Category: Seasonal Recipes

  • Whole Lemon Bars Using Whole Meyer Lemons

    Whole Lemon Bars Using Whole Meyer Lemons

    [donotprint]lemon bars with whole meyer lemons

    A very lovely coworker surprised me a few days ago with a gigantic bag of meyer lemons from a family tree in Napa. I sent about 1/3rd of them to my mom, used several in smoothies (which are not so blog worthy and are certainly very ugly looking with all the chard and other hippie hoo-da I’ve been drinking up, thus, the blog has been rather neglected lately for my newfound need to eat more vegetables in very boring forms), and the rest are either in these lemon bars or waiting to be devoured in the coming days.

    This recipe is only slightly modified from David Lebovitz’s Whole Lemon Bars recipe, with my notes and adjustments below. My favorite frequent visitor to Paris (who has on several occasions rubbed shoulders with Mr. Labovitz at certain company events!)  is coming for dinner Sunday and I imagine I’ll find some new, delightful way to use the lemons in our meal. You, reader, can look forward to that!
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    I did make these by weight and recommend you do the same if possible.

    Crust
    1 C flour (140g)
    1/4 C sugar (50g)
    1 stick butter, melted (113-115g)
    1/2 tsp vanilla

    Topping
    2.5 small organic meyer lemons
    3/4 C sugar (150g)
    3 large eggs
    4 tsp corn starch
    1/4 tsp salt
    3 T melted butter (45g)

    Powdered sugar for top

    Oven to 350–line a 8×8 inch pan in foil as smoothly as possible, matte side of the foil touching the bars/filling. Get the foil crisply into the corners.

    Mix the flour, 1/4C sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, stick melted butter and vanilla until just smoothly combined. Distribute the dough into the bottom of the pan evenly using hands or a spatula.  Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown.

    While crust is cooking, cut lemons in half and remove seeds. In a blender (I used my wonderful vitamix, but if you have a regular blender you may want to chop the lemons a bit), pulverize two lemons and the juice of 1/2 a lemon with the sugar until mostly smooth, a few chunks are good. Add the eggs, corn starch, salt and the rest of the butter, blending until smooth.

    Pour the lemon topping onto the crust when it’s done cooking, reduce the heat to 300 and return the dish to the oven for 25 more minutes, or until it stops jiggling and is set.

    Remove from oven, let it cool COMPLETELY before messing with it, then cut with a very heavy sharp knife into squares! Consider topping with powdered sugar and serving with tea.

    I recommend NOT leaving these in an air-tight container as I foudn it to make them go very soggy very quickly. Foil wrapped in bunches works much better, at least in SF climate!

  • “Moon Viewing Noodles” – Udon with Pork & Sweet Potatoes

    “Moon Viewing Noodles” – Udon with Pork & Sweet Potatoes

    [donotprint]udon noodles with pork tenderloin and sweet potatoes "moon viewing noodles"

    The hiatus was not entirely my fault. We had an issue with the kitchen sink’s piping, which, once we went in to fix what seemed simple, turned into quite a mess of replacing one part after another, the crescendo being when the disposal decided to actually fall out.

    I was not very motivated to create more messes with no great way to clean them, and shortly after that was fixed the hot water decided to turn a lovely rusty brown. Anyway, we are all back in action and, I’m happy to say, fully functional again!

    About this time last year I began cooking lots of Japanese food, mainly from a great cook book I own called Washoku Kitchen ($24.50 at the time of this post)– “recipes for Japanese home cooking.” I picked it back up yesterday and started cooking, with a few modifications.

    The thing about good Japanese cooking is that the most delicious items seem to take many steps–5 ingredients, but each one you must create. A soy concentrate. A dashi. A miso mixture. It takes time, and works best if you start cooking a LOT of Japanese food, so you can make these things and use them more than once without duplicating efforts.

    [/donotprint]

    Udon noodles with pork & sweet potatoes/yams

    For 3-4 people as a main course
    12 oz fresh udon noodles, cooked*
    8 cups dashi with shitake**
    4 T seasoned soy concentrate***
    1/2 large sweet potato, peeled & cubed
    1/2 lb pork tenderloin, sliced thinly
    2 green onions, sliced thinly on the diagonal

    Bring the dashi to a light simmer, adding the soy concentrate. Place the cooked udon noodles in heated bowls. Using a large skillet and a lightly flavored oil such as avocado, cook the sweet potato on medium high heat until color is deepened, adding a touch of salt.

    Add 1 T sake and 2 T water, and cover to steam 3-4 minutes. Push potatoes to side of pan and add pork, trying not to pile the pieces on top of each other. When pork is cooked, pour broth over noodles, add potatoes & pork to one side of bowl and sprinkle green onion over the top.

    *cooked in a wide, not too deep pot with plenty of water for 2 minutes boiling, then drained and rinsed in cool water

    **combine cold water with strip of kombu (thick kelp) and two dried shitake mushrooms. After 10 minutes, bring to just under a boil and then turn off. Add 1 cup unpacked bonito flakes (large tuna flakes). Let steep 2 minutes, then strain and return to clean pot

    ***Combine 2/3 cup soy, 1/3 cup sake, 1 dried shitake mushroom & 1/4 cup bonito or other tuna flakes, let steep 1hour-12 hours. Add 2T mirin, 3T water, 3T sugar. Bring to a simmer and reduce by 1/4. Strain and reserve.

  • Creamy winter citrus & crab salad

    Creamy winter citrus & crab salad

    [donotprint]Winter salad with citrus and creamy yogurt dressing

    [/donotprint]Creamy winter citrus salad with Crab

    For four:
    1 dungeness crab, picked for meat (or about 8 legs/1.25 lbs in-shell)
    2 small, tasty oranges
    2 grapefruit
    1 ripe avocado
    1/2 C pepitas (pumpkin seeds, raw preferably)
    3T plain greek yogurt
    1 shallot
    Juice of 1 lemon
    1 T good, mild olive oil
    bunch watercress
    bunch frisee

    Pick the crab meat and mince the shallot. Toast the pepitas in a hot pan, moving constantly for a few minutes. Zest the oranges and grapefruit a bit to get about 1-2 tsp of zest into a small bowl. Section the fruits by slicing the stem/flower ends off and cutting the pith away. Hold the fruit in your hand and cut* along the membranes to section the fruit out.

    Drain the excess juice into the zest bowl, and add the yogurt, shallot, lemon juice, olive oil and a bit of salt. Whisk together and let stand. Slice your avocado thinly and portion 1/4 for each serving. Dress the frisee and watercress in the creamy citrus dressing, and assemble the citrus segments, crab, avocado and pepitas on top.

    *If you’re afraid of doing this, watch a youtube video; if you’re still afraid, cut them in rounds instead.

  • A fine weeknight dinner for two – endive salad & filet mignon with marsala mushroom sauce

    A fine weeknight dinner for two – endive salad & filet mignon with marsala mushroom sauce

     

    filet mignon with creamy marsala mushroom sauce

    Sometimes you just feel like a good meal, and if you can cook, you know you can either make a much nicer one for less money at home, or something better than what you could eat out. So, when my gentleman asked me what I’d like to do that evening, I said, “cook.”

    For the Steak
    2 filet mignons of a size appropriate to you
    1/2 lb crimini or other meaty mushrooms, diced
    1/2 leek, sliced finely and sauteed in butter, set aside
    dry sherry
    leftover bechamel sauce or some cream if you’re desperate (or make a roux and add some milk and salt)
    butter

    Heat the oven to 375. Using a metal skillet (not non stick) big enough for both steaks, heat enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan and add 1-2 T butter, melting at high heat. Salt & pepper the raw steaks. Add to the pan, cooking on one side until browned (about 2 minutes). Flip the steaks, cook 2 more minutes and then without moving the steaks, put the whole pan in the oven. For medium/medium rare, it should take about as long as it takes to make the sauce (5-8 minutes).

    In a sautee pan of your choosing, heat 1-2 T butter until melted. Add the chopped mushrooms, cooking at medium heat until slightly shriveled and browned. Raise heat slightly and add 1/2 C sherry, cooking until mostly reduced. Add the bechamel sauce, warming and combining. Add salt & pepper to taste, keep warm.

    I served this with wilted spinach (zest of 1 small lemon, juice of same lemon, into a big, hot pan), and couscous (cooked in vegetable stock).

    endive salad with bleu cheese, bosc pear, candied lime walnuts

    For the salad
    2 endives, cleaned and trimmed into seperate leaves
    1/3 C candied walnuts (or plain ones, but why bother with going halfway?)
    1 bosc pear (or apple, etc), sliced thinly
    Blue cheese
    Juice of 1 lemon
    1-2 tsp walnut oil

    Whisk lemon juice and blue cheese together. Use a bit of heat if necessary, the dressing should be fairly thick. Add oil and salt & pepper. Taste and adjust. Dress the endive leaves and assemble on plates, alternating with pear slices. Add more blue cheese crumbles on top and place the walnuts into the salad.

  • White Lasagna with Kale, Sausage, & Sweet Potatoes

    White Lasagna with Kale, Sausage, & Sweet Potatoes

    white lasagne with sausage, kale, sweet potatoes & leeks

    For the lasagna assembly:
    1 pack no-boil lasagna sheets (GASP, a shortcut!)
    2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly
    2 lbs kale (mixed is OK), blanched, drained, and chopped finely
    1 lb sweet italian sausage, no casing, pan fried and set aside
    2 large leeks sliced thinly and cooked at medium low heat in fat from sausage

    Bechamel sauce for white lasagna

    8T butter
    1/2 C flour
    1/2 tsp nutmeg
    1/2 tsp garlic powder or 1 clove fresh garlic
    3 3/4 C milk
    1 C chicken or vegetable stock
    2 eggs, beaten
    1/2 C marsala
    1 C mixed grated cheese such as parmesan, pecorino, fontina, gruyere
    salt & pepper

    Melt the butter. Once it reduces spitting/bubbling, add flour and whisk, cooking for 3 minutes at medium heat. Slowly add the milk and the stock, raising heat to high. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until sauce coats the back of a spoon. Set aside to cool until warm to touch.

    Once warm to touch, add the beaten eggs, 1/2 C marsala, 1/2 C of cheese and salt & pepper to taste.

    Assemble the lasagna

    Preheat oven to 375. Pour a thin layer of bechamel sauce on the bottom of your lasagna pan (preferably 8×10 or something similar/bigger), add two layers of lasagne sheets. Spread the sausage evenly, add salt & pepper, and cover with more sauce.

    Add another 2 layers of lasagna sheets, next adding the kale. Top with salt & pepper, sauce, and more lasagna sheets.

    Add a thin layer of leeks, and then as if making a gratin spread the sweet potato slices in a single overlapping layer.

    Add more salt & pepper, sauce, and the final layer of lasagna sheets. Top with sauce and remaining cheese.  Bake for 40 minutes to 1 hour.

  • Birthday Dinner: Crab Bisque & Filet Mignon w/ Bernaise + Sweet Potato/Chard Gratin

    Birthday Dinner: Crab Bisque & Filet Mignon w/ Bernaise + Sweet Potato/Chard Gratin

    home made filet mignon with bernaise sauce

    Home made crab bisque with dungeness crab

    I hosted 8 (including myself) for dinner on Friday to celebrate my gentleman’s birthday; it was lively all night, everybody got full and we washed about 25 wine glasses. We drank champagne, prosecco, sparkling wine from california; we drank mouvedre from Chateau Margene, cuvee from Beckmen, a roussane blend from Tablas Creek–we had delicious wine, and the food came out great.

    Recipes to follow in the next day or two. I wish I’d taken a photo of the refuse after making the crab stock, it was a pretty mess in my backyard compost container.

  • Gorgonzola and Pear Gnocchi (Gnocchi alla Gorgonzola e Pera)

    Gorgonzola and Pear Gnocchi (Gnocchi alla Gorgonzola e Pera)

    Gnocci with Gorgonzola and Pears

    Gnocchi alla gorgonzola e pera is actually a pretty common dish in the northern half of Italy; the kind of thing any restaurant that might be serving tourists would throw on (without regard to seasonality, local cuisine, etc), and while that might turn you off, it’s actually quite good. That said, I ate it several places in Florence, and am fairly certain I spotted it on other menus around the way.

    I couldn’t find much on the history of this dish, so I think it’s more of a modern classic–prior to not-too-many-years-ago, most classic products of regions didn’t get transported or heavily used much in other regions. There was a time when gorgonzola is what you ate when you were in piedmonte; risotto is what you ate in Milan and in the far north, you ate potatoes in Alto Adige and maybe in Emilia-Romagna. Less so now, with the best of the best being desired by Italians everywhere loving food.

    Gnocchi is, however, typical of Alto Adige (where potatoes are most common), and gorgonzola–if it is officially DOP gorgonzola–is from Piedmonte. For this dish, you’ll want to use the opposite of what you’d likely want to snack on in a cheese plate. You’ll use Gorgonzola Dolce, which is the young, “sweet” gorgonzola. As the cheese ages it becomes more “piquante” or spicy, hot. It’ll tickle your throat if it’s the wrong type for this job. If you don’t have a quality cheese chop that carries both and can point them out, look for gorgonzola (imported, not pre-crumbled) that has a more soft, creamy texture with less blue bits–that’s usually it.

    For 3-4
    3 oz gorgonzola dolce cheeese
    1 ripe pear, diced
    1 T butter
    2 T flour
    1 cup light vegetable stock
    1/2 cup milk
    fresh gnocchi*
    salt, fresh ground pepper

    Boil your water and have it ready. If you are using fresh gnocchi (which you could be!), they require VERY little cooking time, take what you think they take and cut it by half. Seconds! Otherwise, they’ll fall apart, and you’ll regret it.

    Dice your pear, have your ingredients ready. You may or may not need slightly more or less veg stock & milk. Create a roux by heating the butter in a small sauce pan, until clear and stopped bubbling, medium heat. Add the flour and whisk until color darkens slightly, about 2 minutes. Continue whisking and slowly add the vegetable stock, then the milk, until you get a mac-n-cheese type consistency, or slightly thinner. Add the gorgonzola and continue whisking until smooth.

    Add the gnocchi to the water and cook; remove the gnocchi as soon as they float to the top of the pan using a slatted spoon or gnocchi paddle. Add the pear to the sauce and let it warm up, adding the gnocchi to the sauce and stirring gently to coat, with a large wooden spoon (don’t use metal, you’ll chop up the dumplings).

    Add some salt and black pepper to taste, serve!

    Fresh gnocchi makes a huge difference over the vaccu-packed kind you’ll find on the pasta isle. It’s much less dense and has the texture of a down pillow, collapsing in your mouth. I buy mine in bulk from Rainbow market or from Faletti Foods; both carry gnocchi by the bay area’s “Pasta Shop,” which lots of local stores retail products from.

  • Salmon Cream Cheese Wontons & Spicy Persimmon Slaw

    Salmon Cream Cheese Wontons & Spicy Persimmon Slaw

    home made salmon cream cheese wontons

    spicy persimmon cabbage salad

    Inspired by Wild Ginger in Cambria, CA, these wontons are tasty, filling finger food; the slaw helps to cut the fat and is a nice fall accompaniment. They’re also a really convenient way to use up any leftover wonton skins and leftover salmon.

    For 12-16 wontons

    Square wonton skins
    1/3 lb salmon, cooked (grilled, broiled, whatever)
    1/4 C cream cheese (I prefer Gina Marie from Sierra Nevada Cheese Co)
    1-2 tsp brown rice vinegar
    1/8 tsp five spice powder
    salt
    lots of safflower/sunflower/other high eat oil for frying

    Shred the salmon and mix with room temperature cream cheese. Add rice vinegar, five spice powder, and a pinch of salt to taste. Set aside for up to 2 hours or refrigerate up to 2 days ahead. Use 1T per wonton wrapper and moisten wrapper with spray bottle. Fold diagonally and seal, then bring end points together and seal. Fry at medium high heat, testing a piece of wonton skin first, until evenly golden.

    Spicy Persimmon Cabbage Slaw

    1/2 head cabbage, chopped somewhat finely
    1 persimmon, sliced thinly
    2 tsp gochujang or other chili paste such as harissa
    juice of 1 lime
    1/4 tsp ground cumin
    salt

    Whisk gochujang, lime juice, cumin and salt; toss cabbage and persimmon in mixture and let set 10 minutes before serving, or up to 1 hour.

  • Rancho Gordo Heirloom Bean Chili

    Rancho Gordo Heirloom Bean Chili

    home made chili with rancho gordo heirloom beans

    Delicious chili made from Rancho Gordo heirloom organic beans, adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

    olive oil
    2 large yellow or sweet onions, diced
    1 T minced garlic
    2 large carrots, cubed
    1 cup dry pinquito beans
    1 cup dry yellow-eye steuben heirloom beans (also rancho gordo but they aren’t selling them online! if you’re in SF try Rainbow’s bulk section)
    3 lbs ground beef, turkey, chicken, or pork (I used mostly beef/pork, but a little ground chicken too)
    1 green bell pepper
    1 red bell pepper
    4 T chili powder
    1 T cumin (ground)
    2 T paprika
    1 T dry oregano
    1 T chili flakes
    16 oz tomatoes chopped or stewed/pureed (I use POMI)
    2 C beef broth or veal stock
    1/4 C cider vinegar

    Garnish:
    Cheddar cheese, grated
    Red onion, diced

    Serve with macaroni  OR bread

    Beans: Soak the beans overnight in plenty of water. Do not soak more than 9 hours or they will probably burst. They may be mixed for soaking. Try to pre-cook ahead, but if not, start cooking the drained, rinsed, soaked beans in fresh water in a seperate pan as you begin making the chili. Cover and be sure they are cooking at at least a simmer, but not a boil. You want them tender before you add them to the chili at the end. They like to be cooked about an inch of water over the beans; just drain off the extra water if they’re cooked through.

    Chili: In a soup pot or dutch oven, heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil or butter. When hot, add diced onions. Cook until almost translucent, at medium heat. Add the garlic & carrots, cooking another 2-3 minutes. Add the meat, and let it cook through.

    While meat is cooking, dice your peppers and gather your other ingredients.

    When meat is cooked, add all of the spices. Cook 2-3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, beef stock, and vinegar. You may wish to reserve additional beef stock in case you prefer looser chili. Prepare your garnishes. Add the drained, cooked beans to the chili and you may serve in 10 minutes (simmering) or any amount of time after. The longer it sits, the better; I like to put the lid back on the pan and let it cool down very slowly, so that the flavors meld.

    Serve with cheddar and red onion on top.

  • Matsutake Mushroom Gnocci with Watercress

    Matsutake Mushroom Gnocci with Watercress

    Preface: The only other context I’ve eaten matsutake is in dashi and in a quesadilla (a delicious quesadilla). I don’t think I would make this dish exactly the same next time; I think it would be better in more broth, without the creme fraiche, with egg noodles (Asian style). I used really good quality, fluffy, fresh gnocci for this dish and I think it was really competing with the matsutake, which is a shame because they should have been the feature of the dish.

    matsutake gnocci with watercress

    matsutake mushrooms cooking

    Luckily, matsutakes had a bumper crop this year and they were only $20/lb. In SF, they can be found for $40 or more most years, so this was a really nice surprise last time I popped in at the Japanese market. Yesterday, I even saw them at Rainbow Foods!

    I do think simmering the matsutakes in dashi (it was small amounts of mirin, soy sauce, sake, walnut oil and then a larger amount of straight up dashi–water infused with kombu and i-forget-the-name tuna flakes) worked well, I just would have made more of it next time and omitted the creme fraiche I added. The watercress also worked well. So go ahead and do that, and sub those gnocci for egg noodles and I’m pretty sure you’ll have a delicious meal.

    Anyway, no recipe here since I won’t stand behind it, but thought you might learn from my experience.