Stephencooks

Calamari Pizza with Goat Cheese and Oregano

 

On the way to our fitness walk on the beach this morning, Elise asked me the question she asks nearly every day. She likes to have something to look forward to while she slogs along in the salt mines of fiction writing. I hadn't thought about what to cook tonight but I guess some of the fun of the food part of our relationship is that she challenges me to come up with a plan on the spot, and she can be pretty demanding. I've been delaying hitting the market until other business takes me in that direction so I have (for me) a relatively thin larder.

"Uhh..calamari," I said, since I knew that I had picked up a couple of blocks of the frozen baby calamari I like when I was at the Asian market a couple of weeks ago, and I know E's always up for calamari.

Then we went for our 3-mile walk which, since Elise is much faster than me, means I'm alone for about 45 minutes. I pass the time think about things and often working out recipes. "Calamari pizza," I said when we met for a minute at the turnaround point, and E gave an approving nod. Then, on the way back down the beach I was thinking of the oregano patch and its inexorable expansion plans, so by the time we finished I offered: "Calamari on an oregano green sauce, with some goat cheese...ok?" It passed.

I served the pizza with some baby bok choi (not used the other night when I switched the menu to cold platters due to the heat), done Italiano style, and a simple mixed greens salad.

Meatballs with Porcini Mushrooms

I've been playing around with porcini mushrooms lately and came up with these dangerously addictive little meatballs. I think it's the combination of the porcini, the fennel and the nutmeg that gives them their allure. They are particularly good with a serving of spaghetti dressed with a simple tomato sauce. Alternatively, made half as big and equipped with a toothpick, they make a successful and pleasingly retro hors d'oeuvres if stationed on a warming plate next to a bowl of tomato sauce.

Rice Salad with Shrimp and Fava Beans

This was one of the first dishes I made from Elizabeth David's Italian Food, for a dinner party around 1974 in Manhattan. It was a satisfying, popular dish then and I've made it countless times since then. Absolutely fail-proof. 

The entire David recipe: 

Cold rice makes an excellent first course. There should not be too much rice in proportion to the other ingredients, it must on no account be overcooked, and it is best to season it while still hot.

Boil 1 cupful of rice in salted water. Drain it, season it with pepper, nutmeg, plenty of olive oil, and a little vinegar or lemon juice. Stir in a few shreds of raw onion. When it is cold add a dozen cooked scampi or Dublin Bay prawns, a cupful of green peas cooked with shredded ham and handful of chopped parsley.

A rice salad can be made with any number of different ingredients: raw or cooked mushrooms, cold chicken, any shellfish, pine kernels, almonds, cooked or raw pimentos, celery, fennel, ham, olives. There should always be one crisp element to counteract the softness of the rice.

I'm still pretty true to the E.D. formula. I've found that the "season while hot" instruction is very important, and the seasoning should not be done with a timid hand. Don't spare the nutmeg, and use lemon juice if you can. Last night for about 8 cups cooked rice I used two medium onions. One of my major adaptations has been to use a splash of truffle oil in the seasonings. The rice should be very tasty before the addition of any other ingredients, with a nice lemon bite and noticable nutmeg.

Baby Greens with Golden Beets, Roasted Grape Tomatoes and Parmesan Shavings

This salad is my interpreation of a salad we enjoyed many times at the Joe Allen restaurant in Ogunquit, Maine – which unfortuately has now closed. You can't really go wrong with the ingredients in this salad.

Pistachio Ice Cream

This recipe for pistachio ice cream is one that I've developed by a trial and error process, starting with the proportions of milk, eggs and sugar in Jean-George Vongerichten's ice cream recipes. We like it because it's not too sweet and the almond taste is muted, so the pistachio flavor comes through. Last night I served it with fresh strawberries (tossed in honey and mint with a squeeze of lemon juice) and biscotti.

Fava Beans

Fava beans are a lot of work, and fairly expensive when you consider the amount of waste (a pound of beans in the shell yields about a cup of edible product). But are they worth it! They please the senses in so many ways: fresh, earthy and sweet at the same time, bright green, crunchy.

Eggs Florentine Brunch Pizza

Recently I wanted to make a pizza for a brunch and Elise wanted Eggs Florentine, so I developed this pizza. Eggs Florentine is traditionally a poached egg set on a bed of cooked spinach and topped with mornay sauce. In this version, the egg is baked on a bed of spinach and cheese sitting on a pizza shell, then topped with a slice of bacon.

Grilled Chicken with Fennel-Cumin Rub

We were fortunate to live for several years a few minutes from the beautiful Ogunquit Beach, a 1.5 mile strip of undeveloped sand and dune grasses. With cheek-by-jowl houses virtually the entire length of the Maine coastline, the Ogunquit beach is a calm, restful place and a reminder of the natural beauty that once stretched for thousands of pristine miles on these shores (the beach and the marshes behind it are held by the town as a nature preserve and recreation area). Piping plovers, harp seals, hermit crabs and flocks of gulls are the only residents of this zone, though there are guest appearances now and then from bald eagles, migrating ducks and geese and the occasional schools of dolphin or porpoise.

A sunset picnic on the beach with friends is one of our most cherished pleasures. Our favorite menu: cold grilled chicken, Burkettville Grange Cornbread and my spicy coleslaw.

Spicy Coleslaw

One day about 15 years ago I was making coleslaw and I had the bright idea to add a spicy sauce I'd made for another dish to a conventional coleslaw recipe. The result was one of the most popular and unique recipes I've ever come up with. For beach picnics, backyard barbeques or lobster suppers, it's requested over and over again. Goes very well with beer, hamburgers, grilled chicken -- you get the idea. If you have a good mandoline slicer it's a breeze to make this for a crowd.

Burkettville Grange Cornbread

 

Our friend Ann LaFarge (née Burkett) is revered in this household for introducing me to Elise in 1995, and, nearly equally, for giving us this recipe for her Maine hometown's traditional cornbread.

Oregano / Hazelnut Pesto

Elizabeth David tells us (Italian Food) that the people of Genoa, where pesto is thought to have originated, say that a good pesto cannot be made without Genoese basil. So the idea of making pesto without any basil at all is perhaps offensive to Italian purists. But over the last twenty years or so years, as pesto has become a familiar, overused flavoring for everything from grilled chicken to scrambled eggs, we've been building on the original idea of pesto to include any preparation that combines an herb with nuts, garlic, cheese and oil.

A few years ago Elise's brother Joey, stopping for an overnight visit, brought a generous bagful of oregano from his garden. It occurred to me to make pesto with it, with satisfying results. Now we grow our own oregano in an ever-expanding patch in the herb garden and, since the oregano is a perennial and basil (an annual plant in Maine) has to start from seedling every year, oregano pesto has become a regular routine in the spring, when the basil is too young for harvest. Last night I decided to substitute hazelnuts for the traditional pine nuts for an added twist.

Open-faced Pipérade Omelette with Swordfish

This is a great dish for brunch or an informal supper, with or without the swordfish, shrimp, lobster or other seafood that I often use in it. The pipérade can be made ahead and then warmed on the burner before pouring in the eggs and baking it. Cheese can be added and it can then be run under the broiler for a couple of minutes for another variation. Last night I had some leftover grilled sword fish I sliced it and laid it over the eggs before baking. The dish is served directly from the pan.

Crispy Potatoes

Monkfish with Mint/Honey Reduction Sauce

I stopped by Free Range Fish Market again in Portland and had a hard time chosing between local line-caught halibut, some more huge diver scallops or some fresh local monkfish.  I chose the monkfish, because it's not always available. I poached it in some shrimp broth and served it with a reduction of the poaching liquid jazzed up with honey and fresh mint. It turned out to be a great combination. 

There was a bucketful of fresh fiddleheads at the market (it turns out that a lot of fishermen and their families supplement their income by foraging for fiddleheads in season, so most of the fish markets around here are fiddlehead markets too!). Of course I grabbed a pound of them for this dinner – I'm all about wild caught and foraged. 

Fiddleheads

Fiddleheads are one of a rapidly dwindling list of foods harvested or gathered in the wild, instead of produced by the agricultural industry. Fresh berries stare at us from the produce aisle all winter long now, and asparagus can be had at any time of year. Almost all of the "fresh" foods we eat are  produced on factory farms and shipped long distances to insure a constant supply. But fiddleheads are traditional New England food, still harvested from the wild as they have been for thousands of years, and therefore only available when nature allows.

Xtreme Chocolate Tartlet

 

I developed this chocolate-crust chocolate tartlet for my food column in the South End News a few years ago, for a Valentine's day piece about the foods of love. Recently my friend Joe introduced me to an incredible local chocolate maker, Cacao, and in particular to their "Mayan" chocolate truffle, which intensifies the chocolate taste with cayenne pepper. 

Lime-Ginger Grilled Swordfish with Bamboo Shoots

I picked up a nice New England-caught swordfish steak yesterday, and I had some fresh bamboo shoots from my trip to the Asian market last week.

As I was thinking about how to prepare the fish I remembered a hot, lazy night in Martinique a long time ago. The beach near the marina where I was staying was lined with little shacks offering food and drink to locals and those visitors who were, like me, weary of hotel and tourist-joint food. I wandered down the dark beach and, attracted by the smell of grilling food, found my way to a joint where they were grilling fish and serving it under the stars. Rum may have been offered as well. Raggae rhythms floated along the beach, melding with competing calypso beats and the sound of the surf. The fish was marinated in lime and seasoned with hot peppers, and to this day this combination transports me back to that lazy beach, charcoal smoke mixing with the soft seaside smells and the sounds of people relaxing, drinking, singing, laughing. 

Sausage, Scallop & Buffalo Mozzarella Pizza

 

If you can possibly get the genuine buffalo mozzarella, it is far superior to the "fresh mozzarella" available almost everywhere these days. I use an addictive sweet Italian sausage (from a neighborhood shop) that has a hint of fennel.

Arugula Salad with Roasted Tomatoes & Pine Nuts

 

Spaghetti Salad with Vegetables and Crunchy Garlic

 

Last night summer got rolling around here with a great crowd of friends, a spaghetti salad feast and a bunch of smokin' musicians jamming late into the night.

Spaghetti Salad with Veggies and Crunchy Garlic

This serves 4 - 6 comfortably - eight with bread, sides etc. It's a great dish for a casual summer supper on the porch, movie night at home, or a rainy Sunday afternoon with a few friends, a jazz album or two, and the paper.

5 Tbsp crunchy garlic (see separate recipe below)
oil reserved from making crunchy garlic
1 lb spaghetti
assortment of raw vegetables such as tomatoes, celery, radishes, red onion, scallions, green beans, peas, broccoli, mushrooms, asparagus, etc., cut in bite-size pieces -- be sure that you include at least one with a definite crunch, like celery or radish.
minced herbs such as parsley, oregano or basil
2 oz Parmeggiano-Reggiano cheese, shredded
4 oz cooked ham cut in thin strips  (option)
4 oz cold cooked peeled shrimp (option)
toasted pine nuts (option)

Blanch green beans, peas, broccoli, asparagus, or other vegetables not normally eaten raw by plunging in boiling salted water for two minutes, draining and immediately showering with cold water to stop the cooking. Drain well.

Cook pasta al dente, drain and mix with the garlic oil reserved from the crunchy garlic and the herbs. Set out the vegetables in individual serving bowls and allow guests to build their own plates of pasta, vegetables and ham or shrimp if using. The cheese, a sprinkling of crunchy garlic and a grinding of black pepper top it off. Serve with a good crusty bread and a bottle of your favorite wine.

 

 

Crunchy Garlic

2 heads garlic
1/4 C olive oil, or as needed

Peel and chop the garlic. Sauté garlic slowly in the olive oil until just golden brown. Quickly remove with slotted spoon to a paper towel on plate. Reserve oil for use flavoring pasta or salad dressing.

When the garlic has cooled, transfer to a clean paper towel and cover with another. On a flat surface, use a rolling pin or large cylindrical jar to crush the crunchy nuggets to a powder.

Sprinkle over steamed vegetables or pasta for a special treat. Keeps for several days in the refrigerator. Makes approximately 5 tablespoons.

Yakitori

 We had our friend Steve here for dinner last night and I made a traditional Japanese meal, featuring yakitori (grilled chicken glazed with sauce). I slavishly followed the recipes from Shizu Tsuji's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art, so (since I'm only providing original or significantly adapted recipes in this blog, not stealing recipes verbatim from the sources) for these you'll have to get a copy of the book. Which is not a bad idea, if you have any interest in traditional Japanese cooking, since this is the best and most beloved Japanese cookbook available in English. The introduction by M. F. K. Fisher alone is reason enough to buy the book, but the illustrations, reference sections on ingredients, equipment and techniques, and the clear, simple-to-follow recipes make this an important addition to the cookbook shelf.

Steamed Green Soy Beans In Shell (Edamame)
Tortoise Shell Tofu (Tofu Bekko-ni)
Spinach with Sesame Dressing (Horenso no Goma-Ae)
Vinegared Cucumber, Wakame Seaweed and Shrimp in Sanbaizu Sauce (Kyuri no Sunomi)
Yakitori
Rice (Gohan)
Cucumber Pickles (Kabu no Sokuseki-zuki)
Miso Soup (Miso-shiru)
Green Tea (Ocha)

Sea Scallops with Honey Sauce

I picked up a some scallops at one of the dockside fish markets in Portland today – 4 huge off-the-boat diver scallops for an app to go with some braised short ribs I made a couple of days ago...a relatively quick dinner after a busy day.

Sea Scallops with Honey Sauce

4 sea scallops (about 2 oz each)
1/4 cup white wine
2 T vegetable broth (or chicken or fish broth or water)
4 tsp honey
2 T butter
1/4 tsp chopped garlic
4 grape tomatoes, chopped (2 tsp)
1/2 tsp fennel seeds, roasted and crushed
1 bunch Chinese broccoli or similar (broccoli rabe, spinach, etc.)
2 tsp olive oil
salt, hot sauce to taste
1 T minced parsley

Wash the scallops and pat dry. Wash the greens and prepare as for bok choi Italiano. Select two stalks with long leaves and cut into long slivers or slices. (Reserve the rest of the greens to serve another time.) Sear scallops very quickly (about 60 sec) on one side only in oil in heavy pan over high heat. Remove scallops to side plate. Add garlic, crushed fennel seeds and wine. Reduce wine by half. Add honey and broth and bring to a simmer. Add butter, stirring constantly until it melts. Off heat, add scallops, stir, and season with salt and a pinch of cayenne. Swirl a few pieces of the greens in a curvilinear pattern on each plate. Place scallops on plate. Scatter tomatoes and parsley over scallops. Drizzle sauce over the scallops and serve immediately.

Smoked Salmon Pizza

I can't stop buying those $5.00/lb pouches of smoked salmon trimmings from Ducktrap Farms....

Duck Liver Paté on Toast

 

Chinese-Style Pork with Pasta

This was an experiment using a Chinese technique from Irene Kuo to prepare the pork for an Italian-style pasta dish.

Marinated Pork with Pasta and Tomatoes

1 lb pork loin, cut in 1/4" x 1/4" x 2-1/2" strips
1/4 fresh bamboo shoot, cut in 1/4" x 1/4" x 2-1/2" strips
Marinade:
   4 tsp each: soy sauce, oil, dry sherry, corn starch
1/2 lb pasta
2 cloves garlic, minced
14 oz (1/2 a 28 oz can) whole tomatoes, with juice, cut in chunks
4 T minced fresh oregano
1/2 vidalia (or 1 medium yellow) onion, sliced

Toss pork in the marinade and marinate for 30 - 60 min. Boil 3 qt water, toss in pork and stir for about 2 min. Drain, reserving the cooking liquid.

Sauté onions and bamboo shoot in a large heavy skillet until onion is golden. Remove from heat.

Transfer the broth from cooking the pork to the pasta pot, add sufficient water and cook the pasta al dente. Transfer to the skillet with tongs, allowing some pasta water to ride along. Add the pork, the garlic, the oregano and the tomatoes to the skillet and sauté, stirring, for a few minutes until the pork and tomatoes are warmed. Correct seasoning. Garnish with a little more oregano and serve with shredded parmeggiano reggiano.

Chef's Special

Earlier this year I read (thanks to my friend Kit)   Soul of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman and it gave me a new appreciation of the fact that the "chef's special" is a way to use up leftovers and food that didn't get used earlier. No shame there -- it's the way I cook all the time: ok, this is what I've got in the house, so what'll I do with it to make something good? And the corollary: if it's got flavor, think of some way to use it instead of throwing it out!

Tonight I had available: a bunch of fresh basil that's getting old; a plastic container of last night's clam broth; some more green beans vinaigrette; some more frisée; some parmeggiano reggiano I grated the other night and didn't use. To these urgent ingredients I added a pound of frozen shrimp, 2 cups of Arborio rice, a cup of frozen peas and voilá:

Grilled Shrimp with Basil, Garlic and Tomatoes
Shrimp Risotto with Peas
Frisée/Romaine Salad with Green Beans Vinaigrette

Grilled Shrimp with Basil, Garlic and Tomatoes

1 lb shrimp, peeled, washed, patted dry (reserve shells*)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp hot sauce
1/4 C olive oil
1/3 C fresh basil, minced
5 cloves garlic, minced
12 grape tomatoes, sliced thin, or 1/2 ripe tomato, 1/4" dice

Toss shrimp in oil, salt, and hot sauce. Grill 2 min per side on hot preheated grill. Immediately toss with the basil, tomatoes and garlic.
________________________

*Keep all shrimp shells in a bag in the freezer for use in making Shrimp Broth. 

Shrimp Risotto with Peas

2 C Arborio rice
1 med onion, minced
3 T butter
2 T olive oil
2/3 C white wine
1 C fresh or frozen green peas
3 T parmeggiano reggiano, shredded
hot sauce to taste
stock:
  1 - 1/2 C steamed clam broth
  2 C red shrimp broth, recipe follows
  1 - 1/2 C water
8 large shrimp (option)

Follow the Risotto Master Recipe. If using, sauté 4 of the shrimp quickly in olive oil. Chop the other 4 shrimp. Add the peas and chopped shrimp when the risotto is almost done, stir them into the rice and cover for five minutes before serving. Garnish with the whole shrimp (if using) and some minced herbs. (The addition of the shrimp is just for eye appeal: the flavor comes from the stock. Tonight I was serving it with grilled shrimp so a shrimp garnish wasn't called for.)

Red Shrimp Broth

 

Every time I use shrimp I throw the shells, tails and heads into a 1-gallon plastic bag I keep in the freezer. When the bag is full I make this recipe and freeze the broth in one- or two-cup plastic containers for later use. 

4 qts shrimp shells, tails and heads (from about 4 - 5 lb shrimp)
1/3 C olive oil
6 cloves garlic, chopped
2 28-oz cans whole tomatoes, with juice

Sauté the shrimp shells in the oil over high heat, stirring, until they all turn pink. Reduce the heat, add the garlic and tomatoes and simmer for 2 hrs. Purée the sauce in a blender and strain through a fine sieve.

Since I sometimes use this sauce for reductions (like risotto) I don't season it  (a seasoned sauce, when reduced, can be too salty or peppery).

Risotto

Risotto Master Recipe

There is nothing to compare, really, with a well-prepared risotto, but the technique is generally not well-understood.  Combine this with the fact that, outside Italy, restaurants use various methods to avoid the time-consuming preparation, which must be done immediately before service – all of which produce an inferior product compared with the real thing – so it's hard to even get a sense of what you're aiming at without a trip to Italy.

Fortunately the technique is quite simple.

From Elizabeth David, in her classic "Italian Food:"

"Into a heavy pan put a good ounce of butter....In the butter fry a small onion cut very fine; let it turn pale gold but not brown....Now add the rice, allowing about 3 oz. per person....

Stir the rice until it is well impregnated with the butter. It must remain white. Now pour in two thirds of a tumbler of dry white wine and let it cook on a moderate flame until the wine has almost evaporated.

At this moment start adding the stock...add about a breakfast cupful (in American terms, a regular measuring cup) at a time, and keep your eye on the risotto, although at this stage it is not essential to stir continuously.

As the stock becomes absorbed add more; in all you will need about 2 pints for 10 - 12 oz of rice, and if this in not quite enough, dilute it with hot water. Towards the end of the cooking, which will take 20 - 30 minutes, stir continuously using a wooden fork rather than a spoon, which tends to crush the grains.

When you see that the rice is tender, the mixture creamy but not sticky....add 1 oz each of butter and grated Parmesan, and serve the risotto as soon as the cheese has melted."

To which I can only add:

1. For 6 half-cup servings, I use 1 cup rice, 1/3 C wine and 3-4 cups stock. Since it will be concentrated by the slow cooking, the stock should be unsalted. 

2. The hardest part is knowing when it's done. Taste the rice: it should be firmly al dente but not chalky-hard in the middle. If in doubt, stop when it's still a little resistant to the tooth, remove from heat, cover and wait a few minutes. It should be fine. 

3. The possible combinations of stock flavors and add-ins are infinite: the best thing to do is to go wild with invention.

Nutritional Estimate 6 Half-cup Servings. Per serving: 103 Calories; 10 g Total Carbs; 0 g Dietary Fiber; 1 g Sugars; 4 g Fat; 11 mg Cholesterol; 109 mg Sodium; 4 g Protein. Weight Watchers: 2 points.

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