Upside-Down Cake in Guardian Service Cookware

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
(with banana and toasted flax seed) 

The Guardian Service Casserole/Tureen unit is ideal for quick stove-top cakes such as an Apple Pan Dowdy, Plum Duff or this classic Upside-Down Cake:

Upside-Down Cake

(from Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1950; modified for Guardian Service cookware.)

"Handsome dessert to serve at table."

1. First, prepare the Guardian Service inner “Casserole” unit: Melt 1/3 cup butter in the Casserole unit. Sprinkle ½ cup brown sugar evenly over butter. Arrange drained pineapple in attractive pattern on the butter-sugar coating (Optional: pecan halves and maraschino cherries).
2. Preheat the empty, covered outer “Tureen” unit over medium flame.
3. Make the Cake Batter (see below) and pour it over the fruit. Return the Casserole unit to the Tureen, cover and bake approximately 45 minutes or until wooden pick thrust into center of cake comes out clean or the cake springs to the touch*. Immediately turn upside-down on serving plate. Do not remove pan for a few minutes. Brown sugar mixture will run down over cake instead of clinging to pan. Serve warm with plain or whipped cream. (
4. 
   

   
   

   Variations: Apple, Cranberry, Prune, Peach, Apricot...) 

Pouring batter over an Apple-Cranberry topping in the smaller Guardian Service Tureen unit.

*NOTE: Bake on a medium burner. For most Guardian Service cooking, a low flame is all that’s ever needed, but when using the combined units, the two act as a stove-top oven and require a medium setting).

Cake Batter 

Beat until thick and lemon-colored (5 min.): 2 eggs

Gradually beat in: 2/3 cup sugar

Beat in all at once: 6 tbsp. juice from canned pineapple, 1 tsp. vanilla

Sift together and beat in all at once: 1 cup sifted flour, 1/3 tsp. baking powder, ¼ tsp. salt 

If batter is too stiff, Add milk to correct. 

Time: Bake 30-45 mins, test for doneness (see above)

Temperature: Medium heat*

Apple-Cranberry Upside Down Cake
(with toasted almonds)

Candied Orange Slices

Citrus in California is like zucchini in the midwest: abundant. In North Dakota, where I was raised, folks will warn you to lock your car in late summer for fear of finding bags of squash when you return. We're lucky to have a neighbor who leaves bags of oranges on the handle of our back door from time to time, and at this time of year, if we're not snacking on them or juicing them, we make a few pomanders to place around the apartment and some candied peel or orange slices.

I like to make batches of these candied orange slices and keep them handy for everything from cookie platters to garnishing salads, desserts or meat dishes. Candied slices won't keep as long as dried peel, but the method preserves more of the orange (and doesn't require as much drying time).

This simple recipe can be multiplied as you wish and can be used with grapefruit or lemon (adjust sugar to taste). I candied four oranges using the large Guardian Service fryer and reduced the remaining syrup for drizzling on pancakes or yogurt or mixing into cocktails or marinades, etc.

Candied Orange Slices

1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup granulated organic sugar
1 organic navel orange, halved and sliced crosswise in 1/4 inch thick slices (about 10 per orange)

1. In a Guardian Service fryer, combine the water and sugar and bring to a boil. Add the orange slices and cook over medium heat, turning occasionally, until the liquid is reduced to a thin syrup and the orange slices are translucent, about 20 minutes.
2. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer until the syrup thickens and the slices are tender but still intact, turning occasionally, about 10 minutes.
3. Transfer the orange slices to a rack to cool.
4. Further reduce syrup to desired consistency and reserve for another use.
5. The candied slices can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.

Reducing the remaining syrup.

Marmalade syrup, cooling on the window ledge

Guardian Service Demonstration Dinner

In its day, Guardian Service ware was sold door-to-door, often at neighborhood parties where a salesman would prepare a demonstration dinner. Similar to the later Tupperware parties, the sales strategy relied on showing the product to the customer first-hand. The salesmen prepared and presented meals to highlight their pitch: the economic and nutritional advantages of waterless cooking the "Guardian Service Way." The hostess would receive a caddy of highball glasses with matching coasters or candlesticks or salt and pepper set, or other such gift. These dinners were often publicized with listings in the social register, such as the one pictured below.

A typical Guardian Service Demonstration Dinner notice
from the Granite Falls Press, WA (June 19, 1947)

Last week we recreated the Guardian Service Demonstration Dinner (while trying to keep our "Knights of Nutrition" proselytizing on medium low). We packed up the Guardian Service Roaster, Duplex Pan and Economy Trio Cookers, and the Beverage Urn and Coffee Maker and prepared a dinner for eight at our friend Nancy's home in Venice. Among those in attendance were our friend Dirk (who we discovered had sold waterless cookware in his college years) and Sam Watters (author of the LA Times' Lost LA feature on our Guardian Service cookware collection).

We wanted to cook an elegant dinner that would showcase the key advantages of Guardian Service Ware (the economy and nutrition of stove-top, waterless cooking) with fresh, local, seasonal fare, so we left planning the menu until we shopped our ingredients, starting with the cut of meat.

The family farm on which I was raised in North Dakota maintains a small herd of free-range beef cattle which are integral to its organic, bio-dynamic, self-sustaining ecosystem. Here in Los Angeles, we're fortunate to receive most of the red meat we consume from my family's farm, so we never really consider buying beef raised in a feed-lot Cowschwitz. Regular outbreaks of food-born illness have heightened public awareness of the health and environmental risks involved in raising and eating hormonally and genetically modified animals. Whenever possible, we look for a butcher who sources meat from ranches employing ethical, humane practices.

We've been reading and hearing about Lindy & Grundy for over a year and thought what better way to showcase the Guardian Service Roaster than with something special from this excellent charcuterie?

Proprietress Amelia Posada greeted us at the door with a friendly hello—fresh as milk, raven hair tied up in a red kerchief with Bow lips stained to match, a Rosie the Riveter of the Rib Roast. I told her what I had in mind and how many we were serving and she presented a butterflied leg of lamb, artfully trimmed and aged to perfection (and as with all their meats, local, pastured and organic). We'll be back to try the half beef/half bacon ground mix Amelia recommends for a blue cheese-topped burger…

As we shopped for produce at the Farmers Market at Fairfax and 3rd, I surfed some recipe sites for inspiration. All the local organic vegetables and spices we needed were available for the seasonal Persian lamb dish below. We altered a few ingredients from the original recipe, roasting the garlic and jalapeño in advance to mellow and sweeten their effects on the meat.

We prepared one pot each of carrot coins, red and white new potatoes and red and white cabbage in the Guardian Service Economy Trio Cookers (or "triangle pans" as they're often called). And for dessert: a lemon pound cake cooked stove-top in the Duplex Utility Pan, topped with fresh strawberries muddled with brown sugar and plain yogurt and served with Guardian Service Coffee.

Roast Garlic Stuffed Leg of Lamb

inspired by Fakdeh Mehshi Khodra

2 cups chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 cup chopped fresh mint leaves

25 cloves garlic, peeled, roasted and mashed

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp finely chopped jalapeño pepper

2-3 carrots, sliced in half lengthwise

1 large onion, quartered

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp fresh ginger, minced

2 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

4 1/2 pounds boneless leg of lamb, butterflied, trimmed of excess fat, rinsed, and patted dry

1 pound onions, halved

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 cup red wine*

1 Tbsp cornstarch or flour

*Verjus, a sour grape juice, is traditional for a Muslim recipe. Vinegar and wine are a fine substitute.

1. Lightly coat 2 dozen peeled garlic cloves in a small or medium sized pot. Cover and place over medium high heat for 5 minutes, until lid is warm to touch, reduce heat to low and roast for 30 minutes, shaking pot occasionally to keep cloves from sticking.
2. Add minced jalapeños and continue to roast additional 5-10 minutes. Remove pot from heat and allow to cool.
3. Using a food processor or blender, blend the roast garlic and jalapeño together with chopped mint and parsley and set aside.
4. Rub the dry spices and ginger into the prepared cut of meat, massaging well.
5. Spoon a ribbon of the garlic paste into the center of the cut and roll into a roast, securing with kitchen twine.
6. Heat 1-2 Tbsp of olive oil in the Guardian Service Roaster over medium heat and coat bottom of pan well. Add the roast, searing each side for 90 seconds. Remove roast, add the halved carrots and quartered onion to the bottom of the roaster to form a cooking rack to support the roast. Return roast to pan, add any remaining garlic paste to the top,  and sprinkle generously with cider and wine.
7. Cover and cook over medium low heat for 1.5 to 2 hours, depending on desired temperature of the finished roast. Allow to rest for 15 minutes, carve and transfer to the Guardian Service Roaster platter. Garnish with roasted carrot and onion and cover until ready to serve.
8. Reduce the remaining roast and vegetable drippings over medium low heat, adding a tablespoon of cornstarch or flour mixed an equal amount of water or wine to the gravy to thicken, if desired. Serve with roast and vegetables.

Rubbing spices into the lamb

Adding the roast garlic-jalapeño-mint-parsley paste

Rolling and trussing the roast with kitchen twine

Searing all sides of the roast seals in the moisture

The prepared leg of lamb resting on a vegetable rack, ready cover and roast

For advice on preparing the carrots, potatoes and cabbage, visit our previous blog post on cooking vegetables the "Guardian Service Way."

Guardian Service Lemon Pound Cake

Adapted for the Guardian Service Duplex Utility Pan. Serve warm or cold. Make ahead, freezes well.

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter

1/2 cup sugar, more if desired

4 eggs, beaten

2 lemons, juice and zest

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup sour cream

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1. Blend butter until creamy, add sugar, then eggs and lemon juice and zest.
2. Sift together remaining dry ingredients and fold together with remaining wet ingredients.
3. Spoon into heated, buttered Duplex Utility pan, close and cook for 13-15 minutes on medium low heat. Flip pan and cook additional 13-15 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and allow to rest unopened an additional 10-15 minutes.
5. Open pan and gently run a knife along the edge of the cake to loosen, remove to baking rack and cool. Slice and serve with fresh strawberries and yogurt.

Tasty cake, stove-top

Don't miss our other blog posts with recipe ideas for the Guardian Service Duplex Utility Pan and instructions for making Guardian Service Coffee.

Strawberry Shortcake in the Guardian Service Duplex Utility Pan

Most often this hinged pan is used to prepare omelets (and it will, indeed reward you with lofty, golden omelets once you understand its eccentricities). But the marketing team of the Century Metalcraft Corporation dubbed it The Guardian Service Duplex Utility Pan for a reason. True to its "Kitchen of Tomorrow" name, the pan works as mini-Dutch oven to cook up a meal for two quickly and fuel-efficiently. We like putting the pan through its paces (and have adapted it for various uses) but these quick biscuits prove one of the best: the entire dessert takes less than 30 minutes to prepare, from assembling ingredients to presentation.

I've adapted the Shortcake recipe from the Guardian Service Tested Recipes cookbook to yield enough dough for two large biscuits. While I replaced the shortening in the recipe with butter and reduced the sugar slightly, the biscuits turned out light and fluffy (make sure not to over-handle the dough—rolling and shaping with your hands is sufficient).

Freshly whipped heavy cream is traditional (perhaps with a drop of brandy and scant sugar) but here I've substituted a yogurt sauce (scented with agave nectar, nutmeg and vanilla and added a drizzle of pomegranate molasses to the berries in place of a sugar glaze.

Guardian Service Strawberry Shortcake

The classic summertime dessert adapted for the Guardian Service Duplex Utility Pan

1 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp sugar

pinch salt

2 Tbsp cold butter, diced (plus more for pan)

1/3 cup milk

1 egg

1 dozen fresh organic strawberries, sliced

2 Tbsp pomegranate molasses (optional)

Low-Fat Yogurt Sauce

1 cup low-fat yogurt

2 Tbsp. agave nectar

1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

pinch fresh–ground nutmeg

1. Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar, salt)
2. Cut cold butter into flour. Beat egg, add to milk and mix into flour with pastry blender.
3. Turn out onto floured board, roll and shape into biscuits by hand, using a light, deft touch.
4. Heat Duplex Utility pan, add butter and drop biscuits into pan.
5. Close lid, cook for 8-10 minutes until bottoms are browned. 
6. Open pan, heat opposite side, add pat of butter and coat pan. Close lid, flip pan and brown biscuits on other side.
7. Remove biscuits from pan, halve and fill with strawberries, top with yogurt sauce.

The complete Guardian Service dessert: Strawberry Shortcake and Coffee

Four Pancake Variations for the Guardian Service Fryer

We’ve cooked up plenty of Guardian Service “Greaseless” Griddle Cakes for friends and family, but lately we’ve been serving these easy–breezy dishes with intimidating Teutonic names: Pannekoeken, Apfelpfannküchen, Salzburger Nockerln and Kaiserschmarrn.

Don’t let their names and many aliases confuse you: “Dutch Pancake,” “Dutch Baby,” “German Apple Pancake,” “David Eyre’s Pancake”… They're one–pan pancakes, quick and folky yet elegant dishes, all similar in preparation, infinitely versatile and equally suitable for breakfast or dessert. You might even adapt them as a savory for a brunch or luncheon.

We’ve adapted these recipes, traditionally cooked in an iron skillet, for the 10” Guardian Service fryer, which serves 3-4, though you could half again the recipe and prepare it in the 12” fryer for 6-8.

Each recipe starts with a pan of bubbling butter in which the batter is briefly fried before finishing in a high oven to bake into a golden puff, or in the case of the Kaiserschmarrn, scrambled into golden dumplings.

Begin with a basic Pannekoek (or “David Eyre’s Pancake,” as Craig Claiborne dubbed it in an enduringly popular 1966 article for the NY Times). Add apples, and a bit more flour and milk, and you have a traditional Apfelpfannküchen or a German Apple Pancake. Without the apples but with beaten egg whites folded in it becomes Kaiserschmarrn (roughly translated “Emporer’s Hash”). Minus the flour, you have the sweet Austrian soufflé “Salzburger Nockerln,” or Salzburg dumplings.

Pannekoek

or "David Eyre's Pancake"

Simple yet showy, the original one-pan pancake. Get everyone to the table before you remove this from the oven!

(Note that if you replace the nutmeg with a pinch of salt or some herbs and cooked this batter in a cold buttered skillet for twice as long, it would become a Yorkshire Pudding (or poured in muffin tins or ramekins: popovers). Our Guardian Service Gougères, has more flour and cheese and comes closer still to an eggy bread).

3 large eggs

¾ cup flour

¾ cup milk

fresh grated nutmeg

4 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp. powdered sugar

Juice of half a lemon

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. In a mixing bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add the flour, milk and nutmeg and lightly beat until blended but still slightly lumpy.

2. Melt the butter in the 10” Guardian Service fryer over medium heat. When very hot but not brown, pour in the batter.

3. Transfer pan to oven and bake until the pancake puffs and turns golden brown at the edges, about 15–20 minutes.

4. Working quickly, remove the pan from the oven and, using a fine-meshed sieve, sprinkle with the sugar. Sprinkle with lemon juice and serve immediately with warm preserves. Serves 2 to 4.

Apfelpfannküchen

or German Apple Pancake

Like the Pannekoek above, but with apples

2 large eggs

1 cup flour

1 cup milk

1/4 tsp. salt

Pinch of ground cinnamon or nutmeg

4 Tbsp. melted butter

2-3 small apples

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp. powdered sugar

Juice of half a lemon or orange

1. Preheat the oven to 500°F. In a mixing bowl, lightly beat the eggs and milk. Add the flour and salt and lightly beat until just blended. Let rest for 10-15 minutes.

2. While batter is resting, melt the butter in the Guardian Service fryer over medium-high heat. When very hot but not brown, add the apples. Cover and reduce heat, simmering until the apples begin to sweat.

3. Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon over apples and pour the batter over all. Place uncovered fryer in oven, reduce heat to 425℉ and bake until the pancake billows at the edges and turns golden brown, about 15 minutes.

4. Working quickly, remove the pan from the oven, carefully invert pan onto serving plate, and sprinkle pancake with lemon or orange juice and sifted confectioners' sugar. Serve immediately. Serves 2 to 4.

Salzburg Nockerln

Essentially a sweet soufflé, fried then baked

Andrew notes: “One of my fondest memories is of wolfing down mouthsful of crusty, oozy, sweet Norckerln on a romantic date in Salzburg, many years ago, with the beautiful and brilliant young Joanna Schneiderman.  We took the funicular up the cliff at twilight to sup at the Café Winkler and washed the fabulous dessert down with kaffee mit schlag. Joanna went on to marry my best friend, Ken Albala, who incidentally is the world’s leading authority on pancakes. Worlds of love and memory collide in the crack of a few eggs.”

5 eggs, separated

2 Tbsp. Flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

zest of 1 lemon

pinch salt

1 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp. powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Separate the eggs and lightly beat the yolks with the flour and lemon zest.

2. Beat the egg whites until stiff, gradually adding a pinch of salt and the sugar.

3. Fold egg yolk mixture into beaten whites.

4. Heat butter in 10" Guardian Service fryer until bubbling and spoon the batter into fryer. (Traditionally this is done in three distinct mounds to represent the three mountains of Salzburg—mine sometimes resemble the lava flows of Haleakala, but they still cook to perfection in the GS fryer).
5. Place the fryer in the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Serve with stewed or fresh fruit and a light dusting of powdered sugar.

Kaiserschmarrn

Fluffy, pan–fried scrambled dumplings

¼ cup raisins

1 Tbsp rum (or bourbon, etc)

3 Tbsp. butter

4 eggs, separated

3 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1 ½ cups milk

2 Tbsp powdered sugar

pinch salt

Raspberry Sauce

1. In 10” Guardian Service fryer, simmer raisins with 2 Tbsp of water and/or rum, bourbon, etc.

2. Separate eggs. Beat yolks with sugar and vanilla until golden, gradually add milk and flour, alternating until mixed into a smooth batter.

3. Beat egg whites until stiff, adding a pinch of salt. Meanwhile, add butter to fryer, lightly sauté raisins.

4. Fold egg whites into batter and pour over butter and raisins.

5. When the edges of the batter begin to brown, gently cut through the batter with a spatula and fold over in the pan, scrambling the batter while browning the resulting dumplings on all sides.

6. Serve immediately with powdered sugar, drizzled with warm raspberry sauce.

Kettle/Canner Baking: Fig, Almond and Lavender Tart

The two pounds of fresh, organic, locally-grown figs seemed like a good idea when we bought them. We'd bake some yummy turnovers or maybe a little jam, we thought. But when the temperature skyrocketed over the weekend (peaking at yesterday's 113-degree thermometer–buster), we thought again, as firing up our drafty old oven now seemed like a very bad idea. I pulled out the Guardian Service Kettle/Canner and did some stovetop baking instead.

I adapted the recipe below from one by Barbara Wilde, whose l'Atelier Vert (Green Studio) is devoted to traditional French home and garden style. It makes a delectable treat—chewy, crispy, flaky and juicy—and the nut filling gives it higher ratios of protein and fiber and lower sugar and fat than your average dessert. If you serve it with yogurt, it's almost healthy.

Tarte aux Figues Provençal

Fig, Almond and Lavender tart 

2 c. almonds, blanched (or blanched hazelnuts or walnuts)

1/2 c. sugar

1 tsp. dried lavender, leaves and flowers

1 egg

1 tsp. Madeira (or pure vanilla or almond extract)

1 generous pound perfectly ripe black figs, cut lengthwise in quarters

2-3 Tbsp. sugar and dried lavender, for dusting

2 Tbsp. lavender honey (or mild floral honey), optional

1) Prepare a standard pâte brisée (pie dough) for a 9-10 inch crust. Shape it into a flattened round, wrap in wax paper and refrigerate at least 2 hours. Roll out and line a tart pan, prick all over, and place in freezer for at least half an hour.

2) Preheat Kettle over high heat for 10 minutes. Remove the crust from freezer, line with foil, and fill with dried beans or baking weights. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the edges turn pale gold. Remove from oven, remove weights and foil, and reserve.

3) In a food processor, grind the almonds with the 1/2 cup of sugar. Add the lavender, egg, and Madeira, pulsing until it forms a paste. Delicately spread the mixture over the prebaked pastry shell.

4) Preheat Kettle over high heat. Arrange the fig slices in concentric, slightly overlapping circles. Sprinkle with 2 to 3 Tbsp. lavender sugar. Place tart on top baking rack and carefully lower into Kettle. Cover and bake over high heat for 30 minutes or until the figs darken and ooze a bit of juice. Remove tart and rack from the canner and let stand 10 minutes before serving. Optional: drizzle evenly with the warmed lavender honey and serve à la mode.

Guardian Service Basics: Rice

Though I love rice, it didn't appear in regular rotation in our diet until we looked to it for economy, nutrition and body building. I lack the knack, the Rice Touch. A product of Russian/German and Swedish/Yankee Puritan ancestry, rice rarely featured in my families' menus and though my mother attempted to produce "Chinese Restaurant" rice at my request, it was never her signature dish. Despite various methods promising consistent perfection, I often wound up with a gooey mass.

Enter Guardian Service. I've written about a couple of other staple foods that, prepared the "Guardian Service Way" won us over to the waterless cooking method, potatoes and coffee in particular. When we discovered how easily Guardian Service produces flawless rice (brown, white, basmati, long and short grain), we experimented with other neglected cereals and grains with equal success: grits, barley, buckwheat, wild rice*, quinoa, kamut, spelt, amaranth...

While the mid-century recipe below calls for washing and rinsing the rice until the water runs clear, domestically-processed rice has already been cleaned and rinsed of excess starch prior to packaging. You may wish to rinse to remove any packaging dust, but beware over-rinsing: one of the tenets of waterless cooking is the retention of nutrients which are otherwise rinsed or boiled away. "The general rule is to wash imported rices and not to wash domestic rices, which are well cleaned and dried before packaging. Imported rices have plenty of clinging starch left over from the processing." (The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook, Hensperger/Kaufmann, Harvard Common Press, 2003)

FLUFFY RICE
(from Betty Gay's Guardian Service Tested Recipes)
Time: About 20 Minutes (Serves 6-8)

2 cups rice
3 1/2 cups cold water
1 tsp. salt

Wash rice thoroughly in warm water, washing several times until water is clear. Drain, place in unit, add cold water and salt. Start over medium heat until boiling point is reached. Cover, reduce heat to very low until rice kernels are tender. (Do not stir.) Rice may be unmolded from unit by running a knife blade around edge. (Every grain will be tender and separate—no sticking—no soaking required—no waste of rice.) Serve it buttered as a substitute for potatoes—as cereal—as an accompaniment for chop suey or shrimp creole—or use as a basis for nourishing desserts.

Companion Recipe: Rice Pudding—What better way to use up two cups of leftover cooked rice? Note: While the Guardian Service Tested Recipes cookbook does have a recipe for Rice Pudding (which I'll experiment with and blog about soon), it calls for a cup of uncooked rice... and we had plenty of leftover cooked rice.

(Also Note: 1 cup of uncooked rice yields 3 cups cooked rice).

MODERN RICE PUDDING
(Adapted for the Guardian Service Casserole/Tureen
from The Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, First Edition, 1950)

2 large eggs (or 4 egg yolks)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups milk
nutmeg for flavoring
NOTE: Add vanilla, if desired.

Beat all ingredients slightly to mix and add:

     2 cups cooked rice
     1/2 cup seedless raisins (or chopped dates—a handful of chopped candied ginger added to the mix is especially good).

Pour mixture into the Guardian Service Casserole Unit and set into Tureen Unit over medium flame and cover. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until sides begin to brown.

*UPDATE: Wild Rice. Soon after posting this blog, we received an email from Goose Valley, a grower of certified organic and natural wild rice in the Cascade Mountains in Shasta County, California. The farm and ranch at Goose Valley work in tandem, reducing the amount of external inputs each operation requires in an effort to farm with a minimum impact on the environment. Nicole, in their Boston Sales Office, asked if we'd like to try some of their wild rice and sent a trio of their packaged rices. 

We started with their spectacular Organic Wild Rice, which has a rich, nutty flavor and couldn't be easier to prepare the Guardian Service way (we used an Economy Trio cooker and prepared vegetables and chicken in the other two cookers, all over one flame for added fuel economy). Simply add 1 cup wild rice to 3 cups water or stock, bring to boil, cover and simmer on low heat for almost an hour, until the kernels become fluffy and tender.

Thanks so much, Nicole!