Archive for July, 2007
Soothing Hearts
We’ve all had them. We all wish we didn’t. But these things are inevitable. I’m talking about really crappy days. The kind that makes your eyes sting and your shoulders sag. I had one of those days today. No need to go into the details. Suffice to say I needed a pick-me-up. In my arsenal for such days are several things, but the top three are usually sweets, my cat and the smell of lavender in candle, lotion, shampoo, or spray form.
Wouldn’t you know, I found a way to combine all three into the funkiest of crappy-day remedies…Lavender Heart Cookies. Okay, before you all start wondering where the cat fits into this recipe (heart?!?!), her name is Lavender. That’s how much I love this soothing herb. She also contributed to this post by purring at my feet and licking my ankles.
I had this recipe on my mind for some time. The cookbook it’s from is one of those bargain buys at Barnes & Nobel that I picked up and flipped through the pages on a whim. This recipe and another for madeleines prompted me to buy (that and the great photos with every recipe, which I find invaluable, so much so that I’ve vowed to stop buying cookbooks without them…but that’s another post for another time).
I’ve been eagerly watching the lavender plants bloom at the farm, waiting for the very first opportunity to get the couple tablespoons of flowers I needed to make these cookies. I had planted some of my own at home but, alas, I don’t have the sun to support these fragrant lovelies. The flavor of lavender is very similar to the scent… in other words, if you like the smell, you’ll like these cookies. If you don’t like the smell, don’t make these cookies.
Three cookies eaten, a silky cat stroked and one blog entry later, I’m already feeling better.
LAVENDER HEART COOKIES
Adapted from The Cook’s Encyclopedia to Cookies, Biscuits and Bars 
1/2 c. unsalted butter
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 T. fresh lavender flowers or 1 T. dried culinary lavender
1/2 t. cinnamon
2 T. superfine sugar for sprinkling
Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Roughly chop the lavender to release its oils and stir into the flour along with the cinnamon. Add dry ingredients to wet and bring mixture together in a soft ball – it takes a little work but it’ll work. Wrap dough ball in plastic and chill for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Roll out the dough between two pieces of wax paper until about an 1/8th inch thick. The dough will be a little difficult to roll out but it’s easy to work with once it is. Stamp out cookies with heart cookie cutter or other shape. Place on cookie sheet either lined with parchment paper or sprayed.
Bake 8-10 minutes until golden around the edges. Remove from oven and sprinkle with superfine sugar while still hot (this is why it’s best to use parchment paper for easy clean up) and let stand for 5 minutes before eating. Store for up to a week in an air tight container.
(makes 2 dozen cookies, depending on size)
Feels Like Elementary School All Over Again
A little while back, my cyber pal Brooke “tagged” me for a “meme” (blogger bio-esque post). I’m flattered and since I’m sans recipe today, it seemed a good time to honor Brooke’s meme request. Bear with me if you tuned in for a recipe and not some ho-hum dribble about my personal life. I promise a recipe again tomorrow!
The Rules
“I have been tagged to post 8 random facts. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts: Each participant posts eight random facts about themselves. Tagees should write a blogpost of eight random facts about themselves. At the end of the post, more bloggers are tagged. Go to their blog and leave a comment telling them they’re tagged.”
Tidbit #1
I’m an avid cyclist. I commute to work every day on my bike and I love the fact that more and more people are doing the same. My biggest biking accomplishment to date was a 7 day, 575 mile charity ride across Montana in 2001.
Tidbit #2
I travel a fair amount, mostly solo. My favorite country I’ve visited so far was Iceland. My most recent trip was to Argentina and Uruguay. And my favorite spot in the world is a little outcrop on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
Tidbit #3
I grew up on a dairy farm in rural central Pennsylvania and draw my appreciation for hard work and fresh food from that upbringing. There’s a grove of old black walnut trees there, standing on the side of a hill, which I plan to use to shade the house I’ll build someday.
Tidbit #4
I’m obsessed with checking weather reports. This habit can be attributed to tidbit #1 and tidbit #3.
Tidbit #5
If I had $10,000 to spare, I’d buy a new bike and some professional photography equipment. Then I’d go to Portugal to use them both.
Tidbit #6
I wanted to be a vet when I grew up. Instead I got degrees in world literature, communications, marketing and management. Sometimes I wish I had stuck with my original plan.
Tidbit #7
I drink a lot of tea.
Tidbit #8
I’ve taken several belly dancing classes and made my own costume, jingly coins and all.
Tidbit #9
Just joking… that’s all folks! Now go visit these great blogs to learn more about 1.) eating local and/or 2.) exploring Philadelphia:
Get ‘Em While They’re Fresh
First and foremost, I must give credit where credit is due for this post. My dear friend Angie submitted this recipe to me. If she hadn’t, I don’t think I would have 1) looked for such a recipe and 2) felt as though I could even attempt it. But Angie has always been an excellent mentor, never steering me wrong, so I went ahead and dove into it. And now I suddenly feel so accomplished! I made something I thought only restaurants make. After all, how many times have any of us come to the call of “Dinner’s ready!” to find fried squash blossoms filled with herbed goat cheese? I certainly haven’t had the pleasure before.
Readers extraordinaire, you must give this recipe a try if you can get your hands on some fresh squash blossoms. It wasn’t nearly as hard as one might think to make these delicate and tasty beauties.
Indeed, the beauty and the flaw of this dish are the squash blossoms themselves. First, they are not a common supermarket find. Second, if you do find them but you don’t get them very very fresh and take good care to keep them cool and moist, they get rather difficult (read: rubbery) to handle (although you can still make it work). That being said, I know there are some of you out there dutifully growing squash plants in your tiny urban plots/pots or, for those luckier ducks, in your large kitchen gardens. You, my friends, have no excuse not to give this one a go. In fact, I think you owe it to those that don’t have easy squash blossom access to put your good fortune to use.
How, pray tell, does one harvest a squash blossom? Since squash develop from the blossoms, you don’t want to pick the “female” blossoms that are found low and in the center of the plant. Rather, pick the “male” blossoms that are on long slender stems higher up in the plant. You’ll easily be able to tell the difference once you’re actually looking at a squash plant.
So, thank you, Angie, for this great recipe suggestion! Let me know when you can stop over and try some for yourself! As for the rest of you, let me know how yours turn out. I’m already hankering for another batch myself…
FRIED SQUASH BLOSSOMS STUFFED WITH HERB CHEESE
Submitted by Angie Yingst and adapted from Chez Panisse menu
12 large squash blossoms
8 oz. goat cheese, room temperature
1/4 c. finely minced fresh herbs (thyme, basil, chives, sage, or others)
1 large shallot, finely minced
salt and pepper
2 eggs
1/4 c. milk
1/2 c. corn meal mix (look for one that includes salt and baking powder) or masa harina (available in some larger stores)
Freshly ground pepper
1 c. vegetable oil
Place the goat cheese in a small bowl. Mix in the minced herbs, shallots and salt. Mixture will come together easier if the cheese is at room temperature. Once mixed, cover and place in refrigerator for 15 minutes or until firm again.
Prepare your “assembly line” by beating the eggs and milk together in a shallow bowl. Place corn meal mix or masa harina in another shallow bowl and mix in the freshly ground pepper. If blossoms have not already been prepped, gently remove all but a small tip of the stem and look closely for any dirt or insects. If you find anything, gently wipe clean with a damp towel.
When cheese mixture is firm, take teaspoon size amounts and roll into small balls with your hands the way you would chilled cookie dough.* Place a cheese ball into the center of each blossom and twist the ends of the petals together to fully enclose the cheese.
Dip each blossom into the egg mixture. Let excess drip off. Quickly and gently roll blossom in dry mixture, shaking excess off. Set blossoms in refrigerator until ready to fry.
Place vegetable oil in a skillet and heat to approximately 350 degrees or until a tiny pinch of corn meal dropped in produces a good sizzle. Carefully place half the blossoms into the hot oil. Turn them over to brown evenly on all sides. When golden brown, remove and place on a paper towel to drain. Bring oil back up to temperature and fry the remaining blossoms.
Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and serve immediately with any leftover cheese as a garnish in the center of the plate.
*I did not actually use this balling method myself, but will be sure to next time. I didn’t think of it until I was done with this batch. When I made my blossoms, I kept thinking how much easier it would be if I had a second pair of hands to hold open the blossom while I scooped up the cheese and put it in. By making little cheese balls beforehand, you can quickly insert the cheese with a lot less fuss.
(makes 12, serves 4)
We Broke A Record
During the big 4th of July celebrations here in Philadelphia last week, there was an attempt to break the world record for largest salsa dance. In true Philly competitive (i.e., sports teams) fashion, we fell just a little bit short of the big trophy. But we did break the record for largest salsa dance lesson. Exciting, eh? Well, if nothing else, perhaps that’s what inspired me to make salsa (the edible kind) this week. But I think it had more to do with the amazing colors of the peppers and tomatoes at the farm that I was piling into my shirt tail. Looking down at my little makeshift pouch, I could practically taste the freshness of the flavors melding together when consumed with some extra crispy homemade tortilla chips.
I gathered up some basil from the farm and used it instead of the more traditional cilantro, which the farm isn’t growing at the moment. I really didn’t miss the cilantro at all. I might have added another hot pepper though if I hadn’t been such a wimp. I guess I’m still a little gun-shy after the eye-popping curried squash pickles, which, by the way, are still holding up nicely in my fridge. I’ve found both the pickles and the salsa (seperately, not together!) add a little zing to your common everyday burger.
By the way, about another rather unusual world record set within Philadelphia’s city limits…earlier this year in March, a man set the world record for most body piercings in a four hour period. Phillip Roomet officially inserted 1,047 into his upper body, kept them in for 10 minutes while he smoked a cigarette and then took them out!! It remains to be seen what kind of dish this particular record will inspire in my kitchen. In the meantime, I think I’d best go out and buy some skewers…
Farm Salsa with Homemade Tortilla Chips
Salsa
3 purple peppers (or other colors)
4-5 tomatoes (variety of colors)
1 medium red onion
1 hot pepper (or more if you like heat)
1/4 c. chopped fresh basil
1/4 c. chopped fresh lemon balm
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
2 limes
1 lemon
4 cloves of garlic, finely minced
salt and pepper
Chips
2 large flat breads
cooking spray
salt and pepper
dried herbs of choice
Start by combining the olive oil and juices from the limes and lemon in a large bowl. Wisk in salt, pepper and garlic until well blended. Set aside.
Dice tomatoes, peppers and onions. Place vegetables with chopped herbs in the bowl with the dressing. Toss together until everything is evenly distributed. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour and up to a day. Salsa will remain edible for up to three days but it starts to break down a bit and loose quality after the first 36 hours or so.
When ready to serve, preheat the oven to 375 F. Using foil or a baking sheet, spray both sides of a flat bread (or flour tortilla if you can’t find the heartier flat bread) with cooking spray. Lay on baking sheet and sprinkle on salt, pepper and dried herbs evenly. Bake for 7-10 minutes until bread is golden and crisp. Remove from oven and let cool for a minute before roughly breaking the bread into “chips”. Serve along side salsa.
Note: I like my homemade salsa chips more rustic and unorthodox. If you prefer more structure to yours, just cut the flat bread into triangles before placing it in the oven for nice even-sized chips.
(makes 8-10 servings)
It Just Sounds Good, Doesn’t It?
This weekend, D treated me to a splurge at the book store. I have a serious problem with buying books when I know going to the library is both a more economical and environmentally sound option. But since my coed days as a literature major, I’ve had the unfortunate propensity for writing in the margins any scurrying thoughts that come and go as I process a volume’s information. Libraries tend to frown on that kind of activity. Thus it has come to pass that I limit myself to visiting book stores only a few times a year to avoid getting a second job to support my “habit”. D has been nice enough to give me a fix from time to time, for which I’m deeply grateful as only an addict can be.
I’m relaying all this to you because I’m now the proud owner of Moosewood Restaurant Kitchen Garden: Creative Gardening for the Adventurous Cook. Oh boy, oh boy!….they’ve got everything in there! I mean everything that the farm is growing, including the stuff that I’m discovering myself for the first time. There’s a whole section on kohlrabi, something most other cookbooks don’t even mention. I can already tell it’s going to be a fantastic reference source for my future posts. Included are loads of edible flower varieties and advice, so I’m hoping to pow-wow with Farmer Dave to get some of those growing on the farm.
The book’s section on fennel was indeed informative, although it ultimately did little to affect this particular post since I’d already settled on this week’s fennel dish. When I came across this recipe online, I thought to myself, “Boy, that just sounds so good, I’ve got to give it a try.” And indeed it was good, although a bit too sweet when I followed the original recipe to a “T”. So, I made a few adjustments before passing it along to you.
No doubt contributing to the dish’s tad-too-much sweetness was the funky wine I decided to use on a whim. The bright pink old school Chevy truck on a label is was just too fetching to pass up. The wine was quite good in that fruity, barefoot-and-I-don’t-care-about-pompous-pretense kind of way. However, it was likely a little too high in fruity sugar for this particular recipe. In the future, I’ll stick to my standard dry Riesling white wine to balance the flavors more.
FENNEL IN HONEY & WINE
Adapted from All Recipes
2 medium fennel bulbs, trimmed, cored and quartered
1/2 c. vegetable stock
1/2 c. white wine
1 1/4 t. honey
1 t. mustard seed
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 t. fresh minced herbs (thyme worked well for me)
salt and pepper to taste
1 T. orange juice (optional)
When trimming fennel, reserve a few fronds for garnish on the final dish.
In a large skillet, heat extra virgin olive oil and add mustard seed. When seeds start to “pop” regularly (about a minute or so), remove skillet from heat. Being careful not to touch the hot oil with your fingers, place each fennel quarter cut side down in the skillet and rub it around to pick up the oil and some mustard seeds. When all quarters are covered with oil and seeds, place them all cut side up in a single layer in the same skillet as you heated the oil.
Pour stock and white wine gently over the fennel. Sprinkle the salt, pepper and minced herbs and then drizzle the honey evenly over the fennel.
Tightly cover the skillet with a lid or a piece of foil. Place over low heat and let fennel simmer for 50-60 minutes, turning over once after half an hour. Remove fennel from skillet when they are tender enough to easily pierce with a fork.
To the liquid remaining in the skillet, add the tablespoon of orange juice (if using) and bring it up to a boil before lowering the heat to medium. Stir regularly until reduced by about half. Remove from heat and pour over fennel quarters. Garnish with fennel fronds and serve immediately.
(serves 4 as side dish)
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