Kat on Thyme

Got Crust

Four weeks of Craig’s List, one job fair, dozens of emailed resumes, a few interviews, and still, no job.

Actually, I was already offered perfect employment. My first week here, I stumbled into a cooking shop on a beer buying errand in Pacific Beach. The shop was well stocked with all the good kitchen toys and had a beautiful, state of the art cooking school facility in the back third of the store. I picked up a course schedule which offered a huge array of classes taught by talented local chefs. Of course, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to drop off a resume at the shop, which I did later in the week. The retail manager never returned any of my phone calls, but eventually I did hear back from the cooking school director, who called me in for an interview. The interview went well so the following week, I observed a class on entertaining, which was a great class, expertly taught. The whole operation was smooth and professional, and the people were friendly and welcoming. I would loved to have been a part of it all. The director offered me a job assisting guest instructors with their classes which would have been a great opportunity to get paid to learn. I didn’t take it. I left two really good jobs in Seattle to move to San Diego to make a go of a relationship. I wasn’t about to be working nights and weekends so that I could spend all day by myself wondering what Nick was doing at work. I need to find myself a day job. Or at least a job that pays well enough to warrant a few late evenings in exchange for spending time with Nick on the weekends.

The experience wasn’t a total loss, however. I got crust. The menu for the class I observed was tasty, although not terribly exciting. The instructor made the class worthwhile, though, with her tips and tales of catering experiences. The dessert she chose is one of my favorites- fresh fruit galette, a sort of free-form rustic pie. She chose to use apple which she expertly peeled with a paring knife, the green skin falling to the cutting board in one elegant strip. She sliced the apples thinly and arranged them in a barely overlapping pattern from the outside to the center. It looked lovely, but to me, defied the rustic nature of a galette. And there just wasn’t enough apple flavor in the final product, with such thinly layered fruit. It’s a good thing the crust was so darned delicious. She made the dough in a matter of minutes, pressing the butter into the flour with her fingers and then tipping ice water from a cup until the dough began to hold its shape. It’s the easiest technique and the results were fabulous- a flaky, tender, buttery crust.

Here’s my version of the galette, with more apples! You could use other fruit as well or a combination of fruits. Just be sure to sprinkle a few tablespoons of flour onto the dough after it’s rolled out, if you are working with very juicy fruit. The flour will help thicken any fruit syrup.

Rustic Apple Galette

For the crust: (you can double the recipe and freeze one)
1 ½ cups flour
½ cup unsalted butter, cut into chunks and cold
a few pinches of salt (I like a bit of salt, she used none)
1/3 or so cup ice water

Measure the flour into a large bowl. Stir in the salt. With your fingers, press the chunks of butter into the flour. Leave some visible pieces of butter in the flour (they will be flattish but don’t make them too small). Add enough ice water just to pull the dough into a ball. You can always sprinkle a bit more so don’t over do it. The dough should come together nicely. Flatten it into a round and put it in a clean Ziploc bag, gallon size. Flatten it some more while it’s in the bag and the refrigerate the dough at least one hour.

For the filling:
5-6 apples (I used two largish Granny Smiths and 4 small Galas)
¼ cup of sugar- more or less to taste
Cinnamon to taste
A sprinkle of lemon juice

Peel, core and slice the apples into ¼ inch slices. Toss with the other ingredients.

To assemble and bake the galette:

More butter – 2 or so tablespoons
Sugar for sprinkling
Apricot or apple preserves, warmed (you can also add a splash of Cognac or Calvados)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll out the dough about 1/8 inch thick. Pile the apples in the center (you can arrange them if you have the patience) and leave the outside few inches free from filling. Fold the sides casually up onto the apples, letting it crease naturally, every few inches. (I rolled the dough on a square Silpat baking liner so I didn’t have to transfer it.) Slide the Silpat onto a baking sheet or pizza stone and readjust the folds if you need to. (If you’ve rolled on the counter, transfer the dough to a parchment lined cookie sheet BEFORE filling it.) Sprinkle the crust with sugar and then dot the extra butter around the top of the fruit. Bake at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes or until the crust is golden and flaky.

Brush the fruit part of the galette with the warmed preserves to give it a nice sheen. In a pinch you could use honey or maple syrup too.

Serves 6 to 8.

Another Day in Paradise

Blue sky, mild breeze off the ocean, bright sunshine, mild temperature. Same old same old here in San Diego. Can a climate be more perfect? It makes me laugh when people I pass on the street comment on the lovely weather. It’s like mentioning that the sidewalk is cement or the grass green. Of course it’s a lovely day. Yesterday was too. And the day before. At some point this constant state of perfection might get tiresome, but so far so good.

It’s hard to believe I’ve been here for over a month. Nick returned from his deployment on the 15th of August and we’ve been getting settled into our new place. Since we live in paradise, we figured all the friends and family would want to visit, so we rented a two bedroom place. Sherpa Nick and I lugged a queen sized bed from a garage sale a few blocks away into our newly outfitted guest suite. We’re past our third round of house guests already, and it’s barely begun to rain in Seattle.

Melding our very dissimilar lifestyles into one harmonious existence has been a fairly smooth progression. A rough bout of homesickness, a mild case of food poisoning, and one very tense afternoon of dinner party preparation were small hurdles easily overcome. Mr. “I hate yard work” carefully dribbles water onto each of the little basil plants in our garden, finds sticks to prop up the lemon verbena, and rolls our round patio table over to the newly planted rainbow chard to make some dappled shade for them on sunny afternoons. He picks figs in the morning, prunes grapes in the evening, and notices how each plant is progressing, flowering, wilting, or thriving. I can’t say I’ve done as much to embrace the culture of the military as Nick has done to appreciate my little hobbies, but I am beginning to understand the sacrifices and commitment that go along with military life. And I can say I appreciate the two dollar kayak rentals at the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot and the tax free liquor store on base.

But the best part of our new living arrangement is having someone to share meals with every day. I miss Gretchen’s impromptu weeknight dinners, and dining out with the Brown Trout after weekend ultimate games. But right now, I’m savoring sitting down to meals at home with Nick. And after 6 months of mess hall chow, Nick seems to be appreciating them as well.

This is one of my favorite weekend breakfasts- a Dutch Baby pancake filled with sautéed fruit. Traditionally they are topped with a sprinkling of lemon juice and powdered sugar, but they are especially good with fruit and a dollop of yogurt. This one has pears and apples, but you could substitute peaches, plums, or berries.

Dutch Baby with Sautéed Pears and Apples

½ cup flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
½ cup milk
2 Tablespoons butter + more for brushing skillet

Place a 10-inch cast iron or oven-proof skillet in the oven and preheat it to 450 degrees. Sift the flour and salt into a small bowl. In a blender, put the eggs and milk and blend at low speed. Turn off the blender and add the flour mixture. Mix until smooth, scraping down the sides at least once. It should take about 30 seconds of mixing. Blend in the melted butter. Brush the hot skillet with the additional butter (a silicone pastry brush works great for this) and pour in the batter. Return the pan to the oven and bake for 10 minutes without opening the oven door. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake another 15 or so minutes or until the pancake is puffy and beginning to pull away from the sides of the skillet. Prepare the filling while the pancake bakes.

Pear and Apple Filling

3 small Bartlett pears
1 Granny Smith or other tart apple
1 Tablespoon butter
1-2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 Tablespoons (or to taste) brown sugar
Lemon juice to taste

Powdered sugar for topping

Pare, core, and slice the apples and pears. In a medium sauté pan, melt the butter over high heat. Add the fruit, cinnamon, and brown sugar and reduce the heat to medium. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the fruit is beginning to soften. Sprinkle with a dash of lemon juice to brighten the flavor.

To finish

When the Dutch Baby comes out of the oven, dust it with powdered sugar and fill the center with the fruit mixture. Serve immediately.

Serves 3 to 4.

Two Days and a Wake-up

I can count the days on one hand now. And I’m more than half way to San Diego, geographically speaking. Nick comes home from his six month deployment on Tuesday, around 10:45. Or 1045, if you do military time, which even after all of my years of sailing, I’ve never mastered. And sailing I’ve been, which proved a godsend for passing the time.

Near the end of July, I left Seattle for my annual relief cooking trip aboard a beautiful historic yacht which my friend, Grant, captains. When guests are aboard it’s a busy job, filling my day from about 5:30 in the morning to around 9:30 at night. And as much work as it is, somehow it still feels like a vacation, to be with friends, in such a beautiful place, on such an amazing vessel. When no guests are aboard it’s easy to pretend that we belong around the long, polished teak dining table, eating our dinners and drinking the wine that’s been abandoned by the guests because of its inferior vintage. But the next day finds us cleaning, doing maintenance, provisioning, tidying, planning, phoning and faxing, and generally getting the boat and her gear ready to go.

My first year aboard, I thought so hard ahead of time about what I wanted to prepare for the guests. When I arrived on the boat and swung open the walk-ins I was greeted with every imaginable form of protein, and cupboards, bins, and stowage cubbies full of expensive, exciting, and ethnic ingredients. There were probably 10 different kinds of salt. All I needed was produce, and some fresh dairy products and we were ready to sail. So these past few years, I’ve been planning less and experimenting more. I bring a few trusty cookbooks and photocopied baking recipes and just wing it from there. Meticulous planning only proves frustrating on a boat, where weather, fishing, and the varied interests of the guests drive our daily schedule. Flexibility and a sense of humor are likely the most important traits of a boat chef, followed by creativity and a strong stomach, not necessarily in that order. This year the weather was dreary, and we had a few bumpy days at sea. I didn’t mind being below decks in such drizzle and took comfort in the warm galley, where I cooked and baked up my own little storm. The steward, Jill, and I had a bit of downtime to venture into Ketchikan in a downpour, Wrangle, on very tired feet, and into a tiny town called Thorton Creek, where we confounded the supersized locals in the hardware store, where we were looking for disposable latex gloves, sized small. They said their gloves weren’t too big for my hands, my hands were too small to be working in Alaska. Certainly Jill and I together, with a sack of flour under each arm, wouldn’t have made up one of those burly Alaskan giants.

Traveling with Jill is like traveling with a movie star. All week people asked if we were sisters, which I definitely never minded. Our last night in Alaska, we again donned the stupid yellow slickers, and wandered through the drizzle to Kito’s Kave- the local fishermen’s bar in Petersburg. We finished out trip in grand style, drinking whiskey and beer surrounded by crazy locals and barely legal Coast Guard cadets. The next morning didn’t feel so grand, but we rallied just in time for our taxi to the airport. Ten days down, in one fabulous swoop.

And now, I’m staying with my folks in Sacramento, seeing family and friends, until early Monday morning. Then, I fold myself back into the little yellow beetle convertible and hit the road again, this time with summer clothes, a few favorite cookbooks, too many pairs of shoes, and as always, an optimistic heart. Two more days and a wake-up.

I made this with last trip’s tired bananas and had it out for the guests when they arrived aboard.

Greet the Guests Banana Yogurt Coffeecake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a large (9x13 inch) rectangular baking dish.

Whisk together the following ingredients in a large bowl:

2 cups unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon Kosher salt

In another bowl, combine the following:

Heaping 1 ¾ cups yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla
Zest of two small limes
6 Tablespoons melted butter
1 ¼ cups brown sugar
3 large eggs
3 very ripe bananas, pureed or mashed

Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold them together. Spread the batter into the prepared pan and smooth into the corners so that the level is even. Sprinkle with the streusel topping and bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. If the topping starts to brown too much, cover the top very loosely with foil. Cut into squares to serve.

Streusel Topping

3 Tablespoons melted butter
3 Tablespoons flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
About 2/3 cup finely chopped nuts or oatmeal (enough to give the mixture into a crumbly texture)

Mix the previous ingredients, except the nuts, with a fork to blend. Add the nuts and work into a crumbly state. Sprinkle onto the coffeecake evenly.

Makes 12 very large pieces.

The Pound Cake Test

I felt very official when the email arrived--  I was sent a recipe to test for Cook's Illustrated Magazine. Although anyone with a subscription to their website can participate in the testing program, I was excited to be chosen to actually do it. So just at the height of our short lived heat wave here in Seattle, I received a recipe for a pound cake that needed to bake for 60 to 70 minutes. I had figured I would test the recipes at work, where there are always willing tasters of sweets. The 3 year old there usually cuts right to the chase. “What are you making for dessert?” she asks, not seeming to care what sort of meal she needs to slog through before it. But I couldn’t bear to run the oven in their already overheated kitchen, so I decided to do my recipe testing at home, at night. Gretchen came over to help and she made brownies to send to Nick in Kuwait, while I worked on the pound cake.

As a cook, I tend to use a recipe as a guideline, adding and subtracting as I see fit, and measuring by eye rather than by cup and spoon. As a baker, however, I am much more precise, although still one to improvise within the parameters that I know will work. So as an official C.I. Recipe Tester, I had to be on my best behavior. First I read the recipe thoroughly (a novel idea) and then assembled my ingredients. I also read through the evaluation sheet so I would know what kinds of questions I’d have to answer about the final product. And so I began, carefully measuring and mixing, according to the instructions. I weighed some ingredients and measured others with a cup. Having the ingredients at the right temperature is key to getting the proper texture, so I even measured those with a metal stem thermometer from the health department. My only deviation was that I forgot to keep track of the exact active preparation time, but I figured the assembly took about a half of an hour, which is really pretty quick for a cake.

And the results? It turned out splendidly. It had a fine crumb that was dense but light in texture. The flavor was buttery with just a hint of vanilla. And if the recipe didn’t take an hour to bake, I would say that it is the perfect accompaniment to summer berries.

I brought some of the pound cake to work the following day for my official tasters to try. Coincidentally, they were looking for a good pound cake recipe to add chocolate chips to for a special birthday. We looked the Best Recipe cookbook by Cook’s Illustrated, and to my surprise, there was the recipe I “tested,” in print, for everyone to make. Now I would never scoop Cook’s Illustrated on a new recipe that they would be working on and sharing with their magazine readers, but since the recipe I tested is the one from their book, I thought I’d pass it along. Make this at midnight in the cool of your summer kitchen.

Cook’s Illustrated Classic Pound Cake

1 cup unsalted butter  (2 sticks), softened (8 ounces) 
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar  (9 ounces) 
3 large eggs  (5.25 ounces, without the shells) 
3 large egg yolks  (2 ounces) 
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract   
1 ½ teaspoons water   
½ teaspoon table salt   
1 ½  cups cake flour  (6 ounces) 
 
Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9-by-5-by-3 1/2-inch loaf pan (7 1/2-inch capacity) with vegetable shortening or spray. Line the bottom and sides of pan with parchment paper or foil.

Beat butter in bowl of electric mixer set at medium-high speed until smooth and shiny, about 15 seconds. With machine still on, take about 30 seconds to sprinkle in sugar. Beat mixture until light, fluffy and almost white, 4 to 5 minutes, stopping mixer once or twice to scrape down sides of bowl.

Mix eggs, yolks, vanilla and water in a 2 cup glass measure with a pour spout, set in a pan of tepid water until mixture is about 70 degrees. With mixer set at medium-high speed, take 3 to 5 minutes to add egg mixture to butter/sugar mixture in a very slow, thin stream. Finally, beat in salt.

Remove bowl from mixer stand. Turn 1/2 cup flour into sieve or shaker; sprinkle it over batter. Fold gently with rubber spatula, scraping up from bottom of the bowl, until flour is incorporated. Repeat twice more, adding flour in 1/2-cup increments.

Scrape batter into prepared pan, smoothing top with a spatula or wooden spoon. Bake until cake needle or tester inserted into crack running along top comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes. Let cake rest in pan for 5 minutes, then invert onto wire rack. Place second wire rack on cake bottom, then turn cake top side up. Cool to room temperature, remove and discard parchment, wrap cake in plastic, then in foil. Store cake at room temperature.

Serves about 10.

So Simple the Syrup

Summer has arrived in Seattle on the fast train. I was doing some laundry this weekend and in my laundry basket was a crazy mix of polypropylene long underwear, fleecy things, tank tops, and shorts. It’s June in Seattle!

Being from Sacramento, and spending much of the last 15 years in the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon, one would think I should be accustomed to hot weather. A few years in Seattle and I’m melting in the mid-80 degree heat. Most of the year, I shun iced drinks in favor of room temperature beverages, but on Friday night, I dumped the igloo that had formed in my ice bin and got a whole new batch of ice going to cool my summer drinks. Ice ice, baby.

I’ve been seeing in the gourmet stores lately big, expensive bottles of simple syrup for making summer drinks. Simple syrup is just that, though. Simple. No need to buy it. I’ve been experimenting with steeping herbs in the syrup to make my own flavored syrups. But there’s no reason to stop at herbs, syrups can be infused with anything! Tea, spices, roots like ginger, citrus zest, reduced fruit juices, flowers, and there is no limit to the combinations you could create.

Simple syrups are handy to have around in the summer (they should be kept in the fridge) because they work better than granulated sugar for sweetening cold beverages. For sweetening hot coffee, granulated sugar works just fine because the heat from the coffee dissolves the sugar. But in an iced coffee drink, granulated sugar just falls to the bottom and doesn’t do much to sweeten the bulk of the liquid. (Although I love the sugary ice cube crystals left in the glass!) Simple syrups can be used to make cocktails, iced coffee drinks, lemon and limeades, and Italian sodas. In addition, they can be used for all sorts of summer preparations- syrups can sweeten sorbets and granitas, they can be mixed with fruit and drizzled over desserts, or colored syrups could be dabbled onto white plates for a simple plate garnish. It’s easy to get creative with flavored syrups if you have them made and chilled in your fridge.

Herb Infused Simple Syrup

Equal parts sugar and water (I used 2/3 cup of each)
Sprigs of fresh herbs- I used 4 large sprigs of lemon verbena. I also made one with mint and one with rose geranium leaves.

Dissolve the sugar in the water over medium heat in a small saucepan on the stove. Once the sugar has dissolved, turn off the heat and add the herbs, crushing them in your hands to release their oils. Submerge them into the liquid and cover. Let them steep for about 30 minutes. Drain into bottles pushing on the herbs to extract a bit more flavor. Cap and refrigerate.

Herban Lemonade

1 ounce citron Vodka
½ ounce lemon verbena syrup (more if you like sweeter drinks)
Sprig of verbena for garnish
Ice to fill glass
4 ounces soda water
Wedge of lemon

Mix the vodka and syrup in a glass with the ice. Add the verbena and crush lightly with a spoon or muddler. Add soda water and stir to blend. Squeeze the lemon into the drink and then drop it into the mix. Stir again and adjust taste to suit your preferences.

The Return of the Sunday Night Dinner

My old house mate, Chuck, and I used to host Sunday night dinners at least a couple of times a month. Chuck would sit on the barstool and commentate while I chopped and sautéed and grilled. He was the appetizer man. Olives, fig bread, manchego. Chuck could always be counted on to purchase a fine spread of apps. It’s been a while since Chuck bought his own place, took on his own house mate, and hauled a grill up to his own patio. At least now he’s eating his own peanut butter, and drinking his own wine ;)

Last Sunday I stopped by my friend Gretchen’s house to pick strawberries. She has an amazing patch of strawberries that spiral around the outskirts of her back yard. She also gave me some rhubarb that she had picked from her plot in the P-patch the day before. With such an amazing bounty, I decided to have people over for dessert. I called Gretchen first but she couldn’t make it so I called a few more friends. What began as an invitation to dessert ended up as a Sunday Dinner Reunion. Matthew was cooking Mexican food, and there is no better time to be invited for dinner. He fixed a phenomenal fajita spread, with all of the extras, and his wife, Amy assembled some delicious salads. I knew dessert was going to have to be sensational.

I scoured my vast assortment of cookbooks for something fun to do with rhubarb and strawberries. I decided to just wing it and headed to Larry’s Market with the old dog, Baci, to gather some ingredients. Cobbler always sounds good to me, so I decided to do some version of that. I began with my favorite Cream Scone recipe and adapted it to become the topping for the cobbler. The fruit part I wanted to keep simple since I had such beautiful raw ingredients to work with. I looked into using Minute Tapioca to thicken the fruit mixture (as recommended in Cooks Illustrated) but the cost was $4.00, I only needed a tablespoon, and I had cornstarch at home. Settled.

Pinched for time, I worked quickly, but even so, I was thankful that Sunday dinners are on ultimate time. Ultimate Frisbee players are notoriously late for everything and Sunday dinner is no different. So I stuffed the steaming hot cobbler into the trunk of my car and zoomed to Wallingford. I could smell how delicious it was going to be all the way there.

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler with Coconut Vanilla Scone Topping

6 cups of mixed strawberries and rhubarb (strawberries sliced or halved if they’re small, rhubarb cut into ½ inch pieces)
¾ cup sugar
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
¼ teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix the fruit, sugar, cornstarch, and vanilla together and tip into a 9 inch deep dish glass pie plate. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the filling is quite hot. By adding the topping to already hot fruit, one eliminates the soggy topping problem that many cobblers have. Meanwhile, prepare the topping…

Coconut Vanilla Scone Topping

1 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder   
3 tablespoons sugar   
1/2 teaspoon table salt   
5 tablespoons unsalted butter , chilled and cut into 1/4-inch pieces 
½ cup unsweetened coconut, toasted until golden 
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk (not the light kind)
1 tablespoon vanilla

sanding sugar and extra coconut milk for topping (brush and sprinkle)

Place flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt the food processor fitted with steel blade. Pulse to blend. Remove cover and distribute butter evenly over dry ingredients. Cover and pulse until butter is broken into pieces and distributed throughout the flour mixture. It should look like very coarse breadcrumbs. Transfer dough to large bowl. Stir in the coconut. Stir the vanilla into the coconut milk and stir that mixture into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula or fork until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds.

Transfer dough and all dry, floury bits to countertop and knead dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, slightly sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds. Scrape up dough and lightly flour the counter underneath. Roll out the dough to the size of your pie plate and transfer it onto the hot fruit. Try to crimp the edges but be careful, since the pie plate is hot. Slice and open some vents atop the cobbler. You have to really separate the dough if you want the vents to stay open. Brush with some extra coconut milk and sprinkle with sanding sugar, if desired. Bake until the top is light brown, about 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature, with whipped cream, ice cream, yogurt, or just plain.

Serves 8 generously.

Solstice in Seattle

I’ve been remiss. Last week the Seattle summer finally caught up with me. It’s not exactly the midnight sun, but Seattle’s extended daylight hours have a similar effect on me. I get up early, work all day, have dinner at 10 o’clock, stay up way too late and then do it again. Until Thursday, when I finally crashed.

But there’s nothing like the Fremont Summer Solstice Parade to start the cycle all over again! For the most part, Seattle is a little stuffy when it comes to celebrations. Our attitude seems to be, “Fine idea for a party, but not in MY neighborhood!” But not Fremont. Fremont opens its arms to Seattle for the annual Solstice Festival, and renews my faith that Seattleites can indeed, shake it. Any event that starts with hundreds of nude cyclists in all manors of exotic body paint cannot, by definition, be stuffy. And the parade continued on from there with great music, dancing, humor, costumes, creativity, political commentary, and the occasional strange spiritual displays that I couldn’t figure out. Fremont in a nutshell.

Every year my friend, John, hosts his annual pre-parade brunch. It begins with his own parade of furniture down to the parade route to stake a claim of sidewalk, this year under the shade of a big tree. Each year I expect John, an avid cyclist, to disappear before the start of the parade only to reappear beautifully painted and peddling by. Perhaps next year. But this year, his house was the staging ground for the fabulous costuming efforts of the “Fantasia Girls” who danced with a samba group. He’s going to be sweeping up feathers and glitter, with a smile on his face, for weeks to come. While we were eating a fabulous brunch, we had our own little parade of peacock feathered and bejeweled beauties swooping in and out for mimosas.

As usual, John hosts a mean brunch. There were lots of delicious homemade treats- James’ salsa and feta eggs, John’s garlic and goodies eggs, some vegan scrambled tofu with mixed greens, Gretchen’s gluten free banana muffins and garden grown strawberries, some lovely fruit salads, and my contribution, a raspberry breakfast cake. I got the recipe from Alanna's blog, a few weeks ago and have made it twice, it’s so delicious. I changed a few ingredients to make it a bit more breakfast friendly, but it’s a great recipe as is, and could be served for dessert as well. I changed the all-purpose flour to a combination of all-purpose and whole wheat pastry flours, and oat bran. And I cut down the sugar to a scant 1 cup. I also bumped up the buttermilk to accommodate the hardier flours and omitted the glaze. The first time I made it, it came out of the pan beautifully, but the second time, part of it stuck and it had to be puzzle-pieced back together again. A quick garnish of powdered sugar, with a tiny bouquet of roses, lavender, and mint in the center, fixed it right up again. With the berries beginning to ripen here in Seattle, I’ll be sure to make this again before the season’s over.

This would make a great breakfast with a dollop of yogurt.

Raspberry Breakfast Cake

¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
scant 1 cup sugar
Zest from 1 orange, or 2 limes or lemons
1 Tablespoon vanilla
3 eggs at room temperature
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
½ cup oat bran
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
scant 1 cup buttermilk

12 ounces frozen raspberries
1 tablespoon flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on high speed. Add zest and vanilla. One at a time, beat in eggs.

In a separate bowl, stir together the flours, oat bran, baking powder and salt.

On the lowest speed of the mixer, gently add 1/3 of the buttermilk, ½ of the flour mixture, 1/3 of the buttermilk, ½ of the flour mixture, 1/3 of the buttermilk. (Begin and end with the buttermilk and scrape down the mixer after each addition.)

Separately, stir together berries and 1 tablespoon flour. By hand, stir berries into batter.

Transfer batter to well-greased and sugared Bundt pan. Bake for 60 – 75 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool 30 minutes, gently turn onto serving plate. Let cool another 30 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

Serves 12

Green Day at the CSA

Seattle produce… today is sponsored by the color Green. Yesterday was the first pick up day for the Community Sponsored Agriculture co-op that the family for whom I work has joined for the season. Here in the Northwest, the season runs from the first week in June to the end of October. How a CSA works, is that people buy a share of an organic farm and then each week they receive some of the farm’s bounty. The Root Connection is the CSA that we belong to, and the farm is just down the hill from the house.  They offer pick-up locations elsewhere, but picking up produce from the farm has its bonuses. My favorite of which will certainly be the bring your own scissors, u-pick basil patch. In fact, they have a whole garden of herbs for cutting, fresh greens, and u-pick flowers that come with the farm share. And not only are the vegetables all organic, they use fertilizer from a local farm that raises cows naturally. I met the cow lady the other day when I was there, and she described her cow’s contribution to the vegetable patch as, “Good Poop!”

And good poop grows good vegetables. This time of year in Seattle, most of what’s growing is green. In fact, everything in the share yesterday, besides a lovely bunch of smooth, fuchsia colored radishes, was green. Baby bok choy, two different kinds of lettuce, dandelion greens, kale, chard, and some green I had never seen before that looked vaguely Asian, perhaps some sort of cabbage. I enjoy the challenge of working these vegetables into my menus creatively. I made a salad of green leaf lettuce, avocado and grapefruit with a pineapple and lemon thyme vinaigrette. I tossed the dandelion greens with some fruity olive oil and salt and pepper and used them as a bed for the curry and black sesame dusted ling cod. The bok choy, I sautéed with garlic and finished with a crisp white wine. And with the radishes I made a little pickle-like dish with orange zest and fresh tarragon.

All the vegetables were beautiful, and prepared simply, their flavors shone. I look forward to many more farm filled meals this summer.

Radish and Orange Pickled Salad

1 bunch radishes, sliced thinly and then julienned (I used a mandoline)
Rice wine vinegar for tossing (about ¼ cup)
Juice of one orange (save a few strips of zest before juicing)
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
1 Tablespoon honey (or use all honey instead of the sugar-honey combo)

2 strips of orange zest, removed with a peeler and thinly sliced
About 2 teaspoons fresh tarragon (add at the end to preserve the color)

Mix the radishes with the vinegar and orange juice toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt, sugar, and honey and taste. It should be tart, a bit sweet, and pleasantly salty, although not like a regular pickle- that’s too salty. Refrigerate for about an hour to blend the flavors. When you’re ready to serve, stir in the orange zest and the tarragon.

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.

SuperFood Pumpkin Muffins

I don’t know if it will change our lives, but it certainly couldn’t hurt. The couple for whom I cook decided to take on some of the nutritional advise of Dr. Steven Pratt and Kathy Matthews, authors of SuperFoods Rx, 14 foods that will change your life. So they passed along the book so I could check it out. Right on the back cover is a list of the 14 foods, all but one of which I use regularly. (Walnuts are out because of a nut intolerance.) Right away, I found the book appealing, since the recommended foods are ones that are easy to incorporate into my menu planning. I was glad they hadn’t decided on a raw food diet, or to become vegan, or to do weekly cleansing fasts that would put me out of a job! No, the request was easy, since I am already using the SuperFoods without knowing how super they are. So before I go any further, I should list the 14 foods…

• Beans
• Blueberries
• Broccoli
• Oats
• Oranges
• Pumpkin
• Salmon (wild Pacific)
• Soy
• Spinach
• Tea
• Tomatoes
• Turkey
• Walnuts

No wild Amazon fruits, endangered species, or things that must be foraged-  the list is pretty darned straight forward, containing nothing that an average grocer wouldn’t carry. Now I must admit, I haven’t read the whole book yet, but I do think Dr. Pratt is on to something. He uses all of the food science and technology available at this point, to analyze foods from a macro and micronutrient level, concentrating on the beneficial properties of each of the 14 foods and their “sidekicks” (foods that have similar nutritional values). The book also contains recipes that look appetizing, but I haven’t tried any of them yet. I have, however, worked SuperFood ingredients into some of the recipes I’ve been working on.

Pumpkin Muffins are a family favorite (Baby W asks for them by name, Muh Muh Muh!) so I thought I’d start with developing a pumpkin muffin recipe that incorporates many of the SuperFoods. I get annoyed with pumpkin recipes that don’t use the whole can of pumpkin, so I scaled my recipe to use the entire can. It makes almost 2 dozen muffins but if that is too many, you can freeze some. I suppose you could freeze canned pumpkin as well, but frozen muffins are more likely to get eaten than frozen pumpkin. The only part of the recipe that I don’t feel is super healthy is the 1 cup of brown sugar. I like the texture and taste of these with the sugar but you could cut it back some or use part honey. The recipe does make a lot of muffins, though, so 1 cup of sugar isn’t terrible, nutrition wise. And look at me, I eat brownies for breakfast so who am I to pass nutritional judgements! They taste good.

SuperFood Pumpkin Muffins

1 ¾ cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 ½ cups oat bran
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1 can of pumpkin
¼ cup canola oil
1 cup milk or soy milk
1 cup toasted walnuts (optional)
1 ½ cups dried blueberries or cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 muffin tins with paper liners or spray with non-stick spray.
Combine the dry ingredients (pastry flour through salt) in a large bowl and whisk to combine. In a medium bowl, mix the sugar though the milk and whisk to blend. Stir in the walnuts and blueberries. Now fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir gently and only mix until the two mixtures are incorporated. Scoop the batter into the prepared pans (I use an old fashioned ice cream scoop) filling them about 2/3 of the way full. You should have between 22 and 24. Bake for about 16 to 18 minutes or until the tops spring back when touched. You may need to rotate the pans top to bottom and back to front as they bake. Cool on a wire rack.

You could also use frozen blueberries or fresh blueberries. If using fresh or frozen, fold them in after combining the wet and dry ingredients, being careful not to break the berries. They will take longer to cook if you use frozen berries. I like the dried berries because they are less messy to eat, and Muh Muh Muh is a messy eater. Once the neighbor’s berries come in, though, I’ll start using fresh blueberries.

Makes about 2 dozen muffins. They freeze well.

Sandblasting Sugar Scrub

According to Nick, there’s not much good about the Kuwaiti desert, where he’ll be stationed for some undetermined amount of the summer. As if the searing heat were not enough, the oil laced sand blows relentlessly across the unprotected flatlands, sandblasting whatever solid forms it comes upon. Trying to be positive, I reminded him that people pay lots of money for that kind of intense exfoliation treatment. In fact, I had just made an oil based sugar scrub to do just that. My concoction smells more like roses than camel dung, and can be applied selectively, but it does the same job, more or less.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved to make beauty products. I think the sink in the back bathroom at my folk’s house is still pitted from my sister and my soap making fiasco.  When I taught Food Science at a high school in Medford, we made soaps, lip balms, and lotions, experimenting with various scientific principles. It’s a natural extension of cooking and the ingredients are often interchangeable.

Lately, I’ve been experimenting with salt and sugar scrubs. My hands get so dry from constant washing, I am completely plastic bag impaired. I stand on the produce aisle rubbing the new plastic bag between my fingers while holding a bunch of cilantro, or a handful of green beans. My hands have so little natural oil left in them I can’t even open a bag, which is a rather inconvenient malady for a professional shopper. I’ve found that oil based salt scrubs do a great job of getting rid of dry skin and moisturizing as well. But the salt part of the scrub reminds me that there’s truth to the “rubbing salt in my wounds” saying. Ouch! So I’ve switched to sugar scrubs which do a great job in exfoliating, don’t sting, and dissolve more slowly than salt. I’ve also switched from using olive or almond oil to using mostly coconut oil which is more solid at room temperature and makes a less runny scrub. The oil can be infused with all sorts of herbs, spices, citrus zests, or flowers to lend a subtle fragrance that lingers on the skin.

Jars of this scrub make great gifts.

Rose Infused Sugar Scrub

½ cup coconut oil, melted in the microwave until liquid
Fragrance ingredients (I used rose petals, mint, and a sprig of rosemary)
2 Tablespoons olive or almond oil
1 cup granulated sugar

Infuse the warm coconut oil with the herbs or flowers by steeping them in the warm coconut oil, covered, for about 30 minutes. Strain into a bowl, pushing down on the herbs to extract more fragrance. If you want the oil very clear, rewarm slightly and put through a coffee filter. (This takes about another 30 hour.) You can omit this step but the more impurities in the oil, the more quickly it will develop off odors. After straining, add the olive oil and the sugar and stir to blend. Put into a mason jar or empty cosmetic jar. To use, wet hands and scrub vigorously with the sugar scrub. Rinse and pat dry.

Makes about 1 ½ cups.

Weekend Griddle Cakes

Who ever started a bad weekend with good pancakes? It just doesn’t happen. From multigrain buttermilk pancakes on Saturday morning, to the 10 pm bowl of Cherry Garcia Monday night, it’s been a memorable Memorial Day weekend.

Somehow this year, my friends and I just forgot to make plans for the weekend. A collective inertia overcame us all as we fumbled through our organizing. And in typical Northwest fashion, the weather didn’t cooperate with our already flaky arrangements. But I have to admit, this was one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long time.

As usual there was much to be done at Casa Kat but I vowed to get away this weekend, even if it meant stringing together half made plans and impromptu outings. Which, incidentally, was exactly what happened. The Brown Trouts (my ultimate Frisbee team) threw together a amazing barbecue, guided by the ultimate host, our captain, Chewy. Sunday morning’s deluge cancelled our road trip plans, so the day was spent playing Goaltimate (like ultimate but with a rainbow shaped goal) and checking out the Folklife Festival scene at the Seattle Center. And finally, with a promise of better weather, a couple of friends and I headed off to Mt. St. Helens for some hiking. The crater was still shrouded in clouds so we opted for some subterranean hiking in Ape Cave, a mile long lava tube that was formed several thousand years ago and discovered in the 50’s (almost the hard way!) by a farmer on his tractor. It was a fascinating scramble through a drippy black cave. I had an inkling of how Jonah might have felt, as we tunneled through the bowels of the mountain. A lovely dinner, and a toss around of the Frisbee in the evening light on the Olympia waterfront capped off the weekend perfectly.

These griddle cakes make great weekend fare. They are delicious with strawberries this time of year, or with whatever fruit is in season- berries, summer fruit, or sauteed apples or pears.

Multi-grain Griddle Cakes with Maple and Strawberries

1 ½ cups stone ground whole wheat flour
¼ cup oat bran
¼ cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons honey
2 large eggs
2 ½ cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ cup butter, melted

Sliced fresh strawberries
Maple syrup

Combine the dry ingredients from the flour to the salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk to blend. In another mixing bowl, blend the honey through the melted butter. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and stir gently until blended. Preheat the griddle to about 375 degrees and when hot, spray with canola oil spray. Pour batter onto the griddle using a quarter cup measure. When bubbles appear on the tops of the cakes and the bottoms are nicely browned, flip them to finish cooking the other side. Top with strawberries and maple syrup and have a great weekend :)

Makes about 16 griddlecakes.

2 for 1 Ginger Desserts

It’s Sugar High Friday and the theme today is Ginger! I was scrolling through my imagination to think of ginger desserts that I love. I couldn’t come up with one single ginger dessert that I don’t love! Gingersnaps, gingerbread, ginger anything appeals to me, in both sweet and savory styles. And the dessert ingredients that accompany ginger are some of my favorites as well- apples, pears, baking spices, and molasses. Somehow those deep, dark, homey comfort desserts never fail to entice me. I’d choose gingerbread over any cake any day.

But since this was a special event, I wanted to make something a little more interesting than basic gingerbread, so I decided to combine two of my favorite old fashioned desserts into one very delicious Pineapple Upside Down Gingerbread. Whole Foods has had pineapples on sale all week and they’ve been really delicious, which inspired me to include them in my dessert. Just a quick little aside about choosing pineapples- I look for ones with good golden color that shows through the brown of the rind. (In between the diamond like shapes on the skin.) I feel it- it should give slightly when you squeeze it but it shouldn’t have any soft spots. Then I smell it. It should smell like, well, like a pineapple. I’ve heard that if leaves pull out easily from the center of the top of the pineapple, it’s ripe, but I haven’t found that a reliable method. Look, touch, smell, buy. It works for me.

So I started with two recipes from Cooks Illustrated that I combined into one- a gingerbread recipe and a pineapple upside down cake recipe. And I think this dessert is better than the sum of its parts…

Pineapple Upside Down Gingerbread

The Pineapple Topping (which would be delicious over ice cream)

1 medium fresh pineapple (about 4 cups prepared fruit) peeled, cored, and made into small chunks
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger (Microplane grater works great here)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter   
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract   

For the pineapple topping: Combine pineapple, brown sugar, and ginger in 10-inch cast iron skillet; cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally during first 5 minutes, until pineapple is translucent and has light brown hue, another 6-7 minutes. Empty fruit and juices into mesh strainer or colander set over medium bowl. Return juices to skillet, leaving pineapple in strainer (you should have about 2 cups cooked fruit). Simmer juices over medium heat until thickened, beginning to darken, and mixture forms large bubbles, 6 to 8 minutes, adding any more juices released by fruit to skillet after about 4 minutes. Off heat, whisk in butter and vanilla; let the syrup cool in the pan. Set aside while preparing cake. (Pineapple will continue to release liquid as it sits; do not add this liquid to already-reduced juice mixture.)

The Gingerbread (which is great on its own as well)

2 ¼ cups sifted unbleached flour
½ teaspoon baking soda   
½ teaspoon table salt   
2 teaspoons ground ginger or 3 Tablespoons fresh ginger, minced or grated
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon   
½ teaspoon ground cloves   
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg   
½ teaspoon ground allspice   
1 teaspoon Dutch-processed cocoa powder   
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick)  melted, then cooled to room temperature 
3/4 cup molasses   
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg   
1 cup buttermilk   
 
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, and cocoa in medium bowl.

Beat butter, molasses, and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Beat in egg until incorporated. Gradually add buttermilk until combined.

Add dry ingredients to liquid; beat on low speed until batter is smooth, about 1 minute, scraping down sides of bowl with rubber spatula as needed. Do not over-mix. If using fresh ginger, batter will be lumpy.

Add pineapple to the caramel in the skillet and distribute the chunks evenly. Scrape batter over the pineapple spreading it to the sides. I found that the caramel oozed a bit from the skillet, so put the skilled onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Place in the center of the preheated oven.

Bake until top springs back when lightly touched, and edges have pulled away from the pan sides, about 35- 40 minutes. Set pan on wire cake rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Place a serving plate over the top of the skillet and invert onto the serving plate. Replace any pineapple that may have stuck to the skillet. Serve warm, or at room temperature. (Gingerbread can be wrapped in plastic, then foil, and refrigerated up to 5 days.)

Serves 8 to 10.

Not Just a Dab

They’re small. You’ll need more than a dab. You might want a couple of dabs, and I’d recommend them pan fried. Sand Dabs that is. After deciding that a pound of salmon should cost LESS than an entire tank full of gas, I asked the fish guy at Whole Foods for another recommendation. He asked if I had tried the sand dabs. I remember eating sand dabs as a kid on the California Coast, but I hadn’t ever cooked them. And at $3.99 a pound, I considered filling my car with them. Sold.

So, as I do whenever I experiment with new seafood, I checked into both the environmental and health concerns about the little dabs. They seem to be abundant off of the West Coast and they are caught by a method called Danish Seine netting which is supposed to be very targeted, preventing by-catch, and habitat damage. Good news there. And as for the health concerns of mercury or toxins, I simply didn’t find any information. I’m going with “no news is good news” on this one, since the little guys are so darned tasty.

So what the heck is a sand dab? Sand dabs are flatfish -- the relatives of flounders, sole, plaice, and turbot. And they are extremely talented. First, they are chameleons. Like a brown dog sleeping in the dirt, they blend into their surroundings. But unlike a brown dog sleeping in the snow, they can change their color to suit their habitat. The other interesting little tidbit about sand dabs is that they are born with one eye on each side of their heads, “bilaterally symmetrical.” (I had to think about that one.) But soon after birth, one eye migrates over to hang out with the other one. So they spend most of their adult lives resting on their sides with their eyes up, blending into the background. I wonder if they turn over to sleep? I actually found some cool sand dab action video. You can check it out if you’re interested. Sand Dabs in Action

As far as eating goes, sand dabs are very mild and sweet. And spring is supposed to be the best season for them. Also, sand dabs that live in actual sand are supposed to be better eating than those that live in mud. “Mud Dabs” just doesn’t have the same appeal.

Since this is such a delicately flavored fish, simple preparation suits it best. A simple pan fry is the way to go.

Panko Crusted Sand Dabs

½ cup flour, seasoned with salt and pepper (taste it!)
1 egg beaten
2 Tablespoons milk or buttermilk
1 pound pan-dressed Sand Dabs
1 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons butter
Lemon wedges

Beat the milk and egg together in a pie plate. Line up three pie plates (or shallow baking pans) with the flour mixture in the first one, the milk mixture in the second and the panko in the third. Dredge each fish in the flour, then dip them into the egg-milk mixture then roll in the panko until thoroughly coated. Place on a parchment covered sheet.

Heat the oil and butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook over a lively but not smoking hot fire for three to four minutes on a side until nicely golden brown on both sides. Serve immediately, accompanied with lemon wedges.

You can quickly de-bone the fish at the table. Insert two forks beneath the upper filet and lift the entire filet away, leaving the bottom filet and the bones in place. Then, remove the skeleton, from the tail end, which should come away in one piece. You’ll have the other filet left on the plate.

This is great with lemon or as I served them, with a simple onion pickle made from thinly sliced red onion left to macerate in white wine vinegar, salt, and sugar until soft and sweet, about an hour.

1 pound feeds 2 to 3 people.

Dinner Pancakes

Pancakes for dinner! What could be a better follow-up to brownies for breakfast?

I’ll have to admit, I’m in a side dish rut. And I’m a true appreciator of side dishes. For me, the measure of a great restaurant meal is often what comes along side the protein, rather than the protein itself. I like vegetable sides to be fresh, seasonal, and minimally prepared, but I have no opposition to finessing the carbs. And upon perusal of my rather large cookbook collection, I came across a book on pancakes that has some great savory recipes. (Pancakes: From Morning to Midnight by Dorie Greenspan) And so it went that I decided to make pancakes for dinner.

There is nothing particularly revolutionary about the pancake for dinner- think potato pancakes, applesauce, and roasted meat. Very traditional, and always delicious. I was thinking of barbecuing salmon for dinner so I thought about the natural flavor pairings of dill and sour cream. And voila, a recipe for a sour cream pancake with dill. I make a few changes on the recipe, adding lemon zest to compliment the fish, and whole wheat pastry flour to improve the nutritional value. My original plan was to slow roast the salmon on the grill, on a cedar plank, but was foiled in that attempt by bad weather and amazingly expensive salmon. You’d think the Copper River flowed gold. So for about 1/10th of the price, the fish guy at Whole Foods recommended the sand dabs. A bargain at $3.99 since there is almost no waste and the fish are lovely and mild. But that’s another story! Back to the pancakes…

These pancakes are great as a dinner side but would also make a fabulous brunch, especially if served with lox, sliced tomatoes, red onions… you get the picture. They also can be made very small and used as appetizers with a dabble of sour cream, a slice of smoked salmon and a sprig of dill.

Sour Cream Pancakes with Dill and Lemon

½ cup flour
½ cup whole wheat pastry flour (or another ½ cup all-purpose)
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
¾ cup milk (plus a tad more if batter is too thick)
½ cup sour cream
1 large egg
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 shallot, minced
Grated zest of ½ lemon (more if you’d like)
¼ cup dill, chopped

In a medium bowl whisk together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pepper. In another bowl, whisk the milk, sour cream, egg, and butter. Add the shallot, lemon zest, and dill.
Preheat your griddle to 350 to 400 degrees.
Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until just combined. Don’t worry if it’s lumpy. If it’s too thick to drop nicely onto the griddle, add a touch more milk.
Spray the griddle with non-stick spray and spoon ¼ cup batter onto the griddle for each pancake. Smooth the batter into nice rounds. With the bottoms are golden brown, flip the cakes and cook the other side until they are light brown as well.

Makes about 12 medium sized cakes, enough for 3 people, generously.

Breakfast Brownie

The great thing about being an adult is that you get to eat whatever you want. I don’t have to finish my broccoli, eat two more bites of chicken, or at least taste the split pea soup. And if I really want to, I can eat brownies for breakfast. And the truth is, there is little that tastes better in the morning with a cup of strong coffee than a brownie. And indeed, that’s what I’m having right now. Just one.

We all are at liberty to make our own choices about food. I try to buy organic and seasonal, I avoid trans fats, and only occasionally do I eat brownies for breakfast. Living in Seattle makes  these choices easy to accommodate. We are blessed with farmer’s markets, great natural foods stores, organic bakeries, community supported agriculture programs, and a populace who is willing to support them. I’d have a hard time giving up all of that good food freedom.

Poor Nick, my boyfriend who is deployed right now with the Marine Corps, for he has little freedom of choice about the foods he is eating. A choice between overcooked, canned corn, beans, or peas isn’t really a choice I’d like to be making. If you think about it, the choice of what foods you put into your body is one of the most important and personal of all choices. And it seems so very wrong to me to not be given the option of choosing a healthy diet- it’s like saying that I’m not important enough to fuel properly. And rather ironically, fuel is the root of the conflict for which Nick and so many other Americans are risking their lives. Most people pay more attention to what they are putting into their vehicles than what they are putting into their bodies. And perhaps a brownie for breakfast seems an irresponsible choice, but one brownie breakfast, once in a while is my choice to make.

And if it’s going to be a brownie, it’s going to be a good one. This recipe is adapted from the one on the Cook’s Illustrated website.

Chocolate x 3 Brownies

5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I like Callebaut)
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped 
½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick), cut into quarters 
3 tablespoons cocoa powder (I like Dutch processed cocoa)
3 large eggs   
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar   
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract   
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt   
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour 
1 cup toasted nuts, chopped (I used sliced almonds)

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13-inch rectangular brownie pan with nonstick vegetable cooking spray. Line it with a piece of parchment folded in half to cover the bottom and two of the sides of the pan. It should fit perfectly across the width of the pan. Spray parchment with nonstick cooking spray.

In medium microwavable bowl, melt the butter in the microwave. Stir in the chocolates and microwave at 50% power for about 2 minutes or until chocolates are melted. Stir occasionally until mixture is smooth. Whisk in cocoa until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

Whisk together eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt in medium bowl until combined, about 15 seconds. Whisk warm chocolate mixture into egg mixture; then stir in flour and nuts with a rubber spatula until just combined. Pour mixture into prepared pan, spread into corners, and level surface.

Bake until slightly puffed and toothpick inserted in center comes out with a small amount of sticky crumbs clinging to it, 18 to 24 minutes. Cool on wire rack to room temperature, about 1 hour, then remove brownies from pan by sliding them out with the parchment paper as a handle. You may need to loosen the short sides of the pan by running a knife along the edge. Cut into squares and serve. (Do not cut brownies until ready to serve; brownies can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated up to 5 days.) 

Makes one 9 x 13 inch tray of brownies.

Summer Barbecue Challenge Wrap-up Round Up

Lex Culinaria, a fellow food blogger, put out the call to cyber food junkies for fabulous summer barbecue recipes. So, last weekend I responded with a few blog entries on grilling and was excited to see links to them on her website. I was also excited to see what fabulous recipes and blog sites that other folks submitted. So, not to let a wrap-up go unappreciated, I decided to make five of the recipes at work today. Unfortunately, time got away from me and I didn’t get a chance to make the grilled pita bread (and there was tons of bread in the house already screaming to be grilled) but I did manage to make the other four, and they were all wonderful. Kudos to all who submitted recipes!

The first recipe I made was Helen’s Grilled Asparagus, Tomato, and Feta Salad. Whole Foods didn’t have organic cherry tomatoes today so I opted for Romas which I quartered, seeded, and then sliced lengthwise. I used more olive oil (I’ve never had a delicate hand with the olive oil) and a bit more balsamic vinegar than the recipe called for. I also took Helen’s suggestions of adding some basil, so I did a combination of basil and mint for the dressing. Very delicious indeed!

Also for lunch I made a salad with the Teriyaki Grilled Tempeh from McAuliflower's site.  I have to admit, I fudged a bit on this one because I didn’t want to buy both mirin and sake, and I knew I could make it work with what I had. So I substituted crisp white wine for the sake and dry sherry for the mirin. And since mirin is sweet, I upped the sugar slightly on the sauce. This recipe turned out so nicely I wondered why I don’t cook with tempeh more often! To make this into a salad, I made a simple dressing of rice vinegar and a bit of the warm sauce and tossed it with some spinach and baby Russian kale from the garden. Then I sliced mangos and fanned them on top of the greens. And then above that went the sliced tempeh, a healthy drizzle of the sauce, and a sprinkling of cilantro. Very easy and so tasty. Thanks, McAuliflower, for the recipe, and the reminder that tempeh is delicious.

And of course, to honor the host of the Barbecue Challenge, I made Lex’s recipe for Char Sui Beef Bundles. And to accompany them, I also prepared Haalo’s Grilled Potato Skewers. The people for whom I cook don’t eat much beef so I opted for pork loin that had been butterflied, pounded, and then cut in strips. Trent, my man at Whole Foods, did the butterflying for me but when it came time for pounding, it was naptime at the casa, so I skipped that step. I made the marinade as written except that I left out the Five Spice because, well, because I don’t like it. It was delicious without. I mixed up the marinade with an immersion blender which worked great. For vegetables I chose red bell pepper and snap peas, and instead of tying with green onions, I used big chives. It turned out very nicely but I think I would have preferred to use Lex’s thinly sliced beef. Next time!

And the potatoes. YUM! I chose tiny red creamer potatoes and for seasonings, I went with fennel seeds and a few sage leaves skewered between the potatoes. I didn’t want to go too Mediterranean since the bundles were decidedly Asian. I thought fennel was a nice meet in the middle. I started the bundles in the oven (400 degrees) since it was raining out and then moved them to the grill when I put the bundles on. You could do the whole thing in the oven, in fact, since they cook over indirect heat. I experimented with putting more than one skewer in a bundle, to save on foil, and that worked just fine too. The potatoes were creamy and delicious and the garlic added a nice touch, both for it’s scent and flavor. Next time, I might like to open the bundles and put them over the direct heat, once they’re cooked through. That would provide the nice grill marks and a bit of barbecue flavor as well. No complaints, however- it’s a recipe I’ll surely make again!

Thanks, everyone, for your wonderful input to my day at work! And thank you Lex for your inspiration.

The Wisdom of Pearls

It’s a texture thing. You either love it or you hate it. I haven’t met too many people who are indifferent to tapioca. I find the texture appealing, the swirl of tiny little jellied pearls over my tongue. To those who find tapioca less alluring, the mouth feel resembles something more akin to tiny fish eyes or the salmon eggs that are pressed into little jars and dyed pink for bait. Even though eating tapioca pudding is largely a tactile experience, there’s no reason it can’t be a delicious one too.

I’ve been experimenting with all sorts of flavor combos for sweet tapioca puddings. It’s such a fun food to play with since there are so many possibilities for varying the taste. Tapioca pudding, in its simplest form, has few ingredients. Tapioca pearls, which are tasteless, provide the texture and thickening agent for the pudding. Sugar, of course, provides the sweetness. You can vary the sugar flavor by using dark or light brown sugars, or any of the fancy new sugars on the baking aisle. Eggs, another essential ingredient, provide thickening power, nutrition, and if you separate the whites and whip them separately, they provide an airy texture as well. Milk and water make up the liquid portion of the pudding and they set up into a custard sort of consistency. I have varied the milk to make lactose-free versions by using soy milk or a combination of light coconut milk and soy milk. And then the flavoring agents provide the greatest room for creativity as far as creating interesting new puddings. Traditional flavorings include vanilla, lemon zest, cinnamon, and nutmeg. But the possibilities are endless! You can make herbal infusions (mint, lemon verbena, anise hyssop) in the milk, or use aromatics like ginger or lemongrass. Any dried fruits are great additions, like raisins, cranberries, blueberries, or cherries. Splashes of liquors are fun- Frangelico, Limoncello, spiced rum or bourbon. Citrus zest of any color adds zing. Toasted nuts or coconut add another layer of texture and flavor. Unsweetened cocoa powder can be stirred into the tapioca as it cooks for chocolate tapioca pudding. Tea could be used instead of water- a jasmine green tea and ginger pudding would be lovely! Fruits can be added either raw, like strawberries, or cooked, like sautéed apples. And you can layer tapioca with fruit purees to make beautiful parfaits. With the resurgence of comfort foods to the American culinary scene, I’m surprised tapioca pudding isn’t on more restaurant menus. Perhaps it’s a hard sell, but I doubt you’ll be disappointed with this recipe. I’ve made tapioca lovers out of many suspicious souls.

I use Bob’s Red Mill brand of small tapioca pearls. It comes in 24 ounce bags. The recipe on the back is great! This is that recipe with a few minor changes…

Old Fashioned Tapioca Pudding
1/3 cup small pearl tapioca
¾ cup water
2 ¼ cups milk, or soy milk
¼ teaspoon salt
2 eggs, separated
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
Zest of one lemon or orange

Soak tapioca in water for 30 minutes in a medium saucepan. Add milk, salt, and egg yolks and whisk to blend. Over medium heat, continue to stir the mixture until it comes to a boil. Turn the heat all the way down and cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until tapioca softens. Meanwhile, beat the egg whites until they are foamy, add the sugar gradually and beat until soft peaks form. Fold in about ¾ cup of the hot tapioca mixture to the egg whites to temper them and then fold the egg whites back into the tapioca in the saucepan. Whisk over medium heat for 3 minutes. Cool for about 10 minutes and then add the vanilla and citrus zest. Serve warm or chilled.

See above for some variations. Makes 3 1/2 cups.

All Grill, All Day

83 degrees in Seattle, in May. The tomatoes are planted, the lettuce seeds are sprouting, the Spanish lavender is blooming, and the grapes vines are taking off. It feels like summer already. I couldn’t resist cooking al fresco today at work, so I prepared my menus almost entirely on the grill. And for me, it was a day to celebrate. We’ve passed the midway point of Nick’s deployment. It’s a downward slide through summer from here, if all goes as planned, and he returns in mid-August. Nick is my boyfriend, who is an officer in the Marine Corps, currently stationed somewhere in the Persian Gulf. I really don’t know where he is or where he is going, since plans seem to change on an hourly basis. And of course, their plans are so top secret even they don’t know where they’re going. Unless they accidentally post the secret plans on their website, which is what happened last time they were doing something interesting. But regardless of where he is, we’re over half way to his homecoming, and that is something to commemorate with a burger.

I never eat fast food and rarely eat pub food, so for me, a burger is celebratory. I usually opt for the healthfulness of a turkey burger, rather than a ground beef one. Turkey burgers can dry out on the grill, but I’ve discovered a few techniques that keep them juicy. I've found that by adding moist ingredients to the ground turkey mixture, and by using dark meat turkey, the burgers come off the grill tender and juicy. And another trick to making sure I get the flavor I’m after--  I make one tiny test patty of the mix, after putting in all of the ingredients, and cook it in a small skillet with some olive oil. That way I can taste for the seasoning level before making up all of the burgers.

I got the idea for these burgers from an old friend of mine, Tim, who used to make Salsa Eggs when we went camping. Perhaps I’ll write about Salsa Eggs one of these days…

Salsa Burgers

2 pounds ground dark meat turkey
½ cup fresh salsa (not the cooked kind), scooped into the measuring cup with a slotted spoon to avoid getting too much liquid
¾ cup finely grated hard cheese, like pecorino or parmesan
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 Tablespoons fresh herbs, if you’d like (cilantro is great here, oregano would be good, as would chives or parsley)

Preheat the grill on medium-high until the temperature reaches about 450. Mix up the ingredients with your hands. I use latex gloves for this. Make one small test patty and cook it over medium-low heat in a skillet, in about a teaspoon of olive oil. Cook both sides, until the meat is cooked through. Taste and adjust the seasonings. More salt? More salsa? Pepper? Put the final touches on your meat mixture and make it into 6 patties about ½ inch thick. When the grill is hot, scrape and oil the grates. Place your patties on the grill, cover, and cook about 5 minutes. Check for browning. If the burgers are browned to your liking, flip them over and do the other side the same way. At this point the burgers might be done inside but most likely they will need to cook a bit more. Place them all on one side of the grill and turn off the heat directly below them. Without the direct heat, they will not burn on the outside. And the heat from the other burner will keep the grill hot. When the burgers reach 160 on an instant read thermometer, they’re ready to go!

Great Accompaniments to the Salsa Burger

Avocado or guacamole
Tomato
Lettuce
Grilled onions
Condiments, including salsa
Cheese, pepper jack would be delicious (you could put this on the burger just before you take it off the grill so the cheese melts)
Toasted buns (put these on the grill a few minutes before the burgers are finished)

Makes 6 big burgers.