Pizza With A Friend

Our friend Eric's wife is out of town so we invited hi over to share James' pizza dinner. We always like to see Eric and besides it gave me the chance to make two pies -- one, as pictured above, was a fresh tomato, sausage, and mozzarella flavored with plenty of oregano and fresh basil. The Other, while still tasty was not exactly photo ready -- pizza is not exactly the prettiest food -- was mushroom, thyme, prosciutto and Gruyère. That's one of our favorite flavor combinations around here.

Since we had company -- I usually just make pizza, tossed together an arugula and radicchio salad, even though it had a bit more delicious, salty parmesan than is probably diet friendly.

Labor Day Lunch

The end of summer.

A chance to get together with friends we don't see often enough.

Time to grill.

We're not exactly a hot dog house. We opted instead for a festive lunch on the back porch.

The grill did get busy with thin slices of patty pan squash doused in a piquant feta cheese and basil sauce. Sharing the grill were shrimp and chorizo kebabs. I wrapped peeled shrimp around 1/2" slices of dry chorizo (I took that chance in spite of our Spanish guest -- but she seemed to approve) and threaded three to a bamboo skewer. I made a marinade/ paste of caraway seeds, chili powder, olive oil and garlic and brushed it over the meat just before grilling, a couple minutes on each side. Our friend Paul was kind enough to man the grill, including heating the tortillas, while I got a few things ready inside.

When I was trying to get an idea of what to serve today I was staring at the packages of Hearst Ranch beef in our freezer. They package a bag of chuck and round trims they call fajita strips. I don't think I've ever made fajitas for James and as I was puzzling over what use I could make of these pre-cut slices I saw a recipe for Mexican Beef Stew on the Saveur Magazine website. It is a long cooking dish of meat, tomatoes, onions, plantains, apples, pineapple and plenty of chili. Perfect for wrapping in warm tortillas. From there the theme for lunch took off. I whipped up guacamole and a batch of queso fundido (basically a warm dip of chiles, onions, tomatoes, beer and lots of melted cheese -- Mexican fondue) as appetizers with thick deep fried tortilla chips. I made a tangy radish salsa that gave a little crunch to the warm beef stew. The skewers just came along naturally followed by a fresh salad with garlic cream dressing, skillet cornbread which proved to be perfect match for the nearly sweet beef dish and, of course, corn on the cob. It is Labor Day after all.
For dessert I couldn't decide which fruit to use so I made double tarts from Mark Bittman's reliable free-form tart recipe. Basically a giant cookie with fruit topping, this recipe is so fool-proof there's no reason to ever fear making dessert again. James called the pear tart "French Fry Pie". The plum was a bit prettier but both were plenty tasty with fresh whipped cream and ice cream.

A great way to spend a day off.

Happy Labor Day one and all!

America's Best Home Cook

No it's not me. Sigh.

But from all reports it's Mark Bittman, cookbook author (he wrote my favorite all-purpose/ new-cook cookbook, How To Cook Everything) and New York Times columnist. That's what I read and I believe it. No matter how unlikely his recipes may seem I follow them. I will choose a recipe from Bittman before many other writers and I am never disappointed.

Tonight I wanted something flavorful, not too heavy (it was a pretty warm day after all), and pretty easy clean up. Surfing around the internet -- I found a simple dish, broiled chicken with a honey fig sauce. We have figs, we have honey (we always have honey), and we even had an open bottle of white wine so off I went.

Following his recipe I put 2 TB of honey and a splash of water in a saucepan and brought it to a boil. I allowed the honey to boil gently for about a minute and added in 1/2 cup white wine, the zest and juice of 1/4 orange, 1/2 cup dried figs, diced, 1/2 tsp of whole coriander, s&P, and a pinch of cayenne and let the sauce simmer/ gently boil for about 15 minutes until the figs were soft.

Meanwhile I pre-heated the broiler and set a rack so the chicken would be about 6 inches from the heat. I seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper and broiled for 10 minute son a side until it was browned, crispy, and cooked through.

As a side dish I steamed some cauliflower until it was tender (it was orange cauliflower, hence the bright color) and puréed it in the food processor with a bit of bitter, olive oil, salt, pepper, and a dash of z'atar -- a middle eastern spice mixture that James loves and truly is magic with cauliflower.

I could have strained the sauce and made the presentations a little less, let's say rustic. But the figs were so flavorful I traded a bit of elegance (as the author says he does) for flavor.

Three cheers for Mark Bittman!

Not Spaghetti and Still Okay

Usually when I make pasta that is any other shape, James gently mentions how he really likes spaghetti best. Not linguine, not capellini, but plain old spaghetti. But, every now and then I am seduced by fanciful shapes at the store and end up with a pantry shelf of lesser favorites.

I decided to start working off that shelf and grabbed a bag of trofie, squiggly little shapes usually served with a hearty pesto that are a specialty of the Italian region of Liguria.

To my surprise all I heard was "this is really good."

And it was so easy. All I did as crisp slices of prosciutto in some olive oil and toss in a few thinly sliced shallots (well, I used baby red onions form our garden), garlic, and crushed red chiles. When the pasta was cooked I put it it back in the pot and added in the prosciutto mixture, a out 3/4 cup of fresh ricotta, about 2 cups of fresh arugula, a good handful of grated parmesan, about 1/2 cup of pasta cooking water and stirred until the ingredients came together into a creamy sauce.

Easy and delicious.

Our First Apples

Three years ago we planted a baby apple tree -- Pettingill apples native to Southern California (yes there are some), "discovered" in Long Beach in 1949. We waited and waited and waited and finally this year our baby tree was ready to fruit. Four lonely apples I have been hovering over and watching, waiting for them to ripen.

It seems I got a little too excited, even though they were green and flushed with red as the literature described, they were, as James described " a bit tart". His face puckered up with one bite.

I couldn't let our beautiful apples go to waste. We didn't have quite enough for even a tart. So I took the three we hadn't bitten into and but them in a brown paper bag with a couple of bananas to see if I could force them to ripen. That one, super tart, sample apple I sliced thin and sautéed with butter, brown sugar, and a hint of chili. I layered that quick apple jam with roast pork, fresh arugula, and Gruyère cheese between slices of crusty Italian bread for grilled sandwiches.

Along with the sandwiches, because my diet called or it and we had it in the fridge, a quick broccoli soup. I put fresh broccoli florets into a pot of salted boiling water and chicken stock and allowed them to cook for about 4 minutes until just tender. I puréed the mixture in the blender and served the hot soup (tasted again for seasoning) over a mound of fresh ricotta cheese (cheese for James, yogurt for me).

I suppose it's a long way to go to save an apple, but for my homegrown it might just be worth it.

Grilled Halibut with Smashed Potates

I'm trying to get back on the diet -- I have been pretty lax lately. And so I plunged head first with the dieter's stand-by -- grilled fish. For me I coated halibut filets with a mixture of chopped parsley, oregano, and basil and grilled them over high heat for about 3-4 minutes a side. For James I took a grilled, herb-coated filet and served it over smashed potatoes (boiled potatoes cooked in a skillet with olive oil, sliced shallots, garlic, crushed red chiles and smashed down into the hot oil to make brown and crispy bits) with a drizzle of brown butter and fried basil leaves.

Diet dinner does double duty.

Joyce For Dinner

We found out late in the afternoon we would be lucky enough to have our neighbor Joyce over for dinner -- she has been out of town working and James and I were both looking forward to a visit.

But, our last minute plans left no time for elaborate recipes or lingering over shopping or even defrosting.

I made quick run for the meat counter and came up with two skirt steaks I rubbed with olive oil, minced garlic, chopped thyme and salt and let sit to marinate at room temperature for about an hour. As a sauce -- Joyce is company after all -- I made a quick blended Chimichurri (parsley, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, crushed red peppers).

We have plenty of vine grown tomatoes and so I started out to make a tomato salad, but since James isn't a fresh tomato eater (sauce fine, salad no) I added in halved heads of baby romaine, thinly sliced red onions from our garden, chopped parsley and chucks of blue cheese and topped the salad with a buttermilk dressing I saw in September's Bon Appetit magazine. Delicious.
Along with fresh corn on the cob I used some of the squash from our garden in this dish, from a recent Food and Wine magazine, of roasted squash with ricotta. I cut the squash into 1/4" dice and popped it in a hot oven, seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper. Then I sprinkled the cooked vegetables with cumin seed, fennel seed, and crushed red pepper and let them roast until just browned around the edges. With fresh mint leaves on top and creamy ricotta on the side this was a super simple side dish bursting with summer flavor.

I grilled the steaks for about 8 minutes total, let them rest while I brought the sides (well, a couple minutes more -- maybe 6 or 8 minutes total) to the table and dinner was served.

"Dinner was good," James said twice. "I liked that better then some of our fancier dishes."

So much for planning -- last minute dinner might just be the new plan around here.