TBTAM DIGEST – LA Edition (Part 2)

We had a little family vacation in Los Angeles over a long weekend in early summer. In part 1, I told you where we stayed and what we did. But of course, this being a food blog, I know you’re wondering and I need to tell you –

What we ate

We’re not into fancy restaurants, but insist on great food. In addition to the restaurants below, we hosted a backyard potluck barbecue for my daughter’s friends, one of whom is a chef, so you know the food was delicious. We had hamburgers, chilled gazpacho, salads, amazing desserts, beer and a signature lime-gin mule.

And of course, for breakfasts, I made bagels.

Here’s where we ate out.

My 2 ¢

This gem serves light, delicious, healthy soul food in a small, casual location in a strip mall on West Pico Blvd. After 10 years in the same location, James Beard nominated chef Alisa Reynolds is finally becoming nationally known, not just for her take on Southern cooking amazing food, but for the travel – documentary series she hosts on Hulu called Searching for Soul.

The shrimp and grits, enlightened with a lobster broth, was the best I’ve eaten. The oxtail tacos were phenomenal,

as was the catfish and the red beans with black rice.

We left feeling satiated but light, and knew we had eaten food that was good both for our body and for our soul.

Pizzeria Mozza

I was determined to eat at a restaurant run by Nancy Silverton, James Beard Awarded Outstanding Chef awardee, who was at the vanguard of the sourdough artisan bread revolution in the 80’s. The only table at a Silverton establishment we could get was at Pizzeria Mozza, not infrequently said to be one of the best pizzerias in the country. This pizza lover concurs – you must try the Croque Madame pizza.

They also make a mean calamari, served with a light tomato sauce with lemon rind shavings. We loved it so much we forgot to take a pic till it was nearly gone…

Gjelina LA

I should have realized that I’d love this place – It’s owned by the same folks who run Gjusta Bakery, one of my very favorite places to eat in LA, focusing on locally-sourced and vegetable-forward cuisine. They also do a mean pizza and charcuterie. I loved the atmosphere, with unfinished plywood walls, flowers, open windows and a free standing shower in the bathroom!

The grilled Oyster Mushrooms w/ tarragon butter were a main course unto themselves.

The Nettle Buccatini Cacio e Pepe was flawless.

The grilled broccolini was served in a black garlic vinaigrette and garnished with gomashio, a Japanese sesame seed-salt condiment. (Sorry for messy presentation, we had already started serving ourselves before I took the pic)

The scallops were served in a delicious light broth with fennel that just begged for some bread to soak it up, which of course we did!

Gjelina is everything you think of when you think of LA food – light, healthy, vegetable forward, inventive.

Sanamluang Cafe Hollywood

In a strip mall in the heart of Thai Town is Sanamluang Cafe, a casual place serving delicious, authentic Thai food. Sanamluang has been noted by the Latimes to be that rare restaurant that keeps late hours (open till 1:45 am) without sacrificing quality for convenience. We had a delicious curry, pad see ew and salad. (Sorry, no pics.)

And that’s it for our visit to Los Angeles

There are so many sites left to see, so much to do. I’m going to be sure I plan my next visit to coincide with the Rose Bowl Flea Market, which I think is my favorite place in Los Angeles.

But the best part was being together in the same place at the same time with both our daughters, meeting my daughter’s wonderful friends and getting to share in her beautiful life in LaLa Land.

TBTAM DIGEST – LA Edition (Part 1)

Earlier this summer, we took a long overdue family vacation to visit my younger daughter in Los Angeles. We had not been to LaLa Land since December 2020, when our trip was abruptly cut short by a Covid infection among our ranks. Luckily, this visit, though short, was infection-free, and though our son-in-law was unable to join us, a wonderful time was had by all. Here’s what we did –

Where we stayed

The best VRBO – A 3 bedroom, 2 bath home in Venice Beach, complete with piano, amazing CD collection, cook’s kitchen and a pool! Our hosts were warm, welcoming and just the best. If you’re interested, contact me for details.

What We Did

Aside from hanging at the VRBO, cooking, talking, laughing, reading, listening to music, and hosting a barbecue, we did quite a bit !

The thing about visiting a city to see friends or family is that you get to experience life as a local, and not a tourist. So we did the things our daughter does, and visited the places she loves. Plus a thing or two we discovered on our own the day we dropped her off at work.

We played tennis in Griffith Park

Hands down, my favorite activity outside the house. We met up with a friend of my daughter’s who is graciously teaching her to play tennis, and spend the morning hitting balls in Vermont Canyon, one of the loveliest tennis settings I’ve ever seen. It was hard to pull my eyes off those hills and blue sky to focus on the ball. Parking was easy, prices cheap, bathrooms and water nearby. What a wonderful urban oasis!

We Visited the Original Farmer’s Market

At 3rd and Fairfax, this landmark open-air marketplace has been around since 1934. It’s no substitute for LA’s real farmers markets, but a fun conglomeration of food vendors similar to Philly’s Reading Terminal Market or Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Shop for fish, meats or cheese,

pick out a hot sauce,

try a flight of pickles,

and enjoy some great people watching.

My favorite store there is Monsieur Marcel, a French Gourmet market and bistro.

I adore all things French. It was hard to contain myself around the Jean Dubost Laguiole cutlery

and french linens,

but I did. However, there was no such restraint at the cheese counter, where we picked up appetizers for our backyard barbecue.

Schindler House

While my younger daughter was working, we visited two architectural sites. Not that we planned it that way, but serendipitously these two turned out to be a great pair of sites to visit, both having been either designed or influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright, and within easy driving distance of one another. When you add in the Farmers Market breakfast and a soul food lunch, it was a pretty perfect Los Angeles day.

Image from Wikipedia

The Schindler House is hidden on Kings Road in West Hollywood in a very residential area – look for signs for MAK Center for Art and Architecture, a Vienna-based museum that runs the site. Designed and built in 1922 by Rudolph M Schindler, an Austrian-born protege of Frank Lloyd Wright, the home was a mini-commune designed to house Schindler, his wife Pauline, and their friends, Clyde and Marion Chace.

Each individual had their own studio space, they shared the kitchen, gardens and patios, and each couple had a sleeping porch on the roof. (You can see an open porch up there on the roof.) The house was one of the first built in the Modernist Style, on a concrete slab with tilt up concrete slab walls, and incorporates Japanese elements, such as sliding screens, throughout.

Like Wright, Schindler built much of the furniture in the house. Though at present the home is mostly empty, photos of the place in its prime reveal it to have been a warm, welcoming and beautiful space.

We were invited to tag along with a UCLA MFA class tour, and learned a lot from the docent and teacher. (Made me want to go back to school…)

I found myself fascinated with the history of the house and the couples who lived there. Like all Utopian experiments, this one did not last long in its original iteration, though the home remained communal as friends and family came and went over the years. Seems like fodder for a great mini-series…

Hollyhock House

Hollyhock House, built between 1919-21 by Frank Lloyd Wright for oil-heiress, single mom and feminist Aline Barnsdall as part of a planned 26-acre arts complex, was Wright’s first Los Angeles commission and astonishingly, never completed. The building of the house was actually overseen by Schindler and by Wright’s son, as Wright was occupied in Japan at the time. There were massive cost overruns, and the house, like other Wright structures, looked great but functioned poorly. Barnsdall apparently never liked the house, ultimately donating the home and surrounding acreage to the city of Los Angeles in 1927.

Today the home is the centerpiece of a sprawling complex comprised of a museum and community art space atop a beautiful hilltop with views of Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood sign.

My favorite part of the house is the water feature that never worked – an outdoor fountain flowing into the living room in front of the fireplace!

The kitchen was classic Wright, and I loved it.

I wish we could have joined a docent tour, as I suspect there are more stories to hear about the commission, but that will be for another time.

We went to the beach

No visit to LA is complete without a visit to the Pacific Ocean, which we accessed at Will Rogers State Beach, just north of Santa Monica. Despite it being a holiday weekend, we easily found parking and a prime spot away from the crowds, but not so far that we couldn’t access the facilities, which were quite nice, and included varied and what looked like delicious food options. The winds were quiet enough that the girls played a game of Spite and Malice on the blanket, and then we all napped in the late afternoon sun.

Stay tuned for Part 2 …

TBTAM Digest – May 26, 2024

I can’t believe it’s been a little over a year since we moved home to Philly. We’re loving our life here, and believe it or not, don’t miss NYC. Maybe it’s because we get up to the Big Apple frequently enough to satisfy the urge, but truth be told, Philly has everything this girl needs to be happy. And now that we’re settled in, time is opening up to reboot the newsletter. Now for a few links…

Health news worth knowing

  • Measure your weekly exercise goals in time spent (> 150 mins) or steps taken (>7,000) – both goals, if reached, have been found to lower mortality in post-menopausal women.

What I’ve been watching

  • Midsummer Night. A lovely, addictive and quick binge series from Norway. Carina (mom) gathers her family together at their waterfront home ostensibly to celebrate a Norwegian Midsummer. In reality, she’s got some big news to break to them. And they’ve all got their own secrets that no one is talking about. Until they do. Choose between subtitles and dubbing.
  • A Gentleman in Moscow. I love this so much that I’m using it to get me to the gym, since I’m only allowing myself to watch it while I’m working out, and then only during my 15 minute warm up and cool down. I also read the book and have found the series to be an entirely different and equally wonderful experience.
  • Pelosi in the House. I’ll admit, this documentary from Pelosi’s filmmaker daughter is not the best in its genre. I’m sure it was not made any easier for the filmmaker by the fact that her mom is rarely if ever off message. But its subject is fascinating, and the jaunt through our shared recent history riveting.
  • Anatomy of a Fall. Deserving of every single Academy Award for which it was nominated this year. Did she do it or not?….
  • Poldark – Think Downton Abby, but darker and a century earlier. I loved every single episode in this 5 season PBS series, and was so sad when it ended. I hear another season, however, is in the works.
  • All Creatures Great and Small – Another wonderful PBS series that I wish could go on forever. Small town vet in England around the time of WW II. You love every character. Another season is coming soon!

What I’ve been reading

  • Table for Two – Hmm… This is a tough one. Until now, I’ve loved everything Amor Towles has written, and as an example of great writing, this new collection of short stories and a novella is no exception. This guy can write and he knows how to tell a story. I’m just wondering if his nostalgic and loving look back at Manhattan and Hollywood society isn’t a bit past its time, and I’m not so sure I really care about these folks anymore. Let’s see what else he can come up with…
  • The Hunter – The latest from Tana French, whose crime novels set in Ireland are smart, rich in both character and plot, and with a few exceptions, incredibly readable. The Audible version is a fun listen if, like me, you love the Irish accent.
  • The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store – Set in Pottstown, Pa (outside of Philly), James McBride’s latest novel at first glance is a murder mystery, but really it is the story of Jewish immigrants and Blacks struggling and co-existing in early 20th Century America. Racial and ethnic tensions are ever present, but so are deep connection and salvation. Makes me want to read his first book, The Color of Water, a memoir and tribute to his mother.
  • Master Slave Husband Wife. Though not great literature, this true story of a married slave couple who escaped North from Georgia disguised as a white male slaveowner (the wife) and his manservant (her husband) is riveting. Would make a great mini-series.

Where I’ve been eating

I’m so enjoying re-discovering the vibrant food scene in my hometown Philadelphia, and have created a Philly Restaurant Recommendations page on the blog. As I discover new places to love, I’ll add them there. Feel free to make suggestions of places for me to try. Here’s just a few I recently added. Head to the blog for more!

  • Kalaya – Award-winning Thai. Airy, bright, plant-filled, loud but warm atmosphere. Open kitchen. Chef-owner Nok Suntaranon is on premises most nights and will stop by your table to chat. It’s one of our favorite places to bring out of town guests.
  • Laser Wolf – An Israeli grill, think of it as Zahav’s little sister, who in some ways outshines her older sib. The hummus and pita alone are worth the trip. The menu is simple – everyone shares a big Mezze platter, and you each order your own items from the grill. Don’t worry if you can’t finish it all – they have the most adorable little compartmentalized take away containers. Drinks are also great. If you’re in Brooklyn, they have an outpost there as well.
  • Monk’s Cafe – With over 200 beers to choose from and 25 on tap at a given time, Monk’s is an internationally-renowned beer lover’s destination. Happily, the food is also good. Our pre- or post-orchestra concert go to restaurant, and a great place to take out-of-towners.
  • Parc – Steven Starr’s French brasserie on Rittenhouse Square. Never fails. And OMG, the bread.
  • Vedge – (Very) High-priced vegan fare in a historic brownstone. Inventive, delicious. My husband, the meat lover, was not impressed, but I went gaga over the Gold Bar Squash and Summer Corn “elotes”, Portabella Carpaccio and Piri-piri Grilled Tofu on Lentils. I even tried (unsuccessfully but not badly) to recreate the lentil dish myself. Thankfully, they have a cookbook.

What I’ve been doing

  • Visiting the Brandywine Museum of Art – A wonderful day trip from Philly. Nice cafe, nearby walks or canoe rides along the River. A visit to the Wyeth studio is a must.
  • Visiting Eastern State Penitentary – A must-see for Philly visitors. The self-guided audio tour narrated by Steve Buscemi is fabulous, and if you can get onto a guided tour of the medical wing you should do it as well. The restored prison synagogue is also a must see, as are the exhibits on the American prison system.
  • Strolling through The Sculpture Garden behind the Phila Museum of Art – A bit hidden above and behind the parking garage. Fun!
  • Visiting the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ. Another great day trip from Philly or NYC. The whimsical sculptures of Seward Johnson, while the centerpiece of the collection, are just part of a marvelous assemblage of outdoor sculpture set in a most beautiful and fun to explore garden setting. Nice cafe, gift shop and restaurant too.
  • Making Bread, of course

Thanks for reading TBTAM Digest! Have a great holiday weekend!

Half Wholegrain Sunflower Sesame Sourdough

Half Wholegrain Sunflower Sesame Sourdough

The inspiration for this sourdough comes, not unexpectedly, from Maurizio Leo. If you love baking sourdough bread and don’t follow Maurizio’s blog or Instagram, or have his James Beard Award-winning book, you’re missing out on the best information out there on both the science and the art of sourdough. I’ve learned most of what I know about bread making by following and reading those who have done it before and better than me, and encourage you to do the same.

This particular bread is a remix of two of Maurizio’s recipes – his Fifty-Fifty Wholegrain and Sunflower Sesame Sourdough Breads. I’ve made each of them separately several times, and been delighted with the results, with the Sunflower Sesame getting some of the highest praise from my small cadre of bread tasters that any bread has ever gotten. (If you know me, it’s all about the praise…)

If you follow my instagram, you may be aware that I’ve been working my way towards the perfect 100% home-milled wholegrain sourdough loaf, and that my most recent attempt yielded a fine tasting but denser loaf than I’d like. It may have been the fact that I’ve been using a particularly thirsty Rouge de Bordeaux heritage grain that demanded more water than the recipe had allotted it, and added in things like walnuts and dried cherries before perfecting a plainer loaf first. I’m not giving up, but I am taking a break until I finish up my supply of the Rouge, after which I’m going again for the 100% using a varietal yet to be determined.

In the meantime, I decided to up the percentage of wholegrain in the ever-popular Sunflower Sesame Loaf, which is about 30% wholegrain, by using Maurizio’s Fifty-Fifty loaf as the base. I did adjust the total quantities to make them easier to deal with and tweaked the water to account for the black sesame seed soaker and honey. In this smaller 50% percentage, my heritage wholegrain appeared to behave itself and I ended up with an 80% hydration (considering the honey as hydration, since it’s mostly water), not-too-difficult to handle, lively yet sturdy dough. (Thank you, King Arthur…)

I baked this bread according to Tartine’s method, which starts with a 500 degree F preheat, then lowers to the same 450 degree F baking temp that Maurizio uses. I don’t know how much difference this makes, but my oven temp drops quite a bit when I leave the door open while I score my bread, so it makes me feel better to start at a higher preheat temp.

If you want to try making this bread, and have any questions or need a little coaching or encouragement, feel free to reach out to me. This sourdough thing takes a village.

Print Recipe

Half Wholegrain Sunflower Sesame Sourdough

Ingredients

Levain

  • 48 g Active Sourdough starter
  • 48 g water
  • 24 g white bread flour (I use King Arthur Organic)
  • 24 g wholegrain flour (I used finely home-milled Barton Springs Rouge de Bordeaux)

Inclusions

  • 35 g black sesame seeds
  • 35 g boiling water
  • 130 g sunflower seeds

Autolyse

  • 450 g white bread flour
  • 450 g wholegrain flour
  • 630 g water

Mix and Add

  • 35 g honey
  • 60 g water
  • 18 g fine sea salt

Topping

  • white sesame seeds

Instructions

Levain

  • Mix levain ingredients using 78 °F water until all flour is incorporated. Loosely cover and let sit for 3 hours till active.

Inclusions

  • Mix the black sesame seeds with the boiling water in a small bowl. Let cool, then cover and set aside till bulk fermentation.
  • Toast sunflower seeds on a large baking sheet in a 350 °F oven for 8-10 minutes. Watch closely! Cool and set aside till bulk fermentation.

Autolyse

  • After your levain has sat for 1-2 hours, mix autolyse ingredients in a large bowl using wet hands and a bowl scraper to fully incorporate the dry ingredients. Loosely cover and let sit near your levain till levain is ready.

Mix Dough (desired temp 78 °F)

  • After 3 hours, check levain for readiness using the float test. If it's ready, it's time to mix your dough.
  • Check autolyse temperature – if it's too high, use cooler water in the mix, and vice versa if it's too low.
  • Add the levain, honey, salt and half the water to the autolysed dough. It will come apart, but then come should come together easily. If it's too wet and shaggy, hold back the rest of the water. Otherwise, add the other half of the water and continue to mix till dough comes together.
  • Use slap and fold technique on an unfloured bench with wet hands to strengthen the dough. Transfer back to the bowl, cover loosely and start the bulk fermentation.

Bulk Fermentation

  • Allow dough to ferment for about 3 hours, during which you will perform 5 sets of stretch and folds at 30 minute intervals. At the first stretch and fold, incorporate the black sesame seek soaker and sunflower seeds as follows – Spread 1/4 of the seeds evenly over the dough, performing one stretch and fold. Rotate the bowl a quarter turn, spread another quarter of the seeds on top and perform another stretch and fold. Rotate again and repeat, then rotate and repeat one last time with the last remaining quarter of the seeds. Cover dough.
  • Repeat stretch and fold sets every 30 mins for a total of 5 stretch and fold sets. After the last stretch and fold, let dough rest for the remaining hour of bulk fermentation.

Divide, pre-shape and shape

  • At the end of bulk fermentation, confirm your dough is ready to pre-shape. It should have bubbles on top and the sides, dome downward at the sides of the bowl, and feel elastic and strong. If it needs more time to achieve readiness, give it what it needs.
  • When the dough is ready, gently scrape it onto a clean bench and divide equally using your bench knife. Using your bench knife and a moist hand, shape each piece into a smooth round. Let rounds rest for 30 minutes, uncovered.
  • Prepare your proofing baskets by placing cloth liners and dusting them lightly with rice flour. Spread and even layer of white sesame seeds on a sheet pan or clean towel. Dry your bench for shaping.
  • Dust the top of your rounds with flour, flip over flour side down on the bench and shape into either a batard or a boule. After shaping, quickly roll the top side in the seeds so they stick. (If you need to spray a bit of water to moisten it, do so) Gently transfer to the prepared proofing basket, seam side up. Place basket into a clean, reusable plastic bag and put in the fridge for an overnight proof. If the dough does not come to the top of the basket, allow it to sit another 30-60 minutes at room temperature to achieve some height, then bag and transfer to fridge.

Bake

  • Preheat your dutch oven in a 500 °F oven for at least 30 minutes.
  • Immediately before baking, remove one bread from the fridge. Evert onto parchment paper and score. Gently drop into the preheated dutch oven, cover and transfer to the oven. Reduce the oven temp to 450 °F and bake for 20 minutes, then remove the lid. Continue to bake for another 20-25 minutes till internal temp is 206-210 degrees F and crust is a rich, golden brown color. Cool on wire rack at least 1-2 hours before slicing. For the second loaf, raise the temp to 500 and preheat your dutch oven again for 15 minutes, then repeat as above.

Homemade Shrimp Stock

Recently, my sister Marylou gifted me a box of Aneto fish broth that she had bought, but thought she would never use. I decided to use the broth to make a shrimp risotto, something I’ve made many times over the years, but always using chicken stock. (I love chicken stock…)

Well, let me tell you that shrimp risotto was a revelation. I had no idea it could taste so amazing. What had I been thinking all these years using chicken and not fish stock????

But there was a problem. As good as the Aneto’s fish broth is (and it is amazingly good), I inherently hate stock-in-a-box. Something about it just makes me nervous. I’m never 100% sure when I twist off the cap that it hasn’t been opened before. Give me stock in a can or give me homemade stock….

I looked online to see if I could find a canned fish stock as good as Aneto’s, and found this nice round up and taste test comparison of fish stocks. Aneto’s stock-in-a-box came out on top – no surprise given my experience with using it. But there was no canned version…

Okay, it was time to start making my own fish stock. I had seen my brother Joe’s shrimp stock in progress over the years (we text each other pics while we’re cooking), and had always been intrigued by the idea. But until now, I never had a need for shrimp stock.

Turns out making shrimp stock is easy-peazy, if you think ahead. That means, whenever you buy shrimp, either fresh or frozen, buy it with shells on. After peeling your shrimp, save the shells in the freezer in a zip lock bag or other more environmentally-friendly container. When you have enough, thaw them out and make shrimp stock!

There are almost as many recipes for shrimp stock out there as there are good cooks. Some are as simple a shrimp shells, water, and peppercorns. Others add white wine, and some use leeks and fennel. This is the one I came up with based on what I found on the web and what I had in my fridge and pantry. Feel free to come up with your own shrimp stock recipe – I’ll put some links at the end of this post to get you started.

And if you make shrimp risotto – trust me on this – always use a fish stock.

Print Recipe

Shrimp Stock

You can use your stock immediately, or freeze it for up to 3 months.

Ingredients

  • 4 cups shrimp shells
  • 2 quarts filtered water
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 coarsely chopped medium onion
  • 1 coarsely chopped medium carrot
  • 1 coarsely chopped stalk celery
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 3 peppercorns
  • 2 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 1 tsp sea salt

Instructions

  • Saute the shrimp shells in olive oil over medium high heat in a stockpot with the onion, carrot, and celery till slightly browned in spots. Add tomato paste and cook a minute or two to brown it slightly. Add water, bay leaf, peppercorns, thyme and sea salt. Bring it to a boil over high heat, skim the foam, then lower heat and simmer for 45 minutes, skimming as needed.
  • Cool a bit, then strain the broth though a fine mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth. Let it cool completely, then freeze for up to 3 months. Better yet, use it right away and make shrimp risotto.

A Few Shrimp Stock Recipes to Get You Started

Whole Roasted Squash With Tomato-Ginger Chickpeas & Za’atar

I read myself the riot act about 6 months ago, when my cholesterol level reached a new high. My doctor seemed nonplussed, perhaps because my cardiac calcium score was a perfect zero. But I was not happy. Yes, I had lost weight and was exercising, but to be honest, my heart belonged to cheese. And eggs. And ice cream. Something had to change.

Breakfast was easy. The whole eggs (which I had been eating almost daily) were replaced by Starbucks Sous Vide Egg whites or oatmeal served with a side of chicken sausage. Lunches were yogurt or soup or vegan bean burritos or salad or tuna or peanut butter. I started snacking on nuts and fruits and avocado.

But dinner remained a challenge for some time, as it’s the one meal my husband and I always eat (and often cook) together, and he loves meat. Though we often cooked chicken, we were definitely eating more red meat than recommended, not enough fish and almost never an entire veggie meal. He loves salmon, so we added that more frequently into the rotation. But It was hard to convince him to forgo the red meat. Until his cholesterol returned elevated – though not as high as mine.

We decided it was time to tackle dinner together. We dropped red meat from the menu, except for the occasional grass fed beef and lamb or top rib in a cabbage soup, upped the fish to several times a week, and started rotating in some vegetarian dinners.

I’m proud to report that, with just these changes, my total cholesterol dropped over 60 points and my LDL almost 50 points! I’m still not where I want to be, but I’m on my way, out of mandatory statin territory and eager to move further into meatless cuisine.

Luckily, I have a few vegetable-forward relatives who are also creative and wonderful cooks, and who have generously shared their recipe and ingredient gems with me. Let me in turn share this one with you.

See you in the land of meatless meals!

Print Recipe

Whole Roasted Squash With Tomato-Ginger Chickpeas & Za’atar

Cousin Karen modifed this recipe from Ali Slagle at the NYTimes by adding some of my homemade za'atar that I had shared with her. It's the perfect addition!

Ingredients

  • 3 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained
  • ⅔ cup extra-virgin olive oil plus more for drizzling
  • 3 14½-ounce cans diced tomatoes
  • ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 3 oregano sprigs plus leaves for garnish
  • 2½ tablespoons peeled, finely chopped ginger
  • Salt and black pepper to taste
  • 2 3- to 4-pound butternut squash
  • ¾ cup full-fat plain yogurt (I use sheep yogurt)
  • Za'atar to taste

Instructions

  • Heat the oven to 300 degrees. On a sheet pan, stir together the chickpeas, ⅔ cup olive oil, tomatoes, cinnamon, oregano sprigs and 2 tablespoons chopped ginger. Season with salt and pepper and spread in an even layer.
  • Scrub the squash and prick in a few places with a paring knife. Transfer to a foil-lined sheet pan and coat lightly with oil, salt and pepper.
  • Bake the squash in the preheated oven on the bottom rack and the chickpeas on the upper rack until a knife slides easily through the squash and the chickpeas and tomatoes are dark red and thick like jam, 2 to 2½ hours, stirring the chickpeas occasionally.
  • Meanwhile, stir the remaining ½ tablespoon ginger into the sheep yogurt. (If using Greek yogurt, you may need to thin it with a little water) Season to taste with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
  • Discard the herb sprigs, then season the chickpeas to taste with salt and pepper. When the squash are cool enough to handle, cut into big pieces and scoop out and discard the stems, seeds and stringy bits. Keep the skin on – it's edible. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer the squash to a platter flesh side up, then top with the chickpeas, some of the ginger yogurt and a very generous sprinkle of za'atar. Serve the remaining yogurt alongside.

Pretty Darned Near Absolutely Perfect Bagels

One of the challenges with making bread is that I want to bake more bread than my husband and I can eat. At best, it takes us a week to get through a loaf, slicing, freezing, thawing and toasting our slices one by one. When the sliced bread in the freezer piles up, I make breadcrumbs. Even with that, we still struggle to finish up what’s in the freezer before I want to bake bread again.

My reason for not eating as much bread as I make is that I’m always on a diet. This is not the issue for Mr TBTAM, who can eat as much bread as he wants and still weighs the same as he did the day I married him. But the bread he wants on a daily basis is not my artisan sourdough, though he does enjoy it immensely whenever he makes a sandwich. The bread he wants and eats on a daily basis is his morning bagel.

Not just any bagel, mind you. The right kind of bagel. The perfect bagel. Dense, chewy, flavorful, not too well-done, not too pale, and not too large. With everything bagel topping.

In New York City the perfect bagel is to be found in only one place, and that’s Absolute Bagel on Broadway at 108th street. For almost 30 years, once a week on a weekend morning, Mr TBTAM would arise at 6 am to ride his bike to Absolute before the block-long line started to form out front, returning home with a half dozen everything bagels, still warm in their paper bag. Once, he and our friend Noel undertook a bagel hunt, venturing into far-off Brooklyn is search of a more perfect bagel than the Absolute bagel. It was not to be found, although the bagels at the Bagel Hole came close to their Absolute benchmark.

Now that we’re living back home in Philly, Mr TBTAM has yet to find his perfect Philly bagel. Not that he hasn’t tried, and he’s tried quite a few – Whole Foods (“so-so”), Famous Deli (“up there, one of the best so far”), Bart’s in Powelton (“up there with Famous, but not quite there”), Kismet in Reading Terminal (“pretty good”), Kaplans in Northern Liberty (“in the middle”), Spread on South Street (‘pretty good, I think”). He has high hopes for New York Bagel on Haverford and City Line Ave, based on recommendations from several friends and a distant memory of liking their bagels 30 years ago, but has yet to make the schlep.

The bagels he grew up on were from Rollings Bakery, located at that time on 5th Street in East Oak Lane, now relocated to Elkins Park. Imagine a soft but chewy bagel with a firm but pliant crust. Now sit on it. That was the old Rollings bagel. The current Rollings iteration is no longer misshapen and squashed, and just as delicious as the old Rollings bagel, but for some reason, they don’t satisfy Mr TBTAM anymore. I suspect it’s because Absolute bagel has ruined him for any other bagel.

Quite a long prelude, but necessary so that you might understand why a bagel-making undertaking on my part might be pretty high stakes in this family. But, remembering my oft-recited mantra “How hard could it be?”, I decided it was time to try. So I made a dozen bagels using Claire Saffitz’s recipe in the NY Times, mixing in a bit of home-milled heritage wheat with heritage bread flour from Sunrise Mills.

Imagine my shock and delight when Mr TBTAM declared my very first batch of bagels to be as good as the bagels at Absolute! Though the man has never lied to me, even to make me feel good, I just could not believe it. So I foisted a few bagels onto my daughter and mother-in-law, who loved them as much as did my husband!

I, on the other hand, was not satisfied. The bagels I made using Saffritz’s recipe were delicious, but the crust was just a little too hard for my liking. My recollection of the Absolute bagel crust is that it’s dense and chewy, but pliable and even a tad squishable, though not squishy. The bagels I made did not squish much when pressed, if at all. Something was still not right. So I dove deep into the bagel making rabbit hole, reading about boiling and baking times, and exploring a multitude of bagel recipes.

Turns out that the reason one boils the bagels is to set the crust and keep the bagel from puffing up like a loaf of bread when it hits the oven, allowing it to maintain that bagel shape we know and love. The longer one boils the bagel, the thicker and denser the crust becomes, making it more resistant to the rising bagel innards, leading to a flatter bagel. As for baking times, I found this among other recipes, which recommended a much shorter 15 minute bagel bake. Hmm….

I was looking for a chewy but not too chewy crust that was pliable. Not sure if the small amount of optional whole wheat I was adding in to my flour might be the culprit, I left it out. Then I shortened the bagel boiling time from 1 minute (but probably closer to 1 1/2 minutes given I was floating 4 bagels at a time in the boiling water) to 45 seconds, working with at most one or two bagels at a time, aided by the Timer on my Iphone clock app. I then tweaked my baking time – half my bagels went in at 450 for the 20-25 minutes Saffrtitz recommends, and the other half went in at 450 for 15 minutes. Worried they’d be undercooked, I checked the internal temp after taking the 15 minute bagels out of the oven – 200 degrees. Just right.

Bingo! The combination of a 45 second boiling time and 15 minute baking time got me as close to an Absolute bagel as one can get without schlepping up to 108th and Broadway. Chewy crust with a satisfactory, but not too squishy squish when pressed. Delicious, with a dense but not too dense interior.

I’m now making bagels weekly! The dozen I make barely satisfies my family’s needs once I’ve given my husband his half dozen and the deliver the rest to my daughter, her husband and my mother-in-law. This just makes me SO happy…

I’ve thought about trying sourdough bagels next, but these bagels are much easier to fit into my life than sourdough. I do plan on adding back the home-milled whole wheat flour next week, just because I think I can. And trying out King Arthur Lancelot High Gluten Flour, as the higher the gluten content, the chewier the bagel.

Other than that, I’m not making any changes. Because these are pretty darned near absolutely perfect bagels.

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5 from 1 vote

Pretty Darned Near Absolutely Perfect Bagels

This recipe will get you as close to an Absolute Bagel as one can get without schlepping up to 108th and Broadway. Modified from NYT cooking recipe by Claire Saffitz. (I highly recommend you read that recipe and watch Claire's video)
Servings: 12 Bagels

Ingredients

Dough

  • 2 tbsp Barley Malt Syrup
  • 7 grams Active Dry Yeast (1 packet or 2 1/4 tsp)
  • 540 ml Lukewarm water (105 – 110 degrees)
  • 885 grams High Protein Bread Flour
  • 17 grams Kosher salt

Boiling and Topping

  • 1 tsp Baking Soda
  • 1/4 cup Barley Malt Syrup
  • Bagel toppings (Everything, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, salt, dried minced onion)

Instructions

Prepare the Bagel Dough

  • Whisk 2 tbsp barley malt syrup into 120 ml lukewarm water into a small bowl. Add the yeast and stir till dissolved. Let sit until the mixture foams, about 5 minutes.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the bread flour and salt and make a well in the center. Pour in the yeast mixture and the remaining 420 ml water. Mix, using your hands and a bowl scraper, until the dough is shaggy. Knead it in the bowl till it's a solid mass, then turn it out onto a clean counter and continue kneading till there are no dry spots and the dough is stiff but very smooth and still slightly sticky (15 mins or so).
  • Gather the dough into a ball and place it in a large, clean bowl. Cover with a damp towel and let rise at room temperature until it has doubled in size, 1½ to 2 hours.

Divide, Pre-Shape and Shape the Bagels

  • Using your fist, punch down the dough and turn it out onto a clean work surface. Using a bench scraper or sharp knife, cut the dough into 12 equal 120 gram pieces.  
  • Pre-shape each piece into a tight ball by gently flattening the dough out onto the work surface. Then, working your way around the circle, pull the edges towards the center, pinching them shut to form a tight dumpling-like pouch. Turn it over, seam side down, and cupping your hands around the dough, drag it in a circular motion to form a tight, high dome. (Watch this video from KA for technique) Repeat with all the pieces, then cover them with a damp towel and let rest for 5 minutes.
  • Line two large rimmed baking sheets with lightly oiled parchment paper. Working one piece at a time, roll your hand in the center a few times to create a bulb at each end. Then, switch to two hands and roll outward to about 12 inches of even thickness throughout. Now, wrap the rope around your open hand, overlapping the ends over your palm, then flipping your hand over to roll the ends together to seal and form the bagel. (Watch this video from Maurizio of the Perfect Loaf for technique.)
  • As you form each bagel, place it on the parchment-lined baking sheet, evenly spacing six bagels to a sheet. When you’ve formed all the bagels, cover each baking sheet with a piece of plastic, followed by a damp towel and transfer the baking sheets to the refrigerator. Chill at least 4 hours but preferably overnight.

Boiling the Bagels

  • Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit with a rack in the center. Fill a large, wide pot or Dutch oven oven halfway with water and bring to a boil. Set a wire rack next to the Dutch oven. Set your various bagel toppings on small plates next to the wire rack. Set the timer on your phone to 45 seconds.
  • Add 1/4 cup barley malt syrup and 1 tsp baking soda to the boiling water in the pot, skimming excess foam as it forms. Remove one sheet pan of bagels from the fridge and place it on the counter near the stove as possible. Working quickly, drop 1 to 2 bagels gently into the boiling water, then immediately start the timer. At around 20 seconds, gently flip the bagels using a large slotted spoon, and at the 45 second mark, gently remove the bagels from the pot and place them on the wire rack. Repeat until you've boiled 6 bagels, waiting if need be between batches to maintain a steady boil.

Topping & Baking the Bagels

  • Discard the parchment sheet from the baking pan you used to store the bagels in the fridge. Gently dip each bagel into its chosen topping, and arrange them spaced equally back on the now bare baking sheet. Place the sheet into the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes, turning the pan 180 degrees after 8 minutes to assure even baking. Remove to a rack to cool.
  • Repeat the boiling, coating and baking process with the second sheet of bagels from the fridge. Let the bagels cool completely on a wire rack before eating.

Za’atar

I’m excited about this season’s Za’atar, because its almost entirely from foraged or home-grown spices.

We picked the sumac along a dirt road in Northern New Hampshire in late June. It was the most luscious, oil-packed, fragrant sumac I’ve ever encountered. (Read about how to find and dry sumac here.)

The oregano and thyme hailed from Pennsylvania and New York City, grown in sis Rosemary and friend Paula’s container gardens, as well as my own window box in the mountains. I dried the sumac by laying them it for a couple of weeks on a cooling rack atop a baking sheet, and the other herbs in the food dehydrator for two days. The marjoram was store bought, and I vow to grown my own next year. I mixed it my Za’atar few weeks ago, and packaged it today in these adorable spice jars I found on the internet.

There are as many recipes for Za’atar as there are chefs. I used this one from Spruce Eats. I’d love to find a source for the Za’atar plant, an oregano that hails from the West Bank in Palestine, the flavor of which we try to emulate by mixing western oregano, thyme and marjoram. Maybe I can try my hand at growing that. It’s what Ottolenghi uses in his Za’atar spice blend,

I’ve used Za’atar in chicken and pasta dishes, but enjoy it most sprinkled atop Lebanese flatbreads.

Most of my Za’atar is already called for, but I still have a few jars leftover. Let me know if you want some.

A Trio of Mushroom Dishes for a Trio of Mushrooms

If you’re ever in the Lake Winnipesaukee area, as we were last month visiting family, stop in at the New Hampshire Mushroom Company in Tamworth. If you’re lucky, the mushroom-growing rooms will be open to the public when you visit. Unfortunately, most of the crew was out giving a mushroom foraging tour the day we visited, so no back room tour for us. Nonetheless, we still managed to score a HUGE box of gorgeous shrooms – Lion’s Mane, Chestnut and Blue Oyster. I was a bit worried we’d never manage to use them all, but my fears were ungrounded, as we had several occasions the following week to share our bounty with family.

First, I made the most wonderful Mushroom Lasagna for dinner at Irene’s with Mr TBTAM’s family, based on a recipe from Martha Rose Shulman. We left the leftovers for Irene, and were pleased to hear it was just as delicious the next day when reheated.

Two days later, Mr TBTAM and I made a pasta using the leftover cooked lasagna noodles (If you cook the whole pound box instead of the half pound called for in the recipe you have a LOT of leftover noodles) that I sliced into long tagliatelle-like shapes and tossed with the same mushroom mixture as in the lasagna, substituting heavy cream for the bechamel. OMG, perfection!

Finally, again using that very same recipe as a base, Rachel and I made mushroom toasts to serve my family, who came over for dinner while she and brother Joe were staying with us. This time, we served that cooked mushroom mixture atop toasted slices of a baguette from Metropolitan Bakery in Reading Terminal Market. The only thing better than those toasts was having my sibs and their spouses around our dining room table, probably the thing I had missed most when moving to NYC 30 years go, and the thing that makes me happiest about our move back home to Philly.

Here are the three recipes. Enjoy!

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Mushroom Lasagna

Based on a recipe from Martha Rose Shulman in the NY Times. The bechamel is made with olive oil instead of butter, and is just lovely.

Ingredients

Mushrooms

  • 1 ounce mixed dried mushrooms
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 shallots finely chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves minced
  • 1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced (I used Lions Mane, Chestnut and Blue Oysters, but you can use crimini if that's what is available)
  • Salt to taste
  • ½ cup fruity red wine
  • 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
  • Freshly ground pepper

Béchamel

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons minced shallots
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • Salt
  • freshly ground pepper

Lasagna

  • ½ pound dried lasagna noodles
  • I cup grated mixed Parmesan/Pecorino Romano cheese

Instructions

  • Soak the dried mushrooms in a glass measuring cup with 2 cups boiling water for 30 minutes. Drain in a strainer lined with cheesecloth over a bowl, squeezing to extract all the juices. If using shiitakes, cut away and discard the stems. Measure out 1½ cups of the soaking liquid and set aside. Rinse the mushrooms until they are free of sand, squeeze dry and chop coarsely. Set aside.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Oil a 2-quart rectangular baking dish.
  • Cook the Mushrooms. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat and add shallots. Cook, stirring often, until tender. Add the garlic, stir together for about 30 seconds, then add the fresh and reconstituted mushrooms and salt to taste. Cook, stirring often, until the mushrooms begin to soften and sweat. Add the wine and turn the heat to high. Cook, stirring, until the liquid boils down. Add thyme and stir in the mushroom soaking liquid. Bring to a simmer, add salt, and cook over medium-high heat, stirring often, until the mushrooms are thoroughly tender and fragrant and the surrounding broth has reduced by a little more than half, about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in some freshly ground pepper, taste and adjust salt.
  • Make the béchamel. Heat the oil over medium heat in a heavy saucepan. Add the minced shallot and cook, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring, for about 3 minutes, until smooth and bubbling, but not browned. Whisk in the milk all at once and bring to a simmer, whisking all the while, until the mixture begins to thicken. Turn the heat to very low and simmer, stirring often with a whisk and scraping the bottom and edges of the pan with a rubber spatula, for 10 to 15 minutes, until the sauce is thick and has lost its raw-flour taste. Season with salt and pepper. Pour while hot into the pan with the mushrooms.
  • Meanwhile, boil the water with a little olive oil for the lasagna and cook the noodles according to directions, till al dente. Drain. Spoon a thin layer of béchamel and mushrooms over the bottom of the dish. Top with a layer of noodles. Spread a ladleful of the mushroom/béchamel mixture over the noodles and top with a layer of Parmesan. Continue to repeat the layers, ending with a layer of the mushroom/béchamel mixture topped with Parmesan. Cover with foil and place in the oven. Bake 30 minutes. Remove the foil, and continue to bake uncovered for another 5 to 10 minutes till edges are slightly crispy and top is browned. Serve.
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Tagliatelle with Mushrooms

Dried and fresh mushrooms combine with a light, olive oil bechamel and Parmesan or mixed aged cheeses to make a delicious pasta. Serve with a tossed green salad.

Ingredients

  • 1 ounce mixed dried mushrooms
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 shallots finely chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves minced
  • 8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced (I used Lions Mane, Chestnut and Blue Oysters, but you can use crimini)
  • ½ cup fruity red wine
  • 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • Salt
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 pound dried tagliatelle
  • grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese

Instructions

  • Soak the dried mushrooms in a glass measuring cup with 2 cups boiling water for 30 minutes. Drain in a strainer lined with cheesecloth over a bowl, squeezing to extract all the juices. If using shiitakes, cut away and discard the stems. Measure out 1½ cups of the soaking liquid and set aside. Rinse the mushrooms until they are free of sand, squeeze dry and chop coarsely. Set aside.
  • Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat and add shallots. Cook, stirring often, until tender. Add the garlic, stir together for about 30 seconds, then add the fresh and reconstituted mushrooms and salt to taste. Cook, stirring often, until the mushrooms begin to soften and sweat. Add the wine and turn the heat to high. Cook, stirring, until the liquid boils down. Add thyme and stir in the mushroom soaking liquid. Bring to a simmer, add salt, and cook over medium-high heat, stirring often, until the mushrooms are thoroughly tender and fragrant and the surrounding broth has reduced by a little more than half, about 10 to 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in cream and simmer for 5 minutes. Adjust seasoning as needed.
  • While the mushrooms are cooking, boil salted water for the pasta and cook the pasta in the water till al dente, then drain and toss in with the mushroom-cream mixture. Sprinkle generously with grated cheese and serve.
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Mushroom Toasts

Serve cooked mixed mushrooms atop toasted baguette slices, topped with grated Parmesan.

Ingredients

  • 1 ounce mixed dried mushrooms
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 shallots finely chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves minced
  • 1 pound fresh mushrooms sliced (I used Lions Mane, Chestnut and Blue Oysters, but you can use crimini if that’s what is available)
  • Salt to taste
  • ½ cup fruity red wine
  • 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • extra virgin Olive oil
  • 1 long baguette
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese

Instructions

  • Soak the dried mushrooms in a glass measuring cup with 2 cups boiling water for 30 minutes. Drain in a strainer lined with cheesecloth over a bowl, squeezing to extract all the juices. If using shiitakes, cut away and discard the stems. Measure out 1½ cups of the soaking liquid and set aside. Rinse the mushrooms until they are free of sand, squeeze dry and chop coarsely. Set aside.
  • Cook the Mushrooms. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat and add shallots. Cook, stirring often, until tender. Add the garlic, stir together for about 30 seconds, then add the fresh and reconstituted mushrooms and salt to taste. Cook, stirring often, until the mushrooms begin to soften and sweat. Add the wine and turn the heat to high. Cook, stirring, until the liquid boils down. Add thyme and stir in the mushroom soaking liquid. Bring to a simmer, add salt, and cook over medium-high heat, stirring often, until the mushrooms are thoroughly tender and fragrant and the surrounding broth has reduced by a little more than half, about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in some freshly ground pepper, taste and adjust salt. Keep warm while toasting the baguette slices.
  • Toast the Baguette Slices. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Slice baguette, arrange slices on a baking sheet and generously brush with olive oil. Bake until lightly toasted, 5 to 10 minutes.
  • Assemble Toasts. Spoon warm mushroom mixture atop the baguette slices. Sprinkle generously with grated cheese and serve.

Banana Bread (with Chocolate Bits)

I’m generally not a fan of bananas eaten anything other than in vivo, ie., peeled and popped into the mouth, fresh but not too ripe. I don’t like them in ice cream, oatmeal, cereal, cakes or even in fruit salads. Certain foods, in my opinion, just need to be enjoyed one-on-one, you know?

But last week, in my mother-in-law’s kitchen, a few over-ripe bananas were calling out not to be wasted, so my daughter and I decided to make banana bread. I figured that since others were there with us that evening, I would be under no obligation to eat the thing I was making, and my daughter and I would have a little kitchen fun, which we did.

To my surprise, I loved this bread! Perhaps it was the scattered chocolate, or the lack of large banana pieces to turn me off. Or the use of melted butter rather than oil or room temp butter.

Whatever.

This bread is moist, flavorful and keeps well in the fridge. It’s delicious eaten warm or even better, toasted and topped with a schmear of cream cheese.

Enjoy!

Banana Bread

I love that this recipe can be made entirely by hand, using just a whisk, fork and rubber spatula. This recipe is adapted from The Kitchn Website, which unfortunately left out a step in their instructions (forgetting to tell us when to add the sugar.) But the entire post is otherwise well worth the read, and the accompanying pics are great.
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Ingredients
  

  • softened butter for greasing the pan
  • 8 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 medium, very ripe bananas
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 3 ounces good dark chocolate, shaved or chopped into irregular sized small piece

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F with rack on bottom third of the oven. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of an 8×5-inch loaf pan, then line with parchment paper, letting the excess hang over the long sides, and lightly grease the paper too.
  • Whisk melted butter and sugar in a medium sized bowl. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time. Whisk in milk and vanilla. Peel the bananas, slice and add them to the bowl, mashing them in with a fork or pastry blender, leaving pieces as small or large as you like (I like them small and few in number.) If you want an entirely smooth batter, mash the bananas separately, then add to the batter.
  • Whisk flour, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl, then gently fold them into the batter using a rubber spatula just till combined. Do not over-mix. Fold in chocolate pieces.
  • Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake at 350°F for 50-65 minutes, checking with a toothpick or cake tester starting at around 50 minutes (Mine took 60 minutes, and could have gone another 5 minutes without harm.). This is a very moist cake, more likely to under- than over-bake.
  • Cool bread in the pan on a wire rack for a least 10 minutes before removing from pan, then cool another 10 minutes before slicing.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Ode to a Smoked Trout Lyonnaise

Moving to Philly and being retired means I get to visit Valley Green as often as I want. So, last week I met Susan for lunch at Brunos and a post-prandial walk along Forbidden Drive. There, we encountered a battalion of rubber-booted fisherman standing in the stream and parade of pickups and cars following a small tanker truck along the path.

Yes folks, it was trout-stocking day on the Wissahickon.

Which got me remembering the time Lou caught some gorgeous trout in the Loyalsock River, which we brined and smoked on the Weber in the back yard at our cottage. Gotta’ get Lou back up to the mountains this summer, I thought.

Next day, meeting an old med school friend at Musette (yep, this retirement thing is working out just fine, thank you..), there on the menu was a Lyonnaise salad with green beans, topped with – you guessed it – smoked trout!

OMG – heaven on a plate.

Then yesterday, while arranging and stocking my new pantry, what did I find but a can of smoked trout from Trader Joes!

It was 3 pm and I hadn’t eaten lunch. I remembered the leftover baby kale and lettuce and a small amount of uncooked bacon in the fridge and knew exactly what I was going to do. Make Mark Bittman’s Salad Lyonnaise, topped with smoked trout.

OMG perfect.

I mean, really. A salad tossed in a warm vinagriette made from olive oil, bacon with its rendered fat, Dijon mustard, shallots (or in my case, garlic) and sherry wine vinegar, all topped with a poached egg? Only the French would think of that. And now I was going to gild that lily with smoked trout. Oh yeah, it was delish.

Eating my lunch, I started rooting around my brain for a poem to submit to my poetry workgroup that evening. Last minute poet, that’s me…

Luckily, this poem arose just in time.

Sometimes, the stars (and the trout) align. 

Ode to a Smoked Trout Lyonnaise 

It's a brisk April morning on the old Wissahickon.
Rubber-booted fisherman are tossing their lines
into freshly stocked waters, where the trout are a-kickin',
their rainbow fins shimmer through the shadows of pines.

Which gets me to dreamin' of trout filets swimming
in applewood vapor, still fresh from the brine,
in a black kettle smoker, their plump muscles brimming
with sweet smoky candy-like flavor divine.

Now they greet me at the tabletop tossed with frisee
bathed in bacon-laced sherry and French mustard dressing
flanked by haricot vert, and atop it all lay
a perfect cooked egg like an early spring blessing. 

Margaret Polaneczky
April 20, 2023

Late Winter Poem

Foretelling

If you skirt shadowed sidewalks and keep to the sun,
You will think that the worst of the winter has passed.
Breezes with warm tones of spring days to come 
Brush your cheek with a promise that says this will last.

At park side, a witch hazel catches your eye
With sparkling jewels studding nature's gray weave
Its flowers a happy late winter surprise
Portending forsythia's bright yellow sleeves.

Hold the breeze to her promise,
Hold the light to the day,
The forsythia blossoms are not long away.

Margaret Polaneczky
2/14/2023

Chicken with Dried Mushrooms & Tomatoes

When it comes time to figure out what to make for dinner, I love the internet as much as anyone. I usually head straight to the NY Times Cooking section, or to Epicurious, Saveur or Food 52 for ideas and inspiration. But one weekend this past year, with our Philly travel plans cancelled by an upcoming storm (there is nothing worse than the Jersey turnpike in a thunderstorm with tornado and flood warnings), I had the unexpected luxury of free time on a Saturday morning. Sitting with a cup of coffee, I opened Biba’s Taste of Italy, a cookbook whose spine I had yet to crack in the year since it had been gifted to me by my husband, to see what I might make for dinner that evening.

Written by the late Sacramento-based restaurateur and chef Biba Caggiano, Biba’s Taste of Italy is an homage to the cuisine of Emilia Romagna, the region of Italy where Biba grew up, and where much of her family still lives. Emilia Romagna straddles Italy just north of Tuscany, and includes the cities of Bologna, Modena and Parma. Stanley Tucci visited the prosperous region in his episode on Bologna, and describes it as “a lush land of fertile river valleys stuffed with livestock and billowing with soft wheat”. It also is home to some of Italy’s finest chefs and most amazing cuisine.

Image from Wikimedia Commons

In this region, porcini mushrooms grow in abundance in the wooded forests between Bologna and Modena, and most famously in the area around Borgotaro, home of the Sagra del Fungo, or annual porcini mushroom festival. Porcini from this area have been given the prestigious PGI designation as a national treasure, and have been described as having “a woody aroma and a clean smell recalling hazelnuts, liquorice or newly cut wood”, with “no trace of that smell of hay which often defines less valuable mushrooms”.

Porcini – Image from Wikipedia commons

As Bibi tells us, porcini in Emilia Romagna are used fresh in the spring and fall, and at other times dried. Dried porcini are not considered a substitute for fresh, but an ingredient all their own, as is the broth that results from their re-hydration. In the kitchen, they often serve a supporting role to enrich pasta sauces and enhance meat, vegetable and risotto dishes. In the recipe I chose to make that evening, the dried mushrooms share the spotlight with the tomatoes in a rich, woodsy flavored sauce for a braised chicken.

Now, after all that, I have a confession to make. I did not use dried PGI porcini from Emilia Romagna in this recipe. My dried mushrooms were from the New Hampshire Mushroom Company, gifted to me by one of my sisters, who had recently visited the place.

I also have to admit I was both curious and a little scared of the sauce in this recipe, which uses only five ingredients – tomatoes, dried porcini, garlic, white wine and rosemary. It just seemed too simple, and I could not imagine using only the dried mushrooms in a sauce like this. I was tempted to add some fresh mushrooms and maybe some onion and pancetta. None of which would have hurt, but I am so glad I kept the recipe as simple as it is. Because this dish in delicious. And even better the second day, or as Biba says, “It benefits from being prepared several hours ahead and reheated gently just before serving”. Which, come to think of it, makes it a great make-ahead entree to serve to company.

We served ours with potatoes, but next time I’ll serve it atop polenta.

And get me some genuine PGI Porcini.

Here’s to free Saturdays!

Print Recipe

Chicken with Dried Mushrooms and Tomatoes

A lovely braised chicken recipe from Biba's Taste of Italy, celebrating the cooking of the Emilia-Romagna region.

Ingredients

  • 1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in 2 cups lukewarm water for 20 minutes
  • 8 Chicken thighs (or a cut up whole chicken)
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 2-3 tbsp Extra-virgin olive oil
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • 1 garlic clove, finely minced
  • 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary or 1/2 tsp dried rosemary, chopped
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 16 ounces plum tomatoes, minced
  • 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Instructions

  • Drain porcini mushrooms and reserve the soaking water. Rinse mushrooms well under cold running water, roughly mince and set aside. Strain soaking water through a few layers paper towels into small bowl and set aside.
  • Heat butter and oil in a large heavy casserole or skillet over medium high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper and add to the pan, skin side down. Cook, turning one or twice, till golden on both sides, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
  • Add porcini, garlic and rosemary to the pan and stir quickly for a minute or so. Add wine and deglaze. When wine is reduced by half, add the tomatoes, season lightly with salt, and cook for a few minutes.
  • Return chicken pieces to the pan and stir them into the sauce. Reduce heat to low, partially cover the pan and cook gently till chicken is very tender, about 40-45 minutes. Stir and check the sauce from time to time, adding the reserved porcini water if the sauce reduces too much.
  • Just before serving, stir in the parsley. Adjust seasonings and serve.

Where to get PGI Porcini

Dried porcini from La Bottega del Fungo, a family run operation in Borgotaro.

Roast Cauliflower with Vadouvan Butter

In the “How did I not know about this before?” category, allow me to introduce you to vadouvan, a delicious Indo-French curry spice mix that will blow your taste buds and your mind. Thanks to bro Joe for turning me on to vadouvan, though the real credit goes to the French colonists in seventeenth century Pundicherry, India who created the spice mix as they blended French and Indian cuisines. Vadouvan is complex and piquant but milder than traditional curry, and a truly exotic treat for your taste buds.

Joe learned about Vadouvan from his buddy Mourad, the modern Moroccan chef whose book Mourad-New Moroccan has become a classic. (You can read my review of the book and my take on Mourad’s recipe for baked beans here) Here’s what Mourad says about Vadouvan –

I can’t think about curry without going straight to vadouvan, on of my all time favorite seasoning ingredients….Vadouvan is a spice mix made with minced shallots and onions sauteed with curry spices and then dried to make a chunky blend. It lets you add the rich flavor of sauteed curry (as opposed to the unpleasant raw flavor of curry powder) to foods without having to cook that flavor into the dish. (Imagine wanting to add a bit of curry flavor to a poached egg – with vadouvan, you just sprinkle it on top)

Mourad New Moroccan

As with any spice mix, the exact spices and their proportions in any given vadouvan can vary, as can the preparation, depending on who’s making the blend. Mourad’s recipe is quite complex, with a long ingredient list that includes shallots, garlic, onion, curry leaves and fresh turmeric, along with pretty much every spice you’ve ever loved, not to mention both yellow and brown mustard seeds, and involves both cooking and then dehydrating the mix. This makes it somewhat intimidating to make, especially if, like me, you’ve never even tasted vadouvan before.

So – instead of making my own vadouvan, I headed straight to Kalustyans, NYC’s spice mecca in Midtown East, whose vadouvan comes highly praised. Kalustyans vadouvan ingredient list pretty much echoes Mourad’s, but uses rosemary instead of ginger. I was impressed but not surprised. Kalustyan’s is really an amazing place, you must go sometime. Luckily, if you can’t make the journey, you can order their vadouvan online. I also hear the LA-based Le Sanctuaire has an amazing Vadouvan for sale.

While Vadouvan is indeed delicious sprinkled on scrambled eggs, it can also be used to make faves such as chicken curry. And it’s insane when mixed into a butter, as its flavor is enhanced in fat. In this form, you can toss it with carrots, or brush it atop grilled duck or fish. Here, I’ve opted to toss it with roasted cauliflower. It’s an easy gateway drug into this mind blowing spice mix. Do try it.

Print Recipe

Roast Cauliflower with Vadouvan Butter

I modified a recipe from Good Food Australia to an American kitchen, and increased the amount of vadouvan a tad from the original recipe.

Ingredients

  • 1 medium head Cauliflower, washed, dried and cut into florets
  • 2 tbsp Olive OIl
  • 1 tbsp Vadouvan Spice Mix
  • 1 tbsp Butter

Instructions

  • Cut the cauliflower into florets and place in a large bowl. Pour in the olive oil, season generously with salt and pepper and toss to coat well. Spread evenly over a sheet pan tray and bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 25-30 minutes or until golden and tender.
  • To serve, melt the butter in a frying pan, add the vadouvan and stir through. Add the cauliflower and toss for a minute or two until well coated over low heat (don't let it burn). Serve.

More about Vadouvan

  • Wild Greens & Sardines has a gorgeous post about making Mourad’s Vadouvan recipe.
  • Spiceography on vadouvan’s history
  • How to use Vadouvan, the curry powder you need in your life – some nice suggestions for incorporating this amazing spice blend into your cooking.
  • What is vadouvan, and why is it showing up in so many menus? from the Washington Post

Gougères

Gougères. The perfect appetizer for the holidays.

So impressive, so fancy, so French. And yet, they are so easy to make. Even better, they can be made ahead and frozen, then simply reheated in the oven when your guests arrive, as they are best served warm.

Gougere are simply a savory cream puff. I first learned to make cream puffs in college, when I spent my summers in the dessert kitchen of a sleep away camp in New Hampshire. My boss, whose late husband had been a French-trained chef, brought his recipes into the camp kitchen and ran the place like it was the French Laundry. She taught me how NOT to put the knives in the sink (after she cut her hand on a knife I had left there, I still feel terrible about that), how to bleach and scrub a wooden counter, how to ice a cake (a first thin layer tamps down the crumbs…) , and most importantly, how to make cream puffs. I still remember boiling the water and butter in the big pot on the stove, then mixing in the flour till it held together and formed a skin on the bottom of the pan. Next we dumped the dough into the big standing mixer, let it cool and added the eggs one at a time. Finally, we piped them onto industrial sized cookie sheets and popped them into the oven. The most fun part was filling the cooled puffs with cream using this industrial sized metal bucket with a pump handle and nozzle – I have no idea what that thing was called, but it was so much fun!

Anyway, gougère are not cream puffs per se, but a cheese puff made without sugar and filling.

Don’t be intimidated by the gougère’s fancy shape, which I messily accomplished using a pastry tube and star tip. You can make something equally impressive (and with much less of a mess) using a small scoop. Which, by the way, is also a great size scoop to use for making chocolate chip cookies.

Pastry bag/Tube vs scoop

Before learning to make gougères, however, you must learn to pronounce their name. Fortunately, I have guy who can help you with this…

Now you’re all set. Happy gougères making!

Print Recipe

Gougères

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
  • 1 large pinch kosher salt
  • 4 large eggs
  • 3 1/2 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated, plus more for dusting
  • 1 pinch freshly ground pepper
  • 1 pinch freshly ground nutmeg

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 400°. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium saucepan, combine the water, milk, butter and salt and bring to a boil. Add the flour and stir it in with a wooden spoon till smooth dough forms; stir over low heat until it dries out and pulls away from the pan and a film develops on the bottom of the pan, or when temp reaches 175 Farenheit on an instant read thermometer – about 2 minutes.
  • Transfer dough to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat at medium speed until dough is 145°F (63°C) on instant-read thermometer (you don;t want the dough to cook the eggs when adding them). Beat the eggs into the dough, 1 at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add the cheese and the pepper and nutmeg
  • Transfer the dough to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch round tip . At this point, the gougères batter can be held in the sealed pastry bag at room temperature for up to 2 hours. Pipe tablespoon-size mounds onto the lined baking sheets, 2 inches apart. (Alternatively drop mounds using a small scoop onto the lined baking sheets.) Sprinkle with cheese and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until puffed and golden brown. Serve hot, or let cool and refrigerate or freeze. Reheat in a 350° oven until piping hot.

Gougères media links