Shrimp with Orzo and Tomato

One of my favorite Greek meals is roast leg of lamb with manestra. For those who didn’t grow up in a Greek home, manestra is orzo that is cooked with tomatoes, garlic, and oregano. This is a dish that my mom makes for Greek holidays only and rarely makes a weeknight appearance. Last night, though, I had a craving for this delicious dish; since we are in lent- lamb was out of the question. After flipping through a couple of my Greek cookbooks, I came across a recipe for Shrimp with Orzo and Tomatoes in my How to Roast a Lamb cookbook by Michael Psilakis.

This recipe was easy to pull together for a Sunday dinner and completely satisfied my need for a warm manestra dish. I made a couple minor adjustments by using whole wheat orzo and omitting the Garlic Puree (I didn’t have time to make that part of the recipe this time, but will surely do it next time).

SHRIMP WITH ORZO AND TOMATO

16 U-15 shrimp, peeled
Kosher salt and cracked black pepper
1 ½ cups orzo [I used whole wheat orzo]
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, smashed and finely chopped
3 shallots, finely chopped
9 whole scallions, thickly sliced
½ cup water
3 plum tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 ½ cups smooth tomato sauce or puree (or a good, store-bought marinara)
¼ cup Garlic Puree (recipe on pg 264 of How to Roast a Lamb ) [I omitted this]
¾ cup crumbled feta cheese, divided in half
6 cups baby spinach leaves (about 8 ounces)
Small handful torn fresh herbs, such as dill, mint, and/or parsley [use all three]
Extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 275 [degrees] F. Season the shrimp with kosher salt and pepper.

Cook the orzo according to instructions and toss with 1 tablespoon of the oil. Reserve, keeping warm.

In a large, heavy soup pot, Dutch oven, or wok, warm the remaining tablespoon of olive oil over high heat. When the pot is very hot, add the garlic and shallots, and sauté for 1 minute. Add the scallions and shrimp, and sear for 30 seconds. Add the water, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and Garlic Puree. Cook for 2 minutes and remove the shrimp to the reserved orzo. Continue to reduce the liquid until the mixture has thickened (2 to 3 minutes), and season with salt and pepper.

Place a serving bowl in the preheated oven for 2 minutes to warm.

To the pot, add the orzo and shrimp, half of the feta, and the spinach, and toss to combine. As soon as the spinach has wilted (about 1 minute), transfer to the preheated bowl.

To finish, scatter the remaining feta, the fresh herbs, and a drizzle of olive oil over the top.

Krispy Kale

My mom turned me onto this snack a couple of months ago and it has become one of my favorite snacks and side dishes.  Roasting kale in a 400 degree oven produces crispy, chip-like leaves.   It’s perfect for when I’m craving something crispy and salty.  Though it seems too healthy to be that good, my roommates will testify that Krispy Kale is addicting.

I don’t have exact measurements for this recipe, but due to the very few ingredients and the simple instructions it’s very easy one to prepare. In the photo above I used purple kale, but green kale can be used as well.

1 bunch kale

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Kosher Salt

Pre-heat the oven to 400°

1. Tear the leaves off of the tough, center stem into pieces that are 2 ½- 3 inches long. Discard the tough stems.  
2. Rinse off any dirt or grit from the leaves.  Allow  to air dry to remove some of the excess water.
3. Place all of the kale on a rimmed baking sheet.
4. Drizzle olive oil evenly over the kale then sprinkle kosher salt evenly over the kale.  Toss the kale to coat the leaves and distribute the olive oil and salt.
5. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the kale is as crisp as a chip.

New Orleans- My Favorite Eats

A couple of weeks ago, I traveled to New Orleans with the group of chefs;  We scoured the city for everything from boudin to bignets.  Here is a very brief review of my favorites from the trip.

Seafood Palace, Lake Charles, LA: Boiled crawfish and fried seafood reign at this unassuming seafood restaurant. The boiled crawfish were seasoned with traditional Cajun blend of spices, then sprinkled with all spice just before they are brought to the table; the added all spice at the end was something I had never seen before, but was a great addition to the crawfish experience.   

 

Pascal’s Manales: This restaurant is the home of the original New Orleans style BBQ Shrimp.  Their famous shrimp were tasty, but the oysters on the half shell were my favorite treat at this restaurant. You buy them by the dozen, then wait for the shucker to place them on the cold marble counter in front of you.  These oysters had the most wonderful fresh taste- no cocktail sauce or horseradish needed.

 

Cochon: At Cochon, Chef Daniel Link showcases his love of traditional Cajun food in modern casual setting.  I loved the sleek lines of the restaurant as well as the decor and open kitchen. Though his menu features some modern takes on cajun cuisine, my favorites of the night happened to be the traditional menu items:  Catfish Courtbouillon, Eggplant & Shrimp Dressing, and Braised Greens.  Before this trip, I had never even tried (or heard of ) Eggplant & Shrimp dressing- but am now hooked.  

 

Domilise’s PoBoys: When everyone tells you to go to Domilise’s for a PoBoy— you listen.  Of all the poboys we tried throughout the city of New Orleans, this one was above and beyond the best.  And what’s the secret?  The simplicity.  They use great bread from Leidenheimer Bakery, their special sauce is ketchup and hot sauce, and they fry their seafood to order.  That’s it!

And last, but not least, no trip to New Orleans would be complete without…

Cafe Du Monde:    yum….

Savory Bread Pudding

Tartine Bakery: I’m head over heels with this bakery and I’ve never even been there. When my sister moved into her tiny dorm room at business school, she, reluctantly, had to leave behind a large portion of her cookbook collection at home.  After she left for school, I waited a couple days, then thought “those cookbooks really shouldn’t go to waste just sitting on the shelves of her old room.”  So I decided to just borrow a couple of them.  One of the cookbooks I “checked out” from Katina was Tartine.

Tartine Bakery is a small bakery and cafe in San Francisco. The book is beautifully put together and has a long list of mouth watering desserts.  Some of the recipes include Brioche Bread Pudding, Pumpkin Tea Cakes, Banana Cream Pie, Cheddar Cheese Crackers… and the list goes on and on.  After I became thouroughly engrossed in this cookbook, my cousin Mary, coincidently, sent me an email saying that she had found the most beautiful bread book – and that she just had to buy two.  When I got to my office the next day,  the Tartine Bread cookbook was sitting on my desk! I didn’t even know they had published another cookbook.  So now I have 2 beautiful cookbooks from this bakery  and am obsessed with the place with out even visiting!

This Savory Bread Pudding comes from Tartine Bread cookbook. It was so easy to make and, as it says in the recipe header, “is nearly impossible to mess up… and It even souffles while it’s baking.”  One more great thing about this recipe: you can assemble this dish ahead of time and store it in the refrigertator. Just be sure to allow the dish to come to room temperature before baking.

I’ve included the original recipe below, but I made some adjustments due to the produce available in my refrigerator.  The recipe call for leeks, mushrooms, radicchio, and basic country bread but I substituted onions, garlic, arugula, and rosemary ciabatta bread. You can substitute any ingredients you like for the filling– just be sure to keep the ingredients and quantities of the custard the same (that is what makes this dish souffle)!

For the filling
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 leeks, white parts only, finely chopped
½ c. dry white wine
Olive oil
2 lbs. assorted mushrooms (like chanterelles and porcini), stems trimmed and caps halved
1 head Treviso or other radicchio, leaves separated

For the custard
5 large eggs
½ tsp. salt
1 c. heavy cream
1 c. whole milk
¼ tsp. freshly ground pepper
¼ tsp. freshly ground nutmeg
2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves
2/3 c. grated Gruyere or cheddar cheese
3 oz. smoked ham, chopped

2 slices day-old Basic Country Bread (recipe in book), torn into large chunks
½ c. grated Gruyere or cheddar cheese

1. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the leeks and saute until soft, 6-8 minutes. Add the wine and cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the wine evaporates, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

2. Heat a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat. Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. When the oil is smoking, arrange the mushrooms cut-side down in the pan and cook without stirring until seared and caramelized, about 1 minute more. Stir the mushrooms, add the radicchio, and cook until wilted, about 1 minute. Season to taste. Remove from heat.

3. Preheat the oven to 375º.

4. To make the custard, in a bowl, whisk the eggs and salt until well blended. Add the cream, milk, pepper, nutmeg, thyme, cheese, and ham, and whisk to combine.

5. Place the bread chunks in an 8-inch souffle dish and add the leeks, mushrooms, and radicchio. Pour in the custard so that it comes all the way to the rim. Sprinkle evenly with the grated cheese. Let stand 8-10 minutes until the custard saturates the bread.

6. Bake until the custard is no longer runny in the center, about 50 minutes. Let rest for 15 minutes before serving.

What’s in Season?

                                                                                                                           

If you’re wondering what produce is in season right now…  Check out the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture website; They have charts that show when specific vegetables, fruits, and even nuts are at their peak. 

Right now, Root Vegetables and Citrus Fruits are in season.   For ideas, check out these articles from Bon Appetite Magazine with recipes that showcase Citrus Fruits and Delicious Winter Vegetables.

New Year’s Lemon Tart with a Gingersnap Crust

I arrived at my parents house early on New Year’s Day, to help my mom prepare her classic New Year’s Day Feast: roast leg of lamb, steamed cabbage, braised black eye peas, and more.  But when I got there, I realized she didn’t have any thing planned for dessert, so I made that my focus.

At all times, my mother’s kitchen is stocked with every baking staple from eggs, milk, and butter in the refrigerator  to flour, sugar, and baking powder in the pantry.    It’s pretty amazing.  With all of the basic ingredients at my fingertips, now all I had to do was decide what to make.  After evaluating the ingredients and produce available in “Maria’s Grocery Store,” I decided to make a Lemon Tart with a Gingersnap Crust.

A couple year’s ago, I made some gingersnaps with lemon frosting and I immediately became obsessed with the ginger and citrus combination.  So when I noticed my mom had some gingersnaps (I had brought her a box the  week before) AND she had a plethora of lemons on hand (as most Greeks do) … I knew this would be easy to pull together.  For the crust, I followed the guidelines on the graham cracker crumb box but subbed crushed gingersnaps in for half of the graham cracker crumbs- it came together in a snap(no pun intended). For the filling, I turned to my good friend David Lebovitz for help. His Tarte au Citron custard recipe was perfect.

Long story short,  this light and delicate lemon tart was a perfect sweet ending to a huge New Year’s Feast!

Gingersnap Crust

1/2 cup Graham Cracker Crumbs                                                                                              1/2 cup Gingersnap Crumbs                                                                                                           2 TBSP Sugar                                                                                                                                   1/4 cup Butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

Mix all ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Press crust firmly into the bottom and up the sides of a 8″ – 9″ pie pan. 

Bake 8-9 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before filling.

Lemon Custard Filling

1/2 cup (125 ml) freshly-squeezed lemon juice
grated zest of one lemon                                                                                                              1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
6 tablespoons (85 g) butter, salted or unsalted, cut into bits
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks

Preheat the oven to 350F (180C.)

1. In a medium-sized non-reactive saucepan, heat the lemon juice, zest, sugar, and butter. Have a mesh strainer nearby.

2. In a small bowl, beat together the eggs and the yolks.

3. When the butter is melted, whisk some of the warm lemon mixture into the eggs, stirring constantly, to warm them. Scrape the warmed eggs back into the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and almost begins to bubble around the edges.

4. Pour the lemon curd though a strainer directly into the pre-baked tart shell, scraping with a rubber spatula to press it through. {This step is VERY important, do not skip the straining}

5. Smooth the top of the tart and pop it in the oven for five minutes, just to set the curd.

6. Remove from the oven and let cool before slicing and serving.

I served my tart with a light sprinkling of powdered sugar and some unsweetened whipped cream.  Don’t sprinkle the powdered sugar on the tart until just before serving; the powdered sugar will melt into the curd and you won’t be able to see it!  This tart would also be great topped with some fresh berries.

Soft Scrambled Eggs with Ricotta

One of my favorite apps on my iPad is the Epicurious.com app. Epicurious.com is a website that has all of recipes that are published in Conde Nast magazines. This includes Bon Appetite, (the discontinued) Gourmet, Self, Cookie, and a couple other publications. Their iPad app is great for looking up recipes while I’m on the go. This morning, I knew I wanted eggs, but wanted something a little more luxurious that my usual scrambled or over easy eggs. I remembered seeing this simple recipe while flipping through my Epicurious app and it ended up being a great (and quick) item for brunch. These eggs are so creamy! 

Soft Scrambled Eggs with Fresh Ricotta and Chives

(Photo by Lisa Hubbard- published in Bon Appetite Magazine)

Ingredients:

4 large eggs
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
1/4 teaspoon fleur de sel or coarse kosher salt plus more for sprinkling
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup fresh ricotta cheese
4 1/3- to 1/2-inch-thick slices whole grain bread or 8 whole grain baguette slices, lightly toasted and buttered
Whole chives (optional)

Procedure:

Whisk eggs, chopped chives, and 1/4 teaspoon fleur de sel in medium bowl until well blended. Melt butter in heavy medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. When foam subsides, add eggs and stir with heatproof silicone spatula until eggs are almost cooked but still runny in parts, tilting skillet and stirring with spatula to allow uncooked portion to flow underneath, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Add ricotta and stir just until incorporated but clumps of cheese are still visible.

Arrange 2 toasts or 4 baguette slices on each of 2 plates. Spoon scrambled eggs atop toasts. Sprinkle with more fleur de sel and pepper. Garnish with whole chives, if desired.

Notes:

• The eggs cool very quickly onces the ricotta has been added to the scrambled eggs.  To deter this from happening, take the ricotta out of the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before using.  That way you won’t be adding ice cold cheese to warm eggs. 
• Use a whisk to scramble the eggs, but it helps to switch to a spatula once it is time to add the ricotta. This way the ricotta will stays in larger clumps.
• I skipped the butter and only used olive oil to scramble my eggs.

When in Provence…

While staying in Marseille, we took a day trip down the coast to the town of  Cassis. The landscape was beautiful and everything, from the hand painted boats in the harbor to the bright orange clementines at the market,  matched the way I had always envisioned a small Provencal town to look and feel.   We had no agenda, whatsoever, so we walked aimlessly through the streets of the little town– just enjoying the picturesque setting.  

    

We toured the market…. 

  

 

 

….. shared a plateau de mar of oysters, welks, sea urchin, and even fresh mussels for lunch ….

… drank some Cassis Rose…. 

… and, of course, did a little shopping!

Paris’ Greatest Hits- Restaurant L’AOC

Paris is an amazing food city! Here are some snapshots
of the cafes, the bakeries, the boulangeries, the fromageries,
etc, etc. {Stay tuned for photos from Provence coming
soon}

Fromagerie

 

 

 

 

Baguette

 

Oeufs a la Coque

 

Quiches

 

Oysters

 

Escargot

 

Duck Farm Shop

 

Croque Madame

 

Chocolate Shop Windows

 

Cappuccino at Cafe de Flore

 

Boucher

 

The Turkey still has the feathers- to prove where it camefrom!

Paris: Restaurant Les Cocottes

LES COCOTTES 

In February of 2008 I took a trip to Paris,  and, literally, the week I got back to the states, the Gourmet issue dedicated to Paris restaurants hit the newsstands.   We had eaten in so many great places while we were in Paris, but when I saw this issue of Gourmet, I created a long list of restaurants I wanted to try the next time I was in Paris. The restaurant at the top of my list was Les Cocottes.  Just the name “Les Cocottes” invokes a sense of warmth.  A cocotte [not to be confused with the other definition of a cocotte meaning a woman prostitute] is a “small casserole dish in which individual portions can be cooked and served.” 

Last month, after photographing the Eiffel Tower in the freezing cold rain, I finally made it to Les Cocottes.  A casserole filled with body (and soul) warming food was exactly what I needed.  In addition to the food being DELICOUS, there were so many details that made this dining experience unique.   Here are some of the dishes and details I loved at Les Cocottes:

  The menu was written on the back wall in chalk.

There was a section on the menu of cold items that were served in small ball jars.  Our group ordered two: one had tuna and eggplant topped with tomato jelly (tuna and eggplant seems to be a very popular combination in French cuisine) and the other was a crab salad layered atop a bed of shredded and lightly dressed lettuce.

 

 

The entrees were all served in Staub dishes. This cast iron bakeware is engineered to keep food warmer, retain and redistribute heat better, add to the flavor etc…. (Check out the Staub website for more details).  Here are two entrees we enjoyed:  Seared Cod a la Plancha with lentils and the second photo is Langoustine Ravioli.

And of course,  dessert was served in Staub dishes as well. We ordered a pear and apple crumble and the clafoutis of the day.  A clafoutis is a baked French custard   flan   dessert that is traditionally made with cherries and is sprinkled with powdered sugar.