Sara's Kitchen

On hiatus

2009-07-22T17:59:00.000-07:00

I've decided to take a break from blogging for a while. Believe it or not, I haven't been cooking much lately. You know what they say, life gets in the way. If you'd like to be notified when I start posting again, you can sign up for email updates on my sidebar. No spam, I promise, just email notifications of new posts. I hope to be able to share with you the reason for my absence when I return, in the meantime, thanks for your patience and understanding.

Soba noodles with tofu and vegetables

2009-07-12T14:54:00.000-07:00

When it's hot outside, the last thing I want to do is turn on the oven. The only cooking required for soba noodles with tofu and vegetables is to boil a pot of water.

The vegetables for this dish include thinly sliced napa cabbage, shredded carrot and bean sprouts.
A soy and sesame based dressing is whisked together to go over the noodles, vegetables and cubed tofu.

After the noodles, vegetables and tofu are thoroughly coated in the dressing, some chopped cilantro adds a finishing touch.

This dish is good warm, at room temperature or cold. I loved the combination of flavors, and especially appreciated the fact that it didn't heat up the kitchen.

Roasted green beans with marcona almonds

2009-07-05T09:20:00.000-07:00

This recipe was never supposed to be made. I ripped this particular page out of Bon Appetit for a different recipe that was on the front of the page. One day I was going through my recipe clippings, and the page was turned over so that the picture of these roasted green beans was facing up. I decided to give it a try, and I've made it a few times since then.

This is another really simple recipe that produces unique results. Green beans and onions are roasted at high heat and seasoned with lemon and herbs. Chopped marcona almonds finish the dish.

The first time I made the recipe, I tossed the raw green beans onto the pan and threw them in the oven. It tasted great, but the green beans turned an unattractive shade of drab green. I figured out that blanching the green beans before roasting allows them to keep their vibrant green color.

Chocolate almond spice cookies

2009-06-28T18:00:00.000-07:00

One day I felt like baking, but didn't want to run to the store to buy any ingredients. I found this recipe for chocolate spice cookies, and I had just enough chocolate in the house to make a half batch.

The great thing about this recipe is that it's made entirely in the food processor, which means less dishes to wash. The dough is flavored with ground almonds, cocoa powder, bittersweet chocolate and allspice.

This is a slice and bake cookie, so the rolls of dough need to chill for a while before they're ready to bake. I added a sliced almond to the top of each cookie to make them more attractive.

I really liked the cookies - the cocoa and chocolate contribute a rich, complex flavor, and the allspice makes these unique. I put half of the dough in the freezer for another day, so I'll be baking these the next time I need another chocolate fix.

Apple cider brined chicken

2009-06-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

I had a chicken in the freezer and was looking for something interesting to do with it. I know that it's not exactly the season to be cooking with apple cider, but trust me here. This apple cider brined chicken is great any time of the year.

The brine ensures a moist end product, and the cider adds just a touch of spice and sweetness. The recipe called for removing the skin partway through cooking time, but that sounded like a lot of mess and hassle, so I left the skin on. The sugar in the cider made for very crisp and browned skin, so I'm glad I didn't remove it.

I think this would also be great on the grill, I would suggest cooking it over indirect heat to prevent burning.

Quesadillas with poblano rajas

2009-06-17T19:40:00.000-07:00

There are not many foods simpler than a quesadilla. Tortillas, cheese, heat, eat. Of course there are many variations on the basic version, and I think my favorite happens to be the addition of poblano rajas. Poblano rajas is a mixture of roasted poblano chiles, onion, garlic and Mexican oregano. I adapted this recipe from Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen.

The recipe starts with poblano peppers. These peppers are pretty mild, but there is some heat packed into the seeds and veins, so take caution when removing those. The peppers are roasted until blackened, peeled, and cut into thin strips.

The onions and garlic are cooked separately in a pan. I like to use a red onion in this recipe because it adds a hint of sweetness.

After the onions and garlic are cooked, the pepper strips are added. The whole mixture is seasoned with salt, pepper and mexican oregano. I keep both Mexican and Mediterranean oregano on hand. If you don’t have Mexican oregano, you can substitute a different variety, but the flavor won’t be exactly the same.

Once the poblano rajas is done, it’s time to assemble the quesadillas. The original recipe calls for corn tortillas and Mexican cheese. I typically use flour tortillas with whatever cheese we have on hand. Not exactly traditional, but convenient and still delicious. This time around, I used flour tortillas with white cheddar and mozzarella cheese, and topped each quesadilla with avocado and cilantro.

Poblano rajas

Makes about 2 cups

1 pound poblano peppers, seeded, roasted and peeled
1 tablespoon canola oil

1 medium red onion
2 garlic cloves

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, preferably Mexican

salt and pepper to taste

Cut the peppers and onion into 1/4 inch slices. Heat the oil at medium heat in a skillet. Add the red onion, cook for 5-7 minutes until translucent and slightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add the poblanos and oregano to the pan, season with salt and pepper to taste.

Mini cornbread puddings

2009-06-14T20:55:00.000-07:00

I pulled this recipe out of Everyday Food magazine a few years ago, and I haven't made another cornbread recipe since. I find that sometimes cornbread can be dry - not these muffins. They're actually called cornbread puddings because they come out so moist.

The recipe starts out with typical cornbread ingredients - flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt.

The dry ingredients are mixed with an egg and sour cream. The sour cream adds all the moisture, there's no butter involved. I use light sour cream, it works just fine. A generous amount of corn kernels are also stirred into the batter.

The batter is spooned into muffin tins to bake. You can use mini muffin or regular muffin tins. If you go with a regular muffin pan, add a few more minutes to the bake time. Here I used a mini muffin pan, but I almost always go with full sized muffins.

These bake very quickly, and are out of the oven in less than 15 minutes.

I tend to serve the muffins with jam, but they're also great with butter or honey. If you wanted a more savory muffin, you could probably add some minced bell pepper or jalapeno to the recipe.

Brownie pudding cake

2009-06-09T18:56:00.000-07:00

This cake recipe has been in my family for a long time. I can’t believe it took me 2 and a half years to write about it – maybe because it’s not the most photogenic of dishes. However, it tastes amazing, I always have all the ingredients in my pantry, and the whole recipe only contains 3 tablespoons of fat. How can you go wrong with that?

So where does the pudding come from? A thick layer of cocoa powder and brown sugar goes on top of the cake batter. Next, a few cups of boiling water are poured over the whole thing.

When the cake bakes, the base layer of batter rises to the top to create a cake topping and the pudding sauce ends up on the bottom.

This cake can be eaten hot, at room temperature, or chilled. The consistency of the pudding sauce will vary depending on what temperature it’s served at. If you serve it right out of the oven, the pudding is more of a thin chocolate sauce. As the cake cools, the pudding layer starts to thicken. The cake is great served with ice cream, or simply eaten as is.

Brownie pudding cake
Serves 4-6

3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 3/4 cups boiling water
powdered sugar, for serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 inch square baking dish or round souffle dish. Combine flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and 1/3 cup cocoa in medium bowl. Add milk, butter and vanilla, stir until just blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared dish.

Combine brown sugar and remaining 1/4 cup cocoa in small bowl. Sprinkle evenly over batter. Pour boiling water over entire mixture; do not stir.

Bake 35 to 38 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the top layer comes out clean. Cool at least 10 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Grilled shrimp with mango rice

2009-06-07T19:27:00.000-07:00

I chose this recipe because the colorful picture caught my eye, and it sounded like a fun flavor combination. To get started, I prepared the marinade for the shrimp, which is a mixture of soy sauce, garlic, ginger, curry powder and cayenne. I put the shrimp into the marinade and got to work on the rice.

The rice is cooked in coconut milk and water – I went with brown basmati rice, which worked perfectly. After the rice is cooked, it gets tossed with diced mango, red pepper and shredded carrot.

The rice is finished off with lime juice and a combination of fresh herbs – green onion, cilantro and parsley. I know it sounds like a lot of ingredients, but you can cut everything up in advance and simply toss with the rice before serving. I also think you could get away with skipping one or two of the herbs if need be.

The shrimp get threaded onto skewers and grilled. They cook through very quickly, so keep a close eye on them.

For serving, the shrimp skewers are placed on a bed of the mango rice. The slight spiciness of the shrimp goes really well with the sweetness of the mango. I loved the tropical flavors in this dish.

Sauteed morels with white asparagus and fava beans

2009-06-04T19:47:00.000-07:00

As soon as spring hits, I keep an eye out for fresh morels at the market. I was lucky enough to find some really nice ones a few weeks ago. I took a cue from Sunday Suppers at Lucques and combined the morels with white asparagus and fava beans to make a delicious spring vegetable dish. The original recipe uses ramps, but I couldn’t find any when I made this, so I used the fava beans instead.

There’s not much that's better than fresh morels with butter. The asparagus and fava beans complemented the morels nicely. I served this over polenta as a main course, but it would also work well as a side dish.

Soba noodles with chicken and vegetables

2009-06-02T18:39:00.000-07:00

I pulled this recipe out of one of my cookbooks because I thought it looked like an interesting way to serve chicken. I had every intention of (mostly) following the recipe, but my plans changed. That day, my mom brought me a large container of snow pea shoots and some oyster mushrooms. At that point, it didn’t make any sense for me to go out and buy the vegetables specified in the recipe, so I used the pea shoots and oyster mushrooms instead.

The vegetables are cooked with chicken and tossed with soba noodles. A soy and sake based sauce completes the dish. I don’t cook with soba noodles that often, but I should; they cook quickly and have a great texture.

Although I strayed from the recipe, I think the original combination of broccoli, button mushrooms and red peppers would also be great in this dish.

Almond jam bars

2009-05-31T19:18:00.000-07:00

I'm still trying to use up almonds over here. I am happy to report that I am down to the bottom of the can, I only have about a cup left. These almond jam bars helped to make a dent in my supply.

The dough for these bar cookies is very simple; it's a standard flour-butter-sugar combination with the addition of cinnamon and sliced almonds.

Half of the dough is pressed into the bottom of a pan. I lined the pan with foil to make for easier removal of the bars. A layer of jam goes on top of the dough. I went with a mixed berry jam, but you can use whatever type you have on hand.

The other half of the dough is gently pressed on top of the jam to form the top layer. The bars are then baked until golden brown.

I loved these bars - they're not the most unique creation I've ever made, but they were quite delicious and so simple to make.

Adobo pork tenderloin with grilled pineapple salsa

2009-05-28T19:03:00.000-07:00

Some of the most unexpected ingredients come to life on the grill. Ever tried grilled lettuce? If you haven’t, you should; trust me on that one. In this recipe, pineapple is tossed on the grill to create a unique and delicious salsa for pork tenderloin.

The pork tenderloin is marinated in a mixture of lime juice, garlic and spices. While the pork marinates, the pineapple and some vegetables go onto the grill. The original recipe called for grilling the pineapple with red and yellow bell peppers, and left the red onion and jalapeno raw. I figured that I might as well throw everything onto the grill; I prefer cooked onion over raw onion anyways.

The pineapple only needs a few minutes to cook through – the grilling process really intensifies the flavor of the fruit.

Once the pineapple and vegetables are done, they’re coarsely chopped and mixed with lime juice and cilantro to create a salsa.

After the salsa is made, the pork goes onto the grill. I tend to cook pork until it’s just slightly pink on the inside.

The pork and pineapple salsa is a great flavor combination, but I could also see this salsa being great on chicken or fish.

Cheddar pecan flowers

2009-05-26T19:28:00.000-07:00

Most people don’t think to make their own crackers. If you haven’t tried it before, you should. The process is fairly simple, and the results are so much better than store bought. I combined extra sharp white cheddar cheese with ground pecans to get a cracker with a bold flavor.

The ingredient list is minimal for this recipe, and the dough comes together quickly in the food processor. I added some chipotle powder for a touch of heat and a smoky flavor.

The dough is rolled out and cut into shapes. I used a 2.5 inch flower cookie cutter. You can use a different shape, but the cutter should be at least 2 inches. Otherwise, you can simply cut the dough into squares. The crackers are sprinkled with fleur de sel before heading into the oven.

The crackers bake until crisp and golden brown. These crackers are great on their own, but could also be served as an accompaniment to dips and spreads.

Cheddar pecan flowers
Makes about 2 dozen
Adapted from the Martha Stewart Living Cookbook

½ cup all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
¾ cup pecans, toasted and finely ground
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon ground chipotle pepper
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 tablespoons cold water
4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated
fleur de sel for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the flour, pecans, kosher salt, black pepper and chipotle powder. Add the butter, pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the cheese, pulse until the cheese is thoroughly incorporated into the mixture. With the machine running, gradually add 2 tablespoons of cold water; process until the dough comes together.

Gather the dough into a ball, dust with flour. Put the dough on a plate and cover; refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Transfer the dough to a floured surface. Roll the dough to ¼ inch thickness. Cut the dough into shapes using the cookie cutter. Place the crackers onto a baking sheet lined with a silpat. Sprinkle a little fleur de sel over the tops of the crackers; lightly press the salt into the dough.

Bake for 17-20 minutes, until the centers are firm and the crackers are lightly browned. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Three types of peas with bacon and leeks

2009-05-24T22:18:00.000-07:00

My produce market stocks all their varieties of peas in one spot. Looking over the selection, I thought it would be fun to do a vegetable dish with three types of peas. I picked up some snow peas, english peas and snap peas. I shelled the english peas, then blanched each variety separately. You could skip the blanching if you’re in a hurry, I just like the way it preserves the color and ensures a perfectly cooked end product.

I decided to cook the peas with some leeks and bacon. I mean really, who doesn’t like bacon in their vegetables? Even with the small amount of bacon, this is a fairly healthy dish, and it was fun to taste the differences in the pea varieties.

Three types of peas with bacon and leeks
Serves 4

½ pound snap peas, trimmed
½ pound snow peas, trimmed
1 cup fresh or frozen English peas
1 medium leek, halved then thinly sliced
2 strips of bacon, sliced into ½ inch pieces
Salt and pepper

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Blanch the snap peas for about 1-2 minutes, or until just tender. Transfer to an ice bath. Repeat the process with the snow peas and english peas. Pat dry with a paper towel.

Heat a large pan over medium, then add the bacon. Cook until the bacon is crisp and browned. Remove the bacon from the pan, drain on a paper towel. Discard most of the bacon fat from the pan until you’re left with a few teaspoons. Place the leek in the pan, season with salt and pepper and saute until the leek is tender and slightly browned, about 3-4 minutes. Add all the peas to the pan, toss to coat with the leek mixture. Cook until the peas are warmed through, season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the reserved bacon over the top and serve.

Rhubarb raspberry crisp

2009-05-21T18:59:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, my in-laws brought us some rhubarb plants from their yard in San Diego. Most of the plants couldn't handle the Bay Area winters, but we do have a few that are still standing. I had enough rhubarb in the yard to put together this rhubarb and raspberry crisp.

This recipe is similar to most other fruit crisp recipes that you'll find. There are a few ingredients that make this one a little more unique. The raspberries and rhubarb receive a healthy dose of orange zest, and toasted hazelnuts go in to the crisp topping.

The end result was delicious, with a perfect topping to fruit ratio. I served this with black raspberry ice cream. I was out in the yard yesterday and noticed that our largest rhubarb plant has grown some more stalks, which means I can make another rhubarb dessert in the near future.

Italian seafood stew

2009-05-19T19:39:00.001-07:00

I first noticed this recipe in Giada’s Family Dinners a few months ago, but wanted to wait to make it until corn was in season. I started seeing fresh corn in the markets a couple weeks ago, and moved the recipe to the top of my list. The dish combines an assortment of seafood with fennel, corn, shallots and potato.

For the seafood, I went with littleneck clams, mussels, salmon, sole and pink hopper shrimp. You can use whatever variety of seafood that you like; I think scallops would be a great addition.

The seafood and vegetables are cooked in white wine, tomatoes and fish stock. I love that this is a one-pot meal; all you need is bread or a salad and you’ve got a great dinner.

Strawberry, watercress and cashew salad

2009-05-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

I’ve been seeing a lot of great looking strawberries at the market lately. What’s even better than fresh strawberries from the market? Fresh strawberries from the backyard.

I wanted to do something with the strawberries besides eat them plain. I recently received some delicious sweet and salty cashews from Oh! Nuts, and I knew they’d be great in a salad with my berries.

I decided to go with watercress as the base for the salad. I really like watercress, but I don’t use it often enough. I tossed the watercress in a very simple dressing of minced shallot, lemon, honey and olive oil. I added lots of strawberries, the cashews and some shaved ricotta salata.

This is a great summer salad, and very easy to put together. Strawberry season has just started, and I’ll be getting berries from the yard for a few more months. I need to come up with some other ways to use them, any ideas?

Strawberry, watercress and cashew salad

Serves 3-4

2 bunches of watercress, trimmed

1 cup of strawberries, halved or quartered

1/4 cup sweet and salty cashews

1/4 cup ricotta salata, shaved

1 small shallot, minced

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 heaping teaspoon honey

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Whisk together the shallot, lemon juice, honey, olive oil, salt and pepper. Add to the watercress and toss to coat. Top with strawberries, cashews and ricotta salata.

Follow me on twitter

2009-05-16T09:24:00.000-07:00

After much persuasion, I've finally joined twitter. I probably only blog about 30% of the food that I make, so if you'd like to see what I'm cooking in between blog posts, you can follow me. I've also added my twitter updates to the sidebar.

Ingredient spotlight: piquillo peppers

2009-05-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

I bought my first jar of piquillo peppers from a spanish food specialty store in Berkeley. Once I tried these peppers, I knew I’d be incorporating them into my cooking on a regular basis. Piquillo peppers are sweet red peppers from Spain that are roasted and sold in jars or cans. I usually buy my piquillo peppers packed in water, but they also come packed in olive oil. Piquillos taste similar to roasted red bell peppers, but with a more intense, slightly smoky flavor – I happen to think that they’re vastly superior.

My local grocery store carries piquillo peppers, they have them right next to the jars of regular roasted peppers. Trader Joe’s has them right now too, but I noticed that they’re imported from Peru rather than Spain, so I can’t vouch for the quality. You can also order them online. Unlike most jarred products, these peppers don’t have a very long shelf life. I usually end up freezing whatever I have left over after the jar has been open for a week.

You can use these peppers in any way that you would normally use your standard roasted red peppers. I like to put them in pasta, on pizza, or stuff them with a variety of fillings. One of my favorite preparations is to stuff the peppers with goat cheese, raisins and pine nuts. There’s no real recipe for this – I mix softened goat cheese with some toasted pine nuts, golden raisins that have been plumped in hot water, salt and pepper. If the mixture seems too thick, you can thin it slightly with a touch of milk or cream. I fill the peppers using a piping bag – you can use a spoon, but it’s a little messier. These are good at room temperature or just slightly warmed.

Another great way to use piquillo peppers is to make a marmalade. I use the marmalade for lamb chops, but it would also be great on pork or chicken.

Piquillo pepper marmalade

Makes 3-4 servings

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced

8 piquillo peppers, thinly sliced

1 clove of garlic, crushed

2 teaspoons lemon zest

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 fresh rosemary sprig

1 teaspoon sherry vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a pan at medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft and browned, 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for one minute. Add the piquillo peppers, lemon zest, lemon juice and rosemary and cook for another 5-7 minutes. Add a little water if the pan gets too dry. Remove and discard the rosemary sprig. Stir in the vinegar and season to taste with salt and pepper.

A healthier take on blueberry muffins

2009-05-12T19:33:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I had a couple of different things cooking at the same time, including a loaf of bread. My husband came out and asked if I was baking muffins, because that’s what he smelled. When I told him that there were no muffins in the oven, he was a little bit disappointed, so of course I had to remedy that. I put together this recipe for blueberry yogurt muffins for a healthier take on an old classic.

I think that sometimes muffins can be so sweet that they’re almost like a cupcake. To me, that’s fine for a snack, but I don’t usually like to eat an overly sweet breakfast. These muffins are just slightly sweetened, which really lets the flavor of the blueberries come through.

I used vanilla sugar to sweeten the muffins. If you don't already have a jar in your pantry, I encourage you to get one started. After you scrape the seeds from your vanilla beans, don't throw the pods away. Instead, store the pods in a jar of sugar. When the sugar gets low, just refill the jar and add new vanilla bean pods as you use them.

I made these muffins a little healthier by keeping the butter to a minimum, and instead relied on Oikos greek yogurt from Stonyfield Farm to add moisture. I also used half white whole wheat flour.

I was quite happy with the end result – you get all the goodness of a blueberry muffin with a much better nutritional profile. If you like your muffins on the sweeter side, you may want to increase the sugar by 2 tablespoons or ¼ cup, but I think these are great as is.

Blueberry yogurt muffins
Makes 12

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup vanilla sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 eggs
8 ounces of vanilla greek yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
cooking spray
coarse sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Combine the first six ingredients in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl combine the butter, lemon zest and juice, eggs, yogurt and vanilla extract. Add the liquid ingredients to the flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Gently fold in the blueberries.

Spoon the batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle the coarse sugar over the tops of the muffins. Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes, or until golden.

Spinach and shaved vegetable salad

2009-05-10T20:08:00.000-07:00

I feel very lucky that I'm able to structure my work schedule so that I can take every other Friday off. I usually take those opportunities to catch up with friends, and this past Friday was no exception. I'm sure it won't surprise any of you to hear that most of my friends are into food. I met one of my friends for lunch in Berkeley, and afterwards we headed over to the Monterey Market which is one of the best produce markets in the area. I mean really, where else can you find baby artichokes that look like this?

I always find fun ingredients to work with when I shop there. Once I was even able to snag a fresh white truffle. This time around, I picked up some chiogga beets, purple carrots, opal basil and sweet limes with the intention of making a salad.

I already had some spinach in the fridge, so I decided to use that as my base. I tossed the spinach in a little bit of sweet lime juice and olive oil, then seasoned it with salt and pepper. I had never worked with sweet limes before, and as advertised, they're sweet, with a slightly bitter aftertaste. I know it will be difficult, if not impossible for most of you to find these, so I wrote the recipe with lemon juice instead. Next, I added in some thinly shaved yellow and chiogga beets, along with some shaved purple carrots. I finished the salad with some chive flowers, opal basil and shaved ricotta salata.

This was quite delicious, with a lot of great flavors and textures. It may also be the prettiest salad I've ever made.

Spinach and shaved vegetable salad

Serves 2

4 cups baby spinach

1 bunch of baby carrots, trimmed and thinly shaved lengthwise

1 small chiogga beet, thinly shaved

1 small yellow beet, thinly shaved

1 tablespoon of opal basil, torn

2 tablespoons of ricotta salata, shaved

chive flowers for garnish

lemon juice

extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

Dress the spinach with a squeeze of lemon juice, a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss and taste; adjust the seasoning as necessary. Add the carrots and beets to the spinach. Sprinkle the basil, ricotta salata and chive flowers over the top.

Half hour chicken gumbo

2009-05-07T18:26:00.000-07:00

For all you purists out there, I will acknowledge that this chicken gumbo is not exactly traditional. However, it’s quite delicious considering it only takes half an hour to make!

This recipe starts with a quick roux of oil and flour. Once the roux has started to darken, red peppers, garlic, onions and oregano are added. The next step is to add some water, sliced sausage, frozen okra and cooked shredded chicken. The roux thickens the liquid and adds complexity to the stew.

As always, I made a few changes to the original recipe. I used chicken stock instead of water, and added about a tablespoon of tomato paste and a few dashes of hot sauce. These extra steps don’t take any more time, but added a lot of flavor.

Like I said before, you may not find this version of gumbo in New Orleans, but don’t let that deter you. I typically serve this with rice, but you could also bake some cornbread to go alongside.

Fresh chickpeas and wax beans with baby artichokes

2009-05-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

I will admit, I got excited when I saw containers of fresh chickpeas at my produce market. Yes, I do realize that I’m a total food nerd. Anyways, I abandoned my plan for a butter lettuce salad and immediately starting thinking about what to do with the chickpeas. There was a pile of wax beans sitting next to the chickpeas, so I picked some up because I liked the color contrast.

I wanted a third vegetable to go in the mix, so I wandered around the store looking for inspiration. I thought about fava beans, I considered English peas. Then I spotted baby artichokes, and my mind was made up.

This dish was a little bit time consuming – the chickpeas needed to be shelled, and the artichokes needed to be prepped. Once I got through that, I blanched each type of vegetable and put them in the fridge for later.

When it was time to eat, I melted some butter in a pan and added a minced shallot. After the shallot had cooked through, I added the vegetables and a generous dose of salt and pepper. I finished the dish with some fresh tarragon from my garden.

This was a great way to enjoy spring vegetables, and worth the extra effort. The fresh chickpeas had a very different taste from their dried counterpart. I especially liked the color and texture contrast between the different vegetables.

Spring vegetable medley
Serves 3-4

½ pound wax beans, trimmed
1 cup of shelled fresh chickpeas
12 baby artichokes, trimmed and quartered
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium shallot, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon fresh tarragon

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the wax beans, blanch for 2-3 minutes or until tender. Transfer the wax beans to an ice bath. Place the chickpeas in the boiling water, cook for about 10-12 minutes or until tender. Add the chickpeas to the ice bath. Put the artichokes into the boiling water, blanch for about 3-4 minutes or until tender. Place into ice bath. Remove all the vegetables from the ice bath and pat dry with paper towels.

Melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add the shallot, sauté until the shallot is translucent and tender, about 3 minutes. Add the rest of the vegetables, toss to coat with the shallot butter and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the vegetables have warmed through. Stir in the fresh tarragon at the end.

Chocolate almond macaroons

2009-05-03T20:37:00.000-07:00

I’ve mentioned a few times that I’m trying to use up a 3 pound can of sliced almonds. Even after this recipe, I’m only halfway through the can! Luckily I have a long list of almond recipes to try, it’s just a matter of finding the time to make them.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much with this one. The recipe caught my eye because it had a short ingredient list, didn’t require any grocery shopping, and made a fairly small yield (I wasn’t in the mood to bake 6 dozen cookies). It’s simply ground almonds mixed into a chocolate meringue.

The original recipe calls for making very small cookies, then sandwiching them together with chocolate. I decided to make my cookies a little bigger, using a tablespoon of dough rather than a teaspoon, and adding another few minutes to the bake time.

I was definitely surprised when I tasted these – they were really, really good. The outsides were crispy, and the insides were moist and fudgy. Even though there’s not much fat in recipe, the cookies tasted very rich and decadent from the cocoa powder. In fact, I thought making cookie sandwiches would be overkill, so instead I just drizzled some melted chocolate over the top.

I will definitely be making these again, probably sooner rather than later.

Potato crusted snapper with yellow pepper salsa

2009-04-30T19:05:00.000-07:00

One thing I don’t talk about much on this blog is my grocery shopping preferences. I try to buy locally grown food as much as possible. My grocery store labels the origin of all its meat and produce, which makes it easier. I buy very little processed food, and I try to avoid farmed shrimp and fish. Instead, I typically go for wild caught, sustainable seafood.

We eat a lot of what my store calls "pacific red snapper", which is really just a fancy name for rockfish – it’s sustainable and fished locally. It also happens to be relatively inexpensive.

This recipe takes snapper to a whole new level with a potato crust and yellow pepper salsa. A mixture of shredded potato, herbs and parmesan cheese is pressed onto the top of snapper fillets. The fish goes into a hot pan, potato side down to cook, then is flipped to finish the other side.

The salsa consists of roasted yellow bell peppers, tomato, herbs, capers and onion. I used red onion because the flavor is tamer than yellow or white onion. I also chopped up the capers so that they’d incorporate better into the salsa.

What you end up with is a delicious dish that’s easy enough for a weeknight meal, but also fancy enough for a dinner party.

Steak and artichoke mixed grill

2009-04-28T18:56:00.000-07:00

By now, I’m sure all of you know that I don’t shy away from complicated recipes – but sometimes the simplest food can be the most delicious. The weather was beautiful this past weekend, so we took the opportunity to get started on the garden.

We also fired up the grill for the first time in months. I didn’t feel like spending hours in the kitchen, so I went simple. I picked up some nice looking new york strip steaks and some huge artichokes to toss on the grill. I seasoned the meat with steakhouse seasoning from Amazing Taste. I find that the easiest way to grill artichokes is to steam them first, that way you don’t have to worry about getting them cooked all the way through on the grill. I simply cut the cooked artichokes in half, and seasoned them with salt and pepper before letting them sit on the grill to get slightly charred.

Notice how many times I’ve said simple in this post? Well, I couldn’t resist un-simplifying things just a bit. I made some sauces to go with the steak and artichokes. For the meat, I made some Mesa Grill steak sauce. It literally takes 5 minutes to make, and I always have the ingredients on hand. For the artichokes, I made some hummus.

Even with the sauces, this was really quick and easy to make. Better yet, it didn’t create many dirty dishes, which makes my husband happy: since I do all the cooking, he does all the dishes.

Szechuan noodles

2009-04-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

One thing you’ll almost always find in my fridge is a jar of tahini. This sesame seed paste is a key ingredient in hummus, which I make on a regular basis. I just bought a new jar and thought it would be fun to use it for something other than hummus. I decided on a recipe for szechuan noodles from the Barefoot Contessa cookbook.

This recipe is essentially noodles and vegetables in a peanut and sesame sauce. I doubled the amount of peppers, because in my mind the more vegetables, the better. I also used whole wheat pasta to up the nutritional value. The sauce has quite a few ingredients, but can be made days in advance. I just could not understand why this sauce contains so much vegetable oil – isn’t peanut butter, tahini, sesame oil and chili oil enough fat? My only guess is that the vegetable oil serves to thin the sauce out. I decided to omit the vegetable oil and just thin the sauce with some pasta water, which worked well.

Since I made the sauce and cut up the vegetables the night before, I had dinner on the table in about 15 minutes – you can’t beat that! While I waited for the noodles to boil, I cooked some snow peas to serve on the side. I garnished the noodles with green onions, and some black and white sesame seeds for added flavor and texture.

Plantain and sweet potato soup with chipotle crema

2009-04-23T18:34:00.000-07:00

I bought a green plantain a few weeks ago and left it on the counter to ripen. It took a long time, but finally it started to turn yellow, then took on some black patches (black plantain = ripe plantain). I typically just sauté plaintains until browned in a little bit of oil, but wanted to do something different this time. I decided on this recipe from the Mesa Grill cookbook for sweet potato and plantain soup.

I read the ingredient list before I went grocery shopping, but didn’t bother to actually read the cooking instructions. The recipe looks fairly simple because of its short ingredient list, but the cooking process is actually quite fussy. I didn’t have the patience to follow the recipe, so I improvised. Instead of roasting the sweet potatoes and plantains, I just cut them into small pieces and cooked them directly in the chicken stock. The original recipe also called for pureeing the plantains, adding them to the liquid, then pureeing everything again when the sweet potatoes are added. That seemed unnecessary to me, so I just pureed everything together a single time at the end.

I went with the suggested garnish of chipotle crema, and I happened to have pepper oil and herb oil in the house, so I used those too for some added color. I wasn’t about to heat up a big pot of oil just to fry a plantain for garnish, so instead I cut some small cubes of plantain and sautéed them in a small amount of oil until browned and crispy.

If you look at the ingredient list, you’ll notice that this soup is on the sweeter side from the plantains, coconut milk and sweet potatoes. It’s important to add a generous amount of salt to cut some of the sweetness, otherwise it almost tastes like dessert! The soup had a very nice, almost velvety texture from the pureed potatoes and plantains.

Ingredient spotlight: fava beans

2009-04-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

I’ve started to see fresh fava beans popping up in the markets around here, so I thought it would be fitting to highlight them as this month’s ingredient spotlight.

Fava beans have a nutty flavor and buttery texture, and are commonly found at farmer’s markets. They come in bright green pods that are approximately 6 inches long - each pod contains about 3-5 beans. When you open a pod, you’ll notice that the beans are a dull green color. The beans are actually covered by a thick shell that’s not very pleasant to eat. Fava beans also come in dried form, but are definitely not interchangeable with the fresh version.

Preparing fava beans is not difficult, but involves a little bit of time and patience. The first step is to remove the beans from the pods. I do my shelling in front of the tv, it goes much quicker.

After the beans have been removed from the pods, they need to be blanched. I blanch the beans in boiling salted water for about 2-3 minutes, depending on size. The next step is to transfer the beans to a bowl of ice water to cool. Once the beans have cooled, those thick outer shells will be wrinkled and easy to remove. It takes a bit of practice to get the beans out of the shells in one piece. If your beans split in half, it’s not a big deal, they’ll still taste great.

Once you’ve removed all the outer shells, you’ll end up with a pile of vibrantly colored beans that are ready to eat. My favorite ways to eat fava beans are in salads or pasta. The beans can also be pureed and served on bread or as a topping for fish.

I used these fava beans in a salad recipe that I adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques. The beans are paired with salty oil cured olives, meyer lemon and endive for a beautiful and delicious salad. The original recipe says to instruct your guests to eat the slices of meyer lemons, peel and all. I don’t think I’d be able to convince my family and friends to eat lemon slices, so I’m making it an optional garnish, because they sure look pretty in the salad. I added chive flowers because I have them in the garden, but they’re also optional.

Endive and fava bean salad

Adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques

Serves 6

5 belgian endives, cores removed and leaves separated

juice from 1 meyer lemon, plus extra lemon slices for garnish

3/4 cup shelled and cooked fava beans

1/3 cup oil cured olives, pitted and cut into quarters

1 tablespoon chives, finely chopped

1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

chive flowers for garnish

salt and pepper to taste

For the dressing, combine the shallot, cream, olive oil and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Arrange the endive spears on a platter, toss with dressing. Sprinkle the fava beans, olives and chives over the top. Garnish with lemon slices and chive flowers if desired.

Chipotle chicken tenders with blue cheese sauce

2009-04-19T19:33:00.000-07:00

I like buffalo chicken, but I haven’t been all that motivated to make it at home. I don’t often buy chicken wings, and I never deep fry. When I spotted this recipe in Bobby Flay’s Grilling For Life, I wondered if it was possible to get the buffalo chicken flavor without all the fat. I actually think I like this version better than the original, and it comes together very quickly.

Since it was raining in California on the day I made these, I cooked the chicken on the stove rather than on the grill. The hot sauce can be customized to your heat preference, and the three types of chiles add a great depth of flavor. A little bit of honey cuts the acidity and the sauce is thickened by Dijon mustard and some butter. The original recipe called for the blue cheese sauce to be made with greek yogurt. I had both greek yogurt and sour cream in the house, so I did half of each. You could definitely use one or the other though.

The traditional accompaniments to buffalo wings are carrot and celery sticks. Since this isn’t quite your traditional version, I also went with a slightly different side: roasted carrot sticks.

Chipotle chicken tenders with blue cheese sauce

Serves 3-4

Chicken ingredients:

1 and 1/2 lbs chicken tenders

3/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1-2 tablespoons chipotle puree (depends on how spicy you want the sauce)

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon ancho chile powder

1 and 1/2 teaspoons New Mexico chile powder

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 and 1/2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
salt and pepper to taste

Blue cheese sauce ingredients:

1/2 cup low or non fat greek yogurt

1/2 cup low fat sour cream

1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese

salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons finely chopped chives

For the blue cheese sauce:

Combine all of the ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or up to one day. Garnish with more chives if desired.

For the chicken:

Bring the vinegar, 1 tablespoon oil, chipotle puree, honey and both chile powders to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once it reaches a simmer, remove the mixture from the heat and whisk in the mustard and butter. Set aside.

Heat a large saucepan on high, add the remaining tablespoon of oil. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, add the chicken to the pan. Saute until the chicken is browned and cooked through, about three minutes per side. Toss the chicken with the chipotle sauce and serve with the blue cheese sauce.

California brittle brownies

2009-04-16T18:07:00.000-07:00

I got a box of california brittles in the mail from See's Candies and decided some brownies were in order.

My favorite brownie recipe is from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, so I started there. This is a very fudgy brownie recipe, comes together quite easily, and only uses one bowl! I spread half of the batter into a square baking pan and added a generous layer of chopped california brittles. I spread the second half of the batter over the top, and placed the whole thing in the oven.

I loved the end result - the california brittles partially melted into the dough, so these don't have a strong toffee flavor. Instead, every bite is a little bit different - sometimes you get a chunk of almond, other times you get a piece of milk chocolate. These brownies have a crackly top, which adds great texture but can be difficult to cut neatly. I chill the brownies thoroughly before cutting, which takes care of the problem.

California brittle brownies

Makes 16

1/2 cup unsalted butter, plus more for the pan

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 and 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup almond toffee such as See's california brittles, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8 inch square baking pan. Line the pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two sides. Set aside. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Remove the bowl from the heat and set aside. Let the chocolate cool for about 7-10 minutes.

Stir the sugar into the cooled chocolate until combined. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking until smooth after each addition. Add the vanilla, and fold in the flour and salt.

Pour half the batter into the pan, spread in an even layer. Sprinkle the toffee over the batter. Add the second half of the batter to the pan, spread in an even layer over the toffee.

Place in oven and bake until a skewer inserted into the center comes out with only a few crumbs attached, 45-50 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack - after 10 minutes, run a knife around the edges of the pan, then cool completely, transfer to refrigerator and chill for at least 2 hours.

Using the parchment overhang, lift the brownies out of the pan and onto the rack. Transfer to a cutting board and cut into squares.

Asparagus and goat cheese pasta

2009-04-14T18:20:00.000-07:00

We've been eating a lot of asparagus around here.

I bought a couple of bunches of thin asparagus stalks at the produce market this week. I wanted to make an asparagus pasta, so I looked through a few cookbooks for inspiration. I decided to go with a recipe from the Everyday Food cookbook. The recipe only has six ingredients, it doesn't get much easier than that.

Hot fettuccine is tossed with a combination of goat cheese, grainy mustard and pasta water to make a rich and creamy sauce. Asparagus, fresh dill and toasted pine nuts are added to the mix. The whole thing is seasoned with salt and pepper, then it's ready to serve. Like I said, it's as simple as can be, but also quite delicious.

The only change I made to the recipe was that I used whole wheat pasta. I'm not really a goat cheese person - I like it in certain applications, but sometimes I find it a little overpowering. In this case, the goat cheese was quite mild and was nicely complemented by the mustard and dill.

Passover and a winner

2009-04-12T19:09:00.000-07:00

The winner of the See's Candies gift certificate is Suzy!

I wanted to share some pictures from Passover with you. I hosted, and decided to go with a relatively simple menu - somehow most of the dishes ended up being adapted from Barefoot Contessa recipes. I didn't get pictures of everything, but here are some of the highlights.

This is a pretty traditional matzo ball soup. I took the idea of the fresh dill and parsley from Barefoot Contessa Parties.

I decided to splurge and go for rack of lamb as the main course. I used the recipe in Barefoot Contessa Parties which involves a crust of dijon mustard, fresh rosemary, balsamic vinegar, garlic and salt.

I boiled these baby yukon gold potatoes until tender, them flattened them under my palm and baked them with some olive oil, salt and pepper until crispy.

More of those delicious green green spring vegetables from Barefoot Contessa at Home.

This dessert was inspired by a meal I had at the restaurant Perbacco. I made meringue shells, which I filled with passion fruit curd. I put the meringues on a pool of raspberry sauce and garnished with fresh raspberries. The meringue and raspberry sauce recipes came from Barefoot in Paris. For the curd, I just substituted passion fruit puree for lemon juice in a lemon curd recipe.

I was really happy with this meal, everything came out about as well as could be expected.

Blueberry crumb cake and cheddar dill scones

2009-04-09T18:36:00.000-07:00

Be sure to enter the See's Candies giveaway if you haven't already!

Thursdays are breakfast days in my office, which means that each week, one of us is assigned to bring breakfast for everyone. It’s almost always bagels, with doughnuts thrown in now and then. When it’s my turn to bring breakfast, I like to do something a little different if I have the time. This was my week to bring food, and I decided to do some baking. I don’t really like to eat sweet things in the morning, so I made both sweet and savory options.

The sweet option was blueberry crumb cake, from the Everyday Food cookbook. I thought it would be a more unique take on your typical blueberry muffin. This cake was quite simple to make, and benefited from a delicious streusel topping. I used frozen blueberries, which worked out well. The blueberries are tossed in a bit of flour first so that they don't sink to the bottom of the cake. A small amount of allspice adds a nice background flavor.

For the savory option, I made cheddar dill scones from the Barefoot Contessa cookbook. I can’t even remember the last time I made scones, it’s probably been years. I had no trouble with these, and tried to put up my blinders when it came to the fat content. So. much. butter. cream. and cheese. But let’s not think about that! These scones are full of fresh dill, which is one of my favorite herbs.

The verdict? I would definitely make the coffee cake again. The scones were good, but in my opinion, not worth the calories. That being said, the scones disappeared faster than the cake. I think that people were a little relieved not to see bagels for the 5th week in a row!

See's Candies giveaway

2009-04-07T18:12:00.000-07:00

In my family, no occasion is complete without a box of See’s Candies. My parents go for the nuts and chews; my brother loves the molasses chips. My husband likes the ones with the brown sugar buttercream. I love the chocolates with the fruit flavored centers, or anything that contains marshmallow. See’s puts honey in their marshmallow, which makes it especially delicious. If you live on the west coast and haven’t had See’s yet, be sure to check out one of their stores – they give free samples! They also offer a candy fundraiser program.

See’s is giving a $25 gift certificate to one of my readers. The gift certificate can be redeemed online, so you don’t have to live near a retail store. However, this giveaway is limited to US residents.

Since it’s spring break time, let’s talk about vacations. Leave me a comment telling me your favorite vacation spot to be entered for a chance to win. A winner will be randomly drawn. The deadline for comments is Sunday, April 12th at 6:00 PM PST.

Arepas with black beans and avocado salsa

2009-04-05T19:59:00.000-07:00

I had never heard of arepas until a Venezuelan food stand opened at the Oxbow Public Market in Napa. Every time we’re in the area, we stop by for a snack. We actually don’t go to Napa that often though, so I knew I needed to learn to make some items from their menu so that we could get our fix in between visits.

Arepas are essentially cornmeal patties that can be grilled, baked or fried. There are a few different versions; some are thicker and get sliced in half and stuffed with a variety of fillings, others are thinner and served with toppings. This recipe is for the thinner arepas, which are topped with black beans, avocado salsa and cheese.

To make these arepas, you’ll need to procure some harina precocida, which is a precooked corn flour. For this particular version, nothing else will do. I found my harina precocida at a Mexican market. The arepas are cooked first in a pan, then finished in the oven.

The patties are topped with a black bean mixture and an avocado salsa. The avocado salsa is uniquely flavored with onion, red bell pepper, tomato, Dijon mustard, olive oil, vinegar and cilantro. The arepas are finished with a sprinkling of queso fresco. This dish isn’t particularly difficult to make, but it is quite time consuming because of all the different steps. It's totally worth the effort though, so if you can find some harina precocida, take the time to give this a try.

Drunken stir-fried beef with green beans

2009-04-02T17:49:00.000-07:00

I love thai food, but sometimes I find that “thai-inspired” recipes don’t really taste authentic. This recipe for drunken stir-fried beef with green beans looks and tastes like it came from your neighborhood thai restaurant. Best of all, it’s relatively healthy and quick enough to put together on a weeknight.

I’m not really sure why this is called drunken beef, it doesn’t contain any alcohol! The recipe starts with a seasoning paste of garlic, ginger, chile, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and salt. I cut the amount of garlic in half, 7 cloves just seemed excessive to me. I only use the tender inner cores of the lemongrass, and I slice the ginger very thinly – that way, I don’t end up with a fibrous seasoning paste. If you can’t find kaffir lime leaves you can substitute lime zest, but it’s not quite the same. I don’t see kaffir lime leaves in the store that often, so when I find them, I store them in the freezer so I always have some on hand. If you’re in the Bay Area and want to know where I buy them, just let me know.

The recipe says to grind the seasoning paste in a mortar and pestle. I’m just not that skilled with my mortar and pestle, and since I was trying to get dinner on the table quickly, I used my food processor. That worked just fine.

Thinly sliced flank steak is quickly stir fried in the seasoning paste, with green beans and cherry tomatoes added to the mix. The dish is supposed to be finished with fresh basil leaves, but I used cilantro because I already had it on hand.

This was really delicious, and a great recipe to try if you’ve ever wanted to learn to make thai food. You could probably use a different cut of beef and try different vegetable combinations with good results. I served this over brown basmati rice.

Apple and pomegranate tart tatin

2009-03-31T18:23:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I pulled this recipe for apple and pomegranate tart tatin out of Bon Appetit. It's a classic tart tatin with one twist: a pomegranate syrup is added to the apple mixture. I filed the recipe away and added it to my never ending recipes-to-try list.

When the nice people over at POM Wonderful sent me a case of pomegranate juice, I knew it was time to make this recipe. I reduced a few cups of pomegranate juice to make a thick and tangy syrup.

The apples are cooked on the stovetop in butter and sugar, then seasoned with a touch of allspice and the pomegranate syrup. A simple tart dough is laid over the top of the pan and the whole thing goes into the oven to finish baking. I would recommend placing your pan on a baking sheet to catch the juices that might bubble over the top.

The recipe called for golden delicious apples, which I normally never buy. We tend to eat granny smith apples from our tree in the summer and braeburns during the rest of the year. I bought the golden delicious apples as specified, and they were delicious. The pomegranate syrup turned the apples a beautiful shade of red and added a great flavor. The sweet and tart nature of the pomegranate really tamed the richness of the apples, sugar and butter.

Blueberry and blue corn pancakes

2009-03-29T19:02:00.000-07:00

There were some great guesses as to the identities of the flowers in my last post! The first picture is of asian pear blossoms. The second picture is actually a green onion flower, and the third picture is of anemones.

This pancake recipe from the Mesa Grill cookbook is a fun twist on an old favorite. I don't know of anyone who doesn't love blueberry pancakes. Bobby Flay combines blue cornmeal with traditional pancake ingredients for a delicious and unique rendition. You'd think that with living in the Bay Area, I'd have all kinds of specialty ingredients readily available. That's not always the case - I had to try five different stores before I found blue cornmeal. Hopefully you'll have better luck! That being said, there's no reason why you can't make this recipe with yellow cornmeal.

If you can get your hands on some fresh blueberries, feel free to use them. If not, frozen works just as well. I highly recommend using frozen wild blueberries - the wild blueberries are much smaller and distribute better in the pancakes. I topped these with a wild blueberry sauce, but they're just as good with maple syrup.

Green green spring vegetables

2009-03-26T17:58:00.000-07:00

It’s definitely starting to look like spring around here. Some proof from my backyard, bonus points if you can identify these:

I am trying to make the most of asparagus while it’s still in season. I was flipping through Barefoot Contessa at Home and noticed a recipe for green green spring vegetables that includes asparagus. It sounded like a perfect side dish, and I set out to make it.

This is a very simple recipe – asparagus, french green beans, broccolini and sugar snap peas are lightly blanched in salted water. Am I the only person out there that actually thinks it’s fun to blanch vegetables? It’s a foolproof method to end up with vibrantly colored and perfectly cooked vegetables. Some shallots are thinly sliced and browned in a combination of butter and olive oil, and the vegetables are added to the pan to warm through.

As usual, I didn’t use all the butter that was called for. If you cut the fat like I did, it makes for a very healthy and beautiful side dish. I think you could use other combinations of green vegetables and still end up with a great result.

Anniversary dinner

2009-03-24T18:01:00.000-07:00

My parents recently celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary, so I decided a special dinner was in order.
We started with these radish and chive tea sandwiches with sesame and ginger. They were really easy to make and tasted great.

I found some nice looking wild blue shrimp, and decided on a simple preparation to let their flavor shine through. I sauteed the shrimp in a little olive oil and seasoned generously with salt, pepper and meyer lemon juice. I served an herb salsa verde from Sunday Suppers at Lucques on the side.

For this dish, I sauteed some white and green asparagus with shallots, brown butter, salt and pepper. I garnished with fresh chives.

This potato and leek galette was outstanding. I was a little worried that it wouldn't hold together, but it came out perfectly. The recipe will definitely be repeated.

For dessert I made a rustic cherry and frangipane tart from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. It was a good way to use some of my almonds. I served this with vanilla ice cream.

Overall, I thought it was a great meal. It actually wasn't all that time consuming to make either, which is always a plus.

Wrinkled potatoes with mojo verde

2009-03-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

When we ate at The Bazaar by Jose Andres, I did have one rule. I didn’t want to order anything on the menu that was also featured in his cookbooks. I decided I would rather make those dishes at home. The night we were there, one of the more popular menu items was wrinkled potatoes with green mojo, which also happens to be in his Made in Spain cookbook.

This is actually a very simple recipe – potatoes are cooked in highly salted water until tender. After they’re cooked through, the water is poured off and a thin layer of salt crystallizes on the outside of the potatoes. They’re called wrinkled potatoes because the skins of the potatoes get wrinkled during the cooking process. The potatoes are served with a brightly flavored sauce of cilantro, garlic and olive oil.

The recipe in the book says that you can use any small potatoes. At the restaurant, it looked like they were using small fingerling potatoes, so I went with some great fingerlings that I picked up at the farmer’s market.

The measurements in this recipe are a little shocking. Almost a cup of salt for one pound of potatoes? I’m pretty daring, but even I was a bit nervous about dumping that much salt into the pot. I decided to throw caution to the wind, and it worked out just fine. The potatoes came out with a very thin layer of salt on them, which was the perfect amount. The cooking process makes the potatoes very creamy, and the green mojo made for a great dipping sauce.

Wrinkled potatoes with mojo verde

Serves 3-4

Adapted from Made in Spain

For the potatoes:

1 lb fingerling or other small potatoes

3/4 cup kosher salt

For the mojo verde:

1 small clove of garlic, crushed

1 cup packed cilantro leaves

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp sherry vinegar

salt to taste

Put the potatoes in a pot, cover with water and add the salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook the potatoes for about 25 minutes, or until tender.

Pour out most of the water, leaving just a thin layer in the bottom of the pot. Return the pot to the stovetop. Shake the pot over low heat until the salt covering the potatoes starts to crystallize, about 3-5 minutes. Take the pot off the heat and cover the pot with a paper towel until the potato skins have wrinkled, about 10 minutes.

Put all of the ingredients for the mojo verde into a food processor. Pulse until a paste forms. Serve the potatoes with the mojo for dipping.

Orange almond cookies

2009-03-19T18:00:00.000-07:00

Last month, I mentioned that someone gave me three pounds of blanched sliced almonds. You may be wondering, what did I end up doing with all those almonds? Well, I haven’t done much with them yet, but I’ve been busy collecting recipes to try.

I have made one recipe so far, and it was for these orange almond cookies from the Martha Stewart Living cookbook. I don’t always have a lot of patience when it comes to baking, which is why you don’t often see complicated baked goods on this site. Well, that’s one reason I don’t bake as much as I’d like, the other reason is the caloric implications. These cookies are so simple to prepare, but they look and taste like you spent a lot of time and effort on them.

I did make some changes to the original recipe – I like my almond cookies to taste like almonds, so I omitted the anise and cut the orange zest down to about 1 ½ tablespoons. I also added a drop of almond extract. These cookies have a great chewy texture. The orange and almond flavors work really well together. If you were to use the amount of orange zest in the original recipe, I think it would be quite overpowering, so I’d stick to 1-2 tablespoons. If you’re an almond fan like I am, try this recipe!

Peas and pea shoots with sausage

2009-03-17T18:05:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, I got excited when I saw pea shoots at the farmer’s market. In my area, pea shoots are one of the first spring vegetables to show up, and I try to take advantage of their short season. The bunch I picked up this weekend was covered in purple flowers.

I’ve had my eye on this recipe from Jose Andres' Tapas cookbook for quite a while. Peas and pea shoots are cooked with leek, onion and a little bit of sausage and bacon to make a light and delicious dish. I served this as a main course, but you could also serve it as a side. The original recipe calls for butifarra, which is a type of Spanish pork sausage. I didn’t have time to seek out butifarra, so I went with a link of italian turkey sausage which worked well.

I made quite a few changes to the original recipe, but one change was unintentional. You see, the version in the book called for fresh mint. I went out to my garden, and painstakingly picked some tiny mint leaves to sprinkle over the top. I came back inside, set them on the kitchen counter and then promptly forgot about them. So, no mint in my version, but feel free to add it.

This was a really delicious meal – a wide variety of tastes and textures, and relatively healthy too. What more can you ask for?

Peas and pea shoots with sausage
Serves 2 as a main course
Adapted from Tapas

1/2 c white onion, finely chopped
1 leek, light green and white part only, finely chopped
2 slices of bacon, coarsely chopped
1 mild pork or turkey sausage, casing removed
1/4 c chicken stock
1 1/2 c fresh or frozen peas
1 1/2 c pea shoots
salt to taste

Heat a large saucepan over high heat. Add the bacon, reduce the heat to medium, and cook until browned and crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan, drain on paper towels. Reserve about 2 teaspoons of bacon fat in the pan, pour off the rest. Add the leek and onion to the pan, saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the sausage, break up into small pieces, and cook until the sausage is done. Pour the chicken broth into the pan and add the peas and pea shoots. Cook until the peas are done and the pea shoots have just wilted, about 3-5 minutes. Season to taste with salt.

Mixed greens with caramelized onions and prosciutto

2009-03-14T10:42:00.000-07:00

Greens are one of the healthiest things you can eat, so I try to incorporate them into my diet on a regular basis. Kale is one of my favorite vegetables, and I also buy a lot of spinach. This time, I decided to go into my produce market without a plan and just buy whatever caught my eye. I immediately saw some dandelion greens that looked interesting, so I picked those up. I also selected a bunch of curly mustard greens.

Now that I had my greens, I had to decide what to actually make with them. I had some onions that needed to be used, so caramelized onions came to mind. Bacon and greens are a natural pairing, but I wanted to do something a little different, so I settled on prosciutto.

I cooked everything in the same pan to save time on dishes later – first, I caramelized the onions with a little butter. It takes a while for onions to caramelize, so be patient. You could even do this step a day in advance. Once the onions were done, I removed them from the pan and wiped the pan out with a paper towel. I added some olive oil and torn prosciutto pieces. I sauteed the prosciutto until it was browned and crispy and removed it from the pan. Next, I put the torn greens into the pan and cooked them until they were wilted. I seasoned with salt and pepper and added the caramelized onions back to the pan. The crispy prosciutto bits went on top.

You can use any type of greens you like for this dish – the sweetness from the caramelized onions tamed the bitter nature of the greens I selected. The crispy prosciutto added nice texture and a pleasant saltiness.

Mixed greens with caramelized onions and prosciutto
Serves about 3

2 large bunches of greens, stemmed and torn into 1-2 inch pieces
3 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
1 T butter
1 T olive oil
3 slices of prosciutto, torn into ½ inch pieces
Salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onions and a sprinkling of salt, cook until caramelized, stirring occasionally. This usually takes at least half and hour.

Remove the onions from the pan, set aside. Wipe out the pan with a paper towel. Heat the olive oil in the pan over high heat. Add the prosciutto, sauté until the prosciutto is browned and crispy, about 4 minutes. Transfer the prosciutto to a paper towel to drain.

Add the greens to the pan in batches – once the current batch has cooked down, add more until all the greens are in the pan. Cook until everything has wilted, about 5 minutes. Stir the caramelized onions into the greens, season to taste with salt and pepper.

For serving, place the greens in a bowl and top with the crispy prosciutto.

Ingredient Spotlight: fennel pollen

2009-03-11T18:45:00.000-07:00

When I mentioned fennel pollen in passing last week, I got quite a few requests for more information about it. I’ve come to find that some of the ingredients I use on a regular basis aren’t necessarily common, so I’ve decided to start a semi-regular feature called Ingredient Spotlight. Once a month, I’ll feature a different ingredient – what it is, where to buy it and recipe ideas. If you have any ingredients in particular that you’d like me to talk about, just let me know.

First up is fennel pollen. Fennel pollen is exactly what it sounds like – the pollen from wild fennel plants. I’ve think that raw fennel tastes very different than cooked fennel. Besides the obvious texture difference, raw fennel has a distinctive licorice flavor. When you cook fennel it gets sweet, and the licorice flavor is considerably milder. Fennel pollen tastes like cooked fennel, only sweeter with a more intense flavor. It’s quite delicious.

I bought my fennel pollen at a specialty foods store in the Bay Area. You can order it online from them, or buy it at Amazon. It’s a little pricey because it’s very labor intensive to pick, but a little goes a long way. Fennel pollen is primary used in Italian cooking, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t use it elsewhere. You can use it in place of fennel seeds in quite a few recipes, although I would stick to simple preparations to let its flavor shine.

One of my favorite combinations is fennel pollen and pork. Apparently Anne Burrell and Mario Batali agree. Nancy Silverton puts fennel pollen in roasted vegetables. You could also use it on fish or chicken.

Here’s a recipe I adapted from the Campanile cookbook. The original didn’t call for fennel pollen, but I thought it would pair well with the scallops. I loved this dish – if you’re a leek fan like I am, give it a try. If you want to make this but don’t want to buy fennel pollen, just leave it out.

Scallops with fennel pollen, leeks and bacon
Serves 4
Adapted from the Campanile cookbook

1 ½ lbs sea scallops
2 tsp fennel pollen
4 slices of bacon, cut into ½ inch pieces
6 leeks, cleaned and lengthwise into 1-2 inch pieces
1 T grainy mustard
½ a lemon
Salt and pepper

Cook the bacon in a large pan until crisp, transfer to paper towels. Divide the bacon fat between two large pans; you should have about 1 tablespoon per pan. Drain some of the fat off if you have too much. Warm both pans over high heat. In one pan, add the leeks and turn the heat down to medium, sauté until browned and tender. Add salt and pepper to taste. Turn the heat down to low, and add the mustard. Cook for about 1 minute, then add the bacon and juice from the lemon.

Make sure your scallops are dry before you start. Sprinkle the scallops with the fennel pollen, salt and pepper. Sear the scallops in the other pan over high heat in a single layer for about 3 minutes. Turn the scallops to the other side and cook for another 2-3 minutes, or until done. Serve the scallops over the leeks.

Dinner party

2009-03-09T18:09:00.000-07:00

We had friends over for dinner on Saturday night, here's a recap of the evening:

Centerpiece - my flower arranging skills are slowly improving over time.

Antipasto - prosciutto di parma, calabrese salame, olives, piquillo peppers, fresh mozzarella marinated with chives and olive oil, and artichokes marinated with lemon and parsley. Served with homemade focaccia

Baby arugula, blood oranges, marcona almonds, dates and shaved parmesan. Adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques.

Porter ale braised short ribs with rosemary and maple glaze from All About Braising, served with celery root and potato puree and rainbow chard with shallots.

White chocolate mousse with passionfruit gelee, garnished with white chocolate curls - from The New Spanish Table.

The good thing about this menu was that almost everything could be made in advance, so I spent very little time in the kitchen when our friends were here. I was pretty happy with the way everything came out, although there's always room for improvement - I tend to be my own worst critic. But it was fun, and that's what matters, right?

Spiced pork with root vegetables and gremolata

2009-03-06T17:35:00.000-08:00

Let me start by saying this is an amazing recipe from Sunday Suppers at Lucques. It’s definitely one of the best things that I’ve made in the past few months. However, it’s also a very involved recipe, even with the changes I made to simplify some of the steps.

Was it worth the work? Absolutely. The plus side is that a lot of the steps can be done in advance, which is useful because this is going on my dinner party recipe rotation.

First, the pork. Chunks of pork shoulder are coated with coarsely crushed spices, garlic and fresh herbs. The meat needs to sit in the fridge overnight with the spice rub, so plan accordingly. You want a coarse grind on the spices, so a mortar and pestle is the optimal tool. If you don’t have one, you could probably do this in the food processor, just be careful not to grind too fine.

After the pork has had enough time to absorb the flavors of the rub, it’s browned in a little oil. You’ll probably have to brown the meat in two or three batches. Chopped onion, carrot and fennel are added to the pan, along with white wine, chicken stock, lemon zest and sprigs of herbs.

The pork cooks for 3 hours until it’s meltingly tender. The meat is removed from the pot and the braising juices are strained and reduced until slightly thickened.

The second component of the dish is the root vegetables with gremolata. If you can find baby root vegetables, use them. If not, you can cut larger carrots and turnips down into smaller pieces. You can also add parsnips if you like. The vegetables, along with some sliced shallot, are sauteed until caramelized. A bright tasting gremolata of parsley, lemon zest and garlic gets tossed with the vegetables.

The third part of this meal is polenta. Use your favorite recipe – I just cooked the polenta with some chicken stock, salt and butter for about 45 minutes.

To serve, the polenta is spooned into a bowl and topped with some pork and braising liquid. The root vegetables with gremolata go over the top. Alternatively, you could serve this family style with the pork and vegetables in one bowl, and the polenta in a second dish. I think it looks more elegant when individually plated.

Spiced pork with root vegetables and gremolata
Serves 4-6
Adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques

For the pork:

2 tsp cumin seeds
1 T coriander seeds
1 T fennel seeds
2 lbs pork shoulder, cut into 2 inch chunks
1/2 tsp cayenne
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 T fresh oregano leaves, plus 2 sprigs
1 T fresh thyme leaves
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 c diced onion
1/4 c diced carrot
1/2 c diced fennel
2 bay leaves
1 chile de arbol
1 c white wine
2 c chicken stock
1 lemon
4 sprigs cilantro
salt and pepper
cooked polenta for serving

Toast the seeds a few minutes in a small pan over medium heat, until they release their aroma and are lightly browned. Crush them coarsely with a mortar and pestle.

Place the pork in a large bowl or zip top bag with the cumin, coriander, fennel seeds, cayenne, garlic, oregano leaves and thyme. Toss the pork and spices together to coat well. Refrigerate overnight.

Take the meat out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Heat a large dutch oven over high heat for 3 minutes. Pour in the olive oil, and place the meat in the pan in a single layer. Season the meat generously with salt and pepper. Sear the meat until well browned and caramelized on all sides. You may have to brown the meat in batches.

Remove the meat from the pan, set aside. Turn the heat down to medium and add the onion, carrot and fennel. Stir in the bay leaves and chile. Cook 6-8 minutes, or until the vegetables start to caramelize.

Pour in the white wine and scrape the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Reduce the wine by half. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil.

Using a vegetable peeler, pull long strips of zest from the lemon. Turn off the heat and add the pork to the pot. Tuck the lemon zest, cilantro and oregano sprigs around the meat. Cover the pan with a piece of parchment, pressing the parchment down so it touches the top of the meat. Put a lid on top of the parchment.

Braise for three hours, stirring once per hour. The meat should be fork tender at this point. Take the pot from the oven. Remove the pork from the pot, place on a platter and cover with foil. Ladle the braising juices and vegetables into a strainer set over a saucepan. Skim the fat from the braising juices, then reduce the broth over medium high heat for about 5 minutes, until it slightly thickens. Taste for seasoning.

Pour the hot broth over the browned meat and stir to coat well. Scatter the gremolata root vegetables over the pork. Serve with polenta.

For the root vegetables with gremolata:

Zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 c chopped flat leaf parsley
7 small or 2 large carrots, peeled
12 small or 3 large turnips
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 T butter
1/2 c of sliced shallot
3/4 c chicken stock
salt and pepper

Chop the garlic, parsley and lemon zest together until very fine, set aside.

Slice the carrots and turnips in half lengthwise if using baby vegetables. If using larger vegetables, cut into 1-2 inch pieces.

Heat a large saute pan over high heat. Add the olive oil and turnips, cut side down. Saute for about 4 minutes, or until turnips are browned. Add the carrots and chicken stock. Cook until the chicken stock has evaporated and the carrots and turnips are tender; you may need to add a little more liquid. Season with salt and pepper. Add the butter and shallots, and saute for another 7 minutes, or until all the vegetables are tender and caramelized. Toss the vegetables with the gremolata just before serving.

Chilled asparagus with vinaigrette and eggs mimosa

2009-03-04T18:05:00.000-08:00

Is it spring yet? It’s sure starting to feel like it. My daffodils are blooming, the chives in the garden are coming back, and my nectarine tree has started to blossom.

On the culinary front, asparagus is here! I haven’t seen any of my other springtime favorites yet, but it’s time to watch out for pea shoots and fava beans at the farmer’s market. I used my asparagus to make a salad from the Bouchon cookbook.

For this salad, asparagus stalks are blanched and dressed in a vinaigrette of red wine vinegar, Dijon and olive oil. As is customary, the woody ends of the stalks are snapped off prior to cooking. When you go to cut the stalks into even lengths, save the trimmings; they’re used to make an asparagus coulis.

The plating of the salad starts with a dollop of the asparagus coulis. The asparagus stalks are piled on top and showered with hard boiled egg yolk, julienned radish and fresh chives.

I love the presentation of this salad, it’s very elegant. This was quite delicious too, the flavors worked well together. I know I’ve professed my love for root vegetables on more than one occasion, but this dish made it clear to me that I’m ready for some spring produce.

Chilled asparagus with vinaigrette and eggs mimosa
Serves 2
Adapted from Bouchon

1 bunch of asparagus
2 tsp red wine vinegar
1 T extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp dijon mustard
3 hard boiled egg yolks
2 radishes, julienned
1 T minced chives
Salt and pepper to taste

Bring a pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Snap the woody end off each asparagus stalk, discard the ends. Trim the stalks to an equal length, reserve the trimmings. Blanch the asparagus stalks for 3-4 minutes or until tender. Transfer the asparagus to a bowl of ice water. Once the asparagus has cooled, remove from the water and pat dry with paper towels. Place the asparagus trimmings in the pot of boiling water, cook until very tender, about 4-5 minutes. Remove the trimmings from the pot and place in the bowl of ice water.

For the coulis, transfer the trimmings to a food processor with a little bit of the cooking water. Blend until a smooth puree forms. You may need to add a bit more water to get a smooth consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

For the vinaigrette, whisk together the vinegar, olive oil and mustard; season to taste with salt and pepper.

Press the egg yolks through the smallest holes on a cheese grater, set aside.

To assemble, toss the asparagus stalks with the vinaigrette. Spoon the coulis onto the plate, and top with the stalks. Add the egg yolks on top of the asparagus, then place the radish julienne in a pile on the egg yolks. Sprinkle with chives.

Warm spinach and frisee salad

2009-03-02T19:00:00.000-08:00

Spinach salad with bacon is a classic combination. What about a spinach salad with bacon, currants and roasted shallots? That’s not so ordinary.

This recipe from the Mustards Grill Napa Valley Cookbook takes spinach salad to a whole new level. The salad base is spinach and frisee leaves. For a long time, I was ambivalent about frisee – it comes in a lot of the salad blends, but it never really stood out to me. Lately I’ve realized that frisee is quite delicious on its own, and have been incorporating it into my everyday cooking.

The spinach and frisee are tossed in a unique dressing – when you cook the bacon for this salad, reserve some of the fat in the pan. Balsamic vinegar is added to warm bacon fat and reduced a bit to make an intense, syrupy dressing. Bacon, currants and roasted shallots are also added to the mix.

This was truly an outstanding salad. If you roast the shallots in advance, it can be thrown together quite easily.

Warm spinach and frisee salad

Serves 4

Adapted from Mustards Grill Napa Valley Cookbook

6 small shallots, peeled and sliced 1/2 inch thick
2 tsp + 3 T balsamic vinegar
1 T olive oil
3 cups spinach leaves
3 cups frisee leaves
4 slices bacon, sliced crosswise
4 T dried currants
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Combine the shallots with the olive oil and 2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar in a baking dish. Season with salt and pepper, then roast for 20 minutes, or until the shallots are golden brown and tender. Set aside to cool.

To make the dressing, cook the bacon in a large pan over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, until crisp. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon out of the pan and onto paper towels to drain. Leave 1 tablespoon of bacon fat in the pan, drain off the excess. Pour the 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar into the pan and cook over medium heat for 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To assemble, toss the greens with the dressing. Separate the shallots into rings and scatter over the salad. Top with bacon and currants.

Flank steak and edamame with wasabi dressing

2009-02-28T16:34:00.000-08:00

I own a lot of spices – everything from your basic chili powder to the more exotic fennel pollen. I currently have six kinds of salt and three types of peppercorns. For most spices, I have both the ground and whole versions. I’ve got four kinds of cinnamon. Six varieties of dried chiles. The list goes on and on.

Some spices get used all the time – I’m particularly fond of smoked paprika and I go through a lot of cumin. Lately, my bottles of allspice berries and juniper berries have been dwindling because of all the brines I’ve made for pork. However, there are some spices that I just don’t use very often. I love the flavor of Chinese five spice, but I don’t use it nearly enough. Along the same lines, I have a bottle of wasabi powder that’s been languishing in my drawer.

I got the opportunity to use my wasabi powder when I made this flank steak with edamame. The recipe actually called for wasabi paste, but wasabi powder with a touch of water did the trick for me.

This recipe was really fast and easy. Flank steak is seasoned with salt, pepper and soy sauce, then seared until done to your liking. The steak is thinly sliced and served on a bed of edamame that’s been cooked with garlic, ginger, sesame oil and soy sauce. A mixture of wasabi and rice vinegar is drizzled over the top.

As usual, I made a few changes. To save on dishes, I cooked the steak in a skillet instead of grilling it, then cooked the edamame in the same pan. I don’t keep bottled ginger and garlic in my fridge, so I substituted fresh for both. I also added a handful of chopped cilantro leaves to the edamame.

To dress this up a bit, I used some artisan soy sauce that I received as a gift once. I think it was a good move – since the recipe is so minimal, it really gave the complex flavors of the sauce a chance to shine. I served steamed jasmine rice on the side.

Pignoli cookies

2009-02-26T17:58:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, I was always intrigued by those brightly colored marzipan fruits. People would tell me that they were for decoration; that they looked much better than they actually tasted. When I finally got my hands on some, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I love marzipan - I've been a fan ever since.

These days, I don't eat many marzipan fruits, but I do have a weakness for cookies made with almond paste. Now, marzipan and almond paste are not the same thing - generally speaking, marzipan contains more sugar than almond paste. However, the flavors are quite similar. I was bringing dessert over to someone's house and decided to make something with the tube of almond paste sitting in my pantry. I flipped through a few cookbooks and settled on a recipe for pignoli cookies from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. The recipe looked like my favorite almond paste cookies with a fun twist - the balls of dough are rolled in pine nuts before baking.

I really like pine nuts, but my husband? Not so much. Our conversation went like this:

Me: I'm making cookies. You're not going to like them.

Him: Cookies? How could I not like cookies?

Me: (flips through cookbook, holds up the picture)

Him: Pine nuts? You're making pine nut cookies? Why don't you just make sawdust cookies? Or perhaps some cookies that contain gravel?

Yeah. He doesn't like pine nuts. So, in the spirit of compromise, I rolled half the cookies in pine nuts, and half in pearl sugar.

These cookies were really good, and very simple to make. There was a big difference between the cookies rolled in pine nuts and the ones rolled in pearl sugar, but I liked them both.

Pignoli cookies

Makes about 18 cookies

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

7 ounces almond paste

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, plus more for dusting

2 large egg whites

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 T all purpose flour

a pinch of kosher salt

1 cup pine nuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, with racks in the center and lower third. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

Crumble the almond paste in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat the almond paste and both sugars on medium speed for about 2 minutes, or until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the egg whites and vanilla; beat on medium speed until a smooth paste forms, about 4 minutes. Add the flour and salt; beat until combined, about 2 minutes. The dough will be very soft and tacky.

Spread pine nuts in a single layer on a plate. Scoop out a tablespoon of dough; using dampened fingers, drop the dough onto the pine nuts, coating one side. Transfer rounds, coated side up to the prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Repeat with remaining dough.

Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges of cookies and pine nuts have turned golden brown, about 15-17 minutes. Transfer cookies on parchment to a wire rack to cool completely. Using an offset spatula, carefully loosen the cookies from the parchment. Dust cookies with confectioner's sugar. Cookies can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Indian shrimp and sweet potatoes

2009-02-24T19:02:00.000-08:00

I'm sure this will come as no surprise to all of you, but I own a lot of cookbooks. I've gotten to the point where I try to only buy cookbooks that are unique to my collection. I was in the market for an indian cookbook a while back and settled on 5 spices, 50 dishes, which happens to be written by a local author. The premise of the book is simple indian dishes based on 5 spices: coriander, cumin, mustard seeds, cayenne and turmeric. I've made about a quarter of the recipes in the book and have had a lot of success.

For this meal, I paired spicy seared shrimp with ginger and lemon sweet potatoes. The shrimp are quickly seared and seasoned with garlic, turmeric, cayenne, lemon juice, salt and cilantro. For the side dish, cooked cubes of sweet potato are sauteed with a mixture of red onion, mustard seeds, ginger, lemon, turmeric and serrano chile.

A word of warning: the recipes in this book definitely run on the spicy side. We have a pretty high tolerance for heat, but I always find myself cutting back the amount of cayenne and serrano chiles in these recipes. If you're sensitive to heat, you may want to cut back on the spice even further.

Both of these recipes were great - the turmeric turns the shrimp a pretty shade of yellow. I think these shrimp would be really delicious skewered and tossed onto the grill. The sweet potatoes were really unique - the sweetness worked well to counterbalance the spices.

Spicy seared shrimp

Serves 3-4

Adapted from 5 spices, 50 dishes

1 pound of large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/2 lemon, juiced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 T canola oil

1 T finely chopped cilantro leaves
pinch of cayenne pepper (to taste)

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

salt

Pat the shrimp dry with paper towels. Heat the oil over high heat in a large pan. Add the minced garlic to the oil, cook for one minute. Add the shrimp to the pan, sprinkle with salt, cayenne and turmeric. Cook until shrimp are pink, about 3-5 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice, season to taste with salt. Sprinkle with cilantro before serving.

Sweet potatoes with ginger and lemon

Serves 4

Adapted from 5 spices, 50 dishes

2 pounds of sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1 inch cubes, and cooked
1 T canola oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 serrano chile, very thinly sliced

1 medium red onion, finely chopped

1 tsp finely grated ginger

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

salt to taste

2 T lemon juice

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over high heat; add the mustard seeds. Cover the pan with a lid and cook the mustard seeds for a minute. Lower the heat to medium, remove the lid and add the chiles, saute for one minute. Add the onion and ginger. Saute until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the turmeric and stir.

Add the sweet potatoes, season with salt and toss gently to mix. Cover and steam over low heat until the flavors meld, about 4 minutes. Season with lemon juice.

Pork loin with red cabbage

2009-02-22T14:55:00.000-08:00

These days when it comes to cooking pork, I automatically lean towards a brine. I know I’m a little slow to jump on the brining bandwagon, but I can’t believe what a difference it makes.

I adapted this recipe for brined pork loin with red cabbage from the Campanile cookbook. The pork is brined in a solution of water, kosher salt, sugar, thyme, peppercorns, cloves and allspice. The pork needs to sit in the brine for about 2 days, so plan ahead.

When I initially read through the recipe, I wasn’t sure about the cabbage part. The ingredients start off fine with cabbage, garlic, balsamic vinegar, caramelized onions. Then comes capers and sage. Capers, sage and red cabbage? That’s a combination that didn’t sound quite right to me. I decided to trust the recipe and go for it, and in the end I was pleasantly surprised with the result.

A word about capers: do you buy brined or salt packed capers? I started buying salt packed capers after reading about them, and they're definitely superior to the brined version. They're slightly more expensive, but have a much better flavor and texture. The only catch is that they need to be rinsed before use.

As expected, the brining process made the pork very flavorful, and the cabbage was a great complement.

Roasted loin of pork with red cabbage
Serves 4 to 6
Adapted from the Campanile cookbook

For the pork:
1/3 cup kosher salt
3 T granulated sugar
2 T black peppercorns, cracked
1 T dried thyme
4 cloves
6 allspice berries, cracked
2 bay leaves
1 boneless pork loin, about 2 1/2 pounds
1 large onion, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch thick round slices
1 T canola oil

For the cabbage:
1 medium head red cabbage, cored, quartered and thinly sliced
1 T olive oil
1 tsp garlic, minced
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
6 fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon capers, rinsed and chopped
salt and pepper

Combine two quarts of water with the salt, sugar, peppercorns, thyme, cloves, allspice and bay leaves in a large stockpot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes. Remove the stockpot from the heat and transfer the brine to a bowl that's large enough to hold the pork. Cool the brine to room temperature, then refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours. Add the pork to the brine, making sure that it's completely immersed. Refrigerate for 2 days. When ready to roast, remove the meat from the brine and dry with paper towels.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat heat the oil, then brown the pork on all sides. Place the onion slices on the bottom of the skillet and put the browned pork loin on top. Transfer to the oven and roast until a meat thermometer reads 138 degrees in the thickest part of the pork loin, about 25 minutes. Remove the pork from the oven and place on a plate; wrap with foil. Let the pork rest while you prepare the cabbage.

Remove the onions from the skillet and coarsely chop. Heat up the olive oil in a large saute pan on high heat. Add the garlic, cook for one minute and turn heat down to medium. Add the cabbage and saute until the cabbage is wilted, about 6-8 minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar, chopped onions, capers and sage. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve, cut the pork loin into 1 1/2 inch thick slices. Place the cabbage on a large platter, arrange the pork on top of the cabbage.

Pumpkin soup with cinnamon creme fraiche

2009-02-20T16:57:00.000-08:00

When the holidays roll around, I always buy more canned pumpkin than I actually need. I love to use pumpkin in desserts, but I also look for ways to incorporate pumpkin into savory dishes.

I saw this recipe for pumpkin soup in the Mesa Grill cookbook and thought it would be a great way to use a can of pumpkin. The pumpkin puree is combined with chicken or vegetable stock and seasoned with salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and allspice. A dose of chipotle puree contributes some heat, and both honey and maple syrup are added to round out the flavors. The soup can be put together in minutes, and is dressed up with a drizzle of cinnamon creme fraiche and toasted pumpkin seeds.

The recipe calls for a fair amount of cinnamon – Mexican canela to be exact. If you can find canela, I would highly recommend using it. I buy canela in bark form and grind it myself. You can make the recipe with other varieties of cinnamon, but it won’t be exactly the same. If you haven't yet converted to grating your own nutmeg, I would encourage you to give it a try. All you need is a whole nutmeg and a microplane. It's slightly more work, but makes a huge difference in flavor.

I liked the addition of toasted pumpkin seeds as a garnish; they added a nice crunch. The next time I make this, I'm going to try topping it with candied pumpkin seeds, I think that would be even better.

On a completely unrelated note, someone gave me 3 pounds of blanched sliced almonds. What should I make with them? Please leave a comment or email me with your ideas.

Meyer lemon cake

2009-02-18T18:04:00.000-08:00

There are some recipes that are just classics – they’re not particularly fancy or complicated, but delicious nonetheless. I think the lemon cake recipe from Barefoot Contessa Parties falls into this category. I make this cake every year during meyer lemon season, and it’s definitely the best lemon cake I’ve ever had.

The recipe is pretty straightforward, but what elevates this cake to the next level is the use of lemon syrup. Equal parts of lemon juice and sugar are cooked together, and then drizzled over the warm cake. The syrup soaks into the cake and adds an extra layer of lemon flavor and additional moisture.

I made two changes to the recipe. The obvious change is the use of meyer lemons in lieu of regular lemons. In addition, I added some zest from a buddha’s hand citron to the batter. I didn’t notice a major difference in the flavor of the cake from the citron, it just added to the overall citrus flavor.

My only caveat with this recipe is to make sure you butter and flour your pans well, and don’t skip the parchment lining on the pans. The first time I made this I decided to forgo the parchment, which was not a good idea!

The popchips winner, a new look, and pizza

2009-02-16T15:34:00.000-08:00

First of all, the winner of the popchips is Leanne!

Next, as you've probably noticed, the site has a new design. I want to thank my friends Jessica and Kristine for their help with the new photography and layout.

Finally, the pizza. When Kristine came over today to work on the site, we made some pizza for lunch. I made a batch of pizza dough from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook and figured we'd come up with toppings based on the contents of my fridge.

We ended up topping the pizza with homemade pesto from the freezer, shredded fontina and parmigiano reggiano cheeses, yellow bell peppers and sliced asparagus. For baking pizza, I usually preheat my oven to 500 degrees - the longer it preheats, the better. When it's time to cook the pizza, I slide it onto a baking stone and lower the oven temperature to 450 degrees. I find that the pizzas are generally ready in about 15 minutes.

This was delicious, although I have to admit, it's hard to go wrong with homemade pizza!

Popchips giveaway

2009-02-14T10:25:00.000-08:00

Who doesn't love potato chips? Unfortunately, they're not exactly healthy. There are a few good baked variations out there, but I find that the quality varies wildly from brand to brand. So what's the alternative if you love potato chips but don't love all the calories? The answer is popchips.

Popchips are neither fried nor baked; they're actually popped under heat and pressure. They taste very similar to your full fat potato chips, but each single serving bag has only 100 calories. My parents are obsessed with popchips. The owner of the company was nice enough to send over an assortment of chips, and I've decided to share them with you.
One lucky winner will receive single serving bags of original, parmesan garlic and salt and pepper popchips. To enter, leave a comment telling me your favorite low calorie snack; a winner will be drawn at random. The deadline for comments is Monday, February 16th at 5:00 pm PST.

Chickpea fries

2009-02-13T17:25:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco is One Market. All of their food is good, but it's one menu item that I keep coming back for: chickpea fries. I just love them, what can I say?

We had lunch at Ubuntu in Napa last month, and guess what was on the menu? Of course I had order them, and it was about that time when I remembered I had a recipe for chickpea fries in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian book. So I set off to find some chickpea flour to recreate one of my favorite restaurant dishes at home.

I had a hard time finding chickpea flour - I tried a couple of stores, and ended up finding it in the bulk bins at Whole Foods. This recipe is actually quite simple, I can't believe I didn't try it sooner. I adapted the recipe by adding smoked paprika and a pinch of cayenne.

The verdict: these chickpea fries are at least as good as what I order in restaurants. My husband thinks they're better. At One Market, they serve their chickpea fries with harissa aioli; at Ubuntu it's romesco sauce. I had some romesco sauce in the freezer already, so I went with that.

Chickpea fries
Adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian
Serves 4

Neutral oil for pan frying (I used canola)
1 cup chickpea flour, sifted
1 tsp kosher salt, plus more for finishing
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
a pinch of cayenne pepper
2 T extra virgin olive oil

Line an 8x8 square pan with parchment or plastic wrap, set aside. Bring 2 cups of water to boil in a medium sized pot. Gradually add the chickpea flour, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Turn the heat down to low and whisk in a teaspoon of kosher salt along with the pepper, smoked paprika, cayenne and olive oil. Cook for one more minute, stirring constantly.

Spread the chickpea mixture into an even layer in the pan. Let cool for about 15 minutes, then cover loosely. Refrigerate for at least one hour, and up to a day.

Heat about 1/8 inch of oil in a large skillet over medium heat. In the meantime, lift the chickpea mixture out of the pan by the edges of the parchment. Cut the chickpea mixture into fries that are about 4 inches long by 1/2 inch wide. Place batches of the fries into the hot oil, turning when browned. After all sides have browned, remove from the oil and drain on paper towels, sprinkle with salt. Repeat with remaining chickpea fries.

Serve with romesco sauce, tomato sauce, or aioli.

Chicken with prosciutto and sage

2009-02-11T16:43:00.000-08:00

If you asked me to name my favorite cookbook, I’d be hard pressed to come up with just one. I have so many, and they all serve their purpose – how do you compare a bread baking book to a book about thai food? However, there is one book that gets used more than any other, and that’s the Everyday Food cookbook. I refer to it so often that the binding is broken and the pages are falling out. It’s just good, simple food that can be prepared in a reasonable amount of time. There are no specialty ingredients required, and most of the dishes are relatively healthy. I’ve made dozens of recipes from this book and they’ve all been great.

My latest success was chicken with sage and prosciutto. Chicken cutlets are topped with a sage leaf and wrapped in a slice of prosciutto. The cutlets are dredged in seasoned flour and sautéed until golden brown. The chicken is finished with a simple pan sauce of white wine, chicken stock, butter and sage. I went with the suggested side dish of spinach with golden raisins.

This was quite good, and on the table in less than 30 minutes. It doesn’t get much better than this when it comes to quick and easy weeknight cooking.

Shaved beet and arugula salad

2009-02-09T17:57:00.000-08:00

I really like beets, but I don't always have the time and energy to make them. They're red, they're messy, and they take a long time to cook. Fortunately, I discovered that gold beets and chiogga beets don't bleed red all over your kitchen and they're quite pretty on your plate.

For this salad, I combined shaved gold beets with baby arugula. You definitely want to use a mandoline to shave the beets as thinly as possible. Since they're raw, they can be a little tough if the pieces are too thick. I made a simple meyer lemon vinaigrette for the salad: meyer lemon juice, honey, olive oil, shallot, salt and pepper. I tossed the beets and greens in the dressing and topped the salad with shavings of ricotta salata and chopped marcona almonds.
Here are a few of my tips for making delicious salads.

-Add a few teaspoons of finely minced shallot to your vinaigrette. Trust me, you'll be glad you did. If you're worried that the flavor of the shallot might be too sharp, let the minced shallot sit in your vinegar or lemon juice for a few minutes.

-Season your vinaigrette very generously with salt and pepper; it may seem like overkill, but you've got a lot of leaves to season with a small amount of dressing. Alternatively, season your greens with salt and pepper before you add the vinaigrette.

-Add your heavier ingredients like nuts to the top of the salad at the end. If you add them at the beginning, they'll just fall to the bottom of the bowl.

-Try mixing some fresh herbs into your salad greens - parsley is always a safe bet, I also like to add tarragon or dill.

-To reduce the amount of oil needed in your dressing, try adding a touch of honey. The sweetness balances the acidity.

Chocolate and olive oil pancakes

2009-02-07T16:34:00.000-08:00

Now that I've eaten at The Bazaar, I'm even more motivated to cook from my Jose Andres cookbooks. I turned to my Made in Spain book for these chocolate and olive oil pancakes. Chocolate and olive oil may seem like an odd flavor combination, but it's actually pretty common in the Catalonia region of Spain. It's also common to see a third ingredient thrown into the mix: sea salt.

I've had olive oil gelato on a couple of occasions; it tastes much better than it sounds. In fact, a few years ago I had a dessert at Manresa that combined olive oil ice cream, chocolate mousse and flaky sea salt, so I knew what to expect with these pancakes.

This recipe is pretty simple. It's the same ingredients you'd find in any other buttermilk pancake recipe, with the addition of dark chocolate pieces and the substitution of olive oil for butter. I used half white and half whole wheat flour with great results.

The pancakes are cooked in a little olive oil and drizzled with honey instead of syrup. The recipe doesn't call for any sea salt, but I decided to sprinkle a little bit on some of the pancakes. I preferred the pancakes with the sea salt on top to those without the salt.

These are great pancakes - the chocolate adds richness, and the olive oil flavor is quite subtle.

Chocolate and olive oil pancakes
Adapted from Made in Spain
Serves 4

1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour (I think King Arthur's white whole wheat flour produces the best results. Alternatively, you could just use 1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour)
2 T granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 egg
1 and 1/2 cups buttermilk
4 T extra virgin olive oil, divided
1/3 cup chopped dark chocolate
Coarse sea salt such as Maldon for serving (optional)
Honey for serving

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Whisk in the egg, buttermilk and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, mix until the batter is mostly smooth (a few lumps are ok). Stir in the chocolate.

Heat the remaining olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Pour 1/4 cup of batter into the pan and cook until golden. Flip the pancake and cook until golden on the other side. Transfer the pancake to a serving plate. Repeat with the rest of the batter.

Serve the pancakes topped with honey and a light sprinkling of sea salt.

A weekend in LA - part 2

2009-02-05T17:55:00.000-08:00

On Saturday night, we ate at Osteria Mozza in Hollywood. About a year ago, we had a great meal at Pizzeria Mozza, which is the more casual restaurant next door. The Mozza restaurants are owned by Nancy Silverton, Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich. I think Nancy Silverton is a great chef – I own three of her cookbooks and I cook from them regularly. I’ve also eaten at both Batali/Bastianich ventures in Las Vegas, most recently at Enoteca San Marco, which was not very impressive.

Unfortunately, we were also not impressed by Osteria Mozza. Everything - from the grilled octopus appetizer to the fritelle di riso dessert - was on the bland side. I didn’t get any pictures because the restaurant was quite dark. On the plus side, Nancy Silverton was working at the mozzarella bar, and my husband spotted Michael Hall and Jennifer Carpenter from the tv show Dexter.

On Sunday morning before we left town, we ate breakfast at Brent’s Deli. My entire family has been eating at Brent’s for as long as I can remember. A trip to LA is not complete without a trip to Brent’s. We really don’t have any good jewish delis in the Bay Area, so I can only get my smoked fish and black and white cookie fix when I’m in LA. As usual, they didn’t disappoint.
Smoked whitefish and cod platter, enough to serve an army (bagels not pictured)
Black and white cookies - the mini version. Their large version is 10 inches across!

BonBonBar winner

2009-02-04T20:22:00.001-08:00

I used random.org to generate a winning comment...and it's Karen from Karen Cooks!

A weekend in LA - part 1

2009-02-03T19:17:00.000-08:00

Only one more day for the BonBonBar giveaway! Be sure to enter if you haven't already.

Most of my extended family lives in Los Angeles , so we usually end up going there a few times a year. Each time we go, we try some new restaurants. I was really happy to hear that Jose Andres was opening an LA outpost, because I love his cookbooks and tv show. On Friday night we had dinner at The Bazaar by Jose Andres. The restaurant format is tapas, and the menu is split into two sections. The Rojo section of the menu focuses on tradition tapas fare. The Blanca section of the menu is modern tapas with a molecular gastronomy slant. We spotted Marcel from Top Chef hard at work in the kitchen.

I did all the ordering for the table, and tended to veer more heavily towards the Blanca section of the menu. Simply put, the meal was amazing, definitely one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten (French Laundry still holds the #1 spot). Since there were quite a few courses, I’ll keep the descriptions relatively brief, but please feel free to ask questions in the comments section and I can provide more details.
Philly cheesesteak - This was a hollow bread filled with a cheese sauce and topped with thinly sliced Kobe beef. Tortilla de patatas 'new way' - A quail egg cooked slowly at 63 degrees C topped with a warm potato foam and crispy potato bits. A modern take on the classic spanish tortilla.
Modern and traditional olives - The modern ones are Ferran Adria liquid 'olives', which I believe are spherifications of an olive flavored liquid. The traditional olives are stuffed with anchovy and piquillo pepper and topped with orange zest. The modern olives come to the table in a jar of olive oil and are fished out of the jar and placed onto the spoon by the waitstaff.
Jamon iberico de bellota - Acorn fed, free range iberico ham served with tomato bread. This was definitely a splurge, but worth every penny. They had a separate meat slicing area with a big bowl of perfect looking tomatoes for the toast. I'm not sure where they got such nice tomatoes in January, but I'm not complaining!
Crab buns - Crab and cucumber with a creamy sauce (alioli maybe?), served on steamed buns. The buns were the perfect texture.
Foie gras cotton candy, salmon caviar cone - A piece of corn nut crusted foie gras torchon wrapped in warm cotton candy. It may sound strange, but trust me when I say it was delicious. I didn't try the caviar cone, it was for the person in our party who doesn't eat foie gras.

Ottoman carrot fritters - Bits of carrot and white bean loosely bound and fried. Served on a bed of creamy pistachio sauce.

Butifarra - Pork sausage with white beans and mushrooms. The sausage was perfectly cooked.

Tempura avocado with airy mayonnaise - Chunks of avocado lightly battered and fried, served with foam for dipping. I detected a nice hit of sherry vinegar in the foam.

Mozzarella-tomato pipettes with micro basil - To eat, you pop the tomato into your mouth and squirt in the liquid mozzarella and olive oil from the pipette.

Bunuelos - Traditional salt cod fritters with honey alioli. I just realized that I have the recipe for these in one of his cookbooks, so you can bet I'll attempt to recreate them at home.

Tea service

Traditional spanish flan with vanilla and orange - We decided to end with a traditional and a modern dessert. The flan was the best we've ever had.

Coconut nitro floating island with banana and passionfruit - Frozen on the outside, soft on the inside coconut island on banana slices with a passionfruit sauce and passionfruit seeds. I thought the passionfruit seeds were a nice touch.

There's only one dish that's not pictured here, and that is the fideos with shrimp and alioli. I didn't bother with a picture because it wasn't particularly attractive, and it turns out it was also our least favorite dish. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't as good as everything else. We will definitely be back, hopefully sooner rather than later. In the meantime, I have his cookbooks to work my way through!

A BonBonBar giveaway

2009-02-01T20:26:00.000-08:00

I just got back from a weekend trip to Los Angeles. I've got lots of restaurant reports and food pictures to share with you, but first let's talk about candy.

I've been reading Nina's Sweet Napa blog for a couple of years. When I started reading, she was a culinary student in Napa with a love for candymaking. Now, she's in Los Angeles and the owner of the BonBonBar company, which has been mentioned in both Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines. I've really enjoyed watching her develop the business from the ground up, and I was able to meet her this weekend. I sampled quite a few of her products, which were all amazing, and couldn't resist getting a whole assortment of treats. She was even nice enough to bring me one of her limited edition Valentine's Day cherry bars.
I want to share the BonBonBar love with all of you, so I'm giving away a bag of classic BonBonBar caramels. Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite kind of candy bar, and a winner will be drawn at random. The deadline for comments is Wednesday, February 4th at 8:00 pm PST.

Good luck!

Honey roasted carrots

2009-01-30T06:18:00.000-08:00

I've professed my love for roasted vegetables many times on this blog, so no need to go there again. That being said, I make these honey roasted carrots all the time - they're definitely one of my most-repeated recipes. Start by preheating your oven to 425 degrees and peeling some carrots - I usually use about a pound. Make sure all the carrots are roughly the same size. After the carrots are peeled, cut off the ends. Cut each carrot into 3 inch sticks - I usually cut the thicker pieces into quarters, and the thinner pieces in half. Put the carrots onto a greased baking sheet and drizzle with equal parts of olive oil and honey, about a tablespoon of each. Season the carrots with salt and pepper and toss everything together. Spread the carrots in a single layer and put the pan in the oven.

Roast the carrots for 20 minutes, then stir. Put the carrots back into the oven for another 15 minutes, or until the carrots are browned and tender. Transfer the carrots to a serving dish and season with coarse salt (I used Maldon).

I love these carrots - the honey enhances the natural sweetness of the carrots and helps with caramelization. Don't skip the finishing salt, it creates a nice textural contrast.

Meyer lemon and chocolate tart

2009-01-28T20:29:00.000-08:00

When I look out my window, this is what I see...
Meyer lemons, and lots of them! Meyer lemons are sweeter than your standard lemon and have a more complex flavor. They're great in most applications where you'd normally use a regular lemon. I decided to take advantage of my bounty and make this meyer lemon and chocolate tart recipe from Sunday Suppers at Lucques for my dad's birthday. I do have a confession to make: this was my first time making a tart. I was pretty happy with the way it came out.

This is a fairly traditional tart with two unique characteristics - the use of meyer lemons and a thin layer of bittersweet chocolate between the crust and the filling. You could use regular lemons to make this, but you may need to increase the amount of sugar in the lemon curd. I made some candied lemon peel to decorate the top.

So, I'd say that my first attempt at baking a tart was successful. Now I just need to decide what kind of tart to make next.

Clams and mussels with cavalo nero

2009-01-26T18:10:00.000-08:00

I made dinner for my dad's birthday and wanted to do something a little unexpected, so I turned to Sunday Suppers at Lucques for inspiration. I came across this recipe for clams and mussels with white beans, cavalo nero and vermouth and thought it sounded perfect.

There are a couple different components to this dish. The first is the white beans. The recipe called for cannellini beans, but I used a similar sized white bean that I already had in the house. One and a half cups of dried beans are slowly simmered with toasted fennel seed, onion, rosemary, chile de arbol, thyme and olive oil. The beans cook for about an hour and a half, or until tender. I made the beans in advance and refrigerated them in their cooking liquid for later use. In a pinch, you could probably get away with using canned beans.

Next up is the cavalo nero. This is also known as tuscan kale, lacinato kale, or dinosaur kale. The flavor is similar to your standard curly kale, but the texture is much more pleasant.
You want to strip the leafy greens off the tougher stems, and then tear the cavalo nero into bite sized pieces.

Once the cavalo nero has been processed, it's time to work on putting everything together. The aromatics consist of fennel, red onion, rosemary, thyme, chile de arbol and sliced garlic.

You need a large pot for this recipe. Some olive oil is heated in the pot, and the aromatics are added to saute for a few minutes. The cavalo nero is added to the pot and cooked until wilted. The beans with about a cup of their cooking liquid are added next. Finally, the clams, mussels and a cup of dry vermouth go into the pot. I had a little over 3 pounds of mussels and clams. I nestled the clams and mussels into the bean mixture, brought the liquid to a boil, and covered the pot. The mussels and clams just need to steam for about 7 minutes - check periodically to see if they've opened up. When they're open, they're ready. Clams generally take longer than mussels to cook.

Before serving, season to taste with salt and pepper and swirl about a tablespoon of butter into the pot. I made a loaf of walnut bread to serve alongside the shellfish.

This was a fairly time consuming dish from start to finish, but definitely worth the extra effort.

Green beans with hazelnuts and mint

2009-01-23T17:41:00.000-08:00

This is a recipe I came up with to dress up plain old green beans. I started with fresh green beans, which I steamed for a few minutes, until they were tender but still had some bite. You could also blanch the beans. I tossed the warm green beans with a squeeze of meyer lemon juice, a drizzle of hazelnut oil, salt, and pepper. I know that nut oils are expensive, but like truffle oil, a little goes a long way. If you store them in the fridge, they last forever. As a finishing touch, I added a handful of chopped, toasted hazelnuts and a few torn mint leaves. You don't want a strong mint flavor to the dish, so use your mint sparingly. I think parsley or chives would also be a nice touch.

What's your favorite way to cook green beans?

Winter squash soup with bay scallops

2009-01-21T18:57:00.000-08:00

When I made this winter squash dish a few weeks back, I intentionally bought more butternut and kabocha squash than the recipe called for. I used the extra squash to make a really simple soup. I sauteed some shallots in a little olive oil and added cubed squash, salt, pepper and water. I simmered the mixture until the squash was really tender, pureed it in the blender, and then added lemon juice to taste. I froze the soup for later use.

Tonight I pulled the soup out of the freezer and combined it with some bay scallops and bacon to make a great dinner. I cut up the bacon into small pieces and cooked it in a large pan until it was browned and crispy. I removed the bacon from the pan and drained it on some paper towels. I discarded most of the fat left in the pan, leaving just enough to cover the bottom and turned the heat up to high. I threw in the bay scallops and sauteed them until they were just cooked through. The scallops were seasoned with some salt and a squeeze of meyer lemon juice.

To assemble dinner, I ladled some of the thawed and reheated soup into a shallow bowl. I topped the soup with a pile of scallops and some bacon. This was a really nice flavor combination - a little bit of smoke and salt from the bacon, and sweetness from the scallops and winter squash.

What's for dinner?

2009-01-19T18:35:00.000-08:00

I get asked constantly: how do you find time to cook so much? The reality is, my husband and I have really busy and sometimes unpredictable schedules. I truly don’t have the time to put together complicated meals on weeknights. I usually save my more ambitious cooking plans for weekends. That being said, I do have a few strategies for successful weeknight cooking. None of this is groundbreaking material, but I figured I’d share what works for me.

Make a meal plan for the week – I usually start with the weekly grocery ad to see what’s on sale and in season. I also try to choose weeknight recipes that won’t take more than 30 minutes. I only grocery shop once a week, so I plan my use of produce for the week based on shelf life. A bag of carrots will last much longer in the fridge than a bag of spinach, so the spinach gets used up first and the carrots get saved for later in the week. I write my menu plan and grocery list on the same paper – that way, if I’m in the store and they don’t have exactly what I need, I can refer back to my original menu and adjust accordingly.

Prepare in advance – On Sundays, I take about an hour to get my ingredients ready for the week. I wash and cut up as much produce as is feasible, grate cheese, make sauces, etc. I don’t cut up anything that will discolor or degrade too quickly, so sometimes I only get two or three day’s worth of produce processed. But you know what? It still saves me a lot of time during the week.

before and after

Keep a well stocked freezer and pantry – I tend to be pretty organized and I’m always thinking ahead. Whenever feasible, I make extra of sauces and soups for the freezer. Bear in mind that not all soups and sauces can be successfully frozen, so use your judgment. When meat goes on sale, I buy extra and freeze it. I almost always have a bag of frozen peas or corn in the house. If you were to open my freezer right now, you’d find everything from kaffir lime leaves to buddha’s hand zest to bread and chicken stock. If your freezer is well stocked, it’s not difficult to put together a quick meal.

Along the same lines, make sure you have all the basics in your pantry. I always have an assortment of grains and beans, a few different types of oils, olives, a variety of nuts, canned tomatoes and salt packed capers. I also try to keep bittersweet chocolate in the house for baking emergencies.

Once I’ve taken the time to prepare in advance for the upcoming week, I find that it’s quite feasible to have a healthy and delicious meal on the table without too much hassle. I’d love to hear from all of you – what are your tips for making quick meals? What are the pantry and freezer staples that you can’t live without?

Glazed baby turnips

2009-01-17T07:50:00.000-08:00

Everyone knows that turnips are white, but did you know that they also come in yellow? I didn't until I picked up a bunch of gold baby turnips at the farmer's market. The man selling them told me that this variety is sweeter than white turnips.
I decided to do a really simple preparation with these turnips to let their natural flavor shine. I started by throwing the halved turnips into a pan with about a tablespoon of melted butter. I added a pinch of sugar, some salt and pepper and a splash of water. I cooked at a medium simmer until the turnips were tender, adding more water when the intial amount was absorbed. Once the turnips were tender, I turned the heat up to high and boiled the liquid off. I let the turnips caramelize in the resulting glaze for a few minutes, then added some minced parsley and a sprinkling of fleur de sel.

The turnips were as sweet as promised, and the fleur de sel added a pleasant crunch and hit of salt. I'll be keeping an eye out for these guys the next time I'm at the farmer's market.

Penne with kale and walnuts

2009-01-14T17:58:00.000-08:00

When I was at the farmer's market looking for inspiration to get me out of my cooking rut, this beautiful bunch of purple kale caught my eye.
I started thinking about what I make with this kale, and pasta was the first thing that came to mind. I started with about a pound of shallots, which I sliced thinly and caramelized in some olive oil. Once the shallots were a deep golden brown, I threw in the kale, which I had torn into small pieces. Meanwhile, I brought some salted water to a boil and cooked the penne. I tend to use whole wheat pasta because of the health factor. As the penne cooked, I sauteed the kale with the shallots until it was wilted. After the pasta was done, I put it into the pan with the kale and added some of the pasta cooking water to loosen up the mixture. I added a drizzle of toasted walnut oil, salt, pepper, toasted walnuts and shavings of ricotta salata.

I really loved this dish - it was a great blend of flavors and textures. If you've never tried toasted walnut oil before, it's definitely worth seeking out.

Pork chops with pepperonata

2009-01-12T19:29:00.000-08:00

Do you ever get tired of...cooking? It doesn't happen to me very often, but right now I'm in a little bit of a slump. To break out of my rut, I've decided to ditch my cookbooks and grocery lists for a few weeks and just buy whatever appeals to me. On Saturday, I started at the farmer's market for produce, moved on to my local grocery store for meat, and ended at Trader Joe's for staples. Yes, I do shop at multiple grocery stores every week!

I saw these heirloom italian sweet peppers at the farmer's market and bought an assortment of shapes and colors.

I feel lucky that my local grocery store has a great meat counter. It was an easy decision to go with some nice bone-in pork chops. I already had some winter squash in the pantry that needed to be used up, so that became my side dish.

I brined the pork chops for 24 hours before I cooked them. If you've never brined pork chops before, I encourage you to give it a try. It's a little more work, but makes a huge difference with the taste and texture of the meat.

For the pepperonata, I sliced up all the peppers I bought with a few cipollini onions. I sauteed the peppers and onions in olive oil with some salt, black pepper and a healthy pinch of french espelette pepper. I cooked the mixture at medium heat for about 30 minutes. I added a handful of chopped parsley for color.

After the pork chops came out of the brine, I dried them off and sauteed them in a little olive oil until they were cooked through to about medium-well. I topped the pork chops with a generous dollop of pepperonata and served them on a bed of mashed kabocha squash. To make the kabocha squash, I simply microwaved both halves of the squash until tender, scooped out the insides, and mashed it with butter, salt and pepper. This was a great meal - delicious, easy and healthy. It was nice to just do my own thing without having to refer back to instructions in a cookbook. Stay tuned to see what other impromptu meals I come up with!

Fennel and orange salad

2009-01-10T07:44:00.000-08:00

It's a coincidence that I made this fennel and orange salad from the Everyday Food cookbook on the night when I watched the latest episode of Top Chef. The winning dish on Top Chef included the same ingredients of fennel, oranges and olives. One of the judges remarked that this is a classic and delicious flavor combination, and I tend to agree.

This salad is really simple and makes for a unique and refreshing side dish. I shaved my fennel into thin slices using a mandoline, and tossed it with orange supremes, halved nicoise olives and parsley leaves. The dressing is simply orange juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. I think the nicoise olives worked really well in this dish, but you could use kalamata olives instead. If you wanted to dress this up for a special occasion, I think a combination of navel and blood oranges would be really attractive.

Braised endive with prosciutto

2009-01-06T18:03:00.000-08:00

Belgian endive is often used raw in salads, but I think it taste even better when cooked. This recipe from All About Braising combines endive with prosciutto and a touch of cream to make a really unique and delicious side dish. The endives lose most of their bitter flavor through the cooking process, and the prosciutto gets crispy when baked. To turn this into a meal, top each serving with a fried egg.

Braised endive with prosciutto
Adapted from All About Braising
Serves 3-4 as a side, 2 as a main course
4 heads of belgian endive, cut in half lengthwise
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup chicken stock
3 slices of prosciutto
1 tablespoon of heavy cream
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Melt the butter over medium heat; add the endives, cut side down. Cook the endives until browned, about 4-5 minutes. Transfer the endives to a greased baking dish; arrange in a single layer, cut side up. Season the endives with salt and pepper. Tear the prosciutto slices into small pieces; arrange the prosciutto over the top of the endives. Pour the chicken stock into the dish. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and pour the cream over the endives. Return the dish to the oven and bake, uncovered, for another 10 minutes. Spoon the sauce from the bottom of the dish over the endives. Taste for seasoning and serve.

Maple roasted winter vegetables with marcona almonds

2009-01-02T20:29:00.000-08:00

Many people eagerly await asparagus in April and fresh corn in July. I'll admit, I definitely look forward to fava beans and morels in the spring, and tomatoes from my garden in the summer. That being said, winter produce has more to offer than most people think. I love winter squash - there are so many different varieties with a wide range of tastes and textures. Over the past few winters, I've also been experimenting more with root vegetables. Parsnips, turnips, celery root and rutabagas have found a regular place on the dinner table.

This recipe from the thanksgiving issue of Bon Appetit combines two types of winter squash and parsnips with maple syrup for added sweetness and marcona almonds for crunch. I think that most people are familiar with butternut squash and parsnips, although it does amuse me that the national chain grocery store in my area has parsnips in their "exotic vegetable" section.

Kabocha squash is also known as a Japanese pumpkin. It's usually dark green, but occasionally you'll see one with an orange skin. To me the flavor is similar to butternut, but sweeter. If you can't find kabocha, I think you could just use the butternut and parsnips with good results.The squash and parsnips are first peeled and cubed. Fair warning - peeling winter squash can be a pain, especially for kabochas since they have a thick skin. I ended up with more squash than the recipe called for, so I used the rest to make a pureed soup for the freezer. The squash and parsnips are tossed in a combination of butter, maple syrup, rosemary, salt and pepper. I omitted the garlic and cut the amount of maple syrup and butter in half. I didn't follow the roasting instructions - instead I cooked everything uncovered at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Another day, another braise

2008-12-29T18:44:00.000-08:00

I've been doing a lot of braising this cold weather season, everything from radishes to pork shoulder. This time around, I made braised beef with carrots from Patricia Wells' Vegetable Harvest cookbook. The recipe is unique because it's as much about the carrots as it is the beef. Many braising recipes use vegetables only to enhance the flavor of the meat - by the end of the cooking period, the vegetables are usually mushy and get strained out of the sauce. This recipe produced a tender piece of meat with an abundance of perfectly cooked carrots. The carrots held their shape, and even had a slight bite to them.

I always get fun cookbooks for the holidays, and this year was no exception. I got the Campanile cookbook, which is great because I'm a huge Nancy Silverton fan. I made kale with crispy garlic from the book to go along with the beef. The recipe is actually really simple - thinly sliced garlic cloves are crisped up in oil, and added to cooked kale seasoned with a squeeze of lemon and salt. I used lacinato kale, which is also known as dinosaur kale or cavalo nero. I prefer the flavor and texture, but regular kale would work just as well.
Braised beef with carrots

Adapted from Vegetable Harvest

Serves about 6

A 3lb boneless piece of beef meant for braising (anything labeled chuck is a good bet)

3 lbs of carrots, peeled and thinly sliced on the diagonal

2 cans of tomato paste

2 cups of red wine

2 cups of chicken or beef stock

4 sprigs of fresh thyme

2 bay leaves

2 tablespoons of olive oil

salt and pepper

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large heavy pot. Season the beef generously with salt and pepper and brown on all sides. Add all of the remaining ingredients to the pot, bring to a simmer. Cover the pot and cook at a low simmer for about 3 and a half hours, or until the meat is tender. Turn the meat once per hour. After the meat is cooked, remove it from the pot and cut into thick slices. Spoon the carrots over the top. Discard thyme sprigs and bay leaves. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Sugared cranberries

2008-12-27T07:45:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a happy holiday! This is another one of those recipes that's been getting rave reviews around the internet lately. I had a bag of cranberries in the freezer, which I thawed to make these sugared cranberries. This recipe is really simple - a warm sugar syrup is poured over cranberries, which then marinate in the liquid overnight. The sugar syrup should not be boiling - you don't want the cranberries to pop. The next day, the liquid is drained away and the berries are rolled in superfine sugar to coat. I didn't have any superfine sugar in the house, so I ran some regular granulated sugar through the food processor. It seemed to work just fine. The sugared cranberries need at least an hour to dry - I let mine set up for the better part of a day.

For such a simple recipe, the end result is exceptionally delicious. The soak in the sugar syrup tames the bitterness of the cranberries, and the sugar coating is a crunchy contrast. You've been warned - these are extremely addictive.

Holiday baking

2008-12-21T21:40:00.000-08:00

I'll admit, I've been slacking a little bit this year in the holiday baking department. I decided to remedy the situation today by baking up some treats for our friends, family and coworkers.

First up were Dorie Greenspan's world peace cookies. People have been raving about these cookies for years, but for some reason I just never got around to trying them. I'm glad I finally made the recipe, because these really are outstanding cookies. The ingredients are fairly common, and the technique simple, but the addition of fleur de sel to the dough really takes these cookies to the next level. I only got to taste one cookie, but I think I'll be keeping a roll of this dough in the freezer from now on.

Once the cookies were out of the oven and cooling, I made a batch of red velvet cupcakes. I will be completely honest and tell you that I used a Sprinkles mix. I'm not usually a cake mix person; I prefer to cook from scratch. However, I received this mix as a gift, and I had a really excellent red velvet cupcake at Sprinkles in Beverly Hills a few months ago. The cupcakes are frosted with a cream cheese icing and decorated with one of Sprinkles' signature dots.

The cupcakes were quite good, but not as good as the one I had in the actual bakery. I'm sure the formula is slightly different. Nevertheless, they're delicious and festive, and that's really what matters during this time of the year!

A Mesa Grill kind of dinner

2008-12-17T21:15:00.000-08:00

It's dungeness crab season here in California, and I'm trying to make the most of it. Tonight I made this recipe for blue corn crusted crab cakes from the Mesa Grill cookbook. I made quite a few changes to the original recipe - I liked the concept of the blue cornmeal crust and the use of creme fraiche as a binding agent, but I wasn't wild about the large amounts of dijon mustard and horseradish. I was concerned that these ingredients would overpower the crab, so I eliminated the horseradish completely and cut the mustard back to about a teaspoon. My crab mixture was quite loose, so I threw in a few tablespoons of breadcrumbs and added an egg to make sure that the cakes would stay intact in the pan.

I served the crab cakes with another recipe from the Mesa Grill cookbook - corn with roasted chiles and creme fraiche. The original recipe calls for fresh corn, but I think this worked quite well with frozen corn. The roasted poblano and serrano chiles add a lot of flavor with a bit of heat, and the creme fraiche makes the whole dish taste creamier and richer. I never have cotija cheese in the house, so I use feta as a substitute.

I have eaten at Mesa Grill in Las Vegas twice now, and always seem to have good luck with the recipes in this book. Bobby Flay definitely has a talent for putting together great flavor combinations.

Clean-out-the-fridge pizza

2008-12-11T19:49:00.000-08:00

I love homemade pizza - it's so easy and a great way to use up odds and ends that you have on hand. Tonight's pizza was inspired by the contents of my fridge and freezer. I keep balls of pizza dough in the freezer for future use - all they need is to defrost for a day in the fridge and they're ready to go. This was the whole wheat pizza dough from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads book. While I stretched out the dough, I preheated the oven to 500 degrees. On the dough, I smeared a few tablespoons of basil pesto and added half a can of drained diced tomatoes. I made sure the tomatoes were really dry so that I didn't end up with soggy pizza. Next up was the cheese - I added a handful of blue cheese, about 1/2 cup of crumbled feta and a very generous grating of parmigiano reggiano. For the toppings, I chose prosciutto, cooked bacon, artichoke hearts and piquillo peppers.

I assembled my pizza on parchment paper atop a cookie sheet. When the oven was ready, I slid the pizza, parchment and all, onto the pizza stone. I lowered the oven temperature to 450 and baked the pizza until the cheese was melted and crust browned, about 15 minutes. I wasn't exactly sure how this would turn out, given the strong, salty nature of the cheeses and toppings, but the ingredients melded nicely to make a delicious dinner!

Sauteed wild mushrooms

2008-12-03T19:26:00.000-08:00

I love mushrooms of all varieties. I tend to throw them into a lot of dishes – pasta, pizza, sauces, but I rarely eat them on their own. I decided to change that by making this sauteed wild mushrooms recipe from the Barefoot in Paris cookbook. I used a combination of oyster mushrooms, portobellos and chanterelles.
I used way less fat than the recipe called for – maybe 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. I heated the oil and butter in a large pan and added a generous amount of minced shallots. Once the shallots had cooked through, I added the mushrooms, some salt and about 2 cloves of minced garlic. Mushrooms release a lot of liquid and can get a little soupy, which I tend to not like. To remedy this, I cooked the mushrooms at medium heat until all the liquid had been released and then turned up the heat to high, stirring occasionally. After a few minutes the liquid evaporated away and the mushrooms started to take on a nice golden color.

After the mushrooms were caramelized, I stirred in a handful of chopped parsley, which added a much-needed burst of color. This was a delicious and simple way to showcase mushrooms.

Thanksgiving 2008 - dessert

2008-11-30T09:44:00.000-08:00

This thanksgiving was a little bit different than other years. My grandmother recently turned 80, so we celebrated her birthday at the same time. I was in charge of the birthday cake. I almost never make layer cakes - for some reason, they intimidate me a little bit. I wanted a foolproof recipe that wasn't too complicated, since I had to split my time between the cake and other thanksgiving dishes. Who better to turn to than Dorie Greenspan? I pulled out her cookbook and settled on devil's food white-out cake, which looks beautiful on the front cover of the book. Here's a link to the recipe.

The recipe calls for baking the cake layers in 8"x2" rounds. I only had 9" rounds, so I went with that, and my layers came out a bit flat for obvious reasons. I wanted a tall, dramatic cake, so I went ahead and doubled the recipe, making a total of 4 layers and twice the frosting. Since my layers came out fairly thin (about 1") and flat, I decided not to slice them in half. The frosting is meringue based and pretty simple to make.

In the recipe, one of the cake layers is crumbled and used for decoration on the sides of the cake. I skipped this step, instead opting to use all 4 layers in the cake. I stuck a couple of skewers into the cake for some support, because I had to transport it later. I coated the outside of the cake with mini chocolate chips. I think this was a good move; the chocolate chips added a nice textural contrast.

Here's grandma with her cake:

She was thrilled, and I'm happy to say that the cake tasted as good as it looked. The meringue frosting kept it from being too heavy and rich. Everyone finished their piece after a huge thanksgiving meal, and a few people commented that it was the best cake they'd ever had.

We also had a pumpkin pie and some chocolate frosted pumpkin bars, but I didn't get a chance to get pictures of those.

Thanksgiving 2008 - the main event

2008-11-29T08:23:00.000-08:00

Our thanksgiving menu doesn't vary much from year to year. That being said, I love to experiment with new recipes, so I try to change up at least one or two of the sides each time. I didn't make all of the food pictured, so I'll fill in details where I can.

My mom's roasted turkey
Flaky dinner rolls - I make these for every holiday

This is a pretty traditional stuffing - cubes of no-knead bread, mushrooms, celery, water chestnuts and fresh herbs.

This dish of sweet potatoes with caramelized apples was one of the new recipes I made. I combined recipes from Ina Garten and Martha Stewart to come up with what I think was an outstanding sweet potato dish. I think this will be on the menu for years to come.

Cranberry sauce with cardamom and vanilla bean - this is another recipe that's become a tradition.

Brussels sprouts with pomegranate and walnuts - I made these a few weeks back, and we liked them so well that they were added to the thanksgiving menu.

Also on the menu but not pictured here - classic gravy, mashed potatoes, peas with pearl onions, berry jello and romaine salad with pears and walnuts.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's dessert recap!

Thanksgiving 2008 - the appetizers

2008-11-28T07:24:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! I've decided to recap my thanksgiving over a couple of posts, because I took quite a few pictures. I didn't make all the dishes pictured, so I'll mostly provide details on the items I brought.

It's a family tradition to have a mexican layered dip on thanksgiving. Start with refried beans spread onto a plate, and add layers of sour cream, guacamole, salsa and shredded cheese. You can garnish any combination of chopped tomatoes, olives and green onions.

Here's a vegetable tray my mom made, it was quite colorful.

I made this white cheddar cheeseball. The recipe is from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, and it couldn't be any easier. It's a block of cream cheese, 8 oz of shredded white cheddar, 2 T butter, 1 T lemon juice, a dash of cayenne, salt and pepper. The cream cheese and butter need to be softened ahead of time. Throw all the ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer and blend. Shape into a ball and roll in chopped herbs or toasted nuts.

Next up - the main event!

Harissa marinated tri tip with roasted vegetables

2008-11-22T07:04:00.000-08:00

Who doesn't love a good one dish meal? This one happens to be relatively healthy too! I started with a trip tip roast, which was about 1 1/2 pounds. You could use a different cut of beef if you prefer. I marinated the tri tip in harissa sauce for about 2 hours. Harissa is a North African red sauce made with peppers and spices. I bought mine, but you could also make your own. The brand I use is pretty mild, so I used a liberal amount, but oftentimes harissa is very spicy, so use your judgement. I lined a half sheet pan with foil for easy clean up and coated it with cooking spray. Next, I took a pint of cherry tomatoes, halved white mushrooms and chunks of orange cauliflower and spread them out on the pan in a single layer. I seasoned the vegetables with olive oil, salt and pepper, then placed the tri tip in the center of the pan.

I seasoned the trip tip with salt and pepper, placed the pan in a 450 degree oven, and kept a close watch on my meat thermometer. I roasted everything until the meat thermometer registered 130 degrees (medium) and the vegetables were tender and browned, about 30 minutes. After the roast rested for a few minutes, I cut it into thin slices and served the vegetables on the side.

This recipe can be adapted in so many ways to fit your tastes. You can pretty much use any combination of vegetables - zucchini, onion wedges, eggplant and peppers would be good. You could also toss in some potatoes or winter squash cut into small cubes (make sure they're small enough to get cooked through in a short period of time). Don't like harissa or can't find it? You can coat the meat in an herb paste, or use your favorite meat marinade.

Sunday night chicken dinner

2008-11-16T20:21:00.000-08:00

As I've mentioned before, on weeknights I don't have a lot of time and energy for cooking, so I do a lot of prep work on the weekends and try to choose weekday meals that aren't too difficult. I tend to cook more complicated and time consuming dishes on Sundays. Today it was a brined roast chicken from the Bouchon cookbook, with a couple of vegetable sides.

I don't use my Bouchon cookbook much, so I decided it was time to put it to use. The roasted chicken recipe is something that you definitely need to plan out ahead of time. The brine is flavored with garlic, rosemary, parsley, peppercorns, bay leaves, honey, lemon and thyme, and is best made a day in advance. The chicken needs to brine for 6 hours prior to cooking. The chicken roasts at 475 degrees, which gives the skin a beautiful mahogany sheen. The nice thing about brining is that it provides extra insurance that you'll end up with a moist bird even if you overcook it a little. In my case, it came out perfectly cooked.

Was it worth the extra effort to brine the chicken? I think so, I'll be doing it again in the future.

I chose two new vegetable recipes to accompany the chicken. First up is sherry vinegar and molasses glazed carrots, from the latest issue of Bon Appetit. If I was making this for a special occasion I would pay the extra money for baby carrots; this was a casual dinner so I went with larger carrots cut into sticks. The carrots are simmered in a mixture of butter, sherry vinegar, molasses and water, and then glazed with more molasses and vinegar and finished with salt, pepper and parsley. The molasses and vinegar added a nice complexity to what would otherwise be a pretty standard glazed carrot recipe. I also added a little fleur de sel at the end for some crunch.

Next up was spinach with garlic confit from the Bouchon cookbook. Garlic confit is made by slowly simmering whole cloves of garlic in canola oil. The dish combines butter, minced shallots, fresh spinach, garlic confit, salt and pepper. It's actually quite simple and quick if you make the garlic confit in advance.

Overall, the meal was a great success. I love it when I try new recipes and everything comes out the way it's supposed to.

On an unrelated note, my friend Mary Rose sent me this great link to Cooks Illustrated's grocery shopping guide. I love that Cooks Illustrated tests out all these ingredients, I don't love that I can't find a lot of the top rated brands in California!

Roasted parsnips and cipollini onions

2008-11-12T21:20:00.000-08:00

I love roasted vegetables - butternut squash, eggplant, cauliflower, fennel, I could eat a different roasted vegetable every day and not get bored. This is an interesting seasonal combination of roasted parsnips and cipollini onions. I started with about half a pound of cipollini onions and a pound of parsnips. When buying parsnips, smaller is better. The larger parsnips tend to have a woody core. Also, I try to pick cipollini onions that are all the same size for even cooking. I peeled the parsnips and cut them into sticks that were about 2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. The cipollini onions were peeled and trimmed. I tossed the parsnips and cipollini onions with a drizzle of olive oil, a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper, and a few springs of fresh rosemary.

I roasted the vegetables at 425 degrees for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they were browned and tender. I finished the dish with a sprinkling of fleur de sel. Roasting really brings out the sweetness in these vegetables, this may be my favorite way to eat parsnips.

Braised lamb shanks with shell bean ragout

2008-11-09T19:07:00.000-08:00

Every September, my local grocery store stocks fresh cranberry beans for about two weeks. This year, I bought a few pounds which I then shelled, blanched and froze. This recipe from Sunday Suppers at Lucques is meant to be made in the summer to take advantage of fresh shell beans, but I froze my beans so that I could enjoy summery recipes even when it's cold outside.

The lamb shanks are marinated in olive oil, lemon zest, rosemary, garlic and thyme overnight. For the braise, the shanks are browned and cooked in a mixture of white wine, chicken stock, fennel, carrot onion and herbs at 325 degrees for about 2 and a half hours. The braising liquid is strained and reduced, and the shanks are toppped with a black olive tapenade. The shanks are served on a shell bean ragout.

For the ragout, I sauteed garlic, onion, shallot and thyme in some olive oil. The cooked beans are tossed in the onion mixture to coat and warm through, then finished with salt, pepper, opal basil and parsley. I used a combination of cooked cranberry beans, lima beans and wax beans. The original recipe called for haricots verts, but I thought the wax beans would make for a more colorful end result.

The final plating is a few scoops of shell bean ragout, topped with a lamb shank and a dollop of tapenade. I loved all the colors and textures of the beans, and the tapenade added a nice saltiness and depth of flavor to the lamb. I'm out of cranberry beans now, so I'll probably have to wait until next year to make this one again. That being said, you could probably get away with frozen lima beans and green beans if you didn't want to wait that long.

An asian inspired dinner

2008-11-04T19:15:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I bought a container of miso for this green bean recipe. At the time, I figured it would take me a while to find enough uses for the tub of miso. In fact, it didn't take long at all, the miso is gone! This recipe for miso and wasabi marinated flank steak was definitely a winner. An added bonus is that it used up some of the wasabi powder that's been languishing in my spice drawer. The recipe is really simple: flank steak marinated in miso paste, wasabi powder, mirin, white wine and rice vinegar. I didn't have mirin, so I used all white wine, and marinated the steak for about 10 hours.

After the steak came out of the marinade, I seasoned it with salt and pepper and cooked it on a grill pan. I sliced the steak thinly against the grain, and served it with steamed brown basmati rice and carrot sesame salad. I've been using this technique for cooking brown rice, and I think it produces a superior end result. The carrot sesame salad is from the Everyday Food cookbook.

Brussels sprouts with pomegranate and walnuts

2008-10-28T19:40:00.001-07:00

This recipe is from Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill cookbook. Now, I can't tell you how many recipes I've seen that claim to convert brussels sprouts haters. This one? If you don't like this recipe, you probably truly hate brussels sprouts. It's pretty simple - take a pound of trimmed and halved brussels sprouts and toss them with a little canola oil, salt and pepper. Roast the sprouts at 375 for about 25 minutes, or until they're browned and tender. After the brussels sprouts come out of the oven, toss them with a little butter, a handful of pomegranate seeds and a sprinkling of chopped toasted walnuts. This dish is healthy, beautiful and easy! The pomegranate makes it very festive. I made these for my family the other night, and we all agreed they'd be on our thanksgiving table this year.

Cured pork chops with romesco and sweet potatoes

2008-10-24T17:06:00.000-07:00

This recipe is from Sunday Suppers at Lucques. This dish is brined pork chops, simply grilled and topped with romesco sauce. I made a large batch of romesco sauce a few weeks back and froze it in smaller portions. This was my first time brining meat - it was really simple and added a lot of flavor and moisture.

In the book, Suzanne Goin suggests serving the pork chops with sweet potatoes tossed with spinach and bacon. The sweet potatoes are peeled, cubed and tossed with a combination of melted brown butter, sage, thyme and brown sugar. The potatoes roast at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. After the potatoes come out of the oven, they're combined with fresh spinach, crispy bacon, salt and pepper. The combination of brown butter and brown sugar created a caramelized, almost crispy coating on the outside of the potatoes. They were some of the best sweet potatoes I've ever made.

This meal will definitely be repeated around here - I think it would be great for a dinner party.

Lamb with pomegranate

2008-10-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

When flipping through the latest issue of Bon Appetit, the beautiful picture of lamb with pomegranate caught my eye. I tore out the recipe because it looked like a good use for the bottle of pomegranate molasses that's been languishing in my fridge. I simplified the recipe a bit by using boneless lamb chunks, I think it saved a lot of time and energy. I served this dish over bulgur wheat instead of the couscous that the recipe calls for. The lamb comes out sweet and tangy from the pomegranate molasses with an exotic flavor from the spice blend. Fresh pomegranate arils and basil add a finishing touch. This was a fun and unique recipe - simple, but still elegant and delicious.

Smoky braised pumpkin with seared onion

2008-10-17T06:21:00.000-07:00

As you've probably noticed by now, I've been doing a lot of braising lately. Instead of being sad about the end of summer produce, I've embraced the best that fall has to offer. This recipe is from Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen cookbook. If you can find a mexican pumpkin, great; if not, use a sugar pie pumpkin like I did. A mixture of roasted tomatillos, chipotle, tomatoes and garlic is poured over the peeled, cubed pumpkin and topped with seared onion. Make sure to use plenty of salt and pepper because the pumpkin will release liquid as it cooks and dilute the salsa mixture. The recipe has an optional step of adding some pork, which I skipped since I was serving this as a side dish.

The sweetness of the pumpkin was a nice contrast to the smoky and spicy tomatillo mixture. That being said, this dish was good, but not amazing considering the lengthy prep and cook time. The pork would have probably added another flavor dimension. I think this would also work with a butternut or kabocha squash.

Penne with sausage, sun dried tomatoes and artichokes

2008-10-09T19:26:00.000-07:00

As much as I love to cook, on weeknights I steer towards recipes that aren't very time consuming. This recipe from Giada's Family Dinners fits the bill. I always have sun dried tomatoes, pasta and frozen artichokes on hand, so this ended up being a cheap dish to make too. I browned up a few links of hot turkey italian sausage in a skillet and added in the sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and some crushed garlic. I deglazed the pan with white wine and chicken stock, but I only used about half of the liquid that the recipe calls for. I used whole wheat penne to up the nutritional value of the meal and added a dash of color with purple basil from my garden. Freshly grated cheese (pecorino romano in my case) adds a bit of creaminess and salt.

This was a delicious pasta dish, and ended up being pretty healthy too with my substitutions of turkey sausage, whole wheat penne and dry packed sun dried tomatoes. I served it with a broccoli recipe from the same book.

Braised radishes

2008-10-05T19:20:00.000-07:00

I happen to really like radishes, especially french breakfast radishes. I had a pound of radishes in the house and wanted to do something a little different, so I turned to my All About Braising cookbook. This recipe for braised radishes is pretty simple. Whole or halved radishes are combined with butter, a little bit of water or chicken stock, a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper. The radishes are spread in a single layer in a covered pot and braised over medium-low heat for about 20 minutes. The pot is uncovered and the liquid left over boils away to create a sweet buttery glaze. I finished the radishes with a sprinkling of maldon sea salt. Cooked radishes lose a lot of their sharp flavor and mellow out to taste almost like a turnip. This is a great side dish - it's unique without being complicated and very attractive too!