Editing is Important

April 25, 2012

Part of cooking well, like dressing well, is knowing when to edit.  There is a point where the dish is close to being just right and you can either just trust that it is good, or you can keep adding to it and potentially ruin it.  I think this is a particular danger with vegetarian food.  Without the protein anchor, sometimes it might feel like you need to keep adding layers of flavor to make up for what is “missing”.  Too many layers of flavor is my main critique of Seattle’s vegetarian restaurants and why I almost never frequent them.

A dish doesn’t have to have a whiz! bang! pop! to be lovely.  I first got this idea from Tracy and her Angel Hair Pasta with Arugula and Lemon.  Every so often a dish sticks in my overstuffed brain and lately it has been this one.  As we were driving back from our decadent weekend in Walla Walla, I started dreaming of superfine pasta stuffed to the gills with arugula.  I had recently bought some angel hair in a lovely package and we were lucky enough to visit a goat cheese farm while in Walla Walla and had purchased some delightful mild feta.  I decided that, rather than make Tracy’s dish to the letter, I would just riff on it.

As it turns out, my dish is not much like hers.  That is what you get when you don’t actually consult a recipe you are trying to riff on!  But we loved this light and sunny pasta and it came together in no time.  I put some small cherry tomatoes in the oven to roast, got my pasta going, then satuéed shallots and red pepper flakes in a bit of olive oil.  I grated in the zest of a Meyer lemon and then waited for the pasta to cook.  Once it was just shy of al dente, I scooped it into the pan with the shallots and added lemon juice, lots of arugula, small cubes of feta, and the roasted tomatoes.  I used the pasta cooking water to loosen the sauce.  As I was tossing it all together, my mind was saying, “Olives! Pine Nuts! Parmesan!”, but I was able to edit and keep it simple.

One Year Ago:  Brown Sugar Pound Cake (I’ve probably made this cake more than any other)
Two Years Ago:  Zucchini and Olive Salad
Three Years Ago:  Ricotta Calzones with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe

Pasta with Lemon, Arugula, and Roasted Tomatoes
Dana Treat Original (but thanks Tracy for the inspiration)
Serves 2-3

My noodles were actually more like a cross between angel hair and spaghetti, so I’m suggesting you use spaghettini in the recipe below (it’s a thinner spaghetti).

Olive oil
20 small cherry tomatoes
Kosher or sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large shallot, finely diced
½ tsp. red pepper flakes
Zest and juice of 1 Meyer lemon
4 ounces feta cheese, cut into small cubes
4 ounces arugula, plus more for garnish
8 ounces spaghettini

Preheat the oven to 375ºF.  Place the tomatoes on a small baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast in the oven until they soften, brown in spots, and start to collapse a bit, about 20 minutes.  Set aside.

Meanwhile, place a large skillet over medium heat.  Drizzle in just enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan, then add the shallots, red pepper flakes, and a large pinch of salt.  Sauté, stirring frequently, until the shallots soften and start to brown in spots, about 5 minutes.  Grate in the lemon zest and turn off the heat.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to boil, then add the pasta.  Cook according the package directions until just al dente.  Taste it to make sure.  Using tongs, transfer the pasta to the skillet with the shallots.  Turn the heat to low and stir to coat the pasta with the shallots and pepper flakes.  Ladle in some pasta cooking water to loosen the sauce.  Add half of the arugula and keep tossing the pasta so that the arugula wilts.  Add the other half of the arugula along with the lemon juice, feta cheese, and the tomatoes.  Add more cooking water if the pasta seems too dry.  (You can also use olive oil if you prefer.)  Toss carefully.  Serve each portion topped with more of the arugula.


Category: Dana Treat Original,Main Course,Pasta,Quick and Easy
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Maple Blueberry Tea Cake

April 24, 2012

Some people think that white flour and white sugar are evil.  I don’t feel that way.  I’ve been making treats for years (and years and years) with both of those snowy ingredients and I feel just fine about them.  In this post, I talked about how I feel like balance – in food but really in anything – is key.  If you’ve been eating lots of white flour and white sugar lately, maybe you should eat some kale.

Or maybe you should eat this cake.  It has half whole wheat flour and is sweetened with maple syrup.  Now to some people, that may sound like health food.  Don’t worry, it is still cake.  If you are used to never having sweets, this might be a mind-blowing after dinner treat.  If you, say, eat Easter candy after dinner, this might be more of a very subtle and lovely brunch cake.  Either way, I like it for its coffee-with-milk coloring, its subtle sweetness, and the burst of (frozen!) berries.

I followed my own advice and doubled the recipe for two cakes.  Do you do this?  Any time I make a pound cake, quick bread, or loaf cake of any kind, I double it.  No extra effort and that second one, unfrosted or unglazed, will last for 1-2 months in your freezer.  So you are never without cake!  Don’t tell me you only have one loaf pan.  Make a huge investment of $10-$20 and buy another one.  They stack together so they don’t take up any extra room.  I’m telling you – do it.  You can thank me later.  Or send me a cake.

One Year Ago:  Carrot Pancakes with Hummus and a Carrot Salad, Roasted Shallots
Two Years Ago:  Crostini with Goat Cheese and Leek Confit
Three Years Ago:  Gruyère Gougères, Mississippi Mud Cupcakes

Maple Blueberry Tea Cake with Maple Glaze
Cook This Now
Makes 1 8-inch loaf cake (see above)

If you are going to double the cake but plan on serving one of them.  Only make the glaze as written.  Cakes freeze best without the glaze.

For the cake
¾ cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
¾ cup plus 2 tbsp. whole wheat flour
1½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. kosher salt
2/3 cup pure maple syrup
1 large egg, lightly beaten
½ cup milk
6 tbsp. (¾ stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup fresh blueberries (I used frozen unthawed berries)

For the maple glaze
3 tbsp. maple syrup
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
Pinch kosher salt
¼ cup confectioners’ sugar

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.  Lightly grease an 8-inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, egg, milk, and melted butter.  Pour the maple syrup mixture into the flour mixture and fold together until just combined.  Gently fold in the blueberries.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan.  Bake until golden brown and a tester inserted into the middle comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes.

Transfer the cake to a wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet; cool completely.  Once cool, run the tip of a knife or an offset spatula around the edges of the pan to loosen the cake.  Place a plate over the pan.  Flip the cake onto the plate.  Tap the sides and top of the pan to help release the cake (the berries might have gotten stuck and this helps unstick them.  Remove the pan.  Turn the cake right-side up and put on a rack-lined baking sheet.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, make the glaze:  Stir together the maple syrup, butter, and salt until combined.  Stir in the sugar and cook until completely dissolved.  Pour the warm glaze over the cake, allowing the excess glaze to drip onto the baking sheet.  Slice and serve.

 


Category: Cake
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A Slice of My Life – Week 17

April 23, 2012

I know, I’m late with this post.  I hereby promise that I will post once a day all this week.  Yes, seven posts.  At least three of those seven will be food.  Two of those three will be treats.  One of those seven will be more of the long-awaited Africa pictures.  Another of those will be about yoga.  How many does that leave?  I’ll figure it out later.

The big news this week is that Spencer lost his first tooth.  He was eating breakfast and asked me what would happen if he swallowed it.  I told him that had never happened to me or Daddy or Graham, so to not worry about it.  Not two minutes later, he went to take a bite and I could see that his tooth was gone.  I told him to spit out his mouthful but the tooth was already on its way to his tummy.  We decided to send an email to the tooth fairy to ask her what to do.  It turns out that if you leave a note under your pillow, signed by the tooth-loser, that works just as well as a tooth.  (Note the slight milk mustache in the photo.)

This time of year is what I refer to as “the long pants conundrum”.  Both of my boys wear through their pants in the spring of each year, or they simply start to outgrow them (see: high waters on the right).  The argument could be made that they, ahem, need new pants.  The argument could also be made that it is almost shorts weather and buying new pants in their current sizes is silly.  I can’t decide so I send them off in holey pants.  (For the record, Graham’s pants – on the right – were not nearly as bad in the morning.)

It was spring break week so I had lots of time with my little monsters.

Spring means dandelions.  Or, as my kids call them, “wishing flowers”.  (It also means haircuts.)

I love this sculpture.  It’s right near Graham’s school.  (Those are little Washington states, if you didn’t recognize them.)

The legendary Paula Wolfert was at Book Larder on Wednesday.  She was absolutely delightful.

We spent the weekend in Walla Walla, Washington – home of Washington state’s amazing wine scene.  We did so many lovely things, ate really well, and drank some terrific wine.  Our first stop was L’Ecole No. 41, a beautiful winery whose wine we have been drinking, and loving, for years.  It is housed in an old schoolhouse – hence the name – and this is the old bell outside.  You can bet that Spencer rang it several times.

Walla Walla is full of beauty.  In the glass, on the plate, and in nature.  I couldn’t get over the vibrancy of the fruit trees.  We have these in Seattle, but the color is not nearly so intense.

We happened to be there during a big bike race.  Randy instructed the boys to shout, “Allez allez allez!” as they flew by.  Graham said, “Ole!” and Spencer (who still struggles with the letter “l” a bit) said, “Away!”  More on Walla Walla next week!

When Graham opts to not be goofy in front of the camera, he is a pretty photogenic little guy.

After a 4½ drive home, I still wanted to make dinner.  Partly it was because I wanted something lighter than pizza or Thai food which are our standard take-out options.  Partly because I really wanted to make pasta.

 


Category: Slice of Life
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Sunday Night Chinese Food

April 17, 2012

My parents are both Jewish and both from New York.  That means that, on a lot of Sundays, we ate Chinese food.  There were different places we went, some in Seattle proper, some on the little island suburb where I grew up.  No matter which restaurant we went to, several things remained constant.

First it was the tea.  My parents would let us drink tea with as much sugar as we wanted in it.  I think it was the late 70′s/early 80′s version of an iPad.  Something to distract us three kids so that they could attempt to have a conversation.  We would pour and pour and pour that sugar until it was a thick slurry at the bottom of the little tea cups, and then we would spoon it up like soup.  And then there was soup – wonton soup to be exact.  Those little perfect parcels in burn-your-tongue hot broth, just waiting for my teeth to burst them open.  I was always disappointed by the small ratio of wontons to broth.  I could have eaten 50 of them.  My parents always ordered “bean curd” which only they enjoyed since we three thought it was disgusting.  If only my ten-year old self had known how much I would grow to love tofu!  And finally, pork fried rice.  (Yes, Jews eating pork.  We were far from the only ones.)

Here is where I admit that I had never, until last night, made fried rice.  Here is also where I admit that the word “fried” scares me.  You will not find much fried stuff here.  I don’t make donuts and I can count on one hand the number of times I have deep fried.  I am scared of the technique, the mess, and the amount of fat in the food that is fried.  That last reason is why I never order fried rice in a Chinese restaurant, truthfully why I don’t often eat in Chinese restaurants.  (This is a gross generalization but I find Chinese food, in Seattle anyway, to be much greasier than other Asian food.)

Here is why I went for it.  I’ve been making this tempeh for my Spanish cooking classes.  It goes in the paella.  It is so good that, after the class is over and I am washing countless dishes, my fingers keep sneaking into the almost empty pot, hoping that some previously uncovered piece of tempeh will appear.  Doing this search reminded me of the pork fried rice of my childhood and how I would clumsily attempt to get as much of that pink-hued pork with my chopsticks.  I also realized that I sometimes have cold rice in the refrigerator and making something new with it is much more interesting than sprinkling it with water and microwaving it.  And finally, when you make something yourself, you can control how much oil goes into it.

I made this version with a bunch of scallions, a much-more-than-what-you-might-think amount of ginger, cold rice (every recipe you look at will tell you it has to be cold), my magical tempeh, frozen peas, a bit of sesame oil, and a fried egg on top.  The fried rice I remember had bits of scrambled-then-cut eggs throughout the rice, but I have finally realized that, since I go a little swoony every time a dish is described as being topped with a poached/fried/soft-boiled egg, it’s time to do more topping with eggs.

Want to know a little more about tempeh?  Check out this post.
One Year Ago:  Pane con Formaggio (Cheese Bread), Banana-Date Tea Cake
Two Years Ago:  Cinnamon Chocolate Ribbon Cake (I really like this post), Tabasco and Asparagus Quinoa
Three Years Ago:  Orange Cinnamon Biscotti, Southwestern Sweet Potato Gratin

Ginger Fried Rice with Roasted Tempeh
Dana Treat Original
Serves 3-4

I know some people like to grate their ginger on a microplane rasp, but I think it works best here to just chop it really fine.  Don’t skip the steaming step for the tempeh, it can taste bitter if it is not steamed first.

For the tempeh:
1 8-ounce package of tempeh (any flavor)
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. sesame oil
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. smoked paprika

For the rice:
3 tbsp. canola or peanut oil, divided
1 bunch of scallions, white and green parts, thinly sliced
¼ cup fresh ginger, peeled and minced
Kosher or sea salt
About 4 cups cold rice
2 tsp. sesame oil
½ cup frozen peas, unthawed
3-4 eggs

Make the tempeh:
Preheat the oven to 375ºF.  Cut the tempeh into ½-inch dice.  Place in a steamer and steam for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, whisk the soy sauce, the oils, and the paprika together in a small baking dish.  Pour the steamed tempeh into the same pan and place in the oven.  Roast, stirring occasionally, until the tempeh has absorbed all the marinade and it is starting to get browned in spots, about 25 minutes.  Set aside.  (The tempeh can be made up to 1 day ahead.  Allow to cool, then store in the refrigerator.)

Make the rice:
Place a large shallow pan over medium heat.  Drizzle in 2 tablespoons of the canola or peanut oil, then add the scallions, ginger, and a large pinch of salt.  Sauté until softened and starting to brown, about 4 minutes.  Add the rice, breaking up any clumps with your hands.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.  Drizzle in the sesame oil, give the rice a good stir, then add the peas and the tempeh (you may not want to add all the tempeh).  Cook for another 5 minutes while you make the eggs.

Place a large non-stick pan over medium heat.  Drizzle in the last tablespoon of the oil.  Crack the eggs one at a time into the pan and cook until the whites are set but the yolks are still soft, about 4 minutes.

Serve the rice in bowls and top each with a fried egg.


Category: Dana Treat Original,Main Course,Vegan
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A Slice of My Life – Week 16

April 15, 2012

I did a tiny bit of work over at the Microsoft campus this week.  Randy worked there for 6½ years but I only went over there a handful of times.

Randy was out of town this week for a short trip, so the boys and I had a dinner date.

To get ready for two Spanish cooking classes this week, I needed to do some shopping at the Pike Place Market.  I always enter from the north end, instead of the iconic south end where the big sign is.  This was a sunny Tuesday afternoon.  On a sunny Saturday afternoon in August, you can barely walk through.  Each of those tiles has someone’s name on it – they were sold as a fundraiser many years ago.  Our family bought one and it came with a map of where our tile is, but we never found it.

A walk through the Market, as we locals call it, requires good shoes.  Good shoes require good peds which were in the wash that day, so please ignore the tacky sock look.

My first stop was The Spanish Table.  This store makes me happy.  The olive aisle alone is a reason to drive down here.

I wouldn’t say that architecture is Seattle’s strength, but we have some good pockets here and there.  I’ve always loved the contrast between the over 100 year old market and the modern buildings in the background.

Spring + Market = tulips.

Whether I need to or not, I always go into the Italian specialty food store DeLaurenti.  The prices are aimed at tourists but I can’t resist the treasures inside.  (Not to mention their excellent and very fairly priced puff pastry.)  A sucker for pretty packaging, I got some of this pasta.

I’m not even a cheese person and I am tempted by this case.

I also always stop in at my favorite spice shop World Spice Market.  This is a funnel for transferring bulk spices to jars.  Hello?  How did I never own one of these before?

Spencer made a planet mobile at school.  He told me that it has the sun, Earth, U-Vanus, and Nectune.  One of the things you learn to do as a mother is to laugh hysterically without actually making a sound.

I’ve decided to jump start my yoga practice at a different studio.  I’ve known the owner of Shakti since middle school and we used to teach together.  It is a great space with really good teachers and a super warm (not hot) room.  I’m digging it.  It is in Ballard, about 15 minutes from my house and a bit of a thrash to get there after school bus pick-up.  But worth it.

By the way, when I was a teenager, Ballard was known for Norwegian bakeries and fishermen.  Now it’s full of super hip condo dwellers and some of the best restaurants in Seattle.

This is a pretty house on my street.  Every spring, I look forward to this magnolia tree blooming.  It had almost peaked and then we got a rain and wind storm.

Speaking of my street.  Here is my neighbor’s house.  It has looked like this, more or less, since we moved in over 5 years ago.  Sometimes it makes me absolutely crazy.

At times like those, it’s good to think about upcoming trips.  We sent the boys’ passport applications off for a big adventure in June!


Category: Slice of Life
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