Sauteed morels with white asparagus and fava beans

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.

Ingredient spotlight: fava beans

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.

Anniversary dinner

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.

Dinner party

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

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.

Meyer lemon and chocolate tart

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

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.

Braised lamb shanks with shell bean ragout

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.

Cured pork chops with romesco and sweet potatoes

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.

Burrata and heirloom tomato salad

Last weekend, we headed into San Francisco to check out the Slow Food Nation event. We went to the Slow Food marketplace. Then had lunch at Postrio. Later in the day, we picked up dessert at Beard Papa. But the best thing I ate all day? In fact, the best thing I've eaten in recent memory? Was this heirloom tomato and burrata salad from the Sunday Suppers at Lucques cookbook. I am a burrata fan, but it's ridiculously expensive and has a very short shelf life. I've seen it around at various specialty markets, but I never really felt like shelling out the money for it, and I was concerned that it may not be all that fresh.

Most of my burrata experiences have been in Los Angeles restaurants, specifically Pizzeria Mozza and Lucques. Burrata is more prevalent on restaurant menus down south because they have a local supplier. In fact, both Nancy Silverton and Suzanne Goin mention the supplier by name in their cookbooks (Gioia). So when I walked into Bristol Farms in San Francisco and found burrata, made by Gioia, at a price that was substantially less than what I'd seen in the past, I decided to give it a try. It was worth every penny.

This salad is actually pretty simple - fresh tomatoes (from my garden) are tossed in a balsamic, shallot and oregano vinaigrette with sliced shallots. The tomatoes are topped with olive oil croutons and plenty of sliced burrata.

I made this salad a few weeks back with fresh mozzarella instead of burrata. The mozzarella version didn't even hold a candle to this rendition. Fresh, ripe tomatoes are critical to this dish.

So what happened to the rest of the burrata? I used it in another recipe from Sunday Suppers at Lucques for broccoli with burrata and pine nut breadcrumbs. The last bit of cheese went into braised leeks with burrata and mustard breadcrumbs, a recipe from Pizzeria Mozza. I can definitely say that I'll be making another trip to Bristol Farms in the not-too-distant future for more cheese!

Moroccan chicken legs

My grocery store often runs specials on chicken legs, so I'm always on the lookout for recipes that use them. This recipe for moroccan braised chicken legs with saffron onions and date relish is from Sunday Suppers at Lucques. The weather has really started to heat up, so this will probably be my last braised dish for awhile. The chicken legs are marinated in a spice blend overnight and braised with tomatoes, onion and fennel for about two hours. The chicken legs on their own are delicious, but what really makes the dish are the saffron onions and date relish. The onions are caramelized in butter with a little crushed saffron to add color and flavor. I've always loved dates, but I tend to eat them on their own, or in baked goods. This simple relish is a combination of sliced dates, olive oil, cilantro, parsley and lemon juice. The herbs and lemon juice really enchanced the flavor of the dates. I served this dish with fregola sarda that I tossed with a little bit of butter and herbs.

Mother's Day Dinner

This year, instead of going to a restaurant, I cooked dinner for my mom. For the main course, I made hawaiian snapper with an orange sauce. I served it over farro and black rice with pea shoots and green garlic. The recipe is from Sunday Suppers at Lucques. For most of the fish recipes in this book, the fish is seasoned with lemon/orange zest, thyme and parsley for at least 4 hours ahead of time. I think this technique adds a lot of flavor to the fish.

On the side, I served some baby artichokes that I caramelized in a little butter. For dessert, I made a pear and rhubarb cobbler. I used the recipe from Dorie Greenspan's baking cookbook. Her recipe calls for cherries and rhubarb. I originally planned to use cherries, but then we received a gift of pears from Harry and David, so I went with those instead. The biscuit topping is unique because it uses half whole wheat flour for a little bit different flavor and texture. I sprinkled coarse sugar over the top of the cobbler and served it with vanilla ice cream.

Passover 2008

Last night we celebrated Passover with my family. The seder was at my house for the first time. I always love an excuse to use my wedding china and crystal! I couldn't decide what to serve as a main course - I had narrowed it to down turkey ossobucco and braised lamb shanks with lentils. My husband suggested I combine the two dishes and make braised turkey legs with lentils. It came out great.

The table

My mom's matzo ball soup

My mom's charoset

Braised turkey legs with curry and lentils

Baby summer squash with chive vinaigrette and ricotta salata

Steamed leeks with sherry vinaigrette and capers

Meringues with ice cream, chocolate sauce and toasted almonds

Kabocha squash and fennel soup with candied pumpkin seeds

I received Sunday Suppers at Lucques as a holiday present, and this is the first recipe I've made from the book. Kabocha squash and fennel are caramelized in the oven and pureed with toasted ground fennel seeds, onions, fresh thyme, butter, chile de arbol and chicken stock to make a thick soup. This soup has a complex flavor from the sweetness of the squash, earthiness of the fennel and heat of the chile. The recipe says to serve the soup topped with creme fraiche, but I used the sour cream that I already had on hand.


The candied pumpkin seeds are amazing - the seeds are lightly toasted in butter and coated with sugar, paprika, toasted cumin, cayenne, kosher salt and a touch of honey. They have a great balance of sugar, salt and spice.


This is a fun twist on your standard winter squash soup, it will definitely be going into the regular rotation. I am also planning to try the pumpkin seed coating on some walnuts or pecans.