Eating In

My sister would be very pleased with me tonight ...

2011-06-21T21:41:00.008-04:00

There I was in the kitchen, an enormous plate of undressed salad and I had run out of olive oil. Particular as I am, I was determined not to run down to the local store to get some, preferring instead to hold out for a trip to Eataly and find the bottle I like (I can't say for certain that it tastes better than the olive oil down at the local store. Put them together in a taste-test and I'm not sure which one I would go for but, the reason I'm holding out for the bottle from Eataly is because, well, the label is pretty. Aye. The simple things). I rummaged around behind the vinegars and the peanut oil and the sunflower oil and found a far too well-aged bottle of balsamic dipping sauce that had been there for a while, gave it a good shake and a little taste. Foul. Gone, no way I was putting that on my salad (arugula from the farmer's market, the big, chunky, vibrant arugula that Mark Bittman was talking about this week in the New York Times Magazine -- I have to admit I felt a little chuffed to have bought if before he wrote it -- and some pea shoots and some snow peas and cucumber, with mint, fresh from the fire escape).

What to do? Honey I thought, honey and lemon, so I put a bit of honey in a bowl and squeezed a bit of lemon... tasted it. All right but far too much like honey and lemon as cold remedy for my salad. So I looked some more. Sesame seeds. Dropped a few in and thought, hmm, tastes good, but needs a little soy sauce so pulled that out of the fridge. A little bit of soy sauce in with the honey, the lemon and the sesame seeds and yes indeed. Tasty.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that this was quite a monumental occasion for me. Creating something out of nothing in the kitchen...the way real cooks do it. A bit of this, a bit of that, this goes with that and there you go, something delicious for you to eat and no, I didn't use a recipe. Not sure when it will happen again.

The New Year has nothing to do with this...

2011-01-17T13:35:00.009-05:00

... but, yes, I'm noticing a pattern. Full throttle with the blog while I was freelancing, one lonely blog suspiciously dated January 2010 (a delicious dish though!) and a noticeable decline once I started working full-time. Oh dreadfulness! This year... for sure. A determination to do more on this here blog. So. Here we go.

I bought a couple of bananas a couple of weeks ago. I don't eat a lot of bananas, but these bananas were made in Colombia and I have a definite affinity for Colombia, an attachment to that beautiful but troubled country, and so I thought, I'm going to buy these bananas and I'm going to support this country, even though, who knows who gets what profits there. Aye. Complicado.

In any event, a couple of weeks later, and these same bananas are almost completely blackened and I know I'm not going to eat them as they are. However. I have a great back-up plan. Banana Bread. And not just any Banana Bread -- Lynda Schroeder's banana bread. Who is Lynda Schroeder you may ask? Well, she is a former colleague of mine, and she makes the most delicious banana bread, which I was first introduced to when we both worked together at Air America Radio. It's yummy, with chocolate chips, and, yes, it's an easy one too. I must admit that before I made it the first time, I had to buy a loaf pan but that turned out to be a sound investment, and, from this Christmas with family, I have another delicious bread to try, courtesy of none other than my Aunt Lucy, and which I'll definitely post here too...

All right. The recipe is as follows:

1/2 cup butter (1 stick if you use sticks. I use Kerrygold Irish Butter -- the best tasting butter in the world :)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt (not sure I used that much)
1 & 1/4 cups of mashed ripe bananas (2 large or 3 small bananas -- my bananas, in hindsight, probably a little small)
1/4 cup plain yogurt

The recipe says that walnuts or chocolate chips are optional. Well. I guess that's true, but chocolate chips, of which I used a mere half a cup this time around, (and will definitely push up to 3/4 cup next time around), compliment the banana bread so very well, it would be a shame (hell a travesty!) to leave them out.

pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F

Sift together the whole wheat flour, white flour, baking soda and salt
Combine the bananas and yogurt, stirring just enough to mix
Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy. Beat in eggs
Add dry ingredients alternately with banana mixture to butter, sugar and eggs, just enough to combine well
Turn into buttered 5x9 loaf pan

Bake 50-60 minutes or until done. (If you have toothpicks you can use those to test the loaf at around about 50 minutes. Anything sticks to the toothpick and it needs a few more minutes.)

Cool in pan for about 10 minutes. Remove from pan and finish cooling on a rack. (If you don't have a rack, improvise... something to create a little air under the loaf)..

It's a fun one... I enjoyed making it. Felt a little like a builder, alternating the flour mixture with the yoghurt banana mixture. But yes, far more tasty than cement mix I promise.

PS. If you want to do two loafs, simply double the recipe.

A dish ...

2010-01-24T21:08:00.010-05:00

Okay, it has been a long time for which I apologise... this little gem will surely make it up to you.

It comes, like many of the recipes on this blog, from the kitchen of my Aunt Lucy. She got it from the New York Times. There is no name attached to the photocopied clip she sent my way (complete with four stars penned on the side of the recipe), but a quick google tells me that it's Mark Bittman's recipe. No surprise. The man is a genius.

It is "Roasted Vegetables, Thai Style," and it goes something like this: (it actually goes exactly like this... at the end will tell you some of my wanderings from the printed page).

1/4 cup peanut or vegetable oil
1 medium-to-large potato, peeled and diced
1 medium-to-large eggplant, diced
1 red pepper, cored, stemmed and cut into strips
1 cup peas (frozen are fine)
1/2 pound green beans, trimmed
4 peeled shallots or 1 onion, quartered
8 to 12 cloves garlic, peeled
Salt & freshly ground pepper
2 tomatoes, cut in to eighths

(and for the sauce)

1/4 cup green, yellow or red curry paste, or 1 tablespoon chili paste, or cayenne to taste
1 cup of coconut milk
1/2 cup crunchy "natural" peanut butter
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Chopped fresh cilantro, mint and/or Thai basil leaves for garnish

Heat your oven to 450 degrees F. Place a deep ovenproof skillet or casserole over medium heat and add all but a tablespoon of oil. A minute later, add all vegetables except the tomatoes; sprinkle with salt and pepper and stir. Put pan in oven and roast, stirring once or twice, for 30 minutes. Add tomatoes, stir, and continue to roast until vegetables are tender and beginning to brown, about 45 minutes to an hour total.

Put remaining oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add curry paste and stir; whisk in coconut milk, peanut butter and soy sauce and bring to a simmer. Keep warm.

When the vegetables are done, stir in coconut milk mixture. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding more soy sauce or curry paste if necessary. Garnish with herb and serve hot or warm.

As a main dish, serves 4, as a side, 6 to 8 servings.

The reason I decided to try this recipe was because I was having a party. When I first decided to have said party I decided I was going to do a "treasure island chicken," (one of my mum's specialities), with basmati rice and an arugula salad. I was going to have hummus on the side, some warm almonds and some cheese puffs too, which I thought would surely satisfy all in the room including the vegetarians. Then, I realised that the night of said party, it was going to be blady freezing... i.e. down in the teens. I wasn't sure that I wanted do be serving Treasure Island for (about) 40 people... and I sure didn't think a salad would a) stand up to a full evening, sitting on a counter in a warm apartment, wilting away and b) be in any way substantial enough for anyone on such a cold night. And so I switched. Jamie Oliver's lamb curry (from "The Return of the Naked Chef," an absolutely stonking recipe!) and this here dish which I had never made before (and yes, I know you are not supposed to do that), but which I thought looked so easy that how could it possibly go wrong.

I doubled the recipe (except for the curry paste. I probably used a little over a third of a cup), and I didn't use tomatoes. Can't explain it, but they just didn't appeal to me. I used a lot of green beans and a lot of peas. (Frozen peas are the business as far as I'm concerned). I also added a few more potatoes. (I am Irish after all). I used two full cans of coconut milk (what the blady hell do you do with the rest of a can if you don't use it, I ask myself... save it for another time by which time the milk has gone off?!) (At least that's what happens in my kitchen), and I forgot about the garnish. I had the garnish (cil-ANN-tro! as y'all americans like to call it). I just forgot the garnish... whateva! It was delicious. Really, really good.

A couple of things to remember if you are having a party. Don't forget the preparation takes time too. And that when you are doubling a recipe, 12 cloves of garlic becomes 24 cloves of garlic and you have to peel them all. (Don't tell me about the garlic cloves peeled and prepped and sold in plastic containers... I'm a purist!). And that maybe your plan to be absolutely done and relaxed and sipping some cava at 7:30p (i.e. a full half hour before the party is due to begin) might not come true, certainly not the first time you decide to throw a supper party for (about) 40. Thank God I showered earlier in the day that's all I'm saying...

But yes, the party was fun, and this here dish was a super star. Impressive... and very, very easy. Try it out. Tell me what you think.

Pesto!

2009-06-02T20:02:00.005-04:00

I don't mean to brag but for some reason I have become, quite possibly, the greatest cultivator of basil the fire escape garden has ever seen. Last year an exceptional crop and this year looks to continue that extraordinary and years long quest for same. It may have something to do with the discovery that basil doesn't like to be watered all over, i.e. not the leaves just the earth. And perhaps the addition of some organic fertilizer from the local hardware store ... all I know is it looks good, tastes good and has, all of a sudden, become easy to grow. And of course, now that it's become easy for me, I feel I must impress upon you how easy it would be for you too... if you live in a sunny clime and have any kind of sunlight, be it a window sill, a fire escape ... or more. Buy some pots at the farmer's market and get on with it. You can use it in all kinds of dishes -- the pasta, tomato, mozzarella & garlic dish below -- in salads, in tomato sauces ... and when you have too much, you can make some pesto. Recipe is easy, easy and is below:

(My cousin, Cynthia, supplied me with this one, which is, from a cookbook, the name of which I think is "My Homer Cookbook," from Homer, Alaska... )

1 cup fresh basil
1 cup fresh parsley
2-6 gloves of garlic (I used four good sized ones in this edition)
1/2 teaspoon salt (I didn't use any)
3 tablespoons pinenuts
1/3 - 1/2 cup of olive oil (I used a third but see how you go)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Put it all in the blender and turn it on.

You don't have to be precise by the way. I used more than a cup of basil (as I said, I gotta lot of it), and not sure that I used a full cup of parsley. I grow that on the fire escape too, but only one pot of it whereas I have many pots of basil.

Enjoy with spaghetti, with chicken, with ... options I don't even know about yet. It's delicious though. And done in 5 minutes.

on a grey day, a green curry ...

2009-05-27T14:36:00.013-04:00

I don't know about you but when the weather is grey and the temperature cool (relatively), one good antidote to any kind of blue is getting behind the counter and cooking up a bit of comfort ... and the comfort I had in mind this morning came in the form of a curry from Nigel Slater's book, "Appetite," one of a collection of Nigel Slater cookbooks I've gathered over the years, all as gifts from my sister, Eithne. He's a terrific cook, a great food writer and absolutely inspires you to get into the kitchen and make something happen.

The recipe is as follows:*

For the green curry paste:
lemon grass -- about 4 stems, the tender inside leaves only, chopped
hot green peppers -- 6 medium hot small ones, seeded and chopped (because I'm a bit of a wimp I only used three. Four I reckon is probably a happy medium).
garlic -- 3 gloves, peeled
Galangal or ginger -- a thumb-sized piece, peeled and chopped (since I don't know what Galangal is ... ginger).
shallots -- 2 peeled and roughly chopped (this morning I used an onion because I didn't have shallots. Not too criminal I don't think)
cilantro -- a good fistful
lime zest -- a good teaspoon, or 5-6 lime leaves, chopped
lime juice -- 1 lime to start
thai fish sauce --
black peppercorns -- ground, a good half teaspoon

The rest of it:
1 & 1/2 lbs boned chicken pieces (my friends it is true, when I saw this I asked myself, "what exactly does "boned" mean? Is it off the bone or on the bone, and if it's off the bone, why not "deboned?" I rang my sister in Oklahoma and sent a text to my sister in London, asking them both: does boned mean "off the bone?" Neither of them had gotten back to me by the time I reached the meat counter so I asked the very sweet guy there, and he said that yes indeed, boned means off the bone although he agreed with me that it is just that little bit ambiguous. A little while later, I got a text from my sister in London, "of course u plonker! XXXXX" Charming.)
coconut milk -- 1 & 3/4 cups, (basically 1 can of coconut milk).
chicken (or vegetable) stock -- 1 & 3/4 cups
green peppercorns -- fresh if you can find them, a palmful. (I could only find them in the pepper grinder form and can't figure out how to (or if it's possible), to get the lid off so I just ground 'em in... See what you can find.
Oil -- Vegetable or peanut, 2 0r 3 tablespoons
Cilantro leaves -- a handful
Thai Basil Leaves -- a handful, roughly torn. (I couldn't find Thai Basil Leaves in the neighbourhood... will seek them out for sure).

* re. text above, text in parenthesis is mine, the rest is Slater's.

All right so yes, chop and peel everything up there for the green paste, but it in the blender and hit the button. On the lemongrass I found them at a local bodega but am not sure how easy they are to find in general. You may have to shop a little further depending on where you live. And yes, it's important to use only the inside tender leaves because the outside leaves are coarse and, trust me, you will notice them in the eating of it.

There is a lot of pleasure here for me, chilling in the kitchen, watching podcasts of the Sunday Morning shows, chopping shallots, peeling garlic, enjoying the aroma of the lemongrass. One word of warning though: when you're done with the peppers wash your hands. It is all too easy to forget to do that and then, a while later you rub your eyes and wonder why they start stinging and watering and feeling generally unpleasant. You do it once and you probably won't forget again ...

Fry the chicken pieces in the peanut oil, add the green paste, add the coconut milk, the chicken stock and the additional cilantro and thai basil leaves. Let simmer for about 20 minutes. Serve with Basmati Rice or as Slater says, fragrant Thai Rice. A delight is this dish. Enjoy.

OH-burr-gene

2009-04-30T18:27:00.015-04:00

I gotta say, I've always been intimidated by Aubergines (or as y'all like to call 'em in this country, "eggplants!") I can't tell you the amount of times I've bought one, and had it in the kitchen for days, taunting me, daring me to cook with it and me completely wimping out, waiting for it to get all soft and rancid and then throwing it out, defeated. There's something about them. First off, there is the question: to salt or not to salt. "The salt gets rid of the bitter taste," says one, "it gets rid of the excess moisture," says another, and "you don't need to salt them any more ...," a third. And then there's the cooking of them: any recipe I've seen for aubergines very simply instructs you to put some olive oil in a pan, heat it up, slice the aubergines and throw 'em in. No recipe I've ever seen (and don't get me wrong, I haven't read a lot of recipes about aubergines), has given any advice on the fact that (certainly in my efforts), the oil is immediately absorbed in to the aubergine, nothing left in the pan and you have to add more and more oil to get the damn things cooked ending up with something ... well, something oily. (it's olive oil so not too terrible but still).

So yes, I've tried babaganoush and although I ate it, I'm not sure anyone else would, and I've cooked aubergines to have with supper but always been less than content with the result. So, I'm not quite sure what came over me there a couple of weeks ago. I was at wholefoods, I saw an aubergine, it looked so good, I thought to myself, "this week, I'm going to make a lamb stew and I'm going to use an aubergine." I was determined.

Back home I rummaged through my rather limited but pretty good quality selection of cookbooks (for which I can't take too much credit, the best of these books all given to me as gifts from my sisters). I pulled out Claudia Roden's "A New Book of Middle Eastern Food," slightly singe-ed on the front cover for reasons I cannot remember and with a lovely inscription on the inside from my sister, Ines, "May this be the start of some wonderful home cooking wherever you are," she wrote, "This is the Bible."

I found the perfect recipe, an Aubergine Khoresh, or as we would consider it, an aubergine stew. You can use lamb, beef or chicken. I used lamb.

The recipe is easy:

2 aubergines (not quite sure what size aubergines she calls for, I used one medium sized one, which felt like plenty)
Salt
1 large onion
Butter or olive oil
1 Ib stewing lamb
2 oz brown lentils or yellow split peas. (I used red lentils because when I was at the supermarket I couldn't remember what color the recipe called for. Red worked. And they were the no-soak necessary kind. All the better.)
Black pepper
1/2 - 1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

The Garnish
1 tablespoon of the chopped onion, above
2 tablespoons dried mint
1-2 gloves of garlic crushed

All right. Claudia Roden says salt the aubergine. I did not salt the aubergine. Claudia Roden knows much more about these things than I do but no, I did not salt the aubergine.

Chop the onion. Heat the butter or oil (about two tablespoons), 'til it's hot. Throw in the onion, (remembering to hold on to about a tablespoon of it for the garnish), stir it around, make sure all of the onion gets touched by the olive oil, and then gather it all as close to the center of the pot as possible. Cover, bring the heat down and let the onion sweat for a good 5-10 minutes, lifting the lid occasionally to give it a stir. Make sure it doesn't get stuck to the bottom. When it's cooked -- it will look kind of glassy -- throw in the lamb and brown (won't take very long just make sure you brown it on all sides). Then add enough water -- yes, that would be cold water -- to cover the lamb, add the lentils, the turmeric, the cinnamon and the nutmeg, bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and let simmer for 1 & a half to 2 hours or until the lamb is tender and the beans are soft.

Now for the aubergine. Claudia Roden writes very simply and without complication that one should saute the aubergine in about 2 tablespoons of oil or butter, add to the Khoresh and cook for an additional 15 minutes. I attempted the saute, twice, -- I've made this stew twice in the past couple of weeks -- and both times the thing I fear the most happened, the oil got soaked straight up by the aubergine and even though I chucked them in to the stew anyway, I couldn't help but feel that the aubergine had triumphed once again.

Onwards though, and there's the last little piece to resistance which is the garnish. That remaining tablespoon of onion that you remembered to keep aside? Well, heat a little olive oil or butter, chuck in the onion, let cook until soft and golden, throw in the mint and the garlic, cook for another minute and take it out, put it in a small dish and serve alongside the stew, which is, if I may say so myself, delicious. Very subtle flavours, good with red or white wine and basmati rice.

Try it. Let me know how you get on.

And, about that aubergine. A few days ago, my sister, Eithne, rang, and we got to talking about food and what I'd been eating lately. I told her about this Lamb Khoresh which was so, so good, but I also told her about my incredible frustration with the aubergine. I felt inadequate I told her (I was feeling a little dramatic). My sister knows her way around the kitchen. She knows all the tricks. "You know Lucy," she says, "it's just as easy to roast them." I said, "what?!" And she says "yes, just slice 'em up, cover them in olive oil, put 'em in a roasting pan and into the oven." I'm not quite sure of the temperature but will try at 375F the next time I cook one ... which will be soon. I've bought another aubergine and it is, right now, sitting in my kitchen, watching me, daring me to crumble. But. I won't.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2009-03-17T09:40:00.007-04:00

I don't mean to get all sentimental on you but honestly, there is nothing like Brown Bread, toasted, some Kerrygold Irish butter ("the best tasting butter in the world,") and marmalade, with a cup of Barry's tea, all to be had in Ireland where the tea is better, the bread is better ... When we were growing up, it was never hard to come by because there was always someone in the house who could bake a good batch of Brown Bread, and the aroma that took over the kitchen while that bread was in the oven ... bliss (not to say I thought it was bliss when I was four, but when I was 24, 34... it's funny the things you appreciate as you get older and living in Ireland gets further away).

Below is Mrs. Mick's Brown Bread Recipe. I've tried it only once in the States with not alot of success. But man oh man, could she ever make it in Ireland.

4 cups brown wholemeal flour
2 cups white (plain) flour
2 tsp bread soda
1 tsp Salt
1 pt Buttermilk

Combine all together in a mixing bowl, use your hands. Put it out on a baking sheet, cut in to quarters, and bake at 410F for 45 minutes. Turn over, bake for another 5 minutes ... and there you have it.

Do it again!

2009-03-03T23:47:00.012-05:00

I'm the kind of person, if I eat something, and I like it -- and I really like it -- I can eat it over and over and over again, and not get tired. Peanut Butter & Jelly for example. I've been downing that since I was 2 years old. And although the peanut butter has changed over the years (I am now hooked on the Peanut Butter & Company's "smooth operator,") the basic craving does not. If I don't have it I miss it. If I enter a kitchen and can't find the peanut butter jar, well, it makes me feel just that little bit less comfortable. So yes, I could eat peanut butter in some form every single day. No problem. The same goes for the easiest and most uncomplicated dish you can possibly have, spaghetti, fresh mozzarella, fresh garlic, fresh basil, olive oil, freshly ground pepper ... and salt. This dish I could eat every single night of the week and still look forward to having it the next night.

So. the ingredients as above:

Spaghetti
Tomatoes -- fresh
Fresh Mozzarella
Fresh basil
Garlic
Freshly ground pepper
Salt

The portions you decide based on how many you are going to be. If it's just me I usually do one fair sized tomato, one mid-sized ball of mozzarella, some fresh basil (which I grow in the summer, and go without in the winter), a glove of garlic...

Boil the water. Add some salt after the water has boiled (I know I've read somewhere that salty water takes longer to boil). Chuck in the spaghetti and cook (usually about 10 minutes). Strain. Pour some Olive Oil over the spaghetti and then add the tomatoes, mozzarella, fresh basil and garlic, the tomatoes, cut in to quarters, the mozzarella in to chunks, the garlic minced, and the basil ripped apart, (I can't remember who told me never to use a knife to chop basil because a lot of the flavor gets lost on the knife, but whoever it was, it stuck, and I don't use a knife on the basil). Toss around in the spaghetti, put on to a plate, and serve immediately. Freshly ground pepper and salt to taste.

So easy, so delicious, very quick. (another three-fer :) ).

PS. a note about the mozzarella. Sometimes it is hard to find fresh Mozzarella, and honestly I wouldn't bother with it if it's not fresh. In this case, I would substitute cheddar cheese. The other thing is that when buying Mozzarella, I, myself, don't buy mozzarella that has been wrapped in plastic unless I know for sure it's fresh fresh. I'll buy it if it's in a plastic container of water (and actually, Wholefoods sells it here in NYC -- what they call "Ovaline Mozzarella" -- at pretty decent value).

Oh Honey!

2009-02-23T19:56:00.009-05:00

This one comes direct from the table of my Aunt Lucy. So easy and so delicious and so quick. If I had a cockney accent I'd call it a three-fer. You just got to buy yourself a pork tenderloin (which if you happen to be in the vicinity of Manhattan's West Village you can buy at the Florence Meat Market on Jones Street between Bleecker and West 4th. I actually buy a lot of meat there, and put it in the freezer. Very good value!).

So yes, pork tenderloin with honey & sesame. Delicious. The recipe is as follows:

1/2 cup soy
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons fresh ginger (I don't measure it out, I just grate what feels like the right amount of ginger and put it in)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup sesame seeds

First off marinate the tenderloin ... and no, you don't have to marinate it over night, just for a couple of hours at room temperature. The marinade consists of the soy, the garlic, the ginger and the sesame oil. You can do one of two things: marinate in a bowl, turn and spoon occasionally, or, marinate in a freezer bag, massaging the pork through the bag, making sure that the ginger and the garlic get around.

Then, set out two plates. On one plate put the honey and the brown sugar. On the second plate, lay out the sesame seeds.

Take the tenderloin out of the marinade, which, according to those wiser than me, you have to throw away even if you really don't want to because it smells so good and you're thinking to yourself, "but it's soy, and it's ginger and it's garlic. surely I can keep it." The general wisdom is, you don't keep the marinade. So. Take the tenderloin out of the marinade, pat dry (use a paper towel), and then roll it around in the honey so that every bit of tenderloin has got itself some. It's messy but it's fun (I think anyway), give the tenderloin a good massage, and then move it over to the sesame seed plate, roll it around on that plate 'til the sesame seeds are all over.

Put it in a baking dish, into the oven at 375 degrees F for between 20 and 30 minutes.

Serve it with some Japanese Rice, and, if you like to have a bit of wine with your pork tenderloin, last night we had a pinot noir, recommended by the folks at Gnarly Vines in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. A good companion.

Tomato + Avocado + Lemon + Olive Oil + Ciabatta =

2009-02-07T13:52:00.005-05:00

delicious!

Last week I was invited to join a friend for brunch at a cafe / restaurant in Fort Greene, Brooklyn called Smooch, a place that truth be told I've been kinda sorta boycotting for about three years only because someone there had the audacity to charge me $4 for a glass of Ocean Spray-esque cranberry juice, (don't say this girl doesn't know how to hold a grudge :). Howsoever, sometimes with the right level of persuasion, it's good to let bygones be bygones and so I found myself there last weekend, enjoying an absolutely delicious brunch / lunch, not once, but twice. On the second day, this was put in front of me: tomato, over avocado, spread out on a ciabatta, with a lemon juice, olive oil dressing. It was delicious -- the kind of simple dish that transports you to another place, the mediterranean maybe ... so fresh and good and good for you...

Today, realizing I had -- quel coincidence -- a tomato and an avocado dying to be eaten I set about recreating it at home. I used peasant bread bought at the farmer's market instead of ciabatta, toasted it, spread the avocado all over it, topped it with slices of tomato, and then fresh lemon juice & olive oil (typically 1 spoon lemon juice to 2 spoons olive oil, but always according to taste), with some freshly ground black pepper and a bit of salt.

What can I say ... it was cry out loud good!

Hummus ...

2009-01-11T19:02:00.011-05:00

My Aunt Lucy has always made the very best hummus I have ever tasted. It is delicious with Tortilla or Pita Chips, and or fresh red and yellow and green peppers, some carrots. A mighty fine Hors D'oeuvres.

Finally I asked for the recipe so here it is:

1 cup Chick Peas (Garbanzo Beans)
juice of 2-3 lemons
1/2 cup Tahini
3 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. salt
paprika for garnish
warmed pita bread or chips

It is very, very easy. Essentially all you do is put everything in a blender and press the button. I have a mini-cuisinart so that's what I use. If you too have a mini-cuisinart, a tip: blend the garlic first (and for the record, I don't use 6 cloves I use 4) then put the lemon juice in there before you put in the chickpeas (which you need to strain and rinse, just a little bit, before you add them to the blender), and the rest of the ingredients, so that the blender has plenty of liquid to work with on the chickpeas & tahini. (you'll see what I mean... it can seem a bit dense at first). Also, I don't use 1/2 teaspoon of salt, I use hardly any (my aunt uses none), and I rarely get around to garnishing with the paprika.

And another thing: the recipe asks for a cup of chickpeas which always meant for me that there were some chickpeas left over. Which in turn always meant that they went to waste because I would put them in the fridge and forget about them and then have to chuck them out. A few months ago, I was in Aunt Lucy's kitchen and she asked me to make the hummus so I asked her what she did with the remaining chickpeas. She looked at me like I was a bit of idiot and she said, "I use them in the hummus!" Her shoulders shrugged. "What good are they for anything else... what do you do with them?"

I can't remember if I told her what I did with them but now, yes, I just use the full can. Simple.

late add: when I sent this post to my aunt she emailed me back saying "you sure make the hummus recipe sound complicated, I just put everything in my cusinart and spin." And of course, I tried it, all in at the same time. The mini-cusinart was in fact able to handle it ... so simpler than simple.

When all else fails ...

2009-01-08T20:33:00.010-05:00

i.e. if you get stood up (again!) and need to rustle up some supper, roast a chicken. Seriously. It doesn't take but an hour and is dee-licious. Buy an organic free range chicken if you can. Pop it on a layer of onion (1 onion cut into four (or five) thick slices to act like a rack under the chicken).
Cut a lemon in half, cover the top of the chicken, the drumsticks, the wings with the juice of one half, rub it in, give the chicken a good massage ... and shove the other half inside.
Freshly ground pepper, Maldon sea salt (yes, I love the Maldon -- my sister turned me on to it years ago and honestly there is no turning back), put the chicken in at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for about 15 minutes. Turn the oven down to 375. About 15 minutes later -- the piece de resistance, courtesy of my brother-in-law, Nick -- a glass of white wine you chuck over the chicken, which sets of all kinds of sizzle in the roasting pan. Cook on for about another half an hour or until cooked (no pink between the drum stick and the body of the chicken, the chicken's juices run clear).
Take out of the oven, let sit for a few minutes, and then ... mange!

Delicious with Basmati rice, green beans, roast potatoes, green salad ... your choice. (I'll show you how to cook Basmati -- the best rice in the world -- in another post).

Mark Bittman ...

2009-01-07T10:28:00.004-05:00

... who I love! So much useful and practical advice in his columns. This one from today's dining in / dining out section of the New York Times is all about dining in... check it out.

Never underestimate a boiled egg!

2009-01-06T16:47:00.002-05:00

My friend, Kerry, just got back from Ireland where she's been for a full two weeks over the Christmas break.

"Do you know what I had for breakfast every morning?" she asked me. Rhetorical Question. "A boiled egg, Brown Bread and some jam."

It's been an age since I've had a boiled egg, and it's such an easy and quick thing to do. Boil the water, pop in the egg, and 3 - 4 minutes later depending on whether you like it soft or hard, you've got yourself some bit of breakfast. Put the bread in the toaster while you're waiting for the egg, get the coffee going (or the tea) and ...voila! C'est tout simple.

When we were small we had a boiled egg every morning for breakfast before we went to school. I ate my egg without complaint. My sister, on the other hand, hated them. She hated them so much that she hid them. Behind curtains, in book shelves, inside containers, all over the dining room (fortunately she never thought to hide them further afield). She hid them until the smell of stale eggs blew her cover. My mother is the one I think who noticed it first... a strange smell, not very pleasant, and went in search. She found the eggs all right. In all of their little hiding places. And who was the one who caught the blame? Not my sister. Me.

(Am not sure if this little vignette will encourage or dissuade you from trying a boiled egg for breakfast any time soon... but there you have it. Very easy and delicious with some fresh pepper and some Maldon Sea Salt crumpled on the plate.)

Green Beans!

2009-01-06T15:04:00.000-05:00

Never to be underrated. They are so easy to cook -- steam 'em in a saucepan for less than a minute to keep them crunchy and fresh and delicious. You'll have to top and tail them first which, in its own way is quite a therapeutic way to spend some time, back forth, up, down, with some music in the background, a glass of your preferred beverage in the fore. Easy Easy.