23 posts tagged “recipes”

My first pie of the summer is on its way to a (hopefully) happy client and her friends.  I've been making this recipe for years out of Kitty Morse's Vegetarian Table:  North Africa which is filled with wonderful recipes.  When I get permission to reprint the recipe I will, but it's worth it to buy the book.  Bastilla is the traditional Moroccan savory filo pie.  Usually it's filled with a mixture made of braised pigeon or chicken and scrambled eggs, scented with lots of yummy spices.  Using cashews instead of meat is a nice touch especially since the nuts are very rich and meaty.  It may sound weird to have a pie made of eggs but believe me, once the filling is encased in layers of buttery,  filo dough, cooked to shattering crispness and topped with a blanket of powdered sugar...well, let's just say that Bastilla is an addiction.  It's that sweet, savory, crunch thing.  Here's the menu that accompanied the pie.

Moroccan Grazing Menu
Eggplant Salad with Capers and Heirloom Tomato Sauce
Moroccan Carrot Salad with Weiser's Rainbows
Corn and Date Salad
Beet and Tomato Salad with Onion and Lemon Vinaigrette
Chicken Charmoula Skewers
Fattoush

Do you know what this means:

Honeyed Tagine: brwn lb/500g yam or lamb/T oil&butter/t tumeric&ging&s+p&cinn; +c onion&carrot9m; +c broth/3T honey/9prune. Cvr~h@400F/205C.

That's a Twitter message (or tweet) from Irish woman Maureen Evans as featured in The New York Times.  She's tweeting these mini, abbreviated recipes. 

This week on Good Food, listen to my conversation with Wired magazine Senior Editor Mark McClusky about this convergence of Food and Technology. 

And you can follow me on Twitter.

The most popular salad dressing at Angeli started out as the dressing my mom made every single day of my childhood.  Of course then she make it with Wesson Oil and Green Can Shake Cheese, but it was still delicious.  The "secret"  if there is one is the heavy hand with both garlic and Parmesan. 

Forte Dressing

Garlic to Taste (I use 1 clove for every two people)
Salt
Olive Oil
Red Wine Vinegar
Grated Parmesan Cheese

Using a garlic press, puree the garlic into the salad bowl.  Add a bit of salt and mix together with the garlic using the back of a wooden spoon.  Add oil, then vinegar ( use a 2/3 oil to 1/3 vinegar mix).  Add a handful of grated cheese.  Stir.
Don’t apologize to anyone for your garlic breath.

Good Food producer Gillian Ferguson recently reported from the Anatolian Food & Culture festival in Orange county.  When she returned home, she couldn't get a certain Turkish delight out of her mind:

Ashure, more often referred to as Noah's Pudding, is jam-packed with flavor and has an even richer history to boot.

Ashure means the number 10 in Arabic and traditionally there are 10 ingredients in the pudding.  Folklore however tells a different story.  The name Noah's Pudding refers to the story of Noah's Ark and it's often said that 40 ingredients are incorporated into the dish.  Legend has it that when the ark came to rest on a mountain (believed to be Mount Ararat in

Turkey) Noah's family prepared a celebratory meal.  Culling all the ingredients that were left on the ship and tossing them into a large pot this famous dessert was born.  Just like the pudding itself, the legend of Noah's Pudding has many variants, but in every household the tradition involves sharing the dessert with friends and loved ones.
 
Sema Hasmer who cooked enough Ashure to feed 500 guests at the festival last weekend was kind enough to share her recipe.  Invoking the Turkish habit of göz kararı, or what we might call eyeballing, she says no two Ashure are ever the same and all recipes are approximations with room to embellish.  The following recipe makes approximately 8 servings.

Noah's Pudding (Ashure)

2 1/2 cups barley
1 cup chickpeas
1 cup dried beans
dried apricots
dried figs
raisins
sugar (roughly 1 part barley to 3 parts sugar)
hazelnuts (finely chopped)
walnuts (finely chopped)
cinnamon

Common additions include, but are not limited to, apple rind, orange zest, pistachios, rose water and pomegranate seeds for decoration.

Soak barley and beans overnight.  The following day fill a pot with water (1 parts barley to 4 parts water, in this case 10 cups water) and bring to a gentle boil.  Cook the barley over low heat, stirring frequently, until just tender and the water is thickened.  The liquid will be gooey and white.  Add chickpeas and beans and continue to simmer.  Continue to stir as beans cook. 

Like cooking a risotto, add the following ingredients slowly while stirring.  Add apricots, figs and raisins stirring between additions to incorporate each ingredient.  Finally add the sugar and continue to simmer to your liking.  Taste and adjust recipe as needed.  Top with walnuts, hazelnuts, cinnamon and if you wish, pomegranate seeds.

 
 

If you're prepping for Saint Patrick's Day and you want to move away from green beer, try cooking with Guinness, that iconic Irish stout.  The folks at Chow.com have some recipes on their website.  Here's a taste:

1. An hour before baking, open the bottle of stout and measure out 3/4 cup. (You will not use the whole bottle: Cover the spout and refrigerate the leftover stout for up to one week, to use in other recipes, such as beef stew or a steamed pudding.) Let the 3/4 cup stout stand for a full hour at room temperature, stirring occasionally, to allow the stout to go flat.
   
2. Preheat the oven to 350°F (325°F if you are using a dark-cast metal pan). Grease and flour a 12-cup fluted tube pan. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, spices, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the butter and brown sugars until fluffy, 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the eggs and beat for 30 seconds. Add the molasses and slowly blend.
4. On low speed, add the flour mixture in three portions, alternating with the stout, and mixing for 30 seconds on medium speed after each addition. After the last addition, beat gently just until evenly incorporated, only about 1 minute. Do not overmix.
5. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bake in the center of the oven until the top springs back when touched and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Then invert onto the rack to finish cooling. Transfer to a serving platter, dust with sieved powdered sugar, and serve warm or at room temperature.

From Chow.com.  Excerpted from The Best Quick Breads, by Beth Hensperger. (c) 2000, used by permission from the Harvard Common Press.

Guest Blogger John Pleshette has a wonderful meal for us this week.  John says that the Monkfish is so easy to make that he included accompaniments, spinach and root vegetables.

Monkfish with Spinach And Root Vegetables

2 lb fillet of monkfish
Olive oil
Fresh thyme
4 small turnips
4 small new potatoes
4 medium carrots
2 bunches of fresh spinach
4 cloves of garlic
Butter
Italian parsley
Chives

For The Vegetables

Bring a large sauce pan of water to a boil.  Salt generously.

Choose vegetables that are approximately the same size.  Peel and trim.

Put in the potatoes and carrots first.  Boil gently for 5 minutes.  Add the turnips.  Boil for about 10 more minutes or until the vegetables are easily pierced with a small, sharp knife.   Test them separately and take out each vegetable as it is done.

If preparing ahead of time, plunge vegetables in a sinkful of cold water.  Drain in a collander.  

Otherwise, drain the vegetables in a collander.  Add 3 Tbsps of butter to the saucepan.  Return the vegetables to the pan and swirl around to coat with butter.  Sprinkle with a handful of chopped parsley and chives.  

For The Monkfish

Allow the fish to reach room temperature before cooking.  Season with sea salt and freshly ground white pepper.

Heat 1/2 cup of olive oil in a frying pan just large enough for the fish.   When the oil is quite hot, slip monkfish fillet into the oil and brown lightly on both sides.  

Reduce the heat to low and after a minute, add several sprigs of fresh thyme.  Poach the monkfish in the olive oil for another 10 to 15 minutes, turning occasionally with tongs.  The fish is done when a knife inserted to the center feels warm against your bottom lip.  

Remove to a warm serving platter and allow to rest while you cook the spinach.  

For The Spinach

Before you start to cook the fish, dump spinach in a sinkful of cold water.  Trim off the stems and drain in a collander.  

Peel the garlic and slice into thin pieces.

Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil and 2 tbsps of butter in a saute pan.  When the butter is hot, add the garlic slices.  

As soon as you smell the garlic, add the spinach.  Salt generously and keep turning over with tongs until the spinach has collapsed but is still a vibrant green.

Surround the Monkfish with the vegetables and spinach.

Serves 4

Cellarwise Wine Pairing

These days it’s not very fashionable to recommend California chardonnay in serious food/wine pairing situations, but it’s a good choice here. The richness of the monkfish calls for more weight not less, and the spinach provides its own challenge, so chardonnays with tropical fruit notes, good cool-climate acidity, and minimal oak are the way to go. Regionally, look for Sonoma County (including Sonoma Coast & Russian River Valley), Monterey (including Santa Lucia Highlands), and Santa Barbara (including Santa Rita Hills) bottlings of non-reserve status (more affordable, less oak). As a value pour try the ’07 Chateau St Jean Sonoma county ($11), or for a few bucks more go for the excellent ’07 Bueller Russian River Valley ($15). The ’06 Logan Monterey county sleepy hollow vineyard ($20) is always solid, if you can find it try the unique ’07 mount Eden Monterey county ($18) as it should excel here. The ’07 Four Vines Santa Barbara county “naked” ($12) offers a more crisp version of the attributes we’re after, or go with the prototypical ’06 Sanford Santa Barbara county ($18). Enjoy.

We've received a lot of email about Mark Peel's Cabbage Soup (Good Food 1/24/09).  A listener named Marc recently wrote wrote:

"To the carrot slices and celery heart in Mark Peel's cabbage soup recipe I added a scoop of bean sprouts (the soup mix) from Dexter Scott's "Jazzy Sprouts" (at many of the farmers markets in L.A., including Hollywood). Terrific. Also, personally I like picante so I added dried jalapeños."

If you tried one of the recipes featured on the show, share your experience with us.  Email us and, if you want, send us a photo.

The exuberance of the Popover: a dish fit for the explosive sense of pride that Tuesday brings.

Thinking about Inauguration Day food festivities all of a sudden I realized that this can’t be a beer and popcorn afternoon grazing session, or late night ice cream buffet.  No, Inauguration Day is a morning celebration.  We need to begin Tuesday morning with a bang; with a dish worthy of taking a day off to immerse ourselves in simple happiness.  The popover popped into my mind (yes, I did actually think that).   When was the last time you had a popover?  I don’t know any friends who make them regularly.  I admit to occasionally running into Neiman Marcus just to have a bite of eggy, chewy, buttery, goodness with a bit of butter beaten with jam.  It’s that bit of jam that puts the popover into high gear.  Now is the time to crack open that jar of special friend-made or artisanal farmers market preserves.  Lay out an assortment of jams, jellies and preserves, maybe some lemon wedges, powdered sugar and if you want to be decadent some fresh ricotta whipped with a bit of sugar till super smooth in the food processor.  Dust some cinnamon on top.  Yum, no….YUM.

Popovers can be scary to make, and sometimes the pop fizzles.  I’ve found that this King Arthur recipe with pictures and detailed explanation works really well.  Popovers are such a hopeful bread.

For this week's recipe, John Pleshette laments that black trumpet mushrooms have a painfully short season.  He writes, "They have a loamy, rich taste and a leathery texture which makes them ideal for braising.  Here, they are paired with chicken legs, but try them with pork loin or make a sauce with shallots and red wine and serves them with steak."

6 chicken legs and thighs, separated
Butter
Vegetable oil
4 shallots
1/2 pound of black trumpet mushrooms
3/4 cup of white wine
Italian parsley and fresh chives for garnish

Dry chicken pieces thoroughly.  Salt and pepper.

Melt 4 tbsps butter and 2 tbsps of oil in a steep-sided saute pan.  When the butter has melted and the foam subsides, add the chicken pieces skin side down.  Do not crowd.  

Brown the chicken on a medium flame on both sides for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, fill the sink with warm water and soak the mushrooms.  Roll between your fingers to remove any grit.   Remove from the water a handful at a time, squeezing out the water and drain in a collander.  

Mince the shallots.

When chicken is done, remove to a warm plate.  Pour off all but 2 tbsps of fat.  Add the shallots and saute on a low flame until translucent.  Add mushrooms and wine.  Raise the heat to let the alcohol cook off.  

Arrange the chicken pieces skin side up on top of the mushrooms.  Reduce the flame to a simmer.  Cook for 15 minutes or until the thickest part of the thigh runs clear when pierced with a fork.

Chop parsley and chives and scatter over the chicken.  

Serve with rice, potatoes, pasta, or, as pictured above, pureed celery root poached in milk.

Serves 6

CellarWise Wine Pairing
This dish can accommodate a special wine, and by special I don’t necessarily mean an expensive, oaky, “collectible” bottle. Some modernity is fine, but avoid wines that will mute the wild and beautiful flavors of this dish with their overbearing style. You want elegance and restraint, yet with enough weight and depth of flavor to hold up to the food.

South Africa’s Neil Ellis may ring a bell by now as I endorse the wines whenever I can, and the recently tasted ’07 Cabernet/Shiraz/Merlot Stellenbosch “The Left Bank” ($13) is a great place to start. Its cedary Cabernet flavors anchor things while the exotic notes from the Shiraz and Merlot will love the mushrooms. German Pinot Noir is anything but world renowned, however the delicious ’05 Schloss Schonborn Pinot Noir Rheingau ($19) has beautiful red berry fruit and just the right earthy component. If you don’t mind opening or even decanting a good while before serving, a cooler-district Australian red like the ’05 Kangarilla Road Shiraz McLaren Vale ($18 retail, as little as $12 on sale) will be spectacular here. In spite of its size the wine shows great definition to its flavors and is a fine food wine. The earthiness and minerality of the Carignan/Syrah/Grenache blends reds from France’s Languedoc region. A fine example is the tasty ’06 Domaine Croix Belle Coteaux du Languedoc ($13).

This week on the Market Report, Laura Avery spoke to Chef CC of CleanPlateMeals.com.  Here is her recipe for Orange Sage Chicken Breast:

Chef CC’s Easy Orange Sage Chicken Breast

2-4 chicken breasts with skins
2 large navel or other fresh orange, 1 sliced thin and one cut in half
1 bunch of fresh sage leaves with the stems removed

Spice rub:
In a bowl mix together
1 T of paprika
1/2 T of garlic powder
1/2 T black pepper
1/4 T sea salt

Take orange slices and sage and tuck under skin. Rub chicken with spices. In a sauté pan turned to medium high heat (hot pan is important for a good sear!) and add a small amount of oil (less than a tablespoon.) (Tip: always lay meat away from you when placing it in your hot pan. DON’T drop in.) Sear for 3-4 mins on each side, then transfer to baking vessel, squeeze the half orange over chicken and continue to cook for another 15-20 mins, depending on your ovens own heat.