He say ceviche

The longer we're together, the more Cobe drifts toward foodie-ness.

We spent this past blisteringly-hot Saturday wandering in and out of the pool, Pacifico in hand. The idea of cooking seemed unbearable. At about 4 Cobe started flipping through cookbooks.

"How about ceviche?"

I handed him "Mexican Everyday" and in an hour he was hard at work, chopping cilantro and jalapenos. I meanwhile, worked on my tan. It was a nice change.



The ceviche turned out perfectly, enough heat from the serranos and jalapenos, a bit of bite from the lime, and the brightness of the cilantro. It could have used a bit of onion but Cobe is so anti-raw onion he usually leaves them out. The avocados were a good texture contrast too, creamy and fresh.

Make sure you have enough time for it to marinate as the longer it sits the more "cooked" it will taste. We found it needed at least 2 hours. The recipe said to wrap it in lettuce leaves, but we were unimpressed. French bread toasted to a crisp was much better.


Ceviche
(adapted from Rick Bayless, Mexican Everyday)

1 cup lime juice (fresh squeezed)
2 garlic cloves
1 cup cilantro
3 serranos
1 red pepper, cut into medium dice
1 small tomato, cut into medium dice
salt
1 # sashimi grade boneless skinless fish, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 avocado cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 loaf french bread cut into thin slices and toasted at 300 degrees until browned and crispy through

Put lime juice, garlic, cilantro, chiles and 1 tsp salt into food processor, blend till smooth. Pour over fish in a bowl. Let "cook" in fridge 1-4 hours, depending on your taste. When done, pour off half marinade. Add avocado, tomato and red pepper. Scoop up with crispy toasts.

Zucchini Carpaccio

I never used to like zucchini. Not surprising, given that my only experience of zucchini as a child was those overcooked seedy rounds. Marcella Hazan turned me onto the beauty of zucchini. You cut it lengthwise, cook it till just done, and pair it with parmesan, or mix it in with risotto.

It was a revelation. Zucchini has a beautiful flavor, almost floral.

But I still find it a challenge.

I grilled some the other day, and it just wasn't right, too vegetal. It tasted like green.

So last night I was searching for new zucchini options (we are deep into zucchini season, and the market was flooded) when I happened upon zucchini carpaccio.

This is so beautiful, so simple. You have to try it. In reality, the flavors are mostly non-zucchini...it is a showcase for beautiful olive oil, good grey salt, some basil and the best parmesan. But it still speaks a zucchini language, underneath. It whispers zucchini, as only a true italian can.

Zucchini Carpaccio
(adapted from Gourmet 2003)

1 zucchini, very fresh
glug of olive oil, about 2 T.
1/2 lemon
sprinkle of grey salt or fleur de sel
sprinkle of fresh ground black pepper
parmigiano reggiano
fresh basil or mint
pine nuts (if desired)

Only make this if you have beautiful zucchini. And by all means use really good extra virgin olive oil (so good that you'd eat it alone on toast). My favorite is Frantoia (which you can get at Big John's PFI) The best cheese too....reggiano is my favorite, but anything hard and sharp would work. Grana padano would be good too. It has to be fresh basil (or mint, something light). And definitely fresh lemon juice.

Cut the zucchini on a mandoline at a slight angle as thin as you can. Mandolines are a life-saver---invest in one. There are cheap japanese ones that will run you $30.

Lay the slices out on a plate. Sprinkle with the olive oil, trying to coat each piece. Now sprinkle with grey salt. Then squeeze the half lemon over the top, again trying to coat all. Sprinkle on fresh ground black pepper. Chiffonade the basil.

Like this:

Stack up the leaves.



Roll them up like a cigar.



Cut them thinly.



Sprinkle the basil on top of it all.

Zest some of the lemon (or use a rasp) and sprinkle on top. This adds a different flavor than the juice, more floral.

Lastly, cut shreds of the cheese with a vegetable peeler (makes them nice and thick) and scatter over the top.

Let sit maybe 10 minutes, then eat.

From France with Love

Sorry to have been away so long. I was in France with my dad. Have you been to France? You should go. It’s beautiful. They love food.

The first meal we ate, I knew things were different. We were in a little restaurant in a small town, but the salad I ordered came with perfectly poached eggs, a handmade vinaigrette and thick pieces of beautiful ham. All through France we had the same experience…the bar was higher. There was no watery meat, no wonder bread, no gas station hot dogs. People wouldn’t stand for poor quality food.

But the longer we were there, the more I felt something different, something even more profound. The food was largely the same from town to town, restaurant to restaurant. Perhaps one would have slightly better bread, slightly more involved appetizers. But in general they were serving French food to French people. There was so much less variety than you would find in the US, even in a small town.

And really, to be frank, I wasn’t as wowed by the food as I expected to be. There was some wonderful duck, some delicious cheeses, a wide variety of cured meats. The wine was phenomenal. But the meat was sometimes tough, the sauces the standard fare. It was rarely exciting. To be fair, we were in small towns, places not usually known for encouraging creativity.



Luckily we had decided when we planned this trip that we wanted to cook. This was a father-daughter trip to explore the wines of burgundy, and to really explore wine you need to drink it with food, and to do that you need to cook. So we rented a villa in a small town in southern burgundy. It was remote and rustic, even more beautiful than we expected. And the kitchen was perfectly appointed.




Each day we would get up late, eat long slow lunches in cafes, taste wine in the afternoon, and then come home and cook dinner.



It gave us an excuse to wander the farmers’ markets and gape at the roosters. We bought white asparagus and fresh eggs “plein aire.” We went to the supermarche in Nolay, a pathetic little store that still managed to have reasonable vegetables, a large meat counter, and a whole section of foie gras.


And we cooked.

The first night I tried to make oeufs en meurette (eggs poached in red wine), but failed miserably. I made the sauce, poached the eggs in it and boiled it down, but sadly my poaching technique was not stellar and I ended up with strands of egg. After some straining and adding more wine it was edible, but barely. I didn't take a picture. I'll let you imagine it.

The next night I gave in and made something easy, an onion omelette. But this was no ordinary omelette. The eggs from the farmers' market were wonderful, with dark yellow yolks. And the onions had this sweetness that I have never found in the US. With some comte cheese and an impressive bottle of premier cru chassagne-monrachet, it was a wonderful meal. I also cooked up some of the white asparagus, not realizing that the outer skin is so tough you need to peel them completely. The flavor was wonderful, but we could have chewed them forever.



Next I tackled boeuf bourguignonne. We found a boucherie to buy the meat, but were perplexed by the cuts. There was no “chuck” or “rump.” When we asked for meat to use in boeuf bourguinonne, the bucher pointed to first his leg then his shoulder, holding up the appropriate cuts. Leg is like rump? I went with the leg. The stew turned out wonderfully, but even after 3 hours the meat was still somewhat tough. Perhaps I should have used shoulder. Or maybe I am spoiled by lazy corn-fed cows. I did discover that in france they have prepackaged pre-cut lardons.



My father’s favorite meal (or perhaps he was just placating me) was a salad
made of leftovers that we dubbed “salade beaunoise.” Endive, hardboiled egg, lardons fried crispy, browned garlic, morbier and my standard vinaigrette. I’ll give you that recipe, since it so perfectly reflected our week in burgundy: good meat, good cheese and above all good wine. I recommend drinking some Meursault with it, if you can find a bottle. Or at least a nice Chablis.



Salade Beaunoise

2 endive
100 g pre-cut smoked lardons OR 3-4 slices thick cut bacon cut into thin one inch strips
3 cloves fresh garlic (not dried) if you can find it, can substute dried, sliced thinly
2 eggs
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
good French mustard (I recommend Maille a la ancienne)
honey
morbier cheese (or other good cheese, a little sharpness is nice, blue would be fabulous)


First hard boil the eggs. My favorite method is to put the eggs in cold water so that there is 1 inch of water above them (the depth is important as it changes how long it takes to boil the water). Then bring the water to boil. Immediately take off the heat, let sit in the hot water for 9-10 minutes (10 for very firm, 9 for a little softer). Then place in a cold water bath.

Saute bacon pieces in a medium hot pan with a small amount of oil until brown (5 minutes or so). Remove from pan and place on paper towels. Saute garlic in same pan.

Wash and dry the endive, cut into 2 inch pieces.

Make a dressing using the olive oil and vinegar. I usually guesstimate this, 1/3 vinegar to 2/3 oil (to make a total of ~1/2 cup). Then mix in 1/2 tsp mustard, 1/2 tsp honey, salt and pepper. Whisk or mix with a fork until mixed. The honey should keep it from separating. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Mix endive with dressing in a big bowl so you can get it all in. Divide endive into bowls. Top with garlic, bacon and hard boiled eggs (cut in half). Ladle on extra dressing onto the eggs. Top with pieces of morbier.

Enjoy.

Dinner Salad

Sometimes I don't remember to take the photo until it's too late. Which is a good sign since it means we couldn't stop eating.

Doesn't it look like it was good?

Back in my bachelorette days I still cooked, but more in a subsistence way. My favorite thing to make was a dinner salad--a green salad topped with some kind of hot meat. And truthfully, it's still really damn good and simple and healthy. I made this one with chicken, but any thing would work.

Here's the general framework:

1. Hot meat (chicken, flank steak, salmon, bacon, sausage)
2. Salad base (mixed greens or my favorite--arugula)
3. Dressing (you could adapt this depending on the other ingredients)
4. Cheese (goat cheese is my favorite, feta, blue cheese, or parmigiano reggiano all also work well)
5. Fresh fruit (this adds a brightness....green apple slice thin, ripe pear, grapefruit, persimmon)
6. Other toppings: fresh herbs, chopped roasted nuts

I'll give you the recipe for the one I made the other night, but I'm telling you. Be creative.

Dinner Salad

2 breasts chicken
spice rub (your choice)
arugula
butter lettuce
olive oil (the good stuff)
balsamic vinegar (even more important that it be the good stuff! Use aged balsamic. You need it for this.)
honey mustard
salt and pepper
feta cheese
fresh grapefruit segments (for directions see here)


Wash greens very well, and spin dry, then dry with paper towels. Put in a salad bowl.

Make dressing, mixing 1/3 vinegar to 2/3 olive oil in a small bowl (really you can eyeball this, you can always keep tasting and add one or the other as needed). Mix in 1 tsp honey mustard, and whisk to blend.

Rub chicken breasts with spice rub. Heat up a pan on the stove and brown a few minutes on each side until golden. Put in low oven (200 degrees) and cook until interior temperature is 160. Cut up into small slices.

Dress salad with dressing and mix to taste (only use as much dressing as you need to just coat the leaves, it's less than you think. Put remaining dressing in small bowl and put in chicken to coat.

Put dressed salad on a plate, top with hot meat that's been coated with the dressing. Top with feta cheese crumbles and surround with grapefruit segments. Salt and pepper to taste.

Salad Days

It's time to talk about salad. Or really-- salad dressing.

I admit it. I'm a salad snob. Growing up my brother and I would go to our father's house on the weekend and he always made his own dressing. There was a jar of it on the counter, redolent of mustard. Salad seemed naked without it.

I soon learned to make my own, measuring olive oil and red wine vinegar (2/3 oil to 1/3 vinegar), and adding mustard, salt, and pepper.

In college, my tastes evolved. I read Marcella Hazan and was persuaded to buy really good olive oil (frantoia) and even better balsamic. I changed from mustard to honey mustard, liking the subtle sweetness. I added garlic. And I no longer measured, preferring to eyeball it in a small jar and shake it, then taste and retaste until it was right, adding oil or vinegar as needed.

The perfect taste is neither oily nor vinegary, but somewhere in between.

One day everything changed. I read in a cookbook about layered dressings, the true italian way. First you wash and dry the greens. Then you add a dribble of olive oil, mix to coat. Rock salt. And finally a splash of vinegar. Be generous with the olive oil, and frugal with the vinegar.

This was a revelation to me. So simple, and yet so different. The flavors are layered on top of the leaves.

In the past few years I've digressed even more. I no longer use vinegar, just lemon. Sometimes I make other dressings, miso-rice vinegar, or the trusty balsamic, but I make this 90% of the time. And Cobe says it is the best.

Simple Lemon Salad Dressing

Good quality olive oil (frantoia is my favorite, it should be rich and green, extra virgin)
Rock salt
1/2 Lemon
fresh cracked pepper


1. Wash the leaves and dry very well. Do NOT underestimate this step. Dirt in the leaves will completely ruin your salad, I have done it believe me. I usually wash the leaves in 3 rinses. And the drying is doubly important. Water and oil do not mix, the oil will not coat the leaves if they are wet. Even after spinning the leaves I still use paper towels.

2. Coat with olive oil. Use a little splash. You can put your thumb over the spout to slow the stream. You need less than you think. Mix with your hands or two spoons.

3. Sprinkle rock salt. You can use regular salt but the thick chunky rock salt adds a nice texture.

4. Squeeze on half a lemon. Mix with hands or spoons again. Taste after mixing and decide if you want more lemon.

5. Sprinkle on fresh cracked pepper.

Other additions
- parmigiano reggiano in thick shreds
- lemon rind shredded on a rasp (the flavor is beautiful)
- thinly sliced pear or green apple (coated with lemon to keep from turning brown)
- toasted nuts
- bits of creamy cheese, such as goat or feta or mascarpone
- dried fruits, such as apricots or dried cherries
- sliced persimmon
- pomegrante
- shredded bacon

the list is endless.

Breakaway Chicken

Every few months I break down and buy a new cookbook. It's a bad habit (as evidenced by my groaning bookshelves) but I can't help myself. I have this idea that just around the corner is some new recipe that will change the way I cook. It's what makes cooking fun.

"The Breakaway Cook" is my new obsession. It's written by Eric Gowers who spent several years in Japan and plucked up all these flavors like yuzu, umeboshi and maccha.....then added them to western recipes. The results are incredibly simple, most are 4-5 ingredients, and yet profoundly original.

* Persimmon salad with ginger, maple syrup and mint
* Galangal-brown sugar ice cream
* Mashed potatoes with miso gravy
* Spicy shrimp with pomegrante molasses

Last night I decided to make star anise chicken.

First had to stop at Uwajimaya to buy some of this crazy stuff that he talks about in the book. I found some yuzu peel, but couldn't bring myself to buy the paste as it was a funky green color. Wandered around aimlessly looking for pomegrante molasses. Not in the gigantic aisle of sauces (after I tried to read every japanese label). Not near the plain old "brer rabbit" molasses. I asked one of the employees and he looked sheepish and then I realized he didn't speak english. I held up a pomegrante hopefully. We finally found it catty corner from the molasses.

This stuff ROCKS. Sweet and sour all in one bite, like tamarind but better.

Then home with the star anise and chicken thighs. Ground up the star anise and coated the thighs with olive oil, salt, pepper and the anise. Heavy on the anise (per his instructions). Threw the whole thing in a 400 degree oven with some quartered meyer lemon. Also added a few fingerling potatoes. Cooked it for 40 minutes, turning once.



Not bad. I was worried the star anise would be too much, but Chris didn't blink an eye. "This is your best dinner yet!" He said, licking his fingers. Of course he always says that.

Made some delicata squash using what we had left over from this summer's CSA and it turned out beautifully. A little butter and just the faintest sprinkle of brown sugar. No other way to describe the flavor except "delicate."




And then a salad, my own invention. Fennel, persimmon and pomegrante with an orange/lemon vinegarette. Kind of amazing. The Fuyu persimmons have this subtle flavor, like an apricot but with a touch of spiciness. And the pomegrante pops in your mouth.


Spicy Star Anise Chicken (From "Breakaway Cook," by Eric Gowers)

15 boneless chicken thighs (with skin)
1 T olive oil
pepper & salt
6T ground star anise
1 lemon, preferably meyer

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line baking sheet with foil. Coat both sides of chicken with olive oil, then sprinkle liberally with salt, pepper and anise. Quarter the lemon and spread on the pan with the chicken. Cook 30 minutes, flip and cook 30 minutes more or until done (180 degrees).

Roasted Delicata Squash

2-3 delicata squash (can use other varietals, but these are pretty cool)
butter
salt
brown sugar

Halve squash and remove seeds. Place in a roasting pan with ~1/2 inch of water. Sprinkle with salt and place small amounts butter in each squash half, then lightly sprinkle with brown sugar.
Cook at 350 degrees x 1 hour or until done (the temperature's pretty flexible, just check on them if you use a higher or lower temperature).

Fennel, persimmon and pomegrante salad

1 bulb fennel, sliced thinly (mandoline works great)
1 fuyu persimmon, firm, cut into thin strips
1 pomegrante, broken into seeds
1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
2 T olive oil
Squeeze of lemon
salt&pepper

Mix orange juice, olive oil and lemon with salt and pepper. Taste and see if you want more oil or more lemon, it's to your taste (I confess that I don't really measure these things as I think it's better to just mix and add until it tastes right). Add fennel and mix. Then add persimmon and pomegrante. Chill before serving.

Cheating with PCC

Another tuesday night, another dinner with Chris. Tonight I just couldn't do it. So I decided on rotisserie chicken from PCC. I mean hell, it's damn good. No nitrates.

But I had to make something.

I threw together some mashed potatoes, these still-covered-with-dirt little guys that have been sitting in our cellar from Helsing Juntion. I love the way our masher makes these twisty doodles when you mash, it makes me want to keep mashing.

I added some caramelized shallots along with the salt and pepper. Damn good.



Picked up a chicken.
And some arugula.And of course some wine.Okay so really that bottle was almost gone, I just drank a half glass. But it was so good. Very slightly buttery and yet with this cleanness, like a wooded stream. From Garagiste (very cool, this wine email list...garagistewine.com)


And now it becomes a meal! I did the simple lemon juice + olive oil dressing for the arugula with a little reggiano. And whipped together some gravy using wine and the drippings from the chicken. Who knew you could make gravy from a grocery store rotisserie chicken?

Rock rock on.

Roasted salad

It's one of those unusual Seattle fall days, the sun has come out through the clouds, the leaves are brilliant orange and yellow and green. Feels like a day for roasting.

I picked up an eggplant and some peppers at the farmers market this weekend and they've been sitting in the fridge accusingly. So I popped the peppers in the oven on broil and threw the eggplant in my big cast iron pan on high. Let them cook till they were all black on all sides and then threw them in a brown bag to cool down.

This is one of my favorite ways to cook. You can't burn them too much. I guess they could be too soft, but even that would be hard. You want them to be pretty soft.

Then you just flake off the skins and dice them, throw on some good olive oil (I am a frantoia woman), a splash of balsamic, sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

And there you have this luscious salad, buttery and slightly smoky. I think eggplant may be one of the only vegetables that can taste luscious.

Roasted Salad: A