It's Like That

I found the best little shop the other day. I was wandering through Old Orchard mall (great outdoor mall here in Skokie, except when it's cold which is about 9 months of the year) and noticed a little store called Oil & Vinegar. As you can imagine, I love these culinary shops. Not because I buy a lot of food or cookware, but because they are INSPIRATIONAL. I see a muffin mix so I make homemade muffins. I see a bottle of fancy mustard and decide to make a tilapia filet with mustard sauce. I see a waffle maker and crave waffles but settle for pancakes. It's like that.
So I walked into Oil & Vinegar and was in heaven. On my right was a tasting table with tiny cubes of bread speared with toothpicks arranged on a plate and surrounded by plastic cups filled with vinegar. Another tasting table held cups of oil. Yet another had tastings of salad dressing. The back corner of the store had large vessels holding the oils and vinegars, and empty glass decanters were available for purchase and filling. Oil and vinegar on tap! The Turkish store manager had endless suggestions for every type of oil in his store - use the lemon oil on fish, rosemary infused oil for lamb, or walnut oil in a salad dressing. I wanted to be invited over for dinner. The store had other fun foods too, like specialty chocolate, flavored pasta (squid ink pasta anyone?), fig spreads, honey, spices mixes and rubs, olives, pickles and tapenades. All these foods that make me think of decadence, luxury, and concentrated flavor that satisfies on first taste and doesn't require stuffing myself.
But I wanted to stuff my shopping bag. I restrained myself and picked a only a single delicious white truffle balsamic vinegar to bottle and take home. That night I sprinkled it over a salad of mixed greens, granny smith apples, and goat cheese, letting the cheese soak up a good amount of vinegar. The white truffle adds depth to the balsamic vinegar and would also be delicious as part of a pan sauce for meat.
But if you're going to buy a good balsamic vinegar, there is one thing you must do with it - make dessert. Get some good strawberries or blackberries. You can soak them in the vinegar raw, or cook them down a bit and add the vinegar in to make a compote. Then go into your freezer and find that ice cream you've stashed. I know you have some in there. You don't? That's even better, because then you can get out the ice cream maker and make some almond ice cream in no time. Take a basic vanilla ice cream recipe which requires no cooking, and add in the same amount of almond extract as there is vanilla extract before pouring it in the ice cream maker. When the ice cream is almost frozen, add some chopped toasted almonds. Now serve up a scoop of the almond ice cream with a spoonful of your balsamic vinegar fruit mixture. Drizzle some extra balsamic over the ice cream, and if you're wondering now whether vinegar is really meant to be with ice cream, just put your mind at ease and try a spoonful. And then stock up on vinegar.

Brunch

I rather like these strawberry cinnamon muffins I made last week. They smell fantastic and are the perfect addition to a brunch menu, alongside some deviled eggs, a salad of mixed greens and cold bay shrimp with a lemony vinaigrette, and a leek and onion quiche.


Brunch is probably my favorite meal of the day. I say probably because if you ask me the question while I'm devouring creamy broccoli mascarpone soup, then soup would be my favorite meal. And if I happen to be savoring a spoonful of almond ice cream then dessert would be my favorite meal. And I have a weakness for appetizers, canapés, and foods that are cute.

But when no immediate food is set before me and I can state an unbiased opinion, brunch is always my favorite meal of the day. It's my favorite meal to go out for, it's my favorite meal to cook, and it's my favorite time of day to eat. Mid-morning my appetite is at its peak.

My friend Huzefa once asked what exactly defined brunch. Brunch doesn't exist in India where he grew up, and he wanted to know why we had to go out for brunch instead of lunch. Technically brunch is defined as a meal that replaces both breakfast and lunch. Eating anything before it qualifies your second meal of the day as lunch, not brunch. But brunch connotes so much more than that. It is hot tea and croissants and smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels and fruit. It is pancakes and waffles thick with syrup and whipped butter. It is wearing wool sweaters in January and waiting 45 minutes for a table at a favorite restaurant that never has enough tables but has wild rice porridge on the menu. It is sitting outside on a summer day eating an organic egg omelet and free range chicken sausage. But most of all, it is making something at home as simple as challah french toast.


Brunch is scents too, the smell of coffee, of cinnamon rolls, of sizzling bacon, of banana bread. It's good in the rainy season, it's good on a snowy Christmas morning, it's good on a hot summer day when all you can eat is a cold plate of deli meat and cheese and fresh berries. Have you noticed that just about anything qualifies as brunch food? No wonder Huzefa was confused - brunch couldn't be defined as a particular food so much as a particular feeling. It evokes coziness and satisfaction.

Maybe I love brunch because it means it's the weekend and I can take things easy, sleeping in a little and then eating good food. What could be better than that?

Strawberry Cinnamon Muffins

*Don't be afraid to add plenty of strawberry jam because it won't seem like enough after they're baked.

Day In Day Out

I have to confess something. I have a hummus habit. It started years ago at Pita Inn, the best place for cheap Middle Eastern food like kabobs, rice pilaf, and falafel. There you can get a hummus plate, the creamy chick pea and tahini blend spread thick as mayonnaise on the plate with a puddle of olive oil in the middle, a garnish of parsely and specks of cayenne pepper sprinkled over it all. I didn't think about it much those days, when I was more interested in the flavorful kabobs of ground lamb or the strips of gyro meat doused in tzatziki sauce. I never expected hummus to be the kind of food one could eat day in and day out.

Fast forward to 2005. I had just started my job at Northwest Airlines in the international route planning group. My group was small, close, and we talked about the food we like all the time. My director had a heart attack a few years earlier and followed a strict diet, but hummus was allowed and was one of his favorite foods. Being the savvy employee that I was, I whipped up a batch one day and brought it in.

That was it. I was the hummus queen. At most offices people bring in cookies, brownies, or other baked goods. I brought in hummus. If in fact I dared to bring in something less healthy, my director chastised me and asked me when I was making hummus again. Even when I was invited over to his place for a cocktail party, I was instructed to bring the hummus. My director was the kind of person who had a very strong opinion about right and wrong and my hummus was all that was right with the world. It was healthy and flavorful, filling but light, and had the perfect balance of garlic and lemon. It could be a snack or a meal, eaten with carrot sticks or crackers or bread.

A bacon cheeseburger, on the other hand, was all that was wrong with the world.

I still think hummus is one of the easiest things to make myself, but others have had problems when using my recipe. I swear it's not a recipe that magically changes ingredients and quantities for the recipient à la Harry Potter, so that only the original owner can make it well (but wouldn't that be cool?). Hummus is one of those amazing foods that is made up of things that don't taste particularly good by themselves. Chick peas aren't bad, though a bit dry and bland. Raw garlic is pungent, lemon juice is not a popular beverage. And if you've never tasted tahini, don't bother. It's a gluey, bitter sesame seed paste. I put all the ingredients into a food processor, adding salt and a dash of cayenne. Olive oil is added in a stream until the chunky mixture turns soft as whipped butter. Then it's packed in a tupperware to take to work, sliding sloppily up the side, crackers stashed in a zip lock bag. My presentation of the hummus is a bit different from Pita Inn's. But it's just as good.

Hummus

2 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 15 ounce can chick peas
1/3 cup tahini
1/8 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup water

Mash garlic with salt. Add to food processor, add remaining ingredients through lemon juice. Pulse to blend, then add olive oil in a stream with the processor running. Add a little water at a time until thinned to a consistency you like.

Choosing Between Your Children

When I handed around the shortcake, I got the inevitable question.
"What's in this?"
"Butter, sugar, flour-"
"Ok, you had me at butter and sugar!"

It's really no secret by now that I love butter and sugar too. I greatly prefer cookies to cakes because the butter and sugar to flour ratio is higher. A brownie sitting next to a cupcake and I go for the brownie every time. But don't make me choose between cookies and ice cream. It's like choosing between your children, it's simply impossible.

So today I'm going to talk about both my favorite cookie recipe and one of my favorite ice cream recipes. Desserts are back on the table, and in case you think I'm not eating my vegetables I'll have you know I had a hearty serving of brussel sprouts yesterday. Braised in cream of course. (It's either that or roasted with bacon and I believe the cream has more redeeming qualities.) But I digress.

I'll start with my favorite cookie recipe because at one time it had me bemused and befuddled. My roommates and I had two recipes with the same name: Chocolate Espresso Cookies. One was in Bon Appetit and one was in Gourmet. One recipe was sublime and the other was...like slime. Well it didn't taste bad but it didn't produce a nice cookie, it just made a mess on the baking sheet. The problem was that my roommates and I had made them both and didn't know which had given us the amazing cookie and which has given us the mess.
Only one thing to do: make more cookies.

The correct recipe (from Gourmet) turns out these beautiful cookies - soft, chocolaty, only a hint of espresso for those of us who don't like it but enough to enhance the chocolate flavor, and a shiny, crackly top. No one can eat just one. That's because the recipe starts by having you melt a lot of chocolate with a lot of butter. After you've mixed that with your eggs, sugar, and espresso, you just add a bit of flour, salt, and baking powder and load it up with more chocolate in the form of chips. This is one of those never fail recipes. Everyone loves it. You just can't go wrong with that much butter and chocolate.

The only possible thing that could make a cookie like this better is to top it with ice cream.

A girl with an ice cream maker is not to be ignored. She will tease you and tempt you with creamy, unusual delicious flavors like blueberry cheesecake, brown sugar, or lemon custard. There will be forays into peanut butter, pumpkin, peaches and cream, caramel, and vanilla bean. Ultimately she will take you down with a peppermint ice cream the color of cotton candy eaten before a carnival ride or the Pepto Bismol taken immediately after. There's just something about a pink ice cream that begs to be eaten in abundance, leaving sticky pink smears around your lips and drips on your shirt.

I got the peppermint ice cream recipe from my friend Ann who got it from her sister-in-law. It's also good with brownies - really anything chewy and chocolately will do. Maybe not a tootsie roll though...

As for the shortbread recipe that won accolades for its butter and sugar proportions, I'm still working out whether it's the best I can find. I have a feeling my efforts will be appreciated.

Chocolate Espresso Cookies (Gourmet)
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3 large eggs
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons finely ground dark-roast coffee beans, such as Italian-roast
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease 2 large heavy baking sheets.

In a double boiler or a metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water melt unsweetened chocolate, 1 cup chocolate chips, and butter, stirring until smooth, and remove top of double boiler or bowl from heat. In a bowl with an electric mixer beat eggs, sugar, and ground coffee on high speed until very thick and pale and mixture forms a ribbon when beaters are lifted, about 3 minutes, and beat in chocolate mixture. Into mixture sift in flour, baking powder, and salt and stir until just combined. Stir in remaining chocolate chips.

Drop batter by heaping tablespoons about 2 inches apart onto baking sheets and bake in batched in middle of oven 8 to 10 minutes, or until puffed and cracked on top. Cool cookies in baking sheets 1 minute and transfer to racks to cool completely.

Peppermint Ice Cream
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp peppermint extract
3/4 cup crushed hard peppermint candies
Red food coloring optional

Whisk the milk and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Stir in cream, vanilla and peppermint extract. Thicken in ice cream maker for 25-30 min, then add crushed peppermint in final 5 minutes of mixing. Freeze for several hours before serving.

Sandwich Evolution

My dad made my lunch for me every day for twelve years of school. He did a lot of other things for me too, far too numerous to list, but the lunch making was persistent. Here is what was in my lunch: a ham sandwich with iceberg lettuce or peanut butter and jelly on Thursdays (the day we didn't eat meat), a baggie of chips, some kind of fruit, pineapple juice, and a Nutty Bar. The ham was always Polish ham from the deli, picked up on Saturday mornings, wrapped in waxy paper and stuffed in a plastic bag. Later, there may have been some honey roasted or smoked ham, but I always preferred that somewhat watery, bland Polish ham with mayo gluing the lettuce in place, the sandwich cut diagonally across into triangles.
I rarely take sandwiches for lunch now. I usually have interesting dinner leftovers I'd rather eat, I never buy loaves of bread because I can't finish them fast enough, and frankly twelve years of the same lunch was enough. But if I do decide to take a sandwich for lunch it is (surprise surprise) far more complex than those ham sandwiches I grew up with. That's because sandwiches have evolved. They aren't just ham and cheese or PB&J. They have veggies or even fruit, they come in wraps (though I'm opposed to the use of tortillas for cold foods), they are toasted or grilled into paninis. And the bread is not just Wonder white bread or soft wheat. Whole grain, French baguette, sourdough, ciabatta, or specialty bread with herbs or sundried tomatoes is common.
I had a memorable sandwich in Sonoma a couple of years ago, and recreated it for lunch one day. The key ingredient was a black mission fig jam that was layered with salami, brie, and sliced pears, and I bought the jam then and there and tried to sneak it onto the airplane without checking my bag. All for the love of a sandwich.
Another favorite sandwich is portabella and goat cheese, with a crusty bread soaking up the juices from thick sliced portabellas sauteed in garlic and olive oil and salt and pepper. Or pesto with rounds of fresh buffalo mozarella and tomatoes on asiago cheese bread. Grilled chicken with avocado and sprouts. Steak and caramelized onions. Hot turkey with cranberry jam. Suddenly a sandwich sounds perfect for dinner and for lunch leftovers.
So that's what I'm having for lunch tomorrow - a sandwich. It's a sandwich inspired by a pasta salad I made recently with chunks of monterey jack cheese, salami, and pepperoncini. Use your favorite kind of bread - I like those Take 'n Bake baguettes which allow me to freeze them until I need them or even cut them and bake only half the baguette at a time. Sprinkle a little olive oil on the bread. Feel free to use some of the good stuff. Sprinkle some oregano on there too. Layer on slices of thin cut Genoa salami, pepper jack cheese, and pickled pepperoncini or any other pickled peppers (there are quite a few varieties in the pickle aisle). Wrap it up, tuck it into a lunch bag with some fruit, and oh, go ahead and sneak some cookies in there too. Just like when you were a kid.