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Nice crispies

 A trusty cast iron pan is a lifesaver on weekday nights when you want to achieve deep, comforting flavors without a lot of effort and time. In this case, chicken thighs are seasoned with salt and spices, then crisped skin-side down in the hot pan, before being flipped over, showered with fresh herbs, whole garlic cloves, and quartered red onion. Into the oven it goes and by the time the chicken is cooked through, the onions are sweet and soft and caramelized and the garlic cloves become little packages of savory spreadable wonder. Don't forget to splash some wine and stock in the empty pan and scrape up the flavorful goodness that remains-- a quick pan sauce that can accompany the chicken and get sopped up by some crunchy bread or potatoes.

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Lobster Quadrille

Living in DC and Maryland, I grew up eating blue crabs, steamed and liberally scattered in Old Bay.  The meat is delicate and sweet and worth every finger-burning minute of picking.  In all honesty, I never really understood our country’s obsession with lobster as the king of the crustaceans. For one thing, it is a very tricky protein to cook.  The meat, even at the best of restaurants, so easily falls off the sides of the perfect texture bell curve.  But, in this luxurious yet light salad, with a gentle poach in butter and a light toss in a lemon thyme vinaigrette, I believe it has found its perfect dancing partner.

*To poach the lobster:

Remove meat from 2 lobster tails.  You can use kitchen shears to cut the shell up the front and gently pull out the tail meat in one piece. 

Make your poaching liquid: Cube 3-4 sticks of butter.  Heat 1 tablespoon of water in a small pan, and, keeping heat low and whisking continuously, drop in butter pieces a couple at a time. This process is slow, but it will allow the butter sauce to become properly emulsified, smooth, creamy, and stable. (Voila!  You’ve just made a beurre monte!)

Gently slide the the tails into the butter.  They should be submerged. Keep the temp just below a simmer (<190 degrees).  You should not see any bubbling. This method is slow and gentle, and will yield a firm, yet delicate and toothsome texture.  Depending on the size of the tails, they should be cooked in 5-7 minutes.  You can check their temp if you’re not sure-- 140/145 degrees internal should be just about right.  They should be firm and white, not rubbery.  Slice into bite sized pieces or keep the tails whole, depending on how you want to plate your salad.

Toss the morsels of butter-poached lobster with slices of the sweetest stone fruit in season and tender grassy mâche.  Lightly dress with a lemony herb vinaigrette. Plate up, admire, and enjoy.

Lemon thyme vinaigrette:

4 T lemon juice

4 T champagne vinegar

1/2 tsp dijon mustard

1 tsp minced lemon thyme

1/2-3/4 cup olive oil

Whisk together first 4 ingredients.  Emulsify with olive oil; check at 1/2 cup for desired acidity level and add more oil as needed.  Season with pinch of sugar, salt and pepper.

*The butter poaching method for lobster tails is adapted from Thomas Keller’s French Laundry recipe.

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Fresh, exciting

I love tea.  Cold and hot.  And I would like to say that my love is unconditional, but I can’t. My one hang-up? I do not like sweet tea.  The South has many lovely culinary traditions, but in my opinion, sweetening tea to the point of supersaturation is not one of them.  My husband, who is from the South, begs to differ, but I stand firm.  I am happy to brew up some gorgeously pale, citrus-scented, floral-noted iced tea...but will not sully its spirit with sweetener.

Cold brewing couldn’t be more low maintenance-- The slower steeping method results in a brighter, more pure extraction, with more aroma and less bitterness.  For certain teas (white and green especially), the method also helps retain more antioxidants.  Just use two tablespoons loose tea (or 2-3 teabags) per 32 ounces of water, and let brew in the fridge for at least 2 hours.  I often put in a pitcher before I go to bed to have for the next day.

Keep a bottle of this in your fridge all Summer and Spring (and Winter and Fall!). You can experiment and combine loose leaf and bagged tea of all varieties.  My current favorite is a mixture of green chai and regular green tea.  That hint of cloves, ginger, and allspice really makes for an intriguing cold tea. No sugar needed.

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Happy 2nd Anniversary to my precious! (and oh, yes, happy anniversary to my sister and her husband too)

So, yeah, I made my sister's wedding cake.  And I take full responsibility for her happy marriage since.

Photo credit: Matt Lusk, OBX Wedding Guide 2014 (yes, I know! my precious cake made it into an actual magazine!)

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Remembering Clarissa Dickson Wright, my favorite saucy sidecar-riding chef, who passed away March 15 at the age of 66.

My 11/21/11 post on the Two Fat Ladies, professing my love and admiration for her and her wonderful and witty partner Jennifer Paterson (who passed away in 1999)...

Yeah, that’s right. I’m not ashamed to admit that I spent my Saturday night watching Two Fat Ladies.

If you’ve never experienced this jewel of a television program, you must remedy that tragedy as soon as possible. Two Fat Ladies is a British cooking show that ran from 1996 to 1999 on BBC...

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Baby Love, My Baby Grub

Ok, so while it took me a full year to get back to my blogging keyboard, I haven't been neglecting my knives and range.  Er, that is, not too too much.  Things have been sizzling and bubbling and flowing in my kitchen this past year, but not with the relaxed pace, super-thought-out, not-cooking-for-work vibe they once did. And while the responsibility lies with me for slacking off, part of the blame must surely also lie with the tiny little person that has (happily, wonderfully) taken over my life since last February.

I am no stranger to cooking for children, but this is the first time that it's my own offspring, and I am responsible for all their meals, every day.  Happily, my child has proven herself a worthy heir to my love of food.  Since month six when solid foods got the green light, the little piglet's gobbled down most of the offerings I've lain before her.  It started with baby oatmeal, then pureed fruits and veg, then soft little nibbles like cheese and avocado, and now she's sidling up to the table grabbing for bites of carnitas, collard greens, smoked brisket, cauliflower mac and cheese, curried chicken...(Can you tell we're in our winter comfort food phase?)  Nothing hard or super crispy yet, as the poor girl has only three teeth to her name, but it's only a matter of time until mother and daughter can crunch away on salt and vinegar chips together...

And while I know this gustatory openness will most likely give way to some pickiness and possibly the dreaded (though hopefully only temporary) narrowing of food choices to chicken tenders and ketchup, I am loving my daughter's willingness to pretty much try anything.  Every new food is taken in, analyzed, and the verdict announced immediately.

French lentils: nope

Sour pickle: more please!

Fresh apricot: ejected like a beta tape

Cheese omelet: I need a third hand to help shove this into my mouth. 

Pureed plum and blueberry: Like my Rhett Butler?

Not only am I enjoying introducing her to all my favorite things, but in this whole-new-world phase I can start to see her personality and preferences begin to emerge.  She is her own little person, who, in addition to loving to point at any and everything, push chairs across the floor, and splash in the tub, also adores peas, spinach, cheese, and mango.  And it makes me so excited to share my kitchen with her as she grows, to prep and cook and bake with her, and connect with her in a way I think only really happens over the mixing bowl or the soup pot.  

She may not become a cook, but I hope that she will always love cooking.  And I hope that she will always love cooking with her mom.

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Olive it

I was looking for a fresh and light salad to incorporate into my clients' winter lunch repertoire.  This one from the December 2012 Bon Appétit caught my eye, with its elegant simplicity and creative combination of flavors and textures.  

I've dehydrated olives before, but for some reason have never thought to fry them for a garnish.  Frying the oil-cured black olives somehow brings out their fruitiness, which then pairs so well with the flowery acidity of the citrus and the fragrant piney-ness of the fried rosemary.

The original recipe calls for Cara Cara and blood oranges, but I used a combination of pink grapefruit, navel oranges, and Cara Cara.  I paired the salad with a handful of baby arugula (dressed with salt and olive oil), crostini, and sauteed shrimp drizzled with lemon oil.

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Squatchy Road

Christmas 2012:  Sasquatch gingerman.  Believe.

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No effects, no Photoshop.  Just some good light and a beautiful day in a pumpkin patch.

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Pick me

I love any and all of the traditional Fall fun activities-- picking apples, picking pumpkins, drinking cider, eating cider doughnuts, sneezing through hayrides, running through corn mazes, you name it.  The brisk air, the smell of wood fires, the pleasant dankness of wet fallen leaves, the cinnamon&nutmeg-spiced everything...Really helps to fight off any looming autumnal melancholy.

This year the apple harvest in the Hudson Valley was a bit unpredictable, mostly due to odd weather patterns and some other factors.  Many of the apple varieties had peaked early, so when we made it up there, we had already missed the Empires, Mutsus, and Cortlands.  Happily, the Braeburns were still hanging on, and we filled our bags with these crunchy sweet beauties.

Wrights Farm (Gardiner, NY) was sprawling and gorgeous, with a wonderful farm market with all kinds of homemade jams and pickles and best of all, cinnamon-sugar-encrusted soft cakey cider doughnuts.  

And luckily, no little green worms or ornery trees...

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Early Fall Haul

Second weekend of Fall, Grand Army Farmer's Market haul: Kabocha squash (for simple roasting with coriander, butter, honey), a couple quince (for jam or compote to top pork chops), suncrisp apples (pair with sharp New York cheddar of course), and 'Honeynut' baby butternuts (how could you resist these precioussss things?).

And a cup of hot apple cider for the walk home...

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Belly up

Sticky, savory, silky, meaty and perfect: cured, braised, then seared pork belly with home-grown greens, poached egg, and lemon thyme vinaigrette.  

This time, with pan-fried tomatoes, English fry-up style....

Pork belly has a naturally ideal ratio of fat to meat-- progressive layers that, when braised and seared, become a dreamscape of texture and flavor.  Crispness, creaminess, and tender meaty bite.  Like a Nature-made pork Napolean.

I prefer to keep it simple when building a dish around such a wonderful preparation.  A nice bit of acid to balance the fat, a little sweetness and spice, and fresh green-ness.  Think vinaigrettes and chutneys.  I especially love using tamarind or pomegranate.  Their sweet-sourness is an ideal match for the belly.

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Stone Fruit Groove

Summer salad with butter-poached lobster, nectarines, and orange-tarragon vinaigrette.

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Sunny Sweet Mint Ice Cream

When I worked at the Inn at Little Washington, the amazing pastry chef Maggie would make big batches of fresh mint ice-cream once a week.  She would walk out to our garden and return with a huge armful of fragrant cuttings.  After a quick rinse, she would drop them into scalded cream to steep, mashing the plants down into the liquid with a wooden spoon. After a while, the cream would turn a lovely pastel green.  After straining out the spent leaves, she would use this cream to make the custard base which would be spun into ice cream.  

The process is so basic and simple-- leaves in cream; the plant itself giving you all the color and flavor you need.  And yet it produced an ice cream that was some of the best that I've ever tasted.  

With a huge, unruly plot of fresh mint at my disposal, along with my client's fancy ice cream maker, I decided to try my hand at replicating Maggie's incredible mint ice cream. 

Using my go-to ice cream custard recipe as my base, I ransacked the mint patch and steeped as much of it as I could in the hot cream.  I almost didn't believe it would turn out the way I remembered it from the Inn.  But it came out gorgeous. The color of the base was a pale creamy green that I can't begin to do justice to in a photo.  

The resulting ice cream was intensely minty and creamy.  But it was a fresh mint taste-- a warm mint taste as opposed to a cool one... Instead the bracing ping of menthol, you get a smooth, sweet, utterly Minty richness that makes you feel like you're rolling in a patch of sun-soaked mint leaves. There is really nothing like it, and it is difficult to describe without veering into pseudo-poetic pretension (as I realize I have already done).  Ah well.

Mint Ice Cream

2 cups half-n-half

1 or 2 gigantic armful(s) of freshly-picked mint

5 egg yolks

9 T sugar

(1 small, tiny, minuscule drop of peppermint oil, if desired)

Slowly bring the half-n-half almost up to a boil.  (This is called "scalding."  Not to be confused with "scorching;" you do not want to do that.)

Gather the biggest bunch of fresh mint you can wrap your arms around and wash it off.  Plunge the entire thing into the hot milk.  Keep the pot over very low heat while you push the leaves down with a wooden spoon, crushing them against each other and the pan.  You want to release as much flavor and color as possible.  Once the milk simmers again, turn it off and allow to steep.  If it does not taste minty after 30 minutes, get more mint and repeat.

Beat the yolks and sugar until fluffy and light.  

Strain the mint/cream mixture into a bowl.  Pour the hot cream gradually into the yolk mixture, whisking furiously.  Return to pan (preferably a double boiler) and cook, stirring, until custard is thickened.  It is ready when it coats the back of a spoon. 

Strain the base into a bowl and cool to room temp.  Then chill completely.  Taste it after it is cold-- if it lacks a little tingle, add the smallest drop of peppermint oil, just to balance it out a bit.  You do not want it to taste like doublemint gum.

Spin the base in ice-cream machine, according to machine's specs.

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(Insert Very/Berry Pun Here)

Berry Tart with Cardamom Cream and Pistachios

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ProsciuttOrange

When I saw this recipe, it was so simple and seemingly familiar that I never would've guessed it would blow my mind. But it did.  

And now I have officially discovered that there's something very, very special about the combination of prosciutto and orange.  The hole that I didn't even realize was in my culinary life is a bit more filled in now that I possess this delicious information. 

To experience this perfection, do the following. 

Boil a 12 oz package of pasta.  (I used a large tube pasta, but you can use linguini or tagliatelle.)  Save 1/4 cup of the cooking water.  Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in saute pan.  Add 2 ounces thinly-sliced prosciutto, cut or torn into 1-inch pieces.  Sauté until slightly browned.  Add 1/2 cup light cream, 1/4 cup pasta water, fresh juice of one orange, and 1/2 the zest of that orange.  Cook sauce for a couple of minutes.  Add pasta and toss in sauce to coat everything.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Scatter chopped flat leaf parsley and grated parmesan on top if you wish. *

And you will see.  (That is, taste.)  The meaty, salty, funky elements of prosciutto are perfectly complemented by the sweet flowery freshness of orange zest and juice.

I eat a lot of good food in my life, a lot of it pretty complex and borderline fussy, but it's times like this that I realize I can still have my socks knocked off by the singular perfection of a simple flavor pairing.  

*This recipe is adapted from one in Bon Appetit, May 2011.

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Slightly creepy, yet enticing (and certainly delicious) cat-topped cupcakes for my niece's 10th birthday party: dark chocolate cake with cinnamon chocolate buttercream frosting.