Happy New Year!!!

Some tasty bites for your New Years Eve enjoyment....

Sable with creme fraiche, dill and whitefish roe on seeded crackers

 

Minted mashed peas with harissa yogurt and chopped black walnuts on whole grain crostini

 

White truffle butter-sauteed morel mushrooms on brioche toasts with thyme sprigs

Chili and dill pickled quail eggs and shaved shallots on cracker rounds

Salted dark chocolate-dipped candied oranges

Thank you for your continued support - it has been a wonderful year sharing good food and life with you all! I love how much this little blog has grown with your help, shaping and reflecting so many adventures - great and small - along the way.  I look forward to all the new goodies we'll cook up together in the coming year. Wishing you all the very best in 2013!!!!!

Braised Lamb Shanks, Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding

Have I got your attention? At this point in the year - for my northern hemisphere, non-equatorial friends, at least - you are hunkering down for the bite of winter soon to approach, if it hasn't already. And with that frosty chill in mind, here are some extremely rewarding recipes to dive into and repeat often. You will certainly want to, once you have lifted fork and tasted the juiciness, the melt-in-your mouth flavors that have earned their place at your table....

And for dessert..... Because, why stop without a nibble of something sweet to send you fully on your way, warm and sated after braised and baked delights?

Braised Lamb Shanks - from Canal House Cooking

Serves 6

Good olive oil

6 lamb shanks

1 small bulb of garlic, cloves peeled

9 small onions, halved lengthwise

1 cup red wine

1 cup crushed tomatoes

2 bay leaves

6-8 cups chicken stock

2 lemons, quartered

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Heat a good glug of olive oil in a dutch oven or large, deep enameled cast iron pot over medium-high heat. Season the lamb shanks with salt and freshly ground pepper. In batches, brown the shanks on all sides, about 10 minutes or so, and transfer to a platter as browned. Lightly brown the garlic and transfer to the platter with the meat. Add the onions in the pot, cut side down, and sear without turning them, until nicely browned, about 3-5 minutes. Transfer them to the platter as well.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees (F). Pour off any fat and get up any of the black bits in the bottom of the pan with a damp paper towel. Bring pot back to the flame on medium-high heat, and add the wine and bring to a boil. Stir in tomatoes. Return the shanks, garlic, onions, and any juices on the platter to the pot. Season with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper. Add bay leaves and stock, then the lemons. Cover pot and transfer to oven. braise the mixture in the pot until shanks are tender, about 2 1/2 hours. 

Uncover the pot and continue to cook in the oven, until shanks are so tender the meat nearly falls off the bone and the braising liquid has reduced a bit, about 45 minutes or so. 

Serve the lamb, garlic, onions, and lemons with polenta or mashed potatoes and a black-berry, round red wine (any of these is great ~ Red Zinfandel, Malbec, Primitivo, Mourvedre).

Buttery Skin-On Mashed Potatoes

Serves 6

4 floury potatoes, like Sebago, diced

4 dense, buttery potatoes, like Yukon Gold, diced

1/2 cup heavy cream

A few good knobs of great butter (from grass fed cows is best!)

Sea salt and cracked black pepper

In a pressure cooker or in a saucepan with a wire basket, steam potatoes over boiling water until fork tender. Strain potatoes and place into a large bowl. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, heat cream and butter until butter has melted and cream comes just to a boil. Mash potatoes with a fork or masher, add cream-butter mixture, and season to taste. Mash to the consistency of your preference - chunky or creamy, as you like. Serve warm beside extra pats of butter.

Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding

Serves 6

2 eggs

1 2/3 cups self-rising flour

1/3 cup dutch process cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 cup full fat milk

1/2 cup Frangelico, Sherry, or Amaretto

2/3 cup dark chocolate chips or chunks

Preheat oven to 325 degrees (F). Using an electric mixer, beat together butter and just over half the sugar until pale and creamy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs and beat to combine. Sift flour, baking powder, and two-thirds of the cocoa powder into butter mixture, and stir to combine. Add milk and liqueur and beat until smooth. Add in chocolate pieces and stir to combine. Pour batter into a buttered 8-inch baking dish.

Add together remaining brown sugar, cocoa powder, and liqueur into a bowl and stir. Add 1 1/3 cups boiling water, whisk together, and pour mixture over pudding batter. Bake until cake has risen and a skewer inserted into cake center comes out almost clean (but not quite), about 35-40 minutes. Cool for a few minutes and serve warm. 

Comfort and Good Food in the Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy

No one could have guessed just how greatly people would be affected by superstorm-frankenstorm-latest-climate-change-disaster-Hurricane Sandy. I am fortunate in my neck of the woods to have only sustained numerous fallen trees. We are so grateful to have our lives intact.

Photos courtesy of Jim Lafferty

On Tuesday as everyone began to pick up the pieces, we drank with a wonderful woman who had lost pretty much everything. Her home was swallowed in a fire that leveled much of her block. She swam across the street against the strong current to safety - with the help of a rope anchored to a house there - leaving behind a wonderful bean stew she'd been cooking on her stove, along with everything else in her home.

Yesterday, I spent the day baking cookies for relief victims. Home cooking makes such a difference in times of intensity. With my famous rosemary-sea salt-shortbread cookies and new double chocolate chunk cookies in tow, along with bags of supplies, prepared foods, clothing, and the like, my husband and I borrowed a friend's car and made drop-offs at two relief centers in Brooklyn. I wish I could have made 10 times as many, seeing faces light up at the offer of freshly-baked treats. It was one way in which I could begin to mend the frustration and loss that so many people now face.

(For recipes, scroll to bottom)

To weather the storm, we stocked our pantry well. On-hand was plenty of wine, prosecco, tequila, and the like, and I made toasted hazelnut & dried cranberry granola, easy guacamole, and an all-time-fave, roasted pumpkin fondue. The creamy-cheesy roasted savory-sweet goodness of the squash (and some bubbly to wash it down with) made a great difference through the howling of the storm.

There are many ways each of us can help. You can donate here to help a great woman who ran an animal rescue and lost her business, home, and a number of the animals she cared for. If you are local to NY/NJ, you can visit here to find out where to drop goods off, and to learn what people need most.

As I get caught up, I realize we are approaching the national elections in just a few, short days. There is a very important bill for review in California that I wanted to share with you. Passage of this bill, named Prop 37, will grant Californians the right to truth in food labeling. Big Food does not want this transparency. They want to continue operating under the radar, retaining the ambiguity of what foods are or aren't GMOs. Unlabeled, these foods have an easier chance of ending up in our pantries and onto our plates, but, with an educated public, we all can assert we have the right to know what we are eating and feeding our families. You can learn more about it here, here, here, here, and here. Just as we require that food be labeled if it has sugar or fat in it, we deserve to know if there are genetically modified ingredients as well. Please share this milestone opportunity with your friends everywhere, as what happens in California will undoubtedly pave the way for the nation. Vote YES on proposition 37. We deserve the truth.

And, lastly......

I'd made some wonderful mussel recipes when my friend Jon sent a batch not too long ago, and I am excited to share a new favorite recipe with you. These mussels have ruined me for any other, which I almost always find lacking in adequate plumpness and freshness. The mussels are from Taylor Shellfish Farms. Top-notch, every bit juicy and wonderful.

Freshly harvested, the mussels' beards are still intact

Celery & Pernod Mussels with Saffron Aioli

Celery & Pernod Mussels with Saffron Aioli

Serves 2-4

for aioli -
a good pinch of saffron threads, steeped in a tiny bit of warm water
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup good mayonnaise - I use grapeseed oil Veganaise, it tastes great!

for mussels -
good olive oil
4 celery ribs, sliced thinly on a mandoline
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 shallots, chopped
2 1/2 lbs mussels, scrubbed and de-bearded
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1/2 cup veg or chicken stock
2/3 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup Pernod
sea salt and cracked black pepper

 Allow saffron to steep in warm water for at least five minutes. Add saffron mixture and garlic to mayonnaise, stirring thoroughly to combine. Season to taste with s & p, cover and refrigerate. This can be done a day in advance.

In a cast iron skillet, heat a generous glug of olive oil over a medium-high flame. Sautée shallots for a few minutes, stirring as they brown. Add garlic and sautée for another minute. Pour in Pernod, wine, and stock, and once liquid is bubbling, add in the mussels. Using tongs or a spoon, make sure they are in a single layer and cover with a lid, cooking until their shells have opened, about 5 minutes. Turn the flame off. Toss in the celery and parsley and season with salt and freshly cracked pepper, and serve in large shallow bowls, accompanied by crusty bread.

Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies - adapted from the Dahlia Bakery Cookbook

makes 24 4-inch cookies

3 pastured eggs at room temperature
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup almond meal
2 tsp good quality vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 cup plus 5 tbsp butter, softened
1 cup moist brown sugar, packed
1 1/4 cups cane sugar
1 cup milk chocolate chunks
1 3/4 cups dark chocolate chunks - I chop a larger bar, using Callebaut, into smaller chunk pieces for both

In a small bowl, combine eggs and vanilla extract, whisking to combine. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda + powder, almond meal, and salt. Combine butter and sugars in a third bowl and, with an electric mixer, cream on medium-high speed until very light and fluffy. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl, incorporating all the bits back together. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Add half the egg-vanilla mixture to the fluffy sugar-butter mix and beat to combine. Add the remainder, and beat again to combine. Add the dry mixture and beat on low until evenly distributed. Do not overmix. Add the chocolate chunks and stir until just combined. Portion large tablespoon-sized mounds (about 1/4 cup apiece) evenly apart on parchment paper-lined baking trays, keeping it to 6 mounds per tray (the cookies will spread as they bake). Bake for 8 minutes or until the edges are browned and keeping the centers lighter, for that perfect gooey-done consistency. If you are baking on multiple trays, rotate which is on top/bottom for even baking. Cool on a wire rack and serve while chocolate is still slightly melty, about 15 minutes.


Roasted Pumpkin Fondue

Serves 1-2, depending on the size of your squash

One smallish pumpkin, top cut off and seeds scraped out
Thinly sliced stale bread/well-toasted bread - I used a combination of french baguette, a seeded loaf, and rye - use whatever you have laying around
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 cup grated gruyère or other melty cheese
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
small pinch of cayenne
sea salt and cracked pepper
Good olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, whisk to combine stock, cream, and spices. Rub a bit of olive oil around the entire exterior of the squash as well as its top, and place on a parchment paper-lined roasting pan. Layer slices of bread, followed by cheese, until you have filled the cavity of the pumpkin. Pour in the stock-cream mixture. Replace the pumpkin top and bake for 45 minutes, or until the flesh of the squash is fork tender. Remove the top and allow to cool for a few minutes and eat directly from the squash, or serve into bowls, being sure to scrape the soft pumpkin flesh out to accompany the fondue. Yummm.


We are at a time of reflection - both with the passing of the year, days shortening and more time spent indoors, and also because this life-changing disaster has struck. Find what makes you feel most fulfilled, and do more of it. Be hungry for that search. Help your neighbors and your friends in the midst of it all. That is what being alive is about. xxxoo

Happy New Year!!

It has been quite a holiday season. Instead of allowing myself to slow down these last days, things seem to have only picked up! My parents have come to town and I LOVE being with them (they are like my best friends), but I gotta say we've been doing far to much lifting and running around. A turn of the century highboy is now in our living room, as is a Knoll mid-century settee, and a Spanish tiled end table. They are beautiful. I feel so lucky to live with these new beauties, but I am pooped having lugged them to our top-floor apartment.

I made a wicked hummus, a roast chicken, garlicky mushrooms, lentils and preserved lemons, and a cranberry apple tart for a special potluck upon my parents' arrival. For Christmas - and for my step-grandfather who doesn't get much home cooking - my whole family teamed up to prepare garlic and rosemary roasted leg of lamb, minted mashed peas, roasted veg - including tons of shallots and the sweetest tiny carrots! - caramelized turnips, parsnips, potatoes, and an exquisite pan jus. And yesterday we endeavored a fab butternut squash risotto with toasted walnuts and shaved parm, and a  raw celeriac-haricot salad with grain mustard vinaigrette. Just the right amount of creamy butteriness and bright, crunchiness.

What's on the menu for New Year's, you ask? I haven't got a clue. But, I'm sure I'll figure something tasty out. In the meantime, these sweets and bites may make an appearance while I catch up to myself...

Crunchy Bacon-Wrapped Potatoes with Thyme Mayonnaise
Serves 6-8

For the mayonnaise, I used a good, prepared mayonnaise to make my life easier. In a mixing bowl, squeeze juice from half a lemon onto 3/4 cup mayonnaise, and add leaves from a good bunch of fresh thyme. I like the peppery taste thyme imparts, so feel free to use as much as you like. Season with s + p to taste and stir the mixture to combine. Spoon into a dish and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (F). Take 20 small potatoes (I used Yukon Gold) and give them a good scrub under cold water. Slice 10 pieces of good bacon in half and wrap around each potato, securing with a toothpick. Place all in a roasting pan and put into oven to bake. After 10-15 minutes the kitchen will smell of heavenly bacon and the crackling, sizzling sounds will drive you crazy. Turn each skewer for even browning, and repeat the process after another 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven when bacon has cooked through or to your liking, a half-hour or so. Set on absorbent paper to cool, and then place on a serving platter with sauce to devour with friends.

Pear & Dried Cherry Tartlets
Makes 6 tartlets
6 peeled and cored bosc or similar firm pears, chopped into 1/2-inch chunks
1 1/2 cup dried cherries
1 cup Calvados or other spirit
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup cane sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp heavy cream

For the pastry
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sea salt
2 sticks cold butter, cut into small cubes
1/4 cup ice water, or a little more if necessary

For the pastry, pulse the dry ingredients in a food processor until combined. Add butter and pulse until the mixture looks like a coarse meal. Drizzle ice water in and pulse again, until dough just starts to come together. If dough is too dry, add a tiny bit more water and pulse again. Empty out onto two sections of saran wrap, separating into two mounds. Gather each into a ball and then flatten into disks, wrapping loosely in the plastic. Give each a once-over with a rolling pin in each direction, and refrigerate until firm, about an hour.

Dress the pears in juice squeezed from a couple wedges of lemon and set aside. Put the cherries in a small bowl and pour liquor over. Let sit for 1/2 hour or longer so that the cherries may absorb the liquid (they should plump up nicely). Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Roll out first disk of dough to 1/8-inch thick and cut out 6 rounds using your tartlet tins as a guide. Drape the dough across each tin and press into the bases with the back of your index finger. Refrigerate until firm. Roll out second disk and do the same - these will serve as the top crusts. Using a small cookie cutter, perforate 3 of the dough rounds in an off-center pattern. You can paint a little water on the cut-outs to re-affix onto the dough surface if you like, echoing the original cut-out pattern. Refrigerate again.

Toss the cherries and liquor in with the pears and add the spices and sugar. Mix well to combine. Spoon the mixture into the pastry shells, mounding it in the center. You can add a few dots of butter if you like, but I didn't this time around and they turned out just great. Lightly beat the egg and cream together, and paint the wash along the edge of the tart shell. Place the top crust over and press gently around the edge to seal the two together. Be careful of thin lines in your perforated design: remove from the fridge and allow to warm slightly so that when you drape it over the tart filling, it does not tear. Paint surfaces with egg wash and chill again. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets and bake for 35 minutes or until crust is golden. Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes and then using a pot holder or plate, invert to release from tart tins.

Everyone needs a good bubbly to celebrate with, and we are blessed enough to rely on the expertise of our friend Leigh. Her lovely little wine shop, Picada Y Vino in Brooklyn, showcases great and unusual finds like this biodynamic and crisp (with notes of strawberry!) sparkling rosé. We bought a few bottles to give as gifts, and we are excited to stock a few more for ourselves. :-)

Salmon Roe and Quail Egg Blini 

Serves 6

12 blini 

3 oz salmon roe

12 quail eggs

2 tbsp crème fraiche

2 tsp dijon mustard

6 tarragon stems

7 chives, minced

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees (F). Warm the blini for 5-8 minutes on a baking sheet. I bought mine from this wonderful deli called Russ and Daughters - a Manhattan establishment open since 1914 - but you can certainly make yours from scratch if you like! Mix the crème fraiche, chives, and mustard in a small bowl and set aside. In a cast iron skillet or stove-top griddle on medium-high heat, fry the quail eggs sunny side up. Transfer to a plate when cooked through, keeping the yolks soft. 

Place the blini on a platter and spoon a little crème fraiche onto each. Top blini with a quail egg and then spoon a little salmon roe onto each yolk. Garnish with tarragon, and celebrate!

Lastly, amidst this sweet revelry, I would like to wish you all a prosperous, loving, peaceful, and just 2012. Let's embrace our loved ones and empower others in creating a more just world for us all to live in, for our children and our children's children. 

Happy New Year!!!

Pairings at The New York Times

Suffice it to say, I love shooting projects for The New York Times. I love the challenge to create something interesting and graphic that will show well in either color or black & white, depending on how that week's paper layout determines. Here's an article - with a great recipe, by the way - in which I produced the photography. Appeared in yesterday's print edition and is currently viewable online.

Another I liked, an outtake...

Tis the season.... merry, merry. :)

Winter Cooking, Chocolate Mousse & Sweet Paul Holiday Edition

Sweet Paul Magazine came out yesterday, and we all agree that it looks fabulous. I had so much fun working on the issue! There is photography by me throughout, including this and that. But the real show-stoppers are my Winter Cooking story, and the Fave Photographers' feature. So cool!!!

Here is another look at the tasty morsels...

I can attest that each and every item is sensationally tasty. Please click here for the recipes and tell us what you think!

When Paul asked me about my signature holiday dish for his favorite photographers story, my mind went racing. I could do the leg of lamb I love so much or different cookies that sing the holiday-tune, but as I thought further, I knew my Kahlúa chocolate mousse had to be it. In an ad torn from the pages of a really old issue of Gourmet, this recipe is what I make to surprise neighbors and colleagues with (and when I don't make it, you can believe I hear about it).

Here's a pairing I fancy that didn't appear in the magazine. The plum garnish is a playful adaptation from the famous "Twas the Night Before Christmas" poem, where it says "...while visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads"... The glistening sugar coating offers a nice crunch, and the flesh makes for a bright and juicy accent in all that chocolatey depth!

A sublime treat to enjoy whenever, and especially nice to share with loved ones. This has been another great adventure. More on the way soon!