Monthly Archives: November 2022

Spanish Stuffed Peppers – The Evolution of a New Recipe

My love affair continues with Sofrito, the Spanish slow cooked tomato-olive oil-mirepoix that’s a staple in a healthy Mediterranean diet. I now make it regularly, storing it in small jars in my freezer and searching for ways to incorporate it into the foods we make. For example, these stuffed peppers, a recipe I am proud to say I came up with all by myself. Well, actually, that’s not entirely true. I had a little help from my friends (and family). Let me tell you how it went down…

Last week, while at the market, a beautiful multicolored fresh pepper medley caught my eye. I knew I had a pound of lean ground beef and one last ziplock bag of this past summer’s corn in our freezer, and decided to make stuffed peppers. I think I’ve only made stuffed peppers once in my life, so obviously, I needed a recipe.

I went home, took the ground beef out of the freezer and called my sister Rosemary, who I knew made a mean taco stuffed pepper. She told me she uses ground turkey in her recipe – much healthier, I know, but my ground beef was already defrosting. Her recipe also called for salsa and taco seasoning mix, neither of which I had. But I did have sofrito, which would be a delicious and healthy substitute for salsa, thus assuaging my guilt for using beef instead of turkey. The sofrito got me thinking that my peppers might lean more towards Spain than Mexico in their seasonings.

My spice cabinet

Consulting my spice cabinet, I chose sea salt, freshly ground Tellicherry peppercorns (Costco is a great source), ground Chipotle powder (from Sahadi’s Lebanese grocery on Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn), Ground cumin (brought back from Morocco by my friend Annette), Pimenton de la vera (Spanish sweet smoked paprika brought back from Spain by our daughter Emily) and Cinnamon (from Penzy’s, a gift from Rosemary). I also snipped some fresh oregano from our windowsill plant that I’d started from cuttings from my friend Paula. Then I got to work.

Consulting a few recipes around the web, I decided I’d precook the peppers, as I did not want them crunchy and did not want to overcook the already cooked meat filling. Baking them wrapped in foil would have been a great option, but I currently have an oven issue (no gas). The counter top oven I’m using is completely unpredictable, and I did not want to be unwrapping and testing the peppers every 5 minutes, so I parboiled them, then let them sit out to cool. Next, I prepared the meat, corn and rice stuffing mixture, adding and adjusting the flavorings as I went.

Tasting the final spiced mixture just before stuffing the peppers, it seemed like something was missing – it needed more umami. How about some fish sauce? After all, fish sauce is a whole thing in Spain, where scientists have reproduced an ancient Roman fish sauce using a recipe found in the ruins of Pompeii. They call it Flor de Garum, and it is said to supercharge dishes with umami. I didn’t have any Flor de Garum, but I did have Red Boat Fish Sauce, which is purported to be the next best thing. So I boldly grabbed the Red Boat from the fridge and added about a tsp to the mix. It worked!

I stuffed the peppers, topped them with some grated cheddar (Manchego would be more authentic, and next time I will try that instead), baked them and served them topped with a little sour cream. They were delicious!

I now present you with a new recipe I call Spanish Stuffed Peppers. Inspired by Rosemary’s taco stuffed peppers, enhanced with herbs and spices from Emily, Annette, Rosemary and Paula, and umami-ized by yours truly. Enjoy!

Print Recipe

Spanish Stuffed Peppers

A great way to use leftover corn and rice. Use ground turkey instead of beef for an even healthier version. Diced tomatoes are a fine substitute for the sofrito. I've listed spices at about 1/2 tsp of each, but feel free to adjust amounts up or down to your own tastes.

Ingredients

  • 6 bell peppers, of assorted colors
  • 1 pound lean ground beef
  • 1 cup cooked white rice
  • 1 cup corn previously cooked or raw
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 large stalk celery, diced
  • 1 large garlic clove, diced
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 cup sofrito (can substitute diced tomatoes)
  • 2 tsp minced fresh oregano leaves (or 1 /2 tsp dried)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
  • 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp smoked paprika (Pimento de la vera if available)
  • 1/2 tsp ground chipotle powder (can substitute chili powder)
  • 1 tsp fish sauce (Flor de garum if you're lucky enough to have it. If not, Red boat brand if available)
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese Manchego cheese would be a good alternative option
  • sour cream (for serving)

Instructions

  • Bring a large pot of water to boil. Cup tops off peppers and clean out seeds and ribs using paring knife. Dice the tops and set aside. Place bottoms in a boiling water, filling them with water to prevent floating. Simmer 5-10 minutes or till just tender. Drain and cool.
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Saute onions, celery and diced pepper tops over medium high heat till softened, about 5 mins. Add garlic and saute another minute or so, being careful not to brown the garlic. Add the ground meat and continue cooking till just browned. Add sofrito and spices and fish sauce, cook another minute or so to blend the flavors. Taste and adjust seasoning, then stir in rice and corn.
  • Fill peppers with meat/corn/rice mixture and arrange in a lightly oiled baking dish. Top with grated cheese. Place any extra filling around peppers. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, or till tops are melted and lightly browned.

A Thanksgiving Sweet Potato Bake-Off

I hope your Thanksgiving was as wonderful as mine. We did our usual back-to-back Thanksgiving dinners, shuttling between mine and Mr. TBTAM’s families, trying not to eat too much or too little at either one.

This year, my family eschewed the homemade turkey and instead had a relaxed luncheon at the Valley Green Inn situated on Philadelphia’s Wissahickon Valley Forbidden Drive, one of my favorite places in the whole world.

I’ve biked, hiked, walked, or run that trail countless times over the years, alone and with friends and family. The place is so special to us that my sister Fran’s ashes were scattered over the waterfalls not far from the Inn, and I can feel her presence in the sounds of the rushing waters. Having our family Thanksgiving on the Wissahickon felt just like coming home for the holiday.

The food at the Inn was great, the service fabulous, and the walk along the trail afterwards a real joy. I think we should do it again next year!

Of course, that was just lunch. Fortunately, I ate lightly, because next up was dinner at Mr TBTAM’s mother’s home. That meal has morphed over the years from a traditional Turkey-centered dinner to a more varied meal with contributions from all the generations, celebrating both meat eaters and vegetarians.

My contribution was, as it has often been, candied sweet potatoes. Unfortunately, on Wednesday afternoon, I realized that I had not purchased enough sweet potatoes. My sister-in-law offered to pick some sweets up for me on her trip to H Mart, the now-storied gigantic Korean grocery that is a great source for well-priced produce and Asian foods. She suggested that we get Korean sweet potatoes instead of more American sweets. I’d never eaten Korean sweet potatoes, but she and her daughter had, and they were convinced they’d be delicious. I was not so sure. We were also not sure how the Korean sweets would behave, so decided not to combine them with the American sweets in the same pan, but cook and bake them separately. Sounds like we had ourselves the set up for a sweet potato bake off.

Now, if there’s anything Mr TBTAM’s family loves, it’s a produce competition. I remember my first family dinner with them, where they spent what seemed like forever discussing the farm stand apples they had gotten that day, anticipating the after-dinner taste test when they would determine if these really were THE best Winesaps ever grown. Who are these people, I recall asking my siblings, who like me, thought that potato chips and dip made from Lipton’s French Onion mix were the ultimate gourmet delight. I mean, ‘cmon – who gets excited about apples? To us, apples were just a second fiddle food, or what my mother would suggest we eat when the answer to “Are there any Pop Tarts left?” was “No, but Daddy gets paid on Thursday. Why don’t you have an apple?” Of course, I’ve since changed my tune, expanded my palate and learned over the years to appreciate real food over processed treats. And, I can now tell you without a doubt that Honeycrisps, not Winesaps, are THE best apple ever grown. But back to the sweet potato taste-off…

What are Korean Sweet Potatoes?

Korean sweet potatoes or Goguma are a sweet potato variety found across China, Japan and Korea. In Japan, they are called Satsumaimo. Despite their name, sweet potatoes are not potatoes. Nor are they yams. Sweet potatoes are in fact a tuber of the morning glory family, thought to have originated in South and Central America, where Christopher Columbus discovered them along with the new world. The sweet potato was brought to Asia either by Europeans after Columbus, or by the Polynesians long before Columbus. Or maybe they are indigenous to Asia, where 57 million year old fossils of leaves from the morning glory family have been recently identified. Who knows?…

Regardless of its history, Korean sweet potatoes are purplish red on the outside with a starchy, cream colored interior that becomes yellow as it cooks. They are drier and sweeter than the American varieties, and are extremely flavorful, taking on what has been described as a chestnut flavor when cooked. Like all sweet potatoes, Goguma are high in fiber and packed with nutrients, and there are many ways to cook them, including a traditional Korean candied version.

The Bake-Off Methodology

For our bake-off, I simply used our traditional Thanksgiving candied sweet potato recipe, which I’ve shared before on this blog. I peeled and cut the American sweet potatoes and the Goguma, then prepared a pan of each for a taste test at dinner time.

The dryness of the Goguma necessitated some adjustments to my recipe. It took a good 10-15 minutes longer to soften the Goguma when first cooked.

American sweets (left) vs Korean Sweets (right) after steaming

In addition, they soaked up the glaze very quickly during the baking phase, so I made some extra glaze and even stole some from the pan of American sweets so the Goguma wouldn’t dry out. This did not appear to put the American sweets at a disadvantage, as they remained moist and caramelized beautifully.

American sweets (right) vs Korean Sweets (left) halfway through baking

The results

The Korean sweet potatoes, though not as pretty as the American sweets, tasted delicious! They were indeed flavorful, and their inherent nutty flavor came though, even with the extra glaze. They were perfectly cooked, neither too soft nor too firm, and had more density and substance than the American sweets. They tasted just as good as the American sweets, and a few preferred them (including me).

Finished American sweets (above) vs Korean Sweets (below)

If this were a scientific publication, I’d say that our un-blinded, non-randomized, not-entirely-controlled taste test suggests that Korean sweet potatoes are equivalent and non-inferior to American sweet potatoes when baked using a traditional American Thanksgiving candied sweet potato recipe. Further research, of course is necessary.

Happy Holidays to all!

Print Recipe

Candied Korean Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

  • 3 pounds Korean or Japanese sweet potatoes
  • 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  • 6 tbsp water
  • 4 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces
  • 1 Tsp salt
  • freshly ground pepper to taste (optional)

Instructions

  • Peel the potatoes. Cut them lengthwise in half. Place cut side down on counter and cut lengthwise into 1/2 inch slices.
  • In a steamer set over boiling water (I use a pasta inset w/ my 8 quart calphalon boiler) steam the potatoes, covered, for 15-25 minutes, or until they are just fork tender. Let them cool, uncovered.
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Arrange the potato slices in one layer, overlapping them slightly, in a buttered shallow baking dish. (I find my vintage Dansk 10 1/2 x 7 1/2 inch baker to be the perfect size for a single recipe.) Combine the remaining ingredients in a small pot, bring the mixture to a boil and cook it over moderate heat for 5 minutes, stirring while cooking. Drizzle the syrup evenly over the potatoes, and bake the potatoes in the middle of the oven, basting them with the syrup mixture every 15 minutes, for 1 1/2 hours, or until the syrup is thickened and the sweet potatoes have deepened in color.
  • May be made 1 day in advance, kept covered and chilled, and reheated.

Notes

NOTE – Korean sweet potatoes can be very thirsty, and may absorb all the glaze before they are fully cooked. The amounts in this recipe are optimized for how my potatoes acted, but yours may act differently. Make sure they are softened well from the initial steaming. While baking, watch them closely, and if the glaze absorbs long before optimal caramelization or before they are fully cooked, add a little water to the bottom of the pan to thin out the glaze so you can continue basting, or make some additional glaze to use.

Farro with Oyster Mushrooms & Onions

One of my goals in retirement is to shop more at the farm markets, in order to support local farmers and eat more seasonally. It’s something I could never find the time to do when I was working. (Though I have friends who managed to do so even with full time jobs, so really, what was my excuse?…)

Although I adore the Union Square Green Market, it’s a bit of a schlep to visit on a regular basis. Thankfully, we have a wonderful farmer’s market every Sunday here on the Upper West Side, on Columbus Avenue just behind the Museum of Natural History. That’s where some lovely-looking oyster mushrooms caught my eye last weekend. Actually, they were the only variety the mushroom guy had left by the time we reached the market late afternoon. I brought them home in a brown paper bag. Then they sat in the fridge for a day or so while I wondered what to do with them.

I decided not to make this mushroom-broth infused farro, or this mushroom risotto with those oyster babies. Rising food prices have led us to commit to cutting out food waste and working first from the fridge, freezer and pantry when planning dinner. So instead, I reached for the leftover farro I discovered in the fridge, and concocted a little mushroom-onion delight. We served it alongside some sausages we found in the freezer and a salad made with greens and leftover homemade lemon dressing from the fridge. It was a delicious and satisfying dinner.

I’m really enjoying shopping the farm markets and looking for meal inspiration in my own fridge and pantry. Not to mention the upside of seeing our overcrowded, impossible-to-find-anything shelves take on a Marie Konda-like serenity as we begin to work our way through their contents. And the gratitude of realizing that these are the first-world problems of a life lived in abundance.

In that vein, I’ve committed us to use our food dollar savings towards a monthly donation to City Harvest, whose goal is to rescue NYC’s excess food so it doesn’t go to waste, distributing it to food pantries and soup kitchens across the five boroughs. They also run free neighborhood mobile markets, teach healthy cooking, and work with corner markets and groceries to encourage and support them in selling fresh produce and other healthy foods in their neighborhoods. Check out their App and online map that folks can use to find free food across NYC. A cause worth your contribution!

Print Recipe

Farro w/ Oyster Mushrooms and Onions

A great use for leftover cooked farro or rice. To make using uncooked farro, you can add the uncooked farro to the mushroom and onions just after they've sauteed, along with the recommended amount of water (or better yet, mushroom broth), and cook them all together till the farro is done. Serve as described.

Ingredients

  • 2 large clumps Fresh Oyster Mushrooms
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 Onion, large, large mince
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 sprig Fresh thyme, minced
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • sun dried tomatoes packed in oil for garnish
  • Grated Parmesan cheese for the table
  • 2 cups Leftover Cooked Farro or Rice

Instructions

  • Clean oyster mushrooms with a dry brush or paper towel. (Do not wash, as they will suck up all the water.) Chop the mushrooms into largish bite size pieces. They will be all sorts of shapes. Use all of the mushroom, even the stems.
  • Heat butter and oil in a large skillet or cast iron pan. When hot, add onions and saute over medium high heat till translucent. Add garlic and thyme and stir for a minute or so.
  • Add mushrooms and saute, letting them sit for spells so they brown, but being careful not to let them get too dry. (Oyster mushrooms don't have much water to give off, unlike other mushrooms you may be used to using. Although mine stayed nice and moist, if yours seem dry, at this point you can add a little mushroom, chicken or beef broth – but be careful the mushrooms will absorb it all if you let it cook too long.) Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  • Add farro and cook till heated through.
  • Plate and garnish with thinly sliced sun-dried tomatoes. Pass the Parmesan.

Thanksgiving Recipe Roundup

I’m often asked to recommend recipes for Thanksgiving, so here’s a few suggestions for you all.

I’ve never actually cooked a turkey, so this will just be sides and desserts. To be honest, that’s pretty much are all I care to eat at Thanksgiving dinner anyway.

Noticeably missing from this list are recipes for cranberry sauce (I use the one on the cranberry bag – no need to mess with perfection), mashed potatoes (there is no recipe, it’s instinctual if you’re Patsy’s daughter), and stuffing (I’ve never made it, that gets assigned to someone else).  

Hope these are helpful. Happy Holidays!

Sides

Veggie and Gluten-Free Options

Desserts

Orecchiette with Basil Pesto, Fennel & Sausage

As the weather turns towards winter, the basil plant on my windowsill begins to worry me. Sure, it has sun in that spot, but less and less with each day, and eventually not enough to keep it alive when cold winds pummel the adjacent glass. Time to harvest what basil remains before it’s lost. I had just enough basil for a batch of pesto, but no pine nuts. What I did have was a tiny jar of walnuts in my freezer – exactly the amount I needed! So I made a batch of pesto using my recipe for basil pesto, substituting walnuts for pine nuts.

I also had about 2 cups of homemade chicken broth in the freezer. So I scouted around for a good way to use both the broth and the pesto and discovered this recipe from NYT Cooking. I substituted the basil-walnut pesto for the broccoli-rabe pesto in that recipe and Viola! A new recipe. It was delicious!

I love it when ingredient availability drives cooking invention.

Print Recipe

Orecchiette with Sausage and Basil-Walnut Pesto

Ingredients

  • 1 generous cup basil-walnut pesto Recipe link in instructions
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 cup finely chopped fennel bulb
  • 1 cup finely chopped onion
  • 1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casing removed
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • 500 grams orecchiette about 1 1/4 pounds dried, or fresh (made with 4 cups flour)
  • Sun dried tomatoes, thinly sliced, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

  • Make a batch of Basil pesto, substituting walnuts for pine nuts, using this recipe.
  • Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan on low. Add fennel and onion, and cook until soft but not brown. Add sausage and cook, mashing it to a fine crumble, until it is no longer pink. Add chicken stock and cook until the stock has mostly evaporated and just glazes the sausage. Transfer sausage mixture to a food processor and pulse until finely ground (But Not too much! ). Return sausage mixture to the pan. Fold in a generous cup of the pesto.(Can be made ahead and held here.)
  • Bring large pot of salted water to a boil. Add orecchiette and cook until al dente. Reheat sausage mixture and add 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Drain pasta and add to pan with the sausage mixture. Toss until pasta is evenly coated. Fold in remaining ½ cup cheese, check seasoning, add more pasta water if needed, and serve topped with grated Parmesan and thinly sliced sun-dried tomatoes.

Basil Pesto

Posting this recipe for easy reference in an upcoming post. Enjoy!

Print Recipe

Basil Pesto

Ingredients

  • 2 cups loosely packed basil leaves
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts
  • 2 large garlic cloves, peeled
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

  • Combine the basil, garlic, and salt in the bowl of food processor and grind till the mixture forms a paste. While running the food processor, slowly drizzle in the olive oil.  Fold in grated Parmesan. (If freezing, hold the Parmesan till just before using the thawed pesto.)

Eleven Madison Park Granola

They don’t offer this granola on the menu at Eleven Madison Park, New York’s award-winning, 3-star restaurant serving only plant-based food, with a tasting menu that will run you $365 a pop. Instead, all diners get a jar of the granola as a parting gift at the end of their meal, to serve at tomorrow morning’s breakfast. It’s actually a nice touch…

The restaurant wasn’t always vegan, and not everyone was happy when chef Daniel Humm decided to eschew all but plant-based foods when he re-opened the place in 2021 after a Covid hiatus. Although Eleven Madison was once purported to have a waiting list 50,000 people long, I found plenty of available seating for dinner in December in their online system when I checked today. But the restaurant has kept its 3 Michelin stars and its granola remains a star of the show.

The granola is rumored to be both delicious and addictive, with an unusual saltiness. If you want to try it, you can buy a trio of 10 ounce jars online for just $69.

Or you can make it yourself, using the recipe published in Humm’s pre-vegan Eleven Madison cookbook and on the New York Times website. It’s delicious.

I’ve modified Humm’s recipe to make just 3 cups of granola, because we just won’t go through more than that before it starts to go stale. I’ve also reduced the salt as Sam Sifton of the Times suggests. I love how salt enhances almost anything, but Humm seems to have overdone it a bit in my opinion. (And that’s even after using Diamond kosher salt, which is the least salty per weight of the two Kosher salts) I also over-browned this batch a tad – still getting used to the countertop oven we are using while our gas is shut off. Humm states he cooks it at 350 degrees, but the Times recipe says 300, and when I tried a first batch at 350 it burnt. So stick with 300 degrees, and watch the granola closely while cooking.

Print Recipe

Eleven Madison Park Granola (Modified)

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 Cups Rolled Oats
  • 1/2 cup shelled raw pistachios
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut chips, chopped into bite size pieces
  • 1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds
  • 1/2 tsp Diamond Kosher salt More or less to taste, but do add some salt.
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 cup dried sour cherries

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 300. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, pistachios, coconut, pumpkin seeds and salt.
  • In a small saucepan set over low heat, warm the sugar, syrup and olive oil until the sugar has just dissolved, then remove from heat. Fold liquids into the mixture of oats, making sure to coat the dry ingredients well.
  • Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, and spread granola over it. Bake until dry and lightly golden, watching closely and stirring granola every 10 minutes, for somewhere between 20 and 35 minutes, depending on your oven and desired browning. Granola will still be soft when it's finished, and will crisp up as it cools.
  • Remove granola from oven, and mix into it the dried sour cherries. Allow to cool to room temperature before transferring to a storage container. Makes about 3 cups.

Repurposing My Defunct iPad Mini

I hate Apple.

Everything they make becomes useless over time.

Take my iPad Mini. I purchased it in 2013 so that I’d have an easy-to-carry device to showcase our mammogram decision aid at the MedX Conference, where I had a poster presentation. It’s been rarely used since then. But yesterday, as I was squinting at a movie on my iPhone’s little screen while working out at the gym, and wondering if I needed new readers, I remembered that iPad mini. I could use it at the gym!

When I got home last night, I pulled it from the back of the desk drawer. After charging and resetting it, I was thrilled to see it turn on and even connect to the internet!

And that was about it.

The bluetooth could not find my earbuds. Even after upgrading the OS to the latest version. And other than Safari (pre-installed), no Apps I’ve tried to install are compatible. Not a one. That means no Kindle reader, no Netflix , Hulu or HBO. No Outlook, Gmail, Chrome or Google Docs.

Nothing.

I was ready to throw the damned thing out – correction, recycle it. Then, while making granola today, I was consulting the recipe on my iPhone when my daughter called. As I was switching back and forth between the phone and the NY Times Cooking App, it hit me. As long as I have internet access, I can use the iPad as my recipe screen in the kitchen!

It was easy. I just mounted the iPad with double sided mounting tape on the wall near the stove. I disabled the pass code because there’s nothing on the iPad that I need to protect, and nothing I hate more than that damned pass code. I have an extra-long iPhone charging cord and a nearby outlet, so I won’t even have to take the iPad off the wall to charge it.

The other thing we do in the kitchen is listen to NPR while we cook. Annoyingly, our old battery operated radio is starting to drift off station way too often these days. Happily, both NPR stations we love (WNYC and WHYY) are accessible on Safari and don’t require an App to live stream on an iPad.

I had a great time using the iPad to read the recipe while listening to WNYC and making Madison Park’s Granola. (I’ll post that recipe tomorrow) And I was even able to take a call on my iPhone without having to switch screens!

I still hate Apple, but I love my new wall-mounted kitchen recipe reader and radio.

And I love technology.