Eat Real

Sacha Inchi Seeds

2011-06-02T14:20:00.000-04:00

Karmalized SaviSeeds

Readers, most of you know I'm an inveterate snacker. I make no apologies. Instead, I make an effort to snack on things that won't make me feel naughty (in a bad way) later. I like to maximize nutritional bang for my caloric snack buck, which is why I'm seriously loving these sacha inchi seeds.

Haven't heard of them? I hadn't either before the fine folks at SaviSeed were kind enough to send me some samples. Considering how much time I spend prowling around the crunchy-granola-global-whole-foods-bulk-bin store, I'm surprised I haven't seen these before. But now that my eyes have been opened to the munch-liciousness, I'm going to pick them up on a regular basis. If your store doesn't yet carry these, ask. Yes, they're worth being "that guy" and making a special request. Why I think SaviSeeds are that good:

They have 13 times more Omega-3 than wild salmon (7000 mg per 1 oz serving) and contain complete plant-based protein (8 grams per ounce).
They are certified organic, fairly traded, and sustainably produced.
A one-ounce serving contains 5 grams of fiber and has about 160 calories.
They contain vitamin E and tryptophan.
They're also nut- and gluten-free (which, I have a hunch, some of you might find very appealing).

The sacha inchi seeds hail from the Amazon rainforest in Peru, where they've been grown and eaten for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. The edible seeds are harvested from a star-shaped pod that grows on a vine. Cool, right?

Photo from SaviSeed.com

So, what do they taste like? Hard to say, exactly. Not like a peanut, though they've been know to ride under the handle "Inca Peanut." More like a cross between a roasted soybean and a fresh sugar snap pea. Munchy. Addictive. The texture is definitely nutty.

They come in three flavors, Cocoa Kissed (enrobed in 70% cocoa), Karmalized (coated in raw sugar cane), and Oh Natural (dusted with sea salt) ~ my personal favorite. Yum.

Check them out, and let your kids check them out. If your local healthy foods type store doesn't carry them yet, lay on a pouty lip and ask nicely. In the meantime, you can buy them online.

Vanilla Bean Waffles with Lemon Cream

2011-04-17T17:13:00.000-04:00

When I was young, the waffles in our house came out of a box in the freezer. Therefore, I entered my adult years not really giving a fig about waffles. In my mind, waffles were thin, small, mysteriously soggy and crisp simultaneously, and as flavorful as acoustic tile. Then, a few years ago, my mom acquired a waffle maker. And my eyes were opened.

Simply, Belgian waffles are the zaftig grand dames of the breakfast batter cakes. Consider this: a stack of pancakes is a nice breakfast. A Belgian waffle piled with strawberries and airy clouds of sweet whipped cream is an edible spectacle.

There's nothing intimidating about making waffles. You will need a waffle iron, but in my opinion, it's an investment that will pay for itself in no time. Waffles are so terrific, you'll find yourself making them for breakfast, dinner, and dessert. For business meetings. For Super Bowl parties. For your cat's birthday. No time at all, I tell you.

Now, many would argue that the authentic Belgian waffle has yeast as a leavening agent, rather than baking powder. I don't want to argue; I want to eat waffles. Hence, I use baking powder, which works quickly and well and puts a gorgeous stack of waffles on the table as quickly as possible. I love these with berries and whipped cream or ice cream (how very dare!). They're also pretty good with fresh fruit and yogurt or applesauce, if you're feeling virtuous.

Vanilla Bean Waffles with Lemon Cream
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 vanilla bean, scraped; pod reserved for another use
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder
Sliced strawberries for serving, optional

For Lemon Cream :
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon confectioner's sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup Greek-style yogurt

Preheat waffle iron. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, oil, sugar, salt, and seeds from vanilla bean. Add flour and baking powder and whisk just until all ingredients are incorporated.
Spray waffle iron with nonstick pan spray. Cook waffles according to manufacturer's directions. Serve warm with strawberries and Lemon Cream (recipe follows), if desired.

To make Lemon Cream:
Combine heavy cream and confectioner's sugar in a chilled stainless steel mixing bowl; beat until soft peaks form. Sprinkle lemon zest over. Gently fold in yogurt and chill until ready to serve.

Cheesecake Ice Cream

2011-04-14T16:18:00.006-04:00

Supposedly, cheesecake was served to athletes at the first Olympic games, circa 776 B.C. That is a post-workout snack I can totally get behind. I'd definitely run faster if I knew cheesecake was waiting for me at the finish line.

Cheesecake is fairly unique in the cake pantheon because there's so many different incarnations. There's the New York style, which is dense and rich and contains heavy cream. The Bavarian or French style, which is light and smooth, typically uses gelatin as a binding and stabilizing agent. German cheesecake uses Quark cheese. Swedish cheesecake uses cottage cheese. The Japanese version, featuring whipped egg whites, is so light and fluffy it looks like it could float directly off the plate and into your mouth on its own.

Personally, I'm partial to the New York version. And to the lattice-topped Italian ricotta cheesecake my grandma used to make. And to any version that comes with a sour cream top. And to any food that has "cheesecake" in the name.

Naturally, then, this recipe, Cheesecake Ice Cream, is one of my all-time faves. It's a best-of-both-worlds dessert: cheesecake-flavored ice cream. And because I'm an all-or-nothing type of person, I like to sandwich it between two cookies (Oatmeal Graham being my choice) for a trifecta of dessert yay.

If you've never made ice cream before, this is the recipe for you. No eggs (so it's essentially Philadelphia style), which means you get to skip the tempering step ~ the trickiest part of making French-, or custard-, style ice cream. And did I mention it tastes just like cheesecake? Which makes it one of those recipes you have to run out and buy ingredients for right away. Like, now. Go ahead. If you get started immediately, you can have this for dessert tonight.

Cheesecake Ice Cream
~ adapted from David Lebovitz, The Perfect Scoop
8 ounces cream cheese
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup light cream
2/3 cup granulated sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch sea salt

Place all ingredients in food processor or blender and process until smooth, pulsing several times. Pour into container, seal tightly, and refrigerate until well chilled.

When ice cream base is chilled, process in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions. Place finished ice cream in a freezer-safe container with a tight-fitting lid and freeze immediately. Let ripen in freezer for at least 3 hours before serving, for best results.

For a really cheesecakey experience, try topping this with a spoonful of berry compote and a sprinkle of graham cracker crumbs.

How to Cut a Pineapple

2011-03-10T14:35:00.000-05:00

If you've never cut a fresh pineapple before, I think you'll be surprised at how simple it is. First off, don't let its looks intimidate you. Sure, it's spiky. Okay, it's awkwardly shaped. Yes, it's going to roll around on the cutting board. But so what? There's nothing in the world like the taste of fresh pineapple, and you'll be paying a ridiculous amount to have someone else cut it if you buy it in a little plastic tub. You are the boss of that pineapple. Grab your big, sharp chef's knife and a cutting board and let's get to it.

How to Cut a Pineapple

Lay the pineapple down on its side (it will naturally roll to it's flattest place; that's dandy, let it rest there) and grasp it firmly in your non-cutting hand to stabilize it. Place your knife about three-quarters of an inch down from the base of the spiky crown and cut straight through.

Next, turn the pineapple bum-end around and trim a quarter inch or so off the bottom so it will stand up flat. Now stand it upright on the cutting board.

Using your knife, begin to cut away the skin in strips from top to bottom. Don't worry if a few "eyes" remain; you can remove these with a paring knife later. Cut all the way around, top to bottom, until all the skin is gone.

The hardest part is done!

Place your knife in the center of the pineapple and cut straight down, to split the pineapple into vertical halves.

Lay each half flat on the cutting board and cut it in half lengthwise.

Then place your knife at a 90-degree angle and cut each quarter in half. Your pineapple will now be in 8 pieces.

Now you should be able to see, or feel, the woody core that extends about 1/4 to 1/2 inch into the center of each quarter from the inside. Go ahead and cut that part off. It's kind of tough and not that pleasant to eat. You can give it to your guinea pig, or, if you'd like, you can freeze those parts and use them to garnish tropical mixed drinks. Waste not, want not.

Now you can take your pineapple spears and chunk them up for fruit salad or whatever else your heart desires. So easy!

Cherry-Berry Walnut Baked Oatmeal

2011-03-02T21:17:00.001-05:00

Oatmeal is the comfy oversized hoodie of breakfast foods. It's warm, friendly, cozy. It doesn't have to look good ~ it just is good. Baked oatmeal is like a hoodie with style. It's got all the pros of the regular model plus a few perks to sweeten the deal. No stirring, no vigilant watching to see if the pot's going to boil over on your stove, no boiling over on the stove in spite of the fact that you only took your eyes off the pot for one second.

If a bowl of healthy, virtuous, whole-grain breakfast porridge married a sweet, sexy oatmeal cookie loaded with berries and walnuts, this would be their tasty, tasty offspring. It's soft but not gloppy, so it should please even those who object to what may be termed oatmeal's "gruelishness." It's lovely right out of the oven, but it's even better the next day (and the next). If you've got dinner in the oven the night before, throw this together (it takes, what, 5 minutes?), and stick it in the oven after your dinner is done. You'll have breakfast to reheat in the morning.

(Not to suggest that you're ever rushing in the mornings, but if you were ~ like my family tends to be ~ you might find it advantageous to have a really delicious, good-for-you breakfast on hand that can be warmed and served in light speed.)

Cherry-Berry Walnut Baked Oatmeal

2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup skim milk
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup mixed dried cranberries, cherries, and blueberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 2-quart casserole dish with nonstick pan spray. Place melted butter in the casserole dish and add brown sugar; stir to combine. Add the egg, vanilla, cinnamon, and milk and whisk lightly to combine. Stir in the oats, baking powder, and salt; then fold in the dried cherries, berries, and walnuts. {Note: As reader JT commented below (thanks, JT!), if you'd like, you can combine all the ingredients in the casserole dish at once and mix well. The melted butter will solidify when it contacts the cold ingredients and may cause the oats to clump together. Just break up any obvious lumps with your mixing spoon before putting it into the oven.}
Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 to 30 minutes, until just firm and the center doesn't move when you gently jiggle the baking dish.
Let cool on a rack for 5 minutes before serving. Spoon into bowls and, if desired, top with milk or cream before serving.

Makes 4 servings

Recipe Notes:

To reheat, place desired amount in a bowl, top with a little milk or cream, and heat for a minute or two in the microwave or covered with foil in a 350 degree F oven.
Try substituting two small sliced bananas for the berries and add 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg.

Roasted Cauliflower with Garlic and Tahini Sauce

2011-02-03T10:35:00.000-05:00

Cauliflower gets a bad rap. Yes, it's a member of the cabbage family ~ another famously misused veggie. And yes, we've all had bad experiences in our past with this vegetable in an overcooked, underseasoned state of waterlogged mush that someone tried to pass off as acceptable. But I bet you've had a lame burger or a substandard pizza at some point and you're probably still going steady with those. So let's move on, okay?

Cauliflower isn't just the pretty face of the cabbage family. It's an excellent sourse of vitamin C, folic acid, and potassium (when eaten raw) ~ cooked, it's still a good source of folic acid. It contains niacin and vitamin B6 when raw, and copper when cooked (and it retains that B6). You can take a gander at this page if you want to learn more about the super-fantastic qualities that cauliflower brings to the table.

I'm a huge fan of cauliflower. I say this because I want to be up-front about the fact that it doesn't take much (anything, really) to induce me to eat it. I love it raw. I love it steamed. Roasted. With sauce, without. Lucky me, right? But certain members of my family aren't so fortunate. They suffer through even a few bites of cauliflower, choking it down like it's medicine (and it kind of is ~ it's so good for you). But being determined to eat, and serve, it as often as possible, I really wanted to try to make it palatable to the haters in my house. And guess what? I did it.

For the first time ever, I had no leftover cauliflower at all. And I'm not the one who finished it off. When I asked, casually, "So, what did you think of the cauliflower?" The response was, "I loved it." Which may be a record-setter. I don't even recall that kind of feedback the last time I came up with a new dessert recipe, which happened to be dulce de leche ice cream. (And that was pretty good, if I do say so myself.)

Roasted Cauliflower with Garlic and Tahini Sauce
Serves 4

1 head cauliflower, washed, cored, and broken into bite-sized florets
Drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons tahini
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Juice of 1 lemon
Pinch cayenne pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley or sesame seeds to garnish, optional

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a roasting pan or baking sheet with foil (if desired) and spray with nonstick pan spray. Place cauliflower in pan and drizzle with olive oil. Toss, or turn with a spatula, to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and place in oven for 15 minutes.

2. Remove cauliflower from oven, sprinkle with minced garlic and toss, or turn, to coat. Return to oven for an additional 15 minutes, or until cauliflower is tender and becoming golden brown. Meanwhile, combine sesame oil, tahini, soy sauce, lemon, and cayenne in a small mixing bowl. Whisk sauce with a fork until smooth.

3. Remove cauliflower from oven and pour sauce over. Gently toss, or turn, to coat cauliflower in sauce. Remove to serving dish and garnish with chopped parsley or sesame seeds. Serve hot or at room temperature.

White Bean and Tuna Salad

2011-02-01T09:55:00.000-05:00

Lunches can be tough. Sandwiches are predictable, soup requires forethought (and a leak-proof container if you schlep it to work), and pre-made frozen entrees are just . . . well, just no.

Salads, on the other hand, are interesting. First of all, the definition of "salad" is so broad, so wide-open to interpretation, that you can take it anywhere you feel like going. Not in the mood for lettuce? No problem. Who says salad has to have lettuce in it? Not Webster's, which 'fesses that salad is "small pieces of food (as pasta, meat, fruit, or vegetables) usually mixed with a dressing." Works for me.

And what could be easier? Basically, the formula for salad is just chop some foods you like into bite-size pieces, throw them into a bowl, toss them with some sort of complementary dressing, and eat. Lunch! Or dinner. Or breakfast ~ why not?

This particular salad is one of my all-time favorites. It requires no cooking, is good year-round, is loaded with protein and good, healthy fats, and it's pretty ~ which means you can serve it for lunch guests. I like it with a vivacious little white wine, vinho verde being my particular pour of choice.

White Bean and Tuna Salad
Serves 4

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon white-wine vinegar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 15-ounce can good-quality cannellini or small white beans, drained and rinsed
¼ cup diced red onion
1 teaspoon nonpareil capers, drained
1/3 cup chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 cup grape tomatoes, halved
2 6-ounce cans tuna packed in olive oil, drained (can use water-packed)
Torn lettuce leaves (romaine, Bibb, or butter) for serving, optional

Whisk together oil, vinegar, and salt and pepper in a mixing bowl. Add beans, onion, capers, parsley, lemon zest, and tomatoes and toss gently to combine. Lightly toss in tuna. Serve at room temperature or chill for 30 minutes. Serve on a bed of torn greens.

Recipe Notes:

If using water-packed tuna, add an additional drizzle of olive oil if desired.
Tuna packed in olive oil has a rich, delicious flavor. It's especially good in recipes where the tuna isn't mixed with mayonnaise. If you like a more assertive flavor, you can omit the olive oil from the dressing and add the tuna without draining.

Herbed Almond Crackers ~ Grain-free, Gluten-free, and Paleo!

2011-01-26T23:28:00.000-05:00

Going gluten-free? Taking a crack at a Paleo or Primal diet? Even if you're not, hop on over to my baking blog and give these awesomely awesome Herbed Almond Crackers a try. You'll probably want them at your next cocktail party, gluten-free or not, so go on, check 'em out.

Sugarplums!

2010-12-02T14:20:00.000-05:00

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads. . . .

So . . . just what is a "sugar-plum"? When I was a child, I thought it must be the most delicious thing imaginable. I had an idea that a "sugar-plum" (which I had never eaten) must be something of such extreme deliciousness that it was inaccessible to mere children. My mother had a cookbook at the time ~ think 1970s ~ that featured a display of miniature fruits and vegetables modeled in colored marzipan. That's what I thought sugarplums would be ~ perfect miniature replicas of real fruit that tasted like candy, but with skinny little legs clad in striped stockings. For dancing, of course.

Anyway, turns out, sugarplums are no such thing. In reality, they're confections those fun-loving Victorians whipped up to sound much cuter than they are. There are a few descriptions and they vary a little . . . Some define sugarplums as prunes rolled in a coating of sugar. Sounds reasonable, but icky. (Not the prune part; I like prunes. But sticky-sweet prunes rolled in sugar? Cavity plums!)

Others define sugarplums as confections that feature a piece of dried or candied fruit enrobed in fondant. Most typical, though, is the sugarplum made from finely chopped dried fruits ~ apricots, dates, prunes, figs, etc. ~ combined with spices, honey, and/or nuts and formed into balls. The balls are then rolled in a bit of confectioner's sugar and allowed to mature for a couple of days, giving the flavors a chance to ripen. And there you have it: sugarplums.

I did not expect to like these, really I didn't. Maybe that's just because they're not made of marzipan and don't resemble cute, blush-cheeked little plums sprouting striped-stocking legs. But you know what? I was pleasantly surprised. The flavors blended beautifully after a couple of days in the fridge ~ spice, fruit, and citrus all very mellow and complementary. The toasted almonds stayed crunchy and contributed a nutty flavor and welcome texture to balance out the sweetness. I would say that these are definitely going into my recipe binder, and on my Christmas platters.

Click here for the recipe I used. Click here to read the full text of Clement C. Moore's beloved Christmas poem, "Twas the Night Before Christmas," illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith. Click here if you want to try your hand at making marzipan fruits.

Things you might need:
Dried apricots
Dates
Almonds
Allspice
Cinnamon
Honey
Teaspoon scoop

At the Baker's Bench: Cookie Season Opens Today!

2010-12-01T09:43:00.000-05:00

It's December 1st, and you know what that means . . . Cookie Season opens today! Why not stop by my baking blog, At the Baker's Bench and join the fun as our baking group celebrates with a new challenge. In past years we've baked cookies from Gourmet and Bon Appetit, and now we're digging into Saveur!

There are 10 of us and we're each posting a minimum of one cookie a week (from this recipe collection) for four weeks ~ that's a lot of cookies! So go check out the blog links and maybe you'll end up with a new holiday favorite to share with your family and friends.

Season's greetings, and eatings!

Cheers,
Sandy

Spicy Sardine Rillettes

2010-11-23T18:05:00.001-05:00

This one is for your fancy-schmancy appetizer file. Between you and me, it's fancy, but not really schmancy ~ it's a one-bowl affair, inexpensive, and once you get the spoon-wrangling down, you'll own this. And when someone asks, "So, what are you bringing to the cocktail party?" You can say, "Oh, well, I have ten minutes between picking up the kids from soccer and my Zumba workout, so I thought I'd throw together some sardine rillettes." And they will totally hate you for being a rockstar. Which you are.

Now, you see the crackers my rillettes are reclining on? Those are Walkers Mini Oatcakes. The very nice folks at Walkers sent me a selection of their oatcakes ~ or oat crackers, as we Yanks like to say ~ so that I could have some fun playing around with recipe ideas. And much fun was had! (Stay tuned for more recipes down the road in the holiday season.)

I've served these wonderful oatcakes from Walkers many times before, and they're especially good with hard cheese (check out the picture of my gorgeous black currant and apple cheese from England ~ so good).

I am very fond of these oatcakes for toppings that require some substance in their supporting players ~ you want a cracker with enough gusto to stand up to your spread, not fall apart and leave your delicious sardine rillette on the floor for the cat.

And so, before we get down to whipping up our terribly luxe party snacks, let's take a look at a few deets:

Don't get hamstrung by the French ~ it's pronounced "ree-YEHTS." Practice so you can say it loud and proud.
What exactly is a rillette? Long story short, it's some variety of meat (e.g., pork, rabbit, fois gras, poultry, or fish) that is cooked with seasonings and fat and then ground into a paste along with additional fat and then chilled ~ sometimes molded ~ until it is smooth and similar in consistency to pate. In this case, sardines are the meat and butter is our fat.
Don't fuss too much over the shape ~ it's best, that is, most traditional, if you can form a quenelle ~ tres chic! ~ but if you can't be bothered, just perch a healthy dollop artfully onto a cracker.
Chill the the quenelles ~ but not the crackers ~ until right before serving. Here's a tip ~ form your quenelles and place them on thin slices of radish, then place these on a plate in the fridge. Right before serving, arrange your crackers (or flatbread or toasted baguette slices) on a platter and then place one radish slice/quenelle atop each and garnish with parsley or something green and spriggy. Serve immediately and accept your accolades gracefully.

Spicy Sardine Rillettes

1 can sardines in hot sauce or mustard, drained and spines removed
3 tablespoons good-quality butter at room temperature (either salted or unsalted)
1 small shallot
1 generous tablespoon minced fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Combine all ingredients in small mixing bowl and mash with fork until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings. Form into small quenelles using two teaspoons, chill for 30 minutes, and serve on oatcakes or crackers, garnished with radish or cucumber slices and parsley sprigs.

Counting My Blessing ~ November 8

2010-11-08T22:26:00.001-05:00

Today I'm thankful for . . . butter.

Sweet cream butter for baking. Lemon-yellow salted Irish butter on freshly baked bread. Butter steaming apart the crisp layers of feuilletage in an exquisitely rendered mille-feuille. Butter on the bucket of popcorn passed among the hands of my family in a darkened theater on movie night.

In Thanksgiving pies, Christmas cookies, Valentine's truffles, Easter cakes, and melting down the sugar-sweet rows of Independence Day ears of corn on the cob.

Butter on home-baked wheat bread at my grandmother's. Buttered matzos at a friend's. "It was the best butter." ~ The March Hare

What are you thankful for?

Counting My Blessings: November 7, 2010

2010-11-07T17:40:00.000-05:00

Today I'm thankful for . . . tissues.
Tissues are one of those things we always tend to take for granted when we don't need them. They can for sit ages, snug in their boxes, inconspicuous and disregarded, on every tabletop in sight, gathering dust and being ignored. Once in a while we might grab one, not thinking, not really appreciating the convenience of having them at our disposal.

But the second we require a tissue and there is none at hand ~ suddenly, where are all those blocky boxes of comforting lightweight paper hankies? The need to blow the nose, dab the eye, discard the overchewed piece of gum is raging and ~ really? ~ not a single tissue to be found! But it happens all the time.

So today, I thought about this. I reached for the tissue box mindfully. I was deliberately glad that the box was nearly full of tissues and there were plenty more where those came from. I thought about stowing some in the pockets of my coat for one of those less-well-equipped times, but I didn't want to be panicky about it.

And then I was just grateful that way back in the 1920s, Kleenex were invented, even if they were intended to remove cold cream, and nose-blowing was a serendipitous off-label use that blew the original purpose quite away.

What are you thankful for?

Counting My Blessings ~ November 4

2010-11-04T21:40:00.000-04:00

Today I'm thankful for . . . ice cream. It's my favorite dessert, bar none. When my son had his tonsils out, he ate nothing but ice cream for nearly a week, and I was okay with that. When I'm happy, I eat ice cream. When I'm sad, likewise. One of my all-time favorite things to make as a pastry chef is ice cream. Ice cream just makes people happy.

Tonight was girls' night for my daughter and I. (My husband and son missed out on this because they were out watching some guy named Roger Waters play the guitar.) We sat on the couch, ate the leftovers of a dinner party I cooked for, and watched her favorite TV show. Then we ate ice cream. It was a good night. Because that's what ice cream does.

Here are some of my favorites to try, if you feel like making your own. (I highly recommend it.)
Cinnamon Brown Sugar Ice Cream ~ great with apple or pumpkin pie!
Fresh Bay Leaf and Ginger Ice Cream ~ subtle and elegant.
Philly Vanilla ~ classic for a la mode desserts, and eggless.

Indian Pudding with Cinnamon Cream

2010-11-03T22:52:00.000-04:00

I don't know about you, but when I think of Thanksgiving desserts, pumpkin pie is usually the first thing that comes to mind. Which is unfortunate, considering it's one of the very few foods I simply can't cultivate a taste for. Second place on the groaning board of T'day sweets would be apple pie, or maybe pecan. Definitely pecan at my house.

But in all three cases, I (and you, if you're thinking like me) would be way off base, historically speaking. It's far more likely that dessert at the first Thanksgiving dinner wasn't pumpkin pie ~ it was Indian pudding, a homespun cornmeal-and-molasses creation fashioned after the Native Americans' supawn. Colonists at Plymouth, Massachusetts, were likely looking to re-create some familiar comfort foods from Mother England, but lacking the wheat flour or oats that comprised their staple hasty pudding, they made do with cornmeal, courtesy of their friendly new Native American neighbors. Hence the name "Indian Pudding," giving a shout-out to the source.

The sweet-toothed Colonists Yankee-fied the mush by adding molasses, unique to the local maritime trade; spiking it with ginger and cinnamon; and fortifying it with eggs and butter when their livestock finally started cooperating by living through the winter.

If times were especially good, Colonial cooks might have added raisins to the pot and served the whole thing with a pour of good thick cream. Sounds pretty darn good, huh?

It is. To me, it combines the best aspects of pumpkin pie (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger) with the satisfying texture of cornmeal porridge, rich with butter and cream and sweet with the caramel undertones of brown sugar. It proclaims, "Autumn is here," without screaming, "I'm a big fat squash ~ in your dessert!"

And guess what? It's even better the next day. For breakfast. Oh, yeah.

Indian Pudding with Cinnamon Cream

• 5 cups whole milk
• 1 cup light cream or half-and-half
• 1 stick (4 oz) unsalted butter
• ½ cup finely ground cornmeal
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• ½ cup molasses
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• Cinnamon Cream to garnish (recipe follows)

1. Preheat oven to 250°F. Bring the milk, cream, and butter to the scalding point in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, and salt. Stir in molasses. Pour approximately 1 cup of the scalded milk in a thin stream into the cornmeal mixture, whisking constantly. When combined, pour the cornmeal mixture into the pot with the remaining scalded milk, stirring constantly. Cook over medium heat until thickened.
3. Whisk the eggs with the sugar until incorporated. Slowly add about 1 cup of the hot cornmeal mixture in a thin stream into the beaten eggs, whisking constantly. Then add the egg mixture to the remaining cornmeal mixture, stirring. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger and stir to fully incorporate spices.
4. Grease a 2.5-liter casserole dish and pour hot cornmeal custard mixture into dish. Bake at 250°F for approximately 2 hours, until the top is browned and the pudding jiggles only slightly when the dish is gently shaken. Let cool on a rack for about 1 hour.
5. Serve the pudding warm, not hot, with Cinnamon Cream. Refrigerate leftovers.
6. For Cinnamon Cream: Whip 1 cup heavy whipping cream with 2 heaping tablespoons confectioners’ sugar and ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon until it reaches soft peaks. Serve with Indian Pudding; refrigerate leftovers.

Recipe Notes:

Feel free to toss in some raisins, chopped dates, or ~ my recommendation ~ Craisins, if you like.
This is great with the cinnamon cream, above . . . or you can go nuts and try it with a scoop of ice cream ~ I like French vanilla, butter pecan, or cinnamon. Or go the traditional route and pour some thick cream over the top right before serving.

Blessings Countdown ~ November 2

2010-11-02T20:26:00.005-04:00

I'm thankful for . . . my husband's sense of humor. My husband is a smart, funny guy. He's not a practical joker ~ I never fear a blitzkrieg of humiliation on April 1. He's irreverent but not mean; sarcastic, sometimes, but not biting. People laugh when they're around him. Sometimes they laugh in spite of themselves. (I sometimes feel absolutely compelled to feign disapproval ~ but it's difficult.)

Considering that we've been together longer than I've been alive without him (it's not as confusing at it sounds: we started dating when I was 18 . . . I'm 41 now), have been married for 20 years, have two teenage children, and live in the same hometown as both sets of our parents and our siblings . . . well, you need a heavy-duty, extra-strength, all-purpose bionic funny bone (with built-in "love of the absurd" option) to make your way through that successfully, and that's something we both share.

So, I'm grateful for my husband's ability to make me laugh, at the world and at myself. Because sometimes comic relief is the only relief you get.

What are you thankful for?

Taking Back November ~ 3rd Annual Blessings Countdown

2010-11-01T23:01:00.000-04:00

I'm going to be blunt: this past year has been one of the hardest years of my life. Loss was a major hallmark this year ~ dramatic, ugly, shocking loss, the kind that happens to "other people," that you see on the news and think, "Wow, can you imagine?" They don't even make a sympathy card for this sort of thing; words I heard over and over at the time were, "I'm so sorry . . . I don't even know what to say."

Even so, there were plenty of good things too. Really good things, in fact. But it took me a while to appreciate them. I was knocked off course for a while, and even after things started aligning themselves again, I developed the really bad habit of focusing not on what I had, but on what I had lost. And this one great loss carried over into the rest of my life, like a single drop of dye spreading through and staining an entire glass of water. I became preoccupied with things that were missing, and so I began to miss out on what was actually present, available, and even wonderful.

But the good news is, tragedy has a way of bringing a unique sort of clarity to us. If we are willing, we start to see, after a while, what really matters and what maybe doesn't matter nearly as much as we thought it did, before. I believe that if you can learn from something, even something terrible, you can redeem it. And so I've tried, really tried, to learn from the things that have occurred this year.

I've learned that people can be amazingly gracious, kind, and merciful. I've learned (again!) to never say never ~ and to realize that sometimes that means something good, and sometimes it means the polar opposite. I've learned that I don't know anything about some things, and more than I'd like about others. And I've learned a very valuable, painful lesson in empathy.

So coming up on this year's Month of Thanksgiving 3rd Annual Blessings Countdown, I'm excited to look over my blessings with an eye freshened by tears and sharpened by regret. I'm taking scrupulously careful stock of my blessings, not just the large, life-changing ones like the personal relationship I share with Jesus Christ, or my husband and children and family, or my health and home . . . but any little thing that inspires my heart toward gratitude in the course of "regular" days.

And you. I'd love to hear about your blessings, too. The simple gifts, the gentle reminders of how you are loved, the ways you remember what it is to be happy. Let's give thanks ~ not just on one day sandwiched between Halloween candy and Christmas decorations. Let's take back November. We have plenty of blessings to share.

~ Para mi tia, MMS, con besos . . . te amo.

Cave Rave Trail Bars

2010-10-20T16:23:00.003-04:00

Confession: I never thought I'd be writing a post like this, but then again, I never thought I'd run a mile continuously, let alone 5k, 10k, and so forth. But I started running 10 months ago, fell head-over-blistered-heels in love with it, and haven't stopped yet. Well, you know, figuratively speaking. So here we are.

Two weeks ago I began my half-marathon training. As part of my program, I decided to pay attention to the way I was eating. Fortunately, I'm a pretty good eater, so I didn't have to make any drastic lifestyle changes. But viewing my food objectively as fuel (instead of fun) did inspire me to shake up my perspective and make some adjustments. For one thing ~ and this is huge ~ I haven't had a bowl of cereal in well over a week. (Cereal being something I can happily consume for all three meals a day.) I've been eating a lot more leafy greens, lean meats, and nut butters than ever before too. And I'm pretty happy, and a little amazed, to report that my run-times have improved and I almost never get that "I'm so desperately hungry I could cold-cock a stranger for the half-eaten doughnut in his hand" feeling that would hit me right around lunchtime or any other time my blood sugar would take a dip.

I gotta say, I like this. I like being satisfied and filled but not stuffed. I like eating tasty things for meals and snacks and feeling virtuous about it. I love having energy and stamina for a workout and not worrying about a finger-shaking, knee-weakening blood-sugar crash an hour later. And I love not having to feel deprived of anything I really enjoy eating. Because after all, I am a pastry chef. And that would just be silly.

I've been following a version of the paleo/primal diet for athletes. I'm no nutritionist (see above: "pastry chef," hello??) but I do know a couple and I've done enough asking and reading to feel pretty good about this meal plan so far. I do eat dairy (I have no intolerance for it and I find that cottage cheese and yogurt help me meet my protein goals) and I don't eat tons and tons of red meat. In fact, the bulk of my protein probably comes from seafood/fish, nuts, and eggs. It's not for everyone, and it wasn't for me before I started putting in the miles, but for now, at least, it's what works. But here, as in other areas of my life, I'm not legalistic, so don't expect to see me change careers anytime soon.

One of the first paleo/primal recipes I developed was a cookie. And you can find that recipe here. But I needed something way more substantial, a snacks that was capable of carrying me (and my athletic teens, for that matter) from one meal to the next. So I modified a recipe I found on a cool blog called Daisy Janie and came up with this: the Cave Rave Trail Bar, perfect for a protein-filled snack or even a light breakfast. Unlike regular granola bars, they won't leave you starving in half an hour. There's plenty of good stuff in here, and you can customize them by adding or substituting different nuts, dried fruits, etc.

So, what's in a name? The "Cave" part is a nod to the fact that this bar is a perfect fit for those on the paleo/primal diet. Nothing agricultural in here, so go to town, my cavemen and -women culinarians. And the "Rave" part? That's from the name of my soon-to-launch running blog ~ Road Rave ~ which is all about the awesomest sport of long-distance running. (Yeah, I know, I never thought those words would have anything to do with me either.)

And as a bonus, this recipe happens to be gluten-free (no grains), dairy-free (no milk or milk products), and loaded with protein and other good muscle-building and repairing stuff. Sweet!

The consistency of these is like that of a chewy granola bar. You can crunchify them by returning them to the oven (at 350 degrees F) on a baking sheet for 10 to 15 minutes after you've cut and separated them by about an inch. (Watch them carefully so they don't burn.)

Cave Rave Trail Bars

6 ounces almonds
4 ounces pecans or walnuts
3 ounces raw, unsalted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
3 ounces raw, unsalted sunflower seeds
3/4 to 1 cup dried tart cherries or raisins, chopped
5 ounces shredded unsweetened dried coconut
3 tablespoons grapeseed oil
4 tablespoons raw honey
1 egg white
Pinch sea salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 13 x 9-inch Pyrex baking dish with aluminum foil. Spray foil with nonstick baking spray or brush lightly with grapeseed oil; set aside.
Combine nuts in the bowl of a food processor and pulse 5 or 6 times until you have a fine meal. (Be careful not to overdo it or you'll end up with nut butter.) Empty nut meal into a large mixing bowl. Add pepitas, sunflower seeds, cherries or raisins, and coconut; toss to mix well.
In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, honey, egg white, and salt just until blended. Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and use a spatula to mix until everything is uniformly moist.
Transfer nut mixture to prepared pan. Use a bowl scraper (my preference) or an offset spatula to smooth the surface and pack the mixture down firmly into the pan. Don't be shy about it ~ if you don't do a good job of packing, your trail bars will crumble when you cut them. If you'd rather use your hands, go right ahead, just as long as you get in there and pack that stuff down.
Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the baking dish halfway through. Ideally, you'd like to see a nice deep golden color to the finished bars. If the edges are browning prematurely, fold over your foil sling to shield them (if you can), or just loosely cover the entire pan with a sheet of foil.
Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack. When it has cooled, lift the whole thing out by pulling up on the short sides of the foil. Lay it down on a cutting board big enough to accommodate the entire thing. Use a long, sharp knife to cut the sheet into bars. Wrap bars individually in plastic wrap and store at room temp for up to three 3 days. For longer storage, keep wrapped bars in the freezer, defrosting a few as needed.

Makes 20 to 24 bars

Recipe Notes:

Unless you're allergic, or vegan, I wouldn't omit the egg white ~ it's part of the magic that keeps this thing together before it's served. But if you insist, you can do without it, just expect more crumbling.

Sweet as Honey

2010-09-16T10:35:00.000-04:00

September is National Honey Month, and I for one am celebrating. I've got good reason to celebrate, actually. I mean, besides the reasons everyone else has. This month, for the first time ever, my mom harvested honey from her hive. (Yay, Mom! Go Lady Bees, go!) And lucky, lucky me, I got a big jar of pure very local honey and a plastic container of waxy, honey-dripping comb.

Oh, yeah. That's what I'm talking about.

If you're one of those people who adores honey, you're already in the choir and you don't need preaching to. You can put on your party hat (or bobbing bee-feeler headband) and go back to celebrating. But if you're on the fence about honey, consider the following:

Honey may be more effective at soothing nighttime coughs in children than many popular OTC cough suppressants.
Honey is a time-tested sore-throat soother.
Medical research is being done to investigate honey's role in the treatment and healing of burns.
Honey has antimicrobial properties and has been used for centuries to treat wounds.
Honey is made by honey bees using magic. (Or something like that.)

And, of course, honey is also delicious, but I'll concede that's a matter of personal taste. You'll have to do some fieldwork on your own to see how you feel about that. Here are a few suggestions to guide your research:

Honey-Buttered Popcorn

Crepes with Honey-Almond Ricotta and Dark Sweet Cherries

Honey Oatmeal Bread

Happy celebrating!

Lamb Ribs with Lemon-Mint Gremolata

2010-08-20T00:01:00.001-04:00

Last November, a chef friend and I split the cost of a pasture-raised lamb from a local slaughterhouse. Over the course of four intense, productive, occasionally injurious hours, he patiently taught me how to break down the carcass. There I was, a baker, learning how to butcher. There were Band-Aids around 3 of my fingers, scraps of flesh stuck to my T-shirt, and for once, I didn't go home smelling like chocolate and candied almonds. Naturally, I was completely smitten.

At the end of the afternoon, I took my butcher-paper-wrapped parcels home and deposited them in the freezer, and let me tell you . . . I would not have felt richer or more accomplished if there'd been gold bars in those parcels.

Even so . . . I'd never cooked lamb before in my life, I was the only member of my family who enjoyed eating it, and I now had half an animal in my freezer. So I did what I always do when I find myself in unfamiliar territory. I caffeinated myself and started researching.

Over the months that followed, I made my way tentatively through the various cuts, getting bolder and more confident with each success. Armed with sheaves of recipe notes, I braised shanks and made long-simmering stews, reduced glace de viande to rubbery cubes and pan-seared gorgeous little loin chops, and finally, now nearly at the end of my precious parcels, I was ready to confront the ribs.

I thawed them, unwrapped and inspected them. I hadn't cleaned these before packaging and freezing them, way back in the fall. I knew more about fabricating lamb now than I did then, so I set about trimming away all but a protective layer of fat, the connective tissue, and the glands that, left behind, can contribute the strong gaminess that many find objectionable in lamb. (You can see one of these small nodes roughly in the center of the picture below.)

Finally, I had my rack of lamb ready to go. But now what? As with all the other cuts, so foreign and initially intimidating to me, I went to my friend for advice. I'd never cooked any sort of ribs before, let alone this oddly shaped little lamb rack. Did one grill or oven-roast lamb ribs? And was it really necessary to parboil? "It depends," he said, "on whether you want them to suck."

Not wanting my ribs to suck, I listened carefully and took his advice ~ slow-braising, then oven roasting. For the seasonings, I went to this recipe, which offered something a bit unique. Yes, of course, there's rosemary. But it's the addition of caraway seeds that makes magic here. Don't omit them, no matter how much you may be tempted to. There's alchemy in this combination ~ believe it!

My beautiful ribs required no sauce at all. They were meltingly tender under an herbed crust that had just the right balance of crisp and tender. I ran out to my kitchen garden to pick some herbs and made a quick gremolata with fresh mint, flat-leaf parsley, lemon zest, kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper, which I sprinkled overtop. The majority of these ribs never made it to a plate; my family ~ my formerly lamb-eschewing family ~ ate them right off the cutting board, licking fingers and sighing with happiness.

I am tempted to get a whole lamb all by myself this fall. One rack of ribs ~ one set of chops, shanks, etc. ~ is just not enough.

Many thanks to Justin ~ for teaching me so much . . . how to butcher a lamb, kill a lobster, and filet a tile fish. (But not how to make pâte feuilletée.)

And to Griffin, my tattoo model. (No vegetarians were forced to consume animal products in the making of this blog post.)

Lamb Rib

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

2010-07-31T22:07:00.001-04:00

Like chocolate chip cookies and marinara sauce, hummus is one of those things that you can buy at the supermarket but you're far better off making it yourself. In fact, if all the hummus you've ever tried has come out of a small plastic tub, please . . . get ready for a revelation.

Hummus ~ or more properly, hummus bi tahina ~ has been around for a really, really long time. Just how long, however, is a matter of great speculation. This tasty dip has been credited to sources from Saladin to the ancient Egyptians. What we do know with a reasonable degree of certainty is that it originated somewhere in the "Middle East" (a pretty big swath of land) and that it is pretty dang yum.

Hummus recipes abound, differing slightly from country to country and even chef to chef, but the basic formula is this: cooked chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans or ceci) are mixed with tahini, garlic, lemon juice, olive or sesame oil, and salt. Beyond that, the basic hummus may be flavored with a vast array of herbs, spices, or vegetables. Popular additions include parsley, mint, red peppers, cumin, chilies, olives, sumac, paprika, and/or cilantro.

Hummus may be eaten as a dip, with lavash crackers, pita wedges, or cut vegetables; a sandwich spread; or a sauce for fish, chicken, or falafel. And it gets major bonus points for being not only delicious but virtuous, too. Hummus is a good source of protein and fiber (thank you, chick peas), it's high in iron (ditto), and it packs a significant amount of vitamins C, B6, and folate, too.

Now here's the even better thing . . . all this delicious healthfulness can be yours for about 20 seconds of labor. That's right ~ freshly made hummus, at the touch of a button on your blender (or food processor). Let's get this party started.

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
This version of hummus relies on roasted sweet red pepper to add a subtle tanginess and a gorgeous pink-orange hue. Enjoy it with toasted pita triangles, lavash, or cut veggies.

2 cups cooked garbanzo beans* ~ reserve 1/2 cup cooking liquid
1/4 cup tahini
Juice of 1/2 lemon (or more to taste)
1 whole roasted red pepper, seeded*
1 large clove garlic, quartered
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Kosher salt to taste

Combine all ingredients except reserved liquid in blender canister or food processor. Add 1/4 cup reserved liquid. Process in pulses until smooth, adding more liquid, if necessary, 1 tablespoon at a time, until desired texture is reached.
Taste for seasonings and adjust if necessary. Let chill for 1/2 hour before serving.

Recipe Notes:
*Canned garbanzo beans work fine in this recipe; be sure to reserve the liquid from the can to add to the hummus.
*You can make your own roasted red peppers or the use the jarred variety. Either will give excellent results.
*By request: Make-Your-Own Lavash ~ a recipe (pictured above)

Velvety Avocado Dressing

2010-07-21T17:32:00.000-04:00

It's no secret that I'm the secretary of the "Obsessed with Avocados" fan club. I love Every. Single. Thing about them. (Well, there is one quality I'm not crazy about: their price in New York in January could be a little more friendly.) But anyway, I can't get enough of avocados' taste, texture, the way the peel practically sheds itself, the one giant pit that gives itself up without a fight. They even have a saucy backstory that's fun to tell at cocktail parties!

If you regularly read either of my blogs, you know that I love avocados in both savory and sweet applications, and they're one of my favorite foods to experiment with. When I can get them, I buy the net bags that go on sale at my local Sam's Club for $3.50, making the price of each avocado an incredibly awesome 70 cents. And then . . . playtime in the kitchen!

It was, in fact, one of these net bags bags that yielded the following recipe. The last avocado in the bag was a bit soft, a little bruised and blotchy when I cut it open. Of course, it was perfectly fine. I could have eaten it straight away, sprinkled with lime juice and kosher salt. But I had salad in mind for dinner, and I was committed to that. Now, aesthetically, a bruised avocado is no one's idea of a good-looker, and if you're feeding the unobsessed, it's worth bearing this in mind. I decided to effect a little camouflage.

Blended into a gorgeous pale green dressing, this is even better as a dip (for pretzels, veggies, fingers) the next day, once the flavors have had a chance to develop. The avocado holds it's own against the more dominant flavors of shallot and garlic; and you can use lemon juice instead of lime if that's what you have on hand. Try this as a sandwich or burger spread too. Oh. Yeah.

Velvety Avocado Dressing

1 large Haas avocado
Juice of 1 lime (about 2 tablespoons)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1 large shallot, minced
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt, more to taste
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce (red or green, as preferred)

Peel, pit, and slice avocado. Place slices in a medium mixing bowl and sprinkle with lime juice. Mash avocado with a fork or the back of a spoon.
Add remaining ingredients to mashed avocado and blend using an immersion blender until smooth and creamy. (If you don't have an immersion blender, transfer avocado and remaining ingredients to a blender or food processor and process until smooth.) Chill until ready to serve.

Makes about 11/2 cups
Have some extra avocados ~ or the desire to eat some extra avocados? Check out these recipes:
From Eat Real:
Avocado Panna Cotta with Mango Gelee
Savory Avocado Salad

From At the Baker's Bench:
Avocado Cake with Lime Browned Butter Icing

From other Foodie Blogs:
Feta Cheese and Avocado Mini-Frittata ~ from Kalyn's Kitchen
Grilled Fish Tacos with Mango-Avocado Salsa ~ from Andrea's Recipes
Guacamole Hummus ~ from Gimme Some Oven!

Walnut Brittle with Orange Zest and Sea Salt

2010-07-05T07:37:00.000-04:00

Walnuts, in my opinion, are the undersung heroes of the baking nut family. They lack the Euro-flair of hazelnuts, the blue-blood pedigree "pe-cahns," the visual drama of pistachios, or the sheer sexiness of those pricey little pignolias. But walnuts have their charms, and it's a short-sighted baker who fails to recognize them.

The Latin word for "walnut" is Juglans, which comes from Jupitar glans, which means something like "Jupiter's acorn" ~ a euphemism along the lines of "nut fit for a god." I'm not going to go that far, but I'm fond of walnuts, and I use them quite a bit in my home kitchen and my pastry work.

Walnuts are good right from the bag, tossed onto a bowl of yogurt or cereal, or straight into the mouth. That's fine and all, but it doesn't really allow this nutty little superstar to shine. All over the world, walnut-loving cultures have devised creative ways to enjoy them. Walnuts are preserved in vinegar in England and sugar syrup in Armenia and enjoyed as snacks. Those savvy Italian culinarians turn walnuts into pasta sauce and liqueurs. Walnuts figure prominently in the cuisines of India and the Middle East ~ in both sweet and savory applications.

And we've all heard much lately about the prodigious health benefits of the walnut, but since we'll be making candy here, I won't go too deeply into that ~ it makes me feel a little silly. But it does seem reasonable to mention that (according to the California Walnut Commission) in a quarter cup of walnuts, you can expect to find:

4 grams of protein
2.5 grams of ALA (a source of Omega-3 fatty acid)
2 grams of fiber
Magnesium, phosphorus, and various antioxidants

Not too shabby.

So, while I've made brittle with every nut you can think of (and various seeds and crackers and other crunchies), I keep coming back to the walnut. Walnuts are rich and delicious, pair well with myriad other flavors, and are relatively inexpensive ~ which means you can make this candy any time you like . . . as often as you like.

This recipe is one of my rabbit-out-of-a-hat favorites that I go to when I need something very quick and nice for company or consolation. It is fairly impressive and will have complete strangers clutching your forearm, staring into your eyes, and saying in a low and imperative voice, "You simply must give me this recipe."

If you've never cooked with molten sugar before, please do read the recipe notes ~ nothing burns quite like boiling sugar. That said, don't be afraid . . . Set all your ingredients out in advance, prepare your workspace, and go for it. And get ready for contact.

Walnut Brittle with Orange Zest and Sea Salt

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2/3 cup roughly chopped walnuts, toasted
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with nonstick pan spray; set aside.
Place sugar in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan and add water; stir once just to moisten sugar. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat but do not stir.
Allow sugar to cook until light amber in color. If a portion begins to caramelize faster than the rest of the pot, swirl the pot gently but do not stir. Use a pastry brush dipped in water to brush down any sugar crystals that form on the side of the pot.
Meanwhile, toss together walnuts, orange zest, and salt. When sugar is caramelized, add walnuts and give a brief stir to coat nuts with sugar syrup. Pour out onto baking sheet. Carefully, using a towel or oven mitt, tilt the sheet slightly (holding the parchment to anchor it) to allow sugar syrup and nuts to level out. (You can use a spatula, but your brittle may not be crystal clear ~ see Recipe Notes.) Allow to cool completely, then break into pieces and store in an airtight container.

Recipe Notes:

Caution ~ Cuidado! ~ Alert! ~ Warning! I can't emphasize this strongly enough. Boiling sugar is going to burn you (or anyone else who comes into contact with it) worse than boiling water will. Why? Because water cools down on your skin a lot faster than molten sugar does, which means that as long as it sits on your skin, it will keep burning it. You get the picture. So, please, PLEASE, play it safe with this stuff.

It's a terrific idea to use long-handled implements (wooden spoons, heat-proof spatulas) when you're working with hot sugar. Also, you should prepare everything you need in advance so there's no scurrying around. Never, ever touch the surface of cooling brittle with your finger to see if it's set. (Why? If it's not, it will stick to your finger, burning, burning, etc.) If you must check it, lift the pan and touch the bottom. When the bottom is cool, your brittle is ready to break into chunks.
I strongly suggest having a bowl of ice water at the ready. In the event that you do splatter some melted sugar on yourself, dip the offended body part into the water to cool the sugar down immediately.
And finally, I keep my kids out from underfoot when I work with melted sugar. It's way too risky for me to have them there and risk their getting hurt. P.S. My kids are teenagers.

Once you've stirred in the nuts and poured the mixture out onto the baking sheet, move it as little as possible if you want crystal-clear brittle. If you use your spatula to drag and distribute nuts around, it's likely that the sugar will begin to crystallize in your brittle, giving it a cloudy appearance. If this does happen, don't worry about it ~ it won't affect the taste at all, it's sheerly cosmetic.

Check out these other walnut recipes on my to-make list:
Chiles en Nogada (Chilies in Walnut Sauce) at Simply Recipes
Walnut Skordalia at Souvlaki for the Soul
Fesenjan: Persian Pomegranate Walnut Stew at She Simmers
Asparagus and Walnut Phyllo Pie at Closet Cooking
Cauliflower Tagine with Walnut and Mint Couscous

Moroccan-Style Orange Radish Salad

2010-06-11T22:31:00.001-04:00

Ahhh, June. My favorite month of the year. Spring’s firmly entrenched and summer’s just arriving. It’s the month of my wedding anniversary, and my parents’. There’s fresh strawberry shortcake and Father’s Day. And radishes.

Yes, now is when huge, inexpensive bunches of gorgeous red-and-white radishes start crowding the shelves at the farmstand market, more picturesque than flowers and better because they’re so delicious. I like them best plain, icy cold from the fridge, dipped in coarse salt and cracked pepper. When I have them in such plentitude, I slice them over everything, serve them on crudités platters with dip, and spend time dreaming up salads just to highlight their special spicy crunch.

Farmstand Find: Radish (Raphanus sativus) ~ there are red, black, and white varieties; the latter is called daikon. Radishes are a good source of vitamin C and potassium. The name “radish” comes from the Latin radix, for “root.” The intensity of a radish’s flavor depends not only on its variety but also its age.
Buying: Look for small, firm radishes. Large radishes that give to gentle pressure are likely to be pithy inside.
Storing: Remove tops and store in an unsealed or perforated plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to one week.
Serving: Radishes can be eaten raw, marinated, or cooked. If the tops are young and fresh, you can prepare them as you would fresh spinach or arugula. Peppery radish sprouts can be used to add flavor to sandwiches and salads.
Tip: Place raw radishes in a bowl of ice water for an hour prior to serving to crisp them up.

Keep reading after the jump to discover a recipe starring radishes and sweet oranges in an appetizer salad with Middle Eastern savor. If the taste of orange blossom water tends to be a bit strong for you, simply omit it.

Moroccan-Style Orange-Radish Salad
• 3 large seedless oranges, peeled, segmented, and membranes removed*
• 4 to 6 red radishes, thinly sliced
• ½ small red onion, sliced paper thin
• 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon orange blossom honey
• ¼ teaspoon orange blossom water, optional
• Pinch Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Arrange orange segments, radish slices, and sliced onion on chilled salad plates. In a small bowl, whisk together orange juice, olive oil, honey, orange blossom water, salt and pepper. Spoon dressing over each salad, dividing it evenly among among the plates.

*If you are supreming (that is, segmenting and removing the membranes from) your own oranges, be sure to squeeze the juice from the membranes before discarding them. Use that juice in your dressing.

Makes 3 to 4 appetizer-size salads.

Quick Chicken Quesadillas

2010-05-31T12:19:00.001-04:00

Here's another of those terrific meals you should have in your arsenal for when you're pressed for time and dinner has to be on the table in a heartbeat. If you have cooked chicken breast already in the fridge or freezer, this will come together lightning-fast. If you have a picky eater, just leave out whatever toppings he or she doesn't care for ~ these are easy to customize.

Please, save yourself some money (and eat much better) by roasting a few chickens on a slow night instead of buying frozen precooked chicken breast. Just take the roasted chicken breast off the bone, let it cool completely, cube it, and pack it into freezer-ready resealable storage bags in one- or two-cup portion sizes.Thaw in the fridge overnight or in the microwave, and you're all set.

Serve this with a green salad or veggies and dip for a balanced meal.

Three-Cheese Chicken Quesadillas
Serves 4
• 4 ounces cream cheese (low-fat or Neufchatel cheese work great)
• 8 soft-taco-size flour tortillas
• ½ cup shredded Pepper Jack cheese
• 2 cups cubed cooked chicken meat
• ¼ cup sliced green onions
• ¼ cup sliced black olives
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• Sour cream and salsa to serve, optional

1. Spread one-fourth of the cream cheese or Neufchatel cheese on each of four tortillas. Top with 2 tablespoons shredded Pepper Jack, ½ cup cubed chicken, 1 tablespoon green onions, 1 tablespoon black olives, and ¼ cup shredded Cheddar. Finish by topping with the remaining four tortillas.

2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat ~ there is no need to grease the pan. Carefully transfer one of the tortilla stacks to the skillet. Heat until the cheese begins to melt and the bottom begins to brown in spots. Using a large flat spatula, turn the quesadilla over and heat on the other side, approximately 3 to 5 total. Remove to baking sheet and keep warm in a 200 degree F oven while you cook the remaining three quesadillas.

3. Cut each quesadilla into 6 wedges and serve with sour cream and salsa, if desired.