Kat on Thyme

Why the Y?

Why the Y? It’s taken me years to come up with the answer to that question. When I worked for Sea Education Association some years back now, my compadre in the galley (Erik, now owner of Pie in the Sky Bakery in Woods Hole) campaigned on behalf of his little Swiss Y-peeler. And me, I was believer in the OXO Good Grips peeler. We volleyed attributes of the two styles of peelers, each trying to convince the other that ours was the peeler to stay, as if someone were going to throw one or the other overboard at the end of our debate. The good thing about our difference of opinion was that he was never using my peeler and I never used his. It seemed like a good arrangement.

Quite a few years later, when I had quite forgotten about the Y-peeler, entered Chef Drew, another Y-believer. I just didn’t get it. Indeed the peeler was sharp, but you would think those Swiss, who make such precision time keeping instruments, could design a peeler that didn’t rust in the dishwasher. I actually bought one for Drew to keep in my kitchen, since we cooked together often, but I never used the thing. I did like watching Chef Drew’s nimble hands working the peeler, and I softened to the idea that perhaps, it might be a worthwhile addition to my toolbox. Drew still prefers the lithe little Swiss peeler, and thinks anything made my OXO is chunky and awkward, but when OXO came out with a Y-peeler, I tossed my little Swiss one in the Goodwill box and replaced it with the big, chunky, and comfortable grip of the OXO. Ahh, much better.

So of course, now that I own the darned thing, I use it all the time. I find it useful for slicing cheese for panini, and making carrot and cucumber ribbons for salads. Since I hold and use a regular peeler like I use a paring knife, I was a little uncoordinated with the Y-peeler at first, but indeed, it’s a good tool for the price and it takes so little room in the drawer, it’s a keeper.

Green Bean & Carrot Ribbon Salad with Thai Style Vinaigrette

2 Tablespoons lime juice   
2 Tablespoons fish sauce   
2 teaspoons granulated sugar   
1 small clove garlic , minced or pressed
1 small red jalapeño chile , minced  (green if you can’t find red)
2 medium carrots , peeled of skin and then peeled into ribbons
1 Tablespoon peanut oil or vegetable oil 
1 pound green beans, blanched and shocked in cold water
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint leaves, or a combination of mint and basil
1/3 cup chopped roasted, salted peanuts
1 avocado, a few cherry tomatoes, and some slivers of red cabbage, for garnish

Whisk lime juice, fish sauce, 2 tablespoons water, sugar, garlic, and jalapeño in medium bowl until sugar dissolves. Reserve half in large bowl; toss carrots with remaining dressing and set aside. Toss blanched and shocked green beans with the other half of the dressing. Toss half the mint into each bowl and stir to blend.

To assemble the salad, arrange the green beans on a platter and using tongs, top with the carrots. Arrange the garnishes around the beans and carrots and drizzle with the dressing that is left in the bowl. Sprinkle with the peanuts and serve.

Serves 4.

Broccolini Sounds Better

Again, my Whole Foods receipt was a stumper. I don’t recall buying “asparation.” It sounds like something that might happen after a marathon, or too much Ultimate, or running wind sprints after practice. “An acute case of asparation,” my medical chart would read. “She was so young!” my family would mourn.

Lucky for me, asparation isn’t a malady. It’s quite healthy, actually. It’s a vegetable. I can imagine the board meeting at Sakata Seed Company, where the vegetable seed was developed. Everyone sitting around a big table, throwing out ideas for a name. It’s long and thin and green… how about something like asparagus but a little new-age. Appeal to vegetarian baby boomers who do yoga...

In Salinas California, where the vegetable is marketed nationally as “broccolini,” it seems they put a little more thought into their marketing campaign. People like Italian stuff. And “broccolini” makes me think of little broccoli which is more or less what it looks like. Bingo.

Broccolini (I hereby will only use the broccolini name because asparation is just dumb, and my auto-correct keeps changing it to aspiration anyway)  is a hybrid vegetable which crosses Chinese kale and broccoli.  Apparently, it’s extremely labor intensive to grow, because it has to be hand harvested. Pickers will only take one or two stems from each plant so there are multiple harvests per crop cycle. Instead of growing one stalk with a large head, like broccoli, broccolini has many tender stalks and small flowering buds on top. They are lovely. The taste is a bit sweeter than broccoli with a touch of bitter as well.

I found a recipe for a beautiful salad in one of Martha Stewart’s cookbooks. I played with the recipe a bit and came up with this one…

Broccolini Salad with Carrot Ribbons and Radicchio

1 pound of broccolini, stems trimmed and stalks cut in half (separate the ends with flowers from the ends without flowers)
1-2 large carrots, made into ribbons with a peeler
½ small head of radicchio, sliced into ribbons
1 tablespoon lemon juice (I like Meyer lemons)
1 teaspoon lemon zest, finely grated (do this before juicing!)
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon honey
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil and add about a tablespoon of salt. Next to the stove place a large bowl of ice water. Add the stem parts of the broccolini to the water and cook for about a minute. Then add the rest of the broccolini and cook until crisp tender. Another minute or so. Transfer the cooked broccolini into the ice water to stop the cooking process. Drain again once it’s cool and place on a clean towel to absorb moisture.

In a small bowl, whisk the dressing ingredients from the lemon juice to the honey. Then slowly whisk in the olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste and adjust to suite your tastes. (More honey, more citrus or vinegar?)

Combine the broccolini, carrot and radicchio ribbons, and the dressing and toss to coat. Taste again. If it tastes good to you, serve right away.

Serves about 4.

Salty the Black Fingered Kat

I’m a big fan of the tasting bar. When I’m driving up or down I-5 through Northern California I always stop at Granzella’s to check out the olive selection at their olive tasting bar. And although Whole Foods has an olive bar, tasting is not encouraged, in fact I believe it’s implicitly discouraged. But when I need some niçoise or kalamatas, I usually will throw in a few of the exotics and do my own little tasting. What caught my eye, though, as I lingered over the olives, was the salt tasting bar set up just above the olives. So of course, I had to sample the wares. And naturally, I was drawn to the odd ball salt- a black salt, truly the color of lava, from Hawaii.

Upon tasting, it had a slightly sweet, delicate, lightly smoky flavor and it seemed to be crying out for a simple grilled fish or vegetable. And so I bought some, for about $3.50 which seemed a fair price for premium salt. It’s sold at Whole Foods in bulk in small plastic tubs. I also bought some fresh, springtime asparagus from California.

So on to work, where I prepared the asparagus on the grill to use as a vehicle for the new fancy salt. I wanted to keep the preparation simple to highlight the flavor of the salt so I just did a light olive oil rub on the asparagus and grilled them for about 5 minutes over a very hot grill. Then a very slight accent of lemon and a sprinkle of black salt. And what! Some very black fingers. It looked like I had just been fingerprinted and booked! So back to the salt tub to do a bit more reading, and I see that the salt is accentuated with activated charcoal. Hence the black fingers. So on to Google to see what I can find about this lovely but messy black salt. Seems that activated charcoal is a antitoxin and digestive-track palliative. Well I know what an antitoxin is but the palliative thing stumped me. What the heck can a trace amount of charcoal do to palliate my digestive track? And does my digestive track really need palliation? Honestly, I’m a little dubious about the whole charcoal thing but it does make for a lovely presentation and its addition doesn’t seem to effect the flavor in any negative way. So two charcoal smeared thumbs up on the Hawaiian Black Salt! Just don’t use it in your béchamel.

Grilled Asparagus

2 pounds asparagus, (look for tightly closed tips and for grilling, thicker stalks), washed and trimmed
Olive oil to coat the asparagus
1 lemon, sliced for garnish
Hawaiian Black Salt

Preheat the grill on high until the temperature reaches about 500 degrees. Oil the asparagus spears on a parchment covered baking sheet. Scrape and oil the grill. Place asparagus on the grill perpendicular to the grates so that they don't fall through. Grill for about 5-6 minutes (less if they are thin). Look for characteristic browning of the tips. They'll continue to cook off the grill so don't over do it on the grill. Take them off while they are still crisp-tender. Arrange them on a serving platter and sprinkle with the salt and a tiny dash of lemon.

Serves 4 to 6.

Rainy Day Soup

Spring in Seattle. Bring a raincoat. The tulips bloom, the trees blossom, the peonies send red shoots up through the soggy soil. It looks like spring. Until I peek out from under my wooly knit hat, and down to the fleece coat, over a heavy sweater, over a long sleeved shirt, jeans, clogs and still, in April, socks. It’s been a chilly April. I love the May flowers but I’m ready to skip the rest of the April showers. And the socks.

The good news is that it’s still soup weather and I love soup. What’s not to like about soup on a rainy day? And today, I got out the pressure cooker to make that soup go just a little bit quicker. I’m a big fan of pressure cookers to cook beans and lentils, especially for soups, in which case you don’t have to worry too much about overcooking them. The new pressure cookers are safe and easy to use. The one I have at home is not one of those new ones, it’s a relic from the 60’s and came from a second hand store, complete with its original, kind of retro-chic, instruction booklet. It works fine, but doesn’t have the safety features that the new ones have, and I’m always a bit on edge while the pressure valve on top is rattling away. But if you have nerves of steel, $3.99 to spend, and don’t mind garage sales, it’s not a bad way to go.

At the other end of the pressure cooker spectrum is the precision engineered Swiss pressure cooker that I use at work-- a Kuhn Rikon (5.25 quart), which works famously. The gauge of the stainless steal is heavy enough to use for sautéing ingredients before adding the liquid, and the handles stay cool if you keep the flame low. Releasing the pressure is easy- just take the whole thing to the sink, (the double handle makes it easy to carry) and run cool tap water around the rim. If you have one of the sinks with the removable spray faucet, it’s even easier. And for size, I wouldn’t go any smaller than the 5.25 quart. If you’re going to the trouble to make soup, why not make a lot!

So I wouldn't say that a pressure cooker is an essential kitchen tool, but it certainly is a handy one, especially if you’re a lover of legumes. I loaned mine to a friend when I went to Costa Rica to work a few winters ago, and she liked it so much she bought one of her own. (Perhaps it’s time I go retrieve mine from her cupboard!) It’s one of those things that if you have it, you’ll find uses for it. And this is how I used it today.

Roasted Carrot and Lentil Soup with Sweet Spices and Coconut 

10 large carrots (about 2 pounds), peeled, cut in half lengthwise, & cut into 1 inch pieces
1-2 Tablespoons canola oil
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
½ teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon butter
1 small onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, sliced lengthwise in half and chopped
1 Tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Dash of cloves
Freshly ground pepper

1/3 cup dry sherry
1 quart vegetable stock
1 quart water
2 cups lentils, washed, (I used French Green lentils)

1 can coconut milk, (light is fine)
Salt and pepper to taste
Toasted Unsweetened Coconut for garnish
Carrot Greens for garnish

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Toss the carrots with the oil to coat (start with 1 tablespoon, and add more if you need it). Then add in the maple syrup and salt. Spread out the carrots on a Silpat lined baking sheet (or parchment) and roast for about 20-30 minutes or until the carrots begin to brown and caramelize.

Meanwhile, heat the butter in a 5 or 6 quart pressure cooker over medium heat and add the onion and celery. (You could also use a dutch oven or stockpot- just add about 15 minutes to the lentil’s cooking time.) When the onion is soft, add the ginger and spices and continue to sauté until the spices are fragrant, another few minutes. Add the sherry to deglaze the pan. Scrape up any browned spiced from the bottom of the pan. Add the stock, water, and lentils and seal the pressure cooker. Bring to high pressure (to a boil if using a stock pot) and turn the heat down. Cook in a pressure cooker for 15 minutes and use the quick release method to release the pressure. The lentils should be very soft. Add the coconut milk and the carrots, once they are soft. With a hand held immersion blender, puree the soup. You could also use a regular blender or leave the soup chunky. If you aren’t going to puree, you want to make sure your carrots are cut in fairly small pieces when you start the recipe. Taste the soup and adjust the seasonings adding more salt and pepper and perhaps another dash of maple syrup if the soup needs a bit more sweetness. Ladle into bowls and garnish with the toasted coconut and a sprig of carrot greens.

Makes almost 4 quarts of soup. Thank goodness it freezes well.

Paninipalooza

You could call a panini a sandwich, but that would be like calling a Ferrari a car, or Da Vinci a painter. If the Italians are going to make something, it’s damn sure going to be stylish. That’s what Italians do best. And they’ve got a corner on the market for good taste as well. And so their sandwich, the glorious panini, with it’s grill marks and melty cheese, is the Puccini of the sandwich world. What’s not to like about a panini?

A few months ago the people for whom I cook bought a Cuisinart panini press. They looked at lots of different models but were sold on the Cuisinart Griddler because of two key features- the plates come off and go in the dishwasher (hurray!) and it comes with smooth plates as well. The press can be opened out flat for making pancakes on the smooth plates or doing one sided grilling on the lined plates. Yes, it was a tad expensive at $129.95, but it serves multiple purposes, all very well. And it’s cheaper than a Ferrari.

So after driving their panini press for couple of months, I had to get one myself. I didn’t even bother to test drive any other models- I was happy with the Griddler. So after a few weeks of practice paninis, I was off to the racetrack for some speed trials. Last night my ultimate Frisbee team came for Paninipalooza. They all brought ingredients and I made a couple of huge green salads and a few dozen panini. I cut them in half when they came off the press and we had all combinations of fancy sandwiches.

Some of the goodies we used…

• All sorts of gourmet spreads (Trader Joe’s has a delicious and well priced selection)- pesto, sun dried tomato pesto, tapenade, grilled vegetable spread, wasabi spread, artichoke antipasto,
• Cheeses- gruyere, havarti, pepper jack, mozzarella, aged cheddar
• Lunch meats- smoked turkey, ham, Calabrese salami, roast beef
• Fresh stuff- arugula, tomatoes, spinach, red onions, grilled portabella mushrooms, roasted red peppers
• Assorted breads- green olive focaccia, Romano cheese bread, spelt bread, whole grain

And this is how it went...

Panini Party Panini

Panini ingredients of your choice
Olive oil spray or olive oil in a bowl with a pastry brush

Preheat the press on high for about 6 minutes while you assemble a couple of sandwiches. Putting small amounts of cheese on both sides of the sandwich will help it all stay together when the cheese melts. When the green light comes on, you’re ready for action. Spray the top side of the bread with the olive oil spray or brush it with olive oil. Place the oiled side down on the press. Spray or brush the top side with oil and close the press adjusting the angle of the top press to suit the thickness of your panini. In about 5 minutes, check the sandwiches. They should be crispy with light brown lines on top. The cheese should be melty. Use a heat-proof plastic spatula to remove the sandwich to a cutting board. Cut in half, add a green salad, and you have dinner! Buon appetito.

These kinds of sandwiches can also be made in a cast iron skillet. Make sure to use a low heat to avoid burning the bread before the cheese is melted.