return to (circular) form

It just isn't fun to post without a little friendly back and forth, so many happy returns to Tom. Last weekend I was feeling a bit pizza-obsessed so I made two. The first was inspired by a pizza I had at the ever-delicious Pizzaiolo. This requires slicing fresh summer squash very thinly, a job that would be a lot easier to do with a mandolin but I still haven't gotten around to buying one.

• raw, thinly sliced zucchini
• cherry tomatoes
  
• mozzarella
• lemon zest
• olive oil
• salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and parmesan for topping

In addition to my pizza obsession, I've been loving grain- and bean- based salads. They keep well, make delicious lunches as leftovers, and they're so healthy it makes me feel better for eating pizza non-stop. This pizza was accompanied by a lentil (mixed french green and umbrian brown), basil, onion and tomato salad.


The next day, I tried to pare down the pizza even further to highlight some amazing red and yellow tomatoes I've been getting in my CSA box. This pizza had:

• thinly sliced heirloom tomatoes
• thinly sliced garlic
• mozzarella and gorgonzola
• italian parsley, salt and pepper to top

Serve with a green salad.

4/6 spring vegetable ragout

A veritable spring bounty that included sugar snap peas, asparagus, leeks, and spinach arrived in my Eatwell box last week. This is sort of a "fancy" dinner that made use of some leftover polenta. In addition to my CSA Box veggies, I also got fava beans, oyster mushrooms and tiny baby carrots from the regular grocery store. Besides prepping all the veg, it was actually quite easy to put together. Ragout is a one-pot dish where the veggies that take the longest to cook are added first. The "sauce" is simply water and the juices of the veggies plus lots of butter and a nice handful of herbs. The flavors were great - everything tasted fresh and green.

3/26 starch and veg improvisation

One of my favorite basic and yummy recipes involves sautéed carrots, celery, and spinach (or another soft dark green leafy, like chard) tossed with hearty noodles (either buckwheat or whole wheat) and french lentils. I had umbrian lentils in my pantry, already cooked whole wheat noodles, and leftover boiled potatoes, which I added to the mix. Blending starches can be fun! I spiked the sauce with a good dollop of creme fraiche (Tom's "secret ingredient") and topped with parmesan cheese. The results were yummy and used up leftover ingredients - a win-win!

3/31 fava bean and dill braise with poached eggs

I admit it, fava bean season gets me all in a tizzy. I know I'm supposed to complain about the picky two-step process to prep them. First you remove the clever little beans from their fuzzy shells and then peal off their charming jackets (which can be quickened by par boiling them, but I prefer the texture when you peal them raw). It's all good to me - it only means I'll be eating favas when the job is done!

Fava beans have a slightly pea-like flavor with a bit more attitude. They're a spring bean and they grow like mad in the Bay Area's Mediterranean climate. They pair nicely with other spring delights, like bunches of green garlic and dill. I sauted these three together for a few minutes before adding a couple of cups of water and letting it simmer (covered) for about 15 minutes. Then, I made a several wells right in the braise and added a couple of drops of rice vinegar and olive oil to each well. In went the eggs, which poached for about 5 minutes.

Serve over rice and eat immediately.

3/22 Another kind of pie....banana cream!

It seams like Tom and I never post desserts. For me, that used to be because I never made desserts. This is not because I don't like them; rather, it had to do with the fact that I was learning so much about cooking main dishes that adding a dessert into the mix seemed overwhelming.

However, based on my newfound confidence with homemade pastry crusts/shells, I've been expanding out of the savory and into the sweet. I decided to bring a banana cream pie to a communal dinner and even upped my own ante by making homemade caramel sauce. This was the most stressful part of the whole process (much more so than making pastry cream - another first. It came out lump free with no problems). I read a couple of food blogs about making home made caramel sauce that made the whole thing seem akin to playing russian roulette ("have a bowl filled with ice water ready to plunge your hand into in case caramel splatters everywhere; wear long sleeves; don't think of "rhinoceros"). However, for a first attempt I think it was okay - nice dark golden brown but not burnt.

So let's review the elements of this banana cream pie (from a Bon Appetit mag recipe which I am embarrassed to say I thoroughly enjoy):

Whole wheat chocolate pie crust
- layer of caramel sauce
- layer of pastry cream
- sliced bananas
- more pastry cream
-more bananas
- whipped cream and more caramel sauce.


Left overs make a great breakfast.

Chef Heather

Here is an interpretation of my "hobbies" brought to you by Ms. C.E.R.

3/16 Spring veg ragu w/ homemade papardelle

This was sort of a "its spring, glorious spring" kind of dish. Lots of picky and time-consuming prepping (artichokes, fava beans, leeks, and fennel) are braised together in a bit of water. Its sort of interesting to see the bright green of the artichokes and the favas fade to a more respectable muted gray-green in their cooked form.

After being inspired by Tom's "isn't this easy, even you can do it" homemade pasta postings, I decided to pull down the pasta machine and make homemade wide egg noodles to go with the ragu. It really was easy (although I got tired wrists kneading the dry pasta dough for ten minutes per my recipe's instructions). The noodles had great flavor and texture. I didn't run them through the thinnest setting of my machine which left them pretty hefty - I might do that next time. Which should be soon!

3/15 Saturday night is pizza night

Just when you thought that Tom and I couldn't possible make any more pizzas, think again! A pizza is always good. It works with whatever is in season and is a good bet when you're cooking for people you haven't met before (and thus cannot gauge potential food preferences and dispreferences).

I was inspired both by Tom's pizza night and my own success with getting yeasted tart crusts to rise, so I decided to make my own pizza dough. I really hate it when it turns out that homemade is like 10 times better than the convenience of store bought. My own dough was much lighter and more willing to be stretched out (without rebounding back into a ball - what is this a product of? Glutens? Only science can say). It was a joy to work with.

Here are the two pizzas. The first (above) had sauted mixed greens (kale, mustard, chard, and spinach) plus goat cheese, mozzarella and olives. The second had roasted portobello mushrooms,
sauted spring onions and garlic, fotina, and arugula. I prefer the mush pizza, but they were both pretty tastey.

3/14 More on tart crusts

I spent the weekend in the kitchen, despite the beautiful California spring weather and the weeds taking over my backyard patio.

I started Saturday off with a smoked salmon tart. You may remember this tart (or quiche) - I've posted about it previously. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to document more fully the making of a non-yeasted tart dough, especially since my proficiency level has increased exponentially from the early days (read: September).

A good crust starts with cold butter, cold water, flour, and salt. That is it. The key is not to add too much water. I make mine in a tiny food processor and stop adding water as soon as damp, loose crumbs form.

The second step is to roll out the crust to the desired thickness (large enough to fold over the edges and create a lip when the crust is placed in the tart pan). I finally have enough rolling pin skills to do this well. Here is the crust pre-oven:

Next, the crust is frozen briefly before baking for 25 minutes. Here is a shot of my home-made pie weight (kidney beans in foil) and sauted green garlic and spinach, waiting to fill the tart:Last but not least, the pre-baked tart shell is filled with the sauted greens, smoked salmon and a custard mix of eggs, milk, and creme fraiche (I beat 2 eggs and 1/2 cup creme fraiche in a 2 cup pirex, then pour in enough milk to bring to a total of 1 3/4 cups) and baked for about 40 minutes.

Finally, serve with a salad dressed lightly with honey and spring onion vinaigrette:
Take a brief tour through my past tart / quiche exploits. While they were all pretty yummy, I think I'm finally getting to the point where I'm making something quite lovely that gets the details right.

3/14 A spring quiche/tart/thing

This was made more recently (on March 3). I have been making a lot of different tarts and quiches lately, with either yeasted or non-yeasted crusts. I had been avoiding the yeasted crusts since I was having a hard time getting the dough to rise properly. This time around, I put the dough in my oven on "warm" and let it rise in there, which helped considerably. I think the oven was probably still too warm even though I had some good rising action happening, so next time I do this I will leave the door propped open a little.

A yeasted dough can be simply spread in the tart pan and the ingredients poured right in to bake. A non-yeasted dough needs to be prebaked. I was having a lot of problems with bubbles forming in the bottom of my non-yeasted doughs, even when I was pricking holes in the crust to let the steam escape. One of my friends reminded me of the old "foil and beans" trick to weight down pre-baked pie crusts, which I have employed once now to great success.

Another trick when baking a filled quiche (either yeasted or non) is to really wait until you see a nice brown crust to pull it out of the oven (as opposed to relying on the old, "45 minutes and it's done" rule).

The real moral here is that this particular quiche, which had asparagus and red onions, was the product of many a trial and error. I'm a "learn by repeating" kind of girl - even though I consider myself relatively adept in the kitchen, even I have cooking disasters.

A recent example came when I tried to make muffins with buttermilk in the batter. I blended my dry ingredients together and then went to mix in the buttermilk. Thinking it would be faster to use my electric mixer, I blended for a few seconds and then noticed the buttermilk separating into solids and water. It was disgusting. I had to throw the whole thing away and didn't have any muffins. I still don't know precisely what went wrong, but I know next time I will not not not use an electric mixer.

3/14 A veg pizza

Okay, I made this on February 3. That was a long time ago. Over a month. I know.

In any case, it seems only timely that I post a veg west coast pizza in response to Tom's pizza extravaganza. I like to make pizza, but I tend not to make my own crust - I buy TJ's premade dough, which is lazy but not half-bad. This means pizza does not have to be started in enough to time actually let the dough rise. I normally don't start cooking on a weeknight until 7:30-8, which means that getting bread rising action is not really going to happen.

This is a classic Greens pizza, with roasted tomatoes and garlic and thinly sliced, roasted potatoes. Add to this manchego (spanish sheep's cheese with a profoundly pleasing salty bite), gaeta olives, and basil. I was really happy with the crust-to-topping ratio with this pizza, and I actually ate leftovers on the plane to D.C. for the Smart Growth conference. It was way better than my usual cross-country meal of three bags of Jet Blue's signature Tierra Blue Potato Chips.

(it's worth looking at up close to see the perfect level of meltyness and crust browning)

1/22 mughal mushroom curry

Oh man. Start this out by stir frying raisins, a green apple from the backyard, and blanched almonds (this gets fluffed into the jasmine rice).

I have a great cookbook called Silk Road Cooking (so far, its crowning achievement is a fava bean braise with dill and poached eggs). This curry is one of its offerings, and it was quite good. The basic components are sliced white and brown mushrooms, onions, 1 tomato (canned, this time of year), celery, garlic, ginger, serrano chiles*, and whole milk yogurt. Seasonings are 2 tsps garam masala and 2 tsps curry powder, salt, and pepper.

*I decided not to seed the chiles (2 of them) since I like spicy. Wow. This was hot. Hot. But in a good way. Damn. I had seconds.

1/20 spinach and goat cheese custard

I'm really trying to get better at making homemade pastry crusts. A good pastry crust is both one of the world's simplest things and seemingly the most fleeting.

This was a decent use of a big bunch of spinach, scallions, garlic, and a nice goat cheese. I think the crust still needs more work - although this was my first version with veggie shortening (sure, I used the Spectrum naturals organic version, but its still mechanically pressed palm oil). It needs to be, like, browner, and more flaky. And, like, it needs to be higher up over the edge of the pan so I don't leak out custard guts all over the pan it was sitting in, forming some sort of horrible, burnt egg/fetus/thing.

1/14 fresh pasta with lemon/onion/pepper sauce

Its been exactly one month which is way to long to go between posts. I've been cooking this whole time, and plenty of decent things too. I blame the holidays and Tom and his stupid b-school distractions. Tom! Let's get back to basics!

And when I say basics, I mean butter.

Here is a very simple Mario Batali dish that can be thrown together in no time at all. It is sort of an italian/mexican hybrid dish; a tribute to the many mexican cooks who work in every kind of restaurant and influence flavors and preparation. The basic idea is to saute onions and jalapenos until nice and tender, throw in about 4 lemons worth of juice and zest, and then melt in one whole stick of butter. Just in case you want to know what a stick of butter looks like melting into a sauce, this is it:

**hint** lots of fresh ground black pepper is important here.

Toss with fresh parmesan and pecorino cheese:

Don't worry: I ate a huge portion of leftover brussel sprouts with pistachio nuts. That's right. It's healthy.

12/15 two winter soups

Have you ever looked into your refrigerator and been truly horrified by the amount of produce that is lurking therein? I guess I haven't been as vigilant as is needed on the cooking front, and this is the season of bulky, space-taking leafy greens (arugula, cabbage, spinach, beets and their greens, etc.)

This soup, of the roasted carrot variety, used up onions, carrots, and potatoes, roasted until very caramelized with garlic, bay leaves, and thyme. I pureed the soup, thinned it a little with milk, and topped it with goat cheese.

And here we have what I have decided is the new Christmas soup - borscht! Look at how lovely and seasonal the borscht appears with its ruby red broth, creamy white creme fraiche, and ivy green italian parsley. Into the borscht goes cabbage, potatoes, celery, onions, leeks, garlic, carrot, and of course, beets. Borscht is a real powerhouse at reducing an intimidating pile of produce into a ...well...giant pot of soup. Ohwell, at least I can freeze it.

The common element uniting both of these soups was a large batch of vegetable broth, started with a base of frozen bean cooking water and dressed up with the vegetable trimmings from both soups.

12/10 winter squash and seared radicchio risotto

Well this is a bit illogical, but I had about 4 butternut squashes which had arrived in my pantry over a series of weeks, so last weekend I cubed and roasted and froze all of it. The illogical part is that this recipe only called for one cup of roasted winter squash, and yet somehow I felt good about how I was making progress in "using up" an entire crop's worth of squash.

Here we have a simple risotto recipe with the addition of the cup of squash and one head of radiccho, cut into wedges and seared until caramelized a bit (about 10 minutes). For some reason I worried that I would mess up the radicchio and this would come out "gross" (in the parlance of our time), but it was actually awesome - just the right balance of sweet and bitter. I am no longer afraid of searing radicchio.

12/1 black bean enchiladas

I wanted to finish up the last of the year's crop of tomatillos (just for the record, these came in the CSA box at least a couple of weeks ago and have been "chillin'" in the fridge) and I also had about a cup of heirloom black beans that were lookin' for a place to do business. The inevitable result was black bean enchiladas. This was definitely a "weekend" meal. Its a lot of steps and a bit time-consuming. Just to fully reveal my process, I decided to document a more step-by-step narrative.

First, I had to make a black bean chili. Typical of recipes by Deborah Madison, this one involved making your own chile powder from ancho chiles and making your own chile spices from a toasted and ground medley of oregano, cumin, and cayenne. Here's a shot of the chili cooking (keep in mind I had already soaked the black beans all day). Also present are two cans of diced tomatoes, garlic, and three yellow onions:

I also made a tomatillo sauce with red onions, garlic, and cilantro, which was hand-pounded in my mortar and pestle. I did that because I hate technology. Here's a shot of the tomatillos cooking (they've already turned a nice cooked, "yellow" color):

You need to briefly heat the corn tortillas in hot oil so that they are nice and pliable. Here is the assembly line:
Last but not least, making the enchiladas. Yet another assembly line:

You can see the tomatillo sauce (middle) flanked by extra-sharp cheddar (left) and black bean chili (right).

At long last (15 minutes in a 400 degree oven), the enchiladas emerge in their full glory.
Here's a money shot, just to show how black beans + cheese=crazy delicious. This is what makes it all worth it:

11/26 leek, olive, and duck tart

The photo here is of a half-eaten tart. You should take that as a fair indication of the results from this relatively easy recipe. I made a yeasted tart dough in advance (Sunday) and stuck in in the freezer, so the only thing that needed to be prepared night of was sauteing leeks, chopping olives and herbs, grating parmesan, and whisking eggs and cream.

PLUS chopping leftover duck. I picked this recipe precisely because it seemed it would take to duck leftovers so well - and this time, instincts did not disappoint. I think I could have eaten the whole thing if I was properly motivated (although I'm sure I would have regretted it).

11/23 My first duck

The first time is always difficult. I was nervous, especially since I never make meats in general. Plus duck needs a little bit of extra special care to make sure you render the fat out from under the skin during the cooking process. It only took me two different days of two different roasting sessions to get it right - and I learned a lot in the process. I was supposed to be eating/serving duck on thanksgiving day, but instead I had a little post-thanksgiving feast.

The duck is served with one of my favorite recipes: marjoram pesto with beets and their greens, with thinly sliced onions marinated in red wine vinegar (it's supposed to be red onions - but I didn
t have any. A small sweet white onion worked fine). I thought this might need a little extra starch to round out, so I roasted some potatoes (boiled whole in advance to speed up the cooking) in a bit of the duck fat still left in the roasting pan.

10/20 pasta with butternut squash and tomatoes

Mark Bittman ("The Minimalist") wrote a great piece last week about the ratio of pasta-to-sauce. I have to say I've always been a bit of a fan of the 1/3 pasta - to - 2/3 sauce ratio (when cooking with dried pasta - not fresh), so this was merely a nice reinforcement of an informal practice I was already observing to some degree. I decided to try out one of the featured recipes with this article, because - guess what - I had more squash from the CSA.

I modified Bittman's recipe a bit, making it a little more complex. For one thing, I blanched, peeled, and seeded the tomatoes, reserving the juice and throwing it back in with the sauce. For another thing, I cooked the sauce longer than Bittman seems to recommend here (probably close to 45 minutes). This ensured that the tomatoes had broken down and bit more and that the sauce had time to thicken. The squash, while tender, didn't break down with the increased cooking time. I also added several good glugs of olive oil at the end to give the sauce a bit more flavor and a nice sheen.

Experiment = successful! I'll be adding this to the rotation.