SAVORING THE SEASONS

Flex Your Mussels, Clams, and Other Seafood.

2011-12-30T16:49:00.000-05:00

In early November, I had the great fortune to take a trip to Paris. It was all too brief a stay -- just three days and three nights -- but I made the most of it with quiet walks, numerous museums and outdoor markets, and of course, superb meals.

In the process, I rediscovered my love affair with French baguettes and sweet butter; thanks to Beach Pea Bakery and Kate's Homemade Butter, I've been able to enjoy a reasonable facsimile of these right here in Portsmouth. (I'm still yearning for those simple ham and cheese sandwiches one finds in every Paris bakery, though!)

One dinner I particularly enjoyed was at the seafood-only restaurant, Bistrot du Dome Bastille, where I had a lovely stew of fish and shellfish. I was reminded of this just before Christmas when I read David Tanis' recipe for Fishmonger's Stew in one of his City Kitchen columns in the New York Times. Dave, Robin, and I had been thinking about kicking off the New Year's weekend with a bouillabaisse or cioppino. The Tanis recipe seemed simpler; more like the dish that had so delighted me in Paris.

Those of us who live in the Seacoast area are so fortunate to have so many places where we can get the fresh-caught fish a dish like this requires! Saunders Fish Market in Portsmouth had both local flounder and sea scallops -- no monkfish or calamari this week, which was a slight disappointment-- however, it was easy to find the mussels and clams, so we were all set.

This stew has a leek and onion base, with only a few tomatoes to give it some flavor depth and color. We used a good canned fish stock, but you can also use chicken broth or water. You can also be flexible about what fish you add -- just be sure to put things in to the stock base in the order that Tanis suggests so the more delicate fish doesn't overcook. If you use sea scallops, as we did, you might cut them in half crosswise so they get done at the same time that everything else does.

Most important: don't overlook the sauce. It's the source of the bright, rich garlic-lemon-olive oil-saffron taste that gives this stew its distinctive taste -- just like the one I loved in Paris!

Fishmonger’s Stew ala David Tanis
Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

1 dozen medium-small clams, like littlenecks

1 pound mussels
3/4 pound monkfish or other firm-fleshed white fish, in 1-inch cubes
3/4 pound scrod, flounder, or other soft-fleshed white fish, in 1-inch cubes
3/4 pound squid, in 1/2-inch rings, plus tentacles
1/2 pound bay scallops, optional
Salt and pepper
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups medium-diced onions
3 cups medium-diced leeks, rinsed of grit
1/2 cup diced canned tomato
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves, or a few thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
Pinch of saffron, about 1/8 teaspoon
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon paprika
Pinch red pepper flakes
6 cups fish stock, chicken broth, or water
1 pound Yellow Finn or russet potatoes, peeled, in 1/2-inch slices
Garlic-saffron sauce, see recipe.

Instructions
1. Soak the clams in cold water to remove grit and sand, then drain. Rinse and de-beard the mussels. Put the monkfish, scrod, squid and bay scallops (if using) in separate small bowls. Season the fish lightly with salt and pepper.

2. Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onions and leeks and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato, thyme, bay leaf, saffron, garlic, paprika and red pepper flakes. Season generously with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for another 5 minutes.

3. Turn the heat to high, add the fish stock, chicken broth or water, and bring to a boil. Taste for salt and adjust to taste. Add the potatoes and reduce the heat so they simmer gently until firm-tender, about 10 minutes. (The stew may be prepared to this point up to 2 hours ahead.)

4. To finish the stew, return the heat to a brisk simmer. Add the clams and cook till they open, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the mussels, monkfish and scrod and simmer until the mussels open, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the squid and scallops, if using, and cook 1 minute more. Turn off the heat, stir in the garlic-saffron sauce.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Garlic-Saffron Sauce
Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
1 cup crustless day-old French bread, in 1/2-inch cubes
2 or 3 garlic cloves
Salt
Pinch of saffron, about 1/8 teaspoon
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped parsley.

Instructions
1. Soak the bread in cold water for 1 minute and squeeze dry. Mash garlic and salt into a paste. Put it in a mortar with the bread and pound together with the saffron, or mix it all in a blender.

2. Gradually whisk in the olive oil to make a thick sauce. Add the lemon juice, parsley and salt. Keep the sauce at room temperature.

Yield: 1/3 cup.

Not Sure What Flavors Go With What?

2011-10-10T12:33:00.000-04:00

Check out this visualization of complementary flavors by David McCandless and Willow Tyrer. Even if you know how to combine flavors, this is beautiful to look at.

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/taste-buds/«

Tomato Soup That's Just Peachy

2011-09-05T17:23:00.001-04:00

If you've been very lucky, sometime about this point in the tomato season, you'll have had so many BLTs, tomato/basil/mozzarella salads, and fresh tomato sauces that you'll be ready to move into something new and perhaps a little unexpected. If that should happen while fresh peaches are still in season, so much the better.

A couple of weeks ago, Mark Bittman focused on heirloom tomatoes in one of his EAT columns in The Sunday New York Times Magazine. There were 12 recipes in all, several of which I've tried and loved -- and will probably spotlight here at a later date -- but there's one I've made twice so far this summer, and could easily think about making again: the Cold Cream of Tomato and Peach Soup

To say this soup is simple to make is no exaggeration. Yes, it requires a little stove time to sautee the onion and simmer the tomatoes and peaches. And it does taste best cold, so you'll need to make it enough in advance to chill it. But as there's no need to peel or seed the tomatoes, the actual preparation time is minimal. Just make sure the tomatoes and peaches are nice and ripe, because you'll want them to be juicy. Do that, and you'll have a soup that's elegant enough for company and easy enough to make just for you.

It may seem odd for a soup with cream in its name, but Bittman lists that ingredient as optional; he's right, the soup really doesn't need it, the tomato and peach taste comes through just great without it. However, I find topping each serving of soup with a healthy dollop of crème fraîche, provided you can get a good one, like the one made by the folks at Vermont Butter and Cheese Creamery, adds just the right tang.

Cold Cream of Tomato and Peach Soup
Mark Bittman, Sunday New York Times Magazine

Ingredients
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
2 pounds tomatoes, chopped
1/2 pound peaches, chopped and peeled

1/2 cup cream (optional) (I prefer to use crème fraîche as a garnish, though you could also purée some with the soup.)

Tarragon for garnishing

Preparation

1. Cook onion in butter for 5 minutes.

2. Add tomatoes and peaches.

3. Simmer until the tomatoes break up.

4. Add cream (optional but good), purée (in a blender) and chill.

5. Garnish with chopped tarragon.

Back Again: Tomato Bread Salad ala David Tanis

2011-08-01T15:20:00.000-04:00

After a few months off to finish my upcoming book, Peaceful Places Boston: 121 Tranquil Places in the City and Beyond, I'm back to writing this blog at the perfect time: just as the height of the summer's bounty begins to appear in farmers' markets and farm stands.

Hallelujah for corn, new baby potatoes, eggplant, peppers, and of course, tomatoes!

I've been making bread salads for years now. My long-time, go-to recipe is the Panzanella: Bread and Vegetable Salad with Anchovies in The Classic Italian Cookbook by Marcella Hazan, which unfortunately, now seems to be out of print.

Recently, I've also enjoyed Judy Rodgers version, Tomato Summer Pudding from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook. But I'm always looking for new slants on this salad and interesting techniques--so when I found a recipe for Layered Tomato Bread Salad, in David Tanis' Heart of the Artichoke and Other Kitchen Journeys, I was eager to experiment.

Part of what intrigued me was the complexity of the vinaigrette for the salad--complexity of flavor, by the way, not of preparation.
You macerate a minced shallot in red wine vinegar for five minutes, then add a garlic paste, made by smashing garlic cloves and a little salt with a mortar and pestle, then drizzle in some olive oil to make your vinaigrette.

Next, you add some chopped anchovies, capers, and olives to make a chunky dressing that you pour over the cubed tomatoes and sliced cucumbers--and let the pungent flavors meld.

Heirloom tomatoes have just come into the Seacoast Growers' market in Portsmouth. Robin and Dave were able to buy a ripe and colorful selection through our CSA at Meadow's Mirth Farm. We also bought some country-style bread at Beach Pea Bakery in Kittery. Of course, as it was just fresh baked, it was not the day-old bread we needed, so to dry it, we sliced it and left it out overnight, in preparation for grilling it the next day. (The point of this salad is to have some bread pieces be really crispy, while others soften by soaking in the salad juices.)

Because this salad was to be our contribution to a cookout, we made everything ahead of time and transported the vegetables and dressing separately. Our host was happy to grill the bread prior to making dinner, so we could have the completed salad on the table when the rest of the food was ready. Needless to say, it was a big hit!

Layered Tomato and Bread Salad

From Heart of the Artichoke And Other Kitchen Journeys by David Tanis

Ingredients

12 slices day-old country bread, such as pain au levain

1/2 c olive oil, plus more for brushing
3 garlic cloves for swiping the bread
1 shallot, minced
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
6 anchovy fillets, coarsely chopped
1 Tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
1/2 cup Nicoise olives, pitted and roughly chopped
Salt and pepper
6 ripe large tomatoes, roughly cubed
1 small cucumber, peeled and sliced
A generous handful of basil leaves, roughly chopped
A generous handful for serving, if desired

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Paint the bread generously with olive oil on both sides and place it on a baking sheet. Bake until the slices are crisp and golden, about 10 minutes, turning them halfway through. (Or toast the oil-painted bread on a grill.) Let the bread cool, and swipe each slice with a garlic clove. Break each slice into 2 or 3 pieces. Set aside.

2. To make the vinaigrette, macerate the shallot in the vinegar for 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic paste and add the 1/2 cup olive oil. Add the anchovies, capers, and olives and stir well. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. Put the tomato cubes and cucumber slices in a medium bowl and season well with salt and pepper. Pour the vinaigrette over the vegetables.

4. Assemble the salad on a deep platter or in a low, wide bowl. Layer half the bread slices on the platter or in the bowl and spoon over half of the tomato/cucumber mixture. Lay over the rest of the bread and top with the remaining tomatoes. Cover with a clean towel and let sit for about an hour at cool room temperature.

5. Just before serving, gently press down the salad with your hands to distribute the juices. Sprinkle generously with the basil and parsley. Spoon the salad onto plates lined with crisp lettuce leaves.

Soup's On: Bean Soup That's Fast, Easy, and Delicious

2011-04-08T10:29:00.000-04:00

(NOTE: Savoring the Seasons is this week's From a Local Kitchen on the Seacoast Eat Local blog! Thanks, Debra!)

I felt like I was losing a friend when Mark Bittman's last Minimalist column appeared in The New York Times on January 25th. For thirteen years, I'd looked forward to reading it every Wednesday. I learned countless tips for making delicious meals with a minimum of fuss. In particular, I enjoyed being inspired by what I like to call the Bittman 101s, an ongoing series of 101 ideas for simple salads, picnics, appetizers, etc. that could be made in 20 minutes or less.

However, if the first few weeks of Bittman's new endeavor, Eat, in the The New York Times Sunday Magazine are any indication, I needn't have fretted. (Yes, there is a paywall now, but you are allowed 20 free articles a month -- or you can just order the Sunday Times.)

Right out of the box, there was a column that blew me away. Called Creamy, Brothy, Earthy, Hearty, it was essentially a guide to making easy, yet delicious vegetable-based soups, most of which can go from stove to table in under an hour. This includes making your own vegetable stock!

We'd recently bought some dried peregion beans from Baer's Best Beans at the Seacoast Eat Local Winter Farmers' Market. (There are two remaining: April 9th and 23rd at Exeter High School) So I was eager to try the bean soup recipe. As this was a spur of the moment thing, there was no time for overnight bean soaking. However, I've found that as long as your dried beans aren't too old, this step is unnecessary. It's a great reason to buy dried beans from the farmers' market as opposed to the grocery store. (Not salting beans during cooking is another old wives' tale you can ignore. It doesn't make them tough; in fact, it makes them delicious!)

In less than an hour, we were having a hearty, homemade soup for lunch. Bittman's column featured four different categories of soup; twelve soups in all. I can't wait to sample each one--and then be inspired to create my own!

Earthy Bean Soup ala Mark Bittman

Put 1 1/2 cup dried beans, 1 chopped onion, 2 chopped carrots, 2 chopped celery ribs, 2 bay leaves, 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves and 6 cups water in a pot over high heat.

Boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer until the beans are soft, at least 1 hour, adding more water if necessary. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish: A drizzle of olive oil.

NOTE: We began by sauteing the onion, carrots, and celery before adding them to the beans; then when the beans were almost tender, added some leftover chopped Kellie Brooks Farm ham that we had on hand in the freezer.

Shank of the Season: Braised Osso Buco

2011-04-05T10:55:00.001-04:00

I view snow on April Fool's Day as Mother Nature's way of reminding us New Englanders not to get too caught up in some romantic vision of spring. But instead of becoming dispirited, I say, salute this mercurial season with a dish that tastes a little lighter than the stews and braises of winter, but still has enough flavor to be savored in front of a roaring fire with a nice bottle of red wine.

To me, that means veal shanks. I actually have a lovely, light almost Easter-dinner worthy recipe of shanks with pea tendrils and a lemon risotto, but a cool, blustery Spring day demands something a little more substantial, with a sauce that's redolent of mushrooms, root vegetables, and tomato.

Some people who eagerly tuck into other meat feel guilty about eating veal, but those of us who live in the Seacoast have access to local veal that is humanely raised. Mind you, this is not the pale white stuff you'd find in a supermarket. No, this veal is deep pink, with a real meaty flavor; that's because the little critters actually get to spend some time outdoors. We usually get our veal from Kellie Brook Farm, but there are other local farmers who also offer delicious, guilt-free veal.

From what I've read, traditional osso bucco, which is Italian for bone with a hole, was made with white wine, flavored with cinnamon, bay leaf, and a gremolata of finely chopped lemon zest, garlic, and parsley. This version, an invention of my brother-in-law Dave, was inspired by a couple of recipes in Molly Steven's cookbook, All About Braising: the Art of Uncomplicated Cooking, though I must admit the delicious fennel/coriander coating for the shanks was all his idea.

While risotto is the classic accompaniment for osso bucco, we served it with farro (which is Italian after all), and some braised local chard. Add in some candlelight and you have a perfect fireside meal for a cold spring night.

Braised Veal Shanks ala Dave

Ingredients

1 T fennel seeds, toasted

1 T coriander seeds, toasted

Dash of salt
Couple grind of pepper
Handful of dried porcini mushrooms, soaked until soft in hot water to cover, then coarsely chopped
6 veal shanks, 2” thick
2 T olive oil
1 onion, coarsely chopped
3 small carrots, coarsely chopped
4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1 cup chopped, peeled tomatoes (We used 1/3 cup of our own roasted San Marzano tomatoes)
1 cup Madeira wine
Parchment paper to fit casserole

Instructions
1. Toast fennel and coriander seeds until fragrant. Grind with mortar and pestle or in spice grinder.
2. Rub the shanks with the spice mixture, salt, and pepper.
3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
4. In an oven-proof casserole large enough to hold all meat and vegetables, heat 2T olive oil until it shimmers.
5. Brown shanks carefully on all sides, about 15 or 20 minutes, taking care not to burn seeds. Add more oil if the pan is going dry. Remove shanks to platter.
6. Add onions and carrots to pan, scrape up browned bits from bottom of pan as vegetables release their moisture. When vegetables have softened, add garlic and stir, taking care not to let it burn.

7. Strain mushroom soaking liquid and add to pan along with the Madeira. Bring to a boil and reduce by half. Add tomatoes and mushrooms and stir.

8. Nestle shanks into braising pan amongst the vegetables, and add any juices that have accumulated on platter. Liquid should come up about half way around the meat. If needed, add water.

9. Cover pan with parchment paper, add lid and cook in oven for about 2 hours, until meat is very tender and almost falling off the bones.

10. Remove shanks to platter and cover with foil. Skim off fat from the sauce in the pan and taste for flavor. If it tastes weak, bring to a boil over high heat to reduce volume and concentrate the flavor. Taste for salt and pepper.

11. Spoon sauce over the shanks and serve.

Dancing to a Turkish Beet: Beet and Carrot Tzatziki

2011-02-18T11:05:00.000-05:00

It's almost March. Well, okay, it's almost late February. In Portsmouth, the chickadees, cardinals, and bluebirds are singing their spring songs. But both there and in Boston, there's still lots of snow on the ground. And it's not that pretty fluffy, white stuff. No, this snow is hard as cement and grey as the sky is all too frequently these days. All this leaves me yearning for colorful, wild, tasty ways to use some of the vegetables from our Heron Pond Winter CSA.

I'd roasted some beets over the weekend to use in a salad with winter greens, walnuts, and Maytag blue cheese. There were leftover beets, but alas, no walnuts, greens, or Maytag blue. And as dinner itself was leftovers -- Paula Wolfert's Lazy Lady Bulgar Pilaf, with lamb, pistachios, and walnuts, (the last of the walnuts, mind you) -- I wanted something that would add both some color and a fresh taste to the meal.

The night before, I'd served the pilaf with a cucumber tzatziki, so I guess I was thinking in that vein when I remembered that Ana Sortun, owner and chief chef of Oleana, one of my favorite restaurants in the greater Boston area, has a recipe for a tzatziki made from beets in her cookbook, Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean. After a quick perusal of the fridge, I determined I not only had everything I needed to make that recipe, but some CSA carrots as well.

Is there such a thing as a beet and carrot tzatziki?
The quick answer is yes, indeed. I used it as a dressing of sorts for a salad of the remaining roasted beets. It was quite delicious, if decidedly neon. Kind of like a gorgeous late February sunset over Sagamore Creek!

Beet Salad with Beet and Carrot Tzatziki
Adapted from Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean, by Ana Sortun

Ingredients
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, or to taste
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups hole milk yogurt or sheep's milk yogurt (I used NH's own Brookford Farm non-fat yogurt, which I drained for 10 minutes.)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
2 to 3 smallish raw carrots, peeled and grated
1 to 1 1/2 cups cooked shredded beets -- about two large or 4-5 golf ball size beets
1 large beet, sliced (See Note)
Feta cheese, crumbled

NOTE: For those who want a more subtle color, Sortun recommends chioggia (pink) or golden beets.
Beets can be boiled or roasted, but I'm partial to the latter. I cut off tops and tips, wrap in tin foil, and season with salt, thyme, -- if I have it on hand -- and olive oil. Put the beets in a 350-400 oven and roast until fork tender. They're relatively easy to peel once cooked, thought the red ones will stain your hands.

Instructions
1. Combine the lemon juice, garlic and salt in a bowl and let stand 10 minutes. (Sortun says this takes some of the heat out of the garlic.) Stir in the yogurt, olive oil, and pepper. Fold in the beets, carrots, and dill and re-season with salt and pepper if desired. Serve cold or at room temperature.

The Root of Comfort: Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables

2011-02-05T18:46:00.000-05:00

Is there anyone who doesn't love walking into a home where a chicken is roasting the oven? Okay, it may not be the aroma of choice for a vegetarian or vegan, but for me it's a promise of comfort and goodness. Ironically, that's not because this is a smell that takes me back to dinners in my childhood. I grew up loving my mother's oven-fried chicken and being rather ambivalent about the stewed chicken that was something of a Sunday staple at my grandmother's house. No, roast chicken is an addiction of my adulthood.

It's a kind of freedom, really. Because I'm not bound to a "but that's the way my mother did it" recipe, I'm open to any interesting technique or combination of ingredients. For a couple of years now, Judy Rodgers "Zuni Roast Chicken", with her salt-and-season ahead approach, has been my standby, even if the chicken is destined to be rotisseried on the grill, instead of roasted in the oven. Then the other day, I was thumbing through the copy of Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home that I'd given to my brother-in-law Dave for Christmas. (Is it unseemly to give someone else a cookbook you're dying to have? I certainly hope not!) There was a recipe for roasting a chicken on a bed of root vegetables.

Since we'd just picked up our Heron Pond winter CSA, we certainly had root vegetables. We also had one of New Roots Farm's pasture-raised chickens in the freezer, which would easily defrost over night. (Luckily the Ad Hoc chicken does not need to be salted ahead of time. In fact, Keller recommends leaving the chicken uncovered in the refrigerator for at least a day -- it dries out the skin, which helps it crisp up nicely during roasting. Another secret Keller swears by: letting the chicken sit at room temperature for 1 1/2 hours before roasting.)

While it takes a little time to cut up all the vegetables, this really is a relatively easy dish to make. (We made it a little more difficult because we flipped the chicken to make sure the skin got brown and crispy on all sides.) The smell of the roasting chicken and vegetables was truly divine. Plus the way the vegetables infuse the chicken with their flavor -- and the chicken infuses the vegetables with its juices -- makes the entire dish a satisfying treat. And the warmed up leftovers the next day? Remarkable!

Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables

from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home

Ingredients

One 4 to 4 1/2 lb chicken

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

6 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled

6 thyme sprigs
2 large leeks
3 tennis-ball-sized rutabagas
2 tennis-ball-sized turnips
4 medium carrots, peeled, trimmed, and cut in half
1 small yellow onion, trimmed, leaving root end intact, and cut into quarters
8 small (golf-ball-sized) red-skinned potatoes
1/3 cup canola oil
4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Instructions
1. Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until it comes to room temperature.

2. Preheat the oven to 475 F.

3. Remove the neck and innards if they are still in the cavity of the chicken. Using a paring knife, cut out the wishbone from the chicken. (This will make it easier to carve the chicken.) Generously season the cavity of the chicken with salt and pepper, add 3 of the garlic cloves and 5 sprigs of thyme, and massage the inside of the bird to infuse it with the flavors. Truss the chicken.

4. Cut off the dark green leaves from the top of the leeks. Trim off and discard the darkened outer layers. Trim the root ends, cutting around them on a 45-degree angle. Slit the leeks lengthwise almost in half, starting 1/2 inch above the root ends. Rinse the leeks well under warm water.

5. Cut off both ends of the rutabagas. Stand the rutabagas on end and cut away the skin, working from top to bottom and removing any tough outer layers. Cut into 3/4-inch wedges. Repeat with the turnips, cutting the wedges to match the size of the rutabagas.

6. Combine all the vegetables and remaining garlic cloves and thyme sprig in a large bowl. Toss with 1/4 cup of the oil and season with salt and pepper. Spread the vegetables in a large cast-iron skillet or a roasting pan.

7. Rub the remaining oil over the chicken. Season generously with salt and pepper.

8. Make a nest in the center of the vegetables and nestle the chicken in it.

9. Cut the butter into 4 or 5 pieces and place over the chicken breast.

10. Put the chicken in the oven and roast for 25 minutes. Reduce the heat to 400 F and roast for an additional 45 minutes, or until the temperature registers 160 F in the meatiest portions of the bird--the thighs, and under the breast where the thigh meets the breast--and the juices run clear. If necessary, return the bird to the oven for more roasting; check it every 5 minutes.

11. Transfer the chicken to a carving board and let rest for 20 minutes.

12. Just before serving, set the pan of vegetables over medium heat and reheat the vegetables, turning them and glazing them with the pan juices.

13. Cut the chicken into serving pieces, arrange over the vegetables and serve.

A Warm Spot for Spicy Black Bean Chili

2011-01-28T11:26:00.001-05:00

Is there a dish more aptly named than chili? I mean on a morning when the snow banks along the walkway to the front door are up to your hips and you can practically see your breath inside the house, and more than anything you want something that explodes with heat the second you taste it, you know it's a chili day. Even better, it was a Seacoast Growers' Winter Market day. That meant I could buy some black beans that Jean Jennings of Meadow's Mirth Farm had grown and dried last season and make my favorite chili recipe, the Black Bean Chili from Cafe Beaujolais.

I'd first sampled this dish in the late '80's at Margaret J. Fox's restaurant of the same name in Mendocino, California, after a breathtaking, but harrowing drive up the coast from San Francisco. Mendocino bills itself as a perfect replica of a quaint little New England town, though I might point out that the ocean is on the wrong side. But it was a beautiful place to relax for a couple of days, (I stayed at the inn that was the setting for the movie, Same Time, Next Year), and I was very pleased to take a number of meals at the sunny yellow cottage that was home to this illustrious cafe. (In the 70's and 80's, Margaret J. Fox was almost as famous in the Northern California culinary scene as Alice Waters!)

To me, what makes this recipe so special is the seasonings, which include cayenne pepper and paprika, as well as a blend of cumin seed and dried oregano, basil, rosemary, and thyme that have been heated in the oven for 10 minutes or so. To add a little smokey zip, I chopped up a couple of chipotle chiles en adobo and added them, with a little of their sauce, to the pot.

You may think dried beans are dried beans, but the truth is that the fresher the beans, the more flavorful they are -- and the faster they cook. I was looking forward to sampling Jean's beans, and can happily report I was not disappointed.

Don't try to substitute canned beans here -- I think the texture would be all wrong. Plus the dried turtle beans don't need to be soaked for this recipe and since they're really quite small in size, they were ready to go after just an hour and three-quarters of cooking -- it's also a nice way to heat up the kitchen on a col, cold day.

To serve, put some cheese in a bowl and scoop in the chili and top with chopped scallions, more cheese, and a little cilantro -- the latter is optional. One note of warning: this is a spicy chili -- if you don't like the heat, well maybe, you should stay out of the kitchen.

Black Bean Chili
from Cafe Beaujolais by Margaret Fox
(Recipe originated at Greens in San Francisco)

Ingredients
4 cups dry black beans
3 cups crushed whole tomatoes
2 large finely chopped yellow onions
1 1/2 cups finely chopped green bell peppers (I used red because I like the color contrast)
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons cumin seeds
2 tablespoons dried oregano (You can also try to approximate the famous Beaujolais Blend by substituting a mixture of dried basil, rosemary, and thyme for one of the tablespoons of oregano.)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons paprika
1/2 cup finely chopped jalapeño chiles (2 large jalapeños) (Canned are okay -- I also added a couple of chopped chipotle chiles en adobo.)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese, grated
2/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup finely chopped green onions
8 sprigs or 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Instructions
1. Sort through the beans; discard the funky ones and any small pebbles. Rinse well. Place the beans in a large pot and cover with water by several inches. Cover and bring to a boil.

2. Reduce the heat and cook for about 1 3/4 hours, or until tender. You'll need to add more water if you start to see the beans. Water should always cover the beans, so add more if the beans start to peek through.

3.When the beans are cooked, strain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water and adding it back to the beans.

3. Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Toast the cumin seeds and oregano in a small pan until the fragrance is toasty, about 10 minutes.

4. Sauté the onions, bell peppers, and garlic in the oil over medium-high heat with the toasted cumin seeds and herbs, cayenne pepper, paprika and salt until the onions are soft, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and chiles. Add this mixture to the beans and stir well. Add additional seasoning to taste.

5. To serve, place about one-quarter cup grated cheese in a warmed bowl, add a generous cup of beans, and dollop with a spoonful of sour cream. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon green onions, a little more cheese, and the cilantro.

Delicata Balance: Persian-Inspired Squash

2011-01-09T16:02:00.001-05:00

Now that winter is in full swing, our Heron Pond Farm CSA usually includes some form of winter squash. As someone who is not particularly fond of overly sweet dishes -- except of course, when they're desserts -- I'm always looking for interesting ways to serve this vegetable that don't involve brown sugar or maple syrup.

That's what was made this dish I found in Deborah Madison's Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmer's Market's so intriguing. Borrowing on the Middle Eastern tradition of including dried fruit, nuts, and exotic spices in savory dishes, this recipe, which Madison calls "Persian-inspired", gets its sweetness from chopped dates. But these are softened by the addition of shallots, garlic, and lemon juice.

The original recipe calls for butternut squash, but Madison says that Delicatas work just as well. Though we had both on hand, the latter are much easier to peel and slice -- and I thought their bright yellow hue would provide a colorful contrast to the other ingredients in the dish.

The smells from the oven as this dish bakes are heavenly. And it made me want to try adding other Middle Eastern, Asian, even Mexican-inspired spices and seasonings to squash as the winter season continues.

Delicata Squash Rounds with Dates and Pistachios

based on a recipe by Deborah Madison from

Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmer's Market's

Ingredients
2 -3 Delicata squash, or 1 butternut squash, about 3 pounds)
3 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 shallots, finely diced, about 1/3 cup
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/ 3 cup slivered almonds
1/3 cup peeled pistachios, preferably unsalted, slivered or chopped
1 tablespoon grated zest from 1 Meyer lemon or orange
6 Medjool or Deglet Noor dates, pitted and chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped mint
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Juice of 1 Meyer lemon or 1 Persian lemon

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly butter a large baking dish. Peel and slice the Delicatas sideways into 1/3 inch rounds, cutting the slices in half if the squash is particularly fat. (If using a butternut, peel the neck of the squash and slice into rounds about 1/3 inch thick.)
2. Heat the olive oil in a wide nonstick skillet. Add the squash in a single layer and cook over medium heat until golden, then turn and brown the other side, 8 to 10 minutes per side. When the pan becomes dry add 1/3 cup water. Cover the pan and steam the squash until tender when pierced with a knife, about 10 minutes. Check while it’s cooking and add more water as needed. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Melt the butter in a medium skillet over medium-low heat. Add the shallots (or onion) and garlic and cook without browning, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 7 minutes. Ad the nuts, zest, dates, herbs, and cinnamon and raise the heat. Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and some pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes, then add lemon juice, cook for 1 minute more, and turn off heat.
4. Arrange squash rounds in the baking dish and scatter the dates and nuts over them. Add 1/4 cup water and bake until heated through and the topping is barely crisped, about 15 minutes.

Hot, Hot, Hotcakes

2010-12-28T13:40:00.000-05:00

If there's a category for the cookbook present that goes from under the tree to recipe on the table in the shortest amount of time, the David Tanis book I received for Christmas, Heart of the Artichoke and Other Kitchen Journeys, would probably be the undisputed winner.

We'd been planning a post-present-opening breakfast featuring a coho salmon fillet that Dave had smoked the day before and a bottle of Gruet pink champagne. The only catch was, we hadn't quite decided what would accompany the smoked salmon. Eggs? Toast? Hash browns?

That's when David Tanis saved the day -- or at least the meal. I'd unwrapped the book and was thumbing through the first couple of pages. There, on page 8, Kitchen Ritual 1, was a recipe for jalapeño pancakes. Tanis said the pancakes were excellent with smoked salmon and a dab of sour cream. I shot off the couch, book in hand. Could we possibly have the ingredients?

While we didn't have jalapeños, there were Thai bird chilies in the freezer. No sour cream, but there was an unopened tub of crème fraîche from Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery. We had the scallions called for in the recipe -- plus some chives and capers that I knew would add the perfect flavor accent to the crème fraîche.

Best of all, our freezer also contained a bag of sweet corn kernels from

last summer's crop. It was there, along with some of the corn cobs, ready for us to make a corn chowder this winter. I knew I could spare a cup or so, even though the recipe didn't call for it, plus I loved the idea of having a way to enjoy the summery taste of corn on Christmas morning.

The recipe is simple as could be -- only two steps, three if you add corn and saute the onions like I did.

In fact, it took me longer to concoct the crème fraîche topping.

The pancakes themselves are truly delicious -- with the heat from the chilies providing a pleasant, if unusual zip. Paired with Dave's salmon, it was the perfect savory treat. And the timing? From under the tree to on the table in less than an hour!

Jalapeño Pancakes
From Heart of the Artichoke and Other Kitchen Journeys by David Tanis

Ingredients1 cup all -purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk (I used powdered buttermilk)
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon melted butter or olive oil
1/2 cup thinly sliced onion or scallion (I used a combination of scallions and finely minced shallots)
1 or 2 jalapeno chilies, sliced thin (I used Thai bird chilies, because I had them on hand. I think using chilies is key -- because it's the heat in the pancakes that makes them so unusual.)
1/2 tsp toasted coarsely ground cumin
NOTE: I added 1 cup of frozen sweet corn. Fresh would probably work as well.

Instructions
1. Mix up the batter, and stir in the onion, jalapenos, and cumin. (I sauteed the shallots and scallions with the corn.)
2. Heat up the griddle, and make your pancakes.

Lynn's Crème Fraîche Topping

1 cup crème fraîche
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

1-2 tablespoons of capers, drained (depends on how much you like capers)

1 tablespoon snipped chives

Mix together and serve with smoked salmon and corncakes.

In a Pickle For the Holidays

2010-12-20T11:22:00.004-05:00

In German tradition, the last ornament placed on the tree on Christmas Eve is a blown-glass pickle, which is secretly hidden among the branches. Come Christmas morning, the first child in the family to find the pickle is considered especially lucky. That boy or girl receives a special gift from Father Christmas and a blessing for good fortune in the coming year from the parents.

This year, pickles of the vegetable variety created lots of excitement at the annual Farrington-Schweikart Christmas party. First, there was the great pickle fiasco, when jars of old pickles that our friend Jeff thought he'd thrown away prior to his move to California mistakenly reappeared to be offered as holiday gifts. (If you got some, throw them away--Jeff's special bottled vinegar is fine.)

However, guests who sampled the various pickles that my brother-in-law Dave had made out of delicata squash, watermelon radishes, red and white salad turnips, baby carrots, and fennel discovered a real treat.

Dave's been into pickles for years, ever since he discovered the book, Quick Pickles: Easy Recipes for Big Flavor, from Chris Schlesinger of East Coast Grill fame. While pickling began as a ancient form of preservation, for Dave, it's a way of giving vegetables a flavor punch they otherwise wouldn't have -- a great idea when your winter CSA provides you with lots of winter squash, turnips, and carrots.

Since these are recipes for quick pickles, there are no worries about boiling water baths, incorrectly sealed jars, and other horrors. Plus you can eat them the same day you make them, though they're better if they sit over night in the fridge. So if you're looking for an unusual treat for a holiday gathering-- or just need a new way to enjoy winter vegetables, give quick pickles a try. Here are a few of Dave's favorite recipes to get you started.

Watermelon Radishes ala Famous Back Eddy House Pickles

Adapted from Chris Schleslinger's Quick Pickles

This is a great way to use those big, beautiful watermelon radishes. They lack the bite of regular radishes, which wouldn't work as well for this recipe.

Ingredients
2 lbs. watermelon radishes (NOTE: the original recipe is uses pickling cucumbers or small, firm zucchini, plus garlic, carrots, red and green bell peppers, and onions, which makes wonderful summertime pickles.)
2 tablespoons kosher salt
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups white wine vinegar (the original recipe uses cider vinegar)
1 cup light brown sugar (Dave uses Demarara sugar, because he doesn't want the brine to have a molasses flavor)
2 teaspoon whole fennel seed
1 teaspoon ground cloves
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon yellow mustard seed
1 tablespoon whole allspice berries, cracked
2 tablespoon coriander seed, toasted and cracked

Instructions
1. Trim watermelon radishes and cut them into bite size pieces about 1/4-inch thick. In a glass bowl, toss the slices with the salt, cover with ice cubes or crushed ice and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours.

2. Drain the radishes, rinse well, then drain again. Set aside.

3. Heat a medium sauté pan over medium heat and toast the coriander seed, shaking the pan frequently to avoid burning the seeds, until the seeds just release the first tiny wisp of smoke, about 2 - 3 minutes. Remove the seeds to a small bowl and allow to cool to room temperature. When cool, put the coriander and allspice berries into a wooden or metal bowl and press them with the back of a large spoon, or use a mortar and pestle to gently crack them open. Set aside.

3. In a nonreactive pan (do not use cast iron or anodized aluminum as they will react with the acid), combine vinegar, brown sugar, and all of the spices. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar, and continue to boil for about 5 minutes. Pour the boiling syrup over the radishes, allow to cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate.

Makes about 12 cups. These will keep, covered and refrigerated, for about one month.

Pickled Delicata Squash with Sage and Cardamom
Adapted from Chris Schleslinger's Quick Pickles

Ingredients
3 pound delicatata squash, unpeeled, seeded, sliced cross-wise 1/8 thick (about 5 cups). (NOTE: You can also use butternut squash, other winter squash, or pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cut into 3/4-inch cubes.)
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher or other coarse salt
8 sage leaves, cut into slices
2 teaspoon cardamom seeds (without pods) lightly crushed
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 2/3 cups cider vinegar
3/4 cup apple juice

Instructions
1. In a non-reactive bowl, combine the squash and salt, toss to coat, and allow to stand at room temperature for about 4 hours. Drain, rinse well, and squeeze out extra moisture by the handfuls.

2. In a medium non-reactive pot, combine all remaining ingredients and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring once or twice to dissolve the brown sugar. Add the squash, bring back just to a simmer, then remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature, uncovered.

3. When the mixture has cooled to room temperature, cover and refrigerate.

The squash will be tasty in about 2 hours, but will improve in flavor if allowed to sit overnight. This pickle will keep, covered and refrigerated, for about 2 months.

Pickled Turnips with Fennel and Star Anise
Adapted from Chris Schleslinger's, Quick Pickles

Ingredients
2 lbs. turnips peeled
1-2 fennel fronds
1/2 peppercorn melange
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 tablespoon whole allspice berries
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1 tablespoon anise seed
3 bay leaves
1 cup whole star anise
1 cup white sugar
3 cups white wine vinegar

Instructions
1. Cut each turnip into 8 wedges, then cut each wedge into triangles 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch thick.

2. In a glass bowl or jar, combine the peppercorns and turnips.

3. In a nonreactive saucepan (do not use cast iron or anodized aluminum as it will react to the acid), combine the remaining ingredients except the fennel fronds and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes, until the sugar is melted and the syrup has been flavored by the spices.

4. Pour the hot liquid over the vegetables and allow them to cool to room temperature. Add the reserved fennel fronds, stir to incorporate, then cover and refrigerate.Cover and chill for several hours before serving. These pickles will keep well, covered and refrigerated for at least 6 weeks.

Watermelon Radishes: There Ought to be a Slaw!

2010-11-01T13:34:00.000-04:00

My sister Robin, brother-in-law Dave, and I were getting ready for our friend Rafael's Halloween birthday party at the home of mutual pals in Harvard, MA. As usual, Dave had been cooking up a storm. Grilled flank steak that would become mini steak and blue cheese sandwiches. Dave's version of the incomparable Momofuku pork belly buns.

However, one dish was still a work in progress as we headed to the penultimate Seacoast Growers' Market. The main ingredient was goose from the guys at Yellow House Farm. Dave had used Ming Tsai's Red Roast Duck recipe from the Blue Ginger cookbook to prepare the goose. It tasted delicious. The question now was how to serve it. Dave's original thought was the shred it and fold it into a lettuce leaf, but he wanted some kind of garnish to go with it.

Until we stopped by to see Garen Heller at the Riverside Farm stand, we'd been talking about shredding some carrots and scallions and making a little sauce. Then we discovered watermelon radishes and Garen's recipe for Asian Watermelon Slaw. Immediately, our imaginations' taste buds kicked into gear. We knew the rice wine and soy sauce would be a delicious foil for the rich, slightly sweet goose, while the rosy pink color would perfectly accentuate the meat and lettuce.

We adapted Garen's original recipe somewhat to suit our purposes as a condiment, rather than a slaw. We chose to add more sesame oil, soy sauce, and vinegar, instead of the yogurt, because we wanted a consistency that was more vinaigrette-like than creamy. As there would be a ginger-scallion dipping sauce, we left the ginger out of the slaw itself and reduced the amount of honey. Finally, we added an additional dash of fish sauce to give it an extra umami kick.

The resulting "Goose in Lettuce Leaves with Asian Slaw" was a real hit at the party -- but I think the original recipe would make a delicious side for any meat or seafood dish with an Asian bent -- or an excellent accompaniment to your favorite Asian noodle dish. It's also a easy way to use a vegetable that's colorful, tasty, and good for you.

Garen's Watermelon Radish Slaw

Serves Two

Ingredients

For the slaw:

3 medium watermelon radishes

1 carrot

1T fresh ginger root (or more to taste)

1 medium red onion (1/4 cup grated)

For the dressing:

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon honey

2 tablespoons yogurt or mayonnaise (or more if desired)

Splash of Thai fish sauce (optional)

Instructions

1. Grate all the slaw ingredients

2. Blend the dressing ingredients together

3. Toss slaw and dressing together and serve on a bed of greens

Lasagna with Chard: In Practically No Time.

2010-10-19T11:41:00.001-04:00

Like many foodies, I have subscriptions to the usual cooking magazines: Saveur, Food & Wine, Bon Appétit. And I still haven't forgiven Condé Nast for the loss of Gourmet. But I find that my real go-to source for recipe ideas is The New York Times.

I'm a total fan of Mark Bittman and his Minimalist columns. I can't wait to check out the Wednesday food section and the Sunday Magazine recipes each week. Oh yes, and several times a week, I go online to see what Martha Rose Shulman is featuring in her ongoing series, Recipes for Health, where she focuses on a particular seasonal produce item, grain, or pantry ingredient to inspire meals that are delicious, easy, and nutritious. In fact, her recipes have just been collected and published in a new cookbook, The Very Best of Recipes for Health: 250 Recipes And More from the Popular Feature on NewYorkTimes.com. Last year about this time, she published a recipe for a vegetarian lasagna with chard, tomato sauce and ricotta. I didn't make it then, but I filed it away in my mind (and on my computer).

So after I came home from the Seacoast Farmers' Market with beautiful bunches of Swiss chard from the New Roots stand, and knowing I had a tub of Narragansett Creamery's Renaissance Ricotta that needed to be used, I decided this was the time to try that lasagna.

I'd bought some heirloom tomatoes to make the sauce -- and some baby leeks, which weren't part of the recipe, but I thought would make a good addition. I also decided to defrost three of my brother-in-law Dave's homemade hot Italian sausages. Meat isn't called for in the recipe either, but it was definitely part of the taste I had in mind.

I made the tomato sauce according to instructions, though I added a second big sprig of basil, because I wanted more of that flavor. I did not peel and seed the tomatoes before cooking, and while I considered pureeing them in the food mill, I just left it all in. (I don't think it makes the sauce bitter and figure it adds fiber.)

I briefly contemplated asking Dave to make homemade noodles, then I got an idea: we have a terrific local pasta maker, Terra Cotta Pasta Co. -- perhaps they make lasagna noodles. Voila, they do! And the noodles are thin and wonderful, not like those thick no-boil ones you find in the supermarket. They're frozen, so you just leave them out to defrost and layer them in the pan. What could be easier?

The dish was a real treat. (I love the earthy chard taste, but I suspect the sausage and leeks were good additions, too.) And I'm crazy about those noodles. I suspect I'll be making lasagna more often now.

Lasagna With Chard, Tomato Sauce and Ricotta

By Martha Rose Shulman, NewYorkTimes.com

This savory vegetarian lasagna is easy to put together. You can assemble it up to a day ahead of time, then bake it shortly before dinner. (My non-vegetarian version includes Italian sausage and leeks.)

Ingredients
1 generous bunch Swiss chard (about 1 1/2 pounds)
Salt
1/2 pound regular or no-boil lasagna noodles
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 pounds fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced, or 1 (28-ounce) can chopped tomatoes, with juice
Pinch of sugar
1 large basil sprig
Freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup fresh ricotta cheese (I had more, so I used more, probably 1 cup all together)
1/3 to 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan (I added 1/2 cup of pecorino romano)
I also used hot Italian sausage, three links, which I removed from the skin and sauteed and three leeks which I sliced and sauteed in the sausage pan. I then added both to the tomato/chard sauce.

Instructions
1. Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil while you prepare the chard. Fill a bowl with ice water. Tear the leaves from the stems and wash thoroughly in two changes of water. Discard the stems or set aside for another purpose.

2. When the water comes to a boil, add the Swiss chard leaves. Boil 1 minute (from the time the water comes back to a boil), until tender but still bright green, then remove from the water with a slotted spoon or skimmer and transfer to the ice water. Drain and squeeze out excess water. Chop coarsely and set aside. Cook the lasagna noodles in the same pot of water if not using no-boil lasagna noodles. Remove the pasta from the pot and toss with 1 teaspoon olive oil in a bowl.

3. In a wide, nonstick frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium heat and add the garlic. Cook, stirring, just until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, sugar, basil sprig, and salt (begin with 1/2 teaspoon and add more later), and bring to a simmer. Simmer, stirring often, until thick, 15 to 25 minutes, depending on the amount of juice in the pan. Taste and adjust seasonings. Remove the basil sprig. Stir in the Swiss chard and remove from the heat. (I added the Italian sausage and leeks at this point.)

4. Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Oil a square or rectangular baking dish (no bigger than 2-quart) and line the bottom with a layer of lasagna noodles. Spread half the ricotta over the noodles and half the tomato-chard sauce over the ricotta. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons Parmesan over the tomato-chard sauce. Add another layer of noodles and top with the remaining ricotta and tomato-chard sauce, and 2 tablespoons Parmesan. Finish with a layer of noodles and the remaining Parmesan. Drizzle the remaining tablespoon of olive oil over the top. Cover the dish tightly with foil. Bake 30 minutes, or until bubbling and the pasta is tender. Uncover, allow to sit for 5 minutes, and serve.

Yield: Serves 4 to 6

Advance preparation: You can blanch the chard and make the sauce up to 3 days ahead. Refrigerate in covered containers. The lasagna can be assembled a day ahead of time and refrigerated until shortly before baking.

Assunta's Beans: Mille Grazie!

2010-09-27T11:10:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure how I developed a love affair with fresh shell beans. I'm not referring to the lima beans that were a staple in the Pennsylvania Dutch heartland where I grew up. I'm talking about cannellini, flageolet, and bortolini beans. The kind with romantic-sounding names that show up as ingredients in French and Italian cookbooks -- except you can usually only find them in their dried form here in the States. It begs the question: why go to all the trouble to dry them, when they're so marvelous cooked up fresh? I suspect the real reason is that they're very fragile -- and that so few home cooks understand how to prepare them.

The latter is a theory I get to test out every year when, as summer fades into autumn, fresh cranberry beans appear in the farmers' markets in Boston and Seacoast NH. Because their season seems so brief, I start looking out for them just before Labor Day. When I find them, as I did this weekend at the White Gate farm stand at the Seacoast Growers' Market, another customer inevitably asks me what I'm going to do with them. (In fact, it was just such an encounter that inspired this blog!) That's when I tell them about Assunta's beans.

Marcella Hazan's Italian cookbooks are a great source of recipes and stories about that cuisine. In Marcella Cucina, she talks about the delicious beans that Assunta, her husband Victor's one-time Tuscan housekeeper, used to make him. Perhaps it was the story, but I craved the opportunity to taste them for myself. So you can imagine that the first time I actually located fresh cranberry beans, it was ecstasy. I was not disappointed. Cooked at a bare simmer, with sage and garlic, in minimal water and a big splash of olive oil, they become fragrant, creamy, and flavorful. I must warn you, they'll lose that beautiful cranberry color, but they taste so good, you'll probably find yourself whispering "grazie" to Assunta -- and Marcella -- too.

Assunta's Beans
from Marcella Cucina by Marcella Hazan

Ingredients
1 lb unshelled fresh cranberry beans (about 2 cups shelled)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2/3 cup water
4 to 6 fresh sage leaves
3 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
Salt
Fresh ground black pepper
A good extra virgin olive oil to drizzle over the beans when serving

Instructions

1. Shell and rinse the beans.
2. Put the beans and all other ingredients in a small lidded pot. The beans should be just covered with water. Moisten a clean kitchen towel, squeezing out the excess water, and fold it to fit the pot lid. (Use one you won’t mind staining.) Cover the top of the pot with the towel and set the lid
3. Set the pot over a very low flame and cook slowly at the barest simmer. After 45 minutes, check the liquid and add a few tablespoons of water as needed. Repeat twice more in 20 minute intervals. You may have to adjust the quantity of water to match the level of heat. (The beans should never be soaking in water, but should have just enough to keep from sticking.) The beans should be done in about an hour and forty five minutes. Taste them. They should be firm but tender and the skin should have remained whole without cracking.
4. Drizzle with fresh olive oil when serving.
These are best served the moment they are done, but they can be made through the end a day in advance. Refrigerate in a tightly sealed container and reheat gently with a tablespoon or so of water.

Life is Just a Bowl of Cherry Tomato Sauce

2010-09-12T13:49:00.000-04:00

Sometimes one needs comfort food, even in the midst of a hot, dry summer. For me, comfort food has always been pasta of some sort -- maybe because it was always my mother's welcome-home food of choice. Or maybe it's the combination of carbs and cheese. Or just maybe it's because you can sit down to a steaming bowl of pasta with butter, garlic, and parmesan within say, ten minutes or so of realizing you're starving. Whichever, I was hungry for pasta. And I wanted something more substantial than a seasonally appropriate fresh, barely cooked tomato sauce.

Luckily that day was Copley Square farmers' market day in Boston. The Atlas Farm people had a lovely selection of cherry tomatoes -- and I had a recipe I was eager to try: Nancy Harmon Jenkins' Pasta with Baked Tomato Sauce, which I found courtesy of the food blog Wednesday's Chef.

Basically, you cut the cherry tomatoes in half, then top them with a mixture of dried bread crumbs, minced garlic, and parmesan and pecorino romano cheeses. I beg you, do not under any circumstance use the kind of dried breadcrumbs that come pre-packed in a tin. Make them yourself, as they provide an essential taste and texture to the dish. Once you make sure the bread crumb mixture has compeltely permeated the tomatoes, you bake them until they just start to brown on top.

Meanwile, cook some pasta. (I was lucky enough to have some fresh tomato basil spaghetti from Terra Cotta Pasta of Kittery Point, Maine in the fridge.) The only trick is to try and time the cooking of the sauce and the pasta so that both are done together. Just before serving, you toss the pasta and tomato mixture together with some torn basil leaves and enough olive oil to make a bit of a sauce, and you've got a feast that will no doubt leave you feeling very comforted, indeed.

The recipe says it serves four -- but I found it made a lovely dinner for one, with enough leftovers for a very satisfying lunch.

Pasta with Baked Tomato Sauce ala Nancy Harmon Jenkins

from Wednesday’s Chef

Serves 4

Ingredients
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil (I used about half that)
1 pound very ripe cherry tomatoes, halved
1/3 cup plain dry breadcrumbs (Remember, no pre-packaged stuff!)
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano
2 tablespoons freshly grated pecorino (or, if you don't have this, just more Parmigiano)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 pound dried penne or spaghetti
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, torn

Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 13-by-9-inch baking dish with one-third of the oil. Place the tomatoes cut side up in the dish.

2. In a small bowl, combine the bread crumbs, cheeses, and garlic and toss with a fork to mix well. Sprinkle the bread-crumb mixture over the tomatoes, making sure that each cut side is well covered with the crumb mixture. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake until the tomatoes are cooked through and starting to brown on top, about 20 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente. Time the pasta so it finishes cooking about the time the tomatoes are ready to come out of the oven.

4. When the tomatoes are done, add the basil and stir vigorously to mix everything into a sauce. Drain the pasta and immediately transfer it to the baking dish. Add the remaining olive oil and mix well. Serve at once.

Conserva the Summer

2010-09-04T16:21:00.000-04:00

I'm just dazzled by the array of tomatoes available now in the farmers' markets in both Portsmouth and Boston. And while this summer's heat and drought has been hard on flowers, it's been heaven for tomatoes. Even the lemon yellow heirlooms, which I too often find mushy and tasteless -- have a surprising deep flavor. I find myself calculating how many tomato-filled meals I can look forward to until the season finally ends. (You haven't lived if you haven't savored an heirloom tomato and Monterey Jack cheese quesadilla for breakfast, with warm tomato juice rolling off your chin! Today's will have leftover corn and bacon, too!)

One thing that's been very exciting is seeing the interesting selection of paste tomatoes
that New Hampshire farmers are growing. I'm talking way beyond San Marzano. At Barker's farm stand, I've seen the little Juliettes that Paul Bertolli, who has been a chef at the Bay area's Chez Panisse and Oliveto, mentions in a chapter called "Twelve Ways of Looking At Tomatoes", in his book Cooking By Hand. He suggests cutting them in half lengthwise and putting on a baking sheet filmed with olive oil, adding a little salt, then cooking them in a very slow oven (180 to 200 degrees) for five or six hours to concentrate the flavor. I'm looking forward to trying this.

However, thanks to Bertolli, one of my current tomato obsessions is Conserva, a super concentrated tomato paste made in the oven. (In Italy, it's called estratto, and there, it's the blazing hot sun that does the work, over the course of four to six days.) In my convection oven, it takes about five- and a-half hours (it can be closer to seven in a regular oven). Coincidentally, I found one of Bertolli's favorite sauce tomatoes, Principessa Borghese, at the Meadow's Mirth stand at the Seacoast Grower's farmer's market, so last Sunday, my sister Robin and I spent the afternoon chopping, sauteing, food milling and oven drying about 6 pounds of tomatoes. Though there's surprisingly little waste -- it appears that tomatoes are nothing but cells full of flavor -- we wound up with two Ziploc bags full of concentrated tomato essence. I suspect that next winter, we'll be grateful that we conserved a little of this summer's glory.

I'm looking forward to making some sauce next weekend, using Bertolli's sauce recipe. (Basically, this is the same as the Conserva -- only you saute some onions and garlic first, until softened, add the diced tomatoes, cook until soft, put through the food mill, then put the tomatoes into a clean pot and simmer on the stove top until it's the thickness you desire.) I suspect this year, our traditional night-before Thanksgiving spaghetti supper will be something to be really thankful for.

Conserva

from Cooking by Hand by Paul Bertolli

Total time: 20 minutes, plus 7 hours cooking time

Yield: 1 1/4 cup

Ingredients

5 pounds ripe, good-quality tomatoes

3 tablespoons olive oil, plus additional for storage

1 teaspoon salt

Preparation

1. Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Cut the ripe tomatoes into small dice; this promotes the most rapid cooking. Warm a little olive oil in a wide skillet or casserole. add the tomatoes and salt and bring to a rapid boil. Cook for about 2 minutes, or until tomatoes are very soft. Immediately pass them through the finest plate of a food mill, pushing as much of the pulp through the sieve as you can. The puree should be devoid of seeds. (Note: I did this in two batches.)

2. Lightly oil a baking sheet with olive oil. Spread the tomatoes in the pan in an even layer and place in the oven. If using a convection oven, cook for three hours. If not, cook for 5 hours until the water has evaporated from the paste. Use a spatula to turn the paste over on itself periodically as water evaporates and you notice the surface darken. Reduce the heat to 250 degrees and continue to evaporate the paste for about 21/2 to 3 hours, or until it is thick, shiny and brick-colored.

Tomato Conserva holds for a long time stored in glass canning jars and topped with one-half inch of olive oil. As you use it, maintain this level of olive oil on top. Store the Conserva in the refrigerator. Or put it in a large

Ziploc freezer bag, flatten, remove air, and freeze, breaking off pieces when needed.

Mad About Zucchini Carpaccio

2010-08-20T19:32:00.000-04:00

It wasn't exactly Mad Men -- but advertising in the early '80's had it's own level of pathos, humor, and craziness. I remember long lunches seated in the leather banquettes at Ciro & Sal's on Boylston Street in Boston, with Caesar salad, veal Milanese, and copious amounts of Soave. It was there that I discovered carpaccio: raw beef, sliced impossibly thin, then drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice and topped with capers and shaved Parmesan. There are restaurants that disappear without a whimper and places you mourn long after they've gone. For me, Ciro & Sal's is one of the latter. However, thanks to The Cafe Cookbook: Italian Recipes from London's River Cafe by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, I've found a new way of indulging my craving for carpaccio: with zucchini.

With their emphasis on fresh ingredients and authentic regional Italian recipes, Grey, who passed away this year, and Rogers helped to transform British cooking. (They also gave Jamie Oliver his start.) Their books can be hard to find, but are definitely worth any trouble you have to go to. This recipe is really more of a salad -- and there are no capers -- but the lemon/olive oil dressing and the Parmesan shavings come close to approximating the flavors that I long for, even as I feel a tinge of righteousness at eating organic zucchini rather than raw beef.

I found the perfect small zucchini at the Atlas Farm stand at the Copley Square Market in Boston. The secret is to slice the zucchini as close to paper thin as possible. You could use a mandolin, but I don't think that's really necessary; I just use a good sharp knife. Once you slice the zucchini, you marinate it for five minutes or so in the dressing -- then it's ready to be plated with some arugula, topped with Parmesan and served. It couldn't be easier. Or more delicious. It's even good for you.

Zucchini Carpaccio

from Cafe Cookbook: Italian Recipes from London's River Cafe

by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers

For 6 -- use only small, young zucchini for this salad

Ingredients

2 pounds young yellow and green zucchini
1 bunch arugula
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
Coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
6-ounce piece Parmesan, slivered

Instructions
1. Trim the ends off the zucchini and slice at an angle into thin rounds.
2. Pick through the arugula, discarding any yellow leaves. Snap off the stalks, then wash and dry the leaves thoroughly.
3. Mix together the olive oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper, and pour over the zucchini. Mix, then leave to marinade for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Divide the arugula between the serving plates. Put the zucchini on top and then add the Parmesan slivers. Add a small amount of freshly ground pepper, and serve.

Reinventing String Beans and Ham

2010-08-07T11:38:00.000-04:00

It all started with the ham steak that my brother-in-law Dave bought from Tim Rocha at Kellie Brook Farm in Greenland, NH last Friday. Usually we only have ham twice a year. Once in the fall, using a recipe based on my mother's Pennsylvania Dutch braised string beans and ham. And again at our Christmas party when I bake a whole ham with an orange marmalade glaze. Never mind tradition--Dave had a hankering for ham steak, cooked on the grill. I kiddingly said, "Well, maybe we should make string beans and potatoes to go with it." "Why not?" Dave joked back.

Why not indeed? After all, right now, string beans at their peak of flavor -- as opposed to the tough, old ones I look for when I'm going to braise them toward season's end. And tiny new potatoes are just coming in -- and at their most delicate. Just for fun, I started looking through a few cookbooks. It wasn't long before I found something I was dying to try in the Fields of Greens cookbook.

Greens is one of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco. In fact, I think they were one of the first restaurants to elevate vegetarian cooking to the level of fine cuisine. In this particular recipe, the green beans are blanched and the potatoes are first roasted, then grilled, which gives them a deep, earthy taste. (If you don't have a grill, you can just use the roasted potatoes.) You mix the beans and potatoes together with cherry tomatoes and a blender salad dressing that combines champagne wine vinegar, chopped garlic, fresh basil, and olive oil. The salad looks beautiful and tastes even better.

Dave grilled his ham steak with some mustard and balsamic vinegar, and grilled some fresh peaches that we'd bought that day from Susan McGeough at White Gate Farm in Epping, NH, to put on the side. And there it was: ham and string bean perfection on a warm, mid-summer evening. I'm sure we'll be having it again. And I think I'm going to be looking through this and my other Greens cookbooks for more summer vegetable recipe ideas.

Grilled New Potato Salad with Cherry Tomatoes, Summer Beans, and Basil
from Fields of Greens, New Vegetarian Recipes from the Celebrated Greens Restaurant

Ingredients
2 pounds new potatoes
Light olive oil
Salt and pepper
1/4 pound fresh summer beans: green, yellow wax, green or yellow Romano
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, sweet 100s or pears
1 handful frisée or salad greens (optional)
Basil-Garlic Vinaigrette (recipe follows)
Champagne vinegar
12 Niçoise or Gaeta olives (I didn't use these -- my Pennsylvania Dutch heritage rebelled at the though of olives wth ham and strong beans -- but I'm sure it would be a delicious addition)

Instructions
1. Prepare the grill, if using.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss the potatoes in a baking dish with a little olive oil and sprinkle with a few pinches of salt and pepper. Cover and roast until tender, about 35 to 40 minutes. (Keep checking if you're using tiny new potatoes like we did.) Set aside to cool. Cut the potatoes in half or quarters if large, then slide them onto skewers for grilling. If the grill grates are close together, skewers won't be necessary. (We left the tiny potatoes whole and used a grill basket.)
3. While the potatoes are roasting, remove the stem ends from the beans and cut in half diagonally or leave whole if they are small. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Drop beans in the water and cook until just tender, about 3 to 4 minutes, depending on their size. Rinse under cold water and set aside to drain. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half or leave whole if small. Wash the salad greens if using, and dry them in a spinner. Make the vinaigrette.
4. Place the potatoes on the grill, cut side down and grill until they're golden, crisp, and grill marks appear. Slide the grilled potatoes from the skewers and toss with the beans, cherry tomatoes, and vinaigrette. Adjust the seasoning, if needed, with a splash of Champagne vinegar and salt and pepper. Loosely arrange the greens on a platter, spoon the vegetables over, and garnish with the olives (if using).

Serves four

Basil-Garlic Vinaigrette
Ingredients
2 tablespoons Champagne vinegar
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 garlic clove, coarsely chopped

Instructions
Combine everything in a blender and blend until smooth.
Makes about 1/2 cup

Corn Off the Cob

2010-07-30T15:20:00.000-04:00

As a kid, I wasn't big on vegetables, except for corn. (When I was about eight or so, I had a favorite dish: I cut a broiled steak into bite-size pieces, mixed it with some corn -- the Green Giant Niblets variety-- and voila! Corn Beef! ) But it was corn on the cob that I loved best of all. My father's passion was gardening. Vegetables and fruit trees, mostly. Corn especially. Starting in mid-July, about every other day, we'd put a big pot of water on the stove and go out in the garden and pick that evening's corn. By the time the water was boiling, the ears were shucked and ready to cook. It didn't matter how often we had it; I never got
tired of it.

Today, I think corn on the cob is still my favorite summer vegetable. But now, I also like to find interesting ways to make it off the cob. Last fall, I was searching through some of Mark Bittman's old Minimalist columns in the online version of The New York Times. His recipe for Sauteed Corn and Tomato Salad caught my eye, but it was too late in the year for the best corn and tomatoes. So I filed it away for another year. Fortunately, I found it again recently, just in time to enjoy it with this season's crop.

There's a whole lot of flavor going on in this delicious dish. The corn gets sauteed until its almost brown, so it has a nice, semi-caramelized taste. There's a little bit of bacon to give it a smoky depth, some lime juice, which combines with the bacon for a tangy vinaigrette, and avocado that adds a cooling texture. There are even some Thai bird chilies to provide a little heat.

Sauteed Corn and Tomato salad makes a great side for just about any meal. If you have any leftover, put it between some corn tortillas with a little cheese and you have yourself a mighty fine quesadilla.

Pan-Roasted Corn and Tomato Salad
Mark Bittman, The New York Times
August 19th, 2009
Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
1/4 pound bacon, chopped (I used some of my brother-in-law's home-cured bacon, but any tasty slab bacon should do.)
1 small red onion, chopped
4 to 6 ears corn, stripped of their kernels (2 to 3 cups)
Juice of 1 lime, or more to taste
2 cups cored and chopped tomatoes
1 medium ripe avocado, pitted, peeled and chopped
2 fresh small chilies, like Thai, seeded and minced
Salt and black pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, more or less.

Instructions
1. Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat until it begins to render fat; add onion and cook until just softened, about 5 minutes, then add corn. Continue cooking, stirring or shaking pan occasionally, until corn begins to brown a bit, about 5 more minutes; remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes. Drain fat if you wish.
2. Put lime juice in a large bowl and add bacon-corn mixture; then toss with remaining ingredients. Taste, adjust the seasoning and serve warm or at room temperature.

Yield: 4 servings.

Crushed Potato Salad: What a Bite

2010-07-17T16:04:00.002-04:00

I get positively giddy the moment the first new potatoes appear in the farmers' market or in my CSA basket. I particularly like them when they're small enough to be eaten in just a single bite. I roast them in olive oil with some garlic, salt, and herbs, and when they're cool enough, just pop them into my mouth. I absolutely adore the way that floury potato flavor explodes with every bite. Perfection.

Of course, once I've eaten those little roasted potatoes a number of times, and as the smallest ones get harder to find, I start looking for other ways to cook new potatoes. A couple of weeks ago, long before potato season, a recipe from one of my favorite blogs, The Wednesday Chef by Luisa Weis, caught my eye: Ottolenghi's Crushed Potatoes with Horseradish and Yogurt. (Ottolenghi is Yotam Ottolenghi, the chef-owner of four veggie-centric restaurants that are all the rage in London. He also writes a vegetarian food column in the Guardian.) I don't know what appealed to me more -- the idea of crushed potatoes or the thought of horseradish.

While I was dying to try the recipe right away, I decided to wait until new potatoes were in. My patience was greatly rewarded. It's actually a potato salad, but it's unlike any other you've ever tasted. The horseradish (I used lots!) gives the potatoes a zingy, assertive bite, while the yogurt adds a tangy, creamy taste. The Wednesday Chef recipe was adapted from one that appeared in Ottolenghi: The Cookbook.

While Ottolenghi's original recipe calls for Greek yogurt, Weis strongly recommends against it -- she feels the salad really needs the moisture and silkiness of regular plain yogurt -- Liberté brand, if you can find it. (See her comment/correction to the previous version of this post below.) I have the good fortune to be able to get Brookford Farm yogurt at both the Portsmouth farmers' market and Philbrick's Fresh Market in Portsmouth. The yogurt is made in the East European style by a charming young couple, Luke and Caterina, from the milk from their herd of grass-fed Jerseys.

This potato salad is incredibly easy to make -- and it's one you could take to a picnic without worrying about the food-poisoning potential of mayonnaise. Ottolenghi also has a website that features a number of his recipes. I suspect I'll be going back there soon for more ideas.

Potato Salad with Yogurt and Horseradish

from Wednesday's Chef, based on a recipe from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook.
Serves 4

Ingredients
2 1/4 pounds of new potatoes
10 ounces, plus more to taste) plain yogurt
3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon, or more, of prepared ground horseradish (I used about half a bottle!)
4 scallions, thinly sliced (white and pale green parts)
Coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
A small box of garden cress (You could also use arugula or watercress)

Instructions
1. Wash the potatoes, but don't peel them. Put them in a pan with salted water to cover, cover, bring to a boil and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, until tender. Drain well, transfer to a large serving bowl and, while they are still hot, crush them roughly with a fork.

2. In a small bowl, mix the yogurt, olive oil, horseradish, scallions, salt and pepper to taste. Pour this dressing over the hot potatoes and mix well. Adjust the seasoning, adding more horseradish or more salt. You want the dressing to be assertive - the potatoes will mellow it out. Just before serving, snip in the garden cress and mix once more.

A Berry Fine Dessert

2010-07-10T18:25:00.012-04:00

I know many people who, when ordering in a restaurant, will happily forgo the appetizer course in order to save room for dessert. I, however, am not one of them. That's not to say that I don't enjoy a rich chocolate mousse or a slice of my brother-in-law's coconut cake or lemon curd tart every now and then. But truth be told, I'm just as happy to have the cheese course for dessert. So you can imagine, that when I offered to make dessert for a recent impromptu potluck, my guests were a bit taken aback.

It was a Tuesday, which not only meant that I was likely to find the season's first blueberries and raspberries at the Farmers' market in Copley Square, Boston. but that I might be able to get some of Narragansett Creamery's award-winning ricotta to go with those berries.

The first time I tasted that ricotta was a revelation. It was rich, creamy, slightly tangy. I couldn't wait to savor it in lasagna, with figs and prosciutto, and whipped with honey and berries. The latter was my plan for that evening.

In preparation, I'd found a recipe online at Epicurious.com, and made sure I had some of my favorite honey -- from White Gate Farm in Epping, NH.

The recipe couldn't have been easier -- all I had to do was use the food processor to whip the ricotta and the honey together with some sugar and vanilla, sprinkle a little sugar and lemon juice on the berries, and put them together at the last moment.

The result was heaven -- light and airy, yet full of flavor. It tasted just like I had imagined. And it looked as festive as could be. My guests loved it -- and so did I, because you know what? I got to have the cheese course for dessert after all.

Whipped Ricotta with Honey and Mixed Berries

from Bon Appetit

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients

2 cups whole-milk ricotta cheese (NOTE: If you can find fresh ricotta, which is less grainy than some of the commercial types, use it and omit the cream cheese.)

4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

4 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons honey

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups mixed fresh berries (such as blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and halved strawberries)

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Preparation

1. Blend ricotta, cream cheese (if using), 2 tablespoons sugar, honey, and vanilla in processor until smooth. Transfer to bowl. Cover bowl and refrigerate until ricotta mixture is slightly set, about 2 hours. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated. Stir before using.)

2. Combine berries, lemon juice and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar in large bowl; toss to coat. Let stand 30 minutes at room temperature.

3. Divide ricotta mixture among 6 wineglasses. Top with berries and serve.

Fun with Fennel

2010-07-06T18:47:00.003-04:00

When it comes to pickles, my brother-in-law Dave is the man. He pickles turnips in gin, carrots in mirin, and cucumbers just about any way you can imagine. That's why it's surprising that when you're talking fennel, I've become the pickle maven. I first tasted pickled fennel courtesy of my friend Jeri Quinzio, who, in addition to being an accomplished food blogger and award-winning culinary historian (her book on ice cream, Of Sugar and Snow: A History of Ice Cream Making, recently won the International Association of Culinary Professionals prize for culinary history), is an inspired cook.

Whenever you go to dinner at Jeri and her husband Dan's, you can count on having some kind of interesting mezze to start the meal. Her pickled fennel is one of my favorites.

Adapted from a recipe by Mario Batali, these pickles are truly tasty -- a great combination of sweet fennel and pungent vinegar. They're one of the big reasons I eagerly anticipate the first fennel of the season. So when I saw a couple of admittedly tiny bulbs at the Wake Robin Farm stand at the Portsmouth Farmers' Market, I pounced.

When I served my fennel pickles last weekend as one of the appetizers for a cocktail cruise, they disappeared fast. Fortunately, they're truly easy to make -- I mean how many two-step recipes do you have in your repertoire? Best of all, there's no waiting around for these pickles to cure. You can eat them as soon as they cool down from their pickle bath. Jeri uses less vinegar than Batali recommends -- and I use the full amount because I love that puckery taste -- must be my Pennsylvania Dutch heritage. Do whatever works best for you or your guests. But make plenty -- because even people who aren't crazy about regular pickles can't seem to get enough.

Fennel Pickles
Adapted from Mario Batali’s Babbo Cookbook

Ingredients
Two to three cups white wine vinegar (Jeri uses two, I use three.)
Two tablespoons sea salt
Fifteen - or so - black peppercorns
Two garlic cloves, peeled
One tablespoon fennel seeds
One-quarter cup sugar
Two fennel bulbs, more or less, depending on size, cored and cut into two- inch strips.
Some snipped fennel fronds for garnishing the cooled pickles, if desired

Preparation
1. In a large nonreactive saucepan combine vinegar, two cups water, salt, peppercorns, garlic, fennel seeds, and sugar. Bring to a boil.
2. Add the fennel pieces and cook until just tender. It varies from five to ten minutes or more. Remove pan from heat and set aside to cool.

Relish Those Cucumbers

2010-06-29T12:43:00.002-04:00

I've written before about my brother-in-law Dave's tradition of creating Friday night dinners that provide a quick, flavorful, and satisfying start to the weekend. Since mid-spring, when wild Pacific salmon began appearing in the seafood case at Philbricks Fresh Market in Portsmouth, those dinners have frequently centered around whichever species of oncorhynchus happens to be in season. I'd been dying to try the recipe for Wild Salmon with Vietnamese Cucumbers from David Tanis' A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes, which is probably my go-to cookbook of the moment. As soon as I saw the first cucumbers of the spring at the Copley Square Farmer's Market in Boston, I knew what we'd be serving that Friday.

The key to the cucumber dish is fresh herbs (as opposed to dried!) and the fish sauce, which is made from fish that have been allowed to ferment. Whether you use nuoc mam (Vietnamese) or mam pla (Thai) it has a distinctive, salty, savory taste (umami!)-- and is an essential ingredient in Southeast Asian cooking. You don't need to add a lot, but there really is no substitute. Most grocery stores carry it in the International Foods section.

These Vietnamese cucumbers are very easy to prepare, but it's best made about 20 minutes in advance of serving so the flavors can meld. And if there's time to chill it a bit, you get a lovely contrast with the hot fish.

As for cooking the salmon, Tanis drizzles it with a little olive oil and bakes it for 20 to 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Dave drizzled ours with a marinade of soy sauce, ginger, and scallions and grilled it. Tanis suggests serving this dish with jasmine rice, but we chose to have soba noodles with sugar snap peas in a ginger sauce and some sauteed tat soi .

Vietnamese Cucumbers ala David Tanis from A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes

Ingredients

4 large cucumbers

Vietnamese fish sauce (nuoc mam) or or Thai fish sauce (nam pla)

1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and cut into thin slices

1-3 tbsp palm sugar (available at Asian or Indian grocers, or use raw brown sugar)

2 or 3 limes

1-2 Fresh Thai chilies (or serranos or jalapenos), finely chopped

A few mint sprigs

A few basil sprigs

1-2 thinly sliced scallions

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Peel the cucumbers, cut them in half lengthwise, and remove the seeds with a spoon, if they are large. Slice the cucumbers into thickish half-moons and put in a large bowl. Sprinkle lightly with fish sauce, then add the ginger and a couple of tablespoons of palm sugar. Season with salt and pepper to taste. (The fish wauce is very salty.) Toss well and let cucumbers sit for 5 minutes or so.

2. Depending on the level of spiciness you desire, add anywhere from a teaspoonful to a tablespoon of finely chopped serrano or jalapeno chilies, (seeds removed if you prefer) or finely slivered Thai chilies. Squeeze in the juice from two limes, toss again, cover, and refrigerate until serving.

3. Just before serving, add a fistful of roughly chopped mint and basil leaves. Taste and adjust seasoning with lime juice, salt, and pepper. Garnish with thinly-sliced scallions.

A Feast of Roasted Radishes

2010-06-17T16:55:00.003-04:00

A few years ago, when I was reorganizing my cookbooks, I moved my small collection of Time-Life Foods of the World cookbooks out of the kitchen and into the bookcase that surrounds my living room mantle. Though they were written by some of the most preeminent food writers of their day -- for instance, Waverly Root wrote the Italian volume, M.F.K. Fisher and Julia Child, the French -- I'd always valued them much more for their evocative photography and storytelling than for the actual recipes. In fact, it was one of the pictures that I saw in The Cooking of Provincial France in the early seventies that changed the way I thought of radishes forever: a tow-haired boy of about four or five eating an open-faced sandwich of long rose-and-white breakfast radishes on a slice of well-buttered French bread. For someone who'd only eaten bright red radishes raw in salads or dipped in salt, it was a glimpse of an unknown, yet exciting world.

I had same thrill recently when I found not one, but two articles extolling the virtues of cooked radishes: one by Melissa Clark in The New York Times; the other by Donna Long in a Saveur article entitled Foods that Inspire. Needless to say, I was incredibly inspired by both. It was early May and the Farmers' Market in Portsmouth had just opened. I found a beautiful mixed bunch of radishes at the Wake Robin Farm stand.

I decided to take Melissa Clark's idea of combining radishes and feta and use Long's recipe for roasting.

Then I gave it a twist of my own: serving it on crackers as an hors'd oeuvre, as sort of homage to that tow-headed French boy who had captivated me with his radish sandwich so many years ago.

Roasted Radishes
with Feta Cheese on Crackers
Based on a recipe from Saveur Magazine

Ingredients
1 bunches assorted radishes
1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 sprigs fresh thyme
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Half cup of feta cheese, crumbled
8 large flat water crackers

Directions
1. Heat oven to 425˚. Trim radish greens; reserve for another use. Wash radishes, pat dry, and transfer to a large bowl with oil and thyme. Toss to combine; season with salt and pepper. 
2. Cut radishes in half and put them into a shallow baking dish and cook, turning occasionally, until golden brown and a small knife slides easily into radishes, about 20 minutes.
3. Sprinkled crumbled feta on the radishes and put back into the oven for a few minutes, until the cheese has melted.
4. Place on crackers and serve.

SERVES 4

Get Your Goat

2010-06-14T11:39:00.002-04:00

My cousin Christy was coming for a visit last weekend, and Robin, Dave, and I wanted to make her a special dinner as an early birthday celebration. She requested a tagine made with either veal or lamb, as she knew we have access to local meat that's humanely raised. We had recently purchased some goat kabob meat from Riverslea Farm in Epping at the Portsmouth Farmers' market, so we asked Christy if she would mind having her birthday tagine made with goat instead. Happily, she agreed.

Some people are skeptical about goat meat, fearing it will be tough and taste strong and, well, "goaty". We've found the goat meat we've bought at the Farmers' Market to be tender and delicious. Usually we have chops, so we were eager to cook with the kabob meat. We were also excited to try our new, bright red Le Creuset Moroccan Tagine. It's basically a shallow enameled dish with a tight-fitting conical lid, which keeps everything moist during the long simmer that makes a tagine so delicious.

Dave looked through a pile of cookbooks before deciding to adapt David Tanis' recipe for chicken tagine with pumpkin and chickpeas for the goat -- and for spring. Tanis, who spends half the year as chef at Chez Panisse in Berkeley and the other half living in Paris, had suggested that tomatoes could be substituted for the pumpkin. As we happened to have a can of chopped tomatoes in the pantry, we were all set.

The spices in both the goat and the chickpeas are fragrant and heavenly. Dave substituted his favorite maras pepper for the freshly ground black pepper called for in the recipe. It's bright red, with a deep flavor -- there's some heat, but it's not overwhelming. Long before we ate, the smells coming from the kitchen were exotic and inviting. And when we finally sat down, we had a meal worth celebrating.

Goat Tagine with Tomatoes and Chickpeas

Based on the recipe for chicken tagine with pumpkin and chickpeas in A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes by David Tanis

Serves 6

Ingredients

FOR THE CHICKPEAS

1 lb. (2 cups) dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans) , picked over and soaked overnight in cold water (I used the quick-soak method from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, a great basic cookbook: put the chickpeas in a pan, cover with cold water to cover, boil for two minutes, then soak for 2 hours in the cooking water, drain, then cook in fresh water per your recipe.)

1 large onion, quartered
1 cinnamon stick
A few cloves
Extra virgin olive oil
Coarse salt
Butter
Pinch of ground cinnamon
Minced parsley

FOR THE TAGINE
1 medium can of chopped tomatoes
Coarse salt
2 teaspoons maras pepper
3 pounds of goat meat cut for kebabs
3-inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, lightly toasted and roughly ground
2 large onions, diced small
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoons butter
6 garlic cloves, sliced
Large pinch of saffron
Red pepper flakes or cayenne

Harissa Oil (see recipe below)

Instructions
FOR THE CHICKPEAS
1. To cook the chickpeas (or garbanzo):, drain the soaked chickpeas, put them in a saucepan, and cover with 3 quarts of water. Add the onion, cinnamon stick, cloves, a splash of olive oil, and a little salt. Bring to a boil, then simmer gently uncovered, for about an hour, or until the chickpeas are tender. Taste for salt
and adjust. Leave the chickpeas to cool in the cooking liquid.

FOR THE TAGINE
1. Season the goat meat with a little salt, the cumin seeds, grated ginger, and the maras pepper. (If you don't have maras, use freshly ground regular pepper.) Set the meat aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
3. In a skillet over medium heat, saute the onions in a combination of butter and olive oil until softened. Season with salt and continue cooking until the onions are lightly golden, about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the sliced garlic cloves. Crumble the saffron over the onions. Stir the onions and season to taste with red pepper.
4. Arrange the onions in a tagine or shallow earthenware casserole (or two if necessary), and then top with the tomatoes and their juices. Now, put the goat over the tomatoes in one layer. Add 1/2 cup of chickpea cooking liquid or enough to barely cover the meat.
5. Cover the casserole and bake for 20 minutes or so, until the liquid is bubbling briskly. Reduce the
heat to 375 degrees and continue cooking for another 30 minutes, or so until the goat is tender and yields
easily to a probing fork. Take the casserole from the oven and skim any surfacing fat with a shallow ladle.
6. Warm the chickpeas in their cooking liquid, then drain and deposit them in a warmed bowl. Swirl in a little butter, the cinnamon, and some chopped parsley.
7. Give each diner a serving of goat with some tomatoes and a good ladle of broth, Spoon some chickpeas over each serving. Pass a bowl of the spicy harissa oil for drizzling

HARISSA OIL
Ingredients
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 tablespoon sweet paprika or mild ground red chile
1 teaspoon Aleppo, cayenne, or other powdered hot red chile
1 to 2 garlic cloves, smashed to a paste with a little salt
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup olive oil
A few drops of red wine vinegar

Directions
1. Toast all the seeds in a dry pan over medium heat until they are fragrant. Grind the toasted seeds in
a mortar or spice mill, then put them in a bowl.
2. Add the paprika, red pepper, garlic, and salt. Stir in the olive oil and vinegar. The harissa will keep in
the fridge for up to a week.
Makes about 1 cup.

Give Peas a Chance

2010-06-05T12:21:00.005-04:00

I try to eat seasonally, but sometimes (all too often, really) my mouth gets ahead of things. I feel that way about peas. To me, peas seem like the perfect spring vegetable, like artichokes or asparagus. Alas, in New England, fresh peas are rarely available until late June -- hence that traditional Fourth of July dish, salmon and peas. Fortunately, I've found a way to get the pea fix I've been craving. Right now, a number of the farmers at the markets in Portsmouth and Boston are selling pea tendrils. These actually aren't really tendrils at all, but rather the leaves and shoots of a young pea plant. I've discovered that they have a surprisingly strong, authentic pea flavor.

Last week, we found fresh pea tendrils at the Meadow's Mirth stand in Portsmouth. Usually we serve pea tendrils raw in salads or lightly sauteed as part of an Asian stir fry. This time, we decided it would be fun to try using them instead of basil in a pesto sauce for homemade pasta with smoked scallops. While Dave and Robin made the pasta and smoked the local day-boat scallops in our Bradley smoker, I made the pesto, using the blender pesto recipe from Marcella Hazan's The Classic Italian Cookbook. (I, however, find it easier to use the Cuisinart rather than the blender.)

The pea tendril leaves are about the same size and texture as basil leaves, but they don't bruise as easily and don't discolor. I toast the pine nuts just a little before adding them to the pesto and I don't use the butter as Marcella suggests.

By the way, this recipe freezes well, as long as you don't add the cheese until you're ready to serve it. In the fall, we often use it to make huge quantities of basil pesto before the frost does in that tender herb. This year, I might try making some pea tendril pesto for the freezer as well. After all, sometimes, I get a hankering for peas in winter, too.

Blender Pesto
ala Marcella Hazan from The Classic Italian Cookbook
Enough for about 6 servings of pasta

Ingredients
2 cups fresh basil leaves (I used 2 cups of pea tendrils. This recipe also works for parsley, cilantro or garlic scape pesto.)
1/2 cup of olive oil (I use extra virgin)
2 tablespoons pin nuts (I toast them briefly)
2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed with a heavy knife handle and peeled
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons freshly grated Romano pecorino cheese
3 tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature (I eliminate this -- and add more cheese, if the texture isn't right.)

Directions
1. Put the basil, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic cloves, and salt in the blender and mix at high speeds. Stop from time to time and scrape the ingredients down towards the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. [Using the Cuisinart, I pulsed the pea tendrils, pine nuts, garlic cloves, and salt, then added the olive oil in a stream to make an emulsion.]
2. When the ingredients are evenly combined, pour into a bowl and beat in the two grated cheeses by hand. (This is not much work and results in a more interesting texture and better flavor than you get when you mix the cheese in the blender.) [When I'm using the Cuisinart, I take out the blade and mix by hand in the bowl.] When the cheese has been has been evenly incorporated into the other ingredients, beat in the softened butter. [I usually eliminate this step.]
3. Before spooning the pesto over the pasta, add to it a teaspoon or so of the hot water in which the pasta has been boiled.

If you want to freeze the pesto, follow the recipe in Step 1. DO NOT ADD CHEESE OR BUTTER. To take up less room in the freezer, I put enough for a portion in a Ziploc freezer bag, flatten, seal tightly, and freeze. Before using, thaw overnightin the refrigerator. When completely thawed, beat in the cheese and butter as in Step 2. Before spooning over pasta, add the pasta water as in Step 3.

Ta-Ta: Tat Soi

2010-05-24T18:09:00.001-04:00

It was the morning I'd been waiting for since October: the opening of the Seacoast Growers' Market in Portsmouth. Of course, we've been lucky enough to have fresh local root vegetables and greens throughout the off-season, what with our CSA and the monthly winter markets. But I just love being outside at this hilltop market, with its views of the Mill Ponds and the city--even in the rain.

This far north, the May markets are more about seedlings, than actual produce, but I look at it as a preview of the season to come. It's fun to see all the different varieties of heirloom tomatoes and peppers that will be coming my way in July. I was also hoping to find something that would make a tasty lunch on a cool, drizzly day

Amongst the rhubarb and salad greens, I noticed that Wake Robin Farm had some fresh tat soi. I remembered that there was a container of homemade Asian pork stock in our freezer, along with couple of containers of chicken stock. And I also knew we had a stash of Trader Joe's frozen Chinese dumplings. Sounded like all the fixings for a soup of Asian greens.

Tat soi is a leafy green with a taste that's spicier than bok choy, but not as sharp as mustard greens. Like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and kale, it's a member of the brassica family. And like its cousins, tat soi is high in minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants. It tastes great raw in salads or lightly sauteed in stir fries, but it also has the right texture and flavor to be the star of a soup.

As the stock was defrosting, I put some minced ginger and garlic and a couple of Thai bird's-eye chilis and lime leaves in an oversized tea ball and put it in the soup to add some Asian spice. (I like to keep a selection of lime leaves and chilis in the freezer in both Portsmouth and Boston so I can add a quick Asian flavor to sauces, soups, and stir fries.) I washed and chopped the tat soi and sliced some carrots and scallions.

When the stock came to a boil, I added the carrots and scallions and simmered slowly until they were tender. I first added the tat soi stems, and when those had softened slightly, I swirled the leaves into the steaming broth along with a package of dumplings. When the soup was ready, I ladled it into some bowls -- making sure everyone got a nice helping of dumplings, and sprinkled some chopped cilantro on top.

You could make this soup with canned or boxed chicken stock -- preferably organic and low salt. You could also add some shittake mushrooms or leftover roast pork or chicken. But on this grey, mid-spring day, the fresh, spicy green flavor of the tat soi itself was just perfect.

Potato Salad: Why Not Think Pink

2010-04-22T20:12:00.002-04:00

Maybe it's the fact that the temperature hit 90 degrees on Easter. Or that it seems I haven't needed a coat in weeks. Or that our chive plants in Portsmouth were flourishing in March.

Whatever the reason, I had a hankering for that old summer picnic standby, potato salad.

The night before, we'd rotisseried a couple of chickens outside on our Weber grill -- so there was cold chicken in the fridge. And we'd spent the morning at one of the last of the Seacoast Winter Farmers' Markets, so we had fresh greens from Heron Pond Farm for a salad. What could be a better accompaniment to an April alfresco lunch on the deck than a homemade potato salad? There was only one hitch: I knew the potatoes we had on hand were Adirondack Reds, the pink-fleshed relatives of the blue potatoes I wrote about last time. I wondered: could potato salad be pink?

The answer would probably have been "no" if I'd been thinking about the traditional American mayonnaise-based version. But I'd spent the past year or so trying to replicate the potato salad from Karl's Sausage Kitchen on Route 1 in Saugus, which with its vinegary, oniony taste, is my current gold standard. Sure, I could probably ask Karl's for their recipe, but then I'd miss all the fun of trying to figure it out myself.

Here's what I've come up with so far: first, onions should be minced, not chopped. Second, in order to get as much flavor into the potatoes as possible, I sprinkle a healthy amount of salt into the cooking water. (Is there such a thing as a healthy amount of salt?) Third, as soon as the potatoes can be handled after cooking, I slice them (leaving the skins on, because there are lots of nutrients there) and put them into some champagne or white wine vinegar, mixed with a little white wine. If I've minced the onions in the food processor, which I usually do for this, I also pour in the onion juice, frequently adding a little prepared horseradish as well. You'll have to rely on taste here, rather than a recipe, as much will depend on how pungent the onions are as well as the sharpness/sweetness of your vinegar.

The hot potatoes will absorb this mixture, so once things have cooled down a bit, I give it all a taste -- this will help me decide how to make my viniagrette dressing. Are things too puckery bitter? I may want to add a little sugar. Too bland? Maybe a little dijon mustard, another pinch of salt, and some more horseradish. Once those decisions are made, I add the onions, dress the potatoes with a bit of my viniagrette, to which I've added only enough oil to give it body, plus a few twists of freshly ground pepper, and a big handful of those chives that started it all.

You can eat this potato salad warm or cold, but I like it chilled just a little bit, so the flavors have time to meld. Now, don't you agree: there's nothing like pink potato salad served with cold chicken on a plate of greens to make you think summer.

Three Cheers for the Greens and Blue

2010-04-10T13:54:00.002-04:00

I always want to enjoy springy tastes for Easter dinner, even when the weather is cold and dreary. That was even more true this past Easter, when the temperature hovered around 80 degrees F. For instance, while I know that asparagus season doesn't happen until June in New England, Easter without roasted asparagus topped with grated Meyer lemon peel just wouldn't be same. (I feel the same way about the dark chocolate-covered coconut and peanut butter Easter eggs made by the Women's Guild of Schwarzwald United Church of Christ in Jacksonwald, Pa, which thankfully, my brother Glenn sends us every year.)

Fortunately, local lamb and soup made with local celeriac was on the menu. We had some potatoes left over from our winter CSA and I thought briefly about roasting them, but I wanted something a little more "green" and fancy. I'd seen a recipe for a Greens and Potato gratin in the New York Times a while back. It was so tempting, it had been like money burning a hole in my pocket, as my grandmother used to say. (The recipe is part of Martha Rose Shulman's ongoing series of Recipes for Health, which I check out faithfully week after week because she's given me so many great ideas.) One thing I like about this gratin is that it's mostly greens, with just a few potatoes to give it some substance. Also, it's made with low-fat milk, instead of cream, like so many gratins are.

When we checked out our potatoes, we got a bit of a surprise. These were not ordinary potatoes, but Adirondack Blues, with a beautiful bluish purple skin and flesh that doesn't fade when cooked. (This hybrid was bred by Cornell University potato breeder Walter De Jong in 2003; the skin and flesh have a high level of antioxidants and wonderful rich, nutty taste.) Just the thing to make a greens and potato gratin even more fancy!

While the recipe called for chard, beet greens or kale, we used arugula because we wanted it to have a more spicy flavor. The result was a colorful, delicious treat that I know will be on our table more than once a year at Easter.

Greens and Potato Gratin

Martha Rose Shulman

New York Times, March 8, 2010

This nourishing gratin makes a great vegetarian main dish. In addition to all of those nutrients provided by the greens, you’ll get lots of Bvitamins, vitamin C and potassium from the potatoes.

Ingredients
2 to 2 1/2 pounds greens (such as chard, beet greens or kale), stemmed and cleaned
3/4 pound small potatoes (such as baby Yukon Gold or new potatoes)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
3 large eggs
3/4 cup low-fat milk
2 ounces Gruyère cheese, grated (1/2 cup, tightly packed)
1 ounce Parmesan, grated (1/4 cup)

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Oil a 2-quart gratin or baking dish. Place the potatoes and salt to taste in a large pot of water (you’ll be cooking the greens in the same water), and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, cover partially and boil the potatoes until tender when pierced with a knife, about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, stem the greens and wash the leaves thoroughly, making sure to remove all sand.

2. When the potatoes are done, remove from the water and set aside until cool enough to handle, then cut in 1/2-inch slices. Bring the water back to a rolling boil, and add the greens. Blanch for about two minutes (three or four minutes for kale) until just tender. Remove from the water with a slotted spoon or deep-fry skimmer, and transfer immediately to a bowl of cold water. Drain and squeeze out excess water. Chop coarsely and set aside.

3. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium heat in a large nonstick skillet. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds to a minute. Stir in the greens, potatoes and parsley, and gently toss together. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and remove from the heat.

4. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs and milk. Stir in the Gruyère and Parmesan, and add more salt and pepper. Combine everything thoroughly. Taste and adjust seasonings. Scrape into the gratin dish. Drizzle the remaining tablespoon of olive oil over the top, and place in the oven. Bake 30 to 40 minutes, until lightly browned on the top. Allow to sit for 15 minutes before serving.

Yield: Serves six.

Advance preparation: This keeps well for about three days in the refrigerator. You can reheat in a medium oven or serve at room temperature. You can make the dish through step 3 up to a day ahead.

Magic Pan Redux

2010-03-02T13:11:00.001-05:00

In the mid 70s, when my sister Robin was studying the harp at Boston University and I was just beginning my career as an advertising copywriter, we lived together on the first block of Marlborough Street. (Trust me, it was not the ritzy address it is today!) Just two blocks over, on Newbury Street, was one of our favorite restaurants, the iconic Magic Pan, scene of many wine-soaked ad lunches and festive dinners with our mother. (I much preferred it to the creperie just a few blocks away on Boylston Street, where the fare was much more authentic, as I discovered to my dismay, the first time I ordered crepes in France.

Like fondue in the 60's, crepes were a dish of an era. Eventually, the Magic Pan went out of business; though we hung on for a while longer, making our own with the crepe maker our father had given Robin one Christmas. It wasn't until many years later, when our parents moved to Portsmouth, and we discovered the small Maine shrimp, that we remembered just how much fun it was to make crepes.

The shrimp reminded me of my favorite Magic Pan crepes, the Coquille St. Jacques, which despite the name were made with shrimp and mushrooms, in addition to scallops. (Despite being gone for nearly 20 years, the Magic Pan has a fanatically loyal fan base of customers and employees who have a web site called the Magic Pan Project, where you can find all sorts of recipes. It's where I learned that the recipe for spinach souffle crepes begins "Take Stouffer's frozen spinach souffle..."!)

Armed with with our trusty crepe maker and an understanding of the basic ingredients: béchamel sauce, sherry, gruyère cheese, we set out to recreate the Magic Pan Coquille St. Jacques crepes -- minus the mushrooms and ironically, the scallops. It was a hit, and we've made them once a year or so ever since.

Robin uses the crepe recipe in From Julia Child's Kitchen, and I use Julia's béchamel recipe as a foundation for making the sauce. Then we briefly saute the shrimp in butter and shallots, fold them into the sauce along with the sherry and the cheese, sprinkle a little parsley and more sauce on top, and voila, the magic is back!

Crepes Au Maine Baby Shrimp
(Makes 12 crepes)

For the crepes: (From Julia Child's Kitchen)
Ingredients
3 "large" eggs broken in a 4-cup measure (or a bowl)
2/3 cup milk
2/3 cup water, plus droplets more if needed
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons dark sesame oil or peanut oil, plus peanut oil for greasing the pan.
1 cup Wondra flour

Note: you'll also need a wire whip, a 5 1/2 inch pan, preferrably non-stick, and 24 wax paper squares, 6 inches to a side to keep the cooked crepes separate.

This recipe makes more crepes than you'll need, which means you need not despair if it takes you a bit to get the hang of making them. You can refrigerate or freeze the leftovers for another use.

Directions
1. Beat eggs to blend whites and yolks, then beat in liquids, salt, and oil; gradually beat in flour. Let stand 20 - 30 minutes (or longer, if need be, in the refrigerator.)
2. Place pan over moderately high heat and brush lightly with oil. (This is usually only necessary for the first crepe.) Test temperature of the pan with a few droplets of water. It should sizzle when ready.
3. Pour 2 tablespoons of batter into a ladle or big spoon, then, grasping the handle of the pan -- use a pot holder or better yet, a heat-proof sleeve -- pour the batter into the center of the pan. Immediately tip the pan rapidly to spread the batter all over the bottom surface. Set directly on the burner -- bubbles should appear immediately, if not the pan is not hot enough.
4. Cook about a half minute or until an edge when lifted is brown underneath; when you shake the pan hard, the crepe will usually come loose. Flip the crepe over on its other side. Cook 15 to20 seconds more. (This is the inside of the crepe, so don't worry if it doesn't brown.) Place a wax-paper square on a plate and slide the crepe onto it and cover with another wax paper square.) Don't worry if the first crepe is not a beauty -- it may take several practice crepes to get the right temperature, batter amount, and technique. Crepes should be no more than 1/16 inch thick, and they should be light and delicate in texture, with enough body to hold together, so they can be rolled and filled. If batter is too thick, you can thin it by beating in more water by droplets. Repeat with remaining batter.

For the sauce (From Julia Child's Kitchen)
(Makes 2 cups)
Ingredients
2 cups milk (heated to just below simmer)
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
Salt and pepper to taste
2 ounces gruyère
1 tablespoon dry sherry
(Note: I add a tablespoon of minced shallot as the butter melts)

Directions
In a heavy bottomed saucepan, melt the butter, add shallots (if using), then blend in flour with a wooden spatula. Stir over moderate heat until butter and flour foam together for 2 minutes without coloring more than a buttery yellow. Remove from heat, pour in all the milk at once and beat vigorously with a wire whip to blend roux and liquid. Add salt and pepper. Blend in cheese and sherry. If the sauce is too thick, you can add a little more milk.

For the filling:
Ingredients
1 tablespoon butter
1 lb. Maine shrimp, shelled and cleaned
1 large shallot, minced

Directions
1. Saute the shallots in butter until just soft. Add the shrimp and heat until just warm.

To finish the crepes:
(If desired, you can add 1 oz. of parmesan cheese to the sauce that goes on top of the stuffed and rolled crepes and sprinkle the finished dish with minced parsley.

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
1. Coat the shrimp mixture with sauce, so it is creamy, but not soupy. Reserving remaining sauce, adding 1 oz. of parmesan, if using.
2. Lay each crepe worst side up. Spread with a genereous amount of filling, keeping in mind how many crepes you are making. Fold and arrange in a greased ovenproof dish, big enough to hold all crepes in a single layer. Top the crepes with the remaining sauce and heat in oven for ten minutes, then serve, topped with minced parsley, if desired.

Not Just Floundering Around

2010-02-16T13:53:00.001-05:00

In his graduate school and bachelor days, my brother-in-law Dave had two requirements for potential roommates. They had to own a stereo and had know how to cook. So it's pretty amusing that Dave has become the kind of person who cures his own bacon and pastrami, makes homemade sausage and pasta, and bakes his own bread. He not only loves to cook, he loves to invent his own recipes. Like he did the other night, for one of his Friday night dinners.

This tradition began when Dave took a new job that was equidistant from Boston and Portsmouth. Friday nights, he would head to Portsmouth after work, stop at the store and start dinner, while my sister Robin and I made the drive up from Boston. When we arrived, dinner preparations were underway, wine would already be poured, and some kind of little pre-dinner snack would be waiting on the kitchen counter. It was very welcoming, and now, whoever gets to Portsmouth first tries to replicate it.

Friday night dinners are usually straightforward -- after all, we want to be finished eating in time to watch Numbers on TV. But in both thought and execution, these meals frequently display an adventurous spirit. Last week, Dave had been talking about making something with the local-caught flounder we've been seeing regularly at Philbrick's Fresh Market in Portsmouth. Fortunately that Friday night, there was not just flounder at Philbrick's, but Maine baby shrimp as well. Right on the spot, Dave decided he'd make flounder with a shrimp stuffing for dinner. While it sounds elaborate, his preparation was actually quite simple.

First, Dave took three flounder fillets, put some baby shrimp on each one, rolled them up and secured them with some kitchen twine, seasoning them with a little salt and freshly ground pepper. Next, he sweated some chopped scallions in about 4T of butter over low heat, until they started to get soft. Then, he turned the heat in the skillet to medium high and added the flounder fillets. When they were just browned, he added some vermouth to deglaze the pan and create a little sauce. When the fish was just about cooked, he removed it, added the juice and zest of one lemon, plus a lot of tarragon, maybe 1/8 of a cup to the pan. He swirled it around to combine, then put the fish back into the pan, sprinkled some bread crumbs on top and put into a 425-degree oven to crisp up the bread crumbs.

Served with some roasted potatoes, sauteed kale, and a salad, it couldn't have been better, easier, or healthier. If you live near the NH Seacoast, there are now a number of places to buy locally-caught fish and shrimp. Contact the Yankee Fishermens' Co-op at 603) 474-9850 or Eastman's Fish in Seabrook (603-760-7422) to find the place nearest you. Or look for wild-caught flounder and shrimp at your local seafood market.

Dave's Flounder Stuffed with Maine Baby Shrimp
(Serves 4)

Ingredients
1 pound of baby Maine shrimp, cleaned and shelled. (You can also use regular shrimp, but you should chop and saute them first for about two minutes as they probably won't cook through the way the Maine shrimp will when stuffed in the flounder.)
4 flounder fillets, cleaned and skinned
1 big bunch of scallions, finely chopped, both white and green parts
4 T butter
1/4 cup vermouth or white wine
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/8 cup of tarragon, chopped
1/2 cup of fresh bread crumbs (not packaged)
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Put the flounder fillets on a clean surface. Put 1/4 of the baby shrimp on each fillet, roll them up and secure with kitchen twine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

3. Put 4 T of butter in an oven-proof saute pan big enough to hold all the flounder filets in one layer. Sweat the scallions over low heat until they start to get soft.

4. Turn up the heat to medium high and add the flounder fillets. Cook until just browned on all sides. Add the vermouth and cook until the fish is almost done.

5. Remove fish, add lemon juice, zest, and tarragon to the pan. Swirl to combine.

6. Add the fish back to the pan, sprinkled some bread crumbs on fillet and put into the oven until the bread crumbs are just crisp.

Chili With a Spicy Beet

2010-02-15T18:30:00.000-05:00

Late Saturday afternoon, Robin, Dave, and I journeyed from Portsmouth NH to Marlborough, MA to have dinner with our friend, Candace. On the way, we stopped at Heron Pond Farm in South Hampton, NH to pick up our semi-weekly Winter CSA share. From an eating perspective, this CSA has been one of the best things we have ever done. In combination with the Seacoast Grower's winter farmers' markets, we've been able to enjoy fresh-from-the-farm vegetables and eggs all winter, including greenhouse-raised salad greens, endive, and spinach. Of course, we also get our share of root vegetables, so I'm always looking for interesting new ways to use turnips, parsnips, rutabags, and beets. Imagine my pleasure at learning that the excellent chili that Candace served us for supper had a surprising ingredient: red beets.

The recipe, from Good Housekeeping, is easy to make and looks as good as it tastes. It's vegetarian, too, though I suppose if you wanted to, you could add a little ground beef or turkey. The chipolte pepper gives it a nice, mellow heat, but you could probably add some chili powder if you wanted to up the Scoville Scale. Thanks to Candace for sharing the recipe and taking the photos. (And for a fun evening!) This is one chili that's too good to save for Valentine's Day.

Valentine’s Day Red Chili

Good Housekeeping, February 2010

Ingredients
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoons dried oregano
½ teaspoon chipotle chile powder
2 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 large beets (6 to 8 oz. each), trimmed, peeled and chopped
1 jumbo red onion, finely chopped
1 large red pepper, chopped
Fresh ground pepper, to taste
4 cloves garlic, crushed with press
1 can (28 oz.) fire-roasted diced tomatoes
1 ½ cup cooked or 1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 ½ cup cooked or 1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 ½ cup cooked or 1 can (15 oz) pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup water
1 cup reduced –fat sour cream
¼ cup packed fresh cilantro leaves

Directions
1. In 7- to 8-quart Dutch oven or heavy saucepot, combine cumin, oregano, and chile powder. Cook on medium 1 to 2 minutes or until toasted and fragrant. Transfer to sheet of waxed paper; set aside. In the same Dutch oven, heat oil on medium until hot. Add beets, onion, pepper, and freshly ground black pepper. Cook 15 minutes or until vegetable are tender, stirring occasionally.

2. Add garlic and reserved spice mixture. Cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add tomatoes, beans, and water. Heat to boiling on medium-high. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer 30 minutes, stirring and mashing some beans occasionally. Makes about 9 cups (six servings). Divide among serving bowls and top with sour cream and cilantro.

Rabbit Tales and Other Farmers' Market Goodies

2010-02-06T16:40:00.003-05:00

It was a couple of days into my first and only trip to Venice about thirty years ago. I had a friend with a boat and we'd gone off to spend the morning walking the beach at the Lido and visiting the glass factories in Murano. Afterwards, we went to this little family trattoria where my friend was well known. There was no ordering, dishes just appeared at the table. The first course was aragosta, kind of local lobster, if I remember correctly. The second was coniglio. The taste was rich and wonderful. Thus I became a fan of eating rabbit.

Here in the States, rabbit is the last frontier. You'd never think of serving it to guests without checking with them first, "You do eat rabbit, don't you?" Sadly, the answer is frequently "no", which is too bad, because Barbara Hutchinson of Jocose Farm in Chester, NH raises absolutely wonderful rabbits from French stock. (Barbara shows a flintly, New England disdain for those who are too timid to try rabbit. The bumper sticker on her truck says it all. "Save an endangered species. Eat it." ) Farm-raised rabbits are very tender, quite lean, and high in protein. And their all-vegetable diet makes them healthy to eat.

Last Saturday was the kind of cold winter day that makes you want to stay inside and cook. And so we did, making a baked mustard rabbit for that night's meal and a lamb osso buco for Sunday night dinner -- both recipes from David Tanis' excellent book, A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes. Tanis, who spends six months a year as executive chef at Chez Panisse, has written this delightful book of simple, yet magnificent seasonal recipes especially for home cooks.

He serves his rabbit with parsnips epiphany-style, showcasing yet another unfortunately underused ingredient. As fresh parsnips had arrived as part of our Heron Pond winter CSA that afternoon, we made those, too, halving both recipes.

Dave prefers to cut up a rabbit using the technique described by Judy Rodgers in the Zuni Cafe Cookbook. This gives you four different cuts of meat: 2 plump hind legs, 2 smooth, tapered loins, two belly flaps, 2 bony forelegs. He decided to make us a first-course composed salad using sauteed rabbit loins, plus fresh radish greens, radishes, and carrots from our CSA, drizzled with a sherry viniagrette.

For the faint-hearted, the mustard rabbit could be made with chicken. But I suggest you try one of Barbara's rabbits, if available. She can be reached at 603-887-4863 or at jocosefarm@msn.com.

Mustard Rabbit in the Oven
Serves 8
Ingredients
2 rabbits, about 2 1/2 pounds each
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup strong Dijon mustard (Tanis suggest adding a little dry mustard powder as French mustard imported to the U.S. is not as pungent as that sold there.)
2 teaspoons mustard seeds, crushed (optional)
1 3/4 cups heavy cream (Tanis uses homemade Creme Fraiche and includes a recipe in his book, but we just use the heavy cream.)
8 garlic cloves, sliced
1/2 pound thick-sliced bacon or pancetta, cut crosswise into 1/4" lardons
4 bay leaves
thyme branches
sage branches
A little dry white wine or chicken broth, if needed

Directions
1. Ask the butcher to cut the rabbit into six pieces (or do it yourself with a small cleaver -- if you get your rabbit from Barbara, you'll have to do it yourself, but it's actually quite easy, like cutting up a chicken,only with four legs) as follows: cut the saddle into 2 pieces. Divide the hind legs. Cut the foresection in half through the backbone, leaving the forelegs attached to the ribs. (Or you can use the Judy Rodgers method, like we do. Essentially, you remove the legs and forelegs at the joint. Carefully bone the chest cavity. You will have four legs, two boneless rabbit loins, and two loin "flaps.)
2. Season the rabbit pieces generously with salt and freshly ground pepper and put them in a large bowl. Add the mustard, mustard seeds, cream, garlic, bacon, and bay leaves. Strip the leaves from the thyme and sage branches, chop them roughly (you'll want about 2 tablespoons of each, and add to bowl. With your hands, smear the ingredients all over the rabbit pieces to coat evenly. Cover and let the flavors meld for an hour or two, or overnight in the fridge.
3. Bring the rabbit to room temperature, and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the rabbit pieces, along with every drop of their juicy seasoning, in two shallow oval earthenware baking dishes, just large enough to hold them. (if you're halving the recipe, you only need one dish.)
4. Bake on the middle oven shelf for about 1 hour, turning the pieces as they brown. (You may remove the saddle pieces (the loin) a little earlier, though, if they seem done to keep them from overcooking. Then return at the last minute to heat through.) The rabbit should be nicely browned and the juices quite reduced. If it seems to be browning too rapidly, lay a piece of foil on top, then uncover for the last ten minutes of cooking. If the sauce seems too reduced, splash a little white wine or chicken broth into the bottom of the baking dish and cook for a few mintes longer.
5. Bring the serving vessel to the table and serve each person according to their preference: foreleg, saddle, or hindquarters. Spoon a little sauce over each serving. Accompany with roasted parsnips.

Parsnips, Epiphany-Style
Serves 8
Ingredients
4 to 5 pounds parsnips
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Peel parsnips and quarter them lengthwise. With a paring knife, remove the central core (even small parsnips have a hard core.) If the parsnips are smallish, just trim the ends. If larger, cut them into 3" lengths.
3. Season well with salt and pepper and toss with the olive oil, then install the parsnips in an earthenware dish or roasting pan. Bake for 45 minutes or so, until they are fork tender and lightly browned. They can be cooked in advance and reheated.

Smelts in Your Mouth

2010-01-30T18:12:00.044-05:00

Smelts! was the subject line of the email I received from my brother-in-law Dave. Since early January, he'd had a standing order for two pounds of smelts at Saunders Fish Market in Portsmouth. Now, our ship had come in, so to speak.

According to the guys at Saunders, not only had the smelts just arrived that morning, but they'd still been swimming in Great Bay the day before. As the locals tell it, smelt fishing in Great Bay is quite an adventure. First, you've got to wait for the ice to form in order for the fishing to even be possible. Then, because Great Bay is a tidal estuary, you can find yourself riding the ice as it goes up and down with the tide. At high tide, you can be as much as 7 feet above the bottom; at low, you can be sitting right on the mud.

We'd first had smelts last year, when our friend Garen Heller, the farmer who provides Garen's greens to Seacoast-area restaurants and farmers' markets, brought some as a "hostess" gift to one of our dinner parties. We watched as he dredged them in flour and cornmeal, and then fried them up in our Tefal deep fryer. While smelts are an oily, briney fish, like sardines, if they are cooked soon after they leave the water, they taste light and sweet. These did, and we decided that smelts should be part of our winter feasting every year.

When Dave picked up our smelts, they were cleaned, gutted, and ready to go. While smelts can also be baked or pan fried, we wanted that incomparable combination of crisp and sweet than can only deep frying can give. We dipped them in corn flour seasoned with a healthy amount of Aleppo pepper to add some zip. When the fish were ready for frying, we set up the Tefal on the front porch. (The weather was quite mild, and that way we wouldn't have that fried-food smell in the house all weekend.) Meanwhile, Robin and I prepared some homemade tartar sauce.

Dave waited until the oil reach 375 degrees. Then he fried the smelts until they were just golden brown -- about 5 to 7 minutes. When they were all cooked, we dived in. If the fish are small enough, you can eat the whole thing. Ours were a little too big for that, but it was easy to remove the bones. Ahh, and the taste -- melt-in-your-mouth good. We gave a nod of thanks to fish and fishermen and promptly ate them all!

Stew-pendously Vegetarian

2010-01-22T19:47:00.075-05:00

It was the last day of the 1999, back when everyone's biggest fear was of something called Y2K. Our dear friends Jon and Jessie had decided that we had to usher in the 21st century on Potato Island in Plum Island Sound, which, as my brother-in-law Dave puts it, is a place still tettering on the brink of the 19th.

To get there, you must go by boat at high tide or by foot at low. As ice in the creek made a boat ride impossible, we set off on a 45-minute hike across the frozen marshes, with backpacks full of warm clothes and the fixings for dinner, an elegant vegetable stew from a recipe by Gordon Hammersley of Hammersley's Bistro, one of our favorite Boston restaurants. (To keep our packs light, we had taken the precaution of burying the evening's alcoholic libations in a do-it-yourself wine cellar under the house during our fall close-up visit.)

The stew was magnificent, the champagne well chilled, and our elation at watching the lights in Newbury, Rowley, and Ipswich continue to shine after midnight was unsurpassed. Flash forward a decade, and blessed with a bounty of vegetables from our winter CSA, we decided it would be most appropriate to enjoy that Hammersley stew on yet another January weekend.

In reality, there are two recipes for this stew. The first was published in the January 1997 issue of Food and Wine in an article called Sunday Night Stews. Hammersley later updated it for his book Bistro Cooking at Home. We use a combination of the two, picking and choosing the ingredients that add the richest flavor, including the homemade mushroom stock. So if you want to serve a flavorful stew that will go nicely with a fire in the fireplace and a robust red wine-- and you've got vegetarian guests coming -- this is the dish to serve. The mouthwatering cheddar-garlic crumble crust will inspire oohs. The tasty root vegetable stew, with its rich mushroom gravy, will earn ahhs. Best of all, no one will miss the meat.

Gordon Hammersley's Winter Vegetable Stew With Cheddar-Garlic Crumble Crust

adapted from Food and Wine and Bistro Cooking At Home

Serves 6

Ingredients
For the stew
About 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
About 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 red onion, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 medium carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 celery root (about 1 pound), peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 butternut squash (about 1 1/2 pounds), peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 acorn squash (about 1 1/2 pounds), peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 parsnip--peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 rutabaga -- peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
5 medium Portobello mushrooms (about 1 pound), stems reserved for broth, caps cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons tomato paste
3 cups mushroom stock (see recipe belowNote: In a pinch, you can use low-sodium chicken stock, vegetable stock, or water.
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon marjoram

For the cheddar garlic crumble crust
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
6 tablespoons unsalted butter stick, cut into small cubes and well chilled
1 to 1 1/3 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
Pinch of coarsely ground pepper
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
(NOTE: If you like you can sprinkle some chives into the dough -- that's what we did!)

For the mushroom stock (Makes four cups)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 pounds white mushrooms, finely chopped
Reserved Portobello mushroom stems, brushed clean
1/2 Spanish onion, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons chopped garlic
2 cups dry white wine
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup dried mushrooms, such as porcini or shiitake ( 1/2 ounce)
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon herbes de Provence or thyme

Directions
1. Make mushroom stock (The broth can be made ahead and refrigerated for up to 4 days.)
In a large nonreactive saucepan, heat the vegetable oil over moderately high heat. Add the white mushrooms, Portobello stems, onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until the mushrooms release their liquid, about 5 minutes. Add the wine, soy sauce, dried mushrooms, salt, herbes de Provence and 6 cups of water and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to moderate and simmer until the liquid is reduced to about 4 cups, about 1 hour. Pour the broth through a fine strainer into a heatproof bowl. Strain again, leaving any particles at the bottom of the bowl.

2. Preheat the oven to 400°. In a large saute pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the butter and 1 tablespoon of the oil over moderately high heat. Add the onion and carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned all over, about 10 minutes; transfer to a large casselrole (13" x 9") or a small roasting pan.

3. Add another tablespoon each of butter and oil to the skillet. Add the celery root and butternut squash, and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned all over, about 10 minutes; transfer to the roasting pan. Repeat the cooking process using another tablespoon each of butter and oil and the remaining vegetables, except for the mushrooms. Add the remaining tablespoon each of butter and oil. Add the Portobellos and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and browned all over, about 6 minutes; add the garlic and cook for a couple of minutes then transfer everything to the roasting pan and stir to mix.

4.Increase the heat to high and add the wine, tomato paste and broth or water to the saute pan. Bring to a boil, scraping up the browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Pour the liquid over the vegetables. Season with salt and pepper and add the marjoram. Cover with foil and bake until the vegetables are just tender, about 30 minutes. Increase the oven temperature to 450° and cook, uncovered, for 5 minutes longer.

5.Meanwhile, make the cheddar-garlic crumble crust: In a medium bowl, sift the flour, salt, and baking powder together. Using a pastry cutter or 2 knives, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal., garlic, and pepper. Add the cream, garlic, and pepper. Stir in the cheese and mix lightly with a wooden spoon until the dough just holds together. Cover and set aside.

6.Using a large spoon, dollop the surface of the vegetables with ping-pong ball-sized dots of the cheddar crumble crust. The top of the casserole should look like the surface of the moon; bumps and craters are ideal. Return the casserole to the oven and bake uncovered until the topping is cooked and browned, about 25 minutes.

Oooo La La

2010-01-10T18:30:00.005-05:00

It's a Sunday in early January, and despite a cloudless sky, the temperature is struggling to get out of the teens. That's when I'm glad I'm one of those people who's lucky enough to have a couple of quarts of homemade beef stock sitting in my freezer. Which is key, because I'm about to engage in one of the most pleasant and sastisfying ways to spend a late Sunday morning -- standing by the stove, slowly stirring a big cast-iron pan full of simmering onions, while reading a particularly interesting edition of The New York Times Book Review. (Am I one of the few women over 30 who still hasn't read Eat, Pray, Love?)

The onions, which I am seeking to turn a rich caramel color without burning them, will be combined with the aforementioned homemade beef stock to make that bistro classic, French onion soup.

Ironically, the inspiration for this soup was neither the big, beautiful onions that came with last week's CSA, nor the beef stock that my sister Robin had patiently made last fall using bones from the black angus cattle that the Wee Bit Farms people are raising in Maine. Instead, it was the last third of an old loaf of Me and Ollie's wonderful asiago cheese bread. "This would be perfect for French onion soup," I had remarked to my sister and brother-in-law earlier in the weekend. Now, here we were, making it happen.

I like the recipe from Gordon Hammersley's Bistro Cooking at Home

because it's simple and straightforward -- and because he suggests supplementing the stock with a little dry sherry or port, which adds an extra depth of flavor and helps deglaze the pan. I also like his suggestion to add some minced garlic and olive oil to the toasted bread slices that top the soup before adding the cheese and broiling.

Hammersley, who owns Hammersey's Bistro, one of my favorite Boston restaurants, also says you can make the soup with chicken stock. As you only need 5 cups of stock for this recipe, you could actually take some prepared chicken stock -- the best you can find, preferrably low sodium -- and simmer it for 45 minutes or so with a bay leaf, carrot, onion, and celery -- maybe even a chicken wings or thigh for added flavor and proceed from there.

Whatever stock you use, the key lies in browning the onions until they turn dark and sweet, then broiling the bread and cheese topping till it's bubbly and brown. What else can I say other than c'est magnifique!

Onion Soup Au Gratin

Bistro Cooking at Home

Gordon Hammersley with Joanne McAllister Smart

Ingredients

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 medium onions, thinly sliced

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

(I like to add 1 tablespoon or so of flour to the onions to thicken the broth a bit.)

1/2 cup dry sherry or port

5 cups chicken broth or beef stock

1 baquette

2 small garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 teaspoon olive oil

6 ounces Gruyère cheese, shredded

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a wide soup pot over medium heat. Add the onions, season them with a little salt and pepper, and cook them over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions slowly brown. This will take 30 to 45 minutes; the longer the onions cook and the lower the heat, the darker and sweeter they become. (Hammersley suggests if you want to hurry things along, you can sprinkle the onions with about 1/2 teaspoon of sugar as they cook. I say, just bring along something to read.) (As the onions darken, I like to add a little flour -- maybe up to a tablespoon, just the thicken the broth.)

2. When the onions have browned to your liking, add the sherry or port, and the chicken broth or beef stock and 3 cups of water to the pot. (Hammersley suggests adding sherry to the chicken broth and port to the beef, but I added sherry to the beef, as that's what I had.)

3. Stir, scraping up any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan, Bring soup to a boil, lower to a simmer, and cook for about a half hour to meld the flavors. Taste and season with more salt and pepper, if needed.

4. When ready to serve, heat the broiler. Cut the baguette into slices about 1/8 inch thick. You want enough slices to cover the soup bowls. Put the slices on a baking sheet and toast them lightly under the broiler. Mix the garlic with the olive oil and spread in a thin layer over each toasted bread slice.

5. Set soup bowls (see Note) on the baking sheet. (Careful it may be hot!) Ladle the soup into the bowls. Put a slice or two of the baguette on top of the soup. You want to cover the surface almost entirely without any overlap -- cut the slices to fit if need be. Sprinkle the toast with a handful (about 1 ounce) of Gruyère cheese each. Carefully slide the baking sheet (it will be heavy) into the oven and melt the cheese under the broiler until it just starts to brown in spots, about 2 minutes. Serving immediately, remembering that the bowls are extremely hot.

(NOTE: Hammersley uses crocks specifically made for onion soup. Any relatively wide-mouthed, low-sided soup bowl will work fine, as long as it's overproof. And be sure to put the hot bowls on a plate so as not to ruin your table.)

Bites of Bliss

2010-01-03T14:08:00.043-05:00

After a couple of days of eating the heavy roasts, stews, and braises that seem to make up our usual Christmas week meals, I find myself yearning for the fresh, spicy tastes of Asian food. For the past couple of years, Robin, Dave, and I have been ringing in the New Year with a feast of assorted buns, wraps, potstickers, and noodle dishes. The one constant is a delicious Vietnamese-inspired salad we found in an unlikely place: Jasper White's Cooking From New England, the classic New England cookbook from the chef whose eponymous Boston eating establishment almost singlehandedly launched that city's vibrant restaurant scene.

The star of the dish is Pandalus borealis, the tiny, sweet, pinkish crustacean that is local to Maine and New Hampshire waters, and is only available fresh in the winter.

When we first discovered Maine shrimp, the season was way too short -- a mere three or four weeks -- which meant we tried to find ways to enjoy them nearly every weekend. (Frozen Pandalus borealis is the source of the amazing fried baby shrimp you can usually find in New England seafood dives come summer.) This year, the season, which began in early December, goes until May, which will greatly increase the pleasure they bring.

Unlike their southern cousins, Maine baby shrimp are very delicate; they can be cooked only briefly, or they become mushy and bland. But when handled carefully, they taste like a kiss of the sea. In the New Hampshire Seacoast area, you can find Maine shrimp at most seafood markets -- some even sell them already peeled, which is very handy, unless you need to make a broth for a chowder or stew. The shrimp are also available at Seacoast Eat Local Winter Markets. In the Boston area, you can frequently find them at Whole Foods. In some places, they are also available at roadside stands.

Nam Tran's Shrimp and Cabbage Salad

Jasper White's Cooking From New England

Serves 6 to 8 as an appetizer

Ingredients (NOTE: if you are using peeled baby shrimp, you can eliminate the first five ingredients and Step 1 of the Directions. In that case, you will saute the shrimp in a little peanut oil for barely a minute right before you mix the salad.)

1/2 cup of white rice wine vinegar

1 small onion, sliced

cilantro stems

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

2 pounds of Maine shrimp

Cabbage Salad

1 Chinese or Napa cabbage, finely shredded (5 cups)

1 large carrot, cut in paper-thin julienne

1/4 pound Chinese ham or cappicola, cut in thin (1/4 x 1 inch) julienne (When using cappicola, I prefer hot to sweet.)

1 cup cilantro leaves

1/2 cup white rice wine vinegar

1/3 cup peanut oil

2 tablespoons Chinese hot-chili oil

2 tablespoons sugar

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup roasted peanuts, chopped

Fried white shrimp chips for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Combine 3 cups water with 1/2 cup vinegar in a saucepan with the onion, cilantro stems, salt, and peppercorns. Simmer for 5 minutes, then bring to a hard boil. Add the unpeeled shrimp. After exactly one minute, scoop out the shrimp with a wire basket or slotted spoon and spread out on a sheetpan. Peel the shrimp and set aside.

2. Prepare the salad ingredients, but do not mix the salad until about 20 minutes before it is to be served. Then combine the shrimp, cabbage, carrot, ham, cilantro leaves, vinegar, peanut oil, hot chili oil, and sugar; season to taste with salt and pepper. Chill.

3. Right before serving, add the peanuts, check the seasoning and toss once more. Serve on small plates or in shallow glass bowls. Garnish with shrimp chips, if using.

(NOTE: If you have salad left over, drain off the dressing before storing. You can save dressing in a small jar and pour over before re-serving.)

So Fond of Fondue

2009-12-22T20:32:00.004-05:00

Right out of college, I went backpacking through Europe with friends. In addition to wanting to bring home Christmas ornaments from every country I visited, I was looking forward to sampling the specialty foods of each place, from crepes in Brittany to Wiener schnitzel in Vienna to moules/frites in Brussels. So of course, one night in Geneva, I found myself at a small restaurant in the student section of town, enjoying my first cheese fondue.

Of all of the wonderful food I sampled, cheese fondue was the easiest to recreate at home, and so it became one of my favorite winter company dishes. I used a recipe I found in Wines and Spirits, the wire-bound recipe booklet that accompanied the Time-Life Cooking of the World volume of the same name. Not having a fondue pot, I always made it in an electric wok, which made it easy to control the temperature and prevent the cheese from burning. Back then, I offered the traditional dippers: a baguette, of course, but also apples or pears.

Now, cheese fondue is a once-a-year-treat. We still make it in that electric wok, but the concept of dippers

has evolved. This year, we used a ciabatta from Beach Pea, a wonderful artisinal bakery in Kittery run by Thomas and Mariah Roberts, instead of the traditional baguette, and we had some apples from our Winter CSA from Heron Pond Farm. But the real revelation was moving beyond bread and fruit into meat and vegetables.

We had a lot of leftover ham from our holiday party, which dipped in cheese with a little bread, was like eating the most amazing ham and cheese sandwich ever. In a flash of inspiration, we also decided to blanch some broccoli -- after all, it's at its best with cheese sauce, right? What a revelation! I think that cauliflower or Brussels sprouts would also be delectable, as would steamed baby potatoes.

For cheese, we used our traditional combination of Gruyère, Emmenthaler, and Appenzeller, which we grated in the Cuisinart to make things easier.

I long ago lost that little wire-bound book with the recipe in it. Just for fun as I was writing this -- and to be able to give some more accurate ingredient amounts -- I googled "Cheese Fondue Recipe from Time/Life cookbooks 'Foods of the World". Up popped this recipe from Melissa Clark of The New York Times. It's a good approximation -- though I'm pretty sure the original called for flour to dredge the cheese, which is what I use. And as you'll see in reading her article, the fascination with new dippers and new versions is not mine alone.

Classic Fondue
Melissa Clark, New York Times
January 23, 1008

Ingredients
1 small garlic clove, halved
1 cup dry white wine
3/4 pound Gruyère cheese, grated
3/4 pound Emmenthaler, raclette or Appenzeller cheese, grated
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch (I prefer flour)
1 to 2 tablespoons kirsch (optional) (To me, this is essential, not optional)
Kosher salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste (optional) (Ditto)
Crusty bread cubes; steamed broccoli or cauliflower; carrot, celery or fennel sticks; cubed apple; seedless grapes; clementine sections; cubed salami, soppressata or kielbasa; roasted chestnuts and/or dried apricots, for serving.

Directions
1. Rub cut side of garlic on inside of large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed saucepan, preferably cast iron, rubbing the bottom and halfway up the sides. Add wine and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.

2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, toss cheeses with cornstarch. Add a handful at a time to simmering wine, stirring until first handful melts before adding next. Reduce heat to medium and stir constantly until cheese is completely melted. Add kirsch, if using, and heat until bubbling, about 1 to 2 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, if desired. Serve with crusty bread and other accompaniments.

Yield: 6 main course servings or 10 appetizer servings.

The Full Monte

2009-12-15T14:52:00.146-05:00

My sister Robin and I threw our first Christmas party in 1975. Our oven broke a week or so before the big event, which reduced us to cooking dozens of appetizers in a GE toaster oven. As for baking, we used the oven in an empty apartment in the basement of our building, carring cookie sheets up and down three flights of stairs. Nonetheless, the party itself was a great success, and with a few exceptions, we have been doing it every year since.

Once, my brother-in-law Dave came into the picture, things got a bit more complicated.

Now, in addition to 15 different kinds of cookies, our typical spread includes homemade pickles of various sorts -- including my current personal favorite, turnips pickled in gin.

Then there are the numerous homemade pates, dips, sausages, rillettes, mustards, and smoked seafood, plus smoked, roasted, and grilled meats -- all the ingredients for which come either from local Seacoast New Hampshire area farms or from Philbricks Fresh Market.

It's a labor of love, which this year began in mid October when Dave started curing his own bacon and salamis and baking his amazing fruitcakes. These have enough fruit, nuts, and cognac in them to turn even the most determined fruit cake hater into a fruit cake lover.

While my sister is the primary cookie baker (I assist), I've become the party ham specialist. For years, we resisted serving a ham, but then we met Tim Rocha from Kellie Brook Farm in Greenland, NH. His hams come from pigs raised on grains, bread, yogurt, and vegetables and are absolutely delicious. (Tim's pork is on the menu at Portsmouth restaurants and is available at the Seacoast Grower's winter markets.) Fortunately, I have a ham recipe that's worthy of such a creature.

Legend has it that this recipe was given to Monte Mathews, a New York advertising executive, who was told to "buy the cheapest ham possible, glaze the hell out of it and cook it for a long time."

While I'm sure the recipe does wonders for a cheap ham, I can tell you that it truly comes into its own with one of Farmer Tim's succulent, flavorful hams. Try it yourself -- and watch your guests devour the full Monte.

Monte's Ham
first published in Saveur in Issue #18

Ingredients
15-lb. smoked ham on the bone
1 1/2 cups orange marmalade
1 cup dijon mustard (I've been known to add a couple of tablespoons of grated horseradish to the mustard)
1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 tbsp. whole cloves

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 300°. Trim tough outer skin and excess fat from ham. Place ham, meat side down, in a large roasting pan and score, making crosshatch incisions with a sharp knife. Roast for 2 hours
2. Remove ham from oven and increase heat to 350°. For glaze, combine orange marmalade, mustard, and brown sugar in a medium bowl. Stud ham with whole cloves (stick one clove at the intersection of each crosshatch), then brush with glaze and return to oven.
3. Cook ham another 1 1/2 hours, brushing with glaze at least 3 times. Transfer to a cutting board or platter and allow to rest for about 30 minutes. Carve and serve warm or at room temperature.

Serves 30

Gone Fishin'

2009-12-06T19:19:00.002-05:00

Last winter, the Yankee Fishermans Cooperative in Seabrook, NH started a community-supported fisherey initiative in collaboration with the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, N.H. Sea Grant, the N.H. Commercial Fishermans Association, local seafood groups, restaurants, and fish markets. The result is that food lovers in the Seacoast, NH area can now buy local, sustainably caught shrimp, cod, haddock, and lobster -- and support our local fishery -- the way we do our local farms.

Yesterday, when trying to decide what to make for Sunday supper, my sister Robin, brother-in-law Dave, and I found some of the cooperative's local dayboat cod at Philbrick's Fresh Market in Portsmouth. As we had just picked up some leeks and potatoes at our winter CSA, it seemed like the perfect excuse to make one of our favorite fish dishes: a casserole of baked fish, potatoes, fennel, and leeks.

For a while in the early '00s, it seemed that every other newspaper food section and magazine was featuring recipes with cod or halibut baked on a bed of potatoes, often with something wonderful like artichokes or olives thrown in for good measure. Most of them required you to steam the potatoes first. In this receipe, which came from the late, lamented Gourmet's December 2002 issue, you slice the potatoes with a mandoline, so you can cook them in the baking dish from the start. That means they really pick up the flavor of the other ingredients. Because cod is endangered -- and often hard to find -- we usually make the dish with haddock. Now, with cod just off the boat, it seemed like the perfect time to enjoy it with the real thing.

As you'll see, the original recipe didn't include leeks, but I love the earthy flavor they give the dish. If you like, you could also add a little grated lemon or orange peel -- or maybe even those olives and artichokes. Whatever you do, you'll be enjoying seafood comfort food at its best.

COD, POTATO, AND FENNEL CASSEROLE
Gourmet Magazine
December 2002
Active time: 15 min Start to finish: 1 hr

Ingredients
2 medium fennel bulbs (sometimes called anise; 1 1/2 lb total), stalks cut off and discarded, and fronds reserved for garnish if desired

2-3 leeks, white park only (if using)

1 1/2 lb large boiling potatoes

3 large garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper (We also sprinkle smoked Spanish paprika on the fish before we put it in the oven. It adds a lovely deep red color and rich, smokey taste.)

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 lb skinless cod fillet (1 inch thick), cut into 6 portions (feel free to use haddock or whatever fillets lookfresh in your seafood market -- not sure I'd use salmon, though.)

Garnish: chopped fennel fronds or fresh flat-leaf parsley

Accompaniment: lemon wedges

Special equipment: a Japanese Benriner* or other adjustable-blade slicer; a 3-quart shallow baking dish (2 inches deep)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400°F.

2. Cut fennel bulbs crosswise into 1/16-inch-thick slices with slicer. Peel potatoes and cut crosswise into 1/16-inch-thick slices with slicer. If using leeks, thoroughly wash and cut into 1/4" rounds.

3. Transfer the vegetables to a 9 x 13 baking dish and toss with garlic, salt, pepper, and 4 tablespoons oil. Spread vegetables evenly in dish and bake, covered with foil, in middle of oven until just tender, 25 to 30 minutes.

4. Season fish with salt and pepper and arrange on top of vegetables. Drizzle with remaining 2 tablespoons oil and bake, uncovered, until fish is just cooked through, 12 to 15 minutes.

* Available at Asian markets, many cookware shops, and Uwajimaya (800-889-1928).

Feelin' Saucy

2009-11-17T19:17:00.005-05:00

Growing up, I was never particularly fond of cranberry sauce, which in our family was always the deep maroon, jiggly jellied stuff that proudly displayed its canned heritage, even as it sat in its antique cut-glass dish. My aunt, who liked to think of herself as a bit of a rebel, once served the canned whole berry sauce as well, but as I remember, no one touched it. (I was even less enamored of that than the canned version!)

So you might think that I would be an unlikely person to lead a kind of cranberry sauce rebellion. But nevertheless, Thanksgiving of 1982, I announced that I wanted to try my hand at making cranberry sauce from scratch. I picked a recipe from Bon Appétit that included fresh-squeezed orange juice and cognac among its ingredients. "How bad could anything with cognac be?" I reasoned. Not only was it good, it was a revelation -- to everyone. "Would you bring the cranberry sauce for our Christmas turkey dinner?" my aunt asked me as we helped clear the table. Of course, I would. I was hooked.

By now, I have a repetoire of recipes, and as soon as the displays of fresh Cape Cod cranberries start to appear in our local markets, I begin discussing with my sister Robin and brother-in-law Dave, which one will go best with the feast we are preparing. (Those years when we go to other people's houses, I make whatever they request.) And of course, sometimes, I find a new recipe that's just too interesting to pass up.

So here are my three favorites (currently). I was interested to see that I had a recipe from each of the last three decades, including the original, which I still love. So which cranberry sauce am I making this year? Well, as we are going to take a southwestern approach to our meal this holiday, I thought I'd make the Irene Sax recipe I found in Saveur last year, where the cranberries are roasted with a little jalapeno pepper. That should really spice things up!

Recipes

Orange-Cranberry Sauce

Bon Appétit, November 1982

Ingredients
1 cup sugar (Recently, I've use a combination of white and dark brown sugar.)
½ cup fresh squeezed orange juice
½ cup water (I replace this with another 1/2 cup of orange juice
3 cups fresh cranberries, rinsed and stemmed
2 T Cognac
Coarsely grated orange peel
1 T fresh lemon juice

Directions
1. Combine sugar, orange juice and water in large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
2. Add berries and cook until popped, 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Mash some of the berries with back of spoon, then remove pan from heat.
4. Cool five minutes, then blend in remaining ingredients.
5. Cool completely. Refrigerate sauce until ready to serve.
Makes 3 cups
NOTE: This is best made at least 4 hours ahead so it can chill and thicken.

Cranberry Agrodolce

Food & Wine November 1994

Ingredients
2 T. vegetable oil
1 large yellow onion, finely diced
5 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 cups fresh or frozen whole cranberries, about 1 cup
½ cup dried cranberries (about 2 ½ ounces) (I plump them for ½ hour in the ¼ cup of port.)
½ cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1 ½ cups cranberry juice
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
¼ cup port
1 ½ t. coarse or kosher salt
1 ½ t. coarsely cracked black pepper
½ t. allspice
1 small cinnamon stick
1 nickel-size slice of fresh ginger,
2 whole cloves

Directions
1. Heat oil in a large non-reactive saucepan. Add the onion and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 7 minutes.Add garlic and cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Stir in the fresh and dried cranberries, the brown sugar, cranberry juice, balsamic vinegar, port, salt, pepper, and allspice.
2. Tie the cinnamon stock, ginger, and clover in a small piece of cheesecloth and add it to the saucepan. Bring agrodolce to a boil over moderately high heat. Lower the heat and simmer gently until thickened, about 35 minutes. Discard the spice bundle and let cool.
(The agrodolce can be refrigerated, covered, for up to 1 week. Let return to room temperature before serving.)
Makes about 4 cups

Roasted Cranberry Sauce
Irene Sax, Saveur Magazine November 2008

Ingredients
1 orange
1 lb. fresh or thawed cranberries
1 cup sugar (I use brown sugar)
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp. kosher salt
4 green cardamom pods, smashed
4 whole cloves
2 sticks cinnamon
1 small jalapeño, stemmed and thinly sliced
1 1⁄2 tbsp. port

Directions
1. Heat oven to 450°. Using a peeler, remove peel from the orange, taking off as little of the white pith as possible. Cut peel into very thin strips about 1 1⁄2" long. Squeeze juice from the orange; strain and reserve 1 tbsp. juice.
2. In a bowl, combine peel, cranberries, sugar, olive oil, salt, cardamom pods, cloves, cinnamon, and jalapeños. Toss and transfer to a parchment paper–lined baking sheet. Roast until cranberries begin to burst and release their juices, about 15 minutes.
3. Transfer cranberry mixture to a bowl; stir in reserved orange juice and port. Let sit for at least 1 hour so that the flavors meld. Remove and discard cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon before serving.
Makes 2 cups

When Life Hands You Rutabagas, Make Rutabaga Fries

2009-11-15T18:28:00.008-05:00

Last year, Robin, Dave, and I were part of an informal winter CSA with one of the farmers we met through the Seacoast Grower's Association. It was a little hit or miss -- sometimes we'd get to Portsmouth on Friday evening to find a bag of goodies handing from the doorknob -- often times, not. But there was something satisfying about having farmers' market-quality food throughout the winter, especially since this particular farmer had access to a greenhouse, so we frequently got a bag full of fresh greens as part of our order.

This year, we decided to make things more official, by joining the Winter CSA through Heron Pond Farm. Of course, this means dealing with vegetables we probably otherwise would never buy. Like rutabagas, for instance. Other than potatoes and raw carrots, we never ate much in the way of root vegetables when I was growing up. In fact, the first time I remember actually tasting rutabaga was one Thanksgiving when one of our guests brought some pureed rutabaga with peas. But on Week Two, our CSA share included two rutabagas.

As we were planning to grill a couple of grass-fed rib eye steaks from Wee Bit Farm for dinner, a puree seemed less than optimal. Since oven-baked sweet potato fries are a frequent accompaniment to steak in our house, we thought why not try serving the rutabagas that way? We peeled them, cut them into half-inch sticks, seasoned them with Penzey's Northwoods Fire Seasoning and a little olive oil, put them on a well-oiled baking sheet and baked them just like we would potatoes.

The Northwoods Fire Seasoning is a blend of coarse salt, chipolte pepper, Hungarian paprika, Tellicherry black pepper, garlic, rosemary, thyme, and cayenne, so it was a great complement to the sweet, spicy tast of the rutabaga. I think that chopped thyme or rosemary with some garlic powder would also be good.

While the rutabaga oven fried don't crisp up like regular regular potato fries, they don't get all soft like the sweet potato version either. When they browned up nicely, I just sprinkled them with a little coarse salt and served them up with our steaks. Quite frankly, they were delicious! Best of all, I now feel ready for anything our CSA gives us. Kohlrabi? Bring it on!

Oven-Baked Rutabaga Fries
Ingredients
2 medium rutabagas, peel and cut into sticks 1/2 inch wide
Olive oil, for drizzling and coating baking pan
Penzey's Northwoods Fire Seasoning (or other spice blend) to taste
Kosher salt for sprinkling

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Drizzle olive oil over rutabaga, put in a paper bag or plastic baggie, add seasonings and shake to coat.
3. Place rutabaga on a lightly oiled baking sheet and bake in middle of the oven for ten minutes.
4. Turn rutabaga fries over and cook for another ten minutes, or until well browned.
5. Sprinkle with kosher salt and serve.

As Corny as NH in October

2009-10-18T18:10:00.137-04:00

It's mid October. The temperature is 20 degrees below normal. A nor'easter is heading up the coast. But there's still fresh sweet corn at the Seacoast Growers Market in Portsmouth and that makes me very happy.

For the few first weeks of the season, I can't get enough of corn on the cob. But then, I start to hunger for other ways to enjoy it. If there ever was a day that cried out for corn chowder, this is it, so Robin, Dave, and I picked up half a dozen ears from Heron Pond Farm's stand.

Normally, I'd start my chowder by frying up some local bacon, but we have ham left over from last week's ham and string beans, so I decide to use that. I like to make a "corn stock", by simmering the cobs in milk seasoned with onion, bay leaf, thyme, and sage. I decide to add the ham to the steeping milk mixture to warm it up and to add some smoky flavor to the stock. I take care, though, not to let the milk come to a boil.

As for a recipe, I quickly scan a few cook books with an eye toward creating the ultimate chowder experience. I discover an interesting technique in The Greens Cook Book by Deborah Madison; she thickens her chowder by pureeing half of the corn kernels in a blender before adding them to the soup. I like that idea, though I decide to first saute the corn with onions and some minced chili pepper before pureeing.

Once the milk has warmed up sufficiently and developed a nice smoky taste, I remove the corn cobs, add the uncooked corn kernels and the corn puree, simmering gently, until the corn is cooked and the soup is hot. We sit down to eat, oblivious to the cold outside and grateful to be enjoying the taste of fresh corn in October.

Corny Chowder with Ham

Ingredients

6 ears of corn

1 quart whole milk

1 large onion, diced

1 bay leaf

1 sage leaf

1 sprig thyme

2 cups cubed cooked ham

1 T butter

2 small hot Hungarian wax peppers, minced (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Slice the corn from the cob and set kernels aside in a bowl. Press knife to the cob to extract some of the milky liquid and add to bowl.

2. Cut cobs in half and put in a large sauce pan. Add the milk, half the chopped onion, bay, sage, and thyme to a large sauce pan and gently heat to a bare simmer, stirring frequently to keep stock from sitcking to pan. Do not let stock come to a boil.

3. While stock is heating, add butter, remaining half of the chopped onion, half the corn kernels and the minced chili to a saute pan and saute until fragrant and heated through. Add ham and remaining corn kernels to the stock, continuing to stir frequently.

4. Puree the sauted corn mixure in a blender for at least 2 minutes. If it is too thick, you can add a little water and puree some more.

5. Remove corn cobs and bay leaf from corn stock. Then add the corn puree to the stock. Put cobs in a bowl to capture any corn stock, then add to sauce pan.

6. Cook soup over low heat for 10 to 15 minutes. Check for salt (if the ham is salty enough, you may not need any.) Add some freshly ground pepper to taste.

Serves 4

Green, Green Beans of Home

2009-10-17T18:48:00.006-04:00

It was just getting dark when I pulled into the Iron Moon Farm stand on Route 1A in Newbury. I was on a mission to find local potatoes and onions, the last of the ingredients I needed to make a traditional Schweikart family favorite: ham and string beans. My sister Robin had picked up one of Tendercrop Farm's corn-cob smoked hams the week before, and the last of the green beans from Wake Robin Farm's stand at the Portsmouth Seacoast Growers Market were in the fridge.

Wendy Smith, the proprietress of the Iron Moon Farm stand, assured me she had just what I needed. "What are you cooking?" she asked. "Ham and string beans," I replied. She nodded in recognition. "My grandmother used to make that with salt pork, instead of ham," she said. "I wish I would have remembered that last week when I had the last of our green beans."

I quickly learned that while Wendy's grandmother was from Oklahoma and mine was from Pennsylvania Dutch country, both were of German ancestry. "It's not a New England dish," Wendy said softly, her mind in Oklahoma at that moment, I'm sure. "No," I said, thinking of our old family farm in the Oley Valley, " but it sure tastes just as good here."

It's one of those recipes that, every time I make it, the very smell in my kitchen transports me back in time. And because the beans braise for a while in ham broth, it's a perfect way to use up green beans that have been toughened a bit by the cold. One caution: you want to be sure the ham isn't too salty. The Tendercrop ham was perfect, and is well worth searching out. (Their chicken is also some of the best around.)

Maz's Ham and String Beans

Ingredients
1 non-factory-farmed smoked ham, preferable bone-in, as the bone will add flavor.
(Our Tendercrop ham was a boneless 3-lb, but we had a lefteover ham bone in the freezer. If you don't have one, buy a ham hock to supplement a boneless ham. The size of the ham doesn't matter as leftovers can always be used for sandwiches or soup.)
3 medium onions, rough-chopped (about 1 3/4 pounds)
2 1/2 to 3 pounds potatoes
2 pounds green beans, ends removed and snapped into 1 1/2" lengths
1 quart chicken stock, prefereable homemade or low-salt
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1. Put ham in a Dutch oven with chopped onions. Add a mixture of water and chicken stock to go about 2/3 of the way up the ham, and simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 hours.

2. Turn ham over, and add potatoes, cover, and simmer for another 1/2 hour. Broth should cover 2/3 of ham. If not, add more water.

3. Add the green beans, cover, and simmer for 1/2 hour to 45 minutes until the potatoes are done and the beans are tender and just about falling apart.

4. Remove ham from broth and let sit for 10 minutes or so. Check broth for seasoning and add salt, if necessary, and freshly ground pepper to taste. Cut ham into thin slices and arrange in a soup bowl. Add beans, potatoes, and broth, and serve.

Serves 4-6 with ham left over.

Adios Tomatoes!

2009-10-04T12:52:00.012-04:00

Here in Portsmouth, the swamp maples are turning red. Our winter feeder birds—juncos, bluebirds, and white-throats—have arrived. Migrating warblers are passing through. Signs of deepening fall are everywhere, but I can’t stop thinking about tomatoes.

Earlier this week in Boston, when a timely flyer on my car windshield reminded me that the Farmers Market at Prudential Center was still open, I'd headed right over. Immediately, my eye was drawn to the colorful selection of beautifully ripe heirloom tomatoes at the stand run by MacArthur Farm of Holliston, MA. That's when I realized I’d yet to make one of my favorite summer recipes: tomato paella.

I first discovered this dish two years ago, thanks to Mark Bittman’s Minimalist column in the New York Times. Because it's so simple, the quality of the ingredients is key here, especially the tomatoes. Don’t try it with tomatoes you find in the supermarket, unless they’re local, farm grown. The recipe itself is pretty straight forward. You core and cut the tomatoes into wedges, season them, and put them in a bowl, so you can capture all the wonderful juices.

Next, you fry up some minced onion, garlic, and a chili pepper (my addition), then saute with saffron and smoked Spanish paprika. The recipe says these are optional, but to me, they form a deep, essential flavor base.

For the rice, a quality short-grained rice is a must. This time, I used a Carnoroli "risotto-style" rice, but I've successfully substituted short-grained brown rice as well.
I also prefer the richness provided by homemade chicken stock, but if you don't have any, you can use water.

You’re welcome to turn this into a traditional paella, adding meat and seafood like shrimp, mussels, or clams. But I love it this way, as a main course on a hot summer night, or as a side to roast pork or chicken on a cool October evening. It’s a great way to say “via con dias” to last of the season’s tomatoes.

(By the way, the Prudential Center Farmers Market is from 11 to 6 on Thursdays through the end of October, on the Boylston Street Plaza.)

Mark Bittman's Paella With Tomatoes
The Minimalist, New York Times, September 5, 2007

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups stock or water
1 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into thick wedges
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 small minced hot pepper (optional)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Large pinch saffron threads (optional)
2 teaspoons Spanish pimentón (smoked paprika), or other paprika
2 cups Spanish or other short-grain rice
Minced parsley for garnish

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Warm stock or water in a saucepan. Put tomatoes in a medium bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and drizzle them with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Toss to coat.

2. Put remaining oil in a 10- or 12-inch ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic (and chili, if using), sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables soften, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, saffron if you are using it, and paprika and cook for a minute more. Add rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is shiny, another minute or two. Add liquid and stir until just combined.

3. Put tomato wedges on top of rice and drizzle with juices that accumulated in bottom of bowl. Put pan in oven and roast, undisturbed, for 15 minutes. Check to see if rice is dry and just tender. If not, return pan to oven for another 5 minutes. If rice looks too dry but still is not quite done, add a small amount of stock or water (or wine). When rice is ready, turn off oven and let pan sit for 5 to 15 minutes.

4. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle with parsley. If you like, put pan over high heat for a few minutes to develop a bit of a bottom crust before serving.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Behold The Mayo

2009-09-29T13:02:00.034-04:00

When my brother-in-law Dave fantasizes about making a meal from scratch, he means literally from scratch. Like the BLTs we concocted for lunch last Saturday. Actually the project (yes, at our house, lunch can sometimes be a project) began the week before when Dave began curing a pork belly he had purchased from Tim Rocha at Kellie Brook Farm near Portsmouth.

First, Dave cured the pork belly in the fridge for five days, using a blend of pink salt, kosher salt, dark brown sugar, and maple syrup, a recipe from Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. Then he smoked the pork over maple wood for six hours in his electric Bradley Smoker, one of the top ten best inventions of all time.

Now that we had a beautiful hunk of bacon, we were ready to head off to the Seacoast Grower's Market in Portsmouth in search of the rest of the ingredients for our ultimate summer sandwich. In anticipation, Dave had already prepared the dough for his special sourdough bread, which was rising in a warm spot in the sun room.

At market, we chose arugula from Nelson Farms and bought some green zebras from Garen of Back River Farm. When the time came to make lunch, we washed the lettuce, sliced the tomatoes and just-baked bread, and fried up the bacon. Then came the final task: whipping up some homemade mayonnaise, made with an organic egg purchased that morning from Charlie of Stone Wall Farm.

While I know all about the dangers of eating uncooked eggs--and only recommend that you do so with eggs you can trust--until you behold the taste of homemade mayonnaise, you won't believe the astonishing difference it makes with any sandwich, even if you haven't gone to the trouble of making the bread and bacon yourself.

Best of all, it's easy.We used the recipe for instant mayonnaise from Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, also by Michael Ruhlman, a fabulous reference book that every devoted home cook should own. Though we used the immersion blender, we whisked it at the end to incorporate just a little more air.

Michael Ruhlman's Instant Mayonnaise

(Works best with ingredients at room temperature)
1 large egg yolk, preferably organic or farm-raised
1 teaspoon water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup canola oil (or more as you need it, adjusting the lemon juice accordingly)

Combine the yolk, water, lemon juice, and salt in a 2-cup Pyrex measuring glass. Buzz it once with an immersion blender to mix. Add a few drops of oil, holding the blender to the bottom of the cup and blending until an emulsion forms, 2 to 3 seconds. With the blade running, pour the remaining oil slowly into the cup, beginning to lift the immersion blender up and down to incorporate all the oil. Once you start blending the process should take 15 to 20 seconds.

If you don't have an immersion blender: whisk the mayonnaise in a large bowl, with a dish towel twisted around the base to stablize it. Begin whisking the yolk, then drizzle in a few drops of oil, while whisking until the emulsion forms. Then whisk continuously, adding the remaining oil in a thin stream.

If the emulsion breaks: simply pour the mixture back into the oil cup, add a teaspoon of water to the empty bowl and a little more egg yolk, if you have it, then pour the broken mayonnaise drop by drop into the water, while whisking or blending to reform the emulsion. Continue to add the broken mayonnaise in a thin stream.

Makes 1/2 cup

Just Fritterin'

2009-09-17T17:48:00.034-04:00

For years, my family had the same exact meal for Christmas and Easter as we did at Thanks-giving.

This was not due to any lack of imagination on the part of the women who cooked it -- Nana, my grandmother, and her two daughters, my mother and aunt. Rather, it was to insure that no one got an easier meal to prepare than anyone else. While all three were able cooks, none was particularly eager to spend time in the kitchen. (My mother was an incredibly enthusiastic proponent of convenience food in all forms.)

That's why I see the corn fritters that Nana made every year for my birthday as a true labor of love. And, though there have been a few of improvements to the recipe over the years -- substituting corn oil for Crisco, for instance -- I am especially delighted that my sister, Robin has continued this particular birthday tradition.

Nana began with corn fresh from my father's garden -- looking for older ears, with bigger kernels. Robin and I do our shopping at the Heron Pond stand at the Seacoast Grower's farmer's market in Portsmouth, NH, so we have to work a bit to find ears of the right maturity in early September.

Because we prefer our fritters with kernels in them, Robin cuts the corn off some of the cobs and scrapes the kernels off the rest with Nana's Pennsylvania Dutch corn cob grater, a kind of wooden plank with two sets of metal teeth set in the center. (See below.)

We like to say that while my aunt inherited Nana's jewelry, we got the corn grater, which to us, was the better end of the deal. Robin adds some fresh thyme and sage to the batter along with the traditional salt and pepper. Otherwise, these corn fritters are pretty much the way Nana made them -- a little complicated, maybe, but outrageously good.

Nana's Corn Fritters
Ingredients
1 dozen ears of fresh sweet corn, older, fatter kernels are better than younger
1/2 teaspoon each of thyme and sage
1/2 teaspoon, plus pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 large eggs, separated
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of cream of tartar
2-3 tablespoons oil to cover bottom of skillet, preferrably corn
Directions
1. Cut the corn off five ears, then grate six ears, using corn grater. If you're not lucky enough to have inherited one, use a box grater to scrape off the kernels at half their depth and then, using the back of a knife, scrape off the remaining pulp on the cob. Depending on the ratio of corn to batter you prefer, you can either grate or cut the kernels off the remaining ear. (NOTE: We're freezing the cobs to make a corn stock for chowder sometime later in the fall.)

2. Beat the egg yolks into the corn batter.

3. Add a pinch of salt and cream of tartar to the egg whites and beat until stiff peaks form.

4. Add oil to cover the bottom of a fry pan (we use a 14" iron skillet); then heat until just shimmering.

5. Mix in 2/3 of the egg whites, then gently fold in the remaining 1/3.

6. Put a generous 1/4 cup of batter into the oil. Don't crowd -- in our 14" pan, we make four at a time. Sometimes the corn has more moisture in it than others, and the batter can get too runny. If that happens, just stir a tablespoon of cornmeal or flour into the batter and continue.

7. As the fritters cook, they'll puff up and get brown at the edges. Nudge them a bit to make sure they're not sticking. When they have cooked enough to hold together, it's time to turn them. Put a insulated sleeve on the hot pan handle, then use a spatula to flip them. (Watch for spattering!) Swirl the pan to make sure the oil is covering the entire surface, and cook for a few minutes more. Keep an eye on them to make sure they don't burn, but don't rush them, either -- they take time.

8. Carefully remove cooked fritters and put them on cookie sheets in a 200 degree, so they crisp up.

9. Repeat, adding more oil, if necessary.

For some reason, the first batch frequently falls apart. If that happens, carefully remove the bigger pieces before proceeding. They make great snacks, but remember, they're hot!.

This recipe makes enough to serve six as a side. We made the full recipe for the three of us and heated up the remainder in the toaster oven for lunch the next day.

Full of Beans

2009-09-17T13:33:00.010-04:00

"Help!" said my friend Laura, "I've got beans coming out of my ears." Well, at least she had them coming out of her garden.

I thought immediately of one of my favorite bean salad recipes. I'd found it in Cooking Light about eight years ago and I've tried to make it a couple of times a summer ever since. The thought of it made me wish I had a garden full of beans.
Lucky for me, it was Copley Square Farmer's Market day and the people from Silverbrook Farm in Dartmouth, MA still had some tasty-looking beans, both green and yellow. I also bought some cherry tomatoes and some basil from them. (Normally, I grow herbs in window boxes on my balcony, but this year's plants succumbed to overwatering, courtesy of Mother Nature, during Boston's near-record wet July.)

This recipe is ridiculously easy to make, but it's both delicious and unusual. One key is to find a mild feta -- you don't want this to be too salty. I'm going to use one of my favorite goat cheese fetas from Brookfield Dairy in New Hampshire.

GREEN AND YELLOW BEAN SALAD WITH CHUNKY TOMATO DRESSING AND FETA CHEESE -- Jack Bishop, Cooking Light, June 2001

Ingredients:
4 cups of water
3/4 pound of green beans
3/4 pound of yellow beans
2 cups chopped tomatoes (I used quartered cherry tomatoes)
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
1/2 cup (2 oz.) crumbled feta

Directions:
Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Cook beans in boiling water for 5 minutes or until crisp tender. Drain and rinse with cold water. Drain again.
Combine next 4 ingredients (through pepper) in a bowl. Divide beans evenly on 8 plates. Top each serving with 1/4 cup of the tomato mixture. Sprinkle each serving with one tablespoon basil and 1 tablespoon crumbled cheese.
Enjoy!

The First Ratatouille of Summer

2009-08-27T16:32:00.018-04:00

I stopped by the farmer's market in Boston's Copley Square the other day, in search of some baby golden cauli-flower. I was looking forward to making this delicious pasta sauce that gives your mouth the sensation of a creamy alfredo, but without the fat and calories. I believe this dish was created by George Germon and Johanne Killeen of Al Forno fame--I think it was from a Boston Globe article about what chefs make for Valentine's Day--but I long ago lost both the article and the recipe, so now I have to make it up as I go along.

Anyway, I stopped by Siena Farms, one of my favorite stands. (It's owned by Farmer Chris, husband of Oleana's Ana Sortun.) I didn't see any cauliflower, but there were some beautiful San Marzano tomatoes, which got me thinking about another one of my favorite summer dishes: ratatouille.

The thing that makes this recipe so special is that instead of stewing everything in a big pot on top of the stove, you first roast the eggplant, onions, squash, and peppers in the oven, then mix
it with a quick-simmered sauce of plum tomatoes seasoned with garlic, minced chilies, and some thyme. It has a deep, rich flavor and a hearty texture the stove-top versions lack.

The recipe, which I found in Gourmet, is actually a sauce for pasta, but I've never served it that way. Usually, I use it as a side with grilled lamb from the Chestnut Lamb Co-op stand at the Seacoast Grower's Farmer's Market in Portsmouth, NH, which is what I'm going to do this time. Oh, and as soon as I find that cauliflower, I'll share that recipe with you. too.

Ratatouille with Penne -- from Gourmet, September 1999
Active time: 1 1/2 hours; total time: 1 3/4 hours

2 eggplants (about 1 1/2 lbs) cut into 1/2" cubes
4 onions, chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
coarse kosher salt to taste
4 yellow squash (about 1 1/2 lbs) cut into 1/2" cubes (I sometimes use a mixture of yellow and zucchini)
2 large red peppers (cut into 1/2" cubes)

1 hot pepper, minced
8 plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
7 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 1/2 lbs penne rigate (with ridges) (if serving with pasta)
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
Parmigiano-Reggiano to taste (if serving with pasta)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Stir together eggplant, onion, 1/4 cup olive oil, and kosher salt in a large roasting pan, then roast mixture in middle of oven, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Stir in squash, bell peppers, 2 T olive oil, and more salt, and roast, stirring occasionally, until peppers are tender, 25 to 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, simmer tomatoes, garlic, minced hot pepper, thyme, remaining 2 T olive oil, and kosher salt in a heavy saucepan, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 12 to 15 minutes.

If serving without pasta, turn tomato mixture into eggplant mixture, season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix in basil and parsley and serve while warm or at room temperature. Serves approximately 12 as a side dish.

If serving with pasta, cook the penne in a six-quart pot of boiling salted water until al dente, and drain. Meanwhile combine eggplant mixture and tomato mixture and season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in basil and parsley. Toss penne with 1/3 of the ratatouille, and served topped with remainder. Sprinkle with cheese, if desired.

NOTE: Ratatouille can be made 2 days ahead and chilled. Reheat before using with pasta. Serves 6 as a main dish.