the slicing disc attachment for the cabbage.

Season with caraway seeds and salt

Pack ingredients deeply into a glass jar, pressing them down firmly as each layer is added

Place a heavy weight, e.g. as smaller bottle full of water, inside the jar, to ensure that all the cabbage is submerged in its own brine.

Cover with a clean cloth and secure cloth with a rubber band.

Leave the filled jar for 1-4 weeks before eating. Feel free to sample a bit along the way, as tempted.

Update: On Nov 30, 10 days after the fermentation began, the sauerkraut was amazingly delish.  Thus, it was jared and refrigerated.

Remade on:
2013-12-8 this batch, sadly, went bad, possibly due to insufficient salt :(
2014-1-9

Apple Oven Cake

We hosted a party this fall.  As decor, we bought large red apples.  They looked shiny & cute, but their taste left a lot to be desired.

Soon after the party, N. came across this recipe in an old issue of Sunset, and a use case for the sad apples was found:

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/apple-oven-cake-10000001924665/

The apples were sliced:

Sauteed in cinnamon butter:

And turned into a delish frittata-like entity.  The lemon juice was key to good taste.  A bit less sugar would have been ok.