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Handmade croutons

One of the reasons I like to eat salads is that I LOVE to eat croutons. The way they absorb the dressing, yet still crunch in your mouth makes my stomach growl just thinking about it. As it turns out, they're easy to make and a great way to find a second, and delicious, life for old bread. You can modify the ingredients to include more spices, healthy bread, or even a little less fat or salt.

Ingredients:

• 1 C cubed bread
• 1 T butter
• 1 T olive oil
• salt and garlic powder to taste

Instructions:
If you've got bread that's as hard as a rock and not even a chisel can make a dent, wrap the bread in a moist towel and microwave for 20-30 seconds. This will temporarily rehydrate the bread. Don't do this too much as it will make the bread too hard when it cools down.

Cut the bread into small cubes, about 1/2 inch cubed.

Melt the butter in a pan over medium high heat. Add the olive oil and swirl. Throw in the bread and mix until all the pieces are covered in fat. Turn down the heat to medium. When the pieces start to brown on the bottom, toss around, trying to get some of the pieces to turn over. Sprinkle with salt and garlic powder and toss some more.

Take off the heat while you make your salad or soup or whatever needs crunchy goodness on top.

This is about a single serving for me. Make more, based on how much bread you have. You can make these ahead of eating and store in an airtight container for about a week. If they get too soggy, throw them on a cookie sheet under the broiler for a minute or so.

Asparagus three ways

While at the farmer's market last weekend, I came across the harbinger of spring: asparagus. After seeing the green beacon, I started to notice all the other signs of spring: blooming trees, daffodils, and my boyfriend putting his computer aside and saying, "Hey, let's go to the park."

To celebrate spring, I wanted to make something to showcase the light, playful vegetable. This dish starts with a simple asparagus risotto in combination with seared asparagus and topped with deep fried asparagus strands and a light lemon butter. Sorry to those still buried in 6 feet of snow - don't worry, you'll be able to eat this dish soon.

Ingredients:

• 2 T olive oil
• 1/2 C arborio rice
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1/4 C white wine
• 1 T lemon zest
• 1 C broth (chicken or vegetable)
• 3+ C water
• 1/4 C grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 t olive oil
• 1 bunch asparagus
• 1 half lemon (juiced, about 2 T)
• 4 T butter, cut into small pieces
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 C canola oil (or other frying oil)

Instructions:
In a medium sauce pan heat the olive oil over a medium high flame. Add the garlic and saute till translucent. Add the rice and stir till all the grains are completely covered in oil. Add the white wine and allow to cook into the rice. Add the broth and the lemon zest and mix thoroughly. As the liquid cooks down, replace with a half cup of water and stir. Keep doing this for about a half hour until the risotto is the right consistency.

Meanwhile, cut the tough ends off the asparagus. With a few of the larger ones, use a vegetable peeler to create asparagus strips. Then cut the last few inches off the rest of the asparagus. Cut the ends into 1 cm pieces and microwave in water for 3 minutes till tender.

About five minutes before serving put the asparagus tips in a large frying pan with olive oil over high heat. Sprinkle with salt and cover. After a minute shake the pan to move the asparagus around. Cook for a few more minutes and then turn off the heat. Leave covered.

Heat the lemon juice over a medium flame and slowly whisk in the butter. Add salt and pepper to taste. Take off flame.

Meanwhile, heat the frying oil over high heat in a small pan (if you have a frier, heat it up so that it's ready to go right before everything else is done). Add the asparagus strips to the hot oil for about 3 minutes, or until crisp.

Strain the microwaved asparagus and add that and the Parmesan to the risotto and mix thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper. Place the risotto in the center of a plate with the seared asparagus to the side. Drizzle with the lemon butter. Top with the crisp asparagus strands.

Happy birthday

Growing up, I always hated that my birthday often coincided with the Super Bowl. It's really hard for people to focus on you when there's pigskin flying in the background. Every year I am given a reprieve from the co-opting of my day, I definitely take advantage and celebrate. This year there was extra reason to celebrate - a big move to San Francisco and I've almost reached the one year mark of the start of this blog.

The good news is that I've been able to post most of the recipes just in time for Super Bowl Sunday:

• Stuffed mushrooms
• Mini quiches
• Spinach dip
• Sweet potato fries
• Truffle roasted nuts
• Braised artichoke hearts

I chose these items based on what I could get at my local farmer's market. It's not as easy in Green Bay or Pittsburg, but still possible to find some morsels locally. Potatoes should be available, so fries and chips are easy crowd pleasers. Also, mushrooms are typically grown in the winter as far north as Pennsylvania. So go to your local farmers market or peruse the local section of your grocery store and think creative snacks.

Stuffed mushrooms

I remember my mom making stuffed mushrooms when I was a kid. Mine is a much more simplified recipe, but the smell still warms the house like hers did. While most recipes add stuffing and cheese, this recipe simply uses meat. However, to ensure happy, pasture raised pigs, I had to make my own sausage. The key to Italian sausage is the fennel seeds.

Surprisingly, fennel doesn't make the meat taste at all like licorice. Instead, it adds the high notes to balance the salt and the spice of the hot pepper.

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 lb ground pork
• 1 t salt
• 1 t powdered garlic
• 1/4 t ground black pepper
• 1-3/4 t ground paprika
• 2 t vegetable oil
• 1/5 t fennel seed
• 1/2 t red pepper flakes
• 40 white mushrooms

Instructions:
Add the spices to the meat and mix well. Let sit in the refrigerator overnight.

Remove the stalks of the mushrooms. Trim the edges from the caps.

Fill each cap with meat. Cook in an oven preheated to 425ºF for about 30 minutes. Garnish with Italian parsley.

Mini quiches

When many people become vegetarians, they often slack on eggs and dairy. It's understandable, really. They're both hard to see and don't actually require the death of a living animal to acquire. However, there was always something about the way in which factory farm hens are forced to live that made me go to great pains to avoid conventional eggs. Therefore, it's not surprising that one of the first things I started making from scratch for parties were mini quiches. You can also have the flexibility of using whatever you want - I chose local king trumpet mushrooms.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb king trumpet mushrooms
• 1 t minced rosemary
• 1 T olive oil
• 3 oz grated swiss cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1 C half and half
• 24 filo dough mini shells

Instructions:
Chop the mushrooms and mince the rosemary. Saute the veggies in olive oil over medium heat until well browned.

Mix the cheese and the vegetables.

Distribute evenly among the shells.

Beat the eggs into the half and half. Pour into the shells to fill. Place in an oven preheated to 350ºF for approximately 30 minutes. Serve while warm.

Spinach dip

This dish is fun because you can serve it in a bread bowl. Everybody loves a bread bowl! It's also really simple. I just happened to have fresh spinach in season. When you have it in season, blanch 1lb batches and freeze for the winter. Frozen spinach is perfect for this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 lb fresh chopped spinach
• 2 packages cream cheese
• 3 dashes Worcestershire sauce
• 3 dashes hot sauce, such as Tabasco
• 1 t thyme
• Water chestnuts, chopped (optional)
• Pimentos (optional)
• Salt and ground pepper to taste

Instructions:
In a microwave safe, covered and vented bowl, microwave the chopped spinach for 5 - 10 minutes until completely wilted. If using frozen spinach, defrost. Drain and press out all the water.

In a pot over medium heat add the cream cheese stirring occassionally to keep from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Serve immediately or refrigerate and warm in the microwave prior to serving. Serve with or on nice, crusty bread.

Simple sweet potato fries

In Michael Pollan's Food Rules, one of the rules that I follow often is "Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself." He suggests if you do it yourself you'll you won't do it as often due to the amount of time required. He talks specifically about French fries, which as it turns out aren't that hard to make, but definitely take more time than rolling up to a fast food window.

You'll likely make things that are slightly healthier by making them from scratch. And being able to choose your ingredients means you can get what's local and seasonal (those of you in New England with potatoes in your pantry, I'm talking to you). For this recipe, I used sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes to provide more vitamins and a sweetness that no one can pass up (inspired by Yoav).

Ingredients:

• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1/4 C canola oil
• 1 T salt
• parchment paper

Instructions:
The trick to getting perfect fries is to cut them all the exact same size and rather skinny (about 1cm x 1cm). Potatoes have a tendency to roll around on the cutting board. To prevent this, cut off a part of one side to serve to stabilize. Then whenever it starts to feel shaky, turn it again to stabilize. Once you've got the flat pieces it's pretty easy to make the sticks.

In a very large bowl, pour the oil and half of the salt over the potato sticks. Mix to coat well. You can do this part ahead of time and let sit for up to 12 hours. After that the potatoes will start to lose their moisture.

Place in an even single layer on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. I don't like to use parchment paper, but I have a feeling that if I didn't I'd never get them off the cookie sheet.

Place the cookie sheet in the oven preheated to 475ºF. Don't touch them. Enjoy the chirping sound emanating from the oven as they roast, but fight the urge to jostle or flip them. Pull them out after 25 minutes. They'll be a bit charred on the edges and bubbly in the middle. Sprinkle a little more salt on them and serve.

Truffle roasted nuts

Nuts are always a great thing to have around. They're amazingly snackable and pretty healthy to boot. Fortunately, I've got lots of nuts available from the local farmers market. They have all sorts of flavors, but I decided to flavor them myself, inspired by a recipe from Salt House.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lb nuts (whatever you like)
• 1/3 C honey
• 1 t white truffle oil
• Salt to taste

Instructions:
Heat honey and tuffle oil in the microwave for 30 seconds. Add the nuts and mix well. Spread on a well greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt. Place in a preheated 325ºF oven. Take out and stir every 5 minutes for 20-25 minutes.

Take out of the oven to cool, sprinkling more salt on after cooling for a few minutes. Break up as it cools. Store in an airtight container, but they're not likely to last long.

Monthly micro-batch: spicy café con leche ice cream

While I was in Boston visiting friends over the holiday, my good friend, Jodi, gave me a disc of chocolate from local producer, Taza. Called Chocolate Mexicano, it inspired me to create a fun micro-batch with cayenne peppers I dried during the summer and some of my favorite locally roasted coffee, Ritual Roasters.

Ingredients:

• 1 C coffee
• 1/8 - 1/4 C sugar (err on the side of less since the chocolate already has sugar in it)
• 1 dried cayenne pepper
• 1 C half-and-half
• 1/2 C whipping cream
• 1 disc of Chocolate Mexican, chopped rough

Instructions:
Gently heat the coffee over a medium flame. Dissolve the sugar and reduce the coffee by half. Cut the pepper into large pieces and add to the coffee mixture. Mix in the half-and-half and whipping cream. Heat till almost bubbling then remove from the heat. Let it cool then put in the fridge over night to allow the flavors to meld.

Before processing in the ice cream machine, strain through cheese cloth to remove the chunks of pepper. Process till smooth in the ice cream machine. Add the chocolate to mix in, then freeze to harden it up a bit.

Roasted potatoes and kohlrabi with Indian spices

I was recently at the farmer's market and a fellow shopper asked me what this bright purple vegetable was and what to do with it. After telling her all about how kohlrabi tastes a bit like a peppery broccoli stalk and suggesting a few ways to cook it, I decided I had to pick up a few myself.

Also, while this is typically a summer veggie, I also remember seeing it at a winter farmer's market in Massachusetts. If you can get ahold of some, they're a great relief to all the roots of winter.

Ingredients:

• 3 small kohlrabi bulbs, peeled
• 2 medium red potatoes
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 large lemon, juiced
• 1/3 C olive oil
• 1 t salt
• 1 t cumin seeds, roasted
• 1 t mustard seeds, roasted
• ground pepper, to taste
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 1/2 C white beans, cooked (or canned)
• 2 T chopped cilantro

Instructions:

Thickly peel the kohlrabi. It seems such a waste to get rid of the beautiful purple skin, but the reality is that it can be rather tough, sometimes woody. Reserve the peels for soup stock. 

After thoroughly peeling, cut into 1 inch pieces. Do the same with the potatoes (no need to peel). Place the kohlrabi in one Pyrex pan and the potatoes in another. Drizzle both with olive oil and mix to coat completely. Sprinkle with salt. Put the potatoes in a 450 ºF oven for 30 minutes. Take out, turn over with a spatula, and put both the potatoes and kohlrabi in the oven. Cook for another 20 minutes until the potatoes are crispy and the kohlrabi is soft. In the last 5 minutes sprinkle both with the garlic.

While the veggies are cooking, mix the lemon, olive oil, roasted spices, and salt and pepper. Whisk thoroughly. Heat the beans if not already cooked.

Take the veggies out of the oven and toss with the lemon sauce. Mix in the beans and the cilantro. Serve while still hot and crunchy.

Robert Rodriguez's hot butt

I'm a big fan of Robert Rodriguez and his movies, but I had no idea 1) that he was an amazing cook and 2) that he's totally hot. His recipe for puerco pibil is out of this world. As an homage to this fine man (and a public invitation for him to come over for dinner) I've recreated this dish.

The original recipe calls for cooking the meat in banana leaves. I couldn't find those, so you can clearly do it without. Also, I couldn't get habanero peppers so substituted 4 serranos for 1 habanero in the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 T annatto seeds
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 T black peppercorns
• 4 pieces allspice
• 1/4 t cloves
• 1/4 C orange juice
• 1/4 C vinegar
• 1 T salt
• 2 lemons, juiced
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4 serrano peppers, chopped
• 2 T tequila
• 2 pounds pork butt, cut into 2 inch cubes

Optional:

• 1 avocado, chopped
• 2 tomatillos, chopped
• 2 T cilantro, minced
• 1 lemon or lime, juiced
• 12 tortillas

Instructions:
The assortment of spices is pretty important for this dish: annatto, cumin, pepper, allspice, and cloves. You can find most of the ingredients pretty readily in most locales, but you may have a tough time finding annatto (look also for achiote). This combo of spices will help balance out the tanginess of the rest of the ingredients while also imparting the distinctly homey, Latin taste.

If you have a spice mill/grinder, use that to pulverize the spices. Don't waste your time with a mortar and pestle as the annatto seed is likely harder than most stone. I don't have a separate grinder and was not willing to sacrifice my coffee grinder, so I just used my blender. It didn't turn into a fine powder, but it broke everything up enough to allow the spices to impart all their spicy wonderfulness.

Add the rest of the ingredients (minus the meat and banana leaves if you've been able to find them) and blend thoroughly. I let the sauce sit overnight in the fridge to allow the flavors to come together more fully, but you can use it immediately.

Mix the meat and the sauce together to thoroughly coat the meat. Line a roasting pan with banana leaves (if you have them) or simply put the meat in the pan and make sure to cover tightly (the recipe says to cover with aluminum foil, but I didn't and the meat was perfectly moist).

Cook in a 350ºF oven for four hours. Serve immediately with rice or shredded with tortillas and a green pico de gallo (avocado, tomatillo, cilantro, and lemon/lime mixed together). This also stores and reheats very well.

Butternut squash ravioli with lemon butter

Tis the season for lots of holiday leftovers. After loads of parties and potlucks and family gatherings, I ended up with a fridge full of leftovers. Oh what to do with them all? Casseroles. Sandwiches. Yeah, those are the normal solutions. However, I'm a big fan of raviolis. For this dish, tuck any assortment of the winter squashes or even sweet potatoes into these pillows of pasta for something you can eat immediately of freeze for later.

Ingredients:

• 1 C baked butternut squash
• 2 stalks sage
• 3 T butter
• 1 t salt
• 1/4 C Parmesan grated cheese
• 1 egg white, beaten
• pasta sheets (you can use pre-made pasta or wonton sheets)
• 4 T butter
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1/2 lemon, juiced

Instructions:
This started off as a side dish to a holiday potluck in which I mixed sage, browned in butter, into cubed baked butternut squash. This had about a teaspoon of salt to help bring out the saginess.

With the leftovers, mash with a potato masher. Then add the cheese and mix well.

Cut the pasta sheets into uniform rectangles (or squares or circles, whichever you prefer working with). Bush the edges of the pasta shape with the egg wash. Add about a T of the squash mixture to the center of the pasta. Fold over, pushing out as much air as possible. You can cook immediately, or place on a cookie sheet and freeze.

For a nice light sauce, melt butter in a sauce pan over medium high heat. Add the pressed garlic and saute till translucent. Add the lemon juice and reduce heat. Add about a 1/2 C of the pasta water to help make a gravy. Whisk thoroughly and server over hot pasta.