At the last meeting of WAS-SOUP, a group of mom’s who make and swap soups for their kid’s lunches but really eat most of it themselves, we also swapped some cookbooks. I made off with David Chang’s Momofuku book and was devouring it over morning coffee. I stopped short at a recipe for clams and fingerling potatoes cooked in a bacon dashi. Um, yes please. The idea of using smokey bacon instead of smokey fish flakes seemed brilliant. The potatoes would soak up the bacon love, then the clams would steam and impart their flavor to the broth which would all be served together with crisped bacon and green onions.

I left immediately for the store. While I stood at the fish counter pondering whether a pile of clams was enough dinner, I noticed the scallops we had a couple weeks ago. They were so very very good. But then I saw crab legs. On sale. I looked slowly from one to the other. Crab is Ryan’s favorite and they are on sale. Those scallops. Man, those scallops. I had to settle on the only real option and get both. It was an anniversary after all. Still thinking about the David Chang book and an amazing meal I had had at his restaurant years ago, I grabbed a pile of brussles sprouts and mint and headed home.

The dashi was first and really simple. Heat kombu (a seaweed) in a pot of water to simmering, turn off the heat and steep 10 minutes. Remove the kombu and add 1/2 a pound of bacon and simmer for about 30 minutes. Remove the bacon and skim the fat. You can do this easily by putting it in the fridge until it hardens, but I did not have a lot of time so I just skimmed. I then simmered the potatoes in the broth until they were tender and removed them to a bowl. I soaked the clams in cold water and scrubbed them clean and set them aside.

The brussels get halved, browned cut side down in a cast iron then roast in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes or so. They are then tossed in a sauce of sugar, fish sauce, water, mint, chili/garlic (Chang uses chilis and garlic but I use sambal), cilantro and lime. He served them with puffed rice and shichimi (a spice mix) but to simplify things I skipped them this time.

For the crab, I cut through the shells on one side and threw them in a 450 degree oven to roast. The dipping sauce I conceived was probably my favorite thing of the meal. Melt 3T butter in a pan, and add a medium diced shallot, 2 minced garlic cloves and 1/4 t red pepper flakes stirring over medium low heat until they just start to brown. Whisk in a tablespoon each of white miso and mirin and 2 to 4 tablespoons of the bacon dashi. If you were making this for another recipe you could also use plain dashi, clam juice or even chicken broth.

Ryan came home just in time to cook the scallops which is great because he’s a master at giving them a perfect crust while keeping them perfectly cooked inside. I believe all he did was lightly dust them in flour with some pepper and cook them in the cast iron in butter….but he won’t share his secret. We threw the clams in the broth while the pan heated for the scallops and once they had opened, plated them and put the potatoes back in the broth to warm. A few potatoes went on each plate with a ladle of broth and some crisped bacon and green onions.

The crab legs were served as is alongside the brussels, scallops and a side of sauce. We sat down to indulge, chasing it all with some crisp sake and many sighs of true pleasure. What a meal!

And so it was with tamales.

My original idea was good. A one pot meal with some accoutrements. Posole perhaps or carnitas. A pot of love with several, easy things to dollop on top, all self-serve and warming on the cool evening we were expecting. Then somewhere, for no reason, my brain turned left at Albuquerque and landed on tamales….the exact opposite of a simple, one pot meal. And my husband made it even more complicated when he requested we do beef AND pork. He would cook the beef, so it really was no extra work. Mmm hmmm I said. So now instead of one pot of carnitas, I would be making the carnitas and some dough and then stuffing and steaming them. Idea x 4.

I made my list and headed out to the mexican grocery store for ingredients half excited as I do love tamales and half mad at myself for once again over complicating things. Not only would it take a good chunk of effort, but I had an important errand smack in the middle of the day and had to drop off and pick up my daughter and clean the house. But whatever. I was used to my own sabotage and I would just have to plow forward.

I soaked some beans and the corn husks and made the masa the night before. Ryan was going to do the steak as well but came home pretty late from work and had to leave early the next day. So right when I woke up I got to work breaking down the pork shoulder, marinating the meat and simmering the beans. Once the pork was browning I began grilling tomatoes, tomatillos, serranos, jalapenos, poblanos, onions and garlic for the two salsas. When they were done I grilled the steak (which had been slathered in spicy oregano, thyme, garlic chives, cilantro, chili powder, garlic and oil). The pork was just salt and peppered and browned. I then added a sliced onion, some garlic, spicy oregano, a cup of milk and water until almost covered and threw it in the oven.

I shredded some cheese, started to wonder how I would be able to wait until the meat was done and still have time to assemble the tamales in time. I emailed my mom. She agreed to come over and help me assemble them and to also come over an hour before the guests to get them steaming. Sweet.

Next I put the tomatoes, onion, jalapeno, cilantro and garlic into the blender until smooth and seasoned with salt and pepper to taste. I rinsed the blender and added the tomatillos, serrano, jalapeno, cilantro, lime juice, garlic, onion, avocado and s&p to taste. I chopped the steak and started picking up the endless piles of oddery that seem to accumulate hourly around the house.

I’m from a small family that has grown smaller over the years and my only real memory of food-related group activities was sitting around my aunt’s table picking crabs we had just caught in the bay near their Long Island home. I loved sitting together disassembling the crabs, sneaking nibbles and watching the sweet pile of crab meat growing in the bowl in the center of the table. But that was quite a while ago and most recent cooking is usually just me or me and my husband. For larger events my mom has always been a trooper arriving to prep, clean and serve our endless menus. And this time was no exception.

She arrived and set to work shredding the pork. We then set up an assembly line for the tamales. She spread the masa, I stuffed with cheese and meat and then tied all the bundles while she cleaned the bowls. It was efficient and quick and nice to have company. It was not quite the gaggle of moms, grandmothers, aunts and daughters I pictured for such festivities but a million times better than doing it alone.

I have been roping my daughter into the mix a lot lately and she usually ends up spending 5 minutes on a task (she is very good at peeling tomatillos) and then wandering over to her play kitchen to make fake food while I make the real meal. I still enjoy the company though and hope to instill in her the joy of creating good food together.

When we were getting ready to leave this lovely dinner, the hostess handed me a huge pile of Thai basil she had left over. So of course that meant I spent the next day and a half listening to a mumbling meal-planning dialogue in the back of my mind.

I had some Mahi Mahi and  decided to make a dish that used to be a summer staple for us– pan fried, crusted in almonds and topped with a mango salsa. Basil was a natural pairing with these flavors and I thought of making a potently basiled coconut sauce that could be puddled on the plate and topped with the crisp fish. My vision and outcome were not quite in sync, but the overall dish achieved what I was after and it was quite good….even if my plating arrangement does not prove it.

Serves 2

Fish:

2 pieces mahi mahi fillets
1 cup crushed almonds
1 mango, peeled, finely chopped
1/2 jalapeno, finely chopped
1 tablespoon cilantro, finely chopped
splash of lime juice

Basil Coconut Sauce:

1 medium shallot, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon lime zest
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
1/2 cup packed basil, chopped
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

Mix mango, jalapeno, cilantro, lime and a pinch of salt.

Saute the shallot until just starting to brown. Add garlic, ginger and zest and cook another minute or two until fragrant. Add remaining ingredients, stirring for a minute, then blend to desired consistency. Return to pan and heat slowly until sauce thickens. Add sriracha or chili sauce if desired.

Heat some oil in a heavy bottom pan over medium high heat. Press fish into almonds, flipping over and pressing again to get a good coating. Cook fish in pan flipping once about 7-8 minutes depending on size. Be careful not to burn the nuts and reduce heat if necessary.

Spoon sauce onto plate, top with fish and mango salsa. Serve with a side of rice.

A flan or custard. I can steep the white bulby parts in the milk, blanch the greens and line the ramekins with them. Some parmesan. Some toast.

I don’t want to buy or eat heavy cream.

But I like a good egg custard. Maybe a chawan mushi? A delicate chawan mushi studded with tiny slivers of chives. But it needs a small, but decadently wonderful item on top. Just one or Ryan will tell me there is too much in it.

A shrimp? No. Not after that awful story on NPR about what has happened to Gulf shrimp. Blargh!

But a seafood. Black cod! A tiny, $29/lb piece of black code- just a fleck on top….marinated in sake, mirin and miso…blackened under the broiler. But crap, it has to marinate overnight. Hmmm…..salmon!

But maybe not chawan mushi. Maybe slow cooked, very creamy scrambled eggs. Cooked in a double boiler,  flecked with garlic chives.

Or maybe no eggs. Maybe just stir-fried garlic chives chinese-style.

No. I want eggs. What about chinese-y scrambled eggs and salmon? And toast?

Or…..noodles! Noodles made from eggs. With asiany influence. And something green. And sweet. And earthy. And sweet, sticky salmon.

Yes. That is it.

So I went to the store. I usually would try for an Alaskan salmon but it was $29/lb and I like to have leftovers. And, they were having a ONE DAY SALE! on salmon FROM NORWAY! and the guy behind me cooking samples KEPT YELLING to COME TRY THE NORWEGIAN SALMON! He even promised to keep my place in line. I tried it. It was velvety, rich, crazy good. Like dry skin slurping all the lotion you applied, I felt my omega reserves slurp up that salmon oil and ask for more. So I turned to the fish monger man in his rubber overalls and ordered a pound of the fatty salmon love.

I then turned to the produce. Crisp, green, sweet said my brain. Snow peas. Check! Earthy. Shiitakes! And then my brain went yammering again.

I will slowly steep a pile o’ chives in some oil and use it to cook the egg noodles AND roast the mushrooms. I am a genius!

The salmon gets marinated first. In sake for whatever that wonderful pairing is with sake and fish. And soy and mirin for a caramely glaze…and….that’s it. Just enough love, but not too much.

The mushrooms will roast first while I cook the noodles, then the oven will get cranked to broil for the fish. Streamlined.

One pan- to heat the oil, to cook the noodles, to quickly toss the peas.

One rack to broil the salmon.

One plate to eat it all up. Ok, maybe two, because Ryan needs to eat too.

And that is what I arrived home with. In just under an hour it was done. The salmon was crazy good but also crazy rich. I only ate 2/3 of mine saving the rest for breakfast. It could easily marinate longer, but that’s all the time I had and I actually appreciated how subtle the flavors were. The egg noodles had just a slight flavoring as well allowing the deep mushroom flavor and super sweet snow peas to burst through it all.

I had learned the “noodle” technique while catering in the Hamptons in college. The daughter of some super VIP Chinese guest came in a day early to show me how to make them for the main dish. I was 17 and mildly horrified at the responsibility, but they turned out great and I’ve used them here and there ever since for a quick and different platform for a variety of toppings. And this was the best outcome yet.

Salmon:
1/4 cup mirin
1/4 cup sake
3 tablespoons soy or tamari
1 pound salmon, skinned, cut into 4 portions

Egg Noodles:
1/2 cup garlic chives, thinly sliced, divided
1/4 cup peanut oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
10 shiitakes, stemmed
12 snow peas
8 eggs
1 1/2 tablespoon mirin
1 1/2 tablespoon soy or tamari
1 pinch salt

Heat oven to 350.

Place salmon in a baking dish. Mix all liquid ingredients, pour over salmon, and marinate salmon at least an hour or two.

Put the peanut and sesame oils in a medium, nonstick pan and heat 1/2 the chives over the lowest heat for about 15 minutes.

Toss the mushrooms with 1 T of the chive oil and roast for 10 minutes. Let cool then slice thinly. Turn oven to broil.

Beat the eggs, mirin, soy and scant pinch of salt until completely blended. Stir in the rest of the garlic chives.

Pour the rest of the chive oil into a bowl and set aside. Heat the pan over medium heat, stir the egg mixture gently and pour just enough into the pan, tilting it as you would for a crepe, until it just covers the bottom of the pan. Cook until set, flip briefly, then stack on a plate. Repeat with rest of egg mixture brushing the pan with more chive oil as needed. Fold the stack in half and cut into noodles. Drain any remaining oil from the chive mixture reserving for another use and set the chives aside.

Add the snow peas to the same pan and cook until just starting to blister, tossing a few times. Cut on the bias, toss with the shiitakes and noodles and mound onto four plates.

Cover a rimmed cookie sheet with foil and put salmon on a rack on top. Heat the remaining marinade in the pan on high with the reserved, cooked chives until it starts to thicken. Cook salmon in the upper third of the oven, basting with sauce twice more until crispy and glazed (about 8-10 minutes). Place on top of noodles, garnish with extra chives and enjoy. Also very good with chili garlic sauce.

To begin, I threw a variety of dried chiles (arbol, cascabel, new mexico and ancho) into some boiling water and simmered until they were soft. I let them cool then removed the seeds and stem and threw them in a blender. I added some orange juice, a few pineapple chunks, a teaspoon of achiote paste, a splash of white vinegar, half an onion, a garlic clove, some cinnamon, cloves, cumin, salt and pepper and blended until smooth. I heated some oil and then added this paste for a few minutes then added some water and the pork simmering it for about an hour.

Meanwhile I put a couple skewers of pineapple, some onion slices and a tomato on the grill until they were slightly charred. A green chile of any variety really would have been great, but I did not have any on hand and refused to go to the store. Once the veggies were done I chopped them finely by hand, stirred in some lime juice, cilantro and s&p.

To assemble, I heated corn tortillas in a pan and melted some monterey jack cheese on top. I then topped it with the pork, salsa and some greek yoghurt and served a side salad of butter lettuce, avocado and a balsamic dressing.  While the meal was overall really good (and Ryan said he could eat it day after day) I did miss the charred bits achieved on a grill and also felt it really did need a fresh, green chile of some sort. But the method was good if you called it, say, simmered chile/pineapple pork instead.

This is not the first time she has taken on my important research tasks and, in fact, I have successfully received piles of valuable information from her by not even asking. I have asked, point blank, if she had answers to particular situations, but more often I like to just throw the ideas out there and if she has time and is interested lobs back useful information at record speed.

A recent pondering about what a wrongfully fired friend might do resulted in no less than ten useful links from government support to free advice on legal sites to detailed quotes about laws specific to California.

I have also lobbed over creative for ads I was designing for my husband’s business which she not only helped fine tune copy for but enlisted her company’s creative director to also provide feedback.

So it was not surprising that she posted five delicious sounding rutabaga recipes ranging from a vegan soup pureed with cashews in lieu of cream to pork cutlets with rutabaga in coconut cream. I wish I could finish this story by saying I tried one or more of them, but at this point in the day, things took a turn. I saw the newest contest from Food 52 and it was….pancakes.

Well it goes without saying that I am a fan of many varieties of culinary platforms and crepes, arepas, tortillas and any sort of shredded veggie cake make frequent appearances around here. So I knew at once that I’d be making a savory pancake of sorts which I would either stack with rutabagas or fold around rutabagas basic crepe style. I first considered the wild rice crepes I’d made in the past, but wanted something a little more springy and light and decided to use red quinoa and green onions. I made note of the proportions in a variety of crepe recipes I’d used in the past and settled on the batter ratios and went to work.

First I cooked the quinoa and let it cool. I mixed the eggs, flour, milk, half the quinoa, s&p and green onions in a blender and blended until smooth. I then folded in the rest of the quinoa and made my sacrificial crepe. I find that this is almost always necessary whether it is just fine tuning seasoning or the gods just want one, bad crepe…but I have pretty much never made a good first crepe. This time the crepe actually looked beautiful and had a great consistency but I felt it was lacking some depth. As I am pondering this, I see a bowl of ground up, toasted pecans I had used in some fig flatbread and threw them in the batter. They added just the toasty sweetness I was after so I let the batter sit a bit and focused on the filling.

So many of the rutabaga articles I read started off almost apologizing for this root vegetable. Whether it was the name or the cabbage relation, it seems most people assume it is a terrible vegetable and these bloggers were out to prove you wrong! It was misunderstood! Give it a chance! I suppose it must be true that it is not something people are as familiar with, but it is so easy to cook and has such a wonderful complexity of flavors. Peel it. Slice it thin. Brown it in butter with a pinch of salt. Add lots of pepper. I could eat bowls of it like that, but I wanted to elevate it further.

I rummaged in the fridge and found a zucchini, some ricotta and lemon zest and a few asparagus. Good enough. I cooked zucchini ribbons the same way and mixed the ricotta with the zest and some s&p. I then quickly browned the asparagus in the same pan, folded it all into a crepe and heated it in the oven. Served with a side salad, this was filling, full of flavor and a great end-of-winter-hello-spring kind of meal. And we’re not even in Meatless March anymore.

2 eggs
1 cup flour
1 1/4 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup cooked quinoa, divided
1/2 cup pecans, toasted and ground
2 green onions, sliced
1 rutabaga peeled, thinly sliced
1 zucchini, thinly sliced lengthwise
1 cup ricotta
1 Tablespoon lemon zest
1 Tablespoon chopped parsley
12 asparagus

Blend eggs, flour, milk, salt and 1/2 cup quinoa until smooth. Stir in green onions, pecans and remaining quinoa. Melt butter in a nonstick pan, add batter swirling pan to spread batter. Once bottom has browned, flip crêpe and cook a few more moments. Remove to plate and repeat until batter is gone. Crêpes can be put in refrigerator or frozen for later use.

Melt a tablespoon of butter in a heavy skillet and brown veggies in two batches. Toss with cracked pepper.

Mix ricotta with zest, parsley and s&p to taste.

To assemble, spread 1/4 of the ricotta over half of four crepes. Place veggies on half the ricotta mixture and fold the other ricotta half over the veggies. Then fold the crepe again so it is a triangle. Bake at 400 until heated through.

You can easily cook everything together in one pan and use any number of combinations of nuts and herbs. I just happened to have the rice cooker out so I used it to steam the carrots while I cooked the rest to speed things up, but you could easily cook the carrots with the onions and spices. I also did not have any cashews which I usually use so I substituted almonds. Finally, I had a variety of herbs but settled on just cilantro. I think tarragon would go wonderfully with the carrots, though, and parsley would be refreshing.

1 pound carrots, peeled and steamed, some steaming water reserved
1/2 cup sliced nuts, toasted
olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon ginger, grated (I keep it in the freezer and use a microplane)
1 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon chopped herbs
2 tablespoons greek yoghurt or sour cream (optional)

Sauté onion in olive oil until just starting to brown. Add garlic, coriander, cumin and ginger and cook for another couple minutes.

Put carrots, onion mixture, nuts and lemon juice in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add water a tablespoon at a time if mixture is too thick.

Eat as is to keep it vegan or mix in yoghurt or sour cream and adjust with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with crackers, pita bread or grilled baguette.

Zest adds a whole different kind of perfume to a dish- whether it is cooked in a paste for a sauce or glaze, simmered into a simple syrup for drinks, or just tossed as is with strawberries. I used to use a microplane to zest the limes first, but found that these strilkies freeze better and can be chopped if needed. The zested limes are easier to juice too.

I freeze the juice in baby food ice cube trays and then put them in a ziplock bag. It’s super easy to thaw and even cut in chunks if needed.

I’m sure I could get an attachment for my kitchenaid that might make this process faster, but there is something I really love in the rhythmic spinning and cranking of this tool. Since I am still hauling my toddler about in my left arm, I also consider this exercise a good equalizer.

The thing I remember my dad cooking most in this pan were burgers. Or, a burger, rather, just for him. He would buy the leanest hamburger possible, often grinding a good, lean cut of meat himself (with the grinder I still have and still use). He would then get the pan very, very hot and add the burger with no extra fat. It would sizzle angrily while he shook an appalling amount of salt over it- the extra granules dancing about in the dry pan. Once the bottom was good and scorched (practically blackened) he’d flip the burger, add a slice of Kraft American sliced cheese and put it in the salamander to brown and bubble. Sometimes he would eat the burger between slices of Pepperidge Farms’ Very Thin Wheat bread, but mostly he’d just put it right on a plate.

I love the size of this pan. You can cook small things for yourself, but it is big enough to make scrambled eggs for three as I did this morning. Unlike my own, large, cast iron pan, the seasoning is intact and has not been ruined by some well-intentioned dish washer. I will once again love my large skillet when I find time to re-season it. But for now, I’ve been content with the perfect heft, sizzle and cleanability of this classic.

This time around I just wasn’t as into it from the very beginning and while having a  pre-dreading chat with a new acquaintance I learned that she had a vegetarian cookbook I had been reading about. Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London’s Ottolenghi has received all sorts of reviews from the beautiful photos to recipes that completely failed. I was eager to take a gander and was lucky enough to borrow her copy.

The cover is truly beautiful as are many photos inside. It shows some broiled eggplants with a creamy sauce and jewel-like pomegranate seeds. Indeed most recipes inside are a world tour of flavors with exotic spices and herbs. Unfortunately celery is very involved as well and my recent scare has put me off the celery permanently. Many recipes appear to have lengthy ingredient lists or preparations which is just not working with my busy life lately, but the first recipe I tried was quick, easy and really tasty.

The day I borrowed the book I had decided to do something with arugula. Typically the first thing I think of when I have arugula is rare, grilled steak. Either on a sandwich or salad, it is my favorite combination. So I was working hard to come up with something better than just pasta with arugula pesto when I opened the book right to an arugula recipe. It is called Green Couscous and I had just enough ingredients to consider it a go.

Here is the recipe as is:

Serves 4
1 cup couscous
3/4 cup boiling water or vegetable stock
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cumin

Herb paste
1/3 cup chopped parsley
1 cup chopped cilantro
2 tbsp chopped tarragon
2 tbsp chopped dill
2 tbsp chopped mint
6 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup unsalted pistachios, toasted and roughly chopped
3 green onions, finely sliced
1 fresh green chile, finely sliced
1 1/4 cup arugula leaves, chopped

Place the couscous in a large bowl and cover with the boiling water or stock. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, fry the onion in the olive oil on medium heat until golden and completely soft. Add the salt and cumin and mix will. Leave to cool slightly.

To make the herb pasts. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz until smooth.

Add the herb paste to the couscous and mix everything together well with a fork to fluff it up. Now add the cooked onion, the pistachios, green onions, green chile and arugula and gently mix. Serve at room temperature.

My modifications:

• I chose to use an israeli couscous mix I have from Trader Joe’s. It has quinoa, baby chick peas and orzo.
• I had no parsley or dill (not much a fan of dill either) and so used the tarragon and cilantro I had on hand and some chives and lime mint from the garden.
• The pistachios I have are roasted and have salt, pepper and other spices and are delicious.

Other than shelling the pistachios, this was a really easy dish to prepare. I did everything ahead of time except stirring in the arugula which I did just before we ate. We put a fried egg on top (because, like my dad, I like to top just about everything with an egg), some shaved Beemster leftover from the apple tarte tatin and some toasted asiago bread. We both thought this was a great dish and considered it more of a platform for something (like an egg) though it could probably make someone a satisfying lunch. It would be really easy to change up the combination of herbs, though the tarragon was lovely and after my recent success with the carrot souffle I think tarragon will be a star player this summer. Likewise you can add any sort of spring, green vegetables like peas, asparagus or sugarsnaps. Heck, you could use almonds instead of pistachios and farro instead of couscous. I think the key elements to balance were the intense greenness of the herbs, the sweetness of the onions, the toastiness of the nuts and the peppery arugula. But that would be easy to do in any manner of combinations and the dish would really shine with whatever fresh veggies you could find at the market.

I have ten more recipes flagged as potentials to try and will report back what I find.