I’m so glad it’s finally Spring…eating is starting to feel much more effortless now. No recipe is needed for a spring salad like this one, of baby arugula, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and some pecorino cheese flavored with saffron and black pepper. The greens are at their most tender and delicious, so only a little enhancement is needed. Although I do love my winter stews, it’s such a lovely, easy feeling to just let the food speak for itself. And did you know a local farmer’s market starts on Saturday? You better believe I’ll be there!

Salads & Sides | No Comments »

It was my birthday this past weekend, and in lieu of a cake, I decided to make some macarons. Little did I know that this venture would ruin me forever in unexpected ways. You might have heard me whinge a few times about my vague disgust for frosting and its slithery, tooth-aching texture. Well, I guess the day of regret was bound to come sooner or later…because as of last weekend, I’m definitely eating those words.

The devilry behind all this arrived in a little batch of something called Espresso-Caramel Frosting. It was a recipe from Tish Boyle’s The Cake Book, and one that I’d had bookmarked for a while now. Let me just cut to the chase and tell you right now: this frosting is Dangerous, with a capital D, in a way I had no idea frosting could be. Perilous in the “I need to get it out of the house immediately before I eat the entire bowl right this second” kind of way. And even though there are a few choice things (hello there romesco sauce) that drive me to superlatives, I’m not a particularly excitable sort of person, if you know what I mean. My socks aren’t easily knocked off.

And yet…just imagine the smooth flavor of brown-sugar caramel embraced by a shot of great espresso and delivered in the smoothest, creamiest, and lightest-tasting vehicle ever. A phenomenon, if you will, that has caused me to leave behind my frosting-hating self forever…at least as long as this stuff is in the room. If you have even the remotest interest in caramel or coffee, you have got to make this stuff as soon as possible. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The original recipe makes a pretty vast quantity - somewhere over 5 cups, and suited for a full-size cake - but I was able to easily divide everything by 4, which makes enough to fill two batches of cardamom-scented macarons, adapted from David Lebovitz’s great recipe. The result was something like a caramelly Arabic coffee in macaron form. Honestly, who needs birthday cake, anyway?

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Sweet Sauces & Fillings, Baking | 13 Comments »

Occasionally, there are foods that cause my self-control to go completely out the window, and I can’t help but eat embarrassing quantities of them in one sitting. One of these is romesco sauce, a Spanish salsa of garlic, nuts, olive oil, and peppers that sends me to the moon. There are probably as many recipes for romesco as there are cooks who make it, but this one is probably my favorite, and fortunately one of the simpler ones: it doesn’t require fresh tomatoes, so one needn’t be concerned if the season still seems so very far away. The sauce has a wonderfully pungent garlicky flavor that is mellowed by sweetly smoky roasted peppers, then picked up a bit by a sharp tang of vinegar and the subtle heat of ancho chile. In fact, I like it so much that last year I ate two batches in one week and made myself sick of it, but thankfully I’ve fully recovered and can now resume my feeding frenzy.

When I’m feeling piggy casual, I just scoop up the romesco sauce with hunks of bread or raw veggies, but I also love it as a spread in a sandwich stuffed with greens and veggies. It’s excellent over fish, grilled vegetables, or those charmingly tiny fingerling potatoes like the ones in the picture. No matter how you use the romesco, I really hope you’ll love it as much as I do!

Hazelnut Romesco Sauce

3 medium red bell peppers
1 dried ancho chile
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup lightly toasted skinned hazelnuts
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Place the ancho chile in a small saucepan with water just enough to cover. Bring water to a boil, then turn off heat. Let chile soak for at least 15 minutes. Meanwhile, roast the red peppers on a gas burner, on a grill, or in the oven. Set aside in a covered contained or paper bag for 15 minutes, peel off the skin, and rinse the peppers of seeds. Remove ancho chile from soaking liquid and remove seeds, then place chile, roasted peppers, garlic cloves, vinegar, salt, and hazelnuts in a food processor. Run processor, drizzling the oil in gradually, until the desired consistency is reached. You can thin it with chile soaking water if desired, or thicken it with a piece of bread with the crusts removed. Serve at room temperature.

Savory Dips & Extras | 4 Comments »

For this month’s Daring Bakers challenge, our hosts Deborah of Taste and Tell and Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms picked Cheesecake Pops from the book Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor and Leigh Beisch. This was a dessert I’d never seen or heard of before, but when it came down to it, the method was quite straightforward: bake a cheesecake, chill, scoop it into balls, freeze, then dip balls into chocolate and whatever else strikes your fancy. The end result is pretty cute and the recipe makes a tremendous amount of pops - definitely party food. The full recipe was actually said to yield 30-40 pops, but I still got about 30 pops out of only a half recipe! That’s ok, though - I’ll be taking them all to work tomorrow. :)

I baked the cheesecake in an 8-inch square Pyrex pan set inside a larger rectangular Pyrex for the water bath. There was no browning and the cheesecake set smoothly after about 45 minutes. I left it in the oven for about 5 more minutes, though, since others had encountered some issues with it not setting properly. I didn’t have much trouble scooping them out and rolling them into balls, although after rolling the first time, I froze the balls for about 15 minutes and rolled them lightly a second time to get somewhat more uniform spheres…just as one might do for soft truffle centers.

Since I didn’t have time to get to the craft store, I cut “sticks” from colored straws. Although not as strong as lollipop sticks, the straws did a pretty good job of holding up the wee pops (I made the balls about the size of a heaping rounded tablespoon). Also, I went through much more chocolate than suggested in the recipe - about a pound for dipping a half-recipe’s worth of pops. I didn’t make the coating particularly thick - I just think the chocolate estimate was on the conservative side.

I think these cheesecake pops would be something children would like quite a bit; they could easily help with rolling and dipping, and would have fun picking out different toppings to use. My little niece and nephew would probably get a big kick out of them. For me, though…well, they really weren’t to my taste, unfortunately. They’re a little too sweet for me, and I just don’t like the taste of cheesecake and chocolate together (maybe I’m just a freak). That said, I’m not writing these off completely. UPDATE: People at work really liked them, so I think I’ll definitely make them again, and maybe try some flavor variations - raspberry, cheesecake, and chocolate is sounding good right now… I think they’d be a big hit at parties and with kids, and I wouldn’t mind trying to make them look a little more elegant - although maybe I’m missing the point of this messy, sticky, all-American dessert: too much fussing just doesn’t seem right.

Thanks to hosts Deborah of Taste and Tell and Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms for the challenge!

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Daring Bakers, Baking | 26 Comments »

Could it be true that there are no bad recipes for clafoutis? I’ve tried several, and haven’t managed to strike a dud yet. Maybe I’ve just been lucky, or perhaps its easygoing style is part of why clafoutis is such a beloved dessert. It’s rustic and unfussy, but that’s part of its charm - and hardly ever does it seem to be mentioned without a nod to French grandmothers, who must serve it as often as American grandmothers serve apple cobbler. I love it because, let’s face it - I can’t resist simple and homey desserts like these, especially when they make such excellent use of any sort of fruit that may be lying about the house. Also, in my humble opinion, hot clafoutis from the oven is right up there with cobblers and crisps when it comes to comfort desserts. Although I didn’t have a French grandmother to make it for me, it’s certainly made its way into my home as cozily as if it had been there for generations.

Here’s a clafoutis recipe that uses a little more flour than most of the others I’ve seen. The result is somewhat more cake-like, but still bears that delicious custardy texture of eggs, milk, and soft fruit. It’s also not too sweet, so you may wish to add another few tablespoons of sugar if your blackberries are on the tart side. I used a package of frozen berries, which are far more reliable than fresh ones at this time of year. Also, no need to defrost the blackberries before putting them in the batter - they’ll bleed their pretty juices much less if you pop them in already frozen.

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Baking | 8 Comments »

There wasn’t much time to post this week, but I did want to mention the fresh whole wheat pasta we got in this week’s CSA delivery from local pastamakers Fontana Pasta.

I normally don’t eat much whole wheat pasta as I find the texture and flavor of it to be a little too chewy and, well…wheaty. But fresh whole wheat pasta is much nicer. Not only does it cook in half the time, the texture is softer and not as dense as dried wheat pastas. I’d like to see what Fontana’s other products are like now, since this one was such a pleasant surprise.

I served the pasta with a very simple tomato sauce from Sweet Myrtle and Bitter Honey, a book on the food of Sardinia that I borrowed from the library this week. Although this is probably the most humble recipe in the book, and not at all representative of the interesting flavor combinations therein, it’s a lovely basic tomato sauce; fine for a quick weeknight dinner (and frankly was all I could manage on a Wednesday night). I’m going to try to get to a few more recipes before it’s time to return the book, as author Efisio Farris’s vivid prose on Sardinia’s unique cuisine has had me positively glued to the pages!

Bagna de Mamma (Mother’s Tomato Sauce)
Adapted from Sweet Myrtle and Bitter Honey: The Mediterranean Flavors of Sardinia

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 bay leaf
3 14.5-oz cans peeled tomatoes
1 celery stalk, cut in half
1 carrot, cut in half
1 large green onion, chopped
2 sprigs of basil, chopped