steamed clams

These broth for these clams uses the reserved liquid left over from roasting the tomatoes in the Roasted Tomato Soup with Garlic and Herbs recipe. The broth could also be made without this reserved liquid, simply by adding a bit more white wine.

This recipe is absolutely delicious, and it's incredibly fast and easy. It's a great "impress your guests" meal, but it's also simple enough to make for a weeknight dinner.

You don't need to spend a lot of money on the wine for the broth, but do get something that you wouldn't mind drinking, for a couple of reasons: 1) you will have at least 2/3 a bottle left, and white wine is lovely with clams, and 2) the wine will reduce slightly in the broth and it's flavors will concentrate, so if you use cheap "cooking wine," then that's what your broth will taste like.

Steamed Clams in Tomato, Herb, White Wine Broth

Serves 2 as a main course, 4 as an appetizer.

2 dozen littleneck or other medium sized clams

1/2 stick of unsalted butter

2 shallots, minced

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

reserved liquid from roasted tomatoes

about 1/4 bottle dry white wine, such as Muscadet, Sancerre, or a dry Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc

salt and pepper

Rinse the clams in cool water. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a medium stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the minced shallots and garlic, season with salt and pepper, and cook until just translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the white wine, bring to a simmer, and then add the tomato broth. Bring to a low boil, carefully add the clams to the broth, and cover.

Cook covered for 7-10 minutes, or until the clams open. Discard any clams that remain unopened after 10 minutes.

Plate the clams in large bowls in their cooking broth. Serve with plenty of toasted crusty bread to sop up the broth, and a side of roasted fingerling potatoes tossed with chopped parsley and basil.

bye bye tomatoes

Farewell tomatoes, we'll see you next summer. You have been plentiful and delicious.



Here are my last two fresh tomato recipes of the season. The first is a roasted tomato soup/pasta sauce recipe. The second is a poaching liquid or broth that is made from the reserved tomato juice leftover after roasting. I used this broth to steam clams that were honestly one of my favorite things I've ever made, but I imagine it would also be great for poaching a meaty white fish like halibut.

Roasted Tomato Soup with Garlic and Herbs

I set out to make a pasta sauce, but the result was so tasty that I ended up serving most of it as a tomato soup. If you want to use this as pasta sauce, simply add a small amount of the boiled pasta water to the sauce. The starch in the water will make the sauce a little thicker and less soupy.

Many traditional tomato soup/sauce recipes will direct you to boil the tomatoes, them shock them in cold water in order to remove their skins. I have skipped this step entirely, simply roasting the whole tomatoes, then pureeing them, skins and all. I find that this doesn't negatively affect the flavor or consistency of the soup, and saves a lot of time.

Nutrition note: If using this for pasta sauce, the pasta I buy is Tinkyada brand brown rice pasta (available at Whole Foods and many natural foods groceries). I think it's the best whole grain pasta option available right now. The texture and flavor are much more similar to traditional pasta than the whole wheat varieties, it's much higher in fiber, and it's gluten free.


Ingredients

approximately 3 pounds fresh tomatoes (mixed variety is fine--I used plums, cherries, and black brandywines from the garden)

2 tbsp chopped fresh herbs (I used rosemary, oregano, and thyme)

4-5 whole garlic cloves

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, or more or less to taste

scant 1/4 cup olive oil

salt and pepper

about 15 leaves of fresh basil

sugar


Preheat oven to 425. Quarter or half larger tomatoes so that they are all roughly the same size. If you are using smaller cherry or grape tomatoes, these can be left whole.



Place tomatoes is a large roasting pan. Add garlic, herbs, pepper flakes, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Toss to coat tomatoes in oil and distribute seasonings.

Roast in oven 20-30 minutes, until the tomatoes have expelled much of their water, and their skins are pruney and puckery.

Remove tomatoes from oven. Transfer roasted tomatoes, herbs, and garlic to a large heatproof bowl, leaving the thin liquid in the roasting pan (this will be used in the second recipe). Add 10 leaves of basil, and puree with an imersion blender.

Taste the puree for seasoning. It will probably need a bit more salt and pepper. You may want to add more basil to play up the herby flavor. If it seems too acidic add a drizzle of olive oil, or it might benefit from a bit of sugar. Season with sugar conservatively as you would season with salt: it's easy to add too much.

Serve this as a soup with crusty bread, or even better, grilled cheese sandwiches with smoked cheddar.

Serve as a pasta sauce tossed with your favorite shaped noodles, a generous grating of parmesan, and more fresh basil.



Transfer the reserved liquid from the roasting pan to a lidded container and store in the fridge until ready to use. It should keep for about 4 days.

Clams in White Wine, Tomato Herb Broth recipe will be up within the next couple days! Enjoy!

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.

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!