Tuesday Turnarounds

There is no better way to improve a day than by to spend it cooking. Some might call it escaping reality, but it works for me and tends to make those I live with equally happy. So Tuesday became a spontaneous dinner party, one attended by a good friend, her two bottles of wine, and eventually my parents. Quality over quantity always rules when one thinks of guests. 

While waiting for my friend I set out the salsa, marinated olives and a Latin-American inspired yogurt dip which I had made earlier that afternoon. It has that nice balance of tangy and creamy goodness and was a lovely antidote to my salsa which turned out far too spicy. 

In a food processor, finely chop fresh cilantro, a bell pepper, jalapenos to taste and dried whole jalapenos. In a medium-sized shallow bowl put 2 cups of plain yogurt (preferably Greek or Middle Eastern, low or full-fat). Add the chopped cilantro-pepper mixture and stir well. Add 1/2 a lime's juice, a dash of cumin, dried mint, and salt and pepper to taste. Dip will only keep a day or two refrigerated. 

 

I also cracked open a really nice Chilean Sauvignon Blanc, just to get the creative juices flowing of course. 

For a long time I've been meaning to make a homemade version of Mac'n'Cheese, one of my personal vices combining both starch, cream, and really salty food. And I thought the addition of spinach would constitute the necessary vegetable/leafy greens portion of the evening as would the salsa that I made earlier in the afternoon. 

So the below recipe is going to sound complicated, but in fact all of the steps are straight-forward and the dish is very easy to assemble. 

Prepare a cream sauce by first making a roux by melting approximately 3 tablespoons butter and adding a slightly-lesser amount of flour. Cook the flour until it is nice and slightly browned, and  quickly add approx. 1 cup of milk while whisking rapidly. The mixture will lump up a bit and slowly add chicken broth (about 1/8 a cup at a time) until the mixture becomes smooth and creamy. Set the pot aside to cool. In a separate bowl,  lightly beat two eggs. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to the cream mixture to taste. Once the cream is sufficiently cooled - it should be cool to the touch - slowly add the egg mixture again while whisking quickly to avoid the eggs cooking and curdling. Check  and adjust seasoning if needed, and set mixture aside. 

Thinly slice approximately 1/3 - 1/2 pound of your choice of cheese, preferably cheddar or something slightly tangy and that melts easily, and set aside. 

In a large heavy-bottomed casket, saute 1 sliced onion in olive oil. As the onions cook and absorb the fat, add chicken broth a tablespoon at a time to rehydrate the mixture. Cook onions  until they are completely translucent and a tad caramelized. Wash, spin-dry, and coarsely chop two bunches of fresh spinach. Add spinach in batches to the onions, until they are all just cooked through. Flavor mixture with thyme, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste, and melt in a tablespoon of butter. 

Cook an entire box  of pasta until al dente. We only had spaghetti at home and it worked fine, but I think macaroni or fusili would work equally well. Drain pasta, return to pot, adding a splash of the chicken broth and some olive oil so the it doesn't stick together. 

In a regular-sized ceramic baking dish spread a layer of cream sauce, approximately 1/2 the pasta, and then 1/2 the cheese. Add the entire spinach mixture, and then the cheese, pasta, and cream sauce in the reverse order. Generously cover the mixture with bread-crumbs (I finished off the panko we had), thyme, red and black pepper, and a few small pats of butter. Cover casserole with aluminum foil and cook in a pre-heated oven at 350F for approximately  25 - 30 minutes. Carefully uncover the dish and put under the broiler until the bread crumbs are golden, depending on how powerful your oven is this can happen in 30 seconds to 2 minutes but it is good stand right by and immediately pull the dish out to avoid scorching the entire top. 

Serve immediately, preferably with a leafy green salad, good wine and company. 

For my first time ever of making homemade version of mac'n'cheese, I have to admit it turned out pretty darn good and I'll be adding this to my comfort food/feel better repertoire. 

Bon appetite. 

PS: for those of you wondering, the other two bottles were duly consumed and 7am came far, far too early this morning. But it was well worth it. 

Foodie Weekends

Food-wise, this weekend was about as good as it gets and I am feeling comfortably full sitting and writing on this chilly Sunday evening. We have the fireplace going, The Apprentice in the background (mother’s choice, not mine) a purring cat on my dad’s lap and my MacBook on mine - maybe our own Turkish-American version of a Norman Rockwell portrait? 

Friday started with me helping my dad make his amazing Adana Kebabs. I've had these kebabs in Turkey, and I can say with all objectivity that his version is by far the best. In the whole-wide world. This recipe being a highly guarded family secret I'll just tantalize you with pictures of the prep and invite you to stop by for dinner next time we are grilling. When the weather is nice, there are few better places in the world to eat than on our patio facing the woods and getting full late afternoon sun. 

 

My contribution to the evening was my highly improvised salsa fresca, enhanced by the grilled sweet peppers I had made a few evenings ago. The recipe is very easy and I change it around based on whatever ingredients are around: 

Wash, spin dry and finely chop fresh cilantro in a food processor. Empty into a large bowl. Finely chop 1/2 a sweet onion, a few cloves of garlic, and a jalapeno or two in the same processor, and empty it into the same bowl. Coarsely chop up a few over-ripe tomatoes and pulse in the food processor until it is chunky but not pureed, and add to the mixture. If the tomatoes are too ripe, then it is worth seeding them, otherwise the salsa will be too watery. If you have grilled sweet peppers, puree them in the processor and add to mixture. Add the juice of one lime, a generous dash of cumin, some extra hot pepper (either sauce or dried depending on preference), and salt and pepper to taste. 

Did I mention that the dinner went really well with Bell’s Oberon? The 2009 batch just came out and is highly drinkable. 

Saturday morning we went to the Farmers' Market which has really expanded with the warming weather and ripening crops. We grabbed breakfast at Zingermans, and I tried their new Obama'bun, which I would highly, highly recommend. It is basically a pecan danish with a load of caramel on top. Probably not the healthiest breakfast choice but a great morning sugar rush. I also got to meet the lovely lady who makes the cookies I'm so fond of (shhh....they're cheaper at the Market....and bought a jar of her dulce de leche which I am very excited to try).

That evening my mom's cafe had their monthly prix fixe dinner, featuring lamb, chicken or shrimp Adana Kebabs well as an amazing mixed-meze plate and decadent tiramisu. Again, all of these recipes are family/trade secrets but maybe these pictures will whet your appetite and encourage you to stop by the cafe. We also make a mean kir a la turque, which I developed utilizing my vast expertise in, errrm, kir tasting, and it is quite the seller. . . 

Finally Sunday evening I volunteered to cook as my German food craving got the best of me. Once in a blue moon the urge to eat a good Sauerbraten with Knoedel, Bratwurst, Kaesespaetzle, or Schnitzel appears and I can think of nothing else until it is satisfied. 

When I was 17, I lived in a village called Ruderting for a year with a German (Bavarian) host-family and attended Gymnasium. It was my first real overseas experience, away from my parents in a country where I could legally drink, and in a household where pork ruled supreme. It was only after having gained 15-lbs that I realized everything in the house was literally cooked or baked in Schmalz, i.e. lard and not the Crisco-like fat I thought it was. 

My own variation of German food is quite a bit lighter than what I ate during that year, and it was a success with my parents, both of whose palates’ are about as sophisticated and critical as they come. 

Tonight's dinner featured lemon-thyme chicken schnitzel with panko, warm German potato salad, and roasted broccoli, all served with a great Californian Merlot, dill pickles and German mustard.  

The salad was the easiest bit as I modified a recipe I found on Epicurious.com which you can find here. Living in a pork-free household, I omitted the bacon and sauteed the onions in olive oil with a sprinkle of sugar, allowing them to really caramelize and cook well. Instead of beef broth, my mom was making chicken broth, so I “borrowed” some of that, and finally, I added paprika and thyme, giving the dish a slightly woodsy taste. The salad is really good served warm and was very easy to make. 

The schnitzel was also very easy to make, but just had several steps. 

Wash, dry and marinate thinly sliced chicken breasts in the juice of one lemon, thyme, salt and a dash of olive oil, letting the chicken sit at room temperature. Set out three shallow bowls, filling the first one with a few tablespoons of flour, the second with 3 beaten eggs, and the final one with panko. The third should be the largest and deepest as the more panko coating the chicken, the better. 

Add a few dashes of salt, thyme and black pepper to the flour mixture. Finely peel and chop about a square inch of lemon rind (I used the rind of the lemon I had juiced for the marinade) and add to the panko mixture. 

Heat a heavy-bottomed skillet with olive oil in it until the oil is very hot but not smoking. I actually used the skillet I had used to cook the onions in for the potato salad without even bothering to wash it, and I think it gave the oil more depth of flavor.  

Dredge the chicken in flour, then the egg mixture and then fully cover in panko breadcrumbs. Prepare three pieces of chicken and then carefully place simultaneously in the skillet. Brown the chicken fully on one side (approximately 3-5 minutes) and carefully flip over and cook on the other side until the chicken is cooked through. 

Place the cooked chicken pieces in a baking pan, uncovered in a hot oven, and continue making the chicken until all the pieces are cooked. Serve with lemon wedges and German whole-grain mustard. 

Und so ist unser Abend gelaufen und zur Ende gekommen - ich wuensche Euch alle eine leckere Mahlzeit und viel Spass beim kochen. 

Liebe Gruesse und bis dem naechst. 

Tasting Heaven on a Tuesday,

I might have found a new food-vice, which having just been consumed, has fallen into the category of can-no-longer-live-without. Ever. 

Alfajor Maitelates, a short-bread cookie filled with dulce de leche and covered in dark chocolate. Can any more perfect ingredients be combined any more exquisitely? 

At $3.00 a pop, plus the requisite chic-chic but very yummy coffee at Comet Coffee (where one procures these tastes of heaven, tack on another $2) and a visit to my tobacconist Maison Edwards (rapidly becoming my home away from home, in the same arcade as the coffee shop, tack on anywhere from $0.95 to $13.50 for a smoke) this vice might just have a big impact on my weekly budget, but one well worth it. 

Monday afternoon vices

I was reminded yet again during a phone conversation late last night, just how much I am going to miss my current life of leisure. Poverty aside, there is nothing quite as lovely as going to bed on a late Sunday night, knowing that the only thing you really have to do the following day is go to a doctor's appointment. And buy wine for your Tuesday night party. 

There might be, oh, say 40 items on your to-do-before-move list, but clearly many things are best done at the last minute, in a rushed way. Clearly. Plus, there is something to be said about the joys of a quiet Monday spent buying wine, planning a menu for the following evening's soiree, and watching such cinematic classics as What Happens in Vegas. On a non-food related sidebar, the movie was surprisingly cute, and you can turn your brain off the moment you sit down. Ah joyful life of leisure - how I am going to miss you!

My day of leisure began with an early morning  Hurenfruehstuck, followed by a toasted  Zingermans bagel (the Parmesan and black pepper is by far my favorite) with cream cheese, and then some bulghur pilaf and Swiss chard salad for lunch. All in all pretty healthy. 

And now, I am enjoying one of the few vices that I have. Okay, that's a lie. One of the many, many vices, but food-wise, truly one of the few. I know it is not good for me. And yet, there is that intangible pull it has on my taste buds that I have to enjoy every now and then.*

What is this magic delicacy you might ask yourself? Slices of pata negra served with the baguette flown in from my old bakery? Hand-cut french fries with homemade mayonnaise, raw eggs and all?** A glass of France's finest wine and and some cheeses such as  a generous slice of Morbier rounded off with a nice wedge of Fourme d'Ambert and some Crottin de Chavignol  served with a glass of Chateauneuf-du-Pape from La Bastide St. Dominique, that my friend Veronique's parents make themselves? 

My own secret vice is a tad more provincial/affordable and very, very mundane: 

A can of ice cold regular Coke.  

If an old fashioned glass bottle is available, you have hit the jackpot, but otherwise it must be in a can and not from a plastic bottle. Certainly not Pepsi, and definitely not Diet Coke, but regular ole' straight-out-of-the-fridge-served-on-ice-with-a-straw Coke. 

Growing up my parents would rarely (if ever) let my brother and I drink soda or eat junk food. In retrospect, it might be a great way to raise children. However at the time, I felt like the weird little girl with the weird name and the weird spinach pie for lunch. Ethnic hadn't quite become "in" until well after I left high school. And no, I am not bitter. 

I have since learned to deal with my inexplicable pull towards Cool Ranch Doritos, which I know really do taste awful and literally chemical. Yet once in a blue moon, just the smell of one brings back a flood of overwhelming childhood memories. I find myself in a frenzied daze either looking down at an empty bowl of chips at at someones party (very, very embarrassing) or a crumbled bag from the vending machine with every drop drained. Fortunately, my friends rarely serve Cool Ranch Doritos, and much like an alcoholic can never drink, so too should I never get near those chips. 

My relationship with Coke is less dysfunctional.  Somehow sweet sweet Coca Cola still has that zing for me and puts me in a good mood every time. It is the ultimate kick of carbonated sugary hydration and caffeine. What could be possibly wrong with that? 

Always Yours. 

*"every now and then" = approximately once a week. 

**  For those of you tsk tsking the addition of mayo to what is already a fatty little treat, let me say you don't know what you are missing. Especially if the fries are just big wedges of British chips doused in salt and vinegar. The Germans have a great saying, "wenn schon, denn schon," meaning if you're going to do it, you might as well do it all the way. Which might be one way of summing up both my Weltanschauung as well as recent diagnosis of hypertension. Hence the reduction of food-vices. 

*** Does anyone else find it fantastic that French AOC cheeses all have their own website? Surely there are better ways one could spend one's time then to browse such websites, yet only in France would they value their terroir as much, and you have to give them credit for not letting their food culture be swept up in a wave of global trends. 

weekend dinners a la casa

Weekend nights, especially Sundays, are family dinner nights at my house. We usually pair dinner with wine, accompanied by Sixty Minutes and The Simpsons. Pooh to those that say you cannot enjoy a good dinner with good TV, sometimes family dinners are best without conversation. 

Tonight was a Saturday instead of Sunday so we chatted, and enjoyed the following dishes: 

Swiss-chard and yogurt salad

Grilled Lamb Chops

Bulgur Rice with Zucchini, Peppers, Potatoes and Onions

Grilled Vegetables

Pinot Grigio

Swiss-chard and yogurt salad (pazi salatasi)

Wash, spin, and dry 2 - 3 bunches swiss-chard leaves and finely chop them

Sautee the swiss-chard in olive oil until just cooked and leaves are wilted but still bright

Put swiss chard in a large mixing bowl, and let cool. 

Add approximately 1 - 2 cups on stirred plain  yogurt (preferably organic or Greek), 1 - 2 cloves pressed garlic, and salt to taste. 

Put salad in serving plate, drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil, and serve

Bulgur Rice with vegetables

Toast 1 1/2 cups of large-grain bulgur in butter until  bulgur is lightly toasted. 

Add approximately 1/2 chopped onion, 3-4 sliced garlic cloves, 1 potato cut in small square pieces,  1 zucchini cut in match-stick sized pieces, and 1-2 cups sliced mushrooms and continue to saute in the same pot for approximately 5-6 minutes. 

Add 3 cups boiling water to the pot, red pepper, dried mint, salt and pepper to taste and a large spoonful of red-pepper paste. Stir well, allow to boil, and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook over low heat until all of the liquid is absorbed. Let bulgur sit for approximately 2-3 minutes, fluff with a fork, and serve. 

Lamb chops

Marinate trimmed lamb chops in olive oil, a little lemon juice, salt, red pepper, and garlic. Let sit at room temperature for 1 - 2 hours. 

Fire-up outdoor grille, once grille is very hot cook lamb to desired doneness, approximately 3 - 4 minutes on each side for medium-rare. 

Let the meat sit on a platter for a few minutes before serving.