Bean Burgers

"They sell those at Costco, you know," my friend offered simply. I had finished telling her the tale of woe of the bowl of bean mash that'd the bean burgers had become. Of course, to successfully cook all the recipes in the Fiddlehead cookbook, buying the patties at Costco wasn't gonna cut it. Boy, that would've been easier.

You see, making bean burgers patties entails a long process involving: buying three types of beans (navy, red, and lentils), setting them out to soak overnight, boiling them for over an hour, boiling them longer with rice, cooking up a mixture of onion and spices, stirring in flour and soy sauce,

...stirring that to the consistency of mashed potatoes,

...letting that sit covered so the flour can cook, cooling it in the fridge 'til all that packed-in heat chills out, then forming them by hand into patties. The mixture sticks to your hand. The patties don't hold a firm shape.

The result was tasty, nonetheless.

Especially served with homemade french fries:

But seriously, I wound up with a bowl of bean burger mash that looked like this:

Maybe more flour would hold the burger shape better? How do you do it, Costco?! Agh, better luck next time...

Smoked Turkey Pasta Salad with (Highbush) Cranberry Apple Butter

What is it with this dish? It's really weird, but super delicious. Borderline addictive. Smoked turkey atop noodles over a bed of lettuce. It doesn't sound that good. But the strong flavors are refreshingly unique, and surprisingly cohesive.

(Highbush) cranberry-apple butter

My, how I love highbush cranberries. They have that earthy, skunky smell that is so quintessentially fall. I've made killer syrup and liqueur from wild Yukon cranberry. Yum. This time, I didn't have the wild variety in store, so I used fresh domestic cranberries. The result was still good, but my mouth waters thinking about how much richer the flavor would be with wild highbush.

Interestingly, the Fiddlehead debunks a longstanding belief about highbush cranberries which is that you wait until after a frost to harvest them. On the contrary, FH recommends picking them before they freeze and mush/rot.

This butter is a concentrated, smooth, spiced fruit spread. The recipe makes a large quantity using a pound of dried apple and four cups of cranberry. The yield is about four pint jars of the tasty condiment.

Start by soaking apples in water for an hour:

Mix in the cranberries and heat, then add spices:

Strain out seeds and skins through a sieve. Save the pulp and measure it to know how much sugar to add (you'll need 3/4 the quantity of sugar as pulp):

The butter is so smooth. Take a look at the pan on the left pictured below:

Pour it into canning jars:

Seal the jars according to directions. A pressure cooker would be easier, and my pot wasn't quite big enough:

Smoked turkey pasta salad

Luckily, Jerry's Meats sells delicious smoked turkey in reasonable quantity:

Tear the turkey in pieces:

Chop tomato and green onion; shred carrot:

Prepare a batch of Fiddlehead vinaigrette and toss into cooked fettuccine noodles (I used this sprouted whole grain--read hippie food--noodle that was hearty and great). Next toss in your chopped vegetables:

Plate your meal by setting the dressed noodles on a bed of lettuce. Top with turkey and dollop with the cranberry-apple butter. (Note: plating was inspired by an episode of 'Chopped.')

Serve & enjoy! The richness of the smoked turkey pairs well with the sharpness of the vinaigrette and fruit butter. This is a creative way to eat up holiday leftovers, but is delectable anytime of year.

Alaskan Coastal Salad

Too many sweets this holiday season? Here's a low-calorie, sugar-free, and savory respite to the pile of cookies on your counter: Alaskan Coastal Salad.

This is a very simple salad: a curried mayonnaise (from scratch) brings together seafood and tomato slices.

Choose your own seafood--I used salmon because it was what I had in the freezer. To poach salmon, boil water, white wine (I used red), lemon slices, and bay leaves in a pan. Preheat the oven, and when hot, pour over a filet of salmon and bake for 20-30 minutes.

Homemade mayo: who knew it was as easy as blending egg yolk and oil?! I feel like that's a big childhood mystery revealed. It's fairly quick to make, and it's all from things in your fridge or cupboard. The particular sort of mayonnaise in this refreshing salad recipe is curried, which is a tasty--and unusual--experience.

Chicken Marsala

This wine and mushroom sauce in this chicken dish is to die for. Even a mushroom-hater was loving it!

First, chop up your mushrooms:

Next, pound your chicken breasts flat:

Dust your chicken in flour and salt & pepper, then brown the breasts on each side in butter in a pot. Next, add marsala wine, orange zest, and mushrooms. Simmer until the chicken is cooked through. It's as simple as that.

Remove the chicken and boil the sauce down. Serve over hot rice. Garnish with chives or parsley.