Beef broth

An electric pressure cooker, e.g. an Instant Pot, revolutionized our cooking of beef broth. No more slow simmer, removing the foam, and dried-out beef because the soup boiled at too high a heat! Now it is literally a 5 minute prep, and then another 5 minutes to take the meat, the bones, and the aromatics out!

The broth after opening the pressure cooker

We prefer using beef shank or oxtail, and we tend to eat the meat right away, with freshly grated and aired horseradish, mixed with just a bit of sour cream, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. We buy grass-fed beef online and have it delivered frozen. The beauty is that for this recipe one can start with frozen meat.

Note the use of ginger root. This adds a bit of Asian touch and we believe it improves the broth dramatically. 

Ingredients

• 2-3 carrots, medium size
• 1 onion, with skin, cut in half
• 3-4 celery stalks, cut in half
• 5 (approximately) garlic cloves with skin
• 1 inch knob of fresh ginger
• 2-3 bay leaves
• a handful of parsley leaves and stalks, and/or other herbs such as marjoram and thyme,
• 5-7 whole black peppercorns
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 lb beef shank, frozen or fresh (if you use more, adjust the salt)
• water, filtered is much better

Procedure

1. Add all the ingredients to your pressure-cooker pot. The quantities here call for at least a 6-quart pressure cooker.
2. Add filtered water, and make sure the water stays under the max line on your pot
3. Cook at high pressure for 42 minutes if using frozen beef, and for 35 minutes if the beef is thawed.
4. Let the pressure fall naturally.
5. Use a spider to fish the aromatics and the beef from the broth. We discard the aromatics and the bones, but we reserve the meat.
6. Pour the broth into a large enough container that you can close. If you are inclined to do so, this is a good opportunity to strain the broth. We never bother with a strainer or cheesecloth.
7. Cool the broth in a fridge overnight. Then remove the fat layer before using the broth. Some people like to eat that fat, but we are not in that group.
8. Use the broth as you wish: We love to warm it up and drink from a cup.

Hummus

Hummus is one of my favorite ways to consume beans. Chickpea is quick to soak and to cook, so one can make hummus quickly even if making it from dry beans. Using freshly cooked chickpea is so worth it as it elevates the flavor. A bonus is that one can utilize the bean cooking liquid and give hummus even more flavor. 

My favorite hummus contains herbs, which may offend hummus purists. The herbs provide lots of flavor and allow me to use less olive oil, making the dish much less fatty than the "proper hummus". One surely needs to taste the olive oil, and the flavor boost from the herbs is nothing short of spectacular.

This is a dish that one almost needs to eyeball, I cannot imagine measuring the ingredients carefully - hence the quantities listed below are directional at best. I very much prefer using a food processor over a blender here: I find the consistency much easier to control, and the clean-up is so much easier.

Ingredients

• Freshly cooked chickpeas I use about 1/2 to 1/3 lb beans.
• You can use canned beans if that is your preference. You will need to add more herbs and olive oil to compensate for the flavor. Use some filtered water instead of bean cooking liquid. You may also need to add a pinch of salt - but test the hummus first.
• Reserved liquid from cooking the beans. I eyeball the quantity.
• Extra virgin olive oil, 1/3 cup or so.
• Tahini, about 3 - 4 TBS.
• Juice from 1 lemon.
• Optional: Garlic powder to taste: start with 1 tsp and adjust.
• Optional: Leaves plucked from a few sprigs of fresh herbs - thyme, oregano, marjoram, sage.
• Optional: 1 tsp miso.

Procedure

1. Soak the beans for 4-6 h at a room temperature. Cook in an electric pressure cooker with 1tsp salt and a few bay leaves for 8-9 minutes - the beans should be covered with about an inch of water. Let the pressure fall, then cool the beans in a bowl, and reserve and cool the cooking liquid.
2. In a food processor combine the beans, tahini, lemon juice, garlic powder, herbs, and miso. Add about 8 or so TBS of bean cooking liquid and the olive oil. 
3. Process until smooth. If needed, slowly add more bean cooking liquid or olive oil by a tablespoon while the food processor is running. Stop when you achieve the desired consistency and the desired flavor.
4. Eat right away, and/or store in a fridge, optionally with extra olive oil.
1. I usually do not add more olive oil, but when I feel like indulging, I do, and it is very tasty.

Yumi's sleep tea

Our family doctor Yumi recommended this tea as a sleep aid in her newsletter, addressing sleep challenges many people have been facing during the pandemic. We tried the tea, we like the taste, and we love the calming effect.

To make the tea mixture, mix the following ingredients. Percentages are by weight:

• Valerian root: 30%
• Linden: 20%
• Kava kava: 20%
• Chamomile: 20%
• Catnip: 10%

To make tea: Use 1 tsp of the mixture per cup of tea. Use boiling water. Steep for 20 minutes.

Drink 1-2 cups, 2-3h before bedtime.

Ricotta parmesan gnocchi

I used to be afraid of making potato gnocchi after hearing they were difficulty 9 out of 10. I think this has to do with making the dough just right, so that it is not tough yet it does not fall apart. Then, years ago, I came across a recipe for ricotta gnocchi, which changed my attitude. Suddenly, gnocchi were a dish that I could whip together easily and quickly, with consistently delicious results.

I have kept the recipe on a small card in my pantry - it simply contained the list of ingredients. I want to transcribe that to a more permanent form here, so that it is easier to find. For those who desire an in-depth coverage of ricotta gnocchi I suggest to look at the fabulous writeup in Serious Eats. But this is about trivial food, so let me record my super easy approach.

Ricotta gnocchi in cream sauce with shiitake mushrooms

Ingredients

• 200g full fat ricotta
• 70-120g flour
• Freshly milled whole einkorn is amazing. All-purpse flour works very well, too.
• I usually go with 120g flour, as the gnocchi are still super creamy yet they do no fall apart very easily, and I can shape them in a bowl with a spoon, no need to roll them out.
• 1 egg, whisked
• 40g grated parmesan
• A pinch of salt

Procedure

1. Combine and mix all ingredients in a bowl,.. You will get a reasonably dense mixture.
2. Bring a pot of salted water to a rolling boil.
1. That allows the mixture to rest for a few minutes, helping the four absorb the moisture
3. Shape gnocchi with a small (dessert) spoon quickly and drop them, one at a time, into the boiling water.
4. The gnocchi float to the surface after a minute or so. Remove the floating gnocchi from the water with a spider or a slotted spoon.
1. Place gnocchi into the sauce of your choice - tomato or cream based.

Experimenting with Tartine Salted Chocolate Rye Cookies

We have a solid collection of cookbooks. Sadly, I rarely use any of them. These days, internet has millions of recipes, and one can always google for variations and inspirations, and combine the recipes into what feels like a dish one would like to make. 

Recently, a package appeared on our door step, containing a gift from a friend, the Tartine Book No. 3. It is a gorgeous book, and Tartine is a gorgeous bakery, but it is still a cookbook. So I wondered what would happen with it, would it collect dust. As I started to read the book, I found Chad Robertson's writing so refreshing. Down to earth, inquisitive, explorative. In the book he explores usage of different types of flour, and that speaks volumes to me. Since we got your grain mill, a large part of my baking has been about combining flours from different types of grain.

The friend who gifted us the book was raving about the salted chocolate rye cookies and confessed that they were actively looking for opportunities to make the cookies again.

In my first two attempts I followed the recipe faithfully. The cookies were DELICIOUS and super fudgy. So good that I made the recipe again within a week or so. But... the cookies did not look like the cookies from the book. In the book the cookies had a body and shape, and my cookies were as flat as Kansas. So I wondered whether i was either doing something wrong, e.g. did not cool the dough enough, or maybe the cookies could use more flour. I decided to double the flour and what came out was close to perfection - very chocolatey, very fudgy, soft, yet with enough body and shape to look attractive. 

These cookies are plain awesome as it. I do plan to tinker with the recipe some more, just because that is what I do. For example I am pretty sure some walnuts would be an awesome addition. Before we go there, let us record this attempt so that it can be recreated.

Ingredients

• 454g (2 2/3 cups) dark chocolate, preferably 70% chocolate
• 57g (4 TBS) g unsalted butter - this amounts to about 1/2 stick of butter
• 170g rye flour, freshly milled if at all possible - this amounts to about 1.5 cup
• the original recipe calls for 1/2 of the flour I used, 85g (3/4 cup)
• 1-2 tsp baking powder
• I used 2 tsp and the recipe worked out great
• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
• 200g (4 large or 3 extra large) eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 300g muscovado sugar
• The original recipe called for 340g muscovado sugar
• I used dark brown sugar instead of muscovado with success
• Flaky sea salt for topping (optional but really nice)

Procedure

I pretty much followed the recipe from the cookbook

1. In a double boiler melt the chocolate and the butter, Set aside to cool a little.
2. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, the salt, and the baking powder. Set aside.
3. In a mixer, using a whisk attachment, whip eggs on medium-high speed. Add the sugar slowly and keep mixing until the volume increases significantly. The volume will almost triple.
4. Reduce the speed to low and mix in the melted chocolate-butter mixture and the vanilla.
1. Make sure that the chocolate is cool enough so that the eggs don's coagulate.
2. Use a spatula to scrape the wall balls.
5. Stop the mixer, add the flour mixture and mix it in on a low speed until just combined.
6. The dough will be quite soft. Transfer the dough in a metal bowl or use your mixer bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for about 30 minutes.
1. If the dough is in the fridge too long, it will harden and will be hard to scoop. In that case, let is warm up sufficiently, e.g. to the room temperature, so that you can work with it,
7. Preheat the oven to 350F
8. Line two baking sheets with parchment.
9. Scoop the cookies with a rounded tablespoon onto the baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches of space between the bowls.
1. I used a small ice-cream scoop, which is a bit larger than the tablespoon, and had to bake the cookies 3 minutes longer.
10. Optionally, sprinkle a few salt flakes on top of each cookie. 
1. I used salt from the bay of Piran, simply because I had it.
11. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the cookies are baked through and have a rounded top from puffing up.
12. Remove the baking sheets from the oven, let cool slightly, then continue to cool the cookies on a wire rack to cool completely.