Romanesco and Parmesan Purée

I have never bought Broccoli Romanesco. I always admire its beauty at the market, and sometimes even put a head or two in my shopping basket, then change my mind. The vibrant chartreuse exterior and bizarre texture deeply appeal to me aesthetically, but I have been intimidated to cook it.

This week, we got our first CSA box from Riverdog Farm - one of my favorite stops at the Berkeley Farmer's Market. And what did I find.... 2 heads of Romanesco! I did some sleuthing about how to prepare this stunning vegetable. It seems that it can easily be steamed, roasted, etc, like any other broccoli and cauliflower. Plus I found out it is rich in Vitamin C.

I wanted to celebrate my new ingredient, so this is the recipe I had to try. I think you will really enjoy it - I am loving every bite as I sit here writing to you.


INGREDIENTS
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living, November 2007

• 2 heads Broccoli Romanesco
• 4 cloves garlic
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup cream
• 2/3 cup Parmesan, grated
• salt and pepper to taste

Remove Romanesco florets from stalk and separate into pieces. Thinly slice garlic. Heat olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add garlic and Romanesco florets and cook about 8-10 minutes. Romanesco should begin to turn golden. ( If the garlic begins to burn, add a splash or two of water.) Then add 1/2 cup water and salt. Cover pan and simmer for 10-15 minutes until Romanesco is tender.





While Romanesco is cooking, gently warm milk and cream in a saucepan.

Place half of cooked Romanesco in a food processor or blender with half of warmed milk/cream. Blend. Put blended Romanesco in a bowl. Repeat with other half of ingredients. Then add 1/2 cup Parmesean, salt, and fresh ground pepper to taste.

Serve purée on top of your favorite crackers, or on little slices of bread that have been pan-fried in butter. Sprinkle with Parmesan. Enjoy!

Ricciarelli (Tiny Almond Cookies)

I am really enjoying the desserts from A16 Food+Wine. These little Sienese cookies are simple, flourless, and rich with almond flavor. Nibbling on a few with an afternoon coffee is a treat - the sweetness of the almond paste and the sprinkling of powdered sugar is satisfying without sugar overload. In Italy, Ricciarelli are often served as an accompaniment to Vin Santo or other dessert wines. Yum.

I had to go on a hunt for good almond paste that didn't have wheat as a filler. I finally ended up spending 20 bucks to get enough for this recipe, and it wasn't even organic! Next time I am going to make my own almond paste. The only ingredients are sugar and almond - how hard can that be? If any of you have made your own almond paste, I'd love to hear your tips.


INGREDIENTS
Adapted from A16 Food+Wine by Nate Appleman and Shelley Lindgren

• 1 1/2 cups blanched almonds
• 12 ounces almond paste
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Grind almonds in a food processor or blender.

Put almond paste in your stand-up mixer. On low speed, slowly break up the paste. Add the ground almonds, mix on medium for 3 minutes until ingredients are integrated. Add egg white, continue mixing for another 2 minutes to make a stiff dough. Finally add vanilla, baking powder and salt. Blend until ingredients are mixed.

Divide dough into 3 or 4 pieces. Roll each piece on a lightly floured surface. You want each roll to be about 1 inch in diameter. Wrap each roll in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour to firm up dough.


Preheat oven to 300. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Appleman and Lindgren recommend slicing the dough into 1/2 inch rounds, but I prefer inch-thick slices (insuring a nice dense center for each cookie). On upper rack of oven, bake for 6-8 minutes, then rotate pan and cook another 6-8 minutes. (When I baked a batch of cookies on the middle rack of the oven, the bottoms browned too quickly. When I bake them in the upper part of the oven, the tops and bottoms of the cookies brown at the same rate.) Cookies should be golden when done. Transfer to a cooling rack. Sprinkle the little cuties with powdered sugar when cooled and ready to serve.

You can keep an roll or two of dough in the refrigerator for several days, or even in the freezer for longer, and then you can make fresh cookies whenever you want.

Dal with Golden Lentils and Coconut Milk

Not everyone lucks out with neighbors, but we really did. When the house next door went up for sale, we began elaborate plans for a fence to insure our privacy. Thankfully, technical difficulties stalled our progress. Once the new owners moved in we knew we were lucky: two great kids, plus friendly parents who love food and gardening, inspired us cut a hole in our hedge so we can say hello or share some fresh herbs with ease.

These wonderful next-door neighbors had us over for an Indian feast a few months ago. They made delicious fresh dosa and an incredible dal. With every bite, I savored the subtle and surprising coconut flavor that permeated the dish. After I got their recipe, I immediately made a big pot of dal and relished eating it for many lunches with rice and steamed winter greens.

INGREDIENTS
Adapted from New Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant

• 1 1/2 cup dried lentils
  
• 4 1/2 cups veggie stock or water
• 2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil (or vegetable oil)
  
• 2 cups diced onions
• 1 garlic clove minced or pressed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon hot chili pepper flakes or cayenne or 1 small fresh hot chili minced
• 1 cup coconut milk

Cook lentils in water or stock with salt and 1 teaspoon turmeric. When peas are tender, drain, but keep cooking liquid and set aside.

Saute onions with veg oil, garlic, cumin, 1 teaspoon turmeric, pepper, and chilis, until onions are golden. Stir constantly.

Mix onions with cooked lentils and reheat slowly. Then add coconut milk. Stir and warm all ingredients. Add some reserved cooking liquid if the dal is too dry or thick.


Serves 4-6

Broccoli Rabe and Corn Bread Strata

If your New Year's resolution precludes you from indulging in rich foods, do not read on. But you would really be missing out, because it is all those eggs and cream that make this dish so delectable. Plus Rapini is really good for you, right?

This recipe is more labor intensive than my usual culinary undertakings, but the strata sounded so good, I couldn't resist making it. Worth all the effort! Being such carnivores at our house, it is refreshing to eat a meal so totally satisfying, yet vegetarian.

Make sure you prepare the strata the night before or early in the morning. It needs to rest in the refrigerator overnight or for at least 4 hours.


INGREDIENTS
Adapted from NY Times

• 6 cups chopped Rapini (Broccoli Rabe) leaves and florets
• olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-2 teaspoons salt
• 1 whole red bell pepper
• 1/4 cup Calamata olives, pitted and chopped
• 8 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 4 cups half and half or whole milk
• fresh ground pepper
• 2 pounds (about 8 cups) corn bread, cut into 1 inch cubes (make sure your corn bread is not sweet)
• 1 cup fresh ricotta
• 1 1/2 cups ( 6 ounces) Gruyere, grated

If you are not buying corn bread, bake your own. When cool, cut bread into one inch cubes. Place cubed corn bread (in a casual array) in the bottom of a greased 9x13 baking dish. Set aside.

Cut bell pepper into quarters. Either roast over flame or cook in oven at high heat until skin is bubbling. Immediately place roasted peppers in a closed container and let steam for 10 minutes or so. This will make it easier to remove the skins. Remove skins, dice pepper, and set aside.

Clean Rapini and remove thick stalks. Roughly chop tender leaves and stems. Mince garlic.

I doubled the Broccoli Rabe from the original recipe and therefore needed to cook it in two batches. Heat large pan over stove top at medium-high heat. Pour in enough olive oil to coat bottom of pan. Toss in half of minced garlic cook for about 30 seconds. Add 3 cups chopped Rapini. Saute for a couple minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 1/4 cup water, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes to pan. Cover, turn heat down to medium, cook for about 3 minutes. If there is excess liquid in pan, continue to simmer for a minute more with the lid off until the water has evaporated. Repeat again in order to cook the remaining 3 cups of Rapini.

Toss cooked Rapini in a bowl with chopped olives and bell peppers.

In another bowl, lightly whisk 8 eggs. Add half and half or milk to eggs. Whisk to mix together and make your custard. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and plenty of freshly ground pepper.

Spread Rapini mixture over the top of the cornbread. Add dollops of ricotta over the top of the veggies. Pour custard over the top of everything, making sure to distribute evenly. Finally, finish with grated Gruyere and more freshly ground pepper.

Cover strata and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.

When ready to bake, take strata out of fridge and allow to come to room temp. Preheat oven to 350. Bake for 45-55 minutes until firm and golden brown on top.




Serves 8-10 as a main or up to 16 as a side dish

Pistachio Cake with Cara Cara Salad

Pistachio cake with Cara Caras on the side sounds irresistibly delicious to me (and maybe even a little healthy). When I found this recipe in the beautiful A16 cookbook, I had to give it a try. Lately, I have been LOVING recipes that use ground nuts in baking - the nuts give such a rich flavor and texture.

A lovely dessert after lunch, this pistachio cake could also be a nice little breakfast, tea, or brunch in and of itself. Today, I toasted a piece of leftover cake and ate it with a bowl of Greek yogurt and sliced pears. Yum.


INGREDIENTS
adapted from A16 Food and Wine by Nate Appleman and Shelley Lindgren

• 1 1/3 cup unsalted and shelled pistachios (plus a handful for garnish)
• 1 1/3 cup blanched almonds
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temp
• 3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 lemons
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon all purpose flour (for GF folks, Pamela's Bread and Flour mix)
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 5 Cara Cara Oranges or Blood Oranges
• 1/4 cup Meyer Lemon Marmalade
• creme fraiche

Preheat oven to 300.

In a food processor or blender pulse to grind up nuts. I recommend doing this in a couple batches to insure a fairly even ground. The ground pistachios were so gorgeous, I had to take a photo.




Next combine butter and sugar in a stand up mixer. Grate the zest of three lemons. Using the paddle attachment, blend butter, sugar and zest for 2 minutes on medium speed. Add vanilla and mix until integrated. Turn the mixer down to low and slowly mix in the ground nuts. Add one egg at a time while leaving the mixer running. Wait until each egg is mixed in before adding the next. Finally, add flour and salt. Stop mixing when all ingredients are incorporated.

Pour delicious batter into greased 4x8 inch loaf pan. The original recipe calls for the cake to bake for 45 minutes, but I had to bake the cake much longer. (About 25 minutes longer!) Trust yourself and use the old standard of checking for doneness - poke with a toothpick until it comes out clean.

Before removing from pan, let cake cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Slide a knife around the edges of the cake to insure it isn't stuck to the pan. The cake can be served warm or saved for later.




While the cake is baking, prepare your Cara Cara salad. Remove skins from oranges and slice. Slice off top and bottom of each orange. Then remove of skin in a few wide strips. Cut orange crosswise into slices about 1/4 thick.  See this simple technique below...

In a saucepan, gently warm marmalade. Add a little lemon juice if it is still too thick after warming. The texture should remind you of a thick vinaigrette. Toss the orange slices with the marmalade. Put this simple citrus salad on a plate next to a slice of the cake.

Top cake with a dollop of creme fraiche and a few pistachios. Serve and enjoy!

Roasted Cauliflower with Pinenuts, Meyer Lemon, and Mint

Cauliflower has never been the first vegetable I'd choose for dinner. I am still a bit scarred by the childhood memory of all those raw veggie platters with dip - cauliflower was always the last veggie remaining. Because I consider myself to be a truly open-minded omnivore, I have been determined to give cauliflower another chance. I began to reconsider my ban, after planting some in our garden last fall and admiring the gorgeous flowering plant. For a year or so I have tried oven-roasting with plenty of olive oil and salt. Not bad.

I love to improvise with whatever ingredients I have on hand and that is how this dish came to be. If you are cauliflower-phobic as I was, this might just make you a convert.



INGREDIENTS

• 1 large head cauliflower
• olive oil
• salt
• 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
• 2 dozen fresh mint leaves, chopped
  
• juice of 2 lemons (Meyers if you have them, if you haven't noticed, I am obsessed!)
• zest of one lemon

Preheat oven to 400. Chop cauliflower into bite-sized pieces. Put in roasting pan. Coat with olive oil and a few generous shakes of salt. Roast for 25-35 minutes.

To the cooked cauliflower, add 2 tablespoons more olive oil, plenty of lemon juice, zest, pine nuts, and mint. Salt to taste. Enjoy.

Serves 4

Cannellini Bean Soup with Wilted Greens

A hearty white bean soup is the perfect winter meal for me. P and I have tried many recipes over the years and have never found them satisfying. Finally, with this recipe from Alice Waters' always-brilliant Chez Panisse Vegetables, we have found the Cannellini bean soup for us. We had to share with you.

We used two different greens for our soup and doubled what the recipe called for. I bought some vibrant dandelion greens at Monterey Market and we grew these stunningly dark and delicate mustard greens in our backyard. It feels good to finally be able to eat something from our sleepy winter garden.




INGREDIENTS

• 1 medium yellow onion, diced small
• 1 small carrot, diced small
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 1/2 cup dried Cannellini beans (or Great Northern Beans)
• one chunk of prosciutto
• 2 medium tomatoes (we used cherry tomatoes instead)
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 2 bunch spicy greens: dandelion, mustard, arugula, turnip... (Waters only called for one bunch of greens, but I think this soup can handle two.)
  
• olive oil
• dozen sage leaves
• Parmesan cheese, shaved
  

Submerge beans in water and soak overnight.

In your soup pot, cook carrots, onions, and garlic with 1/4 cup olive oil and a splash of water. Stew until translucent. Add soaked beans, bay, prosciutto and cook a few more minutes. Add chopped tomatoes and cook a few more minutes. (Waters calls for the tomatoes to be peeled and seeded. We skipped this step and the soup was still delicious.)


Add chicken stock to the pot. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 1 1/4 hour until beans are cooked through but not falling apart. (We needed to cook our beans longer than this because they were still underdone.)

Meanwhile remove the stems from greens and cut leaves into 1 inch strips. When beans are cooked, add the chopped greens, and simmer for another 10-20 minutes until greens are tender. Remove prosciutto and discard. Salt soup to taste.

While greens are cooking, in another pan, heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and quickly fry sage leaves. Set them aside on a piece of paper towel to absorb excess oil.

Top the finished soup with fried sage leaves, Parmesan shavings, and freshly ground pepper.

Serves 6

Pan Fried Striped Bass

The most memorable thing about my one and only trip to Martha's Vineyard was tasting Striped Bass for the first time and loving it. That was 10 years ago and I rarely saw the fish in California, but now it is available here more regularly.

After looking through our collection of cookbooks for a good recipe for Striped Bass, Paul ended up once again with one of Alice Waters' recipes from her Art of Simple Food. Cooked this way, the fish stays moist, yet the skin is perfectly crispy.

With all those luscious Meyers from Amy and Doug, I now feel free to generously douse everything in Meyer Lemon juice and zest.




INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound of Striped Bass, cut into 4 pieces
• 1/4 cup olive oil, plus 1-2 tablespoons
  
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
• juice of 2 lemons
• salt and pepper to taste

Salt fish about an hour before cooking.

For the sauce, combine olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Whisk sauce right before serving.

For this preparation, you are going to need 2 frying pans that will fit inside of one another.

Wrap the underside of the smaller pan with tinfoil. In the meantime heat larger pan over medium-high heat. Pour 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil in hot pan (enough to coat bottom of pan). When oil is hot but not smoking, add fish skin-side down. Take smaller pan (already wrapped in tinfoil) and place it on top of the cooking fish. The weight of the top pan make for an even contact between the skin side and the hot pan, ensuring a crispy finish. Cook for 7 minutes, then remove top pan, flip fish, and cook for one more minute.

Pour a puddle of sauce of each plate and place fish skin-side down on top of the sauce.

Serves 4

Meyer Lemon Marmalade

When we moved into our house, there was a beautiful Meyer Lemon tree set in this great nook between our bedroom and the kitchen. The tree was thick with green leaves but was not getting enough light to produce plentiful lemons. Besides, that nook looked like just the place for a hot tub. The tree had to go, but we were not prepared just to chip it up for the compost bin. Instead, we decided to pull it up and transplant it, in our friends' yard. The process was laughable, involving four adults, lots of burlap, and a horse trailer. By the time we got the poor tree into the ground at its new home, the adults were down about a pint of blood each and the tree was clinging to life and very little root soil. I gave it a five percent chance for survival.

Needless to say, the plucky citrus did more than survive; in the years since its traumatic move, it has thrived, filling a corner of Amy and Doug's yard with green and producing baskets of lemons. We just got another delivery juicy lemons and the goal was to make all things lemony for as long as we could. One choice we had to make was to jar up some marmalade.

Here is how I did it the second time. I have to admit the first go around was more fun because I had great friends helping, but I think the second batch was better for being a lot sweeter.

Ingredients:

4 cups sliced Meyer lemons
6 cups water
7 1/2 cups sugar






Start by preparing your lemons. Slice each in half, from end to end. Use a sharp knife to cut out the core. Run your fingers along the missing core to remove all seeds. Save the cores and seeds in a double-thick piece of cheese cloth. You will be cooking that satchel of core and seeds with your marmalade to provide pectin which you need to firm up your delicious brew. Take each lemon half and slice it into half rounds. The thickness of your slices are a matter of taste. How big do you like your peels to be in the marmalade? I like to keep my slices irregular so that I get all sorts of peels in my marmalade. Take all your lemon slices, your satchel of pits and cores, and put them in a glass or ceramic bowl. Add the water, cover with parchment paper and put in the refrigerator overnight.

Next day, take out your yummy concoction and pour it into your jamming pot. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook on high heat until your sliced peels get soft, about 20 minutes. Take out the satchel and set it aside to cool. Before returning the mixture to a boil, you are going to want to squeeze out as much of the pectin as you can from the satchel. Then discard it to the compost. Now, add your sugar. When I made my second batch, I started with six cups of sugar and kept adding half cup portions until I reached the flavor I wanted, at 7 1/2 cups. The marmalade is sweet, but there is still plenty of lemony tang. I think the marmalade now sits at a perfect equilibrium, but I am guessing these are subjective matters. Once all the sugar is in, return the mixture to a boil and cook at high heat until you bring the marmalade to a temperature of 221 degrees, to insure a good set. This last part took me about 10 minutes.

While your marmalade is going through its final boil, prepare your half-pint jars to receive the golden gift. I used the oven this time, cooking my jars at 250 degrees for 10 minutes, and washing the lids with hot soapy water.

When the marmalade reaches 221 degrees, transfer it immediately into jars and seal. I got a bit more than 8 half-pint jars. Fantastic and beautiful. They make excellent gifts for the New Year.

We started 2010 eating the marmalade with homemade biscuits.

Drop Biscuits (gluten-free)

I have always love biscuits. As a teenager I would make the Bisquick recipe straight from the box. This gluten free recipe from Pamela's is totally easy and satisfying - flaky deliciousness. And oh my that Meyer Lemon Marmalade was perfection!

2 cup Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix
1/2 cup shortening (Spectrum Organic All Vegetable)
2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 375.

Using a fork or pastry cutter, combine Baking Mix and shortening until it is nice a crumbly. Then add milk and continue to mix with fork. Spoon clumps of batter on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake right away for 12 minutes or so. The tops should be a golden brown.




Eat immediately with plenty of homemade jam.

makes a dozen biscuits