Tag Archives: easy

High Tea again – a really good call

Posted on March 16, 2010 | 1 comment

I don’t want to write too much about something I’ve already written about so I’ll keep this short. Today is really all about the cake. You must think this is a nutty kind of dinner blog. I keep baking cake for dinner. I don’t think of myself as a person who would find excuses to eat cake all the time. But I am finding that right now at least, we are having cake as a major component of dinner with alarming frequency.

This weekend my cousin got married. All the champagne, the little sandwiches of rare roast beef, apple slivers and horseradish, the champagne, the crab cakes and more champagne kind of put me over the edge. To say I over-indulged would be an understatement. On Sunday, dinner seemed insurmountable and boring to boot. I thought I was tired of cooking but the truth was I hadn’t even boiled an egg all weekend.

There were a few ideas I tossed around but they all seemed overwrought, dull, heavy or insubstantial.  Here was my list of dinner ideas for Sunday night:

  1. Bloody Mary Hamburgers with horseradish cream and Worcestershire -although the idea sounded delicious, the name turned me off in the end – it sounded a little gory
  2. Marcella Hazan’s Chickpea Soup with Pasta – seemed like too much work and boring
  3. Fish?! – has the virtue of healthiness but makes the kitchen smell too funny after a crazy weekend
  4. Omelette and toast?!  – very quick but sick of eggs
  5. Salad – too cold, too much work

In the end I scrapped all those ideas and returned to the brilliant and original idea of high tea. I think, in America, this truly is a very original idea. (In Britain, I’m sure it’s completely banal.) Tea, small sandwiches and a sliver of wonderful cake is rejuvenating, comforting, delicious, diverting and captivating. I can’t say too many good things about tea for dinner. Children like it and grown-ups do too – at least at my house. Tea is easy to put together. No special skills or techniques are required. One thing I like to see at tea though, is one of those tiered serving caddies. Mine’s not fancy; it’s from Target, but it makes everything look scrumptious.

I had some very ripe bananas so I convinced Martin (he hardly needs convincing in these matters) to make his Swedish banana cake. This is the cake I should have made the last time we had high tea. It’s so likable. Swedish banana cake is quite different from its American counterpart. The lemon rind and juice sets it apart from a typical banana cake. Also, for some reason that I don’t understand, it doesn’t get those weird little black flecks that American banana breads and cake do. I’m not usually crazy about banana bread but this cake is a different story. I love it. You can bake it in any shape. Usually we use a 9″ spring form but Martin decided to make it in a long rectangular tart pan. As always, this cake was very very good.

Next time I post I promise there will be no cake on the menu.

Swedish Banana Cake

  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • the rind of half a lemon and its juice
  • 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 2-3 very ripe bananas (about 2/3 lb peeled)
  • 1/4 cup milk

To finish: sifted powdered sugar

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  2. Butter a 9″ springform pan. In Sweden they dust the pan with bread crumbs. We just make breadcrumbs on-the-fly (in an electric coffee grinder reserved for bread crumbs and spices) from a heel of sandwich bread. Cornmeal works and so would flour, I suppose.
  3. Melt the butter in a small pan on the stove or in the microwave and leave to cool.
  4. Whisk the eggs and the sugar until quite fluffy and nearly white in a medium sized mixing bowl. You could use a hand mixer to do this.
  5. Add the lemon rind and lemon juice, the flour and the baking powder.
  6. Peel and mash the bananas in a small mixing bowl. I like to use a potato masher for this job. Stir the bananas into the batter.
  7. Add the butter and the milk and stir until just blended.
  8. Pour batter into the cake pan.
  9. Bake for 35 minutes. Let cake stay in the pan for 10 minutes before  turning it out and letting it cool on a baking rack.
  10. When the cake has cooled, sift a little powdered sugar on top. In the summer when raspberries or strawberries are ripe, they would be very nice with this simple cake.

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Halibut Season

Posted on March 11, 2010 | 7 comments

I have been meaning to write up my old stand-bys, the ones my sister begged me to start blogging about right from the beginning. The store cupboard favorites; the fast, straightforward menus that everyone should have in their back pocket. I really meant to write about what my friend Candice refers to as Mexican Fiesta today. I really did. Mexican Fiesta is a wonderful concept. It’s easily scalable, accommodating 2-20 people with little fuss. It can be very simple or elaborate. Trader Joe’s can do a lot of the work or none.  I love Mexican Fiesta. In fact, we had the perfect mid-range Mexican Fiesta on Saturday, with pictures and everything, that I have been trying to find time to write up. But I got side-tracked…

That’s because halibut season began this week. My neighbor Susan reminded me about it yesterday.  What you need to look for is Pacific halibut and here is why: Pacific halibut is caught on long-lines which cause little to no environmental damage. These fish are not over-fished and are rated the best choice of all the flat fish by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood WATCH. I am so thankful that there are environmentally friendly halibut to eat because halibut is completely delicious. A firm yet tender fish, it is mild yet meaty. I love it.

Initially when I glanced at the recipe and saw three sections of preparation, I quailed. Wednesday is not the easiest day to try something new, let alone something that has three separate parts to produce. Then I started reading the recipe through. Clearly each part was very easy. The result was totally delicious and not at all boring old run-of-the-mill. The recipe explores the incredibly useful sear-roasting technique, allowing the cook to caramelize the exterior of the fish while protecting the moist interior. It’s a simple approach that we all should master.

Halibut Menu

Serves 4

  • Sear-Roasted Halibut with Horseradish Aïoli and Lemon Zest Breadcrumbs
  • Mashed Yukon Gold potatoes
  • Hot buttered peas

Game Plan

About 40 minutes prep – when I write that I am assuming that all the ingredients have been assembled, i.e. the breadcrumbs are already made, the lemon zest has been grated  etc. – as stated in the recipe

  1. 40 minutes before you want to eat: peel 4 large yukon gold potatoes, cut into 2-3″ chunks and put them in a pot of water: cover by at least 1″.  Set to boil.
  2. Place peas and water in the steamer in a pot on the stove.
  3. Preheat oven to 425 F.
  4. Prepare Halibut recipe’s breadcrumbs and aïoli.
  5. Check potatoes. When nearly soft enough for mashing, begin searing the halibut.
  6. When the fish is in the oven, start steaming the peas. Then mash the potatoes with plenty of whole milk, butter, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Dress parsley salad.

Sear-Roasted Halibut with Horseradish Aïoli and Lemon Zest Breadcrumbs

This recipe was originally printed in Fine Cooking and authored by Seattle chef Tom Douglas.

Lemon Zest Breadcrumbs

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 cup coarse fresh breadcrumbs (from a rustic loaf)
  • 1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Make the lemon zest bread crumbs:

  1. In a large skillet heat the oil over medium-high heat – the oil should shimmer.
  2. Add the breadcrumbs and cook, stirring, until golden and crunchy – about 2 minutes
  3. Transfer to a small bowl and let cool.
  4. Add the lemon zest and season with salt and pepper. Taste it! Make sure you’ve added enough salt and pepper. It should taste so you want to eat more of it.

Horseradish Aïoli

  • 5 tbsp mayonnaise
  • 2 tsp bottled horseradish
  • 3/4 tsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp minced garlic
  • 1/2 tsp tomato paste
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Make the aïoli:

In a small bowl stir together all the ingredients. Taste as you add the salt and pepper. This sauce was so delicious that my 3-year-old got a spoon and was eating it like pudding – albeit a mayonnaise-based, horseradish-flavored pudding!

Halibut

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 thick skinless halibut fillets – about 6oz each
  • kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 cups fresh flat leaf parsley, washed and dried
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Sear roast the fish:

  1. Preheat the oven to 425 F.
  2. Heat the oil in a heavy non-stick skillet over medium high heat  (I don’t have an oven safe non-stick skillet – at least the handle doesn’t look like it should go in the oven – so I wrap the handle with a couple of layers of aluminum foil)
  3. Pat the fish dry and season with 1/2 tsp kosher salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.
  4. When the oil is shimmering, place the fillets in the pan, skinned side up. Sear for 2 minutes. Don’t keep checking or moving the fish around. If you fuss with it you’ll ruin the sear.
  5. After 2 minutes lift up a corner to see that the fillets are nicely browned. Flip them and remove pan from the heat.
  6. Spread the aïoli over each fillet and then layer with bread crumbs. Put the pan in the preheated oven for 5 or 6 minutes.
  7. While the fish is roasting, toss the parsley with the juice of half the lemon and 1 tsp of the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Taste it. Does it need more salt and pepper? Cut the remaining lemon-half into wedges and use them to garnish each plate.
  8. Remove the fish from the oven and plate with parsley salad tossed artfully over the top (I didn’t quite manage the artful part – good luck with that), mashed potatoes and buttered peas.

In anticipation of this menu, my 7-year-old became very dramatic: sighing, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. He even asked if he would be able to eat “something different”. And yet he ate every last scrap. We all did.

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Familiar-Old French Toast

Posted on February 4, 2010 | 2 comments

When I started writing all this food stuff, I never thought that I would write so much about sausages or mac and cheese or, as I will today, french toast for dinner.  My aspirations for dinner are usually somewhat higher. But I have to say, I dial my culinary efforts way back when I am home with my kids alone. We all have a better time. This week’s menu plan has been working so well for us – I think I am going to have to have a Parenting Alone category.

Everyone knows that a kid behaves a lot better if they are well fed than if they’re starving or have been fed a bunch of something nasty. So when Martin is out of town, I work hard to plan fun meals that have very familiar and nourishing components. I suppose a lot of people might resort to prepared foods and take-out. I resist prepared foods of any stripe. I can’t bring myself to be fed by an entity whose main culinary goal revolves around the bottom line. Who knows what they really put in their concoctions to keep the price down? I bet that sounds really paranoid. Also I find those mysterious cans and jars completely unsatisfying. When I’m tired I need something that’s really delicious.

So tonight, the LAST night of single parenting (yay!), we will end with french toast with berry compote and bacon (with tea of course) and then we can all finally go back to eating “normal” food – whatever that is.

Here is the recipe, for what it’s worth. You can make french toast in any old way – some people only use eggs!  I have seen a recipe in Joy that soaks the bread simply in maple syrup – how reductive! – (it sounds weird to me – I must try it some day!) Tonight, I’ll do what my parents did, although I like to use challah or brioche instead of sliced Roman Meal – the floppy, spineless, whole wheat, plastic bag bread of my childhood. For me, that would be taking the familiar too far.

  • Start the bacon in a cold non-stick pan and turn the heat to medium-low.   Unlike cooking other meats, you want to start the bacon in a cold pan to prevent it from curling up.  Cooking it over relatively low heat saves you from a greasy mess all over the stove.  Also, if you are multi-tasking with cooking the french toast, making tea, etc. you’ll increase your chances of having everything come out perfectly instead of smoking and singed. You can flip the bacon as you mix the milk and egg mixture and cook the french toast.

Challah french toast with berry compote – The 1997 Joy of Cooking

  • 2/3 cup milk
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 tbsp sugar, or maple syrup
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 6 slices challah
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter
  • maple syrup
  1. Whisk together the milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt.  I use a shallow pan, wide enough to soak 2 slices of bread at once – like a gratin dish.
  2. Heat up a non stick griddle or large non-stick frying pan, medium – medium high heat.
  3. Dip the bread slices, one or two at a time into the egg mixture until saturated but not falling apart.
  4. Melt the butter and add as many slices of bread as will fit into the pan. Cook until golden brown on the bottom then flip.  Cook until second side is golden.
  5. If you are doubling the recipe or you want to serve them all at once, keep them warm on a plate in a 200 F oven.
  6. Serve with maple syrup and berry compote.

Berry Compote

Take 1 1/2 cups frozen berries and a squirt of maple syrup, honey, sugar OR agave and put them in a Pyrex or other microwave safe bowl. Heat up in the microwave for 2-3 minutes.



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Curried Cubanos with mojo, baby

Posted on January 29, 2010 | 1 comment

What should be done with leftover curried roast chicken?  I’m still not sure why the answer turned out to be Curried Cubanos. I know, it should have been velvet butter chicken, but we have had a glut of curried chicken in the past few weeks. I was sick of chicken leftovers in quesadillas and chicken salad and even though I love chicken enchiladas, there is way too much prep to build them on a Tuesday night. Considering that the chicken was, in fact, curried, almost anything not Indian would be weird.  I was in the mood for a Cubano with Mojo* anyway. Even one with an incongruous Indian accent.

Cubanos with Mojo? (I have to say that looks really funny to me. I can’t write about mojo and not think of Austin Powers – even if they aren’t actually pronounced the same way) Anyway, this recipe for pork Cubano sandwiches from Fine Cooking uses a mojo to perk up the flavor. Although I have to say, that the curry from the leftover roast chicken probably contributed more mojo than the actual mojo did.  Which is not to say that the curry worked brilliantly – I kept thinking: Curried Cubanos…really?! I don’t know…as I was eating them, not ever being entirely convinced. Still, the kids liked them; we liked them. In terms of whether or not I might make them again, and for whom, well, I might serve them to my sister but never to her husband. I just don’t think he would approve.

With the Cubanos we had Black Bean Soup.   It has been at least a year since the last time I made Black Bean Soup. I had been following the recipe from Cook’s Illustrated’s The New Best Recipe.  I often turn to this book, especially for basic renditions of ethnic foods. They do a pretty good job of transforming supermarket fundamentals into things like pho and pappa al pomodoro which are a lot more fun than macaroni and cheese or broiled chicken breasts as midweek fare.

That being said, their black bean soup recipe stinks. Really. Their recipe stopped me from making Black Bean Soup at all. For a while, I couldn’t figure out why it was so terrible. They start with all the right ingredients. First, they cook the beans with a ham hock. Then, adding soffrito with red pepper, garlic and herbs. The weird part is that they finish the soup with this cornstarch slurry, promising to keep the soup nice and black and thickening without pureeing too many of the beans. It doesn’t work at all and there were a lot of extra steps.

What I realized when I went back to look at the recipe though, is that they expect the soup to be done in just 2 1/2 hours!  And that’s without soaking the beans.  No way is that going to work. What I have come to realize is you just can’t rush beans. Not black beans anyway. Thickening the soup with cornstarch is a cheater’s method. Black bean soup should be basic and easy going. It requires nothing more than a little planning.  10-15 minutes worth of work will give you back three days of deliciousness.  You don’t want to go messing around with a 3 part recipe to get an inferior soup with a lot of extra work. No. Soak your beans ahead of time and this soup materializes practically out of thin air! I read a bunch of recipes and cobbled this recipe together. This black bean soup is the color of the deepest chocolate. It has a velvety consistency and a gentle, easy, burn. You won’t break a sweat pulling it together.  Count on at least 3 hours of simmering though and on soaking the beans.

Black Bean Soup

  • 1 lb black beans, picked over and soaked overnight in a large bowl. The water should cover the beans by at least 2 inches
  • 1/4 c. olive oil
  • 1 onion, chopped fine
  • A 2 inch chunk of salt pork
  • 1 quart chicken broth, boxed is fine – I like Pacific brand
  • 3 cups water
  • 1 28 ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, drained of their juice and cut up.  (I like to do this right in the can with my kitchen scissors as I learned from Laurie Colwin in her book Home Cooking, which I love)
  • 1 heaping tsp ground cumin
  • 2 or more minced cloves garlic
  • 1/8-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 tsp of salt, more to taste

Grated cheese, chopped green or red onion, sour cream or greek yogurt for garnish

  1. 3 hours before dinner Put the chopped onion, the olive oil and the piece of salt pork in a large enameled cast iron pot or a heavy bottomed soup pot and turn on the heat to low.  Put the lid on the pot and cook 12-15 minutes, stirring 2 or 3 times.  You don’t want the mixture to get crisp or brown, just to gently soften.
  2. Add the beans, the stock and the water and simmer for an hour or so until the beans are soft.
  3. 2 hours before dinner Add the tomatoes, cumin, garlic,chili flakes and salt.
  4. Leave to very gently simmer for a long long time – about 2 hours.  If you put it on a flame tamer and you are feeling brave you can run an errand or pick up the kids from school.  This makes me a little nervous but I still do it.  I would use a flame tamer though.  It would be very sad to scorch this wonderful soup.

Curried Cubanos

If you have leftover roast pork in the fridge, use that and you won’t have to make excuses about the curry.

Mojo

  • 1 medium clove of garlic, peeled and minced
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tbsp lime juice
  • 1 tbsp fresh cilantro
  1. Mash salt into the garlic with the back of your chef’s knife or a mortar and pestle.
  2. Transfer to a small bowl and add the rest of the ingredients.  Let sit for at least 5 minutes

The sandwiches

  • 4 oval shaped subs or bulky rolls, split, not too crusty
  • 3 tbsp grainy mustard
  • 6 oz leftover curried chicken
  • 1/4 lb thinly sliced ham
  • 4 slices swiss cheese
  • 2 dill pickles, thinly sliced
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
  1. Heat a sandwich press or use a grill pan heated over medium heat.
  2. Brush the inside of the rolls with the mojo and mustard.
  3. Stack the bottom part with equal amounts of pork, ham cheese and pickles.
  4. Top each sandwich with upper half and brush top with the butter
  5. Place in press or on grill pan.  If using grill pan, weight sandwiches with a plate with cans set on top.  Flip sandwich when bottom side is browned. Brown each side and let the cheese melt.

Since I had leftover chicken anyway, this menu was a breeze.  I soaked the beans after dinner the night before and started the soup at about 1:30 pm the following day, when the little guy started his nap.  I spent about 15 minutes on it, about 5 of those minutes at 1:30 and 10 at 2:30.  I didn’t do anything else with dinner until 5:15.  We were eating by 5:45, and that included heating up the panini press.

*Mojo: In Cuban cooking mojo applies to any sauce that is made with garlic, olive oil and a citrus juice, traditionally sour orange juice. It is used to marinate roast pork or plantains.

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Bangers and mash

Posted on January 21, 2010 | 2 comments

I actually wasn’t even going to write about what we are having for dinner today because it’s so run-of-the-mill. I hardly think anyone will care to read about it. After running over the menu this morning though, I changed my mind. I’m not a trained chef, I’m not a restaurateur, I’m not a socialite with a cook. I’m a mom with 3 kids and a dog and a cat, a whole lot of carpools and a not entirely adequate kitchen. Sometimes we eat boring food here, and if I pretend I never do that, what kind of a blog is this? A guilt inducing Martha Stewart blog? I hope not. I ‘m just trying to keep it real.

Unless you’re a Brit, or a descendant of a Brit or an Anglophile, you might not know what bangers and mash means. It’s British for sausages and mashed potatoes. Bangers aren’t just any old sausage though. They’re pork with bread crumbs and very mild spices – if they are spiced at all. I am sure you must be thinking: why would anyone want to eat those, they sound so bland and stodgy?! I tell you, if you haven’t been served bangers and mash by your Norwegian-British grandmother (who did a very nice job with it) it might be hard to understand why this is just right on certain evenings. Bangers should be mild and moist, almost creamy, on the inside, in a crisp and caramelized casing.  The mash should be rich and not too wet or soft, with a melted puddle of butter on top. A little salt and a gentle burn of pepper.  With bangers and mash, there is very little planning or shopping or even cooking involved. Kids and grown-ups will like this – unless they’re just being difficult. Sausages and mash go well with beer or a glass of young red wine. I like mine with a strong and slightly sweet mustard that comes from Sweden (which sounds so impressively cultural until I add that we actually buy it at IKEA – I told you this would be run-of-the-mill)

One little problem: bangers are hard to get. The Whole Foods near my house sells, very occasionally, something they like to call bangers. Ha! Sometimes I buy them but they are not bangers.  Sometimes they’re quite spicy which is to say they have a whisper of red chile in them. Even the merest breath of heat strikes the wrong note in a banger. Whole Foods* didn’t even have mild Italian pork sausages today – so tonight we are having – sigh – not bangers, but lamb and feta sausages. With mash. And steamed broccoli. (My granny would have served cauliflower cheese and steamed carrots and peas, but it’s crazy Thursday and I say to hell with it)

Menu: So…I guess what we are having is sausages and mashed potatoes and broccoli. There’s no dressing that up.

The game plan and the recipes are the same because there are no recipes here. Isn’t that kind of a relief? You buy the number of sausages to match the number of people you are serving, the same for the russet potatoes, and a large bunch of broccoli to steam.

The butcher would tell you to cook the sausages on medium heat on the stove in a skillet. I say that is just one more thing to pay attention to. Here’s what I would do:

  • Preheat the oven to 400F – 2 hours before you want to eat.
  • Scrub the potatoes and pierce them in several places with a fork. Brush or spray with olive oil if you like to eat the skins. Set the potatoes right on the oven rack.
  • 40 minutes before you want to eat, put a splash of vegetable oil in a roasting pan and add the sausages. Pop them in the oven next to the potatoes.
  • Rinse and trim the broccoli and put it in a steamer with water in it, on the stove.
  • No less than an hour and a half after you put them in the oven, remove the potatoes. Split them open and carefully (so as not to burn your fingers) scrape the flesh into a bowl. In the microwave heat up milk and butter until the butter is mostly melted – I would say 1/2-3/4 cup milk to 4 large russets and 3-4 walnut sized pieces of butter – but I like my mashed potatoes richly mashed.  Mash them up with a potato masher.  If you like to eat the skins now that they are nicely crisp, sprinkle them with sea salt and eat them up.
  • 10 minutes before you want to eat, start the heat under the broccoli.  Check on it after 7 minutes.  Personally, I would serve the broccoli with mayonnaise to which I have added lemon juice and one small grated clove of garlic, but I come from a mayonnaise eating family.

To make this menu even more ridiculously easy, just serve baked potatoes and steamed peas.  Of course you didn’t hear that from me.  Which is not to say I would never make that – of course I would.   I just wouldn’t write about it!

*Just a word about sausages and Whole Foods:  This may not be true at all Whole Foods in all cities, but here in Seattle they make organic house made sausages. I have to say that they are the worst  house made sausages I have ever had: bangers, Italian, chicken, Thai – you name it – all bad. They are unsubtly spiced; they are too dry; they are too weird. If you can go anywhere else to buy a house made sausage, I would, even if it is just to try their product and see what it is like. I like A&J Meats on Queen Anne. Sadly the Metropolitan Market up there is over-priced and understocked, so I rarely do all my shopping on the top of Queen Anne.  Next time I am at A&J though, I am going to beg them to make a batch of real English style bangers and to please call me when they are done. I would gladly drive all the way across town for some decent bangers – even if it does mess up the whole idea of an easy dinner on a busy day.

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Another kind of Thursday

Posted on January 7, 2010 | 2 comments

The last time I wrote about a Thursday menu, I was crazily making lamb shanks and drinking elderflower laced champagne cocktails.  Well this is an entirely different kind of Thursday – still a crazy Thursday, but with a simpler menu.   This is a menu I could make with my eyes closed.   When my sister-in-law made this for us last spring – from a Swedish women’s magazine – I was skeptical.  Normally I wouldn’t make Middle Eastern inspired food from a Swedish recipe. I would go to Claudia Roden or something.  But this is a great, easy menu.   The recipes use ingredients you can find at any grocery store.  In the rare case that there are leftovers – they always get eaten up.  If for some reason you won’t eat lamb – just substitute ground chicken or turkey.

A Midweek Middle Eastern Inspired Menu from Sweden:

makes enough for 4 – or 2 grown-ups, 2 children and 1 toddler

  • Lamb Patties with Feta
  • Cannellini Purée with Basil and Garlic
  • Tomato and Cucumber Salad

Game Plan

  1. Mix and form the lamb patties
  2. Make the cannellini bean purée
  3. Prepare the salad, but leave the dressing until serving time
  4. Cook the lamb
  5. Dress the salad after flipping the lamb

Lamb Patties with Feta

  • 1 egg
  • 3 tbsp cream
  • 2 tbsp oats
  • 1/2 yellow onion, grated on the big holes in a box grater
  • 5 ounces feta, crumbled or cubed in small (1/4″) pieces
  • 1 pound ground lamb
  • salt and pepper
  • mild olive oil for sauté

In a medium sized bowl, crack the egg and stir in the oats and cream.  Add the grated onion, the feta and the lamb, and salt and pepper to taste.  I would say a minimum of a 1/2  tsp of salt.  Mix well.  I use my hands because Marion Cunningham (Fannie Farmer Cookbook) told me to.  It will be painfully cold.  So I stand next to the sink and nudge on the hot water when I can’t take it anymore.  You may be less of a wimp than I.  When the ingredients are well combined, form them into 12 small patties. (about 2″ in diameter and a scant 1/2″ thick)  If you happen to be doing this in the middle of the day, it is fine to stack them on a plate (with plastic wrap separating the layers) and pop them in the fridge until ready to cook.

Heat a large non-stick pan over medium heat. Don’t be impatient.  You want a hot pan because you want a delicious caramelized crust.  That’s what makes things taste good.  Add 1 tbsp of olive oil, watch it shimmer and lay the patties in the pan.  If you have got the heat  right, they will take 4-5 minutes per side.  Unlike rack of lamb, these are not meant to be rare.  Serve hot.

Cannellini Bean Purée with Basil and Garlic

One of the things I like about this puree is that it can be served cold and fairly stiff – like hummus.  Or it can be served warm and soft.  Its demeanor in the menu is like flavorful mashed potatoes, which is good for those trying to cut their carb intake. Cannellini prepared this way are so delicious, so incredibly easy, you won’t miss the pita bread or pilaf which would also be nice in this menu.  The menu as printed in Sweden used canned beans and that is fine – and very easy if you are serving the purée cold.  After using cans the first time, I tried cooking my own beans.  I like having the bean cooking water to thin the purée – and that the beans were still warm from cooking.  If you want the purée warm and have neither time nor energy to soak and cook beans, rinse them under the tap in a colander, and add  a little water to thin them out.  You could always heat them up on the stove or in the microwave.

  • 2 cans of Cannellini Beans or 1 cup dried cannellini, soaked and cooked, cooking water reserved
  • 3 tbsp or more olive oil – I like a green and spicy oil for this
  • 1 small clove of garlic, minced, grated or through a garlic press
  • 1/3 cup fresh basil, washed, carefully dried and chopped, not too fine
  • Salt

Using a food processor, purée the beans and olive oil, adding a little bean cooking water or plain water to get the consistency you want.  Add the garlic and fresh basil by hand.  Taste for salt.  When I turn this out into a serving bowl I like to pour a little more green olive oil over the top.

Tomatoes and Cucumber Salad

This couldn’t be easier.  You could add romaine, red onions, toasted pita and sumac, to make fatoush.  But if it’s mid week, you may not have the energy.  I wouldn’t.  I might, if I had some lying around anyway, slice some red onion very, very thin, and soak it in water until the salad was served (so it’s not too sharply onion-y; learned that from reading Marcella Hazan).  That would still be easy and add good sprightly flavor.

  • 1 English cucumber
  • 1 pint of small tomatoes (if you are making this in the winter and you live in a cold climate, these are the only possible choice – big ones are too often mealy and flavorless)
  • 3 tbsp oil
  • 1 tbsp vinegar

Peel the cucumber, slice lengthwise and, using a small spoon, scrape out the seeds.  Slice into 1/4″ slices.

Halve or quarter the tomatoes.  Combine in a medium bowl and toss with the olive oil.  Salt to taste, and add the vinegar.  If using romaine or onion, add those too.

Finally

To serve, I sometimes plate this in the kitchen to save washing serving dishes.   I would put a generous serving of the bean puree under 3 lamb patties.  The salad can cozy up next to the puree.  Fancy people might drizzle the puree with green olive oil and a sprig of basil.  Even not fancy people might, as it is so easy to do and it tastes so good!



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The recipe was supposed to be family friendly and quick…

Posted on December 8, 2009 | Leave a comment

and I think it still is…but in addition to being a story about what constitutes fast cooking, this is the story of the beauty of opportunity and an odd place to find a really great ingredient.

The Tuesday Menu

  • Moroccan Spiced Scallops
  • Roast Cauliflower with Cumin
  • Steamed Haricot Vert
  • Couscous or Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Todays menu started out in a decidedly different direction. My sister Lisa had asked me to write about the recipes I feed my kids. You know, the quick ones. Stuff you can make right out of the pantry. Right! – I thought – That sounds like the chickpea and pasta soup from Marcella Hazan. Unlike the barley soup, this is one of her many excellent recipes that I turn to over and over again. As it turned out, just as I sat down to write, I got a call. My neighbor. She was heading over to Costco. Costco?! It’s easy to loathe Costco but there is one thing that I love. Wild dry scallops. I scrapped the soup idea immediately.

I was reading about scallops a few months ago and according to one article, Costco is the place for wild dry scallops. Dry scallops are what you need to look for because they are untreated. They brown beautifully and remain silky, velvety and sweet. Wild scallops are as delicious as anything you might ever hope to eat. Wet scallops, on the other hand, are icky and processed; they are pumped full of water and phosphates which act as a preservative. When you try to cook them, all they do is leak that nasty brine and refuse to brown. Instead wet scallops become rubbery little white blobs. Yuck. So, since my neighbor was going to Costco, and I never go because I hate to, I jumped on the chance for big wild scallops. We decided to share 2 pounds.

Since I discovered the source for these high quality shell fish early this fall, I have been making a bit of a pig of myself. I like scallops a la diavola, a spicy dish of scallops, tomatoes, chilies and linguine and for awhile there I was making it every time my dad went to Costco, bribing him with dinner. But now I am trying not to eat pasta all the time so I found this recipe: Moroccan Spiced Seared Scallops. Since scallops are naturally sweet and have a very appealing texture, I am hoping the kids are really going to like this.

Game Plan:

For the fast version, use the couscous menu variation. Baking sweet potatoes takes an hour at 375 – the same temperature that you roast the cauliflower – if you have the time. You would start the sweet potato half an hour before putting the cauliflower in the oven, and skip the couscous step.

  1. Start the cauliflower first.
  2. Follow the directions on a package of couscous.
  3. Mix the spices for the scallops
  4. Set up a steamer for the beans and fire up the stove
  5. Begin cooking the scallops.
  6. Toss the beans with unsalted butter and sea salt when they are just tender (5 minutes or so) – I just put a tbsp of butter into the serving bowl, and let the hot beans do the melting and give them a squirt of lemon juice and a dusting of sea salt just before serving (any earlier and the lemon will turn them brown!)

Anyway, Lisa, I still think this is fast. Definitely less than a half hour of work – couscous version! AND, the bonus is, even though neither of us ever wants to go to Costco, Dad will happily go and get scallops if you promise him a wonderful meal for his efforts!

Moroccan-Spiced Scallops – from Fine Cooking

  • 1 medium lemon
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp sweet Hungarian paprika
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ginger
  • 1 1/2 pounds large natural dry sea scallops, little muscle on the side removed. This is so easy – just pull it right off.
  • Ground pepper

In a small bowl combine the cumin, paprika, turmeric, cinnamon, and ginger.

Pat the scallops dry and season them with kosher salt and black pepper. Then coat them with the spice mixture.

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium high heat until it shimmers. Add half the scallops – DO NOT CROWD! – they won’t brown properly – I’d give an inch or so between each one, turning once, until seared on the outside. Give 1-2 minutes per side. Transfer to a warm plate and repeat until all scallops are done. Serve with lemon wedges.

Roast Cauliflower

  • 1 large head of cauliflower
  • 3 tbsp good tasting olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • Salt and pepper

Heat the oven to 375.

Remove the outer green leaves of the cauliflower and cut the head into florets, toss out the stems. Place cauliflower on rimmed sheet pan and toss with olive oil, sea salt and pepper. To avoid annoying clumping of the cumin, take pinches of it and rub your fingers together over the cauliflower. Toss again. Place in oven for 30 minutes. This can be served hot or warm and it will turn even the most rabid hater of cauliflower into a devotee!

I’ll let you know how it turns out – I have high hopes. Maybe I’ll get to the Chickpea and Pasta soup later in the week. I’ll have to see what comes my way!

Ok. It’s 4 hours later. The kitchen is clean, the kids are asleep and the votes are in. I liked the scallops although I must say that they really don’t need anything more than unsalted butter and salt and pepper. Martin liked them, but he likes them a la diavola more. The little guy refused to try them, the middle one ate one but really went to town on the green beans and the big one ate mostly cauliflower. I say there was something here for everyone.

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So you have soup – now what?

Posted on December 1, 2009 | 4 comments

You can’t just have soup for dinner. Ok. Maybe if you are alone at home, you could have a big bowl of soup by yourself. I certainly could. I would never give just soup to my family. There has to be stuff to go with it. My son would be really mad if I didn’t get any “fancy cheese”. This used to be La Tur which is our favorite – a French creamy cow and sheeps milk cheese with a rind, but then during the gas crisis it got so crazy to buy it that I branched out. It’s kind of embarrassing actually, admitting to liking Boursin. It’s so seventies. It’s so everywhere. Maybe it has even been bought by Kraft – who knows? I hate to say it – I love the cracked pepper version. So sometimes I still serve La Tur, but I admit to a secret love of Cracked Pepper Boursin and my kids totally love it. I like either cheese with olive oil crostini crackers – I buy the Whole Foods house brand.

If cheese and crackers doesn’t seem filling enough, something we like with Bean and Pasta Soup – or any soup really – is a grilled cheese sandwich. Here in Seattle, I get a bread called Columbia from Essential Baking. It has wheat flour, whole wheat flour, a little rye, water, organic malt and sea salt. I guess that means it is naturally leavened. Its chewy crust! Its flavorful crumb! I love it. For cheese, I use either sharp cheddar – our local Beecher’s is very good – or a young Fontina. The bread should be sliced not too thick and I brush the outside with olive oil before putting it in the sandwich press. French ham, Fra Mani Salami – the Sopressata or the Nostrano are terrific – or my personal favorite, mortadella, are good either in the sandwich or on the side. If all you can get is Boar’s Head or some prepackaged supermarket salumi, don’t bother. The sandwich with cheese alone is delicious enough.

Even though it’s a mostly vegetable soup, I still think that you need something fresh with it. So I make a platter of cut raw vegetables, including the obvious carrots, celery, cucumbers and peppers and also romaine hearts or blanched green beans. If I make something to dip those into my kids won’t stop eating vegetables.

There are two dips to go with the vegetables and I like both. Some people might find the mayonnaise version very low rent – I still love it but I come from a mayonnaise family! That being said, there is only one kind of readily available mayonnaise from a bottle that I like and that is the Trader Joe’s version. It’s not too gelatinous like the Best Foods one that so many people and publications rave about. (Why!?!?) It’s more lemony and satiny. If I’m not making my own – and because of the whole salmonella thing I rarely do this anymore – Trader Joe’s Real Mayonnaise is the way to go.

To make the Mayonnaise Version:

  • 1/2 cup Trader Joe’s Real Mayonnaise (blue and yellow label)
  • squirt of lemon juice to taste (from a lemon, please – not a bottle)
  • (1) grated small clove of garlic – I hope you already have a microplane – I couldn’t live without mine

Mix it all up and adjust lemon and garlic to taste.

To make a Greek Yogurt Version:

  • 1/2 cup Greek yogurt (full fat or non fat – you choose)
  • sea salt to taste (start with a little and be prepared upon tasting to add more)
  • (1) small clove of garlic grated with a microplane
  • a splash of fruity, green olive oil if you are using the non-fat Greek yogurt (like the California Estate one in the tall green bottle from Trader Joe’s)

Stir it all up, adjusting seasonings to taste.

Does this seem like a lot to do for a simple dinner of soup and sandwiches? I will write a game plan. It doesn’t have to take over the whole day.

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Craving Soup: one easy method

Posted on November 29, 2009 | 5 comments

I was totally let down by Marcella (Hazan) last week. Even though I have never met her and probably never will, I always think of her as a good friend. I can’t help it. It’s the way she writes – as if she were peering into your pot over your shoulder, watching you screw up. Her tone is so authoritative that I would try anything she says is delicious. Sometimes blindly following her lead doesn’t work out too well.

In the recipe for Barley Soup in the Style of Trent she promised: “…exceptional appeal from successive layers of flavor laid down by sauteed onion and ham, by rosemary and parsley and the diced potato and carrot, which [should have!] provided the ideal base for the wonderfully fortifying quality of barley itself.” Whatever, Marcella! It sounded so good but it tasted like watery gruel with bacon bits. We all hated it – the whole family. I couldn’t even imagine eating some for lunch the next day so I ran it all down the disposal. I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to admit to that. Oh well.

Here’s a soup that DID work well. Very well. And it’s so handy to have a recipe where you don’t actually have to have stock stored in the freezer. Although I have to say, I do – Marcella whipped me into shape on that one. As she so witheringly puts it:”…for the sake of practicality, alternatives are given for homemade meat broth, the hope here is that you ignore them, relying instead on the supply of good frozen broth you try always to have on hand”. Ouch. We can discuss broth later, I love to make chicken stock and it’s not a huge deal.

Bean and Pasta Soup, a recipe from Alice Waters in her book The Art of Simple Food, is easy, it makes your house smell good and it’s not asking too much to get a kid to try some. I like this recipe because, as I said, you don’t have to have any stock on hand and with her excellent exhortations on when and how to salt and taste, you can really mess around with it. Just follow the directions the first few times and then you can add other things, like kale or green beans or butternut squash or potatoes!

The original recipe calls for fresh shelling beans and the first few times I went out of my way to get some. They were delicious but dragging my kids down to Pike Place Market at what was either the very beginning or the tail end of the cranberry bean season (the classic bean to use for this soup) for limp scraggly looking specimens was a big pain and I don’t have time to consider if it’s bean season or not. Dried beans are very nice. Ms. Water’s suggested variation is to use a cup of dried beans and I always have a lot of cannellini in the cupboard anyway. You could use dried cranberry though – they’re easy to find in the bulk section.

Bean and Pasta Soup, 4-6 servings

  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 1/3 cup finely diced red onion ( I use about 1/3 of a red onion – the behemoth type typical of grocery stores – use a whole one if you have a coddled, lovely, farmer’s market onion)
  • 1/4 cup finely diced carrot (I use about 2/3 of a medium carrot)
  • 1/4 cup finely diced celery (I use 2 stalks)
  • a pinch of dried chile flakes
  • 2 tsp coarsely chopped fresh sage. (get a plant and grow this somewhere in your yard, parking strip, whatever, you’ll make good use of it)

Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. (I use a 7+ quart Le Creuset which is about right)

Add the vegetables, chiles and sage. Cook until soft, stirring now and then. Cook for 12 minutes. Set a timer. I do.

Now add:

  • 4 peeled and roughly chopped garlic cloves
  • Sea Salt

Cook for 2-3 minutes

Now TASTE. This is important. This is the thing I learned from Alice Waters. And it seems so simple and obvious now. Starting with a 1/2 teaspoon of salt – sea salt – add it and stir. Take a small spoon and taste the soffrito (which is what you call onions, carrot, celery etc). Is it good? Does it taste like you want to eat more of it? If not, add another 1/2 teaspoon. Maybe take it off the heat while you think about it so you don’t burn your carefully softened vegetables. As you make more soup, you won’t have to do this as often. But the first two or three times, taste very carefully every time before you add the next layer of flavor.

Add

  • (1) 12 ounce can of whole tomatoes, drained of their liquid and chopped (add the liquid that comes out of the chopped tomatoes though)

Cook for 5 more minutes. Then add your beans.

  • 1 cup cannellini beans soaked and cooked with a few crushed garlic cloves, peppercorns and a bay leaf, broth reserved
  • Sea Salt

I use a slotted spoon to scoop the beans out of the pot and then ladle their broth into the soup pot until everything is covered up by about a 1/2 inch. Simmer over low heat, stirring sometimes. 15 minutes more or less. The soup is complete now except for the pasta. You could stop here and serve it tomorrow. But if you are going to do that, don’t add the pasta until just before you eat.

Cook 1/4 pound of tiny pasta, ditalini, orzo – that’s what I like – in salted water. When they are done, drain and add to the HOT soup. (If you are reheating don’t add pasta until the soup is good and hot – pasta will soak up all the nice broth and you will have a large bowl of stodge)

If you have a large wide soup plate, now would be the time to use it.

Garnish with:

  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Parmesan cheese, freshly grated.

I like the California olive oil in the tall skinny green bottle from Trader Joe’s for this. It’s got a taste like artichokes and a nice peppery finish.

* I really hope you won’t resort to canned beans for this recipe – did you know they are cooked right in the can!?!?! At least that’s what I heard. There’s nothing wrong with canned beans per se. It’s just that you won’t get any of the good bean broth that way – only that sticky nasty stuff.

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