Mark Bittman's Stone Fruit Revelations






Wow, man, stoned fruit!



Mark Bittman is a Food God. I follow his column in the NY Times almost religiously and many Sundays I find a delightful new dish to try in the coming week. I've attempted South Seas Chile Lobster and Fried Soft-shelled crabs and so many things under his tutelage, and last summer, stone fruit like you've never imagined.

I share his lamentation that cherries are hard to grill, but delightful as grilled stone fruit is, the fresh salads are so good! I tried the Minty Fruit Salad and the Grilled With Asian Spices. Mangia!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/magazine/a-dozen-ways-to-serve-stone-fruit.html?_r=0

Little Lambsie Divey - Lamb Meatballs and Chopped Greek Salad

Mares Eat Oats, And Does Eat Oats and Little Lambs Eat Ivy....

Eating the lamb and eating the Greek salad. Very little to do with the novelty song from the 40s. But it's a cute song and one of ma mere's favorites growing up.

Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?

The inspiration for this one is a take on a Rachel Ray recipe of lamb meatballs on chopped Greek salad. I don't even use a recipe anymore. It's a Wing It!



Oh, man! Pitas and tzatziki next!



Ground lamb combined with a couple of cloves of garlic per pound of ground lamb, chopped, a good

handful of chopped mint leaves, a tablespoon or to taste of cumin. I sometimes throw in chopped Italian parsley and if I have fresh oregano, I'll strip a couple of stems of leaves and chop those too (easy on the fresh oregano...it's powerful stuff fresh). S and P. Form little patties and brown in a skillet.



Mine almost looks this good!

 
The salad is lettuce-less. Cube a cucumber, a green pepper, a red pepper, a small red onion, add a good handful each of yellow and red cherry or grape tomatoes, a scant handful of sliced deli Greek pepperoncinis, and a good handful of Kalamata olives sliced in half. Toss in a handful of chopped Italian parsley, dress with red wine viegar and good olive oil, S and P. If I'm making batches for work, I leave out the cheese, but for feasting at home, I toss in some nice chunks of non-low-fat feta.

Plate the salad and place some lamb patties on top. Mangia!

Whore's Spaghetti



See link below for history.



Pasta Puttanesca is called Whore's Spaghetti because it is a simple and quick dish that can be prepared on a hot plate in a hurry. It sounds like it could equally be called busy Working Mom spaghetti. Area stores are finally starting to carry San Marzano canned tomatoes, so no need to divert to speciality stores for this ingredient (although the funky Asian fish and Mediterranean markets are still adored for produce, seafood, goat and spices). I had some Italian parsley left over from Greek salad and wanted to use it while it was still very fresh.



Not my photo!

 Pasta Puttanesca is pure pantry except for the parsley. Garlic, anchovies and crushed red pepper take a whirl in the bottom of a saucepan for a minute or two to release flavor and aroma (yum!), then they are joined by tomatoes, olives and capers. Simmer 15 minutes and at the end sprinkle on chopped parsley. Do not use cheese for this one. Toss with spaghetti (I use regular not thin). Mangia!






Pasta Puttanesca

2 tbsp. olive oil
3 plump garlic cloves, chopped
4 to 6 anchovies (to taste) chopped
A good sized sprinkle of crushed red pepper
28 oz. canned tomatoes (do try to get San Marzano; they are worth the effort)
15 Kalamata olives sliced in half
15 green olives sliced in half (I use garlic-stuffed olives. It's non-traditional. Sue me, I like olives)
1 to 2 Tbsp. capers
2 to 3 Tbsp. chopped Italian parsley
1 pound spaghetti

Set a pot of salted water on to boil for pasta. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic, anchovies and pepper, saute for a minute or two, stirring once or twice. Don't let the garlic burn. Add the tomatoes, crushing them as you add them, or just dumping them if you bought crushed. Add the remaining ingredients except parsley and pasta. Simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. When the water is at a rolling boil, cook pasta according to instructions on box for al dente results. Drain pasta, toss with sauce and sprinkle with parsley.

http://www.sanmarzanotomatoes.org/

Want To Thai Me Up With Your Thais, Thai?

That quote is from Caddyshack and has little to do with this recipe. OK, it has nothing to do with this recipe, except for the name of one of the ingredients.

I was picking up salmon (not farm-raised, the horror!) and veggies for Greek salad (many times my go to lunch during the week at the office), and browsing the produce for something to go with the Spiced Salmon Kebabs in this month's BA (salmon painted with spiced olive oil, fresh oregano, sesame seeds, cumin and crushed red papper, interspersed with thin lemon slices on the skewers). I was going to just have some of the Greek salad but the lovely little green Thai eggplants caught my eye. Grilled, yes they will do! Ginger garlic oil brush/dressing. Then I saw the tiny baby cauliflowers, white and orange. Orange added to the mix in the cart. Now we're building toward a menage of grilled veggies with Ginger Garlic oil. Who will be the third? Baby beets. Could have gone with golden, but the red would contrast nicely. Sesame oil and a bit of pomegranate molasses in the oil because I made a serious ordering mistake tracking down pomegranate molasses and now have a lifetime supply. You could go with honey instead. Mangia!

Grilled Baby Veggies Trifecta with Ginger Garlic Sesame Oil

6 Thai eggplants
5 or 6 baby beets
4 head baby cauliflower
2 Tbsp. chopped ginger
1 Tbsp. chopped garlic
1/4 cup peanut oil
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
1 Tsp. pomegranate molasses or honey

Cut off ends and slice Thai eggplants crosswise into three pieces. Clean and cut off root ends and tops from beets and cut in half crosswise. Cut off ends of cauliflower leaving bits of leaves if desired. Cut cauliflowers in half crosswise. Brush with oil, reserving most of the oil and ginger and garlic pieces. Grill until tender and annointed with lovely dark grill marks, turning once and brushing again with oil. Some people would recommend taking the peel off the beets but when they are this small, I don't bother. Transfer to bowl and toss with remaining oil. Salt to taste.

The Versatile Grain: Eggplant and Barley and Corn, Oh My.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mediterranean-Eggplant-and-Barley-Salad-235753



Link to book on Amazon below.



I love grains, but I sometimes go many weeks and months without remembering to show them that I do by, well, preparing and eating them. One of my favorite cookbooks is The Versatile Grain and the Elegant Bean by Mel and Sheryl London, published in the late 70s. It includes recipes for quinoa and amaranth, almost four decades before they became the trendy grains for the foodies, although I think I read that quinoa made some inroads with the Atkins set due to its low carb makeup. Their recipes for Moros y Cristianos (black beans on seasoned white rice covered in tricolor carmelized onions and peppers) and Black Bean Timbale with Red Pepper Sauce have been returned to many times.

I was faced with a temporary storage problem, having a very small kitchen. Not Manhattan micro-apartment small, but still small. A number of half empty grain containers, plastic bags mostly, stared forlornly at me as I piled them on the counter to avert a grain and seed avalanche from the cupboard over the stove. This week, I thought, I tackle the excess remainders.

I found this recipe and as I read it, I remembered a memorable side dish I had for dinner at the restaurant in the San Benito House in Half Moon Bay. SBH unfortunately has recently undergone a remodel where they changed all the differently-themed rooms and made them contemporary. Pity. You could book the Safari Room or the All American Room, but all of them had slightly different themes on Americana Country.

Imagine a very tastefully done Madonna Inn and you have the idea. The restaurant was amazing and had

been profiled in Bon Appetit years back. It has the most beautiful wood deck and fire pit with wood planters of flowers and herbs, and a lovely little "backyard" garden with a gazebo. Weddings are still held there frequently. They were known especially for their breakfast breads, artichoke-laden bread, warm fruit muffins....yum! Cute little egg cups for the soft boiled eggs at breakfast!

I was at the end of a relationship, feeling quite sorry for myself and suddenly decided I should get away for the weekend and booked a flight, car and the SBH for two nights. The first night was the night of the Side Dish; the second was memorable because while out walking, I stumbled upon a Quincienera at the local high school auditorium. I watched from the door for a long time and some friendly caballeros invited me in. Fun!

The side dish was a barley pilaf, with tender, chewy barley, roasted corn, white beans, pancetta and parsley. I made it often over the years, winging it every time because although I wrote to BA to see if they would winkle the recipe out of SBH, it came to no avail.

For this one, I skipped the sugar, went with yellow and red cherry tomatoes and added the kernels from three roasted ears of fresh corn. Mangia!

• 1 1/2 pound eggplant, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 3/4 pound zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 10 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 cup chopped scallion (from 1 bunch)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 1/4 cups pearl barley (8 oz)
• 1 (14-oz) can reduced-sodium chicken broth (1 3/4 cups)
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 pound cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1/3 cup Kalamata or other brine-cured black olives, pitted and halved
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion, rinsed and drained if desired
• 1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint

• Accompaniment: 1 (1/2-lb) piece ricotta salata, cut crosswise into thin slices

Preparation

Roast eggplant and zucchini:
Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.

Toss eggplant and zucchini with 5 tablespoons oil, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 3/4 teaspoon pepper in a bowl, then spread in 2 oiled large shallow (1-inch-deep) baking pans. Roast vegetables in oven, stirring occasionally and switching position of pans halfway through baking, until vegetables are golden brown and tender, 20 to 25 minutes total. Combine vegetables in 1 pan and cool, reserving other pan for cooling barley.

Cook barley:
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a 3- to 4-quart heavy pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then cook scallion, cumin, coriander, and cayenne, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add barley and cook, stirring until well coated with oil, 2 minutes more. Add broth and water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until all of liquid is absorbed and barley is tender, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, 5 minutes. Transfer to reserved shallow baking pan and spread to quickly cool, uncovered, to room temperature, about 20 minutes.

Make dressing and assemble salad:
Whisk together lemon juice, garlic, sugar, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and 3 tablespoons oil in a large bowl. Add barley, roasted vegetables, and remaining ingredients to bowl with dressing and toss until combined well. Serve with cheese slices.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Versatile-Grain-Elegant-Bean/dp/0671761064

Adventures of a Girl Serf in the Castle Kitchen

No, no, no need to overthrow the Czar. There are no real serfs here, just a gal who loves to cook and is sometimes rather good at it. She hopes only for a notice or two in the noise and haze and static which is the Wide World of Culinary Blogging. She worships Anne Burrell, Suzanne Goin, Madhur Jaffrey, Emeril Lagasse, Anthony Bourdain, Bill Buford, Mark Bittman, and of course, the Goddess Known as Julia. She thinks Mario is ok, but really likes his weekly feature in the NY Times' One Page Magazine, "What I'm Drinking Now". She thinks about food a lot, reads about food a lot, and now wishes to write about food...a lot? We'll see about the dedication level soon enough, won't we?

She is me. I am she. Note: not, "I am She". This is not a paeon to H. Rider Haggard. This is about my cooking, the recipes that interest me, the experiments I try, the meals that turn out well and the ones that don't. Especially the ones that don't, because we learn more from our failures than our successes. Mangia!