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I have food issues. Too much food is an issue. I lay awake at night, stressed out about a full refrigerator, trying to figure out who I can invite over for dinner to avoid having to throw stuff out. (Email me if you want to be put on the short list.) I’m not really sure where this comes from. Maybe I’m just cheap, or maybe my experiment with vegetable gardening has scarred me for life – “I just nurtured that little broccoli plant like only a mama can, and THAT’S ALL I GET??” Either way, tossing produce in the waste can feels to me like ripping off a fingernail.

As a result, it’s pretty rare for me to have a stocked fridge. Friends come over and grumble that I have nothing to eat. (I’d like to point out for the record though, that they never leave hungry.)  I can tell you, I did not inherit these food issues from SUE!. Her fridge sits full, ready to feed any small armies that may roll through the Legacy Oaks 55 & Over Active Adult Lifestyle Community. At any give time, the woman has on hand in her fridge, among other things:

• No less than six cartons of Laughing Cow Cheese
• Five pounds of mini carrots
• At least 12 single-serve yogurts
• Two gallon containers of skim milk – one that’s open, one as a backup in case of skim-milk emergency
• Two heads of cauliflower
• 18 individually wrapped string-cheeses (this is a lie, there are 18 in her possession, but not necessarily in the fridge. Two can be usually be found in her purse.)
• Three flavors of hummus (all partially eaten)
• Four flavors of Coffeemate creamer – including at least one bottle of French Vanilla Mochamint Gingerbread Latte (That’s one flavor. Eat it, Starbucks.)

And in her freezer:

• An entire school of tilapia fish
• Eight bags of coffee
• Three dozen ice cream sandwiches, in at least 5 flavor combinations. (Dad is okay with this one)

Now that’s a party.

I gotta hand it to her though, she rarely throws food out. Somehow she manages to cultivate a unique ice box equilibrium and sleep soundly at night. Me on the other hand… the grocery store checkout people know (they don’t think, they know) that I’m plain nuts because I come in every day and buy one bell pepper, a half of a chicken breast, two cloves of garlic and one egg. Costco? That place would send me hurling in the fetal position straight to the therapist’s couch.

Despite my weird anti-food-hoarding tendencies, I do still throw way too much out. So in an effort to find balance (and about 3 more hours of sleep a week that I would have otherwise spent roaming Whole Foods), here’s my New Year’s Resolution – I’m vowing to waste less food. I solemnly swear that when I buy something that sounds like a great ingredient, it will not be abandoned in the crisper, and when I bring home leftovers from a restaurant, I’ll actually eat them.

I sort of wonder how it’s become so commonplace for food to end up in the garbage? I come from the Clean Plate Generation. Are portion sizes are so out of whack, food so cheap, and counting calories so commonplace, that it’s easy to end up with a lot of food left on the plate or in the fridge? What happened to the starving children in Africa??  (Of “you better eat that because there are starving children in Africa who would love to have that” fame.)

The Googler tells me that the average household throws out 122 lbs of food a year – with an estimated value of $600! Take it from a card-carrying RueLaLa addict, that’s a lot of money.

So if you’re going to take the Svelte Fridge Challenge with me, you’re going to need some recipes that you can add just about any vegetable that’s a day or so from going bad to, and will still taste delicious. Cue my fave: the humble hash.

Once limited to potatoes, onions, breakfast meat, and greasy spoon diners, today’s hash is far from a one-trick pony. You can really throw just about any combination of vegetables in here, and with minimal skill or patience, you’ll have a fantastic clean-out-your-produce-drawer side to accompany a piece of meat. Or my favorite – a poached egg. (I’m a devout disciple of the Church of “most anything tastes better with a runny egg yolk on it.”)

On Tuesdays, I get my Full Circle Farm CSA box, (and subsequently no sleep because it STOCKS my fridge) and this week I decided to whip up this Winter Hash using some of the veggies that came in it. It’s a funny thing that Box is – opening it is about as exciting as Christmas morning, but I do kinda sorta spend the next couple days bingeing on produce to make sure not a single leaf is wasted. I wonder if the weekly produce binge is what they mean when they say to “live the good food life”? I’m sure there are worse things. If you need an extra nudge to consider signing up for a CSA box, it’s worth noting though that their veggies last longer in the fridge than produce from the grocery store since they spend less time making their way to your house. Check around for a farm that offers a box in the right size for you – Full Circle just added a “seed” size box that’s smaller than most of the other farms offer, and it’s a very manageable amount of produce for one or two people.

Anyway, back to this Hash. Like I said, it really doesn’t matter what you throw into it as long as it’s got that delicious, crunchy, browned goodness on at least some of it. And I have not one, but TWO (dos!) tricks for you to help you make sure your hash has it.

First, to get that browning (NOT burning, be sure to keep an eye on your heat), use a non-stick skillet or sauté pan. Then use a smaller heavy lid or skillet (le cruset lids work great for this) to really push the ingredients down when they are cooking. Don’t mash the daylights out it, just press firmly so there’s maximum veggie/skillet contact. About half way through cooking, I slap that lid on the hash and leave it there for the rest of cooking.

Inevitably, after you do this, you’re going to freak out when you stir the hash and see all the stuff stuck to the bottom of the pan. This frond – or more aptly nicknamed “brown bits” – is going to scare you into vowing to never make hash again because of the hours it’s going to take to scrub the pan. DON’T WORRY because we have trick number two:

These little pieces of deliciousness are too good to waste, so when your hash is all cooked up and ready to eat, we are going to very, very gently deglaze the pan and scrape them all up. I’m talking like a scant splash of liquid – just enough to loosen up some of those delicious bits so you can stir them back into the hash. You don’t want to use too much liquid – soggy is the enemy. I like to push the hash to the edges of the pan since most of the brown bits are typically concentrated in the middle. Gently pour some chicken stock or water into the pan and scrape like heck with a wooden spatula. They’ll come loose, and the bottom of the pan will be magically (almost) clean. Then just stir it all up and enjoy.

I hope you’ll experiment with this yummy hash. I hope you’ll eat the good foods you have, and waste less. And I really hope we all get a little more sleep in 2012. Enjoy!

If you want to join me on this soapbox of wasting less, here’s a great Culinate article on how much food gets tossed and why. Looking for something more substantial? Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma will make you think twice before pitching those leftovers.

Winter Vegetable Hash
Time to prepare: 45 minutes
Serves: 4-6

2 tablespoons oil, or even better- bacon drippings
1 medium onion, ½” dice
2 garlic cloves, pressed or diced
3-4 small mushrooms, ¼” dice
3 cups winter vegetables, ¼” dice (I used ½ of a delicata squash, and 1 large parsnip, both peeled)
3 medium potatoes, ¼” dice (no need to peel)
1 bunch winter greens, roughly chopped (I used kale here, but any hearty green will work)
1 tablespoon chicken stock or water
Kosher salt
Pepper
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
Zest from a lemon or orange (optional)

Heat a large non-stick skillet or sauté pan over medium-high heat.

Add the oil and heat until shimmering, then add the onion, garlic, and mushrooms. Sauté, stirring frequently, until the onions are softened, about 3 minutes.

Add the rest of the vegetables, and toss. Season with salt and pepper generously. Cook, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes, until they start to brown. Using a smaller heavy lid or skillet, press down on the hash. Keep it weighted down for the remainder of cooking – probably 35 minutes, to desired doneness.

When the hash is done, check for seasoning, adding salt and pepper as needed. Push the hash to the sides of the pan, exposing the browned bottom of the skillet. Pour a scant splash of chicken stock or water directly onto the brown bits, and scrape with a wooden spatula to loosen. Use the least liquid possible, and deglaze until the bottom of the pan is mostly clean. Stir the hash to distribute the brown bits and any remaining liquid. Add the nutmeg and zest if you like, check the seasoning one last time, and serve warm.

Notes: if you’re in a hurry, you can par-cook the vegetables by steaming, roasting, boiling, or microwaving. Either way, small pieces will cook faster. The most intense flavors take time to develop though, so cooking them from start to finish in the skillet is preferable.

Depending on the vegetables that you use, you may want to add them to the skillet at different times. For instance, bell peppers cook quickly, so you may want to add them when the potatoes are farther along in the cooking process to avoid totally mushy peppers.

To reheat, warm with a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat to try to cultivate browning since the hash inevitably softened overnight.

Continue reading »]]> If you were stuck on a stranded island with only one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? Without hesitation, mine would be some sort of warm, chewy, delicious bread. At, or very near, the top of my list of favorite yeasty-products is a REAL bagel. Since moving to Seattle, I’ve learned you need to specify. Apparently it’s impossible to get a boiled bagel out here. The Emerald City’s lame excuse for a bagel is really just an “o” shaped roll. And a bad one at that. *sad face*

My love of bagels runs pretty deep. Growing up we ate Lenders frozen bagels every morning while we sat in the living room and waited for the bus. (It’s worth noting that we had a pretty sweet bus-stop setup. Our road was long, flat, and flanked by cornfields, so you could see the bus coming from about a half mile away. We Winner kids certainly weren’t suckers standing out in the rain at the end of the driveway.) Sure, Lenders aren’t REAL bagels, but they are a legit gateway bread product. Especially toasted, you can crush a little mote with the tip of a butter knife around the donut hole for your butter to melt into. Good stuff.

When I was in high school, I spent practically every weekend at a horse show. The food trucks there ranged from moderately greasy to “please don’t tell your doctor you eat here weekly” greasy. BUT, they were typically manned by the owner’s cute teenage son, so sales were reliably robust. Food truck top choice for any time of the day: egg and cheese bagel. I’d eat half and give the other half to my horse, Mike. (Yes, my horse’s name really was Mike.) He did love a good, greasy egg and cheese bagel, but he also loved Otter pops, Snapple – which he drank directly from the bottle, and Girl Scout baked goods – which he would shamelessly steal from Bake Sale tables if you weren’t paying attention. True story.

Onto college, and the bagel obsession kicked into serious overdrive. In addition to my regular post-morning crew practice egg and cheese bagel from the dining hall, I also discovered what could only be described as one of the holiest places for Loyola students – Sam’s Bagels. A short hung-over stumble from the dorms, Sam’s made bagels in flavors that Lenders and the greasy food truck had never dreamed of! Cranberry orange, blueberry, chocolate chip (!), and the greatest invention in the history of bageldom: the everything egg bagel. It was a good thing I worked out a lot, because I ate a lot of bagels.

When I graduated, I thought long and hard about living in Baltimore long-term because of my four-year affair with Sam and his bagels. But alas, I landed in Manhattan. In retrospect, that is a pretty funny statement because if you know anything about bagels, New York is Mecca. I took full advantage. Pretty much every morning on my walk to work I’d stop at the deli and get my bagel and coffee. I didn’t even drink coffee! But it was a ruse to hide my unnatural obsession with my morning bagel. Chewy on the outside with little blisters of crunchy bagel crust on the bottom, warm and doughy on the inside. A New York bagel truly is a culinary work of art. Unfortunately, this 18 month long relationship was many, many years before the Atkins diet or the low-carb craze. My ass bore the majority of the carb-brunt.

Fast forward many, many years, and here I am, a bagel connoisseur, stranded in a soggy city of bagel-imposters. For a long time, I thought that maybe the secret ingredient in a decent bagel was the dirty east-coast water. Now I know laziness and downright ignorance is at fault. That is the only plausible answer because I can tell you, straight-faced, that REAL bagels are absurdly easy to make.

My only regret in my lifelong addiction to bagels is that it took me so long to bake them at home. I thought you needed some big cast-iron cauldron to boil them in. Wrong. You need a stockpot. Or a dutch oven. Or just a big saucepan. Hell, you could probably make them in a stainless steel bucket if it would fit on your stovetop. Point being, there are no secrets or special apparati necessary. I’m sure you’re thinking, well there must be tons of trickiness involved with yeast and kneading and rising and proofing though, right? No. There’s not. You will do those things, but seriously, a (patient) monkey could follow these directions.

I made these bagels for a girls’ weekend out in Whidbey Island, not really expecting them to turn out. But it was my birthday, and all I wanted was a REAL bagel. It was a desperate attempt that somehow turned into a miraculously epiphany. My only mistake? I just made one batch – 8 medium-sized bagels. Um, they were gone in about 5 minutes. Pulled out of the oven and devoured AFTER we were all full from a huge breakfast.

Please, for the love of REAL bagels, make this recipe. Don’t be scared of the dough. Embrace your inner bread maker and take these bagels by the holes! Day-of hands-on time is literally seconds, so you could do all the hard work (if you can even call it that) the day before a fancy brunch. Pop them in the oven when your guests arrive, then 15 minutes later impress the pants off of them. Enjoy!

(Author’s note: Apologies for the corny, overzealous cry for you to try this recipe. Trust me, they are worth it – I’m drunk from the yeasty goodness. And I know that apparati is not a real word, but apparatuses just can’t possibly be right. – aw)

I’d highly recommend reading the blog post by The Wednesday Chef (where I found this amazing gem of a recipe). She has excellent pictures of the process with very clear and helpful instructions.

REAL Bagels
Time to prepare: 18 hours, Hands-on Time: 20 minutes
Makes 6 to 8 bagels

3 1/2 cups (1 pound) unbleached flour (bread or all-purpose)
3 teaspoons salt, divided
3/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon honey or barley malt syrup, if you’ve got it
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon baking soda
Poppy or sesame seeds

1. By hand or in a food processor, mix the flour, 2 teaspoons salt, the yeast, honey and the water until the ingredients form a stiff, coarse ball of dough (about 3 minutes). If necessary, add a little more water. Let the dough rest 5 minutes.

2. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until the dough feels stiff yet supple, with a satiny, slightly tacky feel, 2 to 3 minutes. If the dough seems too soft or too tacky, sprinkle over just enough flour as needed.

3. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and place it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour and up to several hours. Keep in mind that the bagels must be shaped before proofing overnight.

4. When ready to shape the bagels, line a baking sheet with parchment paper lightly sprayed with cooking spray, or a silicone baking mat.

5. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and divide it into 6 to 8 equal pieces. Form each piece into a loose, round ball by rolling it on a clean, dry work surface with a cupped hand; do not use any flour on the surface. If the dough slides around and won’t ball up, wipe the work surface with a damp paper towel and try again – the slight amount of moisture will provide enough “bite” for the dough to form a ball. When each piece has been formed into a ball, you are ready to shape the bagels.

6. Using your hands and a fair amount of pressure, roll each dough ball into a “rope” 8 to 10 inches long. (Moisten the work surface with a damp paper towel, if necessary, to get the necessary bite or friction). Slightly taper the rope at the ends so that they are thinner than the middle. Place one end of the dough between your thumb and forefinger and wrap it around your hand until the ends overlap in your palm; they should overlap by about 2 inches. Squeeze the overlapping ends together and then press the joined ends into the work surface, rolling them back and forth a few times until they are completely sealed.

7. Remove the dough from your hand and squeeze as necessary to even out the thickness so that there is a 2-inch hole in the center. Place the bagel on the prepared sheet pan. Repeat with the other pieces. Lightly spray the bagels with cooking spray, cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight.

8. Remove the bagels from the refrigerator 90 minutes before you plan to bake them. Fill a large stockpot with 3 quarts of water (be sure the water is at least 4 inches deep), cover with a lid, and slowly bring the water to a boil. When it comes to a boil, add the remaining teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of baking soda, reduce the heat and simmer with the lid on.

9. Thirty minutes before baking, heat the oven to 500 degrees.

10. Test the bagels by placing one in a bowl of cold water. If it sinks and doesn’t float to the surface, return it to the sheet, wait 15 minutes and then test it again. When one bagel passes the float test, they are ready for the pot.

11. Gently lift each bagel and drop it into the simmering water. Add as many as will comfortably fit in the pot. After 1 minute, use a slotted spoon to flip each bagel over. Poach for an extra 30 seconds. Using the slotted spoon, remove each bagel and return it to the lined baking sheet. Continue until all the bagels have been poached. Generously sprinkle each bagel with a topping.

12. Place the baking sheet in the oven and reduce the heat to 450 degrees. Bake for 8 minutes and then rotate the sheet (if using two sheets, also switch their positions). Check the underside of the bagels. If they are getting too dark, place another sheet under the baking sheet. Bake until the bagels are golden brown, an additional 8 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer the bagels to a rack for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Notes: I didn’t have any instant yeast on hand, so instead used the same amount of Fast Acting, which worked just as well. Simply follow the instructions on the package – mix water and sugar, dissolve yeast, let stand a few minutes. Then add the yeast mixture as you would in Step 1.

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So I guess I’ve been holding out on you a bit. In response to the overwhelming demand from Seattle Palate readers for more information about SUE!, I never mentioned that she has a sister. Lynn:). She gets a happy face because she is the best. Lynn:) is caring and nurturing and funny and doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. (Though she did recently flat out threaten to boycott Seattle Palate if she didn’t get a mention soon.)

Lynn:) was definitely a favorite relative when we were growing up because she lived in Florida with a screened in pool, geckos running up the walls of the house, a spiral staircase, and a boat on the dock in the back yard. Oh, and they had a parakeet that liked to sit on your head. Hello? If that doesn’t spell F-U-N I don’t know what does.

They still have the pool, boat, and spiral staircase. The parakeet “flew away to a farm,” and I suspect Lynn:) will adamantly argue that there’s never been a lizard of any sort in the house. And I still love going to visit.

I’m not sure why, but Lynn:) latched on to my cooking interest from the start. Still, she always wants to know what I’m up to in the kitchen. It’s never really impressive compared to her completely over-the-top holiday spreads. Everyone leaves stuffed and every year she insists that she’s not making so much next year! Lynn:), who are you kidding? We know next Easter will be bigger than the last.

So the first time Lynn:) came over to my new house for dinner, I knew I had to pull out all the stops. It was just after I initially ventured into the kitchen, with only one or two tried-and-true recipes under my belt. But I knew even if dinner was terrible, I’d still wow Lynn:) with dessert. (And that is no easy feat considering one year she made Dirt Cake for the kids. To this day I can vividly remember my cousin’s son shrieking “WE’RE EATING DIRT!!!!!” with his hands waving frantically over his head and a gummy worm hanging out of his mouth. She had filled flowerpots with cake and crushed oreos and gummy worms and all sorts of sugary confections. Consider this bar set very high.)

Beings that my first dinner for Lynn:) was right around Halloween, I carved jack-o-lanterns out of large navel oranges and filled with ice cream. Sure, I totally ripped the idea off from some magazine cover, but who cares – these were seriously cute.

Of course it worked. Everyone left sufficiently impressed, even though the dinner food was sufficiently unmemorable I’m sure. With Halloween right around the corner, I offer up this cute trick for you to use on your favorite aunt, or anyone else who needs some impressing. Enjoy!

Halloween Jack-o-Lanterns with Ice Cream
Serves: 4
Time to prepare: 90 minutes, including freezing

4 large navel oranges
1 Pint of your favorite ice cream
4 green or brown pipe cleaners or pieces of craft wire

Begin by slicing off the top 1” of each orange, reserving the tops.

Using a spoon or very small paring knife, scoop out the meat of the orange, leaving just the skin. If you have one, a grapefruit spoon or knife with serrated, curved edges works like a charm. (Reserve the orange meat for eating or juicing.)

Use a very small paring knife or an exact-o knife to carve jack-o-lantern faces on each orange. It’s best to not carve all the way through the orange skin, otherwise the ice cream leaks out as it melts.

Take a 6” piece of pipe cleaner and wrap it around a pencil, then remove and pull to separate the curls to resemble vines. Stick two in each orange top.

Fill each orange with ice cream and place an orange top on top. Freeze at least one half hour before serving.

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Just a quick post to pass along this absurdly amazingly delicious recipe to you. I mentioned it a few posts ago – Sarah made these roasted tomatoes for our Red, White, and Blue potluck dinner and everyone was groaning over how delicious they were. She served them with little slices of toasted baguette smeared with goat cheese and they were seriously the most scrumptious appetizer I’ve ever had. I might have a party just so I can make this recipe. Truth be told, it’s taking a lot of restraint to not make a batch and eat it entirely by myself for no good reason at all. While I can’t imagine passing up the opportunity to eat bread and goat cheese, these tomatoes would also be quite at home over some pasta, or by themselves for that matter.

Word to the wise (which comes from experience), make sure you have time to make these – while there’s minuscule hands-on time, they do take hours to roast, so don’t start them if you A) want to go to bed soon or B) have a hot date that you need to leave the house for soon. But don’t let the time commitment scare you away – these tomatoes offer up some of the deepest, most complex flavors you’ve ever tasted. And flavors like that take time to develop. Just pick a day when there’s a Real Housewives of New Jersey marathon on TV and fire up the oven. Enjoy!

Pomodoro al Forno
From: Molly Wizenberg, Bon Appetite, September 2008
Serves: 6
Time to prepare: 5 hours, active time: 15 minutes

1 cups (or more) olive oil, divided
2 pounds plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise, seeded
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
3/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 to 2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons minced fresh Italian parsley
Aged goat cheese (such as Bûcheron)
1 baguette, thinly sliced crosswise, toasted

Preheat oven to 250°F.

Pour 1/2 cup oil into 13x9x2-inch glass or ceramic baking dish. Arrange tomatoes in dish, cut side up. Drizzle with remaining 1/2 cup oil.
Sprinkle with oregano, sugar, and salt. Bake 1 hour.

Using tongs, turn tomatoes over. Bake 1 hour longer.

Turn tomatoes over again. Bake until deep red and very tender, transferring tomatoes to plate when soft (time will vary, depending on ripeness of tomatoes), about 15 to 45 minutes longer.

Layer tomatoes in medium bowl, sprinkling garlic and parsley over each layer; reserve oil in baking dish. Drizzle tomatoes with reserved oil, adding more if necessary to cover. Let stand at room temperature 2 hours.

Serve with aged goat cheese and toasted baguette slices.

Notes: recipe can be made as outlined above, covered and chilled for up to 5 days. Bring to room temp before serving.

If you can’t get your hands on really good, in-season tomatoes, opt for high quality canned. I like San Marzanos, which you can usually find in decent grocery stores.

Continue reading »]]> One of the best things about summer (hands down) is a picnic. What’s better than grabbing a blanket and squatting a plot of grass on a gorgeous sunny day? Greenlake in Seattle is ideal for people watching and picnicking. There’s the guy who walks around the lake loop giving Spanish lessons; there are the people (men and women) who wear the little front-facing baby carriers… with their small pocket dogs in them; and then there are the power-walking moms who will run you’re a$$ down with their double-wide strollers. Bravo’s sensational reality TV shows have nothing on Greenlake when it comes to entertainment.

When time came for our August potluck, there was no doubt the theme would be PICNIC. Unfortunately the weather didn’t exactly cooperate so we had to take the picnic inside. But to preserve the integrity of our outdoor evening, we all sat on the floor around the coffee table. Shoes off. Who wears shoes in the lush summer grass at a picnic?

As usual, the food was amazing! You can’t have a picnic without fried chicken, and Jane’s stole the show. Her recipe brined the chicken in buttermilk, Tabasco, and cayenne pepper giving it a moist, tangy flavor. We also had a sesame penne pasta salad, a mango and cucumber cous cous salad, and chicken salad on croissants. I brought dessert and made these really fun rustic fig and raspberry pies. They had a flaky crust that was free-formed into little personalized pies. Perfect balance of sweet but not sweet enough to make your teeth hurt.

I hadn’t cooked with figs a lot before this recipe, but they were in season and plentiful at the market. I used black mission figs. When picking them, look for soft but firm skin without bruises or blemishes. To prepare, simply rinse them off, trim the stem, and slice in half. Delish. They are amazing with goat cheese on a mixed greens salad, or diced in oatmeal or cous cous for breakfast. Or of course in this rustic pie recipe.

Another great tip that came from this recipe is to sprinkle the crust below where the fruit filling will go with a little crushed graham crackers. It soaks up the juices from the fruit filling, so it doesn’t turn the bottom of the pie into a soggy mess. Definitely a great tip for future pies. The dough can get a little sticky, so it’s easier to roll it out if you place it between two sheets of plastic wrap and then go at it with the rolling pin. It takes a few to get the hang of it, but even if you “mess up” they end up coming out fabulously. Plus they’re “rustic” so who cares?! Enjoy!

Rustic Fig and Raspberry Mini Crostatas
From: Fine Cooking Magazine, July 2010
Serves: 10 (easily could cut each pie in half and serve 20)
Time to prepare: 3.5 hours, active time 45 minutes

For the dough:
7-1/2 oz. (1-2/3 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
3-3/4 oz. (3/4 cup) whole-wheat flour
1/4 cup plus 1/2 Tbs. granulated sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
9 oz. (1 cup plus 2 Tbs.) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

For the filling:
3/4 lb. small fresh figs (preferably Brown Turkey), quartered (about 2 cups)
6 oz. fresh raspberries (1-1/2 cups)
1/3 cup plus 2 Tbs. granulated sugar
3 Tbs. plus 1 tsp. honey
1 Tbs. fresh thyme, roughly chopped
2 tsp. finely grated orange zest
3 Tbs. plus 1 tsp. graham cracker crumbs
1 oz. (2 Tbs.) cold unsalted butter, cut into
1-1/2 Tbs. heavy cream

Make the dough:
Put the flours, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a food processor. Add the butter and pulse in short bursts until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Add 3 Tbs. cold water and pulse. If the mixture seems dry, add water 1 Tbs. at a time, pulsing until the dough just starts to come together. Do not overprocess.

Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface, gather it together, and portion it into ten 2-1/2-oz. rounds. Flatten them into disks, wrap individually in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.

When ready to bake, position racks in the bottom and top thirds of the oven and heat the oven to 400°F. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment.

On a lightly floured surface with a lightly loured rolling pin, roll each dough disk into a 5-1/2-inch round that’s about 1/8 inch thick. Put 5 rounds on each baking sheet.

Make the filling
In a medium bowl, lightly toss the figs, raspberries, 1/3 cup of the sugar, the honey, thyme, and orange zest until combined.

Assemble and bake the crostatas
Sprinkle each round of dough with 1 tsp. graham cracker crumbs, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Put a generous 1/4 cup of the fig mixture in the center of each dough round, mounding the fruit. Top each tart with a butter slice.

Fold the edges of the dough over some of the fruit to create a 1-inch rim, leaving the center exposed. Work your way around, pleating the dough as you go. With a pastry brush, brush the crust of each crostata with cream and sprinkle the crusts and filling with the remaining 2 Tbs. sugar.

Bake until the crostatas are golden-brown, 30 to 35 minutes, swapping and rotating the baking sheets’ positions about halfway through baking.

Transfer the baking sheets to racks to cool for about 5 minutes. Then loosen the crostatas with an offset spatula and cool completely on the sheets. The crostatas are best the day they’re made.

Continue reading »]]> Seattle has the most amazing network of community gardens that you could find anywhere. The P-patch system sponsors 40+ gardens in different neighborhoods that you can “rent” for $35 a year. Each gardener gets a 10 x 20 plot for your green thumb to go nuts in. Some are quite elaborate with their own colony of honeybees, composting, or lavender fields, and all feature communal plots that grow food for the local food banks. It’s a pretty neat deal.

I was on the waiting list for my plot for over 2 years when I finally got my own piece of dirt this past spring. Though I have a ton of learning to go, it was a fun experiment in playing in the dirt and watching things (sort of) grow.

The culture of nurturing a connection between food and table runs deep in Seattle. We have one of the largest networks of neighborhood farmers markets in the country. Some are year round, some are only during the summer; some are all produce, some feature local artists and businesses. All are a blast to wander through. On a sunny day, the neighborhood farmers market is jam packed with produce, kids, dogs, and laughs. It’s one of my very favorite ways to spend my weekend morning.

I’ve had August 22th circled on my calendar for weeks. It’s the annual Incredible Feast. 30 of Seattle’s hottest restaurants are each paired up with one of the local farmers to create a bite that highlights the amazing food cultivated in the Pacific Northwest. It’s akin to a food lover’s orgy.

So my friend Alex and I quickly nabbed tickets and have been waiting ever so patiently for the day to come. We really went in like gangbusters with no plan, which was a serious mistake. You really do need a strategy when there’s that much delicious food in play.

The unofficial theme of the night (and maybe this entire year) apparently was pickling. Practically every savory dish had some sort of pickled element on it. My favorite dish of the evening was La Medusa’s meatball – and I’m not really even a meatball fan. The red sauce was rich with a deep tomato flavor that had to have taken hours to develop. It also had kale in it, which I’m a huge fan of. Any way you can sneak dark leafy greens into your diet is a great idea in my book.

My favorite sweet dish had to be the melon ice cream. Delicate and light, though it didn’t hurt that they served it in mini ice cream cones. First place for appearance was Robin Leventhal’s (of Top Chef fame) red white and blue panacotta. Especially with her checkered tablecloth, it was about as much summer as you could pack into a picnic table.

The tickets weren’t especially inexpensive, though we both agreed that we certainly ate our money’s worth. Plus all the money benefits the organizers of the neighborhood farmer’s markets. And that’s one check I’m happy to write. The Feast is an annual event, so be sure to put it on your calendar for next summer!

Continue reading »]]> Happy birthday to me! Well, to Seattle Palate at least. I can’t believe it’s only been a little over a year for this little food blog experiment; seems like I’ve botched more recipes than any one person should in a single year. But I have to admit that there have been some pretty good ones in there, too. I can’t think of a more fitting recipe for today than birthday cake. This is a special one; it’s my Dad’s favorite coconut cake. Unfortunately it’s not his Mother’s recipe – somehow it didn’t survive through the generations. But it’s a pretty good substitute. The white cake is light and fluffy and when it’s in your mouth it turns into a wonderfully creamy piece of coconut heaven. But then again I’m pretty biased – I think you could slather cream cheese frosting on just about anything and it would be wildly delicious.

I make this cake every summer for my Dad’s birthday when we’re all at the Jersey Shore for the annual family beach week. There’s a rotating cast of 20 or so Winner’s who congregate at 50th street for two weeks each August. Usually the infamous Jersey humidity takes a toll and the icing melts completely sending the cake sliding apart before your plate even hits the table, but it’s pretty delicious nonetheless.

Last year we were going through some old photographs and came across this one of my Dad’s Mother. She died before I was born so I never got to meet her, but looking at this picture of her, I can’t help but feel like there might just be a little bit of her in me that makes me feel so at home in the kitchen. Just look at this picture! She certainly belongs on the cover of a 1950’s issue of Ladies Home Journal. I am just swooning over it.

I am so sorry that I never got to meet her, but I do love hearing my 90-year old grandfather tell stories about her. (He’d be really mad that I just outed him as a 90-year old, by the way. He’s terribly modest, though he still out-fishes, out-beaches, and out-corn-holes the rest of us every summer.) And usually when we eat big slices of this coconut cake, at the beach with the sun haze still hanging in the twilight and the lightning bugs doing their thing, the stories come out. It’s definitely my favorite time of the summer.

P-pop (as we all affectionately call him) has more tales to tell than there are days in the summer. I call them “tales” because I have a very difficult time believing that 100% of them are 100% true. At least I hope they’re not completely unexaggerated. For instance, just this summer P-pop was telling us about how he had my Dad driving a tractor at age 6. Of course my Uncle insisted that he was only 5 when he was first put on a tractor. I’m chalking it up to sibling rivalry and the ability to keep a straight face that most of my family members have. (It was a slow tractor and not too big, P-pop explained, so you don’t have to worry.)

Just at the point where the stories reach the very edge of plausibility, it’s about time for another piece of cake. Thank goodness it’s a big cake so there’s plenty to go around. I’m not sure if the cake is really that delicious or if the family time is just that good. Either way, might I propose that you whip up a coconut cake and invite some friends and family over and see for yourself. Enjoy!

Coconut Layer Cake
From: Bon Apetite, December 1999
Serves: 12
Time to prepare: 4 hours, including cooling. 30 minutes active time.

Cake:
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup canned sweetened cream of coconut (such as Coco Lépez)*
4 large eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
Pinch of salt
4 cups sweetened shredded coconut

Icing:
2 (8-ounce) packages Philadelphia-brand cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup canned sweetened cream of coconut (such as Coco López)*
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Make the cake: Butter and flour two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 2-inch-high sides.

Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt in medium bowl to blend.

Using electric mixer, beat sugar, butter and sweetened cream of coconut in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla extract.

On low speed, beat in dry ingredients and then buttermilk, each just until blended.

Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites with pinch of salt in another large bowl until stiff but not dry. Fold beaten egg whites into batter.

Divide cake batter between prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

Cool cakes in pans on rack 10 minutes. Run small sharp knife around pan sides to loosen cakes. Turn cakes out onto racks and cool completely.

Toast coconut by spreading it on a baking sheet and placing in the oven after the cake has cooked. Cook for a few minutes, until the edges are slightly browned. Keep a very close eye on it – it will go from perfect to burned in literally seconds.

Make the frosting: Beat cream cheese in medium bowl until fluffy. Add butter and beat to blend. Add sugar, sweetened cream of coconut and vanilla extract and beat until well blended.

Assemble the cake: Place one cake layer on cake plate. Spread 1 cup Cream Cheese Frosting over cake layer. Sprinkle 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut over.

Top with second cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake.

Sprinkle remaining coconut over cake, gently pressing into sides to adhere.

Notes: Canned sweetened cream of coconut is available in the liquor section of most supermarkets nationwide.

To help make frosting the cake easier, put the cake in the freezer and the frosting in the fridge for a half hour or so before frosting.

Coconut Layer Cake can be prepared up to 1 day ahead. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Let stand at room temperature 2 hours before serving.

Continue reading »]]> My P-patch plot has been kind of prolific lately. Sort of. The Great Pea-Run of June pretty much wrapped up the overflowing bounty. About half or so of my beet plants actually made it, and were about ready to harvest. I planted regular purple beets, and those gorgeous Chioggia red and white striped beets. Both taste pretty much the same, I just think the Chioggia’s are so gorgeous on the plate. Look at them on the roasting pan – don’t you think they look like big jewels from a candy ring? I’m crazy for these beets.

Too bad the recipe I chose for them completely obliterated the aesthetic appeal of the beets. Quite literally. I opted to make beet hummus for my recent red-white-and-blue themed potluck, and I was so excited to be able to use produce that I had grown myself. I love hummus, I love beets. How could these not be delicious together? Drizzle a little olive oil, scoop onto a little pita… doesn’t get any better than that.

Taste was not the problem. You know how they say you eat with your eyes first? Well that was the problem. The pink beets didn’t bring enough red coloring to the hummus to make it the gorgeous jewel-toned-red I was going for. Instead, it contributed just enough red coloring that when mixed with the chickpeas looked quite decidedly FLESH COLORED. I’m not going to lie to you, it looked pretty unappetizing. But if you could muster up the courage to take a bite anyway, it was delicious. We also drank lots of wine first, which also seemed to help.

Hummus is dead easy to make. Crack a can of chickpeas, puree them with some garlic, olive oil, tahini, and lemon and you’re good to go. It’s a great spread for sandwiches, bagels, pita bread, crackers, and my favorite – as a dip for raw veggies. I’m crazy about hummus, and by adding roasted beets, a sweet layer of flavor comes through to really compliment the earthiness of the beans.

I would most definitely recommend making this hummus if you like the sweetness of the root vegetable. You can dress it up with a little drizzle of some really delicious olive oil, or a few cloves of roasted garlic. I suppose you could use pretty much any root vegetable in here and get a similarly sweet finished spread. Though after this little experiment I’m scared of what color carrot or parsnip hummus might be! Enjoy!

Beet Hummus
Serves: 8 – 10 as an appetizer
Time to prepare: 45 minutes

4 medium sized beats
2 tablespoons tahini
Juice of 2 large lemons (about 4 tablespoons)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin
zest from one lemon
½ teaspoon kosher salt

Trim the stalk end off the beets, and peel with a vegetable peeler.

Cook the beets, either by roasting: cut into 1” cubes, toss with olive oil and roast at 425 degrees flipping once, for about 30 minutes or until a fork easily slides into the beet; or boiling: add halved or quartered beets to a pot of boiling water, and cook until a fork slides easily into the beet, about 30 minutes.

Place beets and all other ingredients into a blender and pulse until desired consistency.

Serve with pita chips, raw vegetables, or on sandwiches as a spread.

Notes: tahini is a sesame paste that is usually easy to find in the international ingredients section of most grocery stores.

Continue reading »]]> It’s so easy to lose track of time in Seattle in July. The sun starts shining at 4:00 in the morning, and if your eyes can handle it, you can squint out a last few minutes of light on your porch at 10:00 at night. Somehow you can make it on 5 hours of sleep and be ready to do it all over again the next day. Who needs Seattle coffee? The sunshine’s enough for me. It’s seriously like a drug. (Huh, maybe that’s why we need the rainy season. Can you imagine if we were running on 18 hours of sunshine all year round?!)

Our monthly foodie potluck is just too much fun. This month’s dinner theme was wildly appropriate: red, white, and blue. We all soaked in the Seattle Summer juju on Tikvah’s deck, drank lots of wine, and ate some amazing delicious food.

The rules were that you had to have at least two of the three colors; extra credit if you got all three in a single dish. It’s harder than you’d think. Blue isn’t a very popular color in natural food. I was overly zealous and had plans for three dishes (because in the summer, who needs sleep!). I made a blueberry “ketchup” that was supposed to go on a sockeye salmon filet. It was one of the worst culinary bombs I’ve ever experienced. Note to self: blueberry ketchup tastes as terrible as you’d expect.

I also made a beet hummus (recipe and details to come in a later post), which pseudo-flopped. It tasted delicious, but instead of being the deep red color that you should get from beets, mine was decidedly… flesh colored. Not really very appetizing. But we waited until it got dark then ate it.

Lastly I made these stupid-easy-but-ridiculously-adorable strawberry creamies. They were delicious, but I felt sort of lame bringing them to the table in such distinguished culinary company. There’s no hiding that a monkey could make these. But they were yummy enough to be gone by the end of the night.

Also on the menu was a strawberry and spinach salad with Thai dressing that was to die for, a red-white-and-blue potato salad, tomato and mozzarella salad, and strawberry cream filled cupcakes – all delicious.

But the star of the night was Sarah’s tomato and goat cheese crostini. O.M.G. This was quite possibly the most delicious thing I’ve eaten to date. In. My. Life. And it should have been – the tomatoes spent upwards of three hours roasting, then overnight marinating and flavors melding. Wow, this was a seriously amazing bite of yumminess. Luckily it’s summer so even though she didn’t start the three-hour roast until after 10:00 PM, it was no big deal. (Still perhaps a case study in reading a recipe in its entirety before starting to cook.) Once I wrangle the recipe from Sarah I’ll post it right here. For now you’ll have to make do with these Strawberry Creamies. Enjoy!

Strawberry Creamies
Makes: 24 pieces
Time to prepare: 15 minutes

2 pints strawberries (or about 24 medium to large sized berries)
1 pint blueberries
8 ounces creme fraiche
2 tablespoons confectioners sugar
1/8 teaspoon vanilla

Rinse and hull strawberries, cutting out the stem to create a little well in the middle of the berry. Cut the bottom 1/16″ of the berry off so it stands upright.

Whip the creme fraiche in the electric or hand mixer, until creamy and fluffy, much like the consistency of whipped cream. Gradually add the sugar and the vanilla.

Place the whipped creme fraiche in a plastic sandwich bag, and snip off one of the corners to create a pastry-bag. Gently pipe the creme fraiche into the strawberries. Top with a blueberry.

Continue reading »]]> So there’s a chance that I might be an official Seattleite. It hit me 4 miles in, as I was running down the street with 2 fistfuls of snow peas. Pull up a chair, this is a good one.

I’ve been on the waiting list for a P-Patch garden since moving here, and finally snagged a plot this spring. Seattle has an amazing network of neighborhood gardens, and for about $25 a year, you can have a 10′ x 20′ patch of dirt to call your very own. I’m sure you can understand how I have an aching in my bones to do this.

In my over-zealousness, I planted all sorts of stuff way back in February, after a few warm sunny days that fooled us all into thinking it would be a mild winter. Consequently, the fruits of my labor have been mixed at best. I seem to do an excellent job raising… weeds. Or the unidentifiable plants the garden’s previous owner had planted. Oh well, I chalk the experience up to entertainment and a hefty dose of nature therapy. Any actual food that comes out of the ordeal is strictly gravy.

After tending to my practically barren garden for months, things are starting to percolate a bit. On my run tonight I decided to swing by the garden and check things out. Imagine my surprise to find actual PEAS, ready to harvest, shining in the evening sun. Oh, I was about as excited as a kid on Christmas morning. Only these gifts were heavy with the toils of my sweat, blood, and tears. Sort of. Hopped up on excitement and without really thinking the whole thing through, I started picking them frantically.

I have two varieties – one a snow pea, and the other a sugar snap pea. Note: I know from experience better than to grow peas that you have to shell. The work to potential nutritional value/yield ratio is entirely too lopsided – in the wrong direction. In any event, in no time I had more peas than my sweaty little hands could hold.

And then it hit me. I had no eco-chic reusable shopping bag or obnoxiously cute farmer’s market basket to hold my bounty. Oh, and I was still about two miles from home. So I did what any self-respecting Seattleite would have done. I ran home with the peas in my hands. What choice did I have?? A panhandler did ask me while I was waiting to cross at a red light if the peas were a snack instead of one of those “energy bars.” Nope, just silly me, picking my garden and then running home. But let’s just pause for a brief second to picture that one in our heads – crazed red head, running down the street, noshing on handfuls of snow peas for mid-workout sustenance… That actually might work.

Anyway, let me tell you, these peas were well worth any self-inflicted absurdity. They taste like – get this – peas! It’s sort of sad how we don’t even notice how bland lots of our produce is. Not surprising after it’s taken days or even weeks to arrive at the market. These peas were minutes old!
As soon as I got home I whipped up quite a dinner with them. But I’m not even going to bother giving you the recipe since it will be 100% un-replicable. It was a hodgepodge of leftovers, freezer fodder, and peas. If you must know, it was a very lose interpretation of fried rice, and that basic recipe is listed below. I used left over wild rice that I cooked in chicken broth and then tossed with roasted grape tomatoes and ate for dinner last night. As for veggies, I threw in diced onion, leftover roasted red peppers, frozen corn, and of course – my prize-worthy peas. (Believe me, it took real restraint to leave out the Tupperware filled with roasted brussles sprouts. That would not have been delicious.) I had a few lonely shrimps in the freezer and tossed them into the mix along with a scrambled egg. Like I said, random. But tasty! Just goes to show that fried rice is a jack-of-all-trades champ to have up your sleeve when you need to clean out the fridge.

Even though this fried rice isn’t authentically Seattle, apparently I am: passive-aggressively running through the rain, fistfuls of politically correct, all organic, hippie-approved produce in hand. Enjoy!

**Click here for a printer friendly version of this recipe**

Basic Fried Rice
Time to prepare: 30 minutes, 20 if you are a quick chopper
Serves: 4

1 cup chopped protein – chicken, shrimp, pork, beef, tofu (optional)
1/3 cup onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
vegetable oil
soy sauce
fresh ground black pepper
2 eggs, scrambled
3 cups fresh veggies, chopped in ½” pieces – bell peppers, broccoli, zucchini, squash, beans, sugar snap peas, carrots, beans all work very well, but use whatever you have.
1 cup frozen veggies – corn, sweet peas, edamame (optional)
2 cups cooked rice, preferably day-old

Over very high heat, heat a tablespoon+ of oil in a large skillet or wok, preferably non-stick. Add the onion, garlic and protein and cook, stirring frequently until the protein is about half way cooked through.

Push the protein to the sides of the pan. Add the eggs and cook until they resemble scrambled eggs, stirring frequently. Season with pepper.

Add the veggies and cook until cooked but still crisp, about 2 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons soy sauce, stir.

Push the contents to the side of the pan and add the rice. Smooth out so that as much of the rice as possible is in contact with the pan. Let the rice cook for a minute or two, slightly burning to the pan. This is essential to avoid soggy rice and to get that great crispy texture.

Stir the contents together, allowing the rice to sit for 45 seconds or so at a time to burn a little. Add more oil if necessary. Add another 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, or to taste.