From Food to Dinner

Best of the best

2009-01-04T08:21:00.000-08:00

It happens every new year--all the food magazines comes out with their favorite cookbook list. I was reading over Mark Bittman's "50 cookbooks I can't live without," and realized we only overlapped on one or two books! It seemed almost crazy. I love cookbooks. I taught myself to cook using cookbooks. So I thought the hell with it, I'll write my own.

Let me know if you have favorites not on my list--I've got some gift certificates to barnes and noble burning a hole in my pocket. ;)

-Sara

oh and p.s.---my most used resource? epicurious.com

A close second is the newly minted rouxbe.com, an on-line cooking school with amazing videos.

1. Marcella Cucina and The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (Marcella Hazan)

My best friend in college was Italian, and this is the cookbook she uses when she can't ask her mother. Marcella leads you into the Italian kitchen, imploring you to buy good olive oil and real parmigiano reggiano, and practically stirs the pot as you make risotto. Everything I have ever made from here has been exquisitely italian and just perfect.

2. The New Best Recipe (Cooks Illustrated)

From the masterminds at Cooks Illustrated, each recipe is preceded by a 3 page description of the trials and tribulations the authors went through to make the dish. As a result the recipes are incredibly reliable. It appeals to the scientist in me. The artist in me gets a little pissed---it's hard to improvise when someone is telling you to make it JUST LIKE THIS. I turn to it for big events, like Thanksgiving.

3. Mexican Everyday (Rick Bayless)

You can have your Diane Kennedy, I am a Rick Bayless fan. He manages to condense down Mexican cooking so that it doesn't take days and still tastes amazing. Every recipe I've made has been fresh, easy and impressive...the flavors combine to make something new.

4. The Herbal Kitchen (Jerry Traunfeld)

The recipes are short and sweet, more home cooking than restaurant cooking, but the flavors are so beautifully combined they never miss. Roasted acorn squash with bay leaves and maple syrup is subtle and beautiful, slow cooked salmon with dill is a revelation, and figs with bacon and goat cheese left me speechless. Beautiful photos too. Very inspiring.

5. Perfect Scoop (David Lebovitz)

Ok truth be told I have only made one recipe from here, but it was so amazing this has to go on the list. Chocolate sorbet that tastes richer than any ice cream (heaven for the lactose intolerant). Enough said.

6. Zuni Cafe Cookbook (Judy Rogers)

What pulls me back to this cookbook again and again is the roast chicken. She brines the chicken and then cooks it at high heat and it comes out astoundingly juicy and crispy. Everything you've always wanted in roast chicken. Such a beautiful combination of french cookery with california ideals.

7. The Original Thai Cookbook (Jennifer Brennan)

This is my go to for thai cooking. If you don't believe that making your own chili paste can make a difference...try this cookbook. It puts most thai restaurants to shame.

8. Home Cooking and More Home Cooking (Laurie Colwin)

These are less like cookbooks than they are companions, like an older sister telling you about her ups and downs in the kitchen. The bonus is there are recipes interspliced, and the best of those is don't-let-your-yeast-bread-get-the-boss of you. She uses less yeast, lets it rise over night, bakes it when she wants to. It's a revelation.

9. The Good Food Book (Jane Brody)

This is the cookbook that got me started cooking, back in high school, and even now I am impressed by the reliability of the recipes. It's mostly simple home cooking, but with a healthy bent. She even adapts some of Mollie Katzen's recipes, taking out the bulk of the butter and cream.

10. Best Dessert Book Ever and Book of Great Cookies (Maida Heatter)

Maida Heatter is like the Marcella Hazan for baking. She tells you exactly how to make each recipe (including which chocolate to use) and the desserts turn out perfectly. The mexican chocolate cake with whipped cream frosting might be my favorite cake ever.

11. The Way to Cook (Julia Child)

I will never forget this cookbook because it taught me how to make steak au poivre. And perfect bright-yellow-yolk hard boiled eggs. Beautiful pictures, a primer in french cooking.

12. Culinary Artistry (Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page)

This is the opposite of the New Best Recipe...it's a manual for improvising. The book lays out flavor pairings, literally pages and pages of pairings. Not one recipe, but very helpful when you're standing over your pork loin and trying to decide which spices to use.

Ballard Market Mushrooms and Gnocchi

2008-11-30T21:49:00.000-08:00

Stella and I made it out to the Ballard market this past foggy sunday. The fog was so thick I couldn't see the water from 99. Almost eerie.

The market was lively. Sheela and I wandered around browsing, tasting cheese, wondering why mushrooms would be called "fried chicken" (because they look greasy). Sheela bought some "desirae" potatoes from the potato man. "If you like yukons, you'll love these." I bought huckleberry mushrooms (smaller, a bit yellow) and shallots. Sheela bought "valentina" gruyere from Estrella creamery (named after the cow with the heart on her face). I bought a handful of brussel sprouts.

Then we bought tamales and sat outside the coffee shop watching the kids dance to the trombone player. While we were eating, Sheela spotted the pasta place, an Italian flag hanging outside. They spoke broken english with a thick Italian accent and had a poster with something about Sicily. I bought gnocchi.

I love gnocchi. My roomate in college used to make them on cold November evenings, mixing them with a tomato- mascarpone sauce. They taste of comfort.

Cobe was home staring at complicated financial tables when I got back, the fog still enveloping our front deck. I started chopping and soon we had dinner, very rustic Italian, like what you might find in the countryside.

Make this when you have good mushrooms. And can get your hands on some real gnocchi (or make them yourself).

Gnocchi en brodo con rucola e funghi
(Gnocchi in broth with arugula and mushrooms)
(adapted from Epicurious)

2 T. olive oil
2T. butter
2 large shallots, chopped
1/2 pound mushrooms (wild or cremini), chopped
1.5 cups chicken/turkey broth (homemade or swanson's organic)
1 cup dry white wine
1 T. fresh chopped sage
2 handfuls arugula (can sub baby spinach)
1/2 # gnocchi (enough for 2 people)
salt
fresh ground pepper
parmigiano reggiano for the top
truffle oil

Heat pan over medium-high heat, add butter and olive oil. Heat 1 minute till golden, then add shallots. Saute until translucent, add mushrooms. Increase heat to high, saute 10 minutes until beginning to brown (will need to cook off liquid from mushrooms). Add broth, wine and sage, simmer for 8 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Meanwhile cook the gnocchi (only take about 1-2 minutes, just until they rise to the top). Add gnocchi to the pan, heat through. Add handfuls of arugula and heat through til wilted. Serve with grated reggiano and a few drops of truffle oil.

Home together meatballs trump home alone meatballs

2008-10-21T21:11:00.000-07:00

Last week when Cobe was away I made meatballs. I was very proud of myself and was all set to write a post about home alone meatballs and how when I'm home alone, I take care of myself, I make meatballs.

Not like Cobe who buys avocados and eats dinner standing up.

But you know, they weren't that great. They had all this potential, made with ground pork and adorned with pine nuts and currants. They just came out a bit heavy.

Then this week rolled around and I flipped open my Mexican Everyday cookbook to find "Chipotle Meatballs."

Time for meatball trial #2.

I dashed home at 6:15 for a 6:30 dinner and was throwing bacon in the food processor when Cobe walked in the door. I had these on the table in one hour. No joke.

And they are perfect, soft and yet meaty, subtly flavored with mint, and swimming in a beefy smokey chipotle sauce. They go well with mashed sweet potatoes and watercress salad, or at least that's what I served them with and they tasted mighty fine.

Rick Bayless, you are my main man.

.............

Chipotle Meatballs
(adapted from Rick Bayless, Mexican Everyday)

for the meatballs:
3 slices bacon, diced
1 garlic clove, peeled
2 large eggs
3/4 cup bread crumbs (use that old stale bread, toast it if it's not completely stale, then throw it in the blender)
1 1/4 # ground pork
1/2 cup chopped mint
1 teaspoon salt

for the sauce:
28 oz can fire roasted tomatoes
2 canned chipotle chiles en adobo with 2 T. sauce
1 tsp dried oregano
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups beef broth.

Preheat oven to 450. Combine bacon and 1 garlic clove in food processor, pulse a few times till finely chopped. Add eggs, bread crumbs and 1 teaspoon salt, pulse another few times, then add pork and mint. Pulse a few more times til well combined but not all pastey.

Wet your hands and form the meat into little balls. Place in a greased 9x12 inch baking pan and bake 15 minutes, turning once. Will be lightly browned.

While those are baking, clean out food processor, and put tomatoes, chipotles and sauce, oregano, 2 cloves garlic and 1/2 teaspoon salt and process till smooth.

When meatballs are ready, blot up excess fat (or pour off if a lot). Then pour sauce over meatballs. Cook another 15-20 minutes. Then add beef broth (heated up before adding so it doesn't cool everything down) and swirl around.

Mashed sweet potatoes

4 sweet potatoes
3 tablespoons butter
1/2-1 cup 2% milk
1 teaspoon honey
salt and pepper

Peel sweet potatoes and cut into reasonable pieces (~2 inches each). Cook in boiling salted water until soft, ~10-15 minutes (should be able to mash easily with a fork). Drain. Place in big bowl. Add butter and mash. Heat up milk in microwave, then add a little bit at a time until right consistency. Taste. Add more butter if needs a little creaminess. Add honey if needs a little sweetness (usually it does). Add salt and pepper to taste.

p.s. you can mash these with one of those stick blenders and it comes out yummy but don't ever ever put them in the food processor or you get paste.

It rained today

2008-10-03T18:53:00.001-07:00

He say ceviche

2008-08-19T11:21:00.001-07:00

The longer we're together, the more Cobe drifts toward foodie-ness.

We spent this past blisteringly-hot Saturday wandering in and out of the pool, Pacifico in hand. The idea of cooking seemed unbearable. At about 4 Cobe started flipping through cookbooks.

"How about ceviche?"

I handed him "Mexican Everyday" and in an hour he was hard at work, chopping cilantro and jalapenos. I meanwhile, worked on my tan. It was a nice change.

The ceviche turned out perfectly, enough heat from the serranos and jalapenos, a bit of bite from the lime, and the brightness of the cilantro. It could have used a bit of onion but Cobe is so anti-raw onion he usually leaves them out. The avocados were a good texture contrast too, creamy and fresh.

Make sure you have enough time for it to marinate as the longer it sits the more "cooked" it will taste. We found it needed at least 2 hours. The recipe said to wrap it in lettuce leaves, but we were unimpressed. French bread toasted to a crisp was much better.

Ceviche
(adapted from Rick Bayless, Mexican Everyday)

1 cup lime juice (fresh squeezed)
2 garlic cloves
1 cup cilantro
3 serranos
1 red pepper, cut into medium dice
1 small tomato, cut into medium dice
salt
1 # sashimi grade boneless skinless fish, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 avocado cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 loaf french bread cut into thin slices and toasted at 300 degrees until browned and crispy through

Put lime juice, garlic, cilantro, chiles and 1 tsp salt into food processor, blend till smooth. Pour over fish in a bowl. Let "cook" in fridge 1-4 hours, depending on your taste. When done, pour off half marinade. Add avocado, tomato and red pepper. Scoop up with crispy toasts.

Chocolate Sorbet

2008-07-27T17:57:00.000-07:00

I picked up an ice cream maker at a garage sale last week. A strange purchase for someone recently discovered to be lactose intolerant, but I wanted it.

You know. The way I wanted that easy-bake oven when I was little (which I never got, by the way).

And there's always sorbet.

I broke it in with some watermelon sorbet, but the texture was wrong, too icey. I even added a bit of alcohol (Pernod) which I'd read could help the texture, but no dice.

So for my second attempt I thought I'd go with something more sure. I made smittenkitchen's chocolate sorbet (which is really from "A Perfect Scoop").

With such lineage, how could I go wrong? And I happened to have on hand exactly the perfect amount of superamazing Droste cocoa and Guittard chocolate chips.

It was fate.

I must say I was unprepared for how good this would turn out. It has no dairy. It's just cocoa, sugar, vanilla, chocolate and water. But when hot it tastes like the best hot chocolate you've ever had, like chocolate puro in latin america. When cold it is frozen mousse. Or gelato. I licked the pan clean while pouring it in the ice cream maker.

Make it. You won't be sorry.

Recipe here

Zucchini Carpaccio

2008-07-25T15:50:00.001-07:00

I never used to like zucchini. Not surprising, given that my only experience of zucchini as a child was those overcooked seedy rounds. Marcella Hazan turned me onto the beauty of zucchini. You cut it lengthwise, cook it till just done, and pair it with parmesan, or mix it in with risotto.

It was a revelation. Zucchini has a beautiful flavor, almost floral.

But I still find it a challenge.

I grilled some the other day, and it just wasn't right, too vegetal. It tasted like green.

So last night I was searching for new zucchini options (we are deep into zucchini season, and the market was flooded) when I happened upon zucchini carpaccio.

This is so beautiful, so simple. You have to try it. In reality, the flavors are mostly non-zucchini...it is a showcase for beautiful olive oil, good grey salt, some basil and the best parmesan. But it still speaks a zucchini language, underneath. It whispers zucchini, as only a true italian can.

Zucchini Carpaccio
(adapted from Gourmet 2003)

1 zucchini, very fresh
glug of olive oil, about 2 T.
1/2 lemon
sprinkle of grey salt or fleur de sel
sprinkle of fresh ground black pepper
parmigiano reggiano
fresh basil or mint
pine nuts (if desired)

Only make this if you have beautiful zucchini. And by all means use really good extra virgin olive oil (so good that you'd eat it alone on toast). My favorite is Frantoia (which you can get at Big John's PFI) The best cheese too....reggiano is my favorite, but anything hard and sharp would work. Grana padano would be good too. It has to be fresh basil (or mint, something light). And definitely fresh lemon juice.

Cut the zucchini on a mandoline at a slight angle as thin as you can. Mandolines are a life-saver---invest in one. There are cheap japanese ones that will run you $30.

Lay the slices out on a plate. Sprinkle with the olive oil, trying to coat each piece. Now sprinkle with grey salt. Then squeeze the half lemon over the top, again trying to coat all. Sprinkle on fresh ground black pepper. Chiffonade the basil.

Like this:

Stack up the leaves.

Roll them up like a cigar.

Cut them thinly.

Sprinkle the basil on top of it all.

Zest some of the lemon (or use a rasp) and sprinkle on top. This adds a different flavor than the juice, more floral.

Lastly, cut shreds of the cheese with a vegetable peeler (makes them nice and thick) and scatter over the top.

Let sit maybe 10 minutes, then eat.

It's only canning

2008-07-20T18:22:00.000-07:00

I'm going through those phobias one by one, like smitten kitchen talked about on her blog. Last week jam, this week canning.

I decided to make more jam, because I brought the cherry plum jam to a party and it all got eaten. This time I went for peach, as I had some softish peaches and apricots rolling around in my fridge. I added a little amaretto and some sugar and cooked them down.

It melded beautifully, the amaretto and peach. It added an adult edge to the jam without dampening the soft peachy flavor.

Here are the key things I've learned about canning:

1. Use clean (or new) jars
2. Use new lids each time
3. Add whatever you're canning after you've boiled it to minimize bacteria
4. Place jars on something to keep them slightly above the bottom of the pan
5. Fill with water 1/2- 2/3 up the side of the jar
6. Simmer for 10 minutes with lid on

I did all this (used a strainer to keep it off the bottom) and it worked great, that bubble pop top went down like magic. And now I am the proud owner of one can of jam.

(Likely if you were going to can more than one jar you might need some fancy apparatus)

Peach, apricot and amaretto jam
Makes 1-2 small jars

3 big peaches, very ripe
2-3 apricots
1/2 cup sugar
pinch salt
splash amaretto

Peel peaches, leave peel on apricots. Cut and put in pan. I left the pits in there and pulled them out later. Put in sugar, salt, and amaretto, cook x 15 minutes on low heat until sugar dissolves. Turn heat up to medium, simmer until thickened. Pull out pits. Taste and adjust sugar/amaretto/salt. Pour into jars while still hot. Can as described above (or eat right away, or freeze).

So easy to play with this. Use whatever fruit you have leftover, add whatever flavorings sound good to you (liqueurs, spices, lemon/lime zest). Cook til done!

Just a little jam

2008-07-16T09:50:00.001-07:00

Jam is one of those things that intimidates me. Or that used to, until last week.

Don't get me wrong, I grew up in a jam making family. My grandmother had jars and jars of jam in her basement, all carefully sealed with a layer of wax. My mother only made strawberry freezer jam, but we always had a container of that in our freezer.

But for me jam was always a BIG DEAL. You had to go and buy the pectin and canning jars, pick a flat of strawberries, and then spend your whole Saturday over the stove with a bag of sugar.

This is just not true at all. Jam is a way to use up leftover fruit. Throw in those plums that got all mushy, those cherries that weren't quite sweet enough, cook down the whole shebang with a bit of sugar and you have jam. It's that easy.

No need for pectin either. Fruit has its own pectin. If you cook it long enough, the jam will just gel, like cranberry sauce does.

Canning is nice, of course. But you could also just freeze whatever you're not going to eat right away. Or you could make it in small batches, whatever you happen to have.

So liberating! Oh and from what I hear, you don't need any fancy gizmo to can either, just the mason jars and some steam. That's for next time.

Cherry Plum Cinnamon Jam
(adapted from Bon Appetit)

NOTE: this makes a very small amount, like 1 cup. If you want more increase the fruit, but you likely don't have to increase the sugar too much. I like the idea of just making enough jam for me.

4 plums
1 # cherries
1/2 vanilla bean
1/2 cinnamon stick
1/2 cup-1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh lemon

Cut plums into quarters, throw into pan (including pit). I threw in the cherries whole and pitted them after I'd cooked it down. You could pit them before you put them in, but I hear rumors that the cherry pits add a lot of flavor (almond like). Messy before or messy after--your choice.
Then put in vanilla bean and cinnamon stick (if using) and sugar. I made this with a cup of sugar which was too much really, but I haven't tried it with less so I couldn't swear to that. Add salt.

Cook over low heat for 15 minutes until the fruit releases its juices and sugar dissolves. Then turn up to medium and cook about 30 minutes until it thickens. Wash hands well and dig out all the pits (I told you, messy after). The plum pits are easy to find as the plums just dissolve, the cherry pits are harder. If too sweet, add some lemon for contrast.

Enjoy! Freeze the leftovers or try your hand at canning.

To a Tea

2008-05-30T15:39:00.001-07:00

Cobe left for China yesterday and as he was leaving he was talking about buying more tea.

I am already excited.

I love tea. I even gave up coffee for several years and just drank tea.

Not currently. Coffee is like crack in Seattle, it's so good.

Anyway.

The last time Cobe went to China he brought the most amazing teas. They are worlds above our teas. Pure leaves most of them, and not the dry and crackly kind, but soft and pliant. They make tea with no bitterness, just a haunting aroma and a soft smokiness.

My favorite is the jasmine. It comes in these little balls, "jasmine pearls" that slowly uncurl to become leaves at the bottom of your cup. You don't need to strain them, it never gets bitter. And it never gets that gritty sensation of regular tea.

There also are a multitude of larger balls that open into flowers. The best ones are all gone. We watched them in awe on the day of his return as they slowly opened and then sent forth a several inch long yellow tendril like some alien life form. It felt odd to drink it.

Hopefully he will bring back more.

We did still have some chyrsanthemums, which are delicate and impressive.

But I want more alien teas. Keep your fingers crossed.

Red wine reborn

2008-05-27T11:14:00.000-07:00

I love to drink wine. But sometimes Jacobe is not so enthusiastic. Despite my best efforts, we still end up with 4 or 5 half drunk bottles of wine cluttering our countertop. I've tried everything---the vacuvin, pouring them into half bottles, keeping them in the fridge. Nothing seems to keep them longer than a few days.

And then I discovered vin cotto.

Vin cotto literally means "cooked wine" in Italian. It's traditionally made with grape juice rather than wine, cooked down to make a sweet syrup. When you use wine you have to add a little sweetner, but the results are equally spectacular. It makes this rich flavorful syrup that tastes like a very mild balsamic. It's great as an instant sauce for meats, or as the heart of a soft and silky salad dressing.

Tastes like magic.

Vin Cotto

Several half empty bottles of red wine.
Honey to taste

Pour wine in a pan over high heat. Bring to boil, then turn down heat to medium low. Reduce 75%. Add honey to taste. That's it! Will last about a month.

You can play with this too, adding flavorings while cooking it down (cloves, orange zest, black pepper, raisins). I added raisins to mine, a nice flavor. Of course then you have strain it.

The sum of its parts

2008-05-21T06:31:00.000-07:00

My favorite recipes are those that feel like magic.

A few onions, roasted peppers and beef broth go into the pot. You simmer for a while and then...poof! Rich beautiful flavor.

This recipe is like that. And believe me Rick Bayless has gone way up in my book.

But sadly this is a meal I ate alone.

I had big plans when I decided to make this. I've been a lazy cook lately, so last tuesday I decided I would cook after our 6:30 puppy class. I bought all the stuff, pork loin, poblanos, tomatoes. The class schedule said 1.5-2 hours.

"They just say that to scare you," Cobe said. "I'm sure it'll be like 45 minutes."

Two and a half hours later we were finally walking back to our car glassy-eyed. Cobe was like a hungry animal, his sentences short. At that point there is no cooking, just Subway.

But I had that pork loin. And I can't bear to waste food.

I decided to cook it up, even if it was like 10 pm. And lo and behold it was magic. The spiciness of the roasted peppers with the sweetness of the onions and tomatoes and the rich meatiness of the pork loin. It washed over you with each bite.

Did I mention it took like 45 minutes? And that is not just what I wrote on the schedule.

Pork Tenderloin ala Mexicana
(adapted from Rick Bayless, Mexican Everyday)

2 poblano chiles
2 jalapeno chiles
1.25 lbs pork tenderloin
2 T olive oil
vidalia sweet onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
28 oz can whole tomatoes, drained
3/4 c beef broth
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Turn on broiler, place rack as close as possible, and roast poblanos and jalapenos. Turn every few minutes. They should be black on the outside (like completely). Put in paper bag to steam and forget about them for a bit.

Wash and dry tenderloin. Salt generously. Heat oil in pan over medium heat, brown pork on all sides. Remove from pan. Add onions and saute until brown and wilted (4-5 minutes). In the meantime, pull skin off chiles (should come off easily) and remove seeds. Cut into 1/4" strips. Add chile and garlic to onions and stir x 30 seconds. Then add tomatoes, crush with spoon. Add broth. Bring to boil and cook until slightly thickened (5 minutes). Add whole pork loin back with chopped cilantro. Turn heat down to medium, cover and cook until pork is just cooked. I usually go for 140 degrees which is just a tad rosy because I can't stand tough pork, but you maybe should cut it and see what you like.

When cooked, take out of pan and slice into 1/4-1/2" slices. Sprinkle with more cilantro. Serve with rice or tortillas.

Enjoy!

The mystery of orange cheddar

2008-05-17T09:33:00.001-07:00

Sheela had another question (she is a scientist after all, she has a lot of questions). She wanted to know why cheddar cheese is orange.

Cheddar is a mysterious thing. Made with a "cheddaring" process where the whey is stacked in blocks (a process that originated in Cheddar, England), in its natural state it's creamy white. But a lot of the stuff in the grocery store is dyed bright orange.

So why dye? I'll lay out the facts:

1. Cheddar made in England is always white and is never dyed.
2. BUT... other cheeses in England are dyed orange. Double gloucester, red leicester. They've been dying them for centuries. They used to dye them with carrot juice or saffron, now they use a natural dye called annatto. There's even a french cheese that's dyed orange (mimolette).

Maybe cheddar was originally dyed because american producers confused cheddar and double gloucester, and thought dying it would make it appear more english.

Or maybe they just thought it looked better. It is odd though. We don't dye jack or mozzarella and they're white as can be.

In any case, it must sell because there's a hell of a lot of it. The good news is that the dye won't hurt you, annatto comes from the achiote tree in South America.

Even in Velveeta! (look on the label---annatto)

Two buck chuck

2008-05-12T16:46:00.000-07:00

Ah, two buck chuck. Everyone who is anyone has tried it. But the question, posed by Sheela's boyfriend Robbie, is "why is it so damn cheap?"

Robbie had heard the rumor that an unhappy divorce had forced poor Charlie Shaw to turn over all his profits to his wife, so he dropped the price to spite her.

A little scoping on the internet revealed other rumors, that after 911 airplanes couldn't use corkscrews and thus dumped a ton of wine onto the market, or that United was the source of the wine, trying to boost their sales with some wine bucks.

The reality? It's owned by Bronco, a big company. They buy cheap grapes in central california and package it in Napa and so get to write Napa on the label. How they make it taste good is a bigger mystery. Probably filtering, blending, and wood chips.

For the record, it did used to be owned by Charles Shaw, and he was divorced. But he has no piece in it anymore. Bronco is owned by Franzia.

FRANZIA.

So the real answer? Box wine baby.

Ham and peas, if you please

2008-05-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

The weather has been frustrating in Seattle of late. One minute the sun is out, the birds are singing and I think, "finally! Summer." Then 2 hours later the clouds appear and the temperature drops 20 degrees.

It's like a tease.

I've stopped hoping for summer. Instead I've retreated to comfort food. The other night I was rummaging around in the fridge and remembered the coppa I had bought at da Pino and all of a sudden knew the perfect meal: pasta with ham, onions, cream and peas.

My roomate in college (Martina) was italian and used to make this when we had leftover ham. All pasta is comfort food in my world, but this was the ultimate. Creamy and rich with pork flavor from the ham, but with the punch of peas to accent it. Luckily it's also easy and fast (like 20 minutes, no lie).

Just one note....don't be tempted to use cheap ham. Most of the flavor in this dish comes from the ham. Make this when you have leftover ham from easter, not when you're trying to use up that stuff from the deli. You could, of course, always use prosciutto. ;)

Pasta with Ham, Cream and Peas
(adapted from Epicuruios 2002)
makes 2 hungry-man-size servings

4 ounces ham, cut into slivers (~1inch x 1/4 inch)
1/2 bag frozen peas
1 sweet onion, fine dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 bag pasta (something meaty, like penne or orecchiette)
1/2 cup half and half
2 Tbls butter
1 tsp olive oil
salt
pepper
parmigiano reggiano

Place pot of water on stove, add good amount of salt (like a tablespoon). When boiling, add in pasta. Cook until al dente (depends on your pasta).

In the meantime, melt butter in a medium size saute pan over medium high heat and add olive oil. When hot, add in chopped onion. Saute until translucent and soft. Then add garlic, saute ~30 seconds more. Add frozen peas and 2 tbs of water. Cook a few minutes. Add ham. Cook a few minutes. Add half and half and cook ~5 minutes until it all comes together. Season with salt and pepper. Mix with pasta and top with grated reggiano.

From France with Love

2008-05-02T16:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry to have been away so long. I was in France with my dad. Have you been to France? You should go. It’s beautiful. They love food.

The first meal we ate, I knew things were different. We were in a little restaurant in a small town, but the salad I ordered came with perfectly poached eggs, a handmade vinaigrette and thick pieces of beautiful ham. All through France we had the same experience…the bar was higher. There was no watery meat, no wonder bread, no gas station hot dogs. People wouldn’t stand for poor quality food.

But the longer we were there, the more I felt something different, something even more profound. The food was largely the same from town to town, restaurant to restaurant. Perhaps one would have slightly better bread, slightly more involved appetizers. But in general they were serving French food to French people. There was so much less variety than you would find in the US, even in a small town.

And really, to be frank, I wasn’t as wowed by the food as I expected to be. There was some wonderful duck, some delicious cheeses, a wide variety of cured meats. The wine was phenomenal. But the meat was sometimes tough, the sauces the standard fare. It was rarely exciting. To be fair, we were in small towns, places not usually known for encouraging creativity.

Luckily we had decided when we planned this trip that we wanted to cook. This was a father-daughter trip to explore the wines of burgundy, and to really explore wine you need to drink it with food, and to do that you need to cook. So we rented a villa in a small town in southern burgundy. It was remote and rustic, even more beautiful than we expected. And the kitchen was perfectly appointed.

Each day we would get up late, eat long slow lunches in cafes, taste wine in the afternoon, and then come home and cook dinner.

It gave us an excuse to wander the farmers’ markets and gape at the roosters. We bought white asparagus and fresh eggs “plein aire.” We went to the supermarche in Nolay, a pathetic little store that still managed to have reasonable vegetables, a large meat counter, and a whole section of foie gras.

And we cooked.

The first night I tried to make oeufs en meurette (eggs poached in red wine), but failed miserably. I made the sauce, poached the eggs in it and boiled it down, but sadly my poaching technique was not stellar and I ended up with strands of egg. After some straining and adding more wine it was edible, but barely. I didn't take a picture. I'll let you imagine it.

The next night I gave in and made something easy, an onion omelette. But this was no ordinary omelette. The eggs from the farmers' market were wonderful, with dark yellow yolks. And the onions had this sweetness that I have never found in the US. With some comte cheese and an impressive bottle of premier cru chassagne-monrachet, it was a wonderful meal. I also cooked up some of the white asparagus, not realizing that the outer skin is so tough you need to peel them completely. The flavor was wonderful, but we could have chewed them forever.

Next I tackled boeuf bourguignonne. We found a boucherie to buy the meat, but were perplexed by the cuts. There was no “chuck” or “rump.” When we asked for meat to use in boeuf bourguinonne, the bucher pointed to first his leg then his shoulder, holding up the appropriate cuts. Leg is like rump? I went with the leg. The stew turned out wonderfully, but even after 3 hours the meat was still somewhat tough. Perhaps I should have used shoulder. Or maybe I am spoiled by lazy corn-fed cows. I did discover that in france they have prepackaged pre-cut lardons.

My father’s favorite meal (or perhaps he was just placating me) was a salad
made of leftovers that we dubbed “salade beaunoise.” Endive, hardboiled egg, lardons fried crispy, browned garlic, morbier and my standard vinaigrette. I’ll give you that recipe, since it so perfectly reflected our week in burgundy: good meat, good cheese and above all good wine. I recommend drinking some Meursault with it, if you can find a bottle. Or at least a nice Chablis.

Salade Beaunoise

2 endive
100 g pre-cut smoked lardons OR 3-4 slices thick cut bacon cut into thin one inch strips
3 cloves fresh garlic (not dried) if you can find it, can substute dried, sliced thinly
2 eggs
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
good French mustard (I recommend Maille a la ancienne)
honey
morbier cheese (or other good cheese, a little sharpness is nice, blue would be fabulous)

First hard boil the eggs. My favorite method is to put the eggs in cold water so that there is 1 inch of water above them (the depth is important as it changes how long it takes to boil the water). Then bring the water to boil. Immediately take off the heat, let sit in the hot water for 9-10 minutes (10 for very firm, 9 for a little softer). Then place in a cold water bath.

Saute bacon pieces in a medium hot pan with a small amount of oil until brown (5 minutes or so). Remove from pan and place on paper towels. Saute garlic in same pan.

Wash and dry the endive, cut into 2 inch pieces.

Make a dressing using the olive oil and vinegar. I usually guesstimate this, 1/3 vinegar to 2/3 oil (to make a total of ~1/2 cup). Then mix in 1/2 tsp mustard, 1/2 tsp honey, salt and pepper. Whisk or mix with a fork until mixed. The honey should keep it from separating. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Mix endive with dressing in a big bowl so you can get it all in. Divide endive into bowls. Top with garlic, bacon and hard boiled eggs (cut in half). Ladle on extra dressing onto the eggs. Top with pieces of morbier.

Enjoy.

Dinner Salad

2008-04-04T13:29:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I don't remember to take the photo until it's too late. Which is a good sign since it means we couldn't stop eating.

Doesn't it look like it was good?

Back in my bachelorette days I still cooked, but more in a subsistence way. My favorite thing to make was a dinner salad--a green salad topped with some kind of hot meat. And truthfully, it's still really damn good and simple and healthy. I made this one with chicken, but any thing would work.

Here's the general framework:

1. Hot meat (chicken, flank steak, salmon, bacon, sausage)
2. Salad base (mixed greens or my favorite--arugula)
3. Dressing (you could adapt this depending on the other ingredients)
4. Cheese (goat cheese is my favorite, feta, blue cheese, or parmigiano reggiano all also work well)
5. Fresh fruit (this adds a brightness....green apple slice thin, ripe pear, grapefruit, persimmon)
6. Other toppings: fresh herbs, chopped roasted nuts

I'll give you the recipe for the one I made the other night, but I'm telling you. Be creative.

Dinner Salad

2 breasts chicken
spice rub (your choice)
arugula
butter lettuce
olive oil (the good stuff)
balsamic vinegar (even more important that it be the good stuff! Use aged balsamic. You need it for this.)
honey mustard
salt and pepper
feta cheese
fresh grapefruit segments (for directions see here)

Wash greens very well, and spin dry, then dry with paper towels. Put in a salad bowl.

Make dressing, mixing 1/3 vinegar to 2/3 olive oil in a small bowl (really you can eyeball this, you can always keep tasting and add one or the other as needed). Mix in 1 tsp honey mustard, and whisk to blend.

Rub chicken breasts with spice rub. Heat up a pan on the stove and brown a few minutes on each side until golden. Put in low oven (200 degrees) and cook until interior temperature is 160. Cut up into small slices.

Dress salad with dressing and mix to taste (only use as much dressing as you need to just coat the leaves, it's less than you think. Put remaining dressing in small bowl and put in chicken to coat.

Put dressed salad on a plate, top with hot meat that's been coated with the dressing. Top with feta cheese crumbles and surround with grapefruit segments. Salt and pepper to taste.

Falling for the Crock Pot

2008-03-21T09:23:00.001-07:00

It was one of those slow falls. I thought he was kind of cute when I got him. Just this little guy I could set on the counter. And then the other day I was putting some split peas in to make soup and I thought, I love this thing.

The most amazing thing about the crockpot? Eight hours on low heat, I repeat EIGHT and the carrots were not mushy. How is that even possible? It must be something about the magic 160 degrees.

So this is my first stab at soup in the crockpot and it ain't half bad really. Don't be fooled, you may be thinking "split pea, vegetarian!" But this is split pea soup for pork lovers. The overarching flavor is like bacon, smoky and sweet.

Which is of course, why it's good. ;)

Split pea soup for pork lovers
(Adapted from The Gourmet Slow Cooker)

This was made in a 2 qt crockpot (told you he was a little guy) so you might want to double it

1 sweet onion, diced
1 T olive oil
1 carrot, halved then sliced at an angle
1 stalk celery, sliced at an angle
1 cup split peas
1/2 ham hock (smoked)
3-4 cups chicken broth
fresh thyme
salt and pepper

Saute onions with olive oil until browned, add some salt (~1/2 tsp). Place split peas at bottom of crock pot. Cover with onions, carrots, celery and ham hock. Pour broth over, should almost fill the pot. May need slightly more (didn't actually measure this). Add in a few sprigs of fresh thyme. Cook 8-10 hours on low heat. Remove thyme sprig. Take out ham hock and cut into small pieces, put pieces back into soup. Salt and pepper to taste.

Oh and just so you know, the split peas don't totally melt to death when this is done, which is kind of why I like it. Though really it's still the pork.

The Mystery of Burnt Caramel Sauce

2008-03-13T21:44:00.000-07:00

At the last blogger dinner we had a gift exchange and I ended up with this jar of beautiful burnt caramel sauce. Of course that was 2 months ago. It's taken me that long to figure out what to do with it.

Part of the problem was my newly developed lactose intolerance. The easiest pairing is vanilla ice cream and I just didn't want to go there.

So last night I tried it out on some roasted pears and damn if it isn't like absolutely perfect. You roast the pears with vanilla and sweet dessert wine (or white wine with honey added) and then top them with the warmed burnt caramel sauce. The caramel adds this creamy sweetness but the pear keeps it light, like a perfect pear tart. You could go whole hog and top it with ice cream as well, but as I said before...dairy doesn't like me.

Incidentally, this stuff is far from lactose free. It's just not quite so tough on my stomach as ice cream.

Oh and my second use for this stuff? (this is for you Jay). Open faced peanut butter sandwiches with warm burnt caramel swirls. Fantastic.

I'm still trying to figure out a possible savory use for it, maybe involving some virginia ham. Or bacon. I'll let you know how it goes.

Roasted Pears with Vanilla
(adapted from A New Way to Cook, by Sally Schneider)

Okay just to let you know right off....Sally's recipe is a little fussy partly because she's trying to make sure you end up with a nice sauce. Since you have your own sauce (ta da! burnt caramel) you can actually afford to skip the fussiness a little. But I'll give you the whole thing anyway.

4 pears (1.5#)
1/2 vanilla bean
3/4 cup sweet dessert wine (or white wine such as riesling with 1/2 tsp honey)
butter
1.5 T . sugar
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 375. Peel pears, cut in half and core. Butter a pan you can use on the stove and in the oven. Place pears cut side down in pan. Pour 1/2 cup of wine over pears. Split vanilla bean in half lengthwise and add seeds to wine. Put rest of bean in among the pears. Dot pears with butter. Sprinkle with a little saltBring to a boil over moderate heat. Put in oven and cover loosely with foil. Cook x35 minutes (brushing pears occasionally). Turn over, cook 15 minutes more (still covered). Pull out pan, add additional 1/4 cup wine, and cook down liquids until thick and syrupy (you might want to pull out the pears while you do this). Turn pears one last time. Sprinkle with sugar. Put back in oven 10 minutes or so until nicely browned. Add more wine if needed to dissolve the caramel in the pan and make a nice sauce.

Now heat up burnt caramel sauce in microwave or double boiler and pour over the top. Serve with ice cream if you're a glutton or just happen to be lucky enough to have lactase sitting around.

Crock Pot Chronicles, Part III

2008-03-13T20:26:00.001-07:00

Okay this is much closer. Maybe even a rousing success. I finally sucked it up and bought a cookbook, "Slow cooker gourmet." And discovered the issue:

Always cook on low heat.

This changes everything. I was worried that cooking on low heat would be dangerous, all that "incubating bacteria" riff raff you read about in the textbooks. But not so. Bacterial risk is for <140 degrees (and probably much much less than 140 degrees). Low heat on a crock pot (at least on my itty bitty crock pot) is 160. Can't guarantee that it's steady. But it's better than boiling the heck out of everything which is what high heat does.

Anyway. I decided on pork spareribs with prunes. I know. I can hear the skeptics. But prunes are so misunderstood. They're amazingly sweet and when cooked they fall apart like overripe fruit. Pork thrives on that sweetness.

It came out wonderfully, better than I'd imagined even. The spareribs were fall apart tender and the sauce was rich with pork flavor but deepened by the prunes and onions.

The main key to this whole crock pot experiment is to accept two facts:

1. everything is better if you brown it first
2. expect to adjust the sauce after the long cooking

And that's it! I also think it might be a tad better if your crock pot didn't hold like a quart. Just might have to make a new purchase. Twist my arm.

Pork Sparerips with Prunes
(adapted from The Gourmet Slow Cooker)
1.5# pork spareribs or pork shoulder
1 Tbs peanut or vegetable oil
2 med sweet onions
3 cloves garlic
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup riesling
1 cup prunes (pitted)
thyme sprig
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper

Sprinkle spareribs with salt and pepper, then brown on all sides (5-10 minutes). Place sliced onions in pan, saute x 5 minutes or so, until wilted. Add garlic, saute a few minutes more. Remove from pan. Add chicken broth to pan with 1/2 cup riesling, cook down until reduced by half, scraping bottom of pan. Put ribs, onions, garlic in crock pot (try to have ribs on the bottom, not sticking out). Pour over liquids. Nestle prunes in between ribs. Put in thyme and bay leaves. Cook 8-10 hours on low heat (her recipe said 6-8, mine was barely done at 8, might depend on your cooker). Then take out pork and set aside. Put pan juices, including onions garlic and prunes into a pan. Add 1/2 cup riesling. Cook down until thickened, squishing the prunes to add their flavor. Add back pork and cook 5 minutes for flavors to marry. Serve.

Post modern chili

2008-03-11T15:57:00.000-07:00

Cobe and I made a big decision 2 weeks ago--we got Stella (see above). Since then we have been plunged into a whole new world. A world of chew toys and wee wee pads. We've also lost all hope of real sleep as she needs to pee every 3 hours.

Needless to say, cooking went by the wayside. We had a few rotisserie chickens, some takeout vietnamese. Finally I marshaled my resources and started digging through recipes.

I came up with chili. But not just any chili, real mexican chili. Ground anchos and chilpotle, some fresh cilantro. Post modern chili.

It came out even better than I expected. Earthy and spicy, but somehow still light and fresh. Definitely serve it with some cornbread (I cheated and made a mix, throwing in some canned corn for texture). The corn and beans go perfectly together. You can top it with a little sour cream, but really it doesn't even need it. And it makes fabulous leftovers.

Post Modern Chili
(adapted from Last Night's Dinner)

1 red onion
2 Tbs olive oil
3 cloves garlic (whole)
1# ground beef
2 ancho chiles (dried, also called morita)
2 chipotle chiles (dried)
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp ground cumin
2 cans black beans
1 small can roasted green chiles
1 tsp muscovado sugar (or brown sugar)
28 oz can tomatoes
1 Tbs tomato paste
12 oz beer (I used deschutes buzzsaw brown)
salt and pepper to taste
Toppings: minced cilantro, sliced green onions, sliced black olives, sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, squeeze of lime (mix and match to taste)

Chop red onion and saute with olive oil and a little salt over medium high until soft (a few minutes). Smash garlic cloves with flat side of knife, saute a few seconds until fragrant. Add ground beef and cook until brown. Pour off excess oil. Deseed and stem ancho and chipotle peppers, then grind in coffee grinder until fine. You can use store bought chili powder, but it's really not the same. It's worth searching out the peppers. If using whole cumin, grind that too. Put the ground peppers, oregano and cumin in with the onion/garlic/beef mixture and saute a few minutes. Then add tomatoes (drained and chopped), tomato paste, whole beer and green chiles. Add pinch of salt and pepper. Cook x 30 minutes covered. Drain black beans, add to pot. Cook another 30 minutes. Taste and correct flavorings, likely will need a tsp of sugar (I used muscovado which is like amazing brown sugar). Add salt and pepper. Serve with toppings as above. Really great with corn bread.

Rescue browning

2008-02-26T21:40:00.000-08:00

Cooking is a crap shoot. You think something will work and it just doesn't.

"I'll throw it in the oven," you say, "it'll get a nice crisp crust."

But no. Sadly that crust requires a bit more planning. We've all been there. It's done, or almost done, but it's just not BROWN.

What to do? Jack up the broiler?

Always an option, but there's the risk of overcooking.

I discovered a few months ago that you have the option of browning on the stove AFTER you've cooked in the oven. In fact, it almost works better. Anything hot and covered in grease is made to brown.

I was making salmon when I made the discovery. This wonderful recipe from Jerry Traunfeld where you slow cook it for half an hour at 250. It comes out amazing. The texture of sushi, but cooked.

Unless you're my father-in-law. He couldn't deal with the texture. No problem, I thought. I'll brown it on the stove.

And unlike many of my cooking experiments, it worked perfectly. It browned like a champ, maybe better than if I'd tried to brown it first. Cold salmon sticks to the pan, this searing hot salmon almost bounced off. Developed a perfect crust in minutes.

The other night I was cooking for myself and I ran into the same problem. This time with pork loin.

I had plopped it in a pan at 400 degrees thinking it would just brown on its own at that temp, but after 30 minutes it was far from brown. It was about 130 degrees at that point (just shy of the beautiful 140 degrees that renders pork edible) so I pulled it from the oven and plopped it in a hot skillet, scraping off as much of the garlic and ginger as I could so they wouldn't burn.

A few minutes on each side and I had a nice golden crust. Then I pulled it out of the pan, splashed in some red wine, put back in the garlic and ginger and cooked that down a bit till I had a nice sauce. Poured it over the pork loin.

Amazing. Can't even describe. As luck would have it, this would happen on a night Cobe was away so I had no one to congratulate me.

But I thought I should tell you about it. Because in cooking as in life, you're going to make mistakes. You just have to know how to fix them.

Pork loin with soy sauce and ginger

1 pork loin (~1.5 lbs)
peanut oil (~2/3 cup)
soy sauce (~2tbs)
rice vinegar (~1 tsp)
sesame oil (a few drops)
honey (~1tsp)
ginger (~1 T)
garlic (~1 T)
black pepper
green onions (2-3) sliced
red wine (a splash)

Okay a warning, I did not measure (thus, the parentheses, which you should read as guesses).
So why should you measure? Mix it all together. Taste it. See what it needs. More vinegar? More soy?

Into medium size bowl pour some peanut oil until it more than covers the bottom (~1/4 cup). Then pour in some soy sauce until it seems about 2/3 as much as the oil. Next rice vinegar, a smaller amount (~1tsp). Then a blob of honey also ~1 tsp. A few drops of dark sesame oil. Around 1 Tbs each of minced ginger and garlic. A few grinds of black pepper. Taste the marinade and see if it needs something for balance. Experiment. You'll get the hang of it.

Put the pork loin in the marinade and let sit ~30-60 minutes. Prehead oven to 400 degrees. Put pork loin in 9x9 pan lined with foil and cook ~20-30 minutes or until thermometer reads 130 degrees.

Heat up cast iron skillet over medium heat. Put in small amount of peanut oil and drop in pork loin (after scraping off as much marinade as possible). Brown a few minutes on a side until golden. Ensure pork loin has now come up to 140 degrees.

Place on platter. Pour drippings from 9x9 pan into skillet and add a splash of red wine (1/4-1/2 cup). Cook down until slightly thick and good tasting. Pour over pork. Sprinkle with sliced green onions. Serve.

Taming the yeast beast (aka, bread in 5 minutes a day)

2008-02-22T12:10:00.000-08:00

I always love a good shortcut.

Don't get me wrong, I believe in the importance of the little things in cooking. Washing the lettuce three times. Cutting the onion into fine dice. Deveining shrimp.

But I think it's important to decide when those things matter and when they don't.

So I was very excited to hear about no-knead artisan bread. Bread making somewhere along the way morphed into these long recipes where you have to measure the temperature of the water and punch the dough down five times precisely 40 minutes after rising.

It's just not necessary.

Many years ago, Natalie Colwin wrote this book "Home Cooking." If you haven't read it you should. It's wonderful writing.

Anyway. Natalie had a small child and couldn't deal with the fussiness of bread baking so she set some limits. It would rise when she wanted it to rise, bake when she wanted it to bake. She used less yeast, extended the rise, used a cold rise. She made the dough in the evening, let it rise all night, and baked it in the morning.

And it worked!

This transformed my idea of breadbaking. It's not a delicate thing, that yeast. Kick it around, put it in the fridge, let it rise for days, it still works.

I started experimenting, letting the dough rise 12 hours, 15 hours. At some point it needed to be punched down, but maybe even that wasn't necessary.

The key is to use less yeast. The less you use, the slower the rise, the more the gluten can develop. And what's amazing is the bread is better this way. The flavors become complex, like sourdough.

Your thought process changes when you bake bread this way. You realize that you have control over when the bread rises or doesn't rise, not the reverse. You are freed from the binds of those obsssively detailed recipes.

So a few months ago Lynn Rosetto Kasper of "The Splendid Table" (this very cool radio podcast) had these bread bakers on and they took it a step further. Use very little yeast, don't knead the dough AT ALL, and let it rise in the fridge for days. From what they said on the broadcast, the bread was amazing.

Of course, I had to try it. I made the dough two days ago (it took 10 minutes despite my spacy slow post-call state), let it rise on the counter for 2 hours, then punched it down, put it in the fridge, and forgot about it. Today I punched it down again, tore off a hunk, made a roll and baked it. Oh and I let it rise a little before I threw it in the oven. Like 20 minutes.

It was fabulous. This rich sourdough taste, the perfect crust. So simple.

This all comes from a cookbook called "Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day." You can find the recipe here.

Those people are geniuses.

p.s. if you want to be fancy you can use a pizza stone which will give you that thick artisan crust. I didn't have one and it was just fine without it.

p.p.s You can also top the bread any way you like. I chose to sprinkle on a little water and then some rock salt. You could use butter or oil if you like a softer crust, cornmeal for a crunchier taste, or egg whites for that shiny look. So many options.

We've got the beet

2008-02-20T21:33:00.000-08:00

Damn it's beautiful in Seattle.

I just got back from a week-long trip visiting friends and family on the east coast (that's my cousin's son above). As the plane approached Seattle we glided over greenlake and lake union and puget sound to touch down at Sea Tac. The surface was like glass.

After I got home I went for a walk and the temperature was 50 degrees, the sky clear blue and the mountains etched in the sky. It felt like spring.

It was not so balmy on the east coast. Mostly it was cold and rainy. Perfect roasting weather. I stayed with my cousin for a few days in Jersey and we went on a pilgrimage to Wegmans, her 2 1/2 year old son in tow, to collect salmon and bok choy and golden beets. We also got some asparagus. A bit of ginger. Scallions.

When we got to her house I decided to roast everything. Except the bok choy, which I just love to stir fry. I cranked the oven to 400 and got started. First the beets, then after a while the asparagus and salmon with an asian marinade. At the last minute I sauteed the bok choy.

It came out beautifully. But I forgot to photograph.

I will vouch that her son ate all of it, which is no mean feat for a 2 1/2 year old. Of course this is a kid who eats salsa (the spicy kind).

But he especially loved the beets. They were sweet and slightly glazed from the pan and crunchy with rock salt.

I had been struggling with beets, I used to boil them and make a vinaigrette but it was never satisfying. We wouldn't eat the leftovers. But roasting was perfect. They tasted earthy and sweet.

I tried to recreate the whole meal tonight, but sadly the salmon in our grocery store was disappointing. Isn't that sad? New Jersey had better salmon than Seattle. Of course it was atlantic and farmed...but still.

Instead, I roasted beets again, the red ones this time. And I braised some baby bok choy, in halves (it's actually less work). Oh and I made chicken wings, because I'm a buffalonian so I love them. They came out great, a spicy garlicky rub with a honey glaze, but I'm still playing with them. I think that's for another day.

The beets were wonderful, as earthy and sweet as their golden new jersey counterparts. You have to leave the skins on, so scrub them well. And halving them helps--they cook faster and caramelize a bit. The bok choy is good both ways, chopped or halved but this way definitely has more class.

Roasted beets

3-4 beets (any variety)
rock salt
pepper
good quality olive oil

Scrub beets and trim off ends, cut in half. Don't peel them. It gives them more flavor. Dry well. Rub with olive oil, and sprinkle with rock salt and pepper (you can use regular salt, the rock salt just has a nice texture). Place cut side down in a roasting pan without touching (I used a 9x9) and roast at 350 for 30-60 minutes or until tender. You can roast at a different temperature if you like, just check them if it's higher. My oven runs hot, my cousin's runs cool. I split the difference.

Braised Baby Bok Choy

3-4 whole baby bok choy
soy sauce
dark sesame oil
peanut oil
sesame seeds
1 tablespoon minced ginger
black pepper

Wash bok choy well especially at the base but leave whole. Dry. Cut in half lengthwise. Heat peanut oil in a heavy pan on medium high. Add bok choy cut side down (only as many as will fit without touching). Cook ~2-3 minutes covered (until golden brown). Carefully flip with tongs and cook another 1-2 minutes covered. Place cut side up on a pan. Drizzle with one drop sesame oil per bok choy half, and a bit more soy sauce. Sprinkle on sesame seeds. Saute ginger in hot pan, then sprinkle on top. Serve.

Salad Days

2008-02-13T14:05:00.001-08:00

It's time to talk about salad. Or really-- salad dressing.

I admit it. I'm a salad snob. Growing up my brother and I would go to our father's house on the weekend and he always made his own dressing. There was a jar of it on the counter, redolent of mustard. Salad seemed naked without it.

I soon learned to make my own, measuring olive oil and red wine vinegar (2/3 oil to 1/3 vinegar), and adding mustard, salt, and pepper.

In college, my tastes evolved. I read Marcella Hazan and was persuaded to buy really good olive oil (frantoia) and even better balsamic. I changed from mustard to honey mustard, liking the subtle sweetness. I added garlic. And I no longer measured, preferring to eyeball it in a small jar and shake it, then taste and retaste until it was right, adding oil or vinegar as needed.

The perfect taste is neither oily nor vinegary, but somewhere in between.

One day everything changed. I read in a cookbook about layered dressings, the true italian way. First you wash and dry the greens. Then you add a dribble of olive oil, mix to coat. Rock salt. And finally a splash of vinegar. Be generous with the olive oil, and frugal with the vinegar.

This was a revelation to me. So simple, and yet so different. The flavors are layered on top of the leaves.

In the past few years I've digressed even more. I no longer use vinegar, just lemon. Sometimes I make other dressings, miso-rice vinegar, or the trusty balsamic, but I make this 90% of the time. And Cobe says it is the best.

Simple Lemon Salad Dressing

Good quality olive oil (frantoia is my favorite, it should be rich and green, extra virgin)
Rock salt
1/2 Lemon
fresh cracked pepper

1. Wash the leaves and dry very well. Do NOT underestimate this step. Dirt in the leaves will completely ruin your salad, I have done it believe me. I usually wash the leaves in 3 rinses. And the drying is doubly important. Water and oil do not mix, the oil will not coat the leaves if they are wet. Even after spinning the leaves I still use paper towels.

2. Coat with olive oil. Use a little splash. You can put your thumb over the spout to slow the stream. You need less than you think. Mix with your hands or two spoons.

3. Sprinkle rock salt. You can use regular salt but the thick chunky rock salt adds a nice texture.

4. Squeeze on half a lemon. Mix with hands or spoons again. Taste after mixing and decide if you want more lemon.

5. Sprinkle on fresh cracked pepper.

Other additions
- parmigiano reggiano in thick shreds
- lemon rind shredded on a rasp (the flavor is beautiful)
- thinly sliced pear or green apple (coated with lemon to keep from turning brown)
- toasted nuts
- bits of creamy cheese, such as goat or feta or mascarpone
- dried fruits, such as apricots or dried cherries
- sliced persimmon
- pomegrante
- shredded bacon

the list is endless.