Saucy tendencies

The Farrars like nothing better than a bit of sauce. One of my big pet peeves is dry food, and most of my favorite dishes are soupy stews, which you couldn't possibly eat off of a plate for fear of flooding, and instead simply pour into a bowl, perhaps over a bed of rice or couscous. Trouble is, many of those dishes don't exactly lend themselves to summer evening dining. Even the faithfully saucy Farrars often don't feel much like sitting in front of a steaming bowl of sauciness, when it's 90 plus degrees outside until at least 2 hours after dark, when it just might dip into the 80s.

One exception is Thai food: despite the gloriously saucy nature of a green curry, there is something inherently summery about the combination of lime juice, coconut milk, and fresh herbs, which means you COULD eat it while sitting in front of a log fire in the middle of a snowstorm, but you WOULD also happily dig in during a mid-July heatwave, especially if you just happened to have a nice chilled sauvignon blanc or a crisp IPA just lying around waiting for an excuse to be consumed.

This recipe comes from an old and dog-eared issue of the British magazine Good Food (October 2002, no less), which I recently dug into. I was in the middle of a once-per-millenium purge, and went through all my old cooking magazines, clipping all the recipes I had never tried but might one day want to, and then organized them by category into a folder. I know, I now seem like one of those weird, and simultaneously annoying, organized people who sort their closet by color and keep their CDs in alphabetical order.  I am not, and never will be. Although I confess, I get so much pleasure out of my new recipe folder, that I can see the attraction. Unfortunately however, there are apparently only 24 hours in a day, and we are supposed to sleep for at least some of them. And besides, if I were one of those weird organized people, I would rob my children of the job of having to sift through decades of worthless 'stuff' after my demise, whilst sighing at each other and cursing their mother's hoarding tendencies. Seems to me, that is a rite of passage, of which I would be wrong to rob the little darlings.

Still, at least my brief foray into the land of methodical storage and purging of rubbish has allowed me to discover recipes such as this one. I had to tweak it a little - the idea of fish sauce scares me, I admit. It is like chicken and chicken nuggets - just what bits of the fish do they stuff in there?! So I replaced the fish sauce in the original with soy sauce. If you are fishy, as well as saucy, then you can of course substitute the same quantity of fish sauce in the ingredients list below. I also clearly do not qualify as a true Thai aficionado, since I do not own any Kaffir lime leaves, and would not know where to purchase them. To give a bit of lime zing to the sauce, I therefore used lime zest. If you want to be faithful to the original, substitute 6 kaffir lime leaves for the lime zest listed below. And I added some green beans, partly because otherwise they were going to decay at the bottom of my fridge, and partly because I at least strive to be a nutritionally-responsible parent, and a one-dish meal ought to have some vegetables in it!

Chicken with Lemongrass and Coconut
Serves 4

2 x 400ml cans coconut milk
2 TBSP soy sauce
3 cm (1.5") piece of ginger, finely chopped/grated
2 lemongrass stalks, finely sliced OR 2-3 TBSP lemongrass paste if you can't find fresh
1 TBSP fresh lime zest
1/2-1 fresh red chili, finely chopped
2 tsp light muscovado/light brown sugar
500g/1lb 2oz boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed
10 oz fresh green beans, chopped into 1" lengths
2 TBSP fresh lime juice
good handful of fresh basil and cilantro/coriander, roughly chopped
jasmine rice to serve

1. Tip coconut milk, soy sauce, ginger, lemongrass, lime zest, chili and sugar into a large saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook uncovered at a relaxed bubble for 5 minutes.
2. Add chicken and green beans, cover and simmer for 15 minutes, until chicken is tender.
3. Stir in the lime juice, then scatter over the herbs before serving over rice in bowls.

Skinny Dipping

 

Yes, dips are full of fat. Whether it's cream, cheese, oil.. you name it, if it is fattening, then you can bet most dips have it in there. And you can also bet that you don't want to know how many calories are in your huge tortilla chip-ful of dip. Best just not to ask.

Lest you were hoping that I had come across some amazing calorie-free-but-just-as-tasty dips for your next party, let me be honest: these dips aren't exactly fat-free. BUT, as you can see, I served them not with chips, or carb-loaded bread, but with those delicious little baby bell peppers. I am therefore making use of the well-known 'Cancel-out effect'. You know the way you can cancel out a day of high calorie binging by spending a mere half hour in the gym on the stairmaster the following day? Or the way you can totally have a huge king-size snickers, because you walked the dog this morning, and the two cancel each other out? Well, this is the same thing - healthy bell peppers cancel out fatty, cheesy dips. So problem solved, you can skinny dip after all ;-)

Just in case you are not convinced by the Cancel-out effect (you cynic, you), just bring out these bowls of deliciousness on a special occasion, or at a party, where the multiple hands who are dipping in (and hopefully not double-dipping) will ensure that you don't polish off the whole bowl solo.

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

1 15 oz can garbanzo beans (chick peas), drained and rinsed
1/2 cup roasted red peppers (I use the kind sold in a jar - too much like hard work to roast your own)
3 TBSP lemon juice
3 TBSP tahini
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1 TBSP chopped fresh parsley

Process all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. If the mixture is too thick, add a little more lemon juice.


Fresh Basil Goat Cheese Dip

1 cup chevre (soft goat cheese, not the rinded type, the type that ressembles crumbly cream cheese)
1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup whipping cream
2 TBSP fresh lemon juice
salt and black pepper to taste

Process all ingredients together in a food processor until smooth.

My big fat Greek lasagna

One of my favorite cookbooks is the fantastically named 9 x 13: The Pan That Can. Even if the contents were dire, you have to love it for the name. As the name implies, everything in there is cooked in a 9" x 13" pan, so if you have one of those, then you are ready to go, very satisfying if, like me, you get very frustrated when you find that a recipe requires a 2.85" deep x 13.76" diameter non-stick springform pan with fluted edges...

The book was recommended to me by a good friend, let's call her Kate, whom I mention not only to express my gratitude in public for having referred me to the book, but also because she will find it hilarious that she is mentioned in a cooking blog, since she often professes to be hopeless in the kitchen. I have to say, I have eaten at her house many times, and have always eaten well.

I am a sucker for lasagna. Since my dad always claimed not to like lasagna, we never had it home when I was growing up, a deprivation for which I'm not sure I have yet forgiven him, not least because, pretty much the moment I left home, he saw the error of his ways, and now eats lasagna with gusto. I therefore feel the need to make up for lost time, and make as many different versions of the dish as possible. Not only is it a delicious meal, which can be 'gussied up' enough to serve to company, but it is also a one-dish meal, so you can prepare it in advance, pop it in the oven on a timer, and all you have to do is make a salad (and drink some wine before your guests arrive... just to make sure it's OK, you understand). Far more conducive to an enjoyable evening, I find.

Greek-Style Lasagna
Serves 8

16 dried (no pre-cook necessary) lasagna sheets (I used Barilla)
1 lb ground lamb or ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 8oz can tomato sauce (or passata)
1/4 cup dry red wine
1 tsp crushed dried oregano
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 egg, beaten
3 TBSP butter
3 TBSP AP flour
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 3/4 cups milk (I use 2% or semi-skimmed)
1/2 cup grated parmesan
2 eggs, beaten
4 oz pitted calamata olives, roughly chopped
8 oz feta cheese, crumbled
1 cup shredded cheddar
snipped chives to serve

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large skillet, cook ground meat, onion and garlic until meat is cooked through, breaking up the meat as you cook. Stir in tomato sauce, wine, oregano and cinnamon and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Quickly stir in the one beaten egg and set aside.
3. In a medium pan, melt butter, then stir in flour and pepper. Add milk gradually, stirring continuously. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir in 1/4 cup of the parmesan and set aside.
4. In a small bowl, combine the two beaten eggs and the remaining 1/4 cup of grated parmesan. Set aside.
5. Spread about 3 TBSP of the sauce over the base of the 9x13 pan. Cover with a single layer of lasagna sheets. Spread with 1/3 of the meat sauce, 1/3 of the remaining cheese sauce and 1/3 of the olives. Drizzle with 1/3 of the egg-parmesan mixture, then sprinkle with 1/3 of the feta and 1/3 of the cheddar. Repeat layers two more times, starting with lasagna and ending with cheddar cheese.
6. Bake uncovered for 35-40 minutes or until heated through and starting to brown on top. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving and sprinkle with snipped chives.

The fruits of our labors

My husband and I are not exactly green-fingered. When we used to live in the UK, we lived in the middle house in a row of three. On the one side, lived a retired couple, whose fingers were VERY green. They spent what appeared to be every waking moment in the garden making sure that each blade of grass felt cared for. As for Tim and I, we would have a panic gardening session about once every couple of months when we raced to save everything still vaguely alive in our garden from imminent death by neglect, and then swear that we would be out there more often, knowing from experience that this was futile. Fortunately, for appearances at least, on the other side of our house lived a family who, as far as I could tell in the three years we lived there, never felt the need for a panic gardening session, and were clearly going for 'the natural' look in their yard. The word 'unkempt' doesn't quite capture it, but you get my drift. We contented ourselves by not being the best looking garden on the block, but not being the worst either.

Now that we live in California, we spend a lot more time outside and are fortunate to have a large yard. Knowing our talents, and time, are, to put it mildly, limited, we have a great gardener who takes care of things for us once a week. Living in California also means that there are a wide variety of fruit trees we can grow. We inherited an old apricot tree which periodically looks perilously close to death, and then at other times, has a sudden lease of new life and gives us so many apricots that we don't know what to do with them. This year is one of the latter.

 

I see plenty of jam and pies in our future, and the apricots are delicious just eaten as is. Sweet and luscious:

But I also wanted to try something new with the fruit, so I googled apricots and found this recipe from a 2003 edition of Gourmet.

Calling this post 'The fruits of our labors' is probably pushing it, given that we didn't plant the tree, and do very little to care for it, beyond paying to have it trimmed and cared for by those far more skilled than us. But we did go out there and pick the fruit!

 

Even in years with a more scant harvest, I will be making this again, and probably with other fruits too. It was one of those dishes, where the first mouthful was greeted with the kind of sighs and raised eyebrows that every chef should experience more often. We had it warm with vanilla ice-cream that evening, but it was also delicious on its own, at room temperature, the following day.

 

Fresh Apricot Upside-Down Cake
Serves 8-10

Topping:
1 stick (1/2 cup/4oz) unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
10-12 small (2-2 1/4") fresh apricots (around 1 1/4lbs), halved lengthwise and pitted

Cake:
1 3/4 cups AP flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick (1/2 cup/4oz) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
2 large eggs (at room temp for at least 30 mins)
3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 10" diameter, (preferably spring-form) baking pan with canola oil spray.
2. Make topping: heat butter in a skillet over moderate heat until foam subsides, but don't let it brown. Reduce heat to low and sprinkle brown sugar evenly over the butter. Cook undisturbed for 3 minutes (not all of the sugar will have melted). Remove from the heat and tip into the base of a the prepared baking tin.
3. Arrange the apricot halves, cut sides down, close together, on top of the brown sugar mixture in the baking tin.
4. Make cake batter: sift together the flour, baking powder, soda and salt into a small bowl.
5. Beat together the softened butter, sugar and extracts in a large bowl for 2-3 minutes (in a stand mixer, for 3-4 minutes, if you are using a handheld mixer). Beat in eggs, one at a time, then continue to beat until the mixture is creamy and doubled in volume (about 3 minutes).
6. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat until just combined.
7. Gently spoon batter over apricots and spread evenly.
8. Bake cake in middle of the oven until golden brown and a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40-45 minutes.
9. Remove from the oven and immediately invert on to a large plate and remove baking tin. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Minty Fresh

I'm sure I've mentioned before that I love mint. If you need a favor, just bring me a Pimm's or make me a mojito :-)  I've recently discovered how tasty mint is in savory dishes as well as sweet ones (and cocktails!). It has a fresh taste that just smacks of summer to me.

This recipe will no doubt contribute to my love affair with mint. I clipped it from a Rachael Ray magazine. Rachel makes it with tagliatelle, but I find tagliatelle, linguine and spaghetti just too much like hard work to cook and eat well (and neither did I want to watch the kids struggle with it!), so I opted for rotini. and served it with some slow roasted tomatoes with basil and some roasted asparagus sprinkled with asparagus.

Delish, delish, delish.

Rotini with Zucchini and Mint Pesto
Serves 4

2 TBSP  plus 1/4 cup olive oil
2 zucchini, cut into matchsticks
3-4 spring onions, white and greens finely chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley, packed
1/4 cup toasted pistachios
1/4 cup finely grated parmesan
1/4 cup finely grated pecorino romano
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 1lb rotini pasta
Grated parmesan/pecorino to serve

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil, add some salt and cook pasta according to directions.
2. In a large skillet, heat 2 TBSP olive oil over medium heat. Add zucchini and lightly brown (6-8 minutes). Add the onions and half of the garlic, and season with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat and keep warm until the pasta is done.
3. In a food processor, pulse the mint, parsley, remaining garlic, nuts, cheeses, lemon zest, juice and about 1/4 cup of olive oil to form a pesto. Transfer pesto to a large serving bowl.
4. When pasta is done drain it over a bowl and stir 1 cup of the pasta cooking water into the pesto in the serving dish. Add pasta and zucchini mixture to the bowl and toss to combine. Serve topped with more grated cheese.

Berry Bonanza

Last Sunday we went berry picking over on the coast, between Pescadero and Davenport. Beautiful sunny day, and  row upon row of beautiful berries. The strawberries there are slim pickings by now, but there are tayberries and olallieberries in abundance. If you are local, then you should definitely check them out: Swanton Berry Farm

 

 An afternoon's berry picking does of course leave one with a dilemma - what to do with the results! I confess I had never tried a tayberry before, but they are delicious- a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry. In case you are romantically envisaging two adjacent plants coincidentally growing towards one another to create a tasty happy accident, then scratch that. Apparently the tayberry was created in a lab by a Scottish scientist. Oh well, they are still tasty! They look kind of like a longer raspberry, but taste sweeter than raspberries. The difficulty when picking them is that, as far as we could tell, the colour varies from red, when they are unripe to... err a slightly different red when they are ripe. The only solution was to taste test them to find out what colour was the optimum (oh what a horrid job!) Once you have the colour in your head , it is easy pickings.

 

So what to do with this gorgeous haul? I did what every self-respecting cook does and googled it, serendipitously coming across a lovely tart recipe on a blog ingeniously called Swallowing the Seasons. (I will definitely be checking back there regularly - some beautiful recipes). Now, I often baulk at making my own dough, but I also found a recipe for pate sablee, a French sweet pastry, for the base, and thought, what the heck, nothing ventured nothing gained. (The fact that I'd been out in the sun all day, and had already had more than a sample of the wine we picked up at a local winery, probably also contributed to the decision!) Of course, if time is pressing, then by all means use a simple pre-made pastry, but this one is a lovely shortbready crust, which is worth the effort, if you can.

 

Tayberry Tart
Serves 5 very greedy Farrars, or 8 normal human beings

For the pate sablee (from About.com):
1 1/4 cups AP flour
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup finely ground almonds
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter

Tart filling (from Swallowing the Seasons):
6 large egg yolks
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
4 TBSP white sugar
1 pt fresh rinsed tayberries (or raspberries), left to dry on kitchen roll
2 tsp confectioners/powdered sugar

1. First make the pastry. Prepare a tart pan (mine is 11" in diameter and 1 1/4" deep), by spraying lightly with canola oil spray. In a food processor, pulse together flour, sugar, almonds and salt. Add chilled butter and continue to pulse until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs with a few pea-sized pieces of butter still visible. Add egg, and pulse until the mixture forms a ball that holds together. (If you don't have a processor, you can totally do all this by hand and with a pastry cutter, but don't handle it so much that the butter starts to melt).
2. Make dough into a disk shape and wrap in cling wrap. Place in the freezer for 40 minutes before working with it. While it is in the freezer, preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
3. Roll out dough as much as possible on a floured countertop, but this is a temperamental dough. Don't worry though; when it starts to crack too much, or stick to the counter, put whatever shape you have into the pan and press into the tin, then trim off any excess. (This recipe made too much for my tart, but I baked the remainder into little cookies)  Line pastry shell with parchment paper and fill with baking beans, then bake in the preheated oven for around 20 minutes until the shell is starting to brown at the edges. Remove the baking beans and parchment paper and continue to bake for a further 5-10 minutes to dry out the pastry. Remove from the oven and set aside.
4. Make the filling: Use a handheld mixer to beat together the egg yolks, cream and sugar. Pour the mixture into the shell, but not all the way to the top. (Again, this recipe makes too much of the custard filling for an 11" tart tin, so you will have some left over unless your tin is bigger than mine).
5. Carefully place the tayberries into the custard, distributing them evenly across the tart. They will stick up out of the custard.
6. Place tart in the center of the oven and bake for a further 20 minutes until the center of the tart is almost set (only slightly jiggly), and the custard is starting to brown.
7. Cool completely to serve (tart will set further while it is cooling), then dust with powdered sugar.

Currying Flavour

As I have shared here before, our family are wimps when it comes to really HOT spicy food. My husband claims to be fine ordering the items marked with little red chilis on menus, but when he is gulping down water and gasping "This is g..r..e..a..t {pant} {pant}. Really it is",  it's kind of like when a man has a gaping wound and tells you in a strangled voice "Oh no {wince} {wince},  it doesn't really hurt." You know it does. There is just a macho need to deny the pain, lest anyone call them a wuss.

As for me, I'm completely content to be a wuss, and admit it freely in public, particularly since less heat does NOT mean less flavour. This dish is a case in point - it is a curry, but not one that is particularly hot. And yet, it is so deliciously rich and tasty you won't for a moment miss the heat. And if you are determined to flaunt your non-wuss-ish-ness, then by all means add another chili to the recipe.

When I called this post "Currying Flavour", I was not merely succumbing to the attraction of a lovely pun. No, I was also referring to the fact that all five of the Farrars lapped up this dish. There was none left, not a morsel, and of course they were all then gushing with gratitude and love for their chef-mummy/wife. OK, so I made up the last bit - but they did eat it all, and with enthusiasm. That is as good as it gets.

Indian-Style Chicken with Pureed Spinach
Adapted from Judith Finlayson's The Healthy Slow Cooker
Serves 6

3 lbs skinless, boneless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 TBSP olive oil
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 TBSP minced ginger root
1 TBSP minced garlic
3/4 TBSP ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes in juice (no salt added)
2 10 oz packages of frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 jalapeno, finely chopped
1 cup chicken stock
juice of 1 lemon

1. Combine chicken with 1/4 cup lemon juice in a large bowl, toss and set aside for 20-30 minutes.
2. Heat oil in a skillet and cook onions over medium-high heat until they begin to colour, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring, until golden, about 12 minutes.
3. Add ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander, turmeric, pepper and salt and cook stirring for a further minute. Stir in tomatoes with juice and bring to a boil. Remove from heat.
4. Arrange chicken on base of slow cooker stoneware, and pour tomato mixture over the top. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours or HIGH for 3 hours, by which time chicken should be fully cooked and falling apart.
5. In a blender or food processor, combine spinach, chili and stock until you get a smooth puree. Add to chicken and stir well. Cover and cook on HIGH for 20 minutes until mixture is bubbling. Just before serving, stir in lemon juice.