Steak and Semi-German Potato Salad

There was a request for steak salad for dinner tonight. The results were very memorable - a good example of how a dish can somehow magically exceed the sum of its component parts.
I started with a composed salad of mixed greens and herbs, endive, fennel, cherry tomatoes, minced red onion, and grilled marinated artichokes as the foundation. Then I took a hot baked Yukon Gold potato and sliced it up and tossed the slices with a squeeze of lemon juice and a few tablespoons of mustard vinaigrette and then layered the warm dressed potatoes on top of the composed salad. I sliced and heated the leftover steak and fanned out the slices on top of the potatoes, pouring the accumulated steak juices over everything, and voila! A little extra vinaigrette on the side, and dinner was served...

Cod and Asparagus En Papillote

This came together in a flash.
Light, easy, elegant, quick. I might put the fish on a bed of very thinly sliced potatoes and shallots next time, and steam it all together.

3/4 lb cod filets
1/4 t minced lemon zest
Salt and freshly ground pepper and (believe it or not) Fairway's pizza seasoning to taste
3 cloves of garlic, sliced thin
1 pat of butter
juice from 1 half a lemon
1 short glug of white wine
lemon slices
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
8 - 10 spears of asparagus

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Place fish on a large square of parchment paper or tin foil, on top of a baking sheet.
Smear with zest and spices, sprinkle with lemon juice and wine. Arrange the asparagus around the fish and scatter the garlic and butter over all. Place the lemon slices over the fish and stre the chopped cilantro over everything. Tightly crimp the foil so the packet is air tight. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
Serves 2

Vietnamese Steak

Oh...my...god...
This was insanely good. This precise mix of flavors: charred, salty and rich, is pretty much exactly what you want to taste when you're craving steak. The recipe came out of a back issue of Saveur. In Vietnamese its called Thit Bo Bit-Tet (pronounced Teet Baw Beet-teht).
Photo by Andre Baranowsky

3 tbsp. Maggi seasoning sauce
3 tbsp. vegetable oil
3/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 top sirloin steak (about 1 1/2 lbs. in all)
Rice

1. Stir together Maggi seasoning sauce, oil, pepper, and garlic in a wide, shallow dish. Add steak; rub all over with marinade. Cover; let marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes.

2. Remove steak from marinade; scrape off most of the garlic. Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add steak and cook until well browned, 3–4 minutes; flip steak and cook until medium rare, 2–3 minutes more.

3. Transfer steak to a cutting board; tent with foil. Thinly slice both steaks across the grain. Serve with rice, and any accumulated juices.

Serves 2-3

Salmon Tacos...

...for lunch!

Roast Salmon with Avocado Salsa

Its Cinco de Mayo and we had a bunch of limes, cilantro, avocados and a habanero pepper hanging out in the fridge, along with a defrosted salmon filet...
I marinated the salmon in lime juice, chopped garlic and salt, and then roasted it at 375 for ten minutes. Perfect.
There really isn't much of a recipe to record -- just the memory of a cozy dinner in front of the tv with Bill, watching House MD on a Monday night.

Granola Batch # 1

This first batch of house blend granola falls somewhere between the Lawson and Bittman camps.
I left out the oil altogether, used only what we had in the house and forgot to add ground flaxseed, which I will definitely add to the next batch, along with some ground ginger. The pepitas/pignolis were an off flavor in the mix, and I wouldn't use them again. Slivered almonds instead of any and all other kinds of whole nuts and seeds, next time. I'll toss in some cereal flakes when its all cooled off.

Dry ingredients:
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup Trader Joe's pignolia, pepita and almond mix
1/2 cup roasted salted cashews
1 tsp. ground cinnamon


Wet ingredients:
1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/4 cup honey

Add Ins:
1 cup dried, sweetened cranberries
1/4 cup dried golden raisins

Set racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325°F.

In a large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients. Stir to mix well. In a small bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients. Stir to mix well. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ones, and stir well.

Spread the mixture evenly on two rimmed baking sheets. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until evenly golden brown. Set a timer to go off every ten minutes while the granola bakes, so you can rotate the pans and give the granola a good stir; this helps it to cook evenly. When it’s ready, remove the pans from the oven, stir well – this will keep it from cooling into a hard, solid sheet – and set aside to cool. The finished granola may still feel slightly soft when it comes out of the oven, but it will crisp as it cools.

Mix in dried fruit and scoop cooled granola into to a large zipper-lock plastic bag or other airtight container. Store in the refrigerator indefinitely.

Yield: about 7 cups

Thai Seafood Noodle Salad

Bill cooked this up for dinner last night, inspired by the cover recipe on this month's Food and Wine: "a delicious tangle of chewy rice noodles, shrimp, squid and cashews." Fiery hot and satisfyingly full of all the exciting sweet-salty-tangy-herbaceous flavors we crave in Thai food. Mr. Toles was very pleased with himself -- and even more so today -- after the leftovers turned into spicy summer rolls for lunch.
(Photo by Dana Gallagher)
Ingredients

6 ounces rice vermicelli
2 red Thai chiles, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/3 cup Asian fish sauce
2 tablespoons boiling water
1/2 pound medium shrimp, shelled and deveined
1/2 pound bay scallops
1/2 pound small squid, bodies cut into 1/2-inch rings and tentacles halved
3 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 cup bean sprouts
1 cup mint leaves
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup salted roasted cashews
6 lettuce leaves, for serving
Cilantro leaves, for garnish
*

directions

1. In a medium bowl, cover the vermicelli in cold water and soak for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a mortar, pound the red Thai chiles and garlic cloves to a paste with 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Add the lime juice, fish sauce, boiling water and the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar and pound until the sugar is dissolved. Let the dressing stand for 30 minutes.
3. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Fill a bowl with ice water. Add the shrimp to the boiling water and cook until white throughout and curled, 2 to 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the shrimp to the ice water. Add the scallops to the boiling water and cook until white and firm, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer the scallops to the ice water. Add the squid to the boiling water and cook just until firm, about 45 seconds. Transfer the squid to the ice water. Drain all of the seafood and pat dry.
4. Bring a fresh saucepan of water to a boil and refill the bowl with ice water. Drain the vermicelli, add to the boiling water and cook just until al dente, about 1 minute. Drain and transfer to the ice water. Drain again and pat dry. Cut the vermicelli into 3-inch lengths.
5. In a large bowl, toss the seafood with the vermicelli, tomatoes, bean sprouts, mint, red onion, cashews and chile dressing. Line a platter with the lettuce leaves and top with the seafood salad. Garnish with cilantro and serve.

MAKE AHEAD All of the components can be prepared up to 1 day ahead and refrigerated separately. Toss the salad just before serving.

Roasted Salmon with Sweet and Hot Mustard Dill Sauce

This recipe came courtesy of Robin Miller, whose plan-ahead methods for feeding a family are, in my opinion, pure genius. The hot mustard is necessary here, not to be left out. I served this with Nigella's roasted potatoes last night, minus the goose fat...

Cooking spray
1 lb salmon fillets, skin on and pin bones removed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon hot mustard powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Coat a shallow baking dish with cooking spray. Season both sides of salmon with salt and pepper. Place salmon in prepared baking dish.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the Dijon, honey, water, lemon juice, mustard powder, and garlic powder. Remove 1/2 cup of the mustard sauce and set aside. Pour the remaining sauce over the salmon fillets in the pan. Roast the salmon, uncovered, until fork tender, about 10 - 12 minutes.

Stir the dill into the reserved mustard sauce. Serve 1/3 of the roasted salmon (4 fillets, each about 4 ounces after cooking) with the dill-spiked mustard sauce spooned over the top. Refrigerate the remaining salmon up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months; thaw it completely in the refrigerator or microwave for 3 to 5 minutes on LOW before using.

Coffee Creme Brulee

Begin preparing this a day before you plan to serve it.

Ingredients
4 cups whipping cream
1 cup plus 8 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons coarsely ground espresso coffee beans
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder or coffee powder
1 cinnamon stick
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

6 large egg yolks
1 large egg
Preparation
Place eight 3/4-cup custard cups in large roasting pan. Combine cream, 1 cup sugar, ground espresso beans, instant espresso powder and cinnamon stick in heavy large saucepan. Using small sharp knife, scrape seeds from vanilla bean into mixture; add bean. Bring to boil, stirring until sugar and espresso powder dissolve. Remove from heat. Cover; let stand 30 minutes. Strain through fine sieve.

Preheat oven to 325°F. Whisk egg yolks and egg in large bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in cream mixture. Divide among custard cups in pan. Pour enough hot water into roasting pan to come halfway up sides of custard cups. Bake custards until center moves only slightly when cups are gently shaken, about 55 minutes. Remove custards from pan. Cool; refrigerate uncovered overnight.

Preheat broiler or set up propane torch.. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon sugar over each custard. Place custard cups on baking sheet. Broil or torch until sugar is brown and caramelized, rotating baking sheet to broil evenly and watching closely to avoid burning, 1 to 2 minutes. Chill custards 1 hour. Serve.
Yield: 8 servings

Chicken Piccata

After a monster day I called Bill from the office and asked whether maybe he could hit the blog and turn out this quick chicken piccata for dinner, since I was running late. By the time I got home an hour or so later, he was in a state of giddy near hysteria, with raw chicken spread out all over the table and a maniacal gleam in his eye as he pounded cutlets, danced around the kitchen and yelled into the phone to Cherrie about how there was no way this was a real recipe. This was obviously an impossible obstacle course I had set up to teach him a lesson about how much I go through to cook dinner every night...
(Luckily, Cherrie had my back. Thanks Cherrie!)
It really is an easy recipe...and scrumptious...

2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, about 6 ounces each
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon drained bottled capers, rinsed and chopped
1 cup of canned quartered artichoke hearts
Additional kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Thin slices lemon and chopped fresh parsley leaves, for garnish

Sprinkle a small amount of water on a large plastic sheet of plastic wrap. Place the breast halves on top of the plastic and sprinkle again with water. Cover with another sheet of plastic wrap and pound with a rolling pin or meat pounder until about 1/4-inch thick.

Mix the flour with the salt and pepper in a shallow pie plate. Heat half of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until almost smoking. Working in 2 batches, place the chicken in the flour mixture and turn to coat on all sides. Shake off the excess flour and add to the skillet. Cook until lightly browned and cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate or platter and cover loosely with foil. Repeat with the remaining oil and chicken.

Pour off the fat from the skillet and return the skillet to the heat. Add the chicken stock and lemon juice. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil, stirring to pick up and browned bits in the bottom of the pan. Simmer for 3 minutes. Return the chicken to the skillet and simmer, turning often, until warmed through and the sauce is thickened, about 2 minutes. Add the butter and the capers. Season with salt and pepper and heat just until the butter has melted. Serve on warmed plates with a spoonful of the skillet sauce, topped with lemon slices and parsley.

Steamed Halibut in Borscht with Warm Chive-Horseradish Sauce

My mom makes this all the time. Its incredibly simple (and elegant and satisfying.)
Florence Fabricant wrote the recipe up in the NY Times years ago, in an article on new dishes for the Seder table.

She wrote: "Though Le Bernardin, unlike some restaurants in New York, will not be serving a special Passover menu, Eric Ripert, the chef and one of the owners, has come up with an appropriate dish: steamed halibut in borscht with warm chive-horseradish sauce.
It is a delicious and visually stunning dish that hits the correct flavor notes for the holiday menu ... One could chill the sauce and, instead of the halibut, substitute ovals of gefilte fish ..."

I generally use prepared borscht, making this a 30 minute main dish.

Steamed Halibut in Borscht with Warm Chive-Horseradish Sauce
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Adapted from Eric Ripert, Le Bernardin

Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

2 tablespoons olive oil or corn oil
1 medium onion, julienned
1 cup julienned fennel
2 tablespoons sliced garlic
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
1 cup chopped savoy cabbage, plus 3 of the darker outer leaves, finely julienned
1 quart well-seasoned chicken or vegetable stock
4 cups peeled and julienned fresh beets (about 1 1/2 bunches)
Salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste
1 cup creme fraiche, sour cream or mayonnaise
1/4 cup prepared white horseradish
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon minced chives
8 halibut steaks or fillets, each 4 to 6 ounces, or 8 portions chilled gefilte
fish

1. Heat oil in a heavy 3-quart saucepan. Add onions and fennel and cook
slowly about 5 minutes, until softened. Tie garlic, thyme, parsley and
chopped cabbage in a double thickness of cheesecloth and add it to
saucepan along with stock and beets. Simmer 15 minutes. Season to
taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Discard cheesecloth and
its contents. To serve the dish chilled, refrigerate beet mixture at least 4
hours or overnight.

2. Bring 3 cups water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add julienned
cabbage leaves, cook just until bright green, then drain. Set leaves aside,
covered, to keep warm; for a cold dish, refrigerate.

3. Mix creme fraiche, sour cream or mayonnaise with horseradish, sugar
and chives. If using mayonnaise, thin it beforehand with 2 tablespoons
water. This sauce can be gently warmed in a small saucepan or chilled to
serve cold.

4. To serve, steam halibut until fully cooked outside and just warm inside,
6 to 8 minutes. Keep warm. Reheat beet mixture, spoon into warmed
shallow soup plates, sprinkle with julienned cabbage and top with fish.
Or spoon chilled beet mixture into shallow soup plates, add cabbage,
and top with gefilte fish. Serve horseradish sauce, warm or chilled, on the
side.

Yield: 8 servings.

Steak Salad

My mom is a huge steak salad fan...or she was, anyway, before she went 95 percent vegetarian. I bet the steak salad I whipped up tonight would still tempt her though. It was Bill's first steak salad. He gets it. The tastes of corn and tomatoes and basil and seared steak seem imperative right now, to gt us through this looooong cold early spring.

Steak and Marinade:
1 lb flank steak
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup sugar
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
3 cloves garlic, minced

Slice the steak into a few pieces. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Mix all marinade ingredients together in a large bowl. Marinate the steak, covered, in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, and up to two days. Preheat the broiler and broil the steak until medium. Let it sit for a couple of minutes and then slice thinly across the bias. Serve warm, along with any accumulated juices, on top of the dressed salad. Pass extra vinaigrette at the table if anyone wants it.

Salad:
Mesclun
grape tomatoes, halved
cucumbers, sliced into half moons
chopped scallions
fresh herbs: cilantro, chives, basil
canned corn, or corn cut from the cob
cooked garbanzos
diced fennel

Herb Vinaigrette:
balsamic vinegar
extra virgin olive oil
dijon mustard
minced garlic
salt and pepper
chopped basil
chopped cilantro
minced chives

Adaptation Salad (Warm Butternut and Chickpea Salad with Tahini)

I adapted this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, after Smitten Kitchen adapted it from Orangette, who adapted it from the Casa Moro cookbook. Needless to say, its an exciting mix of flavors, and satisfies a range of palates! Next time, I'll dust the finished dish with ground sumac for a little added visual flair.

1 medium butternut squash (about 2 to 2 ½ lb.), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 ½-inch pieces
1 medium garlic clove, pressed
½ tsp. ground allspice
2 Tbsp. olive oil
Salt
One 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
¼ of a medium red onion, finely chopped
¼ cup coarsely chopped cilantro leaves

Tahini sauce:
1 medium garlic clove, finely minced with a pinch of salt
3 ½ Tbsp. lemon juice
3 Tbsp. well-stirred tahini
2 Tbsp. water
2 Tbsp. olive oil, plus more to taste

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl, combine the butternut squash, garlic, allspice, olive oil, and a good pinch or two of salt. Using a large spoon or your hands, toss until the squash pieces are evenly coated. Turn them out onto a baking sheet, and bake for 15 to 25 minutes, or until soft. Remove from the oven and cool.

Meanwhile, make the tahini sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic and lemon juice. Add the tahini, and whisk to blend. Add the water and olive oil, whisk well, and taste for seasoning. The sauce should have plenty of nutty tahini flavor, but also a little kick of lemon. Add more olive oil to taste, if the dressing is too sharp.

To assemble the salad, combine the squash, chickpeas, onion, and cilantro in a mixing bowl. Add tahini sauce to taste, and toss carefully. Serve, with additional salt for sprinkling.

This salad, lightly dressed, keeps well in the fridge. Hold a little of the tahini sauce on the side, for dressing at the table. Before serving, warm slightly in the microwave.

Yield: 4 servings

Creamy Potato Fennel Gratin

This gratin is exactly what a gratin should be -- rich and delectable, creamy and meltingly tender in the center, browned and crisp on the outside. I can't remember where the recipe came from at this point, but its definitely not mine -- maybe Ina Garten? Anyway, I used parmesan instead of gruyere, and next time I might use half and half or whole milk instead of the obscene quantity of heavy cream called for here. (But damn, the full-fat version was goooood.) I can't ever get enough fennel to satisfy my lust for it. We probably eat raw fennel three days out of seven; usually sliced thin over the salad at dinner, and I love its sharp bite and solid crunch. Long, slow cooking of the bulb, as in this preparation, however, turns it into a whole other comfort food experience. The potatoes are center stage here, but the slightest hint of anise flavor makes all the other flavors pop.

2 small fennel bulbs
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons good olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 pounds russet potatoes (4 large potatoes)
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 1/2 cups grated Gruyère cheese (1/2 pound)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter the inside of a 10-by-15-by-2-inch (10-cup) baking dish.

Remove the stalks from the fennel and cut the bulbs in half lengthwise. Remove the cores and thinly slice the bulbs crosswise, making approximately 4 cups of sliced fennel. Saute the fennel and onions in the olive oil and butter on medium-low heat for 15 minutes, until tender.

Peel the potatoes, then thinly slice them by hand or with a mandoline. Mix the sliced potatoes in a large bowl with 2 cups of cream, 2 cups of Gruyère, salt, and pepper. Add the sauteed fennel and onion and mix well.

Pour the potatoes into the baking dish. Press down to smooth the potatoes. Combine the remaining 2 tablespoons of cream and 1/2 cup of Gruyère and sprinkle on the top. Bake for 1 1/2 hours, until the potatoes are very tender and the top is browned and bubbly. Allow to set for 10 minutes and serve.

Bittman's Fennel-Steamed Mussels Provençal

Let them eat moules...

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
1 fennel bulb, trimmed and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons fennel seeds
1/2 cup Pernod or Ricard (or 4 whole star anise)
1 cup chopped tomatoes, if desired (canned are fine, drained first)
1 sprig fresh tarragon, if desired
At least 4 pounds large mussels, well washed

1. Place the oil in a large pot and turn the heat to medium; 1 minute later, add the garlic, fennel, fennel seeds, liqueur, and tomatoes and tarragon if you're using them. Bring to a boil, cook for about 1 minute. Add the mussels, cover the pot, and turn the heat to high.
2. Cook, shaking the pot occasionally, until the mussels open, 5 to 10 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove the mussels and fennel to a serving bowl, then strain any liquid over them and serve.

Serves 4

* Variation: To make the dish Asian style, combine the mussels in a cold pot with 1 cinnamon stick, 4 star anise, 2 tablespoons soy sauce and 2 tablespoons water. Cover and cook as above in Step 2. If possible, toss with about 1/2 cup of torn Thai basil leaves.