Pea Shoot Spring Salad

There are certain ingredients whose appearance in Spring is so fleeting, and whose flavor is so delicate, that they beg to be prepared in ways that allow them to show their charms before they are gone for another year. I love it when I can find pea shoots, either at the market or in my farm box, and I devised this simple salad to showcase their flavor.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- First I wash and dry the pea shoots, then divide them among my salad plates. Over the top I arrange sliced spring onions, toasted walnuts, sliced tiny radishes, chopped cucumbers, and crumbled soft goat cheese.

- I dress the salad with a simple vinaigrette:

Whisk together 3 Tablespoons of walnut oil, 1 Tablespoon of white wine vinegar, a dab of prepared mustard, salt, pepper.

the verdict:

To me, this salad is the essence of Spring! I happily return to it again and again as long as pea shoots are available.

Provencal Tomato Soup

What do you do when you have a surplus of fresh tomatoes? I often make either a quick or a long-simmering tomato sauce. In the summer my default plan is gazpacho. But the last time I had an overstock of tomatoes on my counter, I was in the mood for a different kind of soup. I searched my cookbooks and found a promising candidate - a soup with the herbal flavors of Provence.


n.o.e.'s notes:

- The recipe is from The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper

- I used fresh tomatoes. The author is very clear that Roma tomatoes are not good to use for anything, and recommends using the best tasting fresh tomatoes available, or good quality canned.

- The recipe's ingredient list specifies dried herbs. It was quite tempting to substitute fresh herbs from my little garden, but I didn't. Boy was I glad when I turned the page and found this note:

"Resist substituting fresh herbs for the dried ones called for here. They should be dried (but never powdered), just as they are in Provence's famous blend, herbes de Provence. The ready-made blend is often stale. Here you will be making your own."

- I removed the skins from my fresh tomatoes by immersing in boiling water for 1 minute then immediately putting them into an ice bath. After that the skins just rub off easily.

- I was a bit leery of the cinnamon in the recipe and used less than half and it was almost too much.

- At the end, goat cheese is stirred into the soup. I had a lovely seven-pepper-encrusted goat cheese from the farm box, which added a bit of spicy heat to the soup.

- The recipe has a variation where the dried herbs are replaced by fresh basil, and I plan to try that next time.


the verdict:

This was an unusual take on tomato soup, and I enjoyed every spoonful. The cinnamon nearly ran away with the soup, though, so next time I would add only the smallest pinch, then adjust to taste.

the recipe:

South of France Tomato Soup with Young Chevre
from The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper

generous 1/2 tsp dried basil
generous 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
generous 1/2 tsp dried oregano
generous 1/2 tsp dried thyme
extra virgin olive oil
3 med onions, finely chopped (I used about 9 ounces)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
generous 1/4 cup tomato paste
1/3 cup dry vermouth
2 pounds good tasting tomatoes (not Romas), peeled, seeded, and chopped, or one 28-ounce can whole tomatoes with their liquid, crushed
approximately 28 ounces of broth and 2/3 cup water
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon, or to taste (I used 1/8 tsp of Vietnamese cinnamon, and would use less next time)
4 ounces fresh goat cheese, crumbled

1. Combine the dried herbs in a small cup. Crush them lightly until they become fragrant. Set aside.

2. Film the bottom of a 6-quart pot with olive oil. Heat over medium-high heat. Stir in the onions, season with salt and pepper, and cook until the onions are golden brown, 5 to 8 minutes, stirring often. Add the reserved herbs and the garlic. Continue cooking until their aromas open up, about 30 seconds.

3. Blend in the tomato paste until there are no lumps; then add the vermouth and tomatoes. Boil for 2 minutes. Pour in the broth, stir, adjust the heat to a light bubble, and cover the pot tightly. Cook for 20 minutes. Then blend in the cinnamon, and taste the soup for seasoning.

4. Ladle the soup into bowls, and top each serving with crumbles of goat cheese.

{TWD} Quick Classic Berry Tart

I am always excited to see one of Dorie Greenspan's tarts come up in the recipe rotation for the Tuesdays With Dorie baking group. So far, Dorie has batted 1.000 on her tart recipes. And if I can use the early local strawberries from my farm box, then so much the better! This week's Quick Classic Berry Tart was a perfect choice for this week.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- The tart recipe was chosen by Cristine of Cooking with Cristine. You can find the recipe on her site or on page 377 of Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

- Dorie calls this tart "Quick" - right there in the recipe's title. While it's not exactly difficult I wouldn't be tempted categorize it as a fast recipe. The tart consists of a shortbread-like crust, pastry cream filling, fresh fruit and a jelly glaze. For best results, the tart is assembled at the last minute.

- I've always loved Dorie's tart crust. I chose to make the version with nuts, using almond meal to replace 1/4 cup of the recipe's flour. Dorie gives quite detailed instructions for making the crust; the key elements being: freezing the butter before mixing it with the dry ingredients in the food processor, processing the ingredients long enough for the dough to form into "clumps and curds", and freezing the formed tart shell before baking. Nothing too tricky, but a bit time consuming. If you have the foresight to keep an extra tart shell in your freezer (actually a great idea) then this recipe might qualify as quick-ish, but there's still the matter of making pastry cream.

- Pastry cream is a cousin to custard, in that you are using egg yolks (and cornstarch in the case of pastry cream) to thicken a liquid mixture over heat on the stove top. We've made it for other TWD desserts, so I while I wasn't particularly worried I did want to make some changes. In the past my pastry cream has been passable although you could say it puts the "paste" in past-ry cream. It always thickens immediately without giving the cornstarch a chance to cook. I decided to try for a thinner consistency this time around, so I reduced the cornstarch and made sure that my egg yolks were not super-large (I used 99 g of yolk total for a full recipe of pastry cream) The cream was a lot more manageable this time; it cooked for a while before I deemed it thick enough. In retrospect, I probably should have left it on the flame for just a little while longer.

- I piled the pastry cream high in the tart shell, disregarding Dorie's directions to fill to below the rim of the shell.

- The fruit topping was no more difficult than washing the berries (and slicing in the case of the strawberries). When I assembled the tart, I arranged the different berries in stripes so each person could cut a piece with a favorite type of berry.

- The tart's final element is a glaze made from red currant jelly boiled with a bit of water. I surveyed my jam collection two or three times without locating the currant jelly I was sure I owned, before using the apple jelly that was in my fridge. Dorie gives the option of dotting each piece of fruit with a drop of glaze, or brushing the glaze over the entire surface of the fruit. I painted my glaze with a pastry brush, and had a ton of glaze left over. A tablespoon or two of jelly with a few drops of water would have been sufficient.

- I brought the tart to book group last Thursday. The combination of the slightly thin pastry cream and the overfilled nature of the tart shell made the tart very difficult to transport. I wouldn't use the word "sloshed" but every time the car turned a corner, there was a wave-like effect in the pastry cream, and some spilled over the sides. Luckily I had taken pictures before it left my kitchen.



the verdict:

The book group members devoured the tart, and while I agreed that it was delicious, I was distracted by my disappointment at how poorly the tart had survived its 5 mile car trip, and by my nagging worries that the pastry cream was too thin. In truth, those things did not matter; the tart was quite good.

In fact, thanks to my husband I now know that I can bake as authentic a French fruit tart as a French restaurant in town. It turns out that on the day I served this tart at book group he had eaten a business lunch at a lovely French restaurant and had ordered fruit tart for dessert. He told me that mine was pretty much equal in taste.

{TWD} Swedish Visiting Cake

When my daughter JDE came home from college two summers ago a copy of Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours soon appeared on my kitchen counter. In quick succession she baked the Perfect Party Cake (which she wrote up as a guest post on my blog) and then the Tarte Noire (which has not yet been chosen as a TWD recipe but is, by the way, indulgently delicious).

She mentioned that a group of food bloggers were baking their way through the book and pointed me to the Tuesdays With Dorie site. I was hooked! I joined the TWD baking group in July 2008, becoming the 200-and-something-th member of the group. I've baked along every single week since I joined - this is my 90th TWD weekly post. I have learned many baking techniques, conquered some fears (cough, cough, caramel, cough) and have enjoyed myself immensely.

When I opened the covers of Baking for the first time, the recipe that immediately appealed to me was the Swedish Visiting Cake on page 197. It looked straightforward and inviting. Even the name was homey and welcoming. Of course a cake that looked this good would be have to be made with almond, one of my favorite flavors. I vowed on the spot that I would choose this cake if it were still available when my turn rolled around, although I couldn't imagine that it would happen.

Time went on, and as things go in this kind of group, bakers came and went, so I've moved up the list and my turn to choose a recipe came much sooner than originally estimated. Lo and behold: the Swedish Visiting Cake was still available! Although my head was turned just a bit by some of the flashier recipes in Dorie's book, I stayed true to my original resolve and chose the Visiting Cake.

This one was baked in an 8" cast iron skillet

n.o.e.'s notes:

- If you want to bake the cake - and you should - I've included the recipe at the end of this post, see below. But you truly should bake many more of Dorie's wonderful recipes, so you'll be well served to buy your very own copy of the book.

- Dorie Greenspan has written about the Swedish Visiting Cake on her blog and it's worth a visit there to check out this and other wonderful treats that she features. About this cake Dorie says:

Making the cake just now reminded me for the nine-millionth time why baking is so dear to me: it is a pleasure that engages all your senses. In the 10 minutes it took me to get the mixture into my old cast-iron skillet, I rubbed sugar and zest between my fingers, watched a batter grow from thick and dull to lithe and shiny, caught the fragrance of lemon, vanilla and almond and had the satisfaction of knowing that I was making something completely by hand and that it would be something others would soon enjoy.

The fact that the house will smell like butter, sugar and vanilla for hours is just a happy extra.

- Dorie also posted a Swedish Apple version of this cake in her column for Serious Eats. I fully intended to bake that variation and include it in this post, but I couldn't bear to stray from the original recipe (it was just that good!)

- I LOVE that this cake requires just one bowl, one pan, and very few other dirty dishes. No mixer, no creaming of butter. "You're welcome," fellow TWD bakers!

- In an effort to be a good hostess this week, I took "process pictures" of each stage of the cake-making (well, nearly), but this cake is so easy that photos are not really necessary (although I did include them, below). If you can stir with a spoon, you've got this cake made.

- The cake has no leavening, and the eggs are not beaten, so it doesn't really rise. As a result it ends up with a distinctively dense and chewy texture.

- I baked this cake twice. First I made 3/4 recipe in my 8" cast iron skillet. (If you go to the P&Q for the Visiting Cake on the TWD site, I posted the ingredient amounts for 3/4 recipe.) I used 1 duck egg and 1 bantam hen egg, which came out to the perfect weight for the scaled recipe. I order these unusual eggs, along with regular chicken eggs, from my farm box, so I always have a variety of egg sizes on hand for recipes. If I do end up with extra egg parts from my baking activities, I usually throw them into my next batch of scrambled eggs.

- The second time, I baked this cake in my 10" non-stick skillet, and made 1 1/4 recipe. (This cake is the one pictured at the beginning of this blog post. The math for scaling the recipe up is on the P&Q post) I served this cake, along with a David Lebovitz chocolate flourless cake, to my book group.

- Dorie says that this cake is best eaten the day it is made, and she is, of course, right. However, if you should find yourself with some leftover Swedish Visiting Cake, you might agree with me that it's quite acceptable on the second or even the third day.

Adding a little "Swedish color": a red IKEA potholder

the verdict:

It was quite fitting that my daughter JDE was home for Spring Break when I baked this cake, since she got the TWD ball rolling around here in the first place. One taste of Swedish Visiting Cake, and she said "Oh man. This is good."

I was also glad to be able to share the cake with my book group. The members have tasted and evaluated over half of the TWD desserts. The group is filled with great cooks and I value their honest opinions about the baked goods (well, and about the books we read also!) Reviews were quite positive about the cake, although it was a tiny bit overshadowed by the showier chocolate cake that I also served.

The Visiting Cake was all that I'd hoped for, and more. Simple but not boring. Substantial in texture and subtle in flavor. The lemon was a background player and the almond more up front. The cake reminded me somewhat of a big chewy (almond-flavored) sugar cookie.

The recipe is extremely quick and I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't enjoy the finished product since the flavorings are optional and can be customized to individual tastes (although I'll be visiting all of the TWD bakers' blogs so I'll get to find out!)

Thanks so much to everyone who baked along with me!

the recipe:

Swedish Visiting Cake
from Baking, From My Home to Yours

Makes 8 to 10 servings

1 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

Grated zest of 1 lemon

2 large eggs

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

About 1/4 cup sliced almonds (blanched or not)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a seasoned 9-inch cast-iron skillet or other heavy ovenproof skillet, a 9-inch cake pan or even a pie pan.

Pour the sugar into a medium bowl. Add the zest and blend the zest and sugar together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and aromatic.


Whisk in the eggs one at a time until well blended. Whisk in the salt and the extracts.


Switch to a rubber spatula and stir in the flour.

Finally, fold in the melted butter. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Scatter the sliced almonds over the top and sprinkle with a little sugar. If you're using a cake or pie pan, place the pan on a baking sheet.

Of course I forgot to take a picture of the cake in the pan BEFORE I popped it in the oven. Here's a very blurry picture of the cake IN the oven; I made it reeeeally small so the lack of focus won't hurt your eyes as much

Bake the cake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until it is golden and a little crisp on the outside; the inside will remain moist. Remove the pan from the oven and let the cake cool for 5 minutes, then run a thin knife around the sides and bottom of the cake to loosen it. You can serve the cake warm or cooled, directly from the skillet or turned out onto a serving plate. [I was too chicken to turn the cake out, so served it both times from the skillets]

One reason I don't take "process pictures" more often: the need to keep an eye on the doggies to make sure the food survives the photo shoot! Meet Bro, our new rescue Australian Shepherd.

Radish and Herb Butter

Radishes and butter are a classic French combination, but I didn't know this until last summer when I saw a post for Radish Herb Butter on the blog Apple Pie, Patis, and Pate. The pairing of radishes with butter struck me as unlikely and yet quite appealing. We have a steady radish supply nearly year round, thanks to our farm box, so although I was eager to make the butter, I bided my time until it was my turn to host book group (we usually have cheese, bread/crackers, fruit, and of course, dessert). I ended up preparing this in November, and now that the holidays are over I finally get to share it.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- You can find the recipe at the end of this post.

- Making this "dish" is as easy as softening some butter, beating it with lemon juice, then stirring in some chopped herbs and julienned radishes. Season to taste, and voila! There you have it.

- It was a little tricky to work the lemon juice into the butter, but persistence paid off (as it often does!)

- I used radishes from the farm box that are kind of reverse of regular radishes: red on inside, white outside

- I served the butter with Dan Lepard's Buttermilk Baps (rolls) - read my baps post here.

the verdict:

The radish herb butter proved to be quite popular with those who tried it at book group. I expected it to be crunchy, with a fresh and sharp radish taste, with the butter serving mainly as a binder. Instead the tastes of the radish, the butter and the herbs mingled and combined to produce a flavor that was mellow and warm, savory and rich. The spread was complemented nicely by the soft buttermilk rolls, but would be equally good with thin crackers. Or, of course, French bread rounds!

the recipe:

Radish Herb Butter
recipe adapted from Green City Market
and adapted from Apple Pie, Patis, and Pate

1 stick (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
5 radishes, approximately, about 1 inch in diameter, washed and trimmed

1. Cut the radishes into thin strips.
2. In a bowl, beat the butter with a wooden spoon until smooth.
3. Beat in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix in the chopped herbs .
4. Stir in the radishes.
   

Happy 2nd Birthday to {TWD}! Cocoa Buttermilk Birthday Cake and Tarte Tatin

{edit: thanks to my daughter, ALE, for taking these pictures of the cake!}

On January 1 the Tuesdays With Dorie baking group turned two years old! You can read a bit about the group's history on this post written by the group's founder Laurie Woodward of the blog Slush. A milestone like this deserves a celebration! For the anniversary recipe, we had a choice of two recipes, the Cocoa Buttermilk Birthday Cake or the Tarte Tatin. I've never missed a recipe since joining the group in July of 2008, so I baked both the tart and the cake.


Part 1: Cocoa Buttermilk Birthday Cake

My mother's birthday is on Christmas Eve, and I was excited to have a great excuse to make the assigned birthday cake! I made a full recipe, as we had plenty of people to help eat the cake.

n.o.e.'s notes, birthday cake:

- You can find the recipe for the cake by clicking here - our founder Laurie graciously agreed to host the anniversary week, which means she got to type that whole chocolate cake recipe and post it on her blog.

- The recipe calls for two 9" round cake pans that are at least 2" deep. I don't have pans that size/depth, so I used two 8" square pans, which are equivalent in area. The square pans aren't very deep, so I crossed my fingers and hoped that the cake wouldn't overflow the rims of the pans.

- The cake can be made with cocoa only or with additional melted dark chocolate. Even though I measured, chopped and melted the chocolate, at the last minute I decided not to add it in. I've baked plenty of dark, dense chocolate cakes and tortes in the course of TWD, and this week I was intrigued by the prospect of a cocoa cake - that is the recipe's name, after all!

- Dorie frosts the birthday cake with a chocolate malt frosting. I didn't have the proper kind of malt, so I chose a chocolate frosting recipe from Cooks Illustrated (click here and scroll down, the frosting recipe is in the cake directions). True to usual CI style, the method was unusual, but luckily not difficult. The recipe made a ton of frosting, so I'm guessing it was meant for a three layer cake. Consequently I was able to pile a luxurious amount of the fluffy frosting on the cake. I've never made frosting swirls, and I discovered they aren't all that easy to do. I kind of like the exuberant look of the finished cake.


the verdict, birthday cake:

I am glad to have a subtle chocolate layer cake in my baker's toolbox. The layers were light in color, which made me think the cake would be dry, but it wasn't. The cake was soft and light, and matched well with the fluffy frosting. I'm sad to say that somehow in all of the excitement of Christmas I forgot to take a picture of a slice of the cake.

In the interest of full disclosure, I think the birthday girl might have preferred a denser, more fudgy cake, but that being said, she happily enjoyed a second piece!

Part 2: Tarte Tatin

The prospect of baking a tarte tatin was exciting and a little daunting. It is one of those desserts that you don't know how it turned out until you unmold it just prior to serving. Nothing like a little pressure! Fortunately I prepared the tart as a dessert just for my husband and me.

n.o.e.'s notes, tarte tatin:

- Dorie's baking recipes are typically quite specific, but for this classic dessert, Dorie outlines a basic method and gives variations and options. Click here for the recipe.

- I baked half recipe of the tarte tatin, in a 6" cast iron skillet.

- For most of the apples, I used some wonderful, tart, local cooking apples that I got from the farm box. I supplemented with half a Fuji and half a Macoun (had those in the fridge).

- Dorie's instructions are to cook the caramel until dark in color, approximately 15 minutes. I cooked mine for over 20 minutes but the caramel was a pale golden color. I turned the heat a bit higher and got a lovely deep caramel.


- The crust can be puff pastry, pie crust, or tart crust. A few days earlier I'd baked some tarts using Dorie's Sweet Tart Dough (you can find the tart crust recipe if you click here and then scroll down) so I made extra to have on hand for the Tarte Tatin.

- Dorie says to roll the dough about an inch wider than the skillet because the dough will shrink as it cooks. My tart dough did not shrink as it baked; instead the overhanging crust fell off and onto the cookie sheet that was under my skillet. The dough was golden brown in less than half the alloted time.

- Unmolding the tart is a little tricky. Dorie says to act quickly and confidently, and so I tried to do. Two of my apples stuck to the pan, but were easily re-placed. The tart was not centered on the serving plate, but luckily it slid fairly easily. The biggest disappointment is that most of the apples were a bit scorched, but neither of us cared very much about the blackened spots on the apples.

the verdict, Tarte Tatin:

We have loved every tart in Dorie's book so far, and this one is no exception! I served the warm tart with ice cream, and it was quite good. The tart apples paired with the stong caramel to make a wonderfully deep rich flavor. It was so unusual that my husband took a bite and asked me, "Are these apricots or pears?"

Despite Dorie's admonitions that the tart is only good the day it is baked, I heated the leftover tart in the microwave and we loved it as much, if not more, then right from the oven.

Thomas Keller's My Favorite Simple Roast Chicken

In browsing around the interwebs, I've seen references to Thomas Keller's roast chicken, as served at his restaurant Bouchon. The recipe is here. I'm going to say that once I tried this chicken, my quest for the "perfect" roast chicken came to a screeching halt. Thomas Keller's favorite is now my favorite!

n.o.e.'s notes:

- I used one of the wonderful pasture raised organic chickens from my farm box. I'm really glad that I stocked my freezer with these when they were available earlier this year, because they have not been available since that time. Apparently there is not a chicken processing facility for small operation chicken farmers close enough to make it cost effective for the farm box folks to continue offering them.

- This was first time I've ever actually fully trussed a chicken (before now, I usually tie the legs together and call it "done"). I used these directions and crossed a bunch of string. I can't say if my trussing effort was exactly correct but the bird was compact and nothing flopped around so I deemed it a success.


- Keller's roasting method couldn't be simpler: Salt + pepper in cavity. Truss. Salt and pepper outside. Roast 450 until done. Nothing else. Remove from pan, put thyme in pan juices, baste chicken and let it rest 15 minutes. Carve and enjoy!

the verdict:

Boy, did we enjoy! My husband repeated, "this is unbelievable," the entire time he was eating the chicken. Although Keller says to slather the meat with butter when you serve the chicken, I didn't think it needed anything. The chicken was succulent and filled with flavor. I'm sure some of the credit has to go to the organic pastured chicken, but the recipe is a treasure. I had no idea that a roast chicken could be this good...

Braised Short Ribs with Gremolata

A while ago my farm box offered local organic beef short ribs. They sounded great to me, so I ordered a bunch, and froze them for when cooler weather arrived. Now that we're in Fall, I took some rainy weather as a great excuse to cook up the ribs (and clear a bunch of space in the freezer!)

I knew that Tyler Florence would be a great resource for cooking the ribs. After a bit of digging around, I decided to make his Osso Bucco recipe, substituting my short ribs for the veal shank.


n.o.e.'s notes:

- The osso bucco recipe made the perfect amount of sauce for cooking 7 lb of short ribs.

- I used a 4.5-5 qt stock pot, which was a great size for a single recipe of the osso bucco

- I didn't have any amarone, so just used a decent cabernet blend.

- The gremolata sounded a little odd - a mixture of pine nuts, dried cranberries, organge zest, garlic and parsley - but I mixed it up anyway to see how it would taste with the ribs


the verdict:

This was fantastic! The ribs were falling-off-the-bone tender and we loved the layers of flavor in the sauce. If you make this, do not skip the gremolata! It has a nice balance of sweet and savory ingredients and its freshness is the perfect complement to the warm richness of the sauce. Overall, these ribs tasted like more work than they really were. The modest investment of time in babysitting the pot paid off big dividends in the finished dish.

I'm sending this post to Tyler Florence Fridays, a weekly roundup of blog posts featuring Tyler's recipes. The group is in its final month, so check the site for a few more weeks of deliciousness.

Ultimate Chicken Salad

Last week I had a bunch of shredded cooked chicken and I needed a recipe, so I turned to Tyler Florence and his Ultimate Chicken Salad Sandwich. Tyler layered his sandwiches with sliced apples and cranberry sauce (and brie cheese) on top of the chicken salad. I was planning to serve my chicken salad on a bed of greens rather than as a sandwich, so I adapted the recipe accordingly.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- I liked Tyler's idea of pairing the chicken with sweet/tart fruit, so I put the apples and cranberries right into the chicken salad, which made a sort of hybrid waldorf/chicken salad. The apple was straight from my farm box, so I don't even know what kind it was, other than yummy!

- I substituted Greek yogurt for half of the mayonnaise.

- The dressing had a surprising (to me) ingredient: olive oil was stirred in with the mayonnaise (and yogurt). I'm a huge fan of olive oil, so I was glad to see it there.

- To me there was a pronounced flavor of mustard in the dressing (I'm not the world's biggest mustard fan), but when combined with the chicken, fruit and nuts it settled down nicely.

the verdict:

We totally enjoyed our chicken salad dinner plate. There was a nice combination of tastes and textures, and we were quite happy to have the leftovers a couple of nights later!


I'm submitting this post to Tyler Florence Fridays. Check out the roundup on Friday and see what folks are cooking up from Tyler's recipes.

Black Pepper Ice Cream with Lime Syrup and Cantaloupe

Whenever I eat a particularly good melon in the summertime (really, there's no point eating melon out of season), I think of my mother-in-law. She'll look up from a delicious melon and say, "You know, there's always one melon that's the best of the summer, and I declare, I think this is it."

The week before last there was a cantaloupe in my farm box, and after I took a taste, it knew that this was it. The best cantaloupe. Not just the best of 2009, it was the best of the decade, possibly the best I've ever eaten. A cantaloupe for the ages.

What to do with it? First I gave half of it away, because I didn't think I could finish it by myself. Neither my husband nor my daughter J.D.E. care much for cantaloupe.

I wanted to do this melon justice, so I consulted David Lebovitz's book The Perfect Scoop for guidance. David suggests pairing fresh cantaloupe with Lime Syrup and his Black Pepper Ice Cream. That was a very unlikely sounding combination to me, but I'd been wanting to try the black pepper ice cream, and I had a new bag of limes in the fridge so I decided to give it a shot.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- You can find the recipe for the ice cream here.

- I made the ice cream as written. Surprisingly (at least to me), the ice cream turned out a creamy tan color, but it makes sense, since the cream is infused with cracked black pepper and then the peppercorns are strained out.

- The lime syrup was easy to throw together.

- I took the picture on the complete wrong light setting, and before I checked the photos I ate the evidence (it was melting!) So please excuse the oddness of the photo.

the verdict:

The ice cream was smooth and rich, with a perfect "mouthfeel." It had a distinct flavor of black pepper and a sneaky spiciness that waits for a minute and then attacks in the back of the throat. I love spicy food, and was expecting some heat, so I liked that. The lime syrup was surprisingly good with the ice cream - it was sweet and bright and complemented the complex spiciness.

BUT, I did not love the ice cream with the cantaloupe, or the cantaloupe with the lime syrup. So I ate the ice cream with the syrup, then the melon on its own, and enjoyed both.

And with the rest of the melon? It turns out that both my husband and J.D.E. loved the Best-Cantaloupe-Of-All-Time, and we ate it twice at dinnertime, draped with prosciutto. YUM!

Avocado Cilantro and White Onion Salad

Although I make some type of salad every single night for dinner, during the summer salad-making turns from a chore to a pleasure. Farmers' markets, farm boxes, and even the local grocery stores are all brimming with fresh, inviting produce. I can step outside my front door and snip just about any kind of herb (except cilantro, which gave up the ghost very early in the growing season).

I was excited to see that the August challenge recipe for the Tyler Florence Fridays group is Avocado, Cilantro and White Onion Salad. I had half an avocado hanging around the fridge, and all of the other ingredients were handy, so I made the recipe right away. And then I made it a couple of days later because 1) it was just that delicious, and 2) my pictures from the first batch were pretty terrible. My initial excitement gave way to lasting happiness when I realized that this salad was not just a summer veggie thing; these ingredients are available all year long!

n.o.e.'s notes:

- You can find the recipe on this Tyler Florence Friday post

- Since I only had half an avocado, I made 1/8 recipe.

- I used some local Vidalia onion, and some wild garlic from the farm box people.

- The recipe calls for "freshly picked" cilantro. Since cilantro is the one herb that had refused to grow in my garden I decided that "freshly picked up" from the grocery store qualified.

the verdict:

This salad was so delicious! Although I would have been tempted to throw in some tomato, the avocado and onion made for a great duo, with fresh and flavorful support from the lime and cilantro. I licked the plate. Both times I made it.

I'll be making this recipe again and again, no matter the season.

Thanks, Megan, for this outstanding recipe choice (and easy, too!) I've been away from TFF for quite a while - this recipe was a perfect way to return!

Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese, Pecans and Blackberries

Earlier in the summer I enjoyed the most delicious spinach salad at a restaurant. It had blackberries, goat cheese and candied pecans, and the dressing was a rhubarb vinaigrette. I love a good spinach salad, and this was the best I've ever eaten, a perfect blend of flavors and textures. I couldn't get this salad out of my mind, but luckily I didn't have to, because it was fairly easy to recreate a reasonable facsimile at home.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- The restaurant used candied pecans, but I skip those and just throw on toasted pecans. If you live near a Trader Joe's, did you know that you can buy already-toasted baking pieces of pecans? What a great shortcut.

- I've used herbed goat cheese but prefer the plain in this salad. Most often, I use a lovely soft mild goat cheese from my farm box.

- I usually have my salads without dressing, as in the picture above, but I found a honey vinaigrette which I think pairs nicely with the goat cheese in the salad (see picture, below). I based it on this recipe. Here's my version:

• 2 T chopped red onion
• 2 T cider vinegar
• 3 tsp honey (in my case, sourwood)
• 1 tsp walnut oil
• freshly ground pepper to taste
• salt to taste

The restaurant used a rhubarb vinaigrette, which was lovely. You could use raspberry vinaigrette too.


the verdict:

I love this salad and make it at least once a week. It's not as wonderful as at the restaurant, but it is a good stand-in.

Martha's Perfect Roast Chicken

I'm pretty sure I need to invest in a pair of blinders to keep in my car for when I make a Costco run. As it is now, I'm unable to walk past the book aisle without giving just a little side-long glance (or ten) at the piles of cookbooks. And the lure of those low prices and beautiful cookbooks is nearly irresistible. Anyway, the last time I was in Costco I happened to leave with a copy of Martha Stewart's Cooking School, not that I needed another Martha cookbook, much less another cookbook at all.

If you've ever wondered, "how does it look when the parchment is folded for papillote?" or "can you show me how to de-bone the Dover sole that I just cooked?" then this is the cookbook for you. Martha explains and shows through detailed photos exactly how to prepare lots of classic dishes.

The first recipe I tried from this cookbook (well, the only recipe to date) is the Perfect Roast Chicken (see notes, below for recipe link.) Not only are there explicit directions, there's a whole page of step-by-step photos of the process, and another page of photos showing how to carve the chicken.

Back in the spring, my farm box people offered some pastured organic chickens. Due to the vagaries of various state laws, the chickens had to be sold frozen. I stocked up, and deposited 5 of them directly into my freezer, planning to roast each one of them with a different recipe. The first chicken was roasted with a recipe from the Union Square Cafe Cookbook, and we loved how the flavors of the fresh vegetables found their way into the chicken as it cooked. Martha's chicken recipe had its work cut out for it, if it wanted to top that!

n.o.e.'s notes:

- You can find the recipe on this blogger's post(scroll down a bit). Martha also has a somewhat different "Perfect Roast Chicken" recipe that you can find here.

- This recipe uses a cool technique, and calls for the chicken to roast at high heat in cast iron skillet. Martha calls it "fast and high" roasting. The only drawback is when you hit the 450 degree skillet handle with your wrist when you're testing the chicken for done-ness.

- Martha advises that the chicken should be dried as much as possible because moisture turns to steam in the oven, which will keep the skin from getting crispy. Maybe I've been under a rock for the past several decades (entirely possible) but I've never heard that before.

- The chicken cavity is stuffed with lemon, garlic, and herbs. Unless it's my chicken, in which case the garlic gets inadvertently omitted.

- At the end, the recipe calls for adding 1/2 cup of wine or stock to the pan juices and reducing to a nice and concentrated pan sauce.

the verdict:

We thoroughly enjoyed this chicken. It was very moist and tender, with a delicious crispy skin. (I'm going to sound like such a barbarian, but skin is my favorite part of roasted or fried chicken.) We liked it every bit as much, if not more, than the Union Square recipe. In fact, if I'd remembered to include the garlic in the cavity, it might have had the edge! We loved the lemony and herbal notes, which were different from the flavors of the roasted veggies from the first chicken.

Hong Vit Salad with Three Radishes

Back in September I joined Moore Farms and Friends (my famous “farm box” people), an association of regional and local farms that offers a variety of products throughout the year. My membership is more flexible (and probably more expensive) than a CSA. Each week the farm projects what will be offered in its $20 and $30 size “Farmer’s Pick” boxes. If I like the assortment then I select the appropriate box, and can order additional produce and products. Or, for a few extra dollars, I can bypass the pre-picked boxes and order exactly what I want from the long list of available produce (and other products). I can skip any week that I want – I only pay for what I order. I’ve surprised myself by ordering a box every single week since I’ve joined, except for weeks when I am not in town on Wednesday to pick up my order. All through the winter there was delicious regional food, including citrus, bitter greens, farm eggs and butter. Everything tastes noticeably fresher - we love our food from “the box!”

I don’t end up with anything that I don’t expect or choose. But there are some unusual offerings that I decide to try just for the adventure! A couple of weeks ago, the farm box offered hong vit, an Asian salad green that is in the radish family. Only this family member is grown not for its root but for its leaf. At the same time I ordered a beautiful assortment of white, red, and purple radishes. I thought it would be fun to combine these two radish-y cousins in a salad.

The first thing I did was a little online hong vit research. Information was a bit sparse. On a Chowhound post, I saw this tantalizing summary of a dish the poster had enjoyed at Napa's celebrated Ubuntu restaurant:

"RADISHES with local chevre and nori
banyuls vinaigrette, smoked salt, HONG VIT"

Hmm, no pictures, not much to go on. A bit more digging turned up a tiny description of the dish here. From what I could gather it is a radish salad with accents of greens, and both sweet and smoky notes.

Although it was hard to tell exactly, the Ubuntu salad seemed to be in the same general direction I was headed - the combination of radish and radish green- and it gave me some further inspiration. I even had smoked salt! I wanted add more emphasis to the greens, without ignoring the radishes.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- The hong vit had a good bit of field grit. After 4 washes it was a little draggled!

- I used a vinaigrette that I'd made, inspired by Mark Bittman’s instructions in How To Cook Everything, using white wine vinegar and just a touch of Dijon mustard.

- My daughter A.L.E. gave me some wonderful smoked sea salt from a small spice purveyor in central New York. I sprinkled that over the salad, along with some freshly ground pepper.

- To get a sweet and cheesy element I added some cubes of Gjetost, a caramelized cheese from Norway. My daughters had given it to me for Mother’s Day, and I knew it would be perfect complement for the sharpness of the radishes.

- The garnish on top was a perfect farm box strawberry!

the verdict:

We loved this new set of flavors. The hong vit was very fresh tasting, and paired nicely with the crisp radish and sweet tangy cheese. The mellow vinaigrette tied it all together. Overall, a fun experiment with a new (to us) salad green - thanks, farm box!

Savory Mashed Root Vegetables: Thanksgiving in June

You've heard of Christmas in July? And if we back it up a month, we have… Thanksgiving in June! Seeing as the pros are busy testing Thanksgiving recipes now, I figure I wasn’t too far off base enjoying turkey and trimmings on the edge of summer.

Actually my menu was dictated by my fridge (and, not to be forgotten, my freezer). Along with lovely spring/summer produce like strawberries, peaches, spring onions, and sugar snap peas, my farm box people are continuing to offer produce that we’ve enjoyed through the winter: delicious collards, kale, and a variety of root vegetables.

Back in January, in a burst of practicality, I roasted a 28 pound turkey, using the same Tyler Florence method that I had enjoyed on Thanksgiving. It seemed reasonable at the time; we had enough for several meals and more than enough left over for the freezer, including an entire turkey breast. “I wonder,” I said to myself in January, “why don’t I cook a whole turkey more often than just for Thanksgiving?” Here’s one answer to that question – I will have so many leftovers that I will end up having a turkey dinner in April, and again in … June!

We had the perfect meal, if you ignore the little fact that the mercury outside was topping 87 degrees: turkey breast, homemade brown rice bread, Brazilian-style kale and collards, and mashed root vegetables. I realized too late that I could have thawed some turkey drippings and made gravy (like I did in April)... and it really would have been Thanksgiving in June! The only nod to the actual season? We had peach ice cream rather than pumpkin pie for dessert!

But let’s talk about the mashed root vegetables. Over the years I've done a fair amount of travel through Scotland, so I'm pretty familiar with mashed "neeps," or turnips. I like them pretty well, but they are usually a bit on the sweet side for me. When I saw Tyler Florence's recipe for Savory Mashed Root Vegetables I knew I had to try it. I loved the idea of boosting the savory quotient by infusing cream with fresh herbs before adding it to the mashed vegetables. An added bonus: I liked the idea of using Tyler’s mash recipe to accompany the turkey breast I had roasted using Tyler’s method.

n.o.e.’s notes:

- I made a half recipe, using the root vegetables that were in my fridge: large turnip, small beet, several yellow carrots, 2 small radishes.

- I increased the garlic cloves from 2 to 3.

--To reduce the richness of the recipe, I substituted some milk for cream. I also reduced the overall amount of liquid, so for half recipe, I used2.5 oz cream and 4 oz whole milk.

- I kept the same butter-to-liquid ratio as Tyler's recipe: (1T per 1/4 cup liquid), so that was 3 T butter in my case.

- For infusing the cream/milk, I used 1 sprig rosemary, 5 or 6 of thyme, and 1 or 2 of oregano, all from the herb garden. I cut through the pile a couple of times with a knife before putting it in the saucepan.

- My veggies took a little longer than 30 minutes of simmering before the were tender.

- Even though I reduced the amount of liquid, there was a bit too much; I had several tablespoons left over.

- My mash was still lumpy after mashing with my hand masher, and was separating, so I lightly ran the immersion blender through the mash.

the verdict:

I loved the way the savory herbs, the garlic, and seasoning transformed these simple roots into a delicious dish - a perfect accompaniment to roast turkey. I’m glad I included a bit of radish, as it added just a hint of a bite to the finished dish. The herb-infusion really added a wonderful depth of flavor, and kept the roots from being too sweet for my taste. The half recipe lasted us for 3 meals and it was delicious re-heated as leftovers! I can see myself ordering roots from my farm box just to make this recipe - it would be a great side dish for any meat or poultry main.

I'm submitting this to Tyler Florence Fridays, a weekly roundup of delicious food made from Tyler Florence recipes, natch! Stop by any Friday and see what the TFF bloggers are cooking up!

union square herb roasted chicken

My farm box pe0ple have been working very hard to find a good source of pasture-raised poultry to offer to us members. They located a wonderful farm and were able to purchase a load of chickens, which they have offered for order. There may not be another opportunity to obtain chickens from that farm until the end of summer, so I've purchased several (which come frozen, per state regulations). As a result, I'm embarking on a whole-chicken cooking adventure. While I know that I could cut these chicken up, and cook them in any number of ways (and I might do that), I really love the smell and taste of a roast chicken - and I love using the leftover meat for soups and other dishes, and the bones for making stock.

After looking through a bunch of my cookbooks (and really, doesn't every cookbook have a method of roasting chicken?) I settled on an enticing recipe from the Union Square Cafe Cookbook. You can find the recipe embedded in this interesting article, "In Search of the Perfect Roast Chicken" which compares several roast chicken recipes.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- Two keys to this recipe: season the chicken with salt and pepper well in advance of cooking it, and add the vegetables after the chicken has cooked part way.

- I didn't have tarragon, so subbed some oregano and sage, both of which I have in my herb garden in abundance.

- the pan juices were very thin once I added the requisite 2 cups of stock.

the verdict:

This was the best roast chicken that I've ever made. I'm not sure how much of the deliciousness comes from the quality of this chicken and how much from the cooking method, however.

The meat was tender and moist and, while the pan juices had fantastic savory flavor I might be tempted to thicken them up and make more of a gravy from them. Mmm, gravy!

Although this is a very early stage in my roast chicken quest, I can say that Union Square has come up with a solid recipe that makes an excellent roast chicken.

As a foot note, Jenny from All Things Edible, has been on the search for the perfect roast chicken, and you can read about her latest adventure.

Sweet Potato Crescents

I love Dan Lepard. Every Saturday, I check the Guardian How to Bake page to see Dan's recipe of the week. Because of commitments to my baking groups, I don't have the opportunity to bake very many of Dan's sweets. But lucky for me, he is pretty careful to balance the recipes in his baking column - some breads, some desserts, some savory offerings. The coolest thing about Dan is that he runs his own baker's forum, where he will answer questions about any of his recipes, whether from his books or the Guardian column.

A couple of weeks ago, the featured recipe was Sweet Potato Crescents, which was perfect timing as I'd just received some stunning purple sweet potatoes in my farm box order. An added bonus: his recipe is vegan and quite healthy.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- To cook the sweet potatoes, I cubed them and then braised them in the littlest bit of butter and a tablespoon or 2 of water, for around for 5+ minutes, until tender. If you're making this a vegan dish, you'd omit the butter, naturally.


- The crescent dough is made with oil, which was a relief after all the butter pastry that's come my way in the course of in my weekly baking assignments. The dough was sturdy and smooth, and quite elastic. I rolled it to the specified size and cut the rounds of dough. Once cut, the circles immediately sprang back to a smaller size. So then I had to stretch them as I filled and folded them.

- One note of caution: turmeric will stain your skin yellow. We learned this from past experience, and let's just say that the do-it-yourself-facial book is no longer in our house! Wearing kitchen gloves while handling the pastry would help with this risk.

- I ended up with 17 crescents, and the filling and pastry were perfectly matched in quantity - a pleasant surprise!

the verdict:

I loved the vibrant colors and melding of flavors in these little pastries, as well as the speed with which they came together. I topped them with fresh cilantro and chopped tomatoes, which complemented the flavors of the filling very nicely In place of buttery-sinfulness, this pastry delivered spicy-healthfulness.