Paper Thin

Paper Thin is a mostly-private fiction and public cooking blog, moved from the communities imperfectsouls and rimonah on LiveJournal. If I know you from there, register and drop me a comment or an email so I can add you to the viewing list. If I don't, please visit the Library and have a look around to see if you're interested in my fiction.

Just finished reading Strange Histories by Darren Oldridge, which is essentially about the intellectual/religious climate that led to things like hanging demonically-possessed pigs (the pig had eaten a small child), demonically-possessed or witch-contaminated apples, witch trials and heretic trials. His goal to present the context of these things, which seem absolutely extraordinary to modern eyes, and point out how they developed along rational, comprehensible lines from the basic assumptions and beliefs of the culture. He succeeds pretty well, though he does give a little too much credit to rationality and noble impulses; using (or creating) law and custom in the service of greed and malice is hardly a recent invention. The book also lacks any real gender and class analysis, which is a particular issue in the section on witchcraft and somewhat of an issue in the one on heresy.

The section on heresy in particular is fascinating, since it lays out the positive reasons for attempts to eradicate heresy, and how that arose out of compassion. The interrelations of demonic possession and divine inspiration are also interesting, particularly the accounts of how certain events shifted from one to the other, and occasionally back again.

Still, highly recommended to anyone with an interest in the period or in cultural history generally.

Dinner tonight:

2 tb or so kosher salt
2 cloves garlic, put through a press
generous amount fresh-ground pepper
6 chicken thighs (roughly 2lbs)

Mix the first three ingredients in a small bowl until a rough, reasonably uniform paste. Loosen the skins and remove all the easily-pulled-off fat from the chicken thighs, then rub the paste over the chicken, including under the skin. Refrigerate for 6 hours. [More would probably work; I borrowed the technique from Cook’s Illustrated’s cold picnic chicken recipe, which says up to 24.]

1-2 tb butter
1 large onion, roughly chopped
2 carrots, roughly chopped
3 ribs of celery, roughly chopped
3 cloves of garlic, put through a press
Generous shake <a href=”http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeyspoultryseas.html”>poultry seasoning</a>
3 cups or so low-sodium chicken broth
noodles [I used Al Dente Roasted Garlic linguine]

In a 12″ skillet, brown the chicken thighs on both sides, then remove to a pan or plate lined with paper towels to soak up the grease. Pour off most of the fat and saute the vegetables and poultry seasoning until the onions are translucent, stirring to scrape up the browned bits from the chicken. Nestle the thighs into the vegetables, add the broth (the thighs shouldn’t be completely submerged), and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook 45 minutes or so, until the meat is done. Remove the meat and set aside, remove the vegetables and set aside. Add more liquid if necessary, bring to a boil, and add the noodles; skin the thighs and pull the meat into bite-size chunks while the noodles cook. Return meat and vegetables to pan, heat through, and serve.

Even with the low-sodium broth, this ended up quite salty. Possibly I should cut the broth with water next time. Still, pretty tasty, and filling; I’ve got a lot left in the fridge.

*eyes news*

So. In the event of a world-ending (metaphorical and literal) catastrophe, assuming the ability to go anywhere, including alternate/fictional realities and take anything and everything needed or desirable to set up a new home/restart civilization, where do you go and what do you take?

Potential places

What to take

…I spend way too much time thinking about this.

1 lb black beans, picked over and rinsed
2 good-sized onions, chopped
2 chipotles in adobo, sliced, with a spoonful or so of sauce
8 or 9 cloves garlic, peeled
ground cumin
ground pepper
1/2 ts salt
1 tb or so butter

6 cups water
1 cup vegetable broth
15oz can diced fire-roasted tomatoes, drained
10oz can diced tomatoes with green chiles, drained

Melt
the butter in a 6qt pressure cooker. Add the onions and chipotle and
saute until softened, then add the garlic and spices and saute until
fragrant. Add beans, water and broth, cover and lock pressure cooker
lid, and bring to high pressure over high heat (took me about 10
minutes); cook for 25 minutes, then turn off the heat and allow to
release pressure naturally (about 15 minutes). Stir and taste beans for
doneness; if still hard, return to pressure and cook a little longer,
depending on how hard they were. When beans are tender, add tomatoes,
heat gently, and puree a cup or so to thicken (I used an immersion
blender).

Serve hot.

I had to cook mine another 10
minutes plus pressure release, because I think I turned the heat a
little too low and it just barely stayed at pressure. Still delicious.

Also, tried it again with pork neck bones with a garlicky ancho rub from Mexican Everyday (loosely; changed proportions) and a huge chunk of celery root. The celery root had turned to mush by the time the beans were done, though.

The Woods is now up on the main site.

Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour*
5 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice**
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups granulated sugar
1 (15 ounce) can LIBBY’S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup orange juice (or buttermilk, acidified milk, etc.)***
1 12-oz package fresh or frozen cranberries

*The recipe originally specified all-purpose flour.
**Or mix your own spices to get roughly the same amount:  1 tsp cinnamon, 3/4 tsp each ground ginger and cloves, and 1/2 tsp each allspice and nutmeg is a mix I’ve used successfully.  Vary proportions according to taste.
***I don’t like oranges combined with cranberries, so I substitute things for orange juice.  Powdered buttermilk works fine.

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans.

Combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt in (very) large bowl. Combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, vegetable oil and orange juice in large mixer bowl; beat until just blended. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moistened. Fold in cranberries. Spoon batter into prepared loaf pans.

Bake for 60 to 65 minutes* or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

*I have never had it cook this fast - test it around then, but it usually takes 75-85 minutes for me.

ETA: to make this into muffins, drop the vegetable oil to 1/4 cup, and continue as normal; you’ll probably need three standard muffin pans, though.

Originally got this from the cooking community on LJ.

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“Whereas Joseph Baker, an adopted son, about fourteen months old, bound
to me by indenture and deed of gift, was taken from me by unlawful
means on 5th November, all persons are hereby forbidden to harbor or
keep said child. Timothy Moss, Wells.” Vermont Gazette, 25 December 1794

“Lansingburgh,
February 24: On 15th inst., the dead body of unknown man was found in
small piece of woods in Half Moon, near Stillwater road. Inquest found
willful murder by persons or person unknown.”

“On 10th ult., the
house of Mr. Roger Smith of Grafton, Vermont, was set on fire by three
small children, the oldest being only nine years of age, when the
parents were both from home, by means of carrying a candle into the
chambers where there was a large quantity of undressed flax. All the
children died in the fire.” -both February 20 1795.

…for some reason, I am wildly curious just what the hell was going on there. From Vermont Newspaper Abstracts 1783-1816.
There’s all manner of odd and interesting little things in there -
marriages, deaths, requests for divorces, ‘my wife ran off and I won’t
be held responsible for her/her child’s debts’ (all of those phrased in
exactly the same way), unexpected dead bodies. Fascinating.

ETA:
“Whereas John Moon, my late acknowledged husband, has used me
exceedingly ill in various instances and neglecting to provide for me,
has, ever since our unfortunate marriage, lived by the Fruit of my
industry principally and to complete his ill usage has lately
advertised me repeatedly as having eloped from his bed and board; this
is to certify that he never provided for me either bed or board since
our marriage. Lucy Martin, alias Lucy Moon.”

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Rhubarb Bread

1 1/2 cups turbinado sugar*
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour**
1 cup buttermilk
1 ts salt
1 ts baking soda
2 ts Ceylon/true cinnamon***
1 - 1 1/2 ts allspice
generous dash - 1 ts cassia cinnamon***
2 ts vanilla
3-4 cups coarsely chopped rhubarb ****

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two large loaf pans.

Thoroughly
combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix oil, sugar and eggs in a
large bowl until smooth. Add dry ingredients and buttermilk, mix well,
and break up any large lumps. Stir in rhubarb until well-mixed. Divide
evenly between prepared pans, and bake for 60-70 minutes, until a
skewer in the center comes out clean. Let cool for a while before
trying to slice.

Lots of rhubarb flavor this time, surrounded by a well-flavored, just-sweet-enough bread.

*Regular sugar would probably work, but I’d recommend using less, since it’s much less coarse than turbinado.
**Using all all-purpose flour should work fine, just change the texture a bit.
***Using all cassia cinnamon would be fine.
****Last
time I chopped it fairly small, and it overcooked into almost
flavor-less mush. This time it was still tart and soft, not mushy.

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3 tb butter
2lb boneless chuck roast, cut into reasonably bite-size pieces
Worcestershire sauce
generous amount Penzey’s Beef Roast Seasoning
generous amount onions (…all I can find here are sweet onions, so I used frozen)
generous amount garlic (6-9 cloves. Okay, some of them were tiny.)
pinch rosemary
salt and pepper
2 tb flour
2 cups red wine (I used GatoNegro Chilean Shiraz)
2 14.5oz cans chicken broth
2 whole cloves
4 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
generous amount baby carrots

Melt
butter in large Dutch oven. Shake generous amount of Beef Roast
Seasoning and Worcestershire sauce into melted butter, stir until
fragrant. Brown meat in batches, turning once or twice, until all
well-browned. Add onions, garlic, rosemary, a little more Beef Roast
Seasoning if you want, salt and pepper, cook until softened, then work
in the flour until it’s been absorbed. Add red wine, stirring to scrape
the browned bits from the bottom of the pot, and chicken broth, then
add the vegetables, return the meat to the pot, and bring to a boil.
Lower heat and simmer until the meat and potatoes are done, about an
hour and a half; I left the lid off for part of the time to thicken it
up and let the alcohol vapors from the wine evaporate. Taste a little
while before it’s done and adjust seasonings.

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Braised Lamb Shanks

2 lamb shanks
1 cup or so red wine (I used what was left of a bottle of Shiraz after making beef stew last weekend)
up to 4 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and chopped
2 shallots, chopped
half a medium or large red onion, chopped
baby carrots or peeled sliced carrots
salt and freshly ground pepper
6 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
pinch cayenne
dash rosemary
ETA: dash ground coriander
generous shake or two of marjoram and thyme
2 bay leaves
2 ts cornstarch, mixed with 2 ts cold water.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix
wine, 2 cups chicken broth, and balsamic vinegar in oven-safe dutch
oven, add the spices and stir thoroughly. Add vegetables and stir to
mix, then add lamb shanks on top. Add chicken broth until the lamb
shanks are around one third to halfway submerged; if necessary, shift
the vegetables around a bit until the lamb sinks down. Cover and bake 2
1/2 to three hours, until lamb is tender and falling off the bone;
check occasionally to see that the lamb isn’t completely submerged.

Remove
the bay leaves, and skim most of the fat from the surface, then strip
the meat from the bones and stir it back in. Taste and adjust
seasonings as necessary, then place over low heat and stir in
cornstarch mixture; stir constantly until thickened. Serve hot.

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