A grabbag of a few favorite recipes, and some other food- and cooking-related items. Some are original recipes; most are my version or adaptation of ones from other sources. None are hard to prepare, but all are flavorful, time-tested and have become favorites. Fruit Tart - Apple

Cooking      Mole Coloradito      Shepherd Potatoes      Stuffed Poblanos      Leeks with Ginger and Shrimp      Curried Cauliflower      Mustard-breaded Chicken Cutlets      Mushroom Sausage Stew      Hearty Vegetable Soup      Potato pancakes           aka Latkes or Kartoffelpuffer Baking      Fruit Tart      Pinwheel Cookies      Hazelnut Crescents      Hazelnut Balls      Marmalade Drop Cookies      Spitzbuben (Sandwich Cookies)      Filled Yeast Doughnuts      Breakfast Crepes Grilling - A Summertime Thing      Exceptional Gin and Tonic Other (not really recipes)      Stewed Red Plums (or Rhubarb)      Mashed Potatoes      Scrambled Eggs      Heirloom Tomatoes      Matzoh with Melted Cheese and Salsa Ethnic German Food

Mole Coloradito

Ever since tasting mole poblano in the late 1960s, I've enjoyed it and used it as a personal evaluation of "Mexican" restaurants. I've been partial to the version served at Casa Mexico in Cambridge for decades (unfortunately they closed a few years ago). The Mexican chocolate which goes into this mole, off-putting to some, is perfect with the chiles and other ingredients.

Over the last few years, I've gathered the courage, and had the time, to try making some moles myself. With many ingredients and many steps, it's quite a production which will take a good half day to prepare. With that much effort, it's a good idea to make a sizable amount to use in future meals. Mole freezes well.

Recipe for Mole Coloradito.

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Shepherd Potatoes

Published in the NYTimes Food Section some years ago, this has become a real favorite. Cooking small potatoes with serrano chiles, lime juice and cilantro gives them a great flavor and some tingle. My daughter Ruth developed a variant with brussel sprouts instead of potatoes that is also very good.

I much prefer the flavor and bite of serrano chiles over the more widely used jalapeños.

I've often made these potatoes to accompany "hamburger au poivre", chopped beef liberally covered with cracked pepper and pan-fried over fairly high heat.

Recipe for Shepherd Potatoes.

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Stuffed Poblanos

Of all the various chiles, poblanos are my favorite for being flavorful with enough bite to be interesting without overwhelming with heat. I was thinking about how to prepare them as a variant on the popular stuffed green bell peppers when I came across an old Gourmet Mag recipe (Sept. 2000). The recipe filling is chopped cooked chicken, while I decided on ground dark-meat turkey, added some seasoning, and modified a few steps.

The stuffed poblanos, accompanied by packaged Spanish Rice Pilaf and a salad, make a delicious meal.

Recipe for Stuffed Poblanos.

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Leeks with Ginger and Shrimp (or Scallops)

Published in the NYTimes Food Section some time ago, this has become another favorite. It was a recipe in the regular column "The Minimalist" by Mark Bittman. The recipe works as well with scallops as shrimp.

Recipe for Leeks with Ginger and Shrimp (or Scallops).

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Curried Cauliflower

Also published in the NYTimes Food Section some time ago, this has become yet another favorite. It was a recipe in the regular column "The Minimalist" by Mark Bittman. With cauliflower, potatoes and eggplant, it's a very tasty non-meat dish. Cumin seeds add flavor and some crunch.

Recipe for Curried Cauliflower.

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Mustard-breaded Chicken Cutlets

A relatively quick and very good meal, it's basically chicken (or turkey) cutlets slathered with mustard, coated with herb-based breading, and then sautéed. It's adapted from a Sunday New York Times Magazine recipe.

Recipe for Mustard-breaded Chicken Cutlets.

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Mushroom Sausage Stew

A very flavorful stew with a delicious broth from all the portobello mushrooms in it. All the slicing and dicing of ingredients is well worth the time and effort.

Recipe for Mushroom Sausage Stew.

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Hearty Vegetable Soup

This soup recipe is entirely my own, with enough substance to approach a stew in consistency. As such, it's meant to be a meal in itself.

It also appeals to my sense of food as precious, almost sacred, by using parts that are usually discarded, namely, turkey or goose bones (carcass) from another meal, or collected giblets from whole chickens. This provides a very flavorful stock, which becomes the base for the soup.

The choice of vegetables is of course up to the cook, but my recipe always includes parsnips and Brussel Sprouts: I find that the first adds some sweetness and the other just a touch of slight bitterness which gives the soup its character.

Recipe for Hearty Vegetable Soup.

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Potato pancakes / Latkes / Kartoffelpuffer

Whatever the name, they are delicious, and often become the main part of the meal rather than an accompaniment. And they will go fast, so 3 pounds of potatoes for 4 people is not too much. Besides, if there are really any left over, they're great reheated for the next breakfast or lunch.

Being fried in oil, latkes are a Chanukah tradition. Be prepared for the inevitable argument as to whether they should be eaten with apple sauce or sour cream. My own preference is chunky apple sauce, and Mott's at that - it's sweeter than many but that seems to go well with the latkes.

I got to know potato pancakes as Kartoffelpuffer, which is probably more of a term from Berlin than Germany. There are many recipes, all varying somewhat. The one quoted here uses matzo meal rather than flour to bind the potato mixture.

Recipe for Potato pancakes, Latkes, Kartoffelpuffer.

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Fruit Tart This recipe for fruit tarts came from a local community paper by a Christopher Kimball, who calls himself the Kitchen Detective. I look forward to his column because he uses a quasi-scientific approach to try variants of a recipe to find an optimum version. The original recipe was for a plum tart (with Italian/purple/prune plums), but I've adapted and used it for a number of other fruit tarts, such as apple, blueberry and rhubarb, and even some non-fruit fillings. I found that a somewhat greater proportion of butter to shortening than in the original recipe made for a tastier crust. The tart requires a tart pan, the kind with a flat detachable bottom. Update (March 5, 2006): Added a new recipe for a red-plum tart, one that's my own creation, and quite a good one. Recipe for Fruit Tart. Top

Fruit Tart - Purple Plum Fruit Tart - Red Plum

Pinwheel Cookies It's been my tradition to have lots of cookies around the house at Christmastime. These in particular are a bit of a production, but well worth it. The combination of chocolate and regular cookie, together with finely chopped nuts and some orange flavor, is delicious, and the spiral pattern looks appealing too. Recipe for Pinwheel Cookies.

Pinwheel Cookies

Hazelnut (or Almond) Crescents

This is another Christmas cookie favorite. The original recipe is for almond crescents, which are also very good, but I have a great liking for hazelnuts, so that's what this recipe uses. .

Recipe for Hazelnut Crescents.

Hazelnut Balls

And a recipe for yet another Christmas cookie favorite, Hazelnut Balls.

Marmalade Drop Cookies

These Marmalade Drop Cookies are very easy to make. I prefer Dundee Orange Marmalade for its flavor and thick consistency; it's also less sweet than others.

Spitzbuben (Sandwich Cookies)

The name means "rascals" in German, probably for the charmingly seductive combination of butter, vanilla and preserves. The original recipe did not use an egg, but I found the dough impossible to work with. A little more research showed that there seem to be two kinds of recipes, ones with flour and an egg, others with ground nut meal and no egg.

As filling, I prefer seeded raspberry preserves rather than raspberry jam, as well as apricot (but avoiding the lumps). As instructions often say, "some assembly required", but well worth the effort.

The recipe for Spitzbuben.

Filled Yeast Doughnuts

I gratefully inherited a tradition of eating preserve-filled yeast doughnuts (Berliner Pfannkuchen) on New Year's Eve ("Silvester", in German). They're a full-morning production on the day of New Year's Eve, so as to be at their best that evening. My typical fillings are raspberry preserves (with seeds) and apricot.

An excellent dough recipe for this traditional German treat, the one that I use, comes from McCall's Cook Book. I learned the assembly technique from my mother and have adapted and perfected it.

We've found out, over time, that these doughnuts freeze well, and keep much better that way. A short time in the microwave will defrost and warm them nicely.

The recipe for Filled Yeast Doughnuts.

Breakfeast Crepes

Called "dessert crepes" in the book where the recipe originates, these are a treat for breakfast. They should be served immediately, and taste great with some preserves spread on them; blueberry preserves are especially good, as well as apricot and raspberry. I prefer them rolled up like palacinka.

The recipe for Breakfast Crepes.

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