Chicken & Rhubarb – A Saucy Combination

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Marilyn

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Chicken Thighs with Rhubarb Sauce

Chicken Thighs with Rhubarb Sauce

My friends and family often email me when they’re in a pinch – begging me for a quick, one dish, stove top meal. One that actually tastes good. One of my favorite go-to dishes happily fits the bill.

This simple, springtime recipe came to mind last week when I needed a home for some fresh rhubarb. I love chicken thighs too so it was pretty much a no brainer. (By the way, chicken thighs are very underrated in my opinion. They are inexpensive, moist and flavorful…mark my words, they will become the rage soon!)

Simmering Thighs & Rhubarb

Simmering Thighs & Rhubarb

The only downside to this dish is that it is decidedly BROWN. The rhubarb loses lots of  it’s color so be sure to garnish the final dish with something vibrant and accompany it with side dishes featuring different textures and colors.

Chicken Thighs with Rhubarb Sauce

Serves 4 (unless you’re like me and can make do with just one thigh)

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Ingredients
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • ½ tsp ground black pepper
  • ½ tsp smoked paprika
  • ½ tsp ground cardamom
  • 1 Tbsp brown sugar
  • 7 or 8 bone-in, skin-on medium chicken thighs
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 medium shallot finely chopped (about 2 Tbsp)
  • 3 large garlic cloves, roughly diced
  • 2 tsp fresh ginger, finely grated peeled
  • 1/2 cup sweet wine (port or sherry or dessert wine works well)
  • 1 cup chicken broth (I got lazy and used “Better Than Bouillon”)
  • 3 Tbsp honey
  • 2 Tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
  • 1 ½ pound rhubarb stalks, sliced about ½ inch thick depending on the width (mine were average and I used nearly two bunches or about 10-12 medium stalks)
Instructions

Lay out a tea towel and place chicken thighs on top – dry them well.

Combine the spices (the first five ingredients in the list above) in a dish and gently press the mixture into the skin side of each thigh. Note, the brown sugar helps the chicken to brown well when sautéing.

Meanwhile, heat a large, heavy-bottom stainless steel 12-inch sauté pan for about two minutes. Once the pan is hot, add the olive oil and swirl it around, and let it become hot and shimmering but not smoking. This method of heating the pan and then the oil before sautéing prevents sticking.

Gently place the thighs, skin side down, into the pan and gently shake it to be sure nothing is sticking. Continue to sauté until golden brown, about five minutes.Turn the thighs with a tongs (don’t pierce the skin) and cook the second side until golden brown, about four minutes more. Remove the thighs to a rimmed plate so you can collect the juice.

Lower the flame to medium and remove all but two tablespoons of fat from the pan. Add the ginger and shallots cook for another two minutes, stirring frequently until the shallots soften.

Add the sherry, using a spatula to incorporate any bits that might stick to the bottom. Continue to boil and cook three more minutes. Add chicken broth, honey, and orange juice and stir well.

Keep the heat where it is, bring everything to a boil and add chicken thighs to the pan with the skin side up along with chicken juice from the plate. Continue to cook but lower the flame to simmer the contents

Cover and cook for 30 minutes, turning the chicken thighs over with your tongs and basting every 10 minutes, always returning them skin side up.

After 30 minutes, nestle rhubarb pieces around the chicken and return to a low simmer until the rhubarb is very tender, another 10 minutes.

I served this on top of plain cooked quinoa to absorb the juices, and with another spring favorite: pencil thin stalks of asparagus grilled with just a little olive oil. I added some Pepperonata alongside for color and dessert was a beautiful, colorful fresh fruit salad. My family loved this!

 

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Rhubarb Salad Dressing

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Marilyn

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Sumptuous Salad with Rhubarb Vinaigrette

Sumptuous Salad with Rhubarb Vinaigrette

Although it is still pretty cold and on-and-off rainy here, bundles of rhubarb appeared everywhere at yesterday’s farmers market here in Seattle. I usually associate this vibrant vegetable (yes – it’s a vegetable!) with Springtime – so I was pleasantly surprised to see displays of the celery-like, ruby-colored stacks. I purchased a few bunches and immediately starting trying to figure out what I could make besides the traditional rhubarb crisp, rhubarb upside down cake or rhubarb pie. I was in the mood for something savory and two recipes popped into my mind: a wonderful sweet and sour type chicken dish, and a tangy, pink-colored salad dressing that would be good on a main dish salad.

Fresh Rhubarb at the Farmer's Market

Fresh Rhubarb at the Farmer’s Market

And it just so happened that I had a left-over chunk of rare beef tenderloin steak in my refrigerator along with some steamed sweet potatoes, blanched asparagus spears, toasted walnuts, and various peppers and root vegetables. And of course I had some organic salad greens – in this case arugula.

It took just one try to make a gorgeous, zesty salad dressing. Just a little different from my usual and a much more seasonal version. I was so pleased with the results that I’ve decided this vinaigrette is going right into my regular spring line up!

Rhubarb Vinaigrette

Makes about 1 cup

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Ingredients:
  • 1 medium sized rhubarb stalk, thinly sliced 
(about 1/2-cup)
  • ½ cup water
  • 2 Tbsp. honey 
(more or less to taste)
  • 2 tsp Dijon mustard (regular or grainy)
  • 2 Tbsp. unseasoned rice vinegar
  • 2 Tbsp canola oil
  • 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Instructions:

In a small saucepan, simmer the rhubarb in water, covered, for 5-10 minutes until it is very, very mushy.

Put the stewed rhubarb with all the remaining liquid into a blender with the honey, vinegar and mustard. Pulse until smooth. With the motor running, slowly pour in the oils until it thickens.

Store in refrigerator for about a week.

I love these seasonally inspired dinners! And many of you will find rhubarb growing in unexpected places or at local markets.  Be sure to watch for next week’s chicken rhubarb creation.

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Luscious Lemony Fettuccine

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Marilyn

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Fabulous Fettuccine

This spring, I experienced what it is like (again) to parent a four year old – or as my grandson would say, a “4 and a third year old.”

My husband and I happened to be in Iowa for the Passover holiday, and offered to bring our oldest grandson home to Seattle for almost two weeks. It was an uber-busy time for our daughter – moving and setting up her new office, single parenting for the entire time while her husband was out of town interviewing for the next phase of life, on and on. When we offered to fly back with Zay, she initially refused but shortly warmed to the idea. Being at home for almost two weeks with only her 21-month old turned out to be pretty appealing. Zay was pretty excited too. Especially when he learned that he’d have his very own room for two weeks – plus lots of friends and family to visit and daily outings with grandma and grandpa.

Zay at Ballard Farmer’s Market

So what was it like? Well, I don’t remember being as tired in my thirties as I am in my sixties. I feel I am more patient now and don’t sweat the small stuff – like waking up too early and going to bed too late. And boy, was it fun to see the world through the eyes of a four year old.

All in all, it was delightful for Zay, but even more so for us. The only drawback – and it was unfortunately a nightmare – ended up being the airlines and the flights we chose. Snow in April? Yes. Cancelled flights? Yes. Overnights in Denver? Yes. Everything that could have gone wrong with our airline tickets went wrong.

It was still worth it. Our daughter had a more relaxing time with her younger son and he had much more time to be the center of attention. And I’ve decided that I want to make this a tradition for each grandchild – to be here by themselves in Seattle with their grandparents for a good stretch of time.

Zay ended up being really flexible and understanding. I loved cooking for him, taking him to farmers markets, and explaining the sites and sounds of Seattle. Since asparagus turned up everywhere, we concocted this dish following a trip to the Pike Street Market where we purchased fresh fettuccine noodles. My husband deemed it the best pasta I had ever made! If you knew him, you’d realize this is a huge compliment. And Zay didn’t leave one noodle in his dish!

Simple Ingredients

If you live near an Italian market that has sheets of egg noodles, this is a slam dunk. I suppose it would be good with dried noodles as well, but there is really no contest.

Lemon Fettuccine with Asparagus

Serves 6

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Ingredients
  • 8 ounces fresh egg pasta – cut for fettuccine
  • 2 Tbsp salted butter
  • ¼ cup of fresh basil, julienned
  • 3 Tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 ½ Tbsp grated lemon rind (I did mine on the microplane grater)
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • ½ tsp fine sea salt
  • Fresh ground black pepper to taste
  • 1 lb fresh asparagus
Instructions

Snap off the ends opposite the tips of the asparagus. Unless the stalks are the pencil thin, I peel the stems with a veggie peeler (if thin, you can omit peeling), put in large deep sauté pan with an inch of water. (My sauté pan is 11 inches in diameter.) Bring to a boil, and lower to medium heat for 2-3 minutes until the asparagus is bright green and barely tender when pierced with a fork. Remove the stalks of asparagus and put into ice water and let sit for 5 minutes. This stops the cooking and quickly cools the vegetable. After the asparagus is cooled and dried, cut it into 1 inch pieces.

In a large nonstick soup pot, bring water to a boil. Add two teaspoons of salt.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat for 2 minutes. Add the basil and cook another 2 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and lemon rind, and continue to cook 2 more minutes. Reduce the heat to low and add the cream. Slowly cook the cream until a thick sauce forms. Stir in the pepper and the grated Parmesan and set aside.

When the pot of water comes to a boil, drop in the fresh pasta and cook without covering until it is al dente. The timing will be determined by whether you use fresh or dried pasta. Since mine was fresh this only took about 3 minutes.

Drain the pasta noodles into a colander then add the sauce and pasta to your pasta water pot. (Note: this is why you want it nonstick. If it is a regular stainless steel pan, clean up is a lot more involved.) Stir until the pasta is thoroughly coated. Add in blanched asparagus and stir well.

Serve with extra grated cheese and a simple green salad.

This was so lemony and good that I’ll make it a couple more times while asparagus is in season. And keep in mind that the fresh egg noodles freeze beautifully if you buy extra!

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Bread Pudding – Take Two

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Marilyn

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Decadent Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce

Decadent Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce

A few weeks ago, I described the intricate process of observing a global dish being made in an authentic cook’s kitchen. And I planned, really I did, to publish the recipe I learned. However, I just cannot get my head around Miss Estella’s recipe.

For starters, she used white bread – “air” bread as I used to call it… basically white (aka processed) bread. That makes me pause, knowing full well 9 out of 10 of you won’t go further in the recipe. Add in margarine – which I detest and will never use – and boxed (irradiated) milk, baking powder (for what??), imitation vanilla and a method that pulverizes the bread so that the final product has zero texture. If I close my eyes I wouldn’t be able to define what I was eating – just a mushy, soft, sort-of-sweet pudding without a lot of flavor. Don’t misunderstand – I was ever so grateful to cook alongside her and I can only imagine how much comfort her bread pudding has provided her family and friends over the years. It’s just not my particular cup of tea.

I have my own recipe that I have made for well over ten years, and it is priceless. The texture is nice, the sweetness balanced. I am not saying it is healthful in any sense of the word, but in my mind if I’m going to have a bread-based dessert – it had better be great. I have served this during the dark winter days when I don’t have the option to make fresh fruit crisp or pies – I have even made it for New Years and Thanksgiving. There’s never a crumb left!

Right out of the oven!

Right out of the oven!

So here it is, MY glorious Global Kitchen bread pudding with an added feature – homemade caramel sauce. Not hard, and absolutely worth making. This week I got lazy and used packaged cinnamon swirl bread that was a little sweet to start with. You can adjust the sugar in this recipe accordingly so that if you use unsweetened bread, you add about ¼-1/2 cups more sugar.

Marilyn’s Bread Pudding

Serves 12

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Ingredients:
  • 1 large loaf cinnamon bread or sweet raisin bread (roughly 8-10 cups when cubed)
  • 6 large eggs
  • 2 ½ cups of 2 % milk
  • 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
  • ½ cup packed light brown sugar
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 sticks melted butter
  • 2 tsp. cinnamon (I used more b/c my bread was only raisin bread)
  • Optional: ½ cups raisins if you are a raisin fan – I always soak them in 1 cup of fresh orange juice for at least an hour, then I drain them before adding to the recipe
Instructions:

Generously butter a 9 x 12 pan (I use a ceramic oval dish).

Cut bread into ¾ ” cubes and distribute evenly in the baking pan.

In another bowl combine sugars, milk, melted butter, eggs and cinnamon. Beat well to combine.

Pour liquid mixture over bread and gently press down so the bread soaks up the liquid. If you’re using additional raisins – add them at this point. The egg mix will begin to absorb into the bread right away. Cover and refrigerate the uncooked pudding for at least an hour or up to one day. Bring it to room temperature before cooking.

After the uncooked pan is at room temperature for an hour, preheat the oven to 350 and put the oven rack in the middle of the oven.  Again press with your fingers on the bread to get the egg mix evenly distributed.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the liquid part toward the center of the dish comes out clean.

Remove from oven to a cooling rack. Serve warm with the following sauce.

Caramel Sauce-makes 1 and 1/2 cups enough for leftover sauce!

Ingredients
  • 1 stick butter, melted
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup water
  • 1 heaping Tbsp. flour
  • 1 ½ tsp pure vanilla
Instructions

Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add sugars, water and flour and whisk well to combine. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer gently for three minutes, stirring every 20 seconds or so until thick. The mixture will foam a bit at the beginning. Just keep stirring! Remove from the heat and after 2 minutes, add the vanilla.

Pass the warmed sauce in a pitcher to serve over squares of warm bread pudding. Bread pudding keeps one week in the fridge, and the caramel sauce stays for at least 2 weeks.

This sauce is wonderful over vanilla ice cream or drizzled over grilled or poached fruit with a touch of Greek yogurt. I’m thinking of scooping out vanilla ice cream, topping with some of this sauce then sprinkling with coarse designer salt flakes — to me this oh-so-21st-century.

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Food as Art

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Marilyn

A colorful display of beautiful food on a favorite plate

Some of you – perhaps most of you – have a creative streak for making beauty happen: painting, photography, music, writing, wardrobing, decorating, knitting, flower arranging, gardening, sewing… creative capabilities are endless. Personally, I don’t feel I am particularly gifted or even highly competent at most of these activities. Yes, the writing and photography aspects of my website are particularly challenging for me.

Yet I love the creativity I possess in the kitchen. It is probably obvious to you by now that I can spend all day here, inventing and cooking as my iTunes playlist sings in the background. Improvising and making a meal becomes almost meditative and is my most imaginative and enjoyable endeavor. In my mind, I conjure up the tastes of a dish or an entire meal much like an orchestra conductor can close his eyes and hear how a piece of music will sound. I rifle through my leftover food and review the staples in the fridge and cupboard then create a memorable meal, typically without recipes.

When I do try something new that is actually a “recipe” I rarely make it as written or with precise measurements or ingredients; I seem to substitute at whim, and until recently I thought everyone did this too. I know what I like and what will please me at the moment. Most often, in less than 30 minutes I produce a plate of food that would knock your socks off. I do record (on my computer) these recipes so that if I happen to come up with a home run, I can sort of replicate a dish I love. Friends often call me for suggestions about menus or a particular recipe they are attempting to make. I have hundreds of cookbooks although since 1998 I’ve cataloged all my recipes on the computer – backed up two different ways so they are never lost in cyberspace.

A sampling of my most prized culinary possessions (see end notes for details)

For me it is important to pay attention to colors, sizes, shapes, textures, and flavors that will marry on the plate. AND I have so many serving pieces that it is embarrassing, but they’re not just decorative. Beautiful serveware items are my props: bowls or dishes that belonged to my grandmother who I never met, to my mother, platters and pitchers and cutlery from Italy and Africa and Spain and Japan and New Zealand, from craft fairs, or from special friends or family. I know and cherish the history of every piece. My only rule is that whatever I purchase or own must be used and not just put on a shelf to collect dust. I pull these items from their designated storage spots  almost every night, whether I am cooking for the two of us, for me and a friend, or for company. Lately I have given a few of these special objects to friends or family I know will treasure them as much as I do.

End note: the above picture features some of my most beloved objects: a shakshukah pan I just bought in Israel, a coffee cup from the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, a bowl from an art fair, a silver napkin ring from England (I have a collection of these from all over) and a tablecloth from Italy.

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Bubbie’s Chocolate Macaroons

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Marilyn

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Marvelous Macaroons

Marvelous Macaroons

Monday night March 25 was the first Passover seder celebrated by Jews all over the world. I believe this holiday tradition is THE most observed even by secular Jews. My family convened in Iowa for a participatory ceremony and meal with our oldest child, her family and multiple friends. We ended up with 33 bodies attending the service dinner. In a small house. In very cold weather, so outdoor activities and seating didn’t happen.

Last Year's Seder Celebration

Last Year’s Seder Celebration

We made many of the usual dishes this year – but swapped out a new chicken dish for the lamb tagine. For the eight days of celebration, we are supposed to avoid leavening or flour (i.e. bread, pancakes, pasta to name a few). I’m not crazy about Passover desserts made with matzo meal or matzo cake flour. I’m over flourless chocolate cakes. For the past six years we have reverted to homemade chocolate macaroons with fresh fruit as dessert. If you are more observant than me, you’ll scoff at this recipe as many of the ingredients aren’t really OK for Passover (condensed milk, sweetened coconut). For me, as long as there isn’t flour or obvious leavening, I’m good with it.

The originator of this delicacy is my 87 year-old mother-in-law, also known as “Bubbie.” Her method is recorded here and I do add an extra square of chocolate to the original formula just because I’m a huge chocolate fan. I also started using toasted almonds to deepen the flavor. I have tried melting chocolate with the condensed milk in the microwave and the cookies didn’t turn out as well, darn it. I thought it would save cleaning another saucepan, but oh well.

Rachel's Macaroons

Rachel’s Macaroons

These are not good for you in any sense of the word, but I make them anyway and always look forward to having them for Passover in lieu of the canned, mass-produced macaroons. I bake them a couple of weeks prior to Passover and carefully freeze them. And because they are a cinch to make, they are one of my “go to” cookie recipes if I am called upon to bake cookies for family or friends.

Bubbie Weissman’s Macaroons

Yield: 3-4 dozen

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Ingredients
  • 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
  • 3 squares unsweetened chocolate-Bakers or Hersheys is fine
  • 1 package (2 2/3 cups) sweetened coconut flakes
  • 1 cup finely chopped toasted almonds (with skins) – I toast these way ahead of time in the toaster oven
  • 1 tsp. pure Vanilla extract
  • ⅛ tsp. salt
Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt condensed milk and chocolate over low heat in a small saucepan until the chocolate is liquid, stirring often. Pour into a medium sized bowl then add remaining ingredients into the liquid chocolate/condensed milk with a rubber spatula.

Make heaping teaspoon-sized blobs on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, placing them two inches apart.

Bake for 14-15 minutes until barely brown. Put parchment and cookies on the counter for 10 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack.

Notes:
  • Once completely cooled, these can be easily frozen between layers of waxed paper.
  • This can be doubled or tripled since there isn’t leavening in them. That way you can enjoy them for a long time!
  • You can make these larger and bake them a bit longer.
  • I am going to play around with replacing half of the coconut with unsweetened shredded coconut – the texture will be less moist I imagine, but I will report my findings.

 

 

 

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Sesame Asparagus

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Marilyn

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Amazing Asparagus Salad

Amazing Asparagus Salad

Nothing says SPRING to me like asparagus, when it finally shows itself at the farmers markets here in Seattle. As much as I love all the root vegetables available week after week during the cold winter months, when I spot asparagus for sale at the produce stalls I know we are on our way to more and more and more wonderful fruits and veggies. YAY!

This year U.S. supermarkets might have less asparagus available due to a diminished supply from Peru and Mexico (colder weather in Mexico). Happily, this won’t affect my local farmers markets, where the spears are grown nearby – just east of the Cascade Mountains.

There are varying opinions on how to select the best asparagus. In my humble opinion – the thinner the better. I find that the thicker stalks don’t have as much flavor as the thinner ones – plus they’re just never as tender as the pencil-thin stalks. Many disagree with me, touting the virtues of thicker asparagus. I guess it’s just a personal preference!

I’ve already decided that my first dish of the season in 2013 will be an asparagus salad – room temperature, of course. I rarely like vegetables super chilled – to me room temperature or warmer brings out more of the flavor. This salad pairs beautifully with roasted chicken thighs or simple fish.

And I’m not giving up those root vegetables just yet – they just will be a delicious accompaniment to this lovely vegetable salad.

Asparagus Avocado Salad with Citrus Sesame Dressing

Serves 4

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Salad Ingredients:
  • 1 large bunch of thin fresh asparagus-about 1 ½ pounds
  • 2 large ripe avocados, flesh cut in pieces 1 ½ inch x ½ inch
  • ½ cup almonds, toasted and very coarsely chopped or halved
  • 1 yellow or orange pepper, cut into 1 ½ inch long thin slivers
  • 2-3 Tbsp toasted white sesame seeds
Dressing Ingredients
  • 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 Tbsp fresh squeezed orange juice
  • 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • Finely grated zest of ½ lemon
  • ½ tsp sea salt and 10 grinds of fresh black pepper
  • Honey to taste – about 2 tsp
Instructions

Start the same way you do for marinated asparagus. Note, I usually simmer the asparagus for only 2 minutes if they are really thin.

Snap off the ends opposite the tips of the asparagus. Unless the stalks are pencil thin, I peel the stems with a veggie peeler (if thin, you can omit peeling), put in large deep sauté pan with an inch of water. (My sauté pan is 11 inches in diameter.) Bring to a boil, and lower to medium heat for 5-7 minutes until the asparagus is bright green and barely tender when pierced with a fork. Leave the top off the fry pan when doing this. Remove the stalks of asparagus and put into ice water and let sit for 5 minutes. This stops the cooking and quickly cools the vegetables. Place the stalks onto a dry dish towel, making sure the water is absorbed, and then put in a sealed bag or container.

When ready to serve, cut the asparagus into 1 ½ inch pieces and place in a bowl with avocados, peppers and almonds. Combine the dressing ingredients (I put all the dressing ingredients in a jar and just shake it to combine). The dressing is rather thin. Taste and adjust the sweetness or saltiness to your palate) and toss gently through salad. Place into a serving bowl and sprinkle the top with sesame seeds. Serve at once.

You cannot dress this salad ahead of time because the asparagus will turn dull green or brown.

Alternately, I have swapped out the peppers with sliced oranges or even red grapefruit slices.

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Kitchen Connections

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Marilyn
Me and Miss Estella

Miss Estella and Me

My favorite way to learn a new, global dish is to observe in kitchens of native cooks. Occasionally I am able to convince some women (no men so far) to let me watch them make a particular recipe – in their kitchen, using their own pots and pans and culinary tools. Cups may be measured in tea glasses, teaspoons with eating utensils or in the palm of a hand. I try to be helpful and participate if they will let me, and I certainly assist with cleanup. What an eye opener this is!

But it’s not easy. Cooks can be territorial – I know from personal experience. I almost hate to admit this, but it makes me really, really anxious if someone cooks in my kitchen unless they are supervised by me or are as tidy as I am. I like to consider myself a “control enthusiast.”

In Estella's kitchen

In Estella’s kitchen

Luckily, my neighbor in San Pedro, Miss Estella, recently welcomed me into her kitchen with open arms. She always delivers gifts from her kitchen when I arrive – warm carrot bread, homemade chicken tamales, bread pudding. I find her delicacies THE best Belizean food I have eaten in this country, and I am a tough customer. Estella speaks absolutely zero English and my Spanish vocabulary is pretty bad – I know some basic verbs and a lot of nouns but I’m willing to try. We have known each other for just a month or so, and with help of a Belizean interpreter of sorts, I asked her if I could come to her home and watch her make bread pudding. Happily, she agreed so I contacted her husband to get a grocery list, thinking I’d head out for a quick trip to the store. Sounds easy, right? The list, written in Spanish, looked a little “off” to me, but I figured that if anything crucial was missing I’d jump on the bike and go to town mid-cooking. I later learned that dear Estella forgot to mention coconut milk and although she wrote baking soda, she really wanted baking powder.

The shopping list!

The shopping list!

We somehow agreed to a Sunday morning cooking date, and I phoned first to confirm. Communicating by telephone? Priceless! At 7:30 am I cycled to the “tiendita” to purchase white bread, eggs, milk and everything else on the list, then at 9:00 A.M. climbed the steps to their house, groceries in hand. I brought my little camera, too. This is also tricky, because I find that if I start shooting too many pictures and focus on that aspect – the emotional connection with the cook is diminished. And forget about “staging” a beauty shot! Ditto taking notes. Soooo, what this really requires is a good memory, an ability to be fully present and a sharp desire to recall stories. I take more snapshots in my mind than with my camera. Quantities are never precise for most of these cooks but I have an uncanny ability to guestimate amounts.

In this case, Estella made a humongous quantity (one large, deep, full sheet aluminum pan plus a 10-inch flan pan size) of bread pudding. I knew as I watched her that I would want to add some raisins, leave the slices of bread more intact (I’ll make this with sliced challah) and perhaps add a bit of thickened pineapple juice or a syrup for for flavor.

Estella's Bread Pudding

Estella’s Bread Pudding

One of the best parts of communing with these cooks is the friendships I’ve built along the way. I learned a lot about Estella during our time in her kitchen. She is 61, I am 62 and we have both been married for 40 years. Estella lived in Honduras until 17 years ago and she brought out photo albums of her children, grandchildren, her house in Honduras, her parents (still alive and in their 80’s), and pictures of her as a little girl too. We spoke only Spanish for an hour and I visited with her and with her husband about our lives, our families, and our work. I think I even understood about 60% of what they said!

Cooking certainly bridges the differences in our lifestyles, and I sincerely hope she will give me another lesson when I return to San Pedro. (Note: a recipe for my own version of bread pudding will be posted next week!)

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Orange Winter Salad

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Marilyn

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Wonderful Winter Salad

Wonderful Winter Salad

As I mentioned in last week’s butternut squash soup post, I am partial to this winter salad to serve alongside almost any warm soup. It’s wonderfully wintery and one I created from a variety of sources. Citrus is widely available and always tastes refreshing this time of year, and the salad mix I find at my winter farmers market is assertive and bold – lots of arugula, baby red and green lettuces, baby soft kale…a nice balance.

You could switch the chopped toasted pecans to toasted pine nuts or even toasted walnuts or almonds-or toasted pumpkin or sunflower seeds. The crumbled feta can be changed to crumbled goat cheese . You’ll see in the picture that I added sliced kiwi instead of avocado since my avocado was missing in action. (Confession – I mashed it into a sandwich yesterday and needed to use the kiwi anyway). I’ve even used dried cherries or yellow raisins in place of oranges!

I’ve been hooked on this salad for the past few weeks. Once spring arrives and there are more fruit and vegetable choices, I’ll branch out and post some other yummy combinations and salad dressings.

I must say that salad and soups are probably two of my favorite things to prepare. Not too much measuring, an easy interplay of textures and flavors and colors and healthful to boot!

Orange Salad Dressing

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Ingredients:
  • 1/3 cup orange marmalade
  • 1/3 cup sherry vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp fresh squeezed orange juice
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • ½ tsp salt and 10 grinds pepper
  • ½ tsp grated lime zest (if you have it)
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 1 tsp of honey (you can omit this depending on your palate)
Instructions:

Whisk everything together except the olive oil – drizzle this in at the end. OR – I actually put everything including the olive oil together and use my immersion blender (Cuisinart makes a great model) to emulsify the dressing. Put in a jar and keep refrigerated for up to a week. Bring to room temperature before using.

Winter Salad

Ingredients:
  • 6 cups salad mix (arugula, spinach, watercress, baby lettuces or any combo of these)
  • ½ cup crumbled soft feta cheese
  • ½ cup toasted chopped pecans
  • 2 oranges, peeled with a knife down to the orange itself, and sliced into rounds
  • 2 medium avocados, peeled and diced into ½ inch pieces
Instructions:

Reserve six slices of orange and about ½ cup of avocado. Combine everything else in a large salad bowl. Toss lightly with the salad dressing, being careful not to over do. Put in salad bowls or plates and place some fresh orange slices and avocado on top to garnish.

I always put the dressing in the bottom of my wooden salad bowl, then add the greens and toss which uses a lot less dressing.

 

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Israel-Inspired Butternut Squash Soup

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Marilyn

Click here to view recipe.

Silky & Savory Soup

Silky & Savory Soup

It is grey, cold and rainy is Seattle … and there is a large, bulbous butternut squash on my counter begging to be used. Just the other morning I was daydreaming about my recent trip to Israel and my reveries inspired me to make butternut squash soup. Warming, easy and sooooooo good.

Midway through our two week journey to Israel last fall, we drove our rental car from the Moshav to Metula. My daughter-in-law’s sister recently lived and worked in Israel for a year and she told us to be sure to visit this town right on the border of Lebanon. Seriously? I remember thinking this sounded very dangerous, but we decided to take the plunge and once we arrived we realized that Israel felt very, very safe. In truth, while in this part of the world I worried less about crime and war than I do when visiting New York.

Visiting the Peace Fence

Visiting the “Peace Fence”

We did drive right up to the “peace fence” which lies on the border of Israel and Lebanon. It was incredibly hot and there are cameras and security all along the barbed wire fence. We then headed back to Metula, where we were astounded by the town’s beauty and culture. Restaurants, hotels, hostels…obviously this was a tourist destination for many Israelis.

Per usual, we selected a restaurant based on curb appeal. There were several outdoor tables occupied by tourists and locals, and the interior of the courtyard was enticing as well. And the menu! Before one bite touched my lips I knew this lunch would receive high marks.

Our beloved restaurant in Metula

Our beloved restaurant in Metula

Many items on the menu contained butternut squash: butternut squash ravioli, butternut squash stuffed with lamb, butternut squash puree and butternut squash soup. I ordered the soup along with one of my favorites – sauteed chicken livers with onions in a wine sauce. MY-OH-MY!! And dessert was a semolina cake topped with a dense top layer of moist poppyseeds. Honestly if we didn’t have so many places in the area to visit, I might have checked into a hotel for the night just to eat at this lovely restaurant a second time..

The soup was the best I’d had for a long time – basic but refreshing. The waitress told us the chef used a lot of fresh lime juice and that it was a simple vegetarian concoction. The recipe I made up at home that tastes pretty close to theirs contains chicken broth because that is what I typically have in my freezer. Next time I’ll pressure cook a batch of vegetarian broth and use some to make this for my vegetarian friends.

Metula Inspired Butternut Squash Soup

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Serves 4

Ingredients:
  • ½ large brown skinned onion, peeled and diced ¼ inch
  • 3 garlic cloves, finely minced
  • 1 ½ Tbsp. fresh ginger root, peeled, finely minced or grated
  • 3 Tbsp olive oil
  • 4 cups butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced ½ inch
  • 2 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth, canned or homemade
  • 1 ½ large limes, juiced (add more or less to taste)
  • Thin slices of lime for garnish
Instructions

Heat a 4-quart pot, when warm add the oil and heat on medium high for one minute. Cook onion and ginger root until softened. Add the garlic and stir for another minute. To the same pan, add squash, and the broth.

Bring liquid to boil, lower heat and simmer the mixture covered for 20 to 25 minutes until squash is very tender. Puree the mixture in batches in a food processor or with an immersion blender all at once. (This is what I do to avoid dirtying another pan) . Stir in lime juice and salt and pepper to taste. I usually add more lime juice at this point for my palate! Reheat soup over medium heat.

Serve each bowl with a thin slice of fresh lime floating on top.

For dinner, I prepare homemade garlic bruschetta on the side along with a hearty salad. In keeping with the color theme, I used winter salad mix (a lot of tender baby kale, arugula and bitter greens) and added toasted pecans, fresh orange slices, avocado and some crumbled soft goat cheese with an orange sherry vinaigrette (note – the recipe for this wintery salad will be posted next week!)

Cook’s Notes:

This soup can be made two days in advance and kept covered and chilled for up to five days.

This soup is drinkable and it would be fun for a party to pour into shot glasses, garnish with some creme fraiche and serve as an hors d’oeuvre.

This recipe can be easily doubled and frozen for up to 2 months. Once reheated, check seasoning and adjust as necessary after heating.

 

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Posted in Middle East, Soups | 4 Comments