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?

BACK TO THE 80'S WITH BAKED STUFFED SHELLS

Everyone loves  pasta shells with sauce, even though it is kind of 80's, and makes a bit of a mess, what with all the pans, etc. (Though these are nice because you can put them in the freezer and have them available anytime.)  

 

The key is the filling for the shells (see below) - the shells themselves you just buy and cook, as you do any pasta. Use the big ones. (Although you need to be somewhat gentle in taking them out of the water, because otherwise they'll tear.   

   

The tomato sauce is any kind of tomato sauce that you like, but here's one:

Simple tomato sauce:

• 1 large can diced tomatoes (ONLY buy Whole Foods 365 or Hunt's brand.)
• 1 clove garlic
•  3 TB olive oil
•  salt and red pepper flakes
•  pinch of sugar (if it needs it)
• fresh herbs if you have them - particularly basil

Moderately heat olive oil in a large wide saucepan. If you have a food processor, start it up and drop in the garlic, and then stop it and add the tomatoes, and process until moderately smooth.  Then pour all of it into the oil and simmer for about 20 minutes or until a little less thick than you usually would, because it will bake later. (If you don't have a food processor, then put through a food mill afterwards. If you don't have a food mill, it will still taste fine, but not be as smooth as you might like.)  Add seasonings to taste.  You can freeze this of course.

Filling for pasta shells (for one package, about)

• Small onion, chopped
•  1 cp of chopped frozen spinach
• 1 lb. of ricotta
• 2 TB grated parmesan
• Salt, pepper

Sauté a chopped small onion in a generous amount of olive oil gently until soft. Add about a cup of frozen chopped spinach, and keep cooking until the spinach is cooked through (but just barely.) Cool it a bit, and put it in a food processor with 1 lb. of ricotta. (The better the ricotta, the better this is, of course.  Whole Foods has a very delicious kind.) Add about 2 TB freshly grated parmesan, and spin it all together until it's well mixed. Without the processor, just chop up the spinach and onion mix as well as you can, and stir it into the ricotta, etc. Add salt, black pepper to taste. This is good enough to eat on its own. Fill each pasta shell with a few TB of filling. 

Put some tomato sauce on the bottom of a 9 by 13 inch pan, and then the filled shells, and then cover with the rest of the sauce, and sprinkle with some more grated parmesan. Bake at 350 for about 25 min.- cover with parchment paper for the first 15 minutes, or it will get dried out - or until it looks just right and is heated through.

To do this ahead of time, you can freeze the filled shells - Place them well separated on parchment paper on a cookie sheet, and slide that into the freezer.  Then when  they're good and frozen, you can put them in a plastic bag. When you want to cook them, you can bake them as above - you'll just  need to cook them longer.

COOKIES - ENOUGH SAID

I know this is supposed to be about dinner, but I just came across all of these recipes for my favorite simple cookies in one document and it just seemed natural to put it in here.  In fact, what's dinner without dessert?  A desert, that's what.  (Don't ponder that too much.)

Gingersnaps (courtesy of Sari's brother-in-law's mother)

2/3 cp. vegetable oil

1 cp. dark brown sugar

1 egg (size large)

4 TB molasses

2 cps. flour

2 tsp. baking soda

Pinch salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. powdered ginger

1/2 cp. white sugar - or better yet, that turbinado sugar you can get sometimes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat the first 4 ingredients together in a large bowl.  Stir in the next 5 ingredients, until well blended.  Roll the dough into 1” balls, coat with the white/turbinado sugar, and place about 2” apart on a baking sheet.  Bake for 8 – 10 minutes, until cracked on top and just golden brown.  Remove, and cool on a rack.

Shortbread Cookies

2 sticks butter, softened

½ cp. powdered sugar

2 cps. flour

Pinch of salt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Stir all of these ingredients together until well blended.  (If it is crumbly, add a few drops of milk until it holds together.)  Roll the dough out 1/4 “ thick, and cut into any shapes you like. 

Transfer with a spatula to a cookie sheet, and bake for about 15 - 18 minutes until golden.

Espresso biscuits

2 sticks butter, softened

¾ cp. powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 ½ cps. flour

½ cp. unsweetened cocoa

1 TB very finely ground dark roast coffee

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Stir all of these ingredients together until well blended.  (If it is crumbly, add a few drops of milk until it holds together.)  Roll the dough into cylinders, about an inch in diameter- then roll in waxed paper and put in the refrigerator for as long as you need to. (These are better if they are small.)  When you're ready to bake, cut in fairly thick slices - about 1/2" - and put on parchment paper on a cookie sheet an inch apart. Bake for about 12 minutes.  When cool, dust with powdered sugar for a nice touch.

Chocolate chips (have been made about a billion times)

Preheat oven to 350.
In mixer:
2 sticks room temperature unsalted butter
1 cp. white sugar
1 cp. brown sugar Mix until blended

Add:
2 "large" eggs
1 tsp. baking soda (sifted)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. finely ground coffee
Mix some more until blended
Add:
3 cps. flour, fluff it up first so it's not very dense. 
Mix it some more until blended.
Add:
2 1/2 cps. chocolate chips
Mix those in.

Try to refrigerate the dough an hour or more - they will turn out somewhat better.  But waiting can be too hard.
Drop in about a tablespoon size on cookie sheet.  Bake about 12 minutes until golden brownish.  (Times will differ depending on your oven.)  Transfer to a rack and cool, but eat at least a few while the chocolate is still melted.

GRANDMA BARBSIE'S SUPERFAST SUPERCOCONUT SUPERCAKE

This is adored by everyone, almost as much as Grandma Barbsie.

For the cake:

Preheat oven to 350, and butter a 9" round pan or a 8" square pan. 

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cp. heavy cream
• 1 cp. sugar
• 1 cp. flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• a pinch salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla 

Whisk together the cream and the eggs, and then mix in the sugar until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder, salt and flavorings and whisk until smooth again.  Pour into pan and bake for about 25 minutes or until golden brown on top; insert a toothpick in the middle and if it comes out clean, it's done.

Let cool, at least somewhat.

For the topping:

• 3 TB butter
• 1 TB heavy cream
• 1/2 cp. brown sugar
• 1 cp. sweetened flaked coconut

Preheat the broiler.

In a saucepan, melt together the butter, cream, and brown sugar.

When melted, stir in the coconut.

Spread this over the top of the cake.  Slide the cake under the broiler (about 5 inches underneath) and WATCH carefully - when you see (in a few minutes) small bubbles all over the top and it starts to brown, take it out of the oven.  People adore this.

FAST FAVORITE SALMON

While I'm at it - here's another one I promised:
(for 5 people?)

2 1/2 lbs. salmon fillet (you might want to cut in pieces to make handling or serving easier)

2 cloves garlic chopped fine

1"piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped fine

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/2 cup soy sauce

2 TB honey

2 TB hoisin or teriyaki sauce

Wash and dry the salmon.  on the non-skin side, spread the garlic and ginger and sprinkle the red pepper flakes.

Put in a pan that can go under the broiler (metal, not glass.)

Mix the rest of the ingredients and pour them over, and then turn the salmon pieces upside down, so that the flesh is sitting in the marinade and the skin side is up.

Marinate at least one hour.

Preheat broiler and put a rack about 6" under it.  (Can also be grilled.)

Slide the pan onto the rack, and broil about 5 minutes, or until the skin is almost black and is crusty.  

Take out the pan and turn the pieces over (you can pull off the skin first if you want.  But it helps hold it together when you turn the pieces.)

Slide the pan back and broil another 5 minutes (or until it is done all the way through - this depends on how thick the filet is.)

Transfer the pieces to a serving platter, and (if you want) pour some of the marinade left in the pan over them.   If this needs to wait a few minutes before serving, you can put a piece of foil over it and/or put it in a warm (200degree) oven.  

Just before serving, garnish with parsley or something similar.  (The green looks nice next to the pink and black.)  

FAMILY THANKSGIVING CRABMEAT MELANGE

Which we made the night after Thanksgiving while staying in Eric and Alice's amazingly comfortable seaside Virginia Beach house - a family dinner for 12, perfectly delicious in all respects.  Political discussion was only moderately intense.
Now this was just the appetizer, the result of throwing together some toothsome morsels that were part of Alice's always interesting fridge contents  But it was Eve who made the pièce de resistance, methodically stirring (as only she can do) together a seafood pasta dish that all family members now beg for yearly, that hopefully she will be nudged into sharing with this blog.  Eve??

But here's the crabmeat concoction as far as I can recall:

• 1 lb. good lump crabmeat, picked over to take out any shells
• 1 ripe avocado, scooped out
• juice and grated rind of one juicy organic lime
• 2 TB Hellman's mayonnaise
• 2 TB cream cheese
• 1/2 smallish sweet onion, finely chopped
• 1 stalk celery, peeled and finely chopped
• 1/2 red pepper finely chopped
• handful of chopped fresh cilantro or parsley
• salt, pepper to taste. Also maybe some hot sauce?  If you want a burn.

Mix together everything but the crabmeat until it's pretty smooth and well combined.  Fold in the crabmeat so it's spread through but not too broken up.  

Serve with pita chips, crackers, or just big spoons.

ROASTED GARLIC DRESSING

(contributed by Shaina)
I like salads. I like them alot.

The thing is, I make the same salad dressing every time. Salt, pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Over and over again. It's like Ground Hogs Day. Sigh.

Over Thanksgiving my sister, Thea and I combined forces and cooked a few meals together. Thea introduced me to the world of using an actual recipe for salad dressing. Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Bam! Uh! Yeah!

So here it is, the salad dressing that blew my mind. The salad dressing filled with garlic...yet not a hint of garlic breath could be found. So turn up Gloria, cut loose and enjoy!

Romaine and Gorgonzola Salad with Roasted Garlic Dressing and Spiced Pecans

(Epicurious)

• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 10 large garlic cloves, unpeeled

• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons apple cider
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

• 8 cups bite-size pieces romaine lettuce (1 large head)
• 1 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
• Spiced Pecans/Chopped Pears (whateves)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Toss oil with garlic in small baking dish. Cover dish tightly with foil. Bake until garlic is golden and tender, about 45 minutes. Cool. Squeeze garlic from skins. Reserve oil.

Transfer roasted garlic to processor. Add honey, vinegar, cider and mustard and blend well. With processor running, slowly add reserved garlic oil. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper.

Toss lettuce with 1/2 cup Gorgonzola cheese and enough dressing to coat. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheese and Spiced Pecans and serve.