A Cloud of Pears and Cherries Upon Which I Rest my Weary Fork

I don't generally get into making desserts-- all that tedious measuring and sifting, etc... (and there was an unfortunate cookie incident recently from which I am slowly recovering...) But this was more like wrapping a present, which I do enjoy - and it was a nice early reminder of the holiday season to come. In spite of all the doom and gloom foretold for the retail sector, good things most certainly come in small (edible) packages- as evidenced above. Full of bosc pears, dried cherries and a hint of amaretto, these tiny puff pastry pillows took the proverbial cake.

Little Devils

Curried, deviled quail eggs

The Humble Sprout

This post is dedicated to the poor souls out there that grimace (unjustly) at the thought of this miniature little vegetable. Somewhat alien when they first emerge from the dirt, they are one of the authentic gems of the season and with a little extra attention - no excessive boiling or steaming please -- they can be one of the shining stars of your fall table. Here's an easy way to use and not abuse them:


Brussel Sprouts with Bacon and Thyme

• 1 1/2 lb Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved (quartered if large)
• 2 bacon slices, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
  

Cook Brussels sprouts in a 4-quart pot of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 6 minutes, then drain in a colander. Cook bacon in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat, stirring, until browned and crisp, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to moderate and stir in Brussels sprouts, thyme, salt, and pepper, then cook, stirring, 3 minutes. (courtesy of epicurious.com)

Ginger Plum Wine Poached Salmon: the Original Food for Thought

I am always trying to find new ways to incorporate more fish into my diet. Yes folks, I have booked a ticket on the omega-3 express. It's not as easy as you think (short of spiking my morning oatmeal with flax seed oil which I am loath to do-- raisins and honey are far more appealing). The Sous Chef of course would eat sushi for breakfast, however I have a moderately less voracious appetite for all things from the deep. (By less voracious I just mean the thought of seafood at every single meal leaves me well, green around the gills.) Salmon though is one of those miracle foods. Right up there with blueberries, pomegranate seeds and kale, salmon has been endorsed left and right by health practitioners and nutritionists for having wondrous effects on one's overall well-being. Salmon is, "low in calories and saturated fat, high in protein, and contains a unique type of health-promoting fat, the omega-3 essential fatty acid" -- which has been linked to better brain function and mental health --thank you internet. Now-- all of that being said, left to my own devices salmon would be smoked or cured exclusively (I was brought up on Saturday morning bagels at murray's deli in Philadelphia and I go to the church of Russ & Daughters here in NYC). However for the purposes of making tasty and healthful dinners, poaching is a fine alternative. Usually I poach in white wine, butter, garlic lemon etc... not winning any big points for originality with this concoction; however, tonight I decided to get a little wild. Okay not really - but I believe the salmon may have at least been wild. (There are notable differences between farm-raised salmon and wild salmon, in taste, texture and in ethics-- however attempts at sustainably farmed salmon or "environmentally responsible aquaculture" are out there - see www.cleanfish.com). This dinner was pretty tasty. My poaching liquid: fresh ginger, fresh garlic, chili oil, sesame oil, honey, soy sauce and plum wine. Served over brown rice and sauteed garlicky rainbow chard. With avocado as well -- I was practicing my sushi knife skills.

Blueberry Pie #2

Lovely Butternut Squash Soup

topped with bacon. because bacon makes most everything taste better. but bacon aside, this soup tasted pretty great on its own. made with a squash from my grandfather's garden.

The Post-August Wrap Up

Well folks, I don't know quite where the time went. My last post was July 29th and suddenly it's September? Apologies all around. This is not to say that I've abandoned the kitchen. I've just been slow to share my exploits with everyone. So, sit tight -- the following is the condensed version of August - because September has newly arrived and with it, apples, squash, radishes, soups, stews, etc. etc. all delightfully leading up to the GREAT PUMPKIN ADVENTURE of 2008. Stay tuned...

(spinach ravioli stuffed with spinach and goat cheese, topped with fresh garden pesto)


Key Lime Pie! In 4 steps -squeeze limes, make filling, candy limes, assemble pie.


King Crab Rangoons (These were so good that we had a good five minute discussion about whether or not we should purchase a Fry Daddy. We refrained)


Zucchini Muffins!

Garden Update

on the left: my first (next generation) pea
on the right: tuesday night's bounty (shut it- we make do with what we've got)

I am Gravlax, of the Viking Brooklyn Sea

What is gravlax anyway you might ask. Well, it's cured salmon. Not smoked - but dry cured in a highly concentrated salt, sugar and dill mixture (I added a few other things). It has a fresher taste than smoked salmon and has an extremely delicate and buttery texture. The term gravlax, or graavilohi, in Finnish (from whence my relatives originate -- if you don't believe me, check out the photo of my Papa a few posts down. That guy is a Finn) basically means - salmon dug into the ground. grav = grave/ lax = salmon. This is a pretty ancient tradition. Fishermen would salt the salmon and bury it in the sand where it would ferment. Thankfully, there wasn't much fermentation taking place in my temperature regulated refrigerator, nor did I attempt to bury it anywhere other than in a shallow baking dish, however it did cure quite successfully. I feel slightly more authentically Scandinavian now. I even made a traditional mustard sauce.

Cockles Oreganata

Cockles are a lot like Manila clams, and can be substituted for recipes that call for clams, like one of my favorite dishes: clams oreganata. Except instead of baking them, I made an heirloom tomato and fresh oregano base with butter and white wine and then steamed the cockles open in the sauce and served with freshly toasted breadcrumbs and parmesan on top. with lots of extra bread for dipping.

The next best thing to a pumpkin...

zucchini squash baked and stuffed with israeli couscous, parmesan and sweet pea salad.

Stalking the Sweeter Things in Life

Rhubarb Berry Ginger Crumble... my chaotic (but tasty) version of a pie. A pile of pie. :)

A Man and His Garden

So when I set out every year to have a halfway decent garden, I have to first come to terms with the fact that whatever modest harvest I end up with, will inevitably pale in comparison to my grandfather's garden. Every year he has a magnificent garden full of tomatoes, squash, cabbage, cucumbers, cantaloupe (this year's wild card), chard and wild rhubarb. I am okay with this :) More than anything, his garden gives me the added motivation to see what I can get to grow in a pot or two on my fire escape. However, for the sake of documenting all things inspirational and food related, I am including this terrific photo of my Papa with a giant bunch of rhubarb that he was more than happy to give to me (since technically, the rhubarb season has passed*, my grandmother was done making strawberry rhubarb pies til next season, and I was making his job of clearing the patch a wee bit easier)




* spring really is the best time for rhubarb -- however, I find that in a somewhat cooler climate like northern mass - the shoots stay tender til mid summer and are not at all woody as you'd expect. more about rhubarb later...

We need a bigger cooler

Just returned from up north and .... you guessed it! S.S. Lobster. Ahoy! The Sous Chef is now officially a charter member. I am beginning to feel like every time we go home for a visit, the sheer volume of seafood we transport back to Brooklyn multiplies. See Above. The great Alaskan King Crab. Good with just about anything - but our favorite is as follows:
Plain and Simple (with a little butter and lemon)

Tonno!

Last year, when the Sous Chef and I were on a lengthy trip via treno from Austria to Italia - we quizzed each other on Italian food vocab. "la salsiccia! la pera! il pisello!" I like to think that I came out of that journey a little wiser, as we were recently at a restaurant and I magically conjured up the translation of the Italian word for cuttlefish. The Sous Chef however, fared a little less successfully and came back to the states with only the word for tuna - tonno, etched into his memory. It may have had something to do with the smuggled jar of tonno packed in oil that managed miraculously to survive the transcontinental flight and the subsequent, steaming hot Brooklyn summer. The tonno sat on our shelf for a few months, shunned by my trepidatious notion of food borne illness, but was relished secretly by the Sous Chef as a midnight snack sometime last fall. (I decided to take a pass on that particular edible delight). In honor of that brave jar, I whipped up a fresh and tasty Mediterranean mix of equally good-quality (imported) tuna in olive oil, sliced green olives, flat-leaf parsley, cannellini beans, chopped tomato, avocado, lemon juice, salt & pepper.

Salmon Ravioli with Pesto Cream Sauce

I can't really speak too highly of basil. It will freshen the dullest of dishes and it always finds its way into my summer salads. This summer, I'm lucky to have 5 varieties growing in a basket on my patio, so I can experiment with the intensity of flavor for each. Last night, I decided to make a quick almond pesto and a light cream sauce to go with the salmon ravioli I had from raffettos. Salmon and pasta are a great combination but it usually involves a fairly heavy cream sauce. I favor a much lighter sauce, almost like a broth with just a touch of cream for depth but not so much that it drowns the poor ravioli. This pesto had a bit more texture than usual, so you could really see the flecks of purple basil and bits of almond as they infused the simple cream, but not creamy sauce.

Thank you, Mark Bittman, for giving me something to do with the stuff already in my fridge

I love it when this happens. I come across a recipe and want to try it out, and by some miracle or stroke of fantastically good luck, I have all of the ingredients in my kitchen already and don't need to go on a pilgrimage to find them! (though to be fair, my little corner grocery store has surprisingly decent produce... but for meats, cheese, fish, spices and nearly everything else I have to trek elsewhere). Mark Bittman, the guy from the New York Times, who has these amusing foodie video clips, made a simple little salad with mint, edamame, olive oil, lemon juice, salt & pepper and shaved pecorino cheese. I watched this weekend's clip and exclaimed at 10 am, "I can make that without going grocery shopping!" -- and I did -- well, I waited til dinner, but it was so great- I could eat bowls and bowls of this stuff. I would recommend that you buy the pre-shelled edamame beans to save yourself some extra time if you are going to try this at home.

Garden Update

I've been holding off on posting a garden update for a while after the tragic pea episode of earlier this summer. However, the coast looks mostly clear and I've got a lot of green things shooting up on the fire escape that deserve a mention. From top: basil boat, peas on the go, summer squash. Stay tuned for green beans and 6 varieties of tomatoes!

Cold Curried Carrot Soup

I love to make soup, but I typically do so when there's a nip in the air or snow on the ground. How boring, right? There is a world of chilled soup out there and I was turning my back on it. Not one to let convention get me down, I decided to spin off of my curried apple butternut squash soup recipe and find a cold soup that has the same gingery, curried zing and sweetness that I love without being so thick. And lately, since I've been more interested in curries and eastern ingredients, I thought a carrot soup, lightened with coconut milk would be the perfect accompaniment to those frosty lemon gingerades pictured below...

Lemon Gingerade

What's better than lemonade on a hot summer's day? A lemon gingerade cocktail on a hot summer's day. First, I made a ginger-infused simple syrup and then went to work juicing a boatload of lemons. I gave each glass a sugar/ginger rim. This could be my new favorite drink.

Pumpkin Ravioli in Green Garlic Brown Butter Sauce

I could put fresh young garlic in just about anything.... These ravioli's come from Raffettos - a great homemade pasta place on w. houston and 6th. If I can't make my own ravioli (it's way too hot for that kind of kitchen duty), I will gladly eat theirs. Finished with finely chopped almonds and parmesan cheese.