blank palate

i'm moving.

2010-06-08T14:04:00.001-07:00

it's better here:

www.travelcookeat.com

vin d'orange

2010-04-30T10:10:00.000-07:00

This is kind of a cruel post, because I'm about to start raving about this incredible aperitif I brewed up, telling you how delicious, refreshing and unexpected it is. And then I'm going to have to tell you that it is made from sour Seville oranges. And then the part comes where I tell you the short growing season for this unlovable stepchild of the Navel is over.

I was fortunate enough to be inspired to try my hand at vin d'orange just towards the middle of March, and the oranges are typically impossible to get before January or after March. I got on the phone and made the kind folks at WF order me some, and after a few weeks of badgering, they finally came in.

Seville oranges are ugly. Splotchy and oddly shaped, they kind of resemble navel oranges that have been kicked around on the orchard ground for a week or so. And they don't taste good, either, with a bitter and unforgiving bite.

But. Let them sit in a fruity white wine, mixed with a little sugar and vodka and you get the delightful French aperitif, vin d'orange. Some make it with rose or even red wine, but the lightness of white is perfect for summer. It sits for a month and then becomes the most strangely delicious beverage. It has this haunting and addictive quality, with a light sweetness at first sip that finishes into bitterness. It will have you and whoever you share your precious homebrew with intrigued. I quadrupled the recipe and stored it in a Playmate cooler while brewing. Now I have almost a dozen half bottles that I will be rationing out to whomever I see fit....bribes accepted.

vin d'orange

1 lemon
3 seville oranges (aka sour oranges)
2/3 c sugar
5 c white wine
1 c vodka
1 inch piece of vanilla bean

Rinse and half citrus fruits. Mix sugar, wine and vodka until dissolved. Add vanilla and citrus. Cover, let stand for one month (at least). Strain, put in clean bottles. Stores one year.

chocolate whiskey cake

2010-04-28T12:32:00.000-07:00

This cake is one of my absolute favorites, ever. It spent a good bit of time on the restaurant menu, despite its, err, unsightliness. This cake is downright ugly, at least for people with rather conventional notions of pastry beauty. It's like that princess and frog....gross looking, but when she finally laid her mouth on it, she could see and appreciate what was behind the facade.

This facade hides a couple of ingredients that are subtle but powerful: coffee, black pepper, and cloves. None of these suggest themselves, but they unite with the other ingredients to form a deeply flavored cake. It's so moist, so dense, so amazing.

And you probably already know this, but bourbon and scotch are both whiskey. Scotch is whiskey from Scotland, typically with a peatier flavor, and bourbon is whiskey from the US, fuller bodied and slightly sweet. Revelations.

chocolate whiskey cake

3/4 c plus 3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 c strong brewed coffee
1/2 c whiskey
12 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
2 c ap flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/8 tsp ground cloves
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 c mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325. Butter a 10 inch springform pan then dust with the 3tbsp of cocoa powder, knocking out excess.

Heat the coffee, whiskey, butter, and remaining cup of cocoa powder in a medium heavy saucepan over low heat until butter is melted, whisking occasionally. Add sugars and whisk until dissolved, remove from heat. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and cool.

While chocoalte cools, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, black pepper, and cloves in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs and vanilla. Starting with a slow drizzle, whisk the eggs into cooled chocolate mixture until combined. Add flour mixture and whisk until just combined, then fold in chocolate chips. Pour batter into pan and bake until a wooden pick comes out mostly clean, about 1 hour and 5 min.

Cool cake, store in fridge after one day, wrapped in plastic.

fava bean mash

2010-04-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

Favas are not for the faint of heart. This little bean requires shelling, followed by a second, more difficult round of shelling, which is then followed by a boiling and a shocking, whereupon one then begins the recipe at hand. And there's no better bean to make you feel old for your years than the fava....carpal tunnel at 25? It seems a very real possibility.

So a handful of beans was all I could muster up the will for, but it was undoubtedly worth the trouble. Nothing for me is so fresh, so springlike as the fava bean. I've heard their distinct aroma/flavor described as a byproduct of gastrointestinal distress, but WHATEVER...they're so delicious. This puree comes together in about 3 minutes, if you don't count the hours it takes to derobe this glorious legume.

fava bean puree

as many favas as you can stand to shell, boiled until tender in salty water (i did about a half cup...shameful, i know)
a shallot, minced fine
a pinch of salt
a pinch of fresh ground black pepper
juice from half a lemon

Pound to a paste the above ingredients to desired smoothness. Eat!

pork sandwich

2010-03-25T21:21:00.000-07:00

Giving me a free piece of meat sets off a chain of events reminiscent of that childhood favorite, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie. I'm not the world's number one consumer of animal flesh, and given that I am also a cook that loves to experiment, you can see how things can get a bit out of hand.
I kept it simple with the gifted pork tenderloin, because I knew its major use would be as a component of something else. And also because *honestly* I don't recall ever cooking one and I didn't feel like looking at recipes. So, a quick season and sear and it was off to the oven...when it came out about 15-20 minutes later, I was pleasantly surprised by the taste. Sure, it was plain, but it was pretty delicious for not having gone through any fancy cider marinating or sweet tea brining. There's a time and a place for that, and my kitchen at Monday lunchtime was not it. In a last ditch effort to add some flavor, I threw sliced onions in the pan for the last sear and then draped them over the pork as it cooked. Not sure it worked, but it did produce beautifully caramelized onions that were awesome on my sandwich!
By the way, chutney mayonnaise almost beats creme anglaise for things you know you shouldn't keep licking but you do anyway.

pork sandwich

1 pork tenderloin
1 onion, sliced
2 pieces good-quality sandwich bread
1 tbsp mayo, preferably homemade
1 tsp Alecia's Tomato Chutney
lettuce

Heat a few tbsps of olive oil over high heat. Season pork tenderloin all over, then sear on each side until brown. After the last turn, add onion slices to the pan, stirring occasionally.
Transfer contents to baking pan and place in 425 oven. Cook for about 15 minutes or until desired temp is reached (use thermometer-I went to 145).
Toast bread. Mix mayo and chutney and spread on one side of bread. Spoon on onions, and top with slices of cooled pork and lettuce.

variation: another easy warm winter salad

2010-03-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

I've been so incredibly busy lately-hence the lack of posts. The simplicity of my recent recipes also reflects this total lack of free time. Sunday nights tend to be the only time I have to get crazy in the kitchen, and then my amazing meals of homemade mushroom ravioli and overflowing plates of finger foods don't really photograph that well. But you know what? These five or ten minute lunches of late have all been equal in terms of deliciousness to many of my more elaborate preparations.
So here's a variation on the previous warm winter salad. I feel like it's cheating, posting something this simple and for me so 'duh'. But it didn't feel anything like cheating eating it, so here goes.

another easy warm winter salad

1 eggplant, cut into small dice.
1 butternut squash
olive oil
sprigs of thyme
salt
pepper
lemon juice
1 lb arugula
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
pecorino cheese, shaved

Peel squash, cut into small dice. Heat about a tbsp of olive oil and saute squash with thyme, salt, and pepper (to taste) until squash is tender and a bit golden. Wipe pan clean, heat more oil, and saute eggplant with salt and pepper until golden and tender. Toss arugula with lemon juice, olive oil and a pinch each of salt and pepper (to taste). Top arugula with chickpeas, vegetables and pecorino shavings. Enjoy.

See? It's criminal.

warm winter salad

2010-02-08T10:32:00.000-08:00

I love vegetables. I'm an equal opportunity employer of them in my cooking, but if pressed I would probably say that winter vegetables are my favorite. Yeah, they typically require some coaxing from the oven or saute pan. But just because they don't have the natural grace of those easy summer vegetables ('oh, i'm such a gorgeous raw tomato, just slice me and eat me, oh') doesn't mean they're not twice as delicious when properly attended to.

Here's a delicious and healthy winter lunch. Time all the ingredients right, and you will have a plate of earthy lentils, laced with the sweet notes of caramelized onions and the savory crunch of roasted cauliflower, mixed with slightly wilted lemony arugula. Doesn't get much better. So there, tomato salad.

warm winter salad

1 c dried red lentils
3 c water
bay leaf
thyme sprigs
1 med onion, halved then sliced thinly
1 small cauliflower, chopped
tbsp sherry vinegar
10 oz arugula

Preheat oven to 400. Toss cauliflower with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast until brown.
Meanwhile, heat some olive oil or butter in a pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until caramelized, about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring water to a boil with bay leaf, thyme, salt and pepper. Add lentils, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain, then toss with sherry vinegar.
Right before serving, toss arugula with a squirt of lemon juice and some olive oil. Mix together lentils, onions, and cauliflower and serve warm.

makes four salads.

gruyere-walnut crisps

2010-02-01T11:56:00.000-08:00

Sunday is special. There's that whole going to church day-of-rest thing, but not everyone is into that. However, I've not yet met anyone who has not been into these crackers. With their sharp cheese taste and the added crunch of walnuts, they're kind of like Cheez-Its for adults. They are best presented around five o'clock on a Sunday afternoon, when the sun has turned extra-golden and the hint of a hunger pang is starting to insinuate itself. And Sunday adult snacktime is best completed with this and some gin.

gruyere-walnut crisps

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
12 ounces finely grated Gruyere cheese
1 tsp salt
2 cups plus 2 tblsp all purpose flour
1 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Using electric mixer, beat butter in medium bowl until smooth. Beat in cheese and salt. Add flour and walnuts; beat just until dough comes together, adding water by teaspoonfuls if dry. Divide in half. Roll each half into 14-inch log. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, at least 4 hours. At this point, dough can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.

Preheat oven to 375F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Cut logs crosswise into 1/4 inch thick slices. Arrange on prepared sheets, spacing 1/2 inch apart.

Bake crisps until deep golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer to racks and cool completely.

Variation: For attractive presentation, before slicing the dough, brush the logs with lightly beaten egg white then roll in poppy seeds, sesame seeds, or caraway seeds. Slice; bake as directed.
From Bon Appetit.

adios, el bullí

2010-01-27T12:22:00.000-08:00

Two more dining seasons before El Bullí closes its doors.
Not forever, mind you, but for two years at the least. And there is no guarantee that anything will ever be the same when Ferran Adriá reopens his restaurant. His cryptic remark? “In 2014, we will serve food somehow. I don’t know if it will be for one guest or 1,000.”
For those who don't know, El Bullí has been the world's number one restaurant for four years. The molecular gastronomy there would be unrecognizable as edible substance to the majority of the world's population. Adriá spends half of each year innovating, and opens his restaurant for the second half to display his new creations.
This is a big deal, people, with one Spanish journalist going as far as to say, "Yesterday's announcement could be considered as the day gastronomy entered the 21st century."
I don't know about you, but I just got on the waiting list for reservations.

Read the interview translated from the Spanish here.

calas classiques

2010-01-20T13:03:00.000-08:00

Once a common street food in New Orleans, calas have fallen off the radar, overshadowed by their omnipresent cousin, the beignet. After my trip to the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, and subsequent pumpkin calas spotting on the Cochon menu, I was fascinated by this long-forgotten fritter. An 1903 cookbook reads (according to my rudimentary French) '"Bel Calas, good-n-hot!" So goes the cry of the Negresse who sells them on the street in a wooden bowl that she carries on her head, covered with a clean napkin. Calas are eaten with coffee from the market in the morning...they're delicious!'
And I'm here to report that they are, indeed, delicious. They're a brilliant way to use old cooked rice, and the dough keeps in the fridge for several days. They are basically like the child a beignet and a bowl of rice pudding would produce if biology made such things possible. I can't wait to make them again....maybe next time with some cheese and andouille!

calas classiques

2 c cooked rice
1 egg
1.5 tsp yeast
1/2 c water, warm
1/8 c sugar
2/3 c flour

Mix all ingredients, allow to rest for a couple hours or overnight. Fry balls of dough (it's very wet) in hot oil. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar if desired.

Prune, cherry, and apricot frangipane tart

2010-01-09T10:51:00.000-08:00

This incredible dessert is not only the most delicious, showstopping dessert I've ever had--it also answers a couple of burning questions:
1)why grappa should always be kept on hand
2)why Gourmet should still be a magazine
3)why holidays and special occasions even exist
4)why I should never be left alone in the same room with dessert

one hundred year old gumbo

2009-11-24T11:15:00.000-08:00

There's nothing like the combination of food, New Orleans, and other people's obsessions to inspire you. It was on a visit here that I encountered a little gem masquerading as a worn, blue hardback entitled Cooking in Old Creole Days. Published in 1903 by Celestine Eustis, it offered an incredible look into the methodology of Creole cooking and the attitude towards culinary arts in the previous centuries. Despite, or maybe in part due to, a remarkable overtly racist prologue ("as a race, we are certainly not gifted with culinary talent") by S. Weir Mitchell, the book is fascinating from start to finish.
I jotted down a recipe for the most basic dish in the Creole repertoire: okra gumbo. I wanted to see how the traditional elaboration compared to what comes out of my pseudo-New-Orleanian family kitchen. So I followed the "receipt" to the best of my abilities-the ambiguity of it I actually found to result in a fun cooking challenge, allowing me to fill in the gaps with my own knowledge and whims.
And...most importantly...the gumbo was delicious! Chip proclaimed it amazing, and I thought it tasted quite good as well. A fairly easy meal. I do have to say I like my dad's darker, more Cajun gumbo better, but that could just be due to another tradition that dates back hundreds of years: a strong loyalty to your own flesh and blood's roux.

okra gumbo

Put into a saucepan a spoonful of pure lard* and one of flour. Stir it well until it is of a light brown. Chop an onion into small pieces and throw them in. Cut up a fat capon or chicken into small pieces and put it into the saucepan with the flour and lard. Stir it all the while until the chicken is nearly done. When the whole is well browned, add a slice of ham* cut up small. Throw in two or three pods of red pepper*, and salt to your taste. Then add a quart of boiling water, and leave it on the fire for two hours and a half.

During that time you take either a can of okra or the fresh okra, and chop it up a bit. Put it in a saucepan with a little water and let it simmer a quarter of an hour, stirring it all the time. Then add to it either six fresh tomatoes or half a can of tomatoes, and let it cook on a slow fire for an hour, uncovered.

When your gumbo has been on the fire the two hours and a half, you take it off to cool, and skim all the grease off. Then you put it back in the saucepan and add your okra and tomatoes and let it simmer slowly for an hour or until the okra is thoroughly cooked. Serve hot, and eat it with dry rice served in a separate dish.
-Mme. Eustis, Mére.

*for the lard, I used butter. for ham, I used andouille. for the red pepper, I used chile de arbol.

the buckley thanksgiving menu

2009-11-23T21:02:00.001-08:00

Roasted Cauliflower and Radicchio Salad

Roast Turkey with Innards Stuffing
Prime Rib
Creamed Corn with Scallions
Potatoes a la Grandma

Cranberry and Vanilla Bean Sorbet
Prune, Almond and Cherry Frangipane Tart

butternut squash soup with curried parsnip

2009-11-18T13:47:00.000-08:00

We had the best soup in the world at work the other night. Unfortunately, it wasn't this one, but it did inspire this one. It was a similar to a typical lentil vegetable soup, but with a cream base instead of a broth one. And, atop of this already plenty delicious soup were delightfully crunchy cubes of roasted potato.

At home the next afternoon with a squash and daydreams of tiny crunchy squares of tuber, I devised this soup. It's oh-so-delicious, and quite simple and quick. The star anise adds an imperceptible depth and richness to the yummy yummy soup. And the curried parsnips are the perfect garnish, adding a kick of savory heat. Homemade chicken broth if possible, people!

butternut squash soup with curried parsnips

1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1 in cubes
3 star anise
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 shallots, chopped
3-4 cups chicken broth
1 large parsnip, peeled and diced small
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp curry powder
2 bay leaves

Preheat oven to 375.

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil and add garlic, shallot and star anise. Sautee until translucent and add squash and chicken broth to cover. How much you use will depend on how big your squash was. Simmer until squash is tender, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, toss parsnip with curry powder, 1 tbsp olive oil, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Roast until softened but still a tad crunchy, about 10 minutes.

Remove star anise and puree everything else. Thin with broth if desired. Serve with parsnips in the middle and, optionally, croutons.

apple walnut butter cake

2009-11-06T11:38:00.000-08:00

We have this amazing cake at work, the most unassuming yet moist and delicious thing you have ever put in your mouth. It was my dad's birthday this week, and so I immediately thought about making it for him. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to collect the recipe, so I had to wing it by piecing together a few different ideas and hoping for the best.

I chose a cake recipe from Bon Appetit, but when I set out to make it I realized it was going to make a teeny tiny sheet of a cake, so I doubled the recipe. Then, when it came out in all of its ugly glory, I knew I would need something to fancy it up, as well as something to go in between the layers. The moist crumb was a red light for a traditional frosting...I know my limits and controlling the wild crumbiness was definitely beyond them.

With my remaining apples, I sauteed an apple butter for a moist middle layer, and then whipped up a glaze to try to disguise what turned out to be the ugliest yet most delicious cake this side of 2009.

apple walnut cake

apple butter::
6 apples
1/2 c packed brown sugar

Juice three apples. Dice three peeled apples. Simmer the juice and diced apples until mixture is reduced to about a third. Add sugar, stir, and cook over medium heat about twenty minutes.

brown sugar glaze::

1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt

Stir all ingredients in small nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves and mixture comes to boil. Reduce heat to medium; whisk until glaze is smooth, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.

cake::

4 cups diced peeled apples (about 4)
2 cup sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, cooled
2 large egg
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter and flour 2 8x8x2-inch baking pans. Mix diced apples, sugar, butter and egg in large bowl to blend. Sift flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt over. Add chopped walnuts; mix thoroughly. Transfer mixture to prepared pans, dividing evenly.

Bake until cake is brown and crusty on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack.

Spread apple butter over one layer and place the other layer on top. Make glaze and pour over top of cake; let cool 30 minutes before serving.

*adapted from Bon Appetit

tomate frito

2009-10-21T10:22:00.000-07:00

Any grocery store in Spain devotes at least half an aisle to tomate frito, a Mediterranean sauce par excellence. It comes in jars, it comes in briks (cardboard boxes), it comes dried in packets, it comes in any form one could possibly imagine, matched in ubiquitousness perhaps only by American ketchup.

Tomate frito is essentially a slow cooking of tomatoes in a sofrito of the chef's choice. While the packaged version of tomate frito dates only from the 20th century, this puree of 'fried tomatoes' was most certainly being made and used before. Ever since Cortes brought back the first tomato from the Aztecs in the 1500's, it seems likely that cooks combined it with the already popular onion over heat. The first tomato recipes appear in a Naples cookbook in 1692, but the author obtained the recipes from Spanish sources.

Everyone in Spain swears by their mother's (or grandmother's) version, so there are really no definitive rules. I am of the opinion that the simpler the better, otherwise you may as well whip up an Italian tomato sauce. So I keep mine plain-a little onion, salt, and a bit of sugar. Depending on the tomato variety and ripeness, you may not even need sugar. Some people insist on peeling the tomatoes and seeding them, others simply on seeding them, and still others just do a light chop and thrown the tomatoes in, seeds and peels included. I've done it both ways, and as long as you pass it through a food mill, seive, or chinois, I believe it doesn't matter.

As far as uses go, this silky, rich sauce is incredibly versatile. It's featured in typical Spanish dishes, such as tigres (mussels cooked with mirepoix then filled with tomate frito and bechamel before being breaded and fried) and patatas bravas (i love you), as well as infinitely adaptable to any meat or vegetable dish. So hurry-if you live down South you can still grab the last of the season's tomatoes and store some for winter.

tomate frito

5 lbs ripe tomatoes,
small onion, chopped
about 6-8 tbsp oil
tbsp of salt
pinch of sugar

In two 12 inch saucepans, heat oil (enough to cover bottom of pan) over med. high heat. Add half of onion to each pot. Fry until translucent, not browned. Add tomatoes, dividing equally between pots, sprinkle with salt and sugar, and turn heat to low. Cook for 30-50 minutes, until tomatoes are dark red and slightly caramelized.
Blend very well and pass through strainer, pressing to release all the sauce.

brown butter sage pasta

2009-10-12T18:54:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, I was engaged in wolfing down some of my best chicken salad ever when I noticed my poor husband standing off to the side, looking sad and hungry.

I took pity on him and set to the fridge to see what I could rustle up, and it turns out I got a little bit jealous by the time I was finished. We had a couple half portions of frozen ravioli, some butternut squash, some cheese. I pulled some butter and parmigiano out of the fridge, some sage out of the garden, and got to work creating a pretty pantry friendly and delicious lunch. The husband was happy too...he even graced it with one of his Chimays, which he rations out pretty strictly. Honor of honors!

ravioli with brown butter and sage

a serving of ravioli, preferably squash filled
4 tbsp butter
a handful of sage leaves
2 tbsp olive oil
peeled parmigiano reggiano

boil pasta water. heat oil over high heat and lightly fry the sage leaves until crisp; set to dry on paper towels and sprinkle with salt.
melt butter over medium heat. skim off foam and continue to cook. meanwhile, boil pasta according to directions.
when butter begins to smell nutty and turns a brown color, pull it off the heat. toss pasta with butter, plate, sprinkle with salt and liberally with black pepper. top with fried sage and cheese peelings.

a dinner summary:: restaurante akelarre, san sebastian, spain

2009-10-09T18:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of pictures here....we were so focused on the amazing meal we had at Akelarre two weeks ago that we took no photos, choosing instead to savor every bite of our amazing meals.

Overall, I must begin by saying, this was one amazing meal. I have never eaten at Mugaritz, or Arzak, or Etxebarri, or El Bullí, so this isn't really about recommending one place over the other. All I can say, with every fiber of my food-loving and food-breathing and food-working body is this was worth every penny. The food was exquisite, perfectly timed, perfectly cooked, of incredible quality, and, of course, fascinating.

So let me get down to the details:

The meal started with an amuse bouche: a little box with 4 "candies". The first we were instructed to take all at once, and it turned out to be an oyster encased in a "shell" (get used to the parenthesis...this meal is filled with things that appear to be something other than they are) of black, sandy, crunchy, salty something. Next came a roll of black pudding and crispy wafer. Then a bite-size piece of tuna rolled in crunchy nuts. And finally a powdery "polvorón" of almond and artichoke.

We each got our own tasting menu, sharing the plates. For the first course, B. had the Cold and Hot Crab Salad and its Coral, sitting in what looked a little forest, with a tiny cucumber, she claims an eggplant, and a little "carrot" that was sort of gelatinous and filled with carrot essence, or puree. This crab was the best I've ever tasted, sort of stringy but in the best way that word can be used... I had Little Pearls and Porous of Foie-Gras, Toasted Peanut Bread. A strange translation (from poroso de foie gras) but I don't have a better one; it was a plate of foie gras beads with an airy foie mousse and a thick piece of crispy peanut bread with silky peanut butter.

For the second course, B. had Prawns and French Beans cooked in Orujo Fire, which they brought to the table in a little cauldron and set on fire, infusing these beautiful shrimp with orujo, a liquor made from the pomace of grapes left after wine pressing. These we were instructed to suck the heads of and then dip the bodies in both the green bean puree (again, super silky) and this "soil" of crushed rice and shrimp shells. Amazing. I had Mollusks in the Net of the Fisherman, a challenging dish for someone who barely likes most seafood. However, even I could tell that the razor clams, mussels, shrimp, clams, squidy squids and whatever else was on there (!) were perfect. On top sat a little puffed rice "net" with the cutest little dried shrimp and delicious blobs of dried seaweed.

For the third course, B. had the Wild Mushrooms and Egg Pasta, a slab of impeccable wild mushrooms (enoki, shitake, some other white enoki cousin) with yellow and white "noodles" made by steaming egg whites and egg yolks in noodley shapes. On the side was a dab of deeply flavored mushroom aioli. I had Vegetable Ravioli, four lovely assorted discs of thinly sliced vegetables filled with the cream of each respective veggie: beets, turnips, carrot, and another....and in the center was a little "ravioli" of Iberian ham fat-whoot whoot!

For the fourth course, B. had Red Tuna with Onion Threads and Roasted Peppers. The tuna was gloriously simple, and the red pepper puree that accompanied it was thick and luxurious. There were also "rocks" made of red pepper meringue and a marinated guindilla pepper. I had the Integral Red Mullet with Sauce Fusili. The mullet was crusted with ground up fish bones (yum, for real!) and, as with all the proteins, impeccable. On the side were six little corkscrew shapes of green, white, and brown. They were soy sauce, parsley juice/puree, and garlic juice/puree, fashioned using nitrous something into the shape of corkscrews. Amazing.

The fifth course had B. eating the Roasted Baby Pig with Tomato Bolao and Iberian Emulsion. The pig had the crispiest skin, and it was uber decadent to drag it through its own fat straight to my mouth. My Loin of Lamb Roasted in Live Coal was incredible, as were the black (squid ink) tempura fried veggies alongside.

Next, dessert course one. B. had the most interesting dish: Milk and Grape, Cheese and Wine in parallel Evolution. It was a slab with five little components, starting with a bland looking domino that was basically gelatinous milk and a light grape gelee sort of thing. The flavors got more concentrated and intense the further down the slab we got...a crumbly, powder tart cheese with grapes, a creamy, sweet cheese with ginger jelly and something red, a strong cheese with something encased in a sherry shell, and a gorgonzola ice cream with wafers. Sorry for the ambiguity on that one...we were freaking out over it. The other was Xaxu and Coconut Iced Mousse, a feathery frozen coconut cream with airy frozen creams of goat and cow's milk.

Dessert course two was the Peach in Syrup for me, a lovely white chocolate shaped "peach" that, when cracked open" oozed cold essence of peach, accompanied by a little piece of french toast and a distilled mint water that had the most amazing body in the mouth. B. had Another Apple Tart, which came covered in a piece of edible silver paper with Akelarre written on it. The paper was apple flavored, the writing chocolate. Underneath was a delicious wafer and cream apple flavored dessert.

Finally, there was a little treat box, covered in another piece of edible paper, with chocolates, a candied hazelnut, and who the heck knows what else because we were pretty euphoric by the time this meal was over, two and a half hours after we sat down.

So, a long post that does not do justice to that which it describes. Sorry if I bore any of my usual readers, but I know this will steer someone towards having the same amazing experience I did...so it's worth it.

Viva Pedro!

gourmet magazine folds

2009-10-07T12:07:00.000-07:00

After years of being at the forefront of cuisine and months filled with whispers of trouble, Gourmet magazine has closed its doors.
So sad.
So many questions.
Why? Beyond dismal ad revenues, which could partially be attributed to the economic climate?
Which magazine will step up to be the classic, sophisticated authority on food that Gourmet was? Bon Appetit is nice, but focused much more on trendiness and unambitious, comfortable recipes.
Where will all the talented writers and cooks employed by gourmet go?
Will someone take the name and go independent? Ruth?
I feel so alone...

how to make instant coffee

2009-10-06T19:00:00.000-07:00

Instant coffee has a bad name, and rightfully so. That's why I buy mine when in Europe. Or I get other people to, like my brother, who called me from France and was like "they don't have instant espresso, all they have is this Nescafe" and I'm like "bingo, you got it!" I suppose what I'm trying to convey is that when in a country where coffee means espresso, it's hard to get a bad cup. Really hard.

So I love having it around, because it's just so handy. And sometimes even French press doesn't make that cafe con leche taste just right. Somewhat recently, a friend told me about a trick his Peruvian friends swear by, and I've been doing it ever since. And it produces the best cup of instant coffee, with a foamy top and a perfectly blended body. It basically consists of forming a paste with the instant coffee granules, sugar, and a splash of milk or water. The process is almost as fun as drinking the resulting perfect cup of 'coffee'.

the best instant coffee

this makes a small/normal size cup of coffee depending on where you are from

tbsp instant espresso/strong coffee
tbsp of sugar
6-8 ounces of milk (whole cut with a bit of water, for me)

measure the coffee and sugar out into a cup. splash a tiny bit of milk and mush with spoon into a thick paste. pour steaming milk over coffee, agitating with spoon. drink.

pumpkin chocolate-chip cookies: a series

2009-10-04T14:32:00.000-07:00

From appearances, this may look like another successful baking experiment. But appearances can be deceiving.
My closest friends can tell you about my obsession with pumpkin, and more specifically, perfectly crunchy, chewy pumpkin chocolate-chip cookies. A bakery in town used to make the absolute perfect specimen: 5 inches in diameter, crispy around the edges and top, yet chewy chewy in the center. I ate a whole one nearly every time I was there, stomachache be darned. I never got around asking them how they made these wonders, even though at the time I had already had a few failed attempts to recreate them. And the urgency wasn't there....after all, they'd always be there for the purchasing, right?
Wrong. Out of business. Without ever releasing their secret recipe.
If you've ever tried to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, you know that most often (using canned pumpkin) they turn out cake like. Soft. If you're lucky there's a bit of a crunch around the side, but always cakey.
So I spend the better part of every fall wasting a lot of chocolate, flour, and butter trying to figure this out. I've consulted experts. I've read up. I've combed the internet...disappointments all.
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing...today I set out to try again now that October is on us. Oh, I thought, I'll just up the sugar and fat (butter) and drain the pumpkin and voila...perfect cookies. So I let the pumpkin drain for about a half day over cheesecloth (which did let out about a CUP of liquid!). So I changed the proportions, even starting with the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever.
The results? Probably my best attempt yet, but still totally lacking. Crunchy, a bit. I could tell they were trying. But still cakey, and not nearly enough pumpkiny zing.
Don't worry. I'm determined to get this right, for pumpkin cookie lovers everywhere. The quest continues...

all that remains.

2009-10-01T10:52:00.001-07:00

Another glorious trip to my favorite little corner of the world, Gipuzkoa and Navarra, España, and I'm left with just memories and a slowly disappearing hunk of generic (and incredibly flavorful) sheep's milk cheese.

Hauled through customs and multiple airports, the cheese is still every bit as delicious as it was when the man behind the counter at Spar Todo Todo cut it from the wheel. So I'm savoring it slowly, whittling away one sliver at a time, and marveling how it can taste so much better than American cheese.

Reason #5,602 to not live here: our default cheese is technically not even food, but a food product.

Okay, so I lied. It's not all I'm left with. I have notes from an amazing dinner at Akelarre, which I hope to post for whoever cares (probably sans photo) soon. I also have all THIS which I stowed away in my Chinese store suitcase:

marti's spain essentials:

*bottle of Ribera del Duero (Cepa Gavilán 2006)
*Bela Untza, a basque homemade herb liquor
*pimientos del piquillo
*Principe chocolate filled cookies
*instant decaf coffee
*spanish ketchup
*special pastas from Sandro Desii (flavors: spaghettini with chives and lemon shells)
*guindilla peppers in vinegar
*salsa roquefort
*galletas marias
*dried piment d'espelette and piment d'espelette mustard

sigh. Spain, if you are reading this, I miss you!

summer vegetable pasta salad: recipe salvage

2009-09-05T11:30:00.000-07:00

Okay. So, as soon as you get your breath back, you can see why I had to make this recipe one day after receiving my September issue of Gourmet. A luscious, glorious stack of summer vegetables that demanded my attention and seemed to promise to be more than the sum of its parts.

I succumbed, preparing it for a very special dinner party featuring Vellum, a most delicious wine from Napa Valley. Here is my slightly less stylized and photoshopped version, made with Snow's Bend multicolored summer squash.

Unfortunately, here is a case where beauty just wasn't enough. Perhaps there were too many other delicious items on offer (creamed corn with queso fresco, peppercorn-encrusted NY strips, steamed okra with scallions, ginger and lime), but the veggie torte remained mostly whole in the middle of the table, in its lonely beauty, while we were licking clean the pan of creamed corn.

Fortunately, with a little bit of creativity, I am able to present a usable, delicious recipe that I can fully recommend. I took the remaining torte, chopped it up and tossed it with warm pasta, a little mayonnaise, and some of Alecia's Tomato Chutney, which is a very special condiment made here in Alabama. I crumbled up some leftover queso fresco and lunched on a thoroughly delicious yet ugly plate of veggie pasta goodness.

summer vegetable pasta salad

1/2 recipe yellow squash and bell pepper torte, or sauteed slices of summer veggies
1 1/2 c dried whole wheat rotini or other pasta, cooked until al dente
3 tbsp mayonnaise
3 tbsp Alecia's tomato chutney
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper, or to taste
1/2 c crumbled queso fresco (or mild feta)

Toss warmed veggies, warm pasta, mayonnaise, chutney, salt and pepper. Sprinkle cheese over top.

muscadine sorbet

2009-08-31T11:08:00.000-07:00

It's a bountiful month for vegetable harvests, but here in central Alabama, it's a transitional time for fruits. Gone are the blueberries and blackberries of the hot summer sun. Enter muscadines, the untouted, undervalued American grape. Perusing the farmer's market Saturday with dessert on my mind, I saw only cardboard pints of lonely muscadines.

Fortunately, for last month's birthday I received an ice cream maker, and I've been dying to crank it up for a few weeks. I walked away with two pints of muscadines in my hands, dreaming of their transformation into icy refreshment.

Eating a muscadine is fun. First you bite a hole in the thick skin, then you suck out the pulp while extracting the seeds with your tongue. Eating muscadine sorbet, a much simpler prospect, is divine. Once blended, the muscadine skin lends a neon pink-purple hue to the sorbet, thanks to their dark skins. It's actually fairly breathtaking. And the taste is like pure, freezing-cold muscadine essence, which you actually miss a bit when you're managing the skin and seeds and pulp all at once.

I'm sure this will be just one of many future ice cream posts, but it may well end up as my favorite.

muscadine sorbet
2 pints of muscadines, halved and seeded
1 c water
1 c sugar

Heat water and sugar together, stirring occasionally, until clear. Cool.
Blend muscadines in blender for a few minutes at high speed, until totally liquefied. Pass through a fine-mesh strainer.
Whisk half the simple syrup (that's the sugar water) into the muscadine juice. Taste for sweetness, adding more simple syrup if desired.
Spin in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.

puerco pibil

2009-08-05T12:55:00.000-07:00

Probably everyone's favorite meal from our vacation was puerco pibil (one of the dinners I prepared). Of course, that is an unofficial statement that I pretty much made up, but this tender, deeply spiced pork really stole the show without requiring much effort.

If you can muster up the energy to grab a couple new spices from the store, cube some pork butt, and use your blender, then you can easily prepare an amazing meal for dozens of people at a time. Ever since Chip showed me the special features on Once Upon a Time in Mexico, which include a cooking class on puerco pibil with director Robert Rodriguez, this dish has been a never-fail staple.

It's easy. It will never let you down. And it gracefully accepts whatever you choose to pair with it. This time I prepared some refried black beans, by sauteeing some peppers, onion and garlic with black beans and smashing them. Then I threw some red onions and corn on the grill, whipped out a batch of homemade salsa, and heated up some tortillas.
It was incredible.

puerco pibil

5tbsp whole annato seeds
2t whole cumin seeds
1 tbsp peppercorns
8 whole allspice seeds
1/2 tsp whole cloves

Grind the above in a spice mill/coffee grinder.

2 habanero chiles, stems and seeds removed, chopped
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 tbsp salt
8 cloves garlic
Juice of 5 lemons
splash tequila

Combine the above with the spice mix in a blender, and puree.

5 pounds pork butt, cut into 2-inch cubes

Combine all ingredients in a zip-top bag and mix well. Line a 9x13 pan with banana leaves; add the pork mixture; fold over the leaves to cover, then cover tightly with foil. Alternatively, just wrap the whole thing in a foil packet. Bake 4 hours at 325.

adapted from Robert Rodriguez

cheddar and black pepper gougeres

2009-08-01T20:26:00.000-07:00

c'est time for le gouter somewhere

the gougere as crowd pleaser

a boiled dinner party

2009-07-29T09:03:00.000-07:00

There are some traditions that make me feel like an outsider in my own land. Cue....the boiled dinner.

We are on vacation up here in Fannin County, Georgia, nestled below the Blue Ridge mountains in our cabin on the river. When the sun sinks below a certain point on the horizon, everyone's mind turns to the night's feast. Cooking for 10-11 people is no mean feat, so we've all been sharing the duties. This particular night we enjoyed a meal that has deep roots in American culture- the boil. There's the New England boiled dinner, the crawfish boil of Louisiana, and then the shrimp boil.

It basically consists of throwing corn, potatoes, onions, and shrimp into boiling water, staggering their drop times so that everything comes out perfectly. For our meal, we added polish and andouille sausage, and I threw together some coleslaw. I admire this as a cultural phenomenon. I admire it as a way to avoid dirty dishes while feeding multitudes. But I couldn't stop part of me from thinking of about a dozen yummier ways to prepare each ingredient. But then I did, because the atmosphere was so jovial and breezy, with nothing to do but dig in and watch the river float by.

piment d'espelette

2009-07-24T13:55:00.000-07:00

Fall is looming...at least in my mind. I don't know what that means for you, but for me it means deliciously painful pangs of desire to travel. I still had one special momento from my September trip to my favorite grocery store in the world: a jar of Espelette pepper puree. As often happens, I'd been saving it for a special occasion, but since I hope to go back in a couple months I decided to make a regular old lunch a trip down memory lane.
Piment d'Espelette is a unique pepper from the French Pays Basque that is a culinary legend. It's a beautiful, longish red pepper with a perfectly piquant bite. It has been a culinary specialty of the village of Espelette since it found its way to France in the 1500s. It has the same AOC protections as champagne, as well as a festival in its honor in late October. The most celebrated appearance of the Espelette pepper is in piperade, a pepper stew of sorts. But it is included in chocolates, hams, as decoration, dried and ground into powder...just about every way you can imagine. The puree I brought home was so beautifully bright and amazingly tasty...perfect on my eggplant sandwiches and even more perfect slathered on some bread with a hard sheep's milk cheese. It's definitely earned permanent place in my return suitcase.

the staple salsa

2009-07-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

It's the height of summer, and if you are growing your own tomatoes and have more than two plants, chances are you've got more than you know what to do with. Allow me to present....the best salsa ever! It's easy, requiring merely a bit of broiling in the oven and a food processor. Seriously, I no longer search for new incarnations--this is the condiment equivalent of a soulmate.

It's exactly what you hope to taste every time you try a new salsa. It boasts a deep, layered flavor profile, thanks to the roasted vegetables and hint of cider vinegar. When I make it, I find the full amount of jalapeños to be a bit much (and I love spice). I still like to use three jalapeños, though, because the pepper/onion/garlic mixture saves beautifully in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks, making it easy to make a bastardized version with just raw tomatoes.

roasted jalapeño salsa

about 10 medium tomatoes
3 jalapeños, stemmed
half a white onion, sliced
4 garlic cloves, peeled
1tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar
water

Broil tomatoes and jalapeños about 6 minutes, until darkly roasted. Flip and roast another 6 or so minutes.
Turn oven to 425. Roast onion slices and garlic on a bakin sheet, stirring every couple minutes, until brown and wilted, about 15 minutes.
Pulse the jalapeños, onion, and garlic, until moderately finely chopped. Scoop into bowl. Coarsely puree the tomatoes and their juices. Combine the tomatoes with about half the pepper mixture, the salt, and the vinegar. If needed, add water to thin. Taste, and if desired add more pepper/onion.

-adapted from Gourmet

pea ravioli

2009-06-23T12:35:00.000-07:00

One of the more desirable effects that motherhood has, at least on me, is that it makes you a bit more creative in the kitchen. Your baby's preferences set up parameters that must be followed: no eggplant, sparing with the salt, finger friendly food only, please. And the challenge of presenting vegetables in a fresh, exciting way is definitely in the forefront of my mind. I don't feel like a meal is complete for Buckley unless there's something green (or yellow, or purple, or red). And we do meat at most once a day, leaving lots of space for other food groups.
This pea ravioli was a hit, both with mom and baby. Pureed peas are transformed into a portable, not-as-messy packet of deliciousness by some boiled wonton wrappers. Buckley ate them plain; I topped them with a quick cream sauce. You can finish them however you like, but make a ton--they are delicious, quick to cook, and freezer friendly.

pea ravioli

1 package wonton wrappers
16 oz green peas, frozen or fresh
3/4 c grated parmesan
1 large shallot, diced
splash of red wine vinegar
olive oil
salt
pepper

If using frozen peas, boil in salted water until tender.
Process with shallot, parmesan, red wine vinegar. Drizzle oil with motor running until a smooth consistency is reached, adding salt and pepper to taste.
Place a small spoonful of peas in the middle of each square. Lightly trace around the edges with your finger, dipped in a small bowl of water. Seal edges, pressing out any air bubbles.
That gives you ravioli; from there you can fold over the point and twist the edges inwards for tortellini, if desired.
Boil for 3-4 minutes in salted water.

porcini e mozzarella

2009-06-15T13:14:00.000-07:00

What do you do with a $4 mushroom?
It's a question that most people never face. And, technically, I brought the situation on myself. I mean, I did buy one and a half porcini mushrooms (total: $6) in a fit of excitement at the market.
Since my budget only allowed a small bit of this fungal treasure, I decided to keep it simple. The fresh mozzarella was on sale, too, so I grabbed a ball.

In need of a six o'clock snack to a) go with our cocktails and b) tide us over until a 9 o'clock dinner, I thought of the mushrooms. I sliced them oh-so-thinly, placed torn mozzarella on top, and sprinkled lemon thyme, salt, and freshly ground black pepper over the top. A drizzle of olive oil and a trip under the broiler later, we had an amazing little snack of just-tender porcini and blistered mozzarella. Best mushroom ever.

Porcini e mozzarella

1/8 lb porcini mushrooms (1 large or 2 small)
1/2 c fresh mozzarella
1 tsp lemon thyme leaves
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat broiler. Slice mushrooms vertically into thin slices. Arrange on oven proof plate. Tear mozzarella into pieces and lay over mushrooms. Sprinkle thyme and seasoning; drizzle with olive oil.
Place under broiler until golden and bubbly.

how to make chicken and impress people

2009-06-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

My opinion of chicken tenders changed the day I learned the secret of a certain House of Chicken.
Although the quality of chicken and the items you choose to bread it with do count for something, what really makes a tender, savory chicken finger is a brine. A salty solution that you employ as a sort of marinade, a brine can be composed of many different ingredients. It soaks into the meat and has a tenderizing as well as flavoring effect, although it is much more pronounced in a thinner cut of meat. In this particular method however, the secret/only ingredient is...pickle juice! I favor Claussen, or a similar flavored dill.
Let the chicken soak in the juice for a day, an hour, whatever you have to spare. Then flour, egg wash, and coat it in a crumby mixture of your choice. One day, I had just the ends of a baguette, so I supplemented with toasted, ground pecans and grated parmigiano. Needless to say, plain old breadcrumbs don't really do it for me anymore.
I don't deep fry the chicken; I usually just have about a half inch of oil in the pan. It also helps to put a lid over the pan when the chicken is cooking, so you don't burn the outside before you cook it through.

I nearly always serve this chicken with a green salad for lunch, and an additional side if we're having it for dinner. The nasturtiums are blooming vibrant orange and yellow in the garden, so of course they were included. If you've never had a nasturtium, they are edible flowers that have a spicy finish, much like arugula. I prefer to pair them with milder salad greens. They're oh-so pretty perched on a salad, and baby Buckley was almost as excited as I was to be munching on flowers.

chicken fingers

chicken tenders (or breasts)
pickle juice, to cover
1 c breadcrumbs
1 c toasted, coarsely ground pecans
1/2 c grated parmigiano
3-4 eggs
1 c flour

Marinate chicken in pickle juice for thirty minutes to one day (the longer the better).
Season flour and place in a shallow bowl. Add a few tablespoons of water to eggs and whisk. Stir breadcrumbs, pecans, and cheese together in a separate shallow bowl. Dredge chicken through flour, shaking off excess, then eggs, shaking off excess, then crumb mixture.
Heat 1/2 inch vegetable oil over high heat. Fry chicken on both sides until cooked through.

tea for two

2009-05-29T09:32:00.000-07:00

We walked down to the Mediterranean Foods Market near our house to marvel at the whole lamb ($99), selection of pita, jarred vegetable spreads and spices. Partially inspired by our friend Alex, we walked away with some new tiny tea glasses, which are the perfect size for a sweet glass of mint tea.

For some reason, there is not really a tea culture in the United States (unless you count sweet tea for Southerners-I don't). In Britain, you get Earl Grey, with lemon or sugar. In many countries, heavily spiced black tea with copious amounts of sugar and milk is ubiquitous. Here, we have a lot of choices, but no national cup per se.

Green tea is good, especially for health-minded people entranced by its potential antioxidant-related benefits. Heavily sweetened, minty green tea is better, especially for people in it mostly for taste. Taken with the morning paper and a Digestive, it's pretty close to heaven.

mint tea

2 c filtered water
2 green tea bags
1 bunch of mint
2 tbsp sugar

Bring water just to a boil. Pour over tea bags, mint, and sugar; let steep for two minutes. Remove tea bags, but leave mint. Stir well and enjoy.

roasted chickpeas, or, the perfect supper

2009-05-05T13:21:00.000-07:00

Often the clock has struck ten by the time I return home from work, smelling like a million-dollar meal but with an empty stomach. There's never time to cook up a true dinner; nor do I want one at this hour. If there's nothing waiting on me (husband, what?), I sometimes reheat leftovers. More often, however, I treat myself to what seems to me to be the most perfect supper one could ask for. Little nibbles that go perfectly with a late-night newspaper, an Orhan Pamuk masterpiece, or a slow-moving art house movie.
My balanced meal consists of toasted nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds), a hunk of some mild sheep's milk cheese, crackers (if I'm lucky, this kind), a gin y tonic prepared á la fuego negro, and some roasted chickpeas. Nothing I ever put in my mouth past nine p.m. really makes me happier. Except when I'm in Europe and most of what I eat goes in after nine. I hope you have little meals of pleasure like this. I also hope you've had roasted chickpeas, because they're much different than their raw cousins. If not, here you go.

roasted chickpeas

1 can chickpeas, drained (or dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and simmered until tender)
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne

Combine all ingredients. Roast in 400 degree oven until crunchy, about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

zucchini-carrot muffins

2009-04-28T13:40:00.000-07:00

A perfect morning is a good muffin paired with a strong cup of black coffee. But allow me to be a bit picky here....I'm not referring to just any muffins (or any coffee, for that matter, but that's a whole other tirade). I'm talking about newborn muffins still steaming from the oven.
I'd like to make a case for homemade muffins here. They're so much better than any you can buy around town. You don't get that processed taste that you do when muffins come from mixes, designed to withstand days on a shelf. No...homemade muffins are something much more ephemeral.
Which brings me to my second point: making muffins at home is actually an exercise in time-saving convenience. Muffins (and many other breads) freeze beautifully; a sojourn in the oven is like a fountain of youth. They emerge steaming and ready to inhale. The following is an excellent muffin, as well as a peaceful and delicious way to put dying squash and root veggies to their rest. It is adapted from a Joy of Cooking recipe that I beefed up to my taste. The first time I made them, I followed the book's version, using all white flour, copious amounts of sugar, and only one veggie. Smeared with some nice butter, they were amazing amazing amazing. But I just felt not so good about starting my day with a muffin-shaped piece of cake. So this is the slightly more healthful and just-as-delicious version. Bon appetit!

zucchini-carrot muffins

3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 c sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups zucchini, grated and squeezed of excess moisture
1/2 c carrots, grated
1/2 c sultanas

Whisk together dry ingredients through cinnamon.
Blend sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla and salt in a large bowl. Stir in dry ingredients. Fold in carrot, zucchini, and sultanas.
Scrape batter into greased muffin pan. Bake at 350 until bread pulls away from sides, about 45 minutes.

*adapted from Joy of Cooking.

penne with prosciutto and peas

2009-04-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

What started out as a lunch without hope turned delicious pretty quickly.

I had pulled out some frozen canned tomatoes to thaw, with the thought of throwing together a quick pasta dish. Then, I remembered I wanted to use some of the larger arugula leaves in the garden. On my way back inside, I snagged a handful of mint after I remembered the frozen peas we almost always have on hand in the freezer. Buckley, our 15-month-old girl, loves them, and they are handy for last-minute delights such as pea soup, fava-pea puree, and mashed-potatoes with olive oil and peas.

The canned tomatoes went back in the fridge for another day, and out came leftover cream, parmesan and two lonely slices of prosciutto from the weekend's festivities. All of a sudden, I had the makings of a pasta dish I actually wanted to partake in. The rich creamy pasta has bursts of green and rich pink strips of prosciutto.

The arugula, however, really stole the show. Its peppery bite, enhanced with bright lemon flavor, gave each forkful new life. I regretted not picking more; when I finished it, I settled for squeezing the lemon over the top of my remaining pasta.

penne with prosciutto and peas

3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 c frozen peas, blanched
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 slices of prosciutto
1/3 c parmesan
3/4 c cream
3/4 c whole milk
1 tsp chopped mint
8 oz whole wheat penne pasta
handful of arugula
1/2 lemon

Melt butter and olive oil together over med. high heat. Add shallots, then peas. Season with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, add penne to boiling water to cook.
After a few minutes, add one slice of chopped prosciutto to the peas. After one minute, add the cream and milk and allow to simmer for a few minutes until slightly thickened. Add the parmesan, stir in the chopped mint, then season to taste.
Toss penne with sauce mixture and serve on heated plates. Top with thin strips of uncooked prosciutto and arugula that has been tossed with salt, pepper, and juice from 1/2 lemon.

slowest food

2009-04-13T19:38:00.000-07:00

I didn't start my garden because of the Obamas. I didn't start it because it's newly hip to grow your own food. I didn't even start it (solely) to be more eco-friendly.
It was actually an accident.

We moved across the hall in our apartment building in February. On a routine attempt to spruce up the place (an endeavor that stretched our move-in time to about three weeks), I turned my attention to the back yard, which was covered in leaves at least a foot deep. A few forceful swipes revealed, however, more than I ever could have wished for.
Underneath this leaf bed, apparently untouched for at least a dozen years, lay black gold. Compost, that is. Our lazy ex-neighbors had unwittingly been cold composting, a process that involves leaving your brown and green organic matter in a pile and doing nothing. It takes much longer than the high-maintenance composting you hear about, but it's a heck of a lot easier.
So, here I am, food lover and cook, with a plot of land made solely of highly fertile material. Feeling guided by the hands of fate, I started the process in my own makeshift way. I gathered gardening tools from my neighbor's neglected collection, ordered my favorite vegetables in seed form, and bought some lime and a bag of compost just in case.

After a month and a half of gardening, these pictures you see are what I have. So far, the only things I've reaped are some herbs (because I bought parsley, sage, rosemary, lavender, chives, and thyme in plant form), arugula, and green garlic. After eating a deliciously simple soup of green garlic for lunch today, I decided this food blog was the perfect place to post about my gardening experience. After all, hopefully many of my meals will be coming from the garden in a few months. So far I've planted potatoes, garlic, peppers, jalapeños, fava beans, zuchinni, kale, carrots, beets, frisee, bok choy, escarole, microgreens, rapini, fennel, tomatoes (four varieties:brandywine, black cherry, red zebra, and san marzano), edamame, mache, radicchio, turnips, thai hot chile, strawberries, red sail lettuce, okra, and a ton of herbs.

Already I've found that it's so addictive. I'm out there everyday, looking for new weeds to pull, trekking back and forth to the hose on the other side of the building, and, who am I kidding, just staring lovingly at my little plants.

In the left corner, those monstrous plants are my potatoes. To their right you can see little green shoots coming out of the ground-this is green garlic, the immature leafy part of a garlic bulb. They are delicious, in soups, mixed with creamy cheeses, and atop pasta. What's more, you can cut them a few times and they'll keep growing back.

simple green garlic soup

3 c homemade chicken broth
4 sage leaves
2 tbsp chopped green garlic
chopped parsley
2 slices of toasted bread

Bring chicken broth to a boil with sage leaves. Remove leaves and add green garlic, salt, and pepper to taste. Cook five minutes, at a simmer, then add toasted bread drizzled with olive oil to a bowl, top with soup and a pinch of chopped parsley.

mint simple syrup

2009-04-07T13:54:00.000-07:00

It was a perfect spring Saturday. We had just returned from the botanical gardens, where we had a delightful picnic among the irises, the hot minestrone just the right temperature for the cool breezes that came along every once in a while. We walked down the sidewalk and the sun began its afternoon descent, letting its light go orange against the clouds. It was still a bit warm, and the cool cocktail in our hands, a fresh mixture of Rangpur gin, mint simple syrup, mint leaves and lime juice was the perfect accompaniment for the porch and the smoky salted almonds.
And that's why you should keep some of this stuff in your fridge.

mint simple syrup

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 bunch mint

Combine water and sugar over med. high heat. Stir occasionally until sugar is completely dissolved (don't boil). Take pan off heat, add mint and let it steep overnight. Strain mint and refrigerate syrup.

a mutt of a meal

2009-04-02T13:02:00.000-07:00

I really didn't think much of this dish as blog post while eating it. I was more focused on how delicious it was-the sticky noodles providing the perfect counterpoint to the crispy tofu, and my mouth set slightly, pleasantly aflame. While preparing it I paid no mind to cultural accuracy or technique, so I'm pretty sure this is the home-cooked equivalent of American Chinese food, a sort of bastard meal. And it's pretty in its own pale way, but the true strength of this dish is in its flavor. The heat lurks quietly behind the deliciously melded flavors of garlic, ginger, and soy. It's a very comforting meal, nothing fancy about it. A recent article that featured a similarly culturally orphaned dish made me think that maybe this little noodle mutt was worth sharing.

Noodles

3 onions
2 minced garlic cloves
1 tsp minced ginger
2 chiles de arbol, torn
sticky rice noodles
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp rice vinegar
sriracha to taste
1 lb tofu, in large cubes
frying oil
1/2 c. chopped green onions

Heat oil and fry tofu until golden. Set aside to drain.
Saute onions in a little oil until soft. Add garlic, ginger, 1/4 cup green onions and chiles, and saute until soft and fragrant. Season with salt.
Meanwhile, bring water to boil and prepare rice noodles.
Place onion mixture into food processor and blend until smooth. Add soy sauce, vinegar, and sriracha. Adjust seasoning to taste.
Mix noodles, sauce, and tofu. Top with remaining green onions.

the ultimate irish lunch

2009-03-16T08:10:00.000-07:00

I love meals that appear when you are absolutely sure you don't have anything to eat. A lonely leek here, leftover buttermilk there...et voila. This soup is deliciously simple and flavorful--just leeks, potatoes and garlic, really. A good, homemade broth can make all the difference. If you've never made your own, it's time you do.
Probably the best thing about this meal is the appearance of fresh bread after a mere 45 minutes. The soda bread comes together in a snap, and after the soup is made you can pull it out of the oven to enjoy. For those who have never enjoyed irish soda bread, it's sort of like the bread version of a scone. You can substitute whole wheat flour at a three to one ratio if you'd like.
Now to what must be glaringly obvious...potatoes, irish bread, green soup. Yes, this is probably the unintentionally best-timed post I have ever made....happy st. patrick's day!

potato leek soup

5 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 leeks
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2-3 tbsp olive oil
chicken or veggie broth, pref. homemade
salt
pepper

Cut leeks in half lengthwise, then slice fairly thin. Rinse in bowl of cold water. Dry leeks, then saute them in olive oil over med. high heat. When they begin to soften, add the garlic. After a couple minutes, before garlic browns, add the potatoes and chicken broth to cover. Simmer until potatoes are tender, 15-25 minutes.
Transfer mixture to blender, and puree completely. Add broth to desired thickness, season with salt and pepper.

irish soda bread *
3 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450°F. Mix dry ingredients in large bowl.Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk. Stir, adding more buttermilk if needed; the dough should be soft, but not wet or sticky.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead just enough to bring the dough together. Turn it over and pat it into a round loaf about 1 1/2 inches high.
Place on a baking sheet and cut a cross into the top of the loaf with a knife. Cut fairly deeply into the bread, being sure to cut all the way to the edges; this helps the bread to rise properly.
Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 400°F and bake for another 30 minutes or until done. To test, tap the bread on the bottom. It will sound hollow when done.

*from the art of simple food, by alice waters

leek pizza

2009-03-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

It's funny how altering something just a bit can change its character entirely.
I'm not even including a recipe with this post, because it seems almost identical to a previous one. But I will tell you how I made it, because it was just heavenly. When my husband and I took our first bite, we just kind of looked at each other. I was secretly lamenting the smallish size of the pizza, and I'm sure he probably was just enjoying the party in his mouth. Typical.
The pairing of grilled green onions and romesco sauce is a classic one, so when both show up in your fridge, you take action. In this case, I used the pizza dough recipe from Bottega restaurant in Birmingham. The romesco sauce had a little more heat to it than the one I previously posted, which is easily accomplished by throwing in a couple more dried peppers. To make the pizza, I just cut the leeks, washed and dried them, then tossed them in olive oil, salt and pepper. Then I threw them under the broiler until they were all soft, and some were turning crispy dark brown. Then all you have to do is spread the romesco on the dough, add the leeks, then dollop with some goat cheese (which, ideally, you have combined with some seasoning and chives). Bake on high heat and die! (because it's so good, not because of some horrible kitchen accident.)

vegetarian chili

2009-03-12T12:46:00.000-07:00

Slow-cookers are a bit perplexing. If they were as great as some of their hard-core fans claimed, surely they would have taken over the world by now, right? The truth is, they do have their downsides. As far as easily replaceable appliances go, they are rather large. There's the whole lifting the top issue, too- removing the lid adds hours to cooking time, and for taste and touch cooks like me this can be maddening.
But there are times when you just have the urge to dump your dinner ingredients and run. In this scenario, the slow cooker becomes your somewhat unsophisticated home chef. He knows the basics, the rudimentary yet satisfying home-style foods that can be just what you want. Just give him some time and space, and come back to something entirely different than what you left.
This is a chili that I adapted from an internet recipe. The barley transforms into something reminiscent of ground beef, making the bean stew oh so luscious and hearty. We ate it straight up the night I "made" it, then froze leftovers which were later reincarnated in the form of a chili cheese tofu dog.

vegetarian chili

* 1 onion, chopped
* 3 cloves garlic, minced
* 1 1/2 c. beans, dried (i used black, kidney, and garbanzo)
* 28 oz. tomatoes, diced
* 1 c. corn, fresh or frozen
* 1 c. barley
* 4 c. water
* 3 tbsp. chili powder
* 1 tbsp. cumin
* 1 jalapeño, diced
* 1 tsp. coriander
* 1 tsp. unsweetened chocolate powder
* Cayenne, to taste
* Salt, to taste
* Fresh ground pepper, to taste
* Grated cheddar or pepper jack cheese (optional)

The night before you want to eat, boil a cup and a half of dried beans in water for 5 minutes. Drain the water. Soak the beans in water overnight, discarding the soak water once during that time and again when you finish soaking.

(If you are using canned beans, just start the morning of the day you want to eat chili and drain and rinse your beans.)

The morning of the day you want chili for dinner, combine all ingredients except for salt, pepper, and cheese in a crock pot. Set the crock pot on low and cook for at least 7 hours. When you get back, taste your chili and adjust spices, salt, and pepper as necessary.

Serve with grated cheese.

bread pudding a la snickers

2009-02-28T10:27:00.000-08:00

Bread pudding has been going around here like an epidemic.
Both of my parents made it over Valentine's Day weekend, so Chip and I enjoyed a few leftover snatches of cold white chocolate berry bread pudding and a cocoa powder version. Needless to say, that only whet my appetite for the real thing, fresh out of the oven.
A fortuitous trip to Nashville left me with a lovely loaf of quickly staling brioche that needed to be dealt with. It was the perfect opportunity to not only create a deluxe bread pudding, but to get this long-hibernating obsession with the Snickers flavor profile out of my head.
I wasn't sure about the insertion of nuts into a bread pudding; usually I side more along the mushy/melty side (i.e. raisins, chocolate chips, etc). However, their crunch was quite delightful. The singularly most luscious custard I have ever had is adapted from a Joy of Cooking recipe, and topped with the dulce de leche it gets sent into orbit. This dessert is pretty amazing.

bread pudding a la snickers

loaf of brioche, cut into small cubes
1 c heavy cream
3/4 c sugar
1/8 tsp salt
12 oz bittersweet chocolate
2 egg
2 egg yolks
2 c whole milk
1 tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup salted or honey roasted peanuts
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup caramel sauce

Bring the cream, sugar and salt to a boil. Remove from heat and add the chocolate, letting it sit for a few minutes, then whisking until smooth.
Whisk together the eggs, yolks, milk, and vanilla. Whisk in the chocolate, then stir in the bread cubes. Let them stand for about 2 hours, for maximum deliciousness, stirring occasionally. Stir in chocolate chips and peanuts.
Preheat oven to 325, butter a 2 qt baking dish, and bake in a water bath until firm, about 55 minutes. Let cool a bit, then drizzle with warm caramel sauce.

caramel sauce

2 tbsp water
1/2 c sugar
1/2 stick butter, cut into pieces
1/4 cup cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt

In a saucepan stir sugar and water over medium high heat until clear. On high heat, boil the syrup, covered, 2 minutes. Uncover and continue to boil until syrup begins to darken around the edges. Stir until it turns a deep amber color. Remove from heat and add butter, stirring, then cream, stirring, then vanilla and salt.
Refrigerate any leftovers.

meyer lemons, preserved

2009-01-30T20:35:00.000-08:00

I suppose preserved lemons have never really struck you as a necessary pantry item.
Well, I'm here to tell you that they are.
And when you consider that the especially sweet, perfumey Meyer lemon peaks between November and January, the urgency mounts.
A preserved lemon is essentially a lemon that becomes lusciously soft and salty after going through a brine and being packed in its own juices.
These take about 10 minutes to cure, and they last a whole year in your fridge. That's a year of being able to pull out a tender strip of Meyer lemon peel to dice and toss into whatever your heart desires. Possibilities? Couscous, croque monsieur, fish...the possibilities are endless, really. The pulp of the fruit can be a bit salty, but in certain cases it is perfect when smushed against a sieve to extract that lemony goodness. If you need convincing, come over and I'll share some of my stash...one tiny burst of lemony flavor will have you packing your own.

preserved lemons

10 Meyer lemons
2/3 cup coarse salt
olive oil

Blanch 6 lemons in boiling water for 5 minutes. Cut lemons into 4 slices and half to make 8 wedges. Discard any seeds. Toss with salt in a bowl and pack into jar.

Squeeze enough juice from remaining lemons to cover lemons and cover jar with lid. Let stand at room temperature, shaking gently once a day, 5 days. Add oil to cover completely and chill. They'll keep for a year!

dyi ricotta

2009-01-11T18:48:00.000-08:00

I am in the fortunate situation to have lots of milk laying around in my fridge. Way too much to drink. I used to cope with this by making yogurt, but that usually meant pulling out the machine, procuring either a storebought yogurt or some live cultures, and waiting. I usually ended up with more yogurt than I could eat. Then we were back to wasteful square one.

Then walked in this lovely ricotta* revelation. Easy to make at home with ingredients on hand. AND-this is key- worth making even if you must purchase a half-gallon of milk. The possibilities are endless with delicious homemade cheese. Of course, that's only if you can stop yourself from spooning it all straight up. Since a half-gallon only yields 1 1/2 cups, you might seriously consider doubling the recipe if you have plans to actually use this amazing cheese for something other than instant gratification.

fresh ricotta

8 cups whole milk
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp lemon juice

Line a colander with four layers of cheesecloth. Bring milk and salt to simmer over med. high heat. Stir in lemon juice and let simmer until curds form, 1 to 2 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer curds from pan to cloth. Let drain only one minute. Transfer curds to bowl and cover and chill until cold, about three hours.

You can make this up to two days ahead. Yield is 1 1/2 cups of ricotta.
*bon appetit 2009

golden beet salad

2009-01-09T14:41:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been on a salad kick. Not green salads, mind you, but wonderfully diverse salads, usually based upon the basic formula of grain + veggie + dressing + delicious extras. These building blocks are pretty foolproof, at least in my vegetable-loving opinion. In this case, it has resulted in an amazing (and gorgeous) beet salad, whose earthy flavor is highlighted by the acidity of the sherry vinegar. And we all know that beet+nut+cheese is a win-win situation.
The other good thing about these salads is they are good warmish, coldish, or at room temperature. So enjoy, whenever. Make it ahead. Go on a picnic. You get the idea.

golden beet salad

2 large yellow beets
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
4 oz. goat cheese, crumbled
1/3 c olive oil
2 tbsp sherry vinegar
1 tbsp diced shallot
salt
pepper

Boil beets in water until tender.
Meanwhile, whisk olive oil, and vinegar in small bowl. Add shallots and salt and pepper to taste, whisk until combined.
Let beets cool a while in the cooking liquid. Slip off skins and chop. Toss with rice, nuts, cheese and dressing. Add pepper to taste.

coconut marshmallows

2008-12-11T07:12:00.000-08:00

Full disclosure: marshmallows are awkward.
Think about it. When do you eat them? Oh, never. In hot chocolate, maybe. In Rice Krispie Treats, perhaps, if you're having a nostalgic snacking moment. It's just weird to sit around popping marshmallows, unlike, say, chocolate chip cookies.
That said, I think it is important to make another key point. Homemade marshmallows are absolutely delicious.
These are not the wimpy, half-stale marshmallows of your childhood. They are light, melt on the tongue, and full of flavor. This version calls to mind tropical paradise (or sunscreen, if you're a cynical 16-year-old sister).
And you might not believe me, but they're really easy. My favorite part is letting my Kitchenaid do its thing for 15 minutes.

This is just one of those recipes that must be made so you can say you did. Insert "I was making some marshmallows last night..." before any sentence, and I promise you will be stopped dead in your tracks.
Rightly so, since this marshmallow deserves to be savored in both its physical form and its role as a kitchen conquest.

toasted coconut marshmallows*

2 cups dried coconut
3 (1/4-ounces) envelopes unflavored gelatin
1 cup water, divided
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract

Preheat oven to 350.
Toast coconut in a shallow baking pan in oven, stirring occasionally, until golden, 7 to 10 minutes. Oil 9-inch baking pan, then sprinkle bottom with 1/2 cup toasted coconut.

Sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup water in bowl of mixer and let soften while making syrup.

Heat sugar, corn syrup, salt, and remaining 1/2 cup water in a small heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Bring to a boil over medium heat, without stirring, washing any sugar crystals down side of pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water. Put a candy thermometer into syrup and continue boiling, without stirring, until it registers 240°F (soft-ball stage). Remove from heat and let stand until bubbles dissipate.

With mixer at low speed, pour hot syrup into gelatin in a thin stream down side of bowl. Increase speed to high and beat until very thick, about 15 minutes. Add vanilla and coconut extracts and beat 1 minute more.

Spoon marshmallow over toasted coconut in baking pan and press evenly with dampened fingertips to smooth top (it will be very sticky), then evenly sprinkle top with 1/2 cup toasted coconut.

Let stand, uncovered, at room temperature until firm, about 2 hours.

Run a sharp knife around edge of marshmallow and invert onto a cutting board. Cut into 3/4-inch-wide strips, then cut each strip into 3/4-inch squares.

Put remaining toasted coconut in a small bowl and dredge marshmallows in it to coat completely. *gourmet 2007

grape jelly

2008-12-09T19:01:00.001-08:00

What they don't tell you in cookbooks about making jam and jelly may just be the one thing that actually gets you cooking it.
Drumroll, please: you only need all those sterilized glass jars if you are making a lot of jelly, with the intention and hope of enjoying it for over a month.
For me, knowing that I could whip up a small batch of fruit preserves without purchasing special equipment or hot sterilizing baths set me free. I was promptly off to the grocery to buy some Concord grapes (whose incredible flavor deserve their own ode-y blog post). What else did you buy, Marti? Oh, nothing. Because the only other things you need are some (okay, lots of) sugar and lemon juice.
I know, I know. Why doesn't everyone make their own jelly? I no longer have an answer.

Concord Grape Jelly*

1.5 lbs concord grapes
1.5 cups sugar
scant tbsp lemon juice

Chill 2 small plates (for testing jam).

Slip skins from grapes and purée skins with 1/3 cup sugar in a food processor, then transfer to a 4- to 6-quart wide heavy pot. Stir in lemon juice, peeled grapes, and remaining sugar and boil over moderate heat, stirring frequently and skimming foam, until pulp is broken down, about 20 minutes.

Force jam through food mill or sieve set over a large bowl. Discard remaining solids. Return jam to pot and cook at a slow boil, skimming foam occasionally and stirring frequently as mixture thickens to prevent scorching, about 25 minutes, then test for doneness.

To test jam, remove from heat, then drop a teaspoonful on a chilled plate and chill 1 minute. Tilt plate: Jam should remain in a mound and not run. If jam runs, continue cooking at a slow boil, testing every 5 minutes, until done, up to 15 minutes more.

*Gourmet 2005

tomato sauce? yawn.

2008-11-22T08:00:00.000-08:00

I'm going to try to start this off positive. Pizza is one of those things that always tastes great, even at its most predictable. A hot steaming cheese pie, let's face it, really hits the spot sometimes. But. BUT. I really kind of hate pizza. Well, maybe not pizza but the lackadaisical attitude with which many approach it. Yeah, slap on some tomato sauce, some cheese, a meat or veggie, you're done. No! Not me.

In honor of this sentiment, I have been making efforts to stretch the yeasty dough canvas beyond its wildest imagination. I started, of course, with the sauce. Because some things just don't go that well with tomato, I wanted to explore other options, and I came up with this awesome sauce whose leftovers can be used in many a creative way.

pizza with caramelized onion sauce, chicken, and goat cheese

1 recipe basic dough (see below)
4-5 onions
2 tbsp butter
4 oz goat cheese
1 large chicken breast

Make dough. *NOTE: Extras freeze well; I especially enjoyed the texture of dough after it had been frozen. Simply thaw for an hour or so to use. Preheat oven to 400.
Melt butter over medium heat. Add onions, stir to coat, then turn heat to med. low. Cook for 45 minutes, stirring only a few times, until goldenly beautiful brown. Transfer to food processor and blend, adding water if needed to thin to desired consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Coat chicken breast in spices (your choice! simply salt and pepper, or i used Emeril's Essence). Saute in pan over med. heat until cooked through.
Spread onion sauce over prepared dough.
Tear chicken into pieces and distribute over pizza.
Sprinkle goat cheese evenly across. Give it a couple of grinds of black pepper for good measure. Bake for 12 minutes, or until edges of crust are golden.

pizza dough

1 1/3 c warm water
1 pkg active dry yeast
3 1/2 c flour
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar

Combine yeast and water in bowl until dissolved. add the remaining ingredients and mix for about one minute. knead for about ten minutes. transfer dough to a bowl coated w/olive oil, cover and let rise for 1 1/2 hours. preheat oven to 475, grease baking sheet and dust with cornmeal. punch down dough, divide in half. roll each half into a ball and let rest for 10-15 minutes. flatten and roll out balls and let rest for ten more minutes, top, and bake about 12 min. from Joy of Cooking

the chocolate chip cookie.

2008-11-20T06:49:00.000-08:00

The search ends here.
This is my favorite kind of post: when a beloved food has been perfected and I get to share it with you. The chocolate chip cookie, for all its simplicity, is a difficult one to nail. I would venture to say the chocolate chip cookie is probably featured in more bad recipes than any other food. But here we have an amazing cookie: crunchy around the outside, chewy in the middle, with a crisp crust whether you eat it out of the oven or two days later. There are subtle hints of toffee; the chocolate is not an intrusive chip but a layer of cocoa heaven.
Now, disclosure here, the day that I can perfect something to this level will be the day that I am too famous and busy and wonderful to have anything to do with a little old blog. This recipe is courtesy of the New York Times. You can read the several-thousand word article about the journey to this recipe on their website. I followed it to a t, and some hints for you are: splurge on the specified chocolate (find it at whole foods), let the dough rest for the full amount of time!, and make sure the ingredients are at room temp. But enough-- here it is:

The Chocolate Chip Cookie

Time: 45 minutes (for 1 6-cookie batch), plus at least 24 hours’ chilling

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons

(8 1/2 ounces) cake flour

1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt

2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract

1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (see note)

Sea salt.

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

Lily Confit: un recuerdo

2008-11-11T18:19:00.000-08:00

I don't have a photo of this, since I made it for a dark bonfire at my friend mat's house, but here is a facsimile of the lily confit from dell'anima in New York (an amazing restaurant, pictured above, which everyone should eat at). So named because all the ingredients are members of the allium family (like lilies!), this is a brilliant topping for bruschette. At the restaurant, we paired it with their delicious housemade ricotta with sea salt, but ricotta from Whole Foods was just fine for a casual outdoor gathering.

3 cipollini onions (sliced)
5 large shallots
5 large heads of garlic
Olive oil
Salt

Preheat oven to 400. Chop off top of garlic heads, drizzle with olive oil. Peel shallots, drizzle with olive oil. Roast until golden brown.
Pop garlic cloves out, into a sauce pan, along with shallots and onion. Cover with olive oil (mix half and half with canola, if desired) and bring to a boil. Add some generous pinches of salt. Put heat on low and simmer for at least 45 minutes, longer if possible, until tender. Serve in a bowl with liquid alongside toasted Italian bread and ricotta with sea salt.

i hate coleslaw.

2008-10-30T07:53:00.001-07:00

Coleslaw is nasty. At least, that's what I thought until this little number came along. Raised on mayonnaise-based horrors, always ice-cold and served on styrofoam, it's not exactly surprising that I thought ill of slaw.
What no one told me was that technically, coleslaw is just shredded cabbage, tossed in a dressing. So, if you use a nice, mild cabbage and toss it in something that tastes delicious, the result is a delightful side dish. Called coleslaw.
So, now I am a slaw lover. I don't just throw that terminology around, though...I suppose I prefer to think of it as a salad. Feta cheese only helps. Use more or less, depending on your tastes. And join the dark side.

Greek Coleslaw

1 head of Napa or Savoy cabbage, thinly sliced
bunch of green onions, thinly sliced
1 lb feta, crumbled
3/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup white vinegar
juice of 1 lemon
salt
pepper

Whisk together canola oil, vinegar, lemon juice, salt, and pepper (to taste). You may desire more or less lemon juice (or more of anything...go ahead!)
Stir in green onions. Then stir in coleslaw, coating well.
Sprinkle feta over and mix thoroughly.

tomato bruschetta

2008-10-01T08:40:00.001-07:00

Another easy, delicious way to celebrate the end of summer. A simple, luscious topping for a crusty baguette.

3 tomatoes
about 15 basil leaves
clove of garlic
bread, sliced and toasted
juice from one lemon
1/4 c. olive oil
baguette, cut into slices

Preheat oven to 350. Toast bread slices.
Meanwhile, whisk lemon juice with olive oil. Ad a generous pinch of salt, whisk. Chiffonade the basil leaves (roll several leaves tightly and cut thin strips), whisk into oil. Cut tomatoes in a large dice, add to oil. Add either more lemon juice or more oil to taste. This can sit for up to two hours at room temp (do not refrigerate).
Rub garlic clove on each piece of bread. Top with tomato mixture. Serve.

the one, the only...macaroni

2008-09-09T12:44:00.000-07:00

Surprise, surprise...I am very picky when it comes to macaroni and cheeses. Flour and milk-thickened sauces just don't cut it for me. My mom has made this version, which uses egg as a magic ingredient, since I was a little girl. It was always for special occasions; something I don't understand now that I have the easy, easy recipe. I guess all that cheese grating was just too much to come home to on a weekday...but I'm happy to enjoy this any (and every) day of the week.

the ONLY macaroni and cheese

1 cup dry macaroni
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter, melted
1 egg
3 cups cheese (cheddar if you feel traditional...i like a mixture of manchego and gruyere)
1 cup milk

Boil macaroni to al dente, then toss with salt and melted butter. Whisk egg and milk in small bowl, then add to noodles. Stir in 2 1/2 cups of cheese. Place in ovenproof dish, sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes (covered). Bake 10-15 minutes more uncovered.

OPTIONAL TOPPING: toss crushed breton crackers with melted butter, sprinkle on top before baking.

Caramelized Onion Bruschetta

2008-09-03T06:50:00.000-07:00

Another happy topping for toasted bread. Don't skip this recipe if you think you don't really like onions. These are nothing like the obnoxiously crunchy white things on fast food burgers, people. There are so many uses for a sweet, crispy-on-the-end caramelized onion...this is merely the tip of the root vegetable.
These are wonderful at room temperature or warm.

4 oz goat cheese (herbed if desired)
3 onions, sliced
2 tbsp butter
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
8-10 baguette slices, toasted

Melt butter over medium heat. Add onions, stir to coat, then turn heat to med. low. Cook for 45 minutes, stirring only a few times, until goldenly beautiful brown. These are caramelized onions!
Meanwhile, spread goat cheese over baguette slices.
Top with onions and serve!

party corn

2008-08-29T06:47:00.000-07:00

When I don't have pink-eye peas for summer succotash (see earlier post), this is my new go-to corn dish. This is what would happen if an ear of corn from Greece went on spring break to Cancún and got cooked. This culture clash, however unlikely, makes for a succulent summer dish. It's such a shame to eat boiled corn on the cob when you can eat THIS.

3 ears of corn, de-kerneled
1 oz feta, crumbled
1/2 lime
2 tbsp butter, softened
1 clove garlic, minced

Mix garlic with a pinch of salt and pound to a paste. Stir into butter (this can be done 2 days ahead).
Saute corn kernels on med. high heat in a bit of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Once the kernels are golden brown (for the most part) add 1 or both tbsps of butter to skillet and continue cooking for another minute, tossing to coat.
Plate the corn, squirt lime over the top and sprinkle with feta.
Serves 2.

the essential travel accessory

2008-08-26T06:45:00.000-07:00

This summer my travels have taken me from the Gulf of Mexico to the Memphis countryside, and I have found one singular accessory more useful than anything else in my luggage--a jar of black peppercorns topped with a built-in grinder. There is nothing that finishes a dish quite as well as freshly cracked pepper. I really don't even know what those gray-white-black specks that come in those cardboard shakers are, but my guess is if they ever were peppercorns, they were ground several years ago. One thing I do know--they are flavorless and therefore useless.
Bringing along my own pepper feels a little snobbish, but the multitude of dishes that have benefited from it (greek coleslaw, pimento cheese, summer vegetable soup, tomato basil bruschetta, homemade pasta with bacon-cream sauce) make it clear that it's not a matter of elitism but one of taste.
I can't wait to go through airport customs and have to explain this one.

roasted feta

2008-08-22T06:40:00.000-07:00

This is an inordinately impressive appetizer, considering the five minutes of work that go into it. And, best of all, it's mostly stuff that's laying around. Served with a baguette (or lime tortilla chips, when desperate), it is the perfect prelude to a cool summer salad or pasta dish. It is a riff off of a recipe I read long ago, I think in Gourmet.

2 1/2" slabs of feta
1-2 tbsp fresh chopped oregano (or 1 tsp dry, crumbled)
a few grinds of pepper
1/4 cup chopped roasted red peppers
2 tbsp olive oil

Preheat broiler.
Place feta on ovenproof plate, sprinkle oregano and pepper over. Mix red peppers with oil, and drizzle over feta.
Place under broiler until golden brown, about five minutes.
Serve, with baguette or any other bready item laying around.

Things You can Do When You Raise Chickens

2008-08-19T15:31:00.000-07:00

1) Have hours-old scrambled eggs with goat cheese and herbs
2) Bake hot, steaming loaves of challah
3) Egg wash things to your heart's content
4) Make homemade pasta with just flour, salt, and a fork
5) BLT-fried egg n cheese sandwiches
6) Turn aforementioned challah leftovers into a killer bread pudding
7)Improvise vanilla butter cakes, with little more than flour, eggs, butter, vanilla, and baking powder.

Thanks to Eliot and Lee for the down-home farm vacation!

it's not summer without succotash

2008-07-15T15:12:00.000-07:00

This is a dish my family prepares every summer when the farmers' market starts up. Every time I make it, I wonder to myself why I don't make it every day. Every vegetable is in its utmost perfect state in this dish: the peas simmered with simple salt water, the corn sauteed to near-caramelization, the tomatoes marinated at room temp with fresh herbs, and the okra, fried, of course.
If the ingredient list looks daunting, just know that you already have most of it, and the rest is just a stop at the market away. Do not even think about substituting black-eye peas for the pink-eye...we're talking a different species. Purple hull peas are an acceptable substitute. A lot of this can be made ahead. All that really needs to happen last minute is frying the okra.
Please make this. It is honestly the best thing you will put in your mouth this summer. Heck-this IS summer.

Summer Succotash

1 lb pink eye peas
1 tbsp salt
6 spoonfuls of mayo
juice of one lemon (or two small)
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
5 ears corn
3 tomatoes, cut into 16ths
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
tbsp fresh oregano
about 30 okra
3 cups flour
3 eggs
1/3 cup milk
tbsp cajun seasoning
tbsp seasoning salt
vegetable oil for frying
8 slices of prosciutto

Simmer peas with in water with tbsp salt for two hours.

Whisk together mayo, chives, lemon juice and season to taste.
Set aside

Whisk together olive oil and balsamic vinegar (3 parts oil to one part vinegar) as well as the oregano. Marinate tomatoes in dressing, turning occasionally.

Shuck corn, cut the kernels off the cob, and saute until dangerously golden with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Keep warm

Combine flour, seasoning salt, cajun seasoning, and heavy shakes of salt and pepper in a double lined plastic bag. Shake to combine. Cut off the tops of the okra. Whisk together eggs and milk. Soak okra in the egg/milk mixture, shake off extra, toss into the bag to cover with flour mixture, then fry over high heat until golden. Keep warm.

Fry up the prosciutto until crisp.

TO ASSEMBLE:
Plate the peas, then the corn, then tomatoes on top of that. Place the okra around the sides. Top with prosciutto, drizzle with mayo dressing and enjoy.

top three nuts.

2008-06-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

Growing up in the South it was all pecans and peanuts.
For a long time, I wasn't really aware of the existence of any other nut species, except maybe the almond, because my mom happened to love Almond Joys. Peanuts, in all their plebeian glory, are a bit underwhelming. The third world has a one up on the US when it comes to incorporating them into sauces, soups, and other delicacies. And by some failure of the Southern genome, I lean more towards hating pecans than loving them.
So, when I got out in the world and realized the variety of nuts that are there for the toasting, it was somewhat of a revelation. To celebrate the world of nuts, here's my top three list. Give nuts a thought today: asking someone to name their top three and seeing how they respond on the fly is a really good way to get a sense of the person. Seriously.

1*hazelnut
2*pistachio
3*pine nut

onion-endive flatbread

2008-05-25T11:22:00.000-07:00

My love affair with romesco sauce began at a small French restaurant here in town. The original sauce hails from Cataluña, a region in the northeast of Spain. Strictly speaking, it's a tomato, chile, breadcrumb and nut concoction. But here, I have used roasted red peppers, no tomatoes, red pepper flakes, and no ñora chile, which typically only crosses the borders of Spain in sneaky gourmands' backpacks.
The sauce makes an amazing replacement for the traditional pizza dressing of tomato sauce. Combining this with the subtle touches of roasty toasty root onions and endive, and the happy tang of goat cheese results in a heavenly, why-didn't-i-think-of-this-sooner flavor combination. The arugula adds a fresh, cool pop with a bitter bite, and the chipotle mayo gives it just enough spice.
It requires a little effort, but you can do the dough, sauce, and chipotle mayo ahead of time, and you make enough to recreate the meal one or two more times with minimal effort. The making of this recipe usually ends in the disastrous event of me consuming the entire thing alone (that arugula just won't reheat very nicely, right? might as well finish it off).

onion-endive flatbread

1/2 recipe dough
1/2 recipe red pepper romesco
4 oz goat cheese
1 onion
4 endive
2 tbsp olive oil
2 handfuls of arugula
1 tbsp diced canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce
5 tbsp mayo
dash of cumin
2 cups arugula

Make dough and romesco sauce (see below). *NOTE: Extras freeze well; I especially enjoyed the texture of dough after it had been frozen. Simply thaw for an hour or so to use.
Preheat oven to 400. Cut onions into thin wedges and cut endive into one inch pieces (crosswise). Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast until browned, turning several times, about 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix chipotle chiles, mayo, and cumin. Salt and pepper to taste. Put in a squirt bottle (find them at WalMart, Dollar Tree, Williams Sonoma, etc; I use a diner-style ketchup container.) or, if you must, just use a spoon to dollop.
Top dough with romesco, then the onion endive mixture. Sprinkle goat cheese evenly across. Bake for 12 minutes, or until edges of crust are golden. Remove from oven; scatter arugula and drizzle chipotle mayo over the top.
Slice and serve.

red pepper romesco

2 red bell peppers, broiled/roasted and peeled
1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts
1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 small garlic clove
1/4 tsp cumin
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2-3 tbsp olive oil
2-3 tbsp water

Put first 7 ingredients in a food processor; blend. Add oil and water with processor running to desired consistency.

pizza dough

1 1/3 c warm water
1 pkg active dry yeast
3 1/2 c flour
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar

Combine yeast and water in bowl until dissolved. add the remaining ingredients and mix for about one minute. knead for about ten minutes. transfer dough to a bowl coated w/olive oil, cover and let rise for 1 1/2 hours. preheat oven to 475, grease baking sheet and dust with cornmeal. punch down dough, divide in half. roll each half into a ball and let rest for 10-15 minutes. flatten and roll out balls and let rest for ten more minutes, top, and bake about 12 min. from Joy of Cooking

basic chicken salad

2008-05-16T07:06:00.000-07:00

Are you creamy or chunky?
An essential question when it comes to deciding what kind of chicken salad you prefer.
I am creamy...and in a recent attempt to recreate a certain creamy chicken salad, I came up with this delicious, albeit not exact duplicate, of the spread. It comes together in about five minutes, and it's just really, really good.
I think I may keep going in my quest to replicate the aforementioned salad. It drives me crazy when I can't make something at home that I love. Especially when it costs a wing and a leg.

meat from a whole baked/rotisserie chicken
4 celery ribs
1 onion
2 heaping tbsp mayo
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp yellow mustard

Chop onion and celery in food processor. Add chicken, process about 10 seconds. Add mayo, salt, pepper, vinegar and mustard, process or stir until combined, depending on desired texture.

strawberry buttermilk pancakes

2008-05-13T09:15:00.000-07:00

For me, some mornings Honey Bunches of Oats just don't cut it. Then, I usually eat an apple. But sometimes that doesn't cut it either. That's when I get out the big guns. And these, my friends, do indeed qualify.

Generally, I just whip up Southern Living's Buttermilk Pancakes, but with the last of the strawberry crop flooding the market, it seemed like a good idea to take these buttermilk pancakes to a new level. The addition of strawberry puree gives an overall strawberry flavor as well as a light pink coloring, and then the diced strawberries add that chunky goodness that I require in almost all foods I consume.

1 c flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1 /2 c buttermilk
1/8 c veg oil
1/2 c strawberry puree
1/2 c diced strawberry

combine dry ingredients, stirring well.
combine eggs, buttermilk, water, oil, and strawberry puree in a bowl, then add to flour mixture. add the diced strawberries. don't stir it a lot; just until mixed.
cook pancakes until the tops bubble, then flip.

pimento cheese

2008-05-10T12:07:00.000-07:00

I have finally found my pimento cheese. That delicious spread, ranging from creamy to chunky, traditional (orange cheddar) to modern (white cheddar and bleu), that every southern girl is expected to be able to "whip up." This one is made super special with some homemade mayonnaise. Easy, I promise! Whisking is key. And when you bite into sourdough slathered with this spread and grilled til melty, you will experience utter self fulfillment.

pimento cheese

1 roasted red pepper, finely chopped
8 oz. finely grated extra sharp cheddar cheese
2 oz. softened cream cheese, cut into pieces
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
3 tbsp mayo (see below)

Mix cheese, cream cheese, mayo, red pepper and its liquid, and the red pepper flakes with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until mixed (about 2 min). Season to taste.

homemade mayo

1 egg yolk
juice from 1/2 lemon
1/4 c vegetable oil
1/4 c olive oil
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1/8 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Whisk egg yolk with juice. Add oils, first in drops, whisking constantly, then in a thin stream. Continue whisking until emulsified. Once thickened, add vinegar, salt, and pepper. Whisk vigorously.

black beans

2008-05-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

this is an incredible dish that is a favorite of my family's. we love pairing it with rice or bread, but we love even more enjoying it the next day, after the flavor has developed, over stone-ground grits. it really couldn't be any easier to prepare, which is kind of embarrassing to reveal when you get asked breathlessly for the recipe. the longer you can let it simmer, all the better to allow the water to turn slowly into black, meaty liquid gold.

16 oz dried black beans
16 oz polish sausage
8 oz bacon
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
1 tsp dried oregano

Rinse black beans in large sauce pan. Drain. Add water to two inches above, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer one hour.
Slice sausage, and add to beans. Simmer another hour, adding water if necessary. You can also keep the top on to retain water.
Dice bacon and saute in skillet. Cook over med heat. When bacon begins to brown, add onion, pepper, bay leaf, oregano, pepper and salt. Saute until veggies are tender and translucent.
Add veggies and bacon to beans and simmer at least another 45 minutes. Season to taste

late night thoughts and theories at blankpalate

2008-05-06T18:18:00.000-07:00

So, generally this is a place for food, recipes, and what have you. But I have two important thoughts.
1) I would like to propose a theory, which any sociologist is welcome to explore as long as I am properly credited in the footnotes. It is this: The Later A Person Eats Dinner, The More He Loves Life.
Just take a moment to think about this. Look at examples in your life. What time do you eat dinner? I bet not before 6:30, if you are reading this blog. If you cannot bring to mind any specifics, think first of senior citizens, those valuable members of society who, regrettably, are drawing ever closer to the end of their lives. What time do they eat that final meal of the day? Yeah.
Or, take the French or Spanish, those fun-loving ancestors of ours. Their GDP may not match that of the US, but their enjoyment per lifetime is far greater. And--guess what-- you won't catch a single one of them eating before 7:30. Unthinkable. More on this in an upcoming New Yorker article.

and, on the opposite side of grandiose,

2) it's 9pm and i am really enjoying peanut butter spread on wheat bread.
hmmm.

toffee almond bars

2008-04-28T08:59:00.000-07:00

These are my attempt to recreate some similar (staler, more expensive) bars found at a certain well-known coffee shop. These are little chewy bites of heaven, mixed with a healthy (in a manner of speaking) dose of toffee and nuts. The texture is a bit lighter than the original, which I found to be a pleasant change.

3 Heath bars, chopped
1/2 cup almonds, toasted and chopped
16 oz light brown sugar
3/4 cup butter
3 large eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp pure almond extract

Melt sugar and butter in a saucepan over medium heat until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir into sugar/butter mixture. Stir in toffee, almonds, and extract.
Pour into a greased 13 X 9 pan and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.
Makes about 2 dozen.

quiche, or kwee-chee

2008-03-27T14:29:00.000-07:00

This is not hard, and it's not even my own creation*. It is, however, a simple and perfect recipe. I like to add 8oz of bacon and some smoked gouda, or some sauteed spinach and crumbled feta. Experiment and delight in the perfect quiche creation....

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Large pinch sea salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut in small pieces
5 to 6 tablespoons chilled water

Place the flour and the salt in the bowl of a food processor and process to mix. Cut the butter in chunks and add it to the flour. Process it, using pulses, until the butter is incorporated into the flour and the mixture looks like coarse cornmeal. With the food processor running, add the water and process briefly, using pulses, just until the pastry beings to hold together in large clumps. Turn the pastry out onto a floured work surface and gather it into a ball.

Let it rest one hour. Roll out the pastry to fit a 10-1/2 inch glass or metal pie plate . Crimp the edges, poke the bottom with a fork or the tip of a sharp knife, and place the pastry in the freezer for 30 minutes.

6 large eggs
2/3 cup heavy cream or crème fraîche
1 cup milk (preferably whole)
8 ounces gruyère, emmenthal, or other Swiss-type cheese
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg - optional

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Line the pastry with aluminum foil and pastry weights or beans and bake in the bottom third of the oven until the pastry is golden at the edges, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and remove the aluminum foil and pastry weights. Return the pastry to the oven to bake until the bottom is golden, an additional 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and reserve.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, and the milk until thoroughly blended. Season with the salt and pepper, then add the cheese and stir until it is blended, Turn the mixture into the pre-baked pastry, and spread out the cheese evenly over the bottom of the pastry. Sprinkle the top with nutmeg if you've used a Swiss-type cheese, and bake in the center of the oven until the filling is golden and puffed, and is completely baked through, about 30 minutes. To test for doneness, shake the quiche - if it is solid without a pool of uncooked filling in the center, it is done. You may also stick a sharp knife blade into the center of the filling and if it comes out clean, the quiche is baked through.

Remove the quiche from the oven and serve immediately.

*bon app 99

Savory Gouda-Pear-Bacon Bread Pudding

2007-04-16T08:27:00.000-07:00

This is a really tasty combo I threw together. The sweetness of the pears was a really nice pairing with the cheese and bacon.

1 1/2 c. whole milk
4 eggs
loaf of French bread, stale
3 pears (I used Anjou), peeled, cored and chopped
1/4 lb. bacon (about 5 slices)
1/4 fine chopped onion
2 c. shredded smoked gouda
2tbsp chopped fresh herbs (I used1 tbsp rosemary and 1tbsp sage)
fresh ground black pepper
salt

Butter a round 4 (or more) inch deep soufflé dish.
Fry up the bacon, place slices on paper towel. Saute the onions and rosemary until tender in bacon drippings. Add pear, sauté until soft. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
Whisk milk, eggs, 2 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. pepper in a small bowl.
Tear bread into rough 1-inch pieces. Layer half the bread in the dish, then half the pear mixture, half the cheese, and pour half the egg-milk mixture over. Repeat with remaining ingredients.
Let it stand for 25 minutes. Preheat oven to 375.
Bake bread pudding until brown and slightly puffed, about 50 minutes. Allow to cool at least 10 minutes before serving.