Top 10 Best Things I Made in 2010

Leaving a year behind can mean a whole new start, new resolutions, shaking off the old bad habits and acquiring new ones (bad and good!). Not so with food. When a good recipe enters my repertoire, it bears repeating and improving.

It wouldn't be New Year's Eve without a top ten list, and like other food bloggers I've assembled my Top 10 Best Things I Made in 2010. Some of these I made for the first time in 2010, some are old favorites that were presented to other people for the first time in 2010. Some I've written about here and some I just never got around to writing about or never had pictures for. In any case, they are memorable and sure to be repeated in 2011 and beyond.

10. Silken Comfort Tofu

I thought about writing about this tofu dish many times. It is warm, spicy, sweet and nutty. It is truly a representation of its name of silken comfort. It's not the tasteless tofu that many people fear. It is a treat, and since someone else wrote about it before me, I'll just refer you to that blog.

http://www.food52.com/blog/420_silken_comfort_tofu

9. Raspberry Ribbon Shortbread
A simple shortbread with raspberry jam baked onto it is the perfect Christmas cookie. (See recipe below)

8. Roasted Potatoes from Cook's Illustrated


The trick, my friend, is to parboil the potatoes first, then toss them with olive oil, salt, and pepper, before roasting them. This gives them a crisp exterior, creamy interior, and great flavor and color.

7. Haitian Chicken Puffs

These make a great appetizer. They are spicy and savory and anything with puff pastry is bound to be a success.

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001981753

6. Miso Butter

I just made this a few weeks ago and waxed effusively about it. I can't imagine making steak without miso butter now.

http://cook-it-yourself.blogspot.com/2010/12/warmth.html

5. Winter Cabbage Salad



I've got to throw a salad in here, and this is the best one of the year, edging out a nice Thanksgiving spinach and pear salad, a mushroom, fennel and parmigiano-reggiano layered salad, a frisee, ham and egg salad with dijon dressing, and any kind of salad with avocados.

http://cook-it-yourself.blogspot.com/2010/02/getting-bad-rap.html

4. New York Style Crumb Cake

You will look for excuses to make this crumb cake. Suddenly you'll be throwing tea parties and showers, even though you're a celebrated hermit. You'll volunteer to bring in the cake for the office potluck and the 4th of July picnic. You'll invite yourself to your neighbor's annual summer luau and claim the cake is a Hawaiian staple. It's that good.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/New-York-Style-Crumb-Cake-358217

3. Chicken and Dumplings

This is the real thing. Boiling a whole chicken to make your own stock, gravy, and topping it off with dumplings is comforting and makes your feel a little like Martha Stewart or a settler of the old west or something.

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001134065

2. Bacon Shrimp and Grits


I wrote about how decadent this recipe was, but it's also great because once you've made it you don't really need the recipe anymore. What could be easier than chopped onions and garlic, butter and olive oil, grits, bacon, and shrimp cooked in bacon fat?

http://cook-it-yourself.blogspot.com/2010/05/decadent.html

1. Double Chocolate Mocha Brownies


Dense and chocolaty, they are my favorite kind of brownie. There was a time when I never made brownies from scratch. They always came from a box and they were perfectly acceptable. But let me remind you that desserts are a lot of calories and perfectly acceptable is not good enough. They need to be AMAZING. And these are.

http://cook-it-yourself.blogspot.com/2010/02/kind-of-brownie-i-like.html

Here's wishing for a 2011 with as many great new finds and rediscovering old favorites, in food, friends, and life. Cheers!

Raspberry Ribbon Shortbread
Yield: 4 dozen bars

Dough:

½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened

½ cup vegetable shortening

½ cup powdered sugar

1 large egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 ¼ cups all purpose flour

¼ tsp salt

½ cup seedless raspberry jam for filling (stir until smooth in a small bowl)

Beat butter, shortening, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla in mixer bowl at medium speed until light and fluffy. With mixer on low speed, add salt and flour. Beat just until blended. Divide dough into four equal parts and flatten each slightly into a disk. Wrap each in plastic and refrigerate for a least 2 hours until firm or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, shape each disk of dough into a 12 inch long “rope” then flatten to 5/8 inch thick and about 2 inches wide. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches or so apart. Using the handle of a wooden spoon, press a ¼ inch deep groove along the center of each rope.

Bake 12 minutes. Remove from oven and gently press grooves down again using spoon handle. Fill each groove carefully with jam. Return to oven and bake 8-10 minutes more until firm and light golden brown at edges. Remove pan from oven.

Let cool 10 minutes on pan, then gently cut into ¾ - 1 inch wide slices. Transfer to wire racks and cool completely.

Homey

I'm spending this last week of the year being homey. Which is not to be confused with being homely.
Homey: comfortably informal and inviting; cozy; homelike
Homely: lacking in physical attractiveness; not beautiful; unattractive; not having elegance, refinement or cultivation.

What I mean to say is, I'm spending some time at home at this week, making my place warm and cozy, comfortable and inviting, and part of doing that is cooking up some yummy food. Yummy is kind of a homey word itself. When you read a restaurant review, you see words like "delicious" and "tantalizing" and "excellent". But rarely do you see "yummy". And yet, as a home chef, I cannot think of a better word to describe the taste of cookies, cupcakes, stews, soups, bread puddings, and roasts that come from my homey kitchen.

Homey is like homely in that it is not aspiring to be elegant, refined, or cultivated. It is only aspiring to be yummy. It makes you feel good, and that is often just enough.

Happy New Year and enjoy this homey recipe for Pork and Wild Rice Soup. I ended up overcooking it a bit, and it turned into less of a soup and more of a pork and wild rice dish but the flavors are solid, and extremely yummy.



Pork and Wild Rice Soup (Cooking Light)

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 pound pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/3 cup brown and wild rice blend
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 serrano chiles, seeded and minced
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
• 1 (32-ounce) carton fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons crumbled queso fresco
• 1 sliced peeled avocado
• 24 baked tortilla chips

Heat 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown pork on all sides. Remove from pan. Heat remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in pan, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Add rice, onion, garlic, and chiles; sauté 3 minutes or until onion is tender. Add pork, 1 cup water, oregano, broth, and beans; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until rice is tender. Stir in cilantro, juice, salt, and pepper; simmer 2 minutes. Top each serving with cheese, avocado, and chips.

Warmth

December snuck up on me. I feel like I'm not quite over summer. Summer was good to me this year. It seduced me with warm winds and sunshine. It heated me from within. I think I walked around with a little summer glow for weeks after the last 80 degree day, pretending it was just gone for a day or two instead of months.

But there's no denying when December rolls around, the halls are decked and the first snowstorm descends, that summer is really gone. So I've been looking for a recipe that can heat me from within. There are soups and curries and braised meats that do the job nicely of course. But it's not just the heat of a spicy curry that I want. That hits your tongue and burns and titillates but doesn't last. It's a flirtation. I'm looking for a deeper warmth. Like being wrapped in a fleecy robe, the flavor permeates every pore.

What I found last week was unusual and amazing and completely unexpected. It was a steak topped with miso butter, and while you might think that sounds weird or interesting but not particularly warm, let me emphasize the butter part of miso butter. Because butter is warming. Maybe because it adds layers of fat to your body - I won't deny that possibility! But melt some butter over a good steak and it adds such a depth of flavor, especially when mixed with some salty miso, soy sauce, rice vinegar and ginger, that you are warmed from your tongue to your toes.

This recipe from Bon Appetit is for a Coriander Crusted Steak with Miso Butter, but I say you make that miso butter and put it on anything in the vicinity. A nice lean steak is best, otherwise it's too fatty to take the additional fatty topping. A note on buying miso paste - I had to buy a huge bag once as that was the only size I could find but it seems to last forever in the fridge. I've used it for salad dressings quite a bit, and now I'll be using it for miso butter as much as possible.



Miso Butter (Bon Appetit)
Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tablespoon red miso paste
1 tabespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons sake

Mix all ingredients through soy sauce. Cook the steak in a skillet and reserve your skillet. Add miso butter and sake, and boil until slightly thickened and reduced to 1 /4 cup, whisking often, about 1 minute. Spoon over steak.

Not Your Traditional Thanksgiving

When I was a little girl, my desire was for my family to celebrate, as all American families did, the traditional holiday of Thanksgiving. I didn't know my family wasn't American, not really. We didn't have loads of relatives to celebrate with, we ate with our hands and by the way, we didn't eat meat on Thursdays.

Last night my dad told me how I really wanted a turkey for Thanksgiving when I was old enough to know what you were supposed to eat. And yet there were only three of us to feed on this holiday, when we didn't have other families to join us and even if we did, they were other Indian families with no interest in turkey or mashed potatoes that weren't burnt yellow with turmeric. So he brought home a chicken. Was I fooled, I asked. Of course I was! My little unsophisticated palate didn't know any better.

Over the years, our Thanksgiving celebrations evolved. Some years we did actually have turkey (I checked the label), one year there was ham. Eventually we switched to celebrating on Friday at a friend's place so we could have the meatiest of meals, and Thanksgiving Thursday became either a non-event or a time for me to join other friends for a meal.

The last three or four years Thanksgiving has evolved again into a vegetarian feast. Last night, for example, we had butternut squash soup with chopped apples, fettucine alfredo, spinach and pear salad, sweet potato biscuits with honey butter, brussel sprouts, fruit and ice cream. I hardly missed the turkey.

Thanksgiving is actually a holiday made for immigrants, and I love the idea of making it fit my family's immigrant needs. And I'm all for two delicious meals instead of one!

Here's the sweet potato biscuits I made yesterday, which could go with any traditional or untraditional meal. Appropriately, they are from an "American" cookbook, but then what is American other than a blend of a myriad of cultures?



Sweet Potato Biscuits (from Bobby Flay Cooks American)
Makes 12

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter cut into pieces
7/8 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup mashed cooked sweet potato (about 1)
1 tablespoon honey

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or use a nonstick baking mat. Sift the dry ingredients together into a large bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles rolled oats.

Make a well in the center of the mixture and add the buttermilk, sweet potatoes and honey. Stir vigorously until the dough forms a ball. Knead lightly for about 30 seconds, until the dough just begins to look smooth.

On a floured surface, pat the dough out 3/4-inch thick into a 7 by 8 inch rectangle. Either cut into 2 inch rounds with a biscuit cutter or slice into 12 squares (which eliminates the need to reroll all scraps into another biscuit). Transfer to the prepared pan and bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned.

Serve with honey butter: Mix four tablespoons of softened butter with two tablespoons of honey, or more to taste.

Potstuck

About ten years ago, my roommates and I were involved in a cooking extravaganza. Every dinner we made, every party we threw, was an elaborate array of dishes, around which we arranged to invite and impress our nine friends. Let's be honest, the parties were for us, not for them.

At random moments, I'll remember something ridiculous we cooked. Ridiculous because it was incredibly complex for a party full of 22 year olds who would be happy with a keg and a bag of Ruffles. Deep fried ravioli, grilled pineapple soaked in rum, a fruit salad in a watermelon half, marbled cheesecake squares (yes that does mean making two types of cheesecake batter), and who could forget our "authentic" Chinese New Year meal?

Using a fabulous cookbook called the China Moon Cookbook which taught us how to make our own hot chili oil, we slaved over egg rolls and hot and sour soup. But the best thing about learning to make Chinese food was finding out how easy it was to make our own potstickers.


Potstickers or dumplings or gyoza - whatever you want to call them - are the most pleasing little packaged food. With a lovely, chewy wontonny wrapper and a gingery garlic filling, a potsticker is hardly any more trouble than mixing up a batch of meatballs. Pork is a popular filling, but I'm a fan of ground chicken too. The best part of potstickers is how easy it is to cook them, but you have to do it the right way or they will be potstuck.

Lemongrass Chicken Potstickers (Food and Wine)

Ingredients
1 lb ground chicken
1 cup finely shredded napa cabbage
1/4 chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons finely grated lemongrass
2 tablespoons snipped chives
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 minced garlic clove
1 beaten egg
1 teaspoon kosher salt
wonton wrappers
peanut oil

Mix all ingredients, kneading into the ground chicken. Fill a small bowl with water. Wet your finger and rub it around the edges of the wonton wrapper. Place a tablespoon of filling in the center of the wrapper. Lift the sides and press together. I keep it simple by making triangles but you can also crimp the edges or something fancier. It can take some time to fill all the wontons, but just plop yourself in front of the tv while you do it.

When your potstickers are ready, heat two tablespoons of peanut oil in a frying pan on medium-high heat. Fill the pan with potstickers with their pleated edges up and cook until the bottoms are lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Add 1/4 cup of water and cover, reducing heat to medium. Finish the potstickers by steaming them in the pan for five minutes until filling is cooked through and water has evaporated. Uncover and brown the bottoms another 1 minute. Transfer to plate and repeat with any remaining potstickers.

You can also freeze extra potstickers. Placed them on a sheet of parchment on a baking sheet that fits in the freezer. Freeze separately, then put in a zip lock bag and store in the freezer for up to 1 month. Cook the same way from frozen.

Meeting a New Friend

Every day I have the choice to try a new recipe or make something I know is going to be good, that I've perfected, and that leaves me satiated. This is a surprisingly difficult choice for me. I like everything I eat to be a good, valuable consumption of calories. Otherwise I'm just crabby.

But I have a definite preference towards variety. I get three cooking magazines, have around twenty cookbooks, and search the internet constantly for recipes. But it's only worth it if I occasionally find a recipe that is worth making over and over again.

Kind of a conundrum isn't it?

Because there are recipes full of high hopes and disappointments. There are recipes that are so much work that I'll never bother with them again. There are recipes that are good but forgettable. And there are recipes that are one ingredient away from being something I already have a great recipe for. After all, how could those cooking magazines really print so many brand new recipes every month?

When I do find something new that is good, it's like meeting a new friend. You thought you had all the friends you needed in your life, and then you meet someone else who makes you laugh really hard and just gets you. One of my best friends I've known all my life, another I met barely three years ago. It's like that with best recipes too.

So here's my latest find. I just made it last night, and it has two components that taste pretty good by themselves but together they are outstanding. They are a pop of flavor in your mouth, a wake up call that reminds how many good things and people there are in life that are yet to be discovered.

Wild Mushroom Cakes with Avocado Pesto (modified from Bon Appetit)
4 servings

These cakes make a nice light appetizer, though I ate six little ones as my entire meal.

Mushroom Cakes
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 8-ounce packages sliced button mushrooms
2 large portabello mushrooms, gills scraped out and sliced
8 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 large eggs, beaten to blend
2 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs

Avocado Pesto
2 large avocados coarsely mashed
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil

Make pesto: Add avocado, Parmesan, cilantro, and lime juice to a food processor. Process to blend. With machine running, gradually add 1/4 cup oil through feed tube. Transfer to bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper.




Melt butter with oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add all mushrooms and saute until browned and edges begin to crisp, stirring often, about 14 minutes. Add garlic and stir 1 minute. Transfer mixture to processor and allow to cool five minutes. Add eggs, Parmesan, herbs, salt, and pepper to processor. Using on/off turns, process until mushrooms are coarsely chopped. Transfer to large bowl. Mix in 1/2 cup panko.




Divide mushroom mixture into 8 equal portions. Form each into a 3/4 inch thick cake. Spread additional panko out on plate. Coat cakes with panko. Melt butter with 2 tablespoons oil in large skillet over medium heat. Working in 2 batches, add mushroom cakes. Cook until browned and cooked through, about 5 minutes per side.

Serve mushroom cakes with avocado pesto.

Something to Do With Nutella

It does not seem right to eat cookies for breakfast. Even if they are salted Nutella peanut butter cookies. Even if they are thin, chewy, sweet with a hint of salt, perfect with a cup of tea or coffee on a brisk fall morning.

But then again, it's Nutella. And if you don't know what Nutella is by now, get yourself to a supermarket, charge down the peanut butter aisle and scoop up several of those little European pots of chocolate hazelnut spread. You have some studying to do.

I've been looking for something to do with Nutella other than eat it out of the jar with a large spoon. Typically I will make some crepes, spread them with Nutella and roll them up for dessert. A chopped banana is good in there too, but don't try to pretend it's healthy at all. The crepe just becomes a sort of edible vessel to transfer Nutella to your mouth.

But I'm not always in the mood for making crepes, primarily because I eat them far faster than I can make them. So recently after I spotted a recipe for Nutella cupcakes, I started searching for other Nutella desserts. That's when I came across this super easy cookie recipe. Very few ingredients, nicely balanced in texture and flavor. So don't tell me it's wrong to eat cookies for breakfast. What's wrong is not making Nutella a regular part of your breakfast, in some form or another.


Salted Nutella Peanut Butter Cookies
Yield: 2 dozen

Ingredients:

¾ cups Nutella

¼ cups smooth peanut butter

¾ cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 egg, lightly beaten

¼ teaspoons kosher salt plus extra for sprinkling

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1/4 cup flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all the ingredients together until just combined.

Roll the dough into ½ inch thick balls (you can vary the size). Place balls one inch apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Flatten slightly, then sprinkle each cookie with kosher salt.

Bake 8 minutes. Let cool on the parchment for one minute and then transfer to a wire rack.

Pumpkin Bread

I was frantic. I couldn't find my favorite pumpkin bread recipe and I had promised my knitting group I would be making seasonal treats. It's finally October, which is the season of trench coats, knee high boots, and pumpkin recipes.

About ten years ago, I procured a pumpkin bread recipe from a co-worker. It was made with brown sugar, cinnamon, and chocolate chips. It was almost cake like in consistency. It was a favorite recipe that I turned to every fall. It made two loaves so I doled out pumpkin bread to all my friends and co-workers. I didn't think anyone could beat that pumpkin bread.

Then about three years ago, when I worked at a different job in a different city and state, I ran across another pumpkin bread recipe at work. It only took moments with this new bread for me to abandon my old recipe and commit myself to the new one. Unlike its rival, this pumpkin bread was made with white sugar, four different spices, and not an ounce of chocolate. But it was delicious.

So the following year, I held a bake off. A pumpkin bread head-to-head. I insisted that my co-workers try both breads and vote. And despite the lure of chocolate in the first bread, only one person voted for it. Everyone else preferred the second, spiced up version.

The recipe is on a folded piece of paper. It is a photocopy of a photocopy from some unknown cookbook. It is oddly named "Lydia's Pumpkin Bread" and has another woman's name (not Lydia) at the bottom. The instructions are vague and brief, and I always leave out the raisins and nuts. It turns out wonderful every time.



So that's why last night and again this morning I frantically searched through my recipe clippings until I finally found it. There was no alternative and no electronic version. And that's why I had to record it here, so I never have to frantically search for it again.


Lydia's Pumpkin Bread
Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin (about 1/2 can)
1 3/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1/3 cup water
raisin or nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the first four ingredients in order in a large bowl. Sift remaining dry ingredients (flour through spices) in a separate bowl. Add flour mixture slowly to wet ingredients, alternating with water, and mixing after each addition. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray. Pour batter into loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Test with knife in center of loaf. If knife comes out dry, bread is done.

Grill Master

This here is my little grill. I've had it for over ten years and it's beginning to show its age. For one thing, it's become bowlegged. But I'm fond of it anyway, and I've been grilling up a storm this summer. I'm something of a grill master.

I don't know why people assume that grilling is for men. I love grilling. I've always grilled with charcoal, and I love lighting up a match and watching the lighter fluid flame up. Then I'll watch the flames dance in the bowl of the grill, until they slowly die down into a white ashy coating on the charcoal. I love that smell, the anticipation of a good, hot grill.


You can't be a grill master until you've made ribs. They are succulent, salty and sweet all at once. They are sticky and saucy and spicy. They are that naughty best friend you had growing up, the one who was trouble, but too much fun to stay away from.

Ribs were made to be grilled, so all that fat crisps up and they take on the smokiness of the charcoal. Most recipes call for the ribs to be boiled first, but here I've adapted an oven baked recipe to be finished on the grill. Start off by rubbing the ribs with a fragrant spice rub. Pop them in the oven for 75 minutes while you make the sauce and get the grill ready. Spread the hot coals in a single layer so you can cook all the ribs evenly. Then baste the ribs with the sauce and throw them on the grill. Five minutes per side should do it. Look at that, you're a grill master!


Spicy Chipotle Ribs (Gourmet)

Spice rub ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chile powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 (2-lb) racks baby back ribs

Sauce ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion (from 1 large)
• 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups ketchup
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 6 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 chipotle pepper and 1 tablespoon adobo sauce
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3/4 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to to 350°F. Whisk together brown sugar, salt, and spices in a small bowl. Line a 17- by 12- by 1-inch heavy-duty baking pan with a double layer of foil, then oil foil. Pat ribs dry and arrange in baking pan. Rub ribs all over with spice mixture. Cover pan tightly with foil; bake 1 1/4 hours. Remove foil.

Make sauce while ribs bake:

Cook onion, garlic, and ginger in oil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 6 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes.

Purée sauce in 2 or 3 batches in a blender until smooth, or with a hand immersion blender (use caution when blending hot liquids).

Prepare grill. Remove ribs from oven and baste with sauce. Transfer to grill and grill for 5 - 6 minutes. Turn and baste again, grilling for another 5 - 6 minutes.

A Summer for Eating Outside

Every once in a while, just to make sure it's really summer, I eat a meal outside. When the air feels warm and non-air conditioned, and a breeze carries the scent of grilled meat, and I can sit on my balcony and stare down at the neighbors who camp on their porch all weekend as though we lived in the deep south - then I know it's summer.

This summer I've eaten lunch on my balcony every weekend. I've eaten rapidly melting mint chocolate chip ice cream while walking down the street, or frozen custard while sitting outside the frozen custard shop watching people at the walk up window with their dogs in tow. I've eaten outside but inside my parents' enclosed patio with the wind blowing through the screen but the bugs staying thankfully in the yard. I sat on a deck drinking beer and grilling hamburgers in Virginia on July 4th, and the next day I squatted on a blanket eating chicken salad and veggies and dip while listening to the North Shore concert band in Illinois.

It's been a summer for eating outside, where the food tastes so fresh, it's like it grew out of the ground just a few feet from where I sit.

Last night I sat outside again, at a picnic table eating fresh tomatoes. If you're going to eat anything outside, it should be a ripe, summery tomato. It should be bloody red, juicy, topping sandwiches or layered with fresh mozzarella or eaten like an apple, out of hand. Or best of all, toss it with some toasted Italian bread cubes, basil, olive oil, salt, and pepper for a tomato-bread salad. And eat it fast, before the bugs or the end of summer get you.


Panzanella (Italian Bread Salad) by Emeril

Ingredients

• 1/2 French bread loaf cut into 1" cubes
• Olive oil for frying
• Salt and pepper
• 3 tablespoons chiffonade of basil
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 4 Italian Roma tomatoes, cut into 1/2 " slices

Directions

For croutons: In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil. When smoking hot, add the bread cubes and fry until golden, about 3-4 minutes. Stir often to prevent from sticking. Remove from pan and drain on a paper-lined plate. Season with salt and pepper. Toss the remain ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

To assemble, toss the fried bread with the other ingredients and place on a platter. Can be made ahead of time, by keeping the bread separate until serving.

Time for Corn

I started eating this season's corn in June and by July I was corned out. Now it's August, and everywhere I look, I see corn recipes. Every cooking magazine is filled to the brim with variations on roasted corn and corn chowder and skillet fried corn and caramel corn. I've been completely disinterested.

Instead, I've focused on ice cream festivals and savory bread pudding and pizza with mozarella cream sauce and Italian sausage. I've focused on the green peppers and basil and oregano that overflowed a co-worker's garden and arrived clean and bright in my cube. I focused on firing up my lopsided little grill on my balcony and grilling chicken drumsticks and mushrooms and trout with lemon slices.

There hasn't been time for corn in this busy cooking life of mine.

But finally one of those devilish corn recipes caught my eye because it was disguised as something I love: pesto. And it had bacon in it.

Corn pesto is similar to basil pesto - it's blended with garlic, salt, pine nuts and Parmesan. A good glug of oil is added, and it's tossed with pasta. But the corn is cooked in bacon fat, and when blended it turns creamy like a carbonara. Add a little pasta cooking water and season with more salt, and you'll find it more satisfying than a cream sauce. People are always looking to eat light things in the summer but I'm not. Bring on the heavy, hearty food all year round!



Tagliatelle with Fresh Corn Pesto (from Bon Appetit)

• 4 bacon slices, cut lengthwise in half, then crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces
• 4 cups fresh corn kernels (cut from about 6 large ears)
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 1 1/4 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese plus additional for serving
• 1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 8 ounces tagliatelle or fettuccine
• 3/4 cup coarsely torn fresh basil leaves, divided

Cook bacon in large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp and brown, stirring often. Using slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon drippings from skillet. Add corn, garlic, 1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt, and 3/4 teaspoon pepper to drippings in skillet. Sauté over medium-high heat until corn is just tender but not brown, about 4 minutes. Transfer 1 1/2 cups corn kernels to small bowl and reserve. Scrape remaining corn mixture into processor. Add 1/2 cup Parmesan and pine nuts. With machine running, add olive oil through feed tube and blend until pesto is almost smooth. Set pesto aside.

Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain, reserving 1 1/2 cups pasta cooking liquid. Return pasta to pot. Add corn pesto, reserved corn kernels, and 1/2 cup basil leaves. Toss pasta mixture over medium heat until warmed through, adding reserved pasta cooking liquid by 1/4 cupfuls to thin to desired consistency, 2 to 3 minutes. Season pasta to taste with salt and pepper.

Transfer pasta to large shallow bowl. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup basil leaves and reserved bacon. Serve pasta, passing additional grated Parmesan alongside.

Let's Be Realistic

Let's be realistic. If a recipe calls for Mexican oregano and I've got a bag of plain old oregano bought in bulk, am I going to run out to the store? If a recipe calls for sweet Hungarian paprika and my bottle has no affiliation with an eastern European country, am I going to abandon ship? And are panko breadcrumbs really far superior to other breadcrumbs?

All this time I've been preaching about cooking things yourself. But cooking it yourself is not about cooking it Top Chef style with a million ingredients, most of which are packaged in large quantities but only required in 1/4 teaspoons. It's about being realistic about what you need and what you don't need, and knowing what tastes good enough to eat at home because this isn't a restaurant and you don't need to put parsley on the plate so why buy a bunch for a recipe that requires five leaves?

But enough of that tirade. Let's just take a Top Chef recipe and see what we can make of it. A couple weeks ago, the recipe for Sesame Lamb Meatballs won the elimination challenge on Top Chef and I was all about making it at home. I figured it had some lamb, some sesame paste, salt, pepper, olive oil. You know, the basics. Then I looked at the recipe and counted 17 ingredients, or 18 if you want to count the lemongrass skewers the meatballs are threaded on. There were two kinds of meat! There were two kinds of sesame seeds!

I nixed the ground beef right away. These were lamb meatballs, I was sold on lamb meatballs, and I wasn't going to buy ground beef just to use 4 ounces of it. Next I nixed the parsley because, as mentioned above, I have no use for leftover parsley and my fridge is getting tired of the mess it leaves. Next I addressed the roasted garlic oil. I'm not sure if one can buy roasted garlic oil. I'm certain that I could make roasted garlic oil, but did I really want to make it? So I resigned myself to just adding roasted garlic, and then at the last minute just added chopped garlic and nixed the roasting altogether.

Next on the list was sherry vinegar, which I never have around but see in recipes all the time. I decided I would buy sherry vinegar, but then I didn't see any at the grocery store and so I used my standby substitute, cider vinegar. It works just fine. Mexican oregano = oregano. Smoked paprika = paprika. And black and white sesame seeds would have to be just one or the other, whatever color I spotted at the supermarket first. But here's a hint - don't skip the tahini or the chile paste. Because these meatballs taste like sesame and chile, and everything else just adds deliciousness. Maybe I'm sacrificing a little bit of deliciousness, but I'm getting a lot of darn good meatballs either way.

The moral of the story is, make decisions about what's realistic and make the recipe work for you. You're eating it - not some judge. And it's okay if the meatballs end up being flat instead of round (ahem).




Top Chef Sesame Lamb Meatballs (from Bravotv.com - but edited)

Ingredients:

• 16 oz ground lamb
• 1/8 cup chopped fresh cilantro stems
• 1 Tbl chopped garlic
  
• 2 Tbl cider vinegar
• 1 Tbl sambal (chile paste)
  
• 2 Tbl Tahini paste
• 1/8 cup chopped shallots
• 3 Tbl bread crumbs
• ½ tsp oregano
• ½ tsp paprika
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• 1 whole egg
• 4 Tbl sesame seeds
• Salt & Sugar, to taste

1. Distribute all ingredients evenly.

2. Form patties and wrap around skewers.

3. Grill to desired doneness.

Things You Can Do With Kalamatas

The other day I was surprised to note that I was going through my kalamata olives at a rather rapid clip. They were turning up more often in recipes that appealed to me, and once you buy a bottle you are caught in a vicious cycle of using it up and then buying more because you are always a few olives short of the next recipe.

Of course, I would never say you were a few olives short of the next recipe.

It turns out that kalamata olives have many uses. Uses you would never suspect of a kalamata, much less a generic black olive. I'm not talking about an appearance on a pizza or a salad. Kalamatas frolic in those playgrounds every day. I'm talking about roasted potatoes. I'm talking about orange zest. I'm talking about hot dogs. I'm talking about buttermilk bread.

You have no idea what I'm talking about because if you've had a kalamata, it was probably in a Greek salad with some feta, a cucumber, and a hefty dose of red onions. That is a perfectly good place to eat a kalamata. But once you're comfortable there, and you agree that the savory little fellow could get out a little more, here's four things you can do with kalamatas that you never knew you could do.

1. Dirty potatoes

Potatoes are dirty when they come out of the ground, and it's only fitting to serve them up dirty once in a while. Make some olive tapenade (blend up kalamatas, olive oil, and lemon juice or buy a bottled version like Trader Joe's) and toss it with roasted potato wedges.

2. Spaghetti with Orange Zest, Basil and Kalamatas

This is an easy weeknight pasta. Saute some chopped garlic in enough olive oil to coat your spaghetti. When the garlic is browned, add chopped kalamata olives and orange zest from 1 orange. Toss the oil mixture with the cooked spaghetti and sprinkle with salt, pepper, fresh basil and grated parmesan cheese.

3. Muffeletta Hot Dogs

From last month's Bon Appetit, an intriguing recipe for hot dogs turns them into a version of a classic New Orleans sandwich, the muffeletta. Make some more olive tapenade but keep it roughly chopped. Top the hot dog with the tapenade and sliced pepperoncini, and/or roasted red peppers.

4 Kalamata Olive Bread (Cooking Light)

The buttermilk in this bread makes it taste buttery throughout, it smells fantastic from the oregano and of course you get to have more kalamata olives. What could be better for a savory bread?
Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• 9 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2 cups)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 large egg whites
• 1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
• Cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion to pan; sauté 3 minutes or until onion is tender. Set aside.

3. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine buttermilk, butter, and egg whites, stirring with a whisk. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Fold in onion, olives, and oregano.

4. Spread batter into an 8 x 4–inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Verging on Blue Soup

I was having a blue soup experience. If you've read or seen Bridget Jones' Diary, you know how she tried to make her friends dinner and ended up serving blue soup. The meal I was making was verging on blue soup.

Okay, that's an exaggeration. But a lot of things were going wrong.

It started when I broke a yolk while separating some eggs, and my whites were tainted. Then when I made a fresh bowl of whites and whipped them, they splattered all over the counter. My chocolate roulade, a rolled log cake, broke when I rolled it up (probably because I lost too many whites in the afore mentioned splatter). My focaccia didn't rise (possibly due to expired yeast). I burned some dried apricots that I was making for a puree to fill the broken cake, and I still can't get the burned bits off the non-stick pan. My new focaccia, made with freshly purchased yeast expiring in 2011, rose and baked up nicely except for the sun-dried tomatoes on top - which burned.

To top it all off, my faucet sprung a leak and drenched the cabinet space under the sink.

So while I'm boiling the rest of the dried apricots for take two of the puree, while swirling it into fresh whipped cream that I whipped in a big enough bowl to avoid splatter, while stuffing the cream and apricot filling into the broken cake hoping it would stick together in some semblance of layers, while picking blackened tomatoes off an otherwise golden focaccia and mopping water up from under the sink, I started thinking that maybe this whole cooking thing had gotten the best of me.

But then I found the cups. Years ago I had acquired a free set of tea cups and since I like to drink my tea from fat mugs I never had any use for them - until now.


I made a cold avocado soup, creamy from avocados, spicy from jalapeno pepper and Tabasco sauce, tangy from lemon juice and yogurt, hearty from navy beans, and frothy and light from pureeing, which whipped air into it. Each serving was more than a sip, less than a cup, a perfect starter to soothe any anxiety that the rest of the meal was less than perfect.

And the soup was green, not blue, and meant to be that way.

Avocado Soup (edited from Cooking Light)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 1 3/4 cups chopped avocado (about 2)
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup rinsed and drained canned navy beans
• 1/2 cup fat-free plain yogurt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (such as Tabasco)
• 1 small jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped

Combine broth and next 9 ingredients (through jalapeño) in a blender; puree until smooth, scraping sides. Ladle 1 1/4 cups avocado mixture into each of 4 bowls, or 8 little cups.

Decadent

When you haven't had bacon in a long time, the taste of it can transform you. It can transform a healthy, calorie counter into an indulgent eater. An apathetic diner into a passionate foodie. From someone who thinks about important things like world peace and helping the homeless to a person who thinks only about bacon. And you wonder why you haven't been eating it all this time.

There's a few other foods with this kind of power. Puff pastry. Chocolate truffles. Hollandaise sauce. Fresh whipped cream. Foods that are decadent, that taste good and make you feel kind of special when you eat them. You feel like you won the spelling bee and got picked first in gym class, all warm and glowy and deserving of good things.

So tonight I made bacon after a long hiatus. It was part of a recipe from a Bobby Flay cookbook that I rediscovered on my bookshelf and have been cooking from all week, and let me tell you, Bobby Flay is rocking my world.

I didn't mean to be this decadent, to swirl cream into buttery grits, grate some cheese and mix it in, to saute shrimp in bacon fat and slide them all grease slicked onto a pool of those grits, and finally to sprinkle some crispy bacon on top. I just followed the recipe, honest, and when I was done but before I took a bite, I thought, this must be pretty bad for me. And then I was done thinking for a while as I inhaled one bite after another.


It was decadent, but oh so enjoyable. Make it. Make it now. And don't let thoughts of Afghanistan or the economy get in the way of your bacon daydreams.

Shrimp and Grits with Double Smoked Bacon ( from Bobby Flay Cooks American)

Cheese grits ingredients:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cups milk
3 cups water
salt and pepper
1 cup grits
1 1/2 cups finely grated cheddar cheese*

Shrimp ingredients:
8 ounces double-smoked bacon*, cut into 1/2-inch dice
20 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
salt and pepper
1/4 cup coarsely chopped scallions*

*I used regular, center cut bacon, white cheddar and left off the scallions.

Melt the butter and oil together in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring until soft. Increase the heat to high, add the milk, water, and 1 tablespoon of salt, and bring to a boil. Slowly add the grits and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, stirring often with a wooden spoon, until the mixture is smooth and thick, 15-20 minutes. Add the cheese and stir until completely melted. Season with salt and pepper to taste. (Quick cooking grits may take less time.)

Meanwhile, make the shrimp. Heat a large pan over high heat until smoking. Add the bacon and cook, stirring, until golden brown. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with paper towels. Remove all but 3 tablespoons of fat and return the pan to the stove over high heat. Season the shrimp with salt and pepper and toss in the pan until pink and lightly browned, 1 1/2-2 minutes per side.

To serve, pour a serving of cheese grits into a soup plate. Top each plate with five shrimp. Garnish with bacon and chopped scallions.

Ice Cream Summer Eating List

It's that time of year again in Chicago. The music is starting, summer is coming down the aisle and spring has never been such a delightful bridesmaid to her entrance. In fact, spring is currently putting to shame anyone who speaks pityingly of always the bridesmaid. The abundance of blossoms, the sunny days, even the showers that caught me in the last few steps to my car, have been a sweet transition to summer days, and I've abandoned the heavy coat, the boots, the winter stews and the root vegetables.

And I've started thinking about ice cream again.

That's not to say I ever stopped thinking about ice cream. The ice cream maker works in any season. A smooth, creamy pumpkin ice cream or a dark, rich chocolate ice cream have their place in the winter months. But summer is the season for ice cream, and so you have to ask yourself, what will be your flavor this year?

Pick a flavor. Make it the flavor you're going to pursue this year, at street festivals and ice cream shops, and finally in your own kitchen. Taste it everywhere, for all it's nuances and differences and make yourself an expert on it. Take a strawberry ice cream. Do you like it pink like Pepto Bismol, or mostly vanilla with streaks of strawberry? Do you like chunks of fruit or a smooth puree? Do you like it swirled with pieces of cake, to mimic strawberry shortcake, or cubes of cheesecake? This is your ice cream summer eating list.

Personally, I'm going with salted caramel ice cream. I tried making a version of this last year, with little success. But now I've got a Cooking Light recipe that will serve as the basis for any future tastings.

It's sweet and it's salty and tastes exactly like a melting caramel candy on your tongue. I limited myself to the sea salt in the recipe and didn't add any more on top. It was perfectly balanced for my taste. It's not the most common flavor, but I'll be on the lookout for it to fulfill my summer eating obligations.

Salted Caramel Ice Cream (Cooking Light)
(Yields 10 servings)

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cups 2% reduced-fat milk
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon flake salt (optional)
  

Place milk in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Heat to 180° or until tiny bubbles form around edge of pan (do not boil). Place egg yolks in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Gradually add half of hot milk to yolks, stirring constantly. Return yolk mixture to pan.

Combine sugar, cream, and butter in a large saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil, stirring until sugar melts. Cook 3 minutes without stirring. Remove from heat; stir in sea salt. Gradually add caramel mixture to yolk mixture, stirring constantly. Return pan to low heat; cook until a thermometer registers 160°. Place pan in a large ice-filled bowl until completely cooled, stirring occasionally. Pour mixture into the freezer can of an ice-cream freezer; freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to freezer container and freeze for at least one hour. Scoop about 1/2 cup ice cream into each of 10 dishes; sprinkle evenly with flake salt if desired.

Surprise and delight me

I like meat. I like beef stew and goat curry and tandoori chicken and pork carnitas tacos. I like melt-in-your-mouth marrow and lamb shanks and kefta kabobs and turkey sausage. I like crispy chicken skin and crispy bacon and ballpark franks and cajun shrimp and kielbasa. I like grilled trout and raw tuna and salmon and gravy covered turkey and salami sandwiches. I could go on for days talking about all the different kinds of meat and fish I like. But the thing about meat is that it's easy to cook and make it taste good because, well, it tastes good!

So I don't spend a lot of time here writing about it and talking about, and if I ever mention something meaty I don't have a lot to say other than that it was good and you should make it. But then, you should make everything I tell you about.

It's vegetarian food that inspires me in the kitchen, that, when made well, can surprise and delight me. Main courses made with tofu or mushrooms or beans can be bland, but they can also be fantastic.
I'll write another time about spicy tofu or tofu in peanut sauce or mushrooms tarts, but today I'm going to praise my favorite bean, the garbanzo.


Last week I made these little chickpea (garbanzo bean) patties, mostly out of curiosity. They're still raw in this picture. I like chickpeas and have experimented with black bean patties and sampled other vegetarian burger alternatives. I feared these patties would be dry and tasteless. What I didn't expect was that they would be spicy and tender and I wouldn't be able to stop eating them. (My recipe excludes the rice that was in the original recipe, simply because it takes longer to cook the rice than to make and bake the patties. Thus the patties are not as firm as they could be.) When I drizzled tahini sauce over them, I scarfed down three patties without stopping to look for the meat.

Chickpea Patties with Tahini Sauce (modified from The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen by Rebecca Katz)
Makes 6 patties, 3 servings of 2 patties each

Ingredients for Tahini Sauce:
2 tablespoons tahini
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 large garlic clove, minced and mashed to a paste with ½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
1/3 cup olive oil

In a blender blend together the tahini, lemon juice, garlic paste, and cayenne. With the motor running add the oil in a stream, blending until the sauce is emulsified. Season with salt.

Ingredients for patties:
One 15 ounce can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/8 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons finely diced red bell pepper
1/4 cup loosely packed minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine the chickpeas, salt, turmeric, paprika, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, garlic, ginger, olive oil and lemon juice in a food processor and process until smooth and well combined, scraping the sides occasionally. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and fold in the bell pepper and parsley.

Moisten your hands to keep the mixture from sticking, then shape the mixture into 1/4-inch-thick patties about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Place them on the prepared pan and bake for 22 to 25 minutes, until the patties start to get dry and crisp on the outside. They will firm up as they cool.

Serve patties with salad of mixed greens. Drizzle tahini sauce over patties and salad.

Sharing

I've been eating lots of good food lately and I haven't been sharing. I know that's not very nice of me, but I'm sorry. Some of it just seems so simple, like scrambled eggs with Tabasco sauce wrapped in a tortilla and topped with guacamole. Just a little breakfast burrito makes me happy. Some days it's been some of my old favorites that I've told you about before, like fennel mushroom salad or Thai hot and sour soup. And some days it's been recipes without real recipes, like cajun spice sprinkled over shrimp, fried and tossed on a pillow of cheesy grits.
Plus, I was eating a gallon of homemade strawberry ice cream for weeks. That's what happens when I don't share.

But I'm going to stop that right now and share a very nice shrimp curry recipe with you, because my friend Huzefa shared it with me. It's a good recipe for lots of reasons. It's fast. It tastes good, like you spent a lot of time on it, but as I just mentioned, it's fast! And it can't go wrong. There are recipes you make once and they're great, but not so great the second or third time. Maybe you did something wrong, but you can't track down what that might be. So you have to let it go, and just remember it as a great meal you once had. But this recipe isn't like that. I've made it several times and it has never failed me. The spices, tomato paste and coconut milk are in perfect proportion (although it's quite spicy, and some may want to tone it down) so the flavor doesn't focus on any one element. I think the sauce is good enough that if you don't like shrimp, you could substitute fish or make it vegetarian with potatoes or cauliflower.
But I'll quit talking now and just show you a picture. And the recipe of course.


Indian Shrimp Curry (from Madhur Jaffrey)
4 servings

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
1 fresh, hot green chile, finely chopped (or 1/2 a chile if you prefer less spice)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
7 ounces coconut milk, well stirred (1/2 a can)
***Shrimp Ingredients***
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
10 dried curry leaves (I use bay leaves)
1 1/4 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

To make the sauce: Put the tomato paste in a bowl. Add the salt, sugar, cumin, cayenne, cilantro, green chile, lemon juice, dried curry leaves (bay leaves) and 1 Tbsp water. Mix well, slowly adding coconut milk until completely blended. Set aside.

To complete: Put the oil in a wok or frying pan over med-high heat. When the oil is hot, put in the mustard seeds. When mustard seeds begin to pop -- a few seconds -- add the garlic. Stir and fry till garlic turns medium brown, add shrimp. Stir until shrimp are opaque most of the way through. Add the sauce, turn heat to medium and heat till the sauce begins to simmer. Add the garam masala. Turn off heat and cover for ten minutes to allow flavors to develop before serving.

Happy Pi Day!

Today I celebrated pi day. So did all the other math geeks in the world. It is 3/14, officially known as Pi Day. And if you're a math geek foodie then you also celebrated Pie Day.



I forgot about Pi/e Day last year. But this year I was ready. I debated for days about what type of pie to make for Pi/e Day. My favorite pie is always pumpkin pie. But it seemed out of season. My favorite fruit pie is peach, but as I noted last year at this time, peaches are not in season either. Apple is always a good choice, I thought about banana cream, discarded any thoughts of cherry or blueberry. Finally I settled on pear. It doesn't hurt that pear is also a homonym of another numerical term, pair.

But what kind of pear pie to make? A quick online search revealed that there were two main types of pear pies - a regular fruit pie and a creamy or custard pie. And there were two main types of toppings - a crumble topping or a pie crust topping. I figured a custard would mask the pear flavor so I decided to stick with a regular fruit pie. And who doesn't love a good crumble?




Look at that, most of the pie is already gone before I had a chance to take a picture! Pi/e Day puts people in a good mood, so don't forget to celebrate it.

Pear Crumb Pie

Thin sliced Bartlett pears (the super hard green ones), brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and lemon juice mingle to make a tangy filling. The butter, brown sugar, and flour makes an easy crumble. I am not tied to this crust, so use a favorite crust recipe if you have one. I served this with fresh whipped cream (1 cup cream, 4 tablespoons of powdered sugar, a splash of vanilla).

Ingredients

CRUST:

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 2 tablespoons cold water

FILLING:

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 dash ground nutmeg
• 6 cups thinly sliced peeled pears (about 5 pears)
  
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

TOPPING:

• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup cold butter

In a bowl, combine flour and salt; cut in shortening until crumbly. Sprinkle with water; toss until mixture is moist enough to shape into a ball. On a floured surface, roll out pastry to fit a 9-in. pie pan. Flute edges. Combine filling ingredients; spoon into the crust. Bake at 400 degrees F for 35 minutes. For topping, combine flour and brown sugar; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over filling. Bake 20 minutes longer. Cover edges with foil during the last 20 minutes to prevent overbrowning if necessary.

Thai Salad Dressing

I don't have a picture for you today. I just have a recipe, a very simple recipe, for an easy and yummy salad dressing . It's so good, you'll drink it up if there's any left in the bowl after you finish swirling your last lettuce leaf around in the dregs.

Maybe all you have is lettuce in the fridge, because it's Thursday night and you're in a hurry to watch Grey's Anatomy and running out of food. Maybe you throw a can of soup into a pot, but it's all too unsatisfying and unhealthy and you pull that slightly wilted head of romaine out of the fridge and motivate yourself to wash it and tear it up. Then it goes into a salad spinner or patted down with a towel and finally you are staring at a pile of green in a big bowl. And that's even more pathetic than the canned soup.

Maybe you have a bottle of fish sauce in the fridge because you made a Thai curry two months ago, and a lime because you were going to make guacamole before the avocado turned mushy and brown, except it turned mushy and brown the day after you bought it. So you mix up some fish sauce, lime juice, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, sugar, and whisk in some vegetable oil. Toss that limp, clean lettuce with your dressing to wake it up a little, and what do you know, there are some ruddy looking radishes rolling around in the crisper, so you add some thin slices of radish on top for color and bite. A little salt and pepper and your meal just became something special. And it's nice to have something special during a mundane Thursday night meal.

Thai Salad Dressing (Joy of Cooking, for the Thai Beef Salad, but it's good on any light salad)
Yields 1 cup dressing

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
red pepper flakes to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl. Keep refrigerated until ready to use.

The Kind of Brownie I Like

I just made some amazing brownies. When I pulled them out of the oven, a little undercooked, it seemed like they were going to fall apart. I started imagining all baked goods in which the crumbs never fuse together, but instead form individual crumblets that stay in the pan shape until cut into. Like a Monet you've come too close to, or a dream that disintegrates when you wake up.

But with brownies, as with life, patience is a virtue, and once the recalcitrant crumbs had cooled down, they formed a dense chocolaty interior with a glistening crust, and held together just fine when I lifted my second piece out of the pan (just to be sure it was any good).

This was the kind of brownie I liked. Dense and gooey and not at all cake like. Not too sweet, with a dark chocolate richness enhanced with a touch of espresso. No nuts, no frosting, no embellishment of any kind.

There are a lot of brownie recipes out there. Besides the wide variety of plain ones, there are recipes for mint brownies and cheesecake swirled brownies and caramel brownies and the brownie's sweeter, gentler younger sister the blondie. And you could try all of them. You should try all of them, to find the kind of brownie you like. Take your time and enjoy the search.

Double Chocolate Mocha Brownies (Gourmet, Dec 2002)

This recipe uses unsweetened chocolate squares, but cocoa powder works just as well. Since cocoa powder is just unsweetened chocolate separated from the cocoa butter, you can substitute one for the other by altering the butter or fat in the recipe. The substitution rate I've seen is 1 oz unsweetened chocolate = 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder plus 1 tablespoon butter. Don't be fooled by the chocolate chips in this recipe. They melt away and you'd never know they were there. If you're like me and hate a strong coffee flavor, cut the espresso in half. Also, I cut the recipe in half, using 3 oz chocolate and 5 tablespoons butter, in an 8x8 pan, and baked for only 15 minutes. It was perfect.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter
• 5 oz unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon instant-espresso powder or instant-coffee granules
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a 15- by 10- by 1-inch baking pan with foil, allowing 2 inches of foil to hang over ends of pan, and grease foil well (except overhang) with 1 tablespoon butter.

Melt remaining 11 tablespoons butter with unsweetened chocolate in a large metal bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring until smooth. Remove bowl from heat and whisk in sugar, espresso powder, vanilla, and salt (mixture will be grainy), then add eggs 1 at a time, whisking after each addition until batter is smooth.

Toss together flour and chocolate chips in another bowl and add to batter, stirring until just combined.

Spread batter evenly in baking pan and bake in middle of oven until top is firm and edges just begin to pull away from sides of pan, about 20 minutes (do not overbake).

Cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes, then carefully lift brownies from pan by grasping both ends of foil and transfer to rack to cool 10 minutes more. Cut into 32 squares and lift brownies off foil with a spatula.