Hot Mess Soup

This soup is the easiest thing in the world to make, is ready in ten minutes, is healthy, and very adaptable. It’s just greens, protein and seasonings, quickly combined. There are a few essential ingredients, and then a bunch of optional things you can add depending on your own taste and what is in your refrigerator and pantry. It’s great for just one person, and can also be made for a crowd. For serving, you’ll need a large, deep soup bowl and ideally an Asian soup spoon.

Essentials:

• unsalted/low sodium chicken broth
• fresh mint
• fresh basil
• fresh cilantro (leave this out if you don’t care for it)
• fresh arugula OR fresh/frozen spinach
• toasted sesame oil

Optional protein ingredients:

• leftover cooked chicken, beef (flank steak, skirt steak, any cut that be made into strips) or even pork from a tenderloin or chop, made into strips
• firm tofu cut into strips or cubes
• cooked shrimp

Optional seasoning ingredients:

• fresh ginger, grated, or ginger paste from a tube
• soy sauce or tamari sauce
• Sriracha sauce or other hot sauce, or dried red chile flakes
• peanut butter – yes, for this recipe it’s a seasoning and not a protein!

Method: 

In each soup bowl, put a good quantity of arugula or spinach, along with roughly torn basil leaves, mint leaves and cilantro. The idea is to almost fill the bowl.

Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a saucepan, and add to it your fresh ginger if using. I love ginger, so I use about a tablespoon if I’m making this for two. Once it starts to boil, add your protein(s). You can use a combination of proteins; chicken and shrimp are nice together, for example. Once the broth has boiled and your protein has been in it long enough to be heated through (a couple of minutes), all you need to do is pour it over the greens and herbs in each bowl. They will wilt, and you will have a soup bowl full of deliciousness.

At this point, you can add your preferred seasonings. For a controlled amount of salt, go with light soy or tamari, and if you want some heat, go for a red chile sauce like Sriracha or even Tabasco, or crumble in a few dried chile flakes. You might want to check your chile sauce for sodium content before combining it with the soy or tamari; you don’t want to ruin the bowl by over-salting!

The next thing to add, if you enjoy the taste, is a spoonful of peanut butter. You can use either creamy or chunky; just make sure to gently stir it around after you put it in. This really adds a great touch of flavor.

And finally, drizzle a few drops of toasted sesame oil over the top of your soup so that you get not only the taste, but the amazing smell!

Pfiglets in Five

This recipe is my take on a delicious appetizer published in Bon Appetit. I call it “Pfiglets” because it has BACON in it, which it turns out is a great pairing with figs. It’s great that it only has five ingredients.

5 ounces of thick cut bacon, cut into “batons” about half an inch long

3 tablespoons of dark brown sugar

8 ripe figs, halved lengthwise

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes, chopped very finely

Cook the bacon pieces in a large skillet over medium low, until brown and crispy.  This will take 8-10 minutes and you should stir it a lot. I use tongs for this, which comes in handy when you remove the pieces to a bowl. If you’ve chosen bacon that doesn’t have lots of fat, you won’t have much left in the pan. If there is more than 2 tablespoons, pour off the overage and save it for something else.

Add the brown sugar to the skillet and swirl until it’s melted and coats the bottom. Arrange the figs in the skillet cut side down in a single layer, and cook until a little softened and caramelized, which will take about 5 minutes.  Put the figs cut side up on a platter and press a bacon baton on the top of each.

Set the skillet over medium heat and add the vinegar; stir it constantly and let it thicken to a syrupy consistency, which will take just a minute or so. Drizzle it over the figs and sprinkle them with the chopped red pepper flakes.

This really should be served warm for optimal flavor.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Keyless Lime Pie

I had a craving for Key Lime Pie, but there were no Key limes to be had, so I decided to try it with regular limes and see what happened. I used Andrew Zimmern’s recipe. It was delicious!  He says it will last in the fridge for up to three days, but the ones I’ve made get eaten up well before that. I did freeze one and it kept a lovely texture with no diminished flavor – sort of a Keyless Lime gelato effect.

I’m planning on trying this easy recipe with other citrus juice; perhaps grapefruit would be interesting.  And I’m thinking that passion fruit juice would definitely be worth a go.

 

Meringue topping is a definite “no,” and if you serve any whipped cream with it I encourage you to go the unsweetened route. 

CRUST

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (8 ounces)
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• Pinch of kosher salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

FILLING

• 8 large egg yolks
• Two 14-ounce cans sweetened condensed milk
• 1 1/4 cups fresh lime juice
• Pinch of kosher salt

CRUST

Preheat the oven to 350°. In a medium bowl, whisk the graham cracker crumbs with the brown sugar and salt. Add the melted butter and stir until the crumbs are evenly moistened. Press the crumbs evenly over the bottom and up the side of a 10-inch metal pie plate to form the crust. Bake the crust for about 10 minutes, until just set. Let cool completely.

FILLING

In a bowl, whisk egg yolks with the condensed milk, lime juice and salt until smooth. Pour the filling into the cooled crust and transfer to the oven. Immediately lower the oven temperature to 325°. Bake the pie for 20 to 25 minutes, until set around the edge and slightly jiggly in the center. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until firm, at least 6 hours or overnight.

 

Alligator Pears – Variations

During the first half of the 20^th century, avocados were called “alligator pears” in reference to their shape and bumpy skin. I haven’t confirmed this, but I’m pretty sure one of my favorite English novelists, Barbara Pym, referenced alligator pears in her writing, at least in those novels she wrote in the 1950s.  Her single female protagonists often ate easy to prepare meals for one, from a tray, while writing letters or something …half an “alligator pear” stuffed with shrimp would certainly qualify as easy to prepare, and would even have been considered exotic at that time. An intense lobbying effort by avocado growers in California led to the eradication of the unflattering rubric …I don’t know why, but I still think of them as alligator pears from time to time.

I do make guacamole, and also an avocado salsa which is lighter and more refreshing.   Half an avocado filled with curried shrimp was often on the lunch table when I was growing up; my mother used the small bay shrimp and added curry powder to taste and finely chopped celery to purchased cocktail sauce, sprinkling a bit of minced cilantro on top for color, and a wedge of lime to be squeezed over it just before eating.  This dish has to be really well chilled and it’s delicious.

Guacamole

2 ripe avocados  **they should be tender to the touch but not squishy; you can press on the stem end and that will give the best indicator of whether they are ready.

1 large or 2 small shallots, minced  **I usually prefer to use shallots rather than onions; I find them to be sweeter with a nice oniony flavor but none of the harshness which yellow or red onions can have

2-3 tomatoes, depending on size, chopped  **for once, Roma tomatoes, which aren’t generally very interesting, are a good choice, because they aren’t super juicy so they don’t make the guacamole runny; you can use any ripe red tomatoes and you should have about half as much tomato as avocado

½ cup of chopped cilantro  **I don’t do the fussy thing where I pull the individual leaves off the stems; I don’t have the patience, and I like a lot of texture, so some stem doesn’t bother me.  I saw Ina Garten use a good technique when she was dealing with a large bunch of parsley on her show The Barefoot Contessa:  she put the whole bunch on the cutting board, held the stems in her left hand, and with her right she angled a large cutting knife down into the leaves just where stems and leaves intersect.  I’ve tried this and it has the effect of removing most of the stems; it’s much better than a straight downward cut.  You can then chop off any longer stemmy bits that you see, and then I just chop the leaves and skinnier stems together.  Nobody has ever complained!

1 juicy lime (or a juicy lemon if you prefer)

Lawry’s garlic salt to taste

Black pepper, freshly ground

Mash up the avocados with a fork – don’t go at it too violently, you want a nice chunky texture rather than a smooth paste.  Once they are mashed, gently fold in the tomatoes, shallots and cilantro.  Season with Lawry’s garlic salt (if you don’t have it you can use sea salt, or Kosher salt) to taste and a few grinds of black pepper.  Cut both ends off the lime, and hold it vertically while squeezing the juice into the guacamole.  (If you have a citrus squeezer, no need to observe the aforementioned “Granville Island Method” as I now think of it, having seen a produce market employee make short work of juicing several lemons.)

Serves 4, with tortilla chips, cucumber slices or good scoopy Belgian endive or radicchio leaves.

Avocado Salsa

Conveniently, the recipe is the same as above, with the exception of the proportions:  use twice as much tomato as avocado, meaning 1 avocado and perhaps 4-5 tomatoes.  You should dice the avocado rather than mashing it.  You can eat this with the same scoopy things listed, but it’s also really good as a fresh tasting condiment on grilled fish, such as halibut …or even on a steak.

Some people don’t like cilantro – in which case you can probably use Italian parsley if you want to involve an herb – if it doesn’t matter to you, leave it out entirely.

Brie, Basil and Chocolate Deliciousness

This is my take on a recipe that Giada de Laurentiis made on one of her cooking programs.  She said that it sounds weird, but is delicious – and she is right.

The original format for these is panini (sandwiches), but I sometimes do them open-faced, so perhaps they are then a sort of bruschetta.

In either case you need some good quality rustic bread (by “rustic” I mean something with a large crumb and/or whole grains) such as a nice ciabatta, fresh basil leaves (on no account use dried, but then IMHO there is no place for dried basil anywhere), Brie cheese, and bittersweet or dark chocolate.  You can use dark chocolate chips or break up a bar of it as you might for use in chocolate croissants.  You can shred the basil leaves or keep them whole if they aren’t too large.

I do these in our Le Creuset grill pan  on top of the stove but you could also do them under the broiler, and enterprising outdoor types have even done them on the barbecue grill.

Brush the bread slices with a small amount of olive oil on one side so that side gets crispy.  Layer slices of Brie on the bread and add as much dark chocolate as you like.  As mentioned, you can do these as sandwiches, but I tend to do them open faced so as to save on calories – ha ha!  If you do them as sandwiches you should add the basil before cooking, and you’ll need to flatten them with something…a heavy pot lid, or a (clean or foil wrapped) brick, for example. Grill or broil them until the cheese and chocolate start to melt and the bread is crispy crunchy.  If you’ve made them open-faced, no “flattener” is required.  Top the whole thing with a generous amount of basil and eat them with either a knife and fork or lots of napkins.  Sometimes I put a little bit of sea salt on top as a finishing touch.  Serve them at room temperature or warm and gooey …never cold because the cheese gets rubbery.

They go well with red wine.  Ballerinas like them very much.

Cheesy Bits

I always really enjoyed the British TV series “Rumpole of the Bailey,” with its recurring motif of the barrister’s long-suffering wife with aspirations, who was forever having cocktail parties where she would serve Sherry and “cheesy bits.”  It was never clear what the cheesy bits were, but I don’t concern myself with it anymore, now that I’ve discovered “frico!”

These are lacy, crispy morsels of parmigiano reggiano, or grana padano – easy and quick to make, and delicious with cocktails.  They’re also really great for gluten intolerant people as they contain no flour.  Just ….cheese.

You need grated good quality** parmesan cheese, a baking sheet with either parchment paper or a Silpat on it, an oven set to 425 degrees and you’re good to go.  **Get the best cheese you can find; since there’s just one ingredient, it has to be right.

Space small mounds (about a tablespoon) of the grated cheese about an inch apart on the lined baking sheet and put them in the oven for 8-10 minutes.  They will spread out and get golden brown.  They do continue to cook a bit when you take them out of the oven so bear that in mind.  You can slide them off the baking sheet with a spatula after they start to firm up, and sometimes I put them on a paper towel if they seem oily.  They should be crispy and lace-like, resembling little cheese doilies!  I find that if I freeze the grated cheese and use it directly from the freezer, the frico will be chewier and thicker in the middle.  I have used grana padano instead of parmesan – they are still good, but more oily.  Italian recipe variations mention finely chopped herbs, lemon zest or black pepper as additions.  I haven’t tried any of those yet, but it’s on my list.

Make lots – people love them!

Sumac, the Pantry Superstar

Pantry Superstar!

Sumac is a wonderful tangy red spice that brightens up so many dishes needing that “little something” to be perfect.  It’s becoming widely available in supermarkets and I recommend it as a pantry staple that will come in handy when you want to add flavor and color.  I was introduced to it many years ago by Persian friends, who used it on wonderful rice that was served with delicious lamb kebabs.  They would coat the rice in butter, drop a raw egg into a well that they created on top of the mounded rice, slowly mix that in to further coat the rice, and then sprinkle sumac on top.  The unusual lemony-yet-not-lemon flavor stayed in my memory…and now I make sure I’ve always got some on hand.

I use it on my chicken wings, I sprinkle it on unsalted potato chips to which I’ve added a few pinches of my own sea salt (don’t use baked chips; the sumac doesn’t stick!) and it’s a great addition to grilled seafood.  It’s especially nice on halibut or scallops – lightly brush with good olive oil, add a pinch of freshly ground black pepper and as much sumac as you like, then grill.  I’ve used it in guacamole when I want that lovely red color on top ….and mixed in, it zips it up quite nicely instead of using chile powder, cumin or Tabasco…or if you’ve run out of lemons or limes.  Though if the latter is true, you might want to reconsider making guacamole at all!

Anytime you are cooking something savory, if you taste it and it is lacking excitement, think of sumac as the secret ingredient that can solve the problem.

Sarah’s (Definitely not Buffalo) Chicken Wings

This recipe for spiced and roasted chicken wings is a huge family favorite.  I invented it several years ago and it combines several wonderful ingredients:  fennel seed, sumac and lemons  – for an inexpensive dish to feed a crowd.

Serves 4

2 pounds of chicken wings, preferably with the pointy bits still on

Olive oil to lightly coat chicken wings

Whole fennel seed

Garlic salt …ideally Lawry’s brand with the green cap

Ground black pepper

Ground sumac (if you can’t find this they are still good, but are much better with it!)

2 lemons

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cover a large cookie sheet with aluminum foil.
• Put the chicken wings in a bowl and lightly coat them with olive oil
• Add fennel seeds, garlic salt and ground pepper to the bowl and toss to evenly coat the wings with the spices. I use 1 generous tablespoon of fennel seeds; if you like less of a licorice flavor you can use less …I don’t recommend using ground fennel; you want the little bit of crunch from the seeds.
• Place the chicken wings skin side up on the cookie sheet and sprinkle them liberally with the ground sumac
• Roast the chicken wings until the skin is golden brown and crispy; this will take 30 to 40 minutes depending on the size of the wings. When they are golden brown and crispy, turn them over and roast them skin side down for another 15 to 20 minutes. You want them crispy all over. If you like, you can drain them on a paper towel for a few minutes after you take them out of the oven.
• To serve, put them into a big serving bowl, and squeeze the juice of two lemons over the wings, catching any seeds in your fingers. **I saw someone at a produce market cut both ends off a lemon rather than cutting it in half; then he held it vertically with one of the cut sides down before he squeezed the juice.  For some reason this catches all the seeds and it’s easier to get the juice out.

Velvet Cauliflower

I call this “Velvet Cauliflower” because of the beautiful texture it gets when slowly roasted with olive oil and capers until golden brown and darker brown spots appear.  It is a wonderful side dish with grilled fish and can also be eaten as the main course in a vegetarian meal.   To serve it cold, add it to a salad that includes peppery greens such as arugula or watercress, toasted walnuts or toasted hazelnuts, and perhaps some fruit, such as figs, mandarin orange segments or even dates.

Serves 4-6 as a side dish

30-45 minutes

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One large head of cauliflower

Extra virgin olive oil; 1/3 cup

Garlic salt (ideally Lawry’s) to taste

Coarsely ground black pepper to taste

Capers – the kind in brine, not the dry salted kind; 1 Tbsp.

Fresh nutmeg, grated (optional)

Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 325.  Remove the stalk and leaves from the cauliflower and break it into small florets (bite sized).   Next, you want to coat the florets with olive oil and sprinkle them with the garlic salt and pepper.  You can do this either by putting them into a bowl, adding the oil and seasoning and mixing everything with your hands, or you can put the florets onto a cookie sheet, slowly pouring the olive oil over them and sprinkling with garlic salt and pepper.   This is the quickest method because you’ll be roasting them on a cookie sheet, but you need to make sure that all the florets are coated and seasoned.

If you’ve mixed everything in a bowl, pour the cauliflower onto a cookie sheet.  You don’t need to use foil or parchment; the olive oil will prevent sticking.   Drain the capers and sprinkle one generous tablespoon evenly over the cauliflower, then put the cookie sheet into a 325 degree oven and roast for 30 minutes.  At this point test the cauliflower with the point of a sharp knife; the florets should be tender but with a little resistance …sort of like “al dente” pasta!  You do not want them mushy. They will also have golden brown and a few darker brown spots …this is what you want because it means there is a little caramelization which is very savory and delicious.  If the florets aren’t tender enough to be “velvety” continue roasting up to 15 minutes more but no longer.

Meanwhile, make Parmesan curls using a vegetable peeler on a wedge of the cheese.  If you don’t have a vegetable peeler you can grate it on the larger holes in a box grater; you want half a cup of large shreds or curls of Parmesan.  For serving, put the cauliflower into a bowl with all the crispy capers, any oil and brown bits that have collected in the cookie sheet.  At this point you can grate some fresh nutmeg over the top if it’s a spice you like; cauliflower and nutmeg have a wonderful affinity for each other.  Finally, cover with the Parmesan and enjoy.