SWEET ALMOND TREE

SPINACH AND SAUSAGE SOUP

2012-02-09T22:56:00.001-05:00

Yum, soup! Good tasting soup, in a flavorful broth. Fresh vegetables, great seasonings. Delicious!!! In the past I would have eaten two platefuls. Now, I can eat half of what is pictured here in one day (one day, not one sitting). Eat slowly and chew everything really well. Take my time and enjoy the wholesome flavors of this soup. I can't enjoy it too much though. As I am eating, I begin to recognize the signs of fullness and satiety approaching. So I push the plate away and I leave the table. Still, I've decided that even though I can only eat small amounts of food, that food can be tasty and well prepared. It has been 23 days since I've had the gastric bypass surgery. Week one was limited to taking in liquid nourishment. During week two I progressed to pureed foods. Week three arrived, and I was back to eating regular food, small portions, cut in small pieces. I have to take multi-vitamin and mineral supplements, and I have to make sure that I eat foods high in protein. I've never been a person who eats a lot of meat. I am, you can say, a carbohydrate fiend. It's the Greek in me. So what to do now? Well, this soup contains chicken broth and low-fat turkey sausage. That's protein, right? Yes, right, but it's not enough. I have to drink protein shakes. They don't taste all that great. Let's say this spinach and sausage soup is a ten in the scale of deliciousness. Let's apply that same scale to the protein shake. It will rate a three. It's all for a good cause, I say to myself. The cause of being healthy and loosing weight. Put some positive thinking into it, girl! I do, and yet, it still takes me hours to drink one 8 ounce shake. I'm determined though! So far I've lost 27 pounds!

Let's make spinach and sausage soup:

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
3 stalks of celery, sliced
about 1 pound red potatoes, scrubbed, unpeeled, cut into bite size chunks
5 cups of chicken broth, low sodium, low fat
1 cup canned garbanzo beans, rinsed
1 pound low fat turkey sausage (or use you favorite sausage)
4 cups spinach, washed well, roughly chopped, thick stems removed
salt and pepper to taste
some fresh sage and thyme for seasoning

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions, carrots,and celery and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the potatoes, the chicken broth and the garbanzo beans.
Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
Meanwhile, squeeze the sausage from its casing, then crumble it and brown it in a skillet. Drain as much fat as you can and set the sausage aside.
When the vegetables are tender, add the spinach, sausage, herbs and salt and pepper to the soup. Bring back up to simmer and let cook for another 10 minutes before serving.

I HAD GASTRIC BYPASS SURGERY!

2012-01-30T01:20:00.001-05:00

Gastric bypass surgery. An option I considered for about eight years. Twice I came close to having it done, and twice I had the mater postponed. One thing or another interfered: too many things going on at work, too many family obligations, even some haggling with my (former) medical insurance company. Then there were the usual objections from family and friends: "Cut yourself up like that just to loose some weight?" "You don't need surgery. Come stay with me for a while. I'll put you on a diet and you'll see how much weight you're going to loose." "Go to Weight Watchers! They are the best!!!" "You look fine. You have a very pretty face. You don't need to loose weight."

Well, actually, I needed to loose weight. I persevered with my attempts at dieting. I tried every sort of dieting there was. However, the results went something like this: loose 20 pounds, put 30 back on. Loose 50 pounds (thanks to the Atkins diet), and within a year put that 50 back on. Eventually I reached the point where I ceased to care. I paid little attention to my appearance. I'd wear my nursing scrubs to work, which thankfully were and are remarkable at disguising an out of shape figure. I'd come home, take off my uniform, clean up, and then put on what? Old, stretched out and worn out clothing that did nothing to lighten my mood or enhance my appearance. Gradually, I gave up dieting. I gave up lots of things, things that ran the gamut from happiness to tears. Little by little I gathered up aspects of my personal and emotional life and closed them off from myself and from the world. I lived in a vicious cycle. My obesity caused depression, and my depression led to overeating, which caused obesity. In addition to emotional problems, I encountered physical ones as well. Low back pain, sciatica, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, high blood pressure.

So last August 2011, I was ready, more than ready, for change. I was fortunate enough to find an excellent bariatric surgery program, and an excellent surgeon. The staff coordinated all the pre-surgery testing I needed, which was pretty extensive. On January 17, at 5:00 am mind you, I arrived at the hospital to have the gastric bypass procedure. The admission process took 2 hours. I was then taken into the operating room. Around 8:00 am, I was administered anesthesia. I woke up in recovery at around 1:00 pm. The surgery had taken place! I was so happy! In pain, but happy that finally, I had the gastric bypass!

I am writing this two weeks post surgery. I still have to get used to new routines and new eating patterns. I am looking forward to discovering a leaner me, but to also being a healthier me. I've taken one big step, but I still have a lot of work ahead of me. I d' like to document here the process of getting to the day of surgery, and the on-going process of loosing weight on the gastric bypass plan. So look for my posts, and best of health to you and yours!

TRADITIONAL GREEK ROAST CHICKEN WITH RIGANI AND POTATOES

2012-01-15T15:00:00.000-05:00

First off, although it's easy to guess: Rigani in Greek means oregano. This recipe is representative of one of the most typical way Greeks prepare roast chicken. It's fast to make and delicious. It contains the holy trinity of Greek seasonings: olive oil, lemon and oregano, and believe me, the chicken here gets seasoned with a lot of oregano. Don't be stingy with the stuff. I 'm always surprised at how juicy the chicken is when it comes out of the oven. I think the meat stays moist because of the way the chicken skin is prepared. A large pot of boiling water is poured over the uncooked chicken. The effect of this is to toughen the skin a bit. Since the skin gets tougher, it protects moisture from escaping during baking, and so the roasted meat is juicier. The classic accompaniment to this dish are roasted potatoes, which are baked alongside the bird. Love it!

To accompany this dish I usually serve vegetables such as string beans or carrots, and a green salad made up of arugula or Romaine lettuce. Sometimes, if they are available, I'll serve boiled dandelion greens seasoned with olive oil and lemon. Also, one of my favorite things is to have feta cheese on the side. That's a habit I acquired during childhood, when my mother would mash a bit of feta into my potatoes so that I would find them more palatable. Thanks mom, it worked. I no longer need this enticement. Now I do it out of choice: to me, roasted Greek potatoes and feta cheese go great together.

Ingredients:

A 3 to 4 pound chicken,preferably organic
Salt and pepper
dried oregano (Greek oregano if you can find it)
1 small onion, peeled
2 cloves garlic smashed and peeled
about 4 large baking potatoes, or use more if you want leftovers
1 large, juicy lemon, plus 1/2 lemon to sprinkle inside the bird
1/4 cup olive oil

If you want to be really traditional, use a round baking pan. Perhaps the choice of a round pan dates back to the days when round clay pots were used for baking.

Directions:

Preheat the oven to450° F. Traditionally, before Greeks roast a chicken, they wash it well, then place it in a bowl in the sink and pour a kettleful of boiling water over it. This will kill bacteria, but it will also toughen the skin, so that the chicken will be juicier when fully cooked. So pour the hot water over the chicken then remove the bird from the sink and pat it dry with paper towels.
Season it inside and out with salt and pepper, and sprinkle the lemon juice of half a lemon into the cavity. Place the peeledonion and the garlic into the cavity and tie the legs together with chicken twine. Peel the potatoes, cut them in half lengthwise and then slice each half in four. The slices should look like like wedges. Placethe chicken in a roasting pan andsurround it with the potato wedges. Squeeze the lemon juice of one lemon all over the chickenand potatoes. Then pour the olive oilover them and season them with salt and pepper. Get your oregano and sprinkle that all over. Don’t be stingy with it, but don’t be tooliberal pouring it on either. I have never measured how much I use. This dish needs a strong oregano presence but if too much is used, the chicken and potatoes might come out tasting bitter. So I keep that in mind. Pour 1/4 cup of water into the pan, taking care not to spillany of it on the chicken. Place the panin the preheated oven and cook for 30 minutes. Lower the heat to 400° F and cook for another hour. The end result: a golden chicken, and potatoes deliciously saturatedwith the cooking juices.

This picture triggersso many memories for me... I remember winter Sundays trotting to my aunt's house for dinner, stopping to gaze up at the bare trees and greysky, then picking up my walking pace so as to outrun the approaching dusk. Iwas a pre-teen on a mission. Skip over the streets and sidewalks, stop tosee what goodies the candy shops had for sale, and what new comic books hadarrived at the newsstands. Then skipagain over rocks and streets and sidewalks, till I reached the archwaywhich led to my aunt's home. My face and legs were red from the air that grazed my skin, and my toes needed the comfort of a warmfire. Conditions which were easy to ignore as I anticipated the pleasure of spending time with my family. When I reached my destination, a cousin waited at the door to envelop me in a hug. Wonderful sounds and smells would greetme. Laughter, talk, the aroma of this familiar chicken and potatoes dish.

HALIBUT in CRABMEAT and MUSHROOM BECHAMEL

2012-01-13T14:23:00.000-05:00

"The James Beard Cookbook," authored by the American chef and food authority James Beard, was published in 1959. It was revised and republished in 1970, and I am lucky enough to own one of the 1970 editions. James Beard brought French cooking to 1950's America. His legacy lives on in his numerous writings and cookbooks, and in the James Beard Foundation and its annual Beard awards given to various culinary genres.

The jacket is long gone, but otherwise the book is in very good condition.

It's nice to have one of his cookbooks as a reference, and I often peruse the recipes. One which captured my attention was fish in béchamel sauce, which I finally got around to making. I thought it would be a nice idea to include mushrooms and crab meat in the sauce. I was thrilled with my ingenuity. Then I checked Beard's recipe once more, just a few minutes before I sat down to write this post. There is a "variations" section below his recipe, in which Beard clearly states that both mushrooms and shell fish can be added to the béchamel. So much for my ingenuity. I am sure I had read that part, and then conveniently forgotten about it, until the time came when I believed it was my own invention. Memory does play tricks on us sometimes.
So anyway, since I love both béchamel and halibut, I combined the two and made an excellent entree. Something green needed to be served on the side, if only to make the pictures look good, something like steamed broccoli, or haricots verts, or asparagus.... I was too rushed to prepare anything like that and wound up serving my entree with just a nice tomato salad. Well, Beard never mentioned anything specific about vegetables concerning this recipe. Fresh vegetables are kind of a newfangled idea. They did not really appear on the American culinary scene until the late '70s or early '80's. What self respecting American ate vegetables in the 1950s?

Ingredients:
For the Béchamel sauce:

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup flour
1 and 3/4 cups whole milk, warmed
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 shallot, finely chopped
a dash of thyme
1/2 cup nice crab meat, or you can even use shrimp

For the Halibut:

1 bottle of fruity white wine
a few sprigs of parsley
a slice of lemon
a pinch of tarragon
4 halibut fillets, about 1-inch thick
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
a few dashes of paprika (optional, I use to sprinkle on top of the sauce just to make it look cute)

Directions:

Make the Béchamel sauce:

In some vegetable oil saute the shallots until they are soft, then add the mushrooms, some salt and pepper to taste and the thyme. Cook until the mushrooms are soft and begin to give off their liquid. Set aside.
In a 2-quart saucepan melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk until smooth, but not browned. Gradually add the warmmilk, whisking constantly to prevent lumps. Simmer over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the sauceis thick and smooth, about 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir inthe Parmesan cheese, the Dijon mustard and some pepper to taste. Add the crab meat and the mushrooms with their liquid and stir to combine.

For the halibut:

Preheat the broiler. Grease a baking dish that will comfortably fit the halibut with cooking spray and set it aside.
In a large saucepan, bring thewine, parsley, lemon and tarragon to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer andadd the halibut. Cover the pan and poach until the flesh is opaque, about 8 minutes. Make sure the liquid doesn't come back to the boil. When the fish has cooked use a spatula and carefully place the fish into the prepared prepared baking dish. Season with salt and pepper.

Spoon the béchamel sauce overthe fish and top with the Parmesan cheese. Dot with butter, sprinkle the paprika over the sauce and broil until the sauce appears lightly golden, about 3 to 4 minutes.

CREAMY CAULIFLOWER SOUP WITH KALE AND DILL

2012-01-09T00:30:00.000-05:00

My kitchen smelled oh soo good when I was cooking this! From the aroma, I knew the soup was going to taste great. It was quick and easy to make, a healthy and flavorful dish! This is a recipe from vegetarian chef Amy Chaplin, and it appeared on the January issue of "Living" magazine. Ashley, from Elizabeth March Design, made a great choice in picking it for us this Martha Monday. Cauliflower, sauteed onions, leeks, garlic, kale and dill are simmered in broth, then are blended until smooth. It's ready in less than half an hour. Both cauliflower and kale belong to the cabbage family, and as such they are super-foods, containing potent anti-cancer properties. They are also high in fiber, vitamin C, iron, calcium and potassium. Super-foods indeed. Don't cook them for a longer time than recommended, because their nutritional value decreases with overcooking. This was originally a vegetarian recipe, but I chose to add chicken broth to it, thus taking it out of the vegetarian category. Due to dietary reasons I have to learn to increase my protein intake, and the chicken broth added that extra protein. I may as well announce something here: on January 17, I will be having gastric bypass surgery, something I will be blogging about. Once I start eating solid food again, I will be having tiny portions, and one of the most important rules will be to have protein first. I know one thing: this soup recipe and I will become very good friends!

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 leek, cleaned well and chopped (white and light green parts only)
4 or 5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
salt and pepper
1 medium head cauliflower, cut into small florets
about 4 cups of low fat, low sodium chicken broth
5 large kale or collard leaves, stems removed and sliced (or you can use spinach)
juice of half of a lemon
3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
some basil leaves to taste

Directions:

Warm the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions and leek and saute for 4 or 5 minutes. Add the garlic and a bit of salt and continue cooking for a few more minutes.

I used all these onions and leeks... it was time they made it out of the fridge and into a pot!

Add the cauliflower.
Add the chicken broth. Use as much as needed to reach just below the surface of the cauliflower. Don’t add too much, you can always add more later when blending the soup. Turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Cover pot, reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes or until the cauliflower is tender.

The dill smelled oh so good! It gave an extra depth of flavor to the soup.

After the veggies cook, they are pureed to make a smooth, creamy soup.

Add the greens, lemon juice and dill, then stir and simmer a few minutes longer. Remove from the heat, add the basil and maybe a little more dill and let the soup sit about 5 minutes, so that it can cool slightly.
Using an upright blender, blend the soup in batches until smooth, adding more broth (or you can use some water this time), if it’s too thick.
Season with salt and pepper, reheat if needed, and serve.

MASHED POTATOES INFUSED WITH ROSEMARY AND GARLIC

2012-01-01T17:50:00.002-05:00

Mashed potatoes are a form of comfort served up in a bowl. A soft, mushy milky mash, steaming hot, with a sweet aroma that calls you to sit at the dinner table, satisfy your hunger, and send away your workday cares. Mashed Potatoes! Yes!

Yesterday's dinner was made up of steak and mashed potatoes, and after the dishes were done we headed out for a night of New Year's eve debauchery. Yeah, too out of it to remember where I was when 2012 "was born," but I am guessing, and probably rightly, that indeed it was born. This afternoon I staggered to the front door and picked up the newspaper, all the while nursing a prodigiously colossal hangover. I tried to focus my right eye on the date printed on the paper. That was the eye I was managing keep open. I could tell that my left eye was tightly shut, and that it had also somehow gotten bandaged. I don't know why or who done it. So as I said, I focused my right eye on the front page of the paper. The date was emblazoned in large block letters: "Happy New Year, January 1st, 2013!" Oh no, 2013?!?!!? 2013? Where had 2012 gone? The last thing I remembered was eating rosemary, nutmeg and garlic infused mashed potatoes on New Year's eve 2011. Then what happened? How much partying had I done? Was this a parallel universe? What happened to 2012? What happened to the whole of 2012? What was the problem with my left eye? Who was the president? Obama? Hillary? Ron Paul? I caught another headline: "US to switch back to the gold standard." I guessed that Ron Paul had been elected. Shucks, I would have taken Santorum over Ron Paul. I let the newspaper drop to the floor and I tottered back to bed. "Don't have no answers," I murmured to myself as I crawled underneath my blanket. "Just let me take a nap, and perhaps when I next wake up things will make more sense... although I doubt it."

It was the nutmeg. I had used too much nutmeg in the mashed potatoes.

As it turns out, I had never even left the house. I stayed home and finished reading a wonderful "who done it," called "Death Comes to Pemberly." Loved it, loved it. Jane Austen's characters from "Pride and Prejudice" occupy the pages of this novel by P.D. James, and Mr. Wickham is still up to no good. I highly recommend this book. I was so engrossed in reading it that I was careless with the amount of nutmeg I infused into my mashed potatoes. Nutmeg in large quantities can be dangerous. It has hallucinogenic properties. Look it up! Bellow, I give you the recipe for the mash, minus the nutmeg. In all seriousness, the rosemary & garlic infusion turns the potatoes from an ordinary side dish to a rather special concoction.

Recipe:

Get some potatoes that are appropriate for mashing. Peel them, cut them up and boil them until they are soft. Right away drain them. Meanwhile, and while the potatoes are boiling, place the milk you will be using to mash them with into a sauce pan. Throw in a nice size sprig of rosemary plus 5 or 6 cloves of peeled smashed garlic and bring to a boil. When the milk boils, but before it spills all over the stove top, remove it from the heat. Let the rosemary and garlic steep in the milk until you are ready to use it. Let them steep long enough so that the milk is infused with the flavors of the rosemary and garlic. When you have drained the potatoes, strain the milk into them, add some salt and pepper and some butter and then get to mashing. That's it. Place the potatoes in a serving bowl and sprinkle some Parmesan cheese over them. Bring them to the table and pass them around. (Tip: keep away from the nutmeg. In fact, don't even keep a supply of it in your house, or apartment, or castle, or where ever you happen to live. Really? You live in a castle? How much is you heating bill? Do you have a moat? Send pictures, please).

Love, Laughter and a Happy 2012 from Ana!

glitter-graphics.com

KALAMARAKIA YEMISTA or STUFFED SQUID (Καλαμαρακια γεμιστα)

2011-12-29T22:27:00.000-05:00

Kalamarakia Yemista is Greek for stuffedcalamari. Calamari is, of course,squid. It’s my favorite thing to eat (secondfavorite has got to be sushi). My lastmeal would include fried calamari, a variety of sushi, and diet Pepsi… woops…now I need some diet Pepsi. Excuse mewhile I visit the kitchen for a cold, bubbly glass of the stuff! Be right back….

Here I am! Did you miss me? Anyway, I prefera plate of calamari to say a plate of roast beef. My favorite way of eating calamari is breadedand fried. Heaven! However, I prefer to have someone else frythem- like a cook at a restaurant- because I am not fond of the odor that tendsto linger in the kitchen after having fried any type of seafood. Stuffing them is a nice way to cook them athome. Italians like to stuff theircalamari with bread crumbs, but we Greeks prefer a stuffing made withrice. It’s all good. Kalamarakia yemista are usually eaten in thesummer or at Lent time. I am makingthese in December, 29 December to be exact, because that’s my birthday, and Ialways have calamari to eat on my birthday.

You’ll need to buy small, fresh squid as they are themost tender. Get mostly the mantle, orsack like part of the squid, because that is a cavity, just right for stuffing. If tentacles are included with your purchase,you have two or three options: Bread them and frythem, chop them up very well and include them in the stuffing, or bake them along with the stuffed calamari by tucking them snugly in the same pan.
On either side of the squid, attached to thebottom of the mantle, are small fins. Those are easy to remove with a knife, and they can be chopped up to be included in the stuffing. Whatever you do, my advice is to make sure that you buy cleaned calamari. Cleaning them at home is a tedious and messyjob. I've watched people do it, and I've realized that it's not for me.

Most recipes for kalamarakia gemista are similar. One interesting variation is the addition of raisins and pine nuts in the stuffing. My version is simpler, so let's go to the kitchen and make stuffed squid (for my birthday):

Ingredients:

1 pound cleaned baby squid

tentacles from the squid, some chopped into small pieces, some left whole

1 onion finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

3 scallions, white and pale green part, finely chopped

3/4 cup long grain rice

1 cup chicken broth

3 tomatoes, skin and seeds removed and chopped well
Salt and pepper

3 tablespoons fresh parsley

2 tablespoons fresh dill

1 tablespoon fresh mint

1/2 cup tomato sauce

1 cup white wine, plus a little more for drizzling

olive oil
pinch thyme

Toasted pine nuts (optional)

Directions:

Place the squid in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Pour 1/2 cup of the wine over them, drizzle with a bit of olive oil, and marinate in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.
In a medium skillet heat 3 or 4 tablespoons of olive oil and sauté the onions until they are soft. Add the chopped up squid and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and the rice and stir to coat with the olive oil. Cook for about a minute, stirring.
Add the scallions and 2 of the diced tomatoes.
Add the chicken broth, the rest of the wine and the marinade from the squid.
Season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer on low until all the liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes.
Let the rice cool slightly, then add the herbs and mix well.
Preheat the oven to 400° F. Prepare the baking pan: Pour the tomato sauce and add the remaining diced tomato on the bottom of the pan. Season with a little thyme.
Stuff the squid with the rice mixture. This is a job best done by using your hands. Make sure the rice gets to the bottom of the squid cavity, and keep pressing the rice with your fingers so that the cavity is nicely filled You may want to secure the top of each squid with a toothpick so that the rice does not spill during baking.
Place the squid in the baking pan and roll it around in the tomato sauce. Add the tentacles if you have any. Drizzle some wine and olive oil over the squid and bake it uncovered for 30 minutes.
Remove the squid from the oven. Have a serving platter ready. Spread some of the sauce from the squid on the platter. Place the squid on top and spoon a little more sauce over them. Sprinkle with the pine nuts if using, and serve.

CORNBREAD TURKEYS

2011-11-30T22:30:00.000-05:00

Cute. That's the word for it. Really cute. Such a jolly thing to have at the Thanksgiving table! It's cornbread baked inside a turkey shaped mold. I saw the pictures and recipe of this corny turkey in the November issue of Martha Stewart Living, and since I am, too, too corny myself, I had to make it. First off I needed to buy the mold. I had no idea which store to visit that would still be selling one, considering we were really close to Thanksgiving. I thought of checking Amazon.com, and there it was! I ordered it and it arrived in three days, on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Great service!!!

Here is a link to the pan I ordered: Nordic Ware Platinum Collection 3D Turkey Cake Pan.

It's a sturdy, heavy pan, no problem to deal with, the cornbread did not stick to it at all. When the turkeys were made, I was able to easily stand both halves on their own, and they stayed that way, decorating the buffet table until the time came to eat them. Sorry I have no pictures of that, but I was very rushed. I'm glad I was able to take a few pictures of them as they were resting on a cutting board, fresh out of the oven. I want to admit here, as a sort of catharsis, that I have a family member who is less than encouraging about my habit of keeping up a blog. So, when this member is around for dinner, I tend to feel intimidated about taking pictures for posting. It's hard to click away with my camera when that member is standing over my shoulder rolling his or her eyes. Boy, thinking about that situation makes me angry, so let me just change the subject...

There is another turkey mold with the same design available at Amazon, and here is the link for that one: Nordic Ware Turkey cake pan 5-cup.

This one will accommodate half of the recipe. The pan is smaller but it costs more than the double mold. I don't make the rules.

Anyway, these guys really did look cute. They were very decorative, and very easy to make. Below is the recipe from "Living" magazine:

Ingredients:

Vegetable oil cooking spray
1&1/4 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups corn kernels
2 shallots minced
2 jalapeno chilies, minced (I don't like heat, so I substituted with one large Italian frying pepper (my favorite), but I suppose one can also use a small sweet pepper
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2&1/4 cups yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1&1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3 large eggs
2&1/4 cups buttermilk, well shaken
1&1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Coat the pans with cooking spray. Melt one stick of butter and let cool.

Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet. Cook the corn, shallots and peppers, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 6 minutes.

Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, salt, pepper, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the mixture and add the eggs. Whisk the eggs into the flour mixture.

Whisk together the melted butter and buttermilk and then stir it into the flour mixture, along with the corn mixture and the cheddar cheese. Mix until well combined.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Smooth the tops and place in the oven. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Insert a cake tester into the center and make sure it comes out clean before taking the cornbread turkeys out of the oven. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Cute!

ORANGES FILLED WITH SORBET, FOR HALLOWEEN OR FOR ANY TIME

2011-10-24T21:46:00.004-04:00

I don't often order dessert when I eat out, but on the menu at one of my favorite restaurants there is an item I usually can't resist: a frozen lemon filled with lemon sorbet. Delicious! So good! A refreshing dessert to share with someone, like say my nephew, who loves, loves, loves, ice cream or sorbet, any time of the year. I think it's a nice idea to fill oranges with sorbet too! If Halloween is close by, why not cut out jack-o'-lantern faces on the oranges before filling them up? Big and little kids will love them, and little kids will find carving an orange is lots easier than carving a pumpkin! This then is what I have picked to make for Martha Mondays, from a recipe found on Martha Stewart's web site. The oranges will be my Halloween offering to my nephew Alex, who I am sure will be very happy to receive them. I just hope he is kind enough to share... with me...

Ingredients:

4 navel oranges
2 pints mango, or strawberry sorbet, softened (or use another flavor that you like. Just don't try blackberry Cabernet--I did and I threw it out. Absolutely awful)!
some mint leaves

Directions:

Slice off the top quarter of each orange and reserve it to use as a lid. Using a spoon or small knife, carefully scoop out the interior of the oranges. Reserve the flesh for another purpose.
If you will serve the oranges for Halloween, draw a jack-o'-lantern face on each orange. Cut out the features with a small, sharp knife.
Pack each orange with sorbet, and top it with its "lid."
Transfer the oranges to a parchment-lined baking sheet, and place them in the freezer until they are firm. This should take at least 30 minutes.
Before serving, top each orange with some mint leaves. These can be secured with toothpicks.

CRAB AND SHRIMP CASSEROLE

2011-10-23T10:28:00.156-04:00

Often, back in the days when I was a college student, I would come home from class and throw together a quick dinner made of rice, frozen vegetables, and cans of tuna and cream of mushroom soup. I liked it. It was easy to make and satisfying to eat. It was also healthier than the usual student fare of pizza and diet soda. The recipe for my "tuna casserole," had come from a magazine advertisement for a famous brand of canned tuna fish. It's been a long while since I've cooked it. Just recently, I decided to revamp the recipe by throwing out the canned ingredients and replacing them with fresh ones. The result was really good. My recipe contains long grain rice and crunchy wild rice cooked in chicken broth, some sauteed vegetables, crab and shrimp, and a delicious homemade bechamel sauce that holds all the ingredients together. It's topped by panko bread crumbs and then it goes into the oven. It comes out hot and bubbly, crunchy and delicious. I am glad I revisited and revamped this recipe. It took two tries. Version one needed further tweaking, version two was spot on. You'll see that I did not use any salt, and that's because I thought that the seafood and the broth were already salty enough to flavor the whole dish. Here then is my recipe for shrimp and crab casserole:

Ingredients & Directions:

For the seafood:

1 pound of cooked crab meat
1 pound of medium shrimp, cooked until they just turn pink (If the shrimp looks kind of large, cut it in half)
Juice of one medium lemon

Peel the shrimp and place it in a bowl along with the crab. Sprinkle the lemon juice over the seafood and set aside.

For the rice:

3/4 cup uncooked long grain white rice
1/4 cup uncooked wild rice
2 & 1/2 to 3 cups of chicken broth
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
dash of black pepper
1 tablespoon butter

In a medium sized pot bring the broth to a boil and add the long grain and the wild rice, the chopped parsley, the pepper and the butter. Lower the heat to simmer, cover the pot and let the rice cook until all the liquid is absorbed, but the rice is still moist. Set aside.

For the Vegetables:

3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 cup frozen succotash (corn and Lima beans)
1 medium or 1/2 of a large red sweet pepper, chopped
3 ribs of celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
4 mushrooms, chopped

Cook the succotash according to package directions, drain, and set aside.
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add all the rest of the vegetables and cook until they are soft.

For the Bechamel Sauce:

2 tablespoons butter
3 to 4 tablespoons flour (how much flour to use depending on how thick you like the bechamel - for a really thick sauce use four tablespoons)
2 cups of lukewarm milk

In a saucepan over medium heat melt the butter.
Lower the heat and add the flour, mixing it with the butter.
Add the milk slowly, whisking constantly.
Keep whisking after the milk is added. Whisk well, until the sauce thickens and is ready to use. The sauce starts to thicken from the bottom of the pot where the heat is more intense, so make sure that you stir the thickened sauce from bottom to top in order to incorporate it well.

Now preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

To assemble:

1 cup of panko bread crumbs (I used Italian flavored panko)
1 or 2 tablespoons of butter, cut into small pieces
a few dashes of paprika
black pepper

In a baking dish large enough to hold all the ingredients fold everything together: The rice and the seafood,

the vegetables and the bechamel sauce. Season with black pepper.

Smooth the top,

and sprinkle the panko bread crumbs over it.
Sprinkle some paprika over the breadcrumbs and dot with butter.

Place in the oven and cook for half an hour to forty minutes until the top turns golden brown.

Serve right away, while the bread crumbs are crunchy and the dish is piping hot. We had left overs, and the flavor was still great the next day. Enjoy!

EGGPLANT SALAD GREEK STYLE (MELITZANOSALATA)

2011-09-28T23:54:00.002-04:00

Every summer our love affair with eggplant is renewed. Grown in backyard gardens and sold at vegetable stands all over the world, eggplants come in various sizes, shapes and colors. Bake them, stuff them, fry them, grill them, or even make sweet preserves out of them (yes, very small eggplants can be turned into a spoon sweet, a type of Greek dessert). One of the most popular ways for Greeks to cook eggplants is to turn them into this luscious salad. It's served as an accompaniment for drinks or as a starter to a meal. You can spread it on a piece of bread or eat it plain. Either way, it is a heavenly summer treat. Its texture is that of a spread or a dip, but Greeks simply refer to it as salad.

There are two types of eggplant salad: One is really smooth, has a college education, and is made with grilled or roasted eggplant which is pureed with just some olive oil, lemon juice or vinegar, and a touch of garlic. The other type is rustic and has barely made it through high school. It's totally unpretentious and it's the one I prefer: chunky, country style. Its ingredients depend on regional interpretations. For example, southern Greece produces a tremendous amount of tomatoes, therefore tomatoes tend to be added to just about anything, including eggplant salad. In Macedonia, where peppers are really plentiful, roasted peppers are added, and in Thrace, folks like to add walnuts. You could say that just about every Greek cook has his or her own version of this salad. Being descended from Macedonian and Thracian stock, I add peppers and walnuts. That's how my grandmother and mother made eggplant salad, and I follow suit.

The key to making a great tasting salad is to get fresh off the farm eggplants. Recently I bought some from the supermarket, which wound up tasting like cardboard. So this time around I drove the two extra miles to a wonderful farm stand, and there I found some really cute, and as it turned out great tasting baby eggplants. They were turned into a delicious salad and here is how I made it:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil

about 3/4 of a teaspoon of salt

some black pepper

1 teaspoon white balsamic vinegar

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1/2 of a small onion

2 cloves of garlic (or more, if you really love the stuff)

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

2 Italian frying peppers or 1 large sweet pepper
2 tablespoons walnuts to make walnut butter

1 tablespoon well crumbled feta cheese

5 or six baby eggplants

Directions:

Prick the eggplants with a fork, set them on a baking sheet and roast them in a 400° F oven, until the skins are wrinkled and the eggplants have collapsed. This should take about 45 minutes.
During the last half hour place the peppers in the oven and roast them as well.

Remove the eggplants and peppers from the oven and allow them to cool until they are safe to handle.
Peel the skin from the peppers and remove the seeds.

Slice the eggplants down the middle and remove their flesh. Chop it up, chop up the peppers too, and place everything in a large bowl.
Chop the onion, and garlic and throw that in the bowl as well. Add the parsley, oregano and crumbled feta.
Place the walnuts in a food processor and grind them until they are smooth and begin to release their oils. That's the walnut butter. Add it to the rest of the ingredients. If you don't want to go to all the trouble of making walnut butter, just chop the walnuts well and use them that way. I alternate between the two methods, depending on my mood. If I feel like cleaning the food processor, I'll make walnut butter. If I want to stay away from suds, I just chop up the walnuts, and that's it!

Now add the olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, and salt and pepper. Mix all the ingredients well. You may need to play around with the amount of oil you're going to use. Sometimes eggplants want just a bit more oil, sometimes they don't.
I hope you love this recipe just as much as we do. It will keep covered in the refrigerator for about five days. The longer it stays around, the more potent the taste of garlic becomes, so keep that in mind when you are adding garlic. If you add more garlic it's best to finish eating the melitzanosalata the same day it's made, or the following day at the most. It's easy to polish the whole thing off if you're having company.

MY SEVEN LINKS

2011-09-17T23:44:00.003-04:00

Answer seven questions using your previous posts. That's what "My Seven Links" is, a challenge to and from food bloggers.  When someone tags you, you have to write a post answering these seven questions. You can do so immediately, or you can take your time, thinking about it for a few weeks before you respond, as I did (in some circles that's called procrastinating).  In the end, this was a fun task.  It was a trip down memory lane:  I searched my blog and found lackluster posts I wish I had not written, and then I found some really nice ones that I am proud of. I saw how my blog evolved from its crude nascent state, to the brilliant! and more mature creation you find now before you.

I was tagged by Susan from "Create Amazing Meals."   In turn, I have to tag five other bloggers. Susan and I participate in the virtual cooking group "French Fridays with Dorie." I do think her blog is aptly named. She makes the most beautiful and delicious meals. Check for yourself.  One of the things I like about Susan is that she lives in California, in a seaside community. She ends every post with a gorgeous picture of the California coast line.  I love to look at Susan's pictures of the seashore.

Yes, I love the sea. Keep your rivers and your lakes, give me an ocean. How come? Having grown up in Greece, I was never more than 15 minutes away from a beach. The beauty of the blue, briny sea has been forever imprinted in my memory. There is no other place where I feel happier. Thalatta, thalatta. That's a quote from an ancient Greek manuscript and it means "the sea, the sea," It was uttered by a group of Greek soldiers who were lost in Asia Minor.  When they finally found the sea, they knew that they would soon be home. Thalatta, thalatta, I love you. However, I digress. How about if I answer seven questions, with seven links, to seven of my posts:

1. Which is my most beautiful post?

THE LOST TURKEY NAMED BOB, by ALEX
http://sweetalmondtree.blogspot.com/2009/11/blog-post.html
Why do I consider this to be my most beautiful post? Because it contains an essay written by my dear young nephew Alexander (that is he in the picture), which was read to us by my brother on Thanksgiving day. There was so much laughter, and love, and kinship shared by all that had gathered around the table that day. I was lucky enough to be seated within close proximity of the author himself. I gave him a great big kiss and that embarrassed him and then I had to apologize. Authors can be so temperamental!

2. Which is my most popular post?

WALNUT SKORDALIA
http://sweetalmondtree.blogspot.com/2010/07/blog-post.html

This dip is made with walnuts, garlic and a bit of oil and vinegar. It's my grandmother's recipe and I was so glad that so many people liked it. Thank you yiayia (that's grandmother in Greek).

3. Which is my most controversial post?

GREEK SALAD FOR A CROWD

http://sweetalmondtree.blogspot.com/2010/07/greek-salad-for-crowd.html

Who doesn't like Greek salad? Just about everybody does. How can you go wrong with Greek salad? I was so anxious to try this recipe. Some people thought it was good, but I can't say I give it a thumbs up. The recipe is an interpretation of Greek salad by famous Greek chef Michael Psilakis. It contains iceberg lettuce, grilled onions and lots of brined tidbits. A lot of effort that did not really pay off. Perhaps this comes off better if a chef makes it. The dressing however, was one of the best I have ever had.

4. Which is my most helpful post?

THE WORLD'S HEALTHIEST FOOD
http://sweetalmondtree.blogspot.com/2011/01/worlds-healthiest-food.html
The world's healthiest food is folic acid. Check out this information, and don't forget to take your folic acid on a daily basis.
http://www.womentribe.com/health/folic-acid-information-benefits.html The picture above came from this site, and the article is really worth reading.

5. Which is my most surprisingly successful post?

CRUMB CAKE, NEW YORK STYLE, WITH BLUEBERRIES
http://sweetalmondtree.blogspot.com/2011/03/crumb-cake-new-york-style-with.html
This recipe has so much butter in it that I thought everyone would think twice about making it. However, it was one of the best cakes I ever made.

6. Which is the post that did not get the attention it deserved?

ITALIAN HOAGIE 101
http://sweetalmondtree.blogspot.com/2009/06/italian-hoagie-101.html

My very first post! I worked so hard on it. At the time, I didn't even know if I could make a go of this blog. I wrote and rewrote and finally I posted it. By then I was so used to the blogger format that I created another post and then another and another. I remember how difficult it was to photograph food. What I imagined I would get and what I actually got were two very different things. I am still learning. I always promise myself that I will take photography lessons, but so far I haven't. The post was dedicated to Philadelphia and to our famous hoagie sandwich. I mustered up my courage, clicked the "publish" button, and there was my blog, on the Internet! However, I had no idea how to market it - boy does a blog need marketing! I'm still quite green about that. So to sum up my thoughts, I found out that to blog here at Sweet Almond Tree, one must have photography skills, cooking skills, writing skills, marketing skills and a certain dedication to merging all these skills in order to create an interesting blog. Stuff I was not fully aware of when I published this, my first post.

7. Which is the post I am most proud of?

FRUIT WITH HONEY AND MINT FLAVORED GREEK YOGURT
http://sweetalmondtree.blogspot.com/2011/06/fruit-with-honey-and-mint-flavored.html

This is a post dedicated to my father. He died recently, on June 19, 2011(father's day). I wrote the post a few days later, and it's about something he really liked to eat, which is also something I used to make for him often. I miss him. His death changed all of us. Things are still off kilter. He had a bad temper. He was autocratic. He was funny. He loved us. Eighty seven years old. We wish we still had him here with us. I love you dad.

I will tag the following bloggers:

Perfecting Pru
http://perfectingpru.wordpress.com/

Sweet as sugar cookies
http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com/

Jumping off the Cliff
http://jumpingoffthecliff-sirey.blogspot.com/

Organically cooked
http://www.organicallycooked.com/

Sassy Suppers
http://sassysuppers.blogspot.com/

I hope everyone has fun participating!!!

CREAMY AND CHEESY RICE WITH SPINACH

2011-09-09T18:53:00.146-04:00

A cheater's risotto! That's what this recipe is, boys and girls. There is no need to stand over the stove and to keep adding liquid as the rice cooks, which is the usual way of making risotto. The rice is left to cook on its own, and then cream and Gruyère are added to make a good creamy rice. This is the recipe selected for this week's "French Friday's with Dorie," and below are some details on how it was made. Oh, by the way, it was very enjoyable to eat.

Bring 3 1/2 cups of broth to boil and add a cup of Arborio rice. Stir, cover the pot, lower the heat and let cook until the liquid is absorbed. Turn off the heat and set the rice aside.
Have a 10 ounce package of frozen chopped spinach thawed and well drained. Saute the spinach in olive oil along with some chopped onion, and don't forget to add garlic and garlic. If you like add a tomato that is peeled, seeded and chopped. Let cook until the onion is soft. Season with salt and pepper.

In a large pot add the rice, spinach mixture, about 1/4 heavy cream and about 1/2 cup grated Gruyère cheese. Mix well, season again with salt and pepper, and there it is, a really creamy, delicious cheesy and risotto type rice. Easy and quick to make too. Loved it!

We had it for dinner along with grilled chicken. That took care of half the rice. The other half was used to stuff peppers.

Remove and reserve the caps from the peppers. Wash out the seeds and fill the peppers with rice. Place the caps on top of the rice and arrange the stuffed peppers in a baking dish where they can fit snuggly. Peel a nice sized potato and cut it in wedges. Place the wedges between the peppers. Pour a little water on top, sprinkle some olive oil and some salt and pepper over everything and bake in a 350°F oven for about 45 minutes, or until the peppers are soft.

We stuffed and baked the peppers the same day the rice was cooked, but we had them for dinner the following day. The potatoes were a nice touch. Rice and potatoes together! One can never have too much starch. There is no such thing.

HURRICANE IRENE

2011-08-30T23:14:00.009-04:00

In Greek mythology, Irene (Ειρήνη), was the goddess of peace. The name Irene means serene, peaceful. It's ironic that the hurricane which pounded the east coast of the US this past weekend was named Irene. This Irene was full of wrath and fury, and there was nothing tranquil about her. Along its path hurricane Irene caused widespread destruction: floods, power outages, property damage, and unfortunately some deaths.

I am very grateful that we, here at home, fared well. Our house held up. No power outages, no water or any other type of damage. As a rule, our neighborhood does not flood. However, there are a lot of very large trees growing in our area, and some of them topple when we have powerful storms.

Such was the case Saturday night, around 2:30 am, when the eye of the hurricane was passing over us. While keeping vigil in the garage, I heard a very sinister sound. It was brief in duration and very loud. It really scared me. A few minutes later I heard a similar sound, but it seemed as though it was coming from farther away. "This is really frightening thunder," I thought, so I gave up my vigil and went into the house. About an hour later I heard the sound of truck engines and the buzzing of power saws. I grabbed a large umbrella and stepped outside. Rain was falling in swift and powerful streams. The torrent was illuminated by the street lamps and I could see it being blown back and forth as the wind changed direction. My umbrella was of little use, and I should not have been outside, but my curiosity had gotten the better of me. I saw an enormous tree trunk lying by the side of the road. I realized that the sounds I had heard earlier were not thunder, but trees being uprooted by the wind. One tree fell right next door to us, the other a bit further down the street. By the time I had gone outside, the township workmen had already cut our neighbor's tree and had moved it off to the side so that it wouldn't block the roadway. The root trunk had been lifted and placed back on the curb. I counted five trucks on the scene, one of them from the gas works. All in all that was a very quick response time.

The work performed by our township crews was well organized and efficient. They worked under severe weather conditions and did an excellent job. Way to go Drexel Hill, PA!!! As for me, I was soaked to the bone. I went back inside and changed. I didn't go to sleep until about 10:00 am Sunday, after I was sure everything was alright. I slept for five hours. When I woke up all I could think to do was to go outside and take pictures. It turns out I forgot to take my medications... didn't even think about them until I started feeling dizzy and rundown later that Sunday night. I guess I am not as efficient as our township crews.

In late afternoon, I surveyed the damage. By then the rain had stopped and the hurricane had moved north to New York.

Here's part of the trunk, back on the sidewalk.... Poor old tree!

Here's the root trunk next to the hole where it used to live... Those roots were underneath the sidewalk, which as you can see lifted up and dislodged. Tossed like a paperclip. All this happened in seconds.

Yup, that's one big hole. Even the road has been torn up. Perhaps they won't just patch it up... I hope they pave the whole street. Wouldn't that be nice?

The rest of the trunk. The air smelled sweet with the scent of the oak sap emerging from the injured branches.

On the lawn repose branches. Big branches.

Another view of the catastrophe next door.

The second tree that fell. "Bradley Tree Experts" had already been on the job and had removed most of the branches.

The sidewalk was upturned...

This was a surprise. I didn't expect to see a lamppost hiding there.

Two windows and part of the chimney destroyed, plus a large part of the roof. Looks like an abandoned house in the woods, doesn't it? It's not.

There had been a van parked in front of that tree which miraculously survived any major damage. It was left with just a dented quarter panel. The tree branches reached to the house next door and destroyed part of that roof.

Some homeowners were very, very lucky. Here there aren't even any leaves to pick up. Our lawn was littered with oak branches and leaves.

Families walked over to take a look.

Some homes had smaller damage. This Japanese maple must have been diseased. It had almost no root system.

By the way, I've always loved the exterior of this house. It looks like an English or Irish cottage. We call it "the white house,' because it is after all, white.

Yes, we do have some rather large trees in the neighborhood.

These oak trees are majestic. I hope we don't loose any more of them.

Our house withstood the wrath of Irene. Our lamppost still works, however it needs propping up.

SHRIMP WITH RICE

2011-08-25T18:53:00.033-04:00

I love rice! I love shrimp! Put the two together and that's my version of comfort food! Here is one of my favorite recipes for shrimp and rice, easy to make any time. Try it, it makes a great dinner. It has a nice mixture of vegetables, and the tomatoes and broth make the rice taste wonderful. Peas are a nice addition here, and I usually include them, but this time we did without them because I forgot to buy them. I think the best part about having this dish for dinner are the left overs. I usually sneak to the refrigerator and get myself a few spoonfuls of shrimp and rice for a late night snack. That's my idea of a super nightcap!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 generous cup of sliced mushrooms
1 large green pepper (or red if you like), finely chopped
1 cup frozen peas
1&1/2 cups long grain rice
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup white wine (or replace with chicken broth)
3 cups hot chicken broth
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 small bay leaf
1 small can tomato sauce
1 tomato, peeled, seeded and chopped.
2 pounds shrimp, peeled, deveined.

Directions:

In a large skillet heat the olive oil and add the onions, garlic and green pepper. Cook until the onions are soft, about ten minutes.
Add the rice and cook while stirring, until the rice turns golden in color.
Add the wine and the mushrooms, stir, and then simmer five minutes.

Add the chicken broth, tomato sauce, tomato, parsley, thyme and bay leaf. Cover and cook about twenty minutes or until the rice is soft, stirring occasionally.

Add the shrimp and peas and simmer five to ten more minutes, until the shrimp are done.

Remove the bay leaf and serve.

BREADED PAN-FRIED HALIBUT

2011-08-17T22:08:00.005-04:00

I'm almost embarrassed to post this recipe because it was so simple to make. I had purchased some halibut fillets wanting to cook them in a completely different manner, but my mother convinced me to pan fry them. That's her favorite way to eat fish, so I could not say "no" to her. I didn't know how breaded pan-fried halibut would taste, and I was a bit nervous about the outcome. I shouldn't have worried. The fish came out delicious.

The most important thing was to make sure the fillets were completely dry before being prepared for cooking. So I washed them well and then patted them dry with paper towels. Next, I seasoned them with salt and pepper. I got the frying pan ready: a nice heavy one, large enough to accommodate the fillets and have room to spare. They should not be overcrowded while being cooked. I poured some canola oil in the pan, enough so that it would reach about 1/4 up the sides of the halibut fillets. I prepared three bowls. In one I poured some flour. In the other I beat an egg along with the juice of half a lemon. Then I chopped a large basil leaf and added it to the egg mixture. In the third bowl I poured some panko bread crumbs. Panko is good to use here, because it doesn't absorb too much oil and because it stays crunchy after cooking. I waited for the oil to heat up and then I dipped each fillet first in the flour, then in the egg mixture and then in the bread crumbs. As soon as each fillet was well coated on both sides, I placed it in the frying pan. I cooked each side until it was browned, then I placed the halibut on a serving platter.

The last step was to sprinkle just a little lemon juice on each fillet. Yup, never forget the lemon juice. It's a Greek thing. Greeks are obsessed with lemons and lemon juice. Good in savory foods or desserts, makes one's hands really soft, deodorizes the kitchen, and I think sprinkling a little lemon juice on laundry will make it come out of the washing machine a lot cleaner... well, I haven't really tried lemon juice on laundry, but who knows, there might be something to it.

To keep things tidy while frying, I used one hand to do the dipping in the flour, egg and bread crumbs. I kept my other hand clean so I could use it to touch surfaces and utensils without leaving spots of batter all over them. That's a really neat trick! Anyway, the halibut came out moist, not greasy at all, and it made a great dinner. We had a panzanella salad with it, with tomatoes and cucumbers fresh from the garden. Simple, summery and delicious!

PANZANELLA (Bread Salad)

2011-07-26T16:15:00.003-04:00

There are so many ways to make panzanella. Sometimes, in summer, I make a very simple version just by cutting up stale bread into chunks, combining it with a sliced tomato, and mixing it up with a some lemon juice and olive oil. If I want to get fancy I season it with a little oregano and Parmesan or crumbled feta cheese. Very simple, and it hits the spot: a garden fresh tomato accompanied with stale bread which takes on a luscious flavor because it soaks up the olive oil and gets covered with cheese. To keep up with tradition I should flavor my salad with basil, but since this is usually a night-time snack, I don't venture into my herb garden to gather basil. Why disturb the night spirits lurking outside, the ones cleverly disguised as floating shadows? The dark hours belong to them. Of course if they ever knock on the windowpane and want to invite me for a night of spooky frivolity, I will probably say yes. I'll even share my salad with them, but I'll venture outside by their invitation, only. Respect. For the spirits.

Panzanella or bread salad is a summertime bread salad made popular by the Florentines. It's true peasant fare, which means it's really good. It includes chunks of stale bread, tomatoes, onions, basil, cucumbers, sometimes other fresh vegetables, all dressed with olive oil, lemon or vinegar. For this Martha Monday, Megan from Megan's Cookin' chose a panzanella from Martha Stewart's web site that's made with all the traditional ingredients and also incorporates, cooked string beans. It was a great choice for this hot, hot, day. Although I would have liked to have tried it with the string beans, I didn't have any in the fridge, so I opted to make a more traditional "bread salad." With temperatures hovering at about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, I was not tempted to make a trip to the supermarket for beans. Here is how I made the salad:

Get a small loaf of bread (I used whole wheat), and cut it into cubes. Sprinkle with olive oil, some oregano, salt and pepper and a little Parmesan cheese. Mix the bread cubes with your hands, coating them really well with the seasonings. Arrange them on a cookie sheet and toast them in the oven until they get crisp but not too hard. Set them aside and let them cool.

In a large bowl toss the following: 2 large tomatoes, sliced, 1 English cucumber peeled and sliced, half a red onion sliced, half a green pepper sliced, half a yellow pepper sliced, a few olives cut in half, 1/4 cup basil leaves coarsely chopped, 2 tablespoons Italian parsley coarsely chopped, and a sprinkling of capers.

Make a dressing by combining 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard, 2 tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar, 4 tablespoons of olive oil, some black pepper and a dash of salt. Pour over the salad. Add the reserved bread and toss everything well. Chill for about an hour, and then serve and enjoy your salad.

FILLET of COD en PAPILLOTE

2011-07-08T20:46:00.015-04:00

Here we are again on French Fridays with Dorie, and this time we are making fillet of fish en papillote. This can be prepared both with salmon or cod. I happened to have some cod on hand, so cod it was. There just aren't enough good things I can say about this recipe. The fish came out tasting incredibly delicious! Here is another of Dorie's recipes to treasure and make again and again.

En papillote is a method of cooking by wrapping food in parchment paper or aluminum foil. It seals in the flavors during the cooking process and renders a more aromatic and tender product. It's exactly what happened here. The aroma of the cod was incredible and its texture was very succulent.

I made two fish packets. To start off, I washed the fish well and patted it dry. Then I placed it in a bowl and seasoned it with salt and pepper. I sprinkled the juice of one lemon over the fish and I let it absorb the lemon flavor while I continued preparing. I made some tomato concassé, which is nothing else than diced tomatoes, peeled and with the seeds removed. I always do this when I cook with fresh tomatoes because I really dislike finding loose tomato skin or seeds in my food. They are tough and bitter, so out they go! I salted the tomatoes and sautéed them in some olive oil. Then I cut two large pieces of aluminum foil and placed them on the counter. After that, all that was left to do was a layering of ingredients. Some basil leaves went on the foil, then the fish, then the tomatoes then some lemon rind.

The layering continued with some chopped scallions, a couple of thinly cut lemon slices, a few dashes of olive oil, a bit more basil and a sprig of fresh thyme. I folded the aluminum foil over the fish and herbs, forming well sealed packets. The fish cooked in a 400° F oven for about 12 minutes.

I opened up the foil packets and a fragrant puff of steam rose up from them, catching me by surprise. I breathed in the aroma of basil, thyme and lemon.

The fish was plated and served right away. It was seasoned perfectly, and the en papillote method had ensured the cod came out very tender. How can I not cook this again?

BEET SALAD WITH RED ONIONS AND HONEY-MUSTARD VINAIGRETTE

2011-07-01T22:20:00.051-04:00

Today on French Fridays with Dorie, we are making a beet salad topped with red onions and a really delicious vinaigrette. Here's how:

Get about a pound of beets, clean them well and peel them, then cut them up into quarters. You want to have bite-size pieces. Save the stems and leaves and wash those really well too.

Place the beets in a Dutch oven lined with aluminum foil. Season them with oregano, garlic powder, salt and pepper and some olive oil. Top the beets with the reserved leaves and fold the aluminum foil over them.

No need to discard the beet leaves. Cover the beets with them during cooking, and include them in your salad.

Place the lid on the Dutch oven and bake in a 375°F oven for about half an hour to forty minutes. The beets be soft. Take them out of the oven, and reserve the leaves. Make a vinaigrette using Dijon mustard and honey, salt and pepper, dried oregano, white balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Toss the beets with the dressing, cover them again with the leaves and let them cool in the refrigerator for at least an hour. While the beets are cooling, cut half a red onion into thin slices and place it in a bowl filled with cold water and ice cubes. Store the bowl in the refrigerator along with the beets. When ready to serve, arrange the beet leaves on a serving platter and top them with the beets and vinaigrette. Then drain the onion slices, dry them with a paper towel, and spread them over the beets. Allowing the onions to cool in the ice bath will give them a crunchy taste.

This was a wonderful beet salad. The dressing went very well with the beets. Definitely something to make again and again. One thing I forgot to do was to read the side notes in Dorie's cookbook, where it was suggested to top the salad with some cheese if desired. I think that's a great idea. Next time I make this recipe I will add cheese: a topping of goat or feta, or maybe some crumbled up Roquefort or Gorgonzola. If you love beets, this is the way to serve them. Thanks Dorie!

FRUIT WITH HONEY AND MINT FLAVORED GREEK YOGURT

2011-06-26T16:51:00.005-04:00

My turn to pick for this Martha Monday. I chose something very simple and quick to make. There is a recipe for it on Martha Stewart's web site, but I changed it around a bit.

I made honeydew, peaches and strawberries.

I am familiar with this way of serving fruit. On a warm summer evening it makes a very nice supper. The mint and fruit cool down the palette, and the honey sweetens it up. It was something my father often requested as his night-time snack. Eating it reminded him of his boyhood in Greece, when his mother offered similar fare for super. So I would chop up some fruit and serve it to him with a side of yogurt onto which a bit of honey had been drizzled. Sometimes I would sprinkle mint over the yogurt.

He always finished off his meal with a cup of tea. It didn't matter how hot it was outside. His habit was to eat the cold fruit and yogurt, and then sip a warm cup of tea flavored with lemon and honey. During all of his 87 years, he definitely had a sweet tooth. Lemon, honey, yogurt, mint, sweet summer fruit: some of the flavorful gifts the Mediterranean soil offers for our enjoyment. The earth gives but it also takes. Father died on June 19, 2011, just one week ago. He had been ill for a while, but nevertheless, his death was very sudden. His passing left us feeling great sadness and emptiness.

My father, shortly before he and mom got married.

Below are the instructions on how to make one of my father's favorite things to eat. I will miss making it for him. May he rest in peace.

A ladybug visited while I was picking mint

Ingredients:

nice summer fruit such as cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, peaches or strawberries.
2 cups Greek yogurt (2% is good)
1/4 cup mint leaves
2 or 3 tablespoons honey

Directions:

Clean and cut up the fruit into serving size pieces. Arrange it on a platter.
Place the yogurt in a serving bowl, top it with mint, and drizzle honey over it.
Bring the yogurt and fruit to the table and serve it to your friends and family.

PASTA WITH SAUSAGE AND BLUE CHEESE, EPIRUS STYLE

2011-05-23T22:04:00.091-04:00

I came across this recipe on the Saveur web site. Not too long ago Saveur magazine published an issue which featured Greek food. Unfortunately, I wasn't a subscriber so I didn't receive that issue. Most of the recipes and articles are on the Internet now, so I have checked them out thoroughly. This is a recipe I was not familiar with, so I decided to try it. It's pasta and sausage in a creamy sauce of blue cheese, flavored with lots of fresh oregano. I found that the tangy tasting blue cheese gave a nice kick to the sauce and complimented the richness of the sausage very well. I added a bit more blue cheese than the original recipe called for, but if you make it, add blue cheese according to taste. As for the sausage, if you're lucky enough to find Greek sausage, use it. Each Greek region has its own sausage recipes, but generally most contain pork and lamb, and are flavored with fennel seed, orange peel, garlic, leeks, and wine. If you can't find Greek sausage, substitute with Italian or any other type that you like. The native name for this recipe is "Makaronia me loukanika ke tiri," which literally translates to "pasta with sausages and cheese." It hails from the province of Epirus, which is a mountainous region in the Northwest of Greece. The shores of Epirus rest on the Ionian Sea, and right across the sea, a short ferryboat ride away, is Italy. Ioannina, a city with a history that dates as far back as 700 CE, is the capital of the province of Epirus. I imagine that this recipe was created in Ioannina or its surroundings, because it includes the addition of blue cheese, which is not a traditional Greek-type cheese. The city has always been a busy trading center, so I can see how foreign traders could have introduced the locals to blue cheese. Near Ioannina there is a cheese cooperative that specializes in making Italian and other type of European cheeses. Dairy production and especially cheese making are big business in the area. I've had occasion to go to Ioannina, and I will never forget how I got there.

From a post card: The city of Ioannina with the Pindus mountains in the distance.

First, I should tell you that Ioannina is surrounded by the Pindus mountains, which at over 2,500 meters in some places, reach the highest elevations in Greece. We had to drive through the Pindus mountain range to get to our destination. For the most part, the road consisted of two narrow lanes running in opposite directions, with nothing such as a median between them. Our car climbed round and round, winding higher and higher, making harrowing, sharp turns that put the fear of God into us. We had some very scenic views of mountain vistas, but we were also concerned about the steep drops that would appear on either side of the road. Did I mention there were no guard rails? Mishandle the steering wheel, and it would be goodnight and goodbye, all the way down a sheer, cavernous drop. The difficult terrain reflected the names given to the villages: the place where we stopped to fill up with petrol was named Katara, which means "the curse." The driver of our car was none other than my brother, and he found the ride "awesome" and "exhilarating." He knew I found the road dangerous, so he thought it would be funny if once in a while he scared me by yelling out "oh, no, we're going to die!" I wasn't too amused at the time, but now, as I write this, I can't help but chuckle.

This photograph brings back so many memories... I will never forget the stark beauty of the Pindus mountains. By the way, the road appears wider in the picture. In reality it was much narrower. Truly. Would I stretch the truth?

Things started looking better when we began to descend the mountain. The road widened and the city of Ioannina became visible in the distance. I felt such relief that I started singing along with a song playing on the radio, a song that up until that day I pretty much disliked. No more. Since then, I am always happy to hear it: Jethro Tull, Ian Anderson, Aqualung!

Another post card of the Pindus mountains, with a tiny village nestled amidst the forest. How well I remember that grayish color of the mountain peeks!

It's been a little more than twenty years since we took that trip. I have been told that today there is a new, safer road going through those mountains, with lots of tunnels and bridges to avoid the sharp turns. Also, because of the tunnels, this new road doesn't have to close down as often during the snowy, icy winter months. In the old days, no traffic would go through during the winter. So Epirus is rugged country, and its folk have been toughened by centuries of hardship. The cooking is no-nonsense yet versatile; recipes are uncomplicated, consisting a few key ingredients. Many contain dairy products, which are plentiful because shepherding is a mainstay occupation in the region. The livestock, made up of sheep and goats, graze freely on the large variety of wild grasses, greens and herbs. Their milk is used to make excellent cheeses which are popular all over Greece. It's interesting to note that "Dodoni Feta," one of the best brands of feta cheese, is made in Epirus. Here then is how to make the simple and delicious pasta with blue cheese and sausage Epirus style:

Ingredients:

4 or 5 tablespoons of olive oil
about 3/4 of a pound Greek or Italian sausage, sliced into 1 inch pieces
1 pound pasta such as penne, or this curly type I used. What is it called? I've forgotten its name.
1 cup white wine
3 ounces blue cheese, crumbled, plus 1 tablespoon crumbled, to use for garnish
1 clove of garlic, smashed and chopped very well
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup fresh oregano leaves - reserve about 1 tablespoon for garnish.
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
salt, to taste

Directions:

Heat the 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausages and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are browned, about 7 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook, then strain. Mix the rest of the olive oil with the pasta and reserve. The bit of olive oil is added so that the pasta doesn't become sticky while reserved.
Add the wine to the sausages and cook to deglaze the pan. Cook until the wine is reduced by one quarter, about 2 minutes. Add the blue cheese, garlic, cream, and oregano and cook until the mixture is thick and the cheese has melted, about 2 minutes.
Stir in the reserved pasta and season with salt.
Transfer the pasta to a small platter and sprinkle the grated Parmesan cheese on top. Season liberally with black pepper and garnish with the reserved oregano leaves and blue cheese.

BLOGGER BLUES: OH NO, BLOGGER ATE MY HOMEWORK!!!

2011-05-15T20:03:00.013-04:00

Something happened to Blogger this past Thursday. The service was on read only mode, meaning no to publishing or editing posts. No problem there. I have confidence in Blogger.  I was positive that maintenance issues would be tended to quickly, and then we would all be back, fingers gliding over computer keyboards, eager to publish our prodigiously superior posts. If you think about it, it's a pretty awesome thing to have a service such as Blogger around.  Available since 1999, free of charge and uncensored (uncensored in the West, that is), Blogger has changed the Internet. Among other areas, it influences politics and journalism, and it has allowed common folk like me to have a voice and to connect with others. So an enormous thank you Google and Blogger for all of that.
Now stop eating my homework!
I know this is a cooking blog, but chewing up my posts? That's way out of line. How about reader comments? Can you also not swallow those up?
According to "Blogger Buzz," data corruption during Wednesday night's maintenance caused anomalies which were responsible for the disappearance of bloggers' posts and comments. Subsequent information updates assured us that most all posts and comments were restored, and those that were not would be back by the weekend. I am writing this on Sunday evening, the official end of the weekend, and so far I have not seen my missing post and its comments restored. I could just say "well, never mind, it's only one post, what if it is lost forever? I can learn to live with that."  However, I am finding out that I can't. I lost something which was posted after I had been without Internet for two long, long, days. Due to a computer virus. Which McAfee did not pick up. Which I had to pay a pretty penny to get rid of. Which I got while reading a story about the Loud family from PBS. (Remember them? There is a movie about them now. I watched all those PBS episodes when I was a kid. At the time I was so young and naive that I had no idea what Lance Loud was up to. Why is Lance wearing nail polish, I would wonder...  Ah, memories)! Anyway, I was so happy to be back in action that right away I created a post named "A Martha Monday Experiment Gone Bad: Grilled Mozzarella Cheese Sandwich." It had to do with a disaster in the kitchen, with my triumphant return to the blogosphere, and with my grumpy mood due to having suffered a two day computer withdrawal. Did you read it? If you answered no, don't blame me, blame Blogger. One of my readers commented that it was my funniest post to date. Blogger, I want back my post and its accompanying accolades.  Now.

I am pasting the article from Blogger Buzz below. In case you don't believe me.

     "May 13, 2011

      Blogger is back

What a frustrating day. We’re very sorry that you’ve been unable to publish to Blogger for the past 20.5 hours. We’re nearly back to normal — you can publish again, and in the coming hours posts and comments that were temporarily removed should be restored. Thank you for your patience while we fix this situation. We use Blogger for our own blogs, so we’ve also felt your pain.
Here’s what happened: during scheduled maintenance work Wednesday night, we experienced some data corruption that impacted Blogger’s behavior. Since then, bloggers and readers may have experienced a variety of anomalies including intermittent outages, disappearing posts, and arriving at unintended blogs or error pages. A small subset of Blogger users (we estimate 0.16%) may have encountered additional problems specific to their accounts. Yesterday we returned Blogger to a pre-maintenance state and placed the service in read-only mode while we worked on restoring all content: that’s why you haven’t been able to publish. We rolled back to a version of Blogger as of Wednesday May 11th, so your posts since then were temporarily removed. Those are the posts that we’re in the progress of restoring.
Again, we are very sorry for the impact to our authors and readers. We try hard to ensure Blogger is always available for you to share your thoughts and opinions with the world, and we’ll do our best to prevent this from happening again..."

(5/21/2011 update: No post, no comments restored. I suppose they are lost forever. Goodbye, words)!!!

PILAF, GREEK STYLE (Pilafi - Πιλάφι)

2011-05-04T00:26:00.007-04:00

Love this rice dish! It is a pilaf (pilafi in Greek), meaning it's cooked in broth and has vegetables or even meat mixed into it. Various versions of pilafs are popular in the Middle East, North Africa, Spain, Greece. I bet once upon a time there was an original recipe that got carried by ancient traders from Mediterranean coast to Mediterranean coast. People loved it, and adapted it to suit their tastes. So today we have all these rice pilaf variations, and as far as I am concerned they are all great. I never say no to rice! Greeks have a plain version of pilaf made with just broth and butter, and then they have this one. It can be served on its own in which case I can have a whole plateful, or it can be served as a side dish with lamb, chicken or game. It can also be used as a stuffing. With some really minor changes it makes a great turkey stuffing, and I guess some November day I'll make it as a stuffing and show it off here. Now, here is how to make Greek rice pilaf:

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped
4 mushrooms sliced
5 leaves romaine lettuce, chopped (yes, lettuce. Some Greek dishes contain braised lettuce)
2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
about 1/2 pound Italian sausage (hot if you like heat - which I don't)
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup pine nuts, roasted
3 cups boiling chicken broth
1 & 1/2 cups of rice (raw, white)
Salt and pepper to taste
a small handful of peeled and roasted almonds for decoration

Directions:

If your raisins are really dry place them in water to cover and let them stay in the water until they plump up and soften.
Place the almonds and pine nuts on a baking sheet and toast them in a preheated 350°F oven until they are aromatic and golden in color. Remove them, let them cool and reserve.
Remove the sausage from its casing and crumble it up. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan and cook the sausage until it's no longer pink. Place it onto a plate lined with paper towels and reserve it.
Heat the rest of the olive oil in a large pan and sauté the onion until it begins to brown slightly.
Add the garlic, dill, lettuce, mushrooms and tomatoes and cook for two minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the rice, raisins, pine nuts and reserved sausage and mix well.
Add the broth and season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook on low for about twenty minutes, until almost all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender and moist. Let the rice rest for 5 to 10 minutes. It will absorb any liquid that is left over. You want a rice that glistens and is moist, but is not mushy, dry or runny.
Place on a serving platter and decorate the top with the roasted almonds.

Then eat and enjoy!

STUFFED PEPPERS with RICE, RAISINS and PINE NUTS

2011-05-02T21:07:00.067-04:00

Welcome to the first Martha Monday of this month of May. Today I got to pick what we are making, and I chose stuffed peppers from a recipe to be found on Martha Stewart's web site. It's a recipe that was contributed by Mrs. Kostyra, who was Martha's mother, and I thought it would be a timely choice since mother's day is so close.

A mixture of rice, raisins and pine nuts may sound strange to some, but it's a popular combination of ingredients in almost all the cuisines of the Mediterranean and Middle East. I think this recipe makes a nice "usher in spring" meal. The colorful peppers and vegetables look as good as they taste. The only draw back for me was that I didn't have time to go to my grocer, so I purchased the peppers at my local supermarket. I didn't check the price, but I found out during checkout that they cost $4.70 per pound. I wound up paying close to $19.00 for 6 peppers. Way too much. Oops!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup pine nuts
5 small tomatoes, cored, seeded, and sliced about 1/2 inch thick
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (from 2 oranges)
6 nice sized yellow bell peppers or 3 yellow and 3 orange
1 medium red pepper, cored, seeded and finely chopped
1 large tomato, peeled, seeded and chopped
2 cups chicken broth or water, or a combination of the two, plus another 4 tablespoons broth or water.
1 cup rice (white, uncooked)
6 tablespoons olive oil
3 scallions, white and soft green parts, chopped
3 medium shallots, finely chopped
3 sprigs fresh thyme, plus 1 teaspoon thyme leaves
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil leaves
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh parsley plus 6 sprigs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spread the pine nuts in single layer on a small baking sheet. Bake until golden, about 8 minutes. Shake the pan halfway through baking to make sure the pine nuts toast evenly.

Line up the tomato slices on the bottom of a baking pan that's going to be just large enough to hold the 6 peppers. Season the tomatoes with salt and pepper, sprinkle a little olive oil on top, and place a piece of thyme sprig on each slice.
Combine the raisins and orange juice in a small bowl. Let stand until the raisins are plumped, about 15 minutes.
Using a sharp knife, cut around the stems of the yellow peppers. Core and seed them, reserving the stems. Set them aside.
In a sauce pan, bring the broth or water to a boil. Add the rice, and simmer, covered, until the rice is just a little undercooked, about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the scallions, chopped pepper and shallots, and cook until the shallots are translucent, about 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

The combination of basil, raisins and orange juice gave the stuffing an incredibly delicious flavor.

Stir in the chopped tomatoes and the raisins with their orange juice. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the thyme leaves, basil, parsley and pine nuts, stirring to combine. Stir in the cooked rice.

Fill each pepper with one sixth of the rice mixture. Cap each pepper with the reserved pepper stems.

Fit the peppers into the baking dish on top of the tomatoes, and place the parsley sprigs between them. Pour 4 tablespoons of water over the peppers and sprinkle them with the remaining olive oil.

Cover with parchment paper-lined aluminum foil, and bake for one hour.

Uncover, and continue to bake until the peppers are tender and the rice is heated through, about 30 minutes longer.

This pepper used to be orange. During baking, peppers loose some of their pigment. In my case, it was a bit difficult to tell which pepper was yellow and which was orange. So why did I choose two different colors?

The peppers will be done when they appear shriveled up as you can see in these last two pictures. It's how I prefer them. That's when they get really tender: their skin can literally be peeled off. Make sure there is liquid left in the bottom of the pan. This way the peppers and the rice will have stayed moist through out the baking process.

Serve and enjoy!

HACHIS PARMENTIER

2011-04-19T22:24:00.223-04:00

Hachis parmentier is a meat and potatoes meal, popular in France, and reminiscent of shepherd's pie. It's made with layers of leftover beef and mashed potatoes, it's covered with cheese and then it's baked, coming out of the oven looking rather decadent, and tasting rather delicious. I made some at the beginning of this month, and we enjoyed having it for dinner. I didn't have any leftover beef to work with, but I had a small quantity of frozen chuck meat which I defrosted and boiled, combined with some sausage and vegetables, and then turned into hachis parmentier.

A few words about the name for this dish: hachis means chopped up, and it derives from the word hatchet. I find the etymological history of the word fascinating. The online dictionary, one of my favorite sites on the Internet has this to say: "Middle English hachet, from Old French hachete, diminutive of hache, ax, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German happa, sickle." Yes, I do get exited over words and their history, but look: our word ax derives from the French hache, and it came to be just by dropping the letter "h," which the French almost always drop when speaking, and which some English speakers also drop, although they shouldn't. So ax up some cooked meat -without chopping off your fingers please, season it, and you'll be one step closer to creating hachis parmentier.

Boiled and chopped up chuck beef, being seasoned with a healthy dose of black pepper.

As for "parmentier," the word is applied to dishes cooked with or accompanied by potatoes. The name "parmentier" refers to Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, an 18th century French pharmacist who promoted the potato as a food source, and who was responsible for having the French government declare potatoes an edible crop. He used all sorts of methods to do this, including serving potatoes to such luminaries as the visiting Benjamin Franklin. My favorite of Parmentier's stunts was this: he surrounded his potato fields with armed guards to suggest that valuable goods were being guarded there. His guards were instructed to accept bribes from the passing crowds and to withdraw during the night so that the crowds could gain access to the fields and steal the "valuable" potatoes. That's what I call a promoter! The man was way ahead of his time. I love potatoes, and so I thank monsieur Parmentier for his efforts, yes, I thank him wholeheartedly.

Ah, the mashing of the potatoes. Such rituals would probably be missing from our homes were it not for the valiant efforts of Antoine-Augustin Parmentier.

Now let me put the encyclopedia aside so I can describe how I cooked the hachis parmentier.

Method:

Beef: Use leftover cooked beef if you have it. If not, use about a pound of chuck beef cut into small pieces. You really need more, but in my case I didn't have more on hand, so I combined it with half a pound of Italian sausage removed from its casing. I got the idea for using sausage from Dorie Greenspan's cookbook "Around my French Table." You will need to boil the beef and make some bouillon.

For the bouillon:

1 pound chuck beef cut into small pieces(you'll be cutting it up even further once it's done).
About 5 cups of water
1 onion, quartered
1 carrot peeled and chopped in half
3 celery stalks, cut in half, leaves included
2 garlic cloves, peeled and cut in half
1 bay leaf, half a teaspoon of peppercorns, some salt and and a few sprigs of parsley.

Place all the ingredients into a soup pot. Bring to a boil and skim off the foam that comes to the surface. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 2 hours until the meat is soft.
Stain the broth and reserve it, shred the meat in small pieces and reserve it also.

For the filling:

3 or 4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 pound Italian sausage, removed from its casing
1 tomato, seeded peeled and chopped
2 carrots, chopped into 1 inch pieces
3 mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 leek, thinly sliced, white and light green parts only
2 onions finely chopped
1 teaspoon flour

In a lage pan heat 1 tablespoon of the oil, add the sausage and cook until it's no longer pink. Remove the sausage to a plate lined with paper towels and set aside. Discard any left over grease and wipe the pan clean.
Add the rest of the oil to the pan and heat. Sauté the onions, tomato, carrots, mushrooms and leeks until they are soft. Mix in the reserved meat and sausage, then sprinkle the flour over and combine it well.
Add enough of the reserved bouillon to moisten the fillng. You want to have a filling that is nice and juicy, but not one that is swimming in broth.
Place the filling in a greased oven safe casserole.

For the topping:

Use 2 pounds of Yukon gold potatoes to make mashed potatoes just the way you like them. I peel them, chop them, cook them in boiling water, then I drain them and mash them. While mashing I add 1/2 cup milk, 3 tablespoons butter, and a seasoning of salt and pepper.
Pour the mashed potatoes over the filling.
Sprinkle 1/2 cup grated Gruyère and one tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese over the potatoes.

Bake the dish in a preheated 400° F oven for about 20 minutes. It's done when you are able to see the filling bubbling and when the potato topping is a nice golden brown.

Bring to the table and serve. This will make a really delicious and warming meal, especially when it's kind of cold outside. I hope you enjoy it!

IRISH HAND PIES with BEEF

2011-03-14T15:43:00.006-04:00

Megan from Megan's Cookin' has chosen Irish hand pies for this Martha Monday. The recipe is from Martha Stewart's web site, and it has a definite Irish flavor, a great choice, since St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner...

At my house we love savory pies and we make them often, using pie crust dough or phyllo dough. Since we love them so, we couldn't wait to try this version. You can't go wrong by wrapping a stew-like filling inside a pocket of flaky dough! I'm not ashamed to admit that I made them with store bought pie crust. It doesn't make me a bad person, really it doesn't. (Perhaps it makes me a bad cook)! I bought the Pillsbury brand from the refrigerated section of the market. With these pies, the trick is to wait for the filling to cool down completely before taking the pie crust out of the wrapper. Otherwise the crust will dry out and become brittle and difficult to handle. Here's how to make these little pies, but before we begin, I'd like to wish you all a very happy and festive St. Patrick's Day. Éirinn go Brách!

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion chopped
1/4 head green cabbage, shredded
1/2 pound potatoes, peeled and cut in 1 inch pieces
1 pound good quality ground beef
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
2 tablespoons fresh parsley
2 cups low sodium beef broth, divided
Salt and pepper to taste
All purpose flour for rolling
2 pie crusts (9 inches each), homemade or store-bought
1 egg beaten, to be used as egg wash.

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400° F.
Bring 1 cup of beef broth to a boil and add the potatoes. Cook until they are soft and then mash them, incorporating the left over broth in which they boiled. Set them aside to cool.
In a medium saucepan, heat the oil and add the onions. Cook them for about 5 minutes until they begin to soften.
Add the beef and cook, breaking up the meat until it's no longer pink. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the cabbage, and cook, stirring, until the cabbage begins to soften, about 10 minutes.
Stir in the tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, thyme, parsley and the beef broth.
Cover, and cook until the cabbage is tender, about 15 minutes.
Lightly mash the mixture with a fork. Season with salt and pepper, mix with the potatoes and set aside until completely cooled.
When the beef mixture has cooled, prepare the crust: On a lightly floured work surface, roll each crust into a 14-inch square. Cut each into 4 equal squares.
Place 1/2 cup of filling on one half of each square, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the filling. Brush the borders of the crust with water and fold the dough over the filling to enclose. Crimp the edges with a fork to seal. With a paring knife cut 3 small vents in each pie.
Brush the top of the pies with the egg wash.
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and spray the paper with cooking spray. Transfer the pies onto the baking sheets and bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
The nice thing about these pies is that they can be frozen.
To freeze, arrange the unbaked pies on a baking sheet and freeze them until firm, about 1 hour. Then wrap each pie in foil, and place it in a resealable plastic bag. They can be frozen for up to 2 months. To bake from frozen, the baking time should be increased by about another 15 minutes.

LINGUINI MENDIANT (Beggar's linguine)

2011-03-11T21:17:00.014-05:00

We are cooking from Dorie Greenspan's cookbook "Around my French Table." Our group is French Fridays with Dorie , and this week's entry is a pasta dish, whose official name is linguine mendiant, or beggar's linguine.
It reminds me of rice pilaf dishes I make, which include raisins, pine nuts, walnuts, and sometimes sausage. In this recipe the rice is replaced by pasta, and figs are also added. Butter is plentiful here (12 tablespoons!), unless of course you cut the amount down to 4 and then add about 3 tablespoons of good old fashioned olive oil, which is what I did. Gone are the days, days of me in my twenties and thirties, when such things did not concern me. Days when I thought I was indestructible.

So heat up the butter and olive oil in a large pan, add the walnuts, almonds, raisins and figs, sauté them well and pour the linguine on top. Mix well to coat it evenly and season with salt and lots of pepper. Get a nice serving platter and arrange the linguine mixture on top. Sprinkle the pasta with some orange zest, some freshly ground Parmesan cheese and some parsley. Voilà! The linguine mendiant is ready. Now comes time to taste it: Mmm. The nuts give it a very nice flavor, but it's kind of sweet. My mistake. I used too many figs because I love, love, love them.

Dorie Greenspan explains that the word mendiant, which means beggar in French, is used to describe a combination of ingredients that represent the four mendicant monastic orders: dried figs are for the Franciscans, raisins are for the Dominicans, and the nuts are for the Augustinians and Carmelites. The mendicant concoction appears in desserts, and in this recipe it's used in a savory dish. I should have added some Gorgonzola to this linguine I think. Figs and Gorgonzola make a great combination, and the cheese would have probably cut down on the sweetness of the dish. Maybe next time.

CRUMB CAKE, NEW YORK STYLE, WITH BLUBERRIES

2011-03-01T16:11:00.008-05:00

Large, crisp, crumbly crumbs in the form of a cake is the task for Martha Mondays, as chosen by Brette, from Martha and Me. The recipe appears in the March 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine, and it's one good recipe.

If you have one pound of butter just hanging around your house, why not put it to use in making this cake. Yes, it requires one pound of butter, more or less. That's why it's so good, I guess. However, because of the amount of butter needed, I had reservations at first about baking it. Brette, Pru from Perfecting Pru, Megan from Megan's Cooking, and our newest member over at Bizzy B Bakes, made the cake and raved about it. So I thought I would give it a try too, and I am so glad I did. It is absolutely wonderful!!! It's very moist, fluffy and delicious. Most of the butter goes on the crumb topping, and there is a lot of crumb topping. I followed the recipe exactly as written (more or less), but I think, just maybe, next time I make the cake I might cut the ingredients of the crumb topping by half. Believe me, this cake is going in my regular cake repertoire.

Ingredients:

For the crust topping

3 & 1/2 cups flour (King Arthur is best)

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cups brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 & 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted

For the cake

1 &1/2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature, plus more for greasing the pan.

2 & 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

Dash of salt

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs plus 2 egg yolks

1 & 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup buttermilk

1 pint blueberries

1 cup store-bought blueberry preserves

confectioner's sugar for dusting

Directions:

Make the crumb topping: Mix the flour, sugars, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Mix them well. Then pour warm melted butter over the mixture and mix using your hands until medium to large clumps form.

Preheat the oven to 325°F, and make the cake:

Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.

Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat another 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs and yolks one at a time, then add the vanilla.

Beat in the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix until combined. Don't over-beat.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.

Mix the blueberries with the blueberry jam and spread them over the batter.

Sprinkle the crumb topping on top of the cake.

Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let cool about 15 minutes and then dust with the confectioner's sugar (which I forgot to do).

Serve, and believe me, you will enjoy it!

CHICKPEA SOUP or GREEK REVITHOSOUPA (Ρεβιθόσουπα)

2011-02-26T18:57:00.005-05:00

Revithia is the Greek word for chickpeas or garbanzo beans. I made revithosoupa for dinner today, and it was about time! We hadn't had it in a while, so it was good to eat a simple, meatless, warm bowl of soup. Revithosoupa is a filling Greek soup that is a standard in the Greek cooking repertoire. Some versions are kind of plain, others like mine are well flavored.

I like to mix in spices and vegetables, always trying to come up with a version that can produce applause from my family. I know that's a lost cause. They are not the sort to applaud a cook unless Emeril Lagasse himself enters our kitchen. I still keep trying, though. Plain or spiced up this soup is good. It's the chickpeas that give it a lot of favor. Ideally, it should be made with dried chickpeas that have been soaked overnight in water and a little bit of salt. That's when revithosoupa has a lot of flavor. Cooking it that way however, requires prior planning, and I don't always know the day before what I'll be making for tomorrow's dinner. In those cases, when I feel like making revithosoupa, I use canned chickpeas. So, that's why the "extra" ingredients and spices are needed, to bring out the flavor that is missing in the canned chickpeas.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cans of 15 ½ ounce canned chickpeas rinsed and drained.
1 large onion chopped
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
3/4 cup celery diced
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 leek, white and light green part only, chopped
3 tablespoons fresh parsley
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 sprig of fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried mint or 1 teaspoon fresh
2 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
1 quart chicken broth
2 cups water

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot. Add the onion, leek, garlic, celery and carrots. Sauté until the onions are soft.
Add the chickpeas, and stir them around for about two minutes or so and then season them with salt and pepper.
Add the liquid, oregano, rosemary and mint. Bring to a boil and cover, then lower the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes.
Add the parsley and lemon juice during the last 15 minutes of cooking. Serve while hot and enjoy!

This post will be submitted to Souper Sundays over at Kahakai Kitchen (http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/).

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE PISTACHIO BISCOTTI

2011-02-21T20:35:00.008-05:00

A Martha Mondays in February needs a dose of chocolate. Ana (that would be me), over at "Sweet Almond Tree," chose these double chocolate biscotti from Martha Stewart's web site. So welcome to Sweet Almond Tree blog, and let me tell you: If you are a chocoholic these biscotti were meant for you.

I think the recipe I chose is pretty decadent. Shame on me! These biscotti are made with a double dose of chocolate: a bar of semisweet chocolate, plus 1/2 a cup of cocoa powder. In addition, they have pistachios mixed in them, and how can one not be nuts about those nuts. The biscotti should also contain raisins, but I used dried cranberries instead, because even though I searched I could not find my jar of raisins. I know it's somewhere in my kitchen, but where? While searching for the raisins I found some almonds. Wow, almonds are really good, I thought. So I threw some almonds into the mix, too. One thing about these biscotti: the dough is soft and gooey, so be prepared for it to stick all over your hands. Have a butter knife handy so that you can scrape that stuff off. After the first bake, the cookies could still be a bit soft. Let them cool very well, and then slice them very carefully. A few biscotti are bound to crumble. That's all right. It's the cook's treat, those little crumbles, and you can nibble on them while your chocolaty biscotti are getting ready.

Ingredients:

8 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 & 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup whole shelled pistachios, lightly toasted
3/4 cup blanched almonds, lightly toasted
1 cup golden raisins or dried cranberries

Directions:

Soak the raisins or dried cranberries in water until they plump up, about half an hour.
Heat the oven to 350 °F.
Melt the butter and the chocolate in a double boiler. Stir until smooth.
Sift together the cocoa, flour, baking powder, and salt.
In an electric mixer, beat the sugar and eggs on medium speed until lightened. Add the vanilla.
On low speed, add the chocolate mixture
Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until incorporated. Stir in the nuts, raisins or dried cranberries.
Dough will be soft. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Form two 9 inch long by 3 inch wide logs and carefully place on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake until dough sets, about 35 to 40 minutes.
Cool for 1 hour and then heat the oven to 275 °F.
Cut the dough into 1/2 inch slices.
Place cut side down on a baking sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes. Turn the cookies over and bake for another 20 minutes, until slightly dry.
Let them cool on a wire rack, and store them in an airtight container

***You will have a cookie/biscotti that is crunchy, nutty and very, very chocolaty. If you are a chocoholic you will love it!

DORRIE GREENSPAN'S LOUZY ORANGE-ALMOND TART

2011-02-16T13:59:00.006-05:00

I'd like to share with you the story of a disaster. All disasters have names, and this one is called the "the orange-almond tart disaster, courtesy of Dorrie Greenspan." I cook along on French Fridays with Dorie, with recipes from the book "Around my French Table," written by Ms. Greenspan. This last Friday we had to make an orange almond tart. There was a gorgeous picture of it in her book, which by the way is very elegantly photographed, so who wouldn't want to make such a tart?

Well, I was busy, I had to do this, I had to do that, and time got away from me. I never baked the darn thing. I had bought the ingredients though, and always on my mind there was the thought of that beautiful picture of the orange-almond tart. It was calling out to me. So I decided to bake it and post it even if it was going to be late. Almost a whole week late. I looked closely at the recipe and I encountered my first problem: butter. A pâte sablée dough makes up the 9 1/2 diameter crust, and along with flour and confectioner's sugar and an egg yolk, it requires 9 tablespoons of butter. That's bad. Too much butter. Now I know that in order to make a good pâte sablée or even a pâte brisée, a large amount of butter is needed. Hence I overlooked the fact that I had to use 9 tablespoons of the stuff. On top of the crust is spread an almond cream. Made with 6 tablespoons of butter. And lots of sugar. Sinful. As in too much butter in one place sinful. Keeping the dessert photograph in my mind though, I persevered. I made the crust. Buttery, sweet and delicious. I made the almond cream. Buttery, sweet and delicious. And now for the disaster: Arrange some orange slices on the tart and bake. Well, I arranged the orange slices, thinking all the while that peaches or apples would probably be a better choice. The tart came out of the oven. I let it cool, and then I tasted it. It was horrible. The pâte sablée was good, the almond cream was good, but the orange slices destroyed the whole concept. They were biter and hard. What a shame. Even though the oranges were juicy and sweet when I sliced them, baking them on top of the tart made them loose all their flavor. All the trouble I went through: made a nice pâte sablée. Made a nice almond cream. All the compromises I made: Never mind about too much butter, never mind about the sugar. In the end it will be worth it. Guess what? It wasn't. Everything got destroyed by using orange slices as a topping. Ms. Greenspan, your idea of an orange-almond tart quite plainly sucks. I was and still am very angry. I remember a comment I read on Amazon.com by a reviewer of Ms. Greenspan's book: "This is a collection of recipes that feels like it comes straight out of Greenspan's kitchen: which means that if your cooking style and tastes run with hers, you will like this book. If they don't, you won't." As far as this orange tart is concerned, my culinary taste and Ms. Greenspan's culinary taste could not have been more far apart.

The tart right before going into the oven. Looks good, doesn't it? If only those oranges were peaches. There would have been no problem at all.

Once the tart comes out of the oven powdered sugar is sprinkled on top.

SAUTÉED SOLE WITH LEMON AND ALMONDS

2011-02-15T23:04:00.010-05:00

On the menu for Martha Mondays this week is grey sole topped with almonds and a lemon butter sauce. This recipe was chosen from Martha Stewart's web site by Lyndsey who blogs over at the Tiny Skillet.

Who doesn't love Dover sole? When I was growing up in Greece, we had it for dinner about once a week. At the time it was a plentiful fish in the waters of Europe, although today, unfortunately, it has been over-fished. Grey sole is a version of an American sole found throughout the coastal regions of North America. It has a light, sweet and delicate taste. It's low in calories, high in protein and packed with B-12 vitamin and omega-3 fatty acids.

The sole was enjoyable and easy to make. I served it with a lettuce and Gorgonzola cheese salad, on top of which I tossed some of the sliced almonds I hadn't used on the fish. I doubled the recipe because
the original, which is presented here, gives amounts for just two servings. Even though I doubled it, rather than using extra butter I added some olive oil. Thanks for choosing this Lyndsey, it made a light and really tasty dinner. Fast, easy, delicious. And healthy, too!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup flour
salt and pepper to taste
2 grey sole fillets (about 6 ounces each)
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
2 tablespoons sliced almonds
1 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
juice from 1 lemon
zest from one lemon
lemon wedges for garnish

Directions:

Wash the sole and pat it dry with paper towels. Make sure it dries well so that the flour can adhere and not crumble away during cooking. Season it on both sides with salt and pepper. Dredge the sole in the flour, coating both sides, and shake off the excess flour.
Heat the canola oil in a sauté pan over medium high heat and add the fillets. Cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer the fillets to a serving plate and sprinkle them with parsley.
Discard the canola oil and clean the sauté pan. Place it back on the heat and add the butter. When the butter begins to foam add the almonds, lemon zest and lemon juice to the pan. Let the sauce cook for about a minute, making sure the butter doesn't burn. Spoon it over the fillets and serve them with lemon wedges.
Bon Appetit!!!

CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE WITH BEETS

2011-02-11T18:56:00.094-05:00

There is an online event (I believe it’s quarterly), called Novel Food. It’s hosted by Simona from Briciole and Lisa from Champaign Taste. I fell in love with the concept for this event: Cook something that has been inspired by a published literary work, and create a post about it. I love to read and I love to cook so there was no doubt that I would join Novel Food right away!!!

I had a month until the posting deadline, plenty of time to prepare, or so I thought. Here I am rushing to finish. Anyway, I pondered on the book I was reading: Cleopatra, A Life," by Stacy Schiff. Although I was charmed by the book, thinking about it did not give me that certain ache necessary for culinary inspiration. Which book, which author, I asked myself? James Joyce came to mind. In my opinion he is, along with Shakespeare, the greatest author in English literature. Joyce's the "Dubliners," I suppose because it was the first of his books that I read, holds a special place in my heart. "Dubliners," is a collection of 15 short stories first published in 1914, written in realistic detail and permeating with everyday scenes of middle class Dublin. The characters live ordinary lives, but as their stories unfold the reader becomes aware of intensely personal and often tragic revelations about them. It’s the glimpse into their emotional lives that always has had a profound effect on me. One of the short stories in particular, moves me to tears every time I read it. The title of that story is “A Painful Case.”

Click here to read the complete text of the "Dubliners" at Project Gutenberg

“A Painful Case” is a story about isolation. It concerns the brief intermingling of the lives of Mrs. Sinico, a married woman who feels unfulfilled and is neglected by her husband, and Mr. Duffy, a bank cashier who leads a solitary and meticulously orderly life. The two start a relationship that is innocent, but grow close, developing a deep friendship. One day Mrs. Sinico impulsively takes Mr. Duffy’s hand and places it on her cheek. He is taken aback by her action and ends their relationship. At a farewell meeting Mrs. Sinico seems distraught and unwilling to say goodbye. Four years go by, during which Mr. Duffy resumes his old routine. One evening, while eating a dinner of corned beef and cabbage in his usual restaurant, he reads a newspaper article entitled “A Painful Case.” The article details the death of Mrs. Sinico, who was hit by a train at a Dublin station. A coroner’s inquest revealed that Mrs. Sinico had taken to drinking during her last years, and it is inferred from the narrative that her death may have been a suicide. Slowly, Mr. Duffy begins to feel remorse. He believes that by having rejected her he condemned her to loneliness and eventual death. He reflects on his own solitary life, devoid of her companionship. He realizes that he has lost his only chance for happiness and will remain isolated from "life’s feast" because he lacks the courage to pursue happiness.

So besides the connection with Joyce, why did I decide on corned beef and cabbage? Well, St. Patrick's Day is around the corner, and I have lots of Irish neighbors. Corned beef and cabbage will be on many dinner tables around here. I've never made it, but I have always wanted to. This way I can brag about it to my Irish friends, and especially to Lillian, who lives next door. No doubt about it, corned beef and cabbage is a comfort food. Nothing fancy or sexy about it, just homey and of course delicious.

Corned beef and cabbage is briefly mentioned in "A Painful Case," but it's mentioned at the moment when the main character is about to undergo a significant psychological change. It's the moment when his epiphany begins, the moment when he begins to realize how paralyzed he is emotionally. Joyce's epiphanies are momentous and rare occasions, when meaning floods a character's conscience and he or she has a profound experience of recognition of a particular situation. Along with emotional paralysis, epiphanies are recurrent themes in the "Dubliners." In part, Joyce uses them to symbolize the colonization of Ireland. A defeated and powerless nation as Ireland was at the time, is juxtaposed with defeated and powerless individuals. Not much changes in Joyce's Dublin, and that fact has a horrible effect on the human spirit.

Well, we covered food, literature, politics, emotional isolation, what else is there? How about some of Joyce's astonishingly beautiful language in the form of quotes from "A Painful Case?" Here are Mr. Duffy and Mrs. Sinico together:

"Her companionship was like a warm soil about an exotic. Many times she allowed the dark to fall upon them, refraining from lighting the lamp. The dark discreet room, their isolation, the music that still vibrated in their ears united them. This union exalted him, wore away the rough edges of his character, emotionalised his mental life."

Mr. Duffy reads of Mrs. Sinico's Death:

"One evening as he was about to put a morsel of corned beef and cabbage into his mouth his hand stopped. His eyes fixed themselves on a paragraph in the evening paper which he had propped against the water-carafe. He replaced the morsel of food on his plate and read the paragraph attentively. Then he drank a glass of water, pushed his plate to one side, doubled the paper down before him between his elbows and read the paragraph over and over again. The cabbage began to deposit a cold white grease on his plate. The girl came over to him to ask was his dinner not properly cooked. He said it was very good and ate a few mouthfuls of it with difficulty. Then he paid his bill and went out."

The phrase "the cabbage began to deposit a cold grease on his plate." is rather startling. It prepares one for the upcoming chilling events. Here is the quote where Mr. Duffy realizes what Mrs. Sinico's death means for him:

"Why had he withheld life from her? Why had he sentenced her to death? He felt his moral nature falling to pieces... He gnawed the rectitude of his life; he felt that he had been outcast from life's feast. One human being had seemed to love him and he had denied her life and happiness: he had sentenced her to ignominy, a death of shame... No one wanted him; he was outcast from life's feast. He turned his eyes to the grey gleaming river, winding along towards Dublin...He waited for some minutes listening. He could hear nothing: the night was perfectly silent. He listened again: perfectly silent. He felt that he was alone."

Chilling. Insightful. Powerful. Masterful. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much Mr. Joyce.

James Joyce photographed by Berenice Abbott in 1926 (National Portrait Gallery, London). The author had problems with his eyesight throughout his life.

So I made corned beef and cabbage with a recipe based on one I found at the Food Network web site. It includes beets served alongside the corned beef, and I thought the beets would introduce a Greek twist to an Irish dish, considering that beets are kind of popular in Greek cooking.

OK, Those white pieces on top of the sliced corned beef are potato pieces that were mixed up in the broth. Don't want you thinking it's fat....

Ingredients:

3 pound piece of corned beef
4 bay leaves
30 black peppercorns
12 garlic cloves peeled
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 quart chicken broth
5 carrots, peeled and cut into 3" pieces
2 small turnips peeled and quartered
4 small onions -small like the size of shallots -peeled and left whole. I thought of using shallots but we are having such a bad winter here, that they cost (pre-packaged), one shallot for $1.99.
4 potatoes, peeled and quartered
1/2 head cabbage, cut into wedges
3 beets, peeled and sliced
chopped parsley for garnish
a little salt and pepper, a little lemon juice, a little olive oil and a negligible amount of oregano and garlic powder

Directions:

Corned beef is made by brining beef brisket in a mixture of spices. It comes with fat attached to it. I trimmed away and discarded as much fat as I could.

In a large heavy pot, combine the corned beef, bay leaves, peppercorns, 6 garlic cloves cut in half, and a pinch of ground cloves.
Add water to cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 3 hours, low and slow as they say. Remove the meat from the pot and reserve it on a plate, keeping it warm.

Beets - good to eat, but oh so difficult to photograph.

While the meat is cooking prepare the beets: Line an ovenproof pot with aluminum foil and place the beets inside. Season them with salt and pepper, a slight amount of olive oil and some lemon juice and just a bit of garlic powder and oregano. Close the aluminum foil around the beets bake them in a 350° F oven for about 45 minutes to an hour, until they are soft.

You can also boil the beets, but remember not to add them in with the corned beef or vegetables, because they will turn everything red.
All right, let's get back to the pot where the meat was cooked. I tasted the liquid and I found that it was very salty. Extremely salty. Now, most recipes call for boiling the vegetables in that liquid, but I couldn't in good conscience submerge my vegetables in what was essentially a brine. So I discarded the liquid, washed the pot and to it I added a quart of low sodium chicken broth. I added the same amount of seasonings I had when cooking the meat: 6 garlic cloves cut in half, about 15 peppercorns, 2 bay leaves, and a pinch of ground cloves.
When the broth came to a boil I added the turnips and carrots, lowered the heat and and simmered for 20 minutes.
Then I added the onions and potatoes. By now I had a layer of vegetables covering the whole surface of the pot. I placed the cabbage on top of the vegetables, covered the pot and cooked for an additional 30 minutes.
The cabbage was steamed by the aromatic broth, and the turnips absorbed so much flavor that they were the best turnips I had ever tasted.
If the meat is cold, put it back in the pot next to the cabbage and give it a steam bath until it warms up.
And that's it. Mission accomplished. Slice the meat and serve warm, accompanied with the broth which is really tasty, and the vegetables.
You can serve the beets alongside the other vegetables, or better yet, you can present them separately as a salad.
You can decorate your creation with some chopped parsley if you like.

I am contributing this to the 12th edition of Novel Food.

Boeuf Bourguignon

2011-02-07T01:08:00.003-05:00

This week for Martha Mondays we are making boeuf bourguignon, as suggested by Pru, at Perfecting Pru. Pru hit it out of the ball park with this one. She made a great choice! By the way, this weekend is Pru's birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRU!!! Boeuf bourguignon, or Beef Burgundy, is a classic French beef stew that is slowly cooked in red wine. Carrots, pearl onions and mushrooms are added to it, and it can be served accompanied with pasta, rice, or potatoes. I opted for the pasta. The stew came out very, very tasty. We had it for dinner on Super Bowl Sunday, right before we watched the big game on television. Not being a hardcore football fan, and feeling drowsy from the wine I had during dinner, I allowed myself to fall blissfully asleep on the sofa right after halftime. The result was that I missed the end of the game, and when I finally woke up I just trotted off to bed without knowing (or caring, really), which team won the game. Steelers or Packers? A mystery for the ages. Never to be revealed to me. Not until the next morning, at least.

As I mentioned, Pru is the birthday girl this weekend. She just happens to share her birthday with Ronald Reagan, who would have been 100 years old on February 6th. A centennial celebration was held in his honor at the Reagan library, and I watched part of it on CNN while I was cooking the boeuf bourguignon. It seems that Reagan's legacy has undergone considerable revision of late. His stature has risen, and there's a happy myth that has been created around his name. Although I was never a Reagan supporter, I found myself temporarily succumbing to that myth. I was wrapped up in a cloud of nostalgia. Watching the , centennial ceremony became for me a voyage back to the 1980s. I think I longed to return to that time and have another round at life 80s' style. Pure nostalgia, all those idealized memories I was having, and I enjoyed them very much. Then it was time to take my stew out of the oven. Enough Reagan. The television set was turned off, the table was set, and I served everyone platefuls of beef bourguignon. The meat, dark in color from having been slowly braised in red wine, was tender and flavorful, and the sauce was deep and rich. The onions, which I cooked separately, were especially delicious. All in all a great dinner. Here's my recipe:

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil or more as needed
1 large onion, sliced
4 large cloves of garlic, chopped and kept divided
6 slices bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 or 5 carrots peeled and cut diagonally into 1 inch pieces
1 pound baby bella, or button, or shitake mushrooms, stems removed, cut into thick slices
1 pound pearl onions, skins removed
2½ pounds chuck beef cut into 1½ inch cubes
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 small tomato seeded, peeled and chopped
2 bay leaves
3 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
3 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups beef broth, low sodium
½cup chicken broth, low sodium
2 cups of a nice, young Burgundy wine
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Clean the meat of excess fat, wash it and dry it thoroughly with paper towels. Make sure it's nice and dry, it will sauté better that way.
In a Dutch oven cook the bacon until it's lightly brown. Remove it to a large bowl and discard most of the bacon fat. Recipes for beef bourguignon call for sautéing the meat and vegetables in the rendered bacon fat. I have a problem with that-I don't think bacon fat is a healthy option- so I just use about a tablespoon of it and if I need more I substitute with olive oil.
Season the beef well with pepper. Heat the tablespoon of bacon fat and some olive oil in the Dutch oven. Add the meat in batches and brown it well on all sides. Don't overcrowd the pot with meat. If you do it will not sear, it will just start to boil. When the meat is browned remove it to the bowl with the bacon.
In the same Dutch oven brown the carrots and chopped onions. When the onions are soft return the meat and bacon to the pot. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle the flour to lightly coat the meat. Cook, turning the meat and vegetables over once or twice until the flour turns the meat brown with a light crust.
Deglaze the pot with some of the wine to loosen up all the brown bits and pan drippings.

Stir in the tomato paste, 3 of the chopped garlic cloves and the chopped tomato, crumble in one bay leaf, add 2 teaspoons of thyme leaves, add the beef broth and wine and stir well. You want the liquid to cover the contents of the pot.
Place in a pre-heated 350° F oven and cook covered for 3½ to 4 hours, until the liquid has reduced and the meat is very tender.

Half way through cooking

While the meat is cooking prepare the mushrooms and onions. Remember not to overcrowd the pan while sauteing the vegetables. In a pan heat some olive oil then add the mushrooms and ½ a teaspoon of thyme plus salt and pepper. Sauté until the mushrooms begin to soften and turn brown. Remove from the pan and set aside.

In the same pan cook the onions. Pearl onions are called for this dish, but my grocer did not have any. "No, no pearls today," he said to me. So I bought ten of the smallest yellow onions I could find, two for each person, and made my own pearls. I just peeled and whittled them down to size.

Sauté the onions in some olive oil by rolling them in the pan until they turn brown. Because of their shape they will not brown uniformly. Just be gentle with them so that they don't come apart.

When the onions are adequately browned add ½ cup chicken broth, ½ teaspoon thyme, 1 bay leaf, 1 tablespoon chopped parsley and some salt and pepper. Simmer slowly until the onions are tender and the liquid evaporates, about half an hour.

Set the onions aside with the mushrooms.

Here are the onions and mushrooms ready to be added to the stew.

When the meat is done take the pot out of the oven and carefully pour its contents into a sieve set over a saucepan. Set the meat aside and simmer the sauce for about 2 minutes so that it reduces. I prefer to do this rather than thicken it with flour. Stew sauces loose a lot of their flavor when flour is added to them. Taste the reduced sauce and season it with salt and pepper if needed.
Wash out the Dutch oven in which the stew cooked and return it to the stove top. Return the meat to it and pour the sauce over the meat. Add in the onions and mushrooms.
Cover and simmer for a few minutes. Keep gently basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce. When everything is uniformly warmed up, the dish will be ready to serve.
Place it on a platter and sprinkle the remaining parsley on top for garnish.
As with all stews, beef bourguignon can be made a day ahead, and will taste better the next day. Do make it, and I hope you really, really enjoy it. Bon appetit!

THE WORLD'S HEALTHIEST FOOD

2011-01-31T22:31:00.052-05:00

A very close and beloved friend who is a biophysicist, always reminds me and is very insistent that I take a folic acid supplement daily. I've known about the importance of taking folic acid while pregnant, and of its importance in DNA synthesis. Recently, I pulled some books off the shelf, I visited some Internet sites, and I did my own "in depth" study of folic acid.

An article in the New York Times referred to folic acid (and other micronutrients) as "the world's healthiest food." Since this is a food blog, I decided to post something about this healthy food, and to include the article from the Times here.

So I kindly ask you to remember to take folic acid daily, and to also take micronutrient (multivitamin) supplements. Micronutrients are a range of crucial vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin A, vitamin C, the B vitamins (which include folic acid), iodine, iron, zinc and calcium.

January 3, 2010
Op-Ed Columnist

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras

So what’s the most scrumptious, wholesome, exquisite, healthful, gratifying food in the world?It’s not ambrosia, and it’s not even pepperoni pizza. Hint: It’s far cheaper. A year’s supply costs less than the cheapest hamburger.
Give up? Here’s another hint: It’s lifesaving for children and for women who may become pregnant. If you know of a woman who may become pregnant, make sure she gets this miracle substance.
A final hint: It was a lack of this substance that led to a tragedy that I encountered the other day at a hospital here in the Honduran capital. Three babies lay in cots next to one another with birth defects of the brain and spinal cord.
In the first cot was Rosa Álvarez, 18 days old and recovering from surgery to repair a hole in her spine. She also suffers from a brain deformity.
In the next cot was Ángel Flores, soft tissue protruding from his back.
Closest to the door was José Tercera. His mother unwrapped a bandage on his head, and I saw a golf-ball-size chunk of his brain spilling out a hole in his forehead.
The doctors believe the reason for these deformities, called neural tube defects, was that their mothers did not have enough micronutrients (click here to go to: United Call to Action on Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies /World’s best investment for development), particularly folic acid, while pregnant. These micronutrients are the miracle substance I’m talking about, and there’s scarcely a form of foreign aid more cost-effective than getting them into the food supply.
“It’s unnecessary to have these kinds of problems,” Dr. Ali Flores, a pediatrician and expert on these defects, said as he looked over the three babies.
If a pregnant woman does not have enough folic acid (also known as vitamin B9) in her body at the very beginning of her pregnancy, then her fetus may suffer these neural tube defects. That’s why doctors give folic acid to women who plan to become pregnant.
Equally important is another micronutrient, iodine. The worst consequence of iodine deficiency isn’t goiters, but malformation of fetuses’ brains, so they have 10 to 15 points permanently shaved off their I.Q.’s.
Then there’s zinc, which reduces child deaths from diarrhea and infections. There’s iron, lack of which causes widespread anemia. And there’s vitamin A: some 670,000 children die each year because they don’t get enough vitamin A, and lack of the vitamin remains the world’s leading cause of childhood blindness.
“In the early stages of life, the die is cast,” said David Dodson, the founder of Project Healthy Children, an aid group that fights micronutrient deficiencies in Honduras and other poor countries. “If a child is not getting the right micronutrients, the effect is permanent.”
Nine years ago, Mr. Dodson was simply an American businessman running a 300-employee waste company that he had founded. Then he happened to visit Honduras and, in a hospital, encountered a mother whose newborn baby had a hole in the skull. He learned that negligible amounts of folic acid would prevent such heartbreaking defects — and his life was transformed.
“I had never seen anything in my life that could have so much impact for so little money and be sustainable,” Mr. Dodson said. He and his wife, Stephanie, sold their company and used some of the proceeds to start Project Healthy Children.
The most cost-effective way to distribute micronutrients isn’t to hand them out. Mary Flores, a former Honduran first lady who is active in nutrition, notes that impoverished women can be hard to reach, and even if they are given folic acid pills they sometimes won’t take them for fear that they actually are birth control pills. So micronutrients instead are often added to such common foods as salt, sugar, flour or cooking oil.
Adding iodine, iron, vitamin A, zinc and various B-complex vitamins including folic acid to a range of foods costs about 30 cents per person reached per year. Groups focusing on micronutrients also include Helen Keller International and Vitamin Angels.In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has required that flour be fortified with folic acid since 1998. Even in America, with better diets, medical care and widespread fortification, not all women get enough micronutrients, but the problem is far worse in poor countries.
Mr. Dodson notes that it is much cheaper to prevent birth defects than to treat them.
“It’s not a sexy world health issue, but it’s about the nuts and bolts of putting together a healthy population,” Mr. Dodson said. “Putting small amounts of iron, iodine and folic acid in the food supply hasn’t drawn attention the way it does when you treat someone who is sick or in a refugee camp. Until recently, this has been off everybody’s radar screen.”
As the United States reorganizes its chaotic aid program, it might try promoting what just may be the world’s most luscious food: micronutrients.

Folic acid food sources:

World's Healthiest Food

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Here is another helpful article: http://www.womentribe.com/health/folic-acid-information-benefits.html

(All the pictures in this post have been "borrowed" from the Internet. I did a Google image search on folic acid, and there they were, just begging to be borrowed).

TURKEY CHILI WITH BEANS

2011-01-25T19:30:00.004-05:00

My goodness, I have made this chili all ready, and it's waiting in the refrigerator for tomorrow's dinner. I can't wait, I really can't wait! Tomorrow will be here soon enough and right before dinner time I'll make some rice, then we'll all sit down to eat. I will ladle the chili into bowls, and surround it with the steaming rice. I'll have a few garnishes ready: Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, a few thinly sliced green onions, and some chopped parsley. These are garnishes that cool down the palette when one is eating spicy foods.

My recipe for chili is not too spicy. Nope. In our house we just don't like overly spicy foods. As a matter of fact, while I was sauteing the hot pepper, my lovely 84 year old mother, who was playing solitaire at the kitchen table, had to get up and leave the room. It seems the steam from the cooking hot pepper was making her cough. Good thing I only used one, and even better that it will loose some of its potency after it cooks down. She'll have no problem with the hot pepper once the chili is cooked. For the meat, we tend to prefer ground turkey. We are so used to eating ground turkey instead of ground beef that we don't even realize the difference any more. Plus, turkey is healthier and lighter than beef.

This is the turkey we usually buy.

This recipe is delicious as is, but more "heat" can be added to suit different tastes. Also, it can be made a day ahead and it will taste better the next day. So I present you with my chili, which I will happily be eating for tomorrow's dinner.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large Spanish onion, chopped
8 garlic cloves, chopped
1 or 2 of those long hot peppers, chopped

I used the peppers in the picture but I don't know what they are called. They sure were hot though.

2 pounds ground turkey
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
2 tablespoons parsley
chili powder as much or a little as you like
1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes in juice
2 15 1/4-ounce cans kidney beans drained and rinsed
1 14-ounce can chicken broth

For the garnish:

Greek yogurt
Chopped green onions
Chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

Heat the oil in large pot over medium-high heat.
Add the onions, garlic and chopped hot pepper. Sauté until the onions begin to brown, about 7 minutes.

Add the turkey and sauté until it's brown, breaking it up with the back of a spoon.
Add the chili powder if using, and the cumin, paprika and oregano.
Break up the tomatoes in pieces, then mix them up with the meat.
Add the parsley, kidney beans and broth.

Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the chili thickens and the flavors blend, about 45 minutes.

The chili can be made one day ahead, and kept refrigerated for the next day's dinner.

Ladle the chili into bowls, surrounded with rice if you like. For garnish have available Greek yogurt, green onions, and parsley.

......It was warming and delicious!

ARTICHOKE - PARMESAN CROSTINI (with some crab meat in it too)

2011-01-24T17:51:00.014-05:00

This week on Martha Mondays, Meagan from Meagan's Cookin' has chosen Artichoke - Parmesan Crostini for us to make, from a recipe that can be found on Martha Stewart's web site.

These crostini would make nice appetizers or even a delicious first course. I made some changes to the original recipe. First, I added some paprika and some extra parsley just to give added color to the topping, because let's face it, cooked artichoke looks rather drab. Then I mixed in a little crab meat because I had some left over and I thought it would make a nice addition. Last, I did not use a baguette as was called for. I had on hand a nice loaf of garlic and rosemary bread, really flavorful, and perfect for crostini. We enjoyed them and we will be making them again! Thanks Meagan, that was a nice choice!

Ingredients:

8 slices (1/4 inch thick) of nice, flavorful bread
olive oil
ground pepper

paprika
6 oz marinated artichoke hearts, drained, and patted dry

2 tablespoons crab meat
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (save a little to use as a garnish)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions :

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Brush the bread slices on both sides with olive oil and season them with black pepper. Place on a baking sheet and bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes. You'll need to turn them over once during baking. Once they are done, set them aside to cool.
Meanwhile, make the topping. Chop the artichokes finely, and place them in a bowl. Add the Parmesan cheese, the parsley, the paprika, the crab meat, and enough olive oil to make the mixture delicious (but don't use too much olive oil).
Dividing evenly, spoon the topping onto the crostini, and garnish with additional Parmesan, if desired. Put the assembled crostini back in the oven for about 2 minutes, just to warm the topping and to give the cheese a chance to melt slightly.

That's it! These little guys were easy to make and very easy to eat!

I WON A PRIZE!

2011-01-18T17:23:00.025-05:00

Thank you http://lakakuharica.blogspot.com/ for this beautiful triple award!

To my ten favorite blogger-cooks: Pick up your award below:

One of the purposes of this award is to encourage more traffic between blogs, so if one accepts it, there are a few rules that come with it.

Here are the rules:

In your post, mention the blog that gave you the award.
Reveal 7 things about yourself you'd like to share with others.
Choose 10 blogs that you love and award them the same prize.

So, here are my answers:

The award came from
http://lakakuharica.blogspot.com/

Seven things about me? ↓

1. I love paintings by this guy and...

I also love paintings by this guy.

2. Nothing nicer than a cup of tea...unless there is a diet soda handy.

3. I LOVE, LOVE DOGS!!!

4. Today, January 18th is the one year anniversary of the passing of my sweet dog Bastille. That's her lying on the pillow. She was almost 15 years old and she died from respiratory complications. I miss her every day. I love you Bastille.

5. I love to grow african violets

6. I am definetely getting blonde highlights in my hair this year.

7. Take me to a beach on a Greek island. Now. Even if it's cold.

Ten Blogs I Love:

http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com/

http://muminbloom.blogspot.com/

http://jumpingoffthecliff-sirey.blogspot.com/

http://perfectingpru.wordpress.com/

http://lakakuharica.blogspot.com/

http://tasty-trials.blogspot.com/

http://www.kitchenstories.eu/

http://last-good-day-of-the-year.blogspot.com/

http://sassysuppers.blogspot.com/

http://stephfood.com/

Thank you one and all. Happy cooking!!!

JAQUES PEPIN'S THIRTY MINUTE CASSOULET

2011-01-14T20:41:00.002-05:00

It’s January 2011, and our Daring Cook’s challenge comes from Jenni of The Gingered Whisk and Lisa from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. They have challenged the Daring Cooks to learn how to make a confit and use it within the traditional French dish of cassoulet. They have chosen a traditional recipe from Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman. Also chosen are a vegetarian cassoulet,

and a quick cassoulet, “a cassoulet in 30 minutes,” by chef Jaques Pepin. The Bourdain-Ruhlman cassoulet is a very fatty one, and one that takes a looong time to make. Here is my opinion, and that is my opinion only: the ladies did their research and went to a great deal of trouble to present us with this challenge, but… Sorry folks! I do like to cook, but I draw the line when it comes to making something that takes three days to prepare. Something that includes the rind of almost a whole pig. Something that is cooked in solid fat. Something that is recommended by Anthony Bourdain, one of the most obnoxious, odious, rude and crude cooking personalities around. A vulgar ex junkie who presently is sullying the luster of the wonderful “Top Chef” by being an occasional judge on the show.

Duck fat and pork rind were used in kitchens of centuries past. Caloric intake during those times was high, but people tended to burn it faster than we do, because they were highly mobile and engaged in exhaustive labor. They also slaughtered their own food and were careful to put to use all parts of the animal they slaughtered. Today’s modern lifestyle is much more different and much more sedentary. Today we are also aware of the health risks associated when eating foods high in fat content. Duck fat? Pork rind??? Give me a break Bourdain. There is just no need to cook like that anymore. Old recipes can and should be adapted to suit today’s life style. I make a lamb cassoulet without pork skin or extra fat, and I also make a vegetarian one, very similar to the one chosen for this challenge. There are few things more warming on a winter’s day than a vegetarian cassoulet. This coming from someone who definitely is no vegetarian.

I chose to make the “30 minute cassoulet” of Jaques Pépin, gentleman chef extraordinaire. The recipe called for wonderful olive oil, no animal fat. It also called for two tablespoons of garlic. I used olive oil from my garlic confit (recipe by chef Michael Psilakis from his book “How to Roast a Lamb”), and for the garlic I used pureed garlic from the confit. Easy and delicious. I made it in a leisurely kind of way, so it took about 50 minutes to prepare. Convenient, tasty and healthier. Thank you chef Pépin, and thank you Lisa and Jenni for offering this recipe as part of the challenge.

Thirty-Minute Cassoulet, adapted from Jacques Pépin, Fast Food My Way

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 pound rolled shoulder ham (also called a daisy ham or Boston Butt), tough outer skin removed, cut in four

3/4 pound Italian sausages, cut into 3-inch pieces

4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs

1 cup diced whole button mushrooms

1/2 cup diced carrots

1 cup diced onion

2 tablespoons crushed garlic

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

1 bay leaf

2 (15½ ounces each) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed 1 cup diced tomato

1/2 cup water

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large skillet and add the ham, chicken and Italian sausage.
Cover and cook over high heat for 10 minutes, turning occasionally.

Add the mushrooms, carrots, onion, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf. Mix well and cook for another 10 minutes.
Add the beans, tomato, water, and pepper, bring back to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover, and boil gently for 5 to 10 minutes.

At serving time, discard the bay leaf, cut the ham into slices and the sausage pieces in half, and arrange the meat on a platter with the beans.
Sprinkle the parsley on top.