Savory Watermelon Salad

This is summery and scrumptious. With minimal pre-amble and vague proportions:

~2 cups watermelon, cubed
1/2 English cucumber, chunked
2 decent heirloom tomatoes, chunked
1 x-lg or 2 med avocados, chunked

dressing:
1 tbsp fresh mint, minced
1 tbsp chives, minced
~2 tbsp olive oil
~1-2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp fresh chevre (that's goat cheese)
salt & pepper to taste

This is pretty straightforward. My proportions are pretty inexact here, but it doesn't matter: follow your tongue! Use whatever herbs you have growing outside your front door or readily available, and just taste the dressing as you go. I thought about using a red wine vinegar but wasn't sure how that would jive with the chevre blended in ... will try it next time. The sweetness of the watermelon is really nice with the tang of the vinegar and goat cheese - num!

----

Here is the much more photogenic, less creamy inspiration for the above salad:


From the book, Pintxos, by Gerald Hirigoyen, which is full of delicious and beautiful Basque small-plates. More yum!

Skirt Steak MM!

I'll keep this short and sweet.

Bought some skirt steak a couple nights ago that didn't make it into dinner, so yesterday I decided to marinate it in some yogurt for tonight. The yog gives the meat a nice tang and the cultures help to tenderize and break down the protein, or so they say. I also added some tumeric and dried sage, what the heck.

Tonight I sautee'd it up with a little salt, served with brown rice and broiled pencil asparagus with oil, salt, pepper and some shaved Reggiano. And man, that ish was GOOD! I highly recommend the yogurt treatment. It's great for just about any kind of meat, especially the ones that can toughen up, like goat or lamb.

Nom nom.

Butter(-milk)

I recently used the Joy of Cooking's recipe for Irish-American Soda Bread as the foundation of a kitchen experiment. JoC is usually a great reference and an excellent starting-point for me. I rarely have all-out success with their recipes as-printed, but who wants to follow a recipe verbatim anyway?

What caught me this time was the following ingredients:

4 tbsp butter
2/3 c. buttermilk

The butter was meant to be melted and whipped into the buttermilk with an egg.

Now, buttermilk is the by-product of whipping cream into butter. So by adding melted butter to the buttermilk, aren't you just re-constituting the original heavy cream? Even the proportions look about right here.

So why?

DIY Mozzarella

This took me 15 minutes to make (plus another 15 waiting for the cheese to chill), which fit in right after work and before taking the dog to the park, leaving me with fresh, handmade cheese to bring to Katie's for dinner. No Martha Stewart, but not bad, right?

The one caveat is that this recipe uses pre-made cheese curd, which can be hard to find. We are selling it right now at The Pasta Shop, but you can also make your own with the right materials (blog entry to follow, also see www.cheesemaking.com for supplies).

The quantity of curd is entirely up to you - how many balls do you want? How big do you like your balls? There is a lot of ball freedom here.

1. Cut your curd into 1" cubes.

2. Heat a big pot of very salty water (1/3 c. salt to 5 qts water) to just before boiling (170 degrees if you have a thermometer).

3. Put your curds in a large, shallow bowl. Pour ~6 cups of the hot water water over the curd and let it sit 2-4 minutes until the curd is warm all the way through, soft and malleable.

4. Pick up (with a spoon, because the water's hot) as much curd as you like - i.e. more curd for big balls, fewer cubes for small balls - and knead the curd between your hands until it is smooth and elastic. If you overwork it, the mozzarella will be kind of tough and squeaky, so a light touch is good.

5. When curd is ready, fold into a ball and squeeze the ends together.

6. Put cheese in an ice bath and start over with the next handful of curd

7. Call me and tell me how it is

Easy peasy.

Braised Short Ribs

Short ribs: delicious. Could eat 'em for days, not complain once. But somehow I had never cooked them myself, which I think is a by-product of doing little braising or meat roasts in general. In California, where produce is so versatile and so fresh, it's insanely easy to leave meat off the plate. And if it is on the plate, often it's just an ingredient - not a course or a meal. These kinds of meat adventures are special to me because they're so rare and unnecessary in this agricultural wonderland. So tonight, short ribs. Short ribs!

I work right next to Cafe Rouge in Berkeley. Their butcher is off the hook. The boys behind the counter are sweet and sometimes a little too cool for school, but their product is genuinely badass. I ate the best steak of the 2000's a few short weeks ago thanks to them (and Katie, and the cow). Also their beef jerky is no nonsense. Have you ever seen beef jerky with fat in it? Neither had I. It was AMAZING. But enough praise, this is about me and my food. Yesterday I decided the short ribs looked plump and rich and reasonably priced. I picked out a fatty (1.5#, 3-ribs) and for the rest of my 12-hour shift I was daydreaming about what I might do with it. My very own short ribs? This was more than a little intimidating; is there some powerful ingredient to the world's best short ribs that I didn't know about? Not being a meat roaster, naturally I would not know about this. Danger. Caution. Ribs.

What follows is an amalgam of the thoughts of Julia Child and numerous web references, except, I must point out, that of Mr. Wolfgang Puck. I can't respect any man who instructs the masses to spoon the fat off of their roast and "discard." Discard! There are uses for that fat! Why don't you cut back on the shitty potato chips and plastic chocolate, maybe eat a smaller portion and let yourself enjoy the miracle of fat. It worked for centuries. I thought about serving this solo with some toasted pain au levain, but settled on farro for its nutty flavor and delightful texture and farro-ness. If I had been more hungry, or if I were more than one person and needed more food, I would have tracked down some asparagus and fava beans, because man would that be good.

First Short Ribs

A fatty strip or two of short ribs from the best butcher you can find
2-3 tbsp ghee
1/2 yellow onion
3 carrots
4 stalks celery
3 fat cloves of garlic
1 sprig of rosemary
2 tbsp tomato paste, or sauce in a pinch (like my Puttanesca)
~1 cup red table wine (I used a cotes du rhone)
~4-6 cups broth of your choice

1 cup Farro

Preheat your oven to 300*F.

In a dutch oven or some other stove- and oven-savvy pot, melt your ghee over medium/medium-high heat. Did you know that Ghee doesn't scorch until 475 degrees or so? It is pure butterfat - clarified butter that's been boiled for hours. Ghee is my new favorite fat: the duck fat of 2009 if you will. You can use bacon fat instead if you've got it around, can't go wrong there. Any good fat will do. Dogs like the smell of fat, and if you're lucky your neighbor's dog will wander in to keep you company while you work, like this.



Sear the short ribs on all sides in the ghee. Take the meat out and let it rest on a plate, like this.



Then add the onions, carrots and celery to the fat and stir it up. Let these cook until the onions are getting clear, and add the garlic and rosemary. Stir and fry until these are fragrant.

Add the tomato paste and let it caramelize and get nice and sticky. When properly gummy and sweet-smelling, deglaze the pan with your red wine. Hop the ribs back in the pan and add enough broth so that they are covered or nearly-covered, depending on how much meat is in the pan. My one fatty strip of meat was a little lonely in its big pot, so rather than drown it in 8 cups of broth I let part of it stick out - no problem. Cover your pan and slide it into the warm oven.

Roast ~3 hours. The ribs should be easily forked, tender, loose and full of juicy, meaty flavor. And they were.

If you've never cooked farro, this is how I do it: boil way too much water, add the farro and simmer for ~15-20 mins, then drain dry like pasta. I suppose 2:1 proportions would work, like with rice, but I find that measuring isn't really necessary. Farro also makes an incredible breakfast when mixed with a little cream and honey and served with roasted stone fruit. Very incredible.

About halfway through making this dish, I realized I had done it before. With brisket. Braising is, to some extent, just braising. Even if you do it just twice in 28 years, it is a simple thing.

In the end, I remembered that there was chard in the fridge just begging to be wilted. I spooned a few tablespoons of fat and juice from the hot roast and sauteed the chard in that until wilty and fragrant. This was the best chard I have ever eaten in my life. There, I said it. Even Pullo was entranced by the aroma.


Nom nom!

Apple Pancakes

Deceptively simple and easy, perfectly fluffy and moist. If you only eat one meal on a rainy day, this should be it.

(Tilt head)


Serve it up with your favorite toppings (pictured here: apricot-orange marmalade and dollop of fresh whipped cream) and some mouth-smacking-good thick-cut bacon. These pancakes are so sweet and light they don't really need any topping, but I find a naked pancake entirely irresistible to toppings.

Apple Pancakes

Whisk together in a bowl:

1 1/2 c. flour
3 tbs brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Add:

4 tbsp. sweet butter, room temp

Cut the butter into the flour mixture using a fork, two butterknives, a pastry cutter, or whatever you like to use. I'm not sure why, but this step has made a big difference for me in the fluffiness of my pancakes. When the butter is in reasonably small bits, add:

1 1/2 c. milk
2 eggs
splash vanilla extract

Mix it all up well. Grate into the bowl:

1 apple

I used a Fuji, skin-on. If you're single like me and not planning on using all the batter at once, only add the apple to what you plan on cooking that day -- otherwise it will oxidize and get soggy. Fruit in pancake batter should always be fresh.

The rest is history, and if you don't know how to fry a pancake ... well, it's easy and you should try harder. I learned a secret from the tv-show "Dead Like Me" -- flip 'em before the bubbles burst, and they will be more springy and pleasantly pert. Don't burn 'em, or the insides will be moist and goopy. The apples keep these moist and fragrant .. enjoy!

Dangerous/Painful Potato Turnip Croquettes

Adapted from a recipe for potato-turnip latkes which was much less of a pain in the ass and just about as tasty. When I made the latkes, the fat was not quite hot enough so they had a tendency to sog.

I had an amazing croquette experience at Tacubaya, so I thought I'd try to turn the delicious duck-fatty latkes into light fluffy duck-fatty croquettes for the perfect marriage of texture and flavor. The result: the world's best tater tots, with an incredibly light, moist, delicate filling and fantastic crispy crust. Unexpected results: an entire house filled with thick, fatty smoke; half of a kitchen spattered in greasy spots; multiple burns on self. I do not recommend making this at the same time as the Amazing Granola, which I did last night to my painful and burnt dismay.

If you've never cooked with duck fat before: what the hell are you waiting for?

Dangerous/Painful Potato Turnip Croquettes

4 medium russet potatoes
2 medium/small turnips
a few green or spring onions
Panko japanese breadcrumbs (the kind for tempura)
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt & pepper to taste
~1 cup duck fat (maybe a little more)

Quarter the potatoes and turnips and boil them until ready to mash. Drain well and mash 'em up in a big bowl with the chopped green onions, salt & pepper. Mix in the cream, being careful not to get the mixture too wet (My mistake #1).

Fill a shallow bowl with bread crumbs, and start spooning onto them small balls of potato/turnip mix -- I used the same 2-spoon technique that a lot of people use for drop cookies. Don't try to handle the croquettes too much in the breadcrumbs (my mistake #2), but try to coat them evenly. I ended up tossing the balls between both hands with the crumbs, which worked well but didn't squish the croquettes into useless paste as much as my first efforts.

Get your duck fat pretty damn hot - med. high heat until shimmery. If the fat isn't hot enough, the croquettes will be oily and soggy without a good crust. Fry the croquettes on as many sides as possible for maximum crisp, about 2-3 minutes per side if the oil is hot enough. Drain on a paper towel and serve hot with creme fraiche.

One problem with using Panko breadcrumbs .. or perhaps breadcrumbs in general .. is that some of them will undoubtedly flake off into the fat, where they burn to tiny tiny crisps. After about 15 minutes of boiling, smooshing and frying, while juggling my granola project at the same time, I turned around to see that the entire house was filled with noxious grey smoke. The dog was standing in the kitchen doorway with his feet apart, giving me a what-the-hell-are-you-doing look. By the time I was done, I collected a tiny mountain of the black crisps on one side of the pan. My hands, face and front were covered in tiny burns and my eyes and lungs stung from the smoke. Perhaps the whole experience wouldn't have been as overwhelming without the simul-baking of the granola (my mistake #3).

Amazing Granola

This is adapted from the recipe in the cheese board's collective works for their "killer granola." The main difference is the absence of coconut and presence of many, many nuts and seeds in my version.

This is insanely easy to make. As someone who loves granola but is very picky about what should be in it, I love making my own and having it just my way. It keeps well in an airtight container, is cheap to make and easy to gift.

Measurements are approximate. Preheat oven to 325.

2 tbs butter
salt to taste
2 cups total chopped nuts: pecans, walnuts, almonds (or your favorites)
2 tsp honey
1/4 c. sugar of choice
dash of vanilla extract
1 and 1/4 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 c. sunflower seeds
1/4 c. sesame seeds
1/4 c. flax seeds

In a pan, melt the butter over pretty low heat. Add the salt and your nuts, stirring well to evenly coat them all, and bring the heat up just a bit. Toast the nuts until they are golden and beautiful, but keep a careful eye on them because they can burn quickly if your heat gets out of control. I burnt my first batch but it still tasted great. When the nuts are ready, add the honey and sugar and bring the heat back down to low until the sweeteners are melted and gooey. Kill the heat and add the vanilla.

Combine the oats and seeds in a big bowl, add the nut mixture and mix it all up like woah. Spread the mix evenly over a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (I *love* parchment paper) and bake for 15 minutes. Stir it around and redistribute at that point, and bake for another 10-15 minutes until it's all golden toasty. Let it cool completely on the hot pan, since it will continue to toast from the residual heat.

The nutty bits are the best part of this, so you can try to mix them in as much as possible (so that all of it becomes the best part of it), or you could deliberately leave big nut clusters. You could add raisins or coconut flakes, but I don't like either of these things in granola -- raisins get too chewy after baking and coconut is weird. I bet dried fruit could be mixed in after it cools (or while cooling perhaps?) if you just have to have fruit.

The Incredible Undescribable Wonders of an Excellent Olive Oil

Two years ago, my friend Eva got married in southern France, in a small town called Maussane (where her husband is from). Her reception was in the moulin of a local olive oil producer -- Jean Marie Cornille -- a beautiful stone building surrounded by the small hills that mark the beginning of the French Alps (les Alpilles).

The day was incredible for a number of reasons; excellent weather, beautiful scenery, wonderful food, hilarious and friendly company, to name a few.

I bought a small bottle of the Cornille olive oil as a souvenir, which turned out to be a precious joy that I hadn't anticipated. The oil (http://www.moulin-cornille.com/us/huil-oliv.html), like most provencale olive oils, is light and incredibly herbacious. There are some with more peppery or grassy notes, but this one is smooth and buttery without being at all flat. The fruit is a blend of olives from la valee des baux de provence, an area that is also home to the "most beautiful village" in all of France, or something like that.


The village is cute. They have good candy and also good nearby vineyards w/ tasting rooms. Don't rely on the bus, or you might have to walk back to Maussane like we did -- through the olive groves. I didn't know then that I was to become so obsessed with this oil.

After running dry long ago, I decided it was time for more of the Maussane oil (http://www.zingermans.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=O-MAU, but the price has gone up). Yes, it is worth sending away to Ann Arbor for. Yes, it was worth $65 for a liter, and yes I would have paid $80 for it. Well, maybe...

If you use this oil in a dish with strong flavors, the result will probably be delicious but you'll lose all the subtlety of the oil. Because of this, and to get the most flavor out of my $65, I've been inspired to cook simple food that acts as the perfect vessel for my favorite oil. This morning I toasted a hearty, multigrain bread and drizzled it with olive oil and a pinch of fleur de sel - incredible. It's amazing what a couple of quality ingredients can do to a kitchen!

My dinner tonight was so exquisite I have to share it here, for whoever has the patience (or the love of olive oil) to read this far.

My new favorite meal:
-Farro pasta tossed in Maussane olive oil and crumbled parmigiano reggiano, with a pinch of salt. *
-Butter lettuce salad with the same olive oil, a splash of white cava vinegar, a pinch of salt and a few dry black olives.
-Dessert of dried dates.

I also opened a Neyer's Thieriot vineyard chardonnay -- a bright, minerally, full-bodied chard -- that came with my wine club a few months ago. Delightful with this light meal.

*Did I say light meal? I also fried two strips of bacon, on the side. What can I say, there was open bacon in the fridge and it would have gone bad... sometimes you have to take one for the team.

Cheers!

Panzanella Salad (fried bread salad)

This is a forgiving recipe, and easy to adjust or improvise. The most important part is the bread ... everything else is a variable. It's a quick dinner for one (or side for two), and a great way to get the most out of fresh seasonal ingredients (like tomatoes!). Using quality oil/vinegar makes a big difference.

The proportions here are for one person (me) if this is your whole dinner, or two people if there is another dish.

4 slices stale french bread, cubed
~10 cherry tomatoes (or 2-3 bigger tomatoes) cut into smallish pieces
1 4-oz. ball of fresh mozzarella, cubed-ish
~8 leaves fresh basil, sliced thin or minced
1 small clove garlic, minced
~2-3 tbs olive oil
~1 tbs good quality balsamic vinegar
pinch of salt (truffle salt if you are hooked like me)

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan (medium heat) and add the bread when hot. Toss to spread the oil and fry for about 5 minutes, tossing frequently. Keep a close eye on it to make sure the croutons don't burn. When crispy and golden, turn off the heat and set aside.

In a big bowl, mix the other ingredients. Add the bread just before serving and toss it all together.

There was a photo of this meal, but it no longer exists due to catastrophic camera difficulties. That's a story for another day...

Peach Jam, Peach Blackberry Jam and Plum Blackberry Coulis

This is only sort of a recipe blog, because I have only a vague idea what the weight or proportions of my ingredients were. I also don't feel like writing about every little step -- if you're curious about that, look at last summer's jam posts. This is just a little note about jam, jamming, summer fruits and settling into a new kitchen. I moved about 5 weeks ago and this is the first big project I've done in my new kitchen, inspired by a $5 box of ripe peaches I saw on sale yesterday. The peach score was quickly followed up by some super-sweet blackberries from Monterey Market, which in turn was quickly succeeded by amazingly sweet, ripe golden plums from Rachel's backyard. It's a good thing that I have a hard time putting a good glass jar in the recycling -- and an even better thing that I insisted on bringing my stash with me from Santa Cruz. Today it came in handy.

Just Peach Jam/Peach Blackberry Jam
20 large peaches
6 or 7 lemons: zest and juice
900g "white" sugar*
about 10 blackberries

*how many cups is 900g? It was the sugar they sell at Trader Joe's -- the only thing I remember about the package was that it said 900g.

I started this last night by blanching the peaches to remove their skins and then crushing them with my hands to remove the pits and break them into smaller chunks (this is incredibly fun -- I highly recommend). Added the sugar, lemon zest and juice, then covered w/ parchment to sit in the fridge overnight. This afternoon I realized that it was a little too much to fit in my big pan, so I decided to do two batches and add a few blackberries to the second, smaller batch (hence only 10). I didn't want the blackberries to compete with the peaches, just to add a little extra color and flavor. These two jams were GORGEOUS. All-caps-gorgeous. The pre-cooled jam tasted marvelous, too.

Plum Blackberry Coulis
~20-30(?) small golden plums (3 or 4 pounds? the buggers were heavy with juice)
~1.5 cups turbonado sugar
2 lemons - juice and zest
remaining 12 or so blackberries

The plums were so ripe that this one didn't seem like it was going to set very well without cooking it waaaay down, so I settled for a slightly runny jam that is more like a coulis or sauce. It tasted great, but might be a little too runny for toast. I think this one would be great poured over vanilla ice cream or fresh ricotta.

Following Bay's advice, I took pictures this time. Too bad the internet isn't ready for scratch-n-sniff.

L-R: Peach, Peach Blackberry, Plum Blackberry (cooling upside-down)

Yam and Sweet Potato Fries

This was our first attempt at making fries. For variety, we used two types of yams and some sweet potato too. We used three medium yams and one large sweet potato which yielded about 2 or 2.5 cups of fries (maybe even more, considering how many we ate while frying). The fries must first be cooked in hot water until they're about halfway done, and then deep fried until crisp. You'll want to have a frying basket and some brown paper grocery bags on hand, and about a 1/2 gallon of oil. Corn oil worked well for us.

To start, we washed our tubers and peeled off the eyes, remaining roots, and any thicker or yucky-looking skin. We cut them down to long strips, about 1/4 to a 1/5 inch thick, and about 3/4 inch wide. Next we parblanched the slices by placing them in a large pot and filling it with cold water to cover. We put the pot uncovered over a burner on high, and allowed to come to a gentle boil, which took approx. 20 minutes. We then flipped the bundle of fries so the fries on the bottom were moved to the top and vice versa to cook them evenly, allowing them to continue to boil until the slices became darker and more translucent, so they were about halfway cooked. Make sure they remain firm enough that they won't fall apart. This took about an additional 7 minutes. Meanwhile, we were heating the 1/2 gallon of corn oil for frying.

We drained the fries in a colander and left them there to cool, though we probably should have rinsed them in cold water and then set them out to dry on (paper) towels to soak up the extra moisture, as they started to get a little mushy and break apart in the colander. Best to remove excess moisture before you submerge them in oil to avoid spattering. We tested a fry or two in the oil to make sure it was hot enough, but generally, the oil should be ready once it starts to steam, but not smoke.

Before starting to fry, have the brown grocery bags ready to dump the fries on. These soak up the excess oil much better than paper towels. We placed the bags in the oven for about 15-20 seconds to sanitize them, since it was already heating for something else. These tricks come from my mother, who is from the South where they know how to deep fry.

We used a medium saucepan for the frying, so we had to do several batches. Don't fill the fry basket with fries or else they'll cook unevenly and the oil will bubble and spatter all over your kitchen. Submerge the fries completely and rotate with tongs while frying. The fries should be ready when they turn golden and seem crispy, which took us about 4-5 minutes.

Let the excess oil drip back into the pot before dumping the fries on the paper bags. There you can salt and pepper them (or use whatever other spices you might like), and dump them on a cookie sheet which you can stick in the oven at a low heat to keep them warm and crisp while the rest fry.

The end result was pretty delicious, and I think we could have used even more fries for the 5 people we were feeding. Mmm!

Chicken Pot-Pie Casserole with Biscuit Topping

This dish was inspired by Tiffany's vegetarian version, which I don't have the recipe for but which was damn, damn good.

My version was inspired by two recipes: Just Chicken Pot Pie (America's Best Lost Recipes cookbook) and Buttermilk biscuits (Enchanted Broccoli Forest cookbook, Mollie Katzen).  Both were adapted, and can be adapted further.

This is a pot-pie with no crust, baked in a casserole dish with chunks of biscuit on top for a crust-like effect.  It takes a while to make/bake (an hour and a half including baking), but the result is a delicious, savory, incredibly popular meal that will feed a LOT of people.  Or, four very hungry, greedy people.  The quantities of most vegetables here are approximate, but this recipe is very forgiving if you use more or less of something.  You could also omit the chicken and increase the amount of vegetables or use less butter, or substitute olive oil for the butter.  The richness of this dish is part of what makes it so good, but the flavors of the vegetables and biscuit is enough for it to shine without the extra cheese and butter.  

"Pie" Filling

~2 lbs chicken breast, no skin or bone

~3 carrots

an onion

~3 celery stalks

several summer squash

~4 cloves garlic

zest of one lemon

a few chopped green onions

salt and pepper to taste

2 c. broth

1/3 c. flour

1 stick butter

1 c. buttermilk

~1 c. gruyere cheese (to taste)

Biscuit Topping

2 c. flour (use half wheat/half unbleached if you like)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 large egg, beaten, plus

enough buttermilk to bring the egg to 2/3 cup

1/3 c. melted butter

chopped green onion

Preheat oven to 400*F

Boil or roast chicken breasts, then shred the meat.

Melt the butter and sautee the onions until translucent, then add celery, carrots, squash all chopped finely (& other veggies that you like).  Add green onions and garlic and fry until fragrant.  Add the flour and stir until it gets a little toasty, about a minute.  Add the broth, buttermilk and lemon zest, stir it and let simmer until the sauce starts to thicken, ~5 minutes.  Add the chicken and season w/ salt and pepper.  Turn off the heat.

Mix the dry ingredients for the biscuits in a large bowl, and make a well in the center.  Pour the combined egg/buttermilk in the well, and the melted butter.  Stir until just combined, adding the onions when it is sort of half-mixed.  Pat into a uniform, smooth ball.

Pour the veggie/chicken/saucy mix into a casserole pan and sprinkle with the grated cheese.  The insane part of the original recipe (the "Just Chicken Pot Pie") was that it called for straining the vegetables out of the sauce and discarding them - which is truly insane.  These veggies are goo-oo-ood.  Cover with chunks of the biscuit dough, alternating biscuit with cheese if you like.  Little pieces of dough will get crispy, larger chunks will get doughy and biscuity (I highly recommend the big chunks).  

Bake for 40 minutes or until the biscuit topping is crispy.  Cook 10 minutes, eat, then tell me how good it was!

20-hour Meat Roast

The original recipe for this comes out of the book Heat, by Bill Buford. It's not a cookbook, but a book about food and cooking. The original recipe has five ingredients, including the meat, and it's spicy enough to melt your speak-hole off. This is slightly modified and a little less spicy.

"Peposo"
~2lbs meat (I used brisket; recipe calls for shank, which is hard to find)
1 bottle red wine (pref. chianti)
1 head garlic (peeled)
2 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp red pepper flakes
1 tbsp sea salt
1 sprig of marjoram
dash of nutmeg
juice and zest from a small lemon

The rest is easy: put ingredients in a pot. Cook in oven for a minimum of 8 hours, and a maximum of ... oh, I don't know, but 20 worked well for us. Start the oven at a high-ish temperature for the first hour (like 375), then bring it down to 200 for the remaining time. The meat will get stringy and fall apart when touched, and the wine turns into a light brown, meaty broth with lots of great flavor. This is especially good with crusty olive bread, and a glass of wine.

Almond Meyer Lemon Bread

1 2/3 c. flour
1 c. almond meal/flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 stick (8 tbs) butter (soft/room temp)
zest and juice from 2 meyer lemons
1/2 c. milk

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the lemon zest and juice, and add one egg at a time - when I did this, the butter seemed to curdle a little (is that possible?), but it was no problem. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mix, and add the milk and mix in as well. Transfer to buttered loaf pan, top with toasted almonds and bake at 350* for one hour or longer. Don't burn it, as I did mine, and you should have a sweet and tangy, crumbly delicious loaf!

Porridge Bread

I bought a Porridge Bread at a local natural foods market, and it was so good that my housemates gobbled it up before I'd had very much of it. In an act of rebellion, I found a recipe online and have attempted to re-create the tasty bread at a cheaper price and larger volume. The recipe I used advertised a yield of 6 loaves, but I only got 3. The recipe here is modified from the one google turned up (less oil, less sugar, more grains, whole wheat flour in addition to white flour).

2 tbs dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tbs granulated sugar
2 cups porridge*
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses**
1 tbs salt
3 cups all purpose white flour
4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup vegetable oil

*For the porridge, I used about 2/3 four-grain oat cereal (i.e. oatmeal) and 1/3 a mix of toasted buckwheat, red winter wheat berries and amaranth. I made a huge pot of it, used 2 cups for the bread, and served the rest up for the housemates with sugar and milk for a late-night oatmeal snack.

**My second time making this bread, I used honey instead of molasses. I think the full 1/2 cup of molasses is too much, but the honey has a really nice flavor which is more subtle. I haven't tried mixing the two, but that might be where the happy medium lies.

Mix the yeast with the sugar and warm water until it dissolves, then set aside until it gets foamy. Meanwhile, mix the porridge with the molasses, brown sugar, oil and salt, and add the yeast mixture when it's ready. Begin adding the flour one cup at a time, and finish by kneading the dough on a floured surface for about 10 minutes, or as long as it takes for it to feel good. The dough might stay a little tacky because of all the grains, which is fine.

I let it rise overnight in the refrigerator (you could let it rise at room temp until doubled in size), then punched down the dough and broke it into 3 parts. Let it rise in pans (or in the round, if you want a round loaf) for another 2-3 hours, or until doubled in size again. Bake at 375*F for 30-40 minutes. The color is a rich, warm brown, with a sweet wheaty flavor from the grains and molasses. This is one of my favorite kinds of bread, wholesome and comforting, satisfying both the health nut and sweet tooth in me (who are so rarely on the same team).

Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce

Simple and fresh. Takes a while to prep everything, but the payback is well worth it. I like to make a meal out of these alone, or they can be a salady side dish to something more substantial.

measurements are approximated, as I was very bad at keeping track of how much went into everything. The proportions are very fluid, especially for the peanut sauce and tempeh marinade, so keep tasting and stop when it's right for your palate.

Peanut Sauce
~1/2 cup peanut butter (I like unsalted, grind-yourself peanut butter)
~1/4 cup soy sauce or Ponzu
~1/4 cup rice vinegar
~2 tbs sesame oil
~1/4 cup sake or soju
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 green onions, chopped
1 tbs chili flakes
~1 tbs brown sugar

Mix it up. If it's too sweet, add more vinegar. If it's too tangy, add a little more sugar or peanut butter. I like it when it is just barely runny - it's easy to dip in, but not too thin.

Marinated Tempeh
1 square block of tempeh (~8oz?), sliced long and thin
~1/4 cup soy sauce or Ponzu
~1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tbs oyster sauce *or* ~1 tbs brown sugar

Marinate as long as you can, then fry until the marinade is evaporated and cooked onto the tempeh.

Spring Rolls
about 20 rice paper wrappers (they keep well if there are leftovers)
~2 cups thin rice noodles or bean noodles, cooked or soaked
1 bunch cilantro, washed and de-stemmed
Marinated Tempeh (above)
2 carrots, shredded
1 or 2 cucumbers, sliced in half lengthwise and sliced thin
~1 cup sunflower or pea sprouts
~2 cups lettuce or salad mix, chopped
2 or 3 avocados, halved and sliced thin
optional: 1/3 lb prawns, steamed, shelled and sliced in half lengthwise

The formula is simple: soak a wrapper in warm water until it is soft enough to work with. Oversoaking will make it too delicate, so it might take a few tries to get the feel for it. Then, lay the wrapper on a plate and start adding small amounts of your toppings, like a tiny burrito. Begin by using less of everything that you think it needs, since small rolls are easier to wrap (and eat) than big ones. Start with a little noodles, some cilantro, a few strips of tempeh, some cucumber, shredded carrot and some sprouts. Try mixing and matching: shrimp rolls with avocado, tempeh rolls with cucumber, etc. I like it when each roll is a surprise. The fillings are entirely subjective to your tastes, so add to the list above and change things. Try mint instead of cilantro, try marinated tofu instead of tempeh, use arugula instead of pea sprouts - get creative. Making these is as much fun as eating them when you get into it!

As for the wrapping: some have a natural talent for wrapping presents, cheese in paper, burritos, spring rolls - and some don't. Be patient, don't go too fast, and aim for a tightly-wrapped result. If the wrapping is too loose, the filling will spill out as soon as you bite into it. On the flip side, pulling too tightly will tear the wrapper. Trial, error, and success!

Serve with the peanut sauce.

I made these rolls twice in three days because:
a) the peanut sauce is so damn good, and
b) they are a fresh, bright, healthy and filling way to brighten up a winter menu!
c) they are the perfect collaborative social dinner activity
d) the peanut sauce, again.

Poor Boy Stroganoff

My friend Sally asked for this recipe, and after typing it into an email I figured I may as well paste it here for others to see - this dish is damn good.

A traditional Beef Stroganoff, as I understand it, is filet mignon with a creamy mushroom sauce, served over a bed of egg noodles. This version uses ground beef and mixes everything into a casserole form, making it easier on the budget to feed a hungry family. This recipe is adapted from the one in "America's Best Lost Recipes," published by the folks at Cook's Magazine. The original recipe is from one Carole Weinberger in Florida. The book is not bad, but focuses largely on sweeter recipes; the first two chapters are starters and entrees, and the following four chapters are dedicated to sweet things of various kinds. I wish it were a little more balanced in that respect, but the next time I'm making a dessert I might be grateful ...

This is the recipe as it's laid out in the book, but I've marked (with *) where I made a few adjustments. The first time I made it, I left out the grated cheese because it seemed so rich already, and it was still quite delicious.

Poor Boy Stroganoff

salt
8 oz. egg noodles
2 tbs butter (*I omitted this)
1 lb. lean ground beef (*I used chuck)
1 smallish onion, chopped fine (*coarse is good too, if you like more texture)
8 oz. white mushrooms, sliced (*I've used crimini, king oyster and shiitake mushrooms, quartered or in wide strips)
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbs flour
1 clove garlic, minced (*or 3-4 smallish cloves)
8 oz. tomato sauce
1/4 cup dry red wine (*I used more like 1/2 cup the first time I made this - was good!)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (*or Asiago)
(*I add 2 chopped zucchini)
(*dash of cayenne pepper)

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Place a big pot of water with 1 tbs salt over high heat (for the noodles). Cook the noodles 5-7 minutes and then drain and set aside (you can do this while you are preparing the sauce).

2. Heat a large (really large, since it will hold all your sauce) skillet over med-high heat, and add the butter. Cook the ground beef, breaking it into small pieces, until it's lightly browned all over. Transfer the beef to a plate lined w/ a paper towel. Keep about 2 tbs of the beef juice in the pan, and discard any extra (this step is why I omitted the butter - you get a little extra flavor from it, but you pour it out anyway! I thought this dish was rich enough w/o it).

3. Add the onion to the remaining beef fat, and cook until golden (~5 mins). Add the mushroom, zucchini, salt, pepper and cayenne, and cook until all are browned evenly.

4. Add the flour and cook for about a minute, until it starts to brown. Add the garlic and cook about 30 secs - 1 minute, careful not to burn it. Stir in the tomato sauce, wine, broth, and beef and bring to a simmer. Cook until it starts to thicken, about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, and stir in the sour cream (yum!).

5. Bring out a large casserole dish and layer: sauce, noodles, sauce, noodles, sauce. This ensures the noodles don't stick to the bottom, and that they get sauce all mixed in with them. Sprinkle the cheese over the top of the dish, if using. Bake about 20 minutes, or a little longer until the cheese is browned. Let it cool 5 minutes before serving, to thicken up.


One note: the first time I made this, I put the beef in a large bowl, poured the wine, tomato sauce, and broth over it and set it aside while I was cooking the vegetables. I think it helped to keep the beef moist, and to start mixing the flavors together. Using more mushrooms than called for also has a nice effect, if you're down for shrooms.

Sherried Mushrooms

This is an appetizer that my dad makes from time to time, which is one of my favorite things to eat, hands down. The better the mushrooms and sherry that you use, the better the result will be. I've done this with crimini mushrooms before, and that was fine, but this is the perfect dish to try new shrooms: chantrelle, shiitake, oyster, porcini, chinese black, lion's mane, hedgehog, yellowfoot -- try them all. The only one I wouldn't recommend is enoki, as they are a little too fragile.

about two pounds assorted mushrooms (this time we used .5 lb each of chantrelle, black chantrelle, baby shitake and lion's mane)
olive oil or butter (we used truffle butter with shallots, for extra flavor)
salt
pepper
~1/2 cup sherry or port of your choice
~1/4 cup heavy cream

Brush your mushrooms and cut any especially large ones in half. Place a skillet over med-high heat, and add some butter or olive oil. When hot, add a couple handfuls of mushroom and stir just to coat with the oil. You want the mushrooms to cook thoroughly without stirring them very much. As they cook, move them to the edge of the pan and add another handful of raw mushrooms to the center of the pan. Do this until they're all cooked, adding more oil or butter as needed to keep them from burning. Add salt and pepper periodically, to taste. You can also add a pinch of herbes de provence and/or a bit of cayenne if you're feeling feisty.

The main idea is to cook most of the water out of the mushrooms so that you can replace it with tasty sherry. When all the mushrooms are cooked, add the sherry or port to the hot pan and cover immediately. Let simmer for five minutes or so, then check and add a little more sherry if needed. They should be wonderfully aromatic at this point, plump and moist. When the sherry is all absorbed, add the cream and toss the mushrooms in it. Cover and simmer for another five minutes or so. Finish with a little extra cracked pepper and serve over toast, crackers, eggs, endive, or any other vessel you can imagine. You can also try adding some chopped garlic with the last handful of raw mushrooms, but be careful that it doesn't burn.

A note about sherries (or ports, for that matter):
The best sherry for this dish is the one you would most like to sit down and have a glass of. Sherries vary from very dry to very sweet, and either works for this dish. The flavor of the mushrooms ultimately depends on the flavor of the sherry you use, so make sure it's one that you like the taste of. Personally, I like a sweet and nutty classic cream sherry, which I think complements the savory, umami taste of the mushrooms.

Ricotta Cherry Mousse

Adapted from a recipe in Mollie Katzen's The Enchanted Broccoli Forest.

This is a naturally sweet dessert or brunch dish. Use the best ingredients you can muster: this is all about the taste of the ricotta, the cherries, and the subtle hints of orange, vanilla and rose. We made this for brunch on New Year's day, served with chocolate hazelnut torte after eggs with sherried mushrooms*, cheese and fresh bread. A good way to start any day or year!

16 oz. (2 cups) fresh ricotta cheese
~2 cups (or more, or less) pitted, halved fresh cherries
2 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp rosewater
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp orange zest (about 1/4 an orange, or less)
chopped, toasted almonds for garnish

Put the ricotta in a mixing bowl and whip for about 5 minutes with an electric mixer. I used a stand mixer, so I'm not sure how long this would take by hand. The idea is to get the cheese light and fluffy, although there will still be some curds. Add the honey slowly, and beat until incorporated. Do the same with the rosewater and vanilla. Fold in the cherries and orange zest. We used a little too much zest, and you couldn't smell the rosewater very much - play with these proportions as you like.

The original recipe recommends refrigerating the mousse for a few hours before serving, but we impatiently ate it right up and it was delicious. Sprinkle the chopped toasted almonds as a garnish at the last minute, so they don't get soggy.


*Sherried mushrooms: post to follow.