Roasted Potato and Fennel Salad

One of my favorite recipes, very loosely adapted from (more like inspired by) a recipe in Cooks Illustrated for roasted potato salad with salsa verde.

Step 1: Potatoes

2 lb small red-skinned potatoes or small Yukon gold potatoes, washed and cut into ¾ inch chunks
Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 F / 250 C. Spread the potatoes on a heavy duty rimmed baking sheet (lined with foil, if available – makes cleanup easier). Drizzle with olive oil and kosher salt and pepper, and toss to coat. Make sure the potatoes are well coated with oil but not drenched. Spread the potatoes out into a single layer and roast until tender when pierced with a fork, about 20-30 minutes, depending on the size. Check and stir the potatoes once during roasting. When potatoes are done, transfer them to a large serving bowl and scrape all the toasty bits off the pan.

Step 2: The other stuff

1 medium fennel bulb

Cut the top and the bottom off the fennel bulb. Slice the fennel in half from top to bottom. Slice crosswise as thinly as possible. Add fennel to the bowl with the potatoes. Keep the fronds.

Salsa Verde:
½ c chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Reserved fennel fronds from fennel, chopped
1 medium shallot, chopped
2 T fresh orange juice or lemon juice
1 T white-wine vinegar or Champagne vinegar
1 T rice wine (mirin)
1 T honey (if needed for sweetness)
¼ c extra-virgin olive oil
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

In a medium bowl, stir together the above ingredients and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the dressing to the bowl with the fennel and potatoes and toss well to combine. Check for seasoning and serve.

Balsamic Roasted Green Beans, Roasted Butternut Squash, and Spinach Tortelloni with Butter and Sage

Here's the basics of this easy weeknight dinner:

Green Beans
Either buy a package of trimmed green beans or about a pound of bulk beans. If you buy the latter, snap the ends off. Wash the beans, dry them and lay out on a baking sheet lined with foil. Thinly slice one red onion for each pound of green beans. Thinly slice 2 or 3 garlic cloves for each pound of green beans. Season with coarse salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil, and roast at 425 for about 30 minutes, stirring once. When the beans are done, drizzle with balsamic and stir while still on the baking sheet to loosen all the brown bits (deglazing, essentially).

These beans are fabulous cold or reheated the next day.

Squash
Cut up one medium-sized butternut squash into cubes. Cut one sweet Spanish onion into chunks. Toss with salt, pepper and olive oil on a baking sheet and roast at 425 for about an hour, stirring once or twice. Be sure that the squash is caramelized but not burned.

This is also delicious reheated and smooshed onto bread.

Tortelloni with Butter and Sage
Be a cheater: buy a package of spinach and cheese tortelloni, but buy the good stuff. Cook it in boiling salted water. Melt a stick of butter in a saucepan. Sprinkle with salt when the foam subsides. Let it brown a bit, if desired. Add the sage leaves and sizzle for 1 minute. Add the drained tortelloni and toss it around in the butter. Done!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Short but sweet: if you make them, they will come. That is: if you eat cookies, people will come...to eat them!!









Generously inspired by and adapted from the Tollhouse Cookie Recipe.

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
a lot of chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350.

Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl.

Beat the butter and sugar in stand mixer on high until light and fluffy. It should take about 10 minutes; scrape the bowl several times.

Add the eggs one at a time while mixing slowly, just until incorporated. Add the vanilla.

Add the flour mixture in a few batches while the mixer is on low speed. When everything is incorporated, add the chips and mix with a spatula.

If the dough is really soft, chill in the refrigerator until slightly more solid. This way the cookies won't spread too much.

Drop about a tablespoon of dough on an ungrease cookie sheet. Fill the sheet with 12 dough balls. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until just golden brown. Do not overbake - the cookies will continue to cook for about a minute after they are removed from the oven.

Enjoy!!

Life Is Souper

The minute I exited the airport in Chicago, I smelled it. Diesel? No: Fall!

The scent of fall in the midwest is distinct. It's a swirl of fresh and musty, life and death, change encapsulated in an ephemeral whiff. Leaves darken and brighten, sleeves are supplemented with jackets, then scarves and hoods, the whole system preparing itself for the onslaught of freezing winter but celebrating with a big blast of color before it all turns white and gray.

Since it all must go back to food, I bring you my favorite harbinger of fall: soup. My mom bought all the ingredients for this minestrone and had them sitting on the counter when I walked in the door. This is my mom in a nutshell: "Welcome home! I love you! Now cook!" And gladly, with love, I eagerly grab her always-sharp knives and tear into the mountain of vegetables on the butcher block. That's another thing: making soup is a great way to vicariously hack away at whatever seems to deserve it.

Here's the recipe, to be doubled, tripled, or adapted at will. This makes about 6 quarts.

Minestrone Soup

6 Tablespoons olive oil
2 large leeks, thinly sliced, white and light green part only
4 carrots, chopped
2 zucchini, sliced in half lengthwise and then in slices
8 ounces green beans, halved
4 celery stalks, thinly sliced
12 cups vegetable stock (or chicken stock) (3 cardboard containers of, i.e., Pacific Brand)
2 14-ounce can chopped tomatoes (San Marzano, if you want the best flavor)
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dried thyme
2 14-ounce can cannellini beans
1 cup macaroni (small elbows)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese and chopped fresh parsley, to garnish


1. Heat the olive oil in a large dutch oven or soup pot, add all the fresh vegetables and heat until sizzling. Cover the pan, lower the heat and sweat the vegetables for 15 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally.

2. Pour in the stock and add the tomatoes and herbs with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, replace the lid, then simmer gently for about 30 minutes

3. Add the beans with the can liquid, then the pasta. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Check the seasoning and serve with the Parmesan cheese and parsley

Rice Balls

Sometimes you want lunch to be easy. Oh, did I say lunch? I meant life. But in the meantime...

Make rice balls!

What's more fun than an edible ball that you can pick up with your hands, bite into and find magic inside? Nothing! Hostess cupcakes mastered this art but can, like many nostalgic food products, lead to regret when revisited later in life. See also: Ding Dongs and Hot Pockets.

But the Japanese have got this area covered. Though some venture into ridiculousness I do have to bow in respect. I can't really venture to call my rice balls "onigiri", as that would be like calling half-thawed, partially cooked fish sticks "sushi". But I like to imagine myself stumbling up to the pantheon of rice gods to one day stand upon their big toes, if not their shoulders.My recipe, very loosely adapted (more like "inspired by") Harumi Kurihara's "Harumi's Japanese Cooking" and my friend Mandy.

Shiitake Mushroom Filling
Fresh shiitake mushrooms -- about 3-4 ounces
3 T soy sauce
2 T rice wine / mirin

Clean the mushrooms, remove the stems and slice thinly. Put in a saucepan with the soy sauce and rice wine. If it looks like they need more liquid, add more but keep the proportions the same. Bring to a boil, reduce to a quick simmer, and cook until the mushrooms have absorbed all the liquid. If you like spicy, add the spice sauce of your choice.

Rice
I made one rice cooker cup of short grain brown rice in the rice cooker. If you do it on the stove, good luck, and make about 1/2 cup dry rice (which yields 1 to 1/2 cups cooked rice).

Balls
Take a piece of plastic wrap and put it on your work surface. Using a spoon (dipped in cold water if you really want to), pat out a spoonful of rice to about a palm-sized circle. The rice should be a thin but smooth layer. Place about a teaspoon of mushroom filling in the center, then gather the plastic wrap and bring the whole thing together into a ball. Squeeze or cinch the plastic wrap to smoosh the rice into place. Repeat until you have used all the rice or all the filling, whichever comes first. Mine would have made about 8 rice balls but I ate a bunch of the rice when it first came out. 4 rice balls per person, if accompanied by other stuff, should be plenty.

Sprinkle the top of the rice balls with Japanese rice seasoning of your choice, if you want to get all fancy schmancy like me.

Fun With a Japanese Slicer

I'm about to reveal a little secret. Get ready...get really, really ready...

(I see you leaning into the computer there!)

The best kitchen tool I've bought yet cost me all of $2.50 at the Japanese grocery store.

Ok, that's a bit of a lie. My Santoku knife is actually the best tool ever, which I bought for $80 at Williams-Sonoma (full disclosure: ex-rockstar-teenage-employee of WS) and my second best tool is the rice cooker my mom bought me for Christmas. Or intended to buy for Christmas but knew how excited I would be so gave it to me early (thanks Mom!). But the best NEW tool is the Japanese 4-in-1 slicer. It grates, crinkle cuts, purees (for garlic and ginger) and slices paper thin. I had oodles of fun with it this weekend slicing up cucumbers and grating daikon. I wish it grated more like the food processor julienne blade, but hey, we can't ALL be ex-WS employees with a 40% discount, now can we?

Japanese slicer + Harumi Kurihara's "Harumi's Japanese Cooking" + delicious fresh ingredients = Salad of Many Shapes and Textures with Peanut Miso Dressing!





Recipe (but feel free to vary as your slicing desires take over)
2 carrots, peeled
1 small daikon (6 inches long)
1 small cucumber
A handful of shiso leaves (sub arugula or another spicy green, but shiso is amazing and my newest addiction)

1 T teaspoons miso
1 T unsweetened peanut butter or tahini
a squirt of Sriracha
1 T soy sauce
1 T rice vinegar
a bit of warm water - add 1 T at a time

Using the vegetable peeler, make carrot ribbons. (The slicer failed me on the carrots). Grate the daikon as finely as possible. It should resemble daikon snow. Slice the cucumbers as thinly as possible using the slicer blade. If the cucumbers are especially wet, pat them dry with a paper towel. Wash and dry the shiso or greens and scatter then around. The greens are more of a garnish than a salad base but make a nice textural and flavor contrast, especially the shiso. This would be good with regular lettuce, though, if that's all you have.

Mix the miso, PB, sriracha or hot sauce, soy sauce and rice vinegar in a small bowl. Add a bit of warm water just to make everything come together. Add a bit more to make the dressing liquidy but not too thin. You want it to be pourable but not watery. Assemble your salad in whatever way you prefer and pour the dressing over. You might have more dressing than you need, but that's better than less.

This should be enough for one very big salad (like for a raw foodist or a hungry vegetarian) or two smaller salads.

What Do To With Mushy Figs

When I lived in Brazil, I used to get boxes of figs for R$2,50 during the fig season. Thats ten gorgeously plump, perfectly ripe, bursting with figgyness figs for about a dollar (at least when I lived there). My search for cheap and luscious figs became almost obsessive, and I would scorn the fool who tried to pawn a R$4,00 or even R$5,00 box off on unsuspecting amateurs. These delicious Brazilian figs remain elusive in America, where supermarkets can get away with charging $5 or even $8 for four shriveled little figs that resemble the unmentionables of those not of my gender. Gross. That image alone was enough to shake my addiction (but I'm sorry if it put you all off figs forever, if Sex and the City hadn't already done so).

But my latent addiction was awakened briefly at the sign of some plump, sprightly little Mission figs at my local Whole Paycheck. I caved...I bought them...coveted my little purchase like a prize fighter...I at least waited until being outside to dig in.

And promptly spit that slimy mass of tasteless seeds all over the sidewalk!

But now, I find myself with a basket of tasty-looking (but not tasty-tasting) figs and, true to frugal form, can't bring myself to throw them away. While brewing a big batch of hibiscus tea, the thought came to me. I love that ridiculously expensive fig-black pepper compote that was regularly sampled at the Ann Arbor Whole Paycheck, and the floral depth of hibiscus might compensate for the lack of decent balsamic vingar in my kitchen. Into another saucepan go diced figs, a glug of hibiscus tea, a squizzle of honey, a pinch of salt and a few (very few - like 5) black peppercorns. Set it to simmer, stir frequently while enjoying a cup of hibiscus tea (or hibiscus sangria, if you roll that way) and wait until the mixture is thick and the figs have melted into a rich fruity mess.

So delicious! Shown here with my obscenely self-congratulating meal of Acme Bread green onion slab, Barely Buzzed Cheddar from Beehive Cheese, and a glass of $9 screw-top Carmenére with a fancy schmancy label.