Spoon & Fork

What to Do with Cornmeal

2011-01-17T22:07:00.005-05:00

My friend Sarah came to visit last month and brought us a bag of yellow stone-ground cornmeal. Aside from being wrapped in an adorable sack (I'm such a sucker for packaging), the cornmeal has been the star of quite a few meals in our house. I've already made two versions of cornmeal spoon bread, which is a soft, pudding-like corn bread that you, er, eat with a spoon. Both renditions were great, but if you are willing to break out of the corn bread/corn muffin box a little bit, I suggest you try...
Arepas! I made them tonight and they're fantastic! Corn fritters, with a bit of cheese mixed in, arepas are very easy and delicious. I got the recipe from Mark Bittman's awesome Best Recipes in the World, and in the intro Mark says you can serve them for breakfast with scrambled eggs, tomatoes, and onions, or as a side dish with butter. They're a natural accompaniment to Latin food, though I know some people who would probably eat them with almost anything.
Arepas have become a staple at street fairs in New York City, where they are the size of pancakes and made with mozzarella. I made mine small--about the size of a half-dollar (when's the last time you saw one of those, btw?)--and used goat cheese, since I had some on hand. You mix the cornmeal with some salt, grated (or in my case crumbled) cheese, a warm mixture of milk and butter, and some corn kernels, fresh or frozen. You form the dough into little patties, and then fry them in a bit of oil (I used grapeseed), a few minutes per side. Hot off the pan, they are crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. I topped mine with some sauteed cherry tomatoes and ate them like canapes. Because, you know, I'm fancy like that.

Arepas
1 c yellow cornmeal
1/2 t salt
1/2 c grated mild Cheddar, Monterey Jack, or mozzarella cheese
1 c milk
2 T butter, plus more for serving
1/2 c fresh or thawed frozen corn kernels
3 T corn, grapeseed, or other neutral oil

1. Put the cornmeal in a food processor or blender and grind until fine. Transfer to a large bowl and mix with the salt and cheese.
2. Heat the milk in a small saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a steady simmer. Add the butter and stir until melted. Remove from the heat and stir into the cornmeal mixture to form a thick batter. Fold in the corn kernels.
3. Let the batter rest until it thickens into a soft dough, about 15 minutes. Form 1" balls from the mixture and flatten with your palm to 1/4"-thick disks.
4. Heat the oil in a large skillet and cook the arepas, working in batches, until golden brown, about 5 minutes, then flip and cook for 3 minutes on the other side. Serve hot with butter.

Resolve to Make These Blondies

2011-01-06T20:42:00.006-05:00

I know: you ate a lot of Christmas cookies. I know: you drank a lot of champagne. And I know: you're supposed to be eating healthy.
But you really should try these Toffee Brown Butter Blondies. They're just so good. I first tasted them at a bake-off (yes, I attend bake-offs occasionally) in 2009. I loved their nutty, almost savory-sweet flavor. So I tracked down the recipe (thanks, Martha) and made them for a barbecue last summer. I was a little nervous about making sure the butter was browned and had developed a nice hazelnut-y flavor, yet wasn't burnt--but I kept an eye on it, and it turned out just fine. I also cut them into diamond shapes (I learned how here), which somehow makes them seem more sophisticated than your average blondie (the camera angle here doesn't really do their shape justice). In addition to the nutty flavor of browned butter, these blondies are enhanced with bits of chopped walnuts and chopped toffee.
I made them again for a baby shower recently, and well, let's just say that I was very glad that cutting the blondies into diamond shapes results in a fair amount of "outtakes," i.e., odd-shaped pieces that you might not want to place on a dessert platter for guests, but that are just perfect for nibbling.
Make these blondies! Do it!

What to Make for Your Next Cocktail Party

2010-12-05T21:49:00.005-05:00

Dorie Greenspan's new book, Around My French Table, has been stalking me for months now. First, I got invited to a press luncheon for the book in July. It was at Blue Hill and we ate pea soup, Hudson Valley duck, and cheesecake. Everything was delicious. Then, I wrote a story about the book's somewhat surprising success, considering the fact that Dorie Greenspan doesn't have a TV show or food magazine, yet her book is one of the year's most popular (and bestselling) cookbooks. And then I went to a party for a cookbook "tournament" last week, where I met Dorie and ate one of her delicious sable cookies (in a piglet shape, natch).
Can you believe I STILL had not tried one of the recipes in her book?
So tonight, I finally took the plunge. And, unsurprisingly, it was a smash hit. Dorie's Gougères are fabulous. They are cheese puffs, and they are airy and cheesy, a little crunchy and even a tiny bit creamy. They were a cinch to make (I really had no reason to be nervous, but I was, I think because they're just so... French). I used an aged cheddar, and followed her instructions exactly, even the quirky step of putting them into an oven you've preheated to 425, but then dropping the temperature to 375 once they're in. Who knows why. It works.
We enjoyed the gougères with some chilled Muscadet. Even our baby got her hands on some and loved them (poor thing is used to eating puffs of a different sort--flavored with spinach and banana).
What will be next from Dorie's book? Elsewhere in the "Nibbles and Hors D'oevures" chapter I have my eye on Savory Cheese and Chive Bread. But her main dishes and, of course, desserts look amazing, too. Sorry it took me so long!--S

Gougères

1/2 cup milk
1/2 c water
8 T unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1/2 t salt
1 c all-purpose flour
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 c coarsely grated cheese, such as Gruyere or cheddar

1. Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 425 F. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
2. Bring the milk, water, butter, and salt to a rapid boil in a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan over high heat. Add the flour all at once, lower the heat to medium-low, and immediately start stirring energetically with a wooden spoon or heavy whisk. The dough will come together and a light crust will form on the bottom of the pan. Keep stirring--with vigor--for another minute or two to dry the dough. The dough should now be very smooth.
3. Turn the dough into the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or into a bowl that you can use for mixing with a hand mixer or a wooden spoon and elbow grease. Let the dough sit for a minute, then add the eggs one by one and beat, beat, beat until the dough is thick and shiny. Make sure that each egg is completely incorporated before you add the next, and don't be concerned if the dough separates--by the time the last egg goes in, the dough will come together again. Beat in the grated cheese. Once the dough is made, it should be spooned out immediately.
4. Using about 1 T of dough for each gougere, drop the dough from a spoon onto the lined baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches of puff space between the mounds.
5. Slide the baking sheets into the oven and immediately turn the oven temperature down to 375 F. Bake for 12 minutes, then rotate the pans from front to back and top to bottom. Continue baking until the gougeres are golden, firm, and yes, puffed, another 12 to 15 minutes or so. Serve warm, or transfer the pans to racks to cool.

Not That There's Anything Wrong with Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

2010-11-28T21:12:00.007-05:00

Oatmeal raisin cookies = classic. Always good. Comforting.
But.
Try swapping out the raisins for dried cherries. Add almonds and almond extract. And chocolate chips? Now we're talking!
The recipe for Cherry-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies was the first recipe I tried from the new Bon Appetit Desserts cookbook, which is one of those doorstop numbers that could possibly be the only dessert book you'd ever need. And it's certainly off to a good start with this recipe, which is your typical drop cookie recipe, just with a couple of twists.
With something as simple as an oatmeal cookie, replacing raisins with cherries and slipping in some homey chocolate chips and slightly sophisticated almonds is a very nice touch. It got me thinking about some other combos that might be tasty:
Candied ginger + pistachio?
Dried apricots + macadamia nuts?
Figs + hazelnuts?
You could really go, er, nuts here! But for now I'm quite content to enjoy the cherry almond combo. I gave a bag of them to some friends who just had a baby and they seemed to love them. But I'll admit it: I'm glad the bag only held about two-thirds of the whole batch.

Cherry-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

1 c unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
10 T (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c (packed) dark brown sugar (I used light; no biggie)
1 large egg
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 t almond extract
1 c old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 c semisweet chocolate chips
1 c dried tart cherries (they seemed large so I cut them in half)
1/2 c slivered almonds, toasted (I used sliced almonds)

1. Position1 rack in center and 1 rack in top third of oven and preheat to 325 F. Line 2 heavy large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and both sugars in large bowl until well blended. Mix in egg and both extracts. Beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats, then chocolate chips, cherries, and almonds.
3. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets, spacing 2" apart. Bake cookies 12 minutes. Reverse baking sheets and continue to bake cookies until golden, about 6 minutes longer. Cool cookies on baking sheets (cookies will firm as they cool).

A New Look at Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T21:00:00.009-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

I approached this year's meal a bit differently than usual. Don't get me wrong; I'm always focused on the food at Thanksgiving. But this year, with a 10-month-old baby grabbing at every morsel she could get her little hands on, I realized just how wonderful and varied the Thanksgiving meal is.

Our daughter got her greens via stracciatella soup with spinach and cut-up pieces of green beans from a green bean casserole. She savored small bites of rosemary garlic parmesan biscuits. She puckered up for my homemade cranberry sauce and, of course, wiped out her favorite food on the table: pureed sweet potatoes (this version doctored up with apple juice concentrate, brown sugar, and butter). She ate our family's Italian dishes, soufrite (sausage, peppers, & chicken) and Nonna's stuffing (ground beef, raisins, & rice). She had a few shreds of turkey, though, like me, she preferred the sides. When dessert arrived, she happily dug in to pumpkin pie (the filling), tasted a bite of a gingerbread cheesecake square, and had a few apples from my apple tart, and licked whipped cream off her dad's finger.

Of course I can't remember my first Thanksgiving. But watching my daughter enjoy hers was even better.

Scone Kick

2010-09-27T18:51:00.008-04:00

I'm on something of a scone kick, because making scones requires buying buttermilk, and what else does one do with a half-empty container of buttermilk but make more scones? While the last batch were straight-up decadent, the scones I made this weekend are more of a "healthy" scone. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but when we're talking scones, if they have a bit of whole wheat flour and some oatmeal in them, I say they count as healthy.

Oatmeal Nutmeg Scones are from Dorie Greenspan's (if you haven't seen her latest cookbook, Around My French Table, I highly recommend it!) classic Baking, a reference that has always given me great baked goods. Dorie (if I may) calls them "tender and sweet," and that's quite accurate. They crumble easily and aren't so sweet that they can't handle a dab of apricot preserves on top. They're pretty ideal scones, actually., lovely for breakfast or an any-time-of-day snack. (And I've still got more buttermilk, so my kick can continue.)--S

Oatmeal Nutmeg Scones

1 large egg
1/2 c cold buttermilk
1 2/3 c all-purpose flour (I substituted half whole-wheat flour)
1 1/3 c old-fashioned oats
1/3 c sugar
1 T baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/4 t freshly grated nutmeg
1 stick plus 2 T (10 T) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.

Stir the egg and buttermilk together.

Whisk the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg together in a large bowl. Drop in the butter and, using your fingers, toss to coat the pieces of butter with flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips (my favorite method) or a pastry blender, cut and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly. You'll have pea-size pieces, pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pieces the size of everything in between--and that's just right.

Pour the egg and buttermilk mixture over the dry ingredients and stir with a fork just until the dough, which will be wet and sticky, comes together. Don't overdo it.

Still in the bowl, gently knead the dough by hand, or turn it with a rubber spatula 8 to 10 times. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and divide it in half. Working with one piece at a time, pat the dough into a rough circle that's about 5 inches in diameter, cut it into 6 wedges and place on the baking sheet. (At this point, the scones can be frozen on the baking sheet, then wrapped airtight. Don't defrost before baking--just add about 2 minutes to the baking time.)

Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, or until their tops are olden and firmish. Transfer them to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before serving, or wait for the scones to cool to room temperature.

Makes 12 scones.

Recipe courtesy of Baking by Dorie Greenspan

Introducing... the Introduction

2010-09-10T14:42:00.006-04:00

As the best cookbook authors know, recipe introductions are way more important than you might think. They situate a recipe, telling you why you should try it, what to watch out for while you're making it, and what you might eat or drink alongside it. And if they're written well, they give you a little insight into the author's personality.

Take, for instance, the new book from Baked authors Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. It's called Baked Explorations and features 75 recipes for "classic American desserts reinvented." This subject practically begs for recipe intros (or "headnotes," as editors call them): why reinvent, say, a New York-style crumb cake? Or chocolate mint thumbprint cookies? Read the intros, and you'll find out.

Which brings me to the the book's Carrot Coconut Scones with Citrus Glaze. Reading the intro--and getting a Tweet from Matt Lewis saying the scones were a big hit with the book's recipe testers--convinced me I had to make them: "I have succumbed to deep self-delusion and equate all carrot baked things with health and nutrition," it says in part. A carrot cake fiend, I immediately identified with this statement. An additional note reads, "the oats and carrot lend an air of nutrition, but deep down this is a perfect treat for morning, noon, and night." Sold, to the lady with the ridiculous sweet tooth who eats oatmeal with candied ginger and cranberries for breakfast.

So these scones: they're outrageously good. And I didn't even make the citrus glaze. I just painted the egg white glaze on them and sprinkled them with sugar. They are sweet but not too sweet. Denser than muffins, but softer and moister than many scones I've had. And divinely textured thanks to the shredded coconut and oats.

Good headnotes are key. They make reading a cookbook fun--and motivate me to carry my cookbooks out of the living room and into the kitchen.--S

Carrot Coconut Scones with Citrus Glaze
Yield: 6 to 8 scones

For the scones:
2 3/4 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c granulated sugar
1/2 c rolled oats
1 T baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 c shredded sweetened coconut
1/2 c (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" chunks
1 large egg
3/4 c buttermilk
1 T pure vanilla extract
1/4 c carrot puree (recipe follows)
1 egg white, beaten

For the citrus glaze:
1 T fresh lemon juice
2 T fresh orange juice
1 c confectioners' sugar

Make the scones:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and position the rack in the center. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, oats, baking powder, salt, and shredded sweetened coconut.
3. Add the butter. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until the butter is pea size and the mixture is coarse.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, vanilla and carrot puree. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until the dough just comes together. Gently and briefly knead the dough with your hands. The dough will be sticky and may need to be sprinkled with flour.
5. Roll the dough up, turn it on its end, and gently flatten it into a disk about 1 3/4" high. Do not overwork the dough.
6. Whisk the egg white with 1 T water. Set aside.
7. Cut the dough into 6 or 8 wedges and place the scones on the prepared baking sheet. Brush the tops with the egg white wash. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a scone comes out clean. Do not overbake.
8. Transfer the scones to a wire rack to cool completely. Place the baking sheet, with the parchment still on it, underneath the rack.

Make the citrus glaze:
1. Whisk all ingredients together in a medium bowl. The glaze should be loose enough to drizzle. If it is too thick, add a little more oragne juice. If it is too loose, add a little more confectioners' sugar.
2. Drizzle the glaze over the scones and allow it to set before serving.

To make the carrot puree:
1 medium carrot
1/4 c orange juice

1. Place the carrot and juice in a medium glass microwaveable bowl. Cover or wrap tightly in plastic wrap.
2. Microwave on high for about 5 minutes. If the carrot is fork-tender, it is ready. If it is not fork-tender, continue to microwave in 30-second bursts until it is.
3. Blend (in blender or food processor) the carrot and orange juice until smooth, or alternatively, mash with a potato masher until lump free.

Perfection Is Overrated

2010-08-18T11:22:00.004-04:00

As if tasting delicious weren't enough, this dish has another thing going for it: it's supposed to not look perfect. This is my kind of dinner!

This Tomato, Goat Cheese, and Olive Tart could be called "rustic" or "free form." Or, as Melissa Camero Ainslie, who who shared the recipe on her excellent blog, Bitchin' Camero, said, it could also be called the tart of a lazy person. Whatever you call it, you should make it. It's very easy and a delightful way to highlight summer tomatoes. Although the recipe calls for heirloom tomatoes, I used New Jersey beefsteak tomatoes and it turned out fabulously.

I made one tart and froze the other half of the dough. But I have a feeling I may be defrosting it soon, because this is such a perfect summer meal. Along with a salad, it's a perfect (in a less-than-perfect kind of way) lunch or supper.

Perfection isn't all it's cracked up to be, you know.--S

Catalog Cooking

2010-08-05T23:07:00.007-04:00

I've been pulling recipes off the Internet for ages now, while still using my cookbooks regularly, thanks to EatYourBooks. But until now I'd never made a dish from a recipe I found in a catalog.

A new Williams-Sonoma catalog arrived the other day and as I idly flipped through it, envisioning myself sitting down to a lovely spread like this one, I came upon a recipe for something called Tuscan Frittata Affogata. I know this sounds suspiciously made-up, like, do they really eat something so frou-frou sounding in Tuscany? (I also paid attention because Fork ordered a dessert called "affogata" at this restaurant a few months ago and it was fabulous.) Anyway, it looked good: a frittata made with eggs, cheese, and sausage, topped with marinara sauce, fresh mozzarella, and basil.

So I decided to try it. And it was excellent. It looked like a pizza coming out of the oven, all saucy and and bubbly cheese. And that's kind of what it is: a frittata pizza. It may well be true that no one in Tuscany has ever eaten such a thing. But who cares? This is one great dish. I had to make a few adaptations since the recipe--coming from a catalog and all--was written for you to use a fancy frittata pan that W-S sells for $149.95. Pish posh. You don't need one of those. Live on the edge and flip that baby right onto a plate, then slide it back into the pan.

Other than that it's pretty straightforward. An excellent way to use up a leftover cup of tomato sauce; a simple dinner that goes great with a salad and some garlic toasts; delicious the next day, cold or room temperature. I'm off to scour more catalogs now!--S

Zucchini Bread's Secret Ingredient: Olive Oil

2010-07-16T10:19:00.006-04:00

Sure, it would be great to have a vegetable garden. It would also be great to have central air (not happening in this pre-war apartment), a personal assistant (how long have I been meaning to book a haircut?!) and a beautiful baby and fabulous husband (oh, wait). Anyway, the veg garden. But I have the next best thing: a mother-in-law whose garden is roughly the size of our bedroom and living room put together.

My in-laws came to visit last weekend, bringing with them the first of the garden's bounty: zucchini! And I know it is so painfully obvious to make zucchini bread, but that's just what I did. I'm still avoiding dairy and soy, and after a conversation yesterday with Terry Walters, a cookbook author who makes it a point to cook with "clean food," which includes baking without using canola oil, I tracked down a recipe for Zucchini Bread that uses olive oil instead of canola oil or butter.

I know I've made fabulous zucchini breads before (I have twice made, but never blogged about, this one; if you like Indian flavors, you must try it), but the one I made this morning might outdo them all. It is really simple--just zucchini, flour (I used a mix of whole wheat and white), sugar, eggs, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, walnuts and raisins. But that olive oil! It makes the bread moist but still light and airy--a little savory, and even kind of floral.

Still waiting on that personal assistant, but until then, I guess I can make my own zucchini bread.

Zucchini Bread

Makes 2 loaves

Wet ingredients:

1 c olive oil
2 eggs
2 c sugar [I used 1 1/2 c]
1 t molasses
3 t vanilla
1 t salt
1/8 t nutmeg
3 t cinnamon
2 c grated zucchini

Dry ingredients:

3 c flour
1 t baking soda
3/4 t baking powder
1 c Nuts, Raisins, Currants, Craisins, Chocolate Chips or a combo [I used walnuts and raisins]

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Shred zucchini with a box grater or with the grating blade of your food processor.
3. Grease two loaf pans by brushing on some vegetable oil; coat with flour.
4. Crack eggs into a mixing bowl, and then whisk thoroughly to integrate yolks. Add the olive oil, sugar, molasses, vanilla, and spices, and mix well. Stir in zucchini.
5. In another large bowl, sift [I didn't sift; I just stirred] together flour, baking soda and powder.
6. Pour the wet ingredients into the blended dry ingredients. Fold until just mixed. Add the nuts/dried fruit/etc.
7. Pour batter into loaf pans and bake 45 to an hour; the loaves are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs.

Screaming for ...Spice Dreams?

2010-06-20T12:15:00.006-04:00

Ice cream season is upon us! For the foreseeable future I'll be sticking with dairy-free sorbets, which is fine by me--especially if they all turn out to be as good as Coconut-Ginger Sorbet. Creamy, laced with with shreds of coconut, and refreshing, but with a little heat from ginger--this sorbet is a classic. It's from a new book called Spice Dreams: Flavored Ice Creams and Other Frozen Treats by Sara Engram and Kimberly Toge, which is all about adding spices like basil, cardamom, chile, mint, and thyme to frozen desserts. Some of them can get a little wacky (not that I haven't tried making bizarre ice cream flavors before), but the combination of ginger and coconut is spectacular.

Coconut-Ginger Sorbet

Makes about 3 cups

3/4 c sugar
3/4 c water
1 t ground ginger
1/8 t salt
1 (14-oz) can coconut milk
1/4 c sweetened flaked coconut
1/4 t vanilla

Combine the sugar, water, ginger, and salt in a medium, heavy saucepan. Heat the sugar mixture over medium heat, stirring gently, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the syrup is clear, about 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let steep for 1 hour.

Combine the coconut milk, flaked coconut, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Strain the syrup mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into the coconut milk mixture. Whisk until the syrup and coconut milk are completely mixed. Cover and refrigerate until completely chilled, at least 4 hours or overnight. The sorbet mixture may be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Freeze the chilled sorbet mixture in an ice-cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer the sorbet to an airtight container and freeze in the freezer for 2 to 4 hours before serving.

The Temporary Vegetarian

2010-06-06T21:32:00.005-04:00

There's a column in the New York Times called The Temporary Vegetarian, and last month, it featured a recipe for "A Vegan Main Dish of Indian Green Beans." Halfway through my two-week dairy and soy hiatus, and this recipe is coming in handy.

Not only is it handy; it's actually very, very good--the sort of vegetable dish I can see myself making again and again. While Julie Sahni, a cooking teacher and cookbook author who created the recipe, says you can make this with cauliflower, eggplant, carrots, or brussels sprouts, I went with green beans tonight. They got plump as they cooked, and soaked up the rich sauce, a savory and spicy mix of ground cumin and coriander, red pepper flakes, and paprika, built up with finely chopped onion and garlic, and thickened with coconut milk.

Sahni suggests topping the dish with sliced almonds which you fry gently, and this is a nice touch, adding crunch and earthiness. A squirt of lime brings out even more flavor. Definitely make a pot of rice to serve alongside the beans; it helps soak up the sauce and temper the heat. We also had some seared scallops (so much for that "vegan main dish" thing--oops), which were also excellent with the coconut sauce.

I'm actually relishing the challenge of avoiding dairy and soy. It's leading me to some great new recipes--and making me so much more conscientious about what I eat.--S

Here's the Story, Morning Glory

2010-06-02T10:14:00.004-04:00

For me, breakfast isn't just the most important meal of the day; it's possibly my favorite meal of the day. Homemade yogurt and granola; an egg and cheese sandwich; even just a bowl of cereal with berries and milk--such simple things really make me happy in the morning.

And then the pediatrician suggested I cut milk and soy out of my diet, since it might be triggering an allergy that's turned the baby's skin into a dry, cracked mess. Five days in, her skin is looking better, and I'm getting used to black coffee. Breakfast, too, has taken a new direction.

The only reason I'm eating a bowl of soy-free cereal with rice milk and strawberries right now is that I've polished off all the Morning Glory Muffins I made last week. I wanted to find a recipe for a muffin or bread that didn't include dairy or soy, and that wasn't vegan, so I went to Cookstr, which I think has the best search options of any recipe site I've visited. I searched for a baked breakfast item that was lactose- and soy-free, and that didn't take more than an hour to make. Voila: Morning Glory Muffins, which were apparently the muffin of the back-to-the-land movement in the '70s.

Here's what I love about these muffins: they're made with shredded coconut, carrots, apple, crushed pineapple, raisins, and walnuts. As if that magnificent ingredient list isn't enough to lure you in, here's more to love: the recipe makes 16 regular-sized muffins (I got 12, since I made 6 jumbo and 6 regular). You can substitute whole-wheat flour for half of the regular flour (which I did). They don't get weighed down and gooey after a day, and make a very hearty breakfast.

I'm only on this diet for two weeks (for now), but I have a feeling I'll be making these muffins for many years to come.--S

Rhubarb Season

2010-05-22T18:09:00.006-04:00

Rhubarb season is here, and this year I greeted it with a new recipe from 101 Cookbooks. Heidi Swanson's Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble isn't revolutionary, nor is it exciting. But man, is it good.

A big fan of multigrain flours, Swanson calls for spelt flour in this recipe, which, according to a new book I've been leafing through called Good to the Grain, is a good introduction to whole grain flours, since it is easy to bake with, and gives satisfying results. Spelt has a slightly tart aroma, and is also distinctly sweet--making it a great match for the classic sweet-tart combination of strawberries and rhubarb.

The crumble topping also includes oats, lightly toasted pine nuts, natural cane sugar, butter, sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper. You can add a splash of port wine to the fruit, if you have it, but I didn't, and it didn't seem to make this any less tasty. In fact, we ate the crumble at a picnic, along with a Sangiovese wine, and I will say it was one of the most enjoyable dessert experiences I have had in awhile. Watching the sailboats on the Hudson, sipping a delicious red wine, listening to our baby coo on the blanket alongside us, eating a strawberry rhubarb crumble: not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.--S

Springtime Lessons

2010-05-16T17:00:00.007-04:00

Nothing against a big, hearty bolognese, but sometimes you want something a little lighter for dinner. And nothing against salads, but there are times when torn bits of lettuce just feel a tad boring.

Enter the delicious meal known as the "composed" salad. (It sounds much more elegant in French: salade composee--non?) Anyway, it's a collection of vegetables, starches, and proteins, all cooked in the simplest manner possible and then dressed in a vinaigrette. This version, from Martha Stewart's Cooking School and titled "Poached Chicken Breast and Spring Vegetable Salad," consisted of poached chicken, boiled baby new potatoes, steamed asparagus, and poached leeks--all dressed with either a lemon vinaigrette, or a buttermilk vinaigrette. Martha also likes marinated artichokes with this, and while I'm sure homemade ones are great, I went with jarred for convenience.

Making this "salad" was an education for me. The most important lesson I learned was how to poach chicken. Until now, I'd always just boiled it in water for 20 minutes. But now I know that adding a carrot, stalk of celery, peppercorns, parsley, thyme, a bay leaf, and some salt makes the chicken so much more flavorful (and leaves you with a delicious stock for future use). I found the recipe online here.

I also picked up some other tips:

cook baby new potatoes at a gentle simmer, not a fast boil

buttermilk makes a great dressing for chicken or vegetables when whisked with olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and herbs

poaching leeks brings out their sweetness; tossing a few thyme sprigs into the pot imparts a mild savoriness

There are millions of ways to vary this salad, and I'm thinking I'll explore some of them this summer.--S

The Ragu That Got Me Talking

2010-05-10T21:28:00.013-04:00

This whole parenting + full-time job + getting back to running, friends, and life is... well, suffice it to say, I haven't figured out how to also keep up with this blog. It isn't that I haven't been in the kitchen: lately I've made some delicious blondies, awesome cupcakes, tasty zucchini pancakes, and a perfect roast chicken (if I do say so myself). It's just that I've been lazy about telling people about them.

But I'm ready to break the silence. What did it? A bolognese sauce with homemade pappardelle. Wide, chewy, eggy noodles tangled onto a plate with a rich, meaty sauce that's just the slightest bit sweet... this, I had to share. I grew up making my mom's marinara sauce, a champion workhorse in its own right. But I'd never made bolognese. I always thought it was too complicated for me. The truth is, it isn't really complicated at all. So long as you can stay home for at least four hours--which isn't so hard when you have a three-month-old baby to cuddle--it's quite simple.

You start by sauteeing some cubed pancetta, and then adding diced carrots, celery and onion. Next, you stir in ground pork and veal. Once the meats are cooked, in go tomato paste, a cup of white wine, milk, thyme, pureed tomatoes, a bay leaf, and chicken stock. Then, for the next three and a half hours, you basically let the sauce slowly simmer down to a thick and chunky consistency, like "loose chili," as the recipe says. I let the sauce cool completely and then froze it for about six days, until we ate it last night.

I'm sure the bolognese would've been great with fresh pasta from any one of our local purveyors, but since I was just bumming around on Sunday afternoon, I decided to make homemade pappardelle from Lidia's Italy. I had all the ingredients, and Lidia's pastas are usually superb. This one was no exception. Sure, the noodles were a little raggedy because I didn't make each ribbon a perfect rectangle. But I like to think their homemade look was more authentic than anything you could buy in a store.

Homemade pasta with bolognese sauce: I can't think of a better reason to get back in touch.--S

Bolognese Sauce

Makes 8 cups

For soffritto

2 T unsalted butter

2 T extra-virgin olive oil

3 oz pancetta, cut into 1/4" pieces

2/3 c minced yellow onion

2/3 c minced carrot

2/3 c minced celery

For sauce

1 lb ground veal

1 lb ground pork

3 T plus 1 t tomato paste

1 c dry white wine

1 1/4 c whole milk (I used a combination of 1% and half & half)

6-7 c chicken stock

1 can (28 oz) whole peeled tomatoes, pureed (w/juice) in blender

1 dried bay leaf

5 sprigs thyme

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Cook soffritto: Heat butter and oil in large pot over medium-high heat until butter starts to sizzle, then reduce heat to medium. Add pancetta, and cook until golden and fat has rendered, about 2 1/2 minutes. Add onion, carrot, and celery and cook, stirring often, until just beginning to brown around edges, about 10 minutes (adjust heat if mixture is browning too quickly).

2. Brown meat: Add veal and pork and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently and separating meat with the back of a wooden spoon, until no longer pink, 8 to 10 minutes. once meat is completely browned, pour off any excess fat. Add tomato paste and cook 1 minute, stirring to intensify sweetness.

3. Deglaze pot and add liquids: Pour in wine and cook, stirring to scrape up browned bits from bottom of pot, until liquid has evaporated, 6 to 7 minutes. Add 1 cup milk and cook until reduced by half, about 3 minutes (don't worry if it appears slightly curdled, it will smooth out again). Add thyme bundle, then pour in 6 cups stock. Add tomatoes and bay leaf, and season with 1 1/2 t salt and 1/4 t pepper.

4. Simmer the sauce: Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a very low simmer and cook, partially covered, 3 to 3 1/2 hours, skimming the fat from the surface with a ladle periodically. If at any time the sauce appears too dry, add up to 1 cup more stock as necessary. The finished sauce should have the consistency of a loose chili. Stir in remaining 1/4 c milk and season with salt and pepper, as desired. If not serving immediately, let cool completely before transferring to airtight containers. Refrigerate up to 3 days or freeze up to 3 months; defrost in the refrigerator before using.

Recipe courtesy of Martha Stewart's Cooking School

Fresh Pasta for Pappardelle

Makes 1 pound

2 c all-purpose flour

1 large egg

2 egg yolks

4 T extra-virgin olive oil

Ice water as needed

1. Put the flour in the bowl of the food processor and process for a few seconds to aerate. Mix the egg, egg yolks, and olive oil in a measuring cup or other spouted container.

2. With the machine running, pour the liquids quickly through the feed tube on top of the flour. After 20 seconds, most of the dough should clump up on the blade. Process for another 15 seconds or so--no more than 40 seconds total. (If the dough does not gather on the blade and process easily, it is too wet or too dry. Feel the dough, then work in either more flour or some ice water, in small amounts, using the machine or kneading by hand.)

3. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead it by hand for a minute, until it's smooth, soft, and stretchy. Press it into a disk, wrap well in plastic wrap, and let it rest at room temperature for 1/2 hour.

4. To roll out the dough in a pasta machine, cut the pound of dough into four equal pieces. Work with one at a time, keeping the others covered. Run the first piece of dough through the rollers at the widest setting several times, to develop strength and smoothness. Repeat with all the pieces. Reset the machine to a narrower setting, and run the first piece through, extending it into a rectangular strip. Let the rollers move the dough, and catch it in your hand as it comes out. Roll it again, to stretch and widen it. Lightly flour and cover the strip, then stretch the other pieces.

5. Roll and stretch all the pieces at progressively narrower settings, until they spread as wide as the rollers (usually about 5") and stretch to 20" or longer. Cut the four long pasta strips in half crosswise, giving you eight sheets, each about a foot long and 5" wide. Lay these flat on the trays in layers, lightly floured, separated, and covered by towels.

6. Lay out a rolled sheet on the floured board; dust the top with flour. Starting at one of the short ends, fold the sheet over on itself in thirds or quarters, creating a small rectangle with three or four layers of pasta.

7. With a sharp knife, cut cleanly through the folded dough crosswise, into 2"-wide strips. Separate and unfold the strips, shaking them into long needles. Sprinkle them liberally with flour so they don't stick together. Fold, cut, and unfurl all the rolled psata sheets this way and spread them out on a floured tray. Leave them uncovered, to air-dry at room temperature, until ready to cook.

8. Cook in salted boiling water 2-3 minutes.

Recipe courtesy of Lidia's Italy

All of the Crunch, None of the Grease All Over Your Kitchen

2010-04-09T08:40:00.003-04:00

Some days, you just aren't up for creating a big old mess in the kitchen. But you want fried chicken. What, my friends, is a cook to do in this situation?

And therein lies just some of the genius of Oven-Fried Chicken. Meat that's moist and juicy inside; crispy and crunchy outside. A quick cooking time. Minimal ingredients. And no need to break out the splatter screen!

Breaded, fried chicken cutlets are a standard dinner around here; I probably make them once a month. But this recipe introduced me to a few new techniques that will definitely change the way I make the dish. First, you use skinless, boneless chicken thighs instead of breast meat. It's much juicier and more flavorful. The recipe suggests lightly pounding the thighs, which I did by covering the thighs in plastic wrap on a cutting board and then whacking them with the bottom of a saucepan. This gives you more surface area, and more opportunity for crunch. Second, the chicken cooks in a very hot (450-degree) oven, instead of in a sputtering frying pan on your stove. No mess, and a slightly lowered risk of getting your hand or arm burned with oil. Third (and this may seem obvious but it's worth pointing out), the recipe has you season the flour with celery salt, garlic salt and cayenne pepper (I skipped the garlic salt but definitely recommend the cayenne), and use panko instead of plain old bread crumbs.

I love this recipe. Hope you do, too.--S

No Guilt Brownies

2010-04-06T22:40:00.006-04:00

Every time I make Espresso Brownies for friends, they're a hit. Caffeine and chocolate together in one rich, dense, perk-you-right-up sweet bite--of course they're good. They are easy to make and freeze beautifully. They're ideal with a cold glass of milk. They've been in my repertoire for a few years now.

And yet.

I've never written about these brownies on this blog. I think I was hung up on a sort of embarassing aspect to the recipe. You see, it calls for... oh man, here we go: boxed brownie mix. There. I said it. Duncan Hines Chocolate Lovers, Triple Chocolate Decadence, Betty Crocker Supreme Brownie... take your pick. But to make these delicious brownies, you start with a box of premixed brownie batter. And you know what? I'm okay with that.

I haven't made slice and bake Tollhouse cookies in at least 10 years, and on the rare occasion that I bake a cake, I do it from scratch. Brownies? I have some excellent recipes that have never failed me. But Espresso Brownies, with their 19.8 ounces of brownie mix, are the exception. You amp them up with semisweet choclate chips and espresso powder, Cake Mix Doctor style, and then top them with an espresso glaze. They're pretty decadent.

Lose the guilt. Eat the brownies.--S

Steak and Eggs

2010-03-29T19:26:00.009-04:00

I feel a little disingenuous sharing this recipe. It's barely a recipe. It's something anybody can make. A staple of Vegas breakfast buffets, a favorite of the protein-obsessed. But it's so delicious. I mean, look at that photo. Meaty, cheesy, oozy... I'm talking about steak and eggs.

A rib-eye steak topped with a fried egg is decadent enough. Add goat cheese and you're in gluttony territory. And what better time than the days before Easter (when we're supposed to be fasting) to tell you about Grilled Tuscan Steak with Fried Egg and Goat Cheese? Bistecca alla fiorentina, in case you didn't know (and I certainly didn't) is a t-bone or porterhouse steak grilled and seasoned with salt, pepper and olive oil. Pure and simple. And that's how this recipe starts out, though it calls for more tender (and fattier) rib-eyes. You also sprinkle some herbes de Provence (I just used dried thyme, dried basil, and fennel seeds, since I didn't have dried marjoram, savory, rosemary, or sage) on the meat.

Although I have a cast iron grill pan, I find my nonstick griddle does a great job with steaks, as long as they aren't too thick. So I fired it up until it was smoking hot. When the steaks hit the pan, they sizzled pretty awesomely, and after five minutes per side, they were medium-rare. You let them rest for a few minutes on a plate (cover them with foil, if you'd like) while you fry a couple of eggs, sunny side up, in the grease that's left on the pan (oh, yes!). And once the whites are set, you slip the eggs atop the steaks, and adorn them with crumbled goat cheese and chopped parsley.

This is a heavenly meal. We ate salad alongside it, you know, to keep up appearances. But make no mistake. The cheese melts into the runny egg, making a sort of sauce for the tender beef. It's salty and creamy and meaty and, well, just about perfect.--S

Grilled Tuscan Steak with Fried Egg and Goat Cheese

serves 4

4 (8-oz) rib-eye steaks
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 T herbes de Provence
2 T plus 2 t olive oil
4 large eggs
1/4 c (2 oz) crumbled goat cheese
2 T chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

1. Place a grill pan over medium-high heat or preheat a gas or charcoal grill.
2. Season the steaks with salt and pepper. Sprinkle both sides of each steak with the herbes de Provence. Drizzle with 2 T of the olive oil. Grill for 6 to 8 minutes per side for medium-rare. Remove the steaks, from the heat and allow to rest.
3. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, heat the remaining 2 t olive oil over medium-high heat. Crack the eggs directly into the pan and season them with salt and pepper. Cook until the egg whites are set, 2 to 3 minutes.
4. To serve, place the steaks on 4 serving plates. Carefully top each steak with an egg. Sprinkle with the crumbled goat cheese. Garnish with the chopped parsley and serve.

Recipe courtesy of Giada at Home

The Smart Cookie

2010-03-18T07:52:00.008-04:00

Carrot cake has been my favorite cake for a long time. The warm spices, the flecks of carrot, that cream cheese frosting.... Yet I rarely make carrot cake, mostly because I can't justify whipping up a big old cake for myself and eating the entire thing. A cake isn't so easy to toss in a Ziploc bag and share with friends. It's also not a very mobile dessert. (Try eating a slice while walking about town with a cup of coffee.) Enter Carrot Cake Cookies: perhaps the most practical way to get your carrot cake fix. Yes, this is the answer to one of the more vexing issues facing dessert eaters today.

We can thank Martha Stewart's Cookies, one of the loveliest cookie books to come out in recent years, for this rather obvious yet somehow groundbreaking concept. The recipe combines a standard cookie dough with the classic carrot cake spices of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, carrots (obvs!), raisins, and two cups of rolled oats. Once you've transformed the dough into soft cookies measuring about two inches in diameter, you assemble the iconic cream cheese frosting (truly, I think "iconic" sums up the marriage of cream cheese, butter, confectioners sugar and vanilla) and make sandwiches out of the cookies and frosting.

Soft, sweet cookies yielding to the thick and creamy filling, easy to share with friends and nibble on while strolling around the neighborhood? That's what I call innovation.--S

When Life Hands You Potato Starch...

2010-03-13T16:42:00.004-05:00

A few months ago, I wrote about a new website called Eat Your Books. It's a cool idea: you create a virtual bookshelf of all the cookbooks you own, and since Eat Your Books has indexed the recipes in those books, you can search for all kinds of things. Say you're wondering which of your cookbooks have recipes for cassoulet. Or you want to make a summery seafood appetizer but don't know which book to look in. Or there's a bag of potato starch in your fridge that you don't know what to do with.

Oh, did I say potato starch? Yeah. Close readers may recall I bought it (along with a bunch of other unusual ingredients) to make some recipes out of the BabyCakes NYC cookbook awhile back. Haven't used it since. So I searched "potato starch" in my cookbooks on Eat Your Books, and what do you know? Along with a bunch of vegan recipes from BabyCakes, there were recipes for cakes from BakeWise and Joy of Cooking, as well as a recipe for marshmallows from Baking by Dorie Greenspan. Sold!

You start by getting sugar and light corn syrup to a "soft ball" stage (that's 265 degrees F) on the stove. While that's going, you sprinkle unflavored gelatin onto cold water, let it get spongy, and then liquefy it in the microwave. Whip up some egg whites, add the syrup, then the gelatin, along with some vanilla, and you've got a very pretty meringue.

Here's where the potato starch comes in. It's like a powdery buffer that keeps the marshmallows from sticking to everything. You sprinkle it over a parchment paper-covered baking sheet, pour in the marshmallow mixture, and then top it off with more potato starch. Three hours later, you cut up the marshmallows and toss them in more of the stuff, which is similar in consistency to cornstarch or powdered sugar.

I probably should've made the marshmallows a bit thicker, but I'm still satisfied with them. They're light and springy, and don't taste at all like the plastic-y ones that come out of a bag from the supermarket. Oh, and in case you were wondering? Nothing like potatoes, either!--S

Sweet Sustenance

2010-03-06T13:53:00.007-05:00

One of the marvelous things about having a baby is all the visitors who come by to see the little one. Our month-old wonder is used to being passed around from aunt to grandmother, coworker to friend, neighbor to cousin--which is so wonderful to see. But, you know, oohing and aahing over tiny fingernails and ears is hard work. I've got to offer all the well-wishers some sustenance. Granted, many of them come bearing edible gifts, but I've been stepping up my efforts, too. The latest baby-holding fuel I've made? Braided Coffee Cake with Cardamom.

Unlike some coffee cakes, this one isn't chock full of butter, sugar, chocolate or sour cream (though I have nothing against those decadent delights). Nope--it has just one stick of butter and a half-cup of sugar, as well as three egg yolks and a half-cup or so of milk (I used 1%). What gives this cake--it's actually more like a bread--its character is the warm and toasty taste of cardamom. I always thought of cardamom as an Indian spice (Tamarind's basmati rice, loaded with whole cardamom pods, is divine), but apparently, it's common in Scandinavian baking, too. It lends an almost floral aroma to this otherwise simple bread.

The other lovely thing about this bread? It's braided--which not only looks pretty, but isn't even hard to do. Topped with a smattering of chopped pecans and cinnamon, this is one sweet-smelling, and sweet to look at--baked treat. Almost as sweet as holding a certain tiny little someone.--S

Braided Coffee Cake with Cardamom

Makes 8 or more servings

3 c flour, plus more for rolling the dough

1 1/2 t instant active dry yeast

Pinch of salt

1/2 c sugar

1 t ground cardamom

8 T butter, plus more as needed

3 egg yolks

1/2 to 1 c milk, as needed

1/2 c walnuts, pecans or almonds

1 t ground cinnamon

1. Combine the flour, yeast, salt, 1/ c sugar, and the cardamom in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add 6 T of the butter and the egg yolks and pulse again until well combined. With the machine running, drizzle about half the milk through the feed tube. Process just until a dough ball forms, adding a little more milk if necessary, then stop. Knead a little by hand, until the dough is smooth (add a little flour if necessary), then form the mixture into a ball and place it in a buttered bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until about doubled in bulk, 1 to hours.

2. When the dough is ready, cut it into 3 pieces. On a floured board, roll each piece into a long rope just over a foot long. Braided the pieces, pinching both ends to seal. Put on a buttered cookie sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise again for about an hour.

3. Preheat the oven to 375F. Chop the nuts and combine with the remaining 2 T butter (you can do this in a small food processor, but be careful not to pulverize the nuts) and the cinnamon. Brush the dough with a little milk and sprinkle the nut mixture over it.

4. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool, then slice and serve.

From The Best Recipes in the World

The Danny Meyer Marathon

2010-02-28T12:06:00.012-05:00

In 2006, Spoon interviewed pioneering restaurateur Danny Meyer for a story about his book, Setting the Table. At the time, Meyer's empire included seven New York City restaurants, including his flagship Union Square Cafe, Eleven Madison Park, and Gramercy Tavern. Today, his menu includes 12 establishments, from the gleaming bar room at the Museum of Modern Art, to hamburger heaven Shake Shack, and the impressive new Italian trattoria Maialino. So when Spoon & Fork guest bloggers Laura and Patrick, better known as Fillet Knife and Butcher Twine, decided they wanted to do a Danny Meyer Marathon, hitting all Meyer's restaurants in one day, we were intrigued.

For any other restaurateur, the feat wouldn't be either as impressive, or as fun. Just the the thought of a Jeffrey Chodorow marathon, for example, makes one's head spin. Chodorow's restaurants are too theme-park, too inconsistent, and too, well, corporate. But Meyer, even while rolling out a host of new restaurants in a very short time, has never forgotten the key ingredient in any restaurant's recipe for success: hospitality. From Fork's first meal at Union Square Cafe some 20 years ago, to a recent lunch at Tabla (try the skate), Meyer's restaurants never disappoint.

That's because Danny Meyer restaurants make sense. The menus, ingredients, and preparation are first-rate, whether at the top-rated French wonder Eleven Madison Park, or at a picnic joint like Shake Shack, where it is not uncommon for people to wait on line for an hour just to get a hot dog. The rooms are elegant, yet comfortable. And the staff are the best in the city: gracious, efficient, and warm.

So a Danny Meyer marathon also made sense, and, like the restaurants themselves, it did not disappoint. On February 27, over the course of 12 hours, from the Upper West Side all the way down to Madison Square Park, our intrepid bloggers tasted burgers and fries, shrimp corndogs, tandoori octopus, sea bass with spaghetti squash... and wait until you hear about dessert.

It was a day to remember: great food, great fun, a test of gastro-endurance, and a few twists and suprises. The full report will be up soon, don't miss it!--S&F

Mmmm... Beer....

2010-02-21T17:01:00.007-05:00

There are certainly worse predicaments than having your cousin, who works for a beer and wine distributor, drop almost three cases of craft beer off at your apartment in the middle of February. The shipment conveniently arrived just as I was re-introducing booze to my diet after nine months of limiting myself to half-glasses of wine, and for the first week or so, I happily dipped into our stash a few evenings a week.

Then I came across a recipe for Beer-Braised Beef with Onion, Carrot and Turnips, calling for 12 ounces of dark beer. It sounded cozy and warm and hearty--and a nice way to make the most of our recent windfall. And so I set about browning cubes of boneless chuck roast, which had been dredged in flour, salted, and peppered, in a splash of oil in my Dutch oven. The next 10 minutes were pretty much the most active part of this dish's cooking process--and that's not saying much, since the activity entailed stirring the beef around every few minutes to let each side get a little crispy. After such heavy work, I poured in a bottle of River Horse Special Ale, a cup of beef stock, some crushed garlic cloves, and a bay leaf. Then I lugged the heavy pot, tightly lidded, into a 300-degree oven for an hour and a half.

When I opened the pot 90 minutes later to slip in the carrots, I was greeted with the steamy and savory beginnings of a stew; 25 minutes later, when it was time to add the onions and parsnips, the meat was even further broken down. And after another hour had passed, the beef was completely fork-tender.

Now, this recipe comes from Cooking Light, so I shouldn't be surprised that it tells you to strain off the fat from the stew's liquid before serving. I skipped this step. I was feeling kind of lazy, and honestly, there didn't seem to be that much fat to skim, anyway. So perhaps this dish wasn't as light as it could have been. But it was awfully tasty. Over three hours, the beer and beef stock mellowed the meat into submission, and the veggies were sweet and perfectly tender, too. A perfect winter meal that I neglected to photograph (hence the pic, courtesy of CookingLight.com), but that we happily scarfed down with a salad and crusty bread. Thanks for the beer, Dan! --S

Banh Mi: The New Black

2010-01-23T09:56:00.011-05:00

Though they aren't quite as ubiquitous as pretzels and hot dogs, banh mi are apparently well on their way to taking over New York City. I first tasted one of these Vietnamese sandwiches--at their most basic, they consist of chicken, pork or even pate; pickled, shredded vegetables; spicy mayo; and sprigs of cilantro; all on a crusty baguette--about three years ago at Bao Noodles. Then my coworkers introduced me to Baoguette. And now I'm here to tell you about a twist on the banh mi that you can easily make at home.

If banh mi are supposedly a French-Vietnamese hybrid, then the Pork Meatball Banh Mi is an Italian-French-Vietnamese hybrid, taking the meatball sub in a very interesting (and delicious) direction. This recipe, from Bon Appetit, has you combine ground pork with chopped basil, garlic, scallions, fish sauce, chili sauce, sugar, salt and pepper (plus a sprinkling of cornstarch, presumably to help hold everything together). You form the meat into small-ish balls and fry them in a tablespoon of Asian sesame oil until they're nice and brown.

Before all that, however, you've already grated some carrots and daikon (or just use regular radishes if you can't find daikon) and set them to pickle in rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt for an hour or so. And you've whipped regular mayo into a deliciously spicy concoction with hot chili sauce and scallions.

Slice open a baguette (and here's where I think I could've used some foresight: the Eli's Bread baguette I bought was a bit too crusty; next time I'll go for a softer loaf), and pile on some meatballs, veggies and mayo. Tuck a few stems of cilantro in there, and maybe some sliced cucumber or jalapeno pepper, if you're so inclined. The combo of sweet, spicy, hot and cool is excellent. Bring on the banh mi boom!--S

Soup's On

2010-01-04T21:25:00.007-05:00

Blustery weather and quiet January weekends call for long-simmered, warm dishes—and Pasta and Bean Soup from a new book called The Best Soups in the World (sounds suspiciously Bittman-esque, no?) by Clifford A. Wright—is just the thing. It's a twist on Italian pasta e fagioli, with white beans and small bits of macaroni joining forces with pork stew meat (I used shoulder), pancetta, fennel, chickpeas and, interestingly, a cinnamon stick.

I've been trying to plan ahead (what with Spork Jr. on the way) and have been doubling recipes when possible, so Fork and I can eat one dinner and freeze another one for later this winter when we're not so inclined to shop for food, never mind cook it. This one fit the bill perfectly, and there's already a solid quart of it in our freezer. It really is tasty, with a deeper and richer flavor than your average pasta and bean soup.

If you make this soup (and I highly recommend you do), plan on cooking it much longer than the recommended 1¼ hours—it took at least three hours for the dried cannelli beans I used (which hadn't been pre-soaked) to cook fully—and you'll probably wind up using an additional two to four cups of stock. But when it's 20 degrees outside (and "feels like 8"), few things are more comforting.

Pasta and Bean Soup

Makes 6 to 8 servings

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound pork stew meat, diced
¼ pound pancetta, cut into strips
¼ pound prosciutto skin, whole or cut into strips (optional)
1 large onion, chopped
1 fennel bulb (about ¾ pound), chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
6 garlic cloves, chopped
10 cups chicken broth
1½ cups (about 10 ounces) dried white beans
1 cup (1/2 pound) canned chickpeas
¼ pound Parmesan crusts (optional)
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
1 sprig fresh rosemary
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
¼ pound tubetti, ditali, or other short tubular macaroni
Extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese for sprinkling

1. In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat, then add the pork, pancetta, and prosciutto skin, if using, and cook, stirring, until they turn color, about 5 minutes. Add the onion, fennel, celery, and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 12 to 15 minutes.
2. Add the chicken broth, white beans, chickpeas, Parmesan crusts, if using, cinnamon stick, bay leaf, and rosemary, bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to medium-low, season with salt and pepper, and cook until the white beans are al dente, about 1¼ hours. Add the pasta and cook, stirring, until they, too, are al dente, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove and discard the cinnamon stick, bay leaf, and rosemary sprig. Both the prosciutto skin and Parmesan crusts can be eaten if desired. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and the grated Parmesan cheese.

Stollen Moment

2009-12-20T16:23:00.014-05:00

Of all the Christmas culinary traditions my mom has taught me--homemade biscotti, stuffed escarole, cinnamon buns--there's one that just never stuck. Despite not having an ounce of German blood, my mom loves stollen. I know, you're thinking, "What the hell is that?" Until recently, I honestly couldn't tell you much more than that it's a bread-like loaf filled with candied fruit and covered in so much powdered sugar that it almost looks like petrified wood. Mom buys herself a stollen from a bakery every Christmas, has a slice or two (my Dad, sister and I never touch the stuff) and then I guess she tosses the rest.

I started thinking about stollen this holiday season, and wondered what it was that my mom loves so much about it. I respect her taste; when she says something's good, it usually is. I looked through my cookbooks and found a recipe in The Joy of Cooking that didn't list any wacky ingredients. Pretty much a German version of pannetone, which I love. So as a surprise for Mom this year, I decided I'd make her a stollen. (Actually, I made six stollens--the recipe yield was huge. Moms going to be eating this stuff 'till July.)

I went with a recipe from a new book on artisan baking, figuring the detail would be helpful. Granted, the detail also meant I'd be involved with the project for the better part of 24 hours, but much of that time was unattended while the dough proofed. Turns out stollen's really not that complicated. It's a sweet yeast bread, with some lemon zest and cinnamon worked into the dough. It's studded with chopped bits of dried apricots, dark and golden raisins, and dried cranberries (which soaked overnight in dark rum and simple syrup; see picture above), plus some slivered almonds. It also has a ribbon of lemony almond paste running through it, a nice little surprise when you later cut a slice. I brushed each loaf with butter and sprinkled it with granulated sugar when it was just out of the oven. The recipe instructs you to then dust it with powdered sugar, but I was having visions of petrified stollen, so I skipped it.

Mom will be the real judge (since I have zero basis for comparison), but I actually think this turned out well. I toasted a slice this afternoon and ate it next to the fire as the snow swirled outside. Sure, the cozy environment helped, but I had to admit, the stollen was tasty. Heavier than pannetone, yes. But more substantial and complex, with a decent crust and a richness, thanks to the almond paste (see this rundown of international holiday sweets to put stollen in some context). I'll report back with Mom's review, so stay tuned.--S

A Holiday Cookie Bonanza

2009-12-16T18:22:00.015-05:00

Last December I did some holiday baking, but was a little too preoccupied with wedding planning to jump into a full day, multi-recipe extravaganza. Not this year! Last weekend, my friend Kate and I churned out three varieties of holiday cookies in a tradition that I'm so glad we resurrected.

On the menu: one repeat from two years ago, Trios. They're just so cute, we couldn't resist. Definitely the labor-intensive entry in the field, but they're worth it. And as Kate pointed out, once you have the right tools (e.g., the right size cylander-shaped object to bore holes for the jelly; a tiny spoon to hold 1/8 of a teaspoon of jam), things go fairly quickly. Making them made me miss Gourmet's always gorgeous holiday cookie spread. I keep thinking the editors probably had their December package all ready to go when the magazine folded in October... and that it's probably lurking on some discarded computer's hard drive.

But onto the new! We went with two cookies Kate had spotted on other food blogs. First up: Sparkling Ginger Chip Cookies from 101 Cookbooks. True, Heidi Swanson's instructions are a tad on the persnickety side (come on--1/2 cup turbinado sugar for the cookie dough, and then an additional 2/3 cup fine grain natural cane sugar--sifted--for the exterior? who sifts sugar?). But I think we have to let her OCD slide here, because these cookies are fabulous. Definitely a sophisticated holiday sweet, with bittersweet chocolate, ground ginger, unsulphured molasses and grated fresh ginger. But so tasty! (They're pictured above, before going into the oven, and at the top of this post, after baking.)

The other recipe, for Maple Cookies from Simply Recipes, was a lot more straightforward. It was almost like a chocolate chip cookie in dough consistency (below) and technique, plus a nice glug of maple syrup (we used Stonewall Kitchen Grade A) and chopped walnuts. The smell of these babies baking was fantastic, so warm and delicious--like pancakes, actually. And the finished cookies? Excellent. Towards the end of the bowl, I guess the batter got a bit thin, so some cookies turned out sans nuts--which is a bit of a disappointment, because the nuts really compliment the maple flavor (and add texture, obviously). But the nut-less cookies would probably work nicely if you felt like having a maple-vanilla ice cream sandwich.

So there you have it. Happy baking!--S

Thanksgiving Simplicity

2009-11-29T15:09:00.004-05:00

Amid the bonanza that is Thanksgiving, a little simplicity is welcome. (Heck, after that last post, I think a no-brainer recipe is in order.) And when it comes to cranberry sauce, I know some people go to extreme measures to keep things simple. But I prefer a more homemade approach. Enter Anna Thomas' Cranberry Sauce.

I discovered this beautifully miniamlist recipe on Cookstr.com while researching a story for work, and was immediately taken with its five-ingredient list (and you only need a "dash" of one of those ingredients, so it's really more like four ingredients plus a smidge). As longtime S&F readers know, I have a bit of a sweet tooth, so this cranberry sauce's sugary tang is right up my alley. Toss in a bit of warm cinnamon and kicky cloves? Sign me up! The recipe originally appeared in Thomas' book The New Vegetarian Epicure, which sounds worth checking out, if only for its recipe for Wild Mushroom and Charred Tomato Soup (yum!).

Make this cranberry sauce throughout the fall and winter, fill your home with a citrusy/spicy aroma, and enjoy keeping things simple.--S

Spoon and Fork Take a Break, The Quest for Good Food Continues...

2009-11-23T08:23:00.029-05:00

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Spoon + Fork blogging to bring you this special announcement: Spoon finds herself a bit busy organizing onesies, mapping out baby furniture, figuring out how to collapse this ba d boy, and prepping the world for the arrival of blueberry (oh, and she looks fab doing it). And fork? Fork is battling some unfortunate jetlag after flying to South Korea to enlighten Asian bibliophiles with his immeasurable knowledge of the future of the publishing industry . Call him Chop Sticks for now. Forks are out. Chop sticks are in.

Luckily, two of S+F’s inner circle of food aficionados have taken over for the week, because you, dear reader, have been deprived since Spoon’s last post about those decadent hazelnut and chocolate buns. Enter your guest bloggers: Fillet Knife and Butcher Twine. Yes, two very underrated kitchen utensils, ones that you may own, but that are probably relegated to that lower utensil drawer amongst the Krustbuster and Bacon Genie. Yet, when it comes to the highfalutin chops of one Julia Child, these two tools should be deemed indispensable.

A little background info so you know we’re legit:

Fillet Knife and Butcher Twine (FK and BT) grew up down the block from each other. They were in the same class from kindergarten through high school, were known throughout Northeastern New Jersey for their tennis court managerial skills, and even battled each other in the annual Gingerbread Throwdown Invitational, in which BT once made a highly impressive gingerbread Parthenon and FK (along with Spoon) showed off a stirring rendition of a gingerbread tiki hut. But we digress...

One night over Checker Cabs at the neighborhood fave Almond, FK and BT discussed the recent Julie and Julia film starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams.

“I mean, did you see that duck? That thing was crazy. Stuffed with all that….stuff….and then wrapped in dough?,” pondered FK.

“I don’t think it’s that hard,” commented BT, “I mean, I bet we could do it”.

Keep in mind neither of us owns Mastering the Art of French Cooking (for shame!), nor has either ever attempted such a feat. We’re fans of simpler, dare we say, healthier alternatives. Never ones to turn down a challenge, however, we hatched our plan.

Pâté de Canard en Croûte, is what you’d call Duck, Stuffed with Pork, Veal, Pork Fat and Then Wrapped Up in Pastry Dough in the vernacular. (Sounds prettier – and less caloric - in French, doesn’t it?)

We won’t bore you with the details, but here’s the basic synopsis of how this all went down.

1. BT expertly put together the dough ahead of time. While doing so, BT realized two things. First, Julia Child’s cookbook predates the days of Kitchen Aid mixers. And second, that Julia seemingly forgot to say when to put the eggs in the recipe. Luckily, BT inherited his mother’s baking / pastry skills and was able to correctly guess when they needed to be added to the dough.

2. FK assembled the stuffing – veal/pork/salt pork (cured pork fat), eggs, spices, and a marsala/port reduction with butter and chopped onion. (cue the music).

The reduction made FK smile and think of one of Julia’s best-known lines, “I love cooking with wine—sometimes I even put it in the food.”

These two steps, if ever you decide to make this dish, are best done ahead of time. Consider them your mise en place. That way, you'll feel like a Top Chef, and Tom Colicchio can tell you that your flavor profiles are spot on, you'll win a billion dollars and enough Glad plastic wrap to last you a lifetime. Since this recipe takes up a good five or six pages in the original Mastering… know that it’s a long process, and might take 4-5 hours in all.

FK and BT got together on a rainy Saturday night with the recipe, tools, and ingredients necessary. They brought their A game. Parched before they even began, BT poured a few glasses of wine.

The first step of this recipe has you bone the duck. We took Donald (a 5-pounder from the renowned Otomanelli Brothers) out of his packaging (note the funny “I’m gonna carve myself up now!” logo below)

...and began the ~~dissection~~ ~~dismemberment~~ butchering.

Using a very sharp fillet knife, FK and BT skillfully carved down the backbone and along the rib cage, marveling at how easily the breast meat fell away from the bone. And heavens, what fat! Those ducks obviously haven't heard of heart-healthy eating.

Navigating our way through the wing and thigh joints, however, was a bit tricky. “When you come to the ball joints connecting the wings and the second joints to the carcass, sever them,” says Julia.

But on which side? Perplexed, we decided to wing it (pun intended), and using some nifty kitchen shears, cut the joints down the middle.

Pretty confident and proud of ourselves, we scanned over the recipe and chuckled at our favorite line of the night, “By the time you have completed half of this, the carcass frame, dangling legs, wings and skin will appear to be an unrecognizable mass of confusion and you will wonder how in the world any sense can be made of it all.”

Oh Julia, you have such a way with words.

The following conversation ensued:

BT: This whole butchering thing isn’t all that hard.

FK: (carving here, trimming there) Top off that wine glass and let’s figure out how to take the cavity out of the bird. Eww, this is so gross.

BT: I think we need to be extra careful when cutting between the skin and the breastbone. Julia says the skin is very thin and can be easily slit.

FK: I’m sure we can figure it…oh…yeah…I see…she’s right. Hmm. I don’t really know how we can cut it out without cutting some of the skin.

BT: Well, I think we already botched it when we cut a few holes in the skin to remove the wings, so we’ll just wrap it in extra twine.

Relieved, duck cavity removed (along with the bag of undesirable organ meats, the neck, and God knows what else…), we threw it in a bowl and set it aside (looks scrumptious, doesn’t it?!)

FK brought out the stuffing and BT took over, chopping up some of the breast meat we had removed, and mixed it with yet more marsala, port, salt, pepper, etc. (We think at this point, you could veer from the original recipe and add any type of herbs you like, chopped mushrooms, perhaps, even some toasted breadcrumbs if you wanted to make it less dense).

We amassed the, um, mass, and molded it into a meatloaf-shaped pile inside the duck. So far, so good. Protein inside protein inside pastry. What could go wrong?

Here is the point at which we realized a few important details:

a) our duck was bigger than the one in the recipe, thus making it heavier, and all around bulkier (balkier? No, bulkier).

b) we had a few unfortunate holes, which allowed the stuffing to kinda peek out.

But we're quick. We know the drill, so we wrapped the heck out of our duck with a lot of twine, and instead of browning it in a frying pan (maybe a paella pan would've worked, but alas, we were without one), we put it on a baking sheet and stuck it under the broiler for a few minutes, getting a little crispiness to appear on each side.

Once out of the oven, we let it cool, and BT rolled out 2/3 of the chilled dough, which we then wrapped around the bottom portion of the duck. It came up pretty far, and kinda looked like a papoose (not to be confused with capital P Papoose).

The top third was rolled out and put on top.

At this point, we were tired, but having a good time. Julia, always the consummate connoisseur of the kitchen, suggested we use the leftover dough to cut out some pretty flowers. The explanation and accompanying pictures took up almost an entire page. We decided instead to adorn our pièce de résistance with our real life initials.

The masterpiece went into the oven on a rack over a pan (enough fat oozed out to fill 1/2 coffee can. Nice!) for about 2 1/2 hours. We let the meat cool for over an hour (during which time, steam poured out of the steam hole we had put on top of the duck (per Julia) at a ferocious speed.)

Thankfully, one very kind soul joined us for a taste. And guess what! It wasn't all that bad. It reminded FK of a very meaty, sumptuous calzone. BT thought it was similar to a fancy meatloaf wrapped in pastry dough (and since BT is a meatloaf fan, that is a compliment). The dough was crunchy on the outside, (shiny from an egg wash) hiding moist stuffing inside.

The real gem, though, was the back of the duck, the tender pieces of thigh that were hidden under layers of flaky pastry, surrounded by the stuffing.

Would you whip this up on a Tuesday night? Probably not. Was it worth the 4+ hours of work? Possibly.

Did it inspire us to try a turducken? Oh yes. But it's definitely tastier than its Tex-Mex successors, the Cheesy Gordita Crunch Supreme or whatever it is they serve over at Taco Town these days.

Better Buns

2009-10-18T12:41:00.005-04:00

The smell of a cinnamon roll is a pretty great thing. I haven't had a Cinnabon since high school, but whenever I pass a shop at a mall or a highway rest stop, the sweet, yeasty aroma tempts me (and then I walk on by, knowing that three bites in I'll feel stuffed and sugared into a coma). Even though Chocolate and Hazelnut Buns don't have cinnamon in them, this morning, they filled our apartment with that delicious, bready, buttery scent. It didn't hurt that it was cold and rainy outside, so our home, with the scent of the buns plus a freshly brewed pot of coffee, was a pretty heavenly place to be.

Okay, enough olfactory descriptions. The recipe for these rolls comes from a forthcoming cookbook on baking around the world, and is a nice twist (ha) on the traditional cinnamon bun. Instead of lacing the buttery dough with cinnamon, you use a blend of finely chopped hazelnuts, cocoa powder and sugar. Other than that, things are pretty straightforward: make a dough from flour, yeast, sugar, salt, melted butter, an egg and lukewarm milk. Knead, then let it rise. Roll it out into a big rectangle, spread it with butter and top that with the filling. Then roll the whole thing up, slice it and pack each bun into a baking pan. And get ready for some mighty fine smells to come out of your kitchen.

The rolls are very good, not too sweet but perfect with coffee. I'm not sure how they'll taste at room temperature, but five minutes after baking, they're pretty perfect. And much better than a Cinnabon.--S

Chocolate and Hazelnut Buns
Makes 9 buns [I got 9 large buns and 3 mini buns out of the recipe]

Dough
2 1/3 c white bread flour
1 1/2 t active dry yeast
2 t sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 stick butter, melted and cooled [I used unsalted]
1 egg, beaten
About 2/3 c milk, lukewarm

Filling
2/3 c hazelnuts
1/3 c granulated sugar
1/4 c cocoa powder
1/2 stick butter, very well softened

1. Place all the ingredients for the dough in a large bowl and mix to moisten the dry ingredients. Use a heavy-duty mixer fitted with a dough hook to knead thoroughly until smooth and supple. Alternatively, turn out onto a floured surface or a non-stick silicone mat and knead until smooth and supple. Bring together in a ball and return to the bowl. [I used a plastic bowl because I've heard dough doesn't rise as quickly in a metal bowl.] Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp dish towel and set aside in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size.

2. For the filling, pulse all the ingredients except the butter in a food processor until the nuts are very finely chopped. Set aside until needed.

3. Punch down the dough and knead briefly until it is smooth. On a lightly floured surface, roll it out to a rectangle about 16" x 12". Use a pastry brush or your fingers to spread the butter over the dough, leaving about 3/4" clear on all sides. Sprinkle the filling evenly over this. It is a generous amount, but the butter will eventually absorb it. Roll up from one long end. Trim the roll so that it measures 14" and discard the end pieces [I used the ends to make mini rolls with the filling that fell out as I cut the main roll.] Cut the resulting log at intervals of 1 1/2", so that you end up with 9 pieces.

4. Grease and line an 8" square baking pan, then arrange the dough pieces in three rows of three [I tucked the mini rolls in there too]. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and leave it in a warm place until almost doubled in size. The buns will now be pressing cozily against each other; this slight over-crowding gives nice soft sides.

5. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Leave in the pan for about 5 minutes before turning out in its entirety onto a wire rack. Break the buns off as needed. That way, the sides stay softer for longer.

It's Good to Be Home

2009-09-22T21:40:00.005-04:00

I may have been sipping passion fruit and acai juices last week in Brazil, but I had fall on my mind. It was the middle of September and I couldn't wait to get home to go apple picking. I'd already made plans to drive up to an orchard near Warwick, NY, the day after I got back, and thankfully, when the day came, it was gorgeous.

My sister and I headed to Jessup Road Orchard and spent a beautiful morning picking half a bushel of apples. Though the woman working at the shop gave us a map explaining which varieties were ready for picking, we got a little lost once we were out in the orchard, so we aren't exactly sure what kind of apples we wound up with. Our m.o. went something like this: pull an apple off a tree, polish it on our shirt, take a bite. If it was crisp and sweet and maybe a little tart, too, we'd go to town and pick a dozen or more. If it didn't have quite as sharp a bite, we tossed it and moved on. It was a flawless system.

I've been eating about four apples a day since Sunday, and tonight I wanted to do something different. After a long day at work and an hour of tennis, I didn't have the energy for a pie. What I did have, though, was butter, buttermilk and kitchen staples like flour, sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon. And plenty of apples! Just the things for Apple Upside-Down Biscuit Cake.

This tarte tatin-like dessert is super-simple. You melt butter in a skillet, stir in brown sugar, and lay apple slices on top. Then you drop a basic biscuit dough on top, spreading it all over the apples, and bake it for 20 minutes or so. The only tricky part comes when the cake's out of the oven, since you have to invert it onto a plate. I advise waiting longer than the recipe's suggested three minutes, and I actually let Fork do the heavy lifting (and he did singe a few arm hairs in the process). But the end result is a delicious cake, light and rustic. This is the perfect weeknight dessert, or the ideal sweet for people who say they don't bake. And it's making me so glad to be back home.--S

Apple Upside-Down Biscuit Cake

For topping:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 lb Granny Smith apples [or other tart apples], peeled, cored, and cut into thin wedges

For cake:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk

Accompaniment: crème fraîche or sour cream (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Heat butter in an ovenproof 10-inch heavy skillet (preferably well-seasoned cast-iron) over moderate heat until foam subsides. Stir in brown sugar and remove from heat. Spread mixture evenly in skillet and arrange apples, overlapping, in 1 layer.
2. Blend flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, salt, and cinnamon in a food processor. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Transfer to a bowl and add buttermilk, stirring just until mixture is moistened.
3. Drop batter on top of apples and gently spread, leaving a 1-inch border around edge of skillet. (Cake needs room to expand.)
4. Bake cake in middle of oven until golden brown and firm to the touch, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool cake in skillet on a rack 3 minutes [I suggest 10 minutes], then invert onto a platter. Replace any apples that stick to skillet on cake. Serve warm.

Recipe courtesy of Gourmet

Corn! Part 2

2009-08-29T19:52:00.004-04:00

Here's a really fabulous recipe for these last few weeks of summer. It combines seafood, corn and a little spice, is easy to put together, and pretty much constitutes a full meal on its own, though you could make a tomato or green salad alongside it. And then you're set: a summery, (reasonably) healthy, easy, seasonal dish that--bonus!--looks pretty on the plate, too. (And you don't need a grill to make it; I used a cast-iron grill pan and it worked marvelously.)

To make Grilled Scallops with Mexican Corn Salad, you start by grilling ears of corn, letting the kernels get charred in places and a little blistery in others. Once they're done and cool enough to handle, you cut the kernels off the cob, and mix them with a light dressing of garlic, red onion, lime juice, mayonnaise (I said this dish was reasonably healthy) and chile powder. You can add cotija or ricotta salata cheese, though I skipped it, since I thought the mayo would lend the dish enough creaminess (which it did--for our taste, anyway).

Corn salad done, you grill sea scallops, which takes all of six or so minutes, and lay them atop the corn. Squirt a little lime juice on top, and voila! The corn salad has a fantastic kick (I did add a touch of hot sauce in addition to the chile powder), and a little heft from the mayo. The kernels of corn are the perfect springy contrast to the tender scallops. Fork and I ate every last bite of this terrific meal on a recent weeknight, alongside a green salad, and then enjoyed some watermelon sorbet for dessert. Ah, summer!--S

Grilled Scallops with Mexican Corn Salad

serves 4

1 garlic clove, minced
1 T minced red onion
2 T fresh lime juice
8 small ears of corn, husked
Vegetable oil, for brushing
1/3 c mayonnaise
1 t pure ancho chile powder
4 oz cotija or ricotta salata cheese, crumbled (1 1/4 c)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Hot sauce
12 large sea scallops
Lime wedges, for serving

1. Light a grill. In a large bowl, toss the garlic and onion with the lime juice and let stand for 10 minutes.
2. Brush the corn with oil and grill over moderate heat until charred and just tender, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a work surface and cut the kernels off the cobs.
3. Whisk the mayonnaise and chile powder into the garlic, onion and lime juice. Add the cheese and corn to the bowl and toss. Season with salt, pepper and hot sauce.
4. Brush the scallops with vegetable oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill over high heat until nicely browned and barely cooked through, about 3 minutes per side. Spoon the corn salad onto 4 plates and top with the scallops. Serve with lime wedges.

Recipe courtesy of Food & Wine

Corn!

2009-08-18T20:34:00.006-04:00

'Tis the season. For corn, that is. I know corn gets such a bad rap these days, but I am still in love with fresh summer corn on the cob. Boil it, broil it, grill it, whatever. I love it. But here's a new take on fresh summer corn: baked with cream, cheese and herbs, bubbling and brown in its own little crock. I couldn't resist.

The recipe for Farm-Fresh Taleggio Creamed Corn, from Hudson Valley Mediterranean, is pretty simple and allows for lots of variation. You slice corn kernels off the cob and saute them with shallots, garlic and herbs (in this case, thyme and parsley). Add wine or sugar if desired, then some sort of milk/cream (I used whole milk). A little thickener in the form of a flour/water paste, and then stir in cheese and more herbs (chives). A this point you've got a really nice vegetable side. But if you really want to do it right, you portion the corn into ramekins, top them with grated parmesan, and put them under the broiler for a few minutes.

The result is a sort of summer mac 'n cheese, obviously a little more toothsome than pasta, but just as comforting and rich. Like I said, I couldn't resist.--S

Farm-Fresh Taleggio Creamed Corn

Makes 6 to 8 servings

6 ears fresh corn
3 T olive oil
2 shallots, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 T chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 t fresh thyme leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 c dry white wine (optional)
2 t sugar (optional—taste a kernel of corn to see if it’s needed)
1 T all-purpose flour
1 1/3 c milk or half-and-half
3 oz Taleggio cheese, cut into small pieces
2 T fresh chives
1/4 c grated Grana Padano or Parmesan cheese (optional)

Slice the kernels from the corncobs; you should have 4 to 5 cups of kernels. Then scrape the cobs with a sharp knife to get all the milk and pulp. Reserve the kernels separately from the milk and pulp.

Add the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic and cook, stirring, until the shallots soften, 3 to 4 minutes. Increase the heat to medium-high, and stir in the corn kernels, 2 tablespoons of the parsley, and the thyme. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook, tossing or stirring often, until the kernels are cooked and lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Add the reserved corn milk and pulp. Stir in the white wine and the sugar, if using, and cook until the liquid has almost completely evaporated, 3 to 4 minutes.

Blend the flour with 2 tablespoons water, and stir the mixture into the corn. Then whisk in the milk or half-and-half. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook, stirring, until thickened, about 3 minutes. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper as needed, and stir in the remaining parsley. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the Taleggio and chives.

Serve immediately, or transfer the mixture to ovenproof crocks or ramekins, sprinkle the tops with the Grana Padano, and broil under high heat until the tops are bubbly and browned.

Recipe courtesy of Hudson Valley Mediterranean

Lovely Rita

2009-08-08T09:38:00.007-04:00

In my devotion to Rita's Water Ice and keen interest in making homemade ice creams and sorbets, I've always wished I could find a way to make a frozen dessert that had the vibrant fruit flavor and perfectly slushy texture of Rita's at home. I never had much success. Until now.

I'd torn a recipe for Watermelon Sorbet from Patricia Wells out of Runner's World earlier this summer, impressed by its simplicity. All you needed to make it was watermelon, simple syrup and lemon or lime juice. Wells said you didn't even need to an ice cream maker. I knew that with such a straightforward ingredient list, and watermelons being so tasty right now, that the sorbet would be good. I just didn't know it would taste just like Rita's.

The freezers at a typical Rita's store keep the water ice at the perfect firmness, between frozen and slushy. This watermelon sorbet somehow manages to achieve that same consistency, both fresh out of the ice cream maker and after having been in the freezer for a day. Maybe the simple syrup lends it a cohesiveness, rather than icing up into a frozen mass like sugar would. Or maybe it's the watermelon, the texture of which is kind of fibrous compared to other fruits. Whatever it is, it's delicious.--S

Watermelon Sorbet

Cube eight to 10 cups of watermelon (discard seeds). Puree in a blender until you have four cups. Mix with two tablespoons fresh lemon or lime juice and one cup simple syrup (boil equal parts water and sugar until sugar dissolves; then let syrup cool). Chill in an ice-cream maker, or leave in your freezer until slushy.

Recipe courtesy of Runner's World

Don't Judge a Casserole...

2009-07-27T21:02:00.005-04:00

I admit Chile Relleno Casserole does not have "Spoon" written all over it. It's true that it doesn't require a long list of ingredients and can be prepared fairly quickly--two qualities I often look for in a recipe. But I'm generally not a casserole kind of girl (Italian casseroles like baked ziti, lasagna and baked macaroni not withstanding). Also, since "relleno" means "stuffed" or "filled," I couldn't figure out what was stuffed in this recipe. I envisioned the labor-intensive task of stuffing individual chilies with some sort of complicated mixture. Still, when I met cookbook author and publisher Tod Davies and she singled this recipe out as one that epitomized her approach to cooking, I knew I had to give it a try.

This is definitely a case of "you don't know until you try it," because Chile Relleno Casserole is actually quite good. It's essentially a layered vegetable-cheese-egg dish, a sort of twist on huevos rancheros. The bottom layer is shredded jack cheese. On top of that are diced roasted green peppers, then canned green chilies, then shredded cheddar. Over this you pour a mixture of beaten eggs and milk, seasoned with salt, and then top it with paprika. You bake it in a 350-degree oven for 40 minutes or so, and that's it.

I used smoky Spanish paprika (Fork came home about halfway through the cooking and said, "Smells like bacon"--ha!), which I think gave the dish a little depth. We topped our servings with chopped scallion and cilantro, and a squirt of lime juice. With some blue corn tortilla chips, this made a light, easy supper. Here's to trying new things...--S

Chile Relleno Casserole

Serves 4-6

1. Roast 2 large green peppers. Seed them. Dice into large pieces.
2. Get about 1 1/2 seven-ounce cans Ortega green chiles, whole or diced, about 11 ounces.
3. Grate 10 ounces Jack cheese (.63 lb.) and 10 ounces sharp Cheddar.
4. 1 1/3 c. of milk.
5. In a huge, flat casserole that's been greased, spread the Jack, the peppers, the chile, the Cheddar.
6. Beat 3 large eggs. Add the milk and 1/2 t salt. Pour over casserole mixture. Paprika top.
7. Bake at 350 for about 40-50 minutes.

Note: I halved the recipe, using one can of chilies, about 4 ounces of each of the cheeses, and one egg.

Recipe courtesy of Jam Today.

My New Favorite Cut

2009-06-03T22:07:00.003-04:00

Fork's favorite cut of beef is a tie between flank steak and skirt steak. He says they're the most flavorful cuts and "just taste the best." They're also very forgiving, he says. Dedicated readers of this blog will notice I don't cook a lot of beef, but it's not because I don't like it. I just don't really know what I'm doing. But flank steak and skirt steak are forgiving! And flavorful! And I am here to tell you Fork was absolutely right. (Duh!)

I picked up just under a pound of Skirt Steak and marinated it for an hour in a Ziploc bag filled with a delicious puree made from olive oil, soy sauce, scallions, red onions, garlic, lemon juice, red pepper flakes, cumin and brown sugar. After an hour, I took the meat out, blotted it semi-dry with a paper towel, and fired up my griddle on the highest flame for a full five minutes. And then, I laid the meat onto the sizzling hot pan, and sizzle it did. The sizzle was very dramatic and meaty, I have to say. It made me feel like a serious chef. Or it did for just a few minutes, anyway, because the steak didn't take very long to cook. About two minutes per side (I'd cut the meat into three pieces), and then I took it off the pan to rest.

The steak had taken on a black char in parts, I'm guessing from the sugar in the marinade hitting the super-hot pan. But inside, it was perfectly medium rare. The marinade gave the steak a little bit of heat, but also a subtle sweetness. It was pretty fantastic, actually. I think I may have a new favorite cut of beef now, too.--S

Skirt Steak

1/2 c olive oil
1/3 c soy sauce
4 scallions, washed and cut in 1/2
2 large cloves garlic
1/4 c lime juice [I used lemon juice, only because I didn't have any limes]
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1/2 t ground cumin
3 T dark brown sugar or Mexican brown sugar
2 pounds inside skirt steak, cut into 3 equal pieces

1. In a blender, put in oil, soy sauce, scallions, garlic, lime juice, red pepper, cumin, and sugar and puree. In a large heavy duty, zip top bag, put pieces of skirt steak and pour in marinade. Seal bag, removing as much air as possible. Allow steak to marinate for 1 hour in refrigerator.

2. Remove steak from bag and pat dry with paper towels.

3. Heat griddle at highest flame and let it heat up for five minutes. Put steak on griddle and cook about two minutes per side. Let rest 10 minutes.

Marinade from Alton Brown

Dinner at Home, Finally

2009-05-31T20:58:00.006-04:00

After spending three days schlepping around the Javits Center for BookExpo, I wanted nothing more tonight than a home-cooked meal. This year's show did entail some good eats, including a wonderful party hosted by the Lee Bros., which featured boiled peanuts, fried chicken and Dogfish Head beer. But it also entailed choking down a squished turkey sandwich in the basement of the convention center as I filed stories on deadline.

So a homemade dinner was definitely on the menu. I decided to make Hunter's-Style Chicken with Rosemary, which sounds much better in Italian: Pollo alla Cacciatora. I'll save my grandfather's legendary version for another post, but this version, from Lidia's Italy, is very, very good. It fit the bill nicely. The ingredient list is brief (chicken, garlic, rosemary, red pepper flakes, plum tomatoes). The procedure couldn't be simpler (brown chicken in olive oil; add garlic, rosemary, hot pepper, crushed tomatoes and water; simmer). And the finished dish was satisfying and delicious.

I made a pot of polenta while the chicken simmered (whisk 1 cup cornmeal with 1 cup water and a dash of salt; stir in 2 cups boiling water; cook over medium heat, stirring, until desired consistency). As Lidia advises (and you know how I trust her), it's nice to spoon the chicken--which, once finished, is falling off the bone--and tomato sauce on top. The polenta soaks up the sauce, everything melds together, and you've got a wonderful meal. Happiness.--S

Hunter’s-Style Chicken with Rosemary

4-lb chicken cut into 8-10 pieces (I used thighs and drumsticks)
1 1/2 t sea salt or kosher salt or to taste
1/2 c extra virgin olive oil
8 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced in half
2 short branches fresh rosemary with lots of needles
1/2 ts peperoncino flakes or to taste
4 c or a 35 oz can of canned Italian plum tomatoes, preferably San Marzano, crushed by hand

1. Rinse chicken and pat dry. Season with salt. Pour olive oil in pan and set over medium high heat. Place chicken skin side down in pan to brown for 2 to 3 minutes. Turn them over and brown another 2 to 3 minutes. Scatter the garlic into the hot fat in between chicken and then drop in rosemary stems and sprinkle peperoncino over.
2. Keep turning chicken until nicely browned all over, 10 minutes or so, then pour in tomatoes slowly. Slosh the tomato can with a cup of water and pour that in too. Sprinkle another 1/2 tsp salt, raise heat, and turn and stir chicken in juices as they come to a boil.
3. Cover pan, leaving slightly ajar. Adjust heat to maintain steady bubbling. Cook for 20 minutes stirring occasionally and turning chicken. Remove cover and cook another 20 minutes until chicken is tender and cooked through.

Recipe courtesy of Lidia's Italy

Culture Club

2009-05-26T21:18:00.007-04:00

Yogurt doesn't really get the props it deserves. Obviously it's an easy, healthy breakfast food (my fave: honey, blueberries and some clumps of granola). It's also a great dessert (sprinkle some sugar on top; serve with bananas and a dash of cinnamon). But I also use it as a sauce (stir in some feta, chopped scallions, salt and pepper; or just swirl in some cumin and salt). Plus, you can make it into cheese! With such endless possibilities, I buy a lot of yogurt. And a few months ago I started thinking about making my own.

So I got a yogurt maker. I'm still playing around with the length of time I keep the yogurt in the machine, but the most recent batch I made was delicious. After catching a yogurt-centric episode of Good Eats, I followed a recipe from Alton Brown, and I was impressed. He calls for organic milk, a bit of powdered milk, a dash of honey and a little bit of actual yogurt (so you can build upon the cultures to make your own). The yogurt turned out tangy, smooth and thick but pour-able. I hadn't had yogurt this tasty since our favorite breakfast spot in Tulum.

I know people say appliances that have only one function are a waste. And I know that in a New York City apartment I should probably be judicious about what new gadgets I bring in to my kitchen. But this yogurt maker is kind of cool looking ("Euro Cuisine!"), and, well, I'll admit I was pretty taken with the little glass jars with lids that have an adjustable window for you to change the date (so you know how old the yogurt is when you store it in your refrigerator). I'm such a sucker!

But aside from the fun gadgetry, this yogurt really is delicious. I'm going to try some variations in the next few weeks, so stay tuned. -S

Whoopee

2009-05-17T20:53:00.005-04:00

First let me say that my Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies looked nothing like the picture in Martha Stewart's Cookies (not the first time that's happened). I followed the recipe, but they were not smooth and flat, did not resemble chocolate pancakes, and were instead kind of bulging, amorphous blobs. I used a cookie scoop to make sure each one was the same size, so I don't think that was the problem. I think it had something to do with my oven, which doesn't recover too well when I open the door (as in, the temperature drops and doesn't come back up for, like, 20 minutes. I need to deal with this problem, I know).

Okay, now that I've gotten that out of the way: these whoopie pies really are tasty. A decadent dessert, no doubt--there's a lot of butter between the cakes and the frosting, not to mention buttermilk and lots of sugar. But chocolate and peanut butter go well together, as you might have heard. The cakes are light, and the frosting's divine--especially with a dash of sea salt mixed into it. If you're making these for a party, you might want to make each cake with just a tablespoon of batter, so your pies are a little more bite-sized and manageable. If you're making them for a smaller group, go big. Your friends won't complain, I promise.--S

Forget Cornflakes

2009-05-14T21:19:00.005-04:00

I've heard of using crushed cornflakes to coat chicken, but crushed tortilla chips? That's a new one. Turns out it's a really good one, too.

To make Tortilla Chicken Drumsticks, you whirl corn tortilla chips in a food processor with chili powder, cumin and salt (though you'll want to watch your salt since the chips are pretty salty themselves) until they're coarsely ground. Then you dip chicken drumsticks in a mixture of egg and chili powder (I used cayenne), let the excess drip off, and roll the drumsticks in the ground chip mixture. It adheres quite nicely, thanks to the egg, though you may want to press it on to any spots that didn't pick it up. And into a hot oven they go. After 40 or so minutes, you have crispy, moist, spicy, delicious chicken that could become your new favorite weeknight dinner. No huge ingredient list, items that are easy to find, and inexpensive, to boot.

On the side, roast some potato wedges, and serve everything with Cilantro-Lime Mayonnaise, which tempers the chicken's heat really nicely, and a squeeze of lime juice. You can keep your cornflakes. I'm sticking with tortilla chips.--S

All Hail Mikey G

2009-05-12T22:42:00.006-04:00

At a talent show-themed birthday party when I was a kid, my cousin Mike dressed up as Julia Child and gave a cooking demonstration. He was about 10 years old. I don't remember what he made but it entailed him telling us to "Set your flame at a nice speed," in a high-pitched voice. Fast-forward about 20 years, and Mike's living in California wine country and still loves to cook. Whether it's lobster bisque or a simple tomato sauce and meatballs, the kid does it really well. The only recipe I have of his is for Caesar Salad Dressing, and though that may seem like a throwaway, it's actually become a staple in my kitchen.

The dressing is just garlicky enough and the perfect consistency for dressing on crisp romaine. I make a few adjustments, like toning down the anchovies, and rarely make an entire recipe, since a halved recipe is usually more than enough for a salad that serves four. You must use a blender or mini-food processor, first to make sure you've pureed the garlic and anchovy, but second because a blender aerates the dressing somewhat, so it's a little frothy and not at all gooey (it's beyond me how waiters who prepare Caesar Salad tableside in fancy restaurants achieve this consistency).

I seriously urge you to make this dressing next time you're having friends, Romans, countrymen over (ha). They'll be hailing you.--S

Caesar Salad

(in blender)
1 c olive oil
4-5 cloves garlic
1 can anchovies [I use only 3 or 4 anchovies]
1 heaping t Dijon mustard
5-6 shakes Worcestershire sauce
1 egg
1/2 c grated parmesan cheese
1/4 to 1/3 c red wine vinegar
Juice from 1/2 lemon
Pinch of salt
Pepper

Back to Basics

2009-05-08T09:42:00.008-04:00

After three attempts at vegan baking (in addition to these, I also made a so-so banana bread), I was anxious to get back to what I knew. You know: eggs, butter, sugar, buttermilk. So I reached for a cookbook that never fails me: Kathleen's Bake Shop Cookbook. Aunt Betty had placed a "very good" note on the recipe for Orange Poppy Seed Muffins. I've always liked the lemon-poppy seed combination and had a feeling I'd like orange-poppy, too.

I was right: these muffins are delicious. They are moist, thanks to buttermilk; and light, since the recipe instructs you to beat the egg yolks into the batter, then separately whip the egg whites until they form soft peaks and fold them into the batter. Orange zest brightens the flavor, and the soft crunch of poppy seeds is really nice.

Of course, you will note that the muffin in the photo looks a little well done. I'm still trying to figure out my new oven, although I'm not entirely sure it's a matter of me getting used to it (I think it may need recalibration). But even with their toasty tops, these muffins are pretty terrific. If you know what you're doing with your oven, they'll be even better.--S

Orange Poppy Seed Muffins

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour

1 1/4 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/4 t salt

1/2 c butter, softened

3/4 c granulated sugar

2 eggs, separated

1 T freshly grated orange rind

1 t vanilla extract

1/2 c buttermilk

2 T poppy seeds

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Grease nine 3" x 1 1/2" muffin cups.

2. In a medium-sized bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the orange rind and vanilla.

4. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to the butter mixture. Fold in the poppy seeds. Beat egg whites to soft peaks and fold into batter. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling them to the top.

5. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in center of one muffin comes out clean.

Recipe courtesy of Kathleen's Bake Shop Cookbook

Veal Burger

2009-05-05T21:31:00.005-04:00

You know what to do when life gives you lemons... but what about when life gives you leftover ground veal? Make Veal Burgers Stuffed with Mozzarella Cheese.

I'd always thought a cheese-stuffed burger sounded a bit over-the-top. But ground veal has a pretty subtle flavor, so adding cheese (and chopped green onions) gives it a little oomph. Also, it's fun to make little cheese sandwiches with two patties of meat as bread! I'd never had a veal burger before, and it turns out that veal is actually a terrific meat for burgers because it's moist and holds together nicely. It's on the leaner side, so adding some fat--in this case fresh mozzarella--is perfectly justified, in my mind.

This recipe has you whip up a mustard-mayo sauce with lemon zest and sage, which you spread atop the burgers. It also advises you to roast some portobello mushrooms with olive oil and garlic, and put those on your burger, too. I endorse this without hesitation.

"We hated that," Fork commented at the end of dinner. Our plates were wiped clean.--S

Adventures in Veganism

2009-05-02T16:54:00.011-04:00

I'm pretty sure that the photo at left is not vegan-friendly. For one, the milk is from a cow. And secondly, the chocolate chips in that delicious little brownie bite are not vegan chocolate chips. But other than that, I think the vegans would be proud: I am experimenting with vegan baking. Not because I want to become a vegan (I just picked up some sausage for dinner), but because I recently visited BabyCakes NYC, a bakery on the Lower East Side where baker Erin McKenna makes vegan cupcakes, cookies, brownies, scones, muffins and other baked goods. And here's the thing: everything I tasted there was really good.

So I was curious about trying a few recipes from Erin's new book, BabyCakes. Unfortunately, this meant spending about $40 at the health food store on things like xanthan gum and arrowroot. I know: xan-what? Arrowhead? Seriously. This is all brand-new to me, and I'm not quite sold on it yet. But I'm up for the experiment.

The first thing I tried was the Apple-Cinnamon Toastie quickbread. Weird ingredients: garbanzo-fava bean flour, potato starch, arrowroot, xanthan gum, coconut oil ($12 a jar!) and evaporated cane juice (which I learned is a fancy way of saying natural cane sugar--so I guess it's not weird after all). Not weird: baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, applesauce, vanilla extract and roasted apples. The bread was terrific out of the oven: moist and not overly sweet. But the next morning it was a soggy mess. A tasty soggy mess, but still. Was it because I wrapped it with plastic wrap? Maybe it needed a little air. Or was it some sort of vegan thing?

At least I had most of the ingredients I needed for Brownies. The only thing I needed to buy were chocolate chips (of course, the recipe specifies vegan chocolate chips, but--guess what?--Gristede's doesn't sell them, and I wasn't up for another trip to the completely disorienting baking aisle of the health food store). So in went all the wacky vegan ingredients like garbanzo bean flour and arrowroot (which smells pretty great, actually), and... the brownies turned out great. I mean, delicious. Really! Rich, chocolate-y and the perfect thing with an ice cold glass of... milk. Like I said, I am not going vegan. But I'll eat their brownies!--S

Summer's Visit

2009-04-27T07:11:00.005-04:00

Yes, springtime's all about asparagus, rhubarb and ramps, but 85 degrees in April calls for summertime food. I'm talking potato salad, some vegetables thrown together in a quick dressing, and a terrific new scallop dish that I can easily see becoming a regular meal around here once summer arrives for good.

The recipe comes from Rick Moonen's Fish Without a Doubt, a book I'd skimmed for months but hadn't actually cooked from until recently. The marinade caught my eye not only because of its sweet-spicy combination, but because it looked so simple (and I was really needing a simple recipe, having run a half-marathon that morning in 80 degrees, and having totally flopped at dinner the night before). Sea Scallops with Jalapeno-Grapefruit Marinade it was.

The marinade is pretty tart from grapefruit juice and zest, and considerably spicy, with about one and a half diced jalapenos, seeds, ribs and all. But you're only marinating the scallops in the jalapenos, not actually eating them, so it's a very palatable spice. The marinade's other ingredients are cilantro, scallions and dry vermouth (you could probably use a dry white wine)--all summertime staples around here. After marinating the scallops for an hour, we seared them on a griddle (obviously if you had a grill you would use it here) for about three minutes per side.

They were fantastic. A little spicy, and sweet from the grapefruit. Moonen says this is terrific with head-on shrimp, too, which I'll definitely try once summer's here for good.--S

Sea Scallops with Jalapeno-Grapefruit Marinade

Serves 4 (8 as an appetizer)

Grated zest of 1 grapefruit
Juice of 2 grapefruits (about 1 1/3 c, and pulp is fine)
1/4 c minced jalapeno chiles (with seeds)
1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 c chopped scallions
1/3 c dry vermouth
3 T olive oil
16 large sea scallops, tough bits removed
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Stir the grapefruit zest and juice together with the jalapenos, cilantro, scallions, vermouth and olive oil in a baking dish or plastic container.
2. Immerse the scallops in the marinade, cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
3. Prepare a grill so it's very hot.
4. Take the scallops out of the marinade. Season them with salt and pepper and brush them with vegetable oil.
5. Brush the grill with vegetable oil. Grill the scallops for 3 minutes per side. Scallops are like little sponges--they soak up the marinade, which will slow down the cooking. Don't expect these to get very brown, though you should have grill marks.

Recipe courtesy of Fish Without a Doubt

Thrifty and Good

2009-04-13T07:47:00.005-04:00

So I hear, there's an elegant restaurant in San Francisco called Spruce where chef Mark Sullivan prepares dishes like California caviar with a potato blini and a brioche ($90) and buttered Maine lobster with gnochhi ($40). An article in Food & Wine a few months ago offered "thrifty" versions of a few of Sullivan's recipes, and while the whole idea of making these fancy dishes for less was a good enough gimmick, what really drew me in was the recipe for Cod with Artichokes and Chickpeas.

At Spruce, Sullivan makes this dish--which is essentially cod fillets browned in a skillet with some olive oil, served over a melange of veggies softened by simmering with chicken stock and seasoned with some herbs--with highbrow ingredients like chanterelle mushrooms and baby artichokes. He charges customers $29. For F&W's home version, they suggest using shiitake mushrooms and frozen artichoke hearts. (I wound up using jarred artichoke hearts, and they worked just fine.) I think Fork & I spent about $29 total for all the groceries we needed for this dish, and it served two, with plenty of vegetables leftover to toss with pasta for another meal.

The other ingredients in the dish are onion, carrots, garlic and chickpeas, so it's pretty healthy. And tasty; the cod was cooked just enough for buttery bite-sized pieces to flake off perfectly. Each bite was a little different, depending on which veggies you'd picked up on your fork. It was a lovely meal, no need for accompaniments, and we wiped our plates clean, thinking, "Twenty-nine dollars a plate--as if!"--S

Cupcakes Win

2009-04-08T20:06:00.005-04:00

I cooked a decent dinner for some friends the other night: macaroni and cheese carbonara with fontina, pancetta and peas, along with Mom's meatloaf. My lovely husband played bartender and made us all some delicious tequila sunrises with tequila we'd bought in Mexico. And I made homemade vanilla ice cream for dessert, using a vanilla bean I brought back from Martinique. But none of these things made me as happy as the Mini Chocolate Cupcakes with Seven-Minute Icing I made for dessert.

These cupcakes were divine, truly. Moist, light and just chocolatey enough. They kind of reminded me of Hostess cupcakes, the ones with that little dab of frosting in the middle and curlicue designs on top, because they weren't that sock-you-in-the-stomach rich chocolate flavor. Instead, they were like tiny chocolate pillows. The recipe calls for cake flour and all-purpose flour, but since only required a half-cup of each, I just used a full cup of all-purpose and sifted it. The batter also consists of unsweetened cocoa powder, dark brown sugar, granulated sugar, buttermilk and brewed coffee. Pretty heavenly stuff, wouldn't you say?

With marshmallow-ish Seven-Minute Icing on top, plus a smattering of rainbow sprinkles, these cupcakes were my favorite food of the evening. No offense to everything else (even those delectable cocktails), but these were just perfect.--S

Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 6 large cupcakes, 24 mini cupcakes

1/2 c cake flour
1/2 c all-purpose flour [or use 1 c all-purpose flour and skip the cake flour]
1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch processed
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t kosher salt
1 large egg
1/2 c firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 c granulated sugar
1/2 c buttermilk
1/2 c brewed coffee
1/3 c canola oil

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Grease the insides of muffin cups.
2. Sift the cake and all-purpose flours, cocoa powder, and baking soda together onto a piece of parchment paper or into a bowl. Stir in the salt.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg and the brown and granulated sugars.
4. In a small bowl, mix together the buttermilk, coffee and canola oil.
5. In 3 additions, alternately stir the wet and dry ingredients into the eggs. Divide the batter among the muffin cups.
6. Bake until a skewer inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Carefully remove the cupcakes from the cups by running a knife around the inside edge of the cup.

Recipe courtesy of A Passion for Ice Cream

Seven-Minute Icing

Makes about 3 cups

3 large egg whites
1 1/2 c sugar
1/3 c cold water
1 T light corn syrup
1/4 t cream of tartar
1 t vanilla

1. Combine all ingredients except vanilla in the top of a large double boiler or a heatproof bowl and beat until thoroughly blended.
2. Set over rapidly boiling water. Beat constantly with a hand-held mixer at medium-high speed, or with a wire whisk, until the mixture stands in stiff peaks, 7 minutes. Remove from the heat.
3. Add vanilla and continue beating until the icing is cooled to room temperature. Use at once.

Recipe courtesy of Joy of Cooking

Sunday Dinner with a Twist

2009-04-01T21:15:00.007-04:00

Sunday dinner: it's rustic and cozy and homey and familiar. Right? Maybe, like, a nice hearty pasta dish? Rigatoni, perhaps, which holds marinara sauce like no other pasta? Add some sausage for substance. How about a little broccoli rabe, too? And wouldn't some heavy cream make it even better? Hold on.

Andrew Carmellini, who was until recently the chef at the fabulous restaurant A Voce, uses a curious ingredient to add smooth, rich texture and full, earthy flavor to Rigatoni Pugliese: chickpeas. It struck me as a little strange at first; wouldn't chickpeas pureed along with their liquids take things in a decidedly non-Italian, hummus-y direction? At least, I thought they would. But apparently, chickpeas are used all the time in Puglia. And the Pugliese know good food. So I went with it, and am very glad I did.

You start by browning a pound of spicy Italian sausage, out of the casing. Add about three cups of tomato sauce (I used my mom's recipe but any basic one would work). And then, in goes pureed chickpeas and liquid. They add a creaminess that looks a lot like heavy cream would, swirling into the sauce, lightening it in color while thickening it. For the final touch, you blanch and sautee broccoli rabe with a few whole chickpeas and garlic. You boil the macaroni until it's al dente, and then pour it into the sauce, tossing in the rabe and chickpeas. (I added a pat of butter and some pecorino cheese, but that's optional.)

It's a spectacular Sunday supper. I love the idea of substituting a legume for a heavy dairy ingredient. Just a little lighter, but still plenty comforting.--S

Rigatoni Pugliese

Serves 4 to 6

For the sauce:
1 15-oz can chickpeas
¼ c plus 2 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb spicy Italian sausage
3 c basic tomato sauce
½ t ground fennel seed

For the broccoli rabe and rigatoni:
1 bunch broccoli rabe, cleaned of outer leaves and bottom stems trimmed
1 lb rigatoni
2 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, sliced Goodfellas thin
¼ t red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste

To finish the dish:
2 T butter
2 t extra-virgin olive oil
1 c grated pecorino cheese

To prepare the sauce:
1. Drain the chickpeas well, reserving the liquid. Blend half the chickpeas (about 1 c) and all their liquid on high until the mixture forms a smooth paste, about 1 minute.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over high heat. Squeeze the sausage out of the casing and add the meat to the pan. Brown it, stirring regularly and breaking the meat up into small pieces with a spoon or potato masher.
3. Add the tomato sauce and stir to combine.
4. Add the chickpea purée and the fennel seed and stir to combine. Cook over medium heat until the mixture forms a loose sauce and the flavors are combined, about 15 minutes.

To prepare the broccoli rabe and the rigatoni:
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
2. Blanch the broccoli rabe until the stems are just softened and the color has deepened, about 90 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon or spider to a bowl of ice water to immediately stop the cooking process.
3. Return the water to a boil, add the rigatoni and cook until it’s al dente. Drain but do not rinse the pasta.
4. Warm the olive oil over medium-high heat in a medium sauté pan. Add the broccoli rabe, garlic, red pepper flakes, and the remaining half of the chickpeas. Season with salt and pepper and sauté until the greens are well coated, about 1 minute.

To finish the dish:
1. Return the rigatoni to the pot. Add the sauce and cook on medium-high heat, mixing well, until the pasta is well coated, about 1 minute.
2. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the butter, olive oil, and half the pecorino cheese.
3. Transfer the pasta and sauce to a large serving dish and pour the broccoli rabe and chickpea mixture over the top. Top with the rest of the pecorino cheese and serve immediately.

Recipe courtesy of Urban Italian

Scoping Out the Neighborhood

2009-03-29T22:10:00.006-04:00

Little by little, I'm exploring our new neighborhood. I've yet to find a great butcher or fish store, but I can cross one thing off the list: a good health food store. It's Gary Null's Uptown Whole Foods Store. It has a big produce section, lots of bulk dry goods and a substantial Asian foods aisle... where Fork & I picked up mirin, rice vinegar, naturally brewed soy sauce and udon noodles. I was on my way to making Asian Noodles in Broth with Vegetables and Tofu, a recipe from Peter Berley's Flexitarian Table.

Berley's approach is along the lines of Almost Meatless; he gives instructions for making the dish with either flank steak or soft tofu. It's positioned more as a "please everybody" approach than an environmental or health-oriented one, but the idea is the same: a little less meat and a lot more veggies. We bought the flank steak, which Berley suggested, at Food Emporium. (Not sure I liked the store; while Fork thought their meat department was great, I found other areas lacking. But that's another post!) Turns out, the steak was the part of the dish we liked least. I don't think it has much to to do with Food Emporium; rather, flank steak is such a tough cut that marinating it would've gone a long way towards making it more tender. Instead, Berley has you slice the steak into thin strips and cook it in the broth. The broth, made from soy, mirin, rice vinegar and fresh ginger, was terrific, deeply flavored and smooth. But cooking the steak in it, even for just two minutes, resulted in a grey-ish meat that frankly was just kind of "eh."

Aside from the meat, though, this soup was really great. With udon noodles, snow peas (I used green beans because Food Emporium--ahem--didn't have them), mushrooms, radishes, carrots and scallions, plus a dab of hot sauce, it was well-rounded and filling. I'll definitely return to this soup, building on what I know now. And hopefully once I find a good butcher, I'll try it again, with a strip steak, or even just a sirloin. Like our new 'hood, this one's got lots of possibilities.--S

Asian Noodles in Broth with Vegetables and Tofu/Steak

serves 4 (2 servings tofu; 2 servings steak)

1 8-ounce package udon noodles

BROTH
½ cup soy sauce
1/3 cup mirin
3 T rice vinegar
1 T finely grated peeled fresh ginger
1 c snow peas, strings removed and halved crosswise on the diagonal
1 c thinly sliced mushrooms
6 oz flank steak, sliced against the grain into short thin strips
8 oz soft tofu, cubed

GARNISHES
1 romaine lettuce heart, finely shredded
½ c thinly sliced red radishes or daikon matchsticks
½ c carrot matchsticks
2 scallions, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced
Toasted sesame oil, for serving (optional)
Hot sauce, for serving (optional)

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the noodles and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes. Drain and divide among four large soup bowls.
2. In each of two small saucepans, combine 1 ½ c water with half of the soy sauce, mirin, vinegar, and ginger and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add half the snow peas and half the mushrooms to each pan, then add the steak to one pan and the tofu to the other. Simmer until the snow peas are crisp-tender, the meat is cooked, and the tofu is heated through, 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Divide the vegetable garnishes among the bowls and ladle the hot soup over the noodles. Drizzle each serving with a few drops of sesame oil and hot sauce, if desired. Serve immediately.

Recipe courtesy of The Flexitarian Table

The Inaugural Dinner

2009-03-23T23:18:00.005-04:00

The first night in our new home, we ate some very delicious eggplant parmigiana my mom had made. But what to make the second night? I knew I'd also want to get some unpacking done, so I couldn't throw myself into a three-hour dinner making extravaganza. But I didn't want some chintzy, hastily assembled dish like salade nicoise or sauteed shrimp, which I'd been considering, and I'm sure would be fine, but not momentous enough for the first home-cooked meal. I could've tried a new recipe from any one of my many cookbooks, but what if it was a dud? That wouldn't be a good omen for the first real meal in a new home. I was pretty much stressed out over dinner, and it wasn't good.

And then, the epiphany: a family recipe. Something I knew how to make by heart; that I'd never screwed up; that was hearty, homey and good; and that we didn't eat all the time but that we always enjoyed. It was Pork Chops and Vinegar Peppers, and it was just the thing.

I grew up loving this dish, with its acidic peppers smoothed out just a bit by chicken stock and pork, with spaghetti on the side. I loved it so much that in third grade, when we were going around the classroom naming our favorite dinners, I proudly said, "Pork chops and vinegar peppers" when everybody else was saying meatloaf and pizza, and got a chorus of ewwws. But I didn't care.

This is a quick meal to put together; the hardest thing might be finding the vinegar peppers, depending on where you live. B&G Foods makes them; the company started in Manhattan in 1889 and apparently has not achieved world domination yet. I guess other peppers would work, but the dish won't really be the same. The peppers in vinegar are tangy and add such a nice punch to the pork. Other than that, things are straightforward: brown chops, saute peppers, add juices, cook until pork is done, serve over spaghetti mixed in with all the juices and lots of parsley.

Hoping this is the beginning of many more delicious, happy meals.--S

Pork Chops and Vinegar Peppers over Spaghetti

Serves 4

4 center-cut pork chops on the bone
Olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large jar red bell peppers in vinegar
2-4 T fresh parsley, minced plus more for garnish
1/2 c chicken stock
1/2 lb spaghetti

1. Warm 2-3 t olive oil in a large nonstick fry pan. Season pork chops with salt and pepper. Brown chops in pan 1-2 minutes per side on medium high heat. Remove chops from pan.
2. Slice peppers and reserve the vinegar from the jar. Add 2-3 t olive oil to the pan and saute peppers for 5 minutes. Add minced garlic and cook 1 minute. Add stock and 1/4 c reserved vinegar.
3. Return the chops to the pan along with parsley. Cover and simmer on low flame 5-7 minutes, until pork registers 155 degrees or is slightly pink inside. Meanwhile, cook pasta in boiling, salted water until al dente.
4. Place chops and pepper son a serving platter. Toss pasta with liquid from pork chop pan. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with grated parmesan cheese.

Out with Chicken Pot Pie

2009-03-17T19:01:00.007-04:00

We're moving tomorrow--finally! And so I present to you the final recipe in the Operation Clean Out the Pantry series. Drumroll please...

On the "let's finish this up" list were about four skinless chicken thighs, on the bone; buttermilk; herbs; mushrooms; cheddar cheese; and a big bag of all-purpose flour. I have to say, the challenge of figuring out what to make with odds-and-ends ingredients like that is a lot easier if you use the Internet. A search on Epicurious led me to Turkey Potpie with Cheddar Biscuit Crust, which I quickly determined could be easily adapted to my ingredients. The recipe actually was meant to use up leftover turkey after Thanksgiving, and I'm sure that's a terrific use for the meat. But I'll also say that roasting chicken in a 400-degree oven for 40 minutes and then pulling it off the bone, shredding it to chunks, works just fine as well. The other sub I made was dill in the place of thyme. Other than that, I followed the recipe.

You cook onion, celery, chopped parsnip and herbs until tender, and then toss in some chopped mushrooms, stirring them until they're soft. You thicken the veggies with a sprinkle of flour, and then pour in a fair amount of chicken stock. Once your soup is nice and thick, you stir in the meat and a box of frozen peas, and season the entire thing with salt and pepper. And this is where things get interesting. While the veggies were cooking, you had already whipped up a quick biscuit dough made with buttermilk, butter, Parmigiano and grated sharp cheddar. So you take that batter, which is quite lumpy, and drop dollops of it on top of the thickened soup/meat mixture. And then you slide the rather bizarre-looking creation into a 400 degree oven for 35 minutes.

This was one of those dishes which, when cooking, your mouth is watering so much that it takes everything in your power not to tear the dish from the oven and dig in right there. The smell of buttermilk biscuits, savory vegetables and roasted chicken have to be some of the most appetizing I know, and taken together? Hold me back. Of course, we had to wait another nearly interminable 10 minutes for the dish to cool before we could spoon it out, but eventually that time came, and let me tell you, it was sweet. Amazing, actually. The biscuit was thick and fluffy; the flavors of the meat and vegetables underneath had melded together into a warm and comfy stew. It was heaven, seriously.

And with that, I'm off to our new kitchen!--S

Turkey Potpie with Cheddar Biscuit Crus

Serves 8

For stock:
Carcass and skin from a 12- to 14-pound roast turkey
10 cups water

For filling:
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 large carrots, cut into 1/2" pieces
2 celery ribs, cut into 1/2" pieces
1 large parsnip (peeled), cored and cut into 1/2" pieces
1 t chopped thyme
3 T unsalted butter
1/2 lb mushrooms, trimmed and quartered
1/4 c all-purpose flour
4 c roast turkey [or chicken] meat, cut into 1/2" pieces
1 (10-oz) package frozen baby peas, thawed
[3 1/2 c chicken stock]

For biscuit crust:
2 c all-purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 t black pepper
1 c coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar
1/4 c grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
3/4 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" pieces
1 1/4 c well-shaken buttermilk

Separate parts of carcass and put, along with skin, in an 8-quart pot. Cover bones with water and simmer until liquid is reduced by one third, about 1 1/2 hours. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl. Set aside 3 1/2 cups stock (reserve remainder for another use).

Make filling:

Cook onion, carrots, celery, parsnip, and thyme in butter with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a 12-inch-wide shallow pot (3- to 4-quart), covered, over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are almost tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook, uncovered, stirring, until tender, 5 to 7 minutes.

Sprinkle with flour and cook, stirring constantly, 2 minutes. Stir in stock (3 1/2 cups), scraping up any brown bits, and bring to a boil, stirring, then simmer until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Stir in turkey, peas, and salt and pepper to taste. Reheat over low heat just before topping with biscuit crust.

Make biscuit crust and bake pie:

Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pepper into a medium bowl. Add cheeses and toss to coat. Blend in butter with a pastry blender or your fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add buttermilk and stir just until a dough forms. Drop biscuit dough onto filling in 8 large mounds, leaving spaces between biscuits.

Bake until biscuits are puffed and golden brown and filling is bubbling, 35 to 40 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Cooks' notes:

· If using carcass and meat from a brined turkey, filling may need little or no salt.

· Filling can be made in a 12-inch skillet and transferred to a 13- by 9-inch baking pan before topping with biscuit dough.
· You can substitute another turkey stock or reduced-sodium chicken broth for the stock in this recipe. You can also make stock using leftover cooked chicken in place of turkey.

1. Separate parts of carcass and put, along with skin, in an 8-quart pot. Cover bones with water and simmer until liquid is reduced by one third, about 1 1/2 hours. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl. Set aside 3 1/2 cups stock (reserve remainder for another use). [Skip this step if you're using pre-cooked chicken.]
2. Cook onion, carrots, celery, parsnip, and thyme in butter with 1/2 t salt and 1/4 t pepper in a 12-inch-wide shallow pot (3- to 4-quart), covered, over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are almost tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook, uncovered, stirring, until tender, 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Sprinkle with flour and cook, stirring constantly, 2 minutes. Stir in stock (3 1/2 c), scraping up any brown bits, and bring to a boil, stirring, then simmer until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Stir in turkey, peas, and salt and pepper to taste.
4. Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle.
5. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pepper into a medium bowl. Add cheeses and toss to coat. Blend in butter with a pastry blender or your fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add buttermilk and stir just until a dough forms. Drop biscuit dough onto filling in 8 large mounds, leaving spaces between biscuits.
6. Bake until biscuits are puffed and golden brown and filling is bubbling, 35 to 40 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Recipe courtesy of Gourmet

Shameless Self-Promotion Department

2009-03-10T08:43:00.001-04:00

I wrote an article for Gourmet.com!

Bulgur with Coconut, Ginger and Almonds

2009-03-06T19:08:00.007-05:00

We've scheduled our move for March 18, and you know what that means... Operation Clean Out the Pantry is kicking into high gear. For the dish I'm about to tell you about, I used up a bag of bulgur that had been knocking around in the cabinet for a few months. This dish was so tasty that I'm tempted to buy more bulgur to make it again, even if it thwarts my efforts to empty the pantry pre-move.

It's just a variation on whole grain breakfast cereal, and it barely needs a recipe. Bulgur with Coconut, Ginger and Almonds is pretty self-explanatory. I stirred in a bit of milk to bind everything together, and plain yogurt would work well, too. Bulgur, which is apparently akin to cracked wheat, has a nutty flavor and chewy texture (for everything you ever wanted to know about bulgur, check out this article). And it cooks quickly: you bring it to a boil in a pot of water, then turn off the heat, put a lid on the pot, and let it sit for 25 minutes--just long enough to hop in the shower and get dressed. When you're ready, so is your bulgur.--S

Bulgur with Coconut, Ginger and Almonds

Serves 2

2/3 c bulgur
1 1/3 c water
2 T chopped crystallized ginger
Handful of chopped almonds
Handful of sweetened coconut, shredded

1. Put the bulgur and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover tightly, turn it off, and leave for 25 minutes while you take a shower and get dressed.
2. Stir in ginger, almonds and coconut; add a splash of milk.

* The variations here are endless: spices dried fruits, seeds... go nuts!

Cod with Ginger and Scallions

2009-03-03T21:25:00.004-05:00

I don't know why I've held out on sharing this recipe with you for so long. I've been making it every couple of months for a few years now, and it's always good. It's fast, easy, healthy and delicious. It's Steamed Cod with Ginger and Scallions, and I think you should add it to your repertoire, too.

Most of the time, I have all the ingredients I need for this recipe in my kitchen already, save for the cod. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program recommends you use Pacific cod; if you can't find it, you could use red snapper or sea bass. But it's worth it to splurge on a nice piece of fish, because the flavors and preparation are so simple that the fish really is the star here. You whisk rice vinegar, soy sauce and grated fresh ginger in a large skillet, lay your salted and peppered cod fillets onto the liquid, and then bring it to a boil. Lower the heat to a gentle simmer, cover and let it cook for six minutes or so, a little longer if your fish fillets are thicker. Then, when the fish has about two minutes to go until it's opaque throughout, you lay the green parts of a handful of scallions over the fish, and let them wilt while the fish finishes cooking. That's it!

The cod flakes away in such beautiful pieces, and it's gently infused with soy and ginger. (In the picture above, you can see the cod actually broke apart as I was taking it out of the skillet--not that that bothered me.) The scallions are a little al dente, and eating a forkful of cod and scallion together gives you a great variety of textures. With some rice and veggies, you've got a simple and extremely tasty supper. Sorry it took me so long to share this one with you!--S

Steamed Cod with Ginger and Scallions

serves 4

4 skinless cod fillets (6 to 8 ounces each)
3 T rice vinegar
2 T soy sauce
2 T finely grated, peeled fresh ginger
Coarse salt and ground pepper
6 scallions, green parts cut into 3-inch lengths

1. In a large skillet, combine rice vinegar, soy sauce and ginger.
2. Season both sides of cod fillets with salt and pepper; place in skillet with vinegar mixture.
3. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to a gentle simmer. Cover; cook until fish is almost opaque throughout, 6 to 8 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, thinly slice scallions lengthwise. Scatter over fish; cook (covered) until fish is opaque throughout and scallions are just wilted, about 2 minutes more.

Recipe courtesy of Everyday Food

Almost Meatless... Unless There's a Juicy Pork Chop Nearby

2009-02-25T21:00:00.007-05:00

I know I've been extolling the virtues of eating less meat lately, but I have to confess: there is nothing like a good pork chop. We're lucky enough to live about three blocks from a terrific butcher, an old-world kind of place that carries lots of high-quality organic meats. The pork chops they cut to order are just gorgeous. So you know, if you're going to eat meat, this is the way to do it.

Braised Pork Chops with Savoy Cabbage seemed like a good choice for a rainy winter Sunday. The recipe, from Lidia's Italy, plays on a centuries-old combination; in this rendition, the meat and its juices are used to flavor and cook the cabbage. I'm usually not a huge cabbage fan, finding it kind of stinky and even bitter. Just a few weeks earlier, I'd given it a chance, and was disappointed. But I reasoned that Lidia had never steered me wrong, and at least I was certain the pork would be stellar.

The recipe has you slice the cabbage into inch-and-a-half-wide strips and boil them until tender, about 15 minutes. Next, you heat up some butter and olive oil in a skillet and brown the chops alongside a few rosemary sprigs. Once they're nicely braised, you remove them, and pour some white wine into the skillet, deglazing any caramelization. Toss in a bit more butter and olive oil (I should've known: wine, butter and oil are keys to making cabbage tasty), and then pile in the cooked, drained cabbage. Let almost all the liquid evaporate, and the cabbage shreds start to caramelize, then return the meat to the pan. Cook it all for a few minutes more, and you're set.

There was silence as we tucked in. Fork finally broke it, saying, "Perfect. This is the best pork chop I've ever had." I had to agree. The chops were slightly pink in the center, juicy and--I can't believe I'm writing this, but it's true--succulent. The cabbage was tender and delicious, the rosemary cutting any bitterness and the meat giving it a rich, deep flavor. We ate the cabbage and pork with a spinach salad with hard-boiled eggs and bacon, and some semolina bread. And we ate it all, every last bite.--S

Braised Pork Chops with Savoy Cabbage

serves 6

4 lbs Savoy cabbage
6 T butter
6 T extra-virgin olive oil
6 pork loin chops, on the bone, 2.5 to 3 lbs.
2 t coarse sea salt
2 or 3 small branches fresh rosemary
1 c white wine
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. Brings 6 quarts of water to the boil in the large pot. Slice the cabbage head (or heads) in half, and cut out the core completely so the leaves will separate. Discard all tough and torn outer leaves, lay the cabbage halves cut side down, and slice crosswise into strips about 1 1/2 inches wide. Drop all the strips into the water, cover the pot, and return to the boil. Cook the cabbage until tender, about 15 minutes, and drain in a colander.
2. When the cabbage is cooked, put 3 T each of butter and olive oil in the big skillet and set over medium-high heat. Season the pork chops on both sides with salt (about 1 t in all) and lay them in the hot skillet. Drop the rosemary branches onto th epan bottom.
3. Sear the chops on the underside, about 3 minutes, turn, and brown the second side for a few minutes more. The chops should still be rare--if you like them better done, cook a minute or two longer on both sides. Remove to a platter, and keep in a warm spot.
4. Pour the wine into the skillet and bring to a boil, stirring to deglaze any caramelization. Cook for just a minute or so, to dissipate the alcohol, then drop in the remaining 3 T of butter and 3 T of olive oil. Stir well until the butter melts and the liquid is bubbling.
5. Pile the cooked, drained cabbage in the skillet, turning the strips over as they heat and wilt in the pan juices. Sprinkle 1 t salt all over, and cook, tossing and stirring, until the pan is nearly dry and the cabbage shreds are just starting to caramelize.
6. Push aside the cabbage, lay the chops on the pan bottom, and pour in any meat juices from the platter. Still over medium-high heat, cook the chops for 2 or 3 minutes, turning them over once or twice, just until they're heated through. Stir the cabbage so it continues to caramelize and pick up flavor. Season with more salt and some freshly ground black pepper to taste.
7. Serve right from the skillet, or arrange chops and cabbage on a platter and bring to the table.

Recipe courtesy of Lidia's Italy

The Perfect Cookie

2009-02-22T15:54:00.005-05:00

If the biscotti you're familiar with need to be dunked in coffee for a full 30 seconds before eating in order to not crack your teeth, have I got news for you: not all biscotti are like that. Sure, there's a time and a place for all biscotti, but if I had to live out the rest of my days eating only one kind, I'd go with Mom's Biscotti.

They're a little soft and crumbly, not too sweet and shaped a bit like rounded rectangles, actually more like biscuits than cookies. There are no chopped bits of bittersweet chocolate, no segments of dried exotic fruits, no citrus zest. Instead, Mom's Biscotti have walnuts, anise seed, anisette or sambuca, and a hint of almond extract. They may not be much to look at, but they're so simple and honest, with just enough sweetness that they hit the spot after a meal but not so much that you can't eat one for breakfast with coffee. The perfect cookie, I'd say. I just enjoyed one on a rainy Sunday afternoon with a cup of tea. Delicious.--S

Mom's Biscotti

3 eggs
3 c flour, sifted
1 T anise or fennel seed
1 c walnuts, chopped
3/4 c sugar
1 t vanilla extract
3 t baking powder
1 t almond extract
1 T anisette or sambuca
1 stick unsalted butter

1. Beat eggs, melt butter. Combine, then add sugar, flour, baking powder and flavorings/liqueur.
2. Blend well, add nuts and seeds, and shape dough into two long, flat logs (use flour if your hands are sticky).
3. Place the logs on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
4. Remove from oven and let cool on sheet. Once cool, slice and lay slices on their sides.
5. Bake at 350 for 10 to 15 more minutes, or until golden.

Better Hot Pockets

2009-02-19T21:09:00.004-05:00

I'm still working on cleaning out the pantry, but tonight the challenge extended to the freezer, where I had stashed a flattened roll of filo dough and three links of turkey sausage at some point over the past two months, among other goodies. I also had "less meat" on my mind, since I just talked to three authors today about the trend, and how important it is for your health, your wallet and the planet--not to mention your conscience. So I went to a book that two of those authors wrote for a dinner plan tonight.

Spinach and Chickpea Pouches come from Almost Meatless, a book I first heard about in October. The authors mention Greek spanakopita triangles in their introduction to the recipe, but those cocktail party staples only have three ingredients in common with these tasty pockets. The filling here is much more substantial and consists of meat (the authors suggest eight ounces of ground beef, but I used turkey sausage), red onion, spinach, chickpeas, roasted red peppers, feta, garlic and herbs. Everything except for the cheese gets pre-cooked in a saute pan. Once the filling's ready, you spread out a few sheets of filo, spoon about a half-cup of filling onto the filo and sprinkle a bit of crumbled feta on top. Rolling up the pouches is a little tricky, and my early ones were kind of misshapen. Eventually I figured out that folding one side over the filling and then rolling the whole pouch toward the other side was the best way, so they truly were rolls. One other adaptation: I was out of sesame seeds to sprinkle atop the egg-washed pouches, so I used cumin seeds. Not the same, I know; but they worked.

Alongside some bright green broccoli sauteed in garlic and olive oil, these made a great dinner. Instead of tzatziki, Greek yogurt or sour cream, I stirred a bit of crumbled feta into plain yogurt, seasoned with salt and pepper. It was a nice accompaniment to the piping hot pockets. Three of us couldn't everything--which means each of us ate less than a link of sausage--and still wound up stuffed.--S

Wake and Bake

2009-02-17T20:12:00.006-05:00

I know I'm a big dork, but I woke up at my parents' house last weekend wanting to bake. There was a beautiful kitchen downstairs; gleaming appliances; counter space galore; and a stocked pantry. I plucked Great Cookies: Secrets to Sensational Sweets by Carole Walter off my mom's cookbook shelf, headed into the kitchen... and realized that the pantry wasn't exactly stocked. I guess that's what happens when Mom and Dad take off for vacation.

Ginger spice cookies were out: there was barely a teaspoon of ground ginger. Key ingredients for oatmeal raisin and chunky white chocolate cookies were missing, too. I had to keep it simple: there were two eggs and a few sticks of butter in the fridge, and we had bought some milk. There was flour, salt, baking soda, sugar, vanilla extract and I even found a stash of pretty sparkling white sugar. Turns out I had all the ingredients for Super Sugar Sparkles... and you probably do, too.

These cookies fall under Walter's "Big Boys" categorization--meaning each cookie is made from a quarter-cup of dough and spreads out to nearly five inches in diameter. They remind me of the bakery cookies I always went for as a kid. The ones at our local bakery were covered in rainbow sprinkles and Walter's have sparkly clear sugar, but they're the same size and have the same buttery texture, somewhere between crunchy and soft. They're pretty perfect, actually.

A few notes on the recipe: Walter advises using superfine sugar; with the limited pantry options I was facing, that wasn't an option, so plain old granulated sugar it was. I also had to add an extra tablespoon of milk because the dough was so crumbly I couldn't form it into a ball. I also only got 13 cookies instead of 16.

If you wake up with the urge to bake (come on, admit it), this is the recipe to turn to. Straightforward, satisfying--and no trip to the supermarket necessary!--S

Love the Loaf

2009-02-08T09:24:00.007-05:00

Add meatloaf to the list of foods I just assumed I hated when I was younger. Like lamb, it was something my dad did not like; therefore, my mom didn't serve it, and my sister and I grew up figuring meatloaf was just not good. Well, we were wrong.

The unfortunately named dish is really tasty, and about five years ago I discovered a wonderful recipe for Turkey Meatloaf that included, among many other tasty ingredients, porcini mushrooms and homemade breadcrumbs. I made it for Fork and I and was sold. Who knew meatloaf was actually good? Flavorful and filling, but not heavy--and the perfect thing for a Superbowl dinner.

There's a fair amount of prep work involved, but if you have a mini-chop or food processor, it's not so bad. Once your veggies--in addition to the porcinis, there are onions, garlic, carrots and parsley--are minced, you cook them on the stove; then you add the bread crumbs (I used a 7-grain bread I'd bought at the market), eggs, milk and some seasonings. I recommend using your bare hands to mix in the meat. Nothing like a good "squish, squish" noise and feel to whet the appetite!

You shape the meat and veggies--held together now by the breadcrumbs, egg and milk--into a rounded loaf, and bake for about an hour. The recipe suggests serving this with a roasted red pepper tomato sauce, but I like it plain. We ate the meatloaf on sandwiches using the bread I'd just made, alongside some lemon-zested kale. I'd take this meal over hot wings and nachos any Superbowl.--S

Spoon vs Gourmet

2009-02-04T17:58:00.010-05:00

I'm not quite making bread daily (har) yet, but twice in one week is certainly stepping it up. I knew it was only a matter of time before I tried making one of the gorgeous rolls from Gourmet's February issue, and on Sunday, the time had come. I went with the Crusty Cornstalk Rolls because I had all the ingredients in my kitchen already (pantry, people, pantry!).

So here's the thing about this particular recipe spread. Every photograph is drop-dead gorgeous. Golden crusts, perfect knots, pretty fantails and fancy swirls... could I really do this? Probably not. But I was going to give it a shot anyway. The headnotes for the Cornstalk Rolls recipe insisted, "the technique for shaping this sculptural loaf is very simple..." Right. First I needed to go out and buy a pair of kitchen shears, which, truth be told, I did need. After that, the dough came together pretty easily; I had to use a bit more flour because it was extremely sticky, but I didn't really have any problems in that department.

However, when it came to shaping the dough into a "towering cornstalk," I was nervous. Snipping dough with extremely sharp kitchen scissors on the diagonal, pulling apart the pieces and stretching the dough to form rolls that were connected to the center "stalk"... this is advanced stuff. I kept telling myself it didn't matter how it looked; it's all about the taste, because I knew my bread (above left) wasn't going to look like the picture in the magazine (below right). Oh well. Not the first time that's happened.

I diligently misted the rolls with water before baking them, and then spritzed the oven with water three times during the first five minutes of baking. And the finished product? As expected, a little more "homemade" looking than the picture. But tasty? You bet. A little grainy from the cornmeal, nicely crusty from the misted water. My friend Kate said they were even prettier than the ones in the magazine. Take that, Gourmet.--S

Moving On Up

2009-01-31T19:16:00.004-05:00

We're moving in a few weeks (our new kitchen rules!), and in preparation, I have begun Operation Clean Out the Pantry. Somehow I don't think it's going to be as much fun as Operation Clean Out the Shoe Collection. But anyway. Last night I used up some soba noodles, riffing on that delicious Otsu recipe from last summer. Today's special: blackstrap molasses.

While searching for a recipe in which to use it, I tried to remember what I'd bought it for in the first place. I'm pretty sure it was for Sticky Teff-Kissed Spice Loaves, a deliciously sweet and spicy cake. Turns out that the recipe I decided to make today, a Ginger Cake from Gourmet, is pretty similar. I guess blackstrap molasses have a way of dominating. Which is fine with me, so long as it's cooked, because while stinky and gross out of the bottle, this kind of molasses gets a deep, rich flavor after some time in the oven.

It's a fairly straightforward cake recipe, with flour (I used two cups of regular flour and one cup of sprouted wheat flour--score one more item out of the pantry!), butter, brown sugar, eggs and baking soda. Then, lots of powdered ginger--I grated a dried ginger root I got from a friend who went to India--plus some cinnamon.

After an hour in the oven and some cooling time, this cake was great. Using a springform pan resulted in a perfectly crisp crust, crunchier than the teff loaf. They're definitely similar: both dark, moist and deeply flavored. And as far as I can tell, they're the best way to use blackstrap molasses.--S

It's Bread Time

2009-01-28T14:16:00.006-05:00

Between the February issue of Gourmet, with its gorgeous cover image of plump, golden rolls; and the graphic novel I just finished reading, about a Japanese kid who just wants to bake bread (making him an outcast in his family of rice eaters), I've had bread on my mind lately. And when the weather turned nasty last night, with snow, sleet and rain predicted, it was decided: I was baking bread.

I got this recipe from my cousin Kathy, a master breadmaker, and had tried it twice before. The first time was a bust; I used yeast that had expired two weeks earlier, which turned out to be a very poor decision. The dough never rose, and I wound up tossing it, sadly. The second time was quite good, and I'd say this most recent batch was even better. It's a Classic French Bread, but instead of shaping it into baguettes (baby steps!), I make it into a "country French loaf," which is a nicer way of saying "ball." As with most breads (I think?) patience is the primary ingredient; there are two risings with this recipe, each one about an hour and a half. So if you want bread for dinner, you should start making this around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Also, a stand mixer makes things much easier. And no, I don't feel like I'm cheating when I attach the dough hook and flip the switch.

The recipe has you brush the dough with melted butter and salt before you bake it, which is a nice touch that not only spiffs up the finish product with a warm glow, but gives it a gentle salty flavor. If you're wary about baking bread, this is a terrific starter recipe, one that I plan on sticking with for a long time. Thanks, Kath!--S

Classic French Bread

1 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
1 envelope dry yeast
1 T sugar
1 t salt
1/2 t balsamic or red wine vinegar
2 c bread flour
3/4 c (about) all-purpose flour
1/2 stick unsalted butter 1
1/4 t salt

1. Pour 1 cup warm water into bowl of heavy-duty electric mixer. Sprinkle yeast and sugar over; stir to dissolve. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
2. Mix salt and vinegar into yeast. Add bread flour; using paddle attachment, mix 5 miutes. Replace paddle with dough hook. Add 1/2 c all-purpose flour and knead until soft and slightly sticky dough forms, adding more all purpose flour if dough is very sticky, about 7 minutes.
3. Coat large bowl with 2 T oil. Add dough, turning to coat entire surface. Cover bowl with plastic-wrap. Let dough rise in warm, draft-free area until tripled in volume, about 1 1/2 hrs. (To test, press 2 fingers into dough; if fully risen, indentations will remain. If indentations fill in, cover with plastic and let dough rise longer.)
4. Melt butter with salt in saucepan. Keep glaze warm.
5. Oil or butter baking sheet. Punch down dough. Form dough into round ball, smoothing top. Place on baking sheet, flattening slightly. Brush with butter glaze and let rise until tripled in volume as above.
6. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slash dough in tic-tac-toe pattern or with swirled slashes radiating from center. Bake until loaf is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on bottom, about 35 minutes. Cool on rack.

Recipe courtesy of The Bon Appetit Cookbook

Comfort

2009-01-25T20:21:00.004-05:00

Since getting home from our honeymoon, I haven't been the most adventurous cook. I've been sticking with things I don't need recipes for: granola, chicken milanese, pesto, roasted peppers. I don't think I've tried a new recipe in weeks. Tonight was no exception. And I'm pretty happy with that, especially since dinner was one of my childhood favorites: Sausage, Peas and Potatoes.

I wish there were a more glamorous or catchy name for it, but the truth is, it's simple food with a simple name. I remember sleepovers at my grandparents' when I was a kid: Lucky Charms for breakfast, snacks consisting of Neopolitan ice cream on cones (mostly strawberry, please) and Tang (?!). We had a few favorite dinners, and one was Sausage, Peas and Potatoes. The recipe is shamelessly simple: you toss wedges of Idaho potatoes and yellow onions with some olive oil, salt and pepper; place them in a roasting pan; add links of Italian sausage; roast (somewhere between 350 and 400 degrees) for about an hour and a half. Stir once, about halfway through, and 15 minutes before the dish done--you'll know when the potatoes are browned, the onions are crisping at the edges, and the sausage is golden--toss in a can of peas. I think everyone in my extended family grew up eating this dish and knows the recipe by heart.

The best part of this dish might be the browned bits that gather in the corner of the pan. Or it might be the way the sweet potatoes (a new-ish addition) get mushy and sweet. Or maybe it's the comfort of throwing together a ridiculously easy meal that's so homey and good.--S

Mexican Granola

2009-01-22T23:11:00.003-05:00

After getting married and honeymooning in Mexico, we are finally back in action--with a granola recipe. I know, it's not very exciting. But ever since Fork and I returned from the tropics I have really been missing the breakfast at a lovely little cafe in Tulum called Trecelunas. My favorite item on the menu? Fruit, yogurt and granola, tropical-style. Back in freezing cold New York, I was determined to recreate it.

I started with my basic granola recipe and went from there. Instead of cranberry juice concentrate as the sweetener, I used orange juice concentrate. I ditched the dried cranberries, too, in lieu of dried mango, papaya and pineapple. I doubled the amount of coconut, and stirred in a teaspoon of the Mexican vanilla I brought home. Now, I'm still searching for a nice, liquidy yogurt like they served at Trecelunas--it was almost like a yogurt sauce, drizzled atop fresh melon, kiwi and banana. But aside from that, I think I nailed it. Fork called it my best granola ever!--S

The Most Important Meal of the Day

2008-12-14T20:23:00.004-05:00

The guys over at Baked are the first to admit their Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl is "not the most nutritious breakfast." If that's what you're after, I suggest granola or a homemade power bar. But if you want a real treat--coffee cake and crumb topping in the perfect ratio of moist cake to crumbly topping--keep reading.

This coffee cake is a keeper. It's pretty classic, with its batter made with sour cream, and its crumb topping a mix of brown sugar and nuts. But then there are these tasty in-between layers of chocolate and cinnamon. I love a healthy breakfast as much as the next person, but there is nothing like a delicious piece of coffee cake with a cup of coffee on a winter morning. And 'tis the season, right?

A few notes: I used walnuts in the crumb topping, instead of the suggested pecans. This wasn't a problem. And spreading the batter over the cinnamon swirl is a little tricky. Just do what you can; using a small offset spatula helps. Finally, the recipe suggests you do not substitute low-fat sour cream or yogurt to reduce calories. I absolutely agree.

If you've got family coming into town for the holidays, or a brunch party coming up, or if you're just sick of good-for-you-breakfasts, now's the time. Sour Cream Coffee Cake is calling your name.--S

Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl

Serves 16

Crumb Topping

3/4 c all-purpose flour
3/4 c packed dark brown sugar
1/2 t salt
3/4 c pecans [or walnuts, or other nuts], toasted
6 T cold unsalted butter, cut into 1" pieces

Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl

1/2 c sugar
1 t dark unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 t cinnamon

Cake

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 t baking powder
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 c sugar
4 large eggs
16 oz sour cream
1 1/2 t pure vanilla extract

Crumb Topping:

Put the flour, sugar, and salt in bowl of food processor and pulse to combine. Add the pecans and pulse until they are finely chopped and incorporated. Add the butter and pulse until mixture looks like coarse sand. Cover and refrigerate.

Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl:

Mix ingredients in small bowl.

Sour Cream Cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Butter a 9×13-inch baking pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth. Scrape down bowl and add sugar. Beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping bowl as needed.
3. Add the sour cream and vanilla and beat just until incorporated. Add the dry ingredients in three additions, scraping down the bowl before each addition and beating only until each addition is just incorporated. Do not overmix.
4. Pour one third of the cake batter into the prepared pan. Use an offset spatula to spread batter evenly in pan. Sprinkle half of the chocolate cinnamon swirl mixture over batter, covering the entire surface of the batter. Spoon half of remaining batter over the swirl mixture and spread it evenly. Top with remaining swirl mixture, then the remaining batter, and spread the batter evenly. Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the top of the batter.
5. Bake in the center of the oven for one hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes.

The cake keeps for a few days, tightly covered, at room temperature.

Party Time

2008-12-08T17:47:00.004-05:00

Sure, I take a two-week break from blogging, and all of a sudden, the holidays are upon us. Time to shop, bake, party... and eat hors d'oeuvres! I have a perfect one, so listen up. It's easy, festive, can be made ahead of time, and looks rather impressive. And I have yet to find a partygoer who does not like to pop two or three of them between sips of wine or beer.

Pepperoni and Asiago Pinwheels are your new go-to appetizer. All you need to make them are a medium-sized block of Asiago cheese, a package of thinly-sliced pepperoni, honey mustard (make your own if you don't have any), some dried herbs, an egg and a package of frozen puff pastry dough. You thaw the dough, unfold it and spread some honey mustard around. Lay the pepperoni in a single layer, top it with grated Asiago that you've tossed with dried thyme, oregano and pepper, and then roll the whole thing up, sealing the seam with a bit of egg. At this point you can put the roll in the fridge for anywhere from a half-hour to a day, and 15 minutes before you want to eat the pinwheels, you slice the log rather thinly, lay the slices (which resemble misshapen pinwheels at this point) on a baking sheet, and toss them in a 400-degree oven for 15 minutes.

It's like a Shrinky-Dink experiment: 15 minutes later you have gorgeously puffed-up, bite-sized pinwheels, oozing cheese and spiked with herbs. They're rather addictive, actually. Go ahead, I dare you to find someone who'll say no when you're passing these babies around at a party this holiday season.--S

Pepperoni and Asiago Pinwheels

Makes about 60 pinwheels

1/2 c grated Asiago cheese
3/4 t dried thyme
3/4 t dried oregano
1/4 t ground black pepper
1 sheet frozen puff pastry (half of 17.3-ounce package), thawed
2 T honey-Dijon mustard
2 oz packaged sliced pepperoni (about twenty-four 1 1/2-inch-diameter slices)
1 large egg, beaten to blend
Nonstick vegetable oil cooking spray

1. Mix first 4 ingredients in medium bowl.
2. Cut puff pastry crosswise in half to form 2 rectangles. Spread 1 T mustard over 1 puff pastry rectangle, leaving 1-inch plain border at 1 long edge. Place half of pepperoni in single layer atop mustard. Top pepperoni with half of cheese mixture. Brush plain border with egg. Starting at side opposite plain border, roll up pastry, sealing at egg-coated edge.
3. Transfer pastry roll, seam side down, to medium baking sheet. Repeat with remaining pastry rectangle, mustard, pepperoni, cheese mixture, and egg.
4. Chill rolls until firm, about 30 minutes, or wrap and chill up to 1 day.
5. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line 2 baking sheets with foil. Lightly spray with vegetable oil spray. Cut each pastry roll into about thirty 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Transfer pinwheels to prepared sheets. Bake until golden, about 15 minutes.
6. Transfer to platter; serve.

Recipe courtesy of The Bon Appetit Cookbook

The New Classic

2008-11-24T08:20:00.005-05:00

My colleagues and I are pretty regular customers at the Chock Full o'Nuts on 23rd Street, between Park and Lex. We stop in once or twice a week for mid-morning coffees, often adding a Chock Classic to our order. A classic indeed (my dad has apparently been a fan of the CC for years and loves it), the CC is a sandwich made from two slices of date nut bread spread with cream cheese. Sounds good, right? My friends and I have shared many a Chock Classic, and with a hot cup of coffee, it makes a fun snack. Here's the thing, though. The Chock Classic is kind of treacly. Really sweet. And they always put on too much cream cheese. And the bread is cold. We want to love the Chock Classic, but we're always a little disappointed.

So this weekend I took matters into my own hands. I went back to a recipe for Date & Walnut Bread that Patricia Wells had contributed to Runner's World a few years ago when she was training for a marathon. I've made the bread before and it's terrific. I substitute whole wheat flour for half the all-purpose flour, and there's no sugar (only honey), plus plenty of chopped dates and toasted walnuts. Once the bread had cooled, I cut a slice, spread a little cream cheese on it and... heaven! Not too sweet, just hearty enough, with the perfect balance of smoothness and crunch. Thank you, Chock Full O' Nuts, for the inspiration.--S

Date and Walnut Bread

1 t walnut [or other] oil
1 1/2 c dates [about 12], pitted and cubed
1/2 c walnut halves, toasted and coarsely chopped
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t fine sea salt
1/2 c honey
3/4 c hottest possible tap water
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 t vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour [I substitute 3/4 c whole wheat flour]

1. Preheat the oven to 375°. Coat a nonstick one quart rectangular bread pan with walnut oil. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine dates, walnuts, baking soda, salt and honey. Add hot water and stir to blend. Add eggs and vanilla to the date mixture and blend thoroughly. Slowly add flour; blend well. The batter will be fairly thick.
3. Pour batter into pan, evening out the top with a spatula. Place the pan in the center of the oven and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes.
4. Remove from the pan and let cool for at least an hour. Bread can be stored for up to three days, tightly wrapped in plastic.

Recipe courtesy of Runner's World

Viva Espana

2008-11-12T21:36:00.007-05:00

In honor of my sister's homecoming (four years in Spain, home FOR GOOD on Friday!), here is a delicious Spanish stew from the effusive, inimitable Jose Garces. I made this tonight, in between a meeting with our wedding photographer and the premiere of season 5 of Top Chef, with plenty of time to spare. It's easy, uses totally accessible ingredients, and is hearty and so flavorful.

The fancy way to make Ham, Escarole and Bean Stew is to slowly simmer white beans in a rich pork stock, and then combine them with cooked pork butt. I am sure that is quite tasty, but a little unrealistic for a Wednesday evening. The easy way to make this dish, and the one I highly recommend you go with, is to substitute bacon and smoked ham for the cooked pork butt, and canned white beans for dried ones. Next time I might sprinkle in some Spanish paprika, but even without, this stew has a delicious, deep flavor. Great texture, too, with crispy bacon, soft potatoes and beans, and slippery bits of ham and escarole.

Spain in a bowl!--S

Ham, Escarole and Bean Stew

6 ounces lean slab bacon, sliced 1/4" thick and cut into 1/4" dice
1 T extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Yukon Gold potato (8 ounces), cut into 1/2" dice
3 c chicken or beef stock or low-sodium broth
6 ounces smoked ham, shredded (1 c)
One 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained
1/2 small head of escarole, cut into 1/2" ribbons (2 packed c)
Freshly ground pepper

1. In a saucepan, fry the bacon in the 1 tablespoon of olive oil over moderately high heat until browned, about 6 minutes. Spoon off all but 1 T of the fat. Add the onion and garlic and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the potato and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the stock and boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to moderate and cook until the potato is tender, about 15 minutes.
2. Add the ham, beans and escarole and season with pepper. Cook over moderately high heat until the escarole is tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer to bowls, drizzle with olive oil and serve.

Recipe courtesy of Food & Wine

A Simple Soup

2008-11-08T15:00:00.004-05:00

Next time you want to make soup but don't feel like soaking beans overnight or building a soup base from scratch, I recommend checking out this excellent soup from the new Bon Appetit book, Fast Easy Fresh. It's Chicken and Escarole Soup with Fennel, and it's delicious.

I wanted a hearty soup to bring to my friends Deena and Matt, who just had a baby. But I didn't have tons of time. This soup was just the thing. Cutting boneless chicken thighs into cubes was about as labor-intensive as it got (and I do suggest going with thighs; they're much more flavorful than breast meat). And I guess you could say washing and chopping a head of escarole is kind of a pain... um... not really. Honestly, this soup is a cinch.

And it's so tasty. The fennel taste is really subtle; don't shy away from this if you're not wild about fennel. The escarole wilts nicely, swirled amid bits of tomato, onion, celery and chicken. Simply great, really.--S

Chicken and Escarole Soup with Fennel

1/4 c olive oil
1 1/2 lbs skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1/2" cubes
1 T dried oregano
2 c chopped onions
4 celery stalks, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 t fennel seeds
1 14- to 15-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
8 c low-salt chicken broth
1 head of escarole, cut into wide strips
Grated Pecorino Romano cheese

1. Heat oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add chicken; sprinkle with salt, pepper and oregano. Mix in onions, celery, garlic, and fennel seeds. Sauté until vegetables begin to soften, about 4 minutes.
2. Stir in tomatoes. Add broth; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until vegetables and chicken are tender, about 15 minutes.
3. Add escarole; simmer until wilted, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. 4. Ladle into bowls. Serve, passing cheese separately.

Recipe courtesy of The Bon Appetit Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook

Less Meat: It's What's for Dinner

2008-10-31T07:46:00.009-04:00

I was recently flipping through Ten Speed Press's spring 2009 catalog. The California publisher has become one of my favorite houses, and not just because it's the home of 101 Cookbooks blogger Heidi Swanson. Ten Speed's books are beautiful, useful and smart. I paused at the page for a book called Almost Meatless: Recipes That Are Better for Your Health, Better for the Planet. One of the authors, Tara Mataraza Desmond, is a Philadelphia food blogger who'd just run the Chicago Marathon in approximately the same time I hope to run New York on Sunday--and she loves kettle corn. So do I. I was intrigued.

Her blog led me to a recipe Desmond's coauthor, Joy Manning, recently posted on Serious Eats: Butternut Squash and Sausage Bake. I had some chicken sausage in the fridge, and would only need to buy squash and smoked mozzarella to make the dish. I will say, this isn't the quickest dish you'll make all fall, but it's one of the most satisfying and delicious. Cubes of butternut squash, bits of sausage, softened onions scented with sage and thyme, just enough smoky mozzarella, plus crunchy, buttery breadcrumbs on top. We ate this for dinner with a salad and some bread, and had enough leftover for a few lunches. I wholeheartedly recommend you add this to your fall recipe rotation.

Sure, the dish wouldn't have suffered if I'd included more sausage. But it didn't really need it; there were such great flavors from the other ingredients. I'd never become a vegetarian, but I'm happy to go meat lite.--S

Butternut Squash and Sausage Bake

Serves six to eight

1/4 lb Italian sausage
1/4 c olive oil, divided
3 onions, quartered and sliced
5 thyme sprigs
2 t dried sage
salt and pepper
1 small butternut squash, peeled and chopped into 1/2 cubes, (about 6 c) seeds and scrapings reserved
1/4 c flour
1/2 c shredded smoked mozzarella
3/4 c chicken stock
3 slices white sandwich bread, cut into cubes [I used sourdough baguette]
2 T melted butter, optional, plus a little extra to prepare baking dish

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 9"-x-12" baking dish.
2. Remove sausage from its casing and cook in a large skillet over medium heat until just browning, breaking up sausage with a wooden spoon as it cooks. [I used chicken sausage, so I simply sliced it, then halved each slice.] Remove cooked sausage and refrigerate until ready to use.
3. Add enough olive oil to the rendered fat in the skillet to equal 2T, and then add the onions, thyme and sage. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, scraping the bottom of the skillet to loosen brown bits. When onions are thoroughly soft, remove and set aside.
4. While the onions cook, simmer the squash seeds and scrapings in the chicken stock for 10 minutes, strain and keep the stock warm over low heat.
5. Add the remaining 2T of olive oil to the skillet. Toss the squash with the flour and arrange in a single layer in the skillet. (If the skillet isn’t big enough, you’ll need to do this in two batches.) Let the squash brown, undisturbed, for 4 minutes then stir the squash as it cooks for the next 4 minutes. Season liberally with salt and pepper and set aside.
6. To assemble the casserole, layer the onions in the buttered baking dish. Dot the onions with the sausage bits evenly, and then top with the squash. Sprinkle the smoked mozzarella over the top, and the pour the stock into the baking dish. Press the top of the casserole with a spatula to evenly distribute the liquid. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.
7. While the casserole bakes, pulse the bread crumbs with the melted butter (if using) in a food processor until you have coarse bread crumbs.
8. After 30 minutes, pull the baking dish out of the oven, remove the foil, top casserole evenly with breadcrumbs and bake uncovered an additional 20 to 30 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed and the top is nicely browned.

Recipe courtesy of Serious Eats

Pass the Syrup

2008-10-27T21:14:00.006-04:00

When I told our house guest last weekend, Darren, that I was making Mac n Cheese Pancakes for breakfast, I didn't get an, "Oooh, that sounds interesting!" or even a grunt of approval. Instead: "Do you eat them with syrup? Because I am SO over pancakes you don't eat with syrup." Apparently Darren had been to some snooty establishment for brunch recently and ordered pancakes that came with a fruit compote. He asked the waiter for syrup and the waiter told him the restaurant didn't have syrup. That's what the compote was for. Excusez-moi.

No such pretentiousness here. The recipe for these pancakes comes from Kenny Shopsin, the locally famous, curmudgeonly short-order cook at Shopsin's General Store here in New York City. (Read my interview with him here.) I doubt Kenny would ever serve pancakes sans syrup (though he allows Lemon Ricotta Pancakes can go without). He's a fan of Grade B maple syrup (incidentally, he is unapologetic about using Aunt Jemima frozen pancake batter).

I was excited to make the mac n cheese pancakes because it also meant test-driving our new griddle. I made the pancake batter from HTCE, and once the griddle was hot enough that water drops bounced off of it, I dropped circles of pancake batter onto the griddle. After about two minutes, I spooned about a tablespoon of cooked, warm elbow macaroni onto the center of each pancake, and then topped it with a thin layer of feather-shredded cheddar cheese. I quickly flipped the pancakes and used the spatula to press them down on the griddle. Once the undersides were golden, about two minutes later, I used "a decisive high-pressure sawing motion to lift and turn the pancakes onto a plate, B-side up." (Don't you love Kenny's instructions?)

Watching this video, I realize I could've cooked the pancakes a little longer, so the cheese got crustier and the mac got oozier. No matter. We spread these babies with butter and poured warm syrup over them, and they were delicious. The macaroni added a different textural element, and the cheese gave them more bite than your average pancake. No pretentiousness here, just some excellent pancakes.--S

Mac ’n’ Cheese Pancakes

Peanut oil, for the griddle
Butter, for the griddle and serving
3 c pancake batter, like Aunt Jemima frozen batter, thawed, or homemade
1 heaping c cooked elbow macaroni, tossed with olive oil and warmed
1 1/4 c shredded cheddar
Grade B maple syrup

1. Clean the griddle by running an oily cloth over it. If the cloth snags, scrape to remove, then wipe down the griddle with peanut oil. Set the griddle over moderate heat.
2. Pour a thin layer of peanut oil over the griddle. Just before you drop the batter, run cold butter across the area where you are going to cook. When it bubbles, drop the batter in 4-inch circles and immediately raise the heat to medium-high. Cook, adjusting the heat as needed, until bubbles appear, 1 to 3 minutes.
3. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of warm macaroni on each pancake, then 1 tablespoon of cheddar. Using a thin metal spatula, quickly turn the pancakes and gently tap to make them uniform in thickness. Cook until golden, about 2 minutes.
4. Serve, macaroni-side up, with butter and warm maple syrup.

Recipe courtesy of Eat Me

Plan for Pumpkin

2008-10-23T22:02:00.005-04:00

I was going to make date-nut bread, but then I started flipping through Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, and saw a recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Loaf. The headnotes said it was "extremely easy" with "impressive" results. "The loaf is incomparably moist, and the pumpkin and chocolate chips pair well together for the perfect accompaniment to a hot cup of coffee or tea." Ummm, change in plans. All I needed was a can of pureed pumpkin and I was set.

As promised, the recipe was really easy. It also made an enormous amount of batter, and since one of our new loaf pans is still residing in my parents' basement with the rest of our wedding gifts, and we only have one in the apartment, I used the leftover batter to make four mini-loaves and six muffins. It was all good, though; the smaller parts baked in less than an hour, while the loaf took about an hour and 20 minutes.

I had a feeling this would work out well, because one of the tastiest brownie recipes I've made lately came from the bakery behind Baked. And it certainly did smell fabulous as it was baking. Turns out, this is a terrific quickbread. Sweet, but not too much; moist and with a nice crispy top crust. I'll come back to the date-nut bread, but for now we're loving the pumpkin chocolate loaf.--S

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Loaf

Makes 2 loaves

3 1/4 c all-purpose flour
2 t cinnamon
1/2 t freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 t ground allspice
1/2 t ground ginger (optional)
2 t baking soda
2 t salt
1-3/4 c (one 15-oz can) pumpkin puree
1 c vegetable oil
3 c sugar
4 large eggs
1 t pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 c (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chips [I used chocolate chunks]

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9" x 5" x 3" loaf pans, dust them with flour, and knock out the excess flour.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, baking soda, and salt.
3. In another large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree and oil until combined.
4. Add the sugar and whisk again. Whisk the eggs into the mixture, one at a time, followed by the vanilla. Add 2/3 cup room-temperature water and whisk until combined. With a rubber spatula, stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet. Do not overmix.
6. Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Gently knock the bottom of the pans against the countertop to even out the batter. Use the spatula to smooth the tops.
7. Bake in the center of the oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean, 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time.
8. Transfer the pans to a wire rack and cool for 15 minutes. Invert the loaves onto wire racks and cool completely before serving.

Recipe courtesy of Baked

Deliciously Unnecessary

2008-10-19T10:53:00.011-04:00

Here's the thing about homemade pasta: I know it's not necessary. I live between two excellent shops that carry perfectly respectable dried pasta and pretty delicious fresh pasta. So I'm not going to get all "Homemade pasta is the only option; you simply must make your own, to hell with Barilla!" on you. But. Homemade pasta is really, really good. And the satisfaction of knowing that you (and your pasta machine) spun magnificent fettucine noodles out of flour, eggs and olive oil is not to be underestimated.

Fork and I received the Kitchen Aid pasta roller and cutter attachment as a shower gift. Alas, he was on a fishing trip in Montauk this weekend and missed its debut (but he'll no doubt enjoy the leftovers). So Kate and I gave it a try, and were quite impressed. We followed Lidia Bastianich's recipe for fettucine, using all-purpose flour, eggs, egg yolks, extra-virgin olive oil and ice water. The food processor turned out a soft, stretchy ball of dough in less than a minute, and after it rested for a half-hour, we revved up the stand mixer. Recalling what I'd learned from my mom about making pasta, we began feeding the dough through on the widest setting. We kept running it through, gradually adjusting the thickness setting to four, which resulted in an almost see-through sheet of pasta. Then we ran the sheet through the fettucine cutter, keeping the dough well-floured throughout. We separated the strands and laid them in nests (oh, how I loved those beautiful nests) on floured trays. And so it went for 1 1/2 lbs of pasta dough. The process was easy and fun.

So what to do with all this lovely fresh pasta? We went with Lidia's Fettucine with Squash and Cauliflower, a delicious seasonal dish. Using butternut squash and cauliflower from the greenmarket, plus capers, canned San Marzano plum tomatoes, garlic, onion and hot pepper flakes, we (er, Kate--I had done all the prep work and let her do the cooking!) prepared a warm, cozy, chunky vegetable sauce. The pasta cooked in boiling water for about two minutes, and we tossed it with the sauce, adding lots of pecorino cheese.

The pasta was tender and perfectly cooked, with some little clumps--truth be told, our favorite parts--where we hadn't used enough flour. The squash and cauliflower florets were softened, and the tomatoes strewn throughout added color and texture. We both had seconds, and still barely made a dent in the massive bowl. And this morning I woke up and considered reheating some for breakfast. I held off until lunch, and am digging in right now.--S

Fettucine with Squash and Cauliflower

1/2 c extra-virgin olive oil
3 plump garlic cloves, crushed, peeled
1 small onion, thinly sliced (1 c slices)
3 c butternut squash, cut in 1/2" cubes
3 c cauliflower, cut in small florets (about 1")
4 T small capers, drained
1 t coarse sea salt or kosher salt or to taste, plus more for cooking pasta
1/2 teaspoon peperoncino flakes, or to taste
2 c canned Italian plum tomatoes, preferably San Marzano, crushed by hand
1 lb pound fettuccine
1 c freshly grated pecorino

1. Pour the olive oil into the big skillet and set over medium-high heat. Scatter in the sliced garlic and let it start sizzling. Stir in the onion slices and cook for a couple of minutes to wilt. Spill in all the cut squash and cauliflower pieces, scatter the capers, salt and peperoncino on top and with tongs toss all together for a minute or so. Pour a cup of water into the skillet, cover tightly and steam the vegetables for 2 or 3 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally.
2. Pour in the crushed tomatoes along with a cup of water sloshed in the tomato containers. Stir well and cover. When the tomato juices are boiling, adjust the heat to keep them bubbling gently. Cook covered for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. When the vegetables are softened, uncover and continue cooking to reduce the pan juices to a good consistency for dressing the pasta, about 5 minutes. Adjust the seasoning to taste and keep at a low simmer.
3. While the sauce is cooking, heat the salted pasta cooking water to a rolling boil (at least 6 quarts water and a tablespoon salt). Drop in the fettuccine and cook until barely al dente. Lift them from the water, drain for a moment, then drop onto the simmering vegetables. Toss and cook all together for a couple of minutes, over moderate heat. Moisten the dish with pasta water if it seems dry; cook rapidly to reduce the juices if they're splashing in the skillet.
4. When the pasta is perfectly cooked and robed with sauce, turn off the heat. Sprinkle over the grated cheese, toss into the pasta and serve.

Recipe courtesy of Lidia's Italy

Falling

2008-10-16T12:31:00.007-04:00

Sunday may have been the most beautiful day we've had so far this fall. Gorgeous blue sky, warm sun, and where we were, in Orange County, New York, the leaves were just beginning to pop. As the sun set, the air felt cool and crisp. It was so lovely, and when we got back to the City on Monday and received a generous bag of Macoun apples from one of our neighbors, I knew I wanted to use them to make something that would keep that fall feeling going. An apple dessert would of course be a natural, but seeing as I've been eating more than my share of sweets lately and have a marathon coming up in two weeks, I wanted something a tad healthier. So I went with Cranberry Applesauce, the kind of sweet you can eat for breakfast without suffering a sugar crash around 11AM.

This recipe really is a snap, and the applesauce is nice and tart, with a hot pink color that looks almost as if strawberries or raspberries were involved. I used a quarter-cup of sugar instead of a half, and it came out fine, and instead of using a food mill to puree it (our apartment can only hold so many kitchen appliances), I employed my hand blender, which worked perfectly. I've been snacking on the applesauce by itself, but it would probably be marvelous with pork or turkey, too. Oh, and one more thing: it smells divine!--S

Cranberry Applesauce

Makes about 3 cups

4 apples (about 2 lbs), peeled, cored, and chopped
1 c fresh cranberries, picked over
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c apple juice or water
a 3-in. cinnamon stick
a 3-in. strip of lemon zest removed with a vegetable peeler
2 T unsalted butter

1. In a heavy saucepan cook the apples, the cranberries, the sugar, the apple juice or water, the cinnamon stick, and the zest over moderate heat, stirring, for 15 minutes, or until the apples are very soft.
2. Discard the cinnamon stick and teh zest, force the apple mixture through the medium disk of a food mill into a bowl, and stir in the butter. Serve the applesauce warm or chilled. The applesauce keeps, covered and chilled, for 1 week.

Recipe courtesy of Gourmet

Glazed Over

2008-10-09T17:03:00.006-04:00

I made this Glazed Lemon Bread the other night. I had a feeling it would be good--it's from a cookbook I trust, the ingredients are wholesome and tasty, and, if I'm being honest, it involved using our new stand mixer, which made me happy. And it was good. But the best part--the outsides of the bread, which had been doused in lemon glaze--was really good.

I was worried that the glaze--which you pour over the hot bread, just out of the oven, still in the pan--would be too sweet. After all, it's just lemon juice and sugar, melted down into a concentrated syrup. And, I'll admit it, I have a sweet tooth, so just because the glaze was tasty to me, I feared others might find it cloying.

My fears were laid to rest (or my friends are liars), because two of my friends commented that they loved the bread, and that the glaze was the best part. Maybe everyone has a secret sweet tooth?--S

Glazed Lemon Bread

Serves 8

1 2/3 c all purpose flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
2 t (packed) grated lemon peel
1/2 c whole milk
1/4 c fresh lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2-inch loaf pan.
2. Stir flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat 1 cup sugar and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Add grated lemon peel. Mix in dry ingredients alternately with milk. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake until tester inserted into center of bread comes out clean, about 1 hour.
4. Meanwhile, combine remaining 1/2 cup sugar and fresh lemon juice in small heavy saucepan and stir over low heat until sugar dissolves.
5. Transfer lemon bread to rack. Gradually spoon lemon glaze over hot bread, adding more as glaze is absorbed. Cool lemon bread completely in pan on rack. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Turn bread out onto rack. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature.)

Recipe courtesy of The Bon Appetit Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook

The Family Cornbread

2008-10-05T20:54:00.005-04:00

As soon as I ate the first spoonful of Heidi Swanson's Roasted Tomato Soup with Smoked Paprika, I knew I should've made something bready to go with it. Grilled cheese, maybe, or toasty garlic bread. It's not that the soup wasn't enjoyable; with its oven-roasted tomatoes, red bell pepper, onions and garlic, it was warm and comfy, with a little more depth than your typical tomato soup. But it needed a go-with.

Enter my grandfather's cornbread. Mulyatz, we call it--though that's the phonetic spelling, and when I asked Pop how it's really spelled, he wasn't quite sure. Mogliacci? Mogliazi? I'd never made it before, but remembered eating it as a child, when Pop would make it. His favorite way to eat it is alongside escarole and beans (as bread), or cut into small squares and served as a hot or cold appetizer. It's basically cornbread amped up with Italian sausage and Parmesan cheese. And what's not to like about that? Pop told me he got the recipe from his mother, who got it from her mother--and while cornbread and polenta are typically northern Italian specialties (and Pop's family is from Naples), this dish has nevertheless been part of our family repertoire for five generations.

Spoonful of soup, bite of mulyatz--now we're talking. I even broke off a few little bits of mulyatz and dunked them into the soup. Just delicious.--S

Mulyatz (cornbread)

1/2 lb Italian sausage
1 small onion
1-2 T olive oil
2 c yellow cornmeal
1/3 c Parmesan cheese
4 c water
Black pepper and salt

1. Grease 13"x9" baking dish with olive oil.
2. Dissolve cornmeal in 2 c cold water. Stir and set aside.
3. Remove casing from sausage, break up into pieces and saute with olive oil and chopped onions.
4. Bring 2 c water to a boil. Pour in the sausage and onions, then add cornmeal and water mixture. Stir constantly until very thick, then add cheese, pepper and salt.
5. Pour mixture into baking pan, spreading out evenly to about 1/2" thick. Let rest for 1/2 hour.
6. Preheat oven to 425. Rub a bit more olive oil on top of cornbread and bake for 1 hour or until crust forms on top.

Fennel and Garlic with Pork

2008-09-26T15:16:00.003-04:00

The name of this recipe is Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Fennel Garlic, but I propose renaming it to focus on the fennel and garlic. Don't get me wrong. The pork is succulent and juicy, lightly scented with oregano, and very tasty. But the fennel and garlic? Amazing.

You toss 12 whole garlic cloves, peeled, and fennel bulbs that have been cut into eighths with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast them for 10 minutes in a very hot (475) oven. After 10 minutes, you push the veggies to the side, making way for the tenderloin, which you've rubbed with oil and seasoned with oregano, salt and pepper, and put the sheet back in the oven for another 20 or 25 minutes.

Once the pork is done, you must let it rest for five or so minutes out of the oven, and while that's happening, I dare you not to pick a bit of roasted fennel off the pan for a taste. It's impossible. Fork and I hovered over the resting meat, nibbling at slivers of burnt fennel that had sweetened in the hot oven. And then there was the garlic: browned and crunchy on the outside, sweet-savory and yielding on the inside. It was like garlic candy. And yes, the pork was really good, too, but I'm seriously considering roasting up a pan of fennel and garlic tomorrow, they're that good.--S

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Fennel and Garlic

12 garlic cloves, peeled
3 lbs fennel bulbs (I used 2 large), fronds and stalks removed, bulbs cored and cut into eighths
3 T olive oil
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 pork tenderloins (about 1 lb each)
1/2 t dried oregano

1. Preheat oven to 475. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss garlic, fennel, and 2 T oil; season with salt and pepper. Roast 10 minutes.
2. Rub pork with remaining T oil; season with oregano, salt and pepper. Remove baking sheet from oven, and push fennel and garlic to sides of sheet. Place pork in center, and roast 20 to 25 minutes, until an instant-read thermometer inserted in thickest part registers 145.
3. Transfer pork to a cutting board, and let rest at least 5 minutes before thinly slicing. Serve pork with fennel and garlic.

Recipe courtesy of Everyday Food

What Should I Make Right Now?

2008-09-25T10:09:00.003-04:00

We all know that corn and tomatoes are summer foods, and apples and squash are the highlights of fall. But what about March? What about December? And aren't you a little curious about what you're supposed to do with all those apples? Or what you can really do with grapes, aside from eat them out of hand? Enter this fabulous new seasonal ingredient map from the geniuses at Epicurious:

You can roll over each ingredient to see a recipe slideshow, ingredient description and cooking tips. And aside from the practical uses, it's also kind of fun to pick up random bits of info. For instance, in April, New York and Alaska actually have a lot in common: carrots and potatoes, to be exact. Enjoy!--S

Hold Onto Summer

2008-09-19T15:28:00.007-04:00

With summer slipping through my fingers (60 degrees when I stepped outside to run this morning!), I resolved to get myself to the greenmarket this week and enjoy the still gorgeous produce. The tomatoes, especially, continue to look amazing, and when I saw a recipe for a Caramelized Tomato Tarte Tatin in Wednesday's paper, I knew I had to make it.

I somehow skipped over the "tatin" part when I first read the recipe. What really drew me in were the words "tomato" and "tart." (Incidentally, it was almost exactly a year ago that I discovered this magnificent tomato tart.) The ingredient list seemed perfectly reasonable--puff pastry, onions, sugar, sherry vinegar, olives, tomatoes and thyme--so I made a split-second decision to make it for dinner. Many farmers at the market were selling cherry tomatoes in gorgeous colors, and I asked one of the vendors if I could mix and match them. He thrust a plastic pint basket at me and said, "Go nuts." So I did, handpicking about a pound of red, orange, yellow and purple cherry and grape tomatoes.

And then I got home and read through the recipe--and realized this was a tarte tatin--French code word for "upside down." Riiiight! I've made plenty of apple tarte tatins, and actually love them for their rustic look and simplicity. And that's exactly what this tomato tarte tatin was. I caramelized thinly-sliced onions and set them in a bowl to cool. Then I made a caramel sauce in a nonstick skillet, added the tomatoes and olives, spread the onions on top, plus thyme, salt and pepper, and topped the whole thing with a round of puff pastry dough. Into a 425-degree oven it went, and about 20 minutes later it was golden brown. A quick (and you must do it quickly, there's no other way) flip over onto a plate, and we were ready to eat.

The tarte was both savory and sweet, dessert-y and dinner-y. We gobbled it up with a big green salad, and helped ourselves to seconds. The roasted tomatoes exploded in our mouths, the puff pastry crust slightly crunched, and we were happy to hold onto summer a little bit longer.--S

The Non Frittata

2008-09-17T13:39:00.006-04:00

Lidia Bastianich's Frittata with Asparagus with Scallions is not exactly a frittata. But then, when you're Lidia Bastianich--the real doyenne of Italian cooking, as far as I'm concerned, whose recipes have never failed me--you can call a mess of gently scrambled eggs, lightly cooked asparagus, crisped up prosciutto and melted onions whatever you want.

In the recipe's introduction, Lidia explains, "This is a different sort of frittata, not the neat golden round of well-set eggs that's probably most familiar. Here the eggs are in the skillet for barely a minute, just long enough to gather in soft, loose folds, filled with morsels of asparagus and shreds of prosciutto." It's a pretty brilliant combination, actually, and who cares if it's a far cry from the perfectly pan-shaped version? My lackluster supermarket was out of scallions, so I used a large onion, which turned out fine. Next time, however, I will definitely use a nonstick skillet, as my stainless steel one is still showing evidence of the frittata-non-frittata (need to get my hands on some of this).

After being away from home for awhile, this was the perfect dinner: warm, homey and uncomplicated. I'm not going to turn my back on the traditional frittata, but I'll surely turn to Lidia's version again.--S

Frittata with Asparagus and Scallions/Frittata Asparagi e Scalogno

Serves 4 as a light meal or 6 as an appetizer

1 lb fresh, thin asparagus spears
4 oz prosciutto or bacon, thick slices with ample fat (about 4 slices)
1/2 lb scallions
3 T extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 t coarse sea salt or kosher salt, or more to taste
8 large eggs
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. Snap off the tough bottom stubs of the asparagus, peel the bottom few inches of each spear, and cut them crosswise in 1 1/2" pieces. Slice prosciutto or bacon into strips, or lardoons, about 1 inch long and 1/3" wide. Trim the scallions, and cut crosswise into 1" pieces.
2. Pour the olive oil into the skillet, scatter in the lardoons, and set over medium heat. When the strips are sizzling and rendering fat, toss in the cut asparagus, and roll and toss them over a few times. Cover the skillet, and cook, still over moderate heat, shaking the pan occasionally, until the asparagus is slightly softened, 5 minutes or so.
3. Scatter the scallion pieces in the pan, season with a couple pinches of salt, and toss the vegetables and lardoons together. Cover the skillet, and cook, shaking the pan and stirring occasionally, until the scallions and asparagus are soft and moist, 7 or 8 minutes more.
4. Meanwhile, beat the eggs thoroughly with the remaining salt and generous grinds of black pepper.
5. When the vegetables are steaming in their moisture, uncover the skillet, raise the heat, and cook, tossing, for a minute or so, until the water has evaporated and the asparagus and scallions seem about to color.
6. Quickly spread them out in the pan, and pour the eggs over at once. Immediately begin folding the eggs over with the spatula, clearing the sides and skillet bottom continuously, so the eggs flow and coagulate around the vegetables and lardoons.
7. When all the eggs are cooked in big soft curds—in barely a minute—take the skillet off the heat. Tumble the frittata over a few more times to keep it loose and moist. Spoon portions onto warm plates, and serve hot and steaming.

Recipe courtesy of Lidia's Italy

Buen Provecho on the Camino

2008-09-10T16:28:00.010-04:00

A person can eat a lot over the course of a week of hiking up and down the mountains of northern Spain. And I'm not talking about trail mix. Last week, while my sis and I were covering about 140 miles of the famed Camino de Santiago from Hendaye, France, to Bilbao, Spain, we did consume our share of nuts, dried fruit, Babybel cheese and ham sandwiches. But at the end of the day, without fail, we rewarded ourselves and gave the local economy a boost by checking out the offerings at whatever bar we could find. And in Basque Country, the bar is often covered in food--specifically, pinxos, one-serving appetizers, eaten in a few bites, washed down with a glass of Rioja, a caña (glass of light beer) or, my personal favorite, the clara--a light beer mixed with lemon soda. Knowing we'd find refreshment and some sort of delicious food made lugging an 11-pound backpack through some tough terrain totally, totally worth it.--S
Note the beer teetering on the edge of the bar, to the left.
Most pinxos cost about 1,20 euros--sometimes more than a glass of beer.
These were in Lezama, at the town's annual fiesta. We ate while watching a wood-chopping contest and listening to a local band.
Cafe in Gernika.
Celebratory pinxos at the end of our journey, in Bilbao.
Basque doesn't seem to resemble Spanish at all--all those x's and k's. Thankfully there are usually Spanish translations. But even if you don't know what you're ordering, it's going to taste delicious.

My New BFF

2008-08-29T13:38:00.004-04:00

I am delighted to introduce my (excuse me, OUR) latest kitchen toy: the KitchenAid Stand Mixer, Artisan Series with tilting head and direct drive transmission! (Excuse me while I bow.)

Fork and I received this awesome machine last weekend at a wedding shower, and it was the one item I insisted on bringing back to the City. Everything else can wait in my parents' basement, for now, anyway, but I was dying to clear off counter space for the mixer.

I gave it a whirl the other night, with Banana Chip Cookies. They're basically chocolate cookies with a little extra mixed in: chopped, toasted walnuts; and chopped dried banana chips. The recipe also calls for a touch of toasted wheat germ and whole wheat flour. The mixer handled everything like a pro, naturally, turning the butter light and fluffy in less than a minute, and incorporating the sugar with results that can only be described in the words of my grandfather: poetry in motion. Oh, and the cookies? Delicious.

As summer winds down and we head into fall, I can't wait to show the mixer some love. Just think of all the cakes, cookies, bread and whipped cream that await.--S

Summer Love

2008-08-21T21:40:00.004-04:00

So much for the dog days of summer. We've been having spectacular weather lately, with the morning temperature when I set foot outside for a run somewhere around 75. Skies are sunny and blue, and the humidity's low. Can we have this weather for a few more months, please? Oh, and while we're at it, can we continue to have the amazing fruits and vegetables currently on offer at the greenmarket?

I finished a six-miler yesterday at the market, and picked up a dozen or so plums from Miglorelli, the kind with rosy pink skin and yellowish flesh. They finished ripening while I was at work, and I when I got home, I set to work slicing them, then halving the slices. Into a square ceramic baking dish they went, tossed with a tiny bit of flour and brown sugar. In a separate bowl, I whisked rolled oats, brown sugar, flour and salt; then I cut in a cold stick of butter. I sprinkled the sugary, oaty, buttery crumbs over the fruit, forming a thick carpet, then baked it for 40 minutes. The smell was heavenly, and after the dish was bubbling and lightly browned, I took it out of the oven and let it cool by the window (nice touch, right? I was in a rush to get the thing uptown to book club).

Somehow the crisp made it safely 20 blocks north on the subway, and my friends and I enjoyed it, still warm. Sweet, a little tart, gently crunching from the oatmeal, kind of slurpy--this is August at its best.--S

Plum Oatmeal Crisp

serves 6

1/2 c plus 1 T all-purpose flour
1 c plus 2 T packed light-brown sugar
1/2 c old-fashioned rolled oats
1/4 t salt
1/2 c cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 1/2 lbs ripe plums, cut into 1-in. pieces

1. Preheat oven to 375. In a medium bowl, stir together 1/2 c flour, 1 c sugar, oats and salt. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until coarse crumbs form.
2. In a shallow 2-qt baking dish, toss plums with remaining 2 T sugar and 1 T flour; sprinkle with oat topping. Place dish on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until topping is golden brown, 40-45 min. Let cool 20 minutes before serving.

Clams by Another Name

2008-08-19T20:12:00.005-04:00

After a lovely day at the beach on Sunday, Fork and I emerged from Penn Station wondering what to have for dinner. One look at the long taxi line on 7th Avenue was all we needed to convince us to walk home--via a route that took us past Garden of Eden.

We picked up two dozen Connecticut littleneck clams, some tomatoes, a cucumber, dill and a $1 bag of day-old bread. A stop at the wine shop for a chilled bottle of Albarino (our latest favorite, from Galicia and perfectly crisp) and we were set. On the agenda: the unfortunately-named Gwyneth's Clams. The recipe comes from a road trip Gwyneth Paltrow, Mario Batali and Mark Bittman took through Spain, documented in a TV series, forthcoming book and recent article in Food & Wine. Dirty jokes from Fork notwithstanding, we were kind of psyched to try Gwyneth's clams.

There's not much to the dish: well-scrubbed clams steam open in the wine, with a horizontally halved head of garlic and a couple of bay leaves. Drizzle the opened clams and wine broth with olive oil, and dinner's ready. Before preparing the clams--which took all of 10 minutes--I threw together a tomato/cucumber/dill salad, a classic summer salad my friend Anne taught me years ago.

It probably goes without saying that we wiped this out. The clams were delicious, and you tasted more of their ocean flavor since they were cooked in wine, not butter. Sopping up the broth with the bread (and rubbing it first on the halved garlic head floating around inside the wine) was very enjoyable, too. Aside from the name, this is one of my favorite dishes of the summer.--S

Herbal Delight

2008-08-08T14:18:00.006-04:00

With the vegetable situation still verging on out-of-control, I threw down the gauntlet the other night. I was sitting on vast quantities of lettuce, green beans, red onion, and herbs (basil, cilantro and chives). This time my rescuer was dear Heidi Swanson, of 101 Cookbooks. Her Herb Salad was just the ticket to wipe out nearly all the veggies Fork's mom brought. Snow peas are all that remain.

Again, I wondered if this would be filling enough for dinner, and again, I was worrying about nothing. What gives this salad oomph is its rich dressing, made from avocado, Greek yogurt, lemon juice and garlic. It's heavenly. It pulled the whole dish--blanched green beans, corn, toasted pumpkin seeds, lots of fresh herbs, and red onion--together. And it gives it some substance. Oh, and did I mention it is delicious? In fact, I'd seriously consider making this dressing in lieu of guacamole, adding some jalapeno and perhaps lime juice instead of lemon. I'd say this recipe's star is the dressing, actually--though the fresh herbs are pretty fabulous, too. I rarely put herbs in salad, and this recipe reminded me how they add freshness and flavor to simple vegetables.

Make this one NOW. It's seasonal, and I really don't want you going without this amazing dressing any longer.--S

The Dish to the Rescue

2008-08-05T19:45:00.007-04:00

Lately it feels like if I'm not making ice cream, I'm trying to figure out what to do with huge quantities of fresh vegetables. Not that either of these situations are a problem. But last night I was starting to panic about the number of bags of veggies in the fridge. Andrew's mom was down the weekend before last, and she brought a bounty from her garden. I roasted beets, baked zucchini bread, and ate the broccoli and green peppers--both so green they barely resembled the stuff they sell at Gristede's--raw with hummus. But still there remained yellow summer squash, more peppers and green beans. Salvation arrived yesterday, in the form of The Dish, Food & Wine's weekly e-mail. Subject line: "10+ Delicious August Vegetable Dishes." Yes.

Yellow Squash Soup with Scallion Salad is a delicious summer soup, hot but refreshing, with a nice tang from buttermilk. The presentation is lovely; you ladle the sweet, yellow pureed soup into bowls, scatter a "salad" of cooked and raw chopped veggies in the middle, and add a few bits of fried cheese to the side. I was nervous about this being filling enough for dinner, but both Fork and I were happily stuffed.

I made a few changes to the recipe, based on the veggies I had in my fridge. Instead of just grilling scallions, I added sliced onions, too. I subbed chopped blanched green beans and chopped green peppers for tomatoes and cucumber. And in place of tarragon and parsley, I used cilantro and chives. I did, however, stick with the recipe's suggestion for manchego in the "fricos," little fried cheese crisps. They added the perfect salty crunch. Yes, making this dish put a serious and much needed dent in the crisper drawer. But it also resulted in a great dinner and new summer soup to add to my repertoire.--S

Yellow Squash Soup with Scallion Salad

1 T unsalted butter
1 lb. small yellow squash, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 fresh bay leaves [I used one dried]
1 1/2 c low-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 c water
6 scallions, white and tender green parts only
1 T plus 1 t extra-virgin olive oil
1 c buttermilk
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
3/4 c finely grated Manchego cheese (2 ounces)
1 c grape tomatoes, quartered
1 T minced tarragon
1 T minced flat-leaf parsley
1/4 c finely diced peeled cucumber
1 t lemon juice

1. In a saucepan, melt the butter. Add the yellow squash and bay leaves and cook over moderate heat for 8 minutes. Add the broth and water and bring to a boil. Simmer just until the squash is tender.
2. Meanwhile, preheat a grill pan. Rub the scallions with 1 teaspoon of the oil and grill over high heat, turning occasionally, until lightly charred, 5 minutes. Let cool, then cut into 1/2-inch pieces. Transfer to a bowl.
3. Transfer the squash and 1/2 cup of the broth to a blender and discard the bay leaves. [I left the squash in the pot, removed all but a 1/2 c of broth, and pureed it using an immersion blender.] Puree the soup and blend in the buttermilk. Season with salt and pepper. Keep warm or refrigerate until cold.
4. Heat a nonstick skillet over moderate heat. Spoon twelve 2-inch-wide mounds of the Manchego into the skillet; cook over moderate heat until browned on the bottom. Off the heat, flip the cheese crisps. Return to the heat and cook until browned. Transfer the crisps to a rack and let cool.
5. Add the tomatoes, tarragon, parsley, cucumber, lemon juice and the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil to the scallions and toss. Season the salad with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with the scallion salad. Serve the soup warm or chilled with the cheese crisps.

Recipe courtesy of Food & Wine

When You Tire of Plain Old Ice Cream

2008-08-01T15:41:00.006-04:00

Ice cream is all well and good, but an ice cream sandwich takes the pleasure up a notch. The nostalgia factor, the portability, and the combination of cookie and ice cream all add up to a refreshing break from a plain ol' bowl of ice cream. (Boooooring!)

My favorite homemade ice cream sandwiches (incidentally, the only ice cream sandwiches I've ever made) combine coconut and vanilla. They're Coconut Cream Sandwiches, and while the original recipe suggests you buy two pints of vanilla ice cream for the filling, would it really kill you to make a batch of homemade ice cream? No French-style, egg-based seriousness needed; a simple Philadelphia-style ice cream fits the bill just fine, especially since the cookie part of the ice cream sandwich is pretty rich, made with sweetened shredded coconut, butter, sugar, flour and salt.

You'll probably find the cookies expand in the oven--it happens to me every time--so shape the unbaked cookie dough into a smaller piece than you'd ideally want for an ice cream sandwich. And when the cookies have cooled and you're ready to make the sandwiches, make sure the ice cream is slightly softened, otherwise you'll break the cookies. And then you'll have to eat them on the spot.

It's August, summer's half over, and you're probably sick of ice cream. Okay, you're not sick of ice cream. I still recommend these ice cream sandwiches!--S

Coconut Cream Sandwiches
Makes 12

1/2 c unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 c sugar
1/4 t salt
3/4 c all-purpose flour
7 oz sweetened shredded coconut
2 pints vanilla ice cream, slightly softened (recipe below)

1. With an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and salt until smooth. Mix in flour, then coconut, beating until a dough forms. Transfer to a piece of waxed paper; pat into a rectangular log, about 3" wide and 6" long. Wrap with waxed paper; freeze until firm, about 30 min.
2. Preheat oven to 350, with racks in upper and lower thirds. With a serrated knife, slice log of dough crosswise 1/4" thick (you should have about 24 slices); arrange slices on two baking sheets. [Leave plenty of space between the cookies; as mentioned above, they will spread.]
3. Bake until golden, rotating sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through, 20 to 25 minutes (watch closely toward end of cooking time to avoid overbrowning). Cool completely on sheets.
4. Dividing evenly, spread ice cream on flat side of half the cookies; sandwich with remaining cookies, flat side down. Freeze on a baking sheet until firm, about 3 hrs. (To freeze longer, up to 1 week, wrap sandwiches individually in plastic.)

Recipe courtesy of Everyday Food