Gifts From the Kitchen

By Tori Ritchie

Fresh out of cooking school at age 25, I decided to bless my friends and family with homemade ice cream toppings for Christmas. I made a deep, dark sauce with expensive Belgian chocolate, a smooth, buttery caramel, and a vivid raspberry. I cooked each batch in my apartment kitchen, bottled them carefully in jars, and hand-delivered them in raffia-lined baskets. Two weeks later I got my first call. My friend thanked me for the raspberry sauce, then told me, apologetically, that it had “bubbled out of its jar and all over my refrigerator.” Another admitted sometime later that her jar of caramel had exploded. Clearly, I wasn’t yet capable of sterilizing jars correctly. Suddenly the idea of giving food as a gift didn’t seem so clever.

Over the years I’ve been on the receiving end of many homemade jams, chutneys, and sauces, most of which I guiltily toss when I get tired of the clutter. Still, as a food writer and cooking teacher, it’s hard to completely give up on the idea. So now, instead of burdening friends with more sauces, I choose some ingredient with a story that ties into my experiences of the past year: smoky pimentón, inspired by a fall tour of Spain; Meyer lemons, when my mother’s tree yielded a bumper crop; pepper vinegar, after a visit South. I package the ingredient with a recipe so my friend can make it when she wants to. And I try to package it with other goodies, too. I’ve paired a microplane zester with lemons and a chef’s whisk with cocoa. I’ve included an ingredient from the recipe, such as extra-virgin olive oil or Spanish sherry vinegar or French sea salt. I’ve used red and green cardboard Chinese takeout containers, recycled French lemonade bottles, inexpensive porcelain jars from Asian import stores, even the packaging of the ingredient itself, if it comes in a beautiful tin. Some years I do no wrapping at all: What could be more artful than a mesh bag of sunny lemons in winter?

Here are six festive ingredients and some healthy holiday recipes to go with them. I try to give things that make people feel good and are good for them. Chocolate, for instance, makes everyone feel better—and has the antioxidants to prove it. Crystallized ginger is great for queasy tummies as well as for cookies. Pepper vinegar is something every cook should have in her cupboard for the times when a flavorful low-sodium seasoner is called for. And dates…well, dates are full of fiber and potassium, and I think they’re the sexiest food around—even more so when served warm.

The purpose of these gifts is to share a passion about good food and the memories that come with eating well. To establish a tradition that takes the receiver’s well-being into consideration and makes the giver feel happy about giving. Isn’t that what the holidays are all about?

Dates
I once wrote an article on dates and became convinced they’re the perfect food: sweet, chewy, and full of fiber and potassium. I’ve been eating them my whole life, but I don’t think I ever really tasted dates until renowned food writer Patricia Wells taught me to sauté them. Medjool dates work best for this recipe, but if you can‘t find them, any other firm date will do. You can eat them with meat or chicken, or plain, as dessert. This is the gift my friends are getting this year.

Presentation: Dates look wonderful in a till basket, which is an old fashioned small wooden fruit crate (available at http://www.containerstore.com/). Or choose any tightly woven basket, line it with kitchen parchment paper, and fill it with dates. You might also want to package all the ingredients for the recipe: Put the dates and whole almonds into separate cellophane bags, tie them with ribbons, and place them in a container with some limes. Print the recipe on a card, tuck it into the basket, and you’re done.

Warm Dates with Almonds and Lime Zest
12 dates
12 whole unsalted almonds
2 tablespoons good olive oil
sea salt
zest of 1 lime

Slit one side of each date with a paring knife, spread open, and pull out the pit. Insert an almond into the cavity and push the edges of the date back together to enclose the nut. In a nonstick skillet, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add the dates and cook, shaking the pan so the dates roll around in the oil, until the dates are warmed through, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer dates to a serving plate with tongs. Sprinkle lightly with salt and lime zest. Serve warm. Makes 12.

Pimentón
Pimentón is a smoked paprika from Spain that’s more widely available now that tapas have become so popular. The peppers, which are either sweet (dulce), smoked (ahumado), or bittersweet (agrodulce), are roasted over oak fires, then ground. Spanish chefs use the peppers in everything from sausages to eggs to paella, but I like them in a low-sodium marinade for beef, lamb, or pork. They have the advantage of making even ungrilled meat taste smoky.

Presentation: Pimentón comes in tin containers beautiful enough to present as gifts, along with the following recipe. If you want to divvy up the paprika instead, pour a quarter cup or so into small seamless spice containers or paint tins. You can find these at hardware stores, art supply or hobby stores, or http://www.containerstore.com/. Paste a simple label on the container and write “Pimentón.”

Spanish-style Marinade
1¼3 cup sherry vinegar or
red wine vinegar
1 clove garlic, pressed
2 teaspoons pimentón
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1¼4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 bone-in pork chops or lamb chops, or a pork tenderloin or flank steak

To make the marinade, choose a dish just large enough to hold the meat in one layer. In it, stir together vinegar, garlic, pimentón, thyme, and salt until well blended. Add olive oil and mix again. Put meat in the marinade and turn several times to coat well (it won’t be swimming in marinade, just moistened). Let stand, covered, at room temperature for at least 1 hour, turning once or twice. If marinating for longer than an hour, place in refrigerator for up to 3 hours (if you marinate much longer, the smoky flavor can get too strong).

Lift the meat from the marinade and barbecue or broil until cooked to your liking, about 8 minutes for the chops and 20 minutes for the tenderloin or flank steak, turning the meat once or twice to cook evenly. Makes 4 servings.

Chile Peppers
When my dear friend Katherine moved back to Alabama, she gave me a bottle of her homemade pepper vinegar so I’d remember the taste of her Southern cooking. Down there, they use this tart and spicy liquid to season everything. I like to present it with the hand-lettered vinegar recipe hanging from the bottle. For my Northern friends, I include suggestions to sprinkle it on greens, pork chops, soups, eggs, or barbecue. I promise them it will wake up flavors even more than salt does.

Presentation: The bottle does all the work here. I get mine from Lorina French lemonade (available at most grocery stores). After drinking the lemonade, I carefully wash the bottle and stopper and then pour in the vinegar (recycling at its finest). You can also find decorative glass bottles with stoppers at cookware shops. Look for festive labels at dime stores and art supply stores. You can trim the labels with pinking shears to scallop the edges. Print the recipe and attach it to the neck of the bottle with a ribbon or string looped through a hole punched in the paper.

Katdaddy’s Pepper Vinegar
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
6 to 8 green and red medium-size chiles, such as serranos
1 quart white wine vinegar
Wash a 1-quart glass bottle with a secure stopper in hot, soapy water; rinse and dry thoroughly. Put the sugar in the bottle. Wash the chiles and slit the side of each one lengthwise with a paring knife to impart more heat to the vinegar. Push the chiles into the bottle (you might want to wear rubber gloves to protect your hands). Heat vinegar in a saucepan and pour into the bottle through a funnel; stop about 2 inches from the top. Label and store in a cool, dark place for up to six months. Makes 1 quart.

Cocoa
While a box of chocolates as a gift seems neither original nor healthy, cocoa powder is both. Since it’s made from unsweetened chocolate with most of the fats removed, cocoa powder’s flavors are concentrated, and so is its supply of heart-healthy flavonoids. The secret to making this a truly exquisite gift is to choose a high-quality natural cocoa that delivers an intense chocolate flavor, such as Scharffen Berger’s (http://www.scharffen-berger.com/). Avoid “Dutch Process” versions made with alkali, which diminishes the level of antioxidants and can be a cover-up for cheap cacao beans.

Cocoa powder can be whipped into wholesome hot chocolate with soy milk, but I like to offer a cake recipe that floated around the newspaper circuit for decades. Called “Crazy Cake” because it’s so ridiculously simple to prepare and contains no butter or eggs, it’s wonderful served warm with a glass of cold, cold milk.

Presentation: Many cocoa powders come in lovely tins that can be presented as a gift with only a ribbon to attach the recipe. Or, to create the look of hand-packed cocoa, buy white paper lunch bags and stamp or stencil the front of the bags with the words “natural cocoa.” Then fill each with a scoop of cocoa powder, fold down the top neatly, and staple or tape it shut. You can enclose the recipe on a laminated card inside the bag, print it on a label and affix it to the back of the bag, or write it on the back of the bag before filling.

Crazy Cake
11¼4 cups unbleached
all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1¼2 cup natural cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1¼2 teaspoon salt
1¼3 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup cold water

Preheat oven to 350°. Put flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl and blend with a whisk. Make a well in the center and pour in oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Pour cold water over all, then whisk until smooth. Pour into a nonstick 8-inch round or square baking pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Store covered, in the refrigerator, up to 3 days. Makes 8 servings.
ginger

Ginger
Other families had dishes of candy in their living rooms; we kept a jar filled with crystallized ginger. We’d chew it after dinner to help the food go down easier, or whenever we wanted a blast of flavor. Later in life I discovered how essential ginger is to holiday baking, especially since thickly cut, moist Australian crystallized ginger has come on the market. That’s the best kind to use in these cookies, which were inspired by an old recipe in Gourmet. These are leaner and lighter since they use canola oil instead of butter. The key is the sweet-hot ginger in every bite, uninterrupted by other spices.

Presentation: I like to buy little Chinese soup bowls or inexpensive porcelain jars at Asian import stores for this ingredient. Or put the ginger in Chinese takeout boxes (http://www.containerstore.com/ or http://www.boxandribbon.com/) or wrap it in red cellophane tied with a gold ribbon. I usually fold up the recipe and put it in the container with the ginger.

Ginger Chews
11¼2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3 ounces crystallized ginger, chopped
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1¼2 teaspoon baking powder
1¼2 teaspoon salt
1¼4 teaspoon ground ginger
1¼2 cup low-fat buttermilk
1¼4 cup canola oil, plus extra for greasing
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 2 large cookie sheets well with canola oil.

In a food processor with the metal blade, mix together 1¼2 cup of the flour and all the crystallized ginger until the ginger is finely chopped. Add remaining flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and ground ginger. Mix.

In a small bowl, beat buttermilk, oil, egg, and vanilla. With processor running, pour mixture through feed tube until dough is combined. Remove processor bowl from stand and carefully pull out the blade. Using a 1-tablespoon measure, scoop out dough and drop it onto prepared cookie sheets, allowing about 3 inches of space in between. Bake until golden, about 12 minutes. Cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to racks. Store airtight up to 3 days. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Lemons
Meyer lemons, believed to be a cross between a lemon and an orange, are at their peak in winter. Often I’ll give a bag of the lemons, a bottle of good olive oil, and some sea salt as a gift, because together they make the world’s best salad dressing. When I’m ambitious, I preserve the whole lemons in a jar with bay leaves and water and give those instead. After soaking in brine for a few weeks, the rind becomes soft, pliable, and delicious. To eat, scrape away the pulp and dice the peel. You can sprinkle it on Moroccan stews, braised chicken, or sautéed broccoli rabe. The flavor is so intense and salty that a little goes a long way.

Presentation: It’s hard to beat the look of a beautiful jar of preserved lemons, with bay leaves running like stripes down its sides. Be sure to decorate the jar with a label, including an expiration date (these ought to last about six months or so). If you are also giving whole lemons as part of the gift, buy red or black shallow lacquer bowls from an Asian import store, throw in a few lemons, and wrap the whole thing in cellophane for a stunning effect.

Preserved Lemons with Bay Leaves
8 to 10 organic Meyer lemons
(or substitute non-Meyers if you prefer)
kosher salt
4 fresh or dried bay leaves
Wash a 1-pint glass jar and lid with hot, soapy water; rinse and dry thoroughly. Set out a large piece of parchment or waxed paper.

Cut a lemon into fourths, but don’t cut it all the way through; you want it to open out like a flower, but not to come apart. Place the lemon on the paper, spread it open, and sprinkle with a heaping tablespoon of kosher salt; put the lemon in the jar. Repeat one by one with remaining lemons. Pack the lemons tightly into the jar, filling it to the top (you’ll use about 6 lemons). When you reach the top, lift the paper and pour the excess salt into the jar.

Pour boiling water into the jar until it reaches halfway up. Then juice the remaining lemons one by one, adding juice to the jar until it reaches the top. Slide bay leaves down sides of the jar, arranging them at opposite points. Close the jar tightly, shake well, and let it stand at room temperature, shaking well every 24 hours, for one week. Transfer to the refrigerator, continuing to shake every other day. The lemons will be ready after 3 weeks.

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