Preserving Lemons

A restaurant called Nomad on the Lower East Side serves the best couscous I've ever had. The secret? Little bits of preserved lemon. We ordered filet mignon brochettes (basically shish kebabs), served over this fabulous couscous. Meyer lemons were on sale at Fairway today, so I decided to try to make some myself. I have a lamb tagine planned in a few weeks, and I'd like to come close to making the best couscous we've ever had.

Moroccan Preserved Lemons

4 Meyer lemons, scrubbed very clean
1/2 cup kosher salt, more if needed
Extra fresh squeezed lemon juice, if needed
Sterilized quart canning jar

Place 2 tablespoons of salt in the bottom of a sterilized jar. One by one, prepare the lemons in the following way. Cut off any protruding stems from the lemons, and cut 1/4 inch off the tip of each lemon. Cut the lemons as if you were going to cut them in half lengthwize, starting from the tip, but do not cut all the way. Keep the lemon attached at the base. Make another cut in a similar manner, so now the lemon is quartered, but again, attached at the base. Pry the lemons open and generously sprinkle salt all over the insides and outsides of the lemons. Pack the lemons in the jar, squishing them down so that juice is extracted and the lemon juice rises to the top of the jar.

Fill up the jar with lemons, make sure the top is covered with lemon juice. Add more fresh squeezed lemon juice if necessary. Top with a couple tablespoons of salt. Seal the jar and let sit at room temperature for a couple days. Turn the jar upside down ocassionally. Put in refrigerator and let sit, again turning upside down ocassionally, for at least 3 weeks, until lemon rinds soften.To use, remove a lemon from the jar and rinse thoroughly in water to remove salt. Discard seeds before using. Discard the pulp before using, if desired. Store in refrigerator for up to 6 months.

Late Summer Harvest

Assembling fresh tomato, mozzarella, and basil takes just moments, but when the ingredients are just right, there's nothing better in the dog days of summer. (I know the Dog Days (of Summer) Are Over as of August 11th, but it sounded good). I picked up these lovely tomatoes and basil at the farmer's market on Sunday, and used them on Tuesday night. I stored the basil incorrectly, so very few of the leaves were worth using after two days in the fridge, but luckily enough leaves to accompany the tomato slices. The mozzarella was fresh-made at Fairway. Drizzle some quality salt, cracked black pepper, and a good deep green olive oil and you're good to go. Serve it on a pretty dish and you'll make you dining partner or dinner guests swoon. (This is served on one of a set of owl plates our friend Jess gave us as a wedding gift.) Next time, I would serve with a side of nice crusty/chewy bread to sop up the excess oil. Yum.

Lemongrass Quest

Sometimes a recipe that appears on the yahoo home page catches my eye and I print it out, set it aside, and vow to make it at some later date. I saw this recipe from Better Homes and Gardens one day and always wanted to cook with lemongrass, so into the recipe folder it went. I asked all around to see where I could find lemongrass, and a colleague suggested a Thai grocery in Manhattan. I knew it would be months before I could make the excursion because I've been so busy at work, so I thought this recipe would have to wait. To my surprise, this weekend, we found some lemongrass at Fairway. It looks like an old and stiff scallion, and I was skeptical. But I trusted D, he knows what he's doing. I knew we had leftover pineapple in the fridge, and the rest of the ingredients were light enough for a summer meal so I was ready to go. I feel a little bad about this recipe because pineapple is far from local, but it is so delicious. I added basil to the recipe because my plants were growing so strong on the porch and I needed to trim them back. I made some adjustments, and would make some more if I made it again. Adjustments and suggestions are included below.

Thai Pineapple Lemongrass Chicken Stir Fry

3 tbsp fish sauce (nam pla)
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp rice vinegar
3 tsp minced fresh lemongrass (or 2 tsp finely shredded lime or lemon peel)
olive oil
1 medium red onion, halved lengthwise and sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cucumber, cut into thin bite-sized strips (about one cup)
1/4 of a pineapple, cut into bite sized pieces
2 fresh jalapeno chile peppers, seeded and finely chopped
12 oz skinless, boneless chicken cut into thin bite-sized strips
1 cup sugar snap pea pods, trimmed
1/2 sliced red bell pepper
about 10 large basil leaves, chopped into thin strips
handful of chopped cilantro
3 cups rice (jasmine, brown, or basmati)

Make the sauce by combining the lemongrass with the lime juice, fish sauce, and rice vinegar; set aside. Saute sliced red onion and garlic in a wok with some olive oil. Add cucumber, pineapple, and chile peppers. Cook until the pineapple begins to brown/sear. Remove the wok from the heat and dump the vegetables in a bowl; set aside. Add the chicken to the hot wok and cook through. Add the onion/vegetable mixture and the sauce. Cook until heated through. Add the basil strips and stir until the flesh is wilted. Serve immediately over hot cooked rice. Sprinkle and garnish with cilantro.

The Incredible Edible Egg

I used to consider my husband to be an egg fanatic. When I met him, it was disconcerting to me how often he ate eggs. I was never a regular breakfast eater, but every morning after I'd stayed at his house, he'd make us fried eggs, half a bagel, and some coffee. I kind of liked the routine, but when we started living together, I was worried about eating so many eggs every week. "High cholesterol!" I'd exclaim. Some nights when I worked late or went out with friends, I'd find the tell-tale signs of fried eggs in the pan. "Did you eat fried eggs again?" I would ask, accusingly. Depending on his mood, he'd reply sheepishly that he'd been caught, or he would lodge a defense of eggs. In the lean years, he explained, he'd eat mai fun noodles from the corner Chinese place almost every evening for dinner--with a fried egg on top. He plays sports and swears that oatmeal with a fried egg on top is the perfect breakfast before a game.

Years have passed, both of our cholesterol levels are just fine (I insisted he have his checked!), and I feel differently about eggs. There've been conflicting studies about the effect of egg consumption in healthy adults. Some have even called it the perfect food because of it's nutritional properties. According to wikipedia: "They supply all essential amino acids for humans,[21] and provide several vitamins and minerals, including vitamin A, riboflavin (vitamin B2), folic acid (vitamin B9), vitamin B6, vitamin B12, choline, iron, calcium, phosphorus and potassium. They are also a single-food source of protein."

And you know what? I love eggs, too. I love omelets (which we make at least once a week), scrambled eggs, egg-drop soup, poached eggs (which I never even knew about until I went to London), eggs in fried rice, egg custard, deviled eggs, and hard boiled eggs at easter time with a little bit of mayonnaise and salt. In fact, I like hard boiled eggs all the time. A friend of mine was traveling in Africa once and packed a dozen eggs with her for snacks on the road. I actually don't know whether hard boiled eggs would keep while you're hiking in the heat for a week, but she swore that they survived the journey well and provided quick and easy energy.

These days, I especially love the eggs that my husband cooks perfectly and puts on top of the flax-oat sourdough bread that I make, with a few strips of smoked salmon. But I use hard boiled eggs a lot, too--both as a good travel breakfast on the train when I'm totally busy or chopped up on salads for lunch. We've started buying cage-free eggs (organic and/or from local farms when we can afford it) because of all of the horror stories about egg production. I still don't know whether to trust the "cage-free" label on the eggs we get at Fairway or Trader Joe's, but I have to think they're somewhat better than the 99 cent eggs in the styrofoam container. There have been a few articles about the topic, but I haven't quite figured it out yet.

Unfortunately, I've found that the better the egg, the harder time I've had peeling them. I used to be an expert egg peeler at Eastertime, but these days, I'm lucky if I get 3/4 of the egg I started with after peeling away strips of rubbery egginess with the shell. I found this recipe for cooking eggs to perfection, and I hope my egg-wasting days are over. The recipe recommends using eggs that are not fresh, 3-5 days old are the best. In contravention to everything I've ever thought, the recipe also tells you to not add salt to water, explaining that the salt will raise the boiling point of the water making the egg whites rubber.

How To Correctly Cook Hard-Cooked (Hard-Boiled) Eggs

Bring your eggs to room temperature before cooking. If the egg has been stored in the refrigerator, it can be warmed gently under a flowing hot tap water or sit at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes. By bringing the eggs to room temperature, they're much less likely to crack in the hot water. Also the temperature of the egg at the start of the cooking process will affect the cooking time.

Choose the right size pot to cook your eggs in: The eggs must not be stacked but be in one (1) layer only. Gently place the eggs in a single layer in a pan with enough cold water to cover eggs completely (approximately by 1 inch of water over the top of the eggs).

Over high heat, bring water JUST to a rapid boil. As soon as the water reaches a rapid boil, remove pan from heat and cover egg pan tightly with a lid.

Set timer for 17 minutes for large eggs or 20 minutes for jumbo eggs. After 17 or 20 minutes (depending on size of your eggs), remove lid and drain off water from the eggs.

Watch the time when cooking the eggs carefully. Overcooking causes a green layer to form around the yolk. This layer is caused by a reaction between the iron in the yolk and the sulfur in the white. Heat speeds up this reaction, so the longer your eggs cook, the greater the chance of discoloration.

IMPORTANT - Stop the cooking process - Residual Heat or "Carry Over Heat."

After the eggs are removed from the heat, some cooking will continue, particularly the yolk of the egg. This is due to residual heat called “carry over cooking,” For this reason, transfer the eggs to the bowl of ice cubes and/or cold water. While they're in the cold water, a layer of steam develops between the shell and the egg white. The steam helps make peeling an egg much easier.

Let eggs cool at least 10 minutes in cold water, then drain. Either store in refrigerator or peel the eggs.

Confetti Cornbread

Sometimes I use a packaged mix. This is a risky admission on a blog that champions slow home cooking and tries to follow, as much as possible, Michael Pollan's suggestion to shop around the perimeter of the supermarket. But sometimes I do. I wanted to make cornbread for an annual chili party that friends of ours on the Upper West Side have every year, and I happened to have three boxes of Jiffy cornbread mix in the cabinet. You can find these little guys for as little as 33 cents in some grocery stores; these were 55 cents at Fairway. The ingredients aren't so bad, and its just so easy: add an egg (in this case three), and a 1/3 cup of milk (in this case one cup) and voila! Tasty cornbread. I dressed it up a bit, of course, with 1/2 cup of corn kernels and about 2 tbsp of chopped red jalapeno and fire-roasted poblano. My cornbread didn't hold up very well on the long walk and subway rides from Brooklyn to the party, but people gobbled them up despite their looks.

Frisbee Kirbys

D has been playing frisbee since he was like 12 years old. He's been to both national and international championships multiple times. This summer, he joined a Grand Masters team--men over 40--in a tournament in Denver, Colorado. I wanted to do something special to support the new team. A few times, I've brought out big containers of cookies or brownies that they guys munched up after their last game. I wanted to do something healthier this time.

For the past few years, from the sidelines I've seen the guys chugging pickle juice from big jars of Vlasic pickles that they kept in coolers. Apparently, pickle juice helps with muscle cramping in athletes. I don't know if it's the vinegar, or a complex interaction of the ingredients, but I knew what I had to do. (info about the benefits of pickle juice in muscles here). So I made a big batch of kirby dills a few weeks before the tournament, and then packed them very carefully in a big plastic container, quadruple wrapped them, and put them in my checked luggage. I had a lot to think about before this trip--a lot of work stuff going on, things to do....but the safety and security of the pickles on the plane was really my biggest concern. They arrived safely with a very minimal amount of leakage and I brought them out during their second day of play. I think they liked them, though I regret not getting a picture of them digging in to the jar from the sidelines.

D's master's team made it to nationals in Sarasota, Florida this year, and I wanted to send him down with another batch of pickles. I bought about 24 persian cucumbers and socked them in ice water for two days, but then I found myself too busy to finish the picklemaking in time enough for me to be confident in their taste to send them down for the team. I cut them up, packed them in a big glass jar, and they stayed behind when D boarded the plane for Florida.


I wish I would have sent them because they were delicious, and they would have been fine after sitting for a few days in his hotel room. Oh well. Now we have a big old jar of pickles to eat ourselves!

Hmmm, seitan? No thanks.

D and I are flirting with the idea of a raw diet cleanse, but at the very least, cutting down on our meat consumption which has admittedly been really extravagant of late. I picked up some seitan (wheat gluten) at Fairway last week to use as a meat-substitute in my tagine. The flavor was okay, but that's because seitan really picks up the flavor of whatever you cook it in. I'm not crazy about the texture of seitan cubes, and D thinks that its too processed and doesn't fit into our ethos of cooking with whole, unadulterated foods. I suppose we could make it at home, but why? Seitan is a good protein source for those who have entirely given up meat (and apparently, a good substitute particularly for duck meat), and it's low in fat and calories, but there aren't really too many other benefits that make it worth doing this again. Check out some info on seitan here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_gluten_(food)

Here's the recipe I used, though. I made it up.

Ginger-Seitan Tagine

1 lb package of seitan
3 tbsp sliced ginger (I used matchsticks)
2 tbsp diced garlic
1 tbsp diced jalapeno
2 small onions, or one medium one (sauteed until browned)
1/2 cup garbanzo beans/chick peas
1/2 cup diced tomato
1/4 cup currants
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp honey
1 cup vegetable broth
squeeze of lime juice
salt, pepper, paprika

Even though the seitan is pre-cooked, I decided to marinate it anyway in the olive oil, honey, lime juice, salt, pepper, paprika, ginger, garlic and jalapeno. It sat in that mix for a few hours, and then about an hour and a half before dinner, I combined the entire mix with the browned onion, chick peas, tomato, currants, and vegetable broth and placed in the base of the tagine. 400 degrees, an hour and a half later = yummy tagine. I served it over couscous cooked with parsley and scallion, seasoned with only salt and pepper.

Spring Onions and Snap Peas

The green market in Prospect Park this Saturday was the prettiest yet this season. I didn't have any ideas about what I wanted to get when I went, but I was on the look-out for some snap peas. The Council on the Environment for New York City (CENYC) provides a calendar of what types of veggies are in season in the city's over 45 greenmarkets (http://www.cenyc.org), and April is the month for snap peas. None to be found, sadly, so I had to get them on a later trip to Fairway.

I did pick up some fresh green onions and spinach, and then found some inspiration from a recipe from the January 2004 edition of Bon Appétit. We're trying to eat a few meals every week without any meat, so this is the first one for this week.

Stir-Fried Tofu with Snap Peas, Green Onions, and Spinach

3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp dried crushed red pepper
1 12-ounce package extra-firm tofu, drained, cut into 3/4-inch cubes, patted dry with paper towels
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon cornstarch

3 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 cup fresh spinach
1 cup fresh snap peas
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
1/4 cup spring onion tops
2 scallions

Whisk the first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl to blend. Add the tofu cubes and stir to coat; marinate for one hour, or overnight if you can. Drain, reserving the marinade in a small bowl. Whisk 1/4 cup water and cornstarch into the marinade and set aside. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in large nonstick skillet over high heat until the pan is smoking. Add the tofu and sauté until golden, about 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the tofu to a plate. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil to the skillet and heat again. Add the ginger and garlic and stir continuously until browned. Add the snap peas and stir-fry for 2 minutes or until tender. Add the spinach and stir into the peas until it is wilted. Add the green onions, and return the tofu to the skillet. Drizzle the reserved marinade mixture over the whole thing and stir-fry until the sauce thickens slightly. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with scallions and serve over quinoa or brown rice.

Postscript:  Wow.  I brought this dish to lunch today, and it was even better a day later.  I am just stunned at how tasty the sauce was.  The dish was not expensive either: $1.89 for the tofu, about $3 for the snap peas, about $3 for the spinach, and I guess about $4 for the rest of the ingredients, portions of which I have in my kitchen already.  So maybe all told, a generous estimate of about $12 for the entire meal, and it made four servings.  This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Stumbling Upon a Tagine

I spent some time in Morocco in 1995 and had a tagine for the first time. A tagine can either be the dish that you eat, or the pot that you cook it in: a shallow dish with a dome cover, most often made of clay. (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tajine) I had tagine with chicken and chick peas made in a super-huge tagine and baked in a clay oven that fed about 50 people in an extended family during a wake in Meknes, and I also had a small, dainty tagine of pigeon in an upscale French-style restaurant in Marrakech--both equally delicious.

I didn't buy a tagine when I was in Morocco because it would have been too difficult to carry home--I already had a set of ceramic tams with me that I carried wrapped in a blanket and fretted over constantly. And while I've thought about asking for one every Christmas since, I know that I just don't have the space in my apartment in Brooklyn. When I visited Kalustyan's a few weeks ago, I stood gape-mouthed at the selection of tagines on display. Surely I could squeeze one of the small ones into my kitchen? I didn't buy one then, promising myself that once we leave the city, I'll get myself a big one.

On a recent trip to Buffalo of all places, though, I stumbled upon a small silicone tagine at a Marshall's discount store. It was $10 and came with a little cookbook. I was traveling home by train, and already had quite a few bags, but I bought it anyway, figuring it could squeeze it into one of the bags because it was bendable and very light. And so I did.

I found this recipe for a lamb tagine on a blog called Five Spice Duck (http://fivespiceduck.blogspot.com/2008/02/moroccan-lamb-tagine-recipe.html) and headed to the green market at Grand Army Plaza in Prospect Park on Saturday morning. I bought a pound of fresh lamb, some carrots, onions, and garlic. Later that day, I stopped at Fairway and picked up some Israeli couscous (ptitim), saffron, dates, and Turkish apricots. I adapted the recipes that I found online and made this dish for our Sunday evening meal.


Honey-Paprika Lamb Tagine

1 pounds lamb pieces, cut for stew
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Pinch of saffron threads
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons sun-dried tomato paste
Salt and pepper
1 carrot, cut into chunks
1 yellow onion, peeled and cut into chunks
1 cup vegetable stock
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup cooked chickpeas
1/4 cup diced apricot

Mix together the garlic, honey, olive oil, cilantro, saffron, paprika, cumin and tomato paste in a large bowl. Add the lamb and toss to coat. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator overnight, or at least for a few hours.

When you're ready to cook, remove the lamb from the fridge and preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Brown the meat in it's marinade in a smoking hot cast iron pan. Pour the stock into the base of the tagine and add the browned meat with it's marinade, the carrots, onions, and cinnamon and stir together. Place the tagine lid on and bake for 1 1/2 hours. Stir the chickpeas and apricots into the tagine and cook for 30 minutes. Remove the lid or foil and cook an additional 30 minutes to brown the vegetables.

Israeli Couscous with Dates

1/2 pound dry Israeli-style couscous

1 large onion chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup dried chopped dates

1/2 cup chopped almonds

In a sauce pot, saute the onion in the oil until tender and just beginning to brown. Toast the couscous by stirring in the couscous and cooking and stirring until pale golden. Cover with the broth and bring to a boil and cook and simmer about 10 minutes or until couscous has absorbed the liquid. Stir in the dates and nuts. Remove from heat and led stand covered 10 minutes. Fluff with fork. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve the stew on top of, or to the side of, the couscous and garnish with chopped cilantro.

Postscript:  More stews to come, for sure.  This tagine is lovely; it cleans up like magic and I really think it makes a difference in how the ingredients steam in it.  I think I'll try chicken thighs or a vegetable stew next time.

Happy St. Pat's!

Next year, I vow to you, loyal reader, that I will make my own corned beef. I don't know what I was thinking. Fairway had piles of corned beef all sealed up in shrinkwrap, $6.29/lb. We opted for Fairway-made, old-fashioned, barrel brined corned beef, $6.99/lb. But it only takes 7 days to make your own. I just have to mark it on the calendar so I don't forget.

No matter, St. Patrick's day dinner was great. D brought home some soda bread (I wanted to forego the bread this year, but hey, it's yummy), and last night, I slow cooked the corned beef in my slow cooker (Guiness, water, beef, pickling spices, onion, carrot, and celery --> crock pot for 7 hours --> drain --> stick in fridge). When I got home from work this evening, I pre-heated the oven to 350, took the corned beef out of the fridge, and coated it with Dijon mustard. Then I mixed 1/2 cup of panko and 5 tbsp horseradish together and pressed the mixture over the mustard-covered beef. I placed the beef in a roasting pan and surrounded it with fingerling potatoes tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary, and caraway seeds. After popping that in the oven, I sliced up the cabbage and stuck it in a soup pot with water (enough to cover it), caraway seeds, half a veggie bouillon cube, and salt and pepper and brought it to a boil. D snuck in a quartered onion. When the cabbage was tender, I turned off the heat and turned up the oven to 450 for about 15 minutes. When the panko topping was browned, I took it out of the oven. I let the beef rest for a bit and drained the cabbage. Sliced beef, boiled cabbage and onion, and roasted potatoes--a wholesome Irish meal.

Saturday Night Beans

We went to an early party this evening....it was at a social hall in Staten Island, D's sister-in-law's 50th. We had a nice time, the party was early and, feeling like a bunch of old folks, we went out to Fairway to get the week's shopping done. Somehow it feels nicer to have it all done by Sunday morning. Tomorrow we're going to make huevos rancheros alternativos for breakfast....eggs, cumin pepper black beans, salsa verde, hot sauce and, well, bagels.

This is how I made the

Cumin-Pepper Black Beans.

1 cup black beans
water
olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
1 tsp cumin
1 whole red jalapeno
1 tsp diced rosemary
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Soak the beans for a few hours. Rinse and boil in a deep pot with just over double the amount of water. Add a whole red jalapeno pepper, 1 tsp diced rosemary, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and salt & pepper to taste. Boil until the beans are tender.

And here's how to use them:



Huevos rancheros alternativos: A toasted whole-wheat tortilla, a dollop of black beans, sauteed cherry tomatoes, salsa verde, sour cream, spicy turkey sausage, eggs, and hot sauce. Makes you think, for a split second, like you're sitting at an outdoor cafe with your friends in San Francisco.

Local food makes you feel better

Last week we had a wicked beautifully warm day that made me crave some summery food. I found a recipe for Lemon-Arugula Chicken Paillard on myrecipes.com (from the April 2006 issue of Cooking Light) that looked perfect, even though I knew the warm weather was just passing through as a tease. On our weekly trip to Fairway, I threw a plastic box of arugula in the cart. D took it out, examined the price ($4.99) and the source (Mexico) and made me put it back. He said we could make the dish with swiss chard, which was local. Luckily, on Monday night I met a friend for dinner at the Galaxy Diner (a fun place, but the food was way too greasy) right at Union Square, which has a nice green market three days a week. I picked up a quarter pound of local, organic arugula. I'm so glad I did; the recipe would not have been the same with steamed chard. I paired this recipe with a red pepper aioli. Delicious.

Lemon-Arugula Chicken Paillard

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
4 cups fresh (local!) arugula
2 skinless,boneless chicken breast halves
Olive oil
1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, halved (about 6 ounces)
1/3 cup dry white wine

Combine the lemon zest, juice, oil, and garlic in a large bowl. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add arugula; toss well. Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound each piece to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet. Sprinkle both sides of chicken with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Heat a grill pan or a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with olive oil. Add chicken, and cook for 4 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chicken from pan, and keep warm. Add halved tomatoes and dry white wine to pan. Cook for 2 minutes or until the liquid almost evaporates. Serve the two pieces of chicken on the arugula topped with the tomatoes and drizzled with ailoi (below).

Red Pepper Aioli

1 red pepper
2 egg yolks
4 cloves garlic, smashed
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
A few drops of Sriracha sauce
1 1/2 cups oil
salt and pepper

Place the red pepper on an open flame or grill (you can do this on a gas stove). Turn the pepper with some tongs to blacken on all sides. When the pepper is fully charred, remove to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let the pepper cool until you can handle it comfortably. Using your fingers, remove the blackened skin to reveal the red color underneath. Rinse the pepper under some tepid tap water to remove the remaining charred skin. Coarsely chop the pepper and place it in a blender or food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients (except for the oil) and puree until everything is fully mixed. While the machine is running, slowly drizzle in the oil until incorporated. Check the aioli for texture and flavor. If it's too thick, add a few drops of water to thin it down, or on the flip side if it's too thin add more oil. The desired outcome is a fairly thin aioli. Check the flavor and add more salt or chili paste to taste. Drizzle over the paillard dish and serve!

Figgy Pork

The weather is starting to turn, but I needed one more warm, winter dish before it's all said and done. I got the idea from my new favorite food website: The LoveBite (http://thelovebite.com). There was something I didn't like about their figgy roast piggy, so I went looking for another recipe with the same idea. I'm a big fan of cardamom, so this one was perfect. It was a bit labor- and ingredient-intensive, but good for a Sunday evening meal. And I think it would also be good for a holiday, it's festive enough.

Cardamom Pork Roast with Apples and Figs

Roast

3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground fennel
1 (3-pound) pork loin, trimmed
Cooking spray
2 cups dried figs, halved lengthwise
2 cups dried apples
1/4 cup minced crystallized ginger
3/4 cup pear nectar
1 (14-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth

Sauce

1/2 cup pear nectar
1/2 cup port
2 tablespoons currant jelly
1/4 cup heavy creamPreparation
Preheat oven to 400°.

To prepare the roast, combine the first nine ingredients in a small bowl. Rub mixture over the surface of the roast and place in a shallow roasting pan coated with cooking spray. Place the figs, apples, and crystallized ginger around roast. Pour 3/4 cup nectar and broth over fruit. Bake at 400° for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until meat thermometer registers 145°, stirring the fruit frequently. Remove the roast from the oven and place it on a carving board. Spoon the fruit in a separate bowl using a slotted spoon.

To prepare the sauce, pour any pan juices into a saucepan. Add 1/2 cup pear nectar, port, and jelly; bring to a boil. Cook 4 minutes or until thick enough to lightly coat the back of a spoon. Stir in heavy cream; simmer 2 minutes or until sauce has thickened, stirring occasionally.

Serve thinly sliced roast with a side of some sort (I used mashed cauliflower and garlic), a dollop of fruit, and drizzle with the sauce. Apologies for the picture, the colors on this very colorful dish are a little washed out with all the white (white plate, cauliflower, flash...)

Urban Foraging for Pomegranate Molasses

Pomegranates are so good. I found a recipe for honey-pomegranate chicken from Cooking Light magazine, but I couldn't figure out where to get the pomegranate molasses. I checked at Fairway and Trader Joe's, but no luck. I googled it along with NYC, and came up with Kalustyan's, at 28th and Lexington. THIS was the place I'd been thinking of when I was looking for tamarind concentrate, but the name just wouldn't come to me. When I walked in, I realized I had been there before--a time that seems so far from now. It was the day of the huge anti-war demonstration after September 11, and I had just been dumped. The guy that I was trying to get with at the time came with me to the demonstration in midtown (it was the first demonstration that he'd ever been to!) and he told me that he only wanted to be friends. It was my first foray into romance after a serious heartbreak, and I think I was overly optimistic. I liked him and that was a big risk. The thing hadn't even gotten off the ground, but I was kind of crushed.

I remember wandering about after we said goodbye at the subway, and I somehow "wandered" into Kalustyan's. I wasn't as into cooking as I am now, so I didn't appreciate what I was walking into. I remember buying some spices for dal, lentils, rice, and halvah--and then subsisting on it for a week while I licked my wounds. It was a strange sensation walking into Kalustyan's again last weekend as I recalled that time. It didn't take long to shake off the bittersweet memory, and before long I was just wide-eyed and gaping at the wonders on the shelves. It was astounding. It made me think about how much I will miss when we finally leave New York. But for now, I thought, I better stock up!



It wasn't hard to find the pomegranate molasses, and about a dozen other ingredients along the way. I also made note of the fact that they sell cookware and posters of spices and grains, and teas....new place to find presents. Check it out for yourself: http://www.kalustyans.com I told some people that I work with about the recipe, and one of my coworkers reminded me of the Afghan dish called fesenjan, which I've seen on the menu at Khyber Pass in the East Village. Now I want to make plans to go there again. In the meantime, I made this for us for dinner.

Honey-Pomegranate Chicken

3/4 cup honey
1/3 cup finely chopped shallots
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 3 small lemons)
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Sriracha hot sauce
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 chicken breasts, bone in with skin
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon water
olive oil

Combine first 9 ingredients in a large bowl. Pour over the two chicken breasts and marinate overnight. When you are ready to begin cooking, preheat your oven to 425°. Remove the chicken breasts from the bowl, reserving the marinade. Combine cornstarch and water in a small bowl. Place the reserved marinade in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir in cornstarch mixture, and cook for 3 minutes or until thickened, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. Place the chicken in a pan coated with olive oil. Bake at 400° for 45 minutes or until chicken is done, basting with reserved marinade every 10 minutes or so. I served the chicken with jasmine rice and spinach, with a garnish of toasted walnuts. If I make this recipe again, I would add more Sriracha sauce and garnish with pomegranate seeds with the walnuts.

Go Steelers!

Over one billion chicken wings will be eaten on Superbowl Sunday, 2009. Amazing statistic, and I'm proud to be a part of it. But since I've written so much about wings on this blog, I'm going to forego any comment on the wings we plan to eat (or talk about the risk that I took in obtaining those wings from Fairway) and focus on my other favorite party food: flatbread pizza. We made these one night a few years ago for an Oscar's Party and they were a hit. Super simple and fun for the kids.

Superbowl Pizza

Flatbread (or pita)
Cheese
Olives
Sun-dried Tomatoes
Red onion
Olive oil
Salt & pepper

Lay out as many rounds as you like on a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Brush with olive oil. Cut your onion in rounds, chop your olives and sun-dried tomatoes into small pieces or strips. Grate your cheese. Add rounds of onion, pieces of olive and tomato, top with shredded cheese. Season with salt and pepper and pop in the oven at 350 degrees F until cheese is melted. Cut into six pieces for each round and serve.

I used Bulgarian Kashkaval cheese and oil-cured Moroccan olives, but you can use any kind of melty cheese and any kind of olives. You can even use fresh tomatoes. There's no science to this recipe, it's just about combining flavors and colors.

Ginger Agave Cashews

Every once in a while, I splurge on some seasoned nuts at the farmer's market on 5th Ave & 3rd St. in Brooklyn.  There's a stand that sells all kinds of spiced and sweetened roasted nuts--unfortunately, she imports them from somewhere outside NY. I don't know why she's able to have a stand there, but the nuts are sure good!  I wanted to try to make them on my own.  I tried this recipe, and while the nuts were tasty, it wasn't exactly what I was looking for.  I'll keep trying . . . 

Ginger Agave Cashews

3 tablespoons agave nectar

1 tsp salt

2 tsp powdered ginger

1 cup cashews

Heat the agave nectar in a cast iron pan on the stove.  When it begins to bubble just a bit, add the cashews, salt, and ginger and toss until coated and heated through.  Pop the entire pan in the oven at 350, and roast for about 8 minutes, checking once at 4 minutes and stirring to shift cashew positions.  Be careful not to let the nuts burn.

Savory Bacon 'n Cheddar Scones

A friend is having a brunch party "When Pigs Fly" in celebration of bacon, Brooklyn, and her birthday this afternoon, and we've all been asked to bring some bacon. I tried to get some bacon from the Flying Pig organic farm at the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning, but the stand was mysteriously not there. So we bought normal bacon at Fairway in Redhook (after an awesome dinner at Hope & Anchor), and this is what I came up with.

Savory Bacon 'n Cheddar Scones

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 teaspoons sugar

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick, 2 oz) cold butter

1 cup (4 oz) diced cheddar cheese

1/3 cup fresh chives, or finely diced scallion tops

1/2 pound bacon, cooked, cooled, and crumbled (about 1 cup)

3/4 cup (7 oz) heavy cream, or enough to make the dough cohesive

Preheat the oven to 425° and lightly grease a baking sheet.

Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar. 

Work the butter into the flour until the mixture is unevenly crumbly. 

Mix in the cheese, chives, and bacon till evenly distributed. 

Add ¾ cup of the cream, stirring to combine. Mush the dough together with clean hands. If it won't go together or if it's too dry, add a little bit of cream. Shape the dough into a smooth mound, about 3/4 inch thick. Put the dough onto the baking sheet and cut the mound into 8 wedges, spreading the wedges apart. Brush the scones with some milk or cream and sprinkle with just a hint of sea salt.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, depending on your oven, until they are golden brown.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

My favorite new restaurant

The Good Fork in Red Hook, Brooklyn is as good as I've been hoping it would be. I've been trying to get reservations for every special occasion that I've had for the past year, and I always call too late and find that they are booked. One of my main reasons for wanting to go is the restaurant's support and use of produce from Added Value, http://www.added-value.org/, a nonprofit that fosters youth development and sustainable agriculture in Brooklyn. They train at-risk youth how to grow and market produce, and they run a pretty neat little Farmer's Market on the weekends.

Now I know for certain why I've been unable to get reservations: the care and attention that the chef and her partner have put into the place. From the minute we walked in, I loved the place. The decor was perfect: just the right amount of tiny sparkling Christmas lights, the old fashioned paintings, the brick walls, the solid wood tables, the lighting.... We were greeted by one of the owners, very friendly...drinks were awesome and served up right away.

We ordered three appetizers and a main course because we couldn't decide what to get. Pork and chive dumplings, grilled asparagus with a poached egg on a bed of greens, and the crab cake with endive and radish sprouts on a bed of chipotle aioli to start. All of it was prepared perfectly and I savored each bite. For the main, D and I shared roasted organic chicken with potato-parsnip puree and a roasted leek. It was actually just the right amount of food, not too expensive, and utterly delicious. The bill wasn't outrageous ($76 for all of that, two mixed drinks, and a glass of reisling), and the servers were perfect. The only complaint we had was that the place was a tad noisy. It might have been the rowdiness of the guests around us, or maybe it was the acoustics, but it hardly detracted from a perfect evening out.

I can't say enough about this place. In addition to everything else, its right across the street from LeNell's Wine & Likker (http://www.lenells.com/); down the street from Fairway; close to another awesome Red Hook restaurant called Hope & Anchor (http://www.hopeandanchordiner.com/index.html); and serves Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pie--made right down the street (http://www.stevesauthentic.com/) I'm glad my blog isn't heavily trafficked, because I almost don't want more people to know about this place.

Sweet 'n Sour Mystic Gypsy Pickles

I found 6 mini Hungarian cucumbers at Fairway this weekend, and realized how badly I need to pickle again. We're going to a BBQ this coming weekend and making burgers for everyone (see previous post) and I decided to make some sweet 'n sour pickle slices to go on our burgers.

Sweet 'n Sour Mystic Gypsy Pickles

6 small cucumbers
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 medium red onion
1/2 cup kosher salt
2 c. sugar
1 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
2 tbsp. white mustard seed
1 1/2 c. water
1 1/2 c. yellow cider vinegar

Combine cucumbers, onions, peppers with kosher salt and cover for 3 hours. Rinse and drain thoroughly. While the cucumbers are marinating in the salt, combine the sugar, turmeric, ground cloves, white mustard seed, water and vinegar. Bring the syrup mixture to a boil. Once the cucumber mix is rinsed, place the veggies into three medium-sized canning jars. Artfully. Pour the boiling hot mixture over the cucumbers and seal. They're good after a few days of marinating in the juice. Yum!

An unexpected dinner party

My 18-year old niece was in town from Pennsylvania to visit a friend in Manhattan. Because they are both broke, they asked if they could come over for dinner to our apartment in Brooklyn instead of going out to Lucky Cheng's--the karaoke, drag-show dinner theatre we wanted to take them to. This was Saturday morning, so I had to whip up a plan. I overplanned, and overcooked, as always, but it was fun. This spread is a little time-consuming, but I think worth the effort.

Make-Your-Own Chicken Tacos (for four)

Olive oil
Two medium onions
1 clove of garlic
2 large chicken breasts
1 avocado
3 medium-sized tomatoes
1 cup of uncooked black beans
1 cup of uncooked brown rice
4 spinach tortillas
1 portobello mushroom
1/2 cup of pepper jack cheese
1/2 cup of yogurt
4 Tbsp cilantro
2 Tbsp parsley
1 can of tomato sauce
One lemon
paprika
salt
pepper
cumin

Soak the black beans and the brown rice for a few hours. When they are ready to cook (I soak mine for about 6 hours), measure the rice and make sure you put twice as much water in its pot with a little bit of oil. Boil. Same with the black beans, except instead of adding oil, add the small can of tomato paste. Dice one of the onions, and saute in a pan with olive oil and one diced garlic clove. Set aside. Dice the other two onions, and put it in a bowl.

Slice the portobello mushrooms into 1/2 inch strips. Slice the onion so that they are 1/2 inch thin pieces to match the onions. Saute them both until tender and deep brown in a cast-iron pan.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. When the rice and beans are cooking, spray or spread olive oil in a baking dish. Place the breasts in the dish, and cut about four slits in each breast, spread or spray them with a bit of olive oil, and season the breasts with salt, pepper, cumin, and paprika. Slice about four rings of lemon and place them on top of the breasts. Place the seasoned chicken breasts in the oven.

Make some guac. Cut the avocado in half, scoop out the avocado and lightly mush. Add half of the diced onion, chop and add 2 Tbsp of cilantro, sprinkle with salt, pepper, paprika, a bit of cumin to taste, and squeeze the rest of the lemon on top. Stir gently so that the guac is nice and chunky.

Remember to keep stirring the beans so they don't stick to the pan! At some point before they are completely soft, add 1/2 of the sauteed onion/garlic mixture each to the rice and to the beans. Stir, stir, stir.

Dice the tomatoes.

Chop up the parsley and remainder of cilantro.

Mix 1/2 cup of yogurt with 2 Tbsp of cilantro, a healthy pinch of cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper. Should be nice and spicy. You can add as much cumin as you want, just keep tasting it.

When the chicken is cooked, the beans and rice should be nearly done. Take out the chicken, and when it is cool enough to shred, do so, and toss with parsely until coated.

Shred the cheese!

Warm the tortillas (either in a toaster oven or right on a gas-stove flame) and place in a dish covered with a napkin. Place all the things you've created in their own little bowls and arrange on a table.

Tell your guests to come and get it! Make their own tortillas.

Suggestion: I like to put two large pinches of cheese on the warm tortilla, then add the chicken, beans, mushrooms, and tomatoes, fold, and then put the guac, yogurt sauce, and rice on the side. (I don't like the raw onions!)

If you're having dinner with kids, of course you shouldn't include Margaritas . . . .