Sunday, September 26, 2010

the photos

There is a new recipe coming soon. I promise. In the meantime, please admire these gorgeous photos by the amazing Sue Kessler.

Sue took these photos at the latest event that I catered: the web series premiere of Missed Connections Live.

The menu for the event included a cheese plate, avocado caprese with heirloom tomatoes, and a farmers' market antipasti platter (pictured are the yellow wax beans in almond pesto and the citrus and mint mixed beets).









All photos copyright Sue Kessler 2010.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

dinner tonight



I've got two new recipes to share this evening that I think go spendidly together. These make a lovely meal in themselves, but they would also be great as side dishes next to some grilled or pan-seared teriyaki salmon.

"Fried rice" with toasted nori and gomaiso

Kale "egg foo young"

Please note and excuse the liberal use of quotation marks. Inspired by my latest cookbook purchase, Everyday Harumi, I have been experimenting with Asian flavors. In the post from a few weeks ago, I mentioned her delicious eggplant dish. These dishes are not from her book, but inspired by the flavors and ingredients I discovered there.

These recipes make a light and hearty meal for two in less than 30 minutes, and they are definitely healthier and cheaper than take-out!

For the rice:

1 cup short grain sweet brown rice, rinsed*

1 1/2 cups water

Generous tablespoon mirin (can be found in most grocery stores with other Asian specialty items. Look near the soy sauce...)

about 2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 sheet nori seaweed (this will probably be hanging out somewhere near the mirin in your grocery store)

1 tbsp black and tan gomaiso (ditto. Gomaiso is toasted sesame seeds with sea salt)

1 small scallion, finely chopped

*Rinsing rice removes phytic acid, which can prevent your body from absorbing essential minerals (like calcium and iron) from your food. Also, most rice is stored in large warehouses in large bins at some point in its journey to you, and you might want to wash off any little footprints or traces of warehouse critters, if you know what I mean ...

For the kale:


3-4 cups roughly chopped kale, larger bits of stem removed, and rinsed to remove any grit

4 eggs, beaten

about 1 tbsp olive oil

about 2 tbsp teriyaki sauce (yay, a shortcut! I like San-J brand: it's gluten-free, they use organic sugar not corn syrup, and I can pronounce all the ingredients)

1/2 tsp red chili flakes, optional

1 scallion, finely chopped

more gomaiso, if you like

First cook the rice. Add the rice and water to a medium pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer, and cover and cook for about 15 minutes, or until almost done. While the rice is cooking, toast the sheet of nori seaweed over low flame on your stove. If it catches on fire around the edges, that's ok. You just want it to turn a deep bright green and smells toasty and wonderful. Set aside. When the rice has absorbed the cooking water, add the mirin and soy sauce, stir well, and then turn off the heat, cover, and set aside.

Now for the kale. Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the kale, half of the chopped scallion, teriyaki, and chili flakes (if using). Stir and turn the kale until it turns bright green and then begins to cook down, about 3 minutes. Turn the heat very low, and pour the beaten eggs evenly over the top. As the edges of the eggs begin to cook, gently slide a spatula under the edge, then lift and tilt the pan towards the lifted edge to allow the uncooked egg to run underneath. Continue doing this around the pan until there is very little runny egg left on top of the "omelet." At this point, you will need to flip the omelet, which can be a little tricky. You can either attempt a flip with your spatula in the pan, or gently slide the omelet onto a plate, place the upside down pan on top, then carefully flip the whole thing. I recommend the latter, though if the omelet breaks, it's easily reassembled, and still delicious. Cook for another minute on the second side, then turn off the heat.

To dress the rice, crumble the toasted nori over the top, and sprinkle with gomaiso and scallions.

To dress the "egg foo young," slide the omelet onto a serving plate, top with scallions and more gomaiso if you like. I like to serve it with more teriyaki and soy sauce on the side.

Monday, September 6, 2010

fall forward


I love the fall. I know it's not officially fall yet, but I can feel it coming. The air is a little crisper, it's getting cooler, and everything smells a little better. Fall has always felt like even more of a relief and awakening to me than spring does after winter. Maybe it's because I always liked going back to school. Maybe it's because I'm most comfortable trotting around the city in a cozy sweater and old jeans. Maybe my Irish blood is aching for a little of it's native climate. Whatever it is, fall always feels like the beginning of a new year and a clean slate.



I don't have a recipe to share just yet (we're still working through a huge crop of tomatoes from the backyard), but I'm looking forward to the fall veggies showing up in the market again. I can't wait for more crates of gorgeous kabocha squash like the ones in the heading photo on this page, and I'm looking forward to Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes and parsnips.

One of the reasons the fall food has been on my mind again is because I'm planning dinner for another fundraiser at the Bushwick Starr. It's going to be a hearty family style dinner for thirty guests, and I'm a little nervous and very excited.

There will be cocktail hour hors d'oeuvres (which I had a fun idea for that I think I want to keep a surprise), a sit-down dinner, dessert, and take-away breakfast treats for the next morning as a little thank you to the guests for coming.

The Starr has not made an official announcement yet as to the date, but if any of you are interested in being one at a table of thirty fabulous people for a fall feast, check for details coming up here and on their website at www.thebushwickstarr.org

Before too long I hope to have a separate page for the catering branch of Dining In, a separate page for holistic nutrition counseling, and this blog as well. Phew.

ALSO coming soon I will have some beautiful professional photos of my food to show off, thanks to the amazing Sue Kessler (photographer) and Melissa Center of LMB Productions whose premiere event I catered last week.



Please check out Melissa's webisodes Missed Connections.

Alright, it's much too lovely a day to be sitting at the computer any longer. I'm going to the park. Mmmm.