Summer Spice Is So Nice

Native corn is here...and it's sweet and juicy and so very tender. We love to eat it on the cob, dripping with butter and sprinkled with salt and pepper. But when we've had our fill, and want to mix it up a bit, we eat it this way--creamed, spiked with slivers of spicy roasted chiles, and smothered with cotija cheese.

You may think that it's a bit sacrilegious to eat Cape Cod corn prepared in such a manner, but I think it rather likes to be dressed up a bit. Everyone needs a little spice in her life every now and then, right? If you can't find cotija cheese in your market, look for a good quality salty feta cheese to crumble on top.






Smothered Mexican Street Corn

While you can use frozen corn to make this recipe, fresh, seasonal, and local corn tastes best. Look for cotija cheese and creme fraiche in the dairy section of your regular market, but in a pinch, feta cheese and sour cream can be substituted with good results.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Total time: 40 minutes
Yield: serves 4-6

Ingredients:

5 ears of corn, shucked, cleaned of silks and cut off the cob
3 fresh poblano chiles
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 cup of chicken or vegetable stock
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
1/2 cup cotija or feta cheese, crumbled

Preparation:

1. Roast poblano chiles over an open flame on a gas burner or under a broiler, using tongs to turn frequently, until the skin has blackened on all sides. Wrap in a paper towel and set aside for 5 minutes.

2. Using the paper towel, rub the skins off the chiles, then remove the stem and seeds. Cut each chile into 1/2 inch strips, then again into 1/2 inch segments. Set aside.

3. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium low heat. Add onion and cumin and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent and soft, about 5 minutes.

4. Stir in corn, chiles and chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally until corn is tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in creme fraiche and cook for 2 minutes more. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if desired.

5. Pour into serving bowl and sprinkle with cotija cheese. Serve immediately.

Farm to Table

Friends, it's on! Summer is here, and with that comes amazing things out of the garden. And everything, it seems, is on steroids this year. Here on the Cape, things usually get a slow start....but sunny weather and warm temperatures, coupled with a mild spring have made produce large and in charge. There are armfuls of lettuce, tomatoes the size of melons, squash (already!), and pea vines, 10 feet tall! It really is a sight to behold.

Luckily, not only do we have our own little garden out back, but we belong to a CSA (or community supported agriculture), where we get a fantastic assortment of produce that we pick up weekly from Seaweed and Codfish Herb Farm. Veronica, the owner/operator/farmer, is a total character, and the first time we met her, she was tending her farm barefoot wearing only shorts and a bra (it was a really hot day). Certainly comfortable among her many chickens, goats, ducks, vegetable beds (and in her own skin), she's one of the few farmers on Cape Cod who grow lettuces all summer, as well as many other crops. When you go to her farm, not only will she show you around so you can meet her many furry and feathered friends, she will take you out to the garden so you can get your pick of lettuce and veggies, which she pulls up and picks for you on the spot. Talk about farm to table!

This evening we picked up edible flowers, red lettuce, boston lettuce, lambs tongue lettuce, 2 pounds of snap peas, a dozen eggs, 3 zucchini, 2 not-quite-ripe tomatoes (her first), kale, cippolini onions, mint, beets (with greens attached) and an herb bundle, that had parsley with leaves so big, they looked like they came out of the Jurassic era.

So what does one do with all that fantastic produce from the CSA basket? Well, for starters, because there is little choice in what you get, you're forced to try things you never have (kohlrabi anyone?), and challenge yourself with new recipes to use up things you have been eating in (over)abundance (kale anyone?). It can be difficult to eat it all up before the next batch arrives....in fact, I still have a kohlrabi languishing in the fridge from last week. But sometime this weekend, I shall make salad or slaw!

For tonight, we whipped up one dozen farm-fresh eggs and poured them over some of the freshly-picked veggies which were sauteed briefly in olive oil. It was a frittata of sorts (sounds so much fancier than baked eggs, doesn't it?), that was simple and perfect and even kind of elegant, especially when topped with a Jurassic parsley leaf. This could also double as an appetizer when cut into small squares and served at room temperature.








Farm Egg and Veggie Frittata

This simple yet elegant dish works well with just about any vegetable you have on hand. Try it with asparagus, or crook-neck squash, add crumbled cooked sausages or peppers...have fun and don't be afraid to experiment! Because eggs are the main ingredient, make sure they are the freshest possible.

Prep time: 15 minutes
Total time: 1 hour
Yield: serves 6 as a main course

Ingredients:

1 dozen eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup heavy cream, half and half, or milk
1/2 cup crumbled feta or goat cheese
2 zucchini, sliced into half moons
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 large handfuls of arugula, spinach or chopped young chard
1 tablespoon olive oil
Minced parsley

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 inch casserole dish. Set aside.

2. Beat the eggs, with salt, pepper and cream in a large mixing bowl until combined. Set aside.

3. Heat olive oil over medium heat in large skillet. Add zucchini, and onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until zucchini becomes tender and onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the arugula (or whatever tender green you are using) and cook for 1-2 minutes more, or until it just begins to wilt.

4. Spread the veggies evenly out in the prepared 9x13 inch dish. Sprinkle over the cheese and then pour over the egg mixture.

5. Place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes, or until puffed slightly and cooked though in the middle.

6. Garnish with minced parsley and serve warm or at room temperature.

Little Devils in the Fires of Heaven

I feel badly because there is one little treat that my husband adores that I don't buy him nearly often enough....dates. Especially the soft kind that are still squishy and yielding to the touch. The kind that smell faintly of raisins and brown sugar and something else that's dark and musky. The kind that taste like remarkably like candy.

Most dates in this country are grown in the Coachella Valley, east of Indio, in date farms which consist of miles and miles of tall palm trees swaying in the desert wind. They thrive in the heat and absolutely love those summer temperatures that sometimes top 110 degrees, though they need copious amounts of water too. There is an old Arabic saying...."A date palm must have its feet in water and its head in the fires of heaven." Fresh dates are harvested in August through November, but are available nearly year round as they store well, and depending on the variety may be soft, semi-dry or dry.

The other day, I bought a package of delightfully golden brown Medjool dates and fixed them as an appetizer for book club....to which my husband wasn't invited. (Don't worry, I did share a small plate with him...) Called Devils on Horseback, these used to be quite fashionable some time ago and are making a comeback for good reason--the soft date, almost too sweet on its own, marries beautifully with the tangy melted Gorgonzola and the salty crunch of smoked bacon. It tastes, in a word, heavenly, which seems awfully appropriate for a fruit born in the fires of heaven, doesn't it?


Bacon Wrapped Dates

Prep time: 10 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes
Yield: 2 dozen appetizers

Ingredients:

5 ounces of soft dried dates, or approximately 24
4 ounces of Gorgonzola cheese
1 pound of apple wood smoked bacon

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Make a slice down the length of each date and remove the pit. Stuff with a small hunk (about 1 teaspoon) of cheese. Cut each slice of bacon in half crosswise and wrap around the dates. Place on a baking sheet, seam side down.

Bake for 6 minutes on one side, remove from the oven and carefully turn dates with tongs, securing any loose bacon with toothpicks if necessary. Return to the oven and continue to bake until the bacon is crisp, another 6-8 minutes. Serve immediately.

Cheesemaking 101

I love making cheese. I suppose that should it be added to my daily regimen of things to do, along with milking my imaginary goats and mucking out the imaginary chicken coop, it might become a cumbersome task. But as it's not a regular occurrence, it is a rather lovely way to spend a rainy morning. And because I make cheese so infrequently, it still feels a bit momentous...like I've accomplished something really, really special. And there is also the not-so-small matter that homemade cheese tastes so very good. It's like the difference between homemade bread and that stuff that comes wrapped in plastic and is sold at that giant supermarket down the street.

And while you might be really impressed that I've endeavored to do such a crazy thing, is is embarrassingly easy to make. So simple, in fact, that I always wonder why I don't just make it a part of my regular homemaking routine....

I love the way it warms up my kitchen with a sweet milky fragrance that smells a lot like baby breath. And while the milk from a goat has a distinctly goat-ish scent, it is not off putting in any way. The resulting cheese is mild and flavorful and perfect spread on some of that homemade bread in your breadbox.







Before you get going, make sure your kitchen counter, your hands, and all the pots and pans you will use are spic and span to avoid contamination. Pour your quart of goat milk (freshly milked...or freshly purchased from your favorite grocer) in a pot, heat it to just before the boiling point, add an acid (like lemon or vinegar), wait until curds form, drain, add salt, and shape. That's it! Simple, right? And so beautiful and tasty too...



Goat Cheese

This cheese is easy to make and even easier to eat. Double the recipe to make more if you want, but keep in mind that it only stays fresh for a few days.

Prep time: 5 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes, plus an hour or two to drain
Yield: about 1/2 cup of cheese

Ingredients:

1 quart of goat milk
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
pinch of salt, to taste

Directions:

1. Heat milk in a large saucepan over medium low heat. Place a candy thermometer in the milk and stir occasionally.

2. When the milk reaches 180 degrees Fahrenheit, stir in the lemon juice. Continue heating until small curds form, but do not let the milk boil. At this point, the milk will begin to look clearish yellow. That is the proverbial whey, which can be drunk, used in baking, or fed to your animals.

3. Turn off the heat. Line a small strainer with cheesecloth. Carefully pour the curds into the cheesecloth-lined strainer, reserving the whey in a bowl underneath if desired. Tie up the cheesecloth and gently squeeze to remove more whey. Hang the cheese from your faucet, or a wooden spoon set over a deep bowl or pot for one to two hours to continue to remove moisture from the cheese.

4. Remove the cheese from the cloth. It will be a bit crumbly. Add salt to taste and then pack the cheese into a small ramekin to store. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Use within a few days.

Lamb and Kaseri Pizza

Oh Friday! You're my favorite day of the week! On Fridays, my husband and I take a collective sigh of relief that our (work) week is over and marvel in the realization that somehow we have survived the craziness of it all. Our cocktail glasses clink together as we begin dinner preparations, which usually include rolling out some pizza dough, all the while dancing and singing along to our favorite tunes.

Tonight our pizza had a decidedly Middle Eastern flair, topped with spiced ground lamb with pistachios and Kaseri cheese. When it came out of the hot oven I spooned over a cool lemon and mint-spiked yogurt, which was a delightful contrast to the warmth of the cinnamon and cumin laced meat. It was reminiscent of the delicious stuffed Keema Naan that we get at the Indian restaurant, its smoky crust blackened in places and quite crisp from its time on the baking stone.

Another delicious Friday night pizza, another faraway place visited with our palate, helping us leave all our week's cares behind. On Fridays, there is always a party at our house, whether it's for two or twelve. Everyone's welcome to stop by-and they often do!



Lamb and Kaseri Pizza

1 recipe pizza dough (or store/restaurant bought pizza dough)
2 T olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 t cumin
1 T chili powder
2 t cinnamon
1 t dried thyme
1 t salt
1 pound ground lamb
zest from one lemon
1/4 C pistashios, finely chopped
2 T chopped fresh mint
1 C diced tomatoes
4 oz. thinly sliced kaseri cheese

lemon yogurt:

1/2 C plain yogurt
1 T minced fresh mint
zest from one lemon
juice from half a lemon
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 500 degrees, with a pizza stone on the lowest rack. Meanwhile, let store bought pizza dough rest for at least 30 minutes, prior to shaping.

Make lemon yogurt: mix together yogurt with next four ingredients. Set aside.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and saute until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add next five ingredients and cook 5 minutes more, or until fragrant. Add lamb, zest, pistashios and mint to pan, breaking meat up with a spatula. Cook until lamb is no longer pink, then drain off any fat. Stir in diced tomatoes and remove from heat. Taste for seasoning.

Roll out pizza dough (or stretch it ) onto floured baking sheet (or floured parchment paper) and spread with meat mixture. Top with slices of kaseri cheese. Bake on a pizza stone (on the baking sheet or parchment) for 15-20 minutes, until crust is crisp and dark golden brown. Remove from oven, spoon over yogurt mixture and top with more fresh mint.

A Super Bowl with Super Eats

A stone, cold groove, is what our friend calls it. Good times with great friends would be another way to put it. But any way you say it, it's what makes life worth living, or at least a heck of a lot more fun. As we jostled for seats around the large wall-mounted TV, some of us were entertained by the sport, and some were watching just for the commercials. Whoops, laughter and even jeers peppered the loud and often rambunctious crowd. New friends mingled with old ones in conversations that lasted well past the trophy ceremony, and the huge buffet of food took us through two mealtimes and managed to feed about eighteen hungry kids and their parents (well, the brownies disappeared pretty fast).

With Mexican being the official theme of this pot-luck gathering, I decided on a recipe I had spied in the Los Angeles Times' Food section the week beforehand; Chicharrones de queso with radish tomatillo salsa. Chicharrones are those huge sheets of crispy fried pork cracklings that can be found in Mexican markets, but the chicharrones of this recipe are made from cheese, cooked in a skillet until crisp. My kids agreed that they did taste an awful lot like bacon and couldn't believe that I had made these huge curled chips out of cheese. But that is exactly what they are....it's like the cheese that oozes out of a grilled cheese sandwich that I eat out of the pan after it has become brown and crisp.

My in laws, once both on the Atkins Diet, avoided carbohydrates for quite a long time, and my mother-in-law used to buy the most amazing chips made entirely out of Parmasan cheese. Although not low in fat, they had zero carbs and were quite delicious. These are much like those, although they are made from jack cheese and served with the most interesting and fresh tasting salsa I have ever tasted. Wrapped up in a corn tortilla and topped with the salsa, these cheese chips were not low carb or low fat, but what the heck! It was Superbowl Sunday!

Chicharrones de Queso

adapted from LA Times Food

2 pounds jack cheese, grated with a food processor or the large holes on a box grater

Grease a large non-stick skillet or griddle (I used both, they were both cast iron). Place a loose 1/2 C of grated cheese onto a hot griddle. Cook on low heat, spreading gently with a spatula to create a 5-6 inch disk, for about 6 minutes or until cheese begins to turn golden. Gently pat dry with a paper towel, and cook for about another minute or so. When golden all the way across, run a spatula underneath to loosen and lift off the griddle so that half of the cheese disk is on the spatula and half is hanging over the edge. Quickly grab it with a paper towel and pinch into a loose, free-form triangle or pyramid shape. Alternately the cheese can be draped over a rolling pin to make a rounded shape. Work quickly, because the cheese will harden once off the heat. The shape doesn't matter at all, it is meant to be kind of rustic looking. Place all your chicharrones on a large tray, lined with paper towels to finish drying. Serve with radish tomatillo salsa and warm corn tortillas.


Radish Tomatillo Salsa

This salsa is so chunky and rich with vegetables that it tastes like a chopped salad. Everything should be diced to be about the same size.

1 bunch of radishes (I like the Easter egg variety), diced

1 large cucumber, peeled and diced

2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and de-veined and diced

1/2 large red onion, diced

5 tomatillos, husked, washed well and diced

1/2 C fresh cilantro, minced

zest and juice from 2 limes

2 t olive oil

1 t kosher salt

dash of cayenne pepper

Stir all ingredients together in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight to allow the flavors to develop. Tastes great with the chicharrones, but would also be fantastic in a breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs.

Gougeres...A Delicious Start to Our Year!

They are bite size, cheesy, buttery and delicious. I made them for the first time on New Year's Eve, after discovering a recipe for them some time ago. Served in many restaurants as an amuse bouche (or mouth amuser in English), gougeres are basically savory puffs made with pate a choux pastry dough, which is simply a mixture of water, butter, flour and eggs (and gruyere cheese) that is cooked in a pot then piped out into little rounds on a baking sheet and finished off in the oven.
Our evening was a simple affair, family and food. Two of my favorite things.




After our appetites were sated on our eclectic mix of appetizers, we headed out to Pasadena to take in a late night preview of the floats lined up in preparation for the Rose Parade. The array of flowers, fruits, vegetables and seeds coating every inch of these amazing floats is always a sight to behold! And when we returned home, we celebrated the new year by popping a few more of those tasty little morsels into our mouths. If 2009 is anywhere close to being as good as those gougeres, it will be a wonderful year indeed!

Gougeres

adapted from Gourmet

1 C water

1 stick butter

1/4 t salt

1 C all purpose flour

4 extra large eggs

1 1/2 C grated gruyere cheese

2 T finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1/4 t freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 t freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, with 2 racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Lightly spray 2 cookie sheets with cooking spray (or butter them).

Combine water, butter and salt in a heavy 3-quart stockpot. Bring to a full boil over high heat, stirring until butter is melted. Reduce heat to medium, then add the flour all at once, stirring until the dough comes away from the sides of the pot, about 30 seconds. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for about another minute and a half to remove excess moisture. Remove from heat and let cool for about 3 minutes.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well with a wooden spoon between each addition. Mixture may appear to separate, but it will come back together in the end. It should be glossy and just able to hold soft peaks and fall softly from a spoon. Stir in cheeses, nutmeg and pepper.

Drop by level tablespoonfulls onto prepared cookie sheets or fill a pastry bag (or you can use a ziplock bag that you snip about 1/2 inch from one corner to pipe out little mounds of dough). Pipe 15, 1 inch diameter mounds, one inch apart on each cookie sheet. Bake, switching positions of cookie sheets half way, until puffed, golden and crisp, about 30 minutes total (although if you drop them by spoonfulls, it will take about 15 minutes longer). Serve warm.

The Big Cheese

OK...I know that I have asked a lot of you lately; making pasta from scratch, making your own pumpkin puree and making your own bread. And I know that this may way over the top, and that some of you are going to think that I am totally crazy, but...I make my own cheese. Although it sounds impressive, it is really not. It is quite simple actually. I started making my own cheese after reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, which details her life over the course of one year of eating locally. She and her family have pizza every Friday, like my family does. And so she took a weekend course on cheese making by Rikki Carroll (of New England Cheese Supply, where you can order all your cheese making ingredients), and began to make her own mozzarella cheese at home, with just a few simple necessities.

It takes about 30 minutes to make cheese from scratch. All you need is a gallon of whole, organic milk (NOT ultra-pasturized), some rennet (which I found at Whole Foods) and some citric acid (the same sour salt that is used on sour candies...I found it at another health store), a large pot and a thermometer and you are ready to go. Part science lab, part chef, your family (and you) will be so impressed with this new skill that you might just have to throw a party to show it off...after all, who makes their own cheese?

The recipe is simple (mozzarella recipe); heat a gallon of milk until it is 55 degrees, add 1 1/2 t of citric acid dissolved in 1/4 C water. When the temperature reaches 88 degrees, add 1/4 t liquid rennet dissolved in 1/4 C water. When the milk reaches 100 degrees, it will be thickly curdled and pulling away from the sides of the pot.

The whey will be clear. Scoop out the curds into a microwaveable bowl and squeeze out excess whey. Microwave for 35 seconds and squeeze and repeat. Eventually you will have a pliable, stretchy mass of cheese that is ready to be salted and shaped.

It is so simple and so delicious.

The first time I made my own cheese, I held the two balls of fresh mozzarella in my hands and cried. It may not be quite an emotional experience for you as it was for me, but it is so fun, and so rewarding that I hope you all will try, at least once, to make your very own cheese.

Penne with 5 Cheeses

I love this recipe for so many reasons. Just look at it! It's creamy and bubbling up with cheesy goodness...five cheeses, in fact. It is a favorite of mine to pack up in a disposable container and bring to friends in need, but it would also be an impressive dish for company. Incredibly easy to throw together, your friends will think you've slaved all day. In reality, all you need to do is heat the oven, cook some pasta and stir together a few ingredients. The beauty of this dish is that you can use whatever cheeses you happen to have. Tonight I used mozzarella, Parmesan and Gorgonzola only and the results were still spectacular. The kids gobble it down and I like it so much more than plain old macaroni and cheese.

Penne with 5 Cheeses

serves 4-6

1 1 lb. bag of good quality, imported pasta

1 pint heavy cream

1 C crushed tomatoes in puree

1 clove of garlic, grated

1/2 C grated fontina

1/2 C grated asiago

2 T ricotta

1/2 C grated mozzarella

1/4 C crumbled blue cheese

salt and pepper to taste

fresh basil leaves (about 10), slivered

butter

Preheat oven to 375°.

Bring a pot of salted water to boil and prepare pasta, under cooking it by about 2 minutes. Meanwhile mix in a bowl, cream, tomatoes, garlic, cheeses, basil and salt and pepper to taste. When pasta is cooked, add to bowl with cheese mixture and toss to combine. Pour into greased 9x13 inch pan. Dot the top with butter. Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until pasta is bubbling and golden on top.

Notes: when I bring meals to friends, I pack them up in disposable bakeware or storage containers (like gladware).