New Ingredient-Sorghum Syrup

I have finally finished reading Michael Twitty's book, The Cooking Gene, and in order to try out some of the recipes featured in the book, I had to get my hands on an ingredient that turns out is pretty much impossible to get your hands on in Seattle. I scoured every grocery store in my vicinity, and even made a special trip to Whole Paycheck Foods to look for it there, but with no luck. The only thing that could be done, was to order it online. I finally did, and it arrived last week in a super cute jug. I had no idea what it tasted like or how to use it, but I had a couple recipes to try and also have this handy guide called the internet to refer to for answers.

I had a roasted salmon recipe that calls for sorghum syrup, and decided to try it out last night. The recipe is from Cooking Light, and can be found here. The first thing I noticed when I opened the jug, was how sticky it is. It's super sticky. I'd say it's halfway between molasses and maple syrup in thickness. It got on everything, including things I swear I hadn't even touched. Be prepared to clean extensively when you're finished!

 This is the salmon with the sorghum-mustard glaze on it, waiting to go into the oven. After a discussion on twitter last night, I would say that using tofu would be an excellent vegetarian option for this. Please note, that the recipe doesn't call for salt, so you might want to add some anyway, or make sure to season properly before eating. Especially if you end up using tofu. I didn't have lemon zest on-hand, so I just threw in some lemon juice instead. It worked fine.

Here is the post-roasted, post-broiled salmon. I probably could have broiled it longer, but the glaze on the pan was getting really burned and I was afraid of it smoking too much, so I took it out. You can see the edges are nice and browned.

This was really tasty! Sorghum is hard to describe. When you initially taste it, there's an explosion of flavor in your mouth. There's an almost tart/sour flavor up front, but it quickly dissipates into a round, sweetness. It's less harsh than molasses, which I'm not terribly fond of. It's not mapley like maple syrup or like sugar. It really is its own, unique flavor. I was impressed, and ended up keeping the extra glaze to use again on some more salmon.

I found some other recipes to try, a cookie recipe and a cake recipe to try. I am also going to try out some of the recipes from The Cooking Gene, so I'll try to update when I try them out.

If you live in a region where you can easily access sorghum syrup, take a moment to appreciate it! It might not be special to you, but it's not something everybody can easily access. And for those of you wondering about ordering it for yourself, go for it! A little goes a long way, so it will last you a long time and make the cost worthwhile.

Pizza Nachos

So, what do you do when a coworker gives you all her leftover tortilla chips and all you have is pizza-type ingredients at home? Well, you combine them, of course! I didn't measure anything, I just threw it all together. Here's the before:

The ingredients I used are: tortilla chips, Italian blend cheese, Italian seasoning, and pepperoni that's been cut into smaller pieces. Layer them just as you would any other nachos and stick them in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes and they look like this:

I topped them with some chopped olives and ate them with a bowl of spaghetti sauce to dip in. They were amazing!!

The only thing I'd do differently, is put foil or parchment paper on the bottom of the sheet pan because the cheese did stick pretty badly. But flavor-wise, I wouldn't change anything!

The next time you're in the mood for nachos, but want something a little different, I highly recommend this!

The Cooking Gene-Before

The Cooking Gene-by Michael Twitty, was released today and I am eagerly awaiting my copy, which is probably sitting at my parents' house, as I write this. I feel like I have been waiting for this book my entire life, but in reality, it's only been less than a year. I discovered Michael Twitty by accident, I can't even remember how anymore, but I have enjoyed his blog posts and his tweets ever since. I feel as though we are destined to meet in real life sometime, though when, where, or how, I know not.

I have always been interested in both food and history and have spent a lot of time combining them. When I was young, I loved The Frugal Gourmet on PBS and how Jeff Smith entwined the history of a country into the dishes he was preparing. I went to cooking school right out of high school and spent time in the restaurant industry before realizing I wanted to focus on writing. I left and went back to school. When I was in college, I focused on World War II as a history major, and spent most of my time writing about the home front and food rationing in both Britain and the United States. They were issues that fascinated me, yet hadn't been covered as much as the battles had. I have collected books on food history, which aren't that plentiful, and even contemplated writing one of my own, though I've never figured out what to focus on.

Writing and food are very much my life still, but I have added to it. Another element is my love of genealogy. I have always been fascinated by my family's long-past history, probably because of my family's more-recent history. My maternal grandparents both died very young, when my mother was still a child. She and her siblings were always incredibly close because of this, but because they were so young, none of them knew much about their parents or their past. I've always felt a hole inside of me that my grandparents left behind, and I think genealogy has helped me fill it, somewhat.

Technology has advanced over the years, allowing me to find out things I never would have imagined about my past. Most of my family lines come from Canada, but one line is American. My mother's father's line. It seemed to have originated in the South, a place I've always thought of as "far away" and "over there," but never connected to me or my history. I'd never been able to trace the line back very far for some reason and it always frustrated me. An internet search on my maternal family's surname brought a shocking discovery, in that it was the name of an enslaved man from Virginia. The first of his line. But I didn't have proof beyond the name. Is that why I couldn't trace it? Because they'd been enslaved and therefore, unlikely to have documentation? I didn't know what to make of it. How could a white person have had black ancestors? How is that even possible? I lived with this information and uncertainty for a few years, not sure what to make of it. Then DNA tests began to be available at affordable prices, and I had my parents and father's parents take the tests. And there it was, on my mother's test, a tiny bit of African, which I am happy to have inherited when I took my own test and saw the results. The proof I needed, well, more proof, at least.

As I lived with this information, things began to hit me differently. History that you always thought of as terrible, but not yours, felt more personal. A place that was far off and over there, now felt closer to me. People that I never thought I was connected to, are now connected to me, through a shared past. Knowing you have ancestors who were enslaved takes getting used to. Things make me angry now that I used to not even think about, before. My white privilege glares in my face and I see how ridiculous it is that it is granted to me, but not to everybody.

How do you come to grips with this? Do I have the right to embrace this? Should I ignore it all because it's not my place? Or do I have the privilege to ignore it because it doesn't show in my skin? Ignoring it doesn't change how your family's past played out, it just disrespects it. Embracing the past, acknowledging it, feeling the pain, sorrow, and the unfairness of it all, is how we honor the past, and our ancestors.

I was in the middle of all of this when I first came across Michael Twitty and heard about the book he was working on. It was perfect timing, possibly kismet. Here was a man who was talking and writing about a past and a place and a people that I had just found out I was a part of, even if only in small part. Would I find anymore clues to my family's past in these writings? Would I find my place in the past, and therefore, in the present? Will this help fill the void that I have spent my life trying to fill with family history? I don't know, but I hope I will at least find something that I can see myself in.

I will post again after I've read the book, and even during, if I feel the need to. I will try some of the recipes and share my experiences here. If you want to read along with me, click the link above and order your own copy today! I'd love to hear what you all think of the book too!

Yummy Enchiladas

We had some cooked chicken left over from a rotisserie chicken from the store, so I found this recipe for enchiladas. The only other enchiladas I've made had a red sauce, and this one was a cream sauce. I thought the filling was rather pretty, with the green and red together. Sort of festive.
The sauce has chicken broth, sour cream, cumin, chili powder and a roux to thicken it all. And it's a very messy recipe, and definitely a group project. One to portion the filling, one to dip the tortillas and ideally one to spread the filling and roll the tortilla. We were only two people so we made due. And got very messy in the process!
The recipe said to put the cheese on the top at the start and bake for 25 minutes, but I saved it for the last 10 minutes and I think it was better because it didn't get too dried out and crispy. These turned out to be not spicy but really flavorful and so delicious! We made Mexican rice to accompany it, and even though it turned out to be a really late dinner, it was well worth the wait!

Catching Up-1

Now that the holidays are over I can get caught up with this blog, which I have not written for in far too long...Most of these will be pictures with descriptions of what they were, as opposed to actual descriptions of the cooking process. My goal, in fact it's one of my New Year's resolutions, is to set aside one day a week to play catch-up with what I've cooked over the past week. That way it'll be less massive and easier to remember what I've actually done. So, here we go, round one: Things I cooked since the last post that weren't holiday-related.

I made German food. Pork chops with sauerkraut, onions, and apples, very tasty, as well as a side dish of roasted potatoes, Brussels sprouts, and bacon. Also very tasty, though I have learned that Brussels sprouts really do not reheat well...

Also experimented with homemade fried chicken. I found a simple recipe online and tested it. I think it was very good, however the chicken was underseasoned. Definitely needs to be marinated first. Next time I'll use buttermilk flavored with spices and lemon juice. Should be very delicious. The crust was very crispy which is what you want. I browned it on the stove first and then put it on a cooling rack on top of a baking sheet and finished cooking it off in the oven. The cooling rack allowed all sides to continue cooking and not get wet on the bottom side. It also allowed a lot of the oil to drip off onto the pan below.

And just last night I tried out homemade macaroni and cheese on the stovetop. I made a simple roux out of butter and flour, then thickened it with milk. To that I added a bunch of different kinds of shredded cheese, though cheddar was the main one. I didn't finish it off in the oven because I think that just dries it out and takes too much time. I didn't use a recipe for this one, I just made it up as I went along. My sister helped by cooking the pasta, which I used up the ends of about 4 different types of pasta. It was actually fun to eat something that had so many different shapes and textures to it.

Ok, there might be more explanations here than I thought there would be at first. Apparently I am remembering it better than I thought I would...!