Granola Take 3

I like granola. It's tasty. It's good with milk, mixed with yogurt, or in my hand. But I don't normally like what I can find in the store. Often way too sweet for my non-sweet tooth and never enough good stuff in it. I remembered my Dad making granola when he would go off with my brother and the Boy Scouts. It was some damn good stuff. So I figured I would take a stab at it.

I started with a bunch of recipes from the internet and a few from cookbooks I had, and looked at ingredients, proportions, and methods. I stuck with the general trends. I made a few test batches and just finished batch #3 which I think is pretty good for my tastes. Oh, and the big upside to making your own granola, besides getting it just the way you want it, it's cheaper than what you buy in a box. Peruse the bulk aisle in your local Whole Foods or natural foods store to see what seeds, nuts and fruits are available. Buying just what you need for one batch to try out won't cost you very much, often less than a dollar. Nuts and fruit are the big expenses in the granola, besides the honey of course.

1/4 c untoasted sesame seeds (unless you want a weird taste, made that mistake, eww)
1/4 cup flax seeds, toasted in a dry pan (Yeah Omega 3!)
1/2 cup sunflower seeds, toasted in a dry pan
1 cup cashew pieces, toasted in a 400 degree oven
1 cup sliced almonds, toasted in a 400 degree oven
1/2 wheat germ, toasted in a dry pan (this does not take long, watch for burning!)
2 cups of rolled oats (do not use quick oats, will not work)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup mixed dried fruit pieces

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, add the sesame seeds, wheat germ, the toasted seeds and nuts, and the oats. Stir to combine. Add the vegetable oil and stir to combine. Add the honey and stir to combine. Make sure everything is well coated with the honey and oil. Turn the mixture out onto a sheet pan with a lip around it. Spread it into an even layer and pop it in the oven. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Remove and dump mixture back into the large mixing bowl. Add the fruit and stir to combine. Line the sheet pan with parchment paper and pour the mixture back out. Spread evenly to cool. Stir occasionally to prevent large clumps from forming. After an hour or so, break up clumps into your desired size and store in an airtight container. Stays good for a week or so....if it lasts that long.

Now this is just sweet enough for me. The honey here does two things, it adds flavor, and it acts as the binding agent for the granola. Don't add enough honey and it is just a mix of seeds and nuts. Add too much and it can become a solid rock. Depending on your preference, I would suggest between 1/3 - 2/3 cup of honey. I started with 1/2 cup and adjusted from there. If you're vegan, try agave nectar, brown rice syrup, or even dissolving some brown sugar in the oil on the stove before mixing it in.

I think in my next batch in a few weeks I will play around with adding some other grains. I think barley flakes could be interesting. I will just have to remember to up the honey up a bit if I increase the bulk volume too much to maintain the right consistency.

Almost wowed me

Ok, so people who know me, know that I find it rare to be wowed at a restaurant. And what I mean by wowed is eating something at its perfection, or in some sort of combination that I had never thought of. I want to eat things that I don't yet have the skills to cook or had never thought of cooking on my own. I am by no means a gourmet chef. I worked at Whole Foods, I didn't go to culinary school. But I did have a Dad who showed me how to select good fruits and vegetables and ask for the right cuts of meats, and a Mom who stuck my hands in the meatloaf so I could feel what the right consistency was.

Besides, I'm a teacher. We don't make the big bucks. I can't afford to eat out at restaurants all the time. So when I do go, I want it to be worth my time and dollars. since moving here I haven't really gone out to eat. I mean I have had some food at some local bars while getting my drink on, but not really any real dining. Having a visitor gave me the opportunity and excuse to go out and try what DC has to offer.

After talking to some folks and using the gold ol' Internets, we selected Oyamel Cocina in Penn Quarter, an area that was largely still a dump when I lived in the area before. This is now one of the largest concentrations of what are considered by the papers to be quality dining establishments in DC. We had no reservations and strolled in at 7:30 or so on a Friday night. To our great pleasure, we were seated immediately at the ceviche bar. This is like a sushi bar but the Latin take on raw seafood. We actually ended up in what they call the "fishbowl" as it is mostly enclosed by windows onto the street. It was both intimate and interactive.

Now I am not into the whole Celebrity Chef bit. I could really care less. So the fact that this place is the creation of Jose Andres, on the verge of being the next big thing, doesn't mean a whole lot to me. Granted, I love his tapas restaurant around the corner, Jaleo. The concept of the restaurant works I think, Mexican and Central American street food in tapas sized portions. This is traditional cooking, not that Tex-Mex shit. But there does exist some pretentiousness that is just a little too much. You can start with the drink menu and all of its "salt air" and the like. I know chefs have been going crazy over the new idea of "foaming" everything. And this is just a fancy way here to salt the rim of your margarita. Did it taste better than harsh rock salt on your lips? Without a doubt. But calling it "salt air" to me is a bit much.

But I don't go for drinks, I go for food. And the food did not disappoint. Forget about the entree plates. It is much more interesting to order the street food and share so you get to taste more things. We started with a ceviche that was in the running for the best thing I put in my mouth all night. I love ceviche. The geeky chemist in me loves "cooking" proteins with acid instead of heat. The tender fish remains so much softer on the pallet. The avocado in the dish matched the red snapper texturally for a really great bite.

We both agreed that the camarones a la plancha were the best things we put in our mouths all night. Big shrimp, nicely balanced sauce of heat and sweet, seared on the outside to just barely cook the shrimp all the way through. No tough, rubbery crustaceans here. I really enjoyed the sopes with chorizo as well, although some might find them a little too greasy. But hey, that's why chorizo is so damn good, it's called pork fat. The tacos were also very good. All in all, we didn't have anything that I would call disappointing. The black bean stuffed plantains were my least favorite which was sad as I love plantains and I was quite hopeful. I think the plantains were not quite ripe enough and tasted overly starchy to me without enough of the natural sweetness to balance it out.

So did it make me go wow? Not quite, but from start to finish it was a solid meal, with excellent service, great company, in an interesting environment. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and would go back. That is more than I can say for a lot of places. DC so far is 1-0. But the bar is set, don't disappoint me now.

Oh the irony

I haven't been to culinary school. I didn't work my way up in a restaurant. I never cooked elaborate meals for my whole family as a child.

But I did grow up enjoying cooking with my parents. I had several server jobs at restaurants before and after college to make ends meet. And I fell back on those skills when I took a job at Whole Foods during an unplanned hiatus from teaching. I certainly never expected that I would end up running a $5.5 million food service unit at said Whole Foods.

I did love it though. So much exposure to a culinary world that can be hard to break into. I learned so much in 3.5 years! I have since held my own catering events and I thrive on cooking, the challenges of trying something new, and revising what I have done until it is better than I have had anywhere else.

All that being said, I just moved to DC. Really my first time living by myself. I get ready to make my first meal as a single in DC, simple black bean salad. And I am stymied by an amazing lack of a basic piece of kitchen equipment. A thousand dollars worth of cutlery and cookware don't mean a hill of beans....

when you can't open the can.