President's Cookies

Before there was such a thing as President's Day or President's Week, there was Washington's birthday, which was a school holiday on his real birthday, February 22nd. If you lived in the North, like in New York and Connecticut, you also got a day off on Lincoln's birthday, which is February 12th (the poor kids in the South weren't so lucky, although maybe they got Jefferson Davis' birthday off).

On Washington's birthday, everybody celebrated with cherry pie or cherry something else because supposedly Washington chopped down a cherry tree and didn't lie about it when someone asked if he did it.

Lincoln's birthday didn't have any particular food because he supposedly was a fussy eater and didn't like much of anything in particular.

At some point Mondays became an official holiday for most holidays and Washington and Lincoln's birthdays were merged into one big celebration and an entire week vacation from school.

I suppose that's progress.

Along the way, I discovered that Lincoln actually did have some favorite foods. Like sorghum, which is a sweet syrup similar to molasses. And he liked ginger cookies.

And so, in honor of Lincoln's birthday (which was on February 12th but will be celebrated on the 19th), whenever you celebrate and for how long, here's some sorghum-based ginger cookies to celebrate with. And by the way, if you don't have sorghum, you can use molasses instead.

 

Sorghum Ginger Cookies

• 3/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 laarge egg
• 1/4 cup sorghum syrup
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/4 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet. Combine the shortening, coconut oil and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat at medium speed until well combined (about 2 minutes). Add the egg and sorghum syrup and beat until well blended. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg and beat until the dough is well blended, smooth and uniform in color. Take off small pieces of dough and shape into small balls about one-inch in diameter. Roll the balls in the remaining sugar to coat the surface. Place the balls on the prepared cookie sheet, leaving an inch space between each ball. Bake cookies for about 12 minutes or until the cookies have spread and are flat and crispy, with lines on the surface.

Makes about 6 dozen

A Vegetarian, Gluten Free Side Dish

My freezer broke last week.

Fortunately I still have my original, trusted, reliable old freezer from the stone age in my basement. I transferred the meat and soups, casseroles and other goodies that I had cooked. Anything that could be saved.

Unfortunately quite a lot wasn't worth saving, so I threw away lots of stuff. Half a cake that no one liked and made me wonder why I had saved it anyway. Breads with 2 slices left that were stuck together with ice crystals. A chicken leg, freezer burned because the plastic wrap had fallen off. Like that.

It felt so good to get that freezer empty and clean, ready for the repairman, that I started on the cabinets. I discarded anything out of the sell-by date; open boxes of cereal, crackers that I had placed in plastic bins who knows when, 2/3 eaten jars of peanut butter. Like that.

I also cooked some of the stuff that was still good.

The sorghum for example.

In case you haven't cooked with it or know what it is, sorghum is a cereal grain. Easy to use, tasty and gluten free. I had tried some at the Wondergrain booth at the Fancy Food Show last year and then used some for stuffing. I love the texture and the fact that it is so versatile I can use it for so many different kinds of dishes.

Last night I mixed it with vegetables to use as a side dish with dinner. Not only did it taste good, it was colorful and lovely to look at on the plate, which always makes dinner much nicer. Early in the day I stuffed the sorghum-veggie mix into hollowed out tomatoes and baked them several hours later, so this is a good make-ahead dish.

Sorghum Stuffed Tomatoes

• 8 large tomatoes
• 1 cup sorghum grain
• 3 cups vegetable stock and/or water
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 1 small chili pepper, deseeded and chopped
• 1 large clove garlic, chopped
• 1 cup chopped cooked vegetables
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Slice a cap off each tomato and scoop out the insides. Chop the insides and set aside. Place the hollowed out tomatoes upside down on paper towels to drain off excess liquid. Place the sorghum in a saucepan, pour in the stock and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan and cook for 35-40 minutes or until the sorghum is tender and the liquid has been absorbed. (If the liquid has not been absorbed and the grains are tender, strain off the liquid.) Set the cooked sorghum aside. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat the vegetable oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes or until slightly softened. Add the chili pepper, garlic and tomato insides and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the cooked vegetables and stir them in. Spoon the vegetables and any cooking fluids into the pan with the sorghum. Stir to distribute the ingredients evenly. Stir in the parsley and salt and pepper. Place the tomatoes on a baking sheet. Spoon the ingredients into the hollowed out tomatoes. Bake for about 20 minutes or until hot.

Makes 8 servings

Sorghum “Filling” for Thanksgiving

My mother never made Thanksgiving stuffing. She called her version “filling,” which had more or less the same ingredients as basic bread stuffing, but substituted barley shaped egg noodle pasta for the bread.

That recipe is still one of my go-tos, except that I have made one important change recently. Instead of using the pasta, I make it with sorghum.

I discovered sorghum grain last summer at the Fancy Food Show. Although I was familiar with sorghum syrup, I hadn’t realized the grain itself was available and so was intrigued when I saw the Wondergrain booth where there were pots of cooked sorghum for tasting.

Of course I tasted.

I loved it and ever since have been working with sorghum grain to make all sorts of comforting cold-weather casseroles (and also some refreshing summer salads).

I will be serving Sorghum Filling for Thanksgiving because the grain has so many benefits. I will never go back to the pasta version.

Wondergrain sorghum is:

gluten free

cholesterol free

Non GMO

kosher

a good source of fiber and iron

It’s also pleasurably chewy and tasty. A fabulous pasta substitute.

Wondergrain — who did NOT pay me to write this post — sells both whole grain and pearled sorghum. Their website offers some good looking recipes plus a video on how to cook the grain. The product does not have wide distribution yet, but I hope it soon will. Meantime, if you don’t live near one of the retail shops listed in their store locator, you can order online at http://www.wondergrain.com/shop/. 

Sorghum “Filling”

• 1 cup sorghum grain, whole grain or pearled
• vegetable stock and/or water
• 5 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 3 stalks celery, sliced
• 10-12 ounces mushrooms, sliced
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Cook the sorghum with stock or water according to the instructions on the package (pearled sorghum will take 35-40 minutes, whole grain sorghum will take 45-55 minutes). Set the cooked sorghum aside. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat 3 tablespoons of the vegetable oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onions and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes or until slightly softened. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes or until softened. Spoon the vegetables and any cooking fluids into the pan with the sorghum. Stir to distribute the ingredients evenly. Stir in the eggs, parsley, remaining 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and salt and pepper. Spoon the ingredients into a baking dish. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the top is golden brown and crispy.

Makes 6-8 servings