Sunday, March 31, 2013

Happy Passeaster Fools' Day!

Today's Easter and Passover and April Fools Day all at once, which is pretty much winning the variable-date holiday lottery, and definitely cause for brunch. So I invited some people over, cooked something relevant for each holiday, and drank far too much of the sangria D. brought over. It all got devoured before I even thought to get out my camera, so no photos (update: photos of leftover charoset and sangria; you're on your own for the rest), but here's my recipes:


Passover: Coconut Charoset


This isn't traditional for anybody as far as I could tell, but it was all things I had in my pantry. I kept going back and forth over whether to make Charoset or just cooked apples; in the end I wound up somewhere in between and it was delicious. I like the slippery texture and extra protein from the flax seeds, but if you don't have any just up the amount of nuts to make up for it. This makes enough to serve many; all measurements are pretty rough since I made it up as I went along. Orange zest or a splash of wine would probably go well too.

4 apples
1/2 cup almonds (or walnuts)
1/3 cup golden flax seeds
1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
~1 tbsp apple pie spice (or 2tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp alspice, 1/2 tsp cloves, pinch of nutmeg)
1 tsp cardamom
lemon juice
pinch of salt
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp brown sugar
Butter

1) Pulse the nuts in a food processor until roughly ground/finely chopped (or just buy them that way). Put aside in a bowl. Peel and core the apples, chop roughly. Either pulse the apples in the food processor until they're finely chopped (but NOT yet turned into applesauce) or mince them by hand. Put in a bowl and toss with some lemon juice.

2) Heat a good bit of butter in a pan over medium heat. Add the apples and nuts and stir for a minute. Add everything else (best to start with less than the total honey/sugar and spices and add to taste), plus another teaspoon or so of lemon juice. Mix thoroughly. Cook partly covered until the apples start to soften but don't quite lose all of their crunch, maybe 10-15 minutes. Serve with matzoh for the observant or crepes (below) for the not.


Easter: Arugula Zucchini Frittata
Easter for me is all about chocolate and jelly beans. But since I'm waiting for tomorrow's sales to buy my candy, second place goes to eggs, spring veggies, and salted pork products. I found this recipe from Bon Appetit for a leek-and-asparagus frittata, which seemed appropriately spring-like, then proceeded to change everything about it except the method, because I had a zucchini and onions in my fridge but no leeks or asparagus. Also I'm not too crazy about asparagus. Anyway, I encourage you to do the same. Serve with a slice of baked Easter ham, or some tasty crispy bacon. Feeds 5, apparently.

2 slices bacon (or some bacon fat, or butter, or olive oil if you're being responsible)
1 zucchini, sliced into half moons (I used the medium setting on my mandoline then cut the rounds in half, makes things way easier.)
1 onion, chopped
8 eggs
1 large handful of arugula, torn up a bit
1/4 cup ground romano cheese
S&P

1) In an oven-proof skillet (I used my cast iron), cook the bacon. When crispy, remove from pan with a slotted spoon and enjoy as chef's treat, leaving the drippings in the pan. Alternatively, heat up some butter, oil, or bacon fat reserved from last time you made the stuff.

2) Saute the onion over medium heat in the bacon (or other) fat. After about 2 minutes, add the zucchini. Saute until the zucchini is softened and the onions are transparent.

3) Meanwhile, beat the eggs. Add the cheese, arugula, a generous pinch of salt, and an equally generous dose of black pepper. Mix well.

4) Here's where my instructions start to match up with BA's. Pour the egg mixture over the veggies and stir once or twice to get it all mixed in. Cook partly covered over med-high heat until almost set - there will be a bit of raw egg in the center; don't worry about it. Stick the whole pan under the broiler for about 3 minutes, until it's puffed up and cooked through. Cut into slices and dig in.


Because they're delicious and it's brunch: Crepes
This recipe is very slightly adapted from the 1975 edition of the Joy of Cooking. It's the only thing I still make from that book, but I love it.

3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tbsp powdered sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk (I used drinkable coconut milk and found I needed a bit more)
1/3 cup water
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp almond extract (optional but good)

1) Whisk together the dry ingredients.

2) In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Make sure the eggs are well-beaten.

3) Add the wet ingredients into the dry ones. Stir briefly. Don't worry if there's a few lumps; they'll disappear on their own. The batter should be somewhat thin, definitely of pourable consistency.

4) Heat a bit of butter in a smallish pan. Add about a quarter cup of batter. (I just use my quarter cup measuring cup, usually not filled quite all the way.) Tilt the pan so the batter covers the whole bottom, fairly thinly. Cook until the bottom starts to brown, then flip and cook til golden. Lather, rinse, repeat.

5) Serve with charoset, fresh berries and whipped cream, sliced mangoes and whipped cream, chocolate sauce, maple syrup, lemon curd, powdered sugar; you really can't go wrong.


Red wine = invisible fruits :-( 

And because we're grownups and we can: Dolly's Sangria
This is roughly what I saw her do, with a little twist of my own.

1+ cup each:
-chopped peaches or nectarines
-green grapes
-fresh blueberries
-sliced strawberries
1 bottle white wine
2 cans Fresca
lemon or lime juice to taste
Ice
(1/4 bottle of red wine, optional but really good)

1) Mix everything in a big pot. Let sit for a while to soak the fruit. Drink in a large glass. Have seconds.


Monday, March 18, 2013

Some Good Southern Cookin'

Okay so none of these things are actually Southern food. But I cooked them while in the South, so close enough. Shuddup.

I'm currently in North Carolina visiting my dear friends J. & R. and their two dogs and two cats. So far we've gone out for barbeque and Mexican and pizza and big breakfast skillet hashes, and while it's all been utterly delicious dear lord is there a vegetable in the house? Well yes, as it turns out, since J and I stopped at a farmers market in Raleigh on the way home from the airport. So last night for dinner we skipped the leftover pulled pork and I cooked us up what basically amounted to a big pile of tasty tasty veggies: cauliflower/squash soup, sauteed green beans with tomato, and roasted spiced sweet potato wedges.

They're in the middle of a move, so cooking dinner went something like this: Dig through boxes for a cutting board and soup pot. Get out the veggies, oil a roasting dish. Realize the only thing we've got to chop up two huge sweet potatoes and a butternut squash is a little steak knife. Send R back to the old house to get the real knives. Get a movie up on Netflix til R gets back. Chop the potatoes, get them in the oven, peel and chop the squash and cauliflower, get them roasting too. Go to chop onions and garlic, realize we have no onions and garlic. Send R out to get them while he's picking up his cheese steak (not a vegetable kind of guy).  Watch another 20 minutes of said movie til R gets back. Get everything sauteed, simmered, roasted, and blended. Start to finish: something like 2 hours. But I swear, if you actually have your stuff on hand and not hidden in boxes across two houses all this takes an hour, tops, or 40 minutes for just the soup.

Winter root soup is really having a moment right now - see this recent post from the Times, and My New Roots' fantastic Reverse Universe Soup. My favorite version just uses plain cauliflower, which is not a root but is delicious. The basic recipe is this: take any of the sort of vegetable you might roast (cauliflower, winter squash, parsnips, celeriac, etc), boil them in stock until they're tender, season, and whiz up in the blender until smooth. Cauliflower cooked this way ends up tasting like you dumped in a quart of heavy cream, when really there's nothing dairy at all in there, just a good dollop of olive oil at the bottom (unless you put in a cheese rind, which I strongly recommend you do). It's also a nice blank slate for flavors - thyme and rosemary would go well, as would cajun spices, or some curry powder, or whatever. Leave everything but salt & pepper out of the pot and add to your individual bowl instead, so later when you're eating the leftovers for a week - a head of cauliflower makes a lot of soup - you can change it up and not get bored. Other veggies, like celeriac, are a little more specific in what spices will go - definitely French/Italian, probably Cajun, but I'd be a little hesitant about going the Indian route in that particular case.

The sweet potato wedges are a recipe out of Gourmet, which I love. Again the spice blend is up to you, but this one's particularly good. And the green beans are as simple as it gets. Together it's an indulgent-tasting detox dinner, or each dish on its own makes a good side with whatever else you're making. If you're doing all this at once, get the sweet potatoes in the oven first, then do start the soup, and cook the beans while the soup's simmering.


Random Root Soup
Various roastable veggies (cauliflower, parsnips, winter squash, sweet potatoes, normal potatoes, celeriac, parsnip, parsley root, turnip, etc)
1 big yellow onion
2-4 cloves garlic (to taste)
Chicken or vegetable broth
Salt & pepper
Olive oil
lemon juice
Spices of your choice
Optional add-ins:
  -rind of a good salty white cheese, like romano or sharp provalone
  -bacon
  -pasta
  -chewy grains like barley or quinoa, cooked
  -cooked lentils or beans
  -fresh parsley

1) Turn your oven on to 350. Chop up your veggies (not the garlic & onions) into 1-inch cubes or smaller. Put in a pan, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and stick in the oven. Don't worry if the oven's not preheated yet. (This step is totally optional, but it makes the whole thing cook faster. Feel free to skip it and just chop the veggies while the onion is cooking. You'll have to boil them longer in that case.) (Also, if you're making sweet potato wedges too, get those in the oven first, then just stick this pan in as well, no worries about the temp being higher.)

2) Roughly chop the onions, then start to saute them in olive oil in the bottom of a soup pot big enough to hold all your chopped veggies. (If you're adding bacon, chop it small and fry it up with the onions if you want it pureed into the soup later, otherwise do it first and set it aside, with the grease to cook the onions in.) When they start to get transparent, add the garlic, chopped. Saute a minute or two more.

3) Pull the vegetables out of the oven and dump them in the pot. Pour in enough broth to cover. If you do want to herb up the whole pot or if you're adding a cheese rind, now's the time to do it. Let it bubble away until the veggies are soft enough that you can stick a fork in 'em.

4) Blend the whole lot until smooth, either using an immersion blender or a countertop one. If you're using a normal blender, make sure to loosen the little clear plastic bit in the middle of the top and keep your hand on the lid so it doesn't explode scalding liquid when you turn it on. Stir in lemon juice, salt and pepper, spices and add-ins to taste. Eat with a slice of good bread.

Spiced Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes, washed and optionally peeled.
Olive oil
Salt
Equal parts oregano, coriander, and fennel seeds, plus paprika or cayenne to taste
Or whatever spice mix you like

1) Preheat the oven to 415. Cut the sweet potatoes in half across their circumference, then into wedges lengthwise, roughly into eighths. Toss in a baking dish with olive oil, salt, and a generous amount of spices. Roast for 20 minutes, flip over, then until they're nice and soft, roughly 20 minutes more depending on size.

Beans & Tomatoes
String beans, washed
Garlic
Broth
A tomato
Salt
Olive oil


1) Trim the ends off the beans and cut them in half. Smash the garlic cloves under the flat side of a knife.

2) On fairly high heat, saute the beans in oil, stirring frequently. The beans will turn bright green in the heat, maybe brown a little. Add the garlic, saute a minute more. Add a half cup of broth and cover. Once most of the broth has boiled off (2 minutes?) add the chopped tomatoes and stir for another minute. Salt to taste and serve.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Grampa's Chicken & Onions

A few times a year I go visit my grandfather in either Florida or New York, and aside from his pickled herring for breakfast (I'll just have a bagel, thanks), the food's usually great. Baked eggplant parm, lentil soup, damn good bagels. For some reason I've had roast chicken on the mind recently, so I called to get his recipe, which is cooked in a pyrex dish with onions and potatoes, and there's few things better than onions & potatoes cooked in chicken fat. Of course when I asked about it he shrugged and passed the phone over to his wife, but I'm calling it Grampa's chicken anyway. So there.

This is everything I want in a dinner: easy, one dish, and friggin' delicious. You basically chop op the onions and potatoes, put them in a pan with the chicken, season, bake, and serve in the pan, nothing to wash but a knife, cutting board, and said pan, after you finish the chicken. The whole thing takes an hour or two (depending on your chicken), but active time is about 15 minutes, tops. Sounds about right for a worknight.
I left the onions in quarters to save space, but sliced thin is better.

Grampa's Roast Chicken & Onions
1 chicken, or assorted bone- and skin-on chicken parts
A few onions
A few waxy potatoes, washed
4-5 garlic cloves
Olive oil
Salt &  pepper
Herbs/spices of your choice
Chicken broth
A splash of white wine (optional)
Any other veggies you want to roast (optional)


1) Preheat the oven to 350. Give the chicken a rinse & pat it dry. (I used a pair of chicken breasts - whole bird's a bit much for one person.) Set it in the biggest pyrex baking dish you've got, with a little olive oil underneath to keep it from sticking.

2) Cut the potatoes into quarters. Slice the onions. Arrange them and the garlic cloves around the chicken in the dish. Any other vegetables you feel like roasting should go in here too - I'm thinking cauliflower would be good.

3) Add in enough broth to fill about a centimeter up the side of the pan, plus a splash or two of white wine if you've got it handy. Drizzle a little olive oil over top, then salt, pepper, whatever herbs you like (I used sage and smoked paprika; rosemary or thyme would be good too).

4) Roast for about an hour at 350, depending on the size of the chicken, then finish it off for 15 minutes at 400 to crisp the skin. It's done when the you can easily stick a fork into the potatoes, the juices run clear, and there's no pink when you cut into it.


5) Serve with a simple green salad (arugula & avocado did it for me), all doused in the chicken juices from the pan. Feel free to pour the fat off the top if you like, but that's kind of missing the point.