I Love Wednesday

Wednesday is my favorite day of the week, and it's not because it's hump day.  I love Wednesdays because that when the NYT Dining section is published.  No matter how uninspired I'm feeling, there's always something there that makes me look forward to cooking dinner.

This week's section did not disappoint, and Ted and I dined on Melissa Clark's Pasta with Burst Cherry Tomatoes Wednesday evening.  Melissa is my go to when I'm looking for something fresh and vibrant to fight off the humidity of summer.

The real bonus here is that I had everything needed to make this delicious sounding pasta recipe right here in the house... or in my backyard.  Yup, we're growing a variety of herbs this summer, and to say that we are being overrun by mint would be an understatement of epic proportions.  There's a limit to how many cocktails with muddled mint Ted can make, so finding a recipe that calls for 3 cups of mint leaves is a real bonanza.  Because our basil is going wild as well, I threw in a handful of torn basil leaves along with the mint.

The weather cooperated and we were able to enjoy our summer pasta al fresco, along with a nice glass of rose.  Just one more reason to love Wednesdays.

Recipe:  Pasta with Burst Cherry Tomatoes
New York Times, July 9, 2014

* Note:  I added a handful of torn basil leaves along with the mint,

Ingredients:

1 pound fusilli pasta
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, more for drizzling
6 ounces pancetta, preferably thick cut, diced
6 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
Pinch of red pepper flakes
Fine sea salt and black pepper, as needed
1 quart cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
3 tablespoons butter
Fresh ricotta cheese, for serving (optional)
3 cups whole mint leaves, torn
4 scallions, preferably red scallions for color, thinly sliced
Flaky sea salt, to finish

Directions:

Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until 1 minute shy of al dente. Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup pasta cooking water.

Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat for 15 seconds, then add the oil and heat until it thins out and easily coats the pan when swirled. Add pancetta and cook until it starts to render its fat, about 2 minutes. Add garlic, red pepper flakes and a large pinch of salt and pepper and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook until they burst, turn golden at the edges and shrivel up slightly, about 5 to 8 minutes.

Add pasta to pan and toss with tomato-pancetta mixture; if the mixture looks dry add a little pasta cooking water a few tablespoons at a time. Cook over high heat until the pasta finishes cooking in the sauce. Add the butter and toss until it melts and coats everything.

Divide pasta among warmed pasta bowls. Garnish with dollops of ricotta if desired, and top with a generous mound of fresh mint and scallions. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt and more pepper before serving.el4 Note: If you would like to leave out the pancetta (making the dish vegetarian), toss 1/3 cup grated pecorino in the pasta along with the butter.

YIELD 4 to 6 servings

A Little Kick

Although I am not a huge Asian food fan, I do love wasabi.  There's something about the sharp, sinus clearing taste that just drives me mad.  In fact, as far as I'm concerned, soy sauce and wasabi are the best things about sushi.

I know, I know.  Soy sauce and wasabi are not generally considered to be the high point of the sushi eating experience.

The other day I was thinking about how I might merge my love of sushi condiments into to a format I'd be more excited about.  What I really meant to say was that I was looking for a way to get the punch of wasabi with something other than raw fish.

A really limited amount of checking with my close friend Google revealed that lots of other people have had the same thought.  I found numerous versions of salmon with wasabi, but this one, with just a few of my own twists, really hit the spot for me.

Give it a try.  There's nothing quite like the wasabi kick!

Recipe:  Wasabi Crusted Salmon with Rice Noodles
Adapted from Epicurious.com

Ingredients:

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons Wasabi powder
4 6 to 8 ounces salmon filet
½ pound rice noodles
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (divided) chopped peanuts
½ teaspoons hot sauce
2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
Zest of 1 orange
2 scallions, chopped


Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a glass bowl, mix the wasabi powder and a little water until you have made a paste. Add the oil to the Wasabi paste, and brush the mixture on the salmon. If possible, let the salmon rest for a short while to absorb some of the flavors. Place Salmon in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes.

Soak the rice noodles in boiling water for about 10 minutes to soften. In a glass bowl, mix the soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, peanuts, sesame oil, and hot sauce. Using a microplane grater, zest 1 orange into the mixture. Drain the noodles, add the soy sauce mixture and mix well. Place the noodles in the middle of the plate and top with the salmon.  Garnish with the scallions and reserved 2 tablespoons of chopped peanuts. Drizzle with a little additional soy sauce, if desired.

Camp Walden Redux

Visiting day, 2007
Kate and Ted on Walden Pond
(This is one my all time favorite camp pictures)

Both of my kids were campers.  And by campers, I don't mean two weeks of sports camp in mid-July.  Nope.  Charlie and Kate both spent their childhood summers at sleep away  camp.  For eight weeks.  For eight years.

Oh, don't look at me as though I sent them off to prison.  They went to camp, for heavens sake, where  you get to do fun stuff all day.  Stuff that you would never get to do at home... at least not everyday for two months.

Charlie went to camp in the high sierra mountains of California.  He started there when we still lived in California and continued through even after we moved to Pittsburgh.  Charlie loved his summers filled with canoeing, hiking, and eating s'mores.  Gold Arrow was Charlie's place for many years.  (More on Charlie's camp adventures in another post, but suffice it to say, I will have to obtain clearance from Charlie before I proceed.)


Kate took a different summer camp route and went to Camp Walden in Denmark, Maine.  You may remember Camp Walden from The Parent Trap, which was based (loosely) on Camp Walden and its founder Mrs. Herz.  (Take note: Camp Walden does not have an isolation cabin...)  Kate loved being at Walden  It was, and still is, her place.  In fact,  it was at Walden that her love affair with Maine began.

Then...

Fast forward to... yesterday.  Four years after her Bunk 12  summer, Kate boarded a United Airlines flight bound for Maine, and her beloved Camp Walden.  It is there that she will spend her summer teaching tennis to a new generation of Waldenites.  She'll also be a cabin counselor.

and Now

As we stood in the airport saying our goodbyes, I couldn't help but think about all those summers back when Kate was a camper.  It really is funny how quickly time flies.  It seems like just yesterday that I sent her off for a summer of hiking, tennis, canoeing, arts and crafts and general memory making.  In fact, she was just a taller version of her former camper self, wearing her overstuffed backpack, clutching her pillow and her tennis racquets.  (Only this time she wasn't clutching as much as schlepping her pillow and racquets, but the backpack was still completely overstuffed.)

While this summer will be a very different experience for Kate, the really wonderful thing about Walden is that the more things change, the more Walden stays the same. From what I have heard, Walden is essentially the same magical place as it was at its founding in 1916.  The girls still wear their orange ties to bunk shows on Friday nights.  They wear uniforms (brown and tan).  They sing songs that only they know.  They yell and scream and sing at the top of their lungs in the dining hall.  The eat congo bars and pizza on Friday nights and schnecken on Sunday mornings.  Every Sunday they have Thanksgiving for lunch.  They sit on EA rock and contemplate whatever strikes them.  They play on the tire swing and they make giant snake lines through the whole camp.  When they sign a letter home they always end with EAO.  (I have absolutely no idea what that means -- I'm not even sure Kate does.)

Just thinking of Walden makes me a little teary.

So, in honor of summer campers everywhere, have a great time.  Try new things.  Sit on the floor in your bunk and play jacks. eat too much candy on visiting day, perfect your s'more, and make your own memories.  I know Kate is.

It's a Bar! No! I't s a Cake!

I'm going to start by saying that I'm not sure how to categorize this apple cinnamon quinoa breakfast bake.  It's kind of a coffee cake, and it's kind of a breakfast bar.  Either way, this recipe is packed full of good for you goodies.

I'm not usually all that progressive when it comes to ingredients that are a little outside of my comfort zone.  Sure, I make quinoa.  And I use soy milk.  But a cake made out of quinoa... and soy milk?  I'm not so sure.

Fortunately for me, Kate is home and she's all about eating healthy.  I think all this healthy eating has come about as a direct result of eating college dormitory food for the past year.  As hard as dining services try, it's just not the kind of food she was accustomed to at home.

So, I've been busy in the kitchen turning out recipes that Kate finds for me on Pinterest.  Kate believes that Pinterest is better than any cookbook.  I have to say, she's not entirely off base.  I've even started a Pinterest page.  Check mine out (You Little Tarte).

But I digress.  Give this breakfast cake/bake/bar a try.  And, if you're like Kate, and don't like raisins in things, do what I did and substitute in the same amount of low sugar Craisins.

Recipe:  Apple Cinnamon Quinoa Breakfast Bake
(Adapted from Katie at the Kitchen Door)

Ingredients:

1 cup uncooked quinoa
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 apples, peeled, diced
1/4 cup raisins (I used the same amount low sugar Craisins)
2 eggs
2 cups vanilla soy milk (can substitute regular milk)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup almonds, chopped

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 7-by-11-inch baking dish (an 8-by-8 works too).
In a small bowl, mix the uncooked quinoa with the spices. Pour into greased dish.
Sprinkle the apple and raisins on top of the quinoa.
In that same small bowl, beat the eggs. Whisk in the soy milk and maple syrup.
Pour the egg-and-milk mixture over the top of the fruit and quinoa. Lightly stir to partially submerge the fruit. Sprinkle the chopped almonds on top.
Bake for 1 hour or until the casserole is mostly set with only a small amount of liquid left.
Allow to cool, and then cover and refrigerate. In the morning, cut a square, microwave it on a plate, and enjoy alone or with a few dollops of Greek yogurt.

Simply Elegant

I'm not much of a vegetable lover, but I do really enjoy haricots verts.  I like regular green beans as well, but the slim french green beans are really my favorite.  Maybe it's because they're french.

Back when I was a girl, back in the olden days of Los Angeles, we didn't have haricots verts.  We had green beans.  That was it.  There were no international green beans served in my house.  It wasn't until years after I moved out on my own, that I discovered that there actually existed different varieties of green beans than the ones served at our dinner table.  Who knew?  I certainly didn't.

But the fact remains that the french version are absolutely delicious.  They're sweet and if cooked properly, they're a vivid green with a delicate little snap when you bite into them.

The best way to prepare haricots verts is to briefly blanch them in lightly salted boiling water and then to immediately dunk them in a bowl of ice water.  This will stop the cooking and help the beans to maintain their bright green color.  At this point, you can then go ahead and use the beans in any recipe... or just snack on them as is.

This is my go-to recipe and it's a perfect little side dish.  It's filled with flavor; shallots and garlic have a way of doing that.  It'll add a touch of the fancy-schmancy to whatever you're serving for dinner.

Recipe:  Sautéed Haricots Verts

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced shallots
3 teaspoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
3/4 pound haricot verts, stemmed and blanched
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

In a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat and sauté the garlic and the shallots until soft.  Add the parsley, and stir to coat.  Add the haricots certs, toss to coat with the herbs and oil and heat until hot, 2-3 minutes.  Season generously with the salt and pepper.

Not Your Pioneer's Cast Iron Pan

I really love a good steak.  I mean, come on.  Who doesn't?  Okay, maybe those of you out there who are vegetarians and vegans don't love a good steak.  But so far as I know, most everyone else does.  At least amongst my friends.

But I digress.
Usually I like to go out for a steak.  Or I like to fire up the grill (or rather, I like to direct Ted to fire up the grill), and cook the steaks that way.  I'm not big on the whole pan cooking steaks thing.

That is, until I saw this recipe in The New York Times for cast iron cooked steaks.  Just like the pioneers!

Make sure to get really nice steaks from your butcher.

Making a steak in a cast iron pan really is so easy it's criminal.  First of all, you'll want to make sure the steaks are dry.  There are instructions in the recipe for drying the steaks, but fret not.  All it involves is about an hour and a roll of paper towels.  The real key to success is making sure your cast iron pan is good and hot.  So hot that the steak really sizzles and caramelizes when it makes contact with the pan.  Other than that, you'll be good to go and you'll end up with the best (indoor) steak you've ever had.

Recipe:  Cast-Iron Steak
Julia Moskin, New York Times, 5//14/14

Ingredients:

Coarse salt, such as kosher salt or Maldon sea salt
1 or 2 boneless beef steaks, 1 inch thick (about 2 pounds total), such as strip, rib-eye, flat iron, chuck-eye, hanger or skirt (preferably “outside” skirt)
Black pepper (optional)

Directions:

Remove packaging and pat meat dry with paper towels. Line a plate with paper towels, place meat on top and set aside to dry further and come to cool room temperature (30 to 60 minutes, depending on the weather). Turn occasionally; replace paper towels as needed.

Place a heavy skillet, preferably cast-iron, on the stove and sprinkle lightly but evenly with about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt. Turn heat to high under pan. Pat both sides of steak dry again.

When pan is smoking hot, 5 to 8 minutes, pat steak dry again and place in pan. (If using two steaks, cook in two batches.)

Let steak sizzle for 1 minute, then use tongs to flip it over, moving raw side of steak around in pan so both sides are salted. Press down gently to ensure even contact between steak and pan. Keep cooking over very high heat, flipping steak every 30 seconds. After it’s been turned a few times, sprinkle in two pinches salt. If using pepper, add it now.

When steak has contracted in size and developed a dark-brown crust, about 4 minutes total, check for doneness. To the touch, meat should feel softly springy but not squishy. If using an instant-read thermometer, insert into side of steak. For medium-rare meat, 120 to 125 degrees is ideal: Steak will continue cooking after being removed from heat.

Remove steak to a cutting board and tent lightly with foil. Let rest 5 minutes.

Serve in pieces or thickly slice on the diagonal, cutting away from your body and with the top edge of the knife leaning toward your body. If cooking skirt or hanger steak, make sure to slice across the grain of the meat.

Experimenting with Whole Wheat

So...  I've been trying really hard to cut down on all the white flour I've been eating.  I've been cutting back on the sugar too.  Don't I sound like a whole lot of fun?  As you can imagine, for someone like me, this does not make for very exciting eating, (or, for that matter, someone to hang out with).  I'm a baker and baking usually includes flour and sugar.  Need I say more?

But surprisingly enough, I've been pretty successful at my little experiment.  What started out as a two week challenge to myself, has now lasted about three or four months; long enough that I've lost count.  Believe me, no one is more surprised than  moi.

For the most part, the flour (and it's really just bread that I've eliminated), has been pretty easy.  The only bread I've eaten is bread that's worth it.  And by worth it, I don't mean the couple of pieces of uninspired toast that comes with my eggs, or the bread basket at most restaurants.  For me to have bread, it has to be really good bread.  As a result, I've only had bread a couple of times.  I'll tell you, it's amazing how little of the bread in breadbaskets near and far is really worth eating.

The sugar  thing has been a little tougher.  To say I was addicted to sugar would be an overstatement, but let's just say that I enjoyed my desserts.  I still enjoy dessert, just far less often.  And, when I do indulge, I've been trying to make it a little healthier than what I was eating pre-experiment.

I recently came across this recipe for dark chocolate chip cookies made with whole wheat flour.  I have to admit that I was a little dubious, but in the interest of science (or my sweet tooth -- you choose), I decided to give the recipe a try.

The results were... surprisingly delicious.  The whole wheat flour gave the cookies a really nice texture and the dark chocolate was a nice counterbalance to the more rustic texture of the flour.  In fact, these cookies were decidedly more adult and sophisticated than you average Toll House cookie.

Who knew?  I certainly never would have pegged that one.

While these cookies clearly aren't sugar-free, they're a step in the right direction.  And a nice little treat on those days when my experiment starts to feel a little, shall we say,  less experimental, and  a little more sugar-free.

Recipe:  Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce)

*Note:  I used Valrhona 72% cacao (bittersweet) chocolate.

Ingredients:
8 ounces (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 cups whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped into 1/4- and 1/2-inch pieces

Directions:

Place two racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment.

Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl, pouring back into the bowl any bits of grain or other ingredients that may remain in the sifter.

Add the butter and the sugars to the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. With the mixer on low speed, mix just until the butter and sugars are blended, about 2 minutes. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until each is combined. Mix in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture to the bowl and blend on low speed until the flour is barely combined, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.

Add the chocolate all at once to the batter. Mix on low speed until the chocolate is evenly combined. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, then scrape the batter out onto a work surface, and use your hands to fully incorporate all the ingredients.

Scoop mounds of dough about 3 tablespoons in size onto the baking sheet, leaving 3 inches between them, or about 6 to a sheet.

Bake the cookies for 16 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through, until the cookies are evenly dark brown. Transfer the cookies, still on the parchment, to the counter to cool, and repeat with the remaining dough. These cookies are best eaten warm from the oven or later that same day. They’ll keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.