Roasted Eggplant in Coconut Curry Sauce

This dish is aromatic and light with some warmth, but definitely not hot.  I found it to be real comfort food. There are three parts: the coconut milk infusion, the curry paste and the roasted eggplant. You can serve this family style, on a platter, or on individual plates.

I didn't have the kaffir lime leaves called for in the original recipe and substituted lime but if you can get your hands on them, they are wonderful. The kaffir lime has sort of a double leaf and in recipes each half is generally considered to be one leaf. You can find them frozen or dried. I have read that if you use dried, double the quantity called for in the recipe.

Lemongrass. Left: prepared and ready to use

Lemongrass. Native to the Philippines, it is used widely used in cooking as an herb or tea. It has a highly aromatic citrus taste. It's pretty easy to find these days in some grocery stores and farmers markets and definitely in Asian markets. It freezes very well. To prepare, remove the tough outer leaves. Cut off about 1/3" at the root end. Cut off any of the top that doesn't give a little when you stick a fingernail into it. Remove a few layers of the tough outer leaves. From that point, there should be about 3-4 inches of stalk to use. Bash the remaining stalk with a meat tenderizer (or something similar) with gusto until it breaks down, then prepare as called for in your recipe. You'll want a sharp knife for mincing the bashed up stalks. Even with the tough bits removed, they're quite fibrous and the smaller you mince them, the better they will break down when you make the curry paste.

If you are freezing it, slice thinly (before bashing) and store in small plastic bags from which you have removed all possible air. I store mine in a 'snack sized' zip-close bags and just break off a chunk - it will defrost quickly - then seal the bag again. I  write the amount (number of stalks) of lemongrass on the plastic bag so that I can figure out what volume to remove when a recipe calls for a number of stalks. Fresh is best and freezing any aromatic will lessen its intensity, so use a little more if you're using frozen.

Coconut milk can generally be found in regular and 'light' versions. I can't remember the last time I used full-fat coconut milk in a savory dish. The 'light' versions have about 60% less fat and using it does not seem to negatively affect the dishes I've cooked.

This dish calls for Japanese or Italian eggplant. Long and generally about 2" or less in diameter. Make sure you don't slice them any less then 1/3" (and up to 1/2 inch) thick. They should be soft after roasting but if they're too thin, they'll break down.

The amount of sauce will be generous. After you serve, set some on the table to pass around. It's good. Since it is not over hot, this works as a side dish to spicier/hotter dishes or as an accompaniment to grilled meat, poultry or fish. I ate mine with some grilled, sliced marinated tofu.

RECIPE: ROASTED EGGPLANT IN COCONUT CURRY SAUCE
Adapted from: Herbivoracious
Serves 2 as a main, 4 as a side

Ingredients

• Coconut Milk Infusion
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and thickly sliced
• 1-2 small, hot red chiles (I used 2 chiles d'Arbol) roughly chopped
• 1 bay leaf, broken into large pieces
• 6 sprigs of cilantro plus 3 sprigs for garnishing the finished dish
• 1 14 oz can coconut milk (I used light)
• Roasted Eggplant
• 4 Japanese  or Italian eggplant (about 1 - 1 1/4 lbs), trimmed at both ends
• 1-2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• salt
• Curry Paste
• 3 small shallots, peeled and sliced thin (about 1/3-1/2 cup)
• 5 kaffir lime leaves, thinly sliced or the zest (no pith!) of 1 large lime (or lemon) removed in slices and roughly chopped
• 2 stalks lemon grass, tough outer leaves removed, tough upper stalks removed, bashed (to break down the fibrous stem) and minced very fine.
• 2 cloves garlic, thickly sliced
• 1 inch piece ginger, peeled and sliced thin
• 1 handful of Thai (or other) basil leaves (you can include some of the tender stems) plus about 8 small leaves for garnish (or 4 large leaves, torn at the time you garnish the dish)
• Juice of 1 lime (or lemon), plus a little more if you need it.

Preparation

• Preheat the oven, rack in the middle, to 450F
• 1 rimmed baking sheet
• 1 2-3 quart heavy bottom sauce pan
• Mortar and pestle, small food processor or mini-chop

Infuse the Coconut Milk

• In a saucepan (2-3 quart) on medium heat, add the oil. Add the garlic and chiles

Roasting the Eggplant

• Trim the top and bottom of the eggplants. Slice them lengthwise in 1/3"- 1/2" slices and score diagonally about 1/3 of the way through the top of each side of the slices. Brush a baking sheet with some of the oil and place the prepared eggplant slices. Brush each side lightly with some of the vegetable oil and season each piece lightly with salt on both sides. Roast these slices in the oven on a baking sheet until completely tender and browned - about 30 minutes in total. Check them after 15 minutes, turning each slice. On the second side, check after 10 minutes to make sure they're not getting too brown.

 Preparing the Curry Paste and Serving

• While the eggplant slices are roasting, in a small food processor, mini-chop or with a mortar and pestle, combine the kaffir lime leaves (or lime zest), the sliced shallots, prepared lemongrass, garlic, ginger and Thai basil and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Process in the food processor, mini-chop or pound until you have a very fine paste. Mix-in the lime juice. Set aside.
• Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in the sauce pan you used to infuse the coconut milk on medium high heat until it shimmers , add the curry paste, adjusting the heat down, if necessary and fry for 1 minute. Turn down the heat to medium low and cook the paste an additional minute then add the infused coconut milk, stirring to combine. Cook at a gentle simmer for 5 minutes. Taste and adjust the salt. When it's ready, stir in the lime juice and combine completely.
• Pour half the sauce on a large, warmed serving platter. Transfer the eggplant slices to the platter and pour more sauce over the top (you don't have to use it all). garnish with the reserved cilantro sprigs and basil leaves.

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Raw Butternut Squash Salad ♥

Today's salad recipe: It's one thing to eat raw tomatoes and cucumbers and zucchini. But winter squash? When grated small, winter squash is surprisingly tender. Pair it with a little fresh ginger and add some dried fruit for sweetness. This is a salad that will delight the eyes and the tastebuds! A small serving is "low carb" and even a larger serving adds up to only 1 Weight Watchers point (old points) or 2 Weight Watchers points (PointsPlus).

As sweet as vegetables can turn once they're cooked, especially when they're roasted slowly in a hot oven, every once in awhile, "raw" vegetables can really hit the spot.

I first made this salad last fall -- on the very day the recipe was published in the New York Times. I made no notes, I wrote no post, mostly because mid-November didn't strike me as the "right time" for a raw winter squash salad. But I did take a pretty picture and it kept popping up when perusing the photo files for the scores of "work in process" recipes, many which are too "meh" or too "something" to meet my high standards for both A Veggie Venture and Kitchen Parade.

But the first small winter squash are showing up both at the farmers market and the grocery store. They're especially perfect for this raw salad -- because the flesh is slightly more tender, the proportion of flesh:seeds&gunk is high. And just like the Butternut Squash Soup with Mango & Toasted Coconut, it strikes me as a great "transitional" salad, one that spans the season, when the weather is still warm and

And -- Canadians readers, are you there? This would be a great side salad for Canadian Thanksgiving coming up so quickly now, especially with dried cranberries instead of dried currants.
Keep Reading ->>>

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A Simple Soup of Sorrel, Leeks and Potato

Food bloggers photography dilemma: how do you photograph a VERY tasty soup that has the unfortunate hue of an army surplus tent? I think the color was due mostly to the color of my vegetable broth which rendered the soup not-so-green. So, before the beauty shot, why not dot the top with olive oil and float a perfectly formed quenelle of greek yogurt?

...that immediately sank to the bottom of the bowl. Oh, well.

Classically, a quenelle is a combination of fish combined with a white sauce, forced through a sieve, formed into the quenelle shape and poached. Now the use is broader, often just referring to the shape - basically a teardrop, where one of the two sides has a bit of a corner. So, I made this beautiful quenelle of greek yogurt and it sank. I should've swirled it in instead. Okay, I've moved on.

Leeks cooking with butter and a little stock.

This soup is dead easy. Except for the butter, salt and pepper, it takes four ingredients, all of which can be swapped out for others. If you have a small russet potato, a leek (or an onion, or shallots) and vegetable stock (or chicken stock, or even water) plus one other vegetable that is soup-appropriate, you can make this soup, or its cousin. If you're missing the "one other vegetable" and have another potato, you've got soup. Sure, you can tuck basil leaves into the blender with your roasted tomatoes when you purée it, or spike carrots with some harissa, but you can also just celebrate the taste of the ingredients, seasoned with just enough salt and pepper.

Sorrel leaves - pinch off the stem below the leaves.

Sorrel is a perennial used as an herb, cooking or salad green. Last week, Lynn and I used it with other herbs to stuff under the skin of a roasted chicken and it worked marvelously. I couldn't decide whether to use it in a sauce or make a soup - and decided on the latter. When I first tasted it raw, I thought, "Oh, okay another chard-ish, kale-ish cooking green." and then it tasted a little puckery (sour -like I had a mild lemon candy in my mouth - without the lemon taste or sweetness) and things got interesting. I really wanted to know what it tasted like without a lot of other competing flavors so I kept it simple: leek cooked in butter, vegetable stock, a small potato and sorrel, purréed after cooking.

After cooking, the puckery, slightly acidic finish in the taste of the raw sorrel goes away and it has a mild flavor that I don't think I can accurately describe or liken to something else - but it was very good.

The diced potato pieces should be completely tender, but should not break apart when you poke a fork into them.

You can make this without the potato and add previously cooked pasta, beans or other grain at the end. You can forego the purée-ing and keep it a little chunky - just chop up the greens as you would chard so that they are spoon up-able after cooking.

RECIPE: SIMPLE SOUP WITH SORREL, LEEKS AND POTATO

4 generous servings
This may be served hot or at room temperature.

You can purée this in a blender, food processor or use a stick blender. If you use the later, you may not achieve a totally smooth purée if that's your goal. If you substitute onion for the leeks use about 1/2 cup, diced. Leeks are milder than onions. If you use a blender or food processor, cool down your soup for a few minutes, fill the blender or food processor no more than 1/3 full. If you use the blender, crack the top just a tiny bit and hold a folded kitchen towel over the stop. Hot liquids when blended, expand and can become volcanic. If you're using a stick blender, make sure you cool the soup down and it is in a deep pot before you start.

If you are using a commercially prepared stock or broth, be conservative in how you season the leeks - you may even wish to pass on adding any salt until you've added the stock or broth.


Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter or olive oil
• 1 or 2 leeks (depending on size) white and light green parts washed, medium dice (about 1 to 1 1/2 cups)
• 4 cups hot stock (chicken, vegetable) or water
• 1 small (about 4" long) russet potato peeled, medium dice
• 4 cups sorrel leaves (or spinach or watercress), washed with the stems below the leaves removed.
• salt and pepper
• Garnish with a swirl of yogurt (whole milk), half-and-half or cream, a tablespoon per serving will do the trick and some pepper.

Preparation

• Heat a large sauce pan or small dutch oven (at least 3 quart capacity) over medium high heat. Add the butter and adjust the heat to medium. When the foam has died down, add the leeks and a pinch of salt. Cook the leeks gently, adjust the heat down so they do not brown, but cook until they are soft. If you want to add a little bit of the stock (as I did), add about 1/3 cup.
  
• Add the hot stock to the pan and the diced potato. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cover the pot. Cook for about 10 minutes until the diced potato is completely cooked through and offers no resistance when you poke a piece with a fork.
  
• Add the sorrel leaves to the pot and stir gently. Simmer for an additional 5 minutes and remove your pan from the heat. Cool down for a few minutes. Puree in thirds (see blender/hot liquid safety note in the head notes) until it is as smooth as you desire. Rinse out the pan and pour in the puréed soup to warm. Serve with a swirl of yogurt, half-and-half or cream - about a tablespoon per serving.

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Beet Salad with Sumac, Yogurt & Pita ♥

A quick beet salad turned appetizer when served with a garlicky yogurt sauce and fresh pita bread. For Weight Watchers, just three points (PointsPlus) or two points (Old Points).

So I set off to find another delicious way to use the sumac that makes a Fattoush (Traditional Middle Eastern Salad) so delicious. You see, I really want you to seek some out and the fact that I just might be a tiny bit smitten to sumac's earthy sourness, well, that might not be enough so, well, will another temptation help? :-)

But what I accidentally happened onto was another contribution to a meze (also spelled mezze and pronounced [MEZ-ay]). It's a happy style of casual eating, a few dishes, full of flavor and texture and -- let's be truthful here -- lots of garlic. Just one meze-style dish we might call an 'appetizer' but with a handful of different dishes, that would be a meal. It's easy to imagine sitting cross-legged on Turkish rugs eating this stuff but in my world, the kitchen table does just fine. A picnic blanket outdoors some fine fall day? That would be heaven.
Keep Reading ->>>

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Spicy Chickpeas: a Riff on Chana Masala

I dip in and out of Indian cooking and I can claim no expertise but I love the little I've learned about it. I absolutely love what happens when you combine spices and together they become a whole (taste and aroma) yet maintain an individual presence. While I've found good commercial blends, combining from scratch when you have the time - especially with whole spices - is so much better. The -several- recipes I referenced as a base for this dish were titled "Chana Masala". "Chana" (or chole) are chickpeas (garbanzo beans) and "masala" is a term used in Indian cooking -- there are many regions and types so I feel okay generalizing -- referring to a mixture of spices, often dry roasted, or a spice paste.

Draft 2 - with some cooking notes. More changes were made.
including leaving out the last addition of fried mustard seeds
at the end as I really didn't think it added enough
to go to the trouble.

I've seen references to Chana Masala in the regional cuisines of Punjab, Gujarat and Rajasthani. Most refer to the dish being fairly dry (not goopy or soupy) and being served with a fried bread ("bhatoora"). The dish is easily eaten out of hand with bhatoora. In my take on this it isn't completely dry, but far short of soupy.

Also, poblano chiles. Yeah, I used poblanos and they're definitely not used in Indian cooking. I really liked the idea of the slightly smoky flavor of roasted poblano in this dish and I have several in my refrigerator right now. One of my favorite vendors at the SF Ferry Plaza Farmers Market is Catalán Family Farm and they have some of the most beautiful chiles this time of year, as well as a bounty of heirloom tomatoes and other vegetables.

One thing I didn't have on hand that I saw in all my references was amchoor (or amchur) powder - a powder made from dried, green mangoes. I've had green mango salads in Thai restaurants and there's a slight sour-sweet taste that I'm guessing is enhanced in the dried version. Without amchoor powder, I substituted lime - adding the zest of 2 limes to the dish while it was cooking and the juice (about 3 tablespoons) at the very end of cooking, when the pan was off the heat. I don't know how comparable the flavor is, but I was happy with how the limes worked with the dish. A little sweet, a little sour and a slight hint of acid was a great contrast to the aromatic, smokey, spicy and medium heat of this dish.

When the mustard seeds start popping, be ready with the onions, otherwise the mustard seeds will jump out of the pan.

This dish is great as a side or as an entree. I ate it again tonight as a side with some left over roast chicken from Friday's dinner.

RECIPE: SPICY CHICKPEAS INSPIRED BY CHANA MASALA

Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a side
.
This is a great opportunity to practice mise en place by getting all of the ingredients either measured out or otherwise prepared. It's especially important to have the onions ready because when the mustard seeds start popping, within a few seconds they'll really start popping - right out of the pan and you don't want them to burn. Or end up all over the stove. Or on the floor. They're feisty.

Ingredients

• Spice Paste
• 2-4 dried hot red chiles, soaked in hot water to just cover, until soft ( I used 3 chiles d'Arbol, seeds removed)
• 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon ginger, grated
• 1 tablespoon fresh grated turmeric or 2 teaspoons dry
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch ground cloves

• Dry Spices
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 2 teaspoons black mustard seeds 

• Aromatics
• 1 medium onion, small dice
• 4 tablespoons oil (canola is what I used), divided
• 1 sweet red pepper (bell, gypsy, sweet Italian) , small dice

• 2 cups cooked chickpeas
• 1 cup fresh tomato, medium dice (seeds and juice included)
• 1 tablespoon amchoor powder or the zest of 2 limes
• 1 large poblano chile, de-seeded and roasted (skin removed), medium dice
• Water - 1 to 1 1/2 cups

• Garnish
• Juice of 2 limes
• 1/4 cup cilantro, finely minced + a little extra to garnish the plate

• Salt and fresh ground pepper

Preparation

• Prepare the spice paste first. Purée the soaked chiles, including the soaking water, garlic, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon and cloves in a small food processor until it is an homogenous paste. Set aside.
• In a skillet or large saute pan (3 quarts, should not be non-stick) heated on medium high, toast the cumin seeds, coriander seeds and fennel seeds for about a minute, until they become fragrant and the cumin seeds turn a slightly darker color. Take the pan off the heat. Remove the spices to a plate or bowl and cool for a few minutes. Grind in a spice mill or in a mortar using a pestle. Reserve. Return the pan to the heat - medium high - and add the mustard seeds for about 10-20 seconds, until the seeds begin to pop. When that happens, immediately add 3 tablespoons of oil to the pan, immediately followed by the diced onions.
• Saute the onions until they are translucent, adjusting the heat as necessary and cook until completely soft and a little golden around the edges. Add the diced red pepper cook until it is tender but still has some structure
• Clear a spot in the middle of the pan. Combine the spice paste with 1 tablespoon of the oil and add to the the pan. Gently fry the paste, adjusting the heat if necessary to keep it from burning, for a few minutes. Incorporate the spice paste into the onion and pepper mixture.
• Fold in the chickpeas, tomatoes, amchoor powder (or zest of 2 limes) and the poblano chile
• When nearly all of the liquid has reduced, take the pan off the heat and stir in the lime juice and the minced 1/4 of cilantro. Combine well and serve immediately.

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Butternut Squash Soup with Mango & Toasted Coconut ♥

Today's soup recipe: A smooth almost custard-like soup, served chilled on warm days or warm on chilly days.

But first, it's "back to school" for a quick lesson about vegetables, specifically 'squash'. What's the difference between 'summer squash' and 'winter squash'?

Is it that one grows in summer and one grows in winter? Nope.
Is it that one's eaten in summer and one's eaten in winter? Nope, at least not in today's global food distribution system that delivers year-round availability of many of our staple fruits and vegetables.

This book you can read by its cover, for the difference between summer squash and winter squash is up-front and visible, right in the skins.

Summer squash have tender, edible skins. Think zucchini (called 'courgette' in many parts of the world) and yellow squash.
Winter squash have tough, inedible skins. Think butternut squash, acorn squash, spaghetti squash and even pumpkin.
Keep Reading ->>>

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Friday Dinner: It's a "Goat Hill Pizza" Night!

What are you supposed to do when you have a slightly traumatic yet ultimately successful experience making noodles? I mean seriously, how do you get flour on your back? Well, you get back in the pool and make pizza dough.

Lynn, my culinary confederate, has a favorite combination of dishes: the "Special Combination" pizza, a chef's salad with blue cheese dressing and a side of garlic bread from Goat Hill Pizza, in San Francisco. We can practically smell the pizza at Goat Hill's Potrero Hill store from her back deck, but we decided on a DIY version. Homemade dough, homemade sauce and toppings plus the chef's salad and garlic bread. Have I ever mentioned that Friday night dinners are the once-weekly "Olly-olly oxen free!" of my weeks' meals?

 The dough recipe I used specified that it would make a 14" diameter round pizza. The volume was perfect for a thin-crust pizza on a rimmed baking sheet about 12" x 17". It's also very easy to make and shape - this coming from a dough-a-phobic so you can take that to the bank.

I made a very straightforward tomato sauce with nothing but tomatoes, onion, garlic olive oil, salt and a little pepper. We topped the pizza with sauce, mozzarella, Romano cheese, mushrooms, green pepper, olives, white onion, basil, sweet Italian sausage and salami - but we forgot the garlic (don't you forget it if you make it, okay?). As delicious as it was, we won't forget the garlic the next time. I also forgot to bring the chickpeas for the salad, but you should be more vigilant and make sure you don't forget it, eh?

I went a little crazy with the cornmeal, but it made for a nice picture.

RECIPES

• THIN CRUST "SPECIAL COMBINATION" PAN PIZZA
• Pizza Dough
• Simple Tomato Sauce
• Assembling and Cooking the "Special Combination" Pan Pizza
• CHEF'S SALAD with LYNN'S BLUE CHEESE DRESSING
• GARLIC CHEESE BREAD

Pizza Dough

From:  Serious Eats' Antipasto Pizza recipe

The recipe for the dough states that it will make a 14" (round) pizza or 1 lb of dough. For us, it made a great, thin-crust pan pizza in a rimmed baking pan with a rim, about 12" x 17".

Ingredients

• 1 package Active Dry Yeast (7 grams)
• 1 cup warm water (110F), divided
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse kosher or sea salt
• 2 teaspoons honey or sugar
• 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• small handful of course ground cornmeal

Preparation

• Stir the yeast into 1/2 cup of the warm water and a bowl and set aside. Combine the salt and the flour in the bowl of a food processor fixed with the dough blade. Pulse a few times.
• In a liquid measuring cup, whisk the remaining 1/2 cup warm water, honey (or sugar) and olive oil. Add to the yeast mixture. With the food processor running, slowing add the wet ingredients to the dry through the feed tube or chute. Let the processor run until the dough forms a ball.
• Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured board and knead for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and soft.
• Transfer to a large bowl brushed with oil. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and set aside in a warm place (at least 70F) to rise for 1 hour. After an hour, press the dough down (no actual punching necessary) and let it rise again for about 30 minutes.* This is a good time to preheat your oven to 500 and move the rack to the second to the bottom level.
• Gently press and stretch the dough into a rectangle. You can continue to pull and stretch the dough to be a little larger than the bottom of the baking sheet. I rolled it out (very lightly flouring the top of the dough alternating with hanging one edge of the dough over the side of the counter and pulling gently and then turning the dough 1/4 of a turn and repeating. When the dough is a little larger than the baking sheet, spread a small handful of the course-ground cornmeal on the bottom of the pan. Place the dough on the pan and stretch it a little more to make sure you have a small border around the edge of the pan. 

* So, this is how MY pizza dough rise steps went: the first hour went exactly as described above, except for the fact that it was 1 1/2 hours. Then I transferred the dough (no punching down) to a bowl that has a lid so I could get it to Lynn's house where it then sat, with the lid a slightly open, on the counter for at least an hour. Then I put it in the fridge and took it out about 45 minutes before I shaped and rolled it before assembling the pizza. The pizza crust was great so this is just another lesson, care of moi and courtesy of the resilience of dough.


Simple Tomato Sauce
Makes about a quart and much more than you need for this pizza, but easy to freeze for the next time. If you don't want leftovers, cut the recipe in half. I put the sauce through a food mill (medium disk) after it finished cooking. If you don't have a food mill, I recommend putting the sauce through a medium mesh strainer. Many sauce recipes call for draining the whole, canned tomatoes but if the whole tomatoes are of good quality, the liquid will taste good, too. This isn't a super-thick sauce, as prepared below but for our pizza, this is the consistency I was looking for.


Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed
• 2 - 28 oz cans whole tomatoes (I'm fond of Muir Glen Organic)
• kosher or sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

Preparation

• Heat 3 tablespoons of butter in a heavy dutch oven on medium high heat. When the butter stops foaming, add the chopped onions and a pinch of salt. Stir to coat the onions in the oil. After a couple of minutes, adjust the heat so that onions cook until they are translucent and soft, but do not take on any color. After 5 to 10 minutes and the onions are soft, add the smashed garlic cloves and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
• Add the remaining olive oil and the tomatoes. Use a potato masher to break down the tomatoes. Adjust the heat until the mixture is cooking at a fast simmer. Do not cover the pot you want to cook the tomatoes and reduce the liquid. Stir the mixture frequently to keep the sauce from sticking as it reduces, adjusting the heat as necessary. Use the potato masher again to further break down the solids. Season the sauce with salt by pinches until you are satisfied. Remember that as it reduces, the amount of salt you use will intensify.Add the olive oil and stir to combine.
• Continue to cook and stir until the watery liquid is gone and the mixture resembles a chunky but mostly homogenous sauce. Add a few grinds of pepper on a fine setting or to taste. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the sauce to cool. When it has cooled, put the mixture through a food mill with a medium disk or a medium mesh strainer. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until you are ready to prepare the pizza but take it out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before you will start. This may be made several days in advance and refrigerated or frozen. Defrost completely and bring to room temperature.

Pizza Toppings and Preparation

Inspired by Goat Hill Pizza's "Special Combination". I'm giving VERY conservative amounts in the ingredients section. We made thin-crust pan pie and I would not want to overload it to the point where you could not pick-up a piece with your hands without the top falling off and the crust not cooking through.

Ingredients

• Pizza dough in the prepared pan (see recipe for pizza dough)
• Pizza sauce, 1 1/2 to 2 cups
• About 2-3 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese, divided
• About 1 1/2 cups Romano cheese, finely grated with a microplane, divided (Note: when you use a micro-plane grater, the results are very airy and fluffy. If you use a regular grater, count on between 1/2 to 3/4's of a cup)
• Salami - about 12-16 thin slices (our salami was about 1 1/2" in diameter
• 2 Italian sausage, casings removed, cooked, drained and broken up into pieces
• 1/2 cup white onion, thinly sliced
• Sliced mushrooms, 1-2 cups
• 1/2 - 1 Green bell pepper, 2-3" julienne slices
• 4-6 green onions sliced crosswise, white and green parts
• 1 cup sliced black olives
• Garlic, small dice. As I mentioned, we forgot to add this but start 3-4 cloves
• Red pepper flakes (for garnish)

Preparation

• About 45 minutes prior to cooking the pizza, preheat the oven to 500F and move a rack down to the the second to the bottom level.
• Using a ladle or measuring cup (1/2 cup). Spread sauce on the pizza dough in the pan. I spread the sauce out after each ladle full. I opted for a thin layer. Add a layer of Mozzarella (about 1 1/2 cups) and a about 1 cup of the Romano. Add the salami and sausage, diced white onion, the mushrooms, black olives, garlic, julienned green bell pepper, and the sliced green onions. Top with about 1/2 more cup of Mozzarella and the remaining Romano cheese.
• Put the pizza in the oven and set the timer for 15 minutes. Check the pizza. The topping should be bubbly and the edges of the crust, a deep, golden brown. If it's not ready, cook for 5-10 more minutes.
• Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes before slicing into 12 pieces. Pass a small bowl of red pepper flakes for garnish.

Goat Hill-Inspired Chef's Salad and Lynn's Blue Cheese Dressing
For the salad, adjust amounts to your own taste. This is a great opportunity to use the oft-maligned iceberg lettuce. I grew up on iceberg lettuce and while there are many more interesting and tasty salad greens, iceberg works beautifully in this salad and is a fantastic delivery system for the blue cheese dressing. We used a combination of  red oak and iceberg. Don't forget the chickpeas! I love Lynn's blue cheese dressing. Although it has mayonnaise and sour cream, the amounts are small and the genius to this is the red wine vinegar.

Lynn's Blue Cheese Dressing
Will dress a salad serving 4-6 people

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• red wine vinegar
• Aged, finely grated cheese to taste like Romano, Asiago or Parmagiana
• Scant pinch of salt and generous grinds of fresh ground pepper

Preparation
Squish up the blue cheese and combine with the mayonnaise and sour cream and combine well. Lynn combines it until it's not-quite an homogenous mixture and there are tiny little pieces of blue cheese. Add red wine vinegar, start with one tablespoon and taste. Add a tablespoon or two of the aged, grated cheese and adjust to taste. Adjust red wine as necessary to achieve a creamy/tart taste. If necessary add salt, but you may not need any. Season with fresh ground pepper to taste.

Salad Components

• Mixed greens
• Feta Cheese
• Chopped  tomatoes
• Thin-sliced red onions
• Kidney beans and chickpeas
• Large dice or thin-sliced beats
• Pepperoncini

Garlic Bread
...aaaand since we haven't had enough carbs, fat and cheese there's garlic bread. Both of us love toasty-er garlic bread with a firm crust rubbed with garlic cloves, dressed with a little extra virgin olive oil but we both have a soft spot for this type. Lynn's description is: a ton of butter, a ton of grated aged cheese, 1 large garlic clove, pureed. Combine and slather on one side of each slice of bread. We wrapped this in foil and baked it for 10 minutes in the oven as it was preheating (at 500F) for the pizza and kept it wrapped and warm on the top of the stove until we ate. After all, what's another ton or so of butter and cheese at this point?

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Cooking the American Saveur's Peking Duck Tacos

My friend over at The American Saveur asked me to test drive a recipe a couple of weeks ago and (a) I didn't screw it up; and (b) it is an absolutely delicious dish. 

Red cabbage, sautéed with some of the rendered duck fat is lightly pickled with rice wine vinegar. On top of a handmade tortilla, the cabbage forms the bed for duck breast which has been marinated in five spice powder, salt, white pepper and then pan seared along with some whole star anise and cinnamon. This is dressed with a hoisin-lime sauce and garnished with scallions, cilantro and finally, a sprinkling of duck skin chicharrones. So. Freaking. Good.

If you'd like the recipe and instructions, high-tail it over to her site and take a look at (and drool over) her Peking Duck Tacos. Don't just drool - make them!

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Snack Time: Spiced Roasted Chickpeas

Snack? Salad topping? Soup or hummus garnish? They all work. This is the best method I've found to roast them without a lot of oil and still be very crispy. This batch of two cups calls for just 1 teaspoon of olive oil. The spices are up to you but I recommend that you go easy on the salt. Taste after seasoning. If you're too conservative, you can always add more after second pass in the oven. Just make sure you season them while they're still hot. Because the size of the chickpeas will vary, there may be a few that brown 'more aggressively' (the polite way to say, you might get a couple that look burned) than the rest - just pick them out. I found about 5 in this batch. Keep an eye on them during the last 5 minutes, after they've been seasoned.

How you choose to season isn't limited to any particular spices. Just be careful of things that might easily burn, like herbs. The next batch I make are going to be seasoned with chipotle powder. Or maybe barbecue. Salt and vinegar?

RECIPE: SPICED ROASTED CHICKPEAS
Makes 1 3/4-ish cups
The options for spicing are wide open so get creative! It's very important that the chickpeas are thoroughly dry before being roasted. Otherwise, they're just going to steam during the first round of cooking.

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked chickpeas, drained of any liquid (rinsed, if canned) and then drained for at least a couple more hours (or overnight, covered and in the refrigerator) in a colander, set over a bowl.
• 1 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/4 (to start) teaspoon kosher salt.
• 1/2 teaspoon commercial curry powder
• 1 or more pinches of cayenne (start with one unless you are confident about your relationship with hot and spicy)

Preparation

• Pre-heat the oven to 425F, rack in the middle, have a bowl ready for the hot chickpeas when you're ready to season them.
• Spread the thoroughly drained and dry chickpeas on a rimmed baking sheet. Cook for 10 minutes. Shake the pan and turn it 180 degrees and cook it for an additional 5-10 minutes. The chickpeas should be darker in color with some darker brown spots.
• Take the baking sheet out of the oven and remove the chickpeas to the bowl.
• Add the olive oil and toss. Add the salt, curry powder, cayenne powder and toss thoroughly.
• Taste for seasoning and adjust. When you are satisfied, spread the seasoned chickpeas on the baking sheet and return it to the oven for 5 minutes.
• Serve warm. Store refrigerated in an air-tight container.

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Quinoa Salad with Chickpeas ♥

A vegetarian main dish salad -- or a side salad -- with a double-dose of protein, one from quinoa, another from chickpeas. This is a classic "concept recipe" -- and seasonal too. Here I've added late-summer vegetables but it's easy to imagine spring and summer versions too. Very filling and satisfying, even a half cup at a time.

It's a lesson an attentive cook learns early: apply heat to food to draw out flavor, to reveal an inner character. We toast nuts to make them nuttier, we toast bread for its warmth and crispy edges. We roast tomatoes and squash to not only cook but sweeten. We brown butter to darken its character and put a little burn on bones to make stock. So what would happen if I toasted the quinoa first, would it make a difference?

Side by side, I cooked red quinoa in salted water in one pot and toasted regular quinoa to a toasty brown before adding water to cook in another. Did it make a difference? Taste-wise, not a smidgin.
Keep Reading ->>>

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Friday Dinner: Meatballs With Mushroom Gravy and Homemade Noodles

Friday night, Lynn (my culinary confederate) and I prepared dinner. She was responsible for the meatballs, the mushroom gravy and I prep'd the mushrooms, made the green beans, the salad and vinaigrette and the pasta.

I'll tell you right now, I am not going to share my preparation method for the pasta. MY method included starting with the pasta rollers on the highest (closest together, instead of widest) setting and wondering far too long why the pasta was lacy and broke apart as well as the internal stress of thinking "Aw, crap! I hope Lynn has dried pasta or rice, 'cause I'm f'king up these noodles big time! Dinner is ruined!".

Bad things happens to me when I am making something that requires flour with volumes larger than 1/2 cup.  First, even before I take the flour out of the cupboard I'm covered in it, and second, my brain stops working. Once I took the dough out of the food processor, I made every mistake possible and practically dislocated my shoulders before I figured out my problem with the pasta machine was that I had it on the wrong setting to start with. I mean, I know that you're supposed to start on the lowest (furthest apart) setting, but with a non-functioning brain and all, it took a long time for it to sink in.

That being said, everything about this dinner (even the noodles) was delicious. Lynn did a fantastic job on the meatballs and mushroom gravy, and the salad and beans (green, haricots jaunes and romano) were good, too. Our dinner conversation consisted of those happy sounds you make when something is so good, you don't have words. The recipes are after the jump, below. As for the pasta preparation, Lidia's (Bastianich) method will steer you in the right direction.

Recipe: Meatballs with Mushroom Gravy and Homemade Pappardelle

Serves: 6-8

If you don't have a pasta machine, the desire to roll out the dough yourself, or a nonna with upper arms like Superman to knead and roll out the dough, any commercial fresh or dried wide noodle - like pappardelle - will do the job.

If you don't have two people in the kitchen, you can approach this two ways: make the noodles ahead, let them dry and cook them off at the end when the meatballs are simmering away in the gravy, or make the meatballs and mushroom gravy ahead and reheat it as you're rolling out the noodles. Either way works.

Wide Egg Noodles (Pappardelle)

Ingredients

• 2 cups unbleached, all purpose flour, 1/3 cup reserved
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• warm water (may not be necessary)

Preparation 
Food processor/manual pasta machine method from Lidia Bastianich's, "Lidia's Italian Table". I made so many wrong moves (so many more than I've even admitted to here...), it's amazing that it turned out so well, but I heartily recommend following her method. I know that next time, I'll refer back to it before I start.

• Add 1 2/3 cup of the flour to the work bowl of your food processor (metal blade). In a bowl, beat the eggs, salt and olive oil until just blended. Turn on the food processor, remove the feed tube and pour the egg mixture through the feed tube. Mix until it comes together into a rough dough that has nearly all come together (a few little lumplets that haven't cleaved to the big ball o'dough is okay). If it is too stiff, add a small amount of the warm water - and by small, start with a couple of teaspoons - into the feed tube and pulse until it is incorporated. Remove the dough and knead with the remaining flour about 10-20 minutes until it is silky and smooth.
• Place the dough in a small bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rest on the counter for an hour at room temperature - or up to a day in the refrigerator before rolling the pasta. If you refrigerate it, let it rest at room temperature for at least an hour.
• Rolling the Dough with a Manual Pasta Machine & Cutting the Papardelle
• Cut the dough into six equal pieces and shape each piece into a rectangle, about 5 by 3 inches. Lightly flour each piece and store all but the one you're working with under a kitchen towel.
• Set the rollers of the machine to the widest setting. Pass one of the rectangles through the rollers, long side down, then pass it through a second time.
• Repeat these two steps with each of the pieces of dough, setting them back under the kitchen towel remembering to keep them lightly floured.
• Turn the the machine's knob to the next setting - reducing the space between the rollers. Pass the pasta between the rollers two times. Repeat this step on each of the subsequent settings until the machine is set to the next-to-the thinnest setting. Sheets should be 5 1/2" x 30" long. Once rolled out, rest the pasta under kitchen towels for 15 minutes before cutting.
• To Cut Pappardelle: Cut each of the strips in half, crosswise and then cut 1 1/2" wide strips lengthwise. dust the strips lightly and store the ribbons on a clean kitchen towel dusted with flour until you are ready to cook them. (Note - we cut ours about 1" crosswise - this was perfect for us)
• Cooking the Pappardelle
• Bring 6 quarts of salted water (2 tablespoons) to a rapid boil in a large pot. Shake off any excess flour from the pasta by tossing it in a colander and drop it into the boiling water by handfuls. Stir after each addition. When it has returned to a full boil and when the pasta rises to the top stir, then take out a piece and taste it. Let it cook for a couple more minutes until you taste it again - it shouldn't be flabby and soft, but still have just a little resistance as you bite down on it. 
• When it's ready, lift it from the pot with a strainer or spider skimmer, shaking it to remove excess water and remove to the pot of sauce or to a plate for serving.

Meatballs with Dill and Mushroom Gravy
 
Ingredients

• 3/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 lbs ground turkey
• 1/3 lb ground pork
• 1/2 large onion, medium dice, divided
  
• 3 tablespoons dill, chopped, divided
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly ground
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt + more, if necessary
• Fresh, ground pepper for seasoning
• 2 tablespoons olive oil +  a little extra
• 1/2 lb brown mushrooms, sliced in 1/4" wide slices
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups beef broth
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup heavy cream or half and half
• 3 tablespoons sour cream 

Preparation
Pour the milk over the bread crumbs and sit for at least 10 minutes. In a big bowl, add the ground turkey, ground pork, half the onion, half the dill, the eggs, soaked bread crumbs, nutmeg, salt and ground pepper to taste. Combine well. Heat a little olive oil in a small skillet. form about 1-2 tablespoons of the meatball mixture into a small patty and cook it in the pan. Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary. Cook off a second small patty and taste. When the seasoning is right, form 2" meatballs and set aside on a platter. While you're forming the meatballs, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large, heavy dutch oven over medium heat until the oil begins to shimmer.

Add the meatballs to the pan in batches - don't crowd the pan. Brown the meatballs on all sides and remove each batch to a platter or bowl. When you are done, pour off all fat and deglaze the pan with the white wine, scraping up the brown fond with a wooden spoon or spatula until the bottom is cleaned. Pour off this liquid and set aside.

Add the butter to the pan and when the foam subsides, add the onions and saute until golden brown. Add the mushrooms and saute for 10 minutes. Add the flour and stir well. Cook for about 5 minutes, then add the beef broth, chicken broth. Cook to reduce the sauce until it coats the back of a spoon. Turn the heat down to low and add the reserved deglazing liquid and cream (or half and half). Simmer for 5 minutes and taste for seasoning, adjusting with salt and pepper if necessary. Cook for another 10 minutes. Add the dill and the add the meatballs back to the sauce.

Cook for another 5 minutes, or until the meatballs are cooked through. Take the pan off the heat and add in the sour cream and stir until it is completely combined. Serve over pappardelle noodles.

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