Category Archives: easy

This meal requires no special equipment or techniques.

winter/salad: arugula, oranges and shallots

Posted on January 24, 2011 | 6 comments

Winter. Salad. It’s hard to put those words next to each other. Winter salad brings to mind tough-skinned, mealy tomatoes, pale, watery lettuce, limp, wet cucumbers and sad little rings of scallion; bleak as the grey sky. Bitter greens are better. Spinach, arugula, frisee, escarole. Add some finely sliced shallot, pinked up in champagne vinegar? Slices of citrus: grapefruit, oranges? It’s the crescents of deep pink and orange, their sweetness, the bite of bitter arugula and the sharp pink bloom of shallots in vinegar that make this salad so welcome after weeks of dark braised greens. Fresh, crisp intensity – that’s what I want right now. So I’ve been making this salad. (almost every night!)

Winter Salad of Arugula, Orange and Shallot

  • 1 large trimmed bunch or 5 good handfuls of washed arugula
  • 2 navel oranges or 2 ruby grapefruits
  • 1 shallot, thinly sliced
  • 2 tbsp champagne vinegar, or white wine vinegar
  • 3-5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  1. Slice the shallot with a sharp knife, into thin circles. Toss them in a small bowl with the vinegar. Leave for 5 minutes or so.
  2. With the same sharp knife, carefully cut away the peel of the oranges, leaving almost no pith. Slice the fruit of the orange out, cutting on either side of each segment. You will be left with only the tender fruit.
  3. Pour the vinegar from the shallots into a jar with a lid or another small bowl and add the olive oil to taste.  I add more oil if I use grapefruit, less with oranges. Add the salt and pepper to taste. I would start with 1/4 tsp of salt, whisk it all up and see if you like it by dipping an arugula leaf into it and tasting.
  4. Toss the arugula with the orange or grapefruit sections and the shallots. Add some of the dressing, you may not need all of it. Don’t make a limp overdressed salad. That is not the point! Use a light hand. If you have leftover dressing it will keep in the fridge for when you make the salad tomorrow night!

Since I have eaten this salad so many times in the last few weeks, I am looking to shake things up. Tomorrow I will try 2 tbsp of toasted walnuts and an ounce of crumbled soft goat cheese or mild blue cheese. I know it will be very good.

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Split Pea Soup

Posted on January 17, 2011 | 7 comments

Last week we had an eight year old friend over for dinner.  I had a few misgivings when I offered the invitation because I was committed to making Split Pea Soup and I don’t know too many kids who would want to eat Split Pea Soup. The truth is, this particular kid is averse to some of the most kid-friendly foods like tomato sauce, cheese and pasta so the probability of actually getting him to taste the soup, seemed low. I am not even sure there are too many grown-ups who would be delighted to eat the thick green porridge. I knew even my kids would probably have to be bribed (or as I like to think: incented) with chocolate milkshakes for dessert and another viewing of the Old Spice commercials on Youtube afterwards.  Also, it didn’t help that (as a joke) I described the soup as “green glop with pink chunks in it”. Sorry about that. It did seem funny at the time.  It is a testament to how completely delicious this soup is that every kid ate quite a lot of it, but our eight year old guest devoured it with gusto! If that isn’t enough to convince, I have nothing more to say to you.  As we ate we had some big laughs about the plethora of hair that would grow on his chest because he ate it all – he practically licked the bowl.

I do not come from Split Pea eating people. My mom never made split pea soup. Even my husband, who is from Sweden, where many families have split pea soup and pancakes every Thursday night, even his family never really adopted the tradition. So I am not sure why I decided that the Split Pea Soup from the most current issue of Cooks Illustrated would be just the thing. But it was.

Since I had never made split pea soup before, I looked it up in the Joy of Cooking to see how this version differs from the traditional method. Barring substituting a ham steak and bacon for the ham hock, the methods are strikingly similar. It’s a lot easier to shred a ham steak than deal with the complexities of the hock with its skin, bone and fat. In addition to the traditional croutons (please just make these yourself – or don’t bother) I added crumbled bacon and a swirl of something called balsamic cream that my dad brought me from Germany. Perfect with this soup and I will tell you how to make something similar if you want to try it.

Split Pea Soup is warming, filling, mild and yet somehow very delicious. I can’t pretend that it is pretty.  It is very easy to make. It is perfect for January.

Split Pea Soup

  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 1 large onion, chopped fine
  • sea salt
  • 2 medium garlic cloves, minced or grated with a microplane
  • 7 cups of water
  • 1 ham steak – about 1 pound, cut into 4 pieces
  • 3 slices of thick cut bacon
  • 2 cups split peas
  • 1/2 tsp of dried thyme or 2 sprigs fresh
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 carrots cut into 1/4″ dice
  • 1 celery stalk, cut into 1/4″ dice
  • Black pepper, crumbled bacon, croutons and balsamic reduction (recipes follow) for garnish
  1. Over medium high heat, melt the butter in a heavy bottomed 6 quart soup pot. Add the onion and a 1/2 tsp of salt. Cook 4 minutes, stirring.
  2. Add garlic and stir for 30 seconds.
  3. Add water, ham steak, bacon, split peas, thyme and bay. Increase heat to high and bring soup to a simmer. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer until peas are tender – about 45 minutes.
  4. Remove the ham steak and put on a plate. Cover with aluminum foil to keep it from drying out.
  5. Add carrots and celery and cover. Simmer for a further 30 minutes.
  6. While the soup is simmering, shred the ham with two forks, removing and discarding skin. Remove thyme sprigs – if you used them, bay leaves and bacon slices and discard. After 30 mintues, stir the ham into the soup and serve right away. The soup will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. If it gets too thick, it can be thinned with a few tablespoons of water.

Croutons

  • 1 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 cups 1/2″ bread cubes  – I used a dense baguette with the crusts removed
  • Coarse sea salt
  1. Melt the butter with the olive oil in a medium sized heavy bottomed saute pan.
  2. Add the bread cubes.
  3. Stir occasionally for 7 minutes until the bread is golden and crisp
  4. Sprinkle with a couple of pinches of sea salt

Balsamic Reduction

This is so easy that it isn’t really recipe.

  • 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar
  1. In a small heavy bottomed sauce pan, reduce the vinegar by half until it is thick and syrupy and coats the back of a spoon.
  2. Cool.

Don’t forget to add freshly ground pepper just before serving!


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Shades of Fog City – Lamb Burger with Chutney and Smoked Cheddar

Posted on December 2, 2010 | 1 comment

When I first moved to San Francisco, I occasionally visited a restaurant called Fog City Diner. A well-heeled but touristy place at the base of the Filbert Steps, Fog City was an out-of-towner and yuppies’ haunt. Singles crowded the bar and the bridge and tunnel set hogged the booths. Often you had to wait forever for a table and  sometimes the food and the service were uneven.

Still, I kept going back because there were a few things I loved about Fog City. One, they made a perfect Pimm’s Cup. Okay I did have to coach the bartender a little bit on how I like it – with fizzy lemonade and a long slice of cucumber, but he was game. The lemonade was made from fresh lemon juice, simple syrup and soda and it made an excellent Pimm’s. Also, the onion rings were exemplary: a crisp cloud enclosing an almost melting interior onion. My favorite though, was the lamb sandwich on focaccia with homemade chutney.  I seem to remember that it was apricot, but it may have been tomato. Whatever. Whether tomato or apricot, it was spicy and floral with that chutney tang I love. The rosy, gamey lamb, the tangy chutney, the chewy focaccia – it was perfect.

Perhaps you think a proper British Pimm’s Cup would be out of place with something so flavorful and almost exotic? No. Not for me anyway. The spicy, sweet Pimms found its match in the spicy, sweet sandwich. And all those people lurking at the bar, wheeling and dealing or on the hunt? Why would anyone subject themselves to that racket after a long day at work? I didn’t even notice them once we scored the booth. Socked in by the San Francisco fog, the restaurant glowed like a beacon. I would run for the glowing windows from work to meet good friends. Cozied up together in a booth, chatting happily and looking out at a gloomy night with the perfect sandwich – who cares if you’re surrounded by yuppies on the prowl?

Fast forward and 20 years later, here I am in Seattle, three kids, a husband, a dog and a cat – I am not running around at night, my mouth watering for a lamb sandwich and a cocktail that complements it perfectly (although some nights I might wish I were). I can’t go back to being twenty-two. Maybe though, maybe, I can conjure up something like that sandwich, since I definitely can’t go back in time. Some weekend in the future, when I have all the time I need to roast a leg of lamb and make focaccia, and whip up a little homemade tomato chutney, I can make the lamb sandwich exactly the way I remember it. Tonight I was in a hurry though – and this quick version made me smile:

Lamb Burger with Chutney and Smoked Cheddar – serves 4

  • 1 1/2 pounds ground lamb
  • 1 slice white sandwich bread, processed into fine crumbs
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 1 clove garlic grated on a Microplane or pressed in a garlic press
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 3/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 tbsp Major Grey’s Chutney, plus additional to serve – I like Patak’s which has a looser set than most chutneys
  • 1/4 pound smoked cheddar – I used Beecher’s
  • (4) brioche buns
  1. Heat a gas grill on high for 15 minutes. Then turn down one (or two – if you have a three burner grill) of the burners to low, so that one burner is left on high and you have a cooler part of the grill to heat the buns.
  2. While the grill heats up, in a medium sized bowl, combine the bread crumbs, the milk, the garlic, the 2 tbsp chutney and the salt and pepper. Mash with a fork until the bread crumbs have formed a thick paste.
  3. Add the ground lamb to the bowl and combine the lamb with the paste lightly but thoroughly with your hands. Form into 4 equally sized patties.
  4. Spray each patty on either side with olive oil.
  5. When the grill is hot, place the patties over the hottest burner for 3-4 minutes, closing the lid. Then turn the burgers, again closing the lid,  and set a timer for 2 minutes. After two minutes, place a slice of smoked cheddar on top of each burger. Close the lid again!
  6. When there is just about 45 seconds left, lightly toast the brioche – be careful! Brioche burn so easily!
  7. Serve immediately accompanied by more chutney.

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Remembering Russian Hill – A very quick pasta for winter

Posted on November 23, 2010 | 3 comments

When I first moved to San Francisco I lived in Russian Hill, which in retrospect was like living in a village within the city. Perched high up above North Beach and Van Ness, Russian Hill felt like a remote hill town in Italy. The bustle of San Francisco was all around, but that was at the bottom of the hill. At the top of the hill, embedded in the mass of apartment buildings, elegant townhouses and tiny parks were short strips of restaurants, dry cleaners and little dusty corner stores. Occasionally a tiny dress shop or gallery would appear…and then disappear. I was a regular at a bakery, a little brunch spot, my bus stop and a small, bustling restaurant.

It was at the intersection of Hyde and Union, and there were 3 or 4 little restaurants clustered at the corner. Intimate in size, not places to cross the city for (parking would just about kill you if you were driving ) but warm, welcoming and familiar. The restaurant corner was two blocks from my apartment. My favorite was the Italian one that was not called I Fratelli. I honestly can’t recall the name – I’m drawing a complete blank. This was not a restaurant that anyone (except me!) would ever write about. It was a very good place to meet another friend or two who also lived on Russian Hill. Which is one of the things I liked about it. In fact, one reason I loved that Russian Hill restaurant was because it was small and unpretentious and so completely removed from the chic, bourgeois, dressy Union Street and the funky, too touristy North Beach.

When I walked home in the dark after work (in my memory it is always wintertime – you would never go to this restaurant on a bright sunny day), I anticipated passing that little restaurant. The windows would be steamed up and there always seemed to be a seductive aroma ambling out the doors and down the street, drawing me in. The scent was of browning lamb chops and pepper, of arugula, shaved parmesan and spicy red wine – at least that’s what I always imagined. Even though the food wasn’t fancy, it was very good.  Through the window I could see the patrons, either tête à tête or in happy more boisterous groups. Everyone looked at home and relaxed. It was that kind of restaurant.

It was around that time that my friend Mark gave me River Cafe Cookbook (published in the U.S. as Italian Country). Rustic Italian cooking was a really big deal at the time and it seemed like everyone was talking, thinking, dreaming about it—including me. As I cooked my way through Ribollita, Cannellini Bean Soup, Pappardelle alle Lepre and the Polenta Almond Lemon Cake, I came upon Cloe’s Quick Sausage Sauce. I know, after all those pretty Italian names “Cloe’s Quick Sausage Sauce” sounds pedestrian and un-lovely. It’s not. The creamy fennel scented pork has a little hit of heat from the chilies, summery warmth from the tomatoes, richness from the cream and the complex tang you can only get from a good aged parmesan cheese. I’d had a similar dish at that little Russian Hill trattoria. On a wintery night, you could light the candles, pour a glass of wine and eat this; tête à tête or in a happy boisterous group. It will be wonderful I promise.

Cloe’s Quick Sausage Sauce, River Cafe Cook Book, Italian Country

Serves 6

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 red onion chopped fine
  • 5 Italian sausages, spiced with fennel seed, removed from casings
  • 1 1/2 tbsp finely chopped rosemary
  • 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 28 ounce can Italian tomatoes, drained and coarsely chopped
  • 2/3 cup heavy cream
  • 1 1/2 cups grated parmesan, divided
  • 1 pound pasta – I like cavatappi
  1. Heat the 2 tbsp olive oil in a 10 inch heavy sauté pan. sauté onions over medium high heat until browned.
  2. Add sausages, rosemary, red pepper flakes and the bay leaves. Mash the sausages over high heat until finely crumbled and continue to mash and push around for 20 minutes. They are done when they seem to have started to disintegrate. Don’t be lax here, and just break them up and leave them. Take the time to thoroughly break them up and keep going – it is key to the texture of the finished dish.
  3. While sausages are browning, start a large pot of water for the pasta. Once it is boiling, salt generously
  4. When 20 minutes is up, add the tomatoes to the sauce and return to a simmer. Remove from heat.
  5. When the pasta is cooked and drained, toss into the sauté pan with the sauce and add the cream. Heat until steaming, remove from heat and add half the parmesan.
  6. Serve immediately and pass the remaining parmesan at the table.

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Ms. Jaffrey’s Weeknight Lamb – Kheema Matar

Posted on November 14, 2010 | 7 comments

If you ask me, this is a perfect mid-week meal for the wet, cold, dark season. I admit, it really doesn’t look pretty or delicious. I’m not sure it’s possible to photograph browned ground lamb beautifully. You’ll just have to trust me and Madhur Jaffrey whose recipe this is – or maybe read the ingredients list. I love lamb in any preparation, but combined with garlic, ginger, coriander, cumin – that really gets my attention. Kheema matar tastes wonderful and the aroma is positively seductive. Adults and children will be very happy with this menu.

Don’t freak out about the length of the ingredients list for a mid week meal. Check it out: Once you’ve made this dish once – you’ll see how quickly it comes together. Here are all the ingredients laid out:


Really, how long could such a small amount of chopping possibly take? 10 minutes tops.

Kheema matar

for 4-6

  • 4 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1/2 medium sized onion (the size of a tennis ball) minced
  • 6 or 7 medium sized cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 1/2 pounds ground lamb
  • 3-4 tbsp grated fresh ginger
  • 1-2 hot green chilies (for children use 1 medium sized jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed; for adults or those who like spicier food use  1 or 2 serranos)
  • 1 tsp ground coriander (from a brand new jar or freshly ground!)
  • 1 tsp ground cumin seeds
  • 1/8-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 10 ounces water, divided into 6 and 4 fl ounces respectively
  • 7 ounces frozen petite peas
  • 6 tbsp chopped cilantro
  • 1 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp garam masala (buy small amounts in the bulk section)
  • 1 1/2 tsp lemon or lime juice

Begin, by finely chopping the onion, garlic, chilies,and cilantro. Grate the ginger and squeeze the lemon juice. When chopping chilies, it is a good ideas to protect your hand by either wearing rubber gloves designated for the purpose (mine are labelled with indelible marker “beets and chilies”) or covering your hand with a plastic produce bag as shown below:

Keep the onions and garlic separate from the other ingredients as they will be added to the dish on their own. In one bowl, combine the fresh ginger, chilies, ground coriander, cumin and cayenne. In a second bowl, put the peas, chopped cilantro, salt, garam masala, lemon juice and 4 fl. ounces of water. Measure 6 ounces of water in a liquid measuring cup and set aside.

Heat the oil in a wide, heavy saute pan over medium high heat. When the oil shimmers, add the onion and fry until lightly browned. Add the garlic and stir until fragrant – about 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Add the lamb and the contents of the bowl containing the ginger, green chilies, ground coriander, cumin and cayenne. Stir to mix all the ingredients and brown the meat. I like to do this with a stainless steel wire potato masher – it is the best tool for the job. See?

Add the 6 ounces of water and raise the heat until the mixture is simmering. Cover and turn the heat to low. Simmer for 30 minutes.

While the lamb simmers, you may want to start some basmati rice and make the green beans. I also bought some naan and heated them in the oven and served some Greek yogurt (about 3/4 of a cup) into which I grated a small clove of garlic and stirred in a 1/2 tsp of sea salt.

When 30 minutes is up, add the contents of the bowl containing the peas, cilantro, salt, garam masala, lemon juice, and the 4 ounces of water. Stir and raise the heat, bringing to a simmer once again. Cook a further 10 minutes. Taste it – you may want more salt or lemon juice.

Serve with rice and steamed green beans. You may want to try the Spicy Green Beans also from Ms. Jaffrey. To be very authentic to her childhood dish, Ms. Jaffrey would have you include a fire-y lime pickle but I didn’t happen to have any.

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Carrot Cake

Posted on October 26, 2010 | 3 comments

I haven’t always been a fan of carrot cake. To say that I actively hate carrot cake would be untrue but I’ve never craved it. (To put it in context- if you asked me if I’d like a slice of Roasted Clementine and Chocolate Tart? Yes please, I’ll take one right now!) Carrot cake doesn’t call to me that way. The truth is, until this weekend,  I hadn’t even eaten a piece of carrot cake in over 20 years.

Why? The memory of those sticky, bloated, too sweet raisins for one thing. And those crummy little bits of walnut. I love walnuts. Walnut cake, walnut ice cream, toasted walnut halves with beets. Walnuts are the king of nuts and it kind of drives me nuts (yes really!) to see them in a supporting role.  Would Laurence Olivier take the role of a mere page?! I don’t think so. I wouldn’t put them in brownies or chocolate chip cookies either. Don’t even get me started on that Carrot Cake / Pineapple variation. I’m not totally sure where this prejudice came from. But guess what? It all changed for me last weekend.

When I was asked to make a carrot cake for a fall baby shower, I was nonplussed. How about Parsnip Cake? – I thought, or Persimmon Cashew Cakes?!  Carrot Cake? But I could make anything you want! No, carrot cake please! was the answer – it’s perfect because it’s fall. So I did a little reading. I read every one of my carrot cake recipes. (There are so many!) Of course there are variations beyond mere pineapple! Of course you can skip raisins. Of course you don’t have to gutter the walnuts.

For example, carrot cake can have coconut instead of walnuts, currants instead of raisins. The sometimes gloppy and heavy cream cheese frosting can lighten up with lemon rind and juice. One can make beautiful ribbons of carrot, candied in maple syrup to garnish that swath of now tart ivory frosting. When I began to change up the classic recipe, the process started to get really fun! This was no tired, old-fashioned, cafe carrot cake, getting stale under a glass dome. No. I borrowed a little of this and a little of that, combined recipes and, wow -I guess I love carrot cake! Enough like the original not to disappoint a traditionalist but irreverent enough to please an obsessive cake eater like me. Very pretty too.

I combined fragments from Joy of Cooking, the Weekend Baker by Abby Dodge, the Barefoot Contessa Parties by Ina Garten, and The New Best Recipe from Cooks Illustrated. The stole of toasted flaked coconut is me. Thanks to Maria for the nudge which dashed all my boring preconceived notions. What a fun project. And it was perfect because it’s fall.

Here’s what I did. All of the parts are fast and beyond easy.

Carrot Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Preheat oven to 350.

  • 1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
  • 1 c. sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp cloves
  • 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (or ground if that is all you have)
  • 1/2 tsp ground allspice
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/3 c. vegetable oil
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 c. finely grated carrot
  • 1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
  • 1 cup currants
  1. Butter and flour (2) 9″ round cake tins.
  2. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, and salt in a large bowl.
  3. Pour the vegetable oil into a 2 cup liquid measuring cup. Add the eggs. Whisk with a fork.
  4. Whisk the dry ingredients with the oil and eggs mixture until smooth.
  5. Fold in the carrots, coconut and currants until evenly combined.
  6. Divide the batter between the two cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes.  Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then transfer to a cake rack to cool completely.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting in the Food Processor

  • 12 ounces of cold cream cheese
  • 1 c. unsalted butter – can be cold, better at room temperature
  • 2 1/2 c. confectioners suger, measured then sifted.
  • 1/2 tsp table salt
  • 3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 2 tsp finely grated lemon zest (a good job for a microplane grater)

Place all ingredients into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until evenly combined. You may have to scrape the bowl once or twice. Do not over-process.

Maple Candied Carrots

  • 1 cup of finely grated carrot
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 3 tbsp maple syrup

Melt the butter in a medium sized heavy saute pan. Add the carrots and the maple syrup. Stir over medium high heat until the liquid is reduced and the carrots are glistening. You will see small candy bubbles on the side of the pan, browning slightly.  The whole process of cooking the carrots should take about 3 minutes. Turn all the carrots onto a paper towel lined plate and cool.

Toasted Coconut

  • 1 1/2 c. wide coconut shavings

  1. Preheat oven to 300.
  2. Spread 1 1/2 c. coconut in large roasting pan.
  3. Toast for 10-15 minutes stirring every 5 minutes. Watch for burning.
  4. Transfer coconut immediately to dinner plate to stop browning.
  5. When cool, store for up to 2 weeks in a tightly sealed container.

Assembling the cake

  1. In the center of a 10″ or larger flat plate, dab 2 tbsp of the frosting.
  2. Center one of the carrot cakes on the plate using the frosting as “glue” to hold it in place.
  3. Put 3/4 of a cup of the frosting on the cake and spread carefully up to the edge.
  4. Center the second cake on top. Then, using a scant 1/2 cup of frosting, carefully spread a very very thin layer of frosting all over the cake. This is called a crumb coat and it will keep the frosting crumb free ( Crumb-y frosting looks very messy.)
  5. Place the cake in the refrigerator for a half hour so that the crumb coat has a chance to set.
  6. Then proceed to frost the rest of the cake.
  7. Holding the cake over a roasting pan or a half sheet pan to catch the falling coconut, press handfuls of coconut gently into the frosting until the sides of the cake are completely covered.
  8. Take about 1/2 cup of the candied carrots and looking directing down over the top of the cake, heap the carrots artfully right in the center. Ta-da!

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Peas Pasta Ham and Cream

Posted on October 25, 2010 | 5 comments

Peas, Pasta, Ham and Cream. Sigh. I have made this so many times I have been dreading to write about it. I have to write about it though, because I can make it with my eyes closed. Also I always have all these ingredients on hand. Even the cream (or rather especially the cream). And my kids, dare I say all kids, like Peas Pasta Ham and Cream.

Once, there was an actual recipe that I followed in Marcella Hazan’s Marcella Cucina. In fact the first time I made this, we made the handmade garganelli (a homemade hand formed macaroni) as she recommended, used gorgeous leftover Christmas ham and ate it the day after Christmas with a really good Pinot.

Times have changed and the method has morphed accordingly. What we have now is a down and dirty last minute preparation that you can get on the table in the time it takes to boil the water and cook the pasta. I don’t think my fast version has lost too much credibility. Ok, it doesn’t have the carefully crafted (seemingly!) simple luxury of that post-Christmas meal of 12 years ago, but everybody likes this dish. At least at our house. And my sister’s house. In fact, I believe it was after I showed my sister how to make this that she said “You need to start a blog. I need more recipes like this and so do all my friends.”

Oh – and another thing: in my version you’ll only need one pot. So nice.

Peas Pasta Ham and Cream

This is a great dish to offer the sort of kids who only want to eat pasta with butter – it’s a kind of gateway dish to something more exotic.

It’s a good idea to keep frozen Petit Peas in the freezer at all times.

For an older baby, you can make this with orzo.

Asparagus makes a good variation – use the pencil thin variety and cut them into small pieces – add to the pasta water just as you would add the peas.

  • 3/4 lb pasta – any type will do but I like pipe rigate because the little pipes catch peas like crazy so kids are less likely to leave all the peas on the plate
  • 1 c. frozen petite peas – the regular kind are too mealy
  • 3/4 – 1 c. heavy cream
  • 1/4 lb thinly sliced ham (I like a Breton style ham. I might avoid a heavily smoked one. If you can get it, prosciutto cotto would be perfect)
  • Reggiano Parmesan (you could also use grana padano but do NOT use anything called cheese that comes out of a green tube –  that would be weird and wrong)
  • Sea salt and freshly ground (I prefer coarsely) black pepper
  1. Start a large saucepan of water, full to almost an inch away from the rim, over hight heat
  2. When the water is boiling add 2 tsp of salt and then the pasta. Stir thoroughly  – this isn’t really quite enough water to ensure that the pasta wont stick to itself. So stir it a couple of times as it cooks. Set the timer for 3 minutes less than it takes to cook the pasta.
  3. If you haven’t already, slice the ham cut into 1/4 inch ribbons and grate 3/4 cup of cheese plus more for serving. (I think the beauty of this dish is that the pasta cooking time is just the right amount of time to do slicing and grating)
  4. When the timer goes off, add the peas and set the timer for 3 minutes.
  5. Drain the peas and pasta in the colander and give them a good shake to get the excess water off.  Return them to the saucepan.
  6. Add the cream and turn up the heat, getting it to simmer and stirring all the time. Stir for 2 minutes or so until the cream coats the pasta and has thickened slightly. Remove the saucepan from the heat and toss in the 3/4 c. grated Parmesan and the ham.
  7. Grind some black pepper and sprinkle some sea salt over the top. Stir and taste, adjusting the seasoning as necessary – you may want more cheese, more pepper, who knows?
  8. Serve with a bowl of grated Parmesan on the side.

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Pear Cake with Cardamom

Posted on October 14, 2010 | 11 comments

‎”Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” – George Eliot

Delicious quote. I’m not sure how I made it through my entire life never having heard it. (thanks Jackie T!)  Back to school, fall, the papery sounds of dry leaves and mucky sounds of wet ones – it all adds up to one thing for me: after school cake. If you’ve never baked a cake to eat on a sunny (or rainy!) fall afternoon, you should. One sweet, short, attainable project is a very satisfying thing. Also, it makes me very happy to see my kids come in the door, drop their backpacks and get that giddy look: Hey – it smells good in here!

An after school cake shouldn’t be a show-off cake or a time-consuming cake. There’s this dried apple cake from Cook’s Illustrated that I used to make all the time. But it’s kind of the overachiever type, and it is pretty fabulous, lush with apple flavor and a melting texture. Sad that it’s such a pain. You have to simmer the dried apples with cider until all the liquid is absorbed, then puree them with applesauce. Add the dry, then the wet, then the dry ingredients. A lot of rigmarole and dirty bowls. I think dragging out the food processor pushes me over the edge. It’s just an after school cake after all.

Then I had an epiphany in the form of Pear Cardamom Cake. It comes from a Swedish cookbook that is put out by one of the larger Swedish grocery stores – think Safeway. (As if Safeway could produce such a fantastic book – ha!) A Safeway cake is actually a fairly terrifying prospect. Pear Cake with Cardamom is another story.

Attitudes about baking come from a totally different place in Sweden. Swedes have a long baking tradition but unlike American bakers they bake without any angst. I have never encountered a Swedish recipe that requires sifting, alternating the wet and dry ingredients, simmering then pureeing. Often you can get away with one bowl. You could mix the whole thing with a fork. Which is what I like about this cake. Which is why I had to translate the recipe. A child could make this cake. An adult will love this cake. A delicious autumn and a happy fall.

Pear Cake with Cardamom

  • 1 stick of butter, melted
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 2-3 tsp cardamom – if your cardamom has been sitting around already ground up for awhile – add the larger amount;  freshly ground – 2 tsp should be enough
  • 1 egg
  • 3/4 c. + 2 tbsp milk
  • 2-3 ripe Bartlett pears (if they aren’t lusciously ripe – don’t even bother – just use a can of pears, in pear juice, drained then cut up) Peel them and cut them into 1/2″-3/4″  pieces.
  • fine fresh breadcrumbs from the heel of a loaf of sandwich bread or dried breadcrumbs from a box – about 1/2 cup
  • 2 tbsp slivered almonds
  • 2 tbsp pearl sugar

1.  Preheat oven to 350.

    Toasting breadcrumbs for the cake pan
    The prepared cake pan
    2.  If you are using fresh breadcrumbs, while the oven is preheating, put the crumbs in a 9 x 2 round springform cake pan and put it in the oven for 5 minutes or so – until they are dried out and crisp. Don’t burn them. When they are done, put them on a plate and let the pan cool off for 5 or 10 minutes. Then rub it with a tbsp of butter and toss the crumbs back in, turning the pan over the sink so the crumbs lightly coat the interior of the cake pan.
    3.  In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and cardamom with a fork.

    4.  Add the egg and milk and mix using the same fork.
    5.  Stir in the melted butter.
    Ripe Bartletts6.  Fold in the pears
    7.  Turn the batter into the prepared cake pan.
    8.  Toss the almonds and pearl sugar over the top.
    9.  Bake for 40-45 minutes and cool on a rack with the sides of the pan loosened but not removed.

    This cake can be eaten warm – I would wait about 20 minutes once it comes out of the oven.

    If you have no IKEA nearby or if you hate to go there, here is a link to order pearl sugar: Lars Own Swedish Pearl Sugar

    I hate to write an “Easy” recipe with a sort of obscure ingredient but it is a truly easy cake and the crunch that the pearl sugar provides – you just can’t duplicate it easily with other sugar products. The almonds + the sugar = very satisfying crunch.

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    Surf and Turf. My way.

    Posted on May 17, 2010 | 5 comments

    Surf n’ turf makes me think of Outback Steakhouse or Olive Garden – not that I’ve ever been to either place; I can only surmise. As much as I like steak and shrimp, I have to ask: isn’t it kind of over the top having them both at once? And yet, it was Sunday and we had a too small steak in the freezer and coming back from a soccer game, we just happened to pass Mutual Fish where they always have something I want. Right in front in a big plastic tub of ice chips were a heap of rosy pink shrimp. Surf and Turf? I  guess so.

    Sometimes Sunday is a good day to make a huge elaborate meal like spaghetti bolognese – the 4 hour long Marcella Hazan version – or a Roast Chicken with Bread Salad, like the one Judy Rogers makes at Zuni Cafe.  Today was a napping Sunday – a day where the weather threatens to rain but it never quite does and it’s too warmly muggy outside. I fought it all afternoon and then at about 4:30 I just wanted to go to sleep and I did.  Waking up on the couch bleary eyed and sleepy at 5:15, I dreaded pulling dinner together.

    I was fortunate though in two ways: 1. I had that small thick steak and a pound of large shrimp waiting in the refrigerator. Also a bag of arugula – that was key. 2. I fell asleep perusing Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. When I woke up at 5:15 I began flipping through hoping for easy and wonderful and I found something right away – lucky me. Although it’s hardly surprising. Somehow Ms. Hazan always perks me up. I get curious. I want to do the right thing. I hope she would approve. I want to get to work. Not too much work in this case. We were eating by 6:15.

    Here is what I found:

    Grilled Shrimp Skewers & La Fiorentina.

    Shrimp and steak? It could be predictable and pedestrian. Here – I don’t think so. I haven’t ever seen shrimp prepared with breadcrumbs on the grill. The breadcrumbs became wonderfully crisp and the large shrimp were moist, flavorful and tender. The recipe is so straightforward, and because the shrimp were large they took no time to clean. I do have to admit the Fiorentina was just for inspiration. My humble steak was no Chianina T-bone. The truth is, salt, pepper and olive oil are all a good piece of beef really needs. For this menu, aside from the shrimp and the steak, all of the other ingredients you might reasonably have on hand. It’s the method that kicks it. That is what I love about Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. There aren’t any culinary acrobatics. Although the meal was composed of simple ingredients using simple techniques – I made something we all loved  – there wasn’t a scrap left!

    Sunday Menu

    • Grilled Shrimp Skewers
    • Grilled Beef
    • Arugula with olive oil and lemon – as a bed for the beef and shrimp
    • Grilled Asparagus
    • Red Quinoa with Sea Salt, olive oil and garlic (If you didn’t have quinoa, a rustic loaf of bread would be perfect. If I had had one in the house – that would have been my first choice. Less messy too.)

    Grilled Shrimp Skewers

    • 1 lb large shrimp – about 15-18
    • 3 tbsp olive oil
    • 1/3 cup dried bread crumbs (I make these when I have a few heels of soft sandwich bread and dry them out on a sheet pan in a 200 F oven for about 1/2 an hour)
    • 1 small clove of garlic chopped very fine
    • 1 heaping tsp parsley, chopped fine
    • Salt and pepper – freshly ground
    • A lemon sliced in eighths for squeezing
    • 5-6 short skewers – soaked in water
    1. Remove the shells from the shrimp and slice down their backs to remove the dark line. Leave their tails on – they look pretty.
    2. Rinse the shrimp in cold water in a colander and dry thoroughly with a towel.
    3. Place shrimp in a medium sized bowl. Pour the olive oil over the  shrimp – just to coat.  Don’t go overboard. You don’t have to use all of it.
    4. Sprinkle on the bread crumbs, evenly but lightly all over. Toss with a spoon. You may not need all of the bread crumbs depending on the size of your shrimp. Don’t make them look breaded with a gloppy coating. Sprinkle with a light hand.
    5. Add the garlic, parsley, salt and pepper and toss until evenly distributed.  Let them sit on the counter now for at least 20 minutes – you could leave them there for up to two hours.
    6. Set the grill to direct medium (or heat the broiler in your oven) 15 minutes before you want to cook the shrimp.
    7. Thread the shrimp on the skewers in even curls, piercing each shrimp twice, as seen in the photo below:
    8. Cook the shrimp on the grill for a few minutes per side – until they feel firm.  In the oven set them close to the heat. 1 1/2 or 2 minutes per side.
    9. Serve hot. The small squirt of lemon made this dish just right.

    Steak in the Style of La Fiorentina

    Somebody somewhere in Tuscany would certainly want to have words with me after this Fiorentina travesty. I know Tuscans take this steak preparation very seriously and would hate me throwing around “La Fiorentina” on some random cut of meat.  Also the idea that I would serve something so rare, luxurious, and symbolic of Tuscan cooking with…shrimp!?!?!  You’ll just have to bear with me. Anyway, even if I wanted a Chianina T-bone, they’re few and far between even in Tuscany. Today I went with a steak that Martin picked up, which the butcher at Whole Foods called “chateaubriand”.

    I am not nearly as knowledgeable as I would like to be about these matters, but even I know that Chateaubriand refers to a preparation of beef, not a cut. Whatever it was, it was not a T-bone – maybe it was a sirloin. It was fine.  Since I can’t tell you what exactly the cut was that I grilled tonight,  I will tell you how to make a flank steak in the Fiorentina style. (I have done this before and I know that it tastes wonderful.) To prepare a flank steak Fiorentina-style, grill the meat over very hot coals to get a deeply caramelized exterior and keep it rather bloody inside.  Salt and pepper are the only flavoring before grilling and olive oil dresses the meat afterwards.  I suppose I am committing further heresy as I serve mine on a bed of lightly dressed arugula with olive oil and lemon.  The arugula wilts just enough under the hot grilled beef and is completely delicious – bitter, salty and lemony with the mineraly meat juices further dressing it. The flavors remind me of the first time I had carpaccio.


    Grilled Flank Steak in the Fiorentina Style

    (with a nod to my good friend Lee, who introduced me to the arugula salad underneath!)

    • 1 – 1 1/4 lbs flank steak, about 1″ thick
    • kosher salt or coarsely ground sea salt
    • coarsely ground black pepper
    • fruity-sharp green olive oil – for dressing afterwards not before
    • 3-4 big handfuls of washed and dried arugula – I get the bag of wild arugula from Trader Joe’s when I am too tired to wash a real bunch.
    • 1 lemon cut in half
    • a very hot grill
    1. Bring the beef to room temperature by unwrapping it and letting it sit at room temperature for 20-30 minutes.
    2. Heat the grill on high.
    3. Generously salt and pepper the steak.
    4. Grill for 8-10 minutes flipping once half way through the cooking time.
    5. While the meat is grilling, toss the arugula with olive oil, salt and pepper and place on a large serving platter.
    6. The meat is done when it reaches 145 F on a meat thermometer. Allow the beef to rest uncovered for 5 or 10 minutes on a cutting board. Slice thinly and lay over dressed arugula. Squeeze the lemon half over the top.
    7. While the meat is resting grill the shrimp and the asparagus – the asparagus takes 6-8 minutes unless you have pencil-slim ones – which you should start checking after 4 minutes.

    If Ms. Hazan were here she would certainly give me a talking to. Oh well.

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    Not Falafel…

    Posted on May 14, 2010 | Leave a comment

    For the record this was a crazy menu to attempt on crazy Thursday. Again. But it didn’t have to be…

    Why did I decide to make pita bread from scratch on a Thursday? You have to stand there in front of a 500F oven whipping willfully floppy pieces of dough into the oven on a peel. When I read the recipe, it seemed that I thought that 3 minutes per pita “was all the time it would take”. Three minutes does sound really fast but you have to take into account all the dancing around in front of a hot oven x 10! And all the baking occurred at the last possible minute. Oops. It was my first time really working a peel and I probably shouldn’t have tried pita my first time out. The dough was all over the place. I was all over the place.

    But pita was not even the real goal for dinner tonight. I have been craving falafel. Good ones, not the tooth breaking rocks that masquerade as falafel at most places in Seattle (beware the Whole Foods take-out counter). Also, even though I know that real falafel are made with ground soaked dried chickpeas that haven’t been cooked (at least not until they meet their maker in the deep fat fryer) I wanted to make some kind of falafel with cooked canned chickpeas because that would be so fast, so perfect for crazy Thursday. Something you could make even if you forgot to soak the beans. Something that didn’t have to be deep fried. Without the homemade pita bread and the sauce (I didn’t tell you about the sauce yet) this would have been an easy night actually. Those chickpea patties, even though they were nothing at all like real falafel (what were they thinking, calling them “falafel” over there at Fine Cooking?), were still really good.

    The kitchen looked like hell (and felt like it too because of the very hot oven) afterwards and I was a little worse for wear but this was a great meal. If falafel made with canned chickpeas are nothing like a real falafel and are more like the ladies-who-lunch item from the fifties – the croquette – who cares? Since we’ve been trying to eat fewer meat dishes and the kids liked them even though they’ve never had them before – that’s success in my book. So what if only one of the pita breads (the one I photographed) puffed up. Dinner was delicious.

    Here’s what I would do, in retrospect:

    1. Even though fresh pita is impressive and fun (did I mention that also it is completely delicious?!) – just buy some and warm them up in a low oven, well-wrapped in foil.
    2. Buy tahini sauce. I will tell you how I made it in case it isn’t available in a store nearby, but I am still looking for the perfect recipe and this one was NOT it. I would have it creamier – the flavor was still very very good though.
    3. If you haven’t replaced your spices in the last six months, do buy fresh ground coriander and cumin. Compared to the grubby old coriander I had been using for years (confession!) the new bottle of ground coriander was a revelation! – all lemon-y and herbaceous. Yum.

    Here is a photograph of the finished “falafel” which, as I have mentioned, look and taste nothing like real falafel but are still pretty good anyway:

    Falafel Sandwich

    • 2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
    • 4 tbsp olive oil + more for saute
    • 2 tsp ground cumin
    • 1 tsp ground coriander
    • 1/4 c. cilantro leaves
    • 1/4 c. flat leaf parsley leaves
    • 2 tsp sea salt
    • 1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
    • 1/2 red onion cut into small pieces
    • 1 cup dry breadcrumbs
    • Sesame seeds (optional)
    • 4 (6″) pita breads, warmed

    The Salad

    • 1-2 romaine hearts, washed and torn into bite sized pieces
    • 1 1/2 cups small cherry tomatoes
    • 1/4 of a large red onion, thinly sliced
    • 1/2 English cucumber, peeled and sliced
    • a handful of flat leaf parsley leaves
    • 4 oz feta, crumbled (optional)
    • 10 pitted kalamata olives, quartered (optional)

    The Dressing

    • 6 tbsp olive oil
    • 3 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
    • 1 garlic clove, minced
    • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
    • 1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
    1. Preheat oven to 425 F.
    2. Pulse chickpeas, olive oil, cumin, coriander, cilantro, flat leaf parsley, salt and pepper, onion and breadcrumbs until it becomes a chunky mass. Try forming a 2 inch ball into a small patty. If the mixture is still too crumbly, add a tablespoon or two more of the breadcrumbs. Form about a dozen 2 1/2″ patties. If you like, spray lightly with olive oil and lightly sprinkle the top and bottom with sesame seeds. Set aside.
    3. Make the salad dressing by combining the olive oil, vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper. Whisk.
    4. Place all other salad ingredients in a large salad bowl or on a large platter.
    5. In a large non-stick pan, heat 2-3 tbsp olive oil over medium high heat.
    6. Place medium sized heat proof platter or plate in the oven.
    7. Without crowding, place as many patties into the oil as you can. Brown 2-3 minutes per side to get a nice brown crust.
    8. As you complete the browning, place the patties on the platter in the oven.
    9. When all the patties are done, toss the salad.
    10. Take the patties, the pitas and the salad to the table.
    11. Everyone can assemble their own food as it pleases them.

    Here is the recipe for the imperfect but still acceptable sauce:

    Tahini Sauce

    1/3 c. tahini (I like the Joyva brand and I hate the Maranatha brand – although to be fair their peanut butter butter is my favorite!)

    • 1/3 cup water
    • 1/4 cup lemon juice
    • 1/2 tsp salt
    • 2 garlic cloves, minced
    • (full fat Greek yogurt)
    1. Blend all ingredients in a liquid measuring cup with a fork.

    This makes a very runny dressing which I thickened only moderately successfully with a large dollop of full fat Greek yogurt. I will work on this and get back to you.

    Here is the photo of the one successful pita. I believe the trick to getting them to puff is to roll them out very thinly before the second rise – a scant 1/4 ” and no more.

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