New Home for the Sage

I have finally found a good home for the copious amounts of sage coming out of my garden: Rendezvous Restaurant in Central Square.

Chef/Owner Steve Johnson has always been passionate about sourcing local ingredients, and I often run into him at the Monday farmer's market across the street from his restaurant. I intuited that his menu used sage, so when I went there for dinner last week, I brought a gallon ziploc bag of leaves. Thankfully, he uses them in his chicken marinade and could handily use a gallon a week.

Roast Chicken with Chanterelles, Corn and Green Beans

I returned this week with another gallon bag of leaves to discover they are featured on the halibut as well. Last Saturday night, he sold 35 portions... a huge number for the 180 covers for the night.

Sautéed halibut with apple, butternut squash, smoked bacon, sage and cider butter sauce

Challah Cravings

I woke up the other day with a phantom scent of Challah in the air – that sweet, yeasty aroma. And while drinking my coffee, I could practically taste it. Have you ever had that feeling before? I have… it was a few months ago when I was visiting the farm. Lucky for me, Brett had all the ingredients in the pantry: bread flour, yeast, oil and sugar. Eggs were out in the chicken coup. The two loaves of challah had barely come out of the oven before I began tearing into. I pretended to have made only one loaf because when Brett and Chris returned, that’s all that was left. It was so, so good that when I got home, I immediately stocked my pantry with bread flour and yeast.

Challah is not an easy craving to satisfy quickly. The dough itself only takes about 20 minutes to pull together, but then it must rise twice: first in a big mass of dough and then a second rising after the loaves are formed.

My patience paid off…. And those aromas wafting through my house are real. Mmmm….

1 package dry yeast
3 ½ cups bread flour
½ cup oil
¾ cup warm water
1 tsp. salt
¼ cup sugar
3 eggs
Poppy or sesame seeds

Combine water, yeast and ½ cup of flour in a mixing bowl (use the bowl of a kitchen aid if you have one). Mix to combine. Let sit for 20 minutes or until the slurry gets frothy.

Meanwhile, combine the oil, 2 eggs, sugar and salt. Add this to the flour/water/yeast mix and combine. Add the remaining flour and knead in a machine with a dough hook (10 minutes) or by hand (15 minutes).

Let rise for 4 hours on the counter, covered with plastic wrap, or in the refrigerator.
Divide the dough into 8 balls and roll out into strands. Make two loaves with 4 strands each. For tips on braiding challah, go here. You can also watch YouTube videos.

Make an egg wash with the remaining egg, and brush on top of the loaves. Sprinkle with seeds on top. Let rise for 1 hour.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Ideally, you should let it cool before eating, but you don’t have to.

End of Summer Round-Up, Part 2

In a nutshell, it was a great summer! My garden yielded more produce than I could have imagined. I had enough to share with friends and neighbors, and plenty for my own meals.

This was the first full season with my new garden… it was in the middle of last summer that I dug up all the crappy Cambridge “soil” (bricks, glass, trash with a sprinkling of dirt) and replaced it, 2 feet deep, with high quality compost. The new garden also gave me twice as much growing room as before.


I’ve resigned myself that the sage will be as much as an ornamental plant as it will be for cooking. I started the summer with 5 plants which quickly took over. I moved one to the front yard and dug up a second entirely, dried the leaves and burned it throughout the house to scare away any evil demons. Even with 3 plants (picture on the right), they look as lush as when the sage sagas began (picture on the left).


The aphids had a great time chowing on the brassicas – the kohlrabi, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts. Despite regular spraying (with organic pesticide, of course), I still lost a few plants. Speaking of cauliflower, I only got one head from the three plants. I enjoyed watching the flower grow out of the bouquet of leaves. But in the end, it was bitter and the yield didn’t justify the space. The kohlrabi on the other hand, did quite well. Roasted with olive oil and garlic, it was the dark horse of the summer vegetables.

I grew three varieties of tomatoes – 1 heirloom and 2 hybrids. The heirloom, on September 22nd looks as if it might give off one ripe fruit before the first frost. The hybrids on the other hand generated a few dozen. I forced myself to space the tomato plants with at least 2 feet between them – It took great self control to not crowd as many plant into the garden as possible, but in the end I was rewarded. The plants grew much larger with more fruit than in past years.

Similarly, the eggplant rewarded me by giving me lots of fruit. In past years, I’ve tried growing eggplant and have been lucky to get one spiny fruit. The zucchini on the other hand did not give me a single vegetable, though I did get lots of blossoms. The raspberry bush burst red twice – once in early June and a second time in late August.

In past years, I grew cucumbers mainly for my friend Anna who likes them so much. This year, I discovered the joys of pickling so I had very little in the raw form to share. The few that were spared the salty brine were snacks. I was surprised at how sweet they were!

The celery grew slowly throughout the summer. As needed, I would trim off a stalk to add to a recipe. I’m hoping that by mid-October I will have a celery root to harvest.

Homemade Ricotta

It first occurred to me to make fresh ricotta when I was approached to teach a class at Williams-Sonoma. I was going to demonstrate how to make fresh mozzarella (which I learned at Restaurant Nora). To give the class a theme, we decided on “Homemade Cheeses.” I had never made ricotta before, but I was a quick learner.

Since then, I’ve revised my theme to “The Ultimate Homemade Lasagne.” With the exception of the parmesan, I can make everything from scratch: pasta, Bolognese, ricotta and mozzarella. I can even use the tomatoes and basil from my garden! It’s truly rewarding to do it! The satisfaction of making a meal entirely from scratch, but also how deliciously amazing lasagna can be… the ultimate homemade is really a different beast.

Ricotta is the simplest recipe of the whole process. And it doesn’t require any special ingredients: just milk, cream, salt and lemon.

Combine ½ gallon of whole milk with 1 pint of cream and 1 tablespoon of salt in a large pot, stainless steel pot. Bring it to a simmer over medium heat.

While the milk is heating, squeeze enough lemon juice to yield ½ cup. Line a colander with cheese cloth or coffee filters.

When milk starts to simmer, stir in lemon juice. Stir just enough to combine. The more you stir, the smaller the curds (which is a bad thing). Let sit for 20 minutes to let the curds separate from the whey. They whey will be a translucent, white liquid.

Scoop out the curds into the colander and let drain for about 1 hour, or until the curds are dry. Keeps for about three days. Yield: 3 cups.

Serving suggestions:

• Mix with basil and serve with crackers as an hors d’œuvres
• Use as a filling for raviolis or cannelloni’s
• Use as a filling for cannolis
• Make a sweet ricotta tart

CROSTATA di RICOTTA

Crust
1 cup sifted all purpose flour, plus extra for “dusting”
6 tbs. butter, room temp
2 egg yolks
4 tbs. sugar
4 tsp. Marsala
1/2 tsp. freshly grated lemon peel
1/4 tsp. salt

Ricotta filling

2 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. freshly grated orange peel
2 egg yolks
3 tbs. raisins, rinsed and drained
2 tbs. slivered, blanched almonds or pine nuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Make the crust: In a large mixing bowl make a well in the flour. Drop in the butter, egg yolks, sugar, Marsala, lemon peel and salt. Mix the ingredients together, but don't overwork the dough. Roll out the dough on a floured surface until it is about 1” around wider than the pan, and about 1/8" thick.

4. Lightly butter the sides and bottom of a 9 1/2" false bottom pan. Carefully, press the pastry into the bottom of the pan and around the sides. Be careful not to stretch it. Trim excess.

5. Combine cheese with sugar, flour, salt, vanilla, grated orange peel and egg yolks; beat until they are thoroughly mixed. Stir in the raisins. Spoon the filling into the pastry shell and smooth with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle the top with slivered almonds or pine nuts. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 1/2 hour, or until the crust is golden and the filling firm. Remove from oven and let the pie cool before serving. Garnish with fresh strawberries, if you like.

End of Summer Round-Up, Part 1

In the final hours of summer sun, I harvested 3 Italian eggplants, 2 Japanese eggplant, a large fistful of chilies (of unknown variety – my neighbor Craig gave me this plant), 8 cucumbers and 3 tomatoes. I picked a gallon of basil leaves to freeze. The celery and Brussels sprouts continue quietly growing – they will be the showcase of the autumn harvest.

And the Winner Is.....

*******Drum Roll, please!******

Paul Sussman's Buttermilk Fried Chicken!

*******applause, applause applause****

Please welcome Chef Paul as he shares with us his recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 small chicken (I like small chickens, around 3 pounds, what used to be called “fryers”, rather than “broilers” which weigh in at 4 to 5 pounds because when frying chicken the challenge is to cooking the pieces through before over- browning the batter.
• 1 cup of cultured buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon salt
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground, toasted cumin
• a few sprigs of fresh thyme
• a few drops of Tabasco
• Flour (preferably non-bleached white) (finely ground corn flour can be mixed in, or even substituted entirely)
• Oil for frying
  

Cut the chicken up into 10 pieces as follows: Remove the backbone and use it, with the heart and gizzard to make stock. Fry up the liver and eat it, well salted and smushed on crackers for a snack. Cut the wings off, cut the legs off, split the legs into thighs and drumsticks and then split the breasts in half. The breast splitting is optional, but remember that smaller pieces fry better and everyone wants a breast, so we now have 4 instead of 2. Remove the skin from all but the wings.

Combine the buttermilk, salt, pepper, cumin, leaves of thyme stripped of the sprigs and Tabasco. Add the chicken, mixing well, and refrigerate for several hours, up to 24.

Drain the chicken, retaining the marinade. Put some flour in a bowl, put the reserved marinade in a bowl next to it. Dredge each piece of chicken in the flour, shake off the excess, dunk into the buttermilk, then back into the flour and arrange them on a sheet pan with enough room to keep them from touching. Put them in the refrigerator for 15 minutes (this allows the flour to absorb all the liquid making a batter.)

Heat ½ inch of oil in a heavy skillet to 350 to 375 degrees. If you don’t have a thermometer, or are too lazy to use one like me, the oil is at the right temperature when a few drops of water flicked into the oil sizzles (hot enough) but doesn’t explode (too hot).
Lay the chicken pieces into the pan without crowding, let them set for a minute then move them around a bit by sliding a metal spatula under beach to make sure it is not sticking.

Now, the hard part is keeping the temperature right. The cold chicken will reduce the temperature of the oil, so you might want to raise the flame when you first put the pieces in, but beware of leaving it too high. In other words, you must watch and adjust accordingly, to keep things sizzling, but not burning, turning the pieces when they need to but not too often so the batter has time to set.

When done remove the pieces onto something absorbent. (“When done”? How do I know when, you ask? And I answer, as all chefs do: “well… you just know”)

Popeye's Smack Down

For those of you keeping track…

It all started with a twitter David received from Popeye’s that Cakebread Chardonnay is the best wine pairing for Popeye’s mild fried chicken. As everyone knows, I have a weakness for Popeyes, so we promptly organized a Popeye’s-Wine Tasting. Alas, Round I yielded no clear winner. Chicken was great, wine mediocre. You can read about it here.

For the second round of Popeye’s-Wine tasting, we brought in the competition – Coast Soul Café Fried Chicken. The wine selections were better, and Popeye’s still is the best fried chicken. More details here. Chef Paul departed that evening with some fighting words, “I can make better fried Chicken than Popeyes!”

Now this was no longer about the wine pairing… it was about the Chicken. I have no doubt in the world that Paul is a talented chef… if you’ve had his Shrimp Shrimp Cha Cha Cha (or mac and cheese, or chicken wings) you’d know. But compete with Popeyes??? His response: “I sez BRING IT ON!!!!!”



Last Saturday we gathered at my house for a Popeye’s Smackdown! Coast Soul Café had already rendered itself unworthy, so we did not bring that into the mix. In one corner we had Paul’s iron-skillet, buttermilk battered fried chicken. In the other: Popeye’s mild.













The Popeye’s Meal Pack came with biscuits and sides. I snuck a biscuit before the guests arrived – salty, greasy, tasty! But then Cynthia arrived with a homemade verison inspired by Martha Stewart's recipe. She brushed the tops with butter and sea salt. There’s just no comparison – the real thing wins every time. And Cynthia’s biscuits were light and melt-in-your-mouth delicious!

For the main meal, we had homemade coleslaw from Dina. I had sampled the Popeyes', and it was just too sweet and a little soggy. While I don’t like to waste food, I couldn’t justify eating it. Of course, Dina’s coleslaw was far superior with crisp cabbage, carrots and onions and a zingy mayonnaise dressing. I made salad with the garden tomatoes and cucumbers, and roasted beets.



But let’s talk about the chicken! As if looking at the two chickens wasn’t enough to differentiate, the taste difference was clear! As we tore into Paul’s chickens… juicy and seasoned to the bone, we knew we were eating real chicken. Popeye’s just tasted salty, with no chicken flavor. To Popeye’s credit, though, the crust was crunchy and tasty – a result of deep-fat frying and god knows what artificial chemical or process.

As I was cleaning up the next day, still thinking about chicken, I reached in the fridge for a snack. All that was left was the Popeyes. I guess everyone that night recognized a winner and ate every last morsel of the real thing!

Stay tuned.... coming next: Paul's Winning Recipe

Thanks so much to Paul for inspiring such a fun evening – and bringing the winning chicken. And a special thanks to Dina for the coleslaw and the caramel ice cream. And to Cynthia for the biscuits and apple crisp. And Dina and David for taking the pictures.

Locavore Banquet

As I was driving to the locavore banquet, thinking of course that I should be biking or taking the “T”, I considered what it meant to reduce my carbon foot-print. Obviously, it means driving less and eating more local foods. But in the scope of making conscious food choices, it also means eating less processed foods, meat and dairy products. Reducing my carbon foot-print directly correlates to reducing my waistline: driving less + biking more, eating less meat + eating more grains and vegetables, growing foods in my garden (and the inherent work-out) + buying less from the market.

When arrived at the Arlington Unitarian church, the site for this and literally 125 years of community banquets, I immediately forgot about my carbon footprint and instead thought of how to help Team Cambridge present their dishes most beautifully. Team Cambridge had prepared the dishes on Saturday and then transported them to the banquet on Sunday.

The Locavore Banquet – part competition, part community dinner – was designed as a throwback to the New England Bean Supper and a model for a future of living responsibly in an ever-shrinking world. The event highlighted locally-sourced food as the three teams used sustainably grown ingredients to make a meal. Teams from Arlington, Cambridge, and Medford competed in the “Energy Smackdown” by preparing dishes that balance taste, presentation, and low carbon footprint. The dishes were judged by local food writers for taste and presentation. The organizers used a fancy algorithm to calculate carbon-footprints.

I was the culinary coach for the Cambridge Team (think: Bob from The Biggest Loser). My goal was to help the team create a cohesive menu utilizing the bounty of New England Produce. It’s really not that hard this time of year: every day of the week there’s a farmers market within a 5 radius of my house. King Arthur Flour and Cabot Creamery are the next state over in Vermont. Austin Bros. Family Farm raises cows, chickens and pigs – providing ample supply of the meats, bacon and eggs. If you can forgo chocolate (and I know that’s a BIG “if”), you can create a bountiful meal with less than 100 food miles.

Our dinner for 20 people generated only 6 pounds of carbon emissions. By comparison, the typical Thanksgiving dinner generates 44 pounds! (Based on data from www.dailymail.co.uk). The big carbon culprits are beef, fish and dairy products. According to the judging cards, chicken’s foodprint is almost half of fish. Other data suggests that fish and chicken are equal.

Chart comes from http://fivepercent.us

Team Cambridge did not win first prize, but of the 21 dishes, the acorn squash soup won 2nd place! The best part is that the soup is served in the squash, so there are no dishes to wash after serving. The “bowl” is compostable. Recipe coming next week...


Other highlights were the poached pear and falafel with beet raita:


I did not taste the other winning dishes: a raspberry sorbet with chocolate and a green salad with walnuts and cranberries. Standouts to me (aside from Team Cambridge’s dishes) were the stuffed pepper with ground beef and rice, green beans with onions and bacon, and a frittata with potatoes and four cheeses.

Thanks to Ellen for taking photos!

Presto Pasta Nights, Part 2 & 3

I came home from school on Monday evening absolutely starving… and knowing that I had already devoured the chicken ragu with chick pea pasta, I scrounged around the fridge for something to eat. In the crisper drawer I discovered Tuscan kale, corn and pork sausage: I had gone to the market on Saturday knowing I wanted to make something for Presto Pasta Nights, but not really sure what, so I bought the makings for several different dishes.

Not wanting to waste food, I made two different pasta dishes that I can now eat throughout the week. Supplementing with tomatoes and basil from the garden, I made:

Pasta with Tomatoes, Corn and Basil tossed with Fresh Mozzarella


Pasta with Wilted Kale, Tomatoes, Spicy Sausage and White Beans


The only addition to the recipes other than the ingredients listed were a little garlic, shallots, salt and pepper.

Thanks again, to Psychgrad for hosting the party!

Chicken Ragu and Chick Pea Pasta

I’m not sure I fully understand, but I always love a party! Psychgrad over at Equal Opportunity Kitchen is hosting “Presto Pasta Night.” Presto Pasta Nights is a blog that features all forms of the beloved noodle – fresh, dried, wheat, rice, if it’s a pasta…. Ruth writes about it. And every week there’s a round-up of what other people are making. It’s a great inspiration if you’re looking for new recipes for pasta.

Sage continues to proliferate in my garden. I have so much that I’m on the verge of knocking on restaurant kitchen doors to see if I can sell them some. I donated one gallon of leaves to the Locavore Banquet (that’s part of the Energy Smackdown) and still the plants look as lush as ever. I could make a pasta with fried sage and parmesan, but that just doesn’t seem festive enough for a party… especially since I’ve seen the way Psychgrad throws a party. Instead, I opt for Chicken Ragu with Chick-Pea Papardelle. The chicken is seasoned with sage, tomatoes and cinnamon. The pasta dough is made with a blend of all-purpose flour and chickpea flour.



¼ cup olive oil
¾ cup diced onion
¾ cup diced celery
¼ pound bacon, diced
¼ cup flour
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. black pepper
4 – 5 chicken thighs
1 cup dry white wine
2 cup chicken stock
1 cup water
2 tomatoes, diced
1 tbs. fresh sage, chopped
½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ pound grated Pecorino romano or parmigiano reggiano.
1 tbs. fresh chopped parsley

1. Season chicken with salt and pepper, dust with flour.

2. Heat a large skillet, add oil, and then the vegetable. Cook for a few minutes, or until soft. Add the bacon and continue cooking until bacon renders its fat.

3. Remove the vegetable, and set aside. Turn the heat to high and add the chicken. Brown on both sides.

4. Deglaze the pan with white wine. Add the vegetables back to the pan, along with the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the Pecorino and parsley. Cook covered for about 20 minutes, or until the meat is tender.

5. Shred the meat and continue cooking, uncovered until the sauce is reduced and thick

6. Serve with Pasta. Sprinkle cheese and parsley on top.

Chick Pea Pasta Dough
1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus ¼ cup for dusting
½ cup chick pea flour
2 -3 large eggs as needed
1 tbs. olive oil
1 tsp. salt

1. Sift flours onto a clean counter. Make a well in the flour, and add the eggs, olive oil and the salt.

2. Beat the eggs with a fork, gradually bringing in the flour from the sides of the well, until the paste has thickened enough so the liquid will not run onto the counter. Switch from a fork to a pastry cutter. Bring all the flour into the already wet part and cut through the dough several times until it is evenly moistened. Start kneading with your hands until the dough forms a ball and looks homogenized, about 8 minutes.

3. If the dough becomes stiff, and refuses to bend, rub in a little of the remaining egg. If the dough becomes too moist, add a bit of the flour.
Work the dough by machine:

4. Divide the dough into 3 balls, and let rest under a damp towel for 20 minutes. (This is a good time to make the rest of the recipe). Start working the dough through the pasta machine starting with the widest setting. After running it through the machine, fold it into thirds, and run it through again. When the dough is smooth, run the dough through the machine through successively smaller settings. The dough will stretch out, and be rolled very thin.

5. When you have achieved thin sheets, you can let the dough rest for a few minutes before filling or cutting.

6. Cook in a pot of salted, boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain and toss with sauce.


Thanks to David for taking pictures!

Energy Smackdown

Energy Smackdown is a reality show type program in the Boston area. The yearlong challenge pits the communities of Medford, Arlington and Cambridge against each other to see who can reduce their carbon foot-print the most.

The locavore banquet is this month’s challenge. Each team creates a four course meal for 20 people and is judged according to carbon emissions, taste and presentation. I’m the “culinary coach” of the Cambridge team. Together, we came up with a middle-eastern menu. Ninety percent of the ingredients are grown or raised locally. Many came from my garden.

Acorn Squash Soup with Crispy Sage
Tomato – Cucumber Salad with Dill and Lemon
Homemade Falafel with Beet Raita and Pita Chips
Baba Ganoush with Roasted Eggplant and Scallions
Poached Pears with Meringue and Mint


My neighbor Rosie often comes over to pick raspberries. The other day she commented that coming into my garden is like going to the grocery store. My goal has always been to grow enough food for my home and my neighbors’. I can’t tell you the joy I felt that a five-year old could appreciate the abundance of my garden, and that I had enough to contribute to the locavore banquet.

The banquet is tonight… stay tuned for details.

Burning Down the House

In my past life, I used to lead Interactive dinner parties. I would go into people’s homes and give a cooking demonstration while preparing a gourmet, three-course dinner. I had relationships with my clients similar to what a bartender might have with his customers. People let me into the hearth of their homes and cook for them. It’s a convivial relationship.

And new clients always ask for stories about past clients.

Client Tina thought I was infallible. I had been helping her with dinner parties and giving her private cooking lesson for years. She had never seen me burn, undercook, over-season or otherwise screw up a dish. Boy, did I have her fooled! It’s especially surprising since she had a challenging, albeit fancy, kitchen. The burners were induction and her oven was Gagganeau. The burners required practice to learn how to control the heat. And the oven…. Well the ovens had a series of marking – lines and squiggles – that were supposed to indicate the basic functions: bake, broil and convection.

For Valentine’s Day one year we planned a special meal for her and her husband, including a salad with croutons. We diced some bread, tossed it with melted butter, salt and pepper and put them in the oven. Since I didn’t understand the markings on the oven, I can only tell you it was set to 400F.

After 10 minutes, I started to smell something burning. I opened the oven and the croutons inhaled just enough oxygen that they immediately burst into flames. I guess I had unknowingly broiled them. And thankfully, Tina got a good laugh in knowing that, in fact, I’m not perfect… not even in the kitchen.

I wish that were the only time I had set fire in a client’s kitchen. (yes, I did have insurance). Again, it was the fault of the client’s equipment (it’s never my fault). And again, it was in the oven. This time it involved gougères – cream puffs with cheese folded in. This time, though, I was able to read the markings, and accurately set the electric oven to bake at 375F. I piped out perfect little rounds of dough onto (the client’s) cookie sheet, and put them in the oven. The sheet buckled in the heat and all the gougères slid off and onto the electric coil, igniting instantly.

Unlike the first time, when I could grab the tray of croutons and quickly run outside, this was a little trickier to salvage. But with a quick cut of heat and dousing of salt, the fire quickly extinguished.

Thanks to Kristen at Dine & Dish for conjuring up these memories.

Gougères are a great hors d'oeuvre. Be sure, when baking them that you have a high quality, thick bottomed cookie sheet with sides.

Gougères
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup water
4 tbs. butter
4-5 eggs
½ cup grated or cubed gruyere cheese.

1. Bring water, butter and salt to a boil. Stir in flour all at once and cook for 2 minutes more, stirring constantly. Let cool slightly.

2. Beat in eggs, one at a time into flour mixture. Do not add next egg until first one is fully incorporated.

3. Spoon (or pipe) 1” round mounds onto a baking sheet, and bake at 400 for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and cook for 25 minutes more.

Preserving Summer: Cucumbers

When I visited Ed Bruske’s urban garden, I sampled several varieties of his homemade pickles. He had an impressive array of sour, dill, Cajun, bread and butter. Pickles are one of the few things I’ve never made before, so I decided that this summer I would try my hand.

I decided to start with the Bread and Butter variety (it was either that or the dill). I really like pickle relish in my tuna and egg salads, so this seemed like a good beginning. Ed has a wonderful primer with recipes on his website that I used as my guide.

Since I didn’t have pickling lime, which seemed to be a key element in his recipe, I combined the salt ratio for the basic dill with the ingredients of the “bread and butter.” I cooked the pickles for half the recommended time in hopes of preserving the crunch. And if you can believe, I couldn’t find celery seed at the Whole Foods, so I used celery growing in the garden. The flavors came out wonderful. The texture was somewhere between firm and crunchy. I’ll leave full-on crunchy for the experts.

This is what I came up with:

Bread and Butter Pickles
4 cucumbers, sliced into ½ inch wheels
4 cups water
1/4 cup salt
1 1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 ¼ cup sugar
1 tbs. mustard seeds
1 celery stalk
¼ tsp. turmeric
1/8 tsp. clove
1/8 tsp. ground ginger
Black Pepper, freshly ground

Put everything in a stainless steel (or non-reactive pot). Bring to a boil, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar. Simmer for 20 minutes. Let pickles stand overnight. They will keep for 2 weeks this way or you can can them.

_______
The garden continues to proliferate cucumbers. With early success in the first pickle venture, I decided to try again with half sour dills.

This time I followed Ed's recipe more closely.

Half-Sour Dill Pickles

For every 2 cups of water, add 1 tablespoon of salt. Use enough water to cover cucumber wedges. Add crushed garlic, fresh dill and black pepper. Let sit for at least 24 hours to ferment before storing in the fridge or canning.

Misnomer Cupcakes

I recently confessed that I’m a salt-head. I’ll take a salty snack over a sweet snack any day of the week. Every once in a while, I crave a sweet or I’ll peruse a dessert menu. There’s little rhyme or reason to what I like, but it’s never nutty and it’s usually pie or cake. No overly sweet confections for me. Except when it comes to cupcakes.

Whole Foods came out with a line of sweets, “Two Bites.” Two bite cupcakes, two bite brownies… you get the idea. For me, the chocolate cupcakes were the perfect little treat: just enough sweet to finish off a meal. The cake was moist and light with a creamy, chocolate butter-cream frosting. For a while, I was buying a 12-pack a week. But then they ran into production issues and the cupcakes were consistently stale. Sadly, I had to give them up.

Kick-Ass Cupcakes recently opened in Davis Square, and soon received a “Best of Boston” award and Boston’s Best from the Improper Bostonian. I tried desperately to avoid the place, knowing full well that if I found a suitable replacement for the Whole Foods cupcakes, I was in big trouble.
Last week, temptation got the best of me, and I went in. They have an astonishing variety of cupcakes… traditional variations of vanilla and chocolate cake and/or icing, mojito cupcakes (soaked with rum and mint), lemon, cinnamon, and a rotating list of specialty flavors. They also have twice-bake cupcakes dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with m&m’s – a variation on biscotti?

For the first round, I opted for the vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. The frosting, supposedly butter-cream, was too dense and too rich, and the chocolate too dark. The ratio of frosting to cake was good, but since I didn’t like the frosting, it didn’t matter. To shake it up in round two, I opted for the chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. The frosting was indeed buttercream, but the texture was grainy and I couldn’t taste the vanilla nor the butter. The cake was dry and crumbly. By this point, my head and stomach hurt from all the sugar. Perhaps the mojito cupcake would have been better – a better textured cake from the rum soak, and a refreshing minty icing. My guess is that the twice baked cupcakes were the batch that accidently got overcooked. I will never know. At $2.75 for a modestly sized cupcake (read: small), it’s not worth the experimentation.

Preserving Summer: Fresh Herbs

All summer, the herbs in my garden have been prolific. It’s been a wonderful treat to go into the yard, snip a few herbs and enhance whatever meal I was making – a little tarragon for egg salad, some parsley and arugula for an artichoke pesto, thyme for roasted portobellos and mint for mojitos, tossed with grilled zucchini or with bacon on grilled trout. Chopped scallions garnished the grilled miso eggplant. And the basil went into Fred Flintstone’s sauce or simply in a salad of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. As hard as I tried, I was not able to use all the herbs… even with many gifts to friends and neighbors. Now I must think about how to capture that summer burst through the winter.

Tarragon and Thyme dry well. With the warm autumn days, and nary a drop of humidity, they will sun-dry easily. I can save them in the freezer (just to be safe). The basil can be pureed with oil and frozen in ice cube trays, or made into pesto as PsychGrad suggests.

I had thought I would make mint jelly with the overgrown patch. This seemed like a particularly good idea since Farmer Brett is giving me half a lamb as compensation for all the work I’ve done for him this summer. But the prospect of more canning is overwhelming. The batch of tomatoes (smoked, stewed and ketchup), which yielded 48 jars took many hours over the course of three days. I decided instead to freeze it. I will make a mint syrup that I can use for either mojitos or a la minute mint jelly. I will make a second batch of mint-jalapeno syrup to use the hand full of peppers in the garden.

Mint Jelly or Mojito Base
3 cups mint leaves
3 cups sugar
1 ½ cups water
1 jalapeno, sliced in half (optional)

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add mint and cook for 30 seconds, or just until bright green. Drain and rinse under cold water.
2. In a sauce pot, combine sugar and water (and jalapeno). Bring to a boil and stir until sugar dissolves. Let cool to room temperature.
3. Put mint in a food processor and coarsely chop.
4. Combine mint and sugar water and refrigerate for 24 hours. Discard jalapeno.
5. Freeze in 1 cup containers

Tips for making Jelly or Mojitos:
1. When you make jelly, you will need pectin. Be sure to follow the directions on the box – each kind of pectin reacts differently and needs different amounts of pectin for the same amount of liquid.
2. This recipe has half as much water as necessary for jelly, but the proper amount for mojitos. As such, you will need to dilute the syrup before making the jelly. For every 1 ½ cups of syrup, add ½ cup water.
3. You will want to add a few drops of lemon juice for jelly and lime juice for mojitos.


Early in the season I blathered on about the sage. Even in April, before any other crops were up, I was up to my eyeballs in sage. The pungent flavor makes it difficult to use in copious amounts, unless you fry it. I started the season with 5 plants and it got so out of control that I dug up one completely and dried it, and moved another to the front yard to become “ornamental.” I know this will last through the first frost, so I use more as fall meats and vegetables pair so beautifully. In the meantime, I continue to shear the plant and dry sprigs tied into bundles. Burning sage, the lore suggests, rids a room or a house of evil spirits. These will be housewarming gifts to friends.

What Every Omnivore Should Eat -- According to Andrew

Over at Very Good Taste, they have a little challenge. They put together a list of 100 foods that they think every good omnivore should try at least once. I could add a few things to this list -- based on strange, and usually unfortunate things I've eaten -- like beaver, cow's foot or steak and kidney pie.

Want to play along? Here’s what you do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating. (Julia’s note: I’ll try anything once… at least a small bite)
and let me know the things you think are missing from the list!

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison (I even have a few pictures of the deer, but I don’t think you want to see them J)
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile (probably when I was 19)
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi (see below for my recipe)
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses (yummy, creamy, salty goodness)
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (and I don’t particularly recommend it)
19. Steamed pork buns (best part of Chinese Dim Sum)
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper - I’ve eaten other varieties raw.
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut – though I do prefer my Reuben’s with coleslaw.
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O (I’m thinking I had one during my college years, but I must have black it out)
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (- chipolines in Oaxaca Mexico)
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (I must have had one when I was in junior high school)
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
A most unfortunate experience. The durian barely hit my tongue before I spit it out.
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
So close, I had a tasting menu at Le Bristol in Paris, only a two star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam – I’m proud to say no!
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake – In the bayou country of Louisianna

For a grand total of: 81!
What's your score?

1 lb. cauliflower, separated into florets
3 tbs. ghee
½ tsp. brown mustard seed
½ tsp. cumin
pinch fenugreek
½ tsp. turmeric
3 slices fresh ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 onion, finely sliced
1 tomato, chopped
1 fresh green chili, sliced
½ tsp. salt
Heat ghee and fry mustard seeds until they start to pop. Add cumin, fenugreek, turmeric, ginger, garlic and onions. Cook, stirring frequently, until onions are soft.
Add cauliflower, and stir until well coated. Add tomato, chili, 1/4 cup of water and salt, and cook covered for 15 minutes, or until cauliflower is tender.

Feeding the Spirt

The best way to be supportive when friends have challenging times is to bring a meal. Challenges can be positive or negative, but they are always disruptive to peoples' daily lives. This month, one friend of mine was challenged with a new baby, and another was challenged by chemotherapy. Food provides both literal and spiritual nourishment.

For the friend who just had a baby, her days (and nights) are consumed with feedings and diapers changes. If she’s lucky, she’ll sneak in a nap or a shower. The last thing on her mind is cooking. And yet, a proper meal is probably in the top three things that will help her get through the challenging first weeks and months. Sleep and exercise are the other two, but I couldn't bring them over in a pyrex dish. Pasta salad with corn, chanterelles, chicken and bacon is an easy meal to heat and eat. She can hold the baby in one arm and eat with the other. And should she have a few moments of quiet, Portobello-Eggplant Napoleons with Fred Flintstone Tomato Sauce and Seared Chicken can add a little festivity to the day.


As for the friend going through chemo, she just needs a distraction. During the three weeks between treatments, she has a small window of time of feeling semi-normal with energy and an appetite. The dinner I brought was an occasion to invite friends over, celebrate life, and for a few hours, forget about her troubles or talk them through.

I had wanted to make Lemon-Ricotta Ravioli with Osso Buco for a long time, and was waiting for the occasion (and the time) to do it. When I saw veal shanks on sale at Whole Foods last week, I heard my calling. This rich dish also seemed like a great meal for Kath, as I’m sure she’s trying to keep weight through the chemo. In case this was too rich, I also made a platter of vegetables -- a veritable antipasto – which would be nutritious and easy to digest if she was still feeling nauseated.


Taking my cue from friend Dina, I gave special treatment to each item on the platter:

• Beets were roasted (without foil this time, Bishop22) and tossed with red onions, thyme, basil, balsamic and olive oil
• Roasted Kohlrabi from the garden
• Zucchini was grilled and tossed with bacon, mint and lemon
• Thin slices of Portobellos marinated in garlic, shallots and thyme.

…and

Grilled Bread, sliced mozzarella and fresh tomatoes from my garden filled the platter.

Kath had warned me that she probably wouldn’t eat much, so I was thrilled when she took seconds of the vegetables, and extra ravioli!

Here’s to healthy and joyous times with friends!
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A few years ago, I contributed to a cookbook called “Great Chefs Cooking for Great Friends.” The book was published by Dana-Farber and all proceeds go to support cancer research. You can buy the book by clicking here.



Or… according to the Jimmy Fund website:
Great Chefs Cooking for Great Friends features 140 recipes from 70 of Boston's most celebrated chefs, including Ming Tsai of Blue Ginger, Jasper White of Summer Shack, Laura Brenna of Caffe Umbra, and Ken Oringer of Clio. The book costs $35, and is on sale at the Friends' Corner Gift Shop in the Dana-Farber lobby, or call (617) 632-3307.

Training Cucumbers

On my last visit to DC I visited Ed Bruske’s garden. I was particularly keen to meet him since we’d shared so many similar experiences at Even’ Star Farm, though not at the same time. You can read about the pig matanza… part 1 and part 2. I participated too, two years prior. One of these days, I’ll post my story too.

In any case, I was fascinated to see another urban garden. His is impressive in its size but also it’s structure. He has tomato cages that are seven feet high. I could have used those too. And my favorite was how he trained the cucumbers up a trellis. I decided to take this home with me. It worked great to clear up the ground space for my fall plantings, and it also makes it easier to see the cucumbers, and pick them when they’re ready.