TWIN PIZZAS

I know I said that all this was going to be simple, and Reid is getting after me about the briskets taking MUCH longer than an hour (though really the work involved is about 30 minutes - and then they're just idly sitting in the oven.)

So the pizzas are superfast - but you will need a pizza stone and one of those paddles to slide the dough onto it with - which really, if you like pizza you should just go ahead and get them.  Otherwise, you may think you are making a pizza, but really it's just a flat bread disk with some stuff on it (come to think of it, that's still pretty good!)  A pizza stone (mine is similar to this one) can also be used for bread, scones and biscuits - and keeps warm for a long time afterwards which can come in handy in midwinter when your spouse likes to keep the heat at 57.

I totally recommend watching a video on YouTube on pizza technique for dough spreading and sliding onto a stone!  One of the 21st century's greatest gifts to mankind was the cooking video.

So, the pizzas - which make lovely dinners with a substantial salad - or else cut into squares as appetizers.

SUMMER PIZZA - THE SIMPLE MARGHERITA  (Basically this serves 2 at most, so you will probably want to double everything, and have another one ready to go in after you take this out.  They take so little time to cook that the first can sit until the 2nd is ready.)

• 1 ball of pizza dough (I use Trader Joe's - just as good as homemade - but recipe to follow for diehards)
• 3 TB (about) medium cornmeal
• 1/2 cup simple tomato sauce (your favorite - or recipe to follow)
• 1/2 lb. fresh mozzarella  (really fresh, the kind stored in water) cut into slices 1/8" thick
• 3 TB freshly grated parmesan
• 15 or so large fresh basil leaves (obviously you will make this in the summer)

Preheat oven with pizza stone in it to 500 or as hot as you can.
Roll or press out dough to about a 15" circle, pretty thin, on a lightly floured surface.  You may have to do this a few times until it stops shrinking back to a smaller size - the dough needs to stretch out and lose some elasticity.

Sprinkle a generous amount of cornmeal on the paddle to cover the whole surface, and lay the dough circle on top.  Spread the sauce over the top.  Place the pieces of mozzarella evenly on top of that and sprinkle with parmesan.  

Slide onto the hot pizza stone.  Bake for 5 minutes, and then grab the side towards you and spin it around on the stone (front to back.)  Bake another 3 to 5 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and the bottom is browned - watch carefully because a minute makes a big difference.  

Take it out and immediately place the basil leaves, one by one, over the top and they will soften and wilt fragrantly.  Ready.  


WINTER PIZZA - NOT SO SIMPLE BUT WORTH IT (ditto the above about amounts.  This is more filling, but people eat even more in winter.)

• 1 ball of pizza dough (I use Trader Joe's - just as good as homemade - but recipe to follow for diehards)
• 3 TB (about) medium cornmeal
• 1/2 lb. fresh mozzarella  (really fresh, the kind stored in water) cut into slices 1/8" thick
• 3 TB freshly grated parmesan
• 1 large onion sliced
• 1 large clove garlic, chopped
• 2 cps of butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2" dice
• 5 slices of crispy cooked bacon crumbled OR about 10 very thin slices of prosciutto cut into ribbons OR about 15 very thin slices of sopressata also ribboned OR cured meat of your choice
• (if by some chance you have some torn leaves of fresh sage, this could be nice)

Preheat oven with the pizza stone to 500 or as hot as you can.  Put another oven rack in above it.  Pour a seriously generous coating of olive oil over the bottom of a roasting pan, and scatter the slices of onion and cubes of squash onto it.  While the oven is preheating, put this on the rack in the oven to roast the vegetables.

When the vegetables are done - browned on the edges and nice and soft -  take them out of the oven - you may need to move that oven rack out of the way to have room to slide the pizza in later.  Mix the chopped garlic into the hot vegetables and season to taste with salt and pepper.  

Roll out dough to about a 15" circle, pretty thin, on a lightly floured surface.  You may have to do this a few times until it stops shrinking back to a smaller size - the dough needs to stretch out and lose some elasticity.  Sprinkle a generous amount of cornmeal on the paddle to cover the whole surface, and lay the dough circle on top. Scrape all the onions and squash and accompanying olive oil onto the top and position the pieces strategically (use your hands - it's easiest).  

Place the pieces of mozzarella evenly on top of that and sprinkle with parmesan.  Slide onto the hot pizza stone.  Bake for 5 minutes, and then grab the side towards you and spin it around on the stone (front to back.)  Bake another 3 to 5 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and the bottom is browned - watch carefully because a minute makes a big difference.  

Take it out and immediately scatter and lightly press the crumbs or shreds of salty cured pork items into the melting cheese (and also pieces of sage leaves also if you have them) so that they just barely heat up. Done.

Addendum:

Pizza dough at home

This makes dough for one pizza - can be multiplied -

• 2 cps. bread flour (could be all-purpose, no big deal)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. dry yeast
• pinch sugar
• 1 cp. water
• 2 TB olive oil

Proof the yeast:  mix 1/4 cp. lukewarm water, a pinch of sugar, and the yeast until it dissolves.  It's fastest if you do this in a Pyrex measuring cup.  Let it sit in a warm place until you see bubbles at the top (about 10 minutes.)

Put 2 cps. flour and the salt in a mixer with a dough hook (or in a bowl.) In the measuring cup with the proofed yeast, add water up to the 1-cup mark (or just mix the yeast with water to make one liquid cup.)  Stir in 2 TB olive oil.  Pour this gradually into flour mixture while the mixer is on low (or while stirring in the bowl) and continue to knead - either by  mixer or by hand - until it's totally smooth and soft - about 10 minutes.   

In a bowl at least twice the size of the dough ball, put about 1 tsp. olive oil, and then roll the dough around in it until it's all covered.  Put in a warm place until doubled in size - about an hour.  Then use it right away, or punch down and refrigerate in a covered container until you want it, or freeze it - great to have on hand!

( Tomato sauce another time...)

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER BRISKETS

Doesn't every Jewish woman have her own brisket recipe?  My mom has one, and so do I - mom's (as you'll see) is clearly from the Mad Men era, with a sweet/sour effect.  Mine probably evolved from some Julia Child snobbery, concerning red wine and less processed foods, later on.  Though you may have noticed that the current barbecue craze has a lot of ketchup involved; so, as everything comes around again, I'm reconsidering.

Now we await:  Lena's, Eve's, Tamara's, ???

or

BARBSIE'S BRISKET:

• a 3 lb. single cut brisket (most briskets smaller than 5 lbs. are single cut - it means they don't have a thick horizontal layer of fat in the middle.)
• 1 pkg. Lipton onion soup mix (actually now it says 
• 1/2 cp. ketchup
• 2 TB Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cp. brown sugar
• juice of one lemon

Preheat oven to 325. Mix the last 5 ingredients together. Place brisket on a large piece of heavy duty foil in a roasting pan.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and pour the mixture over the top.  Bring foil to cover and seal edges tightly.  

Bake for 2 1/2 hours.  Turn off the oven and leave the brisket in for another half hour.  It's best if you serve it hours or up to 2 days later, so slice it and let it sit in the sauce until you're ready.  Can be frozen also.  Reheat covered at 350 for about a half hour, until your thermometer (aka your finger) tells you it's hot enough.  

MY BRISKET:

• a 3 lb. single cut brisket
• 1 cp. red wine (some will tell you it needs to be really good, but I can't really tell.)
• 1 small can (8 oz.) ordinary tomato sauce
• 1/2 cp. beef broth (can be from concentrate - not too salty) or water
• 3 onions, sliced
• 2 large carrots, peeled and cut into 2" pieces
• 1/4 tsp. dried thyme

Preheat oven to 325.  Season the brisket with salt and pepper.  Put a glug of olive oil in a large saucepan, heat to medium, and brown the brisket on both sides.  Put it in an oven-proof casserole or pan slightly larger - better if it has a lid, but you can cover with parchment paper and aluminum foil otherwise.  

Back to the saucepan, put in the sliced onions and sauté them for a few minutes.  Then pour in the wine, tomato sauce and beef broth, and let simmer for 5 minutes.  Pour all this over the meat in the casserole, tuck in the carrots, sprinkle on the thyme, and cover with the lid - or else a layer of parchment paper with foil sealing the top.  (I don't like the food to make contact with the foil - which nobody worried about in the 60's - so you can adjust Mom's recipe accordingly if you agree.)  

Bake for 2 1/2 hours (if it's not tightly sealed, you may want to check the liquid level half through); turn off the oven and leave in for another half hour.  Put it on the counter and when it's cool enough, take the brisket out of the sauce and slice it as thick as you like it.  The liquid you can either leave as is, thin but tasty with the soft and savory onions and carrots alongside, or you can puree it all together in a food processor to make an actual sauce - or be indecisive and go half and half!  Now you can store it all together in the refrigerator, as above, for several hours or a few days, or freeze it, and then reheat it covered when you're ready, as above.  It's very forgiving, and can wait quite a long time in the oven as long as you don't let it dry out. 

ANOTHER REASON TO THANK OUR PRESIDENT

There are a million reasons to be inspired by President Obama's re-election; most have global implications, but here's one that will affect my kitchen at least.  Will whoever makes the Red Potato Horseradish Cakes first please report?

FLAN, CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES: NO GLUTEN IN SIGHT

2 gluten-free desserts (for Shaina and Kim)

The quickest flan you'll ever make, courtesy of my Tia Chelo.  It does require some equipment:  a pressure cooker, and a stainless steel bowl that fits inside it.

Caramel (this is a somewhat tricky part, but really just the first time)

• 1/2 cp. sugar

Have the stainless steel bowl at your side, and ideally some rubber dishwashing gloves on, just in case.  Put the sugar in a heavy-bottomed smallish saucepan on the stove over medium heat and WATCH it carefully.  Let it start to melt, and then shake the pan from time to time until it is all melted and just golden brown. (It will get brown on the edges first, which is why you need to shake it, to try to get a uniform color.) This should take about 5 minutes if that. When it gets to be all golden brown, quickly take off the heat and immediately pour into the bowl, and then swirl the bowl around until it coats the bottom and about halfway up the sides.  This is super hot! so do not swirl with carefree abandon - and do use the gloves or oven mitts.  

Flan (this is a piece of cake - well, piece of custard)  If you really want to make people happy, also have ready some sweetened whipped cream; if you want them delirious, some dulce de leche.

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 can's worth whole milk
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Whisk this together until well blended, and pour into the now caramel-coated steel bowl.  Put about an inch of water in the bottom of the pressure cooker, and place the bowl inside.  Put the top on, turn on the burner and when the button pops up, cook at medium pressure for exactly 15 minutes.  Turn off the heat and let it cool another 15 minutes without opening it.  Then open it up and take out the bowl.  When it cools completely, put it in the refrigerator.  

To serve, put a plate with a little ridge on it (like a pie plate) over the top and turn upside down - it should plop out as a cute little half-sphere with a nice coating of caramel.  There will still be some delicious caramel sauce on the inside of the bowl, and since that is really the best part, you'll want to scrape as much of it as you can around the flan.  Pass around the whipped cream and optimally the dulce de leche too.  Now you are transported to Buenos Aires.


Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies  (OK, basically a Whole Foods recipe but here I'm telling you about it with a few changes).  These are much better than the peanut butter cookies you make with butter and flour - cleaner tasting and a chewier texture.

• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cp. sugar
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 cp. unsweetened peanut butter (I use Trader Joe's, creamy or crunchy is fine.  If it doesn't have salt, then you'll need to add some.)
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cp. chocolate chips
• another 1/4 cp. sugar in a bowl

Preheat oven to 350 and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  With an electric mixer, beat together the egg, sugar, baking powder, vanilla, and peanut butter until well blended.  Mix in the chocolate chips.  Roll into 1" balls and dip into the sugar, then put on the parchment paper and flatten slightly - about 2 " apart.  Bake for 10-12 minutes until they start to crack and look done.  Cool on a rack.

TWO DINNER-WORTHY FISH SOUPS, VINTAGE

MADE-UP SCALED-DOWN BOUILLABAISE (serves around 4).  Invented around 1989

(Here we have a perfect example and photo both created by Tamara.)

• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 small onion
• 1/4 bulb of fennel
• grated rind of one orange
• pinch of saffron
• 2 TB tomato paste
• salt and a tiny pinch of cayenne
• 3 cps. strained fish stock (definitely worth it to have made your own, so when you buy the fish, get them whole and ask the fishmonger to fillet them and save you the bones, which you just simmer for 30 minutes in water to cover, a sliced onion and some celery, and a little salt.  Sorry - that's another recipe.  But a quick one.  And probably using a good fish bouillon will be just fine.)
• 2 large potatoes, peeled and sliced into half rounds
• 2 lbs. fish fillets, in combination - whatever looks good! Could have shrimp, squid, or scallops too.
• chopped fresh parsley

Put everything above the fish stock in a food processor until finely chopped.  Heat olive oil in a large pot or casserole and add this mixture - sauté for a few minutes.  Add the fish stock and the potatoes and simmer until they are tender.  Add the fish at the end and simmer again just until it's done.  Sprinkle with parsley.  Voilá!

ANDY'S AUNT SALLY'S (from Lawrence, MA) FISH CHOWDER  (serves around 6).  Have been making this since 1976.

• 1/4 lb. salt pork (this is the only time I ever use salt pork, but it's part of the authenticity)
• 3 lg. onions sliced
• 3 TB flour
• 2 cps. water (or fish stock if you're lucky enough to have some)
• 1 cp. milk
• 3 lg. potatoes, peeled and diced
• 3 lb. thick white fillets of fish - haddock, scrod, cod, you could try something else - cut into pieces
• 1 cp. light cream
• 3 TB butter
• salt and pepper

Cut the salt pork into fairly large dice and put in a large pot on the stove, until most of it is melted.  In it, sauté the onions for about 5 minutes, until soft.  Add the flour and stir for another 2 minutes or so.  Pour in the water (or stock) and milk, and add the diced potatoes.  Bring to a simmer and cook 15 minutes or until the potato is tender.  (At this point, unless you love salt pork, you'll want to remove the pieces with a slotted spoon - they'll be floating on top.) Now add the fish and simmer 10 more minutes or until cooked through.  Add the cream, the butter, and salt and pepper to taste, and wait until the butter is melted and it's heated through.  It's that simple.

APPLE PIE FOR YOM KIPPUR AND 2 OTHER PIES FOR GOOD LUCK

These are just homey American-style pies - not to be confused with the chic and delicate tarts in the French cookbooks.  Also, much silliness has been devoted to what is the best thickener (so the inside doesn't become a soupy mess) - tapioca, arrowroot, cassava...oh, really.  I think flour is fine, but do experiment if you like.
This apple pie is made every Yom Kippur, to be ready when the fasting is over.  Thereby hangs a tale, as Reid's mother used to say - get Reid to tell it to you.
Preheat oven to 350, and get out a 9" pie plate, deeper is better. 
(I think this photo is of a strawberry-rhubarb pie - to follow - but you get the picture.) 

Piecrust:

• 13 TB butter, cold
• 2 cps. flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 TB sugar
• 3 TB cold water

Combine everything but the water, either using a food processor, or pinching it and rubbing it together with your fingers, until it’s pretty well blended ("the texture of coarse cornmeal" as all the recipes say.)  Add the water I TB at a time and blend it together (use pulse if processing) until it just barely forms a ball.  Wrap it up in wax paper and put it in the refrigerator.

Filling:

• 9 large apples
• ½ cp. brown sugar
• ¼ cp. flour
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp. nutmeg
• ¼ tsp cardamom (optional)
• 2 TB heavy cream or one beaten egg
• sugar, cinnamon sugar, or if you're feeling trendy, turbinado

Peel and slice the apples (whatever is in season and flavorful at the time – really I've never gone wrong.)  Put in a bowl with the sugar, flour, and spices, and stir it all together until the slices are all coated.

Take the pie crust out of the refrigerator and cut it in half (actually a little more than half.) If it’s become really hard by this time, let it soften a bit.  On a lightly floured surface, roll that piece out to a circle somewhat larger than the pie plate (when I started out, I found that rolling this out between sheets of wax paper made it easier.  You keep flipping it over and removing the wrinkled wax paper and then put it back on top. Also you can keep using some flour to keep it from sticking.)  Roll the circle of dough lightly around the rolling pin and then unroll onto the pie plate.

Pour all the apple slices and their seasoning into the crust, mounding it in the middle. You may need to press the fruit together a bit so the mound isn't too high and the sides of the crust still show.  Alternatively, if there isn’t enough fruit to make a mound in the center, slice some more and put it on.  Dip your finger in water and slightly wet the edges of the pie crust.  Now roll out the other crust and do the same thing with the rolling pin to unroll it over the top. Trim the edges and crimp them together.  Use a pastry brush to paint the top with heavy cream (or beaten egg, if you'd rather.)  Sprinkle the top with plain or cinnamon sugar.  Cut a few holes or lines in it to let out the steam.

Bake at 350 for about an hour, turning it around once, and checking from time to time after about ½ hour to see if it’s browning on top too quickly. If it is, lay a piece of aluminum foil lightly over it. Also at this point you might want to put a pan or some foil on a rack below the pie, because it often spills over and is a mess to clean.  It’s done when you see some liquid inside bubbling (that dissolves the flour in the filling) and it starts to smell delicious.

MORE PIES:
Strawberry-rhubarb: must be made when you see the rhubarb in the spring in the farmer's markets! 
Do the same as above as regards the piecrust.
Filling:

• scant 3 cps. washed and sliced (1/2") rhubarb
• scant 3 cps. washed and sliced strawberries
• 1 cp. sugar
• 1/3 cp. flour

Mix this all together, and just do the same thing it says to do above with the apples, including the baking.

Blueberry: there are a few weeks in the summer when these are super cheap - take advantage!  Blueberries are now considered to add several decades to your life.  Pies will too.  For this I just follow Mark Bittman - as one should do always.
filling:

• 5 cps. blueberries, picked over and rinsed and dried a bit
• 3/4 cp. sugar
• 2 TB cornstarch
• some cinnamon, maybe allspice or nutmeg

Mix this all together, and ditto the above.

INSPIRED BY LOTUS: CHINESE EGGPLANT WITH TOFU

A trip to Lotus Foods in the Strip always leads to this dish, because of those elegant svelte purple eggplants (which you never have to salt and drain) cook so beautifully.  And the tofu is so fresh it is still steaming.

This makes about enough for 2 or 3.

• Tofu (whatever kind you like) - cube and saute in nonstick pan (or in metal pan in oven at 450) until brown and crunchy on the outside - put aside and sprinkle with soy sauce - will add at the end.  You can cook this in the oven when you put in the other pan of vegetables. 
• 5 of this kind of eggplant - cube or slice in half rounds
• 2 red and/or green peppers - just cut them up 
• 1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped finely
• Garlic and fresh ginger - peel both (about an inch of ginger) and chop finely
• You will want to cook some rice at the same time to have with this. 
• Have some chopped cilantro and scallion ready to throw on at the end

Sauce (double this if you love sauce, which I do):  

• 1/4 cp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. cornstarch mixed with 1 1/2 TB water
• few shakes of sesame oil (get hot sesame oil if you like it a bit spicy)
• 1/4 cp. chicken broth (bouillon from a cube or jar is fine but watch the saltiness)
• splash of dry sherry
• 1 tsp. sugar
• optional: 1 tsp. Chinese chili paste or any other spicy Asian sauce that you like

Mix these all together.

I do this in the oven (most likely to the horror of good Asian cooks) so preheat to 450.  Put several TB of vegetable or canola oil in a pan, let it heat up, and then add all the vegetables (save the garlic and ginger for later.) They are usually done in about 20 minutes - the eggplant takes longest. Shake the pan from time to time.  (If you want to keep the pepper more crunchy, you can add 5 minutes later.)  So fast!  

When done, stir in the garlic/ginger, and then pour over the sauce and put back in the oven.  Let it boil (so that it thickens) - you can add some TB of water if it's too thick or too salty.  I like to throw in a few sprinkles of rice vinegar at the end, but that's not necessary.  The cilantro and scallion are more necessary but not absolutely essential.

MORE POCITOS FISH, BAKED IN SOFRITO

So that market fish was so amazing, you would need at least another way to make it.

You would buy about 1/2 lb. of skinless fillets per person - some kind of fish that has fillets that are fairly big, about 1/2" thick.  You can cut them in half if you like. This recipe is for 2-3 lbs - 4-6 people.

Also:

• 2 onions sliced
• 3 or 4 green and/or red peppers, sliced
• 2 jalapeños, chopped, if you like them
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 large can diced tomatoes
• cumin, paprika (regular or smoked), red pepper flakes, salt
• 1 cp. of white wine
• 3 TB butter
• handful chopped parsley
• rice

Preheat the oven to 425, and start cooking a pot of plain white rice on the side.

Make a tomato-onion-pepper-garlic compote, aka sofrito:

Saute in olive oil:  the onions, peppers, garlic, until soft.  Add the tomatoes and any/all of those spices to taste.  Cook down until fairly thick, around 20 minutes.

Spread about half in the bottom of the pan and put the fillets in one layer on top.  Season them with salt and pepper.  Put the rest of the sofrito over the top, along with the wine, and lay a piece of parchment paper over the top. Put in the oven to bake until just done - maybe 1/2 hour?  

Here's the part that makes this great.  Tip the pan and pour or spoon out as much of the liquid as you can (there should be a good amount) into a wide saucepan.  (It's a little tricky because the fish starts to slide out - so you might want to hold a pot cover or something over the top when you do this.) Keep the parchment paper on top and try to keep fairly warm.  In the saucepan on the stove, boil the liquid down until it thickens and is sauce-like (watch to make sure it doesn't disappear!) and then throw in the 3 TB butter, which will melt immediately.  Pour this sauce back over the fish and sprinkle with chopped parsley.  

Serve with the rice.

(Actually I've even made this with defrosted frozen fish and it's still good.)

PAN-FRIED FISH FROM POCITOS WITH GOBI MANCHURIAN ON THE SIDE

This international combo has been my favorite so far this winter.

1.PAN-FRIED FISH
When we lived in Montevideo, where deliriously fresh fish is as easy to get as maté, we had this constantly.  This photo is from a Pocitos street market in 2002, sigh...

Fish:
Buy about 1/3 lb. of fish fillets for each person - and best to get pieces about 1/2" thick (none of those super-delicate slips of sole) - and not too strong-tasting - maybe hake, bass, snapper, cod, etc.  Cut them in easy-to-flip sizes (around the same size as your spatula).  Soak for about 5 minutes in cold water, dry on paper towels, and sprinkle with salt and pepper

• 1/4 cp. flour
• 1/4 cp. corn meal
• salt and pepper

(Mix this and put on a flat plate.)

• One egg for every lb. of fish - beat with a fork in a bowl with a splash of water. 
• Canola and/or olive oil - put in a wide frying pan up to about 1/8" deep.
• A few limes and some chopped cilantro to finish (that's to go with the Gobi below - otherwise, lemon and parsley.)

Have everything ready and at hand at the stove right before you are ready to eat.  (Finish other dishes first and keep them warm or cold or however you want them.)  Put the oven on warm with a large platter inside, and spread a few layers of paper towels on the counter.  

Heat the oil moderately hot. For each piece, press first on both sides in the flour mixture until covered, then dip on both sides in the egg wash, let drip for a second over the bowl, then slide into the frying pan.  Don't crowd them too closely - you may need to do this twice depending on the size of the pan.  When each one is golden on the bottom, carefully flip it over to cook the other side.  When that side is the same color, press the fish in the middle to make sure it's no longer squishy and is cooked through.  

As each one is done, put it on the paper towels to drain a bit, then on the platter in the warm oven, hopefully in one layer.  When they're all finished, squeeze some lemon or lime juice on top of them all, and sprinkle with chopped parsley or cilantro.

GOBI MANCHURIAN (Chinese-Indian cauliflower - just try it)  
There are many recipes for this, most calling for deep frying the cauliflower, but that seems over the top.  Anyway, this is sort of a mix of all those ideas, and probably could be mixed up in various ways and still be the perfect savory/spicy/wet/crunchy-tender accompaniment to that fish.

• One cauliflower, mainly the flowerets, washed and cut into about 3/4" pieces. 
• canola oil
• 1 onion, cut up
• 1" piece of ginger
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 jalapeño (optional, and you may want to take out the seeds depending on hotness tolerance)
• 3 TB soy sauce
• 2 TB tomato sauce (could actually be ketchup if that's all you have on hand)
• 1 tsp. chinese chili paste
• chopped cilantro and scallions for garnish

Preheat oven to 425, and pour some canola oil in the bottom of a roasting pan.  Put in the cauliflower pieces and roast in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until just tender.  

While that is happening, turn on the food processor and drop in the ginger, garlic, and optional jalapeño, and when that is pulverized, put in the onion pieces until they are finely chopped.  Heat some oil in a saucepan and scrape the mixture into it - sauté about 5 minutes until soft.  Stir in the soy sauce, tomato sauce, and chili paste.  

When the cauliflower is done, mix with this sauce, and top with the cilantro and scallions.  

SCALLOPS, CHICKEN, LENTILS - A BLOCK ISLAND SAMPLER

So during our magical Block Island weeks we sometimes eat dinner in this funny little hole in the backyard with a picnic table ensconced in it - feels like sitting in a rowboat in the middle of a meadow - and we stay out as it gets dark and we can hardly see our food and then watch the procession of Limpy Duck and his ducky pals who form a waddling parade around and around like something out of a fairy tale. (I am romanticizing. Do not ask about subsequent maltreatment of Limpy by his brother ducks.)  But here are some items from those crepuscular dinners:

SCALLOPS

• 1 lb. sea scallops ( for 3 good eaters or 4 modest ones, if there are other things, too) (can be multiplied along with everything else)
• 1TB butter (for the end)
• Glug of olive oil and 2 more TB butter (for the beginning)
• flour for dusting
• juice and grated rind of one lemon
• 2/3 cp white wine
• some fresh herbs

Wash and dry the scallops with paper towels and sprinkle with salt and pepper (I may also have added some grated lemon rind.)

Did we have this with rice?  Whatever starch you might use (could be nice boiled potatoes, noodles, etc.) you will want to have it almost ready when you start.  There should be some sauce, so it would be nice to have something to pour it over.

Heat olive oil and butter until quite hot in a big nonstick or cast iron pan.  Sprinkle a little flour on the scallops and throw them into the hot oil, they should fit into the pan with some space between them - if not, do them in 2 batches.  Let them cook until golden on one side and then turn them over and cook on the other - just until done, maybe 2 minutes a side?  Depends on how big they are - they need to bounce back when you press them and not be squishy.
When they are done, remove them to a warm place (oven on very low) and, into the pan where they were cooking, toss: 1. the wine 2. the lemon juice and 3. a minute later, the butter and 4. any juice that has just in the last few minutes accumulated around the scallops.  Let boil another minute (should cook down somewhat), and add the scallops and the herbs.  Voila!



CUBAN CITRUS CHICKEN
(serves 4 if only 2 have seconds)

• One chicken - cut into 6 pieces, skin removed
• chopped garlic, cumin, salt, pepper - amount really a matter of taste
• 1 cp. orange juice (best if fresh but not necessary)
• 1/4 cp. dry sherry
• Juice of one lemon and one lime
• glug of olive oil
• 1 medium onion chopped
• chopped parsley or cilantro

Rub the chicken pieces with chopped garlic, cumin, and salt/pepper and let sit for about an hour in the refrigerator. Combine the orange juice, dry sherry, lemon juice and lime juice.

In a large wide saucepan that has a cover, saute the chopped onion in olive oil until soft.  Then brown the chicken pieces somewhat in the pan. Pour the citrus juice mixture over the chicken, simmer nicely on the stove for a few minutes, cover, and turn down to a low simmer for about 45 minutes or until very well done. (You can also do this in the oven at 350 if the pan is ovenproof.)

Now, pour or ladle or strain all the cooking liquid from that into another pan on the stove - it will be kind of thin - and boil it down until it's a bit syrupy but there's still plenty of it - about 15 minutes?  (Also watch this - it's too sad if it all boils away!  I've done that.)  Keep the chicken warm - and you can transfer it to a platter if you want it to look nice. When the sauce is thicker and tastier, pour it over the chicken - also the chopped parsley or cilantro.


LENTILS - JUST LENTILS

• 2 cps. brown lentils (not the french kind)
• 1 onion chopped
• 2 stalks of celery peeled and chopped
• 2 carrots peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 1 cp. chopped tomatoes, fresh or canned
• 1/4 cp. dry white wine (Julia Child says use French dry vermouth, which you can keep in the cupboard indefinitely, so I do.)
• Spices/herbs - your pick - smoked paprika, cumin, curry powder, thyme, etc. - though make sure they go together
• Other optional flavor enhancers - ham hock, diced ham, spanish chorizo...
• chopped parsley

Pick over and wash the lentils.  In a large saucepan with a lid, saute:  chopped onion, carrot, celery, and garlic until soft.  Add some canned or fresh chopped tomatoes and maybe some white wine and saute a bit more.  Here's where you could add some of those spices/herbs/flavor enhancers if you want to.  Stir around a bit more.

Now add the lentils (no salt yet!) and cover with water to about an inch above the lentils. Bring to a boil, and simmer partially covered for about 1/2 hour.  Taste to see if the lentils are almost done - if so, season with salt and pepper and cook until they're soft but not mushy (unless you like them that way, which I do sometimes.)  At the end, add more salt if needed, and a bit of olive oil and some chopped parsley.

A QUICK HEALTHIER-THAN-MOST BUT TOOTHSOME ORANGE-SOAKED CAKE

with a salute to Mark Bittman, from whom all good things flow:

Butter a (preferably pyrex) 9x13" pan and preheat to 350.
cake:

• 1/2 cp. good olive oil
• 4 eggs, separated
• 1 cp. sugar
• 1 1/2 cps. flour
• 1/2 cp. almond flour (or almonds put in the food processor until almost powdery)
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/3 cp. orange juice - better if fresh-squeezed but not essential
• 1 tsp. grated orange peel
• a few drops fiori de sicilia flavoring - this is the secret of deliciousness!  But you could also use almond or orange oil

In an electric mixer, first beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they hold their shape, and transfer to another bowl.  This is for efficiency's sake.  Then put in the oil and the sugar and beat a few minutes, then add the egg yolks and beat a few minutes more.  Spatule (should be a word) it all together with a spatula, and lightly pour in the flour and almond flour, the baking powder, and a pinch of salt.  Mix to combine.  Then mix in the orange juice and peel and whatever flavoring you have settled on.  (Go ahead and splurge on the fiori - you'll want to put it in so many things.)  When it's all well combined, gradually and gently fold in the beaten egg whites (remember those?) until it's all homogeneous.  Pour into the pan and even out.  Put into the oven and bake about a half hour (but check in 20 minutes) until all golden and it bounces back in the middle.  When done, put it on a rack.  Now you can make the:

glaze:

• 1/2 cp. orange juice - ditto on the fresh-squeezed
• 1 tsp. grated orange peel
• 2 cps. powdered sugar
• another few drops of the fiori de sicilia
• 2 TB rum (optional but worth it)

Just whisk all of this together until the sugar dissolves and it's smooth. After the cake is out of the oven for 10 minutes, spread this evenly over the cake - it's OK if it runs down the sides - and let it soak in.

It's not gorgeous - though it is perfectly delicious - so think about cutting it into squares and placing them on a beautiful plate to make it more festive.  Also offering to go with it: sliced oranges mixed with orange marmalade, whipped cream or creme fraiche (there goes the health part), etc.

ANY TIME OF THE YEAR IS FINE FOR RIBS

These are way easier than you ever thought they would be.

2 racks of baby back ribs

Kosher salt

I TB Chipotle powder (or hot Spanish pimentón)

1 TB Ancho chile powder

pepper

¼ cp. soy sauce

¼ cp. cider vinegar

¼ cp. water

Clem’s (or your favorite) bbq sauce.  (I like to add some cayenne to Clem’s to make it hotter.)

1. (Earlier in the day) Preheat oven to 400.

2. Dry ribs with a paper towel and rub with a mixture of the spices – can let sit in refrigerator for a while or not.

3. Place the ribs bone side down on large cookie sheet (with rim).  Pour liquids in the bottom of the cookie sheet.

4. Cover first with parchment paper, then foil to seal around the edges (make sure it’s sealed, because you want them to steam), and place in oven.

5. After 10 minutes turn oven down to 300 and then cook for 2 hours (check after 1 ½ hours to see if they are done – you want them to be very tender but not totally falling apart – also to check if the liquid has escaped in which case add some water.  And, if you forget and they come to shreds in your hands, do not curse the darkness, because now you have pulled pork!  Just create a nice pile of shredded meat - discard the fat - soak in the bbq sauce, and heat it up when you're ready.)

6. Remove the ribs from the oven and open the foil, being careful of the escaping steam.  When cool, cut the racks in half or pieces that are easy to turn on the grill. Move to a platter, and coat with barbecue sauce.  Let sit (put in refrigerator if it’s more than an hour) until ready to light the grill.

7. Brown just moderately over the grill for 5 minutes or so – enough to heat them up and get a smoky taste.  Cut into serving size pieces.

9. Heat up extra sauce and serve alongside. 

It is impossible to know how many this serves because some people (who shall remain anonymous) can eat unlimited amounts.

SUMMERTIME Q&A: TORTILLA ESPAÑOLA

(Yes, it's disgustingly wet and cold outside, but I'm gathering these from all my old emails, and apart from the tomatoes - which you shouldn't even go near until July - this would be fine today.)

> Hi Mom,

> CSA [community-supported-agriculture] question - we have a lot of eggs and potatoes, we also

> have cauliflower, kohlrahbi, swiss chard, onions and asiago cheese.  We wanted to make a tortilla 

> espanola - can you send us a rough recipe and which of the above items could go in it?

 

                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                       (Nice job, Lena!)

Really any of the items there could go into a tortilla espanola, but you probably want just 2 or 3.  Classic ones would be:  potatoes, onions, and chard.  Nice!!

So, for 2 people (or a 9" pan - do you have a cast iron or nonstick frying pan? You would need one of those.  I tried doing this once without and it was a disaster. If you don't, borrow mine.)

·         1 large onion

·         2 medium potatoes

·         1 bunch chard

·         6 eggs

For the chard - wash it first, and you'll probably want to cut the leaves away from the stems and then slice them.

Slice the onions; peel and cut the potatoes into 3/4" dice.

Put some olive oil in the pan - first saute the sliced onions and chard stems together - add the chard leaves after about 5 minutes.  When cooked, take them out.

Wash pan and put in more olive oil, and then saute the potatoes - brown first, and then turn heat down and cover for a while to cook them faster.  When they're soft, take them out.

Beat together 6 eggs in a bowl with some salt and pepper.  Add the cooked vegetables and stir.

Wash the pan again and put in some more olive oil and heat until it starts to smoke a little.  Stir the eggs and vegetables a bit and then pour it all in - it should sizzle.  Use a spatula to lift the edges and let more liquid go underneath - do this several times until there isn't too much liquid on top.  Then turn the heat down and cover for a few minutes.  Watch that the bottom doesn't burn.

Now - you can either flip it by turning it over with the cover on, and then sliding it back into the pan on the other side - OR - you can slide it under the broiler (about 6" away from the coils) and let the top cook that way - but WATCH it since it can burn quickly.  This just takes a few more minutes - you can cut into it to see if the middle is done.

I know that sounds complicated, but it isn't once you do it.

You could have the Asiago cheese with bread as a second course.  If you have tomatoes, you could just slice them and put a little olive oil and vinegar and salt on them for a salad.

Can I come over?