Kate's Kale Salad (adapted from Esalen)

Last weekend my niece Kate Brill was visiting from Portland, Oregon and made the best kale salad I've ever tasted. It seems that all I eat these days is kale salad and this one is tops. Better than City Bakery. Better than my own version of City Bakery with caramelized (almost crisp) onions. It is beautiful and fresh, and adapted from the Esalen Cookbook with all of the crunchy wholesomeness you expect from Big Sur.

Kate's Kale Salad
(adapted from the Esalen Cookbook)

1/4	cup tamari soy sauce
1/4	cup lemon juice
1/4	extra-virgin olive oil
½	medium red onion sliced thinly and cut into half-moons
¼	cup sunflower seeds toasted
¼	cup pumpkin seeds toasted
¼	cup sesame seeds toasted
1	pound fresh kale, sliced into 1/4" ribbons
1	avocado diced (optional)

Combine soy sauce and lemon juice in a blender or whisk in a bowl. Slowly dribble in the oil as the blender turns or as you whisk vigorously to emulsify. Marinate sliced onions in the dressing as you prepare the rest of the salad.

Toast the seeds in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat until seeds are just golden and fragrant. Toast each seed type separately as their size requires varying roasting times. Cool to room temperature.

Toss the seeds and kale with the onions, and as much dressing as necessary to lightly but completely dress the kale. Thoroughly mix with your hands. Let the dressing macerate the kale for at least 15 minutes before serving at room temperature. 

Jack's Nutella-Drop Flap Jacks

The idea for these marvy pancakes came out of a Spanglish exchange with Jack this morning. 

“Que quieres comer this morning, hijo: pancakes or waffles?”

What do you want to eat, son: pancakes or waffles?”

“Tenemos Nutella?”

Do we have Nutella?

“Si.”

Yes

“Quiero pancakes, por favor.”

I want pancakes, please.

Like our language skills, this pancake recipe is a mashup that somehow works. It combines our regular frozen waffle topping (Nutella!) with a yogurt-based batter.

     I fretted over whether the Nutella would create moist spots in the pancakes and I’d end up with overcooked edges or undercooked innards – or that the Nutella would melt onto the pan and cause a crusty mess. This didn’t happen. I think because I followed the advice of the venerable Deb Perelman (Smitten Kitchen) to make the griddle real hot at first, and to drop it to medium/medium-high after adding the batter. Oh, yes, and smearing a stick of butter over the pan between each batch.

     These pancakes met my ideal - billowy yet substantial - thanks to the use of yogurt and that extra egg. That plus the use of Nutella instead of chocolate chips makes them (arguably) healthier than our everyday variety.

They were muy delicious.

See recipe after the jump.

Tagine Dream No. 1: Chicken tagine with chickpeas and dried cherries

My new tagine

I've wanted a moroccan tagine  for years - and finally got one for my birthday from dear Pete and Jack. I love the aspirational heaven-toward funnel shaped lid, and the way food looks served in it at the table. Mostly, I adore the food that's cooked in it. I've eaten tagines for years, notably at my Aunt Clotilde's in France and Cafe Mogador on St. Mark's where I treasured the rich, layered spices and aromatics that compose their base. 

     Oddly, my North African-born mother never made or used tagines. All of her crazy-good meals, from the most basic hamburger to her fresh salad, had a Mediterranean cache, and she would break out some truly middle eastern recipes for holidays or special occasions. Also, unlike me, she never did cozy up to stews or soups. The closest she got was a memorable Julia Child-inspired Chicken Marengo, a similar dish with Italian flavors, which were probably more appealing to our American-born father and to us suburban kids.
     Last night I gingerly approached my earthy-orange tagine, not sure how to actually cook with it. But I am here to tell you that it was so easy and so gratifying. The most time-consuming part was grinding up the Ras El Hanout spice blend. Everything was done in the same pot, and it took no longer than any braised stew.
     There seem to be as many varieties of tagine as there are lasagna. The traditional tagine has several components: some sort of meat, usually chicken or lamb, arabic spices, and dried or preserved fruit, which is stewed and served over couscous. I happened to have on hand chicken parts, canned garbanzos, quinoa and dried cherries and quinoa. With a tip of my tagine lid to the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen, my first adventure with tagine was a big hit with Pete and Jack.
                                   


Click below to jump to recipe...

Recipes for Poets - Distracted Poet's Rice and Veggie Mix-Up

Deb Ager of 32 Poems challenged readers to post a recipe for busy poets (not an oxymoron) that takes 20 minutes or less to prepare. The time limit seems apt for a species of writer that often prizes brevity. On the website, I loved reading what other poets like to eat - seems random, but somehow the dishes sounded delicious. The 32 Poems website has the details and links to other poets' recipes.

I made this last night when I wanted something super "clean" and healthy and fast. It's also in keeping with my latest obsession to reduce food waste by using up as many decaying vegetables as possible. I actually made this without oil by steaming the vegetables. While it served my purposes last night, I missed the taste of sauteed onions, so I modified it here.  

This is pretty much the brown rice and veggies recipe that we used to eat at Yaffa Cafe for $3.95 (I'm dating myself) when we were young and poor in the East Village. For all I know, Yaffa still serves it. It's perfect not only because it's fast, but forgiving: you can keep your mind on creating a perfect line break without compromising the meal. And if you add an egg or two, you can eat the leftovers for breakfast the next morning. 

Distracted Poet's Rice and Veggie Mix-Up
(inspired by the Yaffa Cafe)

Serves 4

2 cups brown rice
3 cups water

1 onion diced

2 tbs olive oil or butter

2 cloves garlic minced

1 tsp dry thyme

2 cups fast-cooking vegetables - I used:

- spinach leaves

- carrots diced

- broccoli florets

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup shredded cheese of your choice

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat and sautee onions, garlic, thyme, and rice until onions are translucent. Add water and, once water comes to a boil, reduce heat and cover. Simmer for 10 minutes, add vegetables and cover for another 10 minutes until the vegetables are al dente and all of the water has been absorbed by the rice. You're essentially steaming the veggies while the rice finishes cooking. Add salt and pepper, mix and serve, covered with cheese. Let it sit for another 10 minutes before serving.

Spinach Rescue Recipe: Ispanakli Yumurta

There are mornings when I look in the mirror thinking, as Jessica Lange once said, who is that drag queen? I can see shadows and folds and bumps and crevasses that somehow exaggerate and distort my features at the same time. With my budget, there isn't a lot I can do. So I take a breath and rearrange my face to look a little less cubist. On bad days, this makes me want to crawl back into bed and start over.

On good days, I can access a deep-felt gratitude for the body that battled illness and can still survive a vinyasa class without losing consciousness, for the people who stand by me, and for a resolve and acceptance that seems to grow with age. My mother was of the belief that you become more of yourself as you grow older, for better or for worse. I do feel that right now - like a condensed flavor pack, ready for another round.

As the Chinese sages said:

Be not sad.

Be like the sun at midday.

I Ching (Book of Changes)
Translation: no matter how bad things get – shine on.
     This also seems to be good advice for the spinach curling up in my vegetable bin. It's in season right now and tastes like spring. When I bought it, the leaves gleamed emerald, crisply attentive, with sandy soil still clinging to its roots. I plucked it like a bouquet, inhaled its gritty green smell. I was gung ho on making a fresh spinach salad that night – then forgot it. Four days later, the leaves have started to loose their viagranous urgency. Their color has deepened grimly and they’ve gotten flabby, On the upside, the flavor has gotten spinach-ier. Some people think it has a nutty flavor. Not quite pretty enough to be featured in a salad, but just right to star in a Rescue Recipe.

     In my last preachy post I moralized about how throwing out food is one of the deadliest, methane-spewing eco-sins. It’s also morally evil, seeing as one out of six Americans struggles with hunger. There’s no excuse, because there are so many amazing ways to give produce a second chance.

This past-prime spinach, for example, would be great in a soup or lentil stew, and fantastic sautéed with garlic for a healthier grilled cheese sandwich. One of my favorite rescue strategies is to add it to eggs, onions, and feta. 
     I like the Turkish take on this combination called ispanakli (spinach) yumurta (eggs). I love this recipe not only because it's a way to use spinach, but I adore eggs up - like the sun shining at midday.

Shine On Spinach Yumurta

1 lb fresh spinach, course stems removed

1 large onion, finely diced

2 tablespoons butter

½ cup feta, crumbled

4 eggs

salt and pepper to taste

paprika and cumin (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F

Clean spinach by submerging in a bowl of cold water and swishing it around vigorously to remove the sandy grit. Shake off water and remove any course stems.

Melt butter over medium heat and add onion. Cook until translucent. Add spinach, cooking until the leaves soften and wilt slightly (a little more than they already are), about 1 minute. Stir in cheese; season with salt, and pepper.

Hollow out four nests in the spinach mixture and crack one egg into each. Sprinkle with a few pinches of paprika and, if you like, cumin.

Place in oven until eggs set, then serve immediately.

The Science Experiment That Ate My Garbage

I used to be embarrassed by the science experiments in the back of my fridge. Now, thanks to my 8th grade son, I can present hard data about them.

      For his Science Exit Project, Jack compared the rotting rate of organic and nonorganic apples and carrots. He predicted that the nonorganic would last longer because they're pickled in more pesticides. Jack did lots of research, uncovering several unsettling facts along the way.
      What he found was that 186 million pounds of food is wasted in this country each day (USDA). In fact, half of the food produced in America ends up in landfills, where it proceeds to emit methane, a greenhouse gas 20-plus times more potent than carbon dioxide. While all of this food is being scrapped and our environment is heating up, one out of six people in America struggles with hunger.

    
      These discoveries floored me. What could I do? I can compost and donate to food banks. 
       I can stop creating so much garbage.
      My awareness of the leftover-food chain changed the way I look at the food rotting in my fridge -- and the way I cook. The fear and (self) loathing I used to feel while mining the frosty shelves has been replaced by gamemanship: I've become a garbage opportunist with the selfish aim of advancing my moral standing. The on-the-way-out items become collage material for new and different meals: what can I do with that (X) moldering away in the vegetable bin?
      If I'm feeling lazy, I can go to lovefoodhatewaste.com. Like an uber home ec teacher, this quirky British site has compiled an exhaustive menu of recipes from professional chefs and normal folk alike. I've learned that there’s a second life for almost every food. From their widget “What food needs using up?” I learned what to do with “One sad brown banana” (put it in a curry!) and how to store half an avocado (keep the pit in it.) And there's much more.
      Whether my own or someone else's, making a Rescue Recipe makes me feel a little virtuous - even if the methods are dubious. Does anyone really need to know that dinner was made out of salvaged garbage? The answer depends on who you're trying to impress. 

April Rescue Recipe: Vicky's Chicken Broth
This Rescue Recipe came from my friend Vicky.  Not too long ago when Vicky wasn't feeling well, I went to her house with a my mother's great chicken soup. But Vicky had already defrosted some of her own. It was incredibly robust and deeply savory. And I discovered that it's a perfect Rescue Recipe because it calls for chicken and whatever is wasting away in your fridge. The other day I made it, and here's what I added:
Scoliotic Kale spines, diced
Curling spinach
Limp carrots, quartered
Softening potato, diced
Nub of ginger, halved
Stringy celery, diced
Thyme
Rosemary
Sage
Handful of kosher salt
Handful of whole peppercorns
Directions:
Toss everything into a large stock pot and fill with water. Bring to a boil then, with the lid slightly ajar, simmer. After a few hours, break up the chicken with a wooden spoon and continue simmering for at least 6 hours - preferably overnight. Strain and press as much of the solid food that you can through a sieve, so that you have a thick-ish broth. Then serve, and if you have extra (which you will), freeze for a rainy day.
      By the way: Jack's experiment proved that organic and nonorganic produce rotted at pretty much the same rate. Organic is more expensive, but at least it lasts as long as the pesticide-treated produce. To say nothing of the many other environmental benefits to organic and, if possible, local. So in the end, I'm sticking with my healthy, flavorful, and sustainable choice: organic.

monique's favorite gadget

The Down-Home Holiday Guide to Kitchen Gadgets

According to Monique, nothing says "dinner's ready" like her smoke alarm

mame's favorite gadget

The Down-Home Holiday Guide to Kitchen Gadgets

"These cookie cutters were given to me by my Aunt Bobo...over 70 years ago." Photos by Pete Brill.

There is nothing cookie cutter about my mother-in-law Nadine, known by everyone in the family as Mame. Her good deeds, as well as her cookies, are legend in her family and in her community of Newark, New York, in the FIngerlakes. Each year she bakes up dozens upon dozens of cookies, using cookie cutters from her childhood and the boxes full of others she's collected over the years. While snow from lake effect dusted the house, we'd be frosting dozens of cookies and decorating them with all types of confections - sprinkles, candy stars, chocolate kisses, etc. You cannot help but love them, and love her for all of the energy she puts in to ensuring that everyone has a delicious little taste of the holiday spirit. 
Mame's been using these cookie cutters over 70 years - These cookie cutters were given to my by my Aunt Bobo, Bertha. I used to go to her house and we’d bake cookies and other things  – my mother didn’t do those things with me because of her illness. I started baking with Bertha, oh, it must be 70 years ago. These cookie cutters are metal with wooden handles, and my favorite is a Christmas tree. They are a little bent but work for my many sessions of baking.

Every Christmas for as long as I’ve been married, which is 60 years, I bake dozens and dozens of cookies for my family and friends. Everyone gets involved. My kids spent every Christmas decorating cookies. One year Peter brought home a friend, and we went out leaving her to decorate some cookies. When we got home she had frosting all over her clothes, in her hair, and she looked a little green. She ate ate more frosting than she put on the cookies - I’ll never forget that!  I also bake cookies on other special occasions, like Valentine’s Day and Halloween and send them to my grandchildren.

I bake cookies weekly for the children at Grandma’s Room, a special room at our local elementary school where kids go to get hugs and a little extra help. Over the years I’ve collected cookie cutters, and I now have a box about 3’ X 6” filled with them.

Mame's Christmas Cookies

1 pound unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 large eggs

1 tablespoons vanilla

4-5 cups of flower

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 TB salt

Whisk softened butter with sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time with vanilla.

Sift 41/2 cups flour together baking powder and salt.

Mix together to form a dough, roll into ball and let it refrigerate several hours.

Sprinkle flour on board and roll out the dough. Cut cookies and bake for 7-10 minutes – dark pans take less time.

Frost with your favorite sprinkles, confectioner’s sugar frosting, etc.

karren's favorite gadget

The Down-Home Holiday Guide to Kitchen Gadgets

"Any association with Johnny Depp brings joy to my heart."

Karren gets a grip on her favorite gadget - My sister, brother, and I used to love this old Peanuts cartoon of Snoopy dancing down a long hallway. A succession of 30 short scenes of just darling Snoopy prancing along, accompanied by one simple word—"Click".  Down the whole long hallway….Click, Click, Click, Click, Click, Click, Click, Click, Click, Click, Click,Click,Click,Click…and then finally at the end of the page…Toenails!  We would read it aloud to each other and just howl with laughter when we got to the… Toenails!

I reminisce because I was thinking of why, beyond its infinite versatility and convenience, the age-old kitchen tongs brings me so much joy? Then it occurred to me that it makes the same Click, Click, Click, Click, Click sound as Snoopy’s err…toenails.

Another strange connection I have with the beloved tongs is with Edward Scissorhands/Johnny Depp. Any association with Johnny Depp brings joy to my heart. And I guess the thought of us cutting and clicking away with our sterling silver appendages sends me in a whirl.

All of the fantasies aside, the hard cold fact is that my love for the kitchen tongs began during a past life as a part-owner/slave of a restaurant and lodge in the Adirondack Mountains. “Friends and frolic in the heart of the Adirondacks” was our motto. We had over 200 bunk beds—the most beds in the North East, Dimitri was fond of exclaiming in his thick Greek accent.  Anyone who ever cooked breakfast for 200 hungry mountain- and ice-climbing lodgers is familiar with the spitfire pace and intensity of a simple country breakfast.

5AM the sun is rising, the air is crackling, a coyote is howling—yes folks, a coyote will be howling as you frolic in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains at 5 AM. The eggs are cracking, the bread is baking, and soon the doors are opening to 200 strapping beasts.

That’s when the tongs get clicking. Of course I’d wash them at each new turn, but the pace was fast and furious. Click—turn the bacon, Click—grab the home fries, Click—flip the eggs, Click—flick the French toast, Click—unravel the waffle, Click—retrieve the toast…When things were really hopping, I’d be known to break out in a Spanish dance…swirling in the kitchen joyously clicking my castanedas. Click, Click, Click, Click, Click…Kitchen Tongs!

Poem by Jeanne Marie Beaumont

When I Am in the Kitchen

by Jeanne Marie Beaumont www.poets.org

I think about the past. I empty the ice-cube trays crack crack cracking like bones, and I think of decades of ice cubes and of John Cheever, of Anne Sexton making cocktails, of decades of cocktail parties, and it feels suddenly far too lonely at my counter. Although I have on hooks nearby the embroidered apron of my friend's grandmother and one my mother made for me for Christmas 30 years ago with gingham I had coveted through my childhood. In my kitchen I wield my great aunt's sturdy black-handled soup ladle and spatula, and when I pull out the drawer, like one in a morgue, I visit the silverware of my husband's grandparents. We never met, but I place this in my mouth every day and keep it polished out of duty. In the cabinets I find my godmother's teapot, my mother's Cambridge glass goblets, my mother-in-law's Franciscan plates, and here is the cutting board my first husband parqueted and two potholders I wove in grade school. Oh the past is too much with me in the kitchen, where I open the vintage metal recipe box, robin's egg blue in its interior, to uncover the card for Waffles, writ in my father's hand reaching out from the grave to guide me from the beginning, "sift and mix dry ingredients" with his note that this makes "3 waffles in our large pan" and around that our an unbearable round stain—of egg yolk or melted butter?— that once defined a world.

wendy's favorite gadget

The Down-Home Holiday Guide to Kitchen Gadgets

"Maybe it’s because I got it from a Welcome Wagon Lady many years ago..." 

Wendy's essential Sockarooni Sauce jar opener- Out of a deep drawer full of assorted gadgets (including some with still-unknown identities), there’s one that I’ve never been able to part with, through multiple kitchen purgings…my yellow rubber Am Pro Jar-Opener.
Maybe it’s because I got it from a Welcome Wagon Lady when I moved into my house many years ago (do Welcome Wagons exist anymore, even in Ohio?) Mostly, though, it’s just darn handy…reliably helps me get a grip when I need it the most.
Some culinary purists might argue that a floppy rubber disk doesn’t qualify as a true kitchen gadget. But as one who shamelessly uses Newman’s Own Sockarooni Sauce as an essential ingredient for home-made chili, it’s been a meal prep lifesaver.
I’ve attempted to upgrade my jar opening image: acquired a more impressive tool from my mother in law’s old kitchen.

I even bought a still-unopened package of shiny new Progressive Grips (can jars really be politically liberal?)

But despite being torn up and slightly grimy, my Am Pro original has prevailed.