Plants for Dessert: Strawberries and Limoncello

I have heard, through the grapevine, that certain readers have been clamoring for more desserts. Because I am, at heart, a selfless individual, I have virtuously set aside my dinner plate and subjected myself to rigorous taste-testing of the following recipe. Results so far are promising, and yet as a scientist, I must insist on 10-20 more trials before coming to any definite conclusions.

 

If you need me, I'll be over there in the corner with a bowl full of strawberries.

Ingredients
Fresh, fragrant strawberries, sliced crosswise into thirds or quarters
2-4 fresh mint leaves per person, chiffonade
1/2 shot limoncello per person
Bar of good-quality dark chocolate, for shaving

Toss the strawberries with the limoncello and mint. Spoon into serving bowls or glasses, and shave a little dark chocolate over the top using a microplane or carrot peeler.

Serves you and anyone you've decided you really, really love that day.

Cannellini Spread with Garlic and Cilantro

Quick, easy, delightful, and tastes like springtime on a plate.

Ingredients

Olive oil

1 shallot, sliced

3 cloves garlic, smashed

Salt

1 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

Handful fresh cilantro

Dash or four of ground cumin

Dash or two of paprika

1/2 tsp Aleppo pepper (or sub 1 pinch cayenne pepper)

Crackers or toasts

Optional (but highly recommended):
2-3 handfuls baby arugula, very coarsely chopped

(or sub baby spinach, coarsely chopped)

Juice of 1/3 Meyer lemon

Heat 2-3 tbsp olive oil in a small pan over medium heat. Add the shallot, garlic, and a pinch of salt, and turn the heat down to medium low. Saute for about 3 minutes or until the garlic softens, then remove from the heat.

Combine the cannellini beans, shallot-garlic mixture (with the oil), and cilantro in a Cuisinart and blend until smooth. Add a dash or four of ground cumin, a touch of paprika, and the Aleppo pepper, and blend again. Taste and adjust salt, cumin, paprika, and cilantro as needed (you want the cilantro taste prominent but not overpowering, and the cumin and paprika as more of a background note. If you like the balance of flavors but want to bring them out more, add a little salt).

Toss the baby arugula with a light drizzle of olive oil and Meyer lemon juice, if desired, and arrange in a ring on a plate or soup bowl. Add the spread to the middle, and serve with stone ground whole wheat crackers.

Serves 2 for a light lunch or 4-6 for appetizers.

Wine pairing: Tapiz Torrontés

Moroccan Chickpea Stew

You know how sometimes people who aren't vegetarians will say to people who are vegetarians, "Oh, I couldn't imagine not eating meat...vegetarian food is so bland," and the vegetarian person will cast about for a suitable retort?


This. This is the retort.*

 

Make this as a meal in itself, or pair with lemon-mint couscous and carrots braised with toasted cumin seeds and lemon zest.

(Inspired by the soup here and the recipes here and here.)






Ingredients
Olive oil
3/4 tsp ground cumin
1 small onion, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
5 cloves garlic, pressed
Scant 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp paprika
3/4 tsp Aleppo pepper (or sub 2 pinches cayenne)
1 cup chopped canned tomatoes
2 cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained (or sub 3-4 cups homegrown and precooked)
2 3/4 cups chicken and/or veggie broth
Salt, to taste
2-3 handfuls chopped mild greens (like chard or spinach; or sub 3/4 cup frozen spinach)
Fresh cilantro leaves, for garnish

Heat a soup pot over medium heat. Add a glug of olive oil and allow to heat through. Add the cumin to the oil and let it sizzle for 10 seconds to toast. Stir in the onion, shallot, and another drizzle of olive oil, and saute until the onions soften slightly. Next, add the garlic and a pinch of salt and saute for a minute or two more, turning the heat down a little to keep it from browning.

Add the cinnamon, paprika, and Aleppo pepper, and then stir in the chickpeas. Saute, stirring occasionally, for about 2 minutes, then add the tomato and saute for a minute more. Pour in the broth, cover the pot, and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and simmer gently for 40 minutes.

Adjust salt to taste. Add the greens and simmer for another couple minutes, then turn off the heat. Use an immersion blender to blend just a bit of the soup to thicken it (or ladle one quarter of the soup into a blender, blend till smooth, and return to the pot).

If you have time, let the soup sit, covered, for another 10-15 minutes to allow the flavors to blend.

Serve warm (not boiling hot) and garnish with cilantro.

Serves 3-4.

Pairs in a heavenly way with an Amador County F8 Tempranillo.

*Dear bacon: Don't worry, I still love you.

Orzotto with Braised Kale and Butternut Squash

Found in the fridge: Green kale, garlic. Found on the washing machine: A butternut squash, shallots, also fabric softener but clearly that had been misplaced from its proper location. Found in the cupboard: Whole wheat orzo, cannellini beans.

Solution: Dinner now, laundry later.

This is one of those meals you can start cooking as soon as you have the first ingredients ready and prepare the rest as you go, which means it manages to pull off that obsession-worthy trifecta of being easy, healthy, and deeply delicious.


Ingredients
Olive oil
1 medium to large shallot, halved lengthwise and sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 bunch green kale, sliced into thin ribbons
1 cup diced butternut squash
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1.5 cups flavorful chicken and/or veggie broth
1 rounded cup whole wheat orzo pasta
Salt and white pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese

Heat a generous glug of olive oil in a wide saute pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and shallot and saute for 1-2 minutes, until they soften slightly. Add the kale, in batches if the pan isn't big enough to hold it all at once before it starts to wilt, and toss well with the garlic and shallot. Saute, turning occasionally with tongs, until the kale wilts down quite a bit, drizzling with a little more olive oil if necessary.

When the kale has mostly wilted, add the butternut squash. Stir, sprinkling with salt, then add a slosh of broth and cover. Let simmer for 3-5 minutes, uncover, stir, add a slosh more broth, and repeat. Continue this for 15-20 minutes, turning the heat down to low about midway through. (Don't worry the kale mixture sticks to the bottom of the pan a bit now and then—the browning actually makes it taste even better). Add the beans, stir, and continue to cook over low heat for 3-5 more minutes, then turn off the heat and let sit for the flavors to blend.

Meanwhile, bring 1 1/4 cups of broth to boil in a smallish pot. Add the orzo, stir, and cover. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 9 minutes, or according to package directions. (If you double this recipe, you may want to use a bit less broth, or else uncover the pot to let the excess broth evaporate at the end.)

Stir the orzo into the kale and squash mixture and adjust salt to taste. Serve into bowls, and sprinkle lightly with Parmesan cheese and white pepper.

Serves 2-3.

Wordless Wednesday: Retasting Taste

Romanesco salad with pancetta, walnuts, golden raisins

Sweet potato gnocchi with house-made duck and fennel sausage, pear, winter greens

Grilled prosciutto and mushroom flatbread with shaved Parmesan, mache

Tart Tatin with whisky caramel, fennel anglaise, brown sugar gelato

 (yes please)

Smashed Potatoes

You heard me. Smashed. Because sometimes there's just not time to vent and then make dinner. Sometimes, you need to multitask.

Ingredients
Smallish purple, red, and/or yellow potatoes, brushed clean and punctured with a fork
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Grated cheddar or pepper jack cheese
Chopped parsley

Boil potatoes until tender (a fork should insert easily). Drain and allow to cool slightly.

Smash each potato lightly with the flat side of a meat tenderizer or a mallet. If others ask what you're doing, say "WHAM!" loudly as you smash the next potato, and they will most likely back away slowly and leave you in peace to finish eloquently articulating how you feel about your day.

Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper, then liberally with cheese and parsley.

Serve hot, eat hungrily in good company, and decide that your day turned out just fine.

Butternut Squash and White Bean Soup

Found in the cupboard: Cannellini beans. Found on top of washing machine: 1 butternut squash (don't ask). Found in freezer: Spinach. Solution on a wintry evening while fending off a cold? A hearty, soul-warming soup (adapted from here).

Ingredients
Olive oil
1 large shallot, chopped
1 small butternut squash (2-2.5 pounds), peeled and diced
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf
3 cups chicken broth
1/2-1 cup frozen spinach
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
Salt to taste (less if the chicken broth is highly salted)
2-3 pinches Meyer lemon zest
White pepper
A little Pecorino or Parmesan cheese (optional)*

Heat a soup pot over medium heat. Add a glug of olive oil and the shallot, and saute for 2-3 minutes until soft. Add the squash and saute, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes. Add the rosemary and bay leaf, and saute for a couple minutes more.

Pour in the chicken broth, stir once, and cover the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 12-20 minutes (depending on how big your cubes are), until the squash is just tender. Add the spinach and the beans, return the soup to a simmer, and cook for about three minutes more.

Add salt and lemon zest to taste (there's enough salt when the broth tastes flavorful, and there's enough lemon zest when you can taste just a hint of it). Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with white pepper, and grate just a very little cheese over the top if desired (like 2-3 passes across a microplane per bowl).

Serves 2-4.

*If you live near the Sacramento Co-op, there is a cheese there called Pecorino Moliterno with Truffles. Buy it, revel in what happens when you eat it alongside a tart apple, think of it obsessively the entire next day, and also use it here.

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Lemon Zest

This will come as a shock to all regular readers, I know, but the truth must out. I used to not like something that I now love. Shockingly-er still, it has something to do with bacon.

 
I'll give you a moment to recover.

The formerly-disparaged vegetable in question this time is the Brussels sprout. I could wax palaverous about my conversion, but I'll spare you this once. The short version is, in the following order:
1. Ugh.
2. Tuli Bistro
3. Oh!
4. The following recipe.
5. Gosh I love Brussels sprouts. Do you want to make Brussels sprouts tonight? I really love Brussels sprouts, don't you? Hello, check-out person at the co-op! Have I talked to you about my deep and profound love of that vegetable you're ringing up there? Hey guy next to my car, guess what? Brussels sprouts! (To which my husband replied: Yes dear. Get in, please.)

I know I say this a lot, but I mean it every time: Make this.

Love the Brussel. Be the Brussel. Eat the Brussel...

Ingredients
1 slice Niman Ranch applewood smoked bacon, sliced crosswise
Olive oil
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
3/4 lbs small young brussels sprouts, washed well and halved
(for larger sprouts, separate the outer leaves)
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 tsp lemon zest + 1 pinch sugar, mixed
1 oz blue cheese, crumbled or cut into small pieces
(We tried this with a crumbly blue cheese and a creamier/tangier blue cheese and preferred the crumbly one)
Salt to taste

Heat a wide nonstick pan over medium heat. When hot, add the bacon, and saute for a minute. Add a glug of olive oil, the onion, and a pinch of salt, and saute for another couple minutes until the onion softens.

Add the brussels sprouts and a couple liberal pinches of salt, and toss to coat evenly. Saute, stirring occasionally, for about 4 minutes.

Add a splash of broth to create some steam and cover the pan. Continue cooking for another 4-6 minutes, stirring once in the middle, until the brussels sprouts are golden brown and the hearts are al dente.

Uncover, push to the side of the pan, and add the lemon zest-sugar mixure. Let heat through for 5 seconds, then stir to mix well with the sprouts. Sprinkle in the blue cheese, stir, turn off the heat, and serve hot.

Serves 2.

Tangerine Mimosas

Happy New Year, everyone! Ring in 2013 with a sweet twist on the classic mimosa (juice 1-2 tangerines into each half-glass of champagne, clink a toast, and sip happily).

Here's to a new year of recipes to come....

Butternut Squash Polenta with Sage and Gruyere

You say parsnip addiction, I say parsnip penchant.

We could agree to disagree, or you could surrender to reality. The proof is in the polenta. 

Ingredients
Olive oil
1/2 butternut squash, diced (about 1.3 lbs)
1 large parsnip, diced (about 10 oz.)
1 tbsp pastured butter
2 tbsp chopped fresh sage or a little more (older sage is far less potent, so nibble a piece to taste and adjust if necessary)
1 cup coarsely ground cornmeal (polenta)
2 cups veggie or chicken broth
1/2 cup grated Gruyere cheese (about 2 oz.)
2 handfuls baby arugula, chopped (about 2-3 oz.)
Salt and freshly ground white pepper

Heat a wide saute pan over medium heat. When hot, add a glug of olive oil. Add the squash and parsnip and toss to coat lightly in oil. Cook, stirring every 2-3 minutes, until the squash begins to take on some color and the pieces are tender (about 7-12 minutes. If your pieces are larger, you may need to cover the pan after they've browned a bit and use the steam to get them to cook through).

Push the veggie to the side of the pan and melt the butter on the other side. Add the sage, stir once or twice, then toss with the squash and parsnip to coat. Sprinkle with salt and turn off the heat.

Meanwhile, bring 2 cups of broth plus one cup of water to a rolling boil in a pot. While stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, add the polenta in a slow stream. Continue to stir constantly, turning the heat down slightly, for 3-4 minutes or until the polenta thickens to almost (but not quite) the desired consistency—think spreadable but thick. Turn off the heat and stir in the cheese and arugula.

Combine the polenta and the veggies in either pot. Stir, and adjust sage and salt to taste. Serve immediately, with freshly ground white pepper over the top. Garnish with a little chopped arugula if desired.

Serves 2 for dinner.


(Note that polenta doesn't reheat well, so if you end up with leftovers, one idea is to press them into a square tupperware, refrigerate, and then slice the block that forms into cakes that you can fry in a little olive oil the next day.)