Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Easiest Ever Garlic Bread
We’ve all been there. The soup, sauce, or whatever it is you’re making is almost ready and you have completely forgotten about the garlic bread. You madly dash to turn on the broiler and then realize that the soup, sauce, or whatever will be cold by the time the garlic bread is done. A wave of disappointment overtakes you as you realize what you will be missing. But it would be so much better with garlic bread!
The following quickie garlic bread is made for situations such as these. As long as you have a toaster, some olive oil, and a clove of garlic, you’re good. Of course it’s not the same as oven-roasted, butter, garlic, and herb-infused, Parmesan-crusted garlic bread. If you have the luxury of time, by all means go for the fully monty. But if not, or if you just want a few slices of toasted bread lightly touched with garlic to go with your meal, then this recipe is made for you.
Easiest Ever Garlic Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 to 4 slices of rustic bread
- A drizzle of olive oil for each slice
- One large fresh garlic clove
Method
1 Toast one or two slices of bread.
2 Drizzle or brush a little olive oil over one side of the toasted bread.
3 Cut a garlic clove (peel still on) in half, on the diagonal. Gently rub the cut side of the garlic clove over the olive oil-brushed toasted bread.
Alternatively, you can brush the toast with the garlic first, and then drizzle with olive oil or spread with butter. Both ways work.
Tip: If you have leftover slices of garlic bread, cut them up into squares for croutons. Store in an airtight bag or jar at room temp for a day or two. You can also process them in a blender or food processor for garlicky breadcrumbs.
Pork Roast with Cardamom Mushroom Sauce
There are two, no make that three, secrets to making an excellent pork roast. The first is to brine the roast; brining helps the roast retain moisture when it cooks.
The second is to not overcook the pork. Take the roast out at 140 to 145°F; the internal temperature will still continue to rise 5 or 10 degrees. Much higher and you have shoe leather. The third tip is to pair the roast with a wonderful sauce, as pork is rather mild and fares well with a good sauce.
Okay, now that we’ve established the fundamentals, this pork roast with a cardamom onion crust and mushroom sauce is I think, the best pork roast I’ve ever had.
Much of this has to do with the fact that the pork was brined overnight and it was cooked to a perfect temperature, the inside still a little pink. But the sauce really takes this roast out of this world. Creamy, mushroom-y, cardamom-y.
The recipe is (barely) adapted from one in an old Bon Appetit. Normally cardamom is used with Middle Eastern dishes, often with desserts. Who knew that cardamom would work so well in a mushroom cream sauce? This savory sauce is one that I will be making again soon, perhaps next time over chicken breasts.
Pork Roast with Cardamom Mushroom Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
Brine:
- 3/4 cup coarse kosher salt
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 gallon cold water
- 1 tablespoon pepper
Roast:
- 1 1/2 cups chopped onion (about 2 medium sized onions), divided into 3 x 1/2 cups
- Olive oil
- 2 1/4 teaspoons ground cardamom, divided, 2 and 1/4 teaspoons
- 1 large garlic clove
- 1 4-pound center-cut boneless pork loin roast
- Salt and pepper
- 1 1/2 pounds mushrooms, sliced
- 2 cups chicken broth, divided, 1 cup and 1 cup
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
- 1 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 1 Tbps butter, room temperature
Method
1 Brine the pork roast: Whisk together the salt, sugar, and water until the salt and sugar have completely dissolved. Add the pepper.
Submerge pork in the brine solution and chill for 1 to 2 days. Note that thick, gallon-sized freezer bag is great for brining; if you use one, you probably only need half as much brine solution. Even if you are using a bag, place in a bowl just in case the bag leaks.
Rinse the roast thoroughly of the brine solution before cooking, pat dry.
2 Preheat oven to 350°F.
3 Make onion garlic cardamom rub: Purée 1/2 cup chopped onion, 2 Tbsp olive oil, 2 teaspoons ground cardamom, and garlic in a food processor or blender.
4 Rub roast with onion purée, surround with mushrooms and onions in roasting pan: Toss remaining 1 cup of chopped onion with mushrooms and 4 Tbsp olive oil in a bowl. Place pork roast in the center of the roasting pan. Sprinkle the roast with salt and pepper. Rub roast with onion garlic purée. Surround the roast with mushrooms and onions.
5 Roast pork, remove mushrooms, add broth and water: Roast pork 1 hour at 350°F. Remove from oven after one hour and remove the mushrooms, placing them into a large saucepan.
Add 1 cup broth and 1/2 cup water to roasting pan.
Return roast to oven and roast pork until thermometer inserted into thickest part registers 140°F-145°F, about 15-20 minutes longer. Transfer pork to platter; tent with foil.
6 Make mushroom cream sauce with pan drippings: Scrape the drippings from the roasting pan into the pan with the mushrooms. Add the cream, remaining cup of broth, and 1/4 teaspoon cardamom to pan; bring to boil. Blend flour and butter in small cup; mix into mushroom sauce.
Cook the sauce, stirring often, until reduced enough to coat spoon. Season sauce with salt and pepper; serve with pork.
Corned Beef Hash
Have corned beef left over from making corned beef and cabbage? (Yes I know, it’s a stretch, but one can hope.) Make corned beef hash! Chop it up and fry it up with boiled potatoes and serve with runny fried eggs for breakfast.
Or don’t wait (hope) for leftovers, making this hash is a good enough reason to make corned beef in the first place.
It’s easy too. All you do is sauté some onions, add chopped boiled potatoes and chopped cooked corned beef, and let them sizzle in the pan until browned and crispy at the edges. So good!
Do you like to make corned beef hash? If so and you have a different way than described here, please let us know about it in the comments.
Updated from the recipe archive, first posted 2009.
Corned Beef Hash Recipe
If you have leftover cabbage from corned beef and cabbage, feel free to chop that up as well and add that to the hash.
Ingredients
- 2-3 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
- 2-3 cups finely chopped, cooked corned beef
- 2-3 cups chopped cooked potatoes, preferably Yukon gold
- Salt and pepper
- Chopped fresh parsley
Method
1 Sauté onions in butter: Heat butter in a large skillet (preferably cast iron) on medium heat. Add the onion and cook a few minutes, until translucent.
2 Add potatoes and corned beef: Mix in the chopped corned beef and potatoes. Spread out evenly over the pan. Increase the heat to high or medium high and press down on the mixture with a metal spatula.
3 Cook until browned, then flip: Do not stir the potatoes and corned beef, but let them brown. If you hear them sizzling, this is good.
Use a metal spatula to peek underneath and see if they are browning. If nicely browned, use the spatula to flip sections over in the pan so that they brown on the other side. Press down again with the spatula.
If there is too much sticking, you can add a little more butter to the pan. Continue to cook in this manner until the potatoes and the corned beef are nicely browned.
4 Stir in parsley, black pepper to serve: Remove from heat, stir in chopped parsley. Add plenty of freshly ground black pepper, and add salt to taste.
Serve with fried or poached eggs for breakfast.
Friday, September 8, 2017
Caponata, Eggplant Relish
Revised and updated, from the recipe archive. Original recipe posted in 2005. ~Elise
Tucked away in funky Bernal Heights, my old neighborhood in San Francisco, used to lie an Italian trattoria which served exceptional Italian food. The restaurant is long gone, but I still remember fondly the eggplant caponata condiment they served with bread sticks that accompanied every meal. I have no idea if this is even close to the same recipe that the restaurant used, but it is certainly in the right direction.
There are as many recipes for caponata as there are cooks, and there are two main presentations—chopped fine and used as a relish on bread or polenta, or chopped coarse and served almost like an Italian version of ratatouille.
The only apparent constants in caponata are eggplants, onions, olive oil, vinegar, and some sort of tomato product, either tomato sauce or fresh tomatoes or both. Other common ingredients include pine nuts, raisins, capers, olives, celery, basil, bell peppers, garlic, parsley and oregano.
If you don’t eat all your caponata at one sitting, it keeps well in the fridge for up to 5 days, and is even better on the second or third day, after the flavors have had a chance to meld.
Caponata, Eggplant Relish Recipe
Our version of caponata is diced fine, like a relish. Serve it on toasted or grilled bread, or with pasta or polenta.
Ingredients
- 1 globe eggplant – about 1 lb, diced
- Salt
- 4 Tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1 small onion, minced
- 1 celery stalk, minced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 4-6 plum tomatoes, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup pitted green olives, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
- 2 to 3 Tbsp small capers, drained
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 2 to 3 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp tomato paste
- 1/4 cup chopped basil
Method
1 Toss the diced eggplant with about 2 tablespoons salt and put into a large bowl. Cover the bowl with a plate that just about fits the bowl and weigh it down with a heavy can. Let this sit for 1 hour. Drain the eggplant, rinse with fresh water and pat dry with paper towels.
2 Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and celery, season with salt. Cook, stirring occasionally until the onion begins to soften – about 5 minutes. Add the garlic. Cook 1-2 minutes more. Remove from the skillet and set aside.
3 Wipe the pan with a paper towel, turn the heat to high and add the remaining olive oil. Let this heat until the oil is nearly smoking. Add the eggplant and spread it out in as thin a layer as you can in the skillet. Let this sizzle for 1-2 minutes before stirring, then let it sit for a full minute before stirring again. Cook like this for 5-6 minutes.
4 Add the onion-celery mixture, the tomatoes, olives, pine nuts, capers and red pepper flakes. Stir well. Add the vinegar, sugar and tomato paste and stir once more. Cook, stirring occasionally until eggplant is very soft, about 8 minutes.
5 Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Mix in the basil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Caponata can be refrigerated, covered, up to 5 days.
Sesame Noodle Salad
Is it hot where you are? We’ve had an unseasonably cool several days, but the weather reports assure us that that’s about to change.
This sesame noodle salad is a perfect cold noodle salad for a hot day. Make the noodles and the dressing ahead of time and let the noodles soak in all the flavor from the dressing (sesame oil, honey, soy sauce).
Then toss it with green onions, cilantro, bell pepper and peanuts right before serving. Yum!
You can also add cubed cooked chicken to the salad to make it a more substantial meal, or some tahini for a creamier sesame flavor. If you take it to a potluck picnic, double the recipe! This one is a crowd pleaser.
Recipe and photos updated, first published 2006
Sesame Noodle Salad Recipe
Ingredients
Honey Soy Dressing:
- 1/4 cup olive oil or vegetable oil
- 3 Tbsp dark sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed dried red pepper or chili powder (optional)
- 3 Tbsp honey
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce (less if using tamari which is more concentrated than soy sauce)
Salad:
- 12 ounces of vermicelli, thin spaghetti, or angel hair pasta
- Salt
- 2/3 cup coarsely chopped cilantro
- 1/3 cup chopped roasted salted peanuts
- 1/3 cup thinly sliced green onions
- 1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
- 1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds
Method
1 Prepare the dressing: Put the dressing ingredients into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat.
2 Cook the pasta: Put the pasta in a large pot in salted boiling water (1 Tbsp salt for every 2 quarts of water). Cook al dente, according to the directions on the pasta package. Drain.
3 Toss with dressing, chill: Stir together the cooked pasta and the dressing in a large bowl until the pasta is well coated. Cover and chill for several hours.
4 Stir in cilantro, peanuts, green onions, bell pepper: When ready to serve, mix in the cilantro, peanuts, green onions and bell pepper. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds.
Spicy Chicken Drumsticks
We often cook all drumsticks or all thighs when we prepare chicken. We love the more flavorful dark meat and the fact that the chicken pieces all get done around the same time. The following recipe is based on one for jerk chicken that my father found in Fine Cooking magazine. Wonderful flavor and the drumsticks cook up quickly.
Spicy Chicken Drumsticks Recipe
Ingredients
- 10 green onions (scallions), white and green parts, chopped
- 1/2 habanero or Scotch Bonnet chile (or 3 serrano chilies), seeded and chopped
- 2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 Tbsp fresh thyme
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for additional seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 10 chicken dumsticks (3 1/2 lbs)
- Olive oil, grapeseed oil, or other high smoke point cooking oil
Method
1 In a food processor, purée the green onions, chilies, vinegar, garlic, thyme, allspice, salt and pepper into a thick paste.
2 Put the drumsticks in a large bowl and coat with the chili paste. Let stand for 10 minutes.
3 Position the oven rack in the center of the oven and set the broiler to high. Coat the bottom of a broiler pan (under the perforated top part of the pan) with oil. (Note that a broiler pan really works best here. A regular baking pan may warp under the high heat of the broiler.) Arrange the drumsticks on the pan and sprinkle generously with salt.
4 Broil chicken, turning once after about 10 minutes. Continue broiling until cooked through (juices run clear when poked with a knife tip) and nicely browned, about 20 minutes total. Note that some pieces may cook faster than others, in which case remove the pieces that are done and continue to cook the rest until cooked through.
Dad’s Greek Salad
This Greek salad is a favorite of my father’s to make during the summer. We usually have plenty of tomatoes and cucumbers growing in the garden, and all you have to do is toss in some red onions, olives, bell pepper, feta cheese, a few herbs, and some olive oil and vinegar and you have beautiful, cooling, fresh, Greek salad.
Dad’s Greek Salad Recipe
Tip from my mom: to take some of the bite away from the onions, after you chop them, soak them in a little vinegar or lemon juice.
Ingredients
- 6 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh chopped garlic
- 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano or 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon dill weed or 1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 large plum tomatoes, seeded, coarsely chopped
- 3/4 cucumber, peeled, seeded, coarsely chopped
- 1/2 red onion, peeled, chopped
- 1 bell pepper, seeded, coarsely chopped
- 1/2 cup pitted black olives (preferably brine-cured), coarsely chopped
- A heaping half cup crumbled feta cheese
Method
1 Whisk the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, vinegar, oregano and dill weed together until blended. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. (Can be prepared 3 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature. Rewhisk before using.)
2 Combine the tomatoes, cucumber, onion, bell pepper, olives in a bowl. Toss with dressing. Sprinkle cheese over and serve.
Blueberry Cake
Have an abundance of blueberries? When they are in season you really have to enjoy them while you can, right? Here is a lovely blueberry cake that makes the most of fresh blueberries (though you can use frozen if you want).
In fact, it almost seems like there is more blueberry than cake in this cake; that’s a problem I can live with!
Often times the issue with blueberries in baked goods is that they sink to the bottom of whatever you are baking. Coating the blueberries with flour helps keep them suspended, but still there’s always the risk of berry sinkage.
We take advantage of gravity in this cake by scattering the berries on top of the batter, and letting them sink if they will while they bake. The result is that at least half of the berries float at the top of the cake, the rest swimming somewhere below. Gorgeous!
Recipe and photos updated, first published 2005
Blueberry Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup (130 g) all purpose flour plus 1 teaspoon of flour (plus more for prepping cake pan)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup (4 oz, 113 g, 1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup (160 g) sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest (optional)
- 2 cups (325 g) blueberries, rinsed and drained (if using frozen blueberries, thaw and drain first)
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- Powdered sugar for dusting
Method
1 Preheat oven and prepare springform pan: Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter an 8 or 9-inch springform pan and dust with flour. Or use an 8 or 9-inch round cake pan, butter and dust with flour and line the bottom with parchment paper.
2 Mix flour with baking powder and salt: Vigorously whisk together 1 cup of flour with baking powder, salt, and cinnamon and set aside.
3 Beat butter, add sugar and vanilla, add eggs, add flour: Using a mixer, beat the butter on medium high speed for 2 minutes. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, a couple minutes more. Stir in the vanilla extract.
Add the eggs one at a time and beat until well blended. Stir in the lemon zest if using. Reduce the speed of the mixer to low and slowly add the flour mixture, beating until smooth.
4 Pour the batter into the prepared springform pan.
5 Toss berries with flour and lemon juice, spoon over batter: Combine the berries with the remaining teaspoon of flour and the lemon juice in a bowl. Spoon the berry mixture over the batter.
6 Bake: Bake on middle rack in oven for 50 to 55 minutes at 350°F, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
Remove from oven and let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
Carefully slide a thin knife around the edges of the cake to release it from the pan.
7 Dust with powdered sugar to serve: Transfer the cake to a platter, berry side up. Dust the cake with powdered sugar to serve.
Italian Pot Roast
A few weeks ago my mother and I attended a cooking demonstration by our local celebrity Italian chef, the delightful Biba Caggiano. We Sacramentans are proud to call Biba our own; she has a fabulous restaurant, is the author of several cookbooks, and for a while hosted her own cooking show on the Discovery Channel.
One of the recipes Biba demonstrated during our evening with her was her “Stracotto di Manzo alla Fiorentina” or “The Braised Beef of Florence”. Biba, in her typical down-to-earth manner called it “nothing more than a glorified pot roast”.
It’s a simple and delicious recipe, much like our standard pot roast but with a soffritto base, the addition of tomatoes, and a whole bottle of wine.
Italian Pot Roast Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 to 4 pound rump or chuck beef roast
- 1 teaspoon salt plus more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large carrot, diced (about 1 cup)
- 1 large celery stalk, diced (about 1 cup)
- 1 medium red onion, diced (1 to 1 1/2 cups)
- 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
- 2 Tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh sage
- 3 cups medium-bodied Italian red wine (we used a Barbera)
- 1 28-ounce can Italian plum tomatoes, put through a food mill to remove the seeds
Method
1 Trim some of the fat from the meat. Pat dry with paper towels. Season generously with the salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large, heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat.
When the oil is hot, shimmering but not smoking, add the roast and cook, turning it a few times, until it is nicely browned on all sides, 10-12 minutes.
Transfer the meat to a platter.
2 Reduce the heat to medium. Add the carrot, celery, and onion. Cook, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are golden brown and begin to stick to the bottom of the pan, 10-12 minutes.
Add the garlic, parsley, and sage, and stir until the herbs are lightly colored and fragrant, about 1 minute.
Add 1 cup of the wine and stir quickly, lifting up the richly browned caramelized vegetables that stick to the bottom of the pan. When the wine is almost all evaporated and thickly coats the vegetables, return the meat to the pan and turn it over a few times to coat it with the savory base.
3 Raise the heat to high, adding the remaining wine, the bay leaf, and the tomatoes, and bring to a boil. Cover the pot, reduce the heat to low, and simmer, turning and basting the meat every half hour or so, until the meat is very tender and flakes away when pierced with a fork, 3-4 hours.
Turn off the heat and let the roast sit in its juices for an hour. (You can also put the pot into a 300°F oven and turn the roast every hour.)
4 Remove the meat from the pot and place it on a cutting board, covered loosely with aluminum foil. If the sauce is too thin, bring it to a fast boil and reduce it until it has a medium-thick consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning.
5 Cut the meat into thick slices (it will probably fall apart), and place on warm serving dishes. Spoon the sauce over the meat and serve hot. Serve with rice, mashed potatoes, or polenta.
Zucchini and Spinach Gratin
Another week, another refrigerator drawer filled to the brim with garden zucchini. Sound familiar? To take a break from our usual (almost daily in the summer) way to cook up the zucchini (see mom’s summer squash), we prepared a classic French gratin, with grated zucchini, spinach, onions sautéed with bacon, a persillade of parsley and garlic, all bound together with a few eggs, tossed with Parmesan, and baked until golden brown.
Zucchini has never tasted so good.
I think the bacon might have something to do with it. And maybe the Parmesan. And the onions, and garlic. Okay, everything. The combination is perfect.
The recipe looks more involved than it is. Most of the time is in the baking or in the allowing the zucchini and spinach to drain excess moisture. The hardest part is grating the zucchini (a breeze if you have a food processor) and the Parmesan. The trick to a successful recipe is squeezing out as much moisture as you can from the zucchini and spinach. Tossing the zucchini with salt and allowing it to drain for half an hour will help draw out a lot of its moisture. If you don’t do this I’m guessing that you might end up with something that is too loose, with too much moisture for the eggs to do their work as a binder.
Best part? The recipe uses two whole pounds of zucchini! Which in our case should use up at least a day or a day and a half’s worth of garden produce. Enjoy.
Zucchini and Spinach Gratin Recipe
The recipe calls for bacon and I think it’s an important flavor component. For those of you who don’t eat pork, or meat, you can substitute butter and or olive oil (a couple tablespoons) to sauté the onions.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs zucchini
- Kosher salt
- 1 lb frozen spinach*
- 3 slices of thick cut bacon (about 3 ounces), cut crosswise 1/4-inch pieces
- 1 large onion
- 1 handful of parsley (about 1/2 cup of leaves, lightly packed)
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled, coarsely chopped
- 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 3 eggs
- Olive oil
* Or 6 packed cups of fresh chopped spinach leaves, blanched and drained
Method
1 Grate the zucchini. Toss the grated zucchini with about a teaspoon of Kosher salt. Place the grated zucchini in a large sieve (or colander) placed over a bowl to catch the water as the salt helps the zucchini release its moisture. Let sit for 30 minutes or so, then squeeze out the remaining excess moisture with paper towels or a clean tea towel.
2 Thaw the spinach, let drain while the zucchini is draining. Then squeeze out the excess moisture with paper towels or a tea towel.
3 Heat a large skillet on medium heat. Add the bacon and gently cook until lightly browned and most of the fat rendered out, about 10 minutes.
4 While the bacon is cooking, peel and finely chop the onion. Add the onions to the bacon and cook for an additional 10 minutes, until the onions have softened.
5 While the bacon and onions are cooking, prepare the parsley and garlic. Place the parsley and garlic with a small pinch of salt into a food processor and pulse just a couple of times.
6 Preheat the oven to 350°F.
7 Place the zucchini into a large bowl. With a wooden spoon, mix in the cooked onions and bacon. Mix in the spinach, parsley, and garlic. Mix in half of the Parmesan. Taste, and add black pepper and more salt to taste. Mix in the eggs.
8 Coat the bottom and sides of a 2 quart casserole or gratin dish with a tablespoon of olive oil. Put the zucchini spinach mixture into the dish and pack it down. Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan cheese over the top and drizzle with a little olive oil.
9 Bake in a 350°F oven for 40-45 minutes, until the top is nicely browned. Serve immediately. Reheats well.
Sautéed Shrimp with Tropical Fruit Salsa
Please welcome guest author Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen as she tempts us with “Floribbean” tropical shrimp. ~Elise
With tropical fruit like mangoes and kiwi, you’ve got to eat the fruit just at the right time of ripeness. Under-ripe kiwi is suck-your-face-in-puckery-sour and over-ripe mangoes are blah and mushy.
So what to do with imperfect fruit? Slightly cook them for a warm, tropical fruit salsa, “Floribbean” style. (Yeah, it’s a dumb name, but restaurants in Florida use it all the time. It basically means Florida + Caribbean style, if you haven’t guessed already. These days, it really just refers to a tropical dish.)
Peel and dice the kiwi, mango, and pineapple and cook them along with sugar, a pinch of salt and a dash of chili powder. Other fruit like papaya are also fabulous too.
You’ll have to adjust the amount of sugar on your own, as it’s based on how sweet or sour your fruit is. I always like to have just a slight tang in the salsa, so a simple squeeze of lime at the end is perfect. Again, the amount of lime juice is based on taste.
And to top it all off with something a little extra special is toasted sweetened coconut flakes! Welcome to paradise.
Recipe and photos updated, first published 2009.
Sautéed Shrimp with Tropical Fruit Salsa Recipe
Want to have extra flavorful and juicy shrimp? Brine them for exactly 30 minutes first, in a brine of 1 quart water, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup kosher salt (or 3 Tbsp table salt), and 1 cup ice. Dissolve the sugar and salt into the water first, before adding the shrimp and ice.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil (coconut oil or canola oil)
- 1 pound raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1 mango, peeled and diced
- 1 cup diced pineapple
- 2 kiwi-fruit, peeled and diced
- 1/4 cup finely diced red or sweet onion
- 1 teaspoon sugar, or to taste
- 1/4 lime
- 1/8 – 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
- Salt and pepper
- 3 fresh mint leaves, thinly sliced
Method
1 Toast coconut flakes: Heat a large frying pan or sauté pan on medium heat. Add the coconut flakes and stir constantly, until the flakes are slightly browned at the edges.
Immediately spoon onto a plate to stop the cooking and prevent burning. Set aside to cool.
2 Sauté the shrimp: Season the shrimp with salt and pepper. Return the same frying pan to the stove and heat on medium high heat. Pour in 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and swirl to coat.
When the oil is hot, add the shrimp and cook for 2 minutes each side or until just barely cooked through. Spoon out the shrimp to a serving platter.
3 Sauté the fruit: Use the same frying pan, heat to medium-high heat, pour just 2 teaspoons of cooking oil and swirl to coat.
When the oil is shimmering, add the diced onion and sauté for 1 minute. Add the mango, pineapple, and the kiwi and cook for 1 minute until bubbly and softened.
Add the fresh mint, sugar, chili powder and just a pinch of salt.
Finish with a light squeeze of lime, sprinkled on top of the shrimp.
4 Sprinkle with toasted coconut flakes: Sprinkle the shrimp and salsa with toasted coconut flakes.
Caramelized Onion English Muffin Pizzas
Back in 7th grade home-economics, the cooking segment consisted of learning how to make pizza with English muffins, some spaghetti sauce, a little cheese and a toaster oven.
Relax. These aren’t those pizzas. These are cool, a little fancy, English muffin pizzas. When my father came home with a bag of English muffins announcing that he was going to make pizzas with them, I sort of rolled my eyes and stepped away. (Okay, dad, whatever you want.)
But when the aroma of caramelizing onions, ham, bubbling Mozzarella wafted through the house, I got my plate ready. We’ll be having these again soon.
Caramelized Onion English Muffin Pizzas Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 English muffin halves
- 1 cup grated Mozzarella cheese, packed
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
- 3/4 cup diced ham
- A pinch of chopped fresh sage
- 1/4 teaspoon stoneground mustard
- Optional: A few slices of fresh tomato
Method
1 Preheat oven to 425°F.
2 Melt butter in a medium skillet on medium high heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the diced ham, cook 5 minutes more. Mix in the sage and mustard. Remove from heat.
3 Put muffin halves, open side up on a sturdy baking pan. Distribute the cheese evenly, sprinkling over the muffin halves. Put the onion ham mixture on top of the cheese. If you want to use tomato slices, layer them between the cheese and onion mixture.
4 Bake at 425°F for 8-9 minutes, until the muffins and toppings are nicely browned, but not burnt. Cut into quarters for appetizers or just leave whole for a meal or snack.
Seville Orangeade
Remember Tang, the orange drink of astronauts? This sort of reminds me of Tang, or what Tang would taste like if it were made from fresh, whole ingredients. Or for those of us who outgrew Tang, think, Orangina but without the carbonation.
Marc from Mental Masala introduced this recipe to me for whole lemon lemonade and I decided to try out the method with a bunch of leftover bitter Seville oranges I had from making marmalade.
Bitter oranges are needed to make this orangeade recipe, it doesn’t really work with juice oranges, so I apologize in advance to those of you who don’t live in citrus growing regions.
Here in California navel oranges are often grafted onto bitter orange root stock which is hardy. Sometimes the root stock takes over the orange tree and one year you find yourself with bitter seedy Seville oranges growing on your tree instead of sweet, seedless navel oranges.
Most people don’t have the patience for marmalade making, for which these oranges are ideally suited. This is an easy way to use up those otherwise ignored oranges and make a delicious, refreshing drink at the same time. Would be good for an orange sorbet as well.
Seville Orangeade Recipe
Ingredients
- 10-12 seville oranges, washed and scrubbed clean
- 1 cup sugar
- The juice from one large lemon
- 5 cups cold, filtered water
Method
1 Cut the oranges in half lengthwise and then slice them into thin 1/8-inch slices.
2 Put them in a large flat-bottomed non-reactive bowl. Stir in the sugar. Use a potato masher to mash the orange slices until most of the segments are juiced.
3 Pour water into the bowl of orange slices. Stir to mix gently, making sure that any undissolved sugar gets completely dissolved. Stir in the lemon juice.
4 Set a large fine mesh strainer over another large bowl and strain the orange mixture through it, pressing if necessary to get out as much of the juice as possible. Pour into a serving pitcher.
Blackberry Slump
Have you ever heard of a dessert called a slump? The Joy of Cooking defines a slump as “steamed fruit topped with dumplings”.
I first encountered the idea of a slump in a cookbook about the cooking of Newport, Rhode Island, in the first chapter on colonial cooking.
Apparently, this dessert goes back to colonial days. It’s synonymous with a “grunt”, and which word you use, slump or grunt, depends on the locale. In Rhode Island, slump is used. In Massachusetts, grunt is more common.
Etymology aside, what’s cool about slumps is that they are like cobblers, except they’re made on the stove-top instead of the oven, and they have dumplings instead of biscuits.
Yes, berries cooked with sugar, topped with dumplings. (You should have seen my dad’s face when I explained the dessert I made for him. The way he lit up when the word “dumpling” was mentioned was priceless.)
Soft, fluffy dumplings, bathed in sweet, tart, ruby berries, and doused with cream.
Sigh.
Dad practically ate the whole batch!
This recipe uses blackberries because that’s what I happened to have, but you could use any berry. Traditionally in New England native blueberries are used. I do recommend serving this with cream or vanilla ice cream. Blackberries can be quite tart, which the cream can help cut.
Blackberry Slump Recipe
This recipe uses blackberries, but you could easily use any berry you would like, such as blueberries, raspberries, or strawberries.
Ingredients
Dumplings:
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 1/3 cup whole milk
Berries:
- 4 cups fresh or frozen (defrosted and drained) blackberries
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar (depending on how sweet your berries and how sweet you would like your slump to be)
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1/3 cup water
- Whipping cream or vanilla ice cream for topping
Method
1 Make the dumplings: In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
Cut the butter into small cubes and add to the flour. Using a pastry cutter, two knives, or your clean hands, cut the butter into the flour until the flour resembles a coarse meal.
Add the milk all at once and stir until the flour is just moistened. Handling the dough as little as possible, form into a ball. Set aside.
2 Heat berries with sugar, cinnamon, lemon, water until boiling: In a 2-qt saucepan, add the berries, sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice, lemon zest, and water. Heat until boiling, stirring a few times so that the berries are well coated with the sauce.
3 Add chunks of dumpling dough: Once the berry mixture is boiling, tear off spoonful chunks from the dough ball and drop onto the fruit around the edges of the pot. You should have enough dough for 6 dumplings.
4 Cover and simmer: Cover the pot and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 25 minutes, without peeking at the dumplings.
Place dumplings in serving bowls and top with berries. Serve with cream or ice cream. Serve hot or chilled.
Green Beans with Bacon
There is nothing better than garden fresh green beans. Even when my parents abandoned their garden beds for ten years, they still had their green bean “tee-pees” every summer. My father is rather picky about his beans. They must snap and break when you bend them, not wiggle around like a rubber band. That’s how you know they’re fresh. I have a couple rows of green beans this year, planted from seed right after I pulled out the fava beans and spring peas. (BTW, if you grow green beans from seed, it helps to soak the beans over night in water before planting them, or place them between two layers of wet paper towels for a couple of days, so they germinate first.) They like heat, and at least in our part of the world, come into their own in August and September. When I left for vacation the plants were only a foot high, two weeks later they are climbing over the fence.
So far I’ve pulled off a total of one mighty green bean, but my parents got started on their bean teepee a few weeks before I did, so their beans are now ripe for picking. Zucchini can sometimes wear me out, if I have to eat it every. single. day. But green beans? I can eat a pound all on my own (as Hank can attest, as I ate almost the whole batch of these) and never get tired of them.
Here’s the trick with green beans. Usually we boil them. If you boil them for longer than 7 minutes, they’ll turn a brownish olive color. It’s just a chemical reality. Tough old beans will take longer than 7 minutes to cook to tenderness, so no matter what you do, they’ll be off color by the time you eat them. Fresh, young beans though? They should cook quickly enough so they’ll still have that vibrant green color when cooked. This recipe is a simple preparation in which the beans are first boiled, then sautéed very quickly in bacon fat, then tossed with chopped bacon and sprinkled with black pepper. Easy and absolutely delicious. At the very end you sprinkle on some vinegar or lemon juice. Acid is another thing that will turn green beans from green to brown, so add the vinegar just before serving.
Green Beans with Bacon Recipe
Not all green beans are alike. The longer the bean was on the vine, the tougher it can be. Fresh, young beans should be able to cook up perfectly well in less than 6 minutes. Tough old beans, you’ll have to cook a lot longer to get them tender. Look for beans that easily snap in half when you bend them.
Ingredients
- 1 pound fresh green beans, ends snipped off and discarded, extra long beans, cut in half if you want
- Salt
- 2-3 slices of bacon
- Black pepper
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice or cider or red wine vinegar
Method
1 Heat a pot of salted water to a rolling boil (1 Tbsp salt for 2 quarts of water). Add the green beans and boil them for 4-5 minutes, until just tender enough to eat (you may have to cook longer depending on the particular green beans you have). Drain and set aside.
2 While the water is heating up to boil the beans, slowly cook the bacon until crispy in a large sauté pan set over medium-low heat. Use a slotted spoon or a fork to remove the bacon from the pan. Set the bacon on paper towels to sop up the excess fat. You should have about one tablespoon of fat left in the pan. Pour off any fat beyond 1 tablespoon. (Do not pour the fat down the drain or you’ll stop up your drain.) If you have much less fat than a tablespoon left in the pan, add a little olive oil or butter to the pan.
3 Once the green beans are cooked, sauté them over medium-high heat for 1-2 minutes in the bacon fat. Dice the bacon and add to the pan and sauté another minute. Put the beans and bacon into a large serving bowl and sprinkle generously with freshly ground black pepper. Toss with lemon juice or vinegar and serve at once.
Potato Gnocchi
My parents took their first trip to Europe a couple years ago, spending a week in the Tuscany region of Italy. They both came back inspired by the Italian food they enjoyed and, as a result started to make many of the Italian dishes they had while in Italy.
This is one of the dishes we started making as a result of their trip, and we’ve experimented with various ratios of potato to flour. What you want is a minimal amount of flour, too much and the gnocchi will be too dense.
The trick, we’ve learned, is to use older potatoes, and to bake them, not boil or steam them, so that they get pretty dried out. Also it helps to put them through a potato ricer for a smoother consistency. Gnocchi goes well with practically any good pasta sauce.
Potato Gnocchi Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 lbs whole baking potatoes
- 2 beaten egg yolks
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- Pinch of salt
- Your favorite pasta sauce (for example, this basic, delicious tomato sauce)
Method
1 Bake the potatoes: Preheat oven to 350°F. Spear the potatoes with fork tines in several places around each potato to vent moisture as the potatoes cook. Bake the potatoes in their skins until tender, about an hour. Let cool on a rack, cutting them open to help cool and let more moisture escape.
2 Mash and fluff potatoes: Scoop out the potatoes from their skins. Mash the potatoes and fluff them up with a fork into a large bowl. (It works great to pass the potatoes through a potato ricer if you have one.) It is best to work with the potatoes when they are still warm.
3 Add flour, egg, salt, mix into a ball of dough: Add the flour, egg and a pinch of salt. Mix by hand until you have a nice pliable ball of dough. Do not over-mix.
4 Roll pieces of dough into long cylinders: Prepare a work area and dust it with flour. Take the dough, a piece at a time, and roll it out gently with your hands until you have rolls about 3/4 inch in diameter. It is very important to keep a light touch while you are rolling the dough. Gently roll the dough with your fingertips while while exerting the lightest pressure outwards, not down, to draw the dough out.
5 Cut into pieces, and form indentations: Cut the tubes of dough into pieces about one inch long. Using either the tines of a fork or your fingertip, press against a piece of the dough and roll it slightly to form an indentation (good for catching the sauce). As the gnocchi are made, place them on flat baking pan, lightly dusted with flour or lined with wax paper.
At this point you can freeze the gnocchi ahead of time. Freeze them first on a floured or lined tray, then once frozen you can put them into a freezer bag for more easy storage. To cook, just put the frozen gnocchi into the simmering water for the next step.
6 Drop gnocchi into simmering water: Bring at least 6 quarts of salted water to a boil in a shallow saucepan. Gently drop the gnocchi, a few at a time, into the water. As soon as they rise to the surface, remove them with a slotted spoon, draining well. Arrange on a warm serving dish. Continue cooking the gnocchi in the same manner.
7 Serve with sauce: As soon as all the gnocchi are ready, pour heated pasta sauce over them and sprinkle with the parsley. Serve immediately.