Fill a pastry crust with oven-roasted butternut squash and a mixture of ricotta and spinach. Sprinkle with Parmesan and then garnish with fried sage leaves once it comes out of the oven. (nestMeg)
Butternut squash and crispy sage savory tart
Moving to New York City solo (or, frankly, under any circumstances), you may have heard, is not for the faint of heart, the codependent, the wary-of-public-transportation types. Despite the endless number of people I encounter everyday, I have never experienced a living situation as profoundly lonely as life here. I’ve always considered myself an independent person, but existing here means I also have to be an entertaining one – to myself.
Many of you have heard the trials of city singledom, whether from me or from HBO's "Girls" or from "Sex and the City" or from the countless movies that portray Strong Female Leads Living in Metropolitan Areas (with absurdly, unrealistically large apartments) who are secretly desperately lonely. (Presumably because they have invested too much in their careers and not enough in their romances? Can we possibly try for new plotlines in 2013, please? There is not a small number of us who seek more than one objective in life and balance them all just fine.)
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But if you haven’t heard about dating in NYC, I’m not going to regale you with the specific foibles and follies. It’s been covered, I think, and also my parents read this blog. I will say, however, that it is incredibly taxing despite what seems like overwhelmingly good odds. I mean, there are 8 million people in this city, and based on my very precise Algorithm of Eligible Bachelors Dwelling in the Five Boroughs, there must be a solid 10,000 who meet basic criteria.
As it turns out, though, basic criteria is not enough. Because as you can imagine, 10,000 men is a challenge to weed through. And every one I meet, I think “Oh yes, this is one is acceptable. But I bet I could find one who also understands my deep and sustained love for the emo music I listened to in high school.” (See: "The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwartz.) (Also, that’s just an example. I definitely don’t listen to emo anymore! Seriously! I don’t!) I, too, am a victim of too much choice, the possibility of someone somehow better existing too tantalizing to pass up, as I found out recently after being rejected by an unemployed man who’s “too busy” for a second date.
So, more often than not, I find myself “stuck” with, well, myself.
Living in NYC solo means needing to enjoy dating the only person I can rely on 100 percent of the time. It means I take myself out to dinner, buy myself a nice new outfit, make myself an extravagant meal that, under circumstances involving another person, would be considered downright romantic.
I cannot recommend that kind of meal enough. Dining alone, living alone, traveling alone, is the kind of soul-satisfying, sometimes saddening/maddening, always reflective activity that reminds me that I am enough. That I will never be a lot of things, but I will always be enough things. At the very least, I crack myself up, especially toward the end of the night. I can’t always say that about my dates.
Last night, I made myself this tart. It’d be great with a side salad, but when you’re dating yourself, you hardly need to impress anyone with the number of vegetables you’ve consumed in a given day. In fact, the best way to show your appreciation for you is to cut yourself another slice.
Butternut squash and crispy sage savory tart
Tart Dough:
Makes 2 12-inch tarts
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons cold butter, cubed
1/2 cup ice-cold water
1. Combine the flour and and salt in a bowl. Cut the butter into the flour with your fingers or with a stand mixer. Pour in the water slowly, until the dough begins to clump. (Mix for 30 seconds or less if using a mixer.)
2. Divide the dough in two and create two balls of dough. Wrap with plastic and compress into disks. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Tart Filling:
Note: This recipe makes enough to fill one tart. Double the recipe if you want two!
Olive oil
1/2 butternut squash, peeled & sliced thinly width-wise
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 cups of fresh spinach
1/2 cup of ricotta
Salt & pepper, to taste
Parmesan cheese
1 egg
1 teaspoon of water
2 teaspoons of canola oil
About 15 sage leaves
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lay butternut squash slices on a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil and salt on both sides of the slices. Roast squash for about 20 minutes, or until tender.
2. Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook for about 1 minute. Add spinach and cook until wilted, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes. Combine the spinach, ricotta, and some salt and pepper in a bowl.
3. Once the squash is removed from the oven, lower the oven heat to 375 degrees F. Remove one of the tart dough sections from the fridge and roll into a circle with a rolling pin until the dough is about 12 inches in diameter. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a Silpat and refrigerate for 10 minutes.
4. Spread ricotta cheese/spinach mixture over the chilled tart, leaving a border of 1-1/2 inches. Place butternut squash slices in one layer over top of the mixture, again leaving a border. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
5. Fold the border over the squash layers to make a crust. Mix the egg and water together and brush gently over the crust. Place the tart on the lower rack in the oven and cook for 45 to 55 minutes until the crust is golden brown.
6. Heat canola oil in a pan over medium heat. Place in a few leaves of sage at a time, fry for about 5 seconds each, then place on a paper-towel lined plate. Sprinkle over the tart.
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Related post on nestMeg: Apple Onion Cheese Tart
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Matzoh crack is an easy dessert for Passover featuring sheets of matzoh drizzled with caramel and plenty of chocolate with a crunch sea salt finish. (Blue Kitchen)
A sweet treat for Passover: Matzoh crack
This post is by Terry's wife Marion.
Our family may not have every ethnic group, but we’ve got a lot of ‘em. English, Scottish, Polish, Jewish, Cherokee – and that is just a fraction of it. We are part of the portrait of America, the welcome everyone! stream that keeps reviving and renewing and invigorating us all: one family, one people, one house.
When we started planning for Passover, a couple of weeks ago, the foremost thing I was worried about was dessert. So many truly kosher-for-Passover desserts are borrrrrrring. This year I had great hopes for a couple of things, especially a cake with a great deal of roasted, ground nuts and lots of eggs, plus dates steeped in wine, lemon zest and cardamom. That experiment can best be described as unfortunate: it came out tasting like a slightly fragrant cardboard box and leaving me close to despair. But as I was poking around online, I kept bumping into versions of "Matzoh Crack," a recipe primarily featuring sheets of matzoh, caramel, plenty of chocolate, and sea salt. Some recipes may more politely refer to it as "matzoh crunch."
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Frankly, this recipe is all over the Intertubes. The original was created 20 years ago by Marcy Goldman of betterbaking.com; since then numerous bloggers have run with it. All the descendants are very near her original – and all share its amazing rich simplicity.
And the addictiveness. You may want to strategize about this one. What Marcy warns about her version is true for all of them: “Make a box for yourself before Passover and one box to serve at your seders.” You could also make a bunch and bring it in to your office, where it will last about 3-1/2 minutes.
If, like us, you are planning a nontraditional seder, for a blended family or a boundless social group, this is an honorable dessert.
Matzoh Crack
Serves 8 to 10
5 or 6 sheets unsalted matzohs
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 cup firmly-packed dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoons sea salt, plus 1 tablespoon
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips [or chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate]
3/4 cup white chocolate chips [or 1-1/2 cups of one of these chocolates]
1 cup toasted sliced nuts [see Kitchen Notes]
Other toppings [see Kitchen Notes]
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Completely line a rimmed baking sheet [approximately 11” x 17"] with foil, making sure the foil goes up and over the edges. Put a sheet of parchment paper on top of the foil.
2. Line the baking sheet with matzoh. You’ll need to cut up some of the pieces to complete the job. Interestingly, although every sheet of matzoh comes perforated, the perforations never, ever help you break the cracker in any remotely linear way. I recommend cutting up the matzoh by laying each board on a smooth, flat surface, taking a serrated bread knife and pressing down with its blade between, not along, the lines of perforations. [Insert heavy sigh here.]
3. In a 2- or 3-quart heavy saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar together, over moderate heat, until the butter is completely melted, everything is mixed together, and the mixture is beginning to boil. Stir the mixture constantly, as it simmers, for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat. Add 1/2 teaspoon sea salt and the vanilla, stir well, and right away pour it over the matzoh. Use a spatula to spread it around evenly.
4. Put the pan in the oven. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Keep an eye on it! It is going to get all bubbly and seething looking. That’s OK. But watch the edges carefully. If they start to darken, take the pan out of the oven for a minute, then return it. You want to bake for about 10 to 12 minutes altogether.
5. Remove the pan from the oven, turn off the oven, and set the pan on the stove top or counter. Drop the semisweet chocolate chips over half the surface and the white chocolate chips over the other half. Slide the pan back into the warm oven for a minute. Take it out, then using a spatula, spread the melty chocolate chips evenly over the caramel. [Use a different spatula for the white chocolate chips.] Once everything is nice and spread around, immediately scatter the chopped nuts and the remaining tablespoon of sea salt over the entire surface. Then add any other flavorings you may want to use.
6. Set the baking sheet on a rack and let it cool completely. When the toppings are fairly set, it will help to remove the matzohs carefully from the pan and let them dry on racks.
7. Once the sheets are completely cool and set, break into pieces. To get perfect linear strips, use a serrated bread knife. Or just break and crack them into strips and chunks. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
We will be serving this stacked on serving plates. Another handsome presentation, when you succeed in cutting this into long strips, is to stand the pieces vertically in glass tumblers.
Theoretically it keeps well for a week. We are unable to confirm this statement.
Kitchen Notes
Is it kosher? If you are worried whether this is a kosher for Passover dessert, please note: This recipe will be kosher for Passover if you use not just kosher products, but ingredients that are specifically kosher for Passover, and if your utensils are also specifically for that purpose. And, since this contains butter, lots of butter, the meal preceding it will have to be meatless. [Or you can use kosher margarine, to which I say eeeewwwwwwwwwwww.]
What about the chocolate? Almost every version of this recipe out there calls for semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips, or, sometimes, semisweet bakers chocolate. I looked and looked for bittersweet chocolate chips and failed to find any, but during the hunt ran across white chocolate chips, a real ah ha! moment. White chocolate on this is really, really, really good.
What about the toppings? The sea salt is essential. Many versions of this use rafts of toasted sliced almonds, which make an extremely beautiful presentation. Some people like crushed peppermint, although I don’t cotton to that for this recipe. A scattering of toasted sesame seeds, coarsely ground black pepper, vanilla sugar and toasted pecans also work well.
The versions you see in Terry’s photos uses toasted, chopped hazelnuts. The white chocolate version also includes spicy rose sugar, a product we purchased from eSutras Organics, a Chicago company that focuses entirely on organic herbs, teas, spices and health and beauty products. Read more about this very nice company and its spicy rose sugar at the eSutras Organics website. The spice and rose flavor is very subtle – what comes through is the clean flavor of the cane sugar. Also, this sugar is quite pretty – you can see the pink bits of dried rose petals in the photo.
Why is matzoh perforated, anyway? The most essential tradition of Passover is to eat no bread that is leavened. Matzoh is perforated to prevent any inadvertent rising that may occur during the baking. The baker’s tool for perforating matzoh, by the way, is called a reidel.
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Related post on Blue Kitchen: Passover-inspired ice creams
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One of Kelsi Beer's 14 chickens stands in the doorway of its chicken coop outside Beer's family's home in Kittaning, Pa. Kelsi, 12, has become a sort of an urban chicken-guru both at her Kittaning home and on the Internet. (Stephanie Strasburg/Tribune Review/AP)
An American culinary journey: from succotash to urban chickens
Come join me for a four-week webinar seminar An American Culinary Journey: From Succotash to Urban Chickens in partnership with Principia College. The course will meet online for one hour every Monday night, beginning April 1. No homework required! Just learn, share, and have fun.
To register, click here (or go to http://www.principialifelonglearning.org/online-non-credit/current-courses).
About the Seminar
This seminar will look at the impact of rapid developments in technology and world events on the food we grow, prepare, and eat. Starting in the 1800s when home cooking began to adapt universal standards, the seminar will progress through the two World Wars and explore the impact that massive industrialization had on the nation's food system.
The class will visit the kitchen of Minnie Weygandt, a cook in the home of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of The Christian Science Monitor. Julia Child will be our guide in the post-war era as food rationing gave way to the arrival of gourmet food. And finally, we'll take a look at modern food practices such as the farm-to-table movement, the rise of the Food Network, and the impact of food bloggers and urban homesteaders who have brought canning, pickling, composting, and raising chickens back in vogue. Each week will include a recipe from the time period for students to test.
Class runs April 1–22.
Live class sessions meet Monday evenings 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. (CDT), beginning April 1.
To register, click here (or go to http://www.principialifelonglearning.org/online-non-credit/current-courses).
These savory little biscuits are so versatile. Enjoy them for breakfast, serve them next to a bowl of soup for lunch, or offer them as a finger food party snack. (The Runaway Spoon)
Country ham biscuit bites with cheese
My love for biscuits is well documented (13 recipes on The Runaway Spoon at last count), and my love of country ham equally evident when you peruse my recipes. I have always enjoyed a warm, buttery biscuit with a slice of salty country ham tucked inside, so the next logical step seemed to be incorporating the ham directly into the biscuit. And these are heavenly morsels of Southern flavor.
Cut into small biscuits, these little rounds make a wonderful brunch bite or party snack with their cheesy filling. But they are just good biscuits, so use them how you will. Cut them large and serve with butter or gravy for breakfast, or spread a little mustard instead of butter before you melt the cheese.
I buy already ground country ham, sometimes online and sometimes I find it at local markets. If you can’t find it, grind some country ham slices in a food processor until you have a crumbly mixture, but not a paste. To add the delicious, melty center, I use thick cut sandwich slices of sharp cheddar cheese for ease, but feel free to cut slices from a block.
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Country ham biscuit bites with cheese
Makes about 2 dozen 2-inch biscuits
2-1/2 cups soft wheat flour (such as White Lily)
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut into small cubes
4 ounces ground country ham
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 cup buttermilk
14 thick slices cheddar cheese
softened butter for spreading
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray two 9-inch cake pans with cooking spray.
Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer. Shuffle the butter cubes into the flour, then crumble in the country ham. Beat on low speed until the butter and ham and mixed in and the mixture looks damp and crumbly. Add the mustard, and with the beater moving, slowly pour in the buttermilk. Beat just until the dough comes together. Knead the dough a few times in the bowl to get all the flour worked in. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to a round 1/2-inch thick. Press a 2-inch biscuit cutter into the dough and lift out. Do not twist or the biscuits won’t be as tall. Place the biscuits tightly together in the prepared pans.
Bake the biscuits for 10 to 12 minutes or just until firm to the touch. Remove to a wire rack until they are cool enough to handle. Lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees F. When the baking pans have cooled, spray them with cooking spray again.
Use the biscuit cutter to cut rounds of cheese the same size as your biscuits. When the biscuits are cool enough to handle, carefully slice them open and spread both sides with a little soft butter. Place a piece of cheese in the center, close the biscuit up and tuck back into the baking pans. Spread a little butter on the top of the biscuits. Cover the pans tightly with foil and place back in the oven for about 5 to 8 minutes, just until the cheese is melted.
Serve immediately
To make these biscuits ahead, here are a couple of options. Freeze the dough rounds on a waxed paper lined baking sheet until hard, then transfer to zip-top bags. Bake from frozen, increasing the cooking time slightly. You can also bake the biscuits, add the butter and cheese, cover and refrigerate for several hours before the final baking, again increasing the cooking time slightly.
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Related post on The Runaway Spoon: Fresh Tomato Buttermilk Biscuits
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Gustave Courbet, 'The Trout,' 1873, oil on canvas, Musée d’Orsay, Paris (Feasting on Art)
Feasting on Art: smoked trout smørrebrød and Gustave Courbet
Smørrebrød is the Danish tradition of open-face sandwiches. A dark dense bread, usually a type of rye, is toasted and topped with smoked or pickled fish and other vegetables. In this version, the smoked trout is the star and so it is essential to purchase high-quality fish.
I picked up a whole fish and carefully de-boned all of the flesh before assembling the smørrebrød. If you have any extra pickled red onions, store them in their pickling liquid in the refrigerator and consume within a week. They are great toppings for hamburgers and can be used to liven up a grilled cheese sandwich.
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"The Trout" was painted during a period of time Gustave Courbet spent in the Franche-Comté region. The painting is one of several created after he served time in prison due to his participation in the 1871 Commune. Like Manet’s earlier painting Fish (Still Life), Courbet’s trout is dramatically depicted mid-flop.
"The Trout" appears to be freshly caught, gasping for breath on a riverbank and the canvas is worked with heavy and rough brushstrokes. The application of paint paired with the helplessness of the subject could suggest the frustration the Artist was experiencing at the time with the judiciary system.
Smoked trout smørrebrød
Adapted from Bon Appetit
Yield: 12 servings
1/2 red onion, sliced thinly
1/4 red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 slices pumpernickel bread, toasted and quartered
1 teaspoon lemon zest
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup crème fraîche
250 grams [about 1/2 lb.] smoked trout
Dill
In a small bowl, combine the red onion with the vinegar, sugar, salt, and 1/4 cup hot water. Let sit for 30 minutes
In another bowl, combine the lemon zest, black pepper, and crème fraîche. Spoon the mixture on the toasted pumpernickel bread. Add a few grams of fish and top with pickled onions.
Garnish with a bit of dill and serve.
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Related post on Feasting on Art: John Olsen– BBQ Tikka Prawns
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The outsides of these cookies are a bit crispy, while the insides are chewy, gooey, and chocolately. (Eat. Run. Read.)
M&M, chocolate chip monster cookies
I don’t think there’s any doubt around here that, though I may not be blue or have googley eyes, I’m a bit of a Cookie Monster myself. They’re just so good! Chewy cookies, crunchy cookies, oatey or chocolatey or sugary cookies! I like them all. And they go so well with coffee, for snack, after meals, all the time.
And what does a cookie monster need? A monster cookie!
The Monster Cookies at Corner Bakery Café, a dangerously few short blocks from my office, are my (now ex)-co-worker Tracy’s favorites. Unlike other monster cookies, this recipe doesn't have oatmeal or raisins or nuts – they’re all about the chocolate. Chocolate chips inside, mini M&Ms outside. They taste like every chocolate chip cookie should – buttery, and chocolately, and a tiny bit salty. The outsides are a bit crispy and the insides are super-gooey-chewy.
I made these to bring to work last week and they were great! I made the dough a day in advance, refrigerated it before shaping the cookies, then I froze the shaped balls of dough overnight. That whole process isn’t necessary, that’s just how timing best worked out for me. But if you don’t have time to chill or freeze the dough, I suggest adding a 1/2 cup more flour, otherwise they may spread out too much in the oven.
Ready for some other wise words from the muppet himself? "A cookie with one bite out of it looks like a C! A round donut with a bite out of it also looks like a C!" See what I mean? We’re totally on the same page. After my marathon this Saturday it’s going to be donut time.
Monster cookies
This recipe makes 3 to 4 dozen cookies. It can easily be halved if you’re feeling like controlling your inner monster, and it’s a one-bowl recipe.
Click here for a printable recipe from Eat. Run. Read.
Ingredients:
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted softened butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2-1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 bag (about 2-1/2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup mini M&Ms (I used four packages of little tubes)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray or line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Mix butter and sugars for about 2 minutes. Add egg and vanilla, mixing until well combined.
3. Add in flour, baking soda, and salt to bowl, and stir until combined. Mix in chocolate chips. Mix three or four times, then add chocolate chips, mixing until just combined.
4. Refrigerate dough for at least one hour, preferably a couple hours or overnight.
5. Scoop out 2-tablespoon-sized chunks of dough and use your hands to shape them into balls. Pour out M&Ms into a shallow bowl. Roll the balls in the M&Ms (I did M&Ms just on the top and sides of each ball, so not quite all the way around).
6. (Optional) Freeze cookies overnight.
7. Place cookies on sheet, 1 to 2 inches apart (they spread a lot).
8. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until nice and golden brown but still semi-soft in center. Remove and let cool on baking sheet for five minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
9. Serve and enjoy! (They are best fresh out of the oven, obviously. You should eat these or freeze them in the first day or two, after that they’re still good but they dry out a bit.)
Related post on Eat. Run. Read: S'mores Cookies
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City workers tend to rice plants at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, South Korea, in June. Boxes of rice seedlings will be tended to until they are ready for harvesting. Cities all over the world are encouraging the planting of urban gardens. (Woohae Cho/Reuters/File)
Meet Ron Finley: A gansta gardner (+video)
Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central, Los Angeles, in abandoned lots, traffic medians, and along sidewalk curbs. He sees himself as an artist of the soil, a renegade against fast food, and a visionary to inspire and involve inner city kids in hard work that pays off in a community where “the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys.”
Mr. Finley recently gave an inspiring TED talk (see video).
Finley says, if kids grow kale, they will eat kale.
Looks like there is some hope springing up in one of L.A.'s food deserts.
Day-old bread is transformed into a decadent breakfast bread pudding with this recipe. (The Pastry Chef's Baking)
French toast breakfast bake
Every time I plan to make bread pudding, I buy a loaf of challah from Trader Joe's and try to "stale it" by leaving it on the counter, untouched, before I use it. The leaving on the counter part is easy. The untouched part? Not so much.
This is actually made with the second loaf of challah I bought because the one I purchased the week prior didn't make it long enough to go into bread pudding. For this one, I didn't even stale it properly because ... well, I usually try not to lie to myself that I'm not going to eat it if it's there.
This is a simple bread pudding recipe that you can make up the night before and just bake when you're ready. If you tend to have busy mornings but want something simple to serve the next day for a breakfast or brunch, this is a good option. If you want a little more texture, sprinkle the top with chopped, toasted pecans before baking. I wouldn't advise including it in the streusel that gets soaked as part of the custard in the bread pudding as they'll just become soggy.
RECOMMENDED: Five breakfast meals to go
French toast breakfast bake
From Cookin' Food
1 loaf day old Italian Bread or other hard white bread (I used challah)
1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted (optional)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
5 eggs
1-1/4 cups milk
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1. Grease an 8-by-8 inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Slice the bread into 8 to 10, 1-inch wide slices. Cut each slice into approximately one inch cubes. Note: Using day old, drier bread is key here. It soaks up the wet ingredients more thoroughly than fresh bread does.
3. In a small bowl, combine nuts, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix well.
4. Place half of the bread cubes in a single layer in the baking pan. Sprinkle half the sugar mixture on top of bread. Place remaining bread cubes on first layer and sprinkle remaining sugar mixture on top.
5. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and vanilla. Mix well.
6. Pour egg mixture evenly over the bread mixture in baking pan. With a spatula, lightly press down on the bread to evenly coat it with the egg combination.
7. Cover pan with foil and refrigerate overnight or for at least 5 hours. (That way the bread has time to suck up the custard mixture.)
8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake pan for 20 minutes, covered. Remove foil and continue baking uncovered for 30-40 minutes longer or until top looks browned and breakfast bake looks slightly puffed.
9. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes in pan. Serve warm with maple syrup.
RECOMMENDED: Five breakfast meals to go
Related post on The Pastry Chef's Baking: Chocolate Waffles
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Peas with baked ricotta and bread crumbs from "Vegetable Literacy," by Deborah Madison. (Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton © 2013)
Cookbook review: Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison
The phrase, "eat your vegetables," has long been used by stern-looking parents desperate to make their offspring eat something besides pasta and chicken fingers. To children everywhere, "vegetables" has meant mushy, bland tasting things that stand in the way of dessert. Unfortunately, many people carry the disdain for leafy, root-y edibles far into adulthood.
Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison may be the cookbook to change all of that.
"Vegetable Literacy," breaks new ground because it focuses on the relationships between the veggies that grow in your garden. Madison's theory is that if you understand these relationships, you'll find new freedom in the kitchen to mix and match flavors in away that allows zucchini, peas, squash, and so much more to harmonize their flavors instead of being treated like tolerated guests on your dinner plate.
"When we look closely at the plants we eat and begin to discern their similarities, that intelligence comes with us into the kitchen and articulates our cooking in a new way," writes Madison in the introduction to "Vegetable Literacy." "Suddenly our raw materials make sense.... Bringing plants' features into view can free us as cooks, make us unafraid to use some amaranth that's going full guns in the garden in the place of spinach, which has bolted and dried up. They are, after all, related."
The author's first clue that the world of vegetable relationships was a trove waiting to be revealed to home cooks came in the form of a second-year carrot gone to seed. The lacy umbel of its flower reminded of her parsley, fennel, cilantro, and even the wildflower Queen Anne's lace. After a little investigation, it turned out they are all members of the same plant family, and its edible members share culinary characteristics.
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Madison, a leading authority on vegetarian cooking, has a wealth of knowledge and insight on how to cook vegetables in a way that tames their bitterness. Rutabagas, for instance, are a root vegetable that, in Madison's words, get "relegated to a lowly spot at knee level" in the grocery store. This tough, winter root shaped like a fat turnip is adored by equally hardy Scandinavians and northern Europeans when paired with butter and cream. Rutabagas are actually part of the large and unruly cabbage family – full of characters ranging from the fiery to the bland – which Madison says most "nonvegetable eaters approach with dread."
Her recommendation: peel away its thick skin, boil it to bring out its innate sweetness, and treat it lavishly. Smooth it with butter and cream; enhance its mild flavor with nutmeg, parsley, thyme, caraway, rosemary, and bay leaves. Add some smokiness in the form of smoked bacon, smoked salt, or smoked paprika. Or pair it with its sweeter cousins: potatoes, turnips, carrots, and apples.
And that is just one vegetable's treatment. Madison offers up more than 300 recipes to perceive vegetables in new ways.
Once you understand their relationships, which vegetables needs coaxing from what flavors, you'll transform a riot of awkward shapes into a symphony of tastes that delight. Essentially, instead of approaching vegetables with a whip and chair like a lion tamer, you become a conductor with a carrot as your baton.
With Madison's long career in restaurants, farmers' markets, and the slow food movement, following her through "Vegetable Literacy" is a bit like trailing her through the vegetable patch, listening as she stoops to discover some new sprout poking beneath a sheltering leaf and sharing what she has learned over the years as her own garden and wisdom has matured.
Even if you cook vegetables only once a week, you'll learn something from this family tree encyclopedia told in Madison's warm tone, sprinkled with funny stories. And she isn't above disdaining vegetables either. After a beautiful purple carrot turned to brown when cooked and thereby produced a mud-colored soup, down the drain it went. Madison knows our relationship to vegetables is tricky, and she aims to ease our comfort as best she can.
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With spring peeking around the corner, a recipe using spring peas is hard to resist (even if you swear you don't like peas, give these a chance!). This recipe for peas with baked ricotta and bread crumbs will make a lovely light supper for two – and maybe win over a new vegetable lover in the process.
Peas with Baked Ricotta
and Bread Crumbs
From "Vegetable Literacy" by Deborah Madison
Olive oil
1 cup high-quality ricotta cheese, such as hand-dipped full-fat ricotta
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh bread crumbs
4 teaspoons butter
2 large shallots or 1/2 small onion, finely diced (about 1/3 cup)
5 small sage leaves, minced (about 1-1/2 teaspoons)
1-1/2 pounds pod peas, shucked (about 1 cup)
Grated zest of 1 lemon
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Chunk of Parmesan cheese, for grating
Heat the oven to 375 degree F. Lightly oil a small baking dish; a round Spanish earthenware dish about 6 inches across is perfect for this amount.
If your ricotta is wet and milky, drain it first by putting it in a colander and pressing out the excess liquid. Pack the ricotta into the dish, drizzle a little olive oil over the surface, and bake 20 minutes or until the cheese has begun to set and brown on top. Cover the surface with the bread crumbs and continue to bake until the bread crumbs are browned and crisp, another 10 minutes. (The amount of time it takes for ricotta cheese to bake until set can vary tremendously, so it may well take longer than the times given here, especially if it wasn’t drained.)
When the cheese is finished baking, heat the butter in a small skillet over medium heat. When the butter foams, add the shallots and sage and cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the peas, 1/2 cup water, and the lemon zest. Simmer until the peas are bright green and tender; the time will vary, but it should be 3 to 5 minutes. Whatever you do, don’t let them turn gray. Season with salt and a little freshly ground pepper, not too much.
Divide the ricotta between 2 plates. Spoon the peas over the cheese. Grate some Parmesan over all and enjoy while warm.
With Pasta: Cook 1 cup or so pasta shells in boiling, salted water. Drain and toss them with the peas, cooked as above, and then with the ricotta. The peas nestle in the pasta, like little green pearls.
Reprinted with permission from Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison, copyright © 2013. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc.
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Leftover pot roast works perfectly for this dish, but other choices could be roast chicken, roast turkey, or corned beef. (Blue Kitchen)
Beef pot roast and potato hash
Some foods are just made for each other. A grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup; black beans and rice; apple pie and vanilla ice cream. And, of course, beef and potatoes.
These days we are not eating meat as often as we once did, trying to be more mindful of the way we live on the planet. But when we do, we still love it. And we don’t waste any of it.
The arrival in the mailbox of the annual Saveur 100 issue was the gateway to a new to me recipe that is an old American classic: hash. The Saveur 100 is always one of my favorite reading events – it’s a thrill when it arrives and a pleasure throughout the year. Saveur always talks about the coolest trends, the most amazing destinations, and of course the oh golly! examples of local favorites (“Ohio nachos”). I excavate it from our magazine mountain again and again throughout the year for inspiration or just to while away the time.
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One item in this year’s 100 particularly hit a chord with me: prime rib hash from Keen’s Steakhouse in Manhattan.
I happened to make our version of this hash from basic, simple pot roast that happened to be left over from a recent wintry dinner. But this dish would be even more wonderful with out-and-out roast beef, cooled and then cubed. We took our leftover pot roast and sliced it into half-inch cubes, and that was the first step in this really rather easy to assemble dish.
Our version serves at least 4 people for a cozy weekend lunch or a comfy, casual evening of a dinner and a movie at home. Serve it with a leafy dark-green salad. For dessert, serve our gingerbread or cherry orange loaf cake, both of which you can make ahead. This hash also reheats well, good news for those of us who love tasty leftovers.
Beef pot roast and potato hash
Serves 4 generously
10 to 12 ounces leftover beef pot roast (or roast beef) cut into 1/2-inch cubes (see Kitchen Notes)
2-1/2 pounds of Yukon Gold potatoes (see Kitchen Notes)
6 tablespoons chopped shallots
2 stalks celery, finely sliced crosswise
2 or 3 tablespoons ketchup
2 or 3 tablespoons sriracha (see Kitchen Notes)
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped (see Kitchen Notes)
2 teaspoons salt
freshly ground black pepper
olive oil
butter (optional)
Special Equipment: Two 12-inch skillets ovenproof to 400 degrees F. This volume of ingredients makes two skillets worth of hash.
Peel the potatoes and cut into chunks about 1/2-inch to 3/4-inch in size. Put into a pot, cover with cool water, bring to a boil and simmer until tender. Immediately drain, rinsing with cold water. Put in a big bowl. Mash the potatoes briefly and gently – you want most of the cubes to be broken down, but a bit of “cubiness” to remain. Add the cooked beef to the bowl.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In an oven-safe skillet, heat up 2 teaspoons olive oil over a medium flame. Add the shallots and celery and sauté for two minutes, until the shallots are clear and limp. Add this to the potato and beef mixture. Also add a good grating of black pepper, the salt, the fresh rosemary, ketchup, and sriracha. Mix everything together until it is pretty uniform.
To each of the two skillets, add 1 or 2 tablespoons olive oil and a teaspoon of butter (which is optional, but adds a nice buttery touch) and heat to medium low. In each skillet, put half the hash mixture and spread out so it is even and uniform. Press down all around with a sturdy spatula to encourage it to form a cake. Turn up the heat a bit to medium. Sauté until the bottom begins to turn golden, about 3 or 4 minutes. Transfer the pans to the oven and bake until the top begins to brown, about 10 minutes depending on your oven (see Kitchen Notes).
You may also prepare this as an individual serving. Cut the recipe in 1/4 and prepare in a small (10-inch) ovenproof skillet. This is a hearty eater serving – very generous. When the pan emerges from the oven, flip the hash onto the serving plate so that the well-browned bottom shows. Or you may cut the recipe in half to serve two or three people, cooking it in one skillet. If you fix this in big skillets, then serve wedges of the hash straight from the pan.
Kitchen notes
Choice (of) meats. I used leftover beef pot roast. You can use pretty much any simply prepared leftover meat or fowl – roast chicken, roast turkey or, of course, corned beef.
You say potato… I used Yukon Gold because that is what we had in the fridge. Russets would also work well.
Ketchup and sriracha. If you prefer no spiciness, then omit the sriracha and replace with the same amount ketchup. Alternatively, instead of sriracha, substitute oyster sauce. Also, once you have mixed everything together, if the mix seems dry or like it needs more punch, then add another tablespoon of either sauce.
Rosemary, fresh or dried. Yes, if you do not have fresh, you may use dry, but sauté it along with the scallion and celery. Also, use about half as much. Alternatively, substitute tarragon.
Oven time. Our rental apartment oven is so fickle that I never can be sure what kind of timing I may expect – the same gingerbread recipe, for instance, may take 28 minutes or 35 minutes. Thus my eternal reminders about oven dependability. Use an oven thermometer, if you have one, to check the temperature. Otherwise, just know your oven and/or start checking your food’s progress early and often.
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Related post on Blue Kitchen: Cherry Orange Loaf Cake
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