More on Sunday brunch/lunch

Gratefully, the weather still dictates al fresco dining. Lately, I've been buying some great looking green beans. And for two days in a row, I've treated them equally. A quick blanch in hot water, and toss in a simple vinaigrette that I added orange juice to. Crumbled gorgonzola and sprinkled with toasted walnuts. Delish.

Another favourite recipe from the Vongerichten-Bittman book, and a great one for the brunch-lunch table, is beet tartare.

Beets (about six) are first washed, trimmed and roasted in tin foil. Peel and cut into small dice. Add chopped gherkins, capers and shallots, just like you might for a steak tartare. Add Worchestershire, some of your favourite hot sauce, and a tablespoon of mayo, salt and pepper. Add a splash of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. Adjust seasoning if needed, thinking about the balance of flavours. I like to serve this by molding the tartare in a cup first, this time I used a custard cup. Press in the mixture with a spoon, smoothing the top. Invert the cup onto a plate and with both hands on the plate and your thumbs on top of the cup, lift the plate and cup and shake once hard. Gently lift the cup from the plate. Beet tartare.

Olive oil and Rosemary cake

Here is a simple cake that is perfect for Sunday lunch or brunch. It is great served alone, with Italian cheese and honey, or as I did, with ripe figs and pots of thick yogurt and honey for dipping. Or use your imagination and come up with your own accompaniments.

Olive Oil and Rosemary Cake 

1 1/2 cup flour

1 T. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

4 eggs

3/4c. sugar

2/3c. olive oil

3 T. chopped rosemary

zest of 2 lemons, chopped fine

Preheat oven to 325 F. Butter a loaf pan.

With an electric beater, whip the eggs until foamy. Add the sugar and whip until the eggs are pale yellow, have tripled in volume and fall from the beaters in a thick ribbon. (Note: have patience. It will happen).

Reduce speed to low and pour in the oil, rosemary and lemon zest. Fold in the flour-baking powder mixture by hand, until just combined. Do not overmix. Pour into the prepared loaf pan and bake 45 minutes. Cool slightly and invert.

Garlic Soup. A true restorative

One of the cookbooks I return to frequently is Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef by Jean-George Vongerichten and Mark Bittman. The recipe for garlic soup is a revelation, using the cloves from four heads of garlic as the vegetable and star ingredient. Lightly sauteed and simmered in chicken broth, the result is a creamy hearty mix that you know right from the first spoonful that you are somehow being redeemed.

Once the cloves are separated, pour boiling water over them for 15 - 20 seconds, this aids in peeling off their skins easily.

Thinly slice the cloves.
Saute in olive oil over medium heat, careful not to colour the cloves. Add the thyme and stir until the cloves begin to soften. Add six cups of chicken stock, bring to the boil and simmer for around 20 minutes.
For added redemption, the recipe suggests adding chopped greens to the bottom of each bowl before ladling in the soup. I've used arugula, parsley and lettuce in the past. Today I'm using young leaves of Swiss chard, julienned.

The soup is finished with two eggs that have been lightly whisked with champagne or white wine vinegar. Whisk that into the soup until the egg becomes shreds. Adjust the seasoning and serve.

Wicked Butter Tarts

Short-Crust Pastry

(You might have your own recipe, but this number works for both sweet and savoury dishes)

1 1/2 cups unbleached flour

1 tsp. salt

200 gr, cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1 egg yolk

1/2 cup approx. ice water

Combine flour, salt and butter in a medium bowl and blend together - with your hands - until you have a crumbly consistency. Add egg yolk, mixing with a fork.

Sprinkle with ice water and toss lightly with a fork until dough gathers together into a ball. Wrap and let the pastry rest for 20 to 30 minutes. preferably in the fridge.

When ready to roll out the dough, dust the rolling surface and rolling pin with flour. Roll out and find a large cup, mug or biscuit cutter to cut forms to fit a muffin tin.

Wickedly Evil Butter Tart Filling

Enough for 9 - 10 tarts

1/3 c. soft butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1.4 cup light cream

1/2 cup raisins, plumped up in 1/3 cup rum

Preheat oven 375 degrees

Cream the butter and brown sugar. Add eggs one at a time, incorporating into the butter-brown sugar mixture. Add vanilla, and stir in the light cream.

Divide raisins among the tarts and spoon in the filling. Bake 15 - 20 mins until the pastry is browned and the filling is firm.

Welcome to your new addiction.

Fig leaves and Salmon

Fig leaves, under-utilized for flavour enhancement - unlike their kin fennel pollen and dill flower heads - impart a subtle figgy aroma to ingredients like salmon or goat cheese when wrapped and baked.

I happen to have a fig tree in my garden, and while the fig issue has never been abundant - I will never give up hope - the leaves are seemingly endless. 

Lay on some wild coho, deboned and skinned on a large washed leaf. Dot with a compound butter of minced shallots, lemon zest and lemon juice. Wrap and bake at 350 degrees for around 8 minutes.

Voila!

Txori, San Sebastian-style pintxos in Seattle

A trip to Seattle is not complete without a visit to Txori.

Located in Belltown, their specialty is the little snack plates of delicious food inspired by the pintxos bars of San Sebastian, Spain.

We prefer to sit at the tiny bar hovering over the equally tiny kitchen. It's where the action is.

Tortilla espanola is served over a grilled piece of baguette.

A selection of cheeses with thought-out accompaniments: quince paste, candied walnuts with a Blu de Basque and lightly roasted marcona almonds with a 9-month aged Mahon.
Cauliflower baked in a tiny cazuela with cheese and tomato.
Luscious mushrooms, finished with cream sherry.

Padron peppers straight from Oregon. Seared in a hot pan.
Served with olive oil and sea salt, and one clove of garlic. 
Romano beans dressed in a caramelized onion vinaigrette with tomatoes. The green dots are piquillo pepper vinaigrette.
Everything here is subtle and perfectly done, often pairing together bold combinations. For example, Spanish cured chorizo with shaved chocolate. The eighth deadly sin. Yes, it's good. Very good. 
Joey Serquinia runs the kitchen here. A fresh ling cod just arrived and we were treated to the cheeks and the kokocha, the meaty bits under the chin.
Flour and egg, first fried in olive oil, finished in the oven with lemon juice, parsley and salt and clams.

Gracias Joey, Jeffrey and Txori. Another memorable culinary adventure.

Figs

In keeping with a leafy theme, we have figs and their longtime companion. Till death do they part.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Gently wash the leaves and shake dry-ish. With a sharp knife make a slit on either side of the fig and insert thinly sliced gorgonzola or your favourite blue cheese. Place the fig in the middle of the leaf's front side and gently wrap the leaf around it, securing with string.

Bake 10 minutes.
Gently remove the fig. Place on a plate atop a drizzle of vin cotto, or reduced grape must, or even reduced balsamic. 

Enjoy!

Dolmades - Stuffed Grape Leaves

A friend generously dropped off a bag of grape leaves for a session of dolmades rolling. Stuffed grape leaves are a tasty appetizer of Greek and Lebanese origins. (There could be other versions too). Dolmadakia to the former, mahshi to the latter, they can be stuffed with lamb, pine nuts and cinnamon, beef, or with raisins along with rice.

I'm making mine vegetarian with pine nuts, no raisins, spiced with mint and dill.  You might be familiar with the jars of leaves sitting in brine, but using them fresh is dead simple. Remove the stems and blanch the leaves in boiling water for about 12 to 15 seconds, until they relax and change colour. Rinse under cold water. Pat dry.

Prepare the filling

1 1/2 cup of finely chopped onion

1/3 cup of pine nuts

1 cup of long grain rice

juice of two lemons

big handful of mint, chopped

big handful of dill, chopped

Saute the onion in olive oil on medium heat. Add rice and pine nuts and stir for about 10 minutes.

 Add juice of one lemon, salt and pepper. Stir in mint and dill and set aside. Of course, the rice will not be cooked through. This is what you want.

If you don't have one of these hand juicers, put it at the top of your wish list.

Line up as many leaves as you can, vein side up, assembly-line style. Add a tablespoon or so to the bottom of each leaf. Fold the bottom up, then fold in the sides, rolling firmly to the top of the leaf. 
Place the finished rolls, tip side down, in  a medium sized pot or saute pan in a circle, layering until all the leaves have been rolled up. (Save a few sad-looking leaves for the top).

Adorn the top with a few mint leaves, reserved grape leaves and fill the pot with water to barely cover the leaves. Add more lemon juice.
Weight the dolmades with an inverted plate insuring that they will not move while cooking. Cover the plate with a weight such as a smaller pot. Bring to the boil and simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until most of the liquid is absorbed. That means keep a watchful eye out.
Remove from heat and let cool. Carefully remove the rolls to a plate. You can eat them hot if you like, with salt, more lemon juice and olive oil. If storing in the fridge, make sure they are well wrapped to prevent them from drying out. To serve, I drizzled on more olive oil and used orange juice as I ran out of lemons and sprinkled with sea salt. Tasty and addictive.

Corn Chowder

That luscious corn from Saanich has to be used up and there's nothing better to take the chill out of the air these days than a hearty corn chowder. 

Get your mise en place ready. 

3 - 4 cobs of corn, kernels removed. Save the cobs.

half of an onion, chopped

4 slices of double smoked bacon, chopped (I use the house smoked bacon from Red Barn)

1 1/2 cup mixed roasted sweet peppers, chopped

3 jalapenos, roasted, peeled and chopped (seeds included)

7 baby potatoes, chopped

4 cups chicken stock

Bring chicken stock and corn cobs (snap in half first) to the boil in a stock pot, and simmer for 20 minutes. (I love the idea of using cobs like bones to glean all the goodness out of them).

Remove the cobs from the stock with tongs.
Meanwhile, saute bacon and onions in another large pot. When onions are transparent and bacon is rendering itself and turning golden, add the rest of the ingredients and stir around until heated through.

Add the revised chicken stock to the mix, bring to the boil and simmer until both the corn and potatoes are tender. Add salt, freshly ground pepper and a healthy 1/2 Tablespoon of freshly ground allspice.

Taste. Hot, isn't it? Those roasted jalapenos are a fantastic addition to this chowder.

Add either 1 1/2 cup of cream or milk at this point. You could even add a spoonful of sour cream to each bowl if you like.

Garnish with freshly chopped chives.

Spaghetti al limone

With the glut of cookbooks on the shelves, sometimes a recipe will escape you until a casual flip through will bring a surprise. Why didn't I see this before, you might ask. And I did.

I have found great inspiration from The River Cafe Cook Book by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers in the past, but their recipe for Spaghetti al Limone I'd never noticed before until this afternoon. What a number! 

I had the spaghetti, the lemons, the parm, the basil and the olive oil, all my favourite ingredients, so I set to task.

Juice 3 to 4 lemons, zest 2 of them, chop that. In a bowl, slowly whisk in about 5 - 6 oz of olive oil to the lemon juice (this depends on the juiciness of the lemons). 

Whisk or stir in approximately 5 oz of freshly grated parmesan. It will become kind of thick and creamy. Add salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste, and set aside.

Cook the spaghetti in boiling salted water and drain. Combine the pasta and the lemon-olive oil mixture in the saucepan or a big bowl, making sure it's all melding together beautifully. Stir in two good handfuls of chopped basil and the lemon zest.

Divvy it up. Absolutely heavenly. Great as the main course, or I'm thinking a good accompaniment to let's say a breaded veal cutlet.  Either way, a definite keeper.

Simple and Quick Tomato Sauces

When supplies of fresh produce just aren't within reach, I turn to canned goods. And I feel no shame. When cans of Italian whole tomatoes are on sale, I buy a couple of cases at a time, leave them in the pantry, ready whenever I feel a hankering to make tomato sauce, or add some when I'm making pizza. 

The easiest recipe I've come across was taught to me by chef Peter Zambri of Zambri's here in Victoria. While the recipe uses one can, I like to up the ante to three or four, freeze the results to use for pasta lunches and other dishes.

Whole tomatoes are best as they allow you more control over consistency. Squish by hand - the best part - add fresh sprigs of basil, a gurgle of olive oil, bring to the boil and simmer for 20 or so minutes.

Any large chunks of tomatoes must be mushed around with a potato masher and presto! Sauce.
I like to use this recipe as a springboard for Spanish dishes - sorry Italy!  Add hot red chilies to the ready made sauce, simmer again for 20, and apply your hand blender to the mix until smooth. An excellent dipping sauce for papas bravas - roasted baby potatoes.