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Wednesday, March 9, 2005

Ahh, phyllo dough. Much more forgivable than you think it might be. I've used phyllo most for making hors-deuvres. Typically, I've folded up little triangle pockets with a savory filling inside. But this is work-intensive and I didn't think it would meet your desires anyway. I assume you are looking for a main dish preparation that is relatively simple. So I did a little investigation and have attached two possibilities for you. Here's my comments.

1. Phyllo-wrapped salmon. To me, this is a bit like a lot of fish en papillotte recipes. For fish en papillotte, we generally do this in parchment paper, but it can also be done in aluminum foil. I think the phyllo would add a bit of elegance but also some more calories. It would be nice to serve for others. Fish en papillotte has a million renditions and can be adapted quite easily to different cuisines and to whatever you have on hand. In the attached recipe, you can substitute another fish that is fresh to your area. You could change the vegetables too if you wanted. You can skip the wine. Some people who reviewed this recipe liked to serve it with a sauce. I would cook it MUCH less long probably. 15 minutes maybe, depending on the fish and the thickness of the fish.

2. Spinach, feta and pine nut phyllo tart. Skip the tart pan and go for the jelly-roll pan. I think it's going to be like a cross between pizza and quiche, greek-style. I would probably use at least four phyllo layers instead of two and maybe more. (I mean, how often do you make it!) One reviewer suggested using ten layers but this seems a little much. Make sure you get the spinach really dried out. I don't toast pine nuts in the oven any more because I've burned too many. I do it in a skillet and I don't leave it for a second while I do it. It's not the time for multitasking for me. I've grown to like the taste of currants in these greek-style greens and pine nut dishes. Soak them in warm water first to plump up. Add to taste. I'd definitely increase the feta quantity on this and probably add garlic and some herbs, maybe oregano or something like that. Of course, fresh spinach is best, but you would need a huge sack of it and getting the liquid squeezed out is a bit more work.

So, let me know what you think.

Now the point system. Steve and I were sitting around and came up with this idea we are currently playing with. He generally cooks on days I work, and we either cook together or I cook on other days. Now you have to understand that, loving cooking and liking experimentation, we tend to accumulate things in our pantry, refrigerator, and freezer. We also go through periods of time in our garden when we have a lot of some particular thing. Plus, we are wanting to try new things and new techniques. So we devised a scoring system for meals cooked by either of us. It goes as follows.

You get one point if use up something that has been sitting in the refrigerator or freezer that needs to be used. Staples don't count.

You get one point if you make something with whole grains (not whole grain bread though). (This is a new kick we are on.)

You get a point for using something up that has been sitting in the pantry (not something like pasta but something that doesn't last forever.)

Anything with fish, one point.

Use something you have a lot of in the garden or something in the garden that will go bad if you don't use it - one point.

Use a new recipe that results in something you would definitely redo - two points.

Use a new recipe but you're not going to redo it - one point.

Try out a new technique or approach - one point.

Well, you can tell, many of these are open to a debate on any given night, which is half the fun. So thus far we have the following:

Sunday Night - Deb cooked. I served chicken kabobs seasoned with ras-el-hanout. Score: 2 points for trying something new that we would definitely redo I served mashed potatoes and cooked dried bean patties (the mashed potatoes were left over and the cooked beans were left over from the cassoulet that I did not use them in.) Score: 2 points for using up two things in the refrigerator.

Monday night - Steve cooked. He Served pasta with creamy braised asparagus & ham along with a salad from our garden. He tried a brown and braise technique with the asparagus that we read about recently so gets a point for that. But pasta recipes like this don't really qualify as new recipes even though it was good. And he went and bought the asparagus rather than using up the eqqplant and cauliflower in the frig - so no points there.

Last night, we ate out with Jo and Paul.

Tonight, we are having Moroccan Chicken with eggplant, cauliflower, tomatoes and almonds, which could be a point-getter. But, it's as yet unclear who will get them. I found the recipe which will use up the eggplant and cauliflower. And it's definitely a new recipe. But it's yet unclear who will be the cook or will we cook together. So, I'm sure we will have a spirited discussion about the proper application of points.

Friday, March 11, 2005

Today, we will be trying out our experiment of dry-aged beef. Traditionally, butchers have hung carcasses in the meat locker to age their beef. I won't go into the food science here because, frankly, it just doesn't sound appetizing. Sometimes, knowing less is better. Just know that, these days, what you buy in the store is generally wet-aged beef for two reasons. First, it doesn't take up the space necessary for dry-aging. Second, dry-aged beef dehydrates (loses weight) requires trimming (loses more weight) and therefore costs more money to the consumer. Food economics 101.

But, theoretically, you can dry-age your own beef and, even though Steve and I are not big beef-eaters, we are into experimentation and learning new things, so we are trying it. For the last week, there's been a hunk of beef sitting in our downstairs refrigerator wrapped in cheesecloth assumedly dry-aging. Tonight, we pull it out to make Slow-Roasted Beef with Red Wine Pan Juices. (From the cookbook called The Best Recipe by the editors of Cooks Illustrated magazine.) Along with this, we will serve mashed red potatoes; caramelized cippoline onions, browned then braised green beans with roasted mushrooms; and a green salad from our garden. (We are working on this technique of browning then braising vegetables that we read about in a recent Fine Cooking Magazine.)

For the occasion, Kellie will be dropping by after work for a LimeDrop cocktail. Then Pat and Ryan will be joining us for dinner while Kellie goes out (she's younger than the rest of us adults). Now, Pat is not a big beef eater either, but maybe she'll be enticed by the dry-aging. Ryan, however, who doesn't like his food mixed up in any way whatsoever, will be pleased. I think he might be growing a little skeptical about coming to our house to eat.

Browned and Braised Vegetables

If you are interested in trying this browning-then-braising approach, here's how you do it. Take 1 lb. medium or thick asparagus, or 1 lb. carrots, or 3/4 pound green beans, or 1 lb. total mixture of these. Carrots should be trimmed into spears no more than 3/4 in thick, length can vary. Asparagus trimmed to about 6-7 inches long. Cut off any brown spots from the beans and trim the stem end. The amount of vegetables left should cover the bottom of your sauté dish (read frying pan with a lid) with a minimum of overlapping. Heat 1 Tbs. olive oil and 1 Tbs. butter over medium high heat. When the butter is just turning a nutty brown (you can smell the change if you can't see it, by the way), add the vegetables with a little salt and toss well with tongs. Then arrange the vegetables in one layer and let it cook without stirring until the bottoms are nicely browned, about 3-4 minutes. Toss and turn and cook for another 2 minutes to brown the other side. Add 1/4- 1/3 cup of chicken stock, cover, and simmer until liquid is almost evaporated. I tried this with asparagus last night and it turned out great. Then we tossed the asparagus with salad greens from our garden, toasted hazel nuts, and vinaigrette. It was wonderful. We thought it would be good to top with a poached egg as a future dish. Maybe some shaved parmesan.

Sunday, March 13, 2005

Final word on dry-aged beef? We're not sure. The problem is we don't eat much beef and certainly not roasts, so we don't have much to compare it to. It was very good as beef goes. In retrospect, we should have roasted a dry-aged roast along with a wet-aged roast - but that's a lot of beef for folks who don't eat it much. We had our elderly neighbors over for a cocktail and "look at the new kitchen" visit last night. They do eat a lot of beef and speak of the days when you could buy good dry-aged beef in the stores. She says she'll try this process and let us know what she thinks.

But dinner was fun and we all enjoyed the food. I added an "herb jam" to the menu that we ate with toasted pita breads for hors-deuvres. It's a new recipe and I've never seen anything quite like it before. It's Moroccan and comes from Paula Wolfert, a well-known author of Mediterranean cooking. I took a big bunch of spinach leaves and stems, a big bunch of parsley, a bunch of cilantro, some celery leaves, and some other greens we have in the garden (can't remember their name). All of this was steamed in a big pasta-cooking pan. It was filled to the top at the start. This steamed down about 15 minutes until tender then chopped up; put into food processor; added toasted cumin, smoky paprika, cayenne, salt and pepper and processed until smooth. Then I added chopped up oil-cured olives. This was very good. BUT, it doesn't look that appetizing cuz it turns out to be a dull khaki color not usually associated with delectable bites.

Right now the gold finches cover our black thistle feeder outside my window. Some yards along our street are covered with a layer of pink flower petals like a sprinkling of snow from the blooms that are now falling off. Just in the last week, leaves are bursting out and plants pushing out of the ground.

Today, I will start the serious work of planning the menu for our April 1st Kitchen party. I'm guessing we'll have about 50 people. On Wednesday, we head to phoenix for a week of baseball and watching the LPGA tour. I plan on doing some testing of recipes when we are staying at our friend's house down there. And I'm taking the ras el hanout spice I made that we will use for barbecuing some type of meat. Randy is the best griller I know.

Friday, March 25, 2005

Arizona is just so very BRIGHT. The lines are sharper. The colors are livelier. Plus the flora and fauna make you feel like you've gone to a Star Trek world. Due to the extraordinary amount of rain this year in Arizona (Phoenix had more rain than Portland), the desert is like I've never seen it. Unlike the usual variations of brown punctuated by cactus and other unworldly plants, there are bursts of color everywhere. Back in our kinder, gentler Oregon, it's more of a muted watercolor with the pink/purple colors of spring peeking out.

We ate at several very excellent restaurants down there, including a sort of fusion-sushi-tapas bar (called See Saw) that served small plates ala Thomas Keller of the French Laundry restaurant. We gave the chef (who was creating each dish right in front of us) free hand in serving us whatever he wanted and he did it well. It was great, but we won't be reproducing any of those dishes at home.

In contrast, we had a salad for lunch at a different place (called Cowboy Ciao, although owned by the same people) that was absolutely excellent and, we thought, re-creatable. So, back in town on Wednesday, we attempted it and, I think, made a very reasonable facsimile that we will definitely hold on to. It's very simple, but it's the unusual combination/contrast of the ingredients that sets this one out from your average salad. At the restaurant, they brought a small platter to the table that had five equal lines of ingredients abutting each other creating a lovely visual picture. They were: 1) dried corn kernels; 2)Israeli couscous (the pearl-shaped type); 3) a "trail mix" of toasted pumpkin seeds and currants; 4) baby arugula; and 5) little pieces of cold-smoked salmon or lox. Then they tossed this salad at our table with a buttermilk dressing. This was great! So I asked how they did the corn and I was told they got it at Trader Joe's. Good news! So we went looking here at our local Trader Joe's and could not find it. But we did find dry roasted edamame seeds (soy) and substituted them. We just used a good quality purchased buttermilk/ranch dressing. It worked well! Believe me - it's very good.

Wednesday, I also nailed down the menu for the Kitchen party although, you never know, things could change. Iworked at creating a menu that could primarily be prepared ahead of time; that allowed for some preparations to occur even a week ahead of time; that accommodated meat-eaters and vegetarians; that wouldn't break the bank; and, very importantly, used up that 5 lb. jar of marinated artichoke hearts I impulsively bought sometime last year. (Literally. I just weighed it. What was I thinking?)

Sooo, the current provisional menu is as follows:

• Peppered Pecans and Spiced Almonds (served in separate dishes)
• A big ham, sliced served along with rolls, orange marmalade butter, and celeriac remoulade (you would use either the butter or the remoulade, not both, in making a sandwich)
• A tuna, marinated artichoke, olive,caper spread served with pita triangles (well, the vegetarians are just going to have to eat tuna)
• Grapes rolled in roquefort cheese/cream cheese combo then rolled in pecans
• Deviled eggs, either sprinkled with smoky paprika or Za'atar (a middle eastern seasoning mix combining toasted sesame seeds, ground sumac, and fresh thyme)
• A platter of sugar snap peas and asparagus with Tzakziki to dip in.
• Moroccan style chicken phyllo rolls with spiced tomato sauce.
• Phyllo triangles filled with spinach, leeks and feta.

So I'm hoping that Pat will help with the putting-out of food part, as she is so artful at this. And that Kellie will help with the putting-in and taking-out of the oven part, for the phyllo things. And I will be spending the weekend making those little phyllo things.

That's it for now. Eat well and enjoy the small things!

Sunday, April 3, 2005 -- The Party

This posting concerns the "kitchen party" we held last Friday. Everybody loved the kitchen although someone did say jokingly "you had a kitchen party for new hardware???

It was a grand bash! Perhaps it will become an annual event. And we have now established that 50 people, indeed, can fit into our house. Having a home theater system in the basement was also a big draw for all of the: a) males who attended; and b) the socially anxious or just plain bored.

As you may recall, one goal of having this party was to use up that impulsively purchased 5 lb. jar of marinated artichoke hearts we bought last year. For that, our good friend Eric came to the rescue. Eric is a marvelous cook and is currently on a career hiatus as he ponders his next big thing. Being a hotshot at Intel turned out to be too soulfully deadening for him. He did some of his ponderings while solo hiking the entire Pacific Crest trail last year. He'll be doing the Continental Divide trail starting next month, which will take about four months and will place him in the close vicinity of grizzly bears while naked in the middle of the night. (I don't know why he does these things. He really is a very sane person otherwise.)

Eric came over to help cook on Friday so I placed in front of him that LARGE jar of artichokes, a bunch of Kalamata olives, and cans of tuna, and said "please do something with this to eat with pita bread." He created a sublime spread which was entirely demolished by the end of the night. Here it is, in his words:

Eric's Artichoke Spread

Huge jar of marinated artichokes (some of which he drained and rinsed to temper the vinegar flavor).
Pureed with some olive oil and garlic (in a food processor).
Added a little mayonnaise and mustard.
Added some tuna, chopped olives and chopped parsley.
Salt, pepper, and cayenne.

This is really good! It could be used as a dip as well. It would also be great without the tuna. I would add only the following caution for those of you who are living in, gasp, places where you can't buy real olives (as jarred and canned olives do not qualify as real olives; They are something different). Do not substitute jarred and canned olives if you try this. Just omit the olives. You could try and add some rinsed chopped capers from a jar instead if you wanted.

Everything we made turned out well but we got lots of complements on the Deviled Eggs that were sprinkled with either Spanish Smoked Paprika or Za'atar. These two toppings made this oft-hackneyed dish sparkle.

Now, I consider Spanish smoked paprika as a must-have kitchen staple. It's a flavor dimension that does not compare with Hungarian paprika (which is also one of our kitchen staples). But, it is one of those things that, the first time you try it, you just say "WOW." You can get this from lots of places on-line. You can get either sweet or hot. We used hot.

Za'atar was a new one for us but will definitely be used again. This is a Middle-Eastern spice mixture that you can buy pre-made on-line, but I definitely recommend making it fresh instead. The pre-made version uses dried herbs which I don't think will be as good. Plus, it's simple to make, but you do need Sumac, which is also available on-line from various sources. Sumac Powder is the ground berry of a Turkish evergreen tree and has a sour, fruity flavor. (The "sour" doesn't make it sound so good but it really is!) Both Za'atar and Sumac are ubiquitous in Middle Eastern cooking. Most simply, you can take pita bread, dip it in olive oil then into the za'atar. Here's the recipe for Za'atar:

Za'atar

2 Tbs. minced fresh thyme (I've seen recipes that have used oregano or marjoram as well.) (Editor's note: Whew! Our fresh thyme supply was a bit low in the garden, so I added a bit of fresh marjoram to make up the 2 Tbs. I'm glad it's OK -- Steve)
2 Tbs. toasted sesame seeds
2 tsps. ground sumac
1/2 tsp. coarse salt

Mix it all together and can keep chilled in a sealed plastic bag for a week or two.

Whereas I sprinkled it on deviled eggs, both Za'atar and Sumac are commonly used in typical Middle-eastern salads that are variously called Turkish Salad, Shepherd's Salad, Peasant Salad, Kibbutz Vegetable Salad, or, when you add day-old chunks of good bread or pita, Middle-Eastern Bread Salad. The main ingredients here are tomatoes; green, red and/or yellow peppers, cucumbers and onions. Toss with a vinaigrette of olive oil, lemon, garlic. Add a little bit of Sumac or Za'atar. Optionally add chopped parsley and mint. Maybe basil. Maybe some toasted walnuts. If you add the bread, (a good way to use up leftovers), it becomes more of a main dish particularly if you add chunks of feta. I'd also suggest using red onion or sweet onions rather than yellow onions. (Although I have seen the suggestion of soaking yellow or white onions in hot water to temper them, I have not tried this.)

While researching recipes for this party, I came across the term "pan-Middle Eastern cuisine" that I think has applicability to our current world. Even today, to some extent, each of the middle-eastern countries have their own distinct cuisines that, although often drawing on the same general types of indigenous ingredients, vary a bit from region to region. For example, the above salad is a little bit different in southeast Turkey than it is in northwest Turkey. In southeast Turkey, the ingredients are chopped finely so it is juicier; the lemon is replaced by pomegranate molasses; and walnuts are added. And, while indigenous ingredients in that area of the world are often similar, they also do vary. The type of cucumber you get in one county can be different from another country.

But, more and more in the modern middle eastern world, cuisines are melding together and are building on each other. Israel is a good example. Israel is a place that is described by Joan Nathan, author of "The Foods of Israel Today", as having "pan-Middle Eastern cuisine." Contemporary high-end Israeli cooking has also been described as "Mediterranean Rim." According to Epicurious.com, the roots of Israeli cooking go back to Biblical times. The "seven species" mentioned in Deuteronomy - wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates - have been eaten for thousands of years. In the early 20th century, Zionist settlers began to establish the communal farms or kibbutzes that, as you know, are often a central feature of current Mideast conflicts. These settlers learned to grow local crops from their Arab neighbors such as lentils, chickpeas, and eggplants. Then, after statehood was declared in 1948, immigrants from all over started pouring in. European Holocaust survivors brought in dishes like gefilte fish and schnitzel. Sephardic Jews from Morocco, Turkey and Greece added couscous and moussaka to the cuisine. Middle Eastern Jews from Yemen, Syria, and other Arabic areas brought falafel, hummus, and yogurt. So modern Israeli cooking is a real mix of all these varying elements.

Just makes you think that, if all these folks involved in all of the varying Mideast conflicts just sat down and ate together, the world might be a better place!

Eat well and enjoy the small things!

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© 2005, 2006 Deborah Young