Mussels in Spicy Thai Coconut Broth

Mother Nature has decided that Winter gets to have one last blow at us before Spring can take over again.  This change in the weather, combined with a stint baby-sitting my nieces and nephews, prompted a return of the cold I'd had back in November.  Fortunately, I'd been given a recipe last week for Mussels in Spicy Thai Coconut Broth in the cooking class* that I took at the Institute of Culinary Education that could chase the chill and the sniffles away.

Seared Scallops with Parsley Salad and Bacon

Among the delicious bites I had when I was in London, were the small plate of bone marrow and parsley salad with toast that I shared at the bar part of St. John's Bar and Restaurant and the Borough Market stall where I gobbled up an order of scallops and bacon.  This is one of the things I love about traveling, the inspiration that having good food like this gives me in terms of developing my own recipe database.  The trick always is, however, to figure out how to recreate these things once you get back home.

Seared Scallops with Parsley Salad and Bacon

Sole Filets with Lemon-Butter Sauce

I have to confess to having a bit of a phobia about making fresh fish, which I had tried to confront when I took a class at Astor Center last spring.  After that, I actually had a greater comfort level at thinking about cooking it, although I haven't put much of the lesson into practice.  I'd made the refreshingly delicious Shrimp and Avocado Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette when the weather got warm last year, but I haven't re-created any of the other dishes we did in the class.

On Sunday, I was with some friends checking out the Foodshed seasonal market at the Brooklyn Commons.  One of them was eyeing the fresh skate that Joseph Fisheries out of Montauk on Long Island had on display for sale.  She was telling us that her cooking method is to poach it and then eat it served over a green salad dressed with a vinaigrette.  I really like skate and always mean to try making it but rarely find it to buy.  I should have snagged the last piece that they had there.

Instead, we each bought one the lovely filets of grey sole that they were selling.  I haven't ever cooked sole, and I'm not even sure that I remember eating it.  So, I pulled out Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking to see her recommendations for preparing it.  The recipe for poaching the fish in a wine and water combination sounded like it could work; however, I had a feeling that these filets were too thin to withstand an oven cooking method.

Scallops with Crème Fraîche-Chili Dressing

You know how sometimes there's that restaurant dish that you really enjoy and that you really wish you could figure out how to make at home without having to employ an army of sous-chefs? Occasionally, I actually manage to deconstruct one of those meals to reproduce in my own kitchen. It doesn't happen very often, and it's always an approximation of the real thing. On the other hand, it's generally easier on my wallet than going out to eat when a craving for a particular meal hits.

The first time I ate this dish was at Public restaurant in Nolita. My mother and I had gone to try it out as we'd both heard of it when it opened. The space is very industrial with several different spaces carved out of it. The menu reflects the seasons but is also adventurous, with items and flavors from New Zealand and Australia on offer. In the several times I've eaten there, I don't think I have ever had a bad dish, and I've often had something unique and wonderfully delicious.

One dish with which I fell in love and have ordered every time it has been available is the Grilled Scallops with Sweet Chili Sauce, Crème Fraîche and Green Plantain Crisps. I'm not sure the origin of the recipe, but I found something similar in a Peter Gordon cookbook that I had from when I lived in England. His Sugar Club restaurant (now closed) was also one of the places I've really enjoyed eating. Unfortunately, I found the list of ingredients to be too long and not so easy to come by to make this dish on my own. That made me sort of sad.

I Made Mayonnaise!

Not sure if anyone remembers my attempts almost four, yes four, years ago, to make mayonnaise a couple of times, and it flopped. Since then, I've had a bit of a phobia about it. I'm not a fan of commercial ones, and the smell of a knife globbed with mayo and left in the sink actually makes me gag, as I've told roommates in order to get them to clean up the dishes. That commercial where the kid eats a condiment-heavy sandwich with a big white glob on it also turns my stomach.

In truth, I think I've just been avoiding it. I've had plenty of success with other emulsion-style sauces like vinaigrette and hollandaise. I just can't figure out why I haven't been able to get the handle on this one. It always seems to separate or turn to goo. Yesterday, I could no longer ignore my fear. I was put in a situation where I had to confront it head-on and to tackle it.

Mid last week I received an email from Astor Center saying that they had extra places available in Chef Carl Raymond's "Downeast Feast." I decided to jump at it, as it seemed to follow on from the fish class that I took with him several months ago. I've taken several of Chef Carl's classes before at the center, and they are always educational, informative, relaxing, and delicious. This one was no different and had a personal twist for him, as these are the recipes that he grew up with in Maine.

We managed to get ahead of our timetable, so he decided to teach us to make mayonnaise. Uh oh, my anxiety started to flood over me. Could I go hide in the bathroom at this part? He had us divide into pairs and coached us through each step of the way. There was a lot riding on the success of this venture, as our results would be being eaten by the class. We managed to nail it perfectly.

Feeling somewhat confident, I thought I would attempt it again today. It really is the small food victories are sometimes the most fulfilling. Following Chef Carl's directions and tips to the T, I managed to do it: I made Mayonnaise!

Grilled Corn and Shrimp Salad

As corn is starting to come into season around here, it made me dig through my files for another one of my standby meals for summer. A few years ago, a friend of mine sent me a recipe for Grilled Corn and Shrimp Salad (link to recipe here). It comes from the late Gourmet* magazine.

Look at the bright colors of the shrimp, corn, onions, jalapeno, and cilantro. The dressing gives it a light citrus punch that complements the smoky, grilled flavor of the shrimp and the corn. Like usual, I made some changes to the recipe. I used lime juice instead of lemon juice and changed up the watercress (which I generally have a hard time finding) for some great, peppery Italian arugula from the Greenmarket along with some fresh salad leaves. I also added chunks of very ripe avocado to provide a contrast in textures.

This salad has been in my keeper file for a while. I hope that you decide to add it to yours as well. It is easy to make and would be a great picnic dish or easy weeknight supper to prepare when you can get some in-season fresh corn.

Buon appetito!

Kitchen Witch Tip:

Epicurious.com is a good resource for trying to track down some of the recipes that appeared in Gourmet magazine. Their website also still seems to be active, too, at www.gourmet.com.

Cool Shrimp and Avocado Salad for a Hot Day

Apologies for being a bit out of touch blog-wise. I've actually been trying to juggle being out of town twice in the last few weeks, coping with job loss, and dealing with being overloaded in general. It hasn't all been bad, though. I managed to squeeze in a hands-on cooking class on fish at Astor Center during all that chaos.

One of the beneficiaries of this last activity, was my friend who hosted me at the beach over Easter weekend. I recreated one of the dishes that we made in the class: Shrimp and Avocado Salad in Citrus Vinaigrette. I think that I enjoyed it even better the second time around. This is the perfect hot summer recipe and has been a great, light lunch for me this week as the temperatures around here have climbed into numbers that we're not supposed to see around these parts until July.

Baked Eggs

With the sound of snowplows serenading me as I arose from my slumber this morning, I realized my first meal of the day should be something a little bit more than the usual. I knew that I wasn't going to be trekking up and down a snowy, and likely unplowed, hill to go to the bagel place. After being called on doing it by my sister, I now get the guilts if I even think about trying to get them to deliver my breakfast to me.

Fortunately, I had dragged myself out to do errands yesterday when it was still freezing cold outside but not yet snowing. I went and got milk, eggs, and some smoked salmon. I knew that I had plenty of bread in the freezer and coffee in the cupboard. Later, while waiting for the skies to start to turn white on Saturday, I caught up on my on-line reading of the New York Times and came across Mark Bittman's video cooking segment on Baked Eggs with Proscuitto and Tomato.

I love eggs for any meal, and I really like to make something hearty and rich for brunch on the weekends as a counterpoint to the quick eats I gobble down during the work week before dashing out the door to catch my bus to work. This recipe caught my eye as something different to try. It is similar to Shirred Eggs or the French Oeufs en Cocotte and is just as easy to make.

A Taste of Warmth

There are those magazines that one gets every month or week or so, whether at the newsstand or by subscription. Then, there are those that I call "trip magazines" as I only pick them up when I'm traveling and don't have anything else to read. Generally, I try to stockpile some of my regular stash to take with me when I'm going somewhere, but it doesn't always happen that way.

My boss handed me a few of her magazines, which she'd read on one of her previous trips, and I held on to them for my trek to Virginia for the holidays. This was great because she had ones that I enjoy, but don't usually pick up for myself, even while traveling. I managed to snag some interesting recipes and health tips from the ones that she gave to me, and this weekend, while sparkley snow was falling from the sky, I put together a dish that might not be out of place in the warmer climes of the South of France.

I came across Baked Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta by Ellie Krieger in Fitness magazine (the link is to the version on The Food Network site). It looked straightforward and simple enough. As a plus it would allow me to use the shrimp I had stored in the freezer (part of my goal to cook from what I already have on hand). As an additional bonus, I was also able to put to use a pan that I hadn't used in a while. It's one of those pans that you buy on special offer and think you can use it for everything, but somehow never do.

Crabfest 2008

More than Christmas, more than Thanksgiving, heck, probably even more than my own birthday (unless you could find a way to make a giant cake of its meat for me), there is no occasion to which I anticipate more each year than our annual family Crabfest. I've been offline the past week or so, because I was away stuffing my face at a variety of family gatherings. It was wonderful, as usual, to see everyone and to have a chance to eat some things that are not normally a part of my daily diet.

That's the thing about getting together each year to pick crabs and to indulge in lovely hunks of white tender-sweet meat. It's not just about the eating (although that is important). It is also about the following of a family tradition and about adhering to the pattern of the season. There's certain rules: the 'right' potato salad to have at this time of year, making family-favorite sweet treats, and, of course, discussion about everyone's own preferred methodology for extract crab from its shell.

This year, we had some new inductees into the annual family event with a few nieces who had not participated previously. One of them embraced the eating (fun) part of the crabfest, but not the cleaning (work) part. At her age, we had my youngest sister at the table cleaning out our claws for the meat, something she still thinks of as highly unfair, even to this day. Her new beau, however, who was another addition this year, confidently held his own and will surely have a place at the table again next year. He's an 'accumulator' rather than an 'eat as you go' type, which might upset the balance in the group.

Truffled Potato Galettes

This year is a special one. The United Nations has dubbed 2008 the International Year of the Potato. En français, c'est l'Année Internationale de la Pomme de Terre. Sounds a bit more fancy that way, doesn't it? The idea is to draw attention to a food that is nutritious, flexible and integral to many cultures.

In an attempt to interact more with other food sites in the blogsphere, this year I had decided to participate more in blog roundups hosted by Is My Blog Burning. Eating Leeds is hosting one this month related to aforementioned tuber. The great thing about the recipe I chose for this, is that it let me take something that I hadn't made in a while and rework it completely into something a bit more elegant and suitable for a nice dinner à deux.

I did use the typical (for the U.S.) Yukon Gold potato as my base, which I really love for cooking. I know that Eating Leeds had wanted us to try to use a variety with which we normally don't cook, but that would make it probably too difficult for most of you to try. Having to locate truffle oil for this dish might be enough of a challenge. I had bought a bottle during my trip to Italy last year and was just looking for a good excuse to tap into my supply.

Flounder Florentine

When I chatted with a few of my siblings about the theme for the blog for these few weeks, a couple of them asked if I was going to add this dish to my list. Now that I've tried it again, I called around to find out their reactions to it to see if they matched my own. "Because it is disgusting," was one sibling's reaction as to the level of her distaste. Another one assured me that she had liked it when we were growing up, but agreed with me that it could use a little bit of work.

Again, I have no idea where this recipe came from originally. My mother said that it was published in a woman's magazine. When I tried to research it on Google, I got many versions of this dish, each slightly different from what I have written down on my notecard. I have to confess that I'd not actually made this, ever, but had pulled it as one of those fish/Lenten dishes that sounded like a good thing to have my repertoire.

In going through all the ingredients, it did seem a little bit bland-sounding to me. While waiting for the fish to cook, I was just wishing for an idea of how to jazz it up a bit more, flavor-wise. I'd planned to serve it alongside some boiled, small red potatoes. Then, it hit me - I needed to sauté the potatoes in olive oil and garlic to give the entire meal a bit more of an interesting kick. Sure enough, that did it.

This dish is very easy to cut in half which makes it a lovely (with the garlic potatoes and a glass of white wine) meal for mommy and daddy to have while the kids get to enjoy fishsticks and tater tots, which is really what they wanted for dinner anyway instead of something "disgusting" with spinach in it. Maybe it was just a bit too sophisticated for my sister's childhood palate. This is the child who, after all, survived for at least a year on hotdogs, applesauce and cottage cheese for dinner.

Tuna Tettrazini

I didn't put this recipe up in time for this past Friday, the first Friday of Lent, because, like usual, it always takes me about a week to get myself in gear for this season. It's always a challenge to remember that I'm not supposed to eat meat the first week or that I was supposed to have given something up for the next month and a half.

My brain still hasn't activated the "You are banned from eating meat today" voice until at least the second week. In good years, this happens prior to my eating a chicken sandwich for lunch. In not-so-good years, I'll have already had bacon for breakfast before it occurs to me that I shouldn't have eaten it. This year, I felt pretty good about being on top of it, even having my first tuna melt on Ash Wednesday. Good thing that this is only once a year.

So, after the first Friday of pizza for dinner or fish sticks and tater tots (mmm, remember those from school lunches), it's time to dust off the tuna recipes. Tuna Tetrazzini was among the first of the dishes that I was put in charge of making. It was usually served with "salad" (aka iceburg lettuce with bottled Italian dressing). To be a bit more grown up, I opted for having my recipe for Freshly-Shelled Peas with Sautéed Shallots as the side dish.

Gettin' Ready for Fat Tuesday

As we were all reminded at Mass this morning, Lent is quite literally around the corner. This year, we have Super Bowl Sunday, when everyone eats and drinks lots of not-so-healthy game day snacks, back to back with Ash Wednesday, the start of the holiest season of the Catholic calendar and one that means fasting, abstinence and reflection. Fortunately, we have Mardi Gras in the middle to help us get from one to the other.

Jotted down in pen in the blank pages of a much-used cookbook that I found in my parents' house, is the recipe I decided to try this weekend: Shrimp Remoulade. If you do an on-line search for this recipe, you'll find as many variations on the theme as there are Cajuns in Louisiana (one of the places of origin of this dish). The version I copied down from the recipe file was an oil-based emulsion. Other remoulades (like those made with celery root) call for mayonnaise as the dressing base instead. This is the perfect, lightly spicy dish that, along with a small side of boiled white rice, would be a wonderful starter for any Fat Tuesday party that you might be having.

I'm keeping my post super short this weekend as the big game is getting ready to start. I've got to support the boys in blue of my adopted hometown. Let's hope they pull it off, otherwise, it will be kind of miserable in the office tomorrow, with everyone armchair-quarterbacking the loss.

Crabfeast '07 - FB2B, part 63

Hey! Hey! Hey! It's that time of year again. Time to put on my claw-crackin', meat-digging, gut-proof clothes. The annual family crab feast is set for this coming weekend. So, as an homage, and just to make y'all really jealous (and maybe even drooling a bit), here's what's a goin' a be a waitin' for me on Sunday.

Melt me some butter, grab the Old Bay®, and set me a newspaper-covered place at the table!

Buon appetito!

Picnic in the Park - FB2B, part 58

Not only has the weather started staying consistently nicer, but it seems to have gone from a pale imitation of spring, right into summer. What a rare treat for the holiday weekend to have three nice, picnic-perfect days in a row. Fortunately, I was able to get together some friends I haven't caught up with in a while for a lazy holiday Monday in the park.

It wasn't until I moved to this city that I realized that picnicking is, in itself, a separate level of planning. It's almost like working out the movements of a small army: organizing logistics for food, drink, blankets, plates; exchanging coordinates for where to meet in the park (behind the backstop on the west side closest to the ice cream cart); swapping cell phone numbers and sorting out just whom will camp out at the chosen site until the other guests get there. Still, it's all worth it in the end, I feel, to get outside in the cool green solace of the park.

Doubtless that Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux didn't have my social life in mind when they put together the design for Central Park, but New Yorkers have enjoyed the respite from their overheated apartments there for years. There's a series of concerts, plays, even the opera and the Philharmonic put on productions in the park during the warmer months. It's an annual rite of passage: bringing food and drink and eating alfresco.

Ah…Crabs…mmm…yum – FB2B, Post 26

Just to break up the flow of my usual posts, and because I recently got back from spending time in Virginia with my family (always a source of inspiring, if unusual, thoughts), I was wondering if I should do something clever for this post like write an Ode to Old Bay^® Seasoning. Then, I thought about it and decided that that might just be a little bit too weird so I’ve coming up with this haiku instead:

Container yellow, blue, and red
Hiding savory spice blend
To eat with sweet white crabmeat

While this brief spurt of creative inspiration might seem odd, devotion to this spice mix is very great in some parts of the country. My brother was even planning to pick up some of it to bring it back to London so that he’s not left empty-handed in case he or his wife gets a craving for a taste of home.

Growing up in a mid-Atlantic seaboard state, it was a staple found in everyone’s cupboard, or so it seemed. It was just natural to find it there (but then, so did was seeing a can for bacon drippings stored in the fridge, as well). Surprisingly, I don’t have any in my New York kitchen.  Up here, I don’t think I would ever find a use for it, but then, I might be too crab-specific about its flavor and point of reference. I’m a bit of snob about crab and skeptical anytime I see “Maryland Crab Cakes” on a menu. I want to meet the crab. I want to hear it say “Bal-mer.” If not, it’s poseur crab to me. It will be shunned.

One of Old Bay^®’s chief uses, naturally, given the title is with Chesapeake Bay crabs – sprinkled on top during the cooking process and served on the side when eating the steamed goodies. Despite the over-fishing of the species (some of which I personally blame on the new, wide-spread popularity of soft-shell crabs, but that, for the record, is a personal bias) and the consequent higher prices for those that are being caught, my family has managed to keep up its annual tradition of reunion/crab feast during the summer months.

Salad Days - FB2B, part 18

It’s hot. It’s bloody hot, but at least it’s dry. After lots of rain this week, it’s now really hot outside, just in time for a holiday weekend. Better yet, I feel as though my apartment traps heat so there’s no real escape.

This is the time of year when it is just excruciating to cook. Anything that causes the temperature to rise inside is to be avoided. Greens wilt. Appetites dwindle. Nothing seems appealing.

On the other hand, this is also the time of year when really great produce is available and loads of wonderful fresh fruit is coming into season. I took advantage of the nice weather to check out the newest edition to the farmers’ markets in town.

Nina Planck, who used to run the Greenmarkets in New York City, has set up two markets. One of them is on a thin triangle of land on Lafayette Street between Spring Street and Kenmare Street. This is the one that I visited today.  The newsletter they sent around said that some of the showings would be lighter as the heavy rain this week caused damage to some of the crops. Nina’s folks came up from Virginia to lend a hand this weekend. Next time, I’m going to try the other market on 6^th Avenue between Bleecker Street and Houston Street.

Although, as the photos show, there were some nice veggies available, I didn’t find what I really wanted there, so I ended up at my usual – the Union Square Greenmarket. Unfortunately, it was later in the afternoon, my having been distracted by the England-Portugal World Cup match, so many places were closing up. I did pick up some salad greens and my first fresh local raspberries of the season.

Easter Brunch - FB2B, part 12

Next Sunday is the Easter holiday for the Christian calendar. Traditionally it’s a season of new clothes and shoes, big hats, tulips along Park Avenue in New York, and baskets filled with candy. In our family, as to be expected, there are also a few other memories of the season.

While visiting family in the Midwest a couple of months ago, I’m not quite sure how the topic got started, but my sisters and I talked about the subject of Easter Sundays gone by and the presents from the Easter Bunny. Again, this link between food and holidays is very strong, as we discussed those malted milk ball eggs (cleverly disguised as gumballs), green plastic Easter grass stuck to the bottom of the jelly beans, and why we never seem to get the candy we really like (Pez® = good; marshmallow anything = bad).

This year’s Easter Brunch Menu can be a good start to putting all the awful candy memories to rest. As with the other recipes I’ve posted, part of this can be prepared in advance (even the night before), to save time the day of the event.