Recipes 4 Survival

Spring cleaning – BreakFeast

May 192013

Seasonal change break feast

On a Thursday morning in late April my bestie called to say she rented a car because she needed to breath salt air – we’d be en-route to Newport, RI by noon. We’ve done this before but this was the first trip this year and the weather was just beginning to break from the frigid monotony 90+ days of sustained 30 degree weather. This was also a perfect excuse to bring my Bronx rescue pup, Little RhODy, to visit his name sake for the first time.

We’d be staying at my friend’s 5 bedroom, open door to all friend’s home, just off of the Ten Mile Ocean Drive where the cupboards, refrigerator and bread baskets are chock-a-block filled with the highest quality ingredients & groceries, a few good knives in a knife block, draws of utensils, equipment & a mother load of mixing bowls, platters, pots & pans, flat, & tableware galore.

The first thing I did was to sort out the bread basket where there was an opened bag of English muffins already going stale & a few packages of some kind of low calorie sandwich pita wrap, an orange or two & a perfectly ripe avocado. Amongst all this I found about half a bag of cipolini onions rolling around on the bottom of the basket, stray from their opened net bag. In a flash I was filling a sauce pot with water, tossing in a good pinch of course sea salt and the onions – as is, skins on to blanch them over a medium high heat with the intention of turning them into creamed onions, which would be the Pièce_de_résistance of this break feast.

Next I’d tackle the fridge. In addition to the standard fare anyone would expect to find in a well stocked refrigerator there were two bags of radishes, bags of salad greens, snow peas, cucumbers, various tomatoes, broccoli & cauliflower flowerettes in a bag.

With the onion boiling and a bowl for shocking them prepped I next got into making the Mediterranean, shepherd salad – cucumbers, tomatoes, course sea salt & olive oil. I threw a couple of left over black & green olives in also.

Then I made the snow pea & radish salad with a Mirin dressing. Simple as 1,2, 3 – especially if you like slicing. Then I blanched the asparagus, toasted sliced baguette, prepped & cleaned the cipollini onions for their veloute – made with the water they were blanched off in. I also cooked the broccoli & cauliflower in this salted onion water, thinly sliced half an avocado, rubbed the toasted baguette pieces with a fresh garlic clove and some tomato. I hand mashed the broccoli & cauliflower with a fork & a drizzle of olive oil & pinch of course sea salt & a grind or two of black pepper.

Last but not least I fried up an over easy egg and OH, steeped a screaming hot cup of English Breakfast tea and plated my beautiful break feast.

Shrimp & Grits – A breakfast for champions

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May 042013

A breakfast for champions

I’ve had shrimp & grits on my mind since Sarah, the home cook on Ludo Lefebvre’s team in the first season of The Taste made it for her ‘comfort food’ challenge and I noticed it on the menu at the new eating establishment in the Mama’s Food shop, Heart & Soul for $20. This put the fire under my tail to Forget make it for myself.

The first time I had shrimp & grits was at The Cotton Exchange Tavern on the river in Savannah, GA. Probably the best place to have it – and yes it was!

After reading I wouldn’t want to tell you how many recipes for shrimp & grits I got down to it the day before my birthday, a cold, miserable, grey, windy, & rainy day – at breakfast time.

I deveined a half dozen shrimp meticulously I got at The Essex Street Market. I love work like this sometimes but a friend of mine bought me a bag of Trader Joe’s, 15 count, colossal, uncooked Wild Blue Shrimp for my birthday since I went off on how killer the dish turned out to be. – They’re just perfect for this recipe.

Yield: 2

Here’s what I used:

For the creamy polenta:

1 C milk to 1/4 C of polenta – soaked in water.

Smashed garlic clove, peppercorns, bay leaves

1 T tomato paste or sauce

a knob of butter

For the shrimp:

4-6 Dveined shrimp

Salt of D Earth, RhODy blend & yellow corn meal for coating the shrimp dusting

Olive oil & Salt of D Earth

1 med. onion – diced

2 good sized garlic dents – minced

Beer

Sriracha Hot chili sauce

Juice of 1/4 of a lemon

What I did:

I start by infusing & scalding the milk w/the smashed garlic clove, peppercorns & a few bay leaves. Strain the infused milk over a bowl. This is the milk you’ll make the polenta in. Hydrate the polenta in an equal amount of water. I find this is a trick to keeping the polenta from clumping when adding it to the scaled milk.

I Dfrosted 6 colossal, 15 count shrimp in a small bowl, overnight in the refrigerator.

Coat the the thawed shrimp with yellow corn meal or flour & my Salt of D earth – I used the RhODy blend which is perfect for this dish.

Sauté the diced onion & minced garlic in enough olive oil to coat the bottom of a saute pan. Add the shrimp. Cook for about 3 minutes on each side. pour in a swig of beer & some hot sauce. Turn the heat off & cover the pan.

Reheat the milk over a medium heat. Pour in & mix the hydrated polenta. Once the polenta begins to bubble stir in a tablespoon of tomato paste or a splash of tomato sauce & then a knob of butter. Mix well.

Pour onto two plates. Top with the shrimp & sauce from the pan. Garnish with sliced scallions, diced tomato or maybe avocado & a squeeze of lemon juice and have yourself a breakfast of champions.

East Village Good Karma HapPY Baked Beans

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Apr 262013

After reading Tamar Adler‘s piece in The Best Food Writing of 2012 from her book The Everlasting Meal I was inspired to put up a pot of beans. I’m not sure where I got the idea to make baked beans, I’d never made them, and Ms. Adler goes off on having beans w/eggs, rice, vegis on toast and then into making a Minestrone. I followed her directions to cooking beans short of adding salt to the cooking water. I soaked 1/2 a bag of navy beans overnight in the -frige in a bowl with at least 2″ of water above the beans. Rinsed them, got them into a heavy bottomed pot and tossed in 2 bay leafs, a few peppercorns, 2 dents of garlic, a sprig of rosemary and some oil into the cold water that was about an inch or more over the beans. Standard, brought the pot to a rolling boil, then lowered the heat, had the top ajar, went to the dog park while the beans simmered. When I got back I turned off the heat and left the beans to saturate themselves sufficiently soaking up their cooking liquids . An hour+ later I drained the beans, reserved some of the cooking liquid stored them in the fridge and started my day.

The next day I pulled the ‘sauce ingredients together. While rummaging through the fridge for the sauce ingredients, the ketchup I used is from nicked & swiped packets stored away in a bag in my veg crisper I came upon a few small carrots, cut them up, steamed them and joyfully got them in to the mix here. All I needed was the molasses. It’s such a fun & easy dish to make and let me tell you, Grandma’s Molasses – an absolute staple for me now. I can see going off with this magic ingredient.

So here’s the question – cooking time: if you count the time the beans are soaking, boiling & simmering & then baking ‘cooking time’ then I’d have to say plan an additonal 2 – 3 + hours. I consider ‘cooking time’ the time I’m at the stove and for this dish, that was less than 20 minutes prepping the beans for cooking, peeling, slicing & steaming the carrots & pulling the ‘sauce’. IN ANY CASE – these baked beans w/carrots are DLICIOUS! MAKE ‘EM. I’ve been adding them to cooked off pasta. Reheats easily at work in a paper cup.

WHAT I USED:

3 Cs of cooked navy beans
2 small steamed carrots – pencil cut
1/2 of a medium – large onion – diced

FOR THE SAUCE
Scant 1/4 C Ketchup – 10 packets of take-out Ketchup
1 good sized T Tomato Paste
1/3 C Coconut Sugar
1/4 C Grandma’s Molasses
2 t tarragon mustard
Good pinch of Salt of D Earth – RhODy blend
Splash of Red Jacket Summer Blend apple juice
T/splash of Worcestershire Sauce

WHAT I DID:

Preheat oven to 325•

In a casserole or Pyrex oven proof baking dish mix the diced onion & steamed carrots into the cooked beans.

In a sauce pan over a med flame combine the ketchup, tomato paste, coconut sugar, Grandma’s (killer) Molasses, mustard, Salt of D Earth, and good splashes of apple juice, & Worcestershire Sauce. Mix until sugar dissolves.

Pour warm sauce over the beans, onion & carrots. Mix carefully. Cover the baking dish w/foil, sit back & write and you’ll be enjoying yourself with a Dlectible dish you won’t get enough praise for.

Scone bread pudding jag

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Mar 312013

All I knew was that I wanted to make a bread pudding out of left over scones.

I had about 4 scones in my freezer for way too long left over from a tea party I helped cater.

I’m not sure how I got on this bread pudding ‘jag’ – but I did. Once I get on one of these ‘jags’ I start researching and comparing recipes to see what ingredients are called for and what I have on hand. I find Martha Stewarts’ recipes the best to work from because they’re well tested.

Here’s what I did to make what I call scone bread pudding : I mixed 6 eggs with an electric hand mixer*, 2 cups of milk – cold, right out of the container and a scant cup of (turbinado) sugar. *If you don’t have a hand mixer, a fork or whisk will certainly do.

Ms. Stewarts’ recipe calls for the zest and juice of 1 lemon and 1 orange. I complied because I consider a lemon and an orange a basic staple I always keep around. Clearly you can make a bread pudding inspired Dssert w/out the juice of a lemon and an orange. I added a shot or two of some brandy I had around since the winter holidays when I served a hot spiced tea.

I poured the egg, milk, sugar and juice mixture over the dried out crumpled blueberry scones.I’m not sure how much my 4 crumpled up scones weighed. Ms. Stewart’s recipe calls for 9 oz. of day old French bread, w/the crust cut off. All I knew was that I wanted to make bread pudding out of these left over scones.

Another message Recipes 4 Survival hopes to share is, MAKE A RECIPE YOUR OWN. I have what I have and this is what I’ll work with. I stirred the scones and egg mixture for a good long time and let this sit with the hope that the scones would soak up as much of the egg mixture as possible.

After about a half hour I poured as much of the scones and egg mixture as I could fit into a small loaf pan and put the rest in a Pyrex baking dish. I prepared a Bain-Marie - which is nothing more than a water bath and popped both baking pans in to a 375• pre-heated oven.

30-35 minutes later the batch in the Pyrex baking dish was ready. The batch in loaf pan cooking in the Bain-Marie definitely took longer to cook – almost an hour and a half.

Of course I dug right in, topping a good sized slice w/a dollop of vanilla yogurt I mixed some beautiful honey into.

I love this dish but I love sharing it even more.

EnJOY!

FoodD

Squash Souffle

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Mar 112013

I came across an old NYTimes Magazine, this past Fall’s Food & Drink issue at a friend’s place. The cover was eye catching and eye candy to me, covered in carrots, about one of my favorite ingredients. Standing at the door, flipping through the magazine I wondered if I’d nick it or not when I noticed a picture of roasted mini sugar pumpkins w/a recipe for pumpkin & cheese souffles. I took the magazine home with me.

Of course I altered the recipe to suit how I would cook never bastardizing such a luscious, naturally Dlicious recipe mixed up with cheese, so this is what I did – simple as – baking a squash, & whipping egg whites. Way “easier than (making) pie”.

The recipe called for 8 mini sugar pumpkins. I had one squash.

I preheated the oven to 350•

I put the washed squash in a PYREX baking dish w/1/4″ of water and covered this as tightly as possible with aluminum foil.

This baked for 40-45 mins.

Once the squash cooled I cut around the top to open the squash up to remove discarded the seeds then scooped the flesh out with a soup spoon leaving about a 1/4″ shell – of the squash. I felt the flesh was just not soft enough so I steamed it for another 10 mins or so.

I added a drop of maple syrup and the yolk of one separated egg, 1 t of unbleached, all purpose flour, 1/8 t baking powder and some Dfinitive blend of Salt of D Earth to taste.

Whipped the egg whites, folded them into the squash mixture then spooned that into the squash shell, then put that in a 375• oven for about 12-15 mins.

Took pictures, no pictures downloaded hence the watercolor of the ‘money shot’ squash souffle, everything crashed and now I’m running on the new mountain lion operating system.

Long weekend between this and visiting the Armory Art Fairs and entertaining visiting luminary/friends.

Try this, you’ll love it and it’s easier than (making) pie!

Alma’s Arroz/Rice shared from the heart

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Feb 222013

As the cashier swiped 4 pacs of Trader Joe’s sweet corn tamales w/mild green chilies & cheese into a large brown paper grocery bag he told me he’d never tried them. I started in on my rave about them when he told me about this fabulous dish he’d had at Alma, the hot Brooklyn eatery & bar just the night before. He described the dish as an almost Mexican risotto with green chilies, corn, onion and some kind of cream cheese, maybe sour cream & of course grated cheddar.

I began by roasting, skinning & dicing a pablano pepper.

Then I medium diced and sautéed half a large onion

Without getting much or any color to the onions I added the roasted, diced pablano & a scant cup of defrosted corn. Mixed this into the rice, grated some cheddar in dolloped with sour cream & Tabasco and had my self a heartwarming dish.

The funny thing was that I’d made the dish at least once or twice before I took a look at the Alma site & menu when I noticed that they mention tomatoes being in their Arroz con queso. Believe me, the next time I made this dish, I brought about 3 Tablespoons of Muir Glen’s fire roasted tomatoes to a very high heat and topped my rice with this – out of this world.

HoliDAY fare to share & Dlight

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Dec 292012

I read so many recipes for cranberry sauce leading up to Thanksgiving this year before settling on one that I’ve now perfected as my newest SpecialD, it was inevitable that I would eventually bake it into a brie because rarely did a cranberry sauce recipe come up without a recipe for baked brie They became synonymous in my mind and especially remembering the first time I dug into one I knew this was going to become my holiday specialD. I was a NYC freshman, meaning I had just moved here after college graduation. I was invited to a high school friend’s holiday cocktail party in her prewar apartment in the Columbia University neighborhood. My world was very different than the world I walked into. I was thrashing around in the slums of the E. Village with barely a table to eat on, never mind various rooms to host a party in yet that taste and sense memory of my first baked brie I’m sure which was made with a raspberry jam, which is pretty traditional preparation has stayed with me for decades now.

Because I’m going to keep my cranberry sauce recipe a secret I decided I would simply illustrate this recipe because it’s so simple to make a bake a brie with cranberry sauce, jam, nuts or just about anything you can think of. Other concoctions I’m going to try in a baked brie are stewed prune w/orange and apricot marmalade and a savory one with tomato paste, olives & basil pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted garlic, it’s endless the ingredients that can be baked into a Brie. I love its versatility and the fact that I can pick up half a wheel of Brie at E. Village Cheese for such a reasonable price I’m keep’n myself busy as the temperature drops. I served this with a rosemary flat bread which was really not great. I think it’s best to serve this with grapes, sliced apple or baguette.

This is also my first illustrated recipe I’m thrilled to share w/you

My first illustrated recipe – Baked Brie – en Croute

Goddess Pie

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Dec 182012

I noticed Shepherd’s Pie on a menu one blustery night at a cozy neighborhood restaurant and wished there was a dish as warm and filling I could enjoy. Brandade is a good substitute for Shepard’s Pie as far as I’m concerned but clearly prepping and dealing with salt cod aint no recipe for survival in my book.

Contemplating Mother Nature and the impending Hurricane SanDy baring down on us and long days ahead stuck in our cribs, thoughts of recipes 4 survival to share were running rampant in my mind.

My ultimate vision is a baked loaf of a layer of fluffy scrambled eggs, onions & rice, a layer of fava bean puree & asparagus tips, topped with a layer of pomme puree dusted with paprika & a sprinkle of scallions.

What I created was close to my vision described above except I used edamame which are a staple item for me rather than the fava bean puree.

Here’s what I did and the ingredients used:

4 eggs, blanched asparagus tips, mashed potatoes/pomme puree, steamed edamame & rice

First I sweated a small diced onion in olive oil & salt of D Earth, added the rice and scrambled eggs and whipped with a whisk over a medium flame.

Whipped eggs, rice & onions

: Stirring eggs with sweated onions, rice & scrambled eggs

The whipped egg, rice and onion became the base of the Goddess Pie.

The next layer was the steamed edamame & asparagus tips, which I topped with the pomme puree/mashed potatoes, dusted with paprika & scattered scallions.

A trick to making the creamiest mashed potatoes is to rice them, mix with some bur/butter & cream or milk. I don’t use butter or milk, I use olive oil and my mashed potatoes are just Dlicious.

Here’s to a light, vegetarian version of a shepherd’s pie. What do you think about the title of this dish, Goddess Pie, bold?

Dt took no time at all to pull this together and boy was it well worth it.

Warm & cozy, filling and cOMforting. Dig IN!

SanDy aftermath lunch

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Nov 222012

After my shopping spree Monday afternoon w/my Arkansas transplant neighbor Kimberly who’s gone through a tornado or two yet was scared shitless about the impending hurricane, I like an idiot ate most of the food that could be eaten in case of a black out that afternoon: crackers, sardines & an apple & peanut butter. The lights went out Monday at 8:50PM. Tuesday morning I made a pot of tea and had some granola and the end of a quart of plain yogurt & blueberry syrup.

Fortunately our water was running tho it was not getting hot and we still had gas in the lines so the stove was working. After a walk around our neighborhood Tuesday morning to survey the aftermath of SanDy I steamed off the two ears of corn I bought from a farmer in Bristol RI that explained it would be the the most Dlicious corn I’d have all year because it had gone through the first early season frost. I served this with tarragon & garlic butter I had in the freezer, another tin of Brisling sardines in olive oil topped with my Salt of D Earth which Kimberly thinks is just THE BEST, those killer 34 Degrees Rosemary Crisps and Kimberly brought up a hard boiled egg which I whipped into egg salad. We finished off a good Cabernet barely said good bye to each other as she went off down stairs. We both retreated to our warm comfy beds and nice music. Because we ate this meal so fast I appropriated these visuals but I hope to draw & watercolor these items for this post in the near future.

PS: I slept soundly after this meal, lulled to sleep by the wind & wine until we ventured out again into the pitch blackness around 9P. I finally caught a signal on my cell and learned that life was as usual above 36th Street and I’d be needed at work the next day. We went and drank whiskey at 2A.

Hurricane Survival – Table of Contents

Food Memoir, helpful tactics, Recipe for survival 1 Response »

Nov 032012

From my ‘Table of Contents’ series – The ABC’s of Hurricane Survival

I thought I’d go through the alphabet, using each letter for a needed staple for hurricane survival, for instance, A is for apples, B for batteries & bananas, C for cracker’s, carrots and chips, D – dried fruit and so on…

Then I looked around me – at my kitchen table and Dcided I would use my ‘Table of Contents’ snap as inspiration for this piece and list everything on this table, starting with the foreground:

Watercolors, color pencils & brushes & a pad – Top on my list of activities when I have time to steal and when one’s food intake is limited to tinned fish & crackers, or apples & peanut butter is drawing.

A crossword puzzle – truth be told, I’m a classified non addictive personality – often to a serious Dfault but doing crossword puzzles has become something of an addiction for me even tho I don’t do this as an addictive personality does things.

Then we have a few receipts; a cab or two & groceries, a business card, my DVinitea charms, Duracell batteries, mixing trays for watercolors, an opened bottle of Poland Spring water a friend gave me, my pouch for my tubes of Reeves Acrylic color, a pinching bowl of Salt of D Earth, Halloween canDy: bubble gum cigarettes, a pack & box of matches, mug of tea, antique hurricane lantern, another tray of watercolors, & various earth colored water color pans, a knob of ginger, a cork screw, a drinking glass, half a head of garlic, dried thyme from my community garden, French sugar Dspenser, glass & brass salt & pepper holders, a brass pepper mill, 2 apples, a cup & saucer filled w/Mentos, a cruet of mirin, a tea light candle in a 18/10 scale Allessi stainless Mediterraneo votive holder, a bottle of olive oil, a butternut squash, 2 pads, a Dcanter of a California BAREFOOT, Cabernet Sauvignon & my red Home Dpot flashlight is in my leather tote bag – which is not pictured.

Soups on

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Feb 192011

It’s Friday. I’m hOMe after a late morning yoga class, a few laps in the slow lane of the Chinatown Y swimming pool, a nice shower and sauna.

My mind is clear and reaDy to tackle the list of e-mails to follow up on as long as my arm but of course I was starving.

I could have opted to pour some organic tOMato soup into a pot from out of a cardboard box but something inside said, NO, make yourself a soup. I’ve got a half a head of organic cauliflower, 4 or 5 heads of garlic, 2 small yukon gold potatoes and vegetable broth left over from the tOMato soup I made for Alex last week.

Healing ingredients

I’ll also highlight the healing aspects of the ingredients in this velvety cauliflower & garlic pureed soup.

What you’ll need: A head of cauliflower, a head of garlic 2 small yukon gold potatoes, 1 C olive oil, 3 Ts of flour, 4 Cs vegetable broth.

First I cut the head of cauliflower into fist sized chunks that look like individual flowerettes. Short of the very course bottom of the cauliflower’s stem I kept most of the stem on each of the chunks. Add a good sized pinch of salt to the water you’ll fill a heavy bottomed pot that comes to just below the bottom of the steamer basket. Bring the salted water to a boil and steam the vegetable ingredients, cauliflower & potatoes for a good 20 minutes. I turned the heat off. With the top on the pot the ingredients continue to cook another 10 minutes or so.

While the cauliflower & potatoes were steaming I got to cleaning and preparing the garlic for roasting.

If you’re new to cooking and not so comfortable with a knife, leaving the inner green ’stem’ in a garlic dent if FINE. Many cooks don’t remove it. One chef I cooked with says the green ’stem’ can heighten a bitter taste in what you’re cooking.

To roast the garlic use the whole cloves that are slightly cracked from the initial smash to get the skin off added to about a 1/2 C of organic, cold pressed olive oil. Cook over a medium heat. You want to see little bubbles. Don’t let the oil get to hot. A gentle simmer is great.

While the garlic was roasting I pureed the steamed cauliflower & potatoes in my ordinary blender, no fancy Cuisinart. I sliced the potatoes into 1/4″ discs when I added them to the blender. I blended these ingredients in two batches adding about a cup of vegetable broth. This and additional organic vegetable broth are what I’ll add to the roasted garlic roux to make the soup.

With the garlic roasted, garlic infused seasoned oil and the steamed cauliflower & potato puree, I began to make the roux. This is simply done by mashing the roasted garlic cloves, adding the garlic infused seasoned oil and a small hand-full of unbleached flour.

I added about a 1/2 C of the vegetable broth to the roux to create the creamy stock for the soup, then I began to add the cauliflower & potato puree, alternating between adding stock & puree. Stirring all the while.

MMgOOd and you’ll feel great too and boy oh boy did I have a LOT from just a half a head of cauliflower.

Tags: cauliflower, cold press olive oil, garlic, health supportive, organic, puree, recipe, roux, soup, steamer basket

a New Angle for R4$ and a cheese strata

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Apr 012011

This is the 1st episode in, ‘The New Angle on Recipe$ 4 $urvival’ series and I just love it.

The rain started last night and the weather word was that there was no end in sight until sometime the next day. I woke late in the morning but with great energy despite the bleak & gloomy day; I was very inspired after visiting The Armory (Haj) on Pier 94, PULSE & Volta shows. I dragged the tripod out, kept the height just to my waist, twisted the camera onto the tripod shoe and snapped it into place but now the Protaganist is the cutting board on the corner of my new, French farm table, my hands at work and my vocal banter keep the viewer guessing and laughing.

Not that you would know it, but my foray into video came about ass backwards. Mosaic composition and creating interval for the viewer are the aesthetic concepts and the foundation for all my projects. I was trying to make a ‘sound documentary’ circa 1987. You can imagine, pitching this to record execs got me nothing more than squinty eyes and a reminder, “not to use the D word, you may have to call your project a non fiction feature” and “what kind of director did I think I was, I was shooting in video, not film?” Dlightful, right…now I just don’t care and I think this new angle on Recipes 4 $urvival is brilliant. It’s almost as good as if I were doing a cooking show on the raDio. Another concept I’m looking to pitch.

I’m curious what you think. It will take 8-9 minutes of your time. I hope you’ll share it to your friends. Let’s make Recipe$ 4 $urvival – viral.

I can’t seem to upload the piece directly to this site (seems its too big) so I hope you’ll visit my youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/recipes4survival#p/a/u/1/MmxyGRZYouk Continue reading »

cOMplementary meal

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May 172011

When I first made this meal and video I called the piece ‘Colorful Meal’ but as I look at it now and begin to write this piece I’m gonna call it what I have, THE COMPLIMENTING COMPLEMENTARY MEAL.

The dish is complementary because the colors and textures are opposing and harmonizing while also being complimentary because it is flattering and gracious and when I typed the word complementary I spelled it with an I and noticed the synonyms were not the synonyms of the complementary I wanted but now I’m off on the subtle difference in the spelling of the word(s) which compliment each other – Let’s get on with it awreaD.

Clearly it’s the colors of the raw materials that got me going, the red/orange of the salmon, the green of the watercress and pea puree and the yellow of the creamed corn. There are so many ways to take this dish over the top so let’s consider this a strong foundation for always serving and whipping up complementary dishes, I say here’s to juxtaposition on a plate!

At first you would think the watercress & pea puree and creamed corn are complimentary, meaning too much alike but I think the dish works on a whole. I think steamed carrot or a thick slice of a warm, sun-ripened, farm fresh eastern LI tomato off set on the plate would certainly also add to the dish.

The first thing I made was the CREAMED CORN

Dice and sauté an onion. Add 2 Tablespoons of olive oil or the equivalent of butter SIDE NOTE I happen to have butter around, which I RARELY do but I was making and testing recipes for scones like a crazy person for one of my ParTEAS™ which I held and hosted at The Ivy Brown Gallery last month. to the sautéed onions then sprinkle with flour. Now you’re making a roux. Add milk and you’re making a white sauce. Add the corn and some water, mix and let cook. Now you’ve got creamed corn.

If you have cornstarch, you’d make a slurry of cornstarch and water and add this to the corn, onions and milk and again, have yourself creamed corn.

I poured the creamed corn mixture into a blender and gave it a quick blend. If one has a Cuisinart you’d give the creamed corn mixture a quick PULSE.

Next I brought well-salted water to a boil for the WATERCRESS & PEA PUREE

Add Peas to the boiling salted water. I used 1 cup of peas to one bunch of watercress. Recipes I read call for twice this, 2 Cs of Ps and 2 bunches of H2Ocress.
Once the water has come back to a boil and the Peas have floated to the top, turn of the heat and add the watercress. Let the watercress wilt for 5 minutes in the salted boiled water with the Peas.

While the Peas and H2Ocress were cooking I cleaned out the pan I made the creamed corn in and PAN SEARED AND POACHED THE SALMON

Get a nonstick pan hot. Pinch some Salt of D Earth into the hot pan and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan, slices from a good sized garlic clove and a squeeze of 1/2 a juicy lemon. If you have some white wine, black pepper corns, a bay leaf, any of this helps, just COOK YOUR SALMON. I cooked my salmon steak for about 4 minutes on each side with a top on the pan so I was actually also poaching the salmon You may want to cook your salmon in a soy sauce?

Again, pan searing and or poaching?? COMplementary cOMplimentary.

You should be done by now and reaDy to plate.

Get on with it. Dig in. Aren’t you starving?

Much
LO
VE,
FoodD

You can also find Me on youtube via this link: http://www.youtube.com/recipes4survival
or
by clicking the YOUTUBE link on the menu bar.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Recipes for Hurricane Survival

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Aug 282011

Dear friends, the frenzy to forage for food and running to the market as an emergency situation looms and standing on a line that wraps around the perimeter of a supermarket I think is downright foolish. If we follow my simple theory about the importance to “maintain basic staples” we’d all be in much better shape even under non emergency conditions. We’ll be proactive and not reactionary.

So lets look at what non perishable foods to keep around. The first item that leaps to my mind is GRANOLA. I’m also totally into this new food item I just came across called GLAD CORN. It’s over sized half popped corn kernels, all organic of course. Dried fruits and nuts, especially almonds are great to have around. I have two packages of Kame rice crackers and a tin or two of fine fish, sardines in olive oil or mackerel. Certainly beans & grains are important to keep around. Quinoa is my favorite due to it having zero salt and fats while being very high in protein.

I’m gearing up to shoot a Recipe$ 4 $urvival episode during the hurricane. The dish I’m going to make is far from seasonal but it will be OH SO GOOD. I’m going to make sugar plum grape tomato and vidalia onion RISOTTO. Stay tuned.

Here’s to cooking up a storm.

X OMe, FoodD

Smack’n Good Mac n Cheezse

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Apr 012012

Macnchz ingredients

MmmgoodMac n Cheese

It was a cold & purple grey day. My first errand was to bring a bag of clothes and other bits to the Salvation Army thrift store on 4th Avenue & 12th street, then book return & renewal at Ottendorfer library http://www.nypl.org/locations/ottendorfer. The stupid thing is I set out on these errands on a pretty empty stomach. Leaving the Salvation Army I went straight to East Village cheese as though being led by a magnetic force and fortunately its right in the middle of my path between the Salvation Army & the library.

Known for it’s rock bottom prices, East Village Cheese is definitely top on the list of my staples shopping dance card. It’s a perfect place to stock up on staples. It’s important to be aware of expiration dates though. I walked out with a half pound wedge of Five Counties Cheese; Layers of Britain’s best; Derby, Red Leicester, Cheshire, Double Gloucester & Cheddar cheeses, an 8 oz of container of mascapone which I’ve never splurged on before but at $1.79 for the container – I grabbed it. 1 pint of diced cheddar, 1 qt of whole milk Turkish yogurt 1 package of sliced Jarslberg and a chunk of triple cream brie all for just over $12. I usually get olives, jams, cookies and crackers here but I have all these in stock now.

Because I’m fanatic about using only organic, semolina duram wheat pasta, I buy it whenever I see it. Sometime ago, I can’t remember where but I picked up a bag of Chiocciole – pasta shells that look like large snails. With this mother load of cheese I couldn’t get home fast enough to whip up a batch of macaroni & cheese. Truth be told, if I could, I would eat macaroni & cheese 4 times a day every day, so with this said I maintain great restraint with myself but on a day like this I’m treating myself.

I recently read a food blog that declared Martha Stewart’s macaroni & cheese recipe the best. Even though I took a look at the recipe I immediately started making changes to the recipe so it would work for me. MS’s recipe calls for making croutons which will be toasted on top. I didn’t have the makings for this but I did have a few small packages of oyster crackers left over from… so this is what I used. I crushed them in my over sized mortar and pestle, tossed them w/olive oil and Salt of D Earth. MS’s recipe yield is 12, mine yields 4. I made the recipe work for me and what I had at hand – 1 cup of milk vs her 51/2 cups of milk to 1 stick of butter and 1/2 C of flour.
Basically you stir various cheeses into a bechamel/white sauce, bring the pasta to a boil, mix together, bake and serve

I used:

oyster crackers for the topping
2 Ts butter and 1 T of olive oil
1 C milk – warmed
3 Ts of flour
Salt of D Earth
2Ts whole milk yogurt
2 Ts of mascarpone
1 C of shredded or cubed cheddar
1 C of the shredded 5 counties British cheddar

What I did:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

I made the oyster cracker crumb topping tossed with olive oil & Salt of D Earth top first

I made the whole dish in an oven proof pan. If you don’t have an oven proof pan you’ll have to prepare a casserole for baking.

Seasoned cheese sauce

Melt the butter and olive oil. You may also use all olive oil. When the butter bubbles whisk in the flour. Cook for about a minute. Slowly add the warm milk to the roux – the butter & flour mixture.

Remove the pan from the heat. Season with salt, pepper, Salt of D-Earth, nutmeg and cayenne pepper are often called for. Whisk in the various cheeses you choose to use and have available.

Cook about a 1/4 pound of pasta in boiling salted water until the pasta is al dente – slightly under cooked and drain. Rinse under cold water.

Stir the macaroni into the cheese sauce.

Macnchz ready for the oven

Sprinkle the cracker or whatever topping you choose along with any remaining cheese you may have. Bake until browned on top, about 30 minutes.

I advise letting the dish cool but if you can’t wait, be advised the dish is bubbling hot.

Serve this with a green salad, maybe a glass of wine and I think you’ll have yourself a really memorable ‘recipe 4 survival’.

Karashi-Mentaiko

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Dec 182011

Karashi-Mentaiko in cream sauce over angel hair pasta

If the title and the main ingredient product shot hasn’t intimidated or scared you away, you’re a special one and we’ll be rockin on. I’m thrilled to share a fabulous dish that takes minutes to cook and costs less than $3 per serving.

Hiroko, the woman I work with, told me she made her daughter’s favorite dish the other night because she won a Naginata championship. Katie is a champion in various Japanese marshal arts but Naginata is her absolute passion.

“So what’s Katie’s favorite dish” “Karashi Mentaiko, it’s spicy codfish roe in a cream sauce over angel hair pasta.” Now I did a full body spin around and said, “Wait, I love that dish. I order something like that at Typhoon, the hugely popular Japanese lounge in the E. Village.

Hiroko tells me the dish is so easy to make and it takes no time at all. Inspired by her instructions and her daughter’s taste buds I was determined to make the dish myself. Later that afternoon I joined Hiroko on her weekly grocery-shopping trip to Sunrise Mart, the Japanese specialty Mart in the E.Village, so she could show me exactly which codfish roe to use. It’s called Karashi-mentaiko in Japanese. For English-speaking-me: spicy Pollock roe. I paid $7.50 for a package with 2 large pieces/sacs of the Karashi-Mentaiko.

I was tripped up by one of the ingredients Hiroko used because I don’t typically cook with cream or milk for that matter. Then I thought to myself, I have fabulous whole milk yogurt from Trader Joes, I’m gonna try and make it with that.

If it weren’t for the somewhat tedious exercise of scraping the roe out of the very thin membrane sacks the roe is in

removing karashi from membrane sacks

and the 9-10 minutes it takes to cook dried spaghetti or 3-4 minutes for angel hair, this dish would honestly take no more than 5-6 minutes to prepare. A new SpecialD for sure.

WHAT YOU’LL USE

1/4# – Angel hair or spaghetti – Use organic pasta that is made from semolina, whole durum wheat. I suggest no longer using enriched pasta.

2 sacks of spicy Pollack roe, (Karashi mentaiko or non spicy is called tarako)

2 T butter or olive oil

2 t Tamari or soy sauce – optional

2 T – cream or whole milk yogurt

For Garnish:

Dried nori cut into thin strips, scallion slices, chiffonade shisho leaf, an edible leaf in the basil & mint family, alfalfa or radish sprouts

WHAT YOU’LL DO:

Bring 5-6 quarts of salted water to a rolling boil.

While the water is coming to a boil, slit the roe sac length wise and scoop the roe out with a spoon onto a plate. Discard the membrane.

In a saucepan over a medium heat, add the olive oil or melt the butter, add the soy. Turn off the heat and mix in the roe and whisk to break up any clumping of the roe.

This is where I substituted the yogurt for cream. I used about 2 heaping Tablespoons and whisked everything together, making a lovely sauce.

At about this time the water should have come to a rolling boil. Add the desired amount of pasta and cook until your desired tenderness. If you’re using angel hair 3 minutes is perfect. If you’re using standard spaghetti, 9 – 10 minutes. Reserve at least 1/2 C of the cooking liquid. drain the pasta and add it to the pan of codfish roe sauce immediately – still dripping from the cooking liquid is fine . Stir in the sauce pan to coat the pasta well.

Place in bowls and garnish with any of the suggested toppings or anything you may choose or have around.

Enjoy. It’s Dlicious, it’s Dlightful, its Delctable.

Trick and Treat, Husk Tomato/Ground Cherry Jam

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Nov 272011

I was invited to the Harvest Festival at The Sylvester Manor http://sylvestermanor.wordpress.com/on Shelter Island one of the most glorious weekends this year.

About a dozen or so EZ-UP, pop-up tents, manned by local vendors and food artisans offered up various delicacies from smoked turkey or brisket sandwiches, brick oven grilled pizza, all organic – kale, sweet potato & chic pea style soups and coleslaw to local wines, squashes, and Sylvester Manor eggs, husk tomatoes, breads, flower wreaths and cutting boards. The tents lined one edge of the farm’s ‘center field’ where a small stage was platform to a number of folk acts that played the last few hours of the weekend’s festivities.

My friend’s blanket was laid out just to the right of the EZ-UP tent where the ‘sound board’ was in the center of the ‘center field’. As we were finishing lemonades and kettle chips and getting into our sweatshirts as the warm sun set for the day another friend showed up w/a brown paper bag half full of husk tomatoes, grown on The Sylvester Manor farm. No sooner had he sat down when I had one of these yellow marble sized morsels pinched from it’s husk in my mouth. OOoos, ahas and yums drifted and filled our space as hands of adults and kids dove into that bag with little restraint.

Husk Tomatoes or Ground Cherries look like a mini heirloom tomatoes but taste like a cherry and tomato mixed into one bite. Pretty Dlectable if you ask me. Immediately I thought to myself, “this would make one killer tomato jam.” One of my all time favorite delicacies.

Concerned that the two pint baskets I got would yield very little I thought adding my next favorite delicacy, Peppadews, would bulk up the yield while also adding so much to the flavor and body of the jam on a whole.

After photographing these most gorgeous and interesting husk tomatoes or ground cherries I got that sauce pot out.

What I used:

2-3 T of olive oil – enough to coat the bottom of a pot with a thin coat of oil.

1T of red pepper flakes and 1 T mustard seeds

2-3 good sized garlic dents – minced & sliced

2 baskets of Husk Tomatoes - husked & washed – some cut in half

6-8 Peppadews – sliced and 1/4 C of their liquid

1/2″ ginger root - finely grated

2T tomato paste, 1-2 T sugar and or maple syrup.

What to do:

Add the red pepper flakes, mustard seeds, garlic and ginger to the olive oil heating over a medium to low heat to infuse the oil with these savory flavors. Then I added the washed husk tomatoes and the sliced Peppadews and their liquid. Stir well, lower the heat.

When I tasted the mixture at this point it was really hot, spicy hot, so to take it down a bit I added the juice of a small wedge of lime, about 2T of sugar and a good swirl of Maple syrup. I also added some freshly ground nutmeg*

Nutmeg is hardly a staple ingredient but I keep it around because a sangha member who’s authored a book on natural healing mentioned my using nutmeg when he noticed I was trying to suppress my cough during a dharma teaching. I also store my mini grater in the bottle I keep the nutmeg in and thought of it when I looked for it to add the ginger – which I think is a must ingredient for this recipe.

This Husk Tomato/Ground Cherry Jam is fabulous as a topping on baked potatoes, scrambled eggs, on buttered toast of any kind, and any protein.

Spanish Armada & SaltD

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Feb 262012

After stumbling upon an article raving about the food lover’s Williamsburg, highlighting The Bedford Cheese shop & Saltie I thought for sure they would be perfect candidates to make a Salt of D Earth ‘sales call’ to. After a morning yoga class, a quick swim and sauna I began to plan my Williamsburg assault…pretty simple, first I’d go to the Bedford Cheese Shop then I’d reward myself with a sandwich at Saltie. The Captain’s Daughter is all the rage with the press and really all the sandwiches, the entire menu of 7, seem to get their inspiration from each of our earthly continents. They are thoughtfully created and curated if you will. I plunged, with way more restraint than anybody else in the tiny space, into the Spanish Armada, a perfectly made, chock full of potato Spanish tortilla on a half foot square of fresh focaccia topped with pimentón aioli. I cut the sandwich in half, Dvoured one half sitting at the counter and wrapped up the other half wich,(I like the pun here) I savored at home while researching how to make a Spanish tortilla. Knowing what I know now I’ll want a flotilla behind me in support of all the beautiful food I’m so inspired to make with these downright simple, earth bound foods.

My recipe yields are for 1-2 people as they’re usually tests. Most recipes call for twice the ingredients I work with.

Spanish Tortilla

You’ll need:

A non-stick pan, potatoes, salt, oil, eggs, onion, aioli or mayo and paprika. I forgot to include the bottle of oil in this picture.

Most recipes call for 6-7 potatoes, any potato will do, russet, Idaho, Yukon, Bliss, to 5 eggs. I used about 1 pound of small, tri-colored roasting potatoes I had around, half an onion diced and 3 eggs.

The technique to how the potatoes are cut I think is key. Cut the potato in half, length-wise. With the flat side down on a cutting surface, slice across the top of the potato halves slices that are about 1/8” thick. No normal person would slice potatoes the size I used and truth be told, regular white potatoes look nicer and are far easier to work with. The tri- colored potatoes look exciting in the photos.

The onion is diced.

There are a number of cooking techniques that make a Spanish tortilla all that it is and not just a potato omelet.

1. The sliced potatoes and diced onions are salted.

2. You cook the potatoes and onions in a good amount of oil.

3. They are then added to hand beaten or whisked eggs.

4. Mix the cooked potatoes, onions and egg mixture and pour this into the non-stick pan you cooked the potatoes, onions in.

A few recipes call for up to 2-3Cs of oil. I used just enough oil to cover the potato, onion mixture when spread evenly over the bottom of the pans surface. Cook the potatoes, onions until they can be split with a fork or spoon.

I then added the cooked potatoes, onions and oil to the beaten eggs. I mixed this well then poured it back into the pan that I melted about 1 Tablespoon of goat butter on to.

A trick I learned is that the 1st minute of cooking time with the egg, potato, onion mixture must be very hot for the egg to not stick. It’s strange but no matter how much oil, and recipes call for only a thin coating of oil at this point the eggs should not stick. Then you can cook the tortilla over a medium high heat until you see the edges pull away from the side of the pan. The middle will still be runny but when you can lift a side up and get a spatula well under it, it’s time to do the ol flip-a-roo Don’t fear it. Place a dinner plate over the top of the pan, stand over the sink and flip.

Put the pan back on the stove, heat for 20-30 seconds and slide the tortilla back into the pan. Cook this for another 3-4 minutes, turn off the heat and let it sit for about 2 minutes before flipping it back onto a serving plate.

It’s highly likely the tortilla will split on the first flip. Worry not this is not the ‘presentation side’ and and once the tortilla is back in the pan all mistakes seem to work themselves out.

The creme de la creme here is not the crema Catalana that I tried to make but the pimentón aioli. Fortunately it can be made quickly by adding paprika to good quality mayonnaise. I look forward to making the pimentón aioli from scratch. This is a true delicacy.

SaturDAY toasted banana walnut tea loaf

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Jan 302012

Sunny winter SaturDAY eats
Toasted Banana Walnut tea loaf w/Peanut Butter & Beach Plum Jam
Making It (on) Your Own
What I find so much fun and liberating about cooking is reviewing recipes, seeing what ingredients are called for and then working with what I have, making recipes my own.

I had that all to familiar over ripe banana on my kitchen table for way too long. I started looking up banana bread recipes when I remembered a fabulous moist ‘tea loaf’ I had during the holidays when I began searching recipes for a banana tea loaf which I thought would be moister than your standard banana bread. The recipe I chose to work with was English. The measurements were in metrics and from the git go I knew I didn’t have enough butter. The recipe called for 3 oz of butter which translates in my mind to 3 Tablespoons – of butter. I had about two Tablespoons of butter – I added a tablespoon of oil.

You’re suppose to ‘cream the castor,(fine sugar) and butter ‘till fluffy. I only have an old hand mixer and used organic Turbinado sugar. Nothing looked fluffy or creamy about my sugar and butter when I added the two eggs which were meant to be beaten before adding them to the creamed butter and sugar. Next mash the bananas – which becomes a liquid to be added to the dry ingredients: 8 oz of flour a pinch of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda. sugar & butter, alternating between the liquid of creamed butter, sugar and the eggs and then the mashed bananas.

I had an aluminum loaf pan I didn’t even prep, meaning I didn’t butter or flour coat the inside. I simply poured the batter into the unprepared, virgin aluminum loaf pan. I got that into a preheated 350 degree oven. – Wait – maybe the oven wasn’t preheated enough. Maybe that could effect the loaf’s density and moistness? Oh right, I remembered I had walnuts in the -fridge and combed them them through the batter in the loaf pan.

As far as I’m concerned this loaf was almost a flop. I was disappointed with the texture, moistness,(or lack there of) and density but I don’t believe it’s because of the few adjustments I made. If it is – I’m livin’ with it & lov’n it actually thanks to the mighty TOASTER.

It’s a beautiful sunny winter Saturday. I went to the Tompkins’ Square library to put a number of books on hold. I got hungry on the short walk over there and all I was envisioning was sitting down to a hot cappuccino & a good croissant. Luckily the perfect place isn’t between my place and the library – SMILE

I came home and whipped that banana walnut loaf out of the freezer.I cut two nice slab like slices w/a serrated knife and into the toaster they went.

Toasting is a prescription I can see getting addicted to.

I liberally spread good organic peanut butter onto the two toasted banana walnut loaf slices and topped each with a tablespoon of East Hampton beach plum jam – a delicacy item I cherish and savor and a steaming cup of Yogi Black Chai tea.

As I sat down and dug into my toasted banana walnut loaf slice, PB & J and took a good long sip of that tea I had a laugh as I heard the voice of an old mate/friend in my head saying, “PB & J on toast, that’s the “Breakfast of Champions”. I must say I’m feel’n like a Hero as I sit here perfectly satiated, happily writing this piece.

Oscar popcorn after thought

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Feb 272012

I didn’t have much on my agenda for today but to prepare something to bring to my friend’s Oscar watching party and buffet. A happening we now describe as a tradition.

I made a Spanish Tortilla for breakfast thinking this would be perfect to bring but ended up eating half of it throughout the day once I learned my friend was already serving a potato dish. I gotta say, I’m really perfecting the Spanish Tortilla each time I make one now. See entry below.

Sure I could bring a bottle of wine but I really wanted to bring something I made, good for casual eats, finger food buffet, easy to make and transport, healthful, Dlicious and fun. I can’t say popcorn for an Oscar party is any surprise but mine was! I was happy to have our spicy, flavorful popcorn to talk about because that ceremony left quite a bit to Dsire. I got more ooos and ahhs then Billy Crystal did. Maybe you’ll try making this: Freshly popped corn in olive oil topped with Salt of D Earth, curry powder, golden raisins & dried cranberries I whipped up, spiced up, embellished and pour out into a brown paper bag shook that up and was on my .

Passover meal #3

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Apr 082012

CanDied carrots over quinoa w/onions & garlic

What a perfect Passover meal #3 – Quinoa with sweated onions & garlic cloves topped with canD.ed carrots.

I have a large ziplock bag of cooked quinoa in the freezer from a catering ‘gig’ I worked on recently and I had 3 carrots, 1/2 an onion, some grapefruit juice & honey around. Staples friends…

I added about 2 cups of the frozen quinoa to the sweating onion and 3 roughly chopped garlic cloves in my small sauce pot.

I peeled and sliced the three carrots on an angle and steamed them for 20-30 minutes.

To make the glaze I melted about 3 Ts butter, added Salt of D Earth (the seasoned salt I make) and added a splash of the juice. Most recipes call for the juice of one orange and it’s zest, I used grapefruit because that’s what I had in the -fridge. I used honey and about a Tablespoon of Turbinado sugar. When I’ve used orange juice to make canD.ed carrots I don’t use any. In less than 3 minutes I had a beautiful glaze. With a slotted spoon I tossed the perfectly steamed carrots into the glaze and swirled the pan to well coat the carrots. I molded the quinoa into an over sized cup, turned that over into a bowl, put the carrots around it and topped it w. the sauce and a few of the carrots.

Ginger which is a staple would certainly have been nice in this glaze & so would a pinch of cumin. I kept it really simple tonight.

Edamame dumplings

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Jul 012012

Over a month ago a friend wrote about having had the most Dlicious edamame dumplings. Reading this before 8AM I thought to myself, “I can make the most Dlicious edamame dumplings.” That’s how this jag came about.

Please find the first ‘short’ I’ve ever made. I hope this whet’s your appetite for the full episode which might be about 10 minutes. The full episode takes you through making the edamame puree – which I made w/watercress, garlic & ginger, folding various shaped dumplings, making the dipping sauce, steaming them, serving them and eating em!

I hope you enjoy. Remember I can take orders for home Dlivery if you’re with in the Manhattan city limits.

Much love.

Keep it simple.

Cook More, Spend Less, Feel Better

FoodD!

Shavasana Dream

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Jul 132012

While lying in Shavasana the other night I remembered that I had some milk hanging around in a thermos for what could have been a day too long already. My next thought for some reason had me making corn pudding with a half a bag of the Trader Joe’s yellow organic corn I have in the freezer, right next to an all natural pie crust I bet corn pudding would do quite nice in. If my meditation/concentration skills are lacking I guess I’d rather be wondering in my fridge or freezer vs a friend of mine who ends up at the make-up counter at Bloomingdales – not that I mean to stand in judgement – SMILE!

Here’s what I did when I got hOMe from yoga – in no time at all:

I melted a nob of butter in a pan over a medium/low heat. Sweat half of a medium diced white onion. Then I poured in a heaping cup of Trader Joe’s organic yellow corn and poured in one cup of the milk that had about a day left to it. Scald the milk. I poured these ingredients into a colander over a bowl of two beaten eggs then whisked in a 1/4 C of corn meal & a T of Turbinado sugar. Once the onions and corn were well sweated I added this mixture to the egg batter, mixed well and pour it into a blind baked pie crust in a 350 degrees. With the corn pudding in the blind baked crust I turned up the heat to 375 degrees. I always bake things w/eggs in it at 375 degrees. I don’t know if I read something about this, heard it through a friend, maybe it’s even an old wives tale – but I cook anything w/eggs in it 375 degrees.

I cleaned up while my corn pudding quiche baked. It looked so gorgeous; puffy and caramelized around the edges after about 35 mins. I turned the heat off and pecked off a draft version of this entry. I plated a good sized slice with a balsamic cipollini onion, black cured olives, peppadews & my absolute favorite: Castelvetrano olives.

Shavasana dreams

I picked these delicacies up at the ‘olive bar’ at the Whole Foods just above where I lied in Shavasana after yoga at the Bowery YMCA.

Grey Lady Lunch

Food Memoir, Traveler tales 1 Response »

Sep 092012

It was an overcast day so it was perfect for a trip out to the Madaket Mall, ‘take it or leave it’, ‘swap shop’, ‘reuse ‘center’ at the dump. From here a visit to the Barlett’s Farm ‘mart’ was definitely in order. I left w/a small vidalia onion quiche, 4 ears of corn, a bunch of heirloom ‘purple haze’ carrots and a yellow watermelon, a treat synonymous with Nantucket to me.

Walking to our car I noticed the Nantucket Catch refrigerator truck with the backdoor opened and a lovely woman in an apron just waiting to hand over her goods. I got us a gorgeous pound of monk fish.

Here’s what I started with to make a lunch in honor of a composer friend visiting the island for the first time.

Monkfish, purple haze carrots, corn, red quinoa

Our finished lunch was: pan seared Salt of D Earth seasoned flour & dry mustard dusted monk fish medallions, honey roasted roasted purple haze carrots, freshly steamed corn off the cob dressed w/olive oil & sea salt, red quinoa and a sauce of molasses, rose’, & a splash of earl grey tea

Skillet Pizza – My newest specialD

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Oct 092012

A friend or mine, who happens to be one of my favorite chefs worked on the Bon Appetit, Clam & Swiss Chard Skillet Pizza shoot a couple of months ago and could not stop raving about it. The recipe definitely works except that I felt I needed to work w/the dough again. My first try, the dough was too thick for my liking. Not a fault of the recipe – just technique and know how would certainly have me perfecting skillet pizza. SO, it’s been knocking ’round in the back of my head for some time now to make it again. You should know by now that I use recipes as an inspirational spring board only.

I bought, of course, all organic pizza dough, 2 balls in the freezer case at Whole Foods, (for less than $2.) because the recipe explains a brilliant technique for Dfrosting and then working with the pizza dough

If you’re using fresh or alreaDy Dfrosted dough – give me a minute here and let me describe this fabulous Dfrosting technique: Bring at least 6 Cs of water to a boil. Fill a bowl that can take boiling liquids, put a cookie tray on top of the steaming bowl of water, sprinkled the cookie sheet with flour, place the frozen dough on it and cover/tent the dough w/plastic wrap. 10 minutes on each side.

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.

While the dough is Dfrosting prepare your pizza toppings. The pizza I made was sautéed leeks, corn, & basil infused mascarpone.

Once you make a skillet pizza I’d bet anyone $4 that you can make it in just about a half hour.

I prepped the leeks the traditional way, by cutting the leek in half length wise, then thinly slicing across and washing them well in cold water.
Drain the well washed leeks and add to heating olive oil, Salt (of D Earth), & garlic slices in a heavy skillet. Add the corn and cook until just tender. Trader Joe’s, all organic frozen corn is really Dlish.

With your toppings cooked, prepared or sorted out and the dough defrosted and ready to work with you’re going to roll it out.
Pizza dough is not like working pie crust dough which I find difficult to work with. Pizza dough on the other hand is ‘resilient’ if you will, really easy to roll out and work with. You just need some ‘bench flour’ to roll the dough out – into a circular shape that will then fit into your skillet.

Here’s a big trick. After preparing whatever topping you want, you’re going to use this pan to cook the pizza in. The pan must be perfectly dry w/no oil residue. Get the pan very hot and sprinkle corn flour over the bottom of the pan. Place the rolled out dough into the pan.
Brush or coat the dough with olive oil – however you like. Another reason I’m so into skillet pizza is because its SO hands on.

The first time I tried the recipe I used one whole ball of rolled out dough and fit that in the pan it was just to thick for me. The toppings I used were sliced steamed carrot, sunchokes & sautéed clams.
This time the pizza – the crust was much thinner, more to my liking and much more organic in shape. It worked perfectly.

Ya wanna keep the bottom from sticking – working with a wooden spatula keep lifting the dough up and shaking the pan a bit.
Ya wanna work fast.
Top your skillet pizza. I laid out the corn and leeks, salt of D Earth, and topped that with dollops of the basil infused mascarpone.

Put the pizza skillet into the 500 degree oven and let it cook another 6-8 minutes.

The pan & the pizza are screaming hot.
Let them cool.
The pizza will come right out of the pan, cut & serve.

Red, white, beer, juice for kids whatever…
It’s my newest specialD.

Share w/me some toppings you use.

ENJOY!!

FoodD
D@recipes4survival.com

Older Entries

Recipes 4 Survival

Spring cleaning – BreakFeast

Shrimp & Grits – A breakfast for champions

East Village Good Karma HapPY Baked Beans

Scone bread pudding jag

Squash Souffle

HoliDAY fare to share & Dlight

Goddess Pie

SanDy aftermath lunch

Hurricane Survival – Table of Contents

Soups on

a New Angle for R4$ and a cheese strata

cOMplementary meal

Recipes for Hurricane Survival

Smack’n Good Mac n Cheezse

Karashi-Mentaiko

Trick and Treat, Husk Tomato/Ground Cherry Jam

Spanish Armada & SaltD

SaturDAY toasted banana walnut tea loaf

Oscar popcorn after thought

Passover meal #3

Edamame dumplings

Shavasana Dream

Grey Lady Lunch

Skillet Pizza – My newest specialD

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