To Main Page
To cooking again
Pasta and More

About Figs

Making Tomato Sauce

Stock & Cream Soups

Squash & Nutmeg

Lemons

My cooking is haphazard. I try something different every time I am behind the counter and almost nothing is the same. A while ago I made a barbeque sauce that Sharon really liked, but I don't exactly remember what was in it. So, here I go and try to tell you about my crazy cooking ideas, right?  Well, keep in mind that cooking is not something that has to follow strict rules all the times. Yes, occasionally, exact quantities of certain items are important; but most of the time it is more fun to wing it and try something different. Let's look at some ideas that I have used in the past.

Thanks for cleaning up my messes, dear.

  Figs They are so good.
Yet, most people cannot stand them.

We are fortunate to have neighbors with a fig tree. They don't like them, so there is a beautiful bounty to be had. What to do with them? Eat them when they are dark purple or brown, cook with them when they are ripe, and don't eat them when they are green.
Did you know that a fig is not a fruit?    It is a flower.

 

Figs are flowers that grow outside in. On a tree you cannot see the blossom, as we normally think of a flower. You cannot see the stamen and pistil, they are hidden inside. Only the female fig-pollinating wasp will crawl inside through the small hole in the bottom of a fig and spread the pollen within. Later, the fig-parasitic wasp, with its long shaft, lays eggs through the thick wall of the fig . . . . . .

Anyway, it is more complex than the usual birds and bees affair. But then again, Adam and Eve had figs, and look what happened afterwards. Take a peek below; you can see the reddish stamen and sticky, sweet pollen on top (or are those wasp eggs?)        Looks yummy, right?

So, what do we do with figs in the kitchen?

One way I use them is on a bun or a slice of French bread, toasted with a drizzle of olive oil and garlic powder, crumbled goat cheese and slices of FIGS. Put this under the broiler for a few minutes and have a lunch.
S have done this with flour tortillas and called it a "Figga-dilla". Just add a little cream cheese (or any other spread you can think of), sprinkle some herbs and sliced figs on top of a flour tortilla, and top it with goat cheese. You can put this under the broiler or put it on a hot frying pan or grill. The tangy cheese (which won't melt) and sweet figs are a great combination!. Bill, next door, likes this on pizza. One day I took some ripe figs, put them in a blender with a splash of olive oil, a dash of salt and herbs and made my own "spread". It looked awful, but tasted OK. Later I went back to cream cheese.

 

Here is a recipe. No fancy name, just a couple braised pork chops with stuff and FIGS.

Take 2 to 4 thick pork chops. Small onion, finely chopped. Chunk of red pepper, finely chopped. Cup of chicken stock. One or two tablespoons of honey, for sweetness. Figs cut in half to show the wonderful inside texture (three or four small ones will do). Salt and pepper, of course.

Trim excess fat off the meat and brown it in a slug of salad oil on both sides. Be sure to have the oil hot. Remove chops from pan. Reduce heat and add chopped onions plus the chopped red pepper. If you like, you might want to add some minced garlic. Sauté (I hate that French word) and add some salt and pepper. Then add pork-chops and chicken stock, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, covered. Then add sliced figs, honey and a tablespoon of butter on top of chops and continue to cook until chops are done (about 20 min). Now remove meat and other stuff with slotted spoon, reduce (boil) the liquid so it makes a nice sauce (may have to do the corn-starch-trick). Serve with rice, steamed veggies or what ever. If you have it, sprinkle a few crumbs of goat cheese and some chopped, fresh herbs on top!

Next time I do this I will take some pictures. Even Sharon likes this dish. Oh, in case you prefer dried prunes, try them instead of figs. I might even use some apricots or peaches some day. What the heck, you may as well try everything before you die. Just keep it sweet.

Tomatoes      Fruit or vegetable?

We know it is not a flower with bugs crawling inside. So, we don't care. Tomatoes come in different sizes, shapes and now various colors. Soon, with cloning and DNA tweaking, we will have designer inputs to match your shirt or blouse. That could be handy should you spill some tomato sauce while enjoying your favorite pasta.

Somehow that leads me to the following two ideas: Making tomato sauce and making pasta (from scratch of course.)

 

A little corner patch, a six pack of tomato plants in the spring, and you will have more tomatoes than you know what to do with. Your neighbors don't want more. So you decide to use them to make tomato sauce. I know you can buy the stuff in jars dirt cheap in the store. But you don't want to throw those beautiful, red, enticing girls in the trash. Let's make some tomato sauce.

 

Cut the tomatoes into slices, layer them in some oven proof pans, add sliced union, crunched garlic, and herbs (such as thyme, oregano, and basil.) Then drizzle olive oil over all. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on top and roast in a 400 deg. F oven for thirty minutes. If you like yours a bit more spicy, add a few drops of Tabasco. Cool the mess, remove the hard twigs and puree it with a food mill or a blender. I like to store the sauce in containers that I can freeze and later put in the microwave oven to reheat and use over noodles with steamed veggies and grilled or pan-fried meat.


This year we had one tomato plant that produced "fruit" until late November. Then the first hard frost took care of it. Just for fun I picked the last red, pink and some green tomatoes and let them sit around for a few days. Sure enough some turned reddish. Then I made sauce out of each. The red sauce was best, but the green stuff was not bad either; tart but tasty.

 

First a layer of sliced onions, some olive oil, fresh thyme and some sage leaves. Then the tomato slices, more onions and a drizzle of olive oil. Salt and pepper to follow.  

 
After about twenty minutes in the oven at 400 deg. F.

For an experiment, I took a green tomato, sliced it and dipped it in a mixture of flour, salt, pepper and a beaten egg. Then I pan fried it in some olive oil and sprinkled a little powdered sugar on top. Again, it wasn't bad but I wouldn't make a whole meal out of it.

 

Lemons   The bitter fruit.

Just like cars, lemons come in different sizes and shapes. You can have any color you want as long as it is yellow.

  

When you cut these large babies in half you find a thick skin and little flesh. It reminds me of this used-car salesman I knew. He sold lemons and also was a bit weird and a little hollow inside; just like what you see below.

So, what do we do with lemons in the kitchen?

We all know that lemons make a nice garnish with fish. The tart taste is good with pan fried sole, for example.
So, put a couple slices on your plate of fish.

 

  

 

Or, if you prefer, garnish a slice of lemon with a piece of fish. 

 

 

How about a shrimp cocktail?


Perhaps you have some artistic talents and like to carve pumpkins. Well, try carving some lemons ....! You can always throw them down the garbage disposal for a nice refreshing smell.

 


Do you like iced tea? Decorate the glass with a slice of lemon.
Everyone likes lemonade. So, when the lemons are plentiful in February, we juice them. Use trays or baggies to freeze the juice just like we do with chicken stock (as you can see further down). Then, in the heat of the summer, grab a bag, defrost it, add lots of sugar and water to make a cool drink.

  

Cream Soup
It is fall, the weather is gloomy and you want some soup for lunch. So what is in the fridge? We usually have carrots, potatoes, onions and some kind of green vegetables on hand. To make these into a nice soup takes about half an hour, one pan, a blender and an appetite.

 

To-day we have broccoli. Although I like to use butter to make the sauce, we can also use olive oil and low fat milk to make the "cream". Obviously it is a lot healthier than all those heavy creams and butter. Although the taste may not be quite the same, you will find that there is little difference when you play around with herbs and spices.
Here I use two cups of home-made chicken stock and also throw in some fresh parsley (don't bother if don't have that). Cut up the broccoli and chop the union. Add some salt and pepper, cover and cook until the broccoli is done (about twenty minutes). By the way, let me show you how I dice an onion.

 

Cut the onion in half lengthwise, cut off the ends and peel. Make several horizontal cuts about a quarter inch high. Now make vertical cuts about a quarter of an inch from side to side. Finally chop at right angles to get your dice. I always use my left hand to hold the onion, but this time I needed it to take these pictures.

 


When the broccoli mixture is done, toss the mess in a blender and puree. Use the same pan to make a "white sauce" or our "cream sauce" as follows. Heat about two tablespoons butter or olive oil; then whisk in two tablespoons flour over low heat. This is what fancy French cooks call making a "rouge", But don't mind, keep stirring. When bubbly, add about two thirds cup milk at once and keep stirring. For this batch I added some cheddar cheese. When this thickens, slowly pour in the broccoli slurry, stir and heat through again. 

 

   

Soup's on!

Along with some crusty bread, good olive oil and a touch of balsamic vinegar this makes a hearty, healthy lunch. It was almost devoured in five minutes.

 

What I like best about all of this: you can use your imagination! No recipes are needed. Just have some fun with combining ingredients that make sense. Try a potato and leeks; or carrots with some ginger in the sauce; or zucchini with parmesan cheese; asparagus (remove the stringy bottoms), or squash, or peeled tomatoes with basil, or (well you name it, but always use a nice stock and onion). If you want to be a bit braver try some beets with a dollop of sour cream on top. I have used a sweet potato and some day may try turnips with a dash of curry. For a richer flavor and more calories, use half-and-half and butter for the "sauce". It will be perfect,; but then again, if it didn't work the first time, try once more.                                         Return to pasta page

Late arrival:        Cream of Beet Soup.
Can you think of anything to do with left-over beets? We had a great salad with them for lunch. But then the rest went into a soup as follows: Sauté some chopped onions, add the cooked beets, chicken stock, some grated nutmeg and a dash of ground cloves, salt and pepper, and liquefy!!!!!!!!!! Put this mess into some basic "cream" sauce and you have a nice red soup. Please also add a dollop of sour cream. It's good.

  

Sharon and I like our food with little salt ("flauw" as they say in Holland). When you buy canned stock, look at the "sodium content". It is horrendous! So, why not make your own stock? It is really not that difficult and the results are more flavorful with no additives and probably more concentrated . . . . . You buy one or two whole chickens, cut them up and put the backs, neck and chicken wing tips (plus any skin, bones and other trimmings) in a large pot of water with a cut-up onion, carrots and some celery. Let this simmer for a few hours and then strain it. Throw away the chunks and refrigerate the liquid overnight. Skim off the fat, pour it through a fine sieve, and you now have a wonderful, salt-free, concentrated stock for all your soup cooking and other meals. Meanwhile you have chicken legs, thighs, wings and breasts for barbequing and oven baking at a reduced cost.

 

To store the stock in the freezer, put one cup of the liquid in zip-lock sandwich bags. Squeeze out most of the air and put them in a loaf pan to freeze. I usually have some two cup and several one cup bags. Then when you need some, take a bag out off the freezer, pop it in the microwave for a couple minutes until the partly frozen stock can be removed from the plastic and defrost it some more.

 

Squash
 One of our favorite fall vegetables is acorn squash. It has a nutty, creamy flavor and is ideal when baked. Put it on a baking sheet, (skin side up, not as shown) add some olive oil, salt, pepper and grate some nutmeg on the meaty parts. Bake 45 minutes at 350F. To keep it moist, add a bit of water in the pan. Squash also makes a wonderful cream soup. However, be easy on the onions; add a dash of ground ginger or some curry powder, or ???

  

Notice the dark brown nut in the picture above. It breaks easily to yield the tan looking nut. With a small grater, a few strokes and voila: fresh nutmeg.

Nutmeg & Mace
That reminds me of our trip through the Panama Canal and our stop at the island of Grenada where most of the nutmeg comes from. We visited a processing plant and saw some women sorting the nuts by hand. We bought a small bag of the unshelled nuts and still have some left in our kitchen.

  

It reminds me of my bicycle helmet and "the accident". But that is another story.

 

.

 

  
Mace is also part of the nutmeg seed. When the fruit ripens and opens its outer casing the brown nut is surrounded by a red covering.

This aril is removed, dried and ground into a powder. The taste is similar to nutmeg except a bit stronger. The reason that mace is more pricy is that it takes several pounds of nuts to produce an once of mace.
I have never used mace but we have two containers sitting on our shelf along with several other "spices", that were inherited from Sharon's grandmother. I am sure the flavor is pretty much gone. So, why don't we try to find out, you ask?

  

        To top of the page.