Foreign Eggs

We love eggs. I've written about our love of eggs in this blog before. So when I found scotch eggs in London last year--eggs surrounded by spicy pork, rolled in tasty breadcrumbs and baked--I knew it was only a matter of time before I started making them at home.

Actually, I was really impressed with food and drink in London. I don't know why it's the butt of anyone's joke. I regularly order hard cider (my favorite is pear) whenever it's available now. And the bodegas carry Jack Daniels and Coke in a can. Super.

It took about a year to turn my attention back to Scotch Eggs, but here's my first iteration. I made them for a picnic at a Prospect Park concert where hummous is the staple and graces almost every blanket. And I made it vegetarian with Gimme Lean sausage. My favorite part was getting my friends to try and guess what the ball of goodness sitting on the plate was before I cut it in half, revealing the egg. This recipe will make a tasty scotch egg, but I can only imagine what well-seasoned pork would do. I used large eggs, but I could see using medium, small, or even quail eggs to make these--depending on the occasion and whether they will be a meal or an appetizer.

Spicy Baked Scotch Eggs

4 medium hardboiled eggs, peeled
1 14 oz tube of gimme lean sausage
2 cups flour
2 cups bread crumbs
2 tsp harissa
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp coriander
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground black pepper
1 raw egg, whisked
spray olive oil
baking dish
4 bowls

You'll need four bowls: (1) sausage mixed with 2 tsp harissa; (2) flour with one tsp each of cumin, coriander, chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, salt & pepper; (3) bread crumbs with one tsp each of cumin, coriander, chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, salt & pepper; (4) whisked egg.

Preheat the oven to 400 F. In clean and oiled hands, take 1/4 of the sausage mixture and flatten it evenly in your hand. Place a single hardboiled egg in the center and gently wrap the sausage evenly around the egg. Once all of the egg is covered with sausage, roll the ball in the seasoned flour. Dunk the flour-coated egg into the raw egg and coat. Then carefully roll the eggy-egg in breadcrumbs to coat evenly. Place the large round ball in an olive oil-coated baking dish. Repeat three more times, washing your hands in between each one. Place each round coated egg on an oiled baking dish and pop in the oven for 1/2 hour. Check for golden-brownness and rotate the dish if you need to for a few more minutes. Let cool and eat one on it's own, or serve with any number of condiments: salt & pepper, hot sauce, mayo, horseradish sauce, sriracha....

Not-so-Seder

My favorite local meat vendor at the green market in Prospect Park, the Flying Pig farm (http://www.flyingpigsfarm.com/) handed out a recipe for Cumin-Citrus Pork Cutlets a few weeks ago. I've made the dish twice and it was delicious, even better for leftovers the second day. The citrus part certainly isn't localvore, unfortunately, but I think exceptions always need to be made for lemon.

Yesterday when I defrosted the cutlets, I didn't realize until later that day that it was the beginning of Passover. I have to admit, it felt a bit like a heresy to have pork on the first evening of Passover, despite the fact that I'm not Jewish. Next year, I promise something more seder-like.

Here's the recipe, which the farm found in an August 2001 issue of Bon Appetit. I adapted it only slightly.

Cumin Dusted Pork Cutlets with Citrus Pan Sauce

4 tbsp flour
4 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne or hot paprika
1 tsp salt

1 lb pork cutlets or pork strips
olive oil
4 minced garlic cloves
1/2 cup orange juice
6 tbsp fresh lemon juice (2-3 lemons)

Orange wedges

Combine on a plate: 4 tablespoons flour, 4 teaspoons ground cumin, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon black pepper, ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper. Dredge each piece of 1 pound of pork cutlets in the flour mixture. Heat olive oil in large cast iron pan over high heat. Add pork and sauté for about 3 minutes per side, until just barely cooked through. Don’t overcook! Transfer pork to serving plate, cover with foil to keep warm. Add a bit more olive oil to the pan. Add 3 or 4 minced garlic cloves and sauté until golden brown. Add ½ cup good quality orange juice, 6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from 2 or 3 lemons), some citrus flesh (chopped up oranges or lemons from the lemon you squeezed), and a pinch of salt. Boil until slightly thickened. Pour sauce over pork and serve.

I've served this dish with any combination of daal, black beans, quinoa, rice, and quinoa, but always garnished with the orange wedges. Dumping all of the leftovers on some greens makes an amazing lunch the next day.

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.

Garden Greens

These greens are not from my garden, although I'm hoping this spring I'll be able to start to grow mizzuna, mache, and other light greens on my porch. These are from the Grand Army Plaza Farmer's Market in Prospect Park. I tossed them with cherry tomatoes and toasted walnuts. Nothing more. Delicious.

Ethiopian Beet & Potato Salad

My friend Becca travels all the time. She works for an international human rights organization, and if she's not in Geneva, she's in Jamaica, or Eastern Europe, or Mexico . . . it's hard to plan things with her, but our mutual friend tricked her into a dinner-for-two celebration for her birthday. Little did she know that our friend used a party planning thing on Facebook to get Becca's friends to a surprise birthday party for her. It was a success! She was surprised and the food was great. Our friend made injera, sour flatbread from Ethiopia that is used both as a food and a utensil....stews and meats are scooped up from a communal plate with pieces of injera. It's delicious, and I was hugely impressed with our friend's efforts. You can read more about injera here: http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/bread/recipe-injera.html

I made a beet and potato salad to go along with the meal. I found the recipe on epicurious, but it originally comes from a great Ethiopian restaurant in Washington, D.C., Meskerem. It's so simple to make, and it's a great accompaniment to spicy stews. You can see it amidst the pots of food above: it's the bright purple dish.

Beet-Potato Salad with Lemon

1/2 onion, chopped
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 jalapeño chili, seeded, minced
1 pound red-skinned potatoes
1 pound beets

Combine onion, lemon juice, oil and jalapeño in large bowl. Set aside.

Cook potatoes and beets in separate large saucepans of boiling salted water until just tender, about 30 minutes for potatoes and 45 minutes for beets. Drain. Cool slightly. Peel and cut into 1/2-inch cubes.

Add beets and potatoes to lemon mixture and toss to coat. Season generously with salt and pepper. You can serve this dish warm, at room temperature, or even cold.

james

We rarely go out to restaurants these days--what with trying to save some money, and the fact that we rarely find dishes that are better than what we prepare ourselves--but when we do go out, we try to choose our restaurants well. Lately, we've been dining out at places that use local ingredients or have seasonal menus. james, a restaurant right around the corner from where D grew up in Prospect Heights, was a great choice. The ambience in a restaurant is always very important to me--the only thing missing from this place was little Christmas lights. It was decorated beautifully, very rustic, with whitewashed walls and an antique mirror. They also had this cool back-lighting behind the seating booths that created a really warm feel.

We loved the selections on the menu, but could not settle on anything, so we shared three appetizers and an entree. The Heirloom Tomato with Globe Basil, Sea Salt, Warm Chèvre Fondue tasted great, although the presentation could have been better. The tomato slices were all stacked up on top of one another. I thought it would have been better to lay them out in an array so that you could appreciate the different colors. The chevre was awesome. The Seared Diver Scallops with Watercress Puree was also very good--the scallops were cooked to perfection, and the watercress puree was a simple and clean compliment. Our served offered a special tuna tartare appetizer which we couldn't resist. It was simply four thinly sliced pieces of fish over fresh sprouty-greens with serrano pepper and a vinagrette. The tast combination was amazing...we savored every bite. Perfection. For our shared entree, we had the butternut squash ravioli. The taste was great, but the entree wasn't really worth the price ($19 for four raviolis). The Ricotta Beignets with Raspberry Red Wine Coulis were light and delicious, a great way to end the meal. I would definitely come back to james again. Maybe around the holidays they'll have Christmas lights.

http://jamesrestaurantny.squarespace.com/info/

Maple-Roasted Chicken with Apple-Mushroom Wild Rice and Lentil Pilaf

The only things you should have to do on Sunday are: watch Meet the Press, read your favorite parts of the New York Times, go on a bike ride, and make a nice dinner. If those are the criteria for a perfect Sunday, I outdid myself and had a more perfect Sunday. Colin Powell started my morning by giving the most eloquent and poignant endorsement of Barack Obama, the Times had an awesome feature on Rachel Maddow, the park was at its fall best and my new bike was awesome (so was my partner, who encouraged me to keep going up those hills!), and the dinner we chose was soul-warming. On the way home from the park, we stopped by a Barack O'Bake Sale run by four neighborhood kids. Their enthusiasm was something else!

I got a free-range chicken at Fairway and brined it in water, kosher salt, a chopped up onion, and a sprig of rosemary. I left the chicken in the fridge in its brine for about 8 hours. When I took it out of the fridge, I rinsed it throughly, rubbed it with olive oil, and coated it with a spice mixture I got from a poultry-seller at the Grand Army Plaza Farmer's Market in Prospect Park. The spice mixture uses maple crystals as its base, so it was nice and sweet. We didn't do anything else to the chicken--just roasted it at 400 degrees for about an hour.

For the Apple-Mushroom Wild Rice and Lentil Pilaf, we didn't follow a recipe really. I got the idea from a fall recipe newsletter that advertised an Apple-Leek Stuffing. I couldn't find leeks anywhere this weekend, so I just used the apple part to inspire a nice side dish. In general, the pilaf was made this way:

Combine wild rice with a touch of olive oil in a small bowl. Sautee onion and garlic in a sauce pan. Once they are carmelized, add chopped mushrooms and celery. When they are soft, add the wild rice, chicken stock, and about 1/2 cup of lentils. Add salt and pepper and simmer, covered, for about 45 minutes. When the rice is nearly done, add chopped apples to the mixture. Uncover and continue to cook until the rice is tender and the water is absorbed.

The dish is even better for lunch the next day.

Friday Night Fare

It's been a long week. The convention, house guests, working overtime, the debut of a huge campaign (www.nyclu.org/vote), today's big news from McCain...all ending well with a scrimmage against Crescendo in Prospect Park (big disappointment: I struck out). We needed a simple dinner. I love stopping for chicken wings after a softball game, but we came home (after a margarita at Rachel's) and made a standard Friday night dinner. (Nice Christian girl, fish on Fridays...)

Marinated Salmon & Sauteed Broccoli
(serves 2)
1 lb fresh piece of salmon
Tamari
2 tbsp sugar
pinch of ginger
Salt and pepper
Half a head of broccoli
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup yogurt
3 scallions

Marinate the salmon in a mixture of tamari, sugar, ginger, salt and pepper for a few hours.

Heat a cast iron pan and sear the salmon in some olive oil. Stick the salmon in a dish in the stove at about 350 degrees.

Sautee some chopped garlic, add broccoli florets and chopped stem. Add 1 1/2 chopped scallions. Season with salt and pepper.

Mix 1 1/2 chopped scallions with yogurt and season with salt and pepper.

Serve a piece of salmon with some broccoli pieces and a dollop of seasoned yogurt. Chomp it up.

A New Take on Meat & Potatoes

I just got paid from a relatively lucrative consulting gig and I went to town on menu planning for the week. Last night we had grass-fed lamb chops (coated with honey that I brought back from Ukraine, allspice, cardamom, salt and pepper) on top of curried couscous with cranberries.

Tonite, we had filet mignon au Jus, fresh stringbeans with bacon and almonds, and pureed parsnips with white truffle oil. I dry rubbed the meat yesterday afternoon with thyme, allspice, salt and pepper, and wrapped it in plastic wrap and stuck it in the fridge. This afternoon, I boiled the parsnips in chicken stock and skim milk, then put it through the food processor and added salt and pepper. D blanched the stringbeans, shocked them in cold water, and then sauteed them with the bacon and almonds. We braised the meat in olive oil, then stuck them in the broiler for 26 minutes. We made the sauce by adding shallots, thyme, and brandy with beef stock and the beef juices. Then we heated the parsnips and added the white truffle oil at the end.

Served it with an Organic Rioja from Spain.

A completely new take on a traditional meat and potatoes meal. The pureed parsnips were like pudding. Kids would never know the stuff was healthy. They'd be too busy lickin' it off the plate.

It was an exquisite meal, perfect to top off an exquisite weekend. Last week was hard: Me recovering from some health stuff and D getting over a cold, and me just finding out that I've deveoped some kind of allergy with spots on my forearms. Here I sit watching interesting Sunday night television, finishing off the last of the wine, being fed Marzipan chocolate after D's cleaned the entire kitchen after the meal. And to top it all off, D said despite my spots, he might have to do me anyway.

The whole meal must have cost me $35 at the most (the most expensive thing was probably the white truffle oil, and we've got plenty left for other recipes. Or maybe D's labor). The Rioja sounds fancy, but it was really just $11 at "Big Nose, Full Body" on 7th Avenue in Park Slope. Mostly everything else came from the Farmer's Market at Grand Army Plaza, and the best neighborhood butcher on Prospect Park West and 16th Street--a great little Italian place, family-owned, just the kind that are disappearing from all over New York. I even bought a big ole dill pickle while I was there. Had to go to Fairway in Red Hook for the truffle oil, though.

Crazy Head Parsnips

I really love the farmer's market at Grand Army Plaza in Prospect Park! It was an insane 72 degrees in New York today, so there was no way I could resist doing a run around the park before hitting the market. I got there a little late and wasn't surprised to find that there wan't a whole lot left. I'd hoped to pick up a bunch of ginger and some tiny onions for pickling this weekend, but no luck. Checking out one of my favorite stands that sells root veggies and sprouts, though, I spotted the funniest looking things I've ever seen. They were curly-headed parsnips! (picture to the side on this page)

You can imagine the first thing I thought: pickled parsnips! How crazy it would be to pickle these things...they'd look so cool in the jars. I asked the woman who runs the stand how she cooks them, and she said she'd never heard of picking them, but she likes to soak them for a few hours to get all the dirt out, and then just roast them whole with all the curly stems, which get crispy and crunchy. It's always a good idea to get an idea about the taste of a veggie, I think, before you pickle it, so I set my excitement for pickling aside and took them home to roast for dinner.

That morning over breakfast, I dug out my two old Bon Apetit and Cooking Light magazines to look for a recipe I had seen for a navy bean salad. I found that recipefor Cauliflower, White Bean, and Feta Salad, but also found a recipe for Ponzu-Glazed Flank Steak and decided that's what we would have for dinner. It was delicious, and looked festive and fun on the plate. If we ever did open a restaurant, this could be a good meal for kids. The steak was sweet and tender, the cauliflower salad looked like little clouds on the plate, and the parsnips--we decided we'd call them "crazy head parsnips" might entice even the most veggie-resistant. We drizzled some butter garlic sauce with rosemary over the parsnip heads.

I also picked up two big quinces, and asked the man who ran that stand how to cook them. He said I could treat them just like apples, and I asked him if he'd ever made a crisp out of them. He said he hadn't, he'd made pies, though, but that I would have a hard time doing it. He said I'd end up eating all the quince slices before they made it into the crisp dish! That's the great thing about having a local market like this. You can ask the sellers all kinds of different questions about their produce.....and they always know the answers! I'll be away for the next two weekends, but the next Saturday morning I'm back in Brooklyn, you'll definitely see me up at the market buying a pound of two of crazy head parsnips for pickling!

It’s good to date a chef

So D called this afternoon while I was at work saying that he was going to come over and hang out with me tonite because he had some work to do near my house tomorrow morning. All day long, I was periodically checking my regular cooking websites to come up with something snazzy but simple and healthy to cook with him tonite. But no luck. I don’t know why, I just wasn’t inspired by any of the recipes I saw. Not a disaster, as we could make a great meal out of just stuff I had in my cabinets and fridge anyway, so I didn’t despair.

After work, we met in the park for a run (about 2 miles) and on the way home, we stopped at D’s butcher shop. We both just stood there, I think still reeling from the food over the holidays, and looked at the meat case. I still wasn’t inspired so I asked him to pick. Pork chops. And he said he’d cook while I took a long indulgent shower. Sweet.

So this is the menu we came up with. It’s good to date a chef. ‘Cause even when you’ve run out of ideas, your chef will always have one.

Menu
Cheese and Triscuits
Green Leaf, Feta, and Pickled Beet salad
Herbs de Provence Braised Pork Chops with Fennel, Zucchini, and Cranberry Chutney
1 Lindt chocolate truffle & Earl Grey Tea with milk

Herbs de Provence Braised Pork Chops with Fennel and Cranberry Chutney
2- 1 in. thick cut port chops
½ Spanish onion
1 medium bulb of fennel
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 zucchini
½ grated carrot

Season with salt and fresh ground black pepper and herbs de provence. Sear in a hot cast iron pan with 11/2 Tblsp olive oil. Brown on both sides, remove, and set aside. Saute the sliced onion and fennel with the chopped garlic. Add onion before garlic browns, then add fennel after. Cut zucchini into one-inch cubes and add to the onion mixture. Hit with a splash of white wine. Add the grated carrot. (D likes to use the carrots to make the mixture a little sweeter) Place pork chops back on the mixture, cover and cook for 7 minutes. (Note: You should actually cook them medium to medium-rare because when it’s cooked through all the way, it’s dry and tougher.) Arrange on a plate with 1 heaping Tbsp of cranberry chutney and enjoy!

Prep time: 30 minutes
Servings: 2