I will not be hungry in this world

Tomato tart

It's almost tomato picking time again! well, in two months, anyways. Here's one of my favorite recipes for tomatoes coupled with a savory pastry, courtesy of Gourmet

For black pepper parmesan pastry
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening
2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 to 4 tablespoons ice water

For filling
3/4 lb fresh mozzarella (not unsalted), very thinly sliced
1/2 cup pesto or olive tapanade
2 lb mixed heirloom or beefsteak tomatoes, sliced 3/4 inch thick

Special equipment: pie weights or raw rice

For pastry: Blend together flour, butter, shortening, parmesan, pepper, and salt in a bowl with your fingertips or a pastry blender (or pulse in a food processor) until mixture resembles coarse meal with some roughly pea-size lumps. Drizzle 2 tablespoons ice water over and gently stir with a fork (or pulse in food processor) until incorporated.

Gently squeeze a small handful: If it doesn't hold together without falling apart, add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring (or pulsing) after each addition until incorporated, continuing to test. (Do not overwork dough, or it will become tough.)

Turn out dough onto a work surface and divide into 2 portions. With heel of your hand, smear each portion once in a forward motion to help distribute fat. Gather both portions of dough into 1 ball, then pat into a disk. Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface into a 12-inch round and fit into a 9-inch round tart pan with a removable rim. Roll rolling pin over top of pan to trim dough flush with rim. Lightly prick tart shell all over with a fork.

Line shell with foil and fill with pie weights or rice. Bake in middle of oven 20 minutes. Carefully remove foil and weights and bake until golden, about 15 minutes more. Cool in pan on a rack. 

Fill tart shell: Remove side of pan and slide shell onto a platter. Arrange one third of mozzarella in bottom of shell and drizzle with one third of pesto. Arrange one third of tomato slices, overlapping, on top of cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Repeat layering twice.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Summer's nectarines

I love summer.  And while the other parts of the Bay Area are sizzling at 90 degrees and higher, it's a balmy 81 degrees in San Francisco.  I went to the Farmer's Market and found some beautiful summer nectarines that were just glowing red and gold.   Normally, I can and do just eat fruit straight up with its own sweet juice as accompaniment.  Lately, I've been in the mood to mix nuts and fruits together so I decided to stuff nectarines with a simple nut mixture:

2/3 cup of pecan halves (almonds, hazelnuts, or walnuts are also good alternatives)
1/4 cup white sugar plus 1 tbsp turbinado (raw)sugar
2 large egg yolks
4 firm ripe nectarines

For Garnish
Greek-style yogurt or vanilla ice cream (I use Trader Joe's brand Greek-style yogurt)
Cinammon sugar
Honey

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
In a small food processor pulse pecans until finely ground. Add 1/4 cup sugar and yolks and pulse until combined. Halve and pit nectarines and arrange, cut sides up, on a small baking sheet. Divide pecan mixture among nectarine halves, mounding it in the center. Sprinkle nectarines with tablespoon of turbinado sugar.
Bake stuffed nectarines in middle of oven until pecan mixture is golden, about 10 minutes. Serve nectarines with yogurt or ice cream. If using yogurt, drizzle a bit of honey and a sprinkle of cinammon sugar and top with a pecan half.

yum!!!

Picnic cookies

Summer time in San Francisco means many things:  fog, street fairs in most of the neighborhoods,dance and film festivals, and of course, free concerts every Sunday at Stern Grove.   Although the main attraction is the music, half the fun is getting together with old and new friends and spreading a blanket and feasting on picnic fare.  This usually involves a wine bottle (or four), brie, baguettes, fruit, hummus, and other finger foods. Here's my recipe for not so-sweet peanut butter cookies that are great for picnics (or any old time) that I've adapted from the 'Moosewood Restaurant Celebrates' cookbook.

1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup smooth or crunchy  peanut butter (I sometimes substitute almond butter)
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 1/4 cups unbleached white flour
½ cup whole wheat pastry flour (i use whole wheat chapati flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 to 2 teaspoons water, as needed
1/4 cup wheat germ

Preheat the oven to 375º. Lightly oil a baking sheet or two.

Cream together the brown sugar, peanut butter, oil, egg, vanilla, and corn syrup. On a piece of wax paper or in a separate bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and blend thoroughly. The dough will be stiff and crumbly. If it won't hold together, add a teaspoon or so of water.

   With your hands, shape and roll the dough into 1-inch balls. Place them on the baking sheet and, with the bottom of a glass, press them into flat circles. Smooth the cracked edges a little with your fingers. If you like, press the tops with the tines of a fork to give them the mark of classic peanut butter cookies. Sprinkle the tops with wheat germ if you want. Bake for 10 minutes, then remomve to wire racks to cool completely.

Yields about 20 cookies

Souper Saturday

Today's agenda- watch the World Cup matches on ESPN (although the commentators on Spanish TV are much more fun to listen to) and whip up something delicious that won't require major time in the kitchen.   Hmm, I think I'll make some light but filling soup! Here's my recipe for sweet potato and carrot soup (everything is approximated- I always make soup to taste)

·          2 tbs. fresh ginger and garlic each, minced

·          1 medium onion, peeled and chopped

·          1 ½ tsp. cumin seeds

·          1 tsp caraway seeds

·          3 tbs.  vegetable oil

·          1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced into 2-inch pieces

·          ½ bag baby carrots, chopped 

·          3-4 cups vegetable stock or water

·          Salt & Black pepper

·          Garnish: Cilantro, Sour Cream, grated parmesan cheese, chives

Instructions

In a large saucepan, heat olive oil and sauté onions and fresh ginger. Add cumin and caraway seeds and let fry for a minute or two until fragrant.  Add chopped sweet potato, carrot and stock to pan. Add enough stock to cover vegetables and bring to a boil. Add salt and pepper. Cook vegetables until sweet potato is tender to the touch (about 15 minutes). Strain vegetables and keep liquid aside. Place vegetables and some strained liquid in a blender and puree. Put puree back into saucepan and add remaining liquid. Bring to a boil. Season to taste and enjoy!

mmmm......cupcakes

I must be one of the last people to get on the cupcake love train.  I've been bookmarking some wonderfully delicious looking cupcake blogs and plotting to actually try making a batch of my own.  The SFGate food section had a really fun article recently charting how cupcakes have become popular again due to visibility on Sex in the City, SNL, the Magnolia Bakery in New York.   Well, lucky us, in the Bay Area, we have Citizen Cake (and Cupcake), Miette in the Ferry Building, TeaCake Bakeshop in Emeryville (a great post-IKEA stop) and many others that I haven't had the opportunity to try yet, but will get to soon enough.

Having some time on my hands, and wanting a practice run before I make cupcakes for general consumption, I decided to start with the Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache with Cream Cheese Frosting.  You can find the recipe here, about halfway down the page.  The only change that I made to the recipe was to substitute fat-free cream cheese for regular in the frosting, and the increase the amount of cinnamon to 1 tsp.  I used my handy-dandy Wilton decorating press to fill the cupcakes with ganache, and freehanded my frosting.  Maybe next time, I'll try a decorating bag with a tip to get all the pretty swirls of frosting that look so yummy in the baker's cases.

Here's the result:

unfrosted

the finished product-yeah, they look messy, but it was my first attempt!

The computer ate my pictures.....

Y'all, I don't know how it happened, but my laptop ate most of the remaining pictures from this dinner, so I put off writing this in the hopes of retrieving them, but no amount of bribing or begging made a difference.  I'll do better next time, promise!!

Asian dinner- Part 2

Eggplant is one of my favorite dishes.  Baba Ganoush, Baingan, Moussaka, I love it in all its forms.  The best meals I had in Russia on our RTW trip involved eggplant..one at  a Georgian restaurant in Moscow and the other at a Chinese restaurant in St. Petersburg.  Funny thing is, my mom would make Baingain Bhartha (an Indian eggplant dish) (which my brother and I turned up our noses at and dubbed 'Banging Bertha' a la Garbage Pail Kids...yeah whaddya want..we were TEN). 

With all this in mind, I found a great recipe from Charles Phan of Slanted Door fame for  Braised Eggplant in a Coconut Milk Sauce from a 2005 issue of Food and Wine magazine. No pictures though!

• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 medium onion, quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced lengthwise
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 1/4 pounds Asian or Italian eggplants (about 4) cut up into 3 by 1/2 inch pieces
• 1/4 cup Chinese cooking wine, sake, or water
• 1/2 cup Vietnamese Stir-fry Sauce (becuase this calls for fish sauce, I used a blend of low-sodium soy sauce, vegetable stock, and a dash of sugar)
• 1/2 cup +2 tablespoons water
• 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk, stirred just before using
• 2 tsp Asian chili paste
• 4 large scallions, white and tender green parts only, cut into 3/4 inch lengths

Heat the canola oil in a large skillet or wok until small puffs of smoke appear. Add the onion and garlic and stir-fry over high heat until the onion is just crisp-tender, about a minute. Add the eggplant and stir-fry until browned or just tender, abot 5 minutes. Add the Chinese cooking wine (or other liquid) and cook until nearly evaporated, just about a minute. Add the stir-fry sauce, water, coconut milk, and chili paste, Cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, unitl the eggplant is very tender, and the sauce is slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Add the scallions and cook for 30 seconds.  Serve hot.

As a main dish this serves four, but I doubled the recipe and it easily served everyone, plus there were some tasty leftovers.

For my next dish, I decided to go for finger food- my sweetie did a heroic job and wrapped 40 dumplings with precision and skill. See the fruits of his labor below........

Spinach and Tofu Dumplings

• 5 ounces baby spinach (5 packed cups)
• 5 ounces firm tofu, cut into 1/4-inch dice
• 2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 small jalapeños, seeded and minced
• 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• About 45 square wonton wrappers (from 1 package)

Dipping Sauce

• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon honey

MAKE THE DUMPLINGS:

Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Add the spinach and cook for 20 seconds. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the spinach to a colander. When the spinach is cool enough to handle, squeeze it dry, then coarsely chop it. Keep the water hot. Transfer the spinach to a medium bowl and stir in the tofu, cornstarch, jalapeños, soy sauce and sesame oil and season with salt and pepper. Working with 4 wonton wrappers at a time, dampen the edges and mound 1 1/2 teaspoons of filling in the center of each wrapper. Fold 1 corner of each up over the filling and seal to make triangles. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling.

MAKE THE DIPPING SAUCE: In a small serving bowl, stir the soy sauce with the vinegar and honey. Return the water to a boil. Add the dumplings and simmer over moderate heat, stirring gently, until the edges are al dente, about 3 minutes. Carefully drain in a colander and transfer to a platter. Serve with the dipping sauce.

The final entree was an ubiquitous and always yummy curry dish.

Red Curry with Vegetables

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (or other neutral tasting cooking oil like peanut)
• 1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste* (I opted for the easy way out and bought some ready made from my local Maxim market)
• 1 sweet red bell pepper cut into strips
• 2 ounces broccoli (about one small head) cut into bite-size florets
• 2 ounces cauliflower (approx. 1/4 head) cut into bite-size florets
• 1 14-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
• 4 ounces snow peas
• 1 small zucchini, cut into julienne strips approximately 2 inches long and 1/8 inch thick
• 2 ounces bamboo shoots cut into strips
• I can baby corn, drained

PREPARATION:

*Ingredient Note: Commonly available grocery store brands of red curry paste like Thai Kitchen and Taste of Thai are vegetarian. If you're shopping at an Asian grocery, check the label. Some Thai brands include shrimp paste in the ingredients.

Heat oil in a large soup pot or sauce pan over medium high heat.  Add curry paste, mashing with the back of a spoon, and sauté until fragrant (about 1 minute).

Add broccoli and cauliflower and mix well to coat with curry paste. Stir-fry for two minutes. Add bell pepper and stir-fry for 2 more minutes. Add coconut milk and stir. Bring to a boil and then turn down heat to let simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add zucchini, bamboo shoots, and baby corn and simmer for five more minutes. At this point, the vegetables will be done or nearly so, so stir gently. Check vegetables for doneness.

Serve hot with steamed jasmine rice.

Dinner of Asian persuasion part 1-Appetizers

Lately, I have not been cooking much Indian food(although I've been given an awesome Indian cookbook for Diwali--could this be a hint?), Chinese or Thai-mostly because

1)3817's kitchen is open 24/7;

2) In the Bay Area, we've got such a huge prepondrance of great Chinese and Thai places close at hand.

But, like the cookbook freak that I am, I've got some really great vegetarian cookbooks for all these cuisines so I definitely want to expand my reportoire.  Besides, considering the amount of time I spent watching Yan Can Cook and other chefs of Asian inspired cuisine(Ming Tsai), I gotta break out the wok and get my stir-fry on. (hmm, I think the Food Network needs a cool male South Asian chef. If he's eye candy, all the better. The current lone South Asian representative is alright..if you like that kinda thing (I'm looking at you, Ms. Lakshmi!). (oh wow, she's even got a cookbook with a wonderfully descriptive title out).

Um, anyways!  This year, I was designated as the main cook for the family Diwali dinner.  Usually we have chaat or or a big Indian type meal on Diwali, but I wanted to try something a lil bit different.  I settled on Thai food as the Shahs and Khares of the Bay Area are big time spicy food eaters.  In fact, I may be the wimpiest of the bunch (yes, even wimpier than my 7-year old cousin) who regularly eats Sriracha as an appetizer, not a condiment.

Most of my cookbooks including my favorite vegetarian Thai cookbook are still in storage, so I decided to do some digging around on the internet. I ended up pulling about 6 or 7 recipes, some of which aren't Thai, but actually Vietnamese. Here's the appetizers..I'll tackle the entrees next time.

Meing Com

I decided to start with Meing Com (lettuce wraps). I love the mix of tangy, sweet, salt, and tart as you pop a full wrap in your mouth and try to look dignified while your cheeks bulge like you've got lots of hubba bubba pieces stored up. Usually, it's just when I have the lettuce wrap in my mouth is when someone decides to ask me that all-important question. (The pot on the stove is burning, what should I do?)

**Note, the amount of each ingredient you need depends on how people fix their own wraps. To be safe, I chopped up extra of each of the ingredients because we like snacking in my house.

• 1-2 heads of romaine lettuce (I prefer this to iceberg)
• 1/2 cup toasted coconut slivers ( unsweetened)
• 1/2 cup roasted peanuts, ground
• 1/2 cup minced lime (pieces should include bits of peel)
• 1/2 cup diced fresh ginger or galanga root
• 1/2 cup tiny pieces of baked tofu or tempeh
• 1/2 cup diced green peppers
• Plum sauce  (I used store bought)

Tofu and Veggie Satay

For my second appetizer, I went with Tofu and Veggie Satay. Now there are hundreds of variations on this one, but I decided to go simple and limit my vegetables to shitake mushrooms, red and yellow peppers, marinated tofu, and baby corn. I made a peanut sauce to go with this, as I find most store-bought peanut sauce very bland. The secret to my sauce? Copious amounts (I think I added about 5 tablespoons) of sweet chili sauce.   DK was extremely sweet and threaded about 20 of these. 

No real recipe here, you just need to cut up bite size pieces of your veggies and tofu and skewer your skewers.   Roast at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

Peanut Sauce (makes 1/2 cup)

• 4 ounces of freshly roasted (unsalted) peanuts.
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 ounce chopped onion
• 2 tablespoons red curry paste
• 1 tablespoon sweet chili sauce (or to taste)
• 8 tablespoons coconut milk
• 2 teaspoons lime juice (to taste).
• 3 teaspoons brown sugar.

First grind or crush the peanuts to a fairly fine powder. Then combine them with the remaining ingredients (except the lime juice), to form a smooth sauce. If the sauce is too thick, you can thin it with a little stock. Now add the lime juice, tasting as you progress to check the balance of flavors is correct.

Sweet and Sour Cucumber Salad

My final appetizer was  a cooling sweet and sour cucumber salad.  Sorry, no picture here!

• 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 large cucumber, about 12 oz.
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped red onion
• 3 Tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/3 cup chopped salted, dry-roasted peanuts, for garnish.

Combine the vinegar, water, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a gentle boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar and salt. When the syrup is clear and slightly thickened, after about 2 minutes, remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Peel the cucumber (if the skin is tender and unwaxed you can opt to leave some or all of the skin on), and slice into rounds.  Put the cucumber , the onion, the chopped cilantro and the cooled vinegar-syrup into a bowl and toss well. Chill for at least 3 hours or overnight to let flavors meld.

A tall glass of ice-cold milk needs.................

Pop Quiz:

It's 8:00pm and you have an office potluck dessert to make....whaddya do?

Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Cookies! (PICTURE COMING SOON!)

A month or so ago, I picked up Lori Longbotham's Luscious Chocolate Desserts at Artesa Winery of all places...they were prepping for a chocolate tasting that evening (which I couldn't stay for, wah!). Addict that I am, and to console myself for not being able to attend the tasting, I had to have this little pink book with all those lovely chocolate desserts leaping off the page......(When he saw my purchase, DK said, "why don't you just buy ONE piece of chocolate instead?" )

While there are some great tart and cake recipes, I found these cookies a perfect potluck pleaser cause they're portable and a bit more special than the norm. I mean, it's not just your mama's chocolate chip cookie. Here we have cocoa nibs, nuts, and bittersweet chocolate! Having recently OD'ed on all semisweet chocolate chip cookies (love you, AL!) I was ready for the change.

I had my Trader Joe's Pound Plus Bittersweet Chocolate Bar all lined up for the cookie's body, but needed one more magic ingredient.  So I headed to my local Consentino's where I usually buy all my fancy baking ingredients, but oh no....they were out of my favorite Scharffen Berger nibs.  Disappointed, but undaunted, I decided to try the nibs next time I made the cookies and settled on making it without nibs and without nuts, y'know...so nothing would detract from the chocolate. Here's my slightly adapted recipe:

8 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped

3 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp. instant espresso powder (optional)

½ cup dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup all purpose flour

¼ tsp. baking powder

pinch salt

1 cup chopped hazelnuts or pecans

3 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped or in chip form

¼ cup cocoa nibs (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two baking sheets.

In large bowl, melt 8 oz. bittersweet chocolate and add butter. Beat sugar, eggs, and vanilla in separate bowl. Whisk in chocolate.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into chocolate mixture. Whisk until blended. Stir in 3 oz of semi-sweet chocolate (for contrast) and add nibs if desired.

Drop tablespoon sized scoops of batter onto baking sheet. Depending on your baking sheet size, you will have 8 cookies on one and 7 on the other.   Bake for 10 minutes and then remove to cool on wire racks. When cookies have cooled completely, remove cookies to wire racks. Can be stored for up to 3 days.  Yields 15 cookies.

oh, can I brag a little and say that my cookies are all gone and the marzipan stollen bread is STILL sitting in the break room!

My latest cookbook acquisition

I can't wait to try a recipe from this awesome book! 

Farm fresh pickin's

Two months ago, I joined Mariquita Farm's CSA  (Community Sustainable Agriculture) program.  Community Sustainable Agriculture is a direct partnership between the consumer and the farmer. The consumer buys a 'share' of the farm at the beginning of a growing season. The farmer or collaboration of farmers grows organic vegetables, fruits, flowers, herbs-whatever they grow on their farm.   You can pick up your produce every week from local pickup points, which are central to various neighborhoods, reducing the long-distance trucking involved in produce delivery. Here's what my haul looked like last week:

Aren't these veggies just so beautiful????  I wish I had taken pictures of my earlier baskets!    I'm planning making a mean butternut squash soup or mash as the weather gets cooler.    By the way, that weird looking pink vegetable on the right hand side of the basket is a watermelon radish.  I didn't really want to cook it, so we just shredded it, added a little salt and black pepper, and added it to salad.  Delicious!

Notice the tomatoes?  They're actually the last of my tomato-picking frenzy in September.  I dragged DK out at 8am on Saturday morning to go pick tomatoes at a U-Pick Day at Mariquita Farms in Morgan Hill.  Yes, he thought I was crazy.  But I think he had a pretty good time, as proved by the full baskets, one huge tub, and dirty fingernails for at least a day afterwards.   I wish I had taken pictures, but suffice to say, 15 pounds of beefsteak, Early Girl, and San Marzano tomatoes came back to San Jose. 

At first, it was a case of...how are we going to eat all of these tomatoes before they go bad? Luckily there are 4 tomato lovers in our current household, so it wasn't too much of a problem!  Here's how we ate 15 lbs of tomatoes in one month:

1) giving bags to friends! "Come here, little girl...you want some nice, firm, juicy tomatoes???"

2) Eating them like apples.................

3)Making a simple caprese salad by slicing up the beefsteaks or Early Girls, drizzling with good quality olive oil, slapping on some mozzarella and fresh basil and liberally sprinkling the whole shebang with sea salt and black pepper.......it's to die for!!

3) Making tomato soup- Slice up a few tomatoes and cook them down until they are soft. Saute a few onions and garlic, add the tomatoes and a cup or so of vegetable broth or water.  When merrily bubbling away, add whipping cream (I use fat free half and half) and use an immersion blender to whiz it all together.   Season with salt, pepper, cilantro, what have you. Float a lil bit of olive oil on top or seasoned croutons.   (Overachiever that I am, I like making my own from sour dough bread sprinkled with rosemary).

4) Slice them up for salads.

5) Slice them up over cooked pasta with a whole mess of Parmesan cheese and olive oil.

6)  Using them for the gravy when making chole.

My CSA deliveries are finished for the year (boo!), but I'm totally looking forward to starting up again in the spring. In the meantime, I've got the new fall issues of Gourmet and Bon Appetit to plunder for vegetable ideas!!