Stephencooks

Six Tips for a Romantic Valentine's Day Dinner

With Valentine's Day just around the corner it's time to get busy planning that special dinner. For me, an intimate dinner at home – with candles, wine and a fire glowing in the background – is the formula.

I like to do a meal that's thoughtfully planned, lovingly prepared and served on a picture-perfect table. For me this this is so much more personal and meaningful a celebration than a restaurant meal, especially since so many of us have good restaurant meals on a fairly frequent basis.

Here are my tips for a successful romantic Valentine's Day dinner for two:

1. Do most of the cooking ahead.
Leaving your sweetie sitting alone while the cook prepares a complicated soufflé or risotto is a sure way to break the mood, no matter how smooth the music!

2. Serve several courses – and keep them light.
Lingering over multiple courses makes the evening special. Just be sure to keep the dishes and portions light, for savoring instead of satiation.  

3. Keep it simple.
The dishes you choose should be simple presentations of pleasurable foods. Overly complex dishes distract from the unpretentious statement of love your meal should convey. 

4. Plan your presentation. 
As you plan your menu think about how each course will be presented. Each dish should look as much like a gift as any package done up in foiled paper and red ribbon. 

5. Leave the dishes 'til morning.
Nothing kills a mood faster than the clatter of a dishwasher being loaded. Even if it goes against your grain to leave dirty dishes out overnight, just this once: pay attention to your partner instead of the cleanup.

6. It's more than food. 
Music, candles, wine, flowers and table setting – all planned and laid out ahead of time – make a wonderful background for your gifts of food and love.

Here are a few suggestions for your Valentine's Day dinner menu...

Starters 

Mini-Pissaladieres: Quick Anchovy Tartlets with Olives and Cheese

A pissaladiere is a traditional Provençal tart which gets its name from the anchovie paste, pissala, which is the essential ingredient. Like most traditional recipes, hundreds of variations can be found, and frequently the preparation edges towards a simple pizza: a smear of onions, anchovies and herbs on a flatbread.

Quick Sundried-Tomato Crostini

This is perfect for Valentine's Day: fast and yummy finger food. It's so simple that it feels like cheating, but the ingredients are all top quality, and they look and taste great. Nothing wrong with that!

Seared Sea Scallops with Roasted Pears and Honey Butter

This spectacular treatment of diver scallops is an adaptation of a recipe given to me by Lisa Martel of On the Park, a now defunct but fondly-remembered participant in the vibrant and exciting Boston South End restaurant scene in the 90's.

 

Avocado, Persimmon, Watermelon Radish and Onion Salad

Watermelon radish and persimmon make a nice crunch and sweet/exotic juxtaposition -- not to mention the visual pleasures of the pairing -- especially when combined with the yeilding flesh of a ripe Hass avocado, some crisp sweet Vidalia onions and a dressing of lime, ginger and honey.

Mains

Seared Pork Medallions with Braised Fennel

 Braised fennel makes a luxurious and tasty bed for seared meat. The distinctive liquorish-like flavor is muted but not destroyed by the braising, and, with onions, it has a creamy goodness that begs to be nuanced with an herb or other flavoring, according to the pairing. The seared pork medallions are a perfect pairing. 

Poached Haddock Fillet with Apple and Tomato

Where I come from (Maine), fillets of delicate white fish like cod, hake, haddock or flounder are often the freshest of the local catch, so when I'm buying fish I'm drawn to them. But cooking these fish can be a challenge, both because they tend to fall apart and because the flavor of these fish is subtle. Sauces and accompaniments have to tread lightly...

Pan Seared Filet Mignon with Wine-Shallot Sauce

There it sits: a tray of beautiful two-inch-thick prime filet mignon steaks. Twelve bucks a pound at least, and we're looking forward to a perfectly cooked steak. Talk about pressure!  There's nothing more disappointing than an overcooked steak, especially when it's a top cut, but with a little care and attention you can come through with the goods every time...

Dessert

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. 

 

Chocolate Espresso "Mayan" Cookies

These little guys are sneaky little chocolate bombs. They look innocent enough on the plate, but in your mouth they explode a burst of dark, dangerous flavor that will have you checking your competition and grabbing for more. 

[Originally published February 10, 2010.]

Tandoori Chicken

                                                      

Tandoori chicken is a popular and simple preparation that fits well in a low-carb diet. Skinless chicken is marinated in a mixture of spices and yogurt and grilled. 

For some reason tandoori chicken is often imparted with a fake-looking red color. If you want you can go with this tradition by adding a few drops of red food coloring to the marinade but I'm not sure that adds anything to the enjoyment of this dish. 

Be sure to plan ahead for tandoori chicken, as it requires marination of 4 to 6 hours. Serve with lentils and an Indian bread such as puri or naan. 

Apple Salad with Gorgonzola, Bacon and Candied Walnuts

This is a simple salad made festive with the addition of the candied walnuts, and after multiple attempts and various approaches I'm happy to say that this recipe for candied nuts is my all-time favorite. There's no oil or butter added, as in a lot of candied nuts recipes, and no need for cooking a sugar syrup to a certain temperature. And the best thing is that the results are very satisfying: these nuts bring an authoritative crunch without being thickly coated with candy.

This salad makes a nice light starter or side for a festive holiday meal, or for a simple lunch with friends. The calories (131 per serving) and carbs (12 g) are reasonable considering the luxurious feel of the apple / Gorgonzola / candied walnuts combination, and the maple syrup / lime dressing – inspired by the maple vinaigrette at Clay Hill Farm in Ogunquit, Maine – adds an additional touch of class.

Lobster Chowder with Fennel, Corn and Pancetta

Lobster makes a great starter for your Thanksgiving dinner! Jasper White, the founder of the fabulous Summer Shack restaurants and author of "Lobster at Home" says the quality of lobster in November is at its peak – and the price is usually at its lowest in the year. 

This deconstruction of lobster chowder will start your special Thanksgiving dinner with style. It puts the lobster pieces front and center and uses fingerling potato halves instead of the usual diced potatoes. The addition of pancetta and leeks further distinquishes this dish from the run-of-the-mill chowder. 

Of course, as with most memorable soups, the broth is what makes this dish. There's a bit of work required in this preparation but if you're looking to create a memorable holiday meal it's really worth it – especially since you can do most of it ahead of time. 

Rutabaga Pie

I'm a big fan of rutabaga, as regular readers know. With locally grown rutabaga available most of the year here in Portland now that the farmers' market runs year round I keep looking for interesting ways to use our favorite root vegetable, so as we start to look forward to the holiday season I was thinking about pie possibilities using rutabaga. I frequently search Google News Archive for recipes from newspapers from earlier times so I looked for a rutabaga pie recipe – and found one in an unsigned article ("Don't Turn Down the Turnip - It's Versatile") in the Milwaukee Journal, November 12, 1969. I've adapted this version from that source. 

 Click for More Rutabaga Recipes 

The Milwaukee Journal article oddly leads with a turnip recipe, then instructs that "turnips and rutabagas should not be used interchangably," and, without a beat, launches into a couple of rutabaga recipes. The fact is that while turnip and rutabaga are related (the rutabaga originated as a cross between turnip and cabbage) and rutabaga is frequently called "yellow turnip" they have different flavor profiles. In other words,  I don't think I'd advise making this pie with turnips instead of rutabaga!

Unadorned cooked rutabaga has a satisfyingly buttery flavor, so while this pie has a lot in common with pumpkin pie the flavor has subtle caramel overtones that interact with the pie spices in a different and interesting way. And while pie is never a diet food, this adaptation, using no-calorie granlulated sweetener instead of sugar (and cut into reasonably-sized portions) is a modest 196 calories and 18 grams of carbohydrates -- not bad for such a rich-tasting dessert. (Of course, adding whipped cream runs the total up at a rate of 8 calories per tablespoon.)

Raita – Indian-style Yogurt Salad with Tomatoes, Peanuts and Mint

Raita – Indian-style yogurt salad – is a perennial favorite in our house. When we have an Indian feast the calm, cool taste of raita is a nice counterpoint to the spiciness of the other dishes. But in mid-summer, when the tomatoes are ripe and flavorful, the cucumbers are bursting on the vine and the mint patch is threatening to take over the yard, raita is on our table, Indian feast or not. 

We especially love it now that good-quality Greek yogurt is readily available in most areas. Made with regular plain yogurt raita can be watery and unsatisfying. But when made with strained Greek yogurt – even the non-fat versions – the result is creamy and satisfying. 

And of course, we love it because it's low in calories, low in carbs and low in those evil WW Points!

Grilled Pork Loin with Herb-Mustard Rub

My son-in-law Craig is the acknowledged master griller in the family and the other day he delivered the goods with this great trio: grilled pork loin with an herb rub, grilled baby artichokes and grilled leeks. Served al fresco in the patio, this made for a terrific summer dinner party. 

Pork loin can be dry and sometimes tough, so careful attention to the internal temperature while cooking is required. When the internal temperature goes over about 160 the toughness and dryness take over, and you have to remember that the temperature of the meat will continue to rise after the roast is removed from the heat. Craig takes his roast off the fire when the internal temperature is 145º and the result is perfect...moist, tasty and with a hint of pink in the center of the slice. 

Grilled Baby Artichokes

We love artichokes – even though they're hardly a local product here in Maine – but preparing them is a pain, so when I can get baby artichokes I always jump at the opportunity. These beauties – around 1 1/2" to 2" in diameter – are a smaller, fully mature version of the bigger artichokes we normally see in the stores. Their small size is due to the fact that they are picked from the lower part of the plant – and because they are small they haven't developed the prickly inedible fibers that have to be removed from full-sized artichokes, so prep is a breeze: just trim them and cut in half. The whole bulb is edible.

A platter of baby artichokes is a welcome appetizer for a casual outdoor dinner in the summer, or they can be used in salads or as a side for roasted or grilled pork or chicken. 

For people looking to control glucose levels or who are watching their weight baby artichokes are a guilt-free treat: low-calorie, low-carb and zero Weight Watchers points. 

Salad with Roasted Radishes, Roasted Shallots and Shrimp

I roast vegetables all the time in my countertop oven: beets, shallots, cipollinis, peppers, cauliflower, leeks, tomatoes, sprouts, Jerusalem artichokes - you name it, it seems I've roasted them. I just toss them in some oil (and herbs, sometimes), set the oven at 425º and roast them from 30 to 60 minutes, depending on how big the individual pieces are. But I never thought to roast radishes until this spring. The early radish crop is among the most colorful of the vegetables on offer from our local farms so I kept coming home with them – sometimes several bunches – which led to thoughts about what I could do with them that I hadn't done before. 

Of course, no sooner had I roasted a bunch and decided they were blogworthy did I find that I'm not the first to think of this, and that in fact it's a trend that was highlighted in the New York Times just a month ago. Kalyn, by the way, is always in front of the curve: she blogged about them three years ago!

How do they taste? Sweet, and softer to the tooth, but there's still a hint of the classic radish bite. I didn't obscure the taste with lemon, garlic or a heavy dose of herbs because I wanted to keep the radish in my salad while bringing in something new. 

This salad was built around the radishes, but also included roasted shallots, fresh cherry tomatoes, mixed spring greens (including some colorful and tender baby beet greens) and a few grilled shrimp. A simple vinaigrette, passed at the table, made this a wonderful accompaniment to some pan-seared filets mignon and a crusty baguette. 

As you might expect, this salad fits nicely in a low-carb diet for glucose control, as well as in calorie-controlled regimens, at only 12 grams of carbohydrates and 135 calories per serving. 

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Chicken Noodle Soup, Vietnamese-Style (Pho Ga)

 

Pho ga – Vietnamese chicken soup – is one of those famous dishes for which you can easily find thousands of slightly different recipes. This adaptation is a quicker version that takes advantage of the poached chicken and chicken broth that I routinely make on weekends for use in weeknight dinners, when preparation time is an issue. (Most recipes for pho ga, like other traditional chicken soups, begin with the slow cooking of a chicken, which for cooks who have other things to do most days can make it prohibitively time-consuming.) 

The other departure from tradition in this version is the optional use of a pasta with lowered digestible carbs in place of the usual rice noodles. This change makes a soup that – at 13 grams of carbohydrates per serving instead of a whopping 45 grams – fits well into meal plans for people with diabetes who need to moderate their carbohydrate intake to achieve control of blood glucose levels, or for those on low-carb diets for weight control. 

Of course, these changes, while they will make sense to some, means this version is less than authentic – so if you're a purist about pho ga definitely find a more traditional recipe. (I've posted links to a few popular versions at the bottom of the page.) For me, however, this recipe brings the flavor of traditional pho ga while fitting better into my lifestyle.  

Sicilian Style Slab Pizza

Regular readers of Stephencooks know that when I make pizza I favor a California-style pie, with a chewy crust and exotic toppings, but recently I've fallen in love with a different style of pizza. Baker Stephen Lanzalotta, in his little bakery tucked in the back of Micucci's grocery store here in Portland, has opened my eyes to the joy of Sicilian-style pizza. It's made with a light, airy dough and a simple tomato and mozzarella topping and it has taken Portland by storm. 

Lanzalotta and his daughter can only produce a few trays at a time, so pretty much every time fresh slices (called "slabs" locally) are put out on their rack in the bakery there's a line of customers waiting eagerly for their not-so-little piece of heaven. 

This recipe is not the equal of Lanzalotta's slab but rather is inspired by the slab. For one thing, I'm working with a consumer-style oven capable of maybe 550º – Lanzalotta's pizza oven surely operates at over 800º and this makes a big difference. 

That said, I've very pleased with the results of this attempt. While the crust is a bit spongier and not as dry as Lanzalotta's it's reasonably light and has a satisfactorily crunchy bottom. The simple tomato and mozzarella topping is sweet and tasty, and much closer to the original Italian idea of pizza (basically, a flat bread – focaccia – with some olive oil and maybe some herbs smeared on) when compared to most of the pizzas I've made over the years. 

Of course, this is a dish I make primarily for the pleasure of friends and family, since I have to control my carbohydrate intake to keep my blood glucose level in check, and unfortunately this pizza has around 40 grams of carbohydrates per serving. That's about twice the amount I usually go for at a single meal. I don't deprive myself entirely, however: a half serving of this pizza plus a nice green salad makes a perfect supper, with a reasonable level of carbs and calories. 

Easy Chicken Cacciatore with Linguine

I've been making various versions of Chicken Cacciatore my whole life, to the point where I rarely consult recipes (which means it's rarely the same twice). Recently I threw this together for a quick midweek dinner, using some cooked chicken I had on hand and it was so good that E, the usual beneficiary of my cooking, insisted that I write it down so I could do it again soon.

Cacciatore means hunter in Italian, and the dish in Italian is pollo alla cacciatora, but I've never found an authoritative explanation for the name. My friend Elise over at Simply Recipes doesn't claim to know either but said she'd heard that "if a hunter came home empty-handed, his wife would kill a chicken for the meal instead" and that's good enough for me. Anyway, like all famous dishes, there are tons of variations. The chicken, of course, and tomatoes, onions, olive oil, garlic and usually some wine seem to be the common elements in most of the recipes, with sweet peppers, mushrooms and olives making frequent appearances. 

This version adds herbes de provence, fennel seeds, saffron and black oil-cured Moroccan olives, and as mentioned it uses cooked chicken instead of browning, then braising chicken parts as is the usual procedure. 

For those looking to watch their weight or get their blood glucose levels under control this dish, portioned carefully, can easily fit into a day's meal plan since it's only 7 grams of fat, 14 grams of digestible carbs and 6 Weight Watchers points (if made with Dreamfields pasta -- see Note 2 in the recipe below). 

Serve it with a grating of Parmiggiano Reggiano cheese, a fresh green salad and a hearty Tuscan Sangiovese Chianti. 

Smoked Salmon Terrine

 
This smoked salmon dish is a quick and easy crowd-pleaser...

As regular readers know, I'm lucky to live down the road from the Ducktrap River smokehouse. They produce a spectacular line of smoked seafood, and one of their products that's available locally is "salmon trim." It's the odd pieces left on the cutting board after they prepare their flawless packages of sliced smoked salmon, which sell for about $18 per pound. Currently salmon trim is priced at $7.99 a pound. It's sold in one-pound packs which I can't resist, so I'm constantly challenged to come up with new ways to use smoked salmon. 

This terrine is perfect for entertaining...it only takes a few minutes to prepare and it scores high on the scale as a starter for an informal dinner party. In terms of nutrition it could not be better: no carbs and only 17 calories per serving. 

Broccoli Rabe Pancakes

 
Broccoli rabe (also called broccoli raab or rapini) appears on our table very frequently – usually in a very traditional form (steamed with chicken broth, garlic and a few red pepper flakes) – but this week I was looking for a change of pace. 

This simple, quick recipe certainly filled the bill. These pancakes are light and tasty. The bitter-greens flavor of the broccoli rabe isn't masked at all by this preparation, and the subtle hints of garlic and cheese add depth. With a green salad made from tender new farmers' market lettuce and watercress they made a nice side to a couple of small steaks right off the grill. 

In terms of a healthy weight- or glucose-control diet, these cakes – in moderation – fit right in, since a reasonable serving of these low-fat pancakes brings only 150 calories and 14 grams of carbohydrates. 

Healthy Honey Whole Wheat Bread

This bread is an attempt to recover a recipe I loved and lost. For many years I made this bread at least once a week, to the point where I'd memorized the recipe. Then I stopped making it and later, when I wanted to make it again, I realized I'd forgotten the recipe and didn't actually have a record of it (this was in a youthful, disorganized period in my life). 

The memory of the aroma of this bread, and the taste of the first slice, fresh from the oven, has stayed with me, so recently I resolved to try to recreate the recipe. This version – after more than a few failed attempts – measures up to my sense memory of this wonderful bread. 

This recipe is, in my experience, easy, forgiving and nearly foolproof. It's a great bread for breakfast toast, sandwiches – grilled or not – or as an always-appreciated gift for favorite friends. 

From a healthy diet point of view, as always bread needs to be approached with caution. Two moderately thin slices bring 161 calories and 25 grams of carbohydrates, so this one certainly can be part of a weight- or glucose-control diet, especially since that two-slice serving also brings 4 grams of fiber and 5 grams of protein. 

Chicken with Cauliflower Rice

 

A search of my favorite food blogs the other day for a new idea for cauliflower turned up the idea of cauliflower "rice" – shredded cauliflower used to replace rice in dishes usually based on rice. Why? Not only does it taste good but also because it drastically reduces the calorie and carbohydrate content of the dish.

As Kalyn, of Kalyn's Kitchen, said recently in her post about cauliflower rice, I discovered that I'm very late to this party. But at least I finally arrived! 

Fried rice, an old favorite, had been banished to the "never again" list for me since I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and started manipulating my diet for weight control and blood glucose control. I've been trying to take the attitude that I can eat anything as long as I can balance the numbers at the end of the day, but traditional fried rice is so high in carbs and fat (and almost always very high in sodium) that I didn't think even very limited portions would work for me. 

This adaptation of cauliflower rice for a chicken "fried rice" dish is a game-changer, bringing satisfying taste and texture. And, it's under 200 calories for a generous 1 1/4 cup serving, with less than 10 grams of carbohydrates. This dish will definitely be repeated frequently on my table!

Cod Sauce for Pasta with Tomatoes and Garlic

Fresh cod off the boat is one of the pleasures of living in a town like Portland with an active fishing fleet and excellent fish markets lining the waterfront. This recipe – adapted from one in Marcella Hazan's "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking" that uses canned tuna – is a simple way to take advantage of our love for both fish and pasta. 

The sauce is extremely simple to make and the whole dish can be made in about half an hour, which makes this a great choice for a midweek supper. I served it with a crusty bread, a fresh green salad and a crisp glass of Pinot Grigio. 

In terms of nutritional content, the main changes I made from the Hazan recipe, other than going from canned tuna to fresh cod, were related to reduced fat in the dish; also I used Dreamfields pasta (see note below, in the recipe section) so it only has 10 grams of carbohydrates per serving.  While I haven't tried the two dishes side-by-side, this version was very satisfying both on the tomato sauce front and the fish, so I don't think anything was lost with those changes. Certainly this dish makes sense for people looking to control weight or blood glucose levels while still including pasta in their diet. 

Soft Focaccia Breadsticks

When E and I go out for dinner we often like to eat at the bar rather than at a table for two, and we particularly gravitate to places where we can sit for a while with a few snacks before ordering. Some years ago one of our favorite places offered house-made soft focaccia breadsticks with a dipping bowl of balsamic-dotted olive oil and this seemed to us to be an almost perfect offering. 

That place is gone now, but recently for a small gathering at our place I decided to try to reproduce those lovely soft sticks. I almost got it right the first time but after a couple of adjustments I can definitely say this is a winner...perfect for drinks before a dinner party. As a lighter alternate to the olive oil/balsamic dip, I frequently serve them with my Fresh Tomato-Basil Dipping Sauce. 

Of course, for people looking to control blood-glucose levels or watch their weight, portion control is necessary with bread, so one of the things I like about these is that since each of the sticks is much smaller than an ordinary slice of bread I can enjoy a couple of them without totally blowing my diet. When I serve them I usually add some carrot or celery sticks, cherry tomatoes or blanched radishes to the table to give people a lighter choice for dipping and make a good looking display. 

Roasted Cauliflower with Garam Masala

This simple side dish is extremely popular in our house. Not only is the subtle spice of the garam masala a nice change of pace, but also we love the way the roasting transforms the crisp, crunchy raw cauliflower into an almost buttery melt-in-your mouth treat. 

Did I mention that, in addition to being quick and easy, this dish is low carb, low calorie, low fat and high fiber? What more could you want? I particularly like this roasted cauliflower as a side to chicken, and chilled leftovers can serve as a low-impact snack for people following a low calorie or low carb diet. My other favorite use for leftover cauliflower prepared this way is to use it to perk up an otherwise ordinary salad. 

Quinoa with Chicken, Arugula and Roasted Tomatoes

Regular readers may have noticed that I'm going through a little infatuation with quinoa lately. It's quick-cooking, light-feeling and brings an interesting change of pace taste to our table. This dish is an easy and satisfying weekday plate, taking advantage of my habit of keeping some cooked chicken on hand for nights when I don't want to make a big production out of dinner and also don't want to go out, order in, or succumb again to the supermarket rotisserie chicken. 

The roasted tomatoes and simmered shallots elevate this dish from ordinary to interesting, and the slightly peppery taste of the arugula adds another layer of complexity. Just because we're making a simple and quick dish doesn't mean it can't be satisfyingly unique in flavor and components! 

With regard to diet considerations, this dish is reasonably low fat. Since the the main components of this dish are meat and grain* it can't really be low in either carbohydrates or calories but both are moderate so this dish will fit into a carefully planned diet if portion control is observed. (For the Nutritional Estimate, a serving is a half-cup quinoa and about a half-cup of chicken, with the shallots and roasted tomatoes distributed evenly among the servings.) 

__________________________

*Quinoa is technically not a grain since grains are produced by grasses and the quinoa plant is a leafy bush. However, from a diet and recipe design point of view I think of it as being essentially equivalent to grains like rice or farro. 

Spaghetti Squash & Mushroom Gratin

Spaghetti squash has been on my mind frequently lately...and why not? A naked cup of this crisp, flavorful pasta-substitute brings only 19 calories and 5 grams of carbohydrates to the table. Easy to cook, fun to eat...it seems too good to be true. 

The spectacular numbers this veggie brings encouraged me to cut loose and use a little butter, wine, bread crumbs, olive oil and Parmeggiano Reggiano in this dish. Even with these additions a one-cup serving is only 101 calories and 13 grams of carbs, so it's a perfect – and satisfying – side dish if you're looking to control calorie and carb intake. 

Ciabatta - Crusty Italian-Style Bread

I love good bread and I've been baking my own my whole adult life – although living in Portland one gets spoiled by the excellent breads available from local artisanal bakeries like Standard Baking, Big Sky and Scratch Baking. But two years ago, when I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and set out to learn how to modify my diet to minimize the effects of the disease, I thought my relationship with good bread had come to an end. 

"Avoid the white stuff" was a rule I gleaned early on. White flour, white sugar, potatoes, pasta, all supposedly bad. What about whole wheat bread, one of my favorites? Too high in carbs, it seemed, at a time when I was working on keeping my carb intake under 100 grams per day. 

But over these last two years I've been successful at getting my blood glucose numbers into the healthy range (A1c = 5.9% at last check) by losing weight, keeping up my exercise routine and keeping fairly tight control over my carbohydrate intake. For the first year I recorded everything I ate – including the quantity, calories, fiber, carbohydrates and protein – and did a blood glucose test 4 times a day so I could monitor how my diet and exercise choices affected my glucose levels. I also got a kitchen scale and started portioning my food more accurately.

Along the way I learned that the only rule that's important for my success is to be consistent about my daily intake of carbs and calories and to stay on my exercise routine no matter what. And I learned that bread, in moderation, has an important place in my diet after all. 

Gone are the days when I succumbed to the seductive taste and aroma of bread fresh from the oven, slathered with butter, to the tune of several slices at a between-meal sitting. But do I start the day with a farm-fresh egg scrambled and spread over a piece of toast, and lunch is often an open-faced sandwich of some sort. On balance, the quantity of bread in my diet has clearly declined so I've been feeling, especially this spring, the need to ramp up the quality as much as possible by getting back into bread-baking. I've especially been focusing on learning to make versions of my favorite breads and this is the first of a series of reports on my progress. 

Ciabatta as we know it in the U.S. (a small, flat loaf with a pronounced collapsed-in-the-middle look, a heavy crunch to the crust and more air than bread on the inside) is apparently a faux-rustic bread. It was "invented" less than twenty years ago by an Italian flour-industry expert looking for a way to compete with imported French baguettes (according to an article in The Guardian). He placed a copyright on the name. 

But there are other claimants to the ciabatta throne, including a Northern Italian version that has a thick crust but a moist, less airy crumb than the familiar version. Since I wanted a bread for sandwiches and toast, instead of for dunking in olive oil (which seems to be the predominant way to enjoy the flat ciabattas), I went looking for recipes along the lines of the Northern version. (If you were hoping for the familiar airy-crusty-flat ciabatta recipe, try this one, which is apparently based on a recipe from Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice'.)

I read a lot of recipes and took a lot of notes and then closed the books and went into the kitchen to test, record, and test again. The result: I can't claim Italian authenticity but this bread is extremely satisfying. Crunchy crust, with a smooth, slightly moist crumb, and, surprisingly, it has a fairly good shelf life (in other words, it's still edible the next day.) It makes excellent toast and perfect sandwiches. 

The total time to make it (30 hours) seems daunting, I admit, but it's really easy: just flour, water, yeast and salt, mixed, kneaded and risen according to a schedule, with no more than half an hour of active time required. It definitely takes some planning but after making several attempts and refinements along the way I'm extremely happy with the result and confident to recommend it to bread lovers everywhere.

Cream of Asparagus Soup with Tomato-Basil Coulis

I have a special connection with fresh, local asparagus. My mother, who was raised in a faraway time (1920's and 30's) in a rural village in Ohio, was crazy for fresh asparagus. When I was a small child she'd take me as often as three times a week in asparagus season to a farm where you could pick your own. With a paring knife she carried in her purse in "picking season" and pails on loan from the farm we'd hike up and down the rows looking for the newest stalks. 

I'm not sure that as a little boy I appreciated the importance of what we were doing, or if I even liked asparagus (I remember being ambivalent -- not really liking it but at the same time respecting my mother's enthusiasm -- though I love it now) but I know that now, when spring arrives, I savor the memory of those late-afternoon farm stops with my mother, with the fading light and the twilight temperature falling. Alone in vast and foggy fields, we happily filled our buckets with crisp new stalks. 

Fast forward to 2010. I live in Maine so I get local asparagus for a few weeks in late June and early July. But I'm a sucker for the trucked-in product on offer in my local supermarket in April and May, so every year around this time I'm thinking asparagus a couple of times a week. A few days ago I made a dish that called only for the asparagus tips (for decorative reasons) so I ended up with a bagful of their plainer siblings, the stalks. This easy soup recipe takes full advantage of all the flavor of asparagus while using up those orphaned stalks, and at 61 calories / 10 grams carbohydrates, it fits extremely well in a weight- or glucose-controlled diet.  

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Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons, Moroccan Olives and Saffron-Raisin Quinoa

A tagine is a Moroccan stew "featuring meat or poultry gently simmered with vegetables, olives, preserved lemons, garlic and spices like cumin, ginger, pepper, saffron and turmeric" according to The Food Lover's Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst. Usually tagines are served with coucous. 

I've been a fan of Moroccan cuisine since my first visit to Paris, nearly twenty-five years ago, when my host's daughter and her Algerian boyfriend took me on a culinary tour of North African eateries. Unfortunately, most tagines and couscous dishes present difficult challenges to people with type 2 diabetes. The problem: calorie and carb levels that can completely blow the numbers.

As usual, the solution is careful menu planning, cautious attention to recipes, and portion control, so I've been working to adapt favorite Moroccan recipes to a calorie-limited glucose-control diet without losing the flavor and satisfaction of this traditional cuisine. 

The main trick with this dish is the removal of the chicken skin, which means, of course, a big reduction of fat and therefore of calories. Portion control is the other trick...quinoa (which I routinely use in place of couscous because I like the taste and light feel in the mouth, and because it's higher in fiber than couscous) brings more or less the same calorie and carbohydrate load as couscous, so with both you need to be attentive to quantity: small variations can have big consequences in terms of calorie intake and blood glucose levels.  

At 256 calories per serving and 28 grams of carbohydrates, this delicious and flavorful dish can fit well into a weight- and glucose-controlled diet, as long as you make sure it's in balance with the rest of your diet for the day.

Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup with Star Anise, Sprouts & Ginger

 

I did business in Japan for a number of years in the 80's. The food was great, of course – the Japanese are food-obsessed and demand high quality at every meal. When I was on the go in Tokyo one of my favorite quick lunches was noodle soup. This dish, delivered to offices by bicycle or served in crowded noodle shops, fuels millions of workers every day in Tokyo. If you've been there you know that master noodle-broth makers are revered, and that the quality and provenence of their noodles is extremely important to Japanese noodle-eaters. 

I've also been studying Chinese cooking for many years, guided mostly by my taste buds – when I lived a few blocks from Boston's bustling Chinatown – and by Irene Quo's "The Key to Chinese Cooking." This soup is my version of a melding of the simple Japanese udon soup with typical Chinese flavors. 

Poached Chicken

Today, a confession and a little rant. The confession: until recently when we've been busy we've given in to the "Rotisserie Chicken" option from the supermarket. We knew it was industrially-raised, high-fat, high-sodium, moisture-injected, past its prime, potentially bacteria-ridden, hormone- and pesticide-laced garbage but we held our noses and ate it anyway, for convenience. 

The rant: what's wrong with us (and all the other people who fuel the Rotisserie Chicken industry)? What's so hard about recognizing that days will be busy and dealing with it ahead of time? Go to the farmers' market, find the chicken guy (in our case, Maine-ly Poultry, from Warren, Maine, who sell free-range organic birds that have never been frozen) and buy a healthy chicken. Poach it with this easy-peasy method – with flavorings or not, as you wish – and so have on hand a supply of moist, healthy, low-fat, no-carbohydrate, flavorful meat for quick meals. And bonus: you get a quart or so of excellent-quality chicken broth out of the deal, so you can say goodbye to those sodium-laden boxes of industrial broth. 

What do I use the poached chicken for? Chicken salad, chicken sandwiches, chicken quesadillas, chicken fried rice, chicken soup, chicken pasta dishes...you get the idea: once you have a storage container full of good chicken meat in the refrigerator those hurry-up meals aren't a problem any more. And you don't find yourself eating garbage and telling yourself it's food. 

Regarding the additions to the broth in the recipe: they flavor the chicken very mildly. I usually use the Asian approach (star anise, Szechuan pepper, lemongrass, ginger, etc.) but it's just as good with only the basic broth-making group: celery, onion, carrot, parsley stems, bay leaf. Thyme or oregano are other additions to consider but in my view these should be an alternative to the Asian flavoring group. The lemon I think is always an enhancement but it's not necessary. The key thing is: don't get hung up on the accoutrements. Get a chicken, fill a pot with water and get it cooked. Even with no additions to the broth you'll be in a much better place than you were when you were eating supermarket garbage.

Please excuse the rant....I usually try to be more civil!

Strawberry Crumble

I love strawberries but I'm a strawberry snob. It's not just that I'm addicted to the taste of fresh strawberries...I also love them because they fit so well into my diet, which requires moderate calories and low carbs. A cup of strawberry slices delivers no fat, only 53 calories and 13 grams of carb. 

The snob part? I prefer local Maine strawberrries, which have far superior taste when compared to the California and Florida products. The shipped-in strawberries, like most industrial produce, has been bred for shelf life and shipability, to the expense of taste. The Maine strawberry season is extremely short, from late June until early August, but our feeling here is that it's better to enjoy the good stuff for a few weeks than to be disappointed the rest of the year. 

So why am I writing about a strawberry dessert in April? Because I succumbed to low prices, just like the people who shop at WallMart and buy Kia cars instead of BMW's. Weird weather delayed the Florida strawberry crop this year so most of their product hit the market just when the California berries were arriving, with the predictable result that prices are obscenely low. At the entry to my local supermarket there was a huge display of California strawberries for $1.49 a pound, and that's the kind of thing I respond to without even thinking about it. 

I usually just enjoy them sliced on my cereal in the morning, or cooked into a compote. But this crumble, which you'd think would be extremely sinful – so full of strawberry flavor and enhanced by the crunch and sweetness of the topping –  is only 124 calories and 15 grams of carbohydrates per serving (and only 3 Weight Watchers Points). That's good eating and healthy eating on the same plate, which suits me just fine.  

Fresh Tomato-Basil Dipping Sauce

This tasty and light tomato dipping sauce recipe has long been a favorite for entertaining at our house. It's quick, looks great and, when served with crudités such as blanched radishes, celery or carrot sticks, crisp cucumber spears or cauliflower flowerets along with bread it creates a welcome cocktail-hour snack for those who need to keep weight control in mind and blood glucose levels down. 

I usually start thinking about ways to use tomatoes when the good local tomatoes arrive (August and September in Maine) since, apart from the taste and texture issues, I don't like to buy food that has to be trucked or flown long distances to get to my table. But Backyard Farm in Madison, Maine, Olivia's Garden in New Gloucester and several other local farms – all less than a hundred miles from my kitchen – have changed the equation with their year-round greenhouse operations. I made this batch of sauce from some absolutely beautiful Backyard Farms beefsteaks that looked, smelled and tasted just like their late summer cousins. Now if someone would put a cornfield under glass life would truly be sweet.

By the way, you might want to double the recipe, because this is a great leftover to have in the fridge. There are dozens of uses for it other than as a dip. Smear it on the bread instead of mayonnaise when making a sandwich and save hundreds of calories. Or serve it with rutabaga "fries," as a garnish for a bowl of creamed soup, or in a dollop on top of a scrambled or poached breakfast egg, a grilled chicken breast or a knot of spaghetti squash. Versatile, tasty and easy to make, this sauce is a real winner.

Maine Shrimp with Lemon-Ginger Sauce

It's last call for Maine shrimp for this year so I grabbed one more bag of these beauties. The season legally extends until the end of May but Mother Nature has other ideas: these little guys come to in-shore waters in the winter and early spring to spawn, but once the eggs have been released – the exact timing of which depends on the weather and water temperature – they depart for deeper waters. That means the end of the catch for another year, since the cost of fuel to chase them to deep water plus the potential for spoilage on a long trip back to market adds up to an unacceptable risk for our fisherman, who all too often operate on a razor's-edge profit margin. This year's mild winter (in these parts) meant a short season for Maine shrimpers. 

This dish, inspired by similar Chinese recipes (did I mention that I lived a block from Boston's bustling Chinatown for twelve years?) is a quick and easy way to take advantage of these sweet little morsels. (Of course, it can be done with other types of shrimp, but I'm loyal to our important wild-caught crop.)

Not only is this a flavorful dish, full of lemony ginger tang, but also it's a really healthy recipe: only 135 calories per serving and 4 (FOUR!) grams of carbohydrates. This is good food for people with glucose-control and calorie-restriction diet requirements – and, as a bonus, it's easy and quick.  

Celeriac Coleslaw

We like to cook with local produce, but in late winter and early spring here in Maine the options dwindle and we need some variation. Even though greenhouse cultivation is booming in these parts, at this point in the year I'm always looking for a new idea to keep me interested. 

In earlier times in New England most families had a root cellar -- usually an excavated cave with a shed above and trapdoor access to the cellar. Late-fall-harvested crops like beets, potatoes, turnips, rutabagas, winter squash, parsnips and carrots could be kept cool but not frozen for use throughout the winter. 

Fortunately for us our Maine farmers are using this concept to bring us locally produced organic produce throughout the winter and early spring. Celeriac (also called celery root) is one of the crops they're bringing from their root cellars. 

You may have seen celeriac in your supermarket: it looks like an abused softball that's been dragged through the mud. But the taste (crisp and clean, with celery overtones) is addictive, so I can edure the stares I get from the checkers.

This coleslaw easily passes the taste and satisfaction test but there are other reasons, in terms of healthy diet, to pay attention to celeriac. Look at the nutrition numbers for this salad! Thirty-three calories per serving, only 6 grams carbs and 0 Weight Watchers points...a nearly perfect food for those of use who have to keep weight and glucose-control in mind. Enjoy!

Turkeyburgers with Mango Chutney-Dijon Sauce

One of our favorite vendors at the Portland Winter Farmers' Market is the Maine-ly Poultry Farm in Warren, Maine. I haven't always been happy with the farm-produced poultry I get at the market since it's almost always frozen, but Maine-ly Poultry has a great concept: they process their birds on Fridays and sell fresh, never-frozen chicken and turkey at eight Saturday farmers' markets on the Maine coast. Then the following week they use any unsold birds to make a delicious line of sausages, pot pies, soups, chicken salad and smoked chicken products. 

We've enjoyed many of their fresh whole free-range chickens and we always have one of their pot pies in the freezer for those rushed nights when cooking is the last thing I want to do. Lately I've also been keeping a pound or two of their ground turkey in the freezer for quick weeknight suppers like this one. 

Of course turkey can be bland so I usually add some herbs, chopped onions or other enhancers, as in this recipe that has thyme, Liquid Smoke and chopped scallions. This is good honest food, made from wholesome ingredients and containing reasonable levels of calories and carbohydrates. It makes a satisfying supper without blowing the numbers for those of us who are working on glucose control by way of weight management and carbohydrate restriction. 

Asparagus Tempura Salad with Coconut-Peanut-Lime Dressing

When I need inspiration I go out to eat and make a few notes. Then I go back to the kitchen. 

This absolutely wonderful salad recipe is my interpretation of a dish I've had several times at the Green Elephant restaurant, around the corner from us in this food-obsessed town (Portland, Maine). 

Yes, this dish includes several questionable elements, health-wise: coconut milk (high caloric content), deep-fried food (always suspect because it requires a potful of oil), etc. But this is good food; if portions are controlled it brings high pleasure with reasonable levels of fat and carbs. 

The tempura preparation of asparagus intensifies and enhances the taste of the asparagus, with the addition of a satisfying crunch. Combined with fresh greens, the tangy crunch of the onions and the coconut-peanut-lime dressing, this is a real hit. 

Grilled Marinated Tofu with Wilted Tatsoi

Greenhouse farming is booming here in Maine and one of the farmers we follow just brought in a winter crop of tatsoi. Also called spoon mustard, this green is hardy to 15º F. so it's very well suited to winter cultivation under glass, even in our harsh conditions. 

Tofu, of course, is an incredibly important source of protein. It's been produced in China since at least 200 BC, and today it's an important protein component in the daily diet of billions of people in China, Japan, Southeast Asia and the Phillipines. 

For weight and glucose control, tofu is an excellent low carb, low fat food! At 17 calories per ounce and an incredible 0.7 grams of carbohydrates I'm always happy to come up with satisfying ways to work it into the menu. 

This dish is easy, tasty and so, so healthy...only 116 calories and 9 grams of carbohydrates per serving!

Pan-Roasted Duck Breast with Fig-Shallot Gastrique

 

I was intimidated by duck, and my earliest attempts didn't help.

My daughter and I, some years ago, shared a wonderful dinner in Paris at Allard, the venerable Left Bank bistro on Rue l'Eperon in the Sixth Arrondissement. The centerpiece of the meal was a whole roasted duck with olives. But subsequently when I tried whole roasted duck myself the result was disappointing, to say the least. I blamed it on the duck, or on my inexperience with cooking duck -- and backed away from duck for a long time. 

Enter magret, the breast fillet from a fatted Moulard duck, and the absolutely reliable pan-roasting method I acquired somewhere along the line. These breasts are available fresh in U.S. supermarkets in cryovac packs and this method produces perfectly satisfying rare slices of flavorful duck breast every time, without fail. All you have to do is decide what to serve with the duck to take full advantage. 

Figs are a popular accompaniment to duck so the idea of a fig gastrique seemed to me to be an obvious choice. (A gastrique is, according to Wikipedia, "a thick sauce produced by a reduction of vinegar or wine, sugar, and usually fruit.") Figs simmered in wine, with spices and balsamic vinegar...what could be bad about this?

Although duck has a bad rep in terms of heathly eating (for supposedly being fatty) the nutritional analysis of this dish says otherwise. With 7 grams of fat per serving and only 3 grams of carbohydrates this dish should have a place in any weight-watching or glucose-control diet plan. 

Don't be intimidated by duck! This is an easy, healthy, reliable recipe -- quick, flavorful and so, so good. 

Thai-Style Shrimp Pasta with Tomato-Lime-Peanut Sauce

I've been inspired by the food we've been eating lately at Green Elephant, the self-described "Asian-influenced vegetarian bistro" around the corner in this food-obsessed town. While not a vegetarian I am an appreciator of tasty food so we keep going back and I keep coming home from Green Elephant with new ideas to try.  

This is an easy and quick weekday supper recipe, done in about 25 minutes, and the cilantro-lime-tomato-peanut combination is an especially seductive sauce for shrimp and pasta. While Thai food can be extremely high on the heat index, this dish works well with the peppers dialed back (though of course I have no problem with the flaming-lips approach, if that's what floats your boat).

Braised Cabbage with Apples, Onions and Caraway New and Improved!

I posted a version of this recipe over four years ago, on January 30, 2006. In that post I said: "This simple preparation is one of the longest running supporting players in my cast of old reliable recipes, and it never fails to bring in compliments and praise"  -- and that's still true.

What's new and improved? The 2006 version took at least an hour and fifteen minutes to prepare. Fast forward to 2010: extensive testing has resulted in Version 2.0 -- presented here -- which takes only 15 minutes and is just as good. I've also added caraway seeds to the formula and the reviews are in: this is a hit.

I'm doing a slow-slow-roasted pork shoulder for Easter dinner on Sunday and this is a perfect pairing for roast pork. Braised cabbage also has unlimited uses as a leftover: add it to soup, serve it as a side dish for your Easter leftovers or just pile it on top of a ricecake for a low carb, low fat snack. (Did I mention that a 3/4 cup serving  of this dish is only 52 calories, 8 grams carbs and 1 Weight Watchers point? No-guilt comfort food!)

Moroccan Fish Tagine with Quinoa and Olives

 

As regular Stephencooks readers know, I'm always looking for ways to take advantage of the fresh seafood that arrives every day at the docks here in Portland, Maine. A couple of days ago I picked up a beautiful fresh-caught hake fillet. My favorite way to prepare delicate fish fillets like hake is to poach them gently in an aromatic liquid and then make a sauce from the poaching liquid to serve with rice. (See for example: Poached Cod in Lemon Fumé Broth, Haddock Fillets with Cranberry-Ginger Butter Sauce, Haddock Fillets With Mushrooms, Tomatoes, Onions and Pancetta -- or browse for others on the Seafood Recipe Page.)

A tagine is a traditional North Africa dish, named after the pot in which it is traditionally cooked. The basic idea is that meat is slowly braised in an herbed sauce. A fish tagine is is just a variation on my poaching routine: the fish is braised in an aromatic sauce, although since fish cooks quickly, it doesn't take very long. Tagines are usually served with couscous but this version uses quinoa instead. (Quinoa is a grain-like seed that closely resembles couscous when cooked but has only two-thirds the carbohydrate content of an equivalent serving of couscous and three-fourths the calories.)

This dish is a simple and fast way to bring a change of pace to a mid-week meal using ingredients -- in addition to the fish -- that are usually on hand in a reasonably well-stocked kitchen. If you have more time or a particularly well-provisioned larder you could consider some of the traditional couscous additions: preserved lemon, raisins, cooked onions or chopped toasted nuts. 

Asian-Influenced Scallop Amuse-Bouche

 

The Maine scallop season closes this week so I made sure I got a share of the last catch from the Port Clyde Fresh Catch rep at the Portland Farmers' Market on Saturday. Due to resource conservation requirements the scallop season in Maine is currently only 70 days a year, so for those two months or so it's a little scallop festival every week in our house. 

This last hurrah for the scallop season was a variation of my favorite way to enjoy them: quickly seared, with a sprinkle of salt and a squeeze of lemon, served simply. A seared scallop brings a delicate taste of the sea and a pleasing feel to the mouth, yielding readily to the tooth but not at all mushy or chewy. The main concern when combining them with other ingredients is to not let anything overpower their delicate flavor. 

With this dish, a simple amuse-bouche, I used my homemade anise/cayenne-spiced "Graham Crackers with a Kick" as the base. Sweet and savory at the same time, their crunchiness and subtle spiciness complements without overwhelming the scallops. A sweet, juicy, roasted cherry tomato, a cucumber slice for added crunch, a dab of hoisin sauce and a little crown of lemon zest completes this tasty bite. 

(Want more scallop recipes? Click here to go to a directory of all the scallop recipes in the Stepencooks recipe archive.)

Spaghetti Squash and Shrimp with Lemongrass-Peanut Sauce

Spaghetti squash is a minor food miracle: low in calories, low in carbs, high on the food satisfaction index, easy to prepare and adaptable to all sorts of culinary schemes. It seems gimmicky -- a low calorie, low carb vegetable masquerading as pasta -- but believe me, this is real food. Of course it's not a pasta substitute but, that acknowledged, it's almost as fun to eat. 

We usually just add a pat of butter, a little salt and some basil or thyme and enjoy. But lately I've been looking to learn about lemongrass -- a subtle herb that somehow never has had a place in my repertoire -- so after noodling around a bit I came up with this recipe, with peanut butter, lemongrass, ginger, tomato and a couple of other supporting players to make a spicy, flavorful sauce. It adds an interesting dimension to the squash and makes a perfect pairing with the seared shrimp. 

Graham Crackers with a Kick

We love cheese in this house and lately we've been sampling our way through the aged artisan cheeses being made up the road at Hahn's End. We usually serve it with a fresh baguette from Standard Bakery or with bland, unobtrusive crackers -- which is a good idea if you want to focus on the cheese and don't want competing flavors -- but lately I've been thinking about pairings of these outstanding cheeses with bolder flavors, starting with the crackers. 

I've always liked graham crackers with aged cheeses. The sweetness and the crunch seems to work particularly well with milder cheeses like the washed-rind cowmilk cheese pictured above (Hahn's End "Chamberlain"), and there's something about the combination of the smooth texture of this cheese with the coarse feel of the graham crackers that I find appealing. 

But on the other hand: graham crackers carry distinct childhood memories for most of us -- snacktime in kindergarten stands out for me -- and so they're a bit too ordinary, too familiar to qualify to participate in my "pairing with bolder flavors" experiment in their direct-from-the box form. 

I started wondering how I could mess with the graham cracker formula a little to retain the sweetness and rough crunch while adding in an unexpected twist. This sort of thinking -- with help from Mr. Google -- led me to a recipe for traditional graham crackers by Deb at Smitten Kitchen, which was based on a recipe from Heidi Swanson's 101 Cookbooks, where it's credited to Nancy Silverton's "Pastries from the La Brea Bakery" (Villard, 2000). I pretty much followed the recipe as presented at Smitten Kitchen until the point where I swerved wildly off the course by adding Chinese five-spice powder and cayenne pepper. 

Well, this cracker is a long way from kindergarten snacktime! The five-spice powder (cinnamon, cloves, fennel, star anise and Szcechuan peppercorns) brings a mysterious sweet/savory essence to the traditional taste and the cayenne kicks in a spark at the finish. These were perfect with the Chamberlain cheese, and also with the excellent Hahn's End "Ragged Island," a nutty semi-hard aged cowmilk cheese. 

Salad with Star Fruit, Roasted Beets, and Goat Cheese

 

I love this simple winter salad. It pairs our winter produce (beets and goat cheese) with the star fruit (carambola) -- a product of the tropics which is conveniently flown into our stores in winter. The beets came from Thirty Acre Farm (Whitefield, Maine) and the goat cheese from Tourmaline Hill Farm in Greenwood. 

The star fruit is generally available year round. It's native to Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka and it's also cultivated in the South Pacific, parts of East Asia, and in Columbia, Trinidad, the Dominican Republic and Brazil. In the U.S. it's grown in Florida and Hawaii. 

Star fruit has a tart taste, like grapefruit, which pairs well with the roasted beets and artisanal goat cheese in this salad. Served with a crusty baguette and a crisp Pinot Grigio, this makes a great starter for a winter lunch.

Maine Shrimp Spring Rolls

 

We're always looking for a new way to use our beloved Maine shrimp. Thankfully, the season this year goes until May 29 so I've got plenty of time to come up with more ways to work them in. This dish was an experiment, the first time I'd made shrimp spring rolls, but the results were very satisfying. 

These fresh spring rolls were inspired by a roll that we get from a favorite local restaurant, The Green Elephant, which offers an Asian-influenced vegetarian menu. Of course they don't have shrimp in their spring rolls but the combination of mint, cilantro and lime with the crunch of lettuce, cucumber and carrot is a natural fit with Maine shrimp for those of us who don't have issues with crustaceans as food. 

As might be expected, these rolls are perfect for weight- and glucose-control diet plans, with only 57 calories, 1 gram of fat, 9 grams of carbohydrates and 1 Weight Watchers point per roll. 

Colcannon Soup with Potatoes, Leeks and Cabbage

Colcannon, a traditional Irish dish made of mashed potatoes, with additions -- usually either kale or cabbage, onions, milk or cream and butter (of course) -- has long been popular at our table. For this St. Patrick's day I decided to try make a soup based on the colcannon ingredients that would have lower carbohydrate content and still bring all the satisfaction of traditional colcannon.

This recipe is easy and quick and in terms of flavor, the soup is a real winner. If puréed it would be suggestive of vichyssoise -- which is not surprising since potatoes, leeks, chicken broth, butter and milk or cream are the basic ingredients of both soups. Rather than mashing  or puréeing the potatoes, however, I chose to leave them in chunks. The leeks add a sweetness that's absent from colcannon when made with yellow onions or scallions, as I often do, and the nutmeg deepens the flavor sensation of the dish. 

I served the soup with a plate of bread and farmer's cheese, and glasses of stout all around. Some traditional Irish music in the background and we had our own pub lunch, right here in Portland. 

In terms of weight and glucose control, as promised this soup has about half the carbohydrate content of an average portion of traditional colcannon and less than two-thirds the calories, so it can fit well in a carefully planned and monitored diet plan.  

Irish Brown Bread

 
A few years ago we spent a week at the Assolas Country House, an inn in the village of Kanturk, County Cork, Ireland. Every day we had a traditional Irish breakfast prepared by award-winning Chef-Proprietor Hazel Bourke. Every day it was slightly different, but the main components were various egg preparations, house-made black and white puddings, rashers, grilled tomatoes, and various sausages and potato dishes. (I gained weight on this trip!) The one thing that remained the same, day after day, was the basket of fresh brown bread -- rough-textured, slightly sweet, with a nutty taste and a crunchy crust, still warm from the oven -- accompanied by a knob of sweet fresh butter brought in each day from the farm down the road. 

On our last day at Assolas I spent a wonderful hour with Hazel in the kitchen, asking questions about some of the dishes we'd been served (we had several dinners there as well), checking out her cookbook shelf (which of course included a well-worn "Mastering the Art"), and quizzing her about her sources. Finally, feeling emboldened, I asked if she would share her recipe for the brown bread. With a smile and a quick trip to the copy machine she put it in my hands. 

I didn't get permission to publish the recipe from Hazel (this was before blogging) so I can't repeat it here, but I can say that it's very similar to this "Traditional Brown Bread" recipe on the Irish Odlums Flour site. Unfortunately it required two types of flour that were, at the time, only available by special order from an importer: Odlums Bleached White Cream Flour (which, according to the Odlums site is a bleached, all-purpose white flour) and "Hearts Delight" Brown Wheat Meal. (Today you can order Odlum products from FoodIreland.com but when I recently checked I couldn't find any source for the "Hearts Delight" brand. There are several grades of Odlum Coarse Wholemeal available -- I recently ordered some to test. That will be the subject of a future post.) Thus begun a series of experiments in my kitchen with brown bread recipes claiming to be authentic but using on ingredients commonly available in the U.S. 

Most of the recipes I tested called for stone ground whole wheat and toasted wheat germ -- and while that combination appears in one of my favorite bread recipes it didn't have as rough a texture as Hazel's brown bread, nor as nutty a taste. Finally I ran across a suggestion to use oatmeal supplemented with wheat bran, and after some testing and adjusting we decided that it was the closest we could get to Hazel's bread using easily available ingredients. 

Since, like white Irish Soda Bread, there's no yeast involved, this is a quick recipe, with no rising time required. We like it with raisins and caraway seeds, which weren't in the Assolas House version by the way. I make it sometimes with, sometimes without -- usually depending on whether I have raisins or caraway seeds in the kitchen at the time. Both ways are good. 

Unfortunately Assolas Country House closed in 2005, so we can't go back to compare our bread with Hazel's, and on the webpage they put up to announce the closing -- dated 2005 -- it's mentioned that Hazel was teaching full-time. I hope she's teaching cooking!

Regarding glucose and weight control issues, as with all breads portion control is key. I slice the loaves into wedges, 12 to a loaf, and that's the basis of the Nutritional Estimate. (Nobody can eat just one slice so I've assumed that a serving is two slices -- one-sixth of a loaf). At 161 calories, 26 grams of carbohydrates and 3 Weight Watchers points this serving can fit in a carefully planned and monitored plan, and of course the combination of oatmeal and wheat bran adds significant nutritional value to this bread. 

Boxty with Mustard-Chutney Sauce

We're having fun with Irish food this week!

Boxty is a traditional Irish dish, primarily from the North. As you might expect, it's another preparation based on the potato. It's a simple and quick dish: a potato pancake, with half the potato cooked ahead and mashed and the other half grated raw into the mix. A bit of flour holds the cake together. 

All sorts of sauces are served with boxty – tonight I served it with a mustard-chutney sauce but applesauce, crumbled sausages or just a pat of butter are also agreeable accompaniments. 

Irish Soda Bread

 
Irish soda bread is one of the perfect foods: easy, quick, cheap and always satisfying. No yeast, no rising, no kneading: you just mix it up and bake it. Of course I make it for Saint Patty's Day - my wife and in-laws are Irish so I score lots of points – but I also make it throughout the year. I give it as a gift, we eat it for breakfast, it's our bread at dinner. I'm always a hero when I make Irish soda bread, which when you consider how easy it is makes no sense at all. 

I'm not Irish – I'm half Polish, half English – so my first exposure to Irish soda bread was as an adult. I was in architecture school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the late 70's, and so was frequently found at the architecture hangout, the Harvest Restaurant – founded by architect Ben Thompson, tastemaker for a generation (he created Design Research, which popularized Marimekko and was later absorbed by Crate and Barrel). I had a lot of good times and great meals at the Harvest but the memory that's stayed with me most is that the bread basket always included fresh wedges of Irish soda bread. I didn't know then what it was but I loved it from the first bite.

The Harvest soda bread always had caraway seeds and currants so my version does too. I hope you enjoy this simple pleasure, not only for St. Patrick's Day but also throughout the year.

Shad Roe with Lemon Butter and Capers

 
Around our house it's not the absence of a groundhog's shadow that heralds spring, but rather the appearance of a tattered little handmade sign in the window of our favorite fish market down on the docks. "Shad Roe" is all it says, but to me the message is: "The end of winter is here!"

Shad roe is the efficiently descriptive name for delicate clusters of fish eggs harvested from shad (Alosa Sapidissima) when the laden females make their spring journey up the rivers of the East Coast to their spawning grounds. The run starts, usually in March, in Southern waters and progresses with warmer weather up the coast, arriving in Connecticut in mid-May. So when March blows in, shad roe addicts anxiously start checking fish market windows for that little sign. 

(The female shad aren't taken just for their eggs, by the way. Shad meat has its devotées – there are Shad Festivals from the Chesapeake Bay to the Connecticut Valley every year, at which filet of shad is consumed with great enthusiasm – but the meat is usually only available commercially in the areas local to the catch. The roe, with more fans, travels farther.)

Shad roe comes from the fish market as a pair of tightly packed lobes, each secured with a filmy membrane which happily keeps the cluster intact during the cooking process. Averaging about four ounces apiece, each lobe contains thousands of eggs the size of coarse sand grains. Unlike caviar, which is pickled in brine, shad roe comes to the kitchen fresh. When cooked, the shad roe binds together in a delicate mass, which is more like a subly-flavored fish sausage than anything else: dense in texture, light to the tooth, and with none of the crunchiness of caviar or sushi bar flying fish roe. 

As a quick Google search for "shad roe recipe" will demonstrate, there are a multitude of strongly-held opinions as to how to prepare shad roe. I don't remember where I got this recipe but I've been using it for a number of years and it's very reliable. The roe doesn't get overcooked or dry and the subtle flavor isn't overwhelmed by other ingredients.

In terms of a healthy diet, for people who need to control dietary cholesterol this treat should be considered an occasional indulgence, due to the relatively high cholesterol content – so it's a good thing for me it's only available a few months of the year. That said, this dish is relatively low in calories and nearly carbohydrate-free so fits well in a weight-control or glucose-control diet plan. 

Roulade with Mixed Greens, Ricotta and Fresh Tomato Sauce

I'm back, baby! 

I don't get too personal in this blog...it's usually about food, recipes, ingredients and taste. But for the past three months I've been through a tough time, as some readers already know. The week before Thanksgiving I missed the second step going up my back stairs and fell, somehow breaking both bones in my lower leg. I know, it was only a 16" fall...but the doctor said it's not that uncommon. Anyway, after surgery to install some plates and screws and three days in the hospital I came home to three months of "don't put ANY weight on the leg" -- which means a wheelchair or a walker for every movement.

Cooking in a wheelchair is no fun...especially in a kitchen that's not designed for accessibility. And cooking while using a walker is pretty much impossible, since both hands have to be on the walker. Elise, my wonderful wife, stepped up and – even though she really doesn't cook – followed my instructions to shop for and cook our meals most of the time, or to order takeout – fortunately we live in "America's Foodiest Small Town" so there are lots of great takeout options. Most of the posts I've put out over the last three months have been based on recipes and photos that I had done before the accident. 

Last week the doctor gave me the go-ahead to put weight on the leg, and this week I'm back full-bore in the kitchen. This roulade is the kind of cooking I love to do – time-consuming and interesting, with multiple steps and lots of ingredients and prep. I cook because I love it, every step of the way, and finally being able to cook again is to me the symbol of my recovery. I know it's a chore for some, but for me it feels like freedom and pure pleasure to have a pile of ingredients and a couple of hours alone with them in the kitchen..and that's never been clearer that it is now.

This dish is really just a variation on an omelet: a filling wrapped in a sheet of egg. The filling in this case was made of a mixture of leafy greens – spinach, watercress, basil, parsley and scallion greens – mixed with onions and layered with ricotta. The egg wrapper is a sheet soufflé that's cooled and therefore de-puffed. With a simple fresh tomato sauce, a green salad, a crusty baguette and a bottle of crisp pinot grigio this dish makes a very pleasant weeknight supper or casual weekend lunch. 

As might be expected, this dish is relatively low in carbohydrates – and so, good for glucose control – but has a fairly high calorie and fat content (pretty much the usual deal with egg dishes). Therefore, if you are looking to control or lose weight you need to carefully monitor portions and be aware of how this fits in your plan for calorie and fat intake for the rest of the day.