Friday, June 11, 2010

A busy weekend....

Eric and I had fun with some new recipes last weekend. My paella pan was just screaming to be christened after FIVE whole years of sitting around untouched. I'm sorry, paella pan. And then a rain storm chased us inside forcing us to make an orange-scented panettone topped with sliced almonds and early season cherries from the farmers market. I'm not kidding. The recipe called out to us from a book saying in Jamie Oliver's cute British accent "bake me!"


Well, the cherries were rediculously expensive so I had to do something extra special with them. We had it for breakfast after a night of HOT Jamblaya. For all of our paella needs, we went to A&H Seafood in Bethesda. This truly spanish fish market is full of awesome imports and have paella pans hanging from the ceiling.

We loosely followed a recipe from the yellow Gourmet cookbook. But instead of sticking to a solely seafood dish, we opted to add the chicken thighs I had to use up from our trip to Polyface Farms last year and chorizo from Whole Foods. WOW what excellent chorizo. It gave the dish a ton of flavor.

Go for some paella this summer. It's just too fun to miss out. I almost said "miss out on" but that would be ending my sentence in a preposition, which would get me in big trouble. Anyways, be sure to play some Gipsy Kings while you cook.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Q-U-I-C-H-E.



I once remember joining my mother at a baby shower or wedding shower or something at a cozy little restaurant in western NY. I must have been about 7 years old and I believe it was Colden Country Kitchen (is that still around?). Anyways, I don't remember the exact venue or celebration, but I remember all the ladies ordered quiche. All of these grown up ladies celebrating a rite of passage for a fellow female could order anything they wanted, and they all picked quiche. Ever since that moment quiche has remained the absolute definition of sophistication in my mind. Like a good pair of high heels, a sexy black cocktail dress and a cordless drill, its something for every woman to have in her bag of tricks. And for some reason, I thought it would be difficult to make. I was so deceived.

"QUICHE". Even the word is somewhat complicated to spell or say, right? (I always think there is an “s” in there somewhere. I swear that at one point there was indeed an “s” until some Frenchman blackened it out with the end of his cigarette and changed the word forever).

The good news is that while a quiche is, admittedly, just teensy bit fussy to make, once it’s made it’s the most chilled-out food you could ever have in your house. Fill the shell at the last second for unexpected house guests. Cut it into wedges for an impromptu appetizer. I’m toying with the idea of strapping it to my back and carrying in on bicycle to my next picnic. It remains sturdy in your fridge for quite some time. And its versatile…in fact, I just created this filling based on what I had in my fridge!

This tart dough recipe is from James Peterson’s Glorious French Food. James calls this “basic pie and tart dough”. I have to tell you, James: the dough is awesome for quiche. But then I used the scraps to make apple hand pies and it was a little dense. Even Eric, who will eat anything that remotely resembles an apple pie, let it sit in the kitchen until I threw it out four days later. And I couldn’t blame him. It just wasn’t delicate. I suggest we stick to grandma’s proven pie crust and let James Peterson win the blue ribbon for a sturdy, flaky, reliable quiche dough.

Just looking at this recipe seems like its long and tedious. But I promise that once you get the method down, it’s as simple as Kraft Mac n’ Cheese. Well, almost.

1 stick plus 1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter
1 and ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 large egg plus 1 yolk beaten with ¼ tsp salt and 1 tablespoon cold water
1 to 3 tablespoons ice water, added slowly

There are two ways to do this: in the food processor or with a pastry cutter by hand. I am usually a traditionalist but am happy that my pastry blender broke within two minutes of using it, forcing me to step into 2010 and use my food processor. It worked perfectly. The downside is that I need a new pastry blender.

First: get your butter really cold by sticking it in the freezer for 20 minutes. Take it out and cut it into about 36(ish) small pieces by slicing the unwrapped stick of butter long-wise, then turn it over and slice long-wise again, then make 8 cuts across it. Toss those pieces with the flour so they are well coated and stick the whole bowl back into the freezer for another 10 minutes. While it’s chilling, beat your egg mixture.

After 10 minutes in the freezer dump the well-chilled flour and butter into your food processor and pulse it about 12 times or until the flour and butter comes together in pea-sized chunks. Don't over pulse. While pulsing, add the egg mixture slowly. Depending on the size of your eggs and the humidity of the day, you may need to add anywhere from 1 to 3 tablespoons of water. Do it very slowly so you don’t over-moisturize your dough. Once the dough comes together in a ball on one side of the blade, STOP. Take the ball out, wrap it in plastic and stick it in the fridge for at least 1 hour and up to 24 hours. I like doing this at night so I can start the next morning with dough ready for baking


The next step is to do what the French call “blind baking”: baking the tart shell without filling so it doesn’t get soggy when you add eggs. Get out your tart pan and butter it good. Preheat the overn to 400 degrees (I stick with 375 because I think my oven is a little hot and it browns too fast at 400).

Roll out the dough on a cleaned, lightly floured work surface or on a marble pastry board to about ¼ inch thick. I use a 10” tart pan and always find that I have a ton of dough left over. That extra dough is awesome for mini quiches or little cupcake quiches; just stuff the dough into the well-greased wells of mini cupcake tins!

Once you have rolled it out, gently gather it up and lay it into your greased tart pan. Use your fingers to press it into the ridges evenly and cut off any excess dough with a sharp knife. Use a fork to make a few fork marks in the bottom of the crust so it bakes though evenly.



Now, Robert Peterson says to refrigerate the dough-lined tart pan for another hour. The first time I did this I was pressed for time and skipped this step and it came out beautifully. If you’ve got 15 minutes, I say give it a good chill. Otherwise, let’s move on.

The pastry dough will puff up when baked, removing some of your surface area for fillings. So we have to keep it pressed down. Lay a large sheet of parchment paper on top of the dough (NOT wax paper or foil, ONLY parchment) and put dried rice or dried beans or anything else you’ve got on hand that you don’t care too much about in the shell on top of the parchment like so. Put this in the oven for about 15 minutes or until the shell loses its shiny color and becomes golden brown.

Remove it from the oven and let cool for a few minutes before gently lifting off the parchment and discarding your rice or beans (I keep them in a jar and use them over and over for this express purpose). When it’s cool, brush it with an egg wash: 1 beaten egg with about ¼ tsp salt.



Old pal James again says to bake it for another 20 minutes (this time with no beans or rice). I did this the first time and thought the tart dried out, so now just stick it back in the oven long enough for the egg wash to seal: about 8 minutes. Take it out and cool completely. You can do everything up to this step a whole 24 hours before filling it. Just put your baked crust into a sealed Tupperware and keep it in the fridge. Let it come to room temperature before you fill it with custard.

This is where it gets fun! As long as you use an egg and cream base, you can be really creative. Swiss cheese and bacon or lardoons or prosciutto would make it “quiche Lorraine”. Mushrooms are divine in this. So is smoked salmon, scallion and cream cheese. Try asparagus and goat cheese! Or ricotta and layered sliced heirloom tomatoes. Use arugula or chard or dollops of pesto! I can go on and on. This one happens to be feta, spinach, scallion and parmesan.

Basic egg custard:

James uses more cream than eggs. I like more eggs than cream. For a 10” pan, I generally use:

6 whole eggs
3 whites
½ cup of heavy cream
½ tsp salt and a few cranks of fresh pepper

Quiche usually doesn’t call for whites, but I appreciate the lighter custard and I think your heart will appreciate it too. However, if it’s a special day and you are psyched for a rich entrĂ©e, use 9 whole eggs. It won’t kill you and tastes amazing.

The quiche in the photo was made like this: wash, de-stem and roughly chop a big bag of spinach. With the water clinging to the leaves, put it in a big pan or wok and add about ½ cup of water. Cover and steam for just about 3 minutes. Dunk the steamed spinach in ice water for a moment to stop the cooking and let it drain in a colander set over a bowl. When you think its done draining, squeeze any excess the moisture out. If its winter and fresh spinach is hard to come by, use one box frozen spinach. You can skip the cooking but make sure it’s well-drained.



Finely slice the green and white parts of 2 scallions. Flash-fry in about ½ tsp of hot butter for about 2 minutes over high heat. Dump the hot scallions right into the tart crust.

Beat your 9 eggs or 6 eggs plus whites with the ½ cup cream, salt, pepper and about 1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan. Dump in the spinach and mix it all up. Pour your custard into the tart crust. It will only puff up a little, so if your pan looks really empty, add another beaten egg. I scattered about 1/3 cup of feta on top and pushed a few larger pieces down into the custard before baking.

This one took about 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven to completely set. I honestly don't know if your use of more egg whites as opposed to whole eggs will have an effect on cooking time. Can a food scientest please answer me this? Either way: it will take at least 30 minutes. Keep your eye on it from then on until its set in the middle and a little browned. Gorgeous!

Friday, May 28, 2010

Picnic Salad to pep up your Memorial Day

Why does Memorial Day weekend have to begin so dark and gloomy, right off of a full moon? I think its a proven fact that people go CRAZY during the full moon. I had insane, tripped-out dreams last night. Eric has a mysterious, feverish virus. My mother is currently a little overwhelmed and I'd like to help. Uncle Kenny, I wish I could help you feel just a teensy, tiny bit better today.

However unsettled your holiday weekend may be beginning, take comfort in the fact that once you make this pasta salad to take to a picnic, you'll find yourself revisiting it again and again, year after year. It's like my old, reliable friend. I'd even say its a kitchen soul mate...something familiar that arrives with the spring as sure as thunderstorms and azaleas to bring a bit of color back to your life. I am a true believer that once you find something as tried and true and delicious as this recipe, you should spread the love around.

Happy Memorial Day, friends. Let's take the "memorial" part literally and extend true thanks to those who have enriched our lives in meaningful ways, particularly those who have served this country. I'm sorry this isn't a particularly aesthetically patriotic salad, but lets leave that to the jello mold, shall we?

SESAME CHICKEN AND ASPARAGUS PASTA
The New Basics. Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukins

Introduced to me by Aunt Linda and Uncle Brack many moons ago...

~14 oz. linguine
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
6 tablespoons chunky peanut butter
¼ cup soy sauce
6 tablespoons sesame oil
3 tablespoons hot chili oil
~ 1 - 1.5 lb boneless and skinless cooked chicken breasts
5 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted*
1 lb thin asparagus, trimmed
3 scallions, white bulb and three inches green, cut into 2-inch julienne
1 small cucumber, halved, seeded and cut into ¼-inch dice


1. Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add the linguine, and cook at a rolling boil until just tender. Drain, rinse under cold water, drain again, and set aside in a large mixing bowl. (must be cold before setting aside, so noodles don’t stick to each other).

2. Place the garlic, vinegar, brown sugar, peanut butter, and soy sauce in a food processor. Process for one minute. With the motor running, slowly add the sesame and hot chili oils through the feed tube, and process until well blended.

3. Shred the chicken into 2-inch julienne, and toss with the linguine. Add the sauce and 4 tablespoons of the sesame seeds, and toss to coat well.

4. Cut the asparagus on the diagonal into 1-inch lengths. Blanch in a saucepan of boiling water for 1 minute. Drain, rinse under cold water and pat dry. (adding ice cubes to the asparagus helps cool it rapidly so that it retains an intense green color).

5. Place the linguine and chicken in a large flat serving bowl, and arrange the asparagus on top. Sprinkle with the scallions, cucumber, and remaining 1 tablespoon sesame seeds. Serve at room temperature.

6 servings


*Spread sesame seeds on pan and place in 350° oven for 10-15 minutes, or until golden.

AND PS: this salad is GREAT vegetarian. I've added snap peas and tofu in the past as well.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Top 50 Restaurants in the WORLD

San Pellegrino has put out THE list again and I wasn't going to comment on it since (a) I haven't been to any of these restaurants and (b) couldn't it be somewhat biased towards really expensive restaurants? I mean, sure, expensive restaurants have access to the best ingredients, therefore by default offering a better product. But I will argue that in almost every city, my favorite and most enjoyable meal is at the hole-in-the-wall on the corner (such as Fattoush in Brooklyn Heights).

But this week as I caught up on my usual food blogs THE LIST keeps appearing everywhere. Everyone is talking about it. I doubt I'll ever make it to any of these restaurants. But just in case you happen to find yourself in Denmark, you'll want to hit up the Number 1 restaurant in the world. It's good information to know anyways (and a shout out to Chicago!)

http://www.theworlds50best.com/awards/1-50-winners

There. I've done my civic duty.

What's your favorite restaurant ever?

love, me.

Monday, May 10, 2010

We declare the farmers markets OPEN!!

Let us commence the celebration! (Get it? Let us? Lettuce!?)



Eric and I enjoyed a gorgeous spring weekend in Richmond; the kind that reminds you of the joy and bounty of warm weather. In fact, as usual for us, it was a culinarily delightful weekend all around!

After a night at Richmond's First Friday gallery openings, we headed over to Comfort, a unique restaurant and bar across the street from Eric's apartment that features soothing, classic southern food. I'm not talking fried chicken and biscuits, though. The menu changes weekly and features local pork belly or wild tile fish or 1/2 roasted chicken with 2 or 3 sides. It was late, so we shared friend green tomatoes and two sides: braised collards and mac and cheese. We agreed that the best way to eat our late night food was to mix the greens and mac and deliver it to our mouths in mixed up forkfuls washed down by the BEST SUMMER COCKTAIL EVER. It took trips to four liquor stores the next day to find the right liquor, but we did it. Comfort called this cocktail something that I can't remember now. So instead, we rename it:

"Richmond in May (on bicycle)"

1/2 lemon, juiced

1/2 tablespoon sugar

small bunch fresh mint

muddle all that together and add lots of ice

equal parts vodka and St. Germain (about a shot each)

big splash very fizzy soda water

Give it a good stir and enjoy

We figured out that St. Germain is also decadent with champagne and there is a recipe for Pisco Sours with it thats on the list for next time.

St Germain is an elderflower liquor and the website specifically says that each spring the elderflower is collected in the foothills of the alps by peysan (a french peasant) on his bicycle and trekked to market. Isn't that charming? I wonder if its true...

Anyways. Saturday began early at the Forest Hills Farmers Market, which could also be called The Happiest Place On Earth. Seriously. There were guys playing banjo and singing "Goodnight Irene", babies with faces stained with fresh berries petting puppies. Even a big old hound dog that wanted love from everyone. And produce a-plenty. We left with some stunning red leaf lettuce, a bunch of scallions and the most gorgeous strawberries I've seen in a awhile.



After a trip to Ellwood Thompon's, a local organic grocery to get some rainbow chard and scallops for dinner, we dropped our treasures at home and headed to Pocahontas state park for a hike and picnic lunch. We were feeling aggressive: I had 11 miles in mind. But the pollen in the air had us beat and we settled for around 5. Just enough to whet our appetites for a healthy dinner and a cocktail (or 3).

Eric and I have recently become obesessed with all leafy greens: chard, kale, spinach, you name it (except for mustard greens). It's DELICIOUS and filling in a way that I thought only carbohydrates could satiate me. And so simple. And easy to change up! This weekend we made rainbow chard with the method below. But be advised that kale or chard are also delicious sexed up by being steamed with orange juice, garlic, raisins and crushed red pepper flakes.

Bring a small pot of salted water to boil. Meanwhile, get a nonstick pan heated with about a tablespoon of olive oil. Add fresh minced garlic to sizzle. Add slivered almonds and mix it up with the garlic and oil. Keep the pan hot and sizzling. When the water is boiling, add your rinsed and chopped greens for just 30 seconds to a mintue. Using tongs, tranfer your greens right to the sizzling garli, nuts and oil. Pan fry for about 3 minutes adding any other flavorings you like. Parmesean cheese is a nice finisher, but we didn't have any. A note: you can also dunk your greens in iced water after they boil to stop the cooking for a moment.

Our dinner of scallops, sauteed chard and salad with tomatoes, avocado and scallion was plain and decadent at the same time: in the way that only a farmers market can produce. And it made us both HAPPY! Welcome spring :)

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

"Cilantro-Haters: It's not your fault". Love, the NY Times


When I cook for lots of people, I am often cognizant of those who fall into the "cilantro-hater" category. Outwardly, I am understanding. However my inner dialogue wants to scream "what is WRONG with you people? It's so fresh! It tastes like SPRING!! It tastes....like Mexico."

However, this article solves the great mystery. Cilantro-haters, I'm sorry that I ever thought ill of your palette. This article also explains some of the reasons why we might not like a food at first try, but grow to crave it after a few trys (sushi, I'm talking to you).

Cilantro Haters, It’s Not Your Fault

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

By HAROLD McGEE
Published: April 13, 2010
FOOD partisanship doesn’t usually reach the same heights of animosity as the political variety, except in the case of the anti-cilantro party. The green parts of the plant that gives us coriander seeds seem to inspire a primal revulsion among an outspoken minority of eaters.
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Culinary sophistication is no guarantee of immunity from cilantrophobia. In a television interview in 2002, Larry King asked Julia Child which foods she hated. She responded: “Cilantro and arugula I don’t like at all. They’re both green herbs, they have kind of a dead taste to me.”
“So you would never order it?” Mr. King asked.
“Never,” she responded. “I would pick it out if I saw it and throw it on the floor.”
Ms. Child had plenty of company for her feelings about cilantro (arugula seems to be less offensive). The authoritative Oxford Companion to Food notes that the word “coriander” is said to derive from the Greek word for bedbug, that cilantro aroma “has been compared with the smell of bug-infested bedclothes” and that “Europeans often have difficulty in overcoming their initial aversion to this smell.” There’s an “I Hate Cilantro” Facebook page with hundreds of fans and an I Hate Cilantro blog.
Yet cilantro is happily consumed by many millions of people around the world, particularly in Asia and Latin America. The Portuguese put fistfuls into soups. What is it about cilantro that makes it so unpleasant for people in cultures that don’t much use it?
Some people may be genetically predisposed to dislike cilantro, according to often-cited studies by Charles J. Wysocki of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. But cilantrophobe genetics remain little known and aren’t under systematic investigation. Meanwhile, history, chemistry and neurology have been adding some valuable pieces to the puzzle.
The coriander plant is native to the eastern Mediterranean, and European cooks used both seeds and leaves well into medieval times.
Helen Leach, an anthropologist at the University of Otago in New Zealand, has traced unflattering remarks about cilantro flavor and the bug etymology — not endorsed by modern dictionaries — back to English garden books and French farming books from around 1600, when medieval dishes had fallen out of fashion. She suggests that cilantro was disparaged as part of a general effort to define the new European table against the flavors of the old.
Modern cilantrophobes tend to describe the offending flavor as soapy rather than buggy. I don’t hate cilantro, but it does sometimes remind me of hand lotion. Each of these associations turns out to make good chemical sense.
Flavor chemists have found that cilantro aroma is created by a half-dozen or so substances, and most of these are modified fragments of fat molecules called aldehydes. The same or similar aldehydes are also found in soaps and lotions and the bug family of insects.
Soaps are made by fragmenting fat molecules with strongly alkaline lye or its equivalent, and aldehydes are a byproduct of this process, as they are when oxygen in the air attacks the fats and oils in cosmetics. And many bugs make strong-smelling, aldehyde-rich body fluids to attract or repel other creatures.
The published studies of cilantro aroma describe individual aldehydes as having both cilantrolike and soapy qualities. Several flavor chemists told me in e-mail messages that they smell a soapy note in the whole herb as well, but still find its aroma fresh and pleasant.
So the cilantro aldehydes are olfactory Jekyll-and-Hydes. Why is it only the evil, soapy side that shows up for cilantrophobes, and not the charming one?
I posed this question to Jay Gottfried, a neuroscientist at Northwestern University who studies how the brain perceives smells.
Dr. Gottfried turned out to be a former cilantrophobe who could speak from personal experience. He said that the great cilantro split probably reflects the primal importance of smell and taste to survival, and the brain’s constant updating of its database of experiences.
The senses of smell and taste evolved to evoke strong emotions, he explained, because they were critical to finding food and mates and avoiding poisons and predators. When we taste a food, the brain searches its memory to find a pattern from past experience that the flavor belongs to. Then it uses that pattern to create a perception of flavor, including an evaluation of its desirability.
If the flavor doesn’t fit a familiar food experience, and instead fits into a pattern that involves chemical cleaning agents and dirt, or crawly insects, then the brain highlights the mismatch and the potential threat to our safety. We react strongly and throw the offending ingredient on the floor where it belongs.
“When your brain detects a potential threat, it narrows your attention,” Dr. Gottfried told me in a telephone conversation. “You don’t need to know that a dangerous food has a hint of asparagus and sorrel to it. You just get it away from your mouth.”
But he explained that every new experience causes the brain to update and enlarge its set of patterns, and this can lead to a shift in how we perceive a food.
“I didn’t like cilantro to begin with,” he said. “But I love food, and I ate all kinds of things, and I kept encountering it. My brain must have developed new patterns for cilantro flavor from those experiences, which included pleasure from the other flavors and the sharing with friends and family. That’s how people in cilantro-eating countries experience it every day.”
“So I began to like cilantro,” he said. “It can still remind me of soap, but it’s not threatening anymore, so that association fades into the background, and I enjoy its other qualities. On the other hand, if I ate cilantro once and never willingly let it pass my lips again, there wouldn’t have been a chance to reshape that perception.”
Cilantro itself can be reshaped to make it easier to take. A Japanese study published in January suggested that crushing the leaves will give leaf enzymes the chance to gradually convert the aldehydes into other substances with no aroma.
Sure enough, I’ve found cilantro pestos to be lotion-free and surprisingly mild. They actually have deeper roots in the Mediterranean than the basil version, and can be delicious on pasta and breads and meats. If you’re looking to work on your cilantro patterns, pesto might be the place to start.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Cake Project: "And Baby Makes 3"



It was my aboslute pleasure to attempt, for the first time ever, a really complicated cake. My lovely friends Amanda and Bill Markmann, to whom I was introduced by Meredith, are adding to their family! Additionally it was Amanda's 30th birthday. In my book, those are two VERY important things to celebrate and we celebrated all at once.

I wanted to design a cake that recognized Amanda's unique and individual style in honor of her birthday, but I also wanted the cake to pay tribute to the the PUC (person-under-construction) that Amanda and Bill will soon welcome. Therefore, I stole straight from their lovely invitation featuring a pair of lovebirds and added a little mini bird for effect. Then I took the tiny details on the birds and blew them up as decor for the sides of the cake.

This is not their exact invitation, but it is the same design (From Tiny Prints).
I have been avoiding fondant for awhile now, thinking that it sounds impossible to work with, but absolutely everyone says "fondant is eaaaassyy" (in a taunting, sing-songy voice) and thus I can't back away from a challenge! Thus, a big order was placed to Wilton.com and Eric's skills in logistics were employed.

And here's the rub: this cake was a true exercise in compromise for mine and Eric's relationship. You see, in the kitchen, I am the boss. And he really should be commended for following my constant instruction of "chop this, sautee that". HOWEVER. This cake was a work of art: so what happens when the kitchen boss and the artist come together?




I had the "plan" in my head. Just in my head. And I explained it with lots of hand motions and asked Eric to bring some scalples for cutting out fondant. But that wasn't good enough for the artist. He wanted artistic renderings of "the plan" (I can't draw). He wanted to know exactly how many leaves we needed to cut out (why count? Just use them all!) He wanted a time schedule of which design had to be completed by what time (that went out the window after the first bottle of wine).


In the end, I was so happy with how this turned out and glad that I could contribute to the party and the welcoming of a new person to the world in a meaningful way. Eric and I survivied and contemplated going into a cake business together (until the buzz wore off). But we will take requests for other special events!







Allie Carroll, of Allie Carrol Photography was at the party and took some fabulous shots. Obviously, the more delicious-looking photos on here are her handy work. Take a look at her blog for other shots of the party and a glimpse into her many talents!

Note: a few have asked about the actual cake recipe: I used baking diva Rose Levy Beranbaum's All American Butter Cake from The Cake Bible. It is a dense cake that I return to often for its tiny crumb and reliable structure. The chocolate buttercream recipe was off Wilton's website, which is also incidently where I ordered the fondant.

Allie Carroll Photography

website: alliecarrollphotography.com
blog: alliecarrollphotography.wordpress.com