Balsamic Butter Roasted Cipollini Onions


At the farmer's market I spotted a basket full of beautiful Cipollini onions. I couldn't resist their miniature onion form. The nice thing about Cipollini oinions as they can be used the way you would treat any yellow onion, or they can be served as their own complete side dish.

These onions love tangy things, and sweet things, and buttery things, and being roasted. 

This recipe doesn't need to be followed too closely. You can make more onions, add fresh or dried herbs, try Sherry vinegar instead of Balsamic, skip the butter, or add more butter. The basic idea is add an acid, a sweetener, a fat, salt, and roast them in a baking dish at 400°F for 25-30 minutes, or until they are caramelized and wonderful. 

Balsamic Butter Roasted Cipollini Onions
Serves 3-4

2.5 cups Cipollini onions, peeled
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon maple syrup
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
drizzle of olive oil
salt and peper
fresh rosemary or thyme (optional, would be lovely), chopped

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Peel the Cipollinis by placing them in a bowl and covering them with very hot water. Let them sit for 5 minutes. Using a pairing knife, you will easily be able to remove their peels.

Place the peeled onions in a baking dish. In a small bowl, combine the balsamic and maple syrup. Drizzle the mixture over the onions. Add the butter to the dish. Place small pieces of butter in different parts of the dish. Drizzle the onions with olive oil. Season everything with salt and pepper, and fresh herbs. 

Roast for 25-30 minutes, or until the onions are tender and caramelized. Halfway through cooking, mix the onions in the dish and place it back in the oven.


These can be served as a side dish. I ate them atop a lemony spinach salad. The leftover bits in the dish should be mopped up with good bread.  

Butter Lettuce Salad with Radish, Carrot, and Mint


The farmer's market is becoming a more colorful and abundant place each week, and on a recent visit I noticed some beautiful red butter lettuce that inspired this salad. There's nothing wrong with regular butter lettuce. In fact, it's way up there in terms of my favorite kind of leafy thing. Both red and green butter lettuce have crunchy ribs, velvety leaves, and mild flavor that pair well with everything from carrot miso dressing, to garlicky sun dried tomato dressing.

I sliced the veggies thin and delicately so that their flavor was imparted without competing in texture to the robust lettuce leaves. Fresh mint added that extra something fresh and herbaceous. Fresh dill, or even flat leaf parsley would also work really well.

These veggies were cut on a mandoline. My personal favorite is of the Japanese variety. It costs about $25-$30 depending on where you get it, and it soon becomes a favorite tool in the kitchen. Although wonderful, a mandoline is a terrifying device. Impatience and bravado will lead you to slice things without a guard, but this is unwise. Make sure you are very guarded. Never slice things in a hurry, or without total and complete attention. The danger is worth it. The nearly translucent veggies are incredibly attractive and so pleasing the eat.

If you don't have a mandoline, channel your inner zen master and slice the radishes and carrots super thin. Heck, you could even choose to grate these guys instead of slice them. The world is your oyster.

Butter Lettuce Salad with Radish, Carrot, & Mint with Dijon Red Wine Vinaigrette
Serves 6

 for the salad
1 large head red butter lettuce, or 2 small heads, washed and dried
1 small super fresh carrot, sliced very thin
5-6 large radishes, sliced very thin
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

for the vinaigrette
1 heaping teaspoon dijon mustard
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon of honey
1/2 clove garlic, minced super fine, or pressed
1/2 small shallot, minced fine
salt and pepper
1/3 cup good quality olive (or grapeseed oil)

Wash and dry your lettuce. Slice or gently tear the leaves into large pieces. Slice your carrots and radishes. Chop your fresh mint. Add everything to a large salad bowl.

In a small bowl, add the mustard, red wine vinegar, honey, garlic, shallot, and salt and pepper. Whisk everything together and taste the mixture. Adjust according to your preferences. Slowly whisk in the oil. Taste the dressing by dipping a lettuce piece into it. Does it need more oil? More mustard? More honey? More garlic? Adjust your dressing to your liking.

When you are ready to serve the salad, season it lightly with salt. Toss. Add some of the dressing. Gently toss the salad (ideally with your hands), add more dressing if you think it needs it. Serve with meat, fish, pasta, pizza, or any complimentary dinner entrée.

Egg Salad Deviled Eggs


I love egg salad and I love deviled eggs, and I see no reason why those two loves can't be combined.

The idea behind these deviled eggs is to make the yolk mixture as you would an egg salad mixture. In fact, it's pretty similar to this recipe. Eggs love pickles and dill as much as I do. I also like celery, and it added a nice crunch to the soft eggs.

When you make this recipe, taste as you go. If you like tons of mayo, add more of it. If you hate mustard, skip it. If you want to use parsley instead of dill, go for it. All you need to worry about is making an egg mixture with flavors that you love.

These deviled eggs are tangy, fresh, and have little bits of crunch to them. Enjoy...

Egg Salad Deviled Eggs
Serves 8-10

12 hard boiled eggs
1/3 cup good mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Dijon
1 teaspoon whole grain mustard (optional)
1 teaspoon yellow mustard (optional)
1/4 cup finely diced cornichons or dill pickle
1/4 cup finely diced celery
2 tablespoons fresh dill week, chopped
splash of liquid from the cornichon/pickle jar
salt and pepper to taste

Hard boil your eggs. Here's the method I use: place eggs in a pot, fill with cold water until just covered, bring the pot of water to a rolling boil, turn off the heat, cover the pot with a lid, set a timer for 15 minutes, prepare an ice bath, take the eggs out, lightly crack them, place them in the bowl of ice and water, and let them cool for at least 5 minutes. Pre-cracking them and placing them in an ice bath make them easier to peel.

Peel your eggs, carefully slice them in half lengthwise, remove the yolks, add them to a bowl, and reserve the egg white halves.

To the bowl of cooked egg yolks add: mayo (Best Foods/Hellman's or homemade), Dijon mustard, whole grain mustard (optional), and yellow mustard (optional - for tang and a nice bright yellow color). You can put this mixture in a food processor to get it super smooth. I used an immersion blender, but you can also just mix everything together with a whisk or a fork. Fold in the celery, cornichons/pickles, fresh dill, and pickle juice. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Using a teaspoon, or any utensil you like, fill each egg white half with the egg salad mixture. Garnish with fresh herbs.

Flourless Chocolate Cake (gluten & dairy free)


Even though butter's flavor is unmatched, sometimes when you are cooking a non-dairy meal for a holiday or you have guests with allergies, you need to omit ingredients that you usually rely on to make food taste good. I like a challenge!

I searched the Internet for flourless chocolate cake recipes and they were all pretty similar (some combo of fat, chocolate, sugar and eggs). I read in a few recipes that butter could be substituted with margarine, so I went ahead with my plan.

I'm not a huge fan of margarine and I wonder if this recipe could be made with coconut oil instead of margarine (it probably could), but I also didn't have time to experiment and figured decent unsalted margarine would work as a substitute for delicious butter. Choosing to sub out butter meant that every other ingredient had to be excellent. Actually, because this recipe has so few ingredients, it's a good idea to make sure each one is good. I chose very good chocolate (bar and cocoa powder), the eggs came from the farmers' market, and I decided to add instant espresso to boost the chocolate flavor. Espresso will do that to chocolate, but you won't taste any coffee flavor.

This dessert is a home run for chocolate lovers. It's incredibly easy to whip up, and has a delightful moist texture. I served it with whipped coconut cream and a berry salad. 

Flourless Chocolate Cake (gluten and dairy free)
Adapted from this Ina Garten recipe
Serves 12

coconut oil baking spray
12 tablespoons unsalted margarine (1.5 sticks, or you can use butter if dairy isn't an issue)
10 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped or in chips
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
5 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Generously spray a 9-inch springform pan with baking spray (it might be wise to grease it with margarine instead). Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and spray it again.

Melt the margarine and chocolate together in a double boiler (basically a heat-proof bowl on top of a pot of simmering water... you can also do this step in a microwave, but I prefer to do it stove top). Stir the mixture occasionally as it melts until it is smooth and glossy.
Set aside and cool for 5 minutes. Whisk in the cocoa powder, vanilla, and espresso powder. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or with the use of a hand mixer, beat the eggs, sugar and salt on high for 3-5 minutes.  The egg mixture should become pale yellow and triple in volume. Magic!
Pour the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and carefully fold them together. Be careful not to overmix your batter. 
Pour the batter into the prepared springform pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until just barely set and a toothpick comes out pretty clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 30 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the pan. Release the sides of the springform pan, and transfer the cake to a serving plate. It might look deflated and craggy, but looks don't matter here. Once the cake is fully cool, you can garnish it with gluten free powdered sugar or berries. Mine stuck a little to the side of the pan and I didn't mind. I like a rustic-looking cake.

Yum!

Whipped Coconut Cream (vegan)


There's nothing wrong with traditional whipped cream. It's pretty flawless in its classic form. I'm happy to eat something decadent if it's delicious and used to top something warm that's just come out of the oven. However, certain occasions and situations call for non-dairy/vegan desserts. On those occasions, I have often wondered what would be a good non-dairy alternative to classic whipped cream.

While working on the second season of Recipe Rehab I learned this trick from one of our chefs: take a can of regular coconut milk, put it in the fridge overnight, scoop out the creamy part that separates from the liquid, and whip it just as you would regular cream.

I figured coconut cream would work just as well as coconut milk, and it did! You can use either coconut milk or coconut cream to make this delicious vegan dessert topping. The texture is just like homemade whipped cream, and the taste is mildly coconut-flavored.


I served it with flourless chocolate cake and berries (recipe coming soon), but you could use it to top any dessert you'd like.

Whipped Coconut Cream
Serves 12-14 (this recipe can be easily halved)

 2 cans of coconut cream, chilled overnight in the fridge
2 teaspoons agave syrup (or honey/sugar/maple syrup )
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Start this recipe the day before (or days before) by putting your canned coconut cream in the fridge. At least an hour before you whip the cream, place the bowl you plan to use in the freezer. It helps if all of your tools and ingredients are very cold.

Add the coconut cream, agave (or other sweetener or none at all), and vanilla extract to the bowl you will use to whip the cream in.

Using a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, or a hand mixer, or a whisk and lots of elbow grease, whip the coconut cream mixture on medium high until it is thick, fluffy, and looks like whipped cream:


Transfer the whipped coconut cream to a bowl, garnish if you feel like it, and keep it in the fridge until you're ready to serve it.

Vegetable soup from whatever you got


The nicest thing about soup is that it's just as good to make for one as it is for a hundred. As a single person, it's nice to make food that tastes better as it sits in your fridge for days. It's nice to come home from work and know that a nutritious meal is waiting for you, and will only take moments to reheat and enjoy. When cooking for a group, it's ideal to prepare something uncomplicated and satisfying that can be made in a single large pot, and can be reheated easily if your guests happen to arrive late or want to sip on wine and chat before they do any eating. In addition to its ease and long lifespan, soup is comforting; one large bowl can easily constitute an entire meal, and soup can be super healthy. So there. You're all set for life if you just know how to make soup.

I highly recommend reading Tamar Adler's An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace. You'll learn a lot about soup, and how easy and varied soups can be. You'll also be wowed by exceptional prose, and a deep understanding of food. The book's insights and tips about cooking may be intuitively known among avid home cooks, but have rarely been put into such eloquent writing.

So soup. Soup can be made with most vegetables, most beans, most broths, most proteins (including eggs, tofu and dairy), and well, most any edible thing you can stick in a pot. Things that can make soups especially wonderful are: acid (lemon or vinegar), tomatoes and tomato paste (also acidic), and fresh herbs. 

The other night I was craving soup and didn't feel like running to the grocery store. I had a few carrots, some celery, a large half of shallot, some scallions, garlic, some leftover kale and spinach, a can of tomatoes, and some dry beluga lentils lying around. I decided all these things could easily become soup, and they did. And it was delicious. And it ended up being a sort of not-so-attractive brown color (from the lentils), but it didn't matter because it tasted good, and I served it with toast and shredded parmesan on top, and it was filling, and I shared it with my neighbors and we all had a nice time on a quiet warm Sunday evening.

So here's a recipe that means little, because any ingredient can be added, omitted, or modified in quantity. What you will need: a pot, water or broth, some vegetables, salt and oil, something from the onion family, and the desire to make a soup.

Vegetable Soup with Beluga Lentils
Serves 1-8

good olive oil
1 large carrot, or 1 medium and 1 small carrot, diced
2-3 stalks celery, diced
1 shallot, diced fine
5 scallions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups kale, chopped
1 cup spinach, chopped
1 cup dry beluga (black) lentils, or french, or green lentils (could sub with a can of white beans)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 can tomatoes
1 bay leaf
3 sprigs thyme (or used dried thyme)
1 tablespoon dried oregano
water
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (or lemon juice)

In a large pot on medium high heat, sauté your shallot, green onion, (you can use regular onion in place of both), celery and carrot with salt and pepper, for about 8-10 minutes or until the veg has softened. Add the garlic for a minute, then add the spinach and kale and let them wilt. Once wilted, add the lentils (rinsed first). Add the tomato paste, and stir everything about until it's all coated with the paste. Add the canned tomatoes and their liquid. Add a bay leaf, some thyme, oregano and more salt and pepper. Fill the pot with water (about 6-8 cups... you can use broth of some kind if you have it on hand). Let everything come up to a boil, and immediately lower the heat to a simmer. Partially cover the pot with a lid and let the soup simmer for about 45 minutes. Try the lentils. Are they done? Does the soup taste pretty good? Add more salt and pepper as needed. If the lentils still taste uncooked, let the soup simmer until they're fully cooked. Turn the heat off, remove the bay leaf, and add the red wine vinegar. Taste the soup again, and add any salt, pepper, or acid that you think it needs.

Ladle into bowls. Shred some parmesan cheese on top. Serve with hearty bread.

...
And on the topic of using what you've got to make something delicious, I'll leave you with the wonderful words of Elizabeth David:

So long as I have a supply of elementary fresh things like eggs, onions, parsley, lemons, oranges and bread and tomatoes--and I keep canned tomatoes too--I find that my pantry will always provide the main part of an improvised meal. If this has to be made quickly it may just be a salad of anchovy fillets and black olives, hard-boiled eggs and olive oil, with bread and a bottle of wine. If it a question of not being able to leave the house to go shopping, or of being too otherwise occupied to stand over the cooking pots, then there are white beans or brown lentils for slow cooking... with onions and oil and possibly tomato... Or if I am given, say, forty-five minutes to get an unplanned meal ready--well I have Italian and Patna rice and Parmesan, spices, herbs, currants, almonds, walnuts, to make a risotto or a pilaf. And perhaps tuna, with eggs to make mayonnaise, for an easy first dish. The countless number of permutations to be devised is part of the entertainment.

Baked Eggs with Spring Onion and Spinach



Spring is here and with it comes all the new and tasty, green, yellow, orange and pink things popping up at the market and in my CSA (Farm Fresh To You). I'm still trying to figure out if the CSA system works for me as a single person that loves going to the farmer's market to pick out her own produce. The truth is, some weekends I'm too busy to go the farmer's market. The nice thing about the CSA is that I don't have to think about how I'm going to get quality organic produce into my kitchen. Also, I love getting surprised by seasonal items that I might not have thought to pick out on my own.

For example: spring onions. As much as I like onions, it's never really never occurred to me to seek out spring onions. Usually, I reach for the leeks instead. This bundle was delivered yesterday and I immediately felt inspired by these sweet and delicate onions. 

Baked eggs are such a foodie trick. They couldn't be easier, and they look so pretty baked in their own little white dishes (doesn't anything seem fancier when baked in its own dish?). Most importantly, baked eggs are delicious.

I ate this for lunch with a small salad, and I left the table full and satisfied. This recipe works for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. You can add some cheese or sausage to the baking dish if you want something heartier. A splash of cream could add a nice richness to the dish, if you're so inclined. Tarragon or basil would be nice additions, too.  However you choose to compose your little egg dishes, you'll have a meal on your table in 20 minutes or less.

Baked Eggs with Spring Onion and Spinach
Serves 2 (Can easily be halved, doubled, tripled, or quadrupled)

2 small spring onions, tops and bottoms trimmed, thinly sliced 
1/2 cup spinach, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon olive oil
4 eggs
cooking spray
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spray two 6-oz. baking dishes with cooking spray. You can use a ramekin or whatever small baking dish you have (oval, round, square); smaller dishes will simply hold less of the filling, but they'll work perfectly well. Frankly, you can use large muffin tins if you don't have any baking dishes (use one egg instead of 2 per each cup). For the spray, I used coconut oil cooking spray, which adds a mild coconut flavor to the dish.  

Thinly slice your spring onions and roughly chop the spinach and flat leaf parsley.  Set aside and reserve. 


In a pan on medium high heat, melt a teaspoon of butter with a teaspoon of olive oil. You could use just butter or just olive oil; I like the flavor of butter mixed with the lighter quality of oil. Add the spring onions to the pan, and sauté them until they soften and a lovely onion aroma wafts out of the pan, about 2-3 minutes. Add the spinach to the softened onions, and cook it until it just wilts, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper. Turn off the heat.  

Divide the onion and spinach mixture evenly between the baking dishes.

Add two eggs to each dish. Top the eggs with chopped flat-leaf parsley.

Sprinkle a little more salt over the eggs.

Place the baking dishes on a baking sheet, and put the baking sheet in the oven for 15-18 minutes, or until the eggs have fully set, and the yolks are just slightly soft. Check your eggs after 10 minutes to gage their level of doneness.


Serve with crusty bread, a side salad, and hot sauce. 
Enjoy each flavorful, fresh, buttery, onion-flavored bite!

MFK Fisher



A moment of zen on this cloudy spring day from one of the godmothers of food writing.

It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it… and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied… and it is all one.
― M.F.K. Fisher, The Art of Eating: 50th Anniversary Edition


Sushi in Tokyo


It's hard to quantify how Japan changed my relationship to food, but like any great culinary experience, it most certainly did. I experienced tastes I had never even imagined before. I ate foods I had never heard of, and I ate foods I had heard of many times but had never tasted in their most perfect form.

No food was more surprisingly exquisite than the sushi.

Sushi was the first meal I ate in Japan.  We were up early due to jet lag (16 hour time difference), and soon after 5 AM we set off for Tokyo's famous Tsukiji fish market. 

Among other things, Tsukiji is the place where tuna auctions take place, and every imaginable type of fish is sold. Certainly, tourists visit this place in droves. However, just like Pike Place in Seattle, this is a real functioning market. Just outside the market are countless restaurants and food stalls.  They're all up and running, bustling and steaming, before the sun has even considered rising.

After walking around for a bit, we spotted a place full of locals and were lucky enough to walk in just before a long line formed behind us. The place seated no more than a dozen folks at a sushi counter manned by three chefs. 


These guys weren't messing around. With the first bite of fatty tuna (toro), I realized (despite having lived in Hawaii, despite eating sushi all over the West Coast), I had never had fish this fresh, and therefor had never tasted fish as good as I did in that moment.

mackerel

toro (not meat, although it looks it)

The taste of uni was completely redefined at that sushi counter. Uni had never been as buttery, unctuous, or perfect. I instantly fell in love with Japan over breakfast, and the love affair didn't end for the duration of the trip.

For our last dinner in Tokyo, we went to Sushi Yuu. The recommendation for the restaurant came from a friend living in Tokyo with great taste in food. I knew it would be good, but I had no idea just HOW good it would be.  

The restaurant is inviting and warm, and Chef Shimazaki-San makes you feel welcome and taken care of from the moment you arrive. As an interesting side note, the Chef is married to a Russian woman. His English is quite good, but we were able to speak in Russian as well. I never expected I would be speaking Russian to a Japanese sushi chef, and it was a great joy to do so.

There's no menu, there's no ordering, you sit down and go along for the ride of incredible food. You will be served the highest quality fish, rice, wine, miso, freshly grated wasabi, etc. etc. etc. The sushi is a work of art in its own right, but I was equally blown away by the Chef's pickled baby ginger. I love anything pickled and anything ginger, and I had no idea that pickled ginger could taste as good and delicate as the chef made it taste. The ginger is pickled the same day it is served, and because it is baby ginger, it is tender, soft, not too sweet, and perfectly balanced in flavor and spice. I could eat buckets of the stuff. I would go back to this restaurant just for the ginger, and that's saying a lot, because the Chef served us the best sushi of my life. 

Here are some highlights:

tuna, with the incredible ginger and freshly grated wasabi

fatty tuna

mackerel (special sun-dried preparation)

another part of tuna, seared

veggies

type of herring

uni

toro with onion

homemade plum wine, made by the chef's mother

end of a great meal

Sushi for our first breakfast and our last dinner were the perfect bookends to an incredible trip.  

If you find yourself in Tokyo, let me know. I will send you straight to Sushi Yuu.


Kerala Indian Restaurant, Kyoto - The best tomato soup I have ever eaten


I ate incredibly well in Japan. Almost every meal was memorable in some way.  I ate everything from the best sushi of my life, to a perfect bowl of ramen, to excellent tempura, to Japanese style gefilte fish (more on that later), to deliriously good sukiyaki, to addictive yakitori.  

Somehow, amidst all of the excellent Japanese food, an Indian restaurant in Kyoto looms large in my food travel memory.  

That night, weary from days of travel, and overwhelmed by too many excellent dining options, we decided we were in the mood for Indian food. It was a cold day, and spicy food sounded good. Japanese food, while extraordinay, is very rarely spicy.  My travel companion decided to find the best Indian restaurant in town, and a quick google search led us to Kerala Indian Restaurant.  


The restaurant is located on the second floor of an unassuming multi-story building in a bustling part of downtown Kyoto.  We stepped inside, and were immediately greeted in English by the host/owner. Many people speak English in Japan, but it was actually unusual to be greeted in a language other than Japanese. We waited a bit for our table, and observed the busy, small, and inviting room.  

Once we were seated, I asked the owner what he recommended.  He mentioned their array of different kinds of grilled fish and meat, and he also mentioned that they were known for their tomato soup.  I wasn't in the mood for meat, and tomato soup didn't sound exciting. Instead, we decided to order a salad appetizer, palak panner, vegetable jalfy, rice, and garlic naan.  

The owner came back to our table, and we told him our order. He laughed a little and said to me, "You asked for my recommendations, but you haven't ordered any of them."  I apologized and said I wasn't wanting to eat meat.  Again, he mentioned the tomato soup.  I told him that we had probably already ordered too much food.  He responded that they offered a half-size serving of the soup. Out of a sort of culinary politeness, and a fair amount of curiosity, I decided to order the small-sized portion of soup.


I am so so so grateful that he urged me to order it, and that I listened to his advice.

This guy was underselling his soup. In his urgings, all he had said was "it is a fine soup." Fine is the wrong word. This soup is a miracle. I have never ever tried anything like it. It brought new ideas to my palate. It was silky and delicate, creamy without being heavy... and then there was the taste - aromatic, rich, tomatoey, spicy, mysterious.  I can usually parse out the ingredients in any dish I am trying, but this one stumped me. I tasted the soup a few times, and detected cinnamon and a few other spices. I asked the proprietor about whether there the soup had cinnamon and allspice, and he said "You are right, there is cinnamon, but I can't tell you anything else." He was happy I liked the soup, and justifiably guarded over the recipe.

The food that followed was excellent.  I can easily say that it was the best Indian food that I have ever eaten.  My travel companion has been to India (and had even been to Kerala), and said that it was the best Indian food he has eaten outside of that country.  The salad was fresh and spicy, the palak paneer was BRIGHT green, earthy and creamy (the owner says it's because they use a TON of fresh spinach). The vegetable jalfry was perfectly rich and delicious. The garlic naan was completely covered in thin slivers of fresh garlic. The raita was cool and refreshing. Even the wine was outstanding.


But that soup...

The owner tended to our table, and he and I talked throughout the meal. He is young, and is the son of a Japanese mother and an Indian father. He was born in Kyoto, but spent time in England, and speaks perfect English with a slight British accent. His father opened the restaurant many years ago (plus or minus 30 years), and the son has since taken over.  Before he took over the family business, he had worked in a classic French restaurant, as well as a classic Italian restaurant. The tomato soup is a fusion of French, Italian, and Indian cooking; it took him a long time to develop it to his liking.

I can't expect that I will be able to replicate anything like the perfect soup that he has created, but I certainly intend to try my own take on the dish as soon as possible.

And if you're in Kyoto, which by the way, I highly recommend you visit, please do yourself a favor and go to Kerala Indian restaurant.  Order the soup. Full size.  

Fake Food in Japan


Just got back from Japan (Tokyo, Naoshima, Kobe, and Kyoto). Jet lag is hitting hard. I am preparing multiple posts about the food I ate in Japan. Too many memorable meals to count. I fell in love with the country and its food, but I was also blown away by the fake cuisine!

There's real artistry involved in these plastic wonders. There are fake food displays are outside many Japanese restaurants, regardless of the type of cuisine being served there. Here are just a few examples:











And you can even by your own fake food at a fake food store! 


And if you can't go to Japan, just order online!

More soon...

Seared Mushrooms and Polenta

oyster, maitake, and shitake mushrooms
photo by Mark Hanauer

I have looked through the pages of Plenty more times than I can count. I often flip through the pages when I'm looking for inspiration for a dinner party, client, or for what to do with a farmer's market bounty.  I've always been interested in the mushroom and herb polenta recipe, but it felt like a special occasion dish and I never found the right special occasion to make it.

Last night, I was in the mood to make something special for no occasion.  I suggested a few options to my dinner companions, and they voted for mushrooms and polenta.  I didn't feel like following a recipe, and I also felt like making seared polenta as opposed to the baked polenta in the recipe.  I also didn't have time to make polenta from scratch, bake it in the oven for at least an hour, then cool it, then cut it into rounds or squares, then sear it.  Instead, I bought pre-made polenta (in the tube, found at Whole Foods or most other grocery stores). I cut the polenta into rounds before searing it.  

The recipe recommends Taleggio cheese, but the store had was out.  The guy at the Venice Whole Foods cheese counter was super helpful, and found me a mild sheep's milk cheese that worked really well. A goat's milk Gouda might be nice. You could probably use Mozzarella if you only had that on hand.

If you love mushrooms, this dish is perfect.  The creamy crusted polenta pairs perfectly with the earthy browned mushrooms, fresh herbs, and creamy melted cheese.  This meal feels special, but it is perfect as a mid-week dinner after work.  I served it with a simple salad with a balsamic Dijon vinaigrette, and we all ate coconut ice cream for dessert.  It was a great and happy meal.

Here's the dish, inspired by Ottolenghi...


Seared Mushrooms and Polenta Rounds with Herbs and Melted Cheese
Serves 4-5

About the mushrooms:  I used maitake, shiitake, cremini, and oyster. You could use any mushrooms you like, but I would try to use shiitake and oyster if you can, as they have a more delicate texture than cremini, white button or portobello mushrooms. 

olive oil
5-6 cups mixed mushrooms 
4 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 tablespoon, fresh thyme
1 tablespoon, chopped fresh rosemary
salt and pepper
2 18-oz sleeves/tubes plain polenta, cut into 1/2 inch rounds
butter
4-5 oz Taleggio cheese, cut into thin slices (or use a mild semi-hard Sheep's or Goat's cheese)
1/3 cup shredded parmigiano-reggiano cheese
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

Line a sheet pan or large platter with paper towels. Line a second sheet pan with parchment paper, or tin foil.

Start by cleaning your mushrooms. Remove dirt and grit with a damp towel so as not to saturate the mushrooms with water. Cut up the oyster and maitake mushrooms into 1-inch pieces.  Slice the cremini and the shiitake mushrooms.  Prepare the rest of your ingredients: mince the garlic, remove the thyme from the stem, and chop up the rosemary.  

Add a glug of olive oil to a large pan over medium high heat. In batches, add some of the garlic, mushrooms, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper to the pan.  Be careful not to overcrowd the pan otherwise your mushrooms won't brown.  Leave the mushrooms in the pan to brown, then flip them and brown the other side.  I used two pans at the same time to speed up this process. I cooked the mushrooms in about 5 or 6 batches.  Transfer the browned mushrooms to a sheet pan lined with paper towels. Set aside all of the browned mushrooms.

Pat dry the polenta rounds before you cook them.  In the same pan you used for the mushrooms, add a tablespoon of olive oil and a pat of butter.  Add 5 or 6 rounds of polenta at a time.  Brown the polenta in batches (don't overcrowd the pan), cook them for 3-5 minutes on each side, or until they are nicely browned and crusty.  Transfer the browned polenta to the parchment-lined sheet pan.

Set your oven to broil.

Top the browned rounds of polenta with the seared mushrooms.  Add a thin slice of cheese on top of each polenta round.  Sprinkle everything with the grated parm.  Place the tray under the broiler for about a minute until the cheese melts and starts to bubble (keep an eye on it, the cheese melts quickly!) Serve and garnish with freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley.




Kale, Date & Almond Salad


The other night I ate at Rustic Canyon for the first time.  I'm a big fan of Huckleberry, which is owned by the same folks. My expectations were high and overall the meal was quite lovely. The place was packed and the ambience was lively. The cocktail I had was perfect and the beer and wine selections looked great.  Everything we ate tasted good, but there were two dishes that stood out more than the others.

Service was outstanding for the first half of the meal.  For the second half of the meal, our waitress seemed to forget about us entirely. We were more or less ignored once our first round of drinks had been replenished; this made ordering dessert a little difficult. Service isn't something that matters to everyone, but it does matter to me. I'm particularly sensitive to service when the price tag of the meal is high. Regardless of what I'm paying, if a place has pretty good food and excellent service I'll almost definitely return to that establishment.  If a place has great food and terrible service I'm unlikely to go back.  Maybe it was an off-night because they were so busy (there happened to be celebrities there that night), or maybe that's just how it is. Rustic Canyon was yummy, but I'm not sure I'll go out of my way to return.

Back to the food... the gnocchi with oxtail, strawberry sofrito, pine nut, and fennel pollen was the stand-out dish, and the kale salad was a close second. I really like kale, but it's not something I tend to order at restaurants. On the menu the salad was described as having 'honey' dates, walnut, Parmesan and lemon.  It sounded good and different, and it tasted even better than I imagined. The kale was bright and slightly bitter, the dates were velvety and sweet, the lemon vinaigrette was creamy and vibrant.

I came home wanting to eat it again.  Here is a take on the great salad I had that night.

Kale, Date & Almond Salad with Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette
Serves 2-3

 4 cups kale (lacinato/tuscan kale would be best, but I used the regular variety), thinly sliced into ribbons
1/4 cup almonds, toasted and chopped (hazelnuts, pecans, or walnuts would also be good)
5 dates, pitted and halved
salt and pepper
juice of one lemon, Meyer if in season
drop of honey
3 tablespoons olive oil, or more depending on taste
crumbled goat cheese (optional)
shaved parmesan (optional)

Add the kale, toasted nuts, and pitted dates to a bowl. Lightly season the salad with salt and pepper.

In a small bowl or jar, add freshly squeezed lemon juice, a drop of honey, and a little more salt and pepper.  Whisk the olive oil into the lemon juice mixture until creamy and emulsified.  Taste your dressing and adjust accordingly.

Toss the salad with the dressing until the leaves are well coated.  Let the salad sit for at least 15 minutes before serving so that the kale properly absorbs the dressing and softens.

Top with crumbled goat cheese, or shaved parmesan if you're in the mood for that.

Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce


I admit to having a slight obsession with butternut squash. I love the flavor. I love its versatility. I love the color orange.

On the cooking show I work on we have used butternut squash in a couple healthy mac n' cheese recipes. The first season, one of our chefs made baked butternut squash mac n' cheese.  This season, Chef Vikki made a stove top butternut squash mac n' cheese.  I've seen a number of butternut squash lasagna recipes, and I even read about a squash carbonara.  Having tested, tasted, and loved the recipes for the show, it felt like it was time to take a stab at my own version of some kind of butternut squash pasta sauce.

For almost every squash recipe I make, especially soup, I prefer to roast my squash as opposed to cooking it in a liquid on the stove.  The squash gets caramelized, which adds to the depth of flavor. I find simmered or steamed squash slightly bland.

This recipe shouldn't be followed exactly. You'll need to taste the ingredients and add more of whatever you think it needs or doesn't need.  The basic idea is: roast squash, sweat onions and garlic, add roasted squash to the pan, add fresh thyme salt and pepper, add some water (or stock), add some milk, let it simmer and cook through, boil some pasta while that's happening, puree the sauce, add some cheese, top with fresh herbs, and serve.

Rigatoni with Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce
Serves 4

 olive oil
 1 medium butternut squash (about 3 lbs.)
1 box rigatoni, or any other kind of pasta you like (i.e. brown rice pasta or quinoa pasta)
1/2 a large white or yellow onion, diced
1 large clove of garlic, minced
3 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves removed
1/2 cup water, or more as needed
1/2 cup milk (any kind), or more as needed
1/2 cup shredded Gruyere (or Swiss, or cheddar,  or mozzarella)
salt and pepper to taste
chopped flat leaf parsley

Preheat your oven to 400°F.

Line a sheet pan with parchment or foil (easier clean-up).  Cut your squash in half, lengthwise.  Scoop out the seeds.  Drizzle olive oil over the squash.  Place flesh side down, and roast in the oven for 35-45 minutes, or until the squashed is cooked through (it should be soft when you pierce it with a fork or knife.  Once the squash is cooked, let it cool slightly.

Bring a large pot of boiling water to a boil.

In a deep sauce pan or pot, over medium high heat, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil.  Add the diced onion to the olive oil and let the onion sweat until soft and translucent, about 7-8 minutes.  Add the minced garlic and thyme leaves to the onion and let it cook for another minute or two.  Scoop the cooked squash out of its skin, and add it to the pan.  Add the water and milk to the squash mixture. Bring the mixture up to a simmer, and then turn down the heat to low.  Let the butternut squash sauce simmer while you prepare your pasta.

Add your pasta to the boiling water, and cook until just al dente the box will indicate the correct amount of time for an al dente noodle, but keep your eye on those guys and make sure they don't get mushy because that's the worst.  Once the pasta is cooked and drained, add it back to the warm pot. This will allow any excess water to evaporate.

Using an immersion blender or a regular blender, food processor, or potato masher, puree your squash mixture until it is smooth and sauce-like.  It doesn't have to be perfect, in fact, just roasting the squash will make it break apart easily when added to the liquid. Turn the heat off.  Add the shredded cheese and stir until it is melted into the sauce. I like to go light on the cheese.  If you want to mimic mac n' cheese, add more of the cheese.  You can also adjust the thickness of the sauce by adding more milk or half and half if you're feeling decadent. This sauce is all about what you like. Season with salt and pepper.  Add the finished sauce to your pasta leftover sauce can be frozen.

Garnish with freshly chopped parsley.  Serve with grated parmesan and red pepper flake.



Flourless Chocolate Brownie Cookies (gluten free)


I stumbled across this recipe for Chocolate Brownie Cookies in the January 2014 issue of Bon Appetit. The picture of the cookie looked great, and the recipe seemed as simple as any cookie recipe could possibly be.

Well done Bon Appetit test kitchen!  This is a stellar cookie, and an excellent gluten free dessert.

Look, I'm a big fan of gluten.  I don't have an intolerance to it, and I have nothing against it from a nutritional perspective.  But, I know many folks that do have difficulties with gluten; and it's nice to have more recipes I can serve those friends.

Plus, the omission of flour is texturally significant in these cookies. They are crispy and light on the outside, and gooey in the center.  They remind me of a cross between a meringue and a french macaron.  What could be bad about that?

I only made a few changes to the recipe. Next time, I might add cinnamon or cayenne to the batter. But really, it's pretty perfect as is.

Chocolate Brownie Cookies 
Makes 2 dozen cookies

3 cups gluten-free powdered sugar (you can also use regular powdered sugar if you aren't gf)
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (the better the powder, the better the cookie)
1 tsp. kosher salt (essential)
2 large egg whites
1 large egg
4 oz. (1/2 cup) bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used semi-sweet chocolate chips instead)
3 tbsp. cacao nibs (I did not have these on hand. Instead, I added 3 extra tablespoons of chocolate chips)

Place racks in lower and upper thirds of oven; preheat to 350°F.

Whisk powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a large bowl, then whisk in egg whites and egg; fold in chocolate and cacao nibs.  You don't have to be perfect about any of these steps. This batter is very forgiving.  Just don't overmix the batter once you add the eggs; err on the side of clumps.  
Your batter should look glossy and almost like melted chocolate

Spoon batter by the tablespoonful onto 2 parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 2" apart.  I used an actually measuring tablespoon.  The batter is very very sticky, so I scooped up spoonfuls, and needed to use my hand to release the batter from the spoon.  


Bake, rotating sheets once, until cookies are puffed, cracked, and set just around the edges, 14-16 minutes. Mine took 14, I always prefer cookies just under, and they continue to cook even out of the oven.

Transfer baking sheets to wire racks and let cookies cool on pan (they'll firm up). Okay, here's the ONLY tricky part of this recipe.  My cookies needed to cool in the pan for a minute or so before they would unstick from the bottom. The first hot cookie I tried to move with a spatula broke apart.  After a minute, it was easier.  It also helped to lift up the parchment off of the hot cookie tray, transfer the parchment to the counter, and lift the cookies off the parchment once they were not in the pan. This is still a delicate process, and you'll want a good spatula for the operation.

Do ahead; Cookies can be baked 3 days ahead.  Store airtight at room temperature.  


And this is what you get!

Yum!



Wildwood Restaurant




Disclaimer: this post has no recipes. It is a long-winded homage to a restaurant that is closing its doors.  I'll return to the recipes in the next post.

There has been no shortage of great culinary influences in my life. I had immigrant parents and grandparents, which meant that I was exposed to an array of interesting home-cooked foods, many of them foreign to where I was born and raised.  I watched countless hours of PBS culinary programming, and then countless hours of the food network in its early days.  I had a father who loved to garden.  Our house growing up had a backyard with a farmer's market's array of vegetables growing in it, in addition to fruit trees and berry bushes.We would harvest incredible organic bounties before anyone I knew even talked about produce in those terms.  My father also took my brother and I foraging around the Northwest.  We hunted morels, we picked Italian plums off of overflowing trees, we collected big plump blueberries, and wild strawberries.  The fruit and veg that we got in abundance were then preserved into pickles and jams by my grandmother. My mother made us dinner every night, and a special shabbat dinner every Friday night.  We almost never went out to restaurants, and fast food was not a concept I grew up with. Food meant a lot to me very early on. I started teaching myself to cook at a young age. By college, I was cooking for friends and roommates on a regular basis.

In 2004, I graduated from a liberal arts school with a degree that was worth very little in the marketplace. I was living in Portland, and I was trying to find a day job that would help me pay the bills while I worked on starting an art-non profit.

I walked up and down the streets of Portland, handing out a mediocre resume to any restaurant that might have been hiring.  My previous service industry experience included working at an ice cream shop, and waitressing at a Greek restaurant. I remember stopping outside Wildwood. I thought, "This is a fancy place. I'll never get a job here." I walked in anyway, I left my resume, and soon after I was called in for an interview with the manager.  I had no idea that I was about to work in a place that would fundamentally impact the rest of my culinary life.

Wildwood has defined the bar by which I now compare every single fine-dining experience.  Food has to be as good or better than it was there.  Service has to be as good or better as it was there. Unfortunately for other restaurants, they often miss the mark.  

Wildwood didn't just teach about how great a restaurant can be, it taught me about what was possible with food, it taught me about what was possible when one has passion, it taught me about what it means to form a business that is rooted in a community.

Wildwood is closing after 20 years.  I worked there 10 years ago for about a year.  At that time, Wildwood was packed every day.  Lunch service on a Friday in December was the hardest I've ever worked in my life.  As a recent college grad, Wildwood gave me more than a paycheck that paid my rent. Wildwood graciously welcomed me into the "real world." I made lifelong friends there, I developed a strong work ethic and attention to detail, and I made lifelong memories.  

I quit my job at Wildwood because I was offered my first gig in Los Angeles.  Two weeks after I gave notice, I moved to Hollywood and started working at Sony Pictures TV. Before I left, Cory Schreiber, Wildwood's founder and executive chef at the time, asked me about my upcoming move and job change, and in a nervous attempt at self deprecation, I said; "Yeah, I'm going off to do a real job."  To which he responded, "This IS a real job." His tone was not recriminating or condescending, but there was a weight to what he was telling me.  I worked as a busser at Wildwood. In my 20-something mind, I was the lowest on the totem-pole in the restaurant food-chain, and I was trying to make light of my status. I was full of shit. The truth was, I was honored to work at Wildwood.  Cory called me out on making light of what I was doing.  He wasn't just saying my job was real, he was saying any job is real. He was saying: take pride in your work. Take pride in the place that supports you. Take pride in what you do. 

In no particular order, I'd like to thank Wildwood for the following things:
  • Introducing me to the idea of farm to table food.  
  • Introducing me to the idea of seasonal cooking and eating.  
  • Showing me that every part of an animal can be butchered and used for something.
  • Serving me some of the most memorable meals of my life, with the greatest company
  • Teaching me that cooks are the filthiest, crassest, funniest, hardest working bad-asses out there.
  • Teaching me that you should never, I really mean never, clear one diner's empty plate when their companion diner is still eating.  It's incredibly rude. No one should feel bad or rushed about lingering with their food.  The meal is done when everyone is finished, only then should plates be cleared. 
  • Teaching me how to properly cook a steak, how to properly chop with a knife (learned the hard way), how to properly cook a piece of fish, and how to properly fry an egg.
  • Learning that you can be a well-known James Beard award winning chef and still be incredibly humble, kind, generous, innovative, and an activist.
  • The first time I smelled and tasted freshly shaved truffles was at Wildwood.  That is probably all I needed to say about the affect the place had on me, and how grateful I am to have worked there.
Goodbye Wildwood, and thank you for what you were.

xo
Sonya




Simple Salad and Simple Dressing



I love making salads. It's a funny thing to love to make. Salads are often an afterthought when one is preparing a meal for friends. Salads are that thing you eat when you're trying to be healthy, or when you're trying to incorporate more greens into your diet. Salad is often treated as a second class citizen in the culinary world.

I hold salads and salad dressings in high esteem.  As a kid, I would always ask my mom for seconds of salad. As an adult, I crave them on a daily basis. Part of my love of salads coincides with my love of condiments.

I'm a sucker for a good sauce or add-on.  A great dressing or vinaigrette is my personal favorite kind of sauce.  The best kind of dressing is one that masters a balance of tangy, salty, sweet, and oily.  One of the staples in my arsenal is an exceedingly simple dijon balsamic vinaigrette.  Personally, I prefer a tahini dressing; but a great balsamic dressing is always a crowd pleaser.

It is imperative that you start with a great balsamic when you make this dressing. There are a lot of guides on the internet for picking the best balsamics (here's one). Above all else, check the ingredients. Added sugar or caramel is super whack. Avoid buying vinegar with any kind of added sweetener.

Back to the salad itself... for dinner parties, I like to keep my salads simple. Usually, I stick to 3 ingredients: something leafy, something crunchy, something unexpected/fun - this could be an ingredient with a great color, flavor, or texture (i.e. watermelon radishes, thinly sliced zucchini, carrot ribbons, pickled shallots, and so on.)

This salad is super easy, and the earthy pine nuts and sweet currants go well with the spicy arugula. Tangy sweet balsamic dijon dressing brings it all together.

Arugula, Currant and Pine Nut Salad with Balsamic Dijon Vinaigrette
Serves 4-6

for the salad:
7 ounces of arugula
2 tablespoons pine nuts (or however much you want), lightly toasted if desired
3 tablespoons dried currents (or however much you want)
salt and pepper

for the vinaigrette:
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon whole grain mustard (optional)
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon finely minced shallot (totally optional)

Put al of your salad ingredients in a large bowl.  Season your arugula with salt and pepper. Yes, before you dress the salad.

Add the balsamic and mustards to a small bowl. Whisk in the olive oil until the dressing is emulsified. If you're using shallot, add it to the dressing and stir. Ok, here's what should happen at this point:
TASTE IT. Taste your dressing for Pete's sake. You might need more oil. You might need more mustard. You might need more balsamic. Every ingredient differs, everyone's taste differs.  If you like your dressings on the sweet side add a little honey or agave to the mix. Start with a 1/4 teaspoon and go from there.  A great way to taste your dressing is to dip a leaf of arugula into it. If it tastes the way you want it on the rest of your salad your dressing is good to go.

Just before you're about to eat the salad, drizzle some of the dressing around the sides of the bowl. Gently toss the leaves in the dressing. Your hands are best for this operation. Start slowly, you can always add more dressing.  Once your leaves are glistening with your desired amount of dressing, serve!


"Cookin' Cheap" - Cooking Club Recap

Our cooking club met this past Sunday, and as usual, a great time and great dishes were had by all. Each month, the host of that month's gathering chooses a theme.  My sister-in-law hosted this month's club, and she chose the following theme:

The theme for next cooking club will be bringing forth recipes that in one way or another came about to overcome hardship. Whether the hardship was due to war, poverty, dietary restrictions, I'd like to know and be inspired by what you guys have come across. 

I am not sure if this is totally clear, so I will rely on Tamar Adler's intro to her book

An Everlasting Meal

, lent to me by Liz to make a better point. In

An Everlasting Meal, 

Adler pays homage to one of my favorite books, 

How to Cook A Wolf 

by M.F.K. Fisher.

"[How to Cook A Wolf] is a book about cooking defiantly, amid the mess of war and the pains of bare pantries... The essays it contains make it seem practical to consider one's appetite. It advocated cooking with gusto not only for vanquishing hardship with pleasure but for ' weeding out what you yourself like best to do, so that you can live most agreeably in a world full of an increasing number of disagreeable surprises.'"

She also shared one of her favorite old cooking shows that she grew up watching in Philly:

I love the show. I can't get enough of watching old cooking shows on youtube.  I'm amazed by the differences between now and then; different productions values, different styles of plating, different types of ingredients, and different cooking techniques.

I was a big fan of the theme.  Some of the greatest dishes of all time were born out of hardship.  Aside from the obvious types of economic hardships, it also got me thinking about what other types of hardships might bring about interesting dishes.

Here's a recap of what the ladies made this month:

Ottolenghi’s Salad with Radish, Sundried Tomato

Stewed greens with tomato and onion (greens were from the cook's garden)

Roasted brussels sprouts

Ina's recipe works well

Spam fried rice with toasted coconut and herb topping on the side (the topping is such a good idea, I'll be stealing that for the future)

Turkish meatless meatballs (made of lentils and other nice things)

Chocolate pudding and tea biscuit cake (that's all it is, pudding and tea biscuits :)

Coconut milk brown rice pudding topped with ground pistachios, served with macerated cherries and whole pistachios

oh, and I contributed the previous posts's borscht. I am already looking forward to next months' club.  Theme TBD.