This Shrimp is Back in the Kitchen!

The long anticipated (by me) Holiday edition is here...this shrimp is back in the kitchen. We started the week at our dear friends' house in Long Island for the annual Italian Christmas Eve to remember. The two beautiful little girls, Sarah, 4, and Julianna, 2, ate 12 pieces of shrimp cocktail each. Year after year, they inhale the shrimp and handle it like real women, I am impressed. We had courses and courses of unbelievable food. The broiled lobster tails were to die for & I am getting the recipe for Braude's Bites.

Yesterday, I leafed through my giant recipe binder in search of a new recipe to try. I've been out of the kitchen for weeks and needed a serious comeback from my hiatus. I found some recipes from our dinner at David Paul's Lahaina Grill in Maui. After our favorite dinner on our honeymoon in Hawaii, I asked the waiter if I could have the recipe for their ahi tuna. In New York, I wouldn't have even asked. In the true spirit of Hawaii, he came out with 6 recipes for all of their classic dishes, all typed up on letterhead for patrons! Truth is you have to adapt the recipes for your home kitchen, unless you're into spending hours in the kitchen making tequila butter to put in the tequila beurre blanc to pour on the tequila shrimp- who are we kidding?

Tequila Shrimp and Vanilla Bean Rice from David Paul's
Serves 4 people

Maui Tequila Shrimp

1 1/2 lbs deveined shrimp
1/2 oil (I used olive, they used corn oil)
1 1/2 tsp chili paste
1 1/2 tsp cilantro
1 1/2 tsp lime juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 Tbsp bown sugar
1/2 tsp cumin
1/8 cup tequila
1/2 tsp worcestershire
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Peel and wash the shrimp.Combine all ingredients & marinate the shrimp in a container for at least 1 hour. Take the shrimp out of the marinade & place it in a single layer on a saute pan over medium heat until shrimp are cooked through. Do not overcook,once the shrimps are all pink, take them off.

This easy shrimp recipe boasts spicy flavor and is complimented with a vanilla bean rice. Use this for a weekday meal. It wouldn't be ideal for company cause it's tough not to overcook the shrimp if they sit for a bit and you can't shock them in ice water with their marinade. You could steam them for 30 seconds.

Vanilla Bean Rice

1 Tbsp shallots, finely chopped
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup Jasmine Rice
3 cups clam or fish broth
1 split vanilla bean

Vanilla beans are expensive, but they are worth it. Cook rice over medium heat with vanilla bean, shallots, butter and clam broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover. Simmer until all liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat and fluff. This recipe has some strengths in that the rice was a Thai sticky rice and tasted of vanilla, but I found the clam broth a bit overpowering. Any suggestions from fellow chefs?

On the 2nd day of Chanukah

This year, my mom & dad were in for Chanukah and we hosted a small party here for Lee's mom's b-day and Chanukah. My mom outdid herself with her annual potato latkas and a classic cake from our childhood.
The kids and adults ran for seconds on the once a year delicacy!

Easy Potato Latkas
Norene Gilletz's "Pleasures of Your Processor"
(yields 2 dozen)

4 medium potatoes, pared (she recommended Yukon gold or yellow flesh)
1 onion
2 eggs
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper
oil for frying

Cut potatoes in chunks and onion in half. Place in a processor (with a steel knife) with eggs and process until pureed- 20 to 30 seconds. Add remaining ingredients except oil and process a few seconds longer to blend into a smooth mixture. Pour oil to about 1/8" depth in a large skillet. When hot, drop in potato mixture by large spoonfuls to form pancakes. Brown well on both sides. Drain well on paper towels.

*These can be frozen. To reheat, place them on a ungreased foil lined cookie sheet in a single layer. Bake uncovered at 450 degrees for 7 to 8 minutes, until crisp & hot. Serve with apple sauce. These would make great party appetizers, you can make 5 dozen mini latkas and place a dollop of creme fraiche on top.

Every year at our birthday parties, we would have a vanilla cake with a creamy icing. I always preferred white cake to chocolate cake and always will. She updated the "Betty Crocker's Silver White cake" with Magnolia bakery icing...it was luscious. On our wedding day, my mom gave this recipe to the baker and our wedding cake tasted like my old bday cakes...YUM.

Betty Crocker's Silver White Cake

TIME: Bake layers 30 to 35 minutes, square or oblong 35 to 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

INSTRUCIONS FOR LARGE CAKE (TWO 9" LAYER CAKE PANS OR ONE 13" X 9" PAN)

Grease and generously flour pan.
Sift together:
2 7/8 cups sifted Softasilk Flour or 2 2/3 cups sifted Gold Medal flour
1 7/8 cups sifted sugar
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Add:
2/3 cups soft shortening
1 1/4 cups milk
2 teaspoons flavoring
Beat 2 minutes.
Add 5 egg whites.
Beat 2 minutes. Pour into prepared pans. Bake until cake tests done. Cool. Finish with desired filling and frosting. When this cake is iced, it looks like a cake that could have been in a 1950s style bakery front, especially in a pretty pastel color.
Advice from mom: Place a round 9 inch parchment paper round, buttered on both sides, at the bottom of the pans. She also learned how to ice a cake from watching Martha...so watch her :)

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SMALL CAKE(TWO 8" LAYER CAKE PANS OR 9" SQUARE PAN)

Follow all the instructions above, but change the quantities to the following:
2 1/4 cups sifted Softasilk flour or 2 1/8 cups Gold Medal flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup soft shortening
1 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons flavoring
4 egg whites

Ricetta Salsa Verde from Firenze

A Real Italian Cookbook

Ricetta Salsa Verde
Homemade tarts with pastry cream & cognac glazed pears served with ginger ice cream

Thanks to the man in Todd (pictured above on the right), Braude's Bites is being published from bed today as I enjoy the new benefits of being wireless. I feel free in so many ways :) About a week ago, Lee and I were invited to a stranger's for dinner. All I knew about Gioia was that we shared a personal trainer, a love for cooking and a friendship with Karina & Todd. These nuggets, along with the fact that she is from Florence and adores entertaining, convinced me that her dinner would be worth traipsing to Brooklyn for in the middle of the week. I like Brooklyn, don't get me wrong, but Lee and I are known to stay home or within a 10 block radius from our apartment during the week. Not only did I make a new friend, we also ate a dinner to remember. Move out of the way, Giada DeLaurentis! Gioia is the real deal. Before we arrived, Karina & Todd scared her letting her know I do not eat cheese. Gioia called me to better understand my hatred for cheese and told me she had a cousin that hated cheese, but if you hid it, she wouldn't know. I explained her that if cheese came within a foot of any of my senses, I would know. The Italian goddess was thrilled to take on the no cheese challenge and delivered a meal that fell from heaven (and I appreciate it!). Her kitchen was so eclectic, full of authentic Italian cookbooks, rare spices and top of the line kitchen gadgets. Her mandalin was taller than me. When we got there, there were pears boiling in cognac, tarts shells coming out of the oven and a succulent tenderloin roasting. We started with a fettucini with salsa verde that was smooth & nutty. It tasted like it was from an Italian restaurant, which could be called Buon Gioia (I don't take credit for inventing the name of this "would be" hotspot). Moved on to my tuna tartare for a Hawaiian course in the middle of an Italian meal. For the main course,we had a wonderful salad with fennel, jicama (pronounced by Gioia as GI-CA-MA) and pears with a juicy medium rare beef tenderloin and crispy roasted new potatoes. For dessert, we enjoyed home made pear tarts with ginger ice cream. The crust, the pastry cream and the cognac glazed pears were delightful....so delightful, I ate Jorge's uneaten half as well. Who says I have class?

Gioia's Ricetta Salsa Verde

30 grams flat leaf (Italian) parsley

1 large garlic clove

2 filets of anchovy in olive oil (drained)

1 tsp dijon mustard

15 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice

45 ml best olive oil you can get

salt and pepper

Put garlic, parsley, anchovies and salt in the blender and mix. Add lemon juice and mustard - blend again. At low speed, pour the olive oil in a bit at a time. Add pepper last.

This salsa verde would be great with pasta, the way Gioia served it, or on beef tenderloin and/or roast beef sandwiches.

Buon Appetito from Buon Gioia!

Going butternuts!

I discovered butternut squash soup at Corryn's apartment a few years back. I loved it & asked for the recipe. Since then, I have passed the recipe on to my mom who makes it all the time. Last year when my grandmother, parents and Jean came to our apartment for dinner for the first time, I made this soup. It's a perfect fall soup with a luscious velvety texture, perfect for a fall or winter dinner and will allow you to keep your girlish figure. Cutting the squash will require a good chef's knife and a workout....make it easier, spare the effort and buy it pre-cut if you can.

Butternut Squash Soup - Serves 6
Bonnie Stern

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 baking potato, peeled & diced
1 lb butternut squash, peeled and diced
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
kosher salt & freshly ground pepper

Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven. Add onions and garlic. Cook gently until very fragrant and tender. Add potatoes and squash. Cook a few minutes until lightly browned. Stir well. Add stock and bring to a boil. Cook 20 minutes or until very tender. Season with salt & pepper & red pepper flakes. Puree soup in a blender, food processor or an immersion blender. Add more stock or water if soup is too thick. Return to heat and keep warm.

Optional: Bonnie Stern suggested taking 1/2 cup of tomato sauce, adding some water and making a tomato paint for each serving of the soup (swirls, polk-a-dots). Many restaurants serve the soup with a dollop of creme fraiche.

A Coincidence: Allison's Spicy Peanut Noodles & Shrimp

A while back, I clipped a recipe out of Cooking Light magazine for spicy peanut noodles with shrimp. At the time I clipped it, I paid no attention to who had created the recipe.

As months would pass, we would be watching tv and Lee would exclaim: "Hey, that's Allison Fishman!". She would keep popping up in commercials for ICE and on Dave Lieberman's show. Since then, I have become e-mail buddies with Allison, an old friend of Lee's from high school, who is a cooking teacher, food stylist and recipe developer from Brooklyn. Check out her yummy recipes, cooking classes and blog at The Wooden Spoon.

The other night, I was flipping through my recipe binder, landed on the spicy peanut noodles with shrimp and realized it was created by Allison. So, I made it....and it was yummy without tasting "light"!

Enjoy!

Spicy Peanut Noodles with Shrimp
"Cooking Light" Magazine, Allison Fishman
serves 4 people

Peanut Sauce

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter (I used reduced fat)

1/4 to 1/3 cup of water

2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce

1 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar

1 to 2 tsp chile paste with garlic (I used 1.5, we like it spicy!)

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt, divided

Shrimp

1 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

Cooking spray

Pasta

4 cups cooked thick udon noodles or linguini (8 oz uncooked)

1 red bell pepper, julienned

3/4 cup chopped, seeded cucumber

1/4 cup diagonally cut green onions

3 tbsp chopped roasted peanuts

2 tbsp cilantro leaves

4 lime wedges (optional)

1. To prepare sauce, combine the first 6 ingredients and 1/4 tsp salt and stir with a whisk.

2. To prepare the shrimp, toss with 1/4 tsp salt. Saute in a nonstick skillet coated with Pam over medium high heat for 3 minutes on each side or until done.

3. To prepare pasta, combine peanut sauce, shrimp, noodles, bell pepper, cucumbers and onions in a large bowl, toss well. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts and cilantro. Serve with lime wedges, if desired.

The meal is less than 425 calories and tastes great. Go Allison go!

Note: I used soba noodles instead.

An excuse to eat apple crostata

I'm a Canadian married to an American and we're living in the US. Although I don't like turkey, I love the premise of Thanksgiving and the fact that the week is cut short on Wednesday...these Americans do it right.
Here's another great one from Barefoot Contessa Parties!
I'm not her publicist, just a big fan....This is the second time I have made this rustic apple crostata and you only have to make the crust once. It went over very well both times! A perfect Thanksgiving dessert last night.

Apple Crostata- Serves 6
Barefoot Contessa Parties!

Needed equipment: rolling pin, food processor, baking sheet, microplane zester and some bowls

For the pastry (makes enough for 2 tarts!)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated or superfine sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 lb very cold unsalted butter, diced

For the filling (1 tart)
1 1/2 lbs McIntosh, Empire or Macoun apples (3 apples)
1/4 tsp grated orange zest
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated or superfine sugar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground allspice (I didn't have it and skipped it)
4 Tbsp cold unsalted butter (1/2 stick), diced

For the pastry, place the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse a few times to combine. Unplug food processor and take out the blade. Add the butter and toss quickly with your fingers to coat each cube of butter with the flour. Replug the food processor and put the blade back, pulse 12-15 times or until the butter is the size of peas. With the motor running, add 1/4 cup of ice water all at once through the feed tube. Keep hitting the pulse button to combine, but stop the machine just before the dough comes together. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured board and form 2 disks. Wrap with plastic and refrigerate one of the disks for at least an hour. Freeze the rest of the pastry to use for your next masterpiece!

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Roll the pastry into an 11-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Transfer it to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

For the filling, peel, core and quarter the apples. Cut each quarter into 3 chunks. Toss the chunks with the orange zest. Cover the tart dough with apple chunks, leaving a 1 1/2 inch border.

Combine the flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon, and allspice into the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture is crumbly. Pour into a bowl and rub it with your fingers until it starts holding together. Sprinkle evenly on apples. Gently fold the border over the apples, pleating it to make a circle.

Bake the crostata for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the crust is golden and the apples are tender. Let the tart cool for 5 minutes, then use 2 large spatulas to carefully transfer it to a wire rack.

Bon Appetit!

A Rite of Passage

If you're a Jewish Canadian and your mother liked to cook, chances are that some time after you left home, your mom gave you a trio of cookbooks by Norene Gilletz. When I was little, I always saw my mom cooking from "Second Helpings" and "The Pleasures of Your Processor". As I got older, Norene came out with "Microways" and "Meal- Lean- I Yumm" to adapt to changing technologies and health and wellness! During the holidays, my mom always made a sweet and creamy dressing from her book, "The Pleasures of Your Processor". As I prepare to bring salad over to my thanksgiving feast at my mother-in-law's in Long Island, I made this dressing. Note: This dressing is NOT LOW FAT!!

Sweet & Spicy French Dressing (yields 2 3/4 cups dressing)
From: The Pleasures of Your Processor by Norene Gilletz

2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 tbsp salt (I use Kosher)
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 1/2 cup oil (I use extra virgin)
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce

Peel garlic & drop it through the feed tube on your food processor with machine running. Process until minced. Scrape down the bowl, add remaining ingredients and process 25-30 seconds until blended and creamy.

Do not freeze. This dressing keeps 2 months in the fridge in a tightly closed jar.

Not your mom's tuna salad

This recipe is a great twist on crowd-pleasing tuna tartare. It's one of the quickest and healthiest meals around and comes from the one and only, Ina. I have to say that since Nigella has arrived on Food Network, I feel like I have been cheating on Ina. Her British accent is so sophisticated and my first recipe, her key lime pie, had me at hello. I have also stolen one of her bad habits by sneaking out of bed every night to steal some dark chocolate from the pantry. Anyway, I digress.

The key to this recipe is simple: fresh fish from a trusted fish shop, make sure it's bright red and doesn't smell. Use it within 36 hrs from when you buy it (this is my guideline, not the FDA's :) )

Tuna Salad (The Barefoot Contessa, serves 4)

2 lbs very fresh tuna steak, cut 1 inch thick
4 Tbsp olive oil, plus extra for brushing
2 1/2 tsp kosher salt, plus extra for sprinkling
2 limes, zest grated (love my microplane zester!)
1 tsp wasabi powder (if you don't have, skip it, you could also keep some from last night's sushi...the green paste)
6 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice (3 limes)
2 tsp soy sauce
10 dashes hot sauce (Ina and I use Tabasco)
1 to 2 ripe Hass avocado (the more, the merrier..mmm)
1/4 cup minced scallions (these are shallots in Canada), white & green parts (2 scallions)
1/4 cup red onion, small diced
*You can also add in hearts of palm, I think they go great!

Brush the tuna steaks with olive oil and sprinkle with s&p. Place the tuna steaks in a very hot saute pan and cook for a minute on each side. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, s&p, lime zest, wasabi, lime juice, soy sauce and hot sauce. Add the avocados to the vinaigrette.

Cut the tuna chunks and place it in a large bowl. Add the scallions and red onion and mix well. Pour the vinaigrette mixture over the tuna and carefully mix.

NO cooking required tabbouleh

Barefoot Contessa Parties! is the gift that keeps on giving. It is the source of my lemon bars, apple crostata, Asian grilled salmon and orzo with roasted vegetables. I haven't tasted a bad recipe yet! This is another wonderful recipe from the cookbook that would taste great with Moroccan chicken and yogurt mint sauce. I've always bought Tabbouleh, this was my first time making it. It's super easy & tastes better as it sits in the fridge. Unlike many Contessa recipes, there is no butter and this is healthy!
The tastes of the fresh mint and fresh parsley against the nutty lemony grain are so pleasing to the palate. There is no cooking involved, just some cutting.

Tabbouleh (Barefoot Contessa Parties)
Serves 8

1 cup bulgur wheat
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
1/4 cup good olive oil (I use less!)
3 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 cup minced scallions, white & green parts (1 bunch- note: these are shallots in Canada)
1 cup chopped fresh mint leaves (1 bunch)
1 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley (1 bunch)
1 cucumber, unpeeled, seeded and medium-diced
2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 tsp freshly ground pepper

Place the bulgur in a large bowl, pour in the boiling water and add in lemon juice, olive oil and 1 1/2 tsp of kosher salt. Stir, then allow to stand at room temperature for about an hour.

Add the scallions, mint, parsley, cucumber, tomatoes, 2 tsp of salt and the pepper; mix well. Season to taste and serve, or cover and refrigerate (a day or two will make it taste better!).

I just got her new cookbook, Barefoot Contessa at Home, stay posted for reviews of her new recipes! In case you're interested, she is going on a book tour to promote the new cookbook.

Spicy Filets & Cool Mint

Coffee rubbed filets- YUM


In my 4th of July post, I talked about how it was worth it to smell up your small apartment for some good grill marks. I have finally decided that without a fan or outdoor bbq, grilling recipes are a big commitment....to having a smoky apartment for 2 days. With that being said, I have been experimenting. I made Bobby Flay's coffee rubbed steak last night after picking up 1 lb of beautiful beef tenderloin from Citarella.
Instead of grilling ribeyes, I roasted 2 filets for 25 minutes at 425 degrees until they were medium rare. Not only does my apartment not smell, the result was exponentially better! Once you make the spice rub once, you have leftovers for 2 more times, I will definitely be making these juicy filets for guests, Lee told me it was one of the best meals I have ever made him- restaurant quality! What a charmer :)

NOTE 12/24/06: Since I originally posted this, I have tried this recipe again with filets from other grocery stores. Here's my learning: the reason the beef from Citarella tasted better was cause it was center cut USDA Prime...I am no meat expert, but much to my surprise, the taste difference is undeniable. As Ruth Reichl writes in the book I am reading now, "Garlic and Sapphires", "great steak is bought, not cooked". This recipe was case in point.

I also made Geneve's Moroccan chicken. Instead of grilling it like I did last week, I baked it in the oven. It tasted great as well. With the baked Moroccan chicken, I made a yogurt mint sauce that cools down the spicy bite of the chicken. I got the idea from a recipe card I picked up @ Williams Sonoma. Try this easy & healthy yogurt mint sauce with chicken or the spice rubbed beef:

Low Fat Yogurt Mint Sauce (adapted from a Williams Sonoma recipe card)

1 cup of fat free Greek Yogurt (I use Fage 0%)
1/2 cup fresh mint, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 Tbsp of lemon juice

Weekend Chocolate Treats

Whenever I so much as walk past the Grand Hyatt Singapore , I make it a point to nip inside and pick up a bag of chocolate chip cookies from Mezza9. Those melt-in-your mouth cocoa-rich cookies don’t come cheap, mind. For something like $6, you get less than 10 cookies which a greedy goose like me can (and naturally, I do) easily inhale in one short sitting. As luck would have it, last week, while searching for a quick exercise in kitchen therapy, I flipped through my as yet unused copy of Paris Sweets and decided on the simple sounding recipe for Korova Cookies by Pierre Herme. Little did I realise that I had stumbled upon the recipe for those same chocolate chip cookies I often lust over at Mezza9 — well, almost.


Korova, says the brilliant Dorie Greenspan and author of Paris Sweets, was the name of the milk bar in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange and the name of this restaurant located off Champs-Elysees for which Pierre Herme created these cookies. Think ice-box cookies gone luxe with 1/3 cup of the best Dutch-processed cocoa, 150 grams of the finest bittersweet chocolate you can find, and a good half-teaspoon of fleur de sel to take it to great heights.

The difference between the Korova Cookies and the ones from Mezza9 is essentially the size of the chocolate chips used — Mezza9 uses whole chocolate chips, while the recipe for Korova calls for the chocolate to be chopped into small bits.



Cocoa Nibs
There is an entire list of foods that I have yet to taste — an authentic tagine is one of them, as is an authentic cassoulet. Yet another was cocoa nibs which was within easy enough reach since it wouldn’t require my traveling hundreds of miles to persuade a French countrywoman or a Moroccan grandmother to cook one for me. When the nibs finally arrived, I excitedly tried almost every cocoa nib recipe that lay in my ever-growing library of cookbooks. That first weekend, I made a simple cocoa nib ice cream from Alice Medrich’s Bittersweet
and had a go at Emily Luchetti’s Cocoa Nib Florentines from A Passion For Ice Cream. I have to admit, it turns out I’m not that big a fan of cocoa nibs after all. They impart a nice chocolatey flavour to the ice cream, but they also burn and turn bitter easily, as I found out with my attempt at those Florentines. Anita of Dessert First was far more successful, so you may want to check out her post on them here.

The ice cream from Bittersweet was good. It was a Philadelphia style recipe that didn’t require a custard base, but it was a tad too milky for me. As a child, my mother would literally force down a cup of full-cream powdered milk, spiked with a teaspoon or so of Milo (presumably to make it more palatable). How I loathed it so. Alas, while I am a massive fan of Ms Medrich’s recipes, this one unfortunately brought back the taste of that childhood memory. Not so good. On a brighter note, an old friend of mine who popped by for dinner one night tried the ice cream and asked if he could take the whole tub home.

Fast forward to yet another Cocoa Nib ice cream recipe from Chocolate Obsession.This one had a richer custard base which I like a lot more (I like my ice cream dense and almost sticky). To add a little something extra to it, I also caramalised some nibs which I eventually decided to strewn over the ice cream as opposed to mixing it in as the recipe suggested. Now that’s also because I damn near burnt the nibs while caramalising them and was afraid I might spoil the flavour of my ice cream with any bitter crunch.

While I like this version of the Cocoa Nib Ice Cream, it’s not something I’d devour with abandon like I would, say, real rich dark chocolate ice cream. So I did the next best thing and turned it into an ice cream sandwich with the Korova cookies. Now that turned out to be a very good thing.

Chicken from Fez

Another weekend is here. It's Saturday and I've had my favorite breakfast: a Dunkin' Donuts hazelnut coffee and what seems to be one of my very last yogurt, granola and berries of the season. The berries of October are not tasting the same as the tart, juicy summer berries..go figure, the fruit vendor at the corner lied to me! After my breakfast, I headed to the gym and now I gotta make this post quick, I need to watch the Barefoot Contessa.

Thursday night, I made a very easy Moroccan chicken recipe that Geneve e-mailed me a few years back, well before we decided that our blogs would be our creative outlets. Until I get a kitchen fan or a backyard with a bbq, I have to stop making this recipe, so suburbanites, please enjoy it for me! The Le Creuset grill pan is really making my apartment smell like a bbq pit for 48 hours after.

The result is a succulent and spicy chicken that would be great with fattoush, hummus, babaghanoush and tabbouleh.

Play your Middle Eastern music, make some mint tea and enjoy this great Middle Eastern meal!

Geneve's Moroccan Chicken Skewers for 2
Marinade 2 chicken breasts for 30 minutes in this mixture and then grill:
1/4 cup olive oil
1/8 cup red wine vinegar
1.5 Tbsp cumin
3/4 Tbsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 cup fresh parsley (I skip this if I don't have it)

It's quick, healthy and tasty, perfect for a week night.

Talia's Bridal Shower & "Oh My" Key Lime Pie

They say practice makes perfect....we are getting better at throwing these bridal showers every time....Today was Talia's bridal shower. The five bridesmaids combined efforts to make it all happen. The cream colored roses, accented with pink, were floating in gorgeous, modern glass vases thanks to Nicki. Anyone who reads this should ask Nicki to be a bridesmaid, she can save you a lot of money at your wedding...her new nickname is the "45 minute florist". The ladies were entertained with a game by Corryn (that she impressively conducted off her Blackberry). Jodi made beautiful invites and organized to get a makeup artist from the Giorgio Armani counter @ Saks to come do a "teaching demonstration" on the bride. Naomi kept everyone coming back for more of her peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and bought the bride her new makeup brush set. As for me, as you may have guessed, I made Magnolia cupcakes and Nigella's key lime pie. It was great to have Talia's mom in from Ottawa, Darren's mom in from Montreal and Jodi, the maid of honor, in from Toronto for the festivities!

Since I have already blogged about the cupcakes, here's the recipe to a Farber approved (Andre, Darren & Bob) key lime pie. In celebration of Nigella Lawson's debut on Food TV (Sundays at 1 pm), my timing couldn't be better. Love this dessert cause you can make it and freeze it and then whip it out to serve...It does require a lot of equipment, but it's easy to make, so don't be shy!

Key Lime Pie (How To Be A Domestic Goddess, Nigella Lawson)
*Use a 9 inch springform pan, a food processor and an electric mixer*

For the Crust
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp (or 7 oz) graham crackers
scant 1/4 cup softened, unsalted butter

For the Filling
5 large egg yolks
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
zest of 3 limes
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp lime juice (of 4-5 limes)
3 large egg whites

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Put graham crackers and butter in a food processor and blitz until it's all reduced to oily crumbs. Press these into the pan, lining the bottom and going a little way up the sides and chill while you continue.

Use your stand mixer or a handheld mixer to beat egg yolks until thick, add the can of condensed milk, grated zest and the lime juice. Whisk the egg whites separately until soft peaks form, then gently fold into the yolk mixture. Pour into the lined pan and bake for 25 minutes, when the filling should be firm. I also whipped 1/2 pint of heavy cream and iced the top and decorated with limes. Leave to cool on a rack before unmolding and chill well. You can keep this in the fridge or freezer until you're ready to serve.

Hope everyone had fun today !
Naomi- would you like to guest blog your cookies ?

Kasha and Bow Ties

This was one of the side dishes in our pre-Yom Kippur fast. It comes from a cookbook I found at my mother's called "Jewish Cooking Made Slim"- what an oxymoron! It is a very traditional Jewish dish and is one of my favorites for a Friday night dinner or holiday. Although it tastes amazing, this version only has 147 calories per serving...if you can only enjoy one serving....that's the challenge.

Kasha and Bow Ties (serves 12)

1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup medium kasha (buckwheat groats)- I use Wolff's brand
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 cups boiling water
2 bouillon cubes, any flavor
1/2 lb bow tie-shaped noodles, cooked
up to 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 Tbsp diet margarine

Saute onion in oil over medium heat until translucent. Set aside. In large frying pan with lid, mix kasha and beaten egg thoroughly enough so that egg is completely absorbed by kasha. Stir and cook over medium hear until egg is set. Pour in boiling water and bouillon cubes, stir, cover, and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat, stir in onions, noodles, s&p and diet margarine. Cover and keep warm until ready to serve. It can be made a few hours in advance and microwaved.

The Foodblogger's Guide to the Globe

I just got tagged by Geneve at Geneve's Kitchen to participate in a MEME started by Melissa, an American cook living in Scotland at the Traveler's Lunchbox. This exercise calls for listing 5 foods that you would eat before you die. When I saw that Melissa, the creator of this very up my alley idea, loved Berthillon ice cream in Paris, I was sold. I went to Paris for the first time last summer and loved their ice cream (Karina- thanks for the suggestion!). My next question is: "what is a meme ?".

Here are the 5 things I would eat:

1. Tuna Tartare Avocado: I have been known to choose it on any menu, one of my favorites is at Alan Wong's Hualalai Grill on the Big Island of Hawaii. My homemade tuna tartare from the Barefoot Contessa is a real crowd pleaser as well.
2. A medium rare steak at Prime 112 in Miami, Florida
3. A packed to the rim falafel with chips, hummus, tehina and hot sauce in one of three places:
-Israel
-Mivami at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia
-L'As du Falafel on Rue Des Rosiers in Le Marais, Paris
4. A Sushi dinner (including an Aloha and Kamikaze roll) at Mikado in Montreal.
5. A dessert plate with creme brulee, chocolate molten cake, apple crumb pie and key lime pie (don't make me pick!!)

That was stressful! I'd like to pass the torch to Cathy from A Blithe Palate.

Feasting Before the Fast

Before the Yom Kippur fast on Sunday night, Lee and I hosted a feast for 3 of our close friends, Mark, Naomi and Dave....all lonely Canadians who couldn't make it back home for this 24 hour holiday.

One of the highlights of the feast was my mom's sweet and sour meatballs. I grew up with these meatballs and am delighted to keep the family tradition going! These meatballs exemplify "comfort food" at its very best and they are served to accolades everytime!

Mom's Sweet and Sour Meat Balls (serves 6)

2 lbs minced meat
2 eggs
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp fresh garlic
1/4 cup water
3 Tbsp bread crumbs
20 oz tin tomato juice
1 cup or less of ketchup
1/2 cup or less of sugar
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

Combine meat, eggs, seasonings, water and breadcrumbs and mix well/ Form tiny balls. Combine remaining ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to boil. Add meatballs one by one. Once you have covered the bottom of the saucepan with the first layer of meatballs, make sure the first meatballs are greyish and do not burn before adding the rest of the meatballs to the pot. Cover and simmer for 1 hr and 15 minutes. Remove cover and simmer 15 minutes longer.

I cook the meatballs in a dutch oven and put them in the fridge after I finish making them. They're perfect for the holidays cause they can be made in advance. An hour before you're ready to entertain, simmer them on the stovetop.

The rest of the menu was walnut and panko crusted chicken, kasha and bowties and caramelized butternut squash. For dessert, we enjoyed Ina Garten's fabulous apple crostata...I also enjoyed it last night...again :) and chewy peanut butter chocolate chip cookies from another blogger at the Canadian Baker!

Tofu & Soba: A Ladies' dinner

About 6 years ago, while I was in Australia, I fell in love with tofu. I don't remember why I decided to pick it up at Coles in Bondi, but I did.
In my single life, tofu was one of my staples. With my late nights out,went my tofu....although I am sure a lot of men like it, my bet is that most don't....My good friend, Talia, and I made dinner on Tuesday night. It was healthy, Asian and vegetarian.

Mint and Scallion Soba Noodles- Sarah Moulton, Gourmet
Makes 6 servings

12 oz dried soba noodles (Japanese buckwheat noodles)
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar (not seasoned)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 1/4 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped mint
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced scallions (1 1/2 bunches)

Cook noodles in a large pot of boiling noodles until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking and drain well. While noodles are cooking, stir together vinegar, oil, soy sauce, sugar and salt until sugar is dissolved. Toss noodles with dressing, mint and scallions.

This was my first time using soba noodles, they have a very unique taste. They mix so well with the ingredients in this recipe to make a perfectly healthy side dish that can be made easily in advance and thrown in the fridge. The soba noodles would make a great side dish to my tequila lime chicken for a summer bbq. This recipe will be a staple in my house.

Ginger-Sesame Grilled Tofu (Cooking Light Magazine, Aug 05)
Serves 4

1 lb reduced fat, firm tofu steaks ( I like Nasoya brand)
2/3 cup ginger sesame vinaigrette (see below for recipe)
1 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
8 lime slices

1. Place tofu between paper towels and cover with cans to make water come out. This is a must when working with tofu, so the water comes out and the marinade clings to the tofu better. Let stand for 20 minutes, pressing down occasionally. Combine ginger sesame vinaigrette, soy sauce and cilantro. Remove 1/4 cup of cilantro marinade and set aside. Pour the rest of the marinade over tofu in a 13 x 9 baking dish, cover and marinate for 30 minutes, turning occasionally.

2. Prepare grill (or grill pan in my case!) to medium high heat

3. Add lime slices to marinade. Grill tofu and limes on both sides for 2 minutes each and baste frequently.

Calories: 307 , Fat: 9.3 g, Protein 16.3 g, fiber 4.8 g

Ginger-Sesame Vinaigrette

1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup yellow miso paste
1/4 cup chopped green onions (shallots in Canada)
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp fresh ginger
2 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce
4 tsp canola oil
2 tsp dark sesame oil

Combine first 2 ingredients in a medium bowl, stirring with a whish until smooth. Stir in green onions and the remaining ingredients. This yields 1 1/3 cups. Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 5 days, stir well before using.

This recipe is high maintenance cause of the making of the vinaigrette and the marinating. I would recommend making the vinaigrette in advance.

Enjoy!

Gluttony

Unbelievable that I have any desire to cook or write about food after the weekend I had. We spent the weekend in Montreal gorging ourselves on my mother's food for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. In the past few weeks, I have had some great culinary experiences...most of them have not been in my kitchen. Being domestic is sometimes overrated :)

The Tea Box @ Takashimaya (5th Avenue between 54th & 55th in Midtown NY)
If you work in midtown and need a zen like experience (god help us, we all do), consider Takashimaya as an alternative to a yoga class. I like yoga just like the next girl, but for $19, you get a beautiful bento box complete with a heavenly selection of 4 different foods and a nice desert for lunch.
The Tea Box is a spa-like haven from all things NY: cell phones, loud honking noises and rushed people. The Tea Box is located in the basement of an upscale Japanese department store. The bento box is fabulous bang for your buck, nothing else is affordable unless you think four hundy is worth it for coasters.

Koi (40th between 5th and 6th in the Bryant Park Hotel in NYC)
After going to Koi in Los Angeles, I thought that their new New York location may be a disappointment, not so. Koi is a very modern and trendy restaurant across from Bryant Park. All the ceviche and sushi that I've tried there both times was great. The highlight is the crispy rice with spicy tuna, it is one of my favorite dishes anywhere. Imagine pan fried rice topped with spicy tuna, jalapeno, chili oil, mayo and scallions- 'nuf said.

In A Blood Orange Mood

I was so excited to see blood oranges on our neighbourhood supermarket shelf that I completely forget my doctor's orders to stay well away from citrus fruit. Blood oranges are exceptionally uncommon in this part of the world, the closest country to grow them being Australia. Named for their red specked flesh and deep red juice, blood oranges are lower in acidity than regular oranges and tend to be sweeter. The "blood" in these oranges come courtesy of a pigment called antocyanin, not typically found in citrus, but more common in other red fruit and flowers like pomegranate. Their colour alone endears them to cocktails and all kinds of pretty dishes with the added benefit of being antioxidant rich.

Alas, despite all the good stuff it packs, a glass of its vibrant vermillion juice later and my esophagus retaliated with a vengence. The good doc's orders echoed in my mind like a flashback in a bad movie. No pills could save me now. I would have to ride through the night gagging away uncontrollably like an unwitting porn-flick newbie.



Anyways, with a whole bag full of blood oranges still waiting in the fridge, I had to do something with them. Inspired by J's amazing Orange Conserve, the last of the precious portion she so kindly gave us dwindling fast, I decided to try something I had never done before: make jam. Following her recipe to the letter, but with blood oranges instead of regular oranges, I emerged with a beautiful coral-red conserve that was as delicious as it was gorgeous.

With the rest of the blood oranges, Claudia Roden's fool-proof and always-a-hit Middle Eastern Orange Cake, gussied up with a dollop of whipped thickened cream, strewn with chopped pistachios for that extra Middle Eastern touch and of course a teensy wedge of conserved orange like a sparkling garnet crown.

Ellie Krieger's Apple Muffins

After seeing Ellie Krieger, the new Food TV hostess and nutritionist, bake these low fat muffins on "Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger" a couple of weeks ago, I put them on my "to blog" list. They are moist and taste like a light version of apple pie. Enjoy this recipe as a breakfast or mid day snack. Keep them in ziplocs in the freezer for a "go to" snack.

The Most Versatile Cakes of All

Who doesn't love crabs or crab cakes? Luscious fresh crabmeat packed in a crispy crumbed skin. But fresh crab meat can be such a pain, involving as it does picking miniscule bits of the precious flaky meat from the smallest crevices of the crab's limbs. Hard work indeed, but often more than worth the effort.

I recently chanced upon an extremely versatile recipe that has quickly become a favourite in our household. It is from a book which I've owned for some time now but haven't really delved into until a few months ago. The New York Restaurant Cookbook packs 115 recipes, all of which are signature dishes from New York's most famous restaurants. Nobu's Black Cod with Miso is in there, as is Le Perigord's Rack of Lamb with White Beans and WD 50's Cherry Clafouti. I don't know why I waited so long to discover the gems within these pages, but I'm currently working my way through the flurry of post-in with which I've marked the recipes I'm gunning to try.

The famed '21' Club's Lobster Cake recipe is so versatile I've made them with all manner of shellfish. Delightfully piquant and spicy, they are extremely easy to make, even for a dinner party of more than 4 (have you tried picking crabs for 6?). I sometimes omit or use alternative ingredients since things like jalapeno peppers and flat leaf parsley aren't readily available at the average suburban supermarket here (I replace the jalepeno peppers with green chillis and sometimes do without the flat leaf parsley). I've used crabmeat, crayfish and prawns and in every variation, they've been wonderfully delicious. The book also provides a cucumber salad recipe to accompany the cakes, but both C and I aren't cucumber fans, so instead I make a citrus and fennel or rocket salad to go along with it.




Lobster Cakes
(Serves 4)

1/2 jalapeno chilli or 1 green chilli (seeded if you don't want the heat)
1/2 cup minced red bell pepper
1/2 cup minced onion
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp hot sauce (tabasco)
2 tbsp lime juice
5 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp minced chives (I sometimes replace these with the white part of a spring onion)
1/2 tbsp minced flat leaf parsley
2 tsp coriander leaves
a pinch of cayenne pepper
1/2 pound fresh cooked lobster/crayfish/prawn meat (cut into 1/2 inch pieces) or flaked crabmeat
1/2 cup soft fresh breadcrumbs
1 1/4 cups panko (Japanese white bread crumbs)
1 tbsp unsalted butter

Heat a tbsp of oil in a saute pan and add the jalapeno, red bell pepper and onion. Season with salt and pepper and saute over low heat until the vegetables are soft and not brown. Remove the vegetables to a bowl and set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, combine egg yolks, hot sauce and lime juice. Blend in the mayonnaise, mustard, the herbs, and the cayenne pepper. Now the soft bread crumbs, 1/4 cup of the panko, the shellfish meat, and the reserved sauteed vegetables.

Now spread the remaning panko on a deep plate or a pan and shape the cakes (you can use your hands or shape them in a circular mould or in tuna cans with the tops removed). Place the cakes on the panko and then sprinkle more panko on top to coat. Refrigerate for 30 minutes and then saute over medium heat till golden brown.

To make the salad, segment an orange or ruby grapefruit, mix with rocket leaves or thinly sliced fennel and some fresh mint leaves. Dress with balsamic vinegar, some of the fruits' juices and olive oil.

One Click Swordfish

Many who know me think I work undercover for Freshdirect, an online grocery store that has been delivering in Manhattan for 4-5 years. I was an early adopter and got on the online bandwagon very early on. Why was I going to go the corner grocery store to get $5 moldy raspberries in aisles too small for shopping carts? The kicker is that I then have to shlep 6 bags home. Freshdirect allows you to shop when you want, where you want, and promises only the freshest produce. There is a feature called "quickshop" that has your entire shopping list on it from previous deliveries, making shopping that much more convenient. The best part is if I'm not home, the order stays with the doorman for an hour or two!

If you don't live in the NY area and you like food, you should check out their site, it's pretty and gives you beautiful visuals of different kinds of fish, meat and veggies. It also educated users with a seasonal guide and storage guide for fruit so we can figure out when a berry crumble would be more appropriate than an apple crumb pie (both sound good to me always). Their newest feature is "one click recipes". My first recipe was a hit! FreshDirect has thousands of recipes at my fingertips. It was as easy as searching for an ingredient or type of cuisine, finding the recipe to suit your taste and the ingredients will be automatically added to your cart. Genius!

Swordfish with Lime and Coriander
(from The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook)

3 lb swordfish steak

1/2 cup olive oil

juice of 3 limes

3/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

lime wedges

4 tbsp butter

Marinate the swordfish in olive oil, lemon juice and 1/2 cup of coriander. Let it sit for a few hours, turning the fish over a few times. Remove the fish from the marinade, reserve excess marinade. Season the steaks and grill on both sides, basting with reserved marinade frequently.

Remove the steaks from the grill, spread them with butter and the remaining 1/4 cup of cilantro. Serve with lime wedges.

Here is the official recipe on Freshdirect. I left out the butter to make it healthier and used a sprinkle of lime juice on each steak after it came off the grill. I also used my indoor grill pan...no coals :)

Although I have tried similar recipes involving lime juice and swordfish, this one click recipe was the best ! A nice zesty crust formed outside the swordfish and the meat was very juicy. I didn't even miss the butter I left out.

It would be great if you could change the serving sizes automatically and review the recipes online, a feature I really enjoy on www.epicurious.com.

This one's easy, enjoy it on a weeknight!

Five Things To Eat Before You Die

'Tis the meme of memes that seems to be doing the rounds, started by the über flogger Melissa from The Traveler's Lunchbox. Since I've been tagged not only by my friend and Singapore's most famous flogger, Chubby Hubby, but also by Jared of Alaska Cooks, I am of course more than glad to participate.

So here goes:

1) Baba Ganoush at Naguib Mahfouz Cafe in Cairo
Before I entered this bustling eatery in Cairo's Khan al-Kahlili bazaar, I was a baba ganoush virgin. But one taste of this creamy, tangy eggplant dip and I was hooked. Alas, throughout the rest of the trip, no other baba ganoush — from Cairo to Istanbul — lived up to our first encounter. None other to date has, in fact. Perhaps, as the saying goes, the first time is the best. But if you're ever, ever in that vicinity, you simply must give it a try. Incidentally, the cafe is named after Egypt's (and the Middle East's) most famous writer and the first Arab to win the Nobel Prize in literature. Mahfouz passed away last week on 30 August, at the age of 94. The cafe is open daily from noon to midnight. 5 Sekket al-Badistan, Khan al-Khalili, phone 590-3788 or 593-2262.

2) Cheok Kee Braised Duck Rice
So wonderful is this dish that I enjoy it no matter how I'm feeling—gluttonous, sad, sick or happy. Served in the traditional Cantonese style, a robust, thick dark sauce is poured over the tender duck meat and is accompanied with either yam rice (when gluttonous or in need of comfort food), rice noodles (for happy slurping) or rice porridge (for sick, sad or cold days). It helps that the guy at the stall always serves it up with a smile and is very generous with the gravy and two types of chilli—in sambal and a vinegar sauce. Stall 29, East Coast Lagoon, Singapore

3) Thai street noodles
I don't know what these noodles are really called, but you see them sold on every street side in Thailand. It's essentially egg noodles served with fishballs, porkballs, minced pork, or sliced chicken meat, in a seriously tasty broth. Whenever I'm in Thailand, I make it a point to eat a bowl (or two) for breakfast every day I'm there.

4) Oysters
I once tasted a poached oyster at some restaurant as a child, but it was so vile I spat it out right at the moment the manager came over to ask us if we were enjoying our meal, casting immense shame on our family's name. That put me off oysters for a long, long time and until I met my partner C almost seven years ago, I had never tasted a fresh oyster. I am pleased to report that I have since more than made up for lost time.

5) Cocoa Nibs
Right now, at this very point in my very greedy life, I am obsessed with experiencing the cocoa nib. I've never tasted a cocoa nib in my life and were I to die today, I would be really pissed that I haven't gotten down to putting one of those things in my mouth. I recently found a place in Singapore to buy them, but I can only buy them in a one-kilogram bag. Which I will — I've already placed my order. So, soon. Soon there will be cocoa nib ice cream and other confections. There are recipes flagged with lime-coloured post-its in numerous cookbooks, waiting for my nibs when they arrive.

I better be alive this weekend.

Saving Fruit

“There are only 10 minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat," said Ralph Waldo Emerson. And I must have missed those precious 10 minutes with the batch that went into these financiers. I did everything they tell you to do — I stored them in a warm place outside of the refrigerator in a paper bag and I checked daily for ripeness, pressing them with my eager fingers, gently at first, near the stem, willing their flesh to give, just a little.

Two weeks passed; no joy.

And so I turned to Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Heaven, within whose pages my absolute favourite recipe for turning bum pears into baby cakes of beauty lay. Browned butter, ground almonds and mellow bits of cooked pear — what’s not to love? In the book’s picture, Ramsey’s financiers are made in cup moulds, yielding tall, cylindrical, seemingly fluffy golden cakes. When I first made them in similar moulds, however, they emerged dense and a tad heavier that I thought they should be. Several experiments later, I have concluded that they turn out best baked in shallow tins like traditional financier moulds or the barquette tins I used for this batch.

These cakes are wonderfully rustic. They are lovely and damp and need nothing more than a good cup of tea, or perhaps, when I’m feeling decadent, a dollop of vanilla or crème fraiche ice cream. They are best eaten the same day they’re made, but if you must, store them in the fridge and warm them in the oven slightly before eating.



Several days later, a pretty, fragrant pineapple appeared with my boxful of organic produce, brimming with such promise. I saved it for the weekend, bringing it to my nose every now and then to sniff its sweet perfume. When I finally skinned it and cut a small chunk out of it, alas, disappointment. It was so tart it made my eyes burn and my gums crawl. Had it not been one of those super busy weeks, I might have grated the lot and turned it into jam, and then maybe, just maybe, pineapple tarts. But as it turns out, it was one of those weeks where my cats are lucky if they get a quick hello before I drop off to sleep. So we saved the slices of pineapple for dessert the next day when we basted it with honey and grilled it till it turned a brilliant shade of gold.



Gordon Ramsey’s Pear Financiers
(adapted from Kitchen Heaven)

Serves 4

125 g unsalted butter
4 pears
165g sugar
25g plain flour
125g ground almonds
4 egg whites

Preheat oven to 190 degrees C/375 degrees F. Melt the butter in a pan over high heat until it starts to go brown and then strain through a fine sieve. Leave to cool. Peel and core the pears and chop them into 1cm dice. Put 75g of the sugar into a warmed pan and heat gently until caramelised. Add the diced pear and cook for 4 to 5 minutes until it just starts to break down. Take out of the pan and leave to cool.

Mix the flour, ground almonds and the remaining sugar in a large bowl. Slowly fold in the egg whites, then stir in the melted butter. Grease your moulds with butter and then dust with flour. Put in the fridge for 10 mins. Combine the almond mixture with the pears, then pour into the moulds. Bake at the top of the oven for 25 mins until golden brown and firm.

One Nutty Chicken

I found this phenomenal recipe while getting a pedicure a few years ago. I have always found that good chicken recipes are hard to come by, so I clipped this out of a Shape magazine while getting a pedi. There seems to be an abundance of grilled chicken recipes that have caught my eye over the past few years, but good baked chicken recipes have been few and far between. If you will be celebrating and entertaining for Rosh Hashanah, I especially recommend this recipe cause of the beautiful apple chutney. This recipe is rich in omega 3 fatty acids from walnuts and fiber from apples and contains almost no saturated fat. The walnuts and panko make a crunchy thin crust around the juicy chicken.

Walnut Crusted Chicken with Apple Chutney
serves 4

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (4 oz each)
s & p
2 Tbsp all purpose flour
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs (also known as panko)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts, cut into fine pieces
2 McIntosh apples, cored, peeled & diced
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp minced red onion
2 Tbsp raisins
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425. Coat a large baking sheet with Pam. Flatten chicken breasts with a skillet, meat mallet or a rolling pin- make sure chicken is covered with plastic wrap. Salt and pepper both sides of the chicken. Place flour in a shallow dish, add chicken, coat on both sides. Shake off excess flour. Place beaten egg whites in a shallow dish, add chicken pieces and turn to coat. In a shallow dish, combine walnuts and panko. Press chicken into nutty mix on both sides. Bake chicken for about 17 minutes on your prepared baking sheet.

While the chicken is baking, make your apple chutney by bringing apples, water, red onion, raisins, red wine vinegar and cinnamon to a boil in a sauce pan over medium high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes , until liquid is absorbed. Don't cook too long or prepare the chutney in advance and reheat, it will get mushy.

You can bread the chicken breasts in advance and keep them in the fridge.
This entree tastes great with roasted veggie orzo and fatoush.

Restaurants for Relief

We just got back from a weekend in the deep South. We had a wedding in Cullman, Alabama and it was a real experience for these Yankees!
It was Lee's first time at the Cracker Barrel, we indulged in fluffy biscuits, they were so delicious. My favorite part of the weekend was the wedding cakes. In the South, there are two cakes, a bride's cake and a groom's cake. I wouldn't mind bringing that tradition North! The groom was from New Orleans and his mother is a pastry chef, she made the groom's cake and the flowers on the bride's cake. These cakes were gorgeous and delicious.
Check out the LSU themed cake for the groom...there are tigers on it !
Unfortunately, the groom's parents lost their house & all of her pastry equipment in Katrina. The cakes, to me, symbolized rebirth. After hearing stories of the carnage of Katrina and the effects it had on the groom's friends & family this weekend, it really hit home when I got an email about a "Restaurants for Relief" event. On Tuesday, August 29th, the one year anniversary of Katrina, when you dine at certain restaurants, a % of your meal will go to "Share our Strength" to help with Katrina relief. As part of Share our Strength's mission to end childhood hunger in America, the organization is helping families in the Gulf Coast. The proceeds will go to rebuild school cafeterias, open summer meal programs and provide assistance for affected restaurant employees. Click here to check out the participating restaurants for relief. Our reservation is all set for Tabla on Tuesday night.

Razzmatazz

The recipe for these razzmatazz bars was sent to me by my friend, Talia. It originates from Nestle, clearly a recipe created to sell more Nestle white morsels....I am a victim of corporate marketing. After my friends at work sent me off to get married in May with bags full of gifts from Williams Sonoma, I felt like I needed to give them a return on their investment. I brought these bars to work on Wednesday for a National Accounts meeting and they razzled and dazzled my friends at work. Their comments may have been relative next to the cafeteria food.

Razzmatazz Bars (makes 16 bars)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine

2 cups (12 oz package) of Nestle Tollhouse Premier white morsels, divided

2 large eggs

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam

1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and sugar a 9 inch square baking pan. Melt butter in medium, microwave safe bowl on high (100%) power for 1 minute; stir. Add 1 cup of morsels, let stand and do not stir.

Beat eggs in your stand mixer until foamy. Add sugar; beat until light lemon colored, about 5 minutes. Stir in morsel-butter mixture. Add flour, salt and almond extract; mix at low speed until combined. Spread 2/3 batter into the pan.

Bake for 15-17 minutes or until golden brown around edges. Remove from oven to wire rack.

Heat jam in small, microwave-safe bowl on high (100%) power for 30 seconds; stir. Spread jam over warm crust. Stir remaining morsels into remaining batter. Drop spoonfuls of batter over jam. Sprinkle with almonds.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until edges are browned. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars, take to office and make new friends at work !

These bars are very rich, full of white chocolate and the taste of raspberry jam with a slight almond infusion.

Jose and I

Yesterday evening, I walked by a liquor store in the village that triggered my memory for a main dish that I love! I wanted to enter Men In Aprons blog carnival of the grill and this is the perfect way to do it. I walked in & bought a flask of Jose Cuervo and here we are....This Barefoot Contessa recipe was shared with me by Geneve Stewart from Geneve's Kitchen in May 2005. I just realized tonight that Geneve was the genius who turned me on to this domestic goddess and it's been love ever since. This tequila lime chicken is fabulous, Ina makes it a lot on Food Network. This chicken is succulent, juicy and looks so pretty with the grill marks. It's a good secret for the nights you just can't move (you just need to know the night before that you have a busy day coming up) & for the nights when you're entertaining.

Tequila Lime Chicken- Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, serves 6
1/2 cup gold tequila
1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (5-6 limes)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (2 oranges)
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon minced fresh jalapeno peppers (1 pepper seeded)
1 tablespoon minced garlic (2-3 cloves)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
3 whole or 6 split chicken breasts
If you like cilantro, add it !

My favorite part is that you whip up the marinade in 8 minutes and then you submerge the chicken overnight in the fridge. This recipe was made for the working woman!

When I came home from work today, I removed the chicken from the marinade & discarded the marinade. I put a tiny bit of olive oil on each side and grilled for 5-6 minutes on each side, which depends on the thickness of chicken.

Lee loves the recipe, it's simple and tastes beautiful.

Here's a recommended Southwestern/summer entertaining menu:

Start with guacamole, salsa and nachos
Serve tequila lime chicken with corn on the cob or a roasted corn salad
Finish with key lime pie or a berry crumble (coming soon !!)
Don't forget the margaritas (make use of Jose!)

The Best Chocolate Ice Cream

It’s been a while since I acquired my ice cream maker and I just love it to bits. I’ve made countless flavours so far, experimenting with recipes from different books—Chocolate Malt from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course, Coconut from Les Huynh's Blue Ginger,and even a Fromage Blanc flavour which I adapted from a recipe for Crème Fraiche ice cream from the very handy Frozen Desserts.

Yet, for some reason, I’ve put off making chocolate ice cream for the longest time. I love chocolate ice cream—the richer the better. I love Haagen Daaz chocolate flavours, from Double Chocolate Chip to Belgian Chocolate. They are dense, smooth, super chocolatey and very, very fattening. Those were some of my most guilty pleasures. And I guess I’ve been afraid that I might screw up when it came to making my own chocolate ice cream and put myself off it forever. Yes, I know I’m being a drama queen.

Anyways, I finally got it together and turned to a book that I’ve come to love and depend on for some of the best chocolate recipes: Alice Medrich’s Bittersweet. Her recipe for Bittersweet Chocolate Ice Cream didn’t disappoint. In fact, I knew it was going to be better than good once I had put the ingredients together to form its custard base. It probably helped that I used a fabulous bar of chocolate (99%) that Prestat (who recently opened an outlet at Raffles City) had sent me a few weeks ago.



It was the most voluptuous chocolate ice cream I had ever tasted. Yes, even better than my once-favourite Haagen Daz. It was gorgeous eaten soft, straight out of the ice cream maker and just as delicious firm out of the freezer. In fact it was so good that we very nearly finished it all before I could take a few shots of it for this post…which would explain why you see a quickly melting scoop of ice cream in these pictures—there was just none left to top up as the ice cream quickly melted in the tropical heat.

MMMexican

When I was teaching myself to cook on my semester abroad in Sydney in 2000, I started adding salsa to all my stirfries. Somehow my chicken stirfry became more like chicken fajitas. Over the past few years, I have stepped it up, added some killer guac and we have a very nice bi-monthly healthy Mexican night. My favorite part is the guacamole, the cumin and tabasco really kick it up! I even started to make it with a molcajete, a mortar and pestle that Mexicans use to make their guac.

The guacamole recipe can be found here at www.epicurious.com.
I add tomatoes, a tiny pinch of Tabasco and season with kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper. Sometimes, I skip the jalapeno and the cilantro. IT will still taste fabulous, don't worry! You can also substitute the onion with red onion.

Sherri's Chicken Fajitas (serves 2 people)

1 boneless chicken breast (enough for 2 people, 12 oz)
1 red onion
1 red pepper
1 tomato
1 garlic clove
a pinch of Goya Adobo (This is sold in all NY grocery stores, may be tougher to find in areas with less multicultural populations, so omit ! This is a shout out to my old roommate and close friend, Penny, who put Adobo on everything, even Chinese food and Lean Cuisines.)
1/2 cup of salsa

Heat a 10 inch skillet on medium heat with 1/2 Tbsp olive oil. Add chicken until it loses the pink color. Add in cut vegetables & garlic. Season with salt, pepper and Adobo. At the end, add in the salsa. Don't overcook, keep the chicken juicy!

Serve with warm tortillas, sour cream, shredded cheese and guacamole.

This meal is a household favorite, let me know how you enjoy it in yours!

Philippe & Le Clafouti

This summer, more than any other summer, every single food magazine is blessing their covers with gorgeous fruity pies, cobblers and grunts. I have clipped a good 10 recipes that I want to try, but being mindful of my waist line, I have to take it easy :) As I flipped through Bon Appetit in June, I saw a beautiful picture of a cherry almond clafouti. Not only had I never tasted a clafouti before, I had no clue what it was. Last summer when we were in Paris & Nice, I was more focused on creme brulee and tarte aux pommes, oh yeah and gateaux de chocolat...you get the picture.
I asked my French trainer, Philippe, if he ever ate clafouti....I got a mouthful about his mother making it when he was a child and how good it was....Apparently, clafouti is what the real French eat at home and doesn't find its place on many dessert menus at restaurants. So, I invited him for dinner and decided to make clafouti, not knowing what I was really making.

Clafouti is a french dessert that, as Bon Appetit promises, tastes like a "cross between a pancake and a custard". Cherries are the most traditional fruit to use, but it was my first time eating cherries and I have to say I think I like berries better...so next time, I will be making strawberry clafouti. A famous French food blogger, Clotilde Desouliers, of "Chocolate and Zucchini", has a strawberry recipe, it will be my next conquest. Cherries are a pain to pit and their red juice runs onto everything! This dessert reminds me of eating slightly undercooked pancakes, it has the consistency of a doughy cookie. You should try it on a night you are eating rustic French food!

Philippe ate more than 1/2 of the clafouti and I thoroughly enjoyed it as well. Ironic that he always tells me to eat fish, but when I invite him to dinner, he tells me: "no fish for dinner, I get hungry." Yeah, you and ME both! So, I made him chicken after being told beef is too hefty for night....and he ate 3 servings of chicken, asparagus, sweet potatoes and 1/2 the clafouti.

One happy trainer ...and one LUCKY BASTARD ! I don't know many women who could devour half a pie and 3 chicken breasts for dinner and still look good!

Cherry Almond Clafouti (Bon Appetit June 2006)
6 servings

1/2 cup whole almonds (about 2 oz)
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 tbsp plus 1/2 cup sugar
8 oz dark sweet cherries, pitted & halved (about 2 cups)
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 tsp almond extract
pinch of salt
1/4 cup all purpose flour
powdered sugar

Blend almonds in processor until ground, but not pasty. Transfer to a small saucepan; add milk and bring to simmer. Remove from heat; let steep 30 minutes. Pour through fine strainer, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard solids in strainers.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter 10 inch diameter pie dish, sprinkle with 1 tbsp of sugar. Scatter cherries evenly over bottom of dish.

Using an electric mixer, beat eggs, almond extracts, salt and remaining 1/2 cup sugar in medium bowl until well blended. Add strained almond milk & beat to blend. Sift flour into egg mixture and beat until smooth. Pour mixture over cherries. Bake until set and knife inserted into center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool completely.

This can be made 6 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.

Lightly dust clafouti with powdered sugar & serve.

Bon Appetit!

Veggie Galore

It's been a very busy week and before I knew it, I was faced with more organic vegetables than I knew what to do with or had the time for. So with Thursday (the day a new box of organic produce arrives at my door) rolling around once again, it was time to clear out last week's veggies to make way for the new stuff. The trouble with being a greedy hoarder is that there is always more food in my pantry than I can consume for a year. Over here a can of cannelini beans, over there a few rashers of bacon; tucked away in the corner of the cupboard a nearly forgotten can of tomatoes... In order to use it all up together with the organic zucchini, carrots, onions and broccoli, I chopped up the lot and turned it into my own version of minestrone soup.

Taking my cue from a sidebar on soup in Damien Pignolet's awesome book French, I sweated the chopped onions in olive oil together with the minced bacon. Then in goes the chopped canned tomatoes, some chicken stock and the rest of the chopped vegetables. An hour and some seasoning later, a hearty soup that needed little else but a drizzle of pesto and good, crusty bread.

Also begging to be used was a giant head of gorgeous red cabbage. I don't think I've ever used red cabbage in anything I've cooked before; in fact, I think the last time I ate any red cabbage was in some steak house's salad bar where the vegetable was sliced into little slivers and thrown into the mix, presumably for some added colour. And like I said in my last post, if you want a recipe for coloureds, you go to Nigella Lawson. True to form, I found one for Viennese-style red cabbage, or in Nigella-speak, "Red Cabbage in the Viennese Fashion".



In this dish, the cabbage is braised atop a stove with sliced apples, beef stock, cider vinegar and an onion. It is a sumptuously rich dish, especially since the cabbage and onion are first cooked in a half cup(!!) of butter or beef dripping. I should have trusted my better judgement and halved the amount of butter since I was serving this with a slab of roasted pork belly. Nevertheless it was wonderfully tasty, with the tang of the cider vinegar (the recipe called for just 3 tablespoons; I ended up using something like half a cup) providing a brilliant counterpoint to all that butter and beef stock. The roasted pork was simple—I just threw it in the oven covered with sea salt, skin scored and baked for 160 degrees Celcius for three hours. Yes, we did consume far more fat than was safe that night, but what happy bellies we went to bed with. The cholesterol we can deal with later. So much for healthy organic food!

Fatoush will not give you a FAT TUSH

I am back from Atlanta and I am exhausted....the muffins saved me from breakfasts of gluttony. One note: after 2 days, freeze these muffins, the blueberries will taste rancid if you don't :)

Before I left on my trip, I made one of my staple side dishes. It is so fresh tasting with tons of fresh herbs like mint, parsley and cilantro. This is a super healthy side dish that would taste phenomenal with hummus, chicken kebabs and falafel.

Fatoush (serves 6-8) from Sur La Table

Ingredients
2 large stale pita breads, torn into 1 inch pieces (or toast them!)
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
kosher salt
1 lb ripe tomatoes (3 tomatoes), seeded and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
6 scallions, 1/4 inch slices
1 green pepper, 1/2 inch cubes
1/4 cup coarsely chopped parsley
1/3 cup coarsely chopped mint
3 tbsp coarsely chopped cilantro
2 large cloves of garlic
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground pepper

1. Heat oven to 375. Spread torn pita on baking sheet and bake 10-15 minutes. Let cool.
2. Spread cucumber pieces on a paper towel & sprinkle with salt. Let stand for 20 minutes so the salt can extract the bitter juices. Put the cucumbers in a strainer and rinse with cold water. Pat dry. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cucs & tomatoes, scallions, green pepper, parsley, mint & cilantro.
3. Whisk together the garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. Season with s&p. Toss dressing with veggies and toss in bread.

My favorite part of this salad is how the pita absorbs the olive oil, lemon juice and tomato juices. The mint is fabulous.

Let them eat muffins

About two years ago, my friend, Kara, gave me a recipe for Weight Watchers bran muffins that were, as her husband, Willy, stated, "guaranteed to make me go to the bathroom". Yum !
After eating one,I started thinking to myself..."maybe I can find a great low fat recipe that I will really enjoy" and I did! If you're a real novice in the kitchen, this is a perfect start, it only requires 3 mixing bowls & a microplane zester & a 12 cup muffin tin. I found this recipe online at Shape Magazine's www.shape.com.

These muffins make a great summer muffin when blueberries are fresh and a great winter muffin when the blueberries are frozen :) I got my blueberries at the Farmer's Market in Union Square and they were the juiciest ever.

I am taking the muffins to some of my favorite people tomorrow for our journey to Atlanta. Delta seems to forget that people get hungry on a 2.5 hr ride.

The healthy muffin is hard to find & this one is only 180 calories and 5 grams fat with 0.5 grams of saturated fat with 1 gram of fiber. They are full of antioxidants as well- ENJOY!

Very Berry Orange Oat Muffins (Shape Magazine)
Serves: 12, Prep: 15 min, Cook: 15 minutes

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup low fat buttermilk
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1.2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 medium orange
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 whole egg
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup dried cranberries (I left them put this time !)
Nonstick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400. Lightly coat muffin cups with Pam.
In the small bowl: Stir together oats and buttermilk and set aside for 5 minutes.
In the medium bowl: Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
In the large bowl: Grate orange rind (with your zester) and squeeze 1/2 cup oj in. Whisk in sugar, canola oil and egg until mixture is smooth. Blend in oatmeal mixture and then the flour mixture. Stir until ingredienrs are just combined and then gently fold in blueberries.
You don't want the batter to look like cookie monster, so don't overmix.

Spoon batter into muffin tin and bake 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center.

Note: You can buy rolled oats and whole wheat flour at Whole Foods, but I am sure they are readily available.

These make a great breakfast or snack on the go.