So-called Superfood Really is Super!

Spring got here, and we've been outside a lot. This is pretty much our only outdoors time for a while, because summer will be so cold we'll have the heater on again between Memorial Day and Labor Day!

To take advantage of the fun and sun, I thought I'd try this Superfood salad from the Leon Cookbook for a backyard luncheon. It is every bit as good as they say!




Superfood, from the Leon Cookbook by Allegra McEvedy

200g broccoli, cut into bite-sized florets

120g peas, fresh or frozen

100g cucumber, cut into slim batons

100g good-quality mozzarella, cubed

20g alfalfa

20g toasted seeds (we use sesame, sunflower, flax and pumpkin)

50g avocado, cut into pieces

30g quinoa, Fairtrade if possible

Small handful flat-leaf parsley, rough chopped

Small handful mint, rough chopped

juice of 1 lemon

4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

Wash the quinoa well and put in a small pan. Cover with cold water plus about an inch then let it gently simmer until the water's gone - about 15 minutes. Spread it on a tray to cool to room temperature.

Put an inch of hot water into a saucepan with a pinch of salt and cover it. Once boiling, drop in the broccoli and peas and put the lid back on. Drain after three minutes and run the veg under cold water to take all the heat out and keep them good and green.

Now build your salad in layers, starting with the first ingredient on the list and ending up with the dressing (but only dress it just before you eat it).

Chocolate Guinness Goodness

Okay, lately I've been saying that everything is the best, but this *really* is the BEST!

Chocolate Guinness Goodness from Bon Appetit

* 8 large egg yolks
* 1 cup sugar
* One 14.9-ounce can Guinness Draught
* 3 cups heavy cream
* 7 ounces high-quality bittersweet (70 to 72% cacao) chocolate, finely chopped [NOTE: I actually used cocoa powder here, Valrhona, 3/4 cup]


* Special equipment: Six 8-ounce old-fashioned glasses

In large nonreactive mixing bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar.

Open can of Guinness and slowly pour into 4-cup measuring cup, pouring down side of cup to reduce foaming. Pour half of Guinness (about 7/8 cup) into heavy-bottomed 3-quart saucepan. Add 2 1/4 cups cream and whisk to combine. Set over medium heat and heat, whisking occasionally, until bubbles just begin to form at edges. Remove from heat, add chocolate, and whisk until smooth.

Slowly pour hot chocolate mixture into eggs, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. Return mixture to saucepan and set over moderately low heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until mixture thickens and coats back of spoon, about 15 minutes. (Pudding will look separated.) Pour into blender and blend on high for 1 minute. [NOTE: My pudding didn't look separated -- wonder if the cocoa powder had anythign to do with that -- so I skip the blender step.] Divide pudding among glasses, leaving at least 1 inch of space at top of each. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled and set.

Meanwhile, pour remaining Guinness into small saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to moderately low and simmer, uncovered, until reduced to 1 tablespoon, about 20 minutes. Pour syrup into small bowl and let cool.

Beat remaining cream until soft peaks form. Add Guinness syrup and beat until combined. Divide cream among 6 glasses of pudding and serve.

Grab your Crockpot and Try This!

This is the best thing that we have made in a long time! And I was so happy with it because I thought it was a really healthy dinner apart from the 2 tablespoons of cream that get stirred in at the last minute. And then Rafa reminded me that the chicken was sauteed first in a lot of butter (yes, he made this for us for dinner!). So okay, it has its share of butter and cream, but it is still home-cooked, super-easy, and delish!



Chicken with Golden raisins
from: Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
6 bone-in chicken thighs
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup red wine
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup golden raisins

One piece at a time, dredge the chicken in the flour, coating both sides and shaking off any excess.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When it foams, add the chicken and cook until deep golden brown on both sides, 5 to 7 minutes per side.

Transfer the chicken to the slow cooker. Add the wine to the pan, bring to a boil, and cook, scraping up any browned bits stuck to the pan. Pour over sauce the chicken and season with the with the salt and pepper. Cover and cook on LOW for 4 hours.

Stir in the cream and the raisins. Cover, turn the cooker to HIGH, and cook until the chicken is tender and cooked through, another hour.

Serve the chicken hot, with the raisins and sauce.

I Just Signed up for a Kitchen Cure!

The Spring 2010 Kitchen Cure

Welcome to the Spring 2010 Kitchen Cure! The goal for this special four week express program is to get your kitchen in tip-top shape: clean, healthy and organized. As a result, your cooking will become more nourishing and delicious than ever...By signing up, you are taking your first step toward a successful Cure, and you will also have the chance to tell us a little about where you're coming from, why you're doing the Cure, and what you'd like to get out of it.

The Spring 2010 Kitchen Cure kicks off Friday, February 26th and runs for four weeks.

Lemon and Soup Season Together

It's been blustery and rainy around here for a long stretch. Real soup weather if there ever was. At the same time, we have a bumper crop of lemons on our old lemon tree, so it was fun to try to combine the two.

Avgolemono Soup is a creamy, homey, lemony soup that was perfect to warm us in the cold weather and a good use of some of the lemons. This recipe is a combination of two recipes from the Silver Palate cookbooks. In one recipe they called for greens, and since we had some spinach, and it's always a good idea to eat spinach, I added it.



Avgolemono Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
6 cups chicken broth, preferably homemade
1 handful of rice
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
2 cups of baby spinach

In a large soup pot, saute onion in olive oil for 5-7 minutes. Stir in rice and spinach and cook for 2-3 minutes. As spinach wilts, add chicken broth and simmer for 20 minutes until rice is softened.

Meanwhile, beat egg yolks with lemon juice. After broth has simmered for 15-20 minutes, slowly add 1/2 cup of broth to egg mixture to temper eggs. Whisk tempered egg mixture back into hot broth, taking care not to bring it to boiling.

I served this hot, but you can also serve it cold. Salt and pepper to taste, although we found that it didn't need any salt or pepper, it was that flavorful!

Coq au Champagne

Check out the Royal Foodie Joust this month. The ingredients are champagne, orange, and mushrooms. This is my submission:



Coq au Champagne

8 ounces lardons or cubed pancetta
white parts only of 2 large leeks, thinly sliced
1 large shallot, peeled and chopped
8 ounces mushrooms, roughly chopped
10 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
zest and juice of 1 orange
1 bottle sparkling wine (I used Mumm Napa Brut)
1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley

Saute pancetta, leeks, shallots, and mushrooms in 2 T olive oil until softened, about 10 minutes. Add chicken pieces, orange zest and juice, and wine to pan and bring to a boil. Partially cover, turn heat to low, and simmer for 1 hour.

For best results, cool, and refrigerate overnight. Reheat gently over low heat, sprinkle with parsley before serving with rice or noodles or nice crusty bread.

Cinnamon-Sesame Ice Cream

Every year we get a big box of goodies delivered to the door from Spain, and this year was no different. The Christmas season is a traditional time for baking of special sweets and candies, and my mother-in-law does her shopping for us, packs it all up in a big box, and ships it off to us, and a week or two later we enjoy marzipans, turron, polverones, and my favorite, mantecados.

Mantecados are crumbly cookies flavored with cinnamon and sesame, and they contain 7 million calories per cookie. Since I usually have a significant calorie deficit racked up toward the end of December, I can take in as many mantecado-calories as I want with impunity. Right, in my dreams. Anyway, we went through the mantecados pretty fast, and by New Year's Eve they were all gone. What to do except make up an ice cream recipe that would taste like mantecados with my fancy new ice cream maker?

If you've cooked with sesame oil, you know that it is very fragrant and a little dash goes a long way. So this is a cinnamon-flavored ice cream recipe with just a dash of sesame oil. It may sound strange to you, but the hint of sesame off-sets the cinnamon and sugar beautifully. It's one of my favorite combinations. This would be a wonderful dessert after a paella, or a meal of moroccan flavors.




Cinnamon-Sesame Ice Cream

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1-1/2 cups whole milk

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix until smooth. Pour immediately into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer instructions, usually 20-30 minutes. Pack ice cream into a freezable container if you are not going to serve it right away, and store in the freezer. Obviously.

Pizza Lorraine

I had some ham and leeks left over from Quiche Lorraine for Christmas, and also some creme fraiche, and thought I would try it in a pizza-tart type thing. It turned out very nicely. Try it for a quickie dinner or a nice hors d-oeuvre for New Year's.



Pizza Lorraine

Ingredients for two 8-inch pizzas:
2 leeks, cleaned and sliced thinly
1 shallot, sliced
1/2 cup cubed prosciutto or pancetta
1 container of creme fraiche
1/2 lb grated mixed cheeses (provolone, mozzarella, asiago, etc.)


Use your favorite pizza crust recipe, such as this, or use a pre-made crust.  Once again, I used a pre-made Vicolo cornmeal crust.

Preheat the oven to 425, or as directed for your pizza dough.

Saute the shallot and cubed prosciutto in a little olive oil, adding the leeks after 3-4 minutes. Stir occasionally and continue to saute until leeks are softened and just starting to turn golden.

Place your pizza crust(s) on a cookie tray or baking dish. Spread the creme fraiche evenly over the pizzas, and top with half of the leek mixture for each pizza.  Sprinkle abundant grated cheese over the top.

Bake as directed for your pizza crust and then let sit for a minute or two before slicing.

New Best Cake

Since there are so many peaches lying around (and by the way, they come from my cousin's garden, not mine), I needed to something quick to cut up and use the ripe ones. I started a bowl full of sugar and peaches for jam last night, and I also made this cake. It was delicious. I used the base from a recipe that I've made many times which came from The Wednesday Chef last year some time, but I added pureed peaches to it. Since it has relatively little butter and sugar, plus whole wheat flour, I don't mind letting the boys eat it for breakfast.




5 peaches, peeled, roughly chopped, and pureed in blender
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease the baking dish. I used a 9 inch Pyrex dish.

Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. In a separate bowl, whisk the buttermilk, yogurt, egg and vanilla together.

Scrape down the sides of the butter bowl and alternately add the dry and wet ingredients; do not overmix. Gently fold in the pureed peaches.

Pour/spread into the baking dish and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

Coq au Riesling

I made a few changes to this dish from Nigella Lawson's column in the New York Times, adding potatoes and shallots, and using prosciutto instead of bacon.

8 ounces lardons or cubed prosciutto
white parts only of 2 large leeks, thinly sliced
1 large shallot, peeled and chopped
8 ounces mushrooms, roughly chopped
10 mini Yukon potatoes, washed but not peeled (the little tiny ones)
10 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
1 bottle riesling wine
1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley

Saute bacon, leeks, shallots, and mushrooms in 2 T olive oil until softened, about 10 minutes. Add chicken pieces and potatoes to pan along with the wine, and bring to a boil. Partially cover, turn heat to low, and simmer for 1 hour.

For best results, cool, and refrigerate overnight. Reheat gently over low heat, sprinkle with parsley before serving.

This was really delicious and hit the spot on a cold autumn night. Plus it was a great make-ahead dish. I love that Nigella Lawson's recipes are so practical for family life!

Oh, and we did have the caipirinhas, for Mama Goose!

Eggplant and Manchego Pizza

Did you know that eggplants were introduced to the Mediterranean from North Africa during the Middle Ages?  That there is no Latin or Greek word for eggplant, only the Romance albergínia, aubergine, berenjena, and beringela, from the Arabic al-badnijan?  (So why do the Italians call it melenzana?) 

(I lost the photos of the eggplant and manchego pizza, and can find only a nice photo of some mozarabic pottery and glass, so I'm trying to tie this all together. We didn't really have a linguistic discussion over this pizza, we just ate it all up and washed it down with some nice Ribera del Duero.)

Eggplant and Manchego Pizza

Ingredients for two 8-inch pizzas:
One eggplant, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup tomato sauce (plain, no added italian seasonings, or basil and onion combo, etc.)
1/4 lb Manchego cheese
1/4 lb Mozzarella cheese
3-4 basil leaves, julienned
Use your favorite pizza crust recipe, like this or this, or use a pre-made crust.  I used a pre-made Vicolo cornmeal crust.


Lay the eggplant slices on a large plate and sprinkle both sides with coarse salt.  Let sit for 30 minutes or so.

After 30 minutes, wipe the salt off the eggplant slices and dredge them lightly in flour.  Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a skillet and fry the eggplant for approximately 5 minutes each side, depending on thickness.  Add additional oil as necessary, but there is no need to submerge the eggplant slices.  Drain the cooked slices on paper towels as you remove them from the skillet.  This can be done an hour or so ahead.


Preheat the oven to 425, or as directed for your pizza dough.

Place your pizza crust(s) on a cookie tray or baking dish, and spread tomato sauce on top.  Sprinkle the Manchego cheese evenly over the pizza, and place as many eggplant slices as fit without overlapping on top.  Sprinkle the mozzarella over the eggplant.

Bake as directed for your pizza crust.  When the pizza smells good and looks lovely, remove from the oven.  Let sit for a minute or two before slicing, seasoning with salt, and sprinkling with basil.  

There are words for basil in Greek (basileus) and Latin (basilicum), by the way.

Geek.

Jacques Pepin's Crab Cakes

This recipe is from Fast Food My Way.


8 ounces crab meat
1 and 1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
2 tablespoons minced scallions
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sliced almonds
2 tablespoons peanut or canola oil

Put the crabmeat in a bowl and add 2/3 cup of the bread crumbs, scallion, cilantro, garlic, mayonnaise, Tabasco, and salt. Mix lightly, just until the ingredients are well combined.

Put the remaining breadcrumbs in a food processor with the almonds and process until the nuts are well chopped and combined with the bread.

Heat the oven to 180 degrees [if serving immediately]. Form the crab mixture into 4 patties, then dip each patty into the crumb mixture until it is coated on all sides.

Heat the oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat and arrange the patties next to one another in the pan, handling them gently because they are soft. Cook for about 3 minutes on each side. Keep warm in the oven. [At this point, I will sometimes save these for the next day, and reheat them quickly in skillet on high heat.]


Red Sauce to serve with the crab cakes:
Mix 1/3 cup mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons ketchup, 1 teaspoon wasabi paste or wasabi powder, 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice, and 1 tablespoon water.

Joe's Special

Joe's Special is an old-time San Francisco dish, and, wow, it sure is good comfort food. Since we've had a lot of spinach to go through lately, and I remembered eating this as a kid, and comfort food is always a good idea, we whipped this up and served it up in some old-fashioned diner bowls.

Joe's Special for 4

4 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1-2 garlic cloves, whole, with skins on
1/2 pound lean ground beef
1 pound fresh spinach, roughly chopped

Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil. Add the ground beef and brown. When the ground beef is cooked, addd the spinach and saute until wilted. When the spinach is done, pour in the beaten eggs and stir until eggs are done.

Serve with salt and pepper to taste, and several good shakes of Tabasco sauce.

Rinconcillo-style Spinach

There is a bar in Seville that is 300 years old, and their specialty is spinach.

That's right, spinach.

Can you imagine running a successful establishment for 300 years based on a good spinach recipe?

It's our favorite way to eat spinach--even the kids will eat it.



Spinach "El Rinconcillo" (or my version of it, anyway)

Saute 1 chopped medium yellow onion with 2 garlic cloves (with their skins still on)in 1/4 good olive oil.

Add 1/4 teaspoon of cumin, and then spill a whole lot of turmeric from the spice jar into the pan. A whole lot, all in one place. Then scoop the turmeric back out again (with a wooden spoon so that you don't scratch the bottom of your pan) leaving about 1 teaspoon of turmeric in the saute.

Add 1 14-oz can of garbanzo beans, lightly mashed.

Let the sauteing continue for about 5 more minutes.

Add 2 large bunches of washed, not-too-drained, chopped spinach, and cook until they are nicely wilted.

You want a this to make a nice sauce, a mixture of the spinach juice from the wilting, and the olive oil flavored with the onion, garlic and spices. If it looks dry, add a few spoonfuls of water.

Serve as a tapa with some nice fresh bread and a good red wine. Or alongside a good steak for those of us who are iron-deficient from just having had a baby. (Michelle, that's you! Tell Sean to get the grill going!)

Oh yeah, here's the Bar El Rinconcillo.

Cioppino

I am reposting the Cioppino recipe from the day that we filmed Andaluces por el Mundo en casa. I add a shallot to the original recipe and change the amount and type of fish. I don't add crab to cioppino. I think that fresh crab is best eaten with butter, not tomato sauce! (Plus it's not crab season again until November.)

Cioppino (adapted from the San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook)

1 white onion, chopped
1 large garlic clove, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
1 cup italian parsley, chopped
--saute the above in 1/2 cup good olive oil

Add:
2 large cans of diced tomatoes with puree
1 can of tomato sauce, 12 oz
2 bay leaves
1 t. oregano
salt and pepper to taste
--simmer for one hour

Add:
1 lb white fish cut into small pieces
1 lb sea scallops
1 lb shrimp
2 cups dry red wine
-simmer for 15 minutes longer

Serve in soup bowls with fresh sourdough bread and butter alongside.

Thanks, Wolfgang

So, I was in Las Vegas last week. Working, everybody! I was working!

I had the most lovely salad for dinner at one of Wolfgang Puck's restaurants. I had to share it even though it is just a blurry picture from my cell phone.

I am going to try this at home, and you should too. It was a combination of baby red, yellow and pink beets with cherries and goat cheese and pistachios with a light viniagrette.

I might try it with walnuts instead of pistachios, and maybe with a little bit of basil.



Yes, it went lovely with that nice glass of Côtes du Rhône.

Our Favorite Cake Right Now

Man, do we love this cake! It is similar to a carrot cake, but made with sweet potates instead of carrots, and it doesn't last longer than 2 days around here. We've had it loaf-style, as the original muffins, and as a layer cake, and it is good all ways!

I can't take credit for the recipe. It comes from The Wednesday Chef.