Ritz Bites

Not quite as pretty as the cover of Gourmet

Good Gawd, do I think that picture on the cover of Gourmet's April issue is pretty. The dish simply shown -- 
pasta with spicy anchovy, dill and breadcrumbs -- screams perfect easy weeknight dish. It might even be a contender for a place in our the regular pasta stable.

It only took me about four months filled with sincere intentions, and many rotted and discarded bunches of unused dill, but I finally got around to it last week. I don't think those months have been wasted living without this pasta.

I liked the unusual combination of flavors and textures well enough, but it won't be usurping my signature porcini pasta, spaghetti alla carbonara or bucatini all'amatriciana from their rightful places. It could also have been my fault for going very heavy on the onion-to-anchovy ratio in favor of the former, and adding shallots. Which, in general, is never a bad thing.

The recipe calls for perciatelli or bucatini. I'd use spaghetti instead, actually, because the other textures get sort of lost in the heavy tubular pasta. (Or, as Marissa would want me to say, the "tasty tubers.") Definitely reserve a hefty amount of breadcrumbs for serving, and to add throughout eating. Otherwise they all get mushy, and that's not so fun.

Damn! It's hot...Need. Cold. Drink. Now.

As evidenced by today, we've had some scary random high temps this year.  Since it feels too early for watermelon -- it not even being May yet and all -- cucumber is the best cool ingredient at the moment.

My attempt last night to recreate the fantastic cucumber cocktails (cuke-tails?) I've had this week at Hatfield's and Hungry Cat wasn't a raging success. But I've repurposed the ingredients to make a daytime Cucumber Mint Spritzer. Sort of like a virgin cucumber mojito. It's awesome on a day like today.

I like the ratios below, but feel free to tinker to find your magic combo.

5 ounces seltzer
2 oz. fresh cucumber juice
1/2 teaspoon simple syrup
10-15 muddled mint leaves
Combine ingredients and garnish with mint leaves and cucumber slice.

Memories of coques, and savory tarts at home

This L.A. Times article about Catalan coca combined with the rain makes me crave stuff baked on top of carbs. I've been looking back at my photos from the atmospheric L'Antic Bocoi del Gòtic restaurant in Barcelona, where in June 2006 we enjoyed marvelous coques, and I've experimented again with easy savory tarts.

If a restaurant serving coques with quality cheeses and beautiful toppings like thinly sliced ham and dates (at left) and sharp arugula and walnuts (right) opened in L.A., tushies would be filling seats in no time. And the hearty salad topped with cheese and surrounded by the typical Catalan combination of currants and pine nuts, plus artful splatters of balsamic reduction, is also easily reproduced here using local ingredients.

In the meantime, or at least until I try the recipe featured in the article, I turn to Trader Joe's Artisan Puff Pastry. Super buttery, no fakey shortening ingredients like Pepperidge Farms, and the sheets are conveniently packaged flat in large squares.

Apologies for getting dangerously close to Rachael Ray territory, but my favorite topping of late is TJs frozen artichoke hearts. Frozen 'chokes have none of the waterlogged texture or gross marinades that plague canned and jarred ones. After defrosting them in the microwave, I combine with caramelized onions and/or shallots and sautee other compatible ingredients, like bacon, shitake mushrooms or asparagus.

Lightly brush the dough with butter, spread the mixture on, lightly top with shredded cheese of your choice, and bake at 425 for 15 minutes or so. It's another great "pantry dish" -- or rather "freezer dish" -- to have at your disposal.

Fall home cooking highlight: Butternut Squash with Pecans and Blue Cheese

We've been on the road for a couple weeks, but before I get to the travel posts, I must share a fall recipe I've fallen in love with.

Now that I've gotten over my stupid fear of butternut squash -- it's so easy to peel with a vegetable peeler, duh! -- I've made it a lot this season.  In all forms: sautéed, pureed for the baby, you name it.  Nothing hits the fall food spot better.  And when mixed with blue cheese and pecans, it also perfectly gets the sweet/savory groove. 

We have everyone's favorite Sultry British Jewess to thank for this combo.  (Well, maybe Nigella and Rachel Weisz are tied for that title.)  It comes from my signed copy of  Nigella Express, which my kind friends Andy and Jennifer waited TWO hours with The Pasadena Housewives and The Gays at Williams-Sonoma to get.

So far, pork chops with mustard sauce and butternut squash have been easy-to-make hits from the book.

One large buttnernut squash (approx. 3-4 pounds)
1 cup toasted pecans
1 cup blue cheese for crumbling
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Recipe says not to peel, but I peel the squash (who likes tough squash skin anyway?), remove seeds, and cube into roughly one-inch pieces.  Toss with olive oil, pinch of salt and pepper, and thyme.  Roast at 425 for at least 30 minutes, or until soft but not mushy.  Combine with the cheese and pecans, and let it all melt and meld together.  I used Point Reyes blue; I advise nothing too sharp, i.e. no Roaring 40's Blue.

The Transom: TJ's chocolate croissants

Word has gotten out about Trader Joe's chocolate croissants.  These breakfast treats come four to a box in the freezer section, cost about four bucks (three if on Fearless Flier sale), and bake easily in any home oven after proofing for nine hours and getting lightly brushed with egg whites.  The trick is planning ahead the night before. 

I call them "treats" because that's what they should be.  If my husband has his druthers, however, they'd be part of our (not) very nutritious daily breakfast.  There always seems to be some good excuse, like "It's Monday," or "at least I didn't have ice cream last night."

As the reports online already say, they're flaky, rich and chocolaty -- far exceeding my average expectations.  The chocolate is indeed a little too sweet for me, and also feels sort of waxy.  Once you bite past the initial outer flakes the whole interior is slightly overly chewy.  I wouldn't pick these over Breadbar's goods. 

But as my friend Erika wrote in a TJ's croissant-promoting e-blast to her food loving friends, "you don't even have to put on shoes to get them."  Amen.

Less than five hours sleep and 45 cupcakes later

Our boy turned one-year-old today.  It's been the slowest and fastest year of my life.  Hard to believe.  Having few good nights sleep also helps the surreality of (relatively) new parenthood.

Because I decided not to spend $150 on Sprinkles cupcakes to serve alongside nibbles from Jitlada and Carousel, I asked my brother-in-law for a recipe recipe recommendation.  He totally came through. 

The bizarrely named Elodie's Chocolate Cake recipe on Epicurious is the perfect easy birthday party cupcake recipe for parents in a pinch who don't want to use mix.  We even had the perfect amount of chocolate in the form of 70% Valrhona bricks I've needed to burn.  I doubled the batch and wound up with about 45 springy and chewy, moist cupcakes.  Bake at about 20 minutes in foil cups.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar, or make the following butter cream from How to Cook Everything. 

Mark Bittman has been doing right by us this week, between the winter squash "more sauce, less pasta" pasta, and this save-my-ass-at-the-last-minute-when-the-other-batch-of-frosting-failed.  I generally find these recipes to give you way more than you need, so I halved it and made as given below, which exactly covered 35 cakes (the full recipe is for 2 dozen cupcakes!).  The remainder went near naked for the frosting-phobes.

1 stick butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream the butter in a mixer, add vanilla, then add the sugar and cream gradually. I also sifted the sugar, which made a big difference.

The result was smooth and thick as can be, making for a sweet birthday shared by family and friends.  James even got his first teeny tiny taste of cake. A special day, indeed.  And I'm really tired.

Ingredient Plug: Truffle Salt

I usually don't get excited about fancy tricked out "gourmet" items: infused oils, expensive marinades, exotic fruit vinegars and the like.  They're often gimmicky and not terribly useful.

But when my friend Sean gave me a jar of Italian truffle salt, I couldn't stop dipping into it for about two weeks.  Its primary purpose in my kitchen is crouton enhancement.  I usually only fry stale bread cubes for gazpacho or the occasional salad, but when I got the salt I was making them ALL the time. 

Truffle salt adds the best kind of truffley funk: a nutty, smoky, almost meaty flavor.  A little sprinkle goes a long way.

Paired with my other favorite homemade crispy treat -- fried parsley -- it's a dangerous fried snack combo.  Imagine how even more amazing they'll taste tossed with a Salad Lyonnaise.

More Adventures in Bittman: Sole Fillets

If its ranking on the Most Popular E-mailed list is any indication, thousands and thousands of Times readers who are desperate for new ideas are poring over Mark Bittman's 101 quick summer recipe list.

I'm certainly among them.  Some suggestions aren't very exciting, some are familiar, or some take longer than 10 minutes to prepare.  (My gazpacho method is WAY easier than Suzanne Goin's easy-for-her - and  -complicated-for-me version, but it still requires a good hour or so.)   I admire Bittman for assembling this ambitious list.  I mean, I struggle just trying to plan two to three meals a week.

The smell, expense, and intimidation factor of  cooking fish means I don't do it often.  So number 6: Heat a quarter-inch of olive oil in a skillet. Dredge flounder or sole fillets in flour and fry until crisp, about two minutes a side. Serve on sliced bread with tartar sauce, leaped off the screen. 

Sole fillets are easy to find at the local market, if not overpriced at $13.99 per pound.  Plus we had all the other ingredients.  But I used a mixture of leftover matzo meal and flour mixed with bouquet garni for flavor, garnished with capers, and skipped the tartar sauce.  Bland fish fillets also look prettier served over a bed of fresh greens.

Verdict?  Not bad, but I ran into a fatal prep flaw -- the pan wasn't hot enough when I put the fish in, so the crust wasn't crisp and fish not seared the way I like. 

But they were good and easy enough that I'll give it another college try, unlike the Bittman chicken thigh recipe, which turned out greasy and kind of gross.  Oh well.  Thankfully there's not too much time nor money nor ego invested in any of these quick meals.

Dat's a-spicy meat-a-ball

In honor of The Sopranos finale last night, I thought it would be fun to make some goupy, old school Italo-Americano fare.  I didn't use any sort of "official" yet cheesy source material, but instead cobbled together a couple recipes from the Silver Spoon Cookbook. 

It was my first foray into meatball making.  I had fun mixing it all up and getting my hands real dirty.  Four pounds of ground beef, one pound of spinach, a couple eggs, a bunch of grated Parmigiano, mirepoix, and many San Marzano tomatoes later, I could've fed a whole crew of guys with my batch of beef and spinach meatballs with rigatoni (get it? riga-Tony?).  Our party ate maybe half of what I put out.

A few lessons: the S.S. bechamel recipe sorta blows.  It was a reminder to always trust Marcella, even if that means losing feeling in your wrist after 45 minutes of constant whisking. 

Also making meatballs is fairly stressful, what with all the shaping and sticking to the pan and whatnot.  It's hard to keep those suckers intact.  (Tips, anyone?)  In the end a batch of Bolognese sauce would've been easier, if a little off-theme.  Between cooking and the show itself, I was a bundle of nerves.

I essentially failed in doing a Little Italy style meal and channeling my inner Artie Bucco, since the ingredients were above average, and the sauce was nice and dry (another mistake, since you want the wet gravy to coat the meat), and our garlic bread was hardly in Lawry's seasoned garlic salt territory.

In the end, it was a good first try for a big l'ultima volta media event.

A few things I learned this Passover

1. It is possible to prepare a seder for ten by myself and have the meal cooked, table set, and kitchen more or less clean when the guests arrive.  I somehow channeled my Aunt Ellen in Jersey, whose kitchen is spotless when her 40 guests sit down to the Pesach meal.  I was almost looking for things to do.  (Thanks also to Marissa's invaluable set-up help.)  So I started shopping last week and spent every free minute over the course of 48 hours preparing, but it spared me crazy last minute rushing around.  Awesome sense of accomplishment.  And much easier cleanup. 

2. Nate n' Al makes the best gefitle fish and horseradish in town. Not much of a surprise there.

3. Jonathan Adler plates are perfect kitsch tableware for serving kitschy Jewish food.  My fish platter met its functional destiny with those glistening oblong rounds of aforementioned g.f. on it.

4. It can be fun cooking -- and ahem, perhaps even improving upon -- the better part of a food magazine menu, using almost all ingredients from local farmers' markets.  Thanks, Evan and Bon Appétit!  (Pic from the mag spread, but my results looked similar.)

5. Peter and Cook's Illustrated are right: you can't overcook pot roast.

6. I make too many desserts.  But we need variety.  No harm in having homemade macaroons, brownies, and walnut-almond cake, right?

7. Having nice cookware and tabletop, all of which I use, rocks.

Happy Passover!