bringing the cooking class home, day two

What do you do when you realize that you accidentally planned two separate birthday/dinner parties on different nights instead of one big one? First, pretend to be slightly annoying that you have to cook again and have no plan in place, but then, get excited because you can just try a bunch of new recipes and won’t be forced to eat the leftovers for the whole next week! SCORE! See, I was originally planning for only one party for my mother’s birthday this year but then I realized some guests had been invited over one night and some over another night (thanks dad) so I had to get a plan together, and fast. Luckily I was armed with AW so she was able to rescue me.

After the massive Asian feast the night before, I wanted to make another favorite food type of my mother’s – Italian, and wouldn’t you have it, AW is a bit of a pro the Italian food space. Here is the menu I derived, with which I felt for once I was truly going to test how large in fact my stomach was.

-Squid (Calamari) w/ homemade Aioli
-Tomato Flatbread/Focaccia
-Spinach Lasagna


Squid (Calamari) w/ homemade Aioli

First mistake: do not go specialty food shopping at 7pm on a Friday because chances are people are starting to close up for the evening and have sold out of most of their fresh items. I had the (not so) bright idea of going to yoga before food shopping, so I ended up rolling into to this particular store around 7pm only to find they have very little options left for squid: frozen and uncleaned. Frozen was out of the question for me, so I kept hearing the words of a close friend repeat over and over again in my head: “whatever you do, don’t get un-cleaned squid; it is a mess, and disaster to work with”. Shit. As I was awkwardly deliberating about the purchase in front of the seafood counter, secretly hoping that the fish mongers would somehow stumble on some cleaned squid in the backroom, a lovely gentlemen struck up a conversation with me and we talked about my fears of cleaning squid (this means removing all the guts and insides etc). He walked me through the process and told me it was not too bad. Once I had thoroughly annoyed the fish monger behind the counter and there was no hope for that secret stash, somehow I found my confidence inspired by my new friend and made the purchase. And can you guess how much I paid for 10 whole squids? $2.50. Win.
Turns out, cleaning a squid is not as gross and disastrous as my friend warned me (whose reaction to my enjoyment of cleaning squid was: “Whaaaaat?! You have too much time on your hands.” Which is probably true…). Nonetheless, this is how I would recommend cleaning squid:

First, get some nice kitchen shears, rinse all of the squid, put in the bottom of your sink and have a gut-bag ready for the scraps. Grab the squid right in-line with the eyes (see pic to left) and cutoff the tentacles in one cut, keeping the tentacles in one piece. Once removed you should see a small black V-shaped thing still connected to the side with the eyes- this is the beak of squid. (This is how the animal eats! Cool, right?) Next, you need to remove the body. Take a strong hold of the top portion of the body with the eyes and while slowly twisting the remainder of the body cavity with the other hand, you should be able to pull out the insiders of the squid. (I can email a picture of squid guts to those that are interested.) They should come out easily if you do not tug and just simply twist. If you are too rough and rowdy with these delicate creatures, you might just rupture the ink sack, and then you will be in big trouble!

You want to make sure the remaining piece has no guts left, so I would also recommend snipping off a section at the tail and making sure water can easily run through the remaining body cavity. Next you will need to remove the feather-like bone that is still holding the body together. At end where it was closest to the eyes, there should be a point where you can bend back the skin a bit and grab the bone/cartlidge to pull out carefully. It literally looks like a feather…

Now all you need to do is slice the body cavities into rings and decide how you want to prepare the squid. Because I had never made this before, I wanted to be a bit more traditional and make a fried calamari appetizer, unlike what AW suggests. (I promise Alice, I will make grilled calamari soon!)
We breaded it lightly in just some breadcrumbs and Italian seasoning. My mother made the exceptionally brilliant decision to use the outdoor burner on the BBQ, which I would suggest, because frying this stuff can be a mess (and the hot oil can hurt!). I used canola oil and made sure the oil was super hot before putting anything in. The rings really only need to be in the oil for a few minutes, or until lightly brown, with the tentacle pieces taking longer than the rings.

We served the hot calamari with fresh Aioli from AW (pg. 47). I used my new mortar and pestle to grind up 3 cloves of garlic with a dash of sea salt until it is somewhat like a paste. Then separated 1 egg yolk and added that and ½ teaspoon of water to the garlic-paste. Mixed that well with a whisk. Then slowly added 1 cup of olive oil, whisking constantly. As the egg yolk absorbs the oil, the sauce will thicken and turn a light yellow color. I think I was whisking for about ten minutes, or until thick.
I would recommend using a mortar and pestle here if you have one, over using a food processor because a food processor has a tendency to make garlic very bitter. (I heard a chef say it once; it’s something about the chemistry properties of metal vs. garlic, clearly not my specialty, but bitter often happens). Also, there are a TON of variations you can do here with the addition of herbs or roasting juices of meat or seafood into the finished aioli. I think next time I will add some finely minced basil to my finished aioli.

Total Prep/Cooking Time for Squid & Aioli: 15 min for the aioli + 15 min squid prep + 10 min cook = 40 min total
Total Cost: $5-$7

Tomato Flatbread/Focaccia

I finally got this recipe right, though I overcooked it slightly (see slightly more brown Focaccia picture below). See, I tried to make it for my friend last week, but a) I screwed up bubbly yeast mixture by over mixing it and b) I missed a step further down in the recipe where you needed to set the Focaccia aside AGAIN for ANOTHER 2 hours. Oops. Sometimes, well, most of the time I am an impossibly impatient person so when I realized I had messed up, the whole elaborate flatbread I was planning on serving as a lovely appetizer just ended up being an extra pizza, in addition the pizza I had already made for dinner. A bit of a letdown, but my friend was a good sport about it and told me it was delicious regardless. You need these people in your life. I’m serious, I am all for people being direct and really honest about their feelings, but I swear I would have given up cooking had people truly told me what they thought of a certain dish. Coming to mind right now was that time I decided to make empanadas for the first time. It happened that I measured the flour and sugar wrong so the shitake mushrooms were instead surrounded by a sugar cookie. I found this depressing, but my lovely friends laughed at first but still ate them and even took a few home for lunch the next day…. that’s what I call good friends. :) Anyway, I warn you that this one takes a bit of a scheduling commitment, but really too not much of your actual time in the kitchen. Most of time is spent either mixing a few basic things together or letting the dough rise. Because baking is MUCH more a science than cooking, here are the more detailed steps:

1. Stir together 2 teaspoons of dry yeast & ½ c lukewarm water
2. Add & mix well (but not too well) with ¼ c unbleached white flour & ¼ c. rye flour (found in most natural food stores). Allow this mixture to sit for about 30 minutes or until quite bubbly.
3. In a separate bowl mix together 3 & ¼ c of unbleached white flour and 1 teaspoon of salt
4. Stir the flour mixture into the yeast with ¾ c. cold water and ¼ c. olive oil
5. I put all this into my electric mixer for about 5 minutes, or until soft and elastic. You can also knead by hand on a floured surface.
6. Put the dough into a large bowl, cover with a towel (preferably not saran wrap) and let sit for 2 hours. You can also let it rise overnight in the refrigerator.
7. Once dough is ready (or 2 hours or overnight has passed), generously oil a 10 x 15.5 inch rimmed baking sheet.

8. Gently remove the room temperature dough from bowl and flatten on the sheet. Try to even out the height of the dough, but don’t rip it or be too crazy about it. Try not to deflate the air as you are shaping.
9. Dimple the surface with your fingertips and drizzle with 2 T. of olive oil.
10. Cover and let rinse for an ADDITIONAL 2 hours.
11. Preheat oven to 450 and if you have a baking stone put that in the olive for 30 minutes prior to putting the flat bread in.
12. Right before baking I put a few sliced fresh heirloom tomatoes, salt, pepper and some garlic powder.
13. Bake for 20-25 min and if you have a baking stone, put the pan directly on the baking stone. It should be lightly golden brown when you take the focaccia out.

Yum! This is a great little appetizer or lovely complement to a dish that has a lot of juice! There are lot of liberties here too that you can take by adding herbs to the dough with oil, or using other onions, greens etc to the flatbread before baking. The possibilities are really endless.

Total Prep/Cooking Time for Flatbread: 4.5 hours total
Total Cost: $10 (if that)

Spinach Lasagna

Because when Tracy made this a few weeks ago and it was so delicious, I wanted to try my hand at it and recreate it with my mother. (AW pg. 270). I won’t go through the entire process with you, because Tracy has already talked about it in detail, but I must say, this was delicious once again. We did make a few adjustments from the way Tracy prepared it (some I would not do again) but all-in-all a great learning experience to make 1) fresh pasta (see rolled out on left), 2)more tomato sauce and 3)béchamel sauce (which I think I could actually eat all by itself).

The main thing that we did differently was that instead of cooking the pasta before layering it in the dish, we did not cook beforehand and instead added extra tomato sauce to the layered (but not yet cooked) lasagna and simply cooked it for about 3x longer. It was much chewier than the butter-like pasta that Tracy made, but it was still quite good. I think it really just depends on personal taste and I think if I had to make it next time, I would cook the pasta before putting it in the pan. For me, it seems that if we are going to go to all of the trouble of making the pasta fresh, we should showcase it.

Of course, if anyone would like the full recipe, please let us know :)
Total Prep/Cooking Time for Spinach Lasagna: appx. 2.5 hours total
Total Cost: $35-40

Make it all again? Yes, everything! Enjoy :)

bringing the cooking class home, day one

I have grown up cooking and baking because my mother is truly an amazing chef. From being that little kid with an easy-bake oven (and eating the strange things that came out of it) to nowadays cooking with my mom and making her teach me the nuances of cooking, such as getting “stiff peaks” out of egg whites, I have always been trying to be emulate her. Last year I gave her a “coupon” for a cooking class in Seattle as a birthday present (coupon giving is family tradition- side note: I once got a “coupon” for a radio-controlled airplane as a kid for Christmas. Luckily for my parents I lost interest in the endeavor and never “cashed it in”. Given the deep frugality of my father, I’d like to think that coupons were his idea as some sort of an insurance policy against my changing interests as a child… smart). Since getting my parents to leave their lake house and come to Seattle is similar to pulling teeth, and combining that with my awful graduate school schedule for the past year, the coupon for the cooking class in Seattle has gone unused. So this year I wanted to bring the cooking class to my mom for her birthday. My goal: make some of my mother’s favorite food that she does not traditionally make herself.


First night: Asian Food

So I know that these recipes are not from AW or the other books that I have mentioned before but they are inspired from a few restaurant recipes we love, as well as our favorite cooking magazine: Cuisine, which my mom has every published issue. Of course I have taken a few liberties with the food we made since I am quasi-vegetarian (more on this in a future blog) and even made up one of my own, but everything seemed to be a hit with the guests we had over, as evident with little to no leftovers. I am aimed for all local & chemical-free food, but there were a few things that I wasn’t willing to make from scratch right-away, like the wonton wrappers I used. Anyway, here comes the spread, get ready to salivate…

Spinach & Shitake Mushroom Wontons

This was the recipe I basically made up. I wanted to make little Wonton appetizers but because I didn’t have a definite plan on what to stuff them with, I went into my mother’s refrigerator in search of inspiration. There I found a bunch of spinach that would happily serve as my base. I then looked around in the pantry and found some dried shiitake mushrooms which I thought would complement the spinach well and have an interesting textural difference from the spinach. Here are the steps that I went through:

1. Take out wonton wrappers from fridge so that they can get to room temperature. I bought the Sunluck brand and they seemed to be just fine. Don’t open package yet or they will dry out.
2. Sauté the spinach (around a bunch) in a little extra virgin olive oil (about a T.), some garlic (2-3 cloves) and red chili flakes (roughly less than ½ teaspoon) for just a few minutes, or until cooked down.
3. Transfer to a colander to cool.
4. Rehydrated the dried shitake mushrooms (I used about 10 medium-large mushrooms) in a pan of boiling water for about 5 min, or until plump again. (Or even better if you have fresh shitakes, use those instead and no need to boil.)
5. Once those have cooled, sliced them up and put them in a bowl.
6. Then wring out the spinach/garlic mixture to it and combine with the mushrooms.
7. Preheat the oven to 325.
8. Foil and oil a baking sheet for the finished wontons.

9. Set yourself up with a little wonton-making-station with a nice working surface including a small bowl of water and pastry brush to moisten wraps (think about it as if you are moving the moistened brush around an inch border of the wrapper), a knife to lift wontons up from working surface, and of course the bowl of wonton filling.
10. Once you have everything set, the process is easy. Just put a spoonful of the spinach/mushroom filling in the middle of the wrap, moisten all the sides with the brush and then flip over diagonally (using the knife to lift it up) to create a three dimensional triangle. Then press down with your fingers to seal the wonton and transfer to the baking sheet.
11. When all the wontons are complete, bake for roughly 15-20 min or until lightly golden brown.

For a dipping sauce, we made a little apricot sauce (but you could make an orange one too like the wonton wrapper package says) by bringing the following ingredients to boil, simmering for a minute, then cooling.
• 3/4 c. of broth (either chicken or vegetable)
• 1/3 c. of apricot or orange marmalade
• 3 T. of apple cider vinegar
• 1 T. of cornstarch, (which admittedly, I am little ashamed of using, but I am sure flour or another thickening agent could have been used here instead)

When you serve these, just make sure that they are warm.

Total Prep/Cooking Time for Wontons: 5 min for the sauce + 30 min prep + 15 min cook = 60 min total
Total Cost: $10-$15 depending on what you already have in your fridge

Next up…….

Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls

Although the possibilities are endless with the types of spring rolls you can make, I have come to like wrappers made from rice paper instead of wheat flour, and prefer them served “fresh” instead of fried like egg rolls. As far as ingredients, I think it’s good to have some elements each for 1)crunch, 2)substance & 3) texture. For ours, we used carrots and jicama for crunch, noodles, leeks and shiitake mushrooms for substance and wild uncooked shrimp for texture. This is a SUPER easy thing to make, since it just takes time to chop everything up… so setting up a good assembly station is key. I like to have everything in a line so that I don’t forget any element (which I did several times during this endeavor until I rearranged my setup) This is what I did:

1. Cook your (hopefully wild) shrimp or whatever texture-type element you want. You can use pork, tofu or maybe even a steamed vegetable.
2. We prepared ours by plunging them into boiling water for a minute or two, followed by cooling and peeling them, removing the veins and slicing them in half.
3. Next we submerged some small diameter dried rice noodles into water and set aside. We didn't even use 1/3 of a pkg.
4. Then the chopping began. Everything needs to be roughly about 4 inches (or smaller, but think about trying to julienne the vegetables into slender sticks). We chopped: carrots, jicama, leeks, shiitake mushrooms and pulled off a couple dozen cilantro leaves. You roughly want about a 1/2 cereal bowl size amout of each minus the cilantro. (We also peeled the carrots and jicama before chopping.)

5. Once that is done, grab a large bowl and fill it with warm water & some cider vinegar (about two tablespoons for each cup of water), as that will be your rice paper soaking bowl. The thought is that as you pull one out, you want to put another one in there so that it will be moistened by the time you are done assembling that roll.

6. Also grab damp towel to assemble the rolls on and place it in the center of your station.
7. You start the process by taking the rice paper skins and soaking one at a time in the water/vinegar mixture for a couple minutes, or until soft. Then take out the soft paper, place on the damp cloth, and start adding the veggies: a couple sticks of carrots, jicama, leeks, shitake and mushrooms. Then roll rice paper once over and add the shrimp in the middle alongside two leaves of cilantro. Fold in the ends and the roll the rest up. The first one may not be beautiful (and might in fact fall apart or be totally ugly), but you will get the hang of it after a couple tries.

8. I just kept rolling until I ran out of vegetables.

For the dipping sauce, and being as obsessed about the thai-peanut sauce as both my mom and I are, we made quite a delicious one to accompany the rolls (and actually used the same sauce for the spring rolls below). I would say too that most of the ingredients are Asian-cooking staples (like: hoisin, oyster, sweet chili, Sriracha etc.), but I would advise that if you are picking anything up for the first time watch out for varieties with HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) and excessive corn by-products. You gotta look around, but at your better stores (and specialty Asian stores) you can find mostly natural products, though your mainstream grocers will often carry the chemical-laden, hfcs-type varieties. Stay away from those if you can.

Semi-Spicy Peanut Dressing
• ½ c. smooth peanut butter
• ½ c. hoisin sauce
• 2 T. water
• 1 T. oyster sauce
• 2 ts. Red wine vinegar
• 1 ts. Sriracha sauce
• 2 ts. minced or grated fresh ginger (be careful not to grate your finger like I did)
• 2 ts. toasted sesame oil
• 2 ts. soy sauce
• 1 ts. sweet chili sauce

You simply combine all these things in a small saucepan, bring up to a boil, simmer for a minute, then remove from heat, stirring constantly so there is no burning etc.
These were absolutely amazing. I think these will be my go-to easy/crowd-pleasing appetizer. So YUM! (and healthy!)

Total Prep/Cooking Time for Vietnamese Fresh Rolls: 15 min for the sauce + 45 min prep = 60 min total
Total Cost: $25-$35 depending on how deep your oil, vinegar and Asian food pantry is (sauce is the critical piece)

For the last appetizer…

Thai Tortilla Spring Rolls

These are absolutely delicious and a version with chicken is actually served at California Pizza Kitchen, which is where we found the recipe. Back when I was a mainstream-meat-eater, no matter where my mom and I were living around the country (Hawaii, San Diego, Ft. Lauderdale, Phoenix, Seattle etc.) we always had mom/daughter dates at CPK and ordered these, because did I mention that these were amazing?

Steps:
1. Preheat the oven to 500
2. Use a pastry brush to lightly & evenly coat one side of each tortilla (preferably large ones around 8in and you will need about 6 in total) with softened butter
3. Turn tortillas over and evenly distribute the following ingredients over a 1-2 inch wide strip on the unbuttered side, starting about an two inches from one side of the tortilla:
• spicy peanut sauce (same as above. new batch needed for this recipe)
• ½ c shredded mozzarella
• ¾ c. shredded carrots
• ¼ c. sliced green onions
• ½ c. fresh bean sprouts
• 2 T. finely chopped roasted peanuts
• 2 T. minced fresh cilantro
4. When finished with each roll, roll it up and place on a baking sheet, about 1 inch apart.
5. Sprinkle with 2 T. of freshly grated parmesan and bake 5-6 min and let cool for a few after
6. Slice diagonally into 3 equal pieces and garish with 1 T. of freshly chopped Italian parsley

Serve these with the leftover peanut sauce not used in the assembly process and they will be sure to be a hit! Although I am a Thai-food convert now and could eat it all day long, embarrassingly I think these were my first glimpse into Thai food... in other words, if you are trying to convince your friend/sig o/dog to go eat Thai food with you more often, I would make these as a lovely segway to get them excited about the fabulous Thai cuisine (and you can make what’s next as a sequel to boot!)

Total Prep/Cooking Time for Thai Tortilla Spring Rolls: 15 min for the sauce + 15 min prep + 10 min cook = 40 min total
Total Cost: $20-$30 depending on how deep your oil, vinegar and Asian food pantry since we used the same sauce

Finally for the main course…

Phad Thai

I have to say, I love Phad Thai, but have definitely had some bad Phai Thai in my life, usually because somehow it is too creamy (which I am not sure where that comes from) and/or too peanutty. However, this recipe somehow ended up just riiiight (insert bad goldilocks and the three bears joke here). I would suggest following the steps below and then just adjusting the amount of red chili flakes you put in for later iterations. Being the notorious non-recipe follower (because clearly I am a seriously cool-rebel-chick type), I accidently added too many red pepper flakes, so our main course was a bit warm. However, I did stumble on an amazing remedy: pairing white wine with the dish. I am sure Tracy could comment more on this but I drank a lovely Sauvignon Blanc, but had I been in possession of a Riesling it would have been opened in a second. I also left out any meat or tofu as I find it unnecessary, but if you wanted to add this to your dish, I would simply add them to the “Thai-sauce” I mention below for a quick marinade and cook separately, then set aside. Onward:

1. Soften ½ lb. of dry rice noodles in boiling water for 10-15 min. I would get wide ones if you can find them. Also, this might be the only time you will ever hear me say this but, don’t buy the fresh ones. I mistakenly bought them and boy was that a mistake! They were impossible to separate (even in hot water) and just ended up breaking… talk about a headache. Buy dry ones, let them soak for a bit, drain and set aside.
2. Slice about 2-4 peeled carrots to yield somewhere around 1 c. of julienned carrots. I also added the leftover leeks and jicama from the fresh rolls in this mix too.
3. In a small separate bowl, combine the garish ingredients:
• ½ c. unsalted, dry roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped
• ¼ c. green onions
• ¼ c. coarsely chopped cilantro
4. Combine in a separate bowl and mix the Thai sauce together:
• ¼ c. broth (vegetable or chicken)
• ¼ c. fish sauce
• ¼ c. ketchup (don’t you dare use anything with HFCS, but if you don’t have ketchup on hand like me, you can just combine a tomato, a lil flour and a dash of sugar together if needed)
• ¼ c. fresh lime juice (preferably from fresh limes and not from that “Real Lime” lime juice sold in stores, which is actually just chemicals and lime juice concentrate)
• 2 T. brown sugar
• 1 T. Sriracha sauce, which in moderation, is actually not as bad for you and loaded with chemicals like I had thought before
5. In another separate bowl combine the aromatics:
• ¼ c. minced garlic (I think I might have used 10 cloves?)
• 2 T. fresh ginger, minced or grated
• ¼ t. red pepper flakes (I might have used closer to ½ ts or even a full ts, and I would rate it as edible, but a bit hotter than my taste. Even my father, who normally adds a spoonful of Tabasco to his eggs said it was warm.)

6. In a wok (if you got one), or any large sauté pan, add 1 T. canola oil and the aromatics. Let that mix together over medium-high heat until sizzling then add another T. of oil and the carrots/vegetables. Let cook for about 2 min.
7. Now add the noodles and Thai sauce to the wok. (This is where you would add some cooked meat or tofu in that you marinated in the Thai sauce, sautéed and then set aside).
8. Toss all together for a few minutes, then turn off the heat and add a couple cups of bean sprouts.
9. Transfer the Phad Thai to a serving platter and garish with mixture in step 3.

Now I apologize, but I forgot to take a picture of the final product, but I’d like to think that it looked/smelled/tasted so delicious that food-blog-picture-taking was not really on my mind at the time. 

This recipe was enough for 5 people post-excessive apps (we had all three above), and I was left with only a little bit for a lunch snack the following day.

Total Prep/Cooking Time for Phad Thai: 30 min prep + 15 min cook = 45 min total
Total Cost: $20 (mostly because I already had some of the essentials like fish sauce & Sriracha)

There you have it, Food-Fest, Day One, check! Make it all again? Phad Thai, Thai Tortilla Spring Rolls, & Vietnamese Fresh Rolls – Definitely yes. Won-tons – Probably yes, but I think I will make my own wrapper from scratch next time. Also, I think I want to experiment a bit with finding another sauce for the fresh rolls, maybe something with coconut milk in it… I will brainstorm, so check back if you are interested.

Any questions or comments?? Let me know!

pray love eat?

Lately I have been feeling quite Liz Gilbert-esq and on a bit of an introspective journey of my own. Seeing Eat Pray Love (twice now since it opened on Friday) I feel like Ms. Gilbert (the main character & author) and I are kindred spirits in search for purpose and connection. While I completely love both the book and movie, I keep find myself wanting her to tie it altogether. She relearns how to eat amazing food and not feel the burden of guilt we often associate with it; she connects to her inner spirit with meditation and yoga; she breaks down the barricade she built around her heart and finally is able to fall love again.

So I am sure now you are thinking, “wait, I thought this blog was about food and cooking?! What’s the deal with all these feelings? Did I click the wrong link?”….wait for it… The recipe I going to tell you all about is what I would consider some sort of “Eat Pray Love” combination- though I would reorder it to read: “Pray Love Eat”.   :)

Pray: I prayed that the expensive (3.99 per pound) heirloom tomatoes I purchased would be well worth the experiment of using them as the base for this delicious sauce. I also prayed that by electing to not remove the seeds, the sauce wouldn’t turn out as a hot-bitter-mess.
Love: There was a lot of love that went into this dish. From trying new things like blanching the tomatoes, to adding the ingredients in just the right order, and checking-in (tasting) to make sure everything was going smoothly (much like a happy and loving relationship), there was love and appreciation for everything that was happening in my kitchen during this conquest.
Eat: No colorful language here: Then we ate it, and it was delicious.

Joking aside, I set out to put together a local and seasonal tomato sauce using AW’s “Simple Tomato Sauce” recipe (pg. 264) and to cook from basic elements that I could find at the farmers market, not having to search the insides of the grocery store for things like tomato paste, baking soda or worse: ketchup (I have seen it on recipes as an “added touch for sweetness”, boo). So here’s how you make it:

1. First you want to blanch your tomatoes. I doubled the recipe and used 4 lbs of heirlooms. Boil the water and place the tomatoes in there for about 10-15 sec each. Set aside to drain and cool.
2. Find a large pot that you will ultimately cook your sauce in. I used the same pan I blanched the tomatoes in and dumped the water.
3. Coarsely chop a large onion, or two small ones. Walla Walla sweet onions seemed to work really well here. Set aside.

4. The tomatoes should have cooled down by now and you will be easily able to take off the skins by hand. Toss the skins and remove the hard cores. I simply quartered the heirlooms (see left) and put them in a dish because I was fearful that if I diced them, I would lose all the good tomato juice. So I did something a bit unconventional. I put the quartered heirlooms in a dish and then took some kitchen scissors (having given them a pre-wash) to cut them up into the bowl by holding the scissors straight down and moving around the dish. I swear I saw it on a cooking show once, and I mean, they are professionals, they must know what they are doing! Once coarsely diced, set aside. (see left below)

5. Peel, smash and chop 10 large garlic cloves. (I think this might be the longest step)
6. Heat up the large pot to medium-heat and once warm add ½ c. of semi-decent extra virgin olive oil. I wouldn’t use anything too fancy but so long as you keep the sauce below 325 degrees (EVOO smoke point) the flavor won’t be compromised.
7. After about a minute, add the garlic and onions. (see below)

8. Once you hear a little sizzle happening, with a couple large pinches of good salt,add the tomatoes.
9. Stir this often and simmer for about 15 min.

10. Then a few minutes before you are going to serve, add some coarsely chopped fresh basil, letting that mix in for just a few minutes for flavor enhancement on low-heat.

FUN FACT: Did you know that Basil enlivens our reproductive hormones when we unconsciously detect them on other people? (Clearly I will be incorporating this into my next date.)

Being the lazy person I was tonight, I served it over some store-bought fusilli pasta. Or was it because I simply wanted to showcase the sauce? The food gods will never know...

I’d like to think that I made a very Italian version of this recipe (since there were no carrots or celery to the roux which many recipes call for) but if I were to make it again, I would try a few different things and give it more of a French-spin. I would: 1) add a little red wine to the garlic/onion roux, 2) add some mushrooms to the roux, and 3) replace basil with herbs de Provence (a combination of thyme, rosemary, basil, majoram, savory and bay laurel leaf). I will keep you all updated if I continue by quest for "pray love eat" later this week with the remaining four pounds of heirlooms currently sitting on my counter...

Do it all over again? – Clearly!

Total prep/cooking time: 45 min or less
Total cost: $20 (keep in mind I spent $18 for the tomatoes)

the perfect breakfast

Not too long ago a good friend of mine tried to convince me that a scone was "the perfect breakfast" (specifically cherry almond scones from here). Although this scone is perhaps the best I have had, for me, it is not the perfect breakfast, unless I am aiming to look like a woman from the Versailles-era when being rotund was a symbol of class and attractiveness. Though we endlessly teased and questioned my friend about it, not being able to follow her logic, she held her ground by saying that it was the perfect combination of wheat, eggs and fruit to start your morning (though she didn't talk too much about the portions of butter and sugar in each scone relative to the wheat and fruit content).
After this interaction, I have been on the search for my version of the "perfect breakfast" - one that I can rely on to be that staple in my diet to start my day out on the right foot. For a few years, I tried cooking oatmeal each morning and adding yogurt for some protein, but after reading Omnivore's Dilemma I couldn't stomach yogurt for awhile (think yoplait yogurt sweetened with HFCS = yuck, or worse the fat free version with aspartame, more yuck). After that, I became somewhat obsessed with eggs since they are loaded with protein and vitamins. For most of graduate school I ate a breakfast burrito (2 eggs, cheese, salsa and tortilla) each morning. It was great because it kept me full for the majority of the day but once I became hungry again in the mid-afternoon, I reached for whatever was around- usually not having a pre-planned fruit/vegetable option and was forced to the on-campus snack bar with "healthy choices" such as mealy red-delicious apples, baby carrots, packets of cheese and luna bars- nothing that was truly satisfying. (Sometimes, I joke about how I basically lived off of luna bars and baby carrots for a few quarters- this is actually not that far from the truth, weird that I didn't feel very healthy then...)
I had to find something for breakfast that had great nutritional value with lots of naturally occurring vitamins, protein, fiber, healthy fat and wheat to keep me full, but not so many calories that I tricked my body into thinking it was preparing for war, or a long fast, much like what the giant breakfast burrito did to my body. I thumbed through some of my favorite yogi books such Baron Baptiste's Journey into Power and finally gave into reading the French Paradox book: French Women Don't Get Fat (you can read Lucy's awesome blog about it here which is actually linked from the author's website). Both books suggested that yogurt was the answer. I started buying organic yogurt, experimenting with various styles like Greek (thick) and Australian (runny), with my favorite ending up being Stoneyfield Organic NF Plain Greek Yogurt. It is loaded with protein, active cultures and no added sugar. Then on an incredible trip Australia, I discovered muesli (and all its glory), and once back in the states I began making it and adding that my yogurt.

After that long-winded evolutionary journey of my breakfast habits, I am going to share with you my personal recipe for muesli. I have experimented with it a bit and think I have finally arrived at something that is delicious. You basically just take a bunch of ingredients, mix them together and put them in the oven. What could be easier?!

 Here is my favorite way to make muesli:

1 c. rolled oats

1 c. wheat flakes

1/2 c. steel cup oats

1/2 c. sunflower seeds

1 c. sliced almonds

1/2 c. raisins

1/2 c. dried cranberries

1/4 c. flaxseed meal (or you can also use seeds and do closer to a 1/2 c. of those)

Mix all that together and spread over a tinfoil-covered pan.

Drizzle about 1-2 tablespoons of both honey and canola oil.
Bake at 370 for about 15-20 min.
Let cool. Then store in an airtight container.

Although muesli is traditionally supposed to be uncooked, I often find that it tastes too barnyard-like and baking it takes away that being-on-a-farm smell/taste to it for me. If you have any local raw unpasteurized honey, I would use that too. I recently have started having a teaspoon or so of it every morning before breakfast (and then a lil drizzled on my yogurt) and it has totally helped with my pollen allergies.
I also recently gave into buying a yogurt-maker and tried my first batch this morning, and you know what? It wasn't half bad! I used non-fat milk and cultures from my stonyfield yogurt, which made it a little runny, but I think with perhaps a 1% substitution and a little longer in the cookin-saddle, this investment will be well-worth it!

Drumroll please...

Alas, my version of the "perfect breakfast" a la slow food! Homemade yogurt with the milk made from from family-farmed cows right here in the PNW, fresh organic PNW peaches picked up at the ballard farmers market, a drizzle of raw unpasteurized wildflower honey (the best is from the wallingford farmer's market) and homemade muesli with the ingredients picked up in the bulk section at WF (not exactly slow food, but I tried to buy as local as possible), all this paired with a latte with the same milk and my favorite coffee roasted over on Whidbey Island.

Yum!
Any questions, let me know! :) Happy breakfasting!

The Go-To

Everyone has that recipe that is a real crowd pleaser. You know, the one that you can make in a pinch and have made what-seems-like-100s-of-times, and it is always works, no matter what. For me it is risotto.
I have made it with both white and red wine, chicken and vegetable stocks, different times of onions, different variations of spices thrown it at various times and of course, different types and portions of cheese. Tonight I am going to share my absolute favorite way to enjoy this Italian comfort food, because I might just go there and say it will be the best risotto you will eat. (I am just that confident.)
For me, risotto embodies the slow-food movement and what I enjoy best about cooking. The ingredients list is minimal (lil butter, onion, broth, wine, parm & spice) and you can change the recipe based on the season and what is fresh locally. Making risotto for me is romantic since it needs lots of love and attention as you make it, much like how you love and nuture a relationship. This is the way we should eat. I think that if we even spent half of the time it took to prepare a meal (shopping, preparation, etc.) we would be a much healthier and happier culture. By simply taking more time in our lives to appreciate food, taste it, and enjoy it with others (and not in front of the TV, or on the road, or at a desk) issues of weight and quick-fix diet plans would not be as prevalent. Alright, getting off of my soapbox... let's get down to business!
This risotto based on the bible's basic recipe (pg. 105 of the Alice Water's cookbook). You start by melting a couple tablespoons of butter in a heavy bottomed pan. I love this pan for risotto (and so much more) because you really need something with high edges but enough square feet on the bottom in order for the food to actually cook. Once the butter is melted, I throw in a large coarsely-chopped onion (the more onion the better I think, it really just depends on your texture preference, more onion= more interesting texture). I prefer Walla-Walla's but often I find that the sweetness and taste is not worth the extra dollar, so I usually use whatever I have on hand, rather it is white, yellow, or whatever, just nothing rotten. With that add a bunch of freshly minced rosemary (my favorite spice). You want it chop it fine enough so that it won't be wirey in your mouth. Plus this spice is best when cooked and can really enhance a dish. If you don't have fresh, dried is fine, it is just a bit harder to mince, so it will take some patience.
As the onions are cooking you want to open a bottle of white wine, and pour yourself a glass. Once you have done that (and had a few sips), heat up a separate pan to warm a carton of vegetable broth (appx. 5 cups). It will take about 10 min for the onions to become translucent, which is ample time to enjoy your wine a bit and broth going. Once the onions have turned, add 1 and a ½ cups of rice (I usually use Arborio). It will take 4-5 min for the rice to turn translucent. Time now to add the wine- I usually add a generous 1/2 bottle of wine because it really give the risotto more flavor, but you can always substitute wine for broth.
Now for the TLC part of the endeavor. When you start pouring the wine, I would only pour 1/4 of the bottle at a time (so two separate rounds) and then while stirring, make sure the liquid is absorbed before pouring anything else. Do not let the rice stick to the bottom of the pan. Care for your rice, if it burns or sticks it’s going to be rubbish.
Then, over the next 15-20 min, pour some warmed vegetable broth in 1/2 cup increments (no need to measure, just eyeball), making sure the rice doesn't dry out-- so like every 2 minutes or so. I like to have a spoon on hand to taste after 10 min. Once you have reached your desired rice consistency and the liquid is mostly absorbed (think similar to al dente pasta), add 1 tablespoon of butter, letting it melt along the sides, and add a 1/3 or 1/2 cup of grated parmesan stirring all of it up, and turning off the heat.

Voila. Risotto.

I like to plate it with a spring of fresh rosemary and serve it alongside some roasted asparagus. Sometimes it is quite lovely to add asparagus (or squash, or zucchini, or mushrooms, or carrots or whatever your heart desires and what the season brings) to the actual risotto by first half-roasting it in the oven, chopping it up, and adding it at some point during the broth addition phase, but you can also fully roast it and add it at the end with the parm and butter. (The picture above is with roasted asparagus chopped up and mixed in with the risotto in the last step.)
I hope you all enjoy this risotto and see that it is not complicated to make at all. Tonight, I had some lovely girlfriends over for some wild mushroom risotto with a side of roasted zucchini and carrots. It was delish!

Total Prep and Cook Time: 1 hour & maybe 15 min.
Appx Cost: $15-$20 + bottle of white wine ($10-$15)

Calibrating to Pinot

Over the past year I've traveled and worked in Oregon pinot noir country, New Zealand pinot noir country, Australia cabernet country, and Washington syrah country. In the wine world, we notice that switching regions can be tough on the pallet. Not tough in a bad way, but it takes a while to go from big, juicy, tannic red wines, to softer, more subtle ones, and vice-versa. Hence, the title of this post, Calibrating to Pinot. Pinot noir is often a lighter more delicate red wine than its bigger, bolder neighbors, like syrah and cabernet. I've found that when I go from the big wines to pinot, it initially tastes a bit like watered down red wine. After an adjustment and acclimatization, however, pinot begins to burst with delicate, peppery, almost sensual flavors that can overwhelm (in the best sense) it's consumer.

This is what I discovered during my first bite of homemade Spinach Lasagna.

After rolling out the pasta dough, a painstaking hour long labor of love, I was onto béchamel sauce from scratch. The thick, white, creamy sauce (seriously, that's what it is), comprised of butter, flour and slow additions of milk, came together surprisingly easily. I was sure that if the pasta turned out ok, this sauce was going to be where the meal would fall apart. It's a good half hour long process of almost constant stirring to prevent burning. Lumping is apparently another serious issue - but somehow the food gods blessed me and the sauce practically made itself.

Herbs and garlic chopped, spinach sautéed and drained, pesto jar (whoops!) opened, and cheese grated, it was time to boil the pasta. Since hand making the pasta was the most intensive process of this meal, it was also the piece with the most emotional attachment. Lasagna without pasta is really just cheese (not bad, in fact a frequent guilty pleasure, ahhh delice de bourgogne! but a meal for another time). I put the misshapen pasta sheets in the salted, rolling boiling water and let them cook for a few minutes, just enough to reach an al dente state of mind. The smell from the boiling pot was amazing - like pure, light butter. I was surprised, since there was no butter in the pasta at all and was used to the lack of smell from cooking its store bought version. Later coating it in olive oil was like touching silk - I couldn't believe the difference between store bought and homemade pasta!

The lasagna was assembled with almost no issue - turns out I didn't make quite enough pasta to actually layer 7 times and cover the top - but all in all, not a serious problem. And came bubbling and smelling quite delicious out of the oven a half hour later. Served with fresh bruschetta and a zucchini/mushroom saute, it was 9:30 and I was starved!

My special friend brought a lovely Italian Chianti to pair with it, hoping the bright acidity of chianti would compliment the creamy richness of the pesto and sauce. Glasses poured, candles lit, and cheesy wonder dished, we held our breath and tried the first bite (not easy by the way). Swallow. And we both just looked at each other. Well, it's OK. We said reassuringly in unison. Maybe a little salt and pepper? Disappointing, honestly, after 4 hours in the kitchen and a marathon roller pin session. But then, slowly, after another bite or two, the flavors started bursting in our mouths! The delicate butter flavor of the airy pasta, the sharp saltiness of the parmesan, the cool texture of the spinach, the spicy intensity of garden basil, and the fresh summer sweetness of the heirloom tomatoes. I realized at that moment that my taste buds actually had to recalibrate to real, whole, fresh, simple food. Processed salt and sugars have us dulled to the delicate first bites of natural flavors. Much like we have to calibrate when switching from overwhelming big, bold wines, to light delicate pinot noir. The wine geek inside me loved the analogy, and the foodie inside me celebrated the new found delight in this incredible dish.

Do it all over again? Anytime.

Total cooking time = 4 + hours

Total cost = $43

Friendly neighbors

Well, hello there! I though I would join my dear friend Britt in welcoming you (and us) to the blog. As I wait for my homemade pasta dough to rise - this may fall into the inedible catagory, stay tuned - I thought I would introduce myself and a charming antidote from my first recipe challenge.

As B mentioned, I am a winemaker, and firmly believe in wine's love affair with food, and my love affair with both. It's amazing for me that B and I would be doing this together, as we grew into our love of both food and wine together and are most seriously excited to share it with you. Food for me is about enjoying the moment, both seasonally and daily, and spending time with the people we love most in the world. Every recipe doesn't have to be a success, just an adventure, and a chance to learn more about ourselves and our present.

In that light, I would like to share a little story from the current Art of Simple Food recipe I am trying to conquer. I decided to make Spinach Lasagna (p. 270) tonight for a special friend (mainly because he promised to bring a bottle of wine to pair with it), which, being true to the recipe, calls for Fresh Pasta (p. 89), from scratch. After venturing to the store with an ingredient list, and sticking to the outside aisles, a la Michael Pollan, I came home ready to get started (Fresh Pasta has to rest for an HOUR, and it's already 7). What did I discover? No flour. Faced with the misery of heading back to the grocery store, I decided to visit my neighbors, 50's style. And, surprise? It was wonderful. Friendly, connecting, inquisitive - a 30 minute conversation with someone I hadn't seen in over a year. I told her what I was up to and she was excited, hopefull, and made me promise a taste.

Maybe food will bring us all together, eh? Now, back to the dough...

chi 'e uso alla zappa non piglia la lancia

Don't be fooled, I do not in fact speak Italian fluently, but I am obsessed with Italy (and France for that matter) and this is one of my favorite Italian proverbs. It's loosely translates as "everyone must know their place" and for me, that is in the kitchen or somewhere else close to it, eating.
In this blog, my dear friend Tracy and I plan to cook through some of our favorite cookbooks (see below) aiming to cook with fresh, local, inexpensive and organic ingredients with a few of our personal recipes mixed in.

A few things about us:
-We are both on a budget so cooking in season is a priority and shopping through local farmers markets are a must.
-We are visual learners and will be documenting our journey with a variety of snapshots capturing how-to's (& how-not-to's)
-Tracy is a fabulous winemaker and will also be exploring food and wine pairing.
-We are not experienced chefs or have gone to cooking school, except for a few classes here and there over the years (See future blog title: How to ruin a kale frittata, Step 1: Don't use kale)
-We are however passionate about being better cooks and learning to cook with new ingredients, tools and methods.
-Some of our friends, boyfriends, parents etc. make some pretty unreal food, we hope to share those here as well.
-We love to laugh so if you can not find humor in the day-to-day, perhaps this blog is not for you.

Favorite Cookbooks:
The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters (often referred to as the bible)
Pure Flavor by Kurt Beecher Dammeier
The Herbal Kitchen by Jerry Traunfeld

There is no end-date-challenge to finish cooking through all of these books a la Julie & Julia, but we hope to continue this for as long as it is fun, aiming to inspire eachother, learn more about fresh food, be better chefs and add humor along the way...