Simple and Elegant: Nasturtiums and Snap Peas

Found before dinner: A rioting cascade of nasturtiums in our backyard and sugar snap peas in our produce box. The two together make a quick and light springtime salad that's easy enough to throw together for a one-person meal but also stunning enough to display at a dinner party.

Ingredients

Sugar snap peas, ends snapped and strings removed

Nasturtiums, rinsed and dried*

Olive oil

Kosher salt

Arrange snap peas and nasturtiums together on a plate, drizzle lightly with good-quality olive oil, and sprinkle with salt before serving.

*Nasturtiums are reminiscent of radishes, and are spiciest when grown in full sun and fully opened. For a more delicate taste, choose nasturtiums that are just opening or growing in part shade.

Saffron Risotto with Fava Beans and Prosciutto

Fava beans, meet prosciutto. Prosicutto, fava beans. Let's throw some rice at them and toast the happy couple.

Ingredients
Olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 rounded cup Arborio rice
1 ladleful white wine
28 oz chicken and/or veggie broth
1 generous pinch saffron
2 lbs fava beans, shelled
3 oz prosciutto, sliced crosswise into strips
2-3 big handfuls baby arugula or spinach, chopped
1 handful flat leaf parsley, chopped (about 1 tbsp, or a bit more to taste)
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
2 tbsp pine nuts
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the shelled favas and blanch for 2-3 minutes till the skins turn white (2 minutes for medium-sized beans and 3 minutes for large ones). Drain, run under cold water to cool, and peel.

Heat the broth with the pinch of saffron in a pot over medium heat until it begins to boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for a minute, then turn off the heat. Keep covered so it stays warm.

Meanwhile, heat a large dutch oven over medium heat. Add a glug of olive oil, wait a few moments for it to heat, then add the onion and saute, stirring, until it softens. Turn the heat down just a little. Add the garlic and saute for another 2-3 minutes, then stir in the rice and continue sauteing for 2 minutes more. Add a little more olive oil if needed.

Stir in a ladleful of dry white wine, and cook the rice, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is absorbed. Add a pinch or two of salt. Begin adding broth by the ladleful, allowing the rice to simmer (turn the heat down a touch more if it's more than a gentle simmer) and stirring every 30 seconds or so until the liquid is absorbed before adding the next ladleful.

Lightly toast the pine nuts in a pan and set aside.

When there is about a cup of broth left in the pot, head a glug of olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat. Add the prosciutto, scattering it in the pan so it doesn't stick together, and the fava beans. Saute, stirring, for a minute, then add the greens and a pinch of salt and continue to saute until the greens wilt. Turn off the heat, and douse liberally with freshly ground black pepper.

When there is just one ladleful of broth left to add, gently stir the fava beans and greens into the risotto. Add the last ladleful of broth, stir, then add the parsley and Parmesan and turn off the heat. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Serve into soup plates, sprinkle with a few pine nuts, garnish with parsley, and serve. Best eaten when it's still very warm but not piping hot.

Serves 2-3.

Lemonless Halibut

We grabbed some halibut last night from our co-op to throw together a quick dinner, but forgot about lemon entirely until it was too late.

Usually, you see, there are lemons in the fruit drawer. But last night, when we opened the fruit drawer, and looked inside all full of hope and expectation, there were not. There was parsley in the garden (though only just, because it keeps attempting to bolt), but absolutely no lemons in the fridge. Not even when we closed the fruit drawer in confusion, shut the door of the fridge, paused, opened it, and checked again. Still no lemons. None at all.

Here is what we decided to do about it. You could garnish this dish with lemon wedges...I'm sure they would only make it better...but you don't (as we stated proudly last night in a burst of sophisticated articulation) need no stinkin lemons to make it good.

Ingredients
1 cup black forbidden rice, simmered with a bit of chopped shallot for 25 minutes in 1 1/4 cups water (or sub brown rice)
0.6 lbs fresh wild halibut
1/4 cup stone ground whole wheat flour
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium clove garlic, pressed
6 Castelvetrano olives, pitted, halved lengthwise, and sliced (or sub another kind of unpickled green olive)
1 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
Slosh white wine

Liberally sprinkle the fish with salt and pepper, then dredge in the flour. Heat a glug of olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat, then add the fish skin-side down and pan fry until golden on the bottom.

In a small pan, heat the butter and olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and turn the heat down to medium low. Simmer for 20-30 seconds until it softens, then add the olives and parsley. Stir a few times, then add a slosh or two of wine and a pinch of salt. Simmer until the liquid is reduced by about half (3 minutes or so), then turn off the heat.

Meanwhile, flip the fish and continue cooking until golden brown on both sides (or all sides, if it's thick enough to cook on four sides) and until it's almost but not quite cooked through. Serve immediately over a bed of rice (it will finish cooking as it sits), and spoon the sauce over the fish and a little over the rice as well.

Serves 2, with a couple of side vegetables (like a big bunch of roasted Red Russian kale and a salad).

Smoked Salmon on Sourdough with Eggs and Kale

Let's say you have a big package of wild smoked salmon on hand, from Costco, and a few pastured eggs, and some Red Russian kale growing in your garden.*

And let's say you have very little energy, but feel compelled to make something whole-foody and home-cooked because you vaguely remember that there's some reason you tend to find that important, on days when you're not too tired to think, and you strongly suspect that one of those days is coming up sometime in the next few weeks and that Untired You will look back on Tired You with sad disapproval if Tired You doesn't cook something today, and you can just imagine the sad, sorrowful shake of the head that Untired and Disgustingly Energetic Future You will throw back in the direction of Tired and Somewhat Pathetically Lethargic Past You, and you cannot bear it. You cannot. And also you cannot bear the thought of something oversalted and processed, because you've gotten addicted to deliciousness and you just can't stop eating it.

If such a thing should happen, I suggest you make this. Future You will be totally jealous.

Ingredients (per person)
2 slices sourdough or multigrain sourdough bread
A few slices smoked salmon (enough for one layer on the sandwich)
1 egg
Olive oil
1 small clove garlic, chopped
A generous handful of sliced kale (that's been cut into thin ribbons and washed carefully)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. Add a glug of olive oil, then add the garlic and saute for 20-30 seconds until soft. Add the kale and saute, stirring occasionally, until the leaves begin to wilt and the stems begin to soften a bit. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and push to the side of the pan.

In the other side of the pan, drizzle a bit more olive oil and then break the egg directly into it. Let sit for a moment, then slowly push the spatula through the egg once to break the yolk. Let sit for another moment, then repeat, so that you're slowly stirring the egg to cook evenly while only partially blending the yolk and the white (at the end, there should still be some distinct white and yellow parts). Stir the kale once or twice in the meantime.

Toast the bread.

When the egg is no longer runny, turn off the heat, and assemble the sandwich in layers: Smoked salmon over the bottom piece of toast, then egg, then kale. Sprinkle with freshly ground pepper. (If the toast is on the dry side, sprinkle the bottom and/or top piece with a little olive oil.)

Cut sandwich in half, and serve hot.

*Incidentally, kale is both easy to grow and keep producing year-round, or at least nearly year-round if you live in frosty climes...and fresh baby kale from the garden is amazing. Grow it. Future You will thank you.

Sauteed Pea Shoots with Garlic Butter

There were pea shoots in our CSA box this week.

Not little baby pea shoots, like the ones that come in a nice safe-looking plastic container from the store. No, these were big, emphatic pea shoots. Pea shoots that meant business. Young and tender, yes, but still. There was no mistaking them for sprouts. No pretending they were not, basically, large pieces of a vine.

The box insert seemed to imply that they were edible. At least, I assume that a recipe for chicken and cilantro with pea shoots suggests you should put the pea shoots in with the chicken, and eat them both.

 
The internets said sugar snap pea shoots are edible, and other pea shoots are poisonous.

We said: "Surely our beloved CSA box wouldn't poison us."

And then we said: "Surely our beloved CSA box wouldn't poison us intentionally."

We Googled "sugar snap pea shoots" and compared and contrasted the pictures with our bowl full of loosely identified vegetable matter. We tilted our heads and squinted. We reassured each other about the similarity of the leaf shape in the photograph and the leaf shape in our hands. We reiterated the point about our CSA box not poisoning us. We made courageous declarations about boldly going where smarter people might not be particularly inclined to go. We steeled our steadfast stomachs.

We cooked the pea shoots. We ate them.

So far, you will be happy to know, we are decidedly alive, and these were decidedly delectable.


Ingredients
A big bowl full of young sugar snap pea shoots, cut or pinched into 3-inch pieces
(if you pinch them apart with your fingertips, you can tell if they're tender -- if you come across a tough piece, toss it out)
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, smashed
1 tsp black mustard seeds
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Heat butter and olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat. When hot, add the garlic and mustard seeds and saute for about 2 minutes. Add the pea shoots, sprinkle with salt, and saute, tossing from time to time, for 2 minutes or until most of the leaves have just wilted. Turn off the heat, toss once more, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

Serves 2-4, and pairs well with Sri Lankan dal curry or fish.

Intermission

Allow me to wander away from recipes for just a moment,

because I am thinking, today, not just about food,

but about life (and death)

and how one thing changes into another

and how we live most at the spaces where our lives intersect

 and how one of those spaces is a table

over which food is shared

and laughter spills

and the world takes on its meaning.

 

The Food in Our Food

In light of the recent media commotion over the ammonia-washed waste trimmings in our beef and caffeine-and-benadryl stuffed chicken (who are apparently also fed their own feathers, laced with arsenic and old lace...I mean, delicious anti-microbials), you may be finding yourself craving some food that didn't come from an industrial farm.

For example. You know those nasturtiums growing in your back yard? Turns out they're delicious. And rarely fed feathers or washed with ammonia. It's like a win-win situation.

To make them the centerpiece of your dinnertime salad, whisk up a vinaigrette of olive oil, sherry vinegar, salt, and pepper, drizzle lightly over baby greens and toss well. Top with diced grapefruit or pomelo, lightly toasted pine nuts, and a little crumbled goat cheese. Scatter with nasturtium petals and/or whole flowers, and serve alongside roasted beets, or risotto, or sablefish.

None of which have ever been ingredients in dog food. There's something comforting about that.

Halibut with Ginger and Shiitake Mushrooms

There may be a glitch in the matrix.

The thing is, after repeatedly sampling this halibut recipe, I can say in no uncertain terms that it's the best halibut ever (on dramatic days, I have been known to generalize beyond halibut to all fish, hot foods, or objects in the solar system). But then last night, for inexplicable reasons, I made this new recipe instead. And it...here's where the glitch comes in...it also seems to be the best halibut ever.

Obviously, a philosophical conundrum such as this can only be resolved through tireless and repeated empirical investigation. I'll get back to you when I've gotten to the bottom of it (or to the bottom of the Co-op's fish supply, whichever comes first). In the meantime, feel free to engage in your own scientific tests -- for the benefit of humankind, of course, and for the benefit of dinner.

Serve over brown or black rice, and pair with some sort of vegetable. This recipe is fairly simple and quick, as long as you remember to start the rice ahead of time.


Ingredients
1/2 - 2/3 lbs halibut (enough for two)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 scallions, white and light green parts, sliced
2 medium cloves garlic, chopped
Several thin slices ginger, julienned (nearly twice as much ginger as garlic, volume-wise)
12-15 shiitake mushrooms, brushed clean, stems removed, and cut in half
(or sliced in thirds, if especially large)
3 oz sake (rice wine)
Lemon wedges or halves

Sprinkle the fish with salt and black pepper, then dredge in the flour.

Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. When hot, drizzle the bottom lightly with olive oil, then add the fish. Pan fry for several minutes until golden brown on the bottom, then flip. (If you've cut the piece of fish in half already and it's fairly thick, you may be able to brown all four sides. If not, turn the heat down a bit so that the fish can cook through before the bottom gets too dark.)

After you've flipped the fish, heat a glug of olive oil in another pan over medium heat (or, if you're lazy like me and have a big enough pan, push the fish to the side of the first pan and do this on the other side while it cooks). Add the ginger and scallions, stir a few times, then add the garlic and turn the heat down just a bit. Saute for 15-20 seconds, then add the mushrooms and stir to coat. Continue cooking the mushrooms, stirring occasionally and without crowding them, until they start to lightly brown.

Just before the fish is cooked through, remove it from the pan and set aside.

Sprinkle the mushrooms with a pinch of salt, stir, then add the sake and turn off the heat. Stir a few times as the sake simmers. Serve the fish over rice, and spoon the sauce over the top. Garnish with a generous wedge of lemon, and serve hot.

Serves 2.

Conquering the Cauliflower, Phase III: Leftovers

Lunch in less than ten minutes. Or rather, a gourmet, local, whole foods lunch in less than ten minutes. Can't really beat that.

Step 1: Make this recipe, alongside some fish or chicken or whatever over wild rice (if you make about a cup of wild rice, you can use two-thirds of it for a two-person dinner and save the last third for this recipe).

Step 2: Gleefully remove leftovers from fridge the next day, and make this:

Ingredients
About 2 cups leftover roasted cauliflower
Three big handfuls spinach leaves
1 cup leftover cooked wild rice
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sherry vinegar
1 tbsp whole grain mustard
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Throw the spinach into a pot, cover, set over medium heat, and cook until the leaves just start to wilt from the steam (or zap in the microwave for about 30 seconds).

Whisk the olive oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper together to form an emulsion. Toss with the wilted spinach till the leaves are evenly coated, then add the wild rice and mix well.

Reheat the cauliflower in the microwave for about 1 1/2 minutes on high or until warm but not scalding. Serve over a bed of the spinach-wild rice mixture.

Serves two for a quick and easy and amazingly delicious lunch.

Conquering the Cauliflower, Phase II: Roasted

Cauliflower 2.0. How does it compare to the previous version? Doubtless only time...and repeated sampling...can tell.

This is getting to be an old hat but...you remember that thing I said I wasn't sure if I really liked last week? Well I love it now. Totally mesmerized. Deliciously addicted. Can't possibly stop eating it ever even in a million years ooh wait look what's that?

Ingredients

Olive oil

1 to 1 1/2 heads cauliflower, divided into florets

1 small to medium red onion, quartered lengthwise and sliced into quarter rings

1 slice whole grain bread, coarsely chopped

2 tsp capers, soaked in water for 1/2 hour and rinsed

Kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Drizzle cauliflower and onions with olive oil and toss till lightly coated. Pour into a nonstick baking pan, a couple layers deep, and roast for 45 minutes or until browned and tender, stirring every 15 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, heat a little olive oil in a pan over medium heat. When hot, add the bread and capers and fry, stirring, until golden brown.

When the cauliflower is done, drizzle with just a little more olive oil if it's a bit dry. Sprinkle with salt, add the toasted bread and capers, stir, and serve hot.

Serves 4, or two for dinner (pairs well with sablefish over wild rice) and two for lunch the next day (recipe coming soon to a blog near you).