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.

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.

gazpacho

We have just reached the end of the beautiful and exhausting wedding weekend of our friends Sue and Jared. Noel was in the wedding party, and I made a chocolate Guinness cake for the reception.




We danced, we drank, we ate rich food. The evening was sparkly and magical, and I think we're both still recovering.

Today we tried to refocus on the week ahead, and made a commitment to eat less butter (we've been a little indulgent, of late...mussels in anchovy butter and white whine broth, mmmm. I digress...)

So lunch today was garden gazpacho. We have been overrun with tomatoes around here, and I'm always looking for new ways to use them up before they spoil. (Suggestions?)

We've had tomato salads, sauces, pastas, pico de gallo, egg sandwiches with tomato, bruschetta, and now this delicious soup.

This is my attempt to quantify the recipe, which until now has been a very haphazard and successful throwing of veggies into a pot. I'd go lightly on the seasonings at first, as this is an approximation of what I did. You can always add more later.



2 lbs fresh tomatoes, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded, finely chopped (to taste)
3 medium cucumbers, partially peeled, chopped
10-15 leaves of fresh basil
leaves from 3-4 sprigs of oregano
leaves from 3-4 sprigs of thyme
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
Juice of one lemon
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne (optional)
salt and pepper
1 cup water

Throw everything into a pot and puree with an immersion blender, or in a stand blender in batches. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Serve with a plate of fresh garnishes: cilantro, more basil, scallions, and hard boiled egg. Drizzle with olive oil, and add a little cracked black pepper on top.

keeping up, keeping cool

Excuses for why I have not posted anything for months are as follows:

1. I have been traveling.
2. I've been busy with my health counseling certification.
3. It's been far too hot to turn on the oven, or the stove for more than 5 minutes.

Regarding number one, I've made trips to DC, Charlotte, Cape Cod, and Vermont. The last was a camping trip which included a campfire dinner of eggplant in a spicy ginger sauce, adapted slightly from Everyday Harumi. This recipe is delicious, and the cookbook is warm, welcoming, uncomplicated, and accessible. I highly recommend both.

Today I rhapsodized excitedly to a woman at the farmers' market about the virtues of purslane (a delicious wild green with a crisp lemony taste that has the highest omega 3s of any veggie!). I love learning all this stuff. I love sharing it. I promise I'll share more here, soon.

Now about number three... despite the lack of cooking, we have been eating very well around here. The garden is producing more tomatoes than we can keep up with, and we're starting to have an intimidating number of cucumbers as well. With these beauties from the backyard, and a cornucopia of produce from the farmers' market, there has thankfully been little need to turn on the stove. Meals around here lately tend to look like a smorgasbord of small salads, punctuated with hearty brown bread and some Millport Dairy cheddar cheese. I love eating this way. It feels both healthy and luxurious.

So instead of writing a recipe, I thought I'd list some of the raw goodies that have been on our table. Raw food in the summer will help keep you cool, hydrated, and feeling peppy and vital despite the heat wave. And it's yummy.

Lemon-rubbed kale with grated sharp cheddar.
Sliced cucumber with scallions, soy sauce, and black and tan gomaiso (sesame seeds with sea salt)
Black brandywine and Russian plum tomatoes with sea salt and basil
Quick pickled kohlrabi with ume plum vinegar and mirin.
Steamed beets with fresh basil and mint
Purslane with figs, goat cheese, and honey balsamic dressing.
Plums and blueberries--they are in season, and absurdly good!

Enjoy!

Catering Debrief: Phew.

The final menu:

Avocado Caprese
Deviled Eggs with tarragon or dill
Watermelon Salad with cilantro and crispy pancetta
Chilled Cucumber Soup with mint almond pesto
Lemon Tarragon Baguette with course sea salt

Ok, time to toot my own horn a little.

The catering at the Big Green Theatre Fundraiser went really well. Amazingly well. I was amazed.

I had been incredibly nervous during the week leading up to the fundraiser. I had never catered for 75 people before, I was afraid I'd make too little food, I was afraid I'd make too much food, I was afraid the avocados wouldn't be ripe enough, or too ripe, I was afraid I had created a menu that forced me to do everything very last minute.

That last fear turned out to be a little credible. The 48 hours right before the fundraiser were insane. Hauling home 30 pounds of vegetables on the subway by myself during rush hour almost put me over the edge. The discovery that an emersion blender would not work on over a gallon of cucumber mint soup was very disappointing. And the eggs, oohhhh the eggs. Damn those eggs. Those eggs did not want to be peeled. It took me 3 hours to peel 3 dozen eggs. Damn those eggs.



The morning of the fundraiser, Noel left early to help set up the theatre. I sat at the kitchen table, staring into space, sipping away at a pot of coffee. I was thinking through the rest of the menu that I needed to finish in the next 3 hours. I didn't have a garnish for the cucumber soup. I was going to use chive blossoms, but no one at the farmers market had them in stock that week. I had lots of leftover mint, so I decided to make a quick pesto to garnish, with the mint, some of the smaller basil leaves that weren't going in the avocado caprese, toasted almonds, and garlic. I chopped through the layers of herbs, garlic, and almonds on a cutting board rather than running everything through the food processor. This method is a little more time consuming, but I think it yields a more textured and rustic pesto. Then I stirred through a spritz of fresh lemon juice and some olive oil, until everything stuck together nicely. I felt a little crazy for adding work for myself at that point, but I was very pleased with the result.



Another last minute project was making a dressing for the watermelon. Again, I'm not sure what possessed me to do this, but I'm very glad I did. I had rendered out a lot of fat from the pancetta as I was crisping it in the frying pan. I decided to use the fat in a dressing with some aged balsamic vinegar and maple syrup. Only a small drizzle went over each piece of the salad, but it added a great subtle and rich and tangy and sweet something, and it made the watermelon look even more juicy and delicious.



One of the great things about catering for the Bushwick Starr is that they have a small kitchen in the theatre. Roberta's Pizza had donated 8 baguettes to the fundraiser, and I was able to heat them in the oven during the fundraiser. They came out of the oven steaming fresh and slightly sweet from the lemon tarragon butter on the inside, and with a crispy crust, sprinkled with course sea salt.

I was also able to replenish the buffet table with freshly made plates of food, rather than having to pre-make everything. I sliced and assembled the Avocado Caprese as they were needed. Everything was as fresh as possible, and to my immense satisfaction, people really appreciated the effort. Many people commented on how unique and fresh the food was, and I overheard one woman say that it was much more like having a personal chef than a caterer. Wow.

So, it was an immense amount of work, but incredibly gratifying, and I hope to tell more tales of catering very soon.

P.S. To those to came to the fundraiser, I hope you had a lovely time, and thank you so much for all the kind words. I'm so glad you enjoyed my food.

The Big Dig

We have a backyard.

Not too many people in Brooklyn are lucky enough to say this. It's a mess but it's coming along. And it's all ours. We don't have to share.

The photo above is what it looked like the first day I looked at the apartment. One corner was covered by a moldy old rug, the rest of the yard with weeds and buckets full of broken glass.



Since then, much work has been done, mostly by Noel. We have pulled all kinds of artifacts from the dirt: shoes, scrunchies, bottle caps, hangers, clothes pins, matchbox cars, cigarette butts, army men, sticky traps, dry wall, batteries ... the list goes on. One of my favorite discoveries was the bottom portion of a cat's jaw bone next to a set of plastic vampire teeth. I almost wish we had saved some of the best stuff to put on exhibit at a housewarming party!

All of this amazing junk is being removed to make way for sugar snap peas, sweet and hot peppers, radishes, parsnips, heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, brussels sprouts, butter leaf lettuce, herbs, sunflowers, and butterfly bushes.

I can't wait to walk outside in the morning, pick a fresh, deep wine-colored tomato from our yard and have it with sea salt and pepper, and maybe a fresh egg from the farmers market. I can't wait to make pickles with cucumber and herbs that we grew ourselves. And I can't wait to have people over for dinner! Grilled eggplant bahn mi with sweet pepper relish and fresh cilantro? Yes, please.

So, very soon, I'll be cooking about as locally as it gets: with ingredients grown 15 feet from my kitchen. I feel very lucky. And I'll gloat and gush all about it here, very soon.

News!

Hello all!

Sorry to have been away so long. I've been working on MANY things, and I have a few exciting bits to announce.

First of all, for anyone in the NY area, I will be catering an event for an amazing theatre space in Bushwick, Brooklyn, called the Bushwick Starr. They are having a fundraiser to kick off a wonderful new project at the space called Big Green Theater, as well as celebrating the opening of their hydroponic rooftop garden!

I'm working on a light buffet menu inspired by traditional garden party fare, and trying to source locally as much as I can. Right now the menu (subject to change) includes:

Cucumber Mint Soup with Chive Blossoms
Watermelon Salad with Cilantro and Pork Cracklings
Avocado Caprese
Local Farm Deviled Eggs with Fresh Herbs
Lemon Tarragon Baguette

For more information or to buy tickets for the Big Green Theater fundraiser, please CLICK HERE.

The second bit of news is that I have enrolled in a program to become a certified holistic health counselor. I'm very much looking forward to this new chapter in my life, and hope to share what I'm learning with you here, in addition to the recipe posts.

I hope you are all having a wonderful spring. Now is a great time to check out your local farmers markets for spring veggies!

Best,
Mary