I answered my own question: what to do with more greens than I can eat and give away? Make arugula pesto!
I more or less followed my own traditional pesto recipe, substituting pecans for pine nuts and using just enough oil to get to a spreadable consistency. Unlike basil, arugula does not turn brown when cut edges are exposed to air, so this spread stays vibrant green indefinitely.
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My new vegetable garden — that genteel little plot in back with the nice red paths that was so recently just dirt — has exploded with edibles. With the exception of the sugar snaps, of which there are barely enough, and the tomatoes, which aren’t yet bearing fruit, it’s a bit out of control. I may be on the verge of actually turning green with all the salad I’ve been eating, daily, from the biggest mixing bowl I own. People at work are starting to ask what’s with the lettuce. I can’t give this delicious organic salad mix away fast enough. Of course I want it to go to a good home, where it will be appreciated, but soon it will be going to anyone who will take it or, worse yet, to waste. If you know me, and I haven’t yet tried to push greens on you, and you want some, please ask! Otherwise, creative suggestions for what to do with salad greens besides, well, salad?
To help celebrate our recent birthdays, some friends joined us for what evolved into a 50s-themed evening, all the way down to the shrimp cocktail, cocktail sausages (albeit the delicious Spanish ones), and a vintage-styled red shift dress with a flippy hairdo. This crowd could have held their own in the NY Times Style Section, if I do say so myself.
Looks aside, one of the stars of the evening — and of past occasions where they have made an appearance — were (you guessed it) the deviled eggs. Damn good deviled eggs. OK, looks not aside: they were sharp dressers too. I would post a photo, but what happens at the party, stays at the party. You’ll just have to take my word for it and settle for the recipe, transcribed here by popular request. Enjoy!
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This is not another depressing post about the problems with our food production current system. (If you’re scratching your head in confusion, read about The Omnivore’s Dilemma, or better yet, read the book itself.) Rather, today’s post is about one positive and rewarding way that I’m dealing with this information: I’m eating what is best described as uber-local, at least for this dinner.
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Cheddar is the world’s most-produced cheese and America’s favorite, which offers quite an insight when you think about the taste of most mass-market cheddars. These days, however, you’re likely to face many more decisions at the grocery store than just orange or white. Do you want a 2, 3, or 4 year aged cheddar? Do you want Canadian, American, or English? Sharp or extra sharp? I really had no answer for any of these questions when trying to pick out a good cheddar for some old fashioned mac and cheese recently, so I got one of each of the most uncommon-looking cheddars to try. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve added two new lists in progress to All In: Foods to Buy and Recipes to Try. You’ll also find links to them in the Lists section on the right. I’ll be updating these often with additions and notes on those I’ve crossed off. I hope you find them useful and welcome your suggestions.
Although my father had left years earlier, the rest of his extended family did not transplant themselves from Iran to America until the revolution. Almost the entire clan now lives in Los Angeles, the home of one of the largest Persian Jewish communities in the world. They have a rich culture there–complete with their own grocery stores and television stations–that makes it possible to live as though still in Tehran, except for the sadness of exile and fortunes lost and that their new Jewish Ghetto is more widely known as Beverly Hills. My gentle poet aunt Guiti translated a proverb for me that she has been working hard to take to heart:
Regret of the past and fear of the future are the twin thieves that together rob you of the present.
She proceeded to declare herself a bad student.
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Vanilla ice cream-filled profiteroles with super simple chocolate fudge sauce.
I just got a copy of San Francisco chocolatier Michael Recchiuti’s Chocolate Obsession. I’ve read the book cover to cover and am, frankly, a little bit obsessed with the drool-inducing photos and recipes, fantastic stories, and intriguing tricks. For example, who knew that invert sugar (a liquid form of sucrose that has been separated into the simpler glucose and fructose) makes ganache smooth, helps it hold its shape for dipping, and enhances the chocolate’s flavor without making it any sweeter? I’m also looking forward to trying his tips on getting the most out of infusions and the benefits of using an immersion blender to mix ganache.
I was in charge of crab cakes and dessert for New Year’s Eve dinner at a friend’s. Though I’m still looking for an excuse (OK, really just for the time) to make this luscious ginger pear cake, it didn’t seem quite fancy or festive enough for the occasion. After the chocolate souffle (doesn’t travel well) and truffles (already have a large box of those), one of the most appealing photos in Chocolate Obsession is of a back-lit ribbon of burnt caramel sauce being drizzled over ice cream. How do you dress up ice cream and sauce? As profiteroles!
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There are secrets you share, like those deep or silly misives on PostSecrets. There are also secrets you keep. I had never thought of recipes as the latter, but this essay in last December’s Food and Wine Magazine gave me pause. The story has stuck with me for more than a year, resonating in part because I have my own asked-for recipe. Maybe some things really should stay in the family. As for my own specialty (shown above) I will gladly share the ingredients (I list most on the “key cards” I draw for each box); I will point you towards some tricks from Michael Recchiuti’s book Chocolate Obsession that I myself will be trying next year; but maybe I ought to keep the specifics of the recipe and techniques I learned from my mother secret a little longer.
The whole family visiting for a week is a great opportunity to pamper my grandparents. My grandmother and I got to talking about what they normally eat and what they would love to have and one of the things that came up is how much she misses lemon sole, which is apparently hard to come by in Southwest Florida. When I was in the fish market later that day, it just so happened they had a bunch of beautiful lemon sole fillets received by mistake that morning in place of their usual gray sole. Chardonnay, one of our favorite restaurants in Naples, makes an excellent Sole Meunier, so I decided to risk making something with a little spice and prepared Santa Barbara Sole.
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