Orzo Salad with Lemon, Mint and Ricotta Salata

 

We’ve been up to our eyeballs in a bathroom remodel over here—more on that to come—but we’ve also found a little time to eat dinner, too. I’ve made this wonderfully light and refreshing orzo salad a couple times in the past few weeks. It’s great with grilled fish or roast chicken, and is an old favorite recipe from Dean and Deluca. I can just tell it’s going to be making the scene all summer.

Orzo Salad with Lemon, Mint and Ricotta Salata

From Dean and Deluca

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup minced shallots
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest, or more to taste
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup uncooked orzo
1/2 cup very finely diced yellow bell pepper
1/2 cup very finely diced seedless cucumber
1/2 cup crumbled ricotta salata cheese (about 3 ounces)
3 tablespoons minced fresh mint leaves

Stir together the olive oil, shallots, lemon juice, garlic, and lemon zest in a small bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Cook the orzo in a large kettle of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain pasta completely in a colander, running under cold water. Transfer orzo to a bowl, stir in the olive oil mixture, and let cool. Stir in the bell pepper, cucumber, ricotta salata, and mint until combined well. You could serve the salad immediately, but we think it tastes best if you let it stand at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours.

 

Midnight Potatoes + Smoked Salmon

Last weekend, four friends and I ran the Pasadena Rock ‘n’ Roll 13.1 Marathon. During our weekly training runs, my friend Laurie and I often talked about dinners we’d cooked during the week. She mentioned a French friend’s Christmas Eve tradition of waking the family at midnight and serving Champagne with roast potatoes, smoked salmon, crème fraîche and chopped chives. The secret, she said, was to sprinkle a little allspice over the potatoes while roasting. It seemed like it might be the perfect post-race recovery brunch—and it was.

Midnight Potatoes & Smoked Salmon

Serves 4

8 medium-size Yukon Gold potatoes, skins on

1/2 cup olive oil

Pinch of ground allspice

Salt and freshly cracked pepper

12 ounces sliced smoked salmon

1/4 cup crème fraîche

Fresh chives, chopped

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut potatoes in half (or quarters if larger potatoes) so that potatoes are uniform in size. In a roasting pan or glass baking dish, toss potatoes in olive oil with a pinch of allspice, and season generously with salt and pepper. Bake in oven for 35 minutes, or until tender (stirring potatoes midway through to ensure even cooking).

Divide potatoes between four plates. Drape salmon slices over potatoes. Drizzle each with crème fraîche, sprinkle with chopped chives and cracked pepper.

How to Spice Things Up

If not in the bedroom, then let’s start by heating things up in the kitchen tonight. Last night at cooking club, the theme was recreating your favorite restaurant dish. The evening requires a separate post—Mozza meatballs, tagliata and Brussels sprouts with prosciutto breadcrumbs, Akasha kale salad, Ammo lentil salad, Café des Artiste mac n cheese, Hungry Cat ceviche and chocolate bread pudding, all SO good. (And apparently a lot of us like Mozza and Hungry Cat.)

But for the purposes of romance, for igniting that flame tonight, might I suggest my friend Vanessa’s recreation of the Soho House Picante de la Casa Margarita? Vanessa notes, “There are no real directions for how much pepper/cilantro to add so you just have to experiment and see how spicy and cilantro-y you like it.”

If you know what I mean.

SOHO HOUSE PICANTE DE LA CASA MARGARITA

Makes 2 cocktails

Red jalapeño, chopped, to taste

Fresh cilantro leaves, to taste

4 ounces Cazadores tequila

1 ounce agave nectar

2 ounce fresh lime juice, squeezed

In a mixing glass, muddle together chopped red chilies and cilantro leaves. Add tequila, agave and lime juice. Shake hard. Strain into two ice-filled rocks glasses.

Valentine’s Cookies

 

My favorite cookie when I was a kid was the classic Peanut Butter Kiss my grandmother made, warm from the oven with the chocolate kiss on top still soft. Someone far more clever than I had the brilliant idea of subbing in Hershey’s Hugs—what Hershey’s describes as a Hershey’s milk chocolate hugged by sweet white cream—and adding some food coloring to the dough make Valentine’s cookies (hers were bright fuchsia and super fun).

I dialed it down a bit and added just a few squirts of red to the dough and then rolled them in red sugar leftover from Christmas baking. Also, you might notice from my photos that in a moment of a peanut butter addict’s overkill, I added 1/2 cup of peanut butter chips to my grandmother’s recipe. Go for it. Or don’t. (But I say go for it.) Finally, if you live near a Vons, Pavilions or Safeway supermarket, their generic Organics “O” Creamy Peanut Butter is my favorite for baking.

Peanut Butter Hugs

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (or 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup organic creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup Spectrum All-Vegetarian Organic Shortening

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons whole milk

2-3 squirts red food coloring

1/2 cup peanut butter chips (optional)

Red sugar for dusting

36 Hershey’s Hugs, unwrapped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat together peanut butter, shortening and granulated and brown sugars, and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat on medium until fully incorporated, about 1 minute.

With the mixer on low, add the food coloring and flour mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in peanut butter chips, if using. Shape the dough into walnut-sized balls, and roll in colored sugar.

Place on two un-greased cookie sheets, with about 2 inches between cookies. Bake for 8-10 minutes, switching cookie sheets between racks about halfway through. Remove from oven and immediately press a chocolate into the center of each cookie. (Cookie will crack around edges.)

Using a spatula, move cookies from sheet to baking rack and allow to cool completely. Makes about 36 cookies.

 

 

 

 

Leftover Mashed Potato Pancakes

 

It’s a toss up between Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for my favorite family meal of the year. For Christmas we start off with caviar and smoked trout and then move into a prime rib with Yorkshire pudding and mashed potatoes, followed by trifle. Go big, or go home. For the mashed potatoes I’m giddy when we’ve made enough to use for leftover mashed potato pancakes. My dad puts chives in his mashed potatoes, but if yours are without, do add some fresh chives to the pancake batter. Or, for a cheesy option, sprinkle some grated pecorino into the mix. These savory pancakes can be sweetened up for kiddie appetites with a spoonful of applesauce, though I prefer them with a dollop of crème fraîche.

Leftover Mashed Potato Pancakes

Makes 8 pancakes

2 cups leftover mashed potatoes

2 eggs

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons butter

crème fraîche or applesauce, optional, to garnish

In a bowl, mix together mashed potatoes, eggs, flour and salt and pepper until smooth. Heat butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat, and using a 1/4 cup measure drop batter into 8 rounds into the pan and flatten slightly with spatula. (Depending on size of skillet, you may need to do this in two batches.)

 

Fry pancakes about 4 minutes until bottoms are golden and crispy, and then flip with spatula. Fry an additional 4-5 minutes until crispy and golden. Drain on paper towels and serve with either crème fraîche or applesauce.

Cookie Magic

Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t bake. It’s a well-known fact for regular visitors to this blog. And so you can imagine how overjoyed I was that this month’s theme for cooking club was a cookie exchange! When I think cookie perfection, immediately my friend Christine comes to mind. You may remember this plate of gorgeous cookies she left on my doorstep last Christmas. The woman has mad skills.

And so I took a page out of Christine’s ever pitch perfect book, and made a batch of White Christmas Dream Drops for last night’s cookie swap. They are heavenly bites of meringue, studded with white chocolate chips and crushed peppermint candy canes. They are exquisite. Better yet, even I can make them and they were a hit at cooking club. Take a look at the competition:

If I can get my hands on the recipes from the other girls, I will definitely share because they were all awesome. In the meantime, here’s the recipe for the dream drops. Before starting, make sure your eggs are at room temperature and that your oven is preheated. Otherwise, they’re a snap.

White Chocolate Dream Drops

Recipe from Sunset Magazine, December 2011

2 large egg whites, at room temperature

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup white chocolate chips

1/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tbsp. coarsely crushed peppermint candies

Preheat oven to 250° F.

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in a deep bowl with a mixer, using whisk attachment if you have one, just until soft peaks form. Add vanilla and salt. With motor running and mixer on high speed, pour in 1 tbsp. sugar and beat 10 to 15 seconds, then repeat until all sugar has been added. Scrape inside of bowl and beat another 15 seconds. At this point, meringue should form straight peaks when beaters are lifted. Fold in chocolate chips and 1/3 cup candies with a flexible spatula.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, using a bit of meringue at corners as glue. Using a soup spoon, drop meringue in rounded 1-tbsp. portions slightly apart onto sheets, scraping off with another spoon. Sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tbsp. candies.

Bake until meringues feel dry and set when touched but are still pale, 30 to 35 minutes, switching pan positions halfway through. Turn off oven, open door, and let cookies stand about 10 minutes. Let cool on pans. Store in airtight container for up to two days, though I doubt they will last that long.

 

Stuck-Up Duck

Last night my sister came over to help trim the tree. She brought the eggnog; I roasted a duck. I wanted to try using our cousin Klee’s Stuck-Up Rhubarb Bing Cherry Jam as a glaze. Let me stop here. I know he’s my cousin, but even if we weren’t blood related, I would still tell you that his jams are INCREDIBLE. There are just a few jars left of this current batch on Etsy, so I apologize if by the time you read this it’s all sold out.

I have a feeling Stuck-Up Duck is going to become an instant family tradition—it smells heavenly while roasting and is the perfect festive sustenance for trimming the tree. Here’s the recipe. It’s very simple. If you wanted to get fancy, you could heat the preserves in a small saucepan with a tablespoon of Grand Marnier and stir until smooth, but I just spread the preserves directly on the bird in the interest of time.

STUCK-UP DUCK

5 pound roasting duck

1 small onion, peeled and quartered

1-2 sprigs fresh rosemary

Salt + pepper, to taste

1/4 cup Stuck-Up Rhubarb Bing Cherry Preserves

Preheat oven to 450F degrees. Remove giblets and neck from inside the duck and discard (or give to your little sister, Claire, who likes to fry up giblets in butter and enjoy with a glass of Pinot Noir). Pat dry inside and outside of bird. Place in roasting pan and stuff with fresh rosemary and onion. Tress legs with kitchen string. Liberally salt and pepper outside of duck, and roast in oven for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, and pierce skin with a fork all over. Lower heat to 350. Spread preserves over duck. Return to oven and continue to roast another 1 1/2 to 2 hours until crisp and brown (a total roasting time of about 2 1/4 hours).

Happy trimming!

Caramel Apples

Let’s just cut to the chase here. I can’t make caramel. Please don’t tell me how easy it is, and that you have a great recipe from Martha Stewart that any monkey can make. Seriously, don’t. After spending god knows what on ingredients, to say nothing of the war zone that was my kitchen after burning the living daylights out of the carmel, dealing with the aftermath of sticky hell, and breaking a candy thermometer (don’t ask), I finally caved and nuked a bag of Werthers Chewy Caramels with a couple tablespoons of milk—and guess what?

Amazing. To make six apples, you’ll need about 10 ounces of chewy caramels. The hardest part about this method is unwrapping the caramels. First, spear your apples with a popsicle stick and place them in the fridge to chill for 15 minutes (plus they get extra cold and crispy and delicious when you bite into them after they’ve been dipped in caramel). Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray. Put unwrapped caramels in a microwave-safe bowl along with 1.5 tablespoons of whole milk and nuke for 1 minute. Stir with a wooden spoon, and then microwave for another minute. Caramel will be bubbly. Remove apples from fridge, and roll each apple quickly in caramel and place on prepared baking sheet to set.

Garlic Scape Potato Salad

Each summer when we arrive at my in laws’ summer place in Vermont, I can’t wait to hit the farm stands to get my hands on some garlic scapes. These are the shoots that grow from a head of garlic, and they have a slightly more peppery flavor and are less pungent than garlic cloves. I love tossing them in salads, pestos and pastas for a quick hit of earthy flavor—easy summer cooking at its best. On these hot summer nights in Vermont, it’s all about throwing something on the grill with a couple of great sides and eating family style outdoors.

And why wouldn’t you?

Last week, I used garlic scapes in a salsa verde that I tossed with squash, shallots and gruyere to make a gratin in one of my mother-in-law’s well-seasoned skillets.

I also used garlic scapes to add some crunch and depth to a creamy dill potato salad that was tangy with buttermilk dressing. The first batch disappeared pretty quickly so I made another a few nights later, using creamy new potatoes from the Someday Farm Stand in Dorset, VT. Garlic scape season is pretty short, so if you see some this weekend at your green market, grab them!

Creamy Potato Salad with Garlic Scapes and Dill

3 lbs new potatoes, halved (or quartered, depending on size)

1 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup buttermilk

2 tablespoons dijon mustard

2 tables whole grain mustard

3 tablespoons chopped garlic scapes

1/2 cup chopped fresh dill

Freshly ground black pepper and salt, to taste

Place potatoes in large pot of salted water. Bring to boil, and then simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until potatoes are cooked through. Drain, and set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, buttermilk, mustard. Season to taste with salt and pepper. When potatoes have cooled, toss with mustard mixture (you may not need all of it—depending how creamy you like your potato salad), dill and garlic scapes. Chill for a couple hours before serving.

Chinese Chicken Salad

 

My dad’s mother was an elegant woman who used to take in fashion shows at Bullocks Wilshire, followed by a ladies lunches in the adjoining Tea Room. In those days, Chinese Chicken Salad—a Southern California invention—was all the rage. Naturally, my grandmother had her own spin on the classic (thinly sliced mushrooms), and her recipe for Chinese Chicken Salad remains one of my all-time favorite meals. It makes for a perfect Saturday lunch and all the better if accompanied by a very cold glass of Chablis and a very good girlfriend or two.

Mama’s Chinese Chicken Salad

For the salad:

2 cups canola oil

12 wonton skins, sliced

2-3 sliced fresh mushrooms

1 cup cooked chicken breast, shredded

1 head romaine lettuce, sliced

2 green onions, chopped

3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

½ cup toasted slivered almonds

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

 

For the dressing:

¼ cup seasoned rice vinegar

½ cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons agave nectar

¼ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon salt

Heat about 2 cups canola until it reaches 375. Fry wonton slices for about 45 secs, or until crispy and golden, remove with slotted spoon and then drain on paper towels.

Add wontons and remaining salad ingredients to large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together dressing ingredients and then toss with salad. Serve.