Mind in the Butter

Food for taste, buds, and family

Recipes

Superwoman’s Salmon, Fennel and Mushroom Pot Pie

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Coho Salmon, Fennel, and Mushroom Pot Pie with Truffle Cream

Ray and I woke up early, had a delicious breakfast and headed to the Metropolitan Museum to see the Warhol and Protoshop exhibits, amongst a thousand other amazing works of art.  After three lovely hours of photographs, paintings, vases and tombs, I managed to do three loads of laundry at the laundromat (with Ray’s help), mend our ripped duvet, go to the grocery store, workout for an hour and then bake what I’ve been craving for weeks–a salmon pot pie, just in time for half time of the Giants game. Flaky and rich, this pot pie blew the traditional chicken-carrot-pea-celery combo straight out of the water. I call it “Superwoman’s pot pie” because I’m having one of those Sunday evenings where I can’t stop high-fiving myself because I was so awesome and productive all day.

High-fives aside, I juiced this dish up by tucking a teaspoon of truffle butter under the hood of puff pastry before serving.  Since I’m amazing at following recipes (not), I used the Food Network’s  here.

I tried to be cute and put pastry fish on the top, but after being in the 400 degree oven it looks like two of them got a little fresh…

Bosc Pear and Goat Cheese Tart

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Sometimes we spend so much time obsessing about the main course, we forget  about the appetizer.  Last night, Mom was busy baking her homemade lasagna. Starving, I scrounged around and found a quart of gorgeous Bosc pears and 3 (yes, 3) logs of goat cheese, so I made myself useful and put together a simple goat cheese and pear tart. Here’s what I did:

  • I rolled out a sheet of puff pastry (thawed) and placed it on a cookie sheet.
  • Crumbled a log of goat cheese on the bottom of the pastry dough, then placed thinly sliced pear slices on top.
  • I drizzled it with raw honey and popped it in the oven at 400 for 25-30 mins.
  • I made the crust extra brown by brushing with an egg wash before placing in oven.
  • I let it cool 5 mins before transferring to cutting board, drizzled again with honey and served.

Button Soup

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Piping hot matzoh ball soup, fresh challah with salted Irish butter…Mom would be pleased!

Last weekend my sister came over; we pulled out my big stock pot and spent the whole day (punctuated by cookies breaks and catnaps) leisurely making our mom’s good ol’ Jewish Matzoh Ball Soup.  We jokingly call it “button soup” after a short story we used to read: An old woman traveling takes shelter at a poor and grumpy old man’s house. She ends up making the old ungrateful bastard man a scrumptious soup with a button as it’s first and most important ingredient.  Like button soup, matzoh ball soup is a peasant soup, simple and modest in it’s composition, making nothing more comforting. It’s a great time to share this recipe especially with the turkey surplus we’re all about to experience.

Mom’s recipe ( adapted from her Grandma and Aunt):

Matzoh Ball Soup

I learned how to make this soup as I have many dishes from my Grandma Ida and my Aunt Josie.  Having said this, these recipes are never exact, never measured rather “eye-balled” and approximated.  So, this is my way of saying, I too add a little of this and a bit more of that ….and so will you.  The most important ingredient is that you make it with love!  Here is the best I can do without showing you.

For a Large Pot of Soup:

  • A whole kosher chicken, rinsed off and patted dry, or alternately pieces of chicken with bones 6 to 9 leg/ thigh combos (boneless breasts would be too dry and stringy)
  • ** Two different ways:   I put in 8 cups of Swanson chicken broth and 8 cups of College Inn Chicken Broth into the pot bring to a simmer, add the whole chicken breast side down.  Add enough water or more broth, if necessary, to cover chicken and come up to fill ¾ full of your soup pot. ** (Of course Grandma Ida just used water, especially with the kosher chicken as it is already salted, hence the reason I am having you rinse and pat it) but you would then need to add chicken bouillon, probably 2 tablespoons or to taste.  I like my way better, I must admit.
  •  Add to pot with the chicken in it:

-2-3 rough chopped medium sized yellow onions
-2    sliced and peeled parsnips
-3-4 stalks peeled and cut up celery
-4-5 peeled and sliced carrots
-3-4 crushed garlic or a couple more if you have a cold

  • Don’t add yet, Set aside:   4-5 Tablespoons of very well washed parsley (no sand, uh!) well chopped, to add in the last 15 minutes.  Pretty much for color.
  • Cover and simmer for probably 2 to 2 ½ hours.  Check on it, stir every once in a while and test along the way.  Skim off any creepy stuff that may or may not float to the top and discard….of course.
  • At the end you can remove the chicken, cool it, disassemble, cut it up and add back into soup.
  • Serve with either wide egg noodles already prepared separately or Matzo balls…Yum!!

Dinner Party Meal Planning

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I’ve had several friends ask me about determining portion size for dinner parties, an essential part of hosting a successful one. I sketched the drawing above as a simple snapshot of the “trifecta” I use when meal planning for large parties. It’s totally unscientific but I think it’s really helpful.  The idea is simple — dinner is made up of 3 parts: starch, veggie, protein. Once you pick your recipes remember these rules before heading to the grocery store:

  • 1 cup of dry starch (risotto, rice, polenta etc.) = 4 servings. If you are using potatoes: 1 russet for 2 people, 2-3 red potatoes for 1 person, 3-4 fingerlings for 1 person.
  • 1 cup of veggie = 1 serving. 1 zucchini= 2 servings, 1 bunch of asparagus = 4 servings. One carton or head of lettuce =4 people for simple salad, 6 people if you drag it through the garden
  • 6 oz/ 1 fist of protein= 1 serving. I think I learned this from Richard Simmons so I can’t take credit, but idea is to serve 6 oz. (size when uncooked) of protein which is about the size of your fist. The butcher or fish guy can easily help with this too since they normally weigh everything for you.  I could recommend rounding to the next 1/2 lb for good measure. So, for a 6 person dinner party: 6 people x 6 oz = 36 oz or 2.25lbs —> ask the counter for 2.5lbs. For shrimp and scallops: 4 scallops=1 serving, 4 colossal shrimp= 1 serving, 6 jumbo shrimp= 1 serving
  • Add an “Elijah” serving e.g. always add 1 more person to the meal planning for leftovers/in case something burns/someone arrives who didn’t RSVP (gasp!).

I’ve kept the post short so you can print and post onto the fridge or add to your recipe book for easy reference. This is how I meal plan but would love to hear other tips and tricks!

Tofino Time: What’d you do with all those chanterelles?

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After picking a heap of chanterelles the other morning, I was sort of at a loss on what to do with them (although thank you to my friends for the inspiration!). But then, two amazing things happened 1) we went for a beach hike and found mussels, (Lie. Dad yanked them off the rocks while Emily and I napped on a log); 2) we went to an amazing ocean front farm and bought fresh goat cheese. With those deliciously serendipitous run-ins, I decided on Mussels with Fennel, Tomatoes and Chanterelles in White Wine and a simple Goat Cheese and Chanterelle Tart (recipe from old post, here).

Tofino Time: Steamed Shrimp and Crab Shumai

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Crab and Shrimp Shumai

This next week is the Tofino edition! The family and I are nestled in the balmy Pacific Northwest for a week of action-packed fun: fishing, prawning, crabbing, hiking, camping, and best of all – dinner roulette: where dinner is entirely dependent on whatever Dad catches on his 16-foot boat. Given that I’m with the fam damily this week, I’ll have some guest contributors!

Guest Contributor//Emily: There are about 1 trillion things that I adore about my sister – one of the biggest ones being that she has a true adoration and admiration for all things food. Of course,  it’s always a pleasure to dine on whatever Eva “whips up”, but, since she always makes it look so fun, I thought I’d jump in. We cranked the Reggae, poured two glasses of wine and let the fun flow! Sissy and I are very similar and very different – in this case, our differences in the kitchen really do keep things smooth sailing. As her honorary sous-chef for the evening, I was keen on ensuring that she had a clean workshop to let her creativity flow. It’s really something to watch her work – a certain smell or color or texture will inspire a whole new direction, only more delicious than the previous one. I enjoy  following her direction – in a life of constant unknowns, she is precise with her guidance and is mindful of being kind to a novice (like me). One of the greatest parts of this experience was capturing her creativity,  documenting the magic that she really does create, and being able to celebrate it time and time again.  – EJSF – 

Last night, Emily and I decided to make shrimp and crab shumai because, you know, we just happened to have them fresh from Dad’s boat. For our shumai, we used my knight in shining armor – wonton papers – to make these delicious seafood dumplings, perfect as an appetizer. This is definitely an activity meal, so enlist a sous-chef before you get started and prepare these little pinwheels of delight in advance. Conversely, if this is part of the “performance” make sure guests have something to nosh on while watching the action.

Ingredients:

Fresh crab, shrimp, scallions, ginger

Shumai Filling

  • 12 small shrimp, (can be raw or boiled)
  • 1 cup fresh boiled crab
  • 2 scallion, white and green chopped
  • 1 T Fresh ginger finely chopped
  • Egg wash: ramekin of 1 scrambled raw egg and 1 T water

 

Asian-style goodness

Dipping Sauce

  • 2 splashes Soy sauce
  • 1 dash Rice wine vinegar
  • 1 splash Sesame oil
  • Sesame seeds
  • 1 t. Dijon mustard
  • 1 pinch sugar
  • 1 T fresh ginger, finely chopped
  •  2 scallion, white and green chopped

The Gist:

The idea of the shumai filling is to have multiple textures, achieved by staging the mixing process. I was without my trusty Cuisinart for this recipe and used an old blender making it difficult to control this.  We ended up simply rough chopping several ingredients by hand and mixing them in a bowl after we got the pasty base.

Shumai Filling

  •  Make the dipping sauce first. This mixture will season the filling.
  • Add half the crab and shrimp and 2 T of dipping sauce to the food processor and mix until paste like.
  •  Add the rest of the shrimp and crab and scallions and pulse.

 

 

Fake it ’til you make it…

To wrap the shumai:

Let’s be honest here – Emily and I had no idea what we were doing and had a blast taking creative license making our little dumplings. The nice thing about shumai too is that it’s actually opened on the top, so it made it easier to hide our neophyte skills. I’ve had shumai before and really like the pleating of the dumpling wrap so I attempted to replicate it. Regardless of your style, it’s important use the egg wash before pressing any two corners of the wonton paper together so they stick together.

Finally, steam the shumai, 3-5 minutes ideally in a bamboo steamer lined with cheesecloth (to keep the shumai from sticking). We didn’t have this luxury, so I poured enough water to cover 2 inches of the bottom of a large pot and fashioned a pedestal in the bottom  using a trivet (so the bowl was not in direct contact with the burner) and an overturned bowl, then placed the plates of shumai directly on the raised surface one at a time. Worked out pretty well, thanks Sissy for all your help!

My oh my, shumai!

Dinner with Basil: Homemade Pesto + Caprese Salad

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Green Gold

Red, White and Green

Earlier this week, Ray and I had a special guest for dinner, basil! This beautiful broad-leafed herb is definitely in season with the bundles  so big, I could barely tell it apart from heads of lettuce in the produce section. When I get a bouquet of basil this large, there’s really only two things I want to make, homemade pesto and a caprese salad. And that’s what I did: Seared Scallops with Pesto Rigatoni with a Caprese Salad drizzled with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette. I think I’d like to have basil over dinner more often!

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For the Pesto: I never follow recipes, so in my Cuisinart I just blended pine nuts (they have pre-packaged 1/4 cup bags in the baking aisle at the store), whatever Parmesan I had in my fridge and garlic. I then added the basil leaves and the juice of one lemon.  Word on the street is to keep the Cuisinart running while you add the olive oil through the top feeder until the mixture is smooth. At the last minute I added zest of 1/2 lemon and I’m pretty sure that took the pesto to a whole other level of amazing both in flavor and color.  For perfect single-servings down the road,  scoop any extra pesto into an ice cube tray and cover with plastic wrap making sure it’s flush with the pesto and place in freezer.  For the rule followers,  Ina Garten has a great recipe for pesto.

Buenos Aires Cannellonis: Jamon y Queso + Verdura

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Baked Cannelloni

My Buenos Aires Cannellonis are inspired by my time living in the “Paris of Latin America.”   Each morning I would pass Mas Pastas,  fogging up the  glass window as three old men buzzed around the checker-floored pasta shop. One man would delicately drop dollops of ricotta onto rugs of ravioli pasta, another kneaded pizza dough and the other formed pillows of potato dough for fresh gnocchi. When I finally mustered up enough courage and enough Spanish, I  became a regular at Mas Pastas, frequently stopping in for a  dozen cannellonis (cheese-filled tubes of fresh pasta) to cook for friends and my host family.

While no cannellonis can really do Mas Pastas justice, here is my take on the most popular variations: cannellonis con jamon y queso (ham and cheese) and cannellonis con verduras (vegetables) topped with tomato sauce.  On my next try, I might go for crab filled cannelloni with a bechamel sauce (yow!).

For this recipe, I use my secret weapon-wonton papers!  You can find them in the produce section next to the vegan chorizo (why, why does that exist?) and the tofu shaped like chicken nuggets.  Wonton papers are extremely versatile and really fun to work with.  In addition to using them for cannellonis, I use them to make homemade raviolis; I even used them to make a quick lasagna once.

Filling: I make a very simple base filling of ricotta, cream cheese, mozzarella, 1 medium sauteed onion, seasoned with fresh garlic, salt and pepper. I then split the filling between two bowls and add vegetables to one and meat to the other:

For Jamon y Queso: I sautee cubes of pancetta (sturdy and salty, ideal for this dish) in a pan to make them nice and crispy before adding them to the filling.  Cooked bacon, prosciutto, chicken or shrimp would be great alternatives.

For Verduras y Queso: I sautee frozen spinach (drain before adding to pan) with a zucchini cut into thin half-moons and seasoned  with chili flakes. Mushrooms are a slammin’ addition.

Once the variations are added to each bowl of filling, I prepare a clean, flat surface and small dish of water (to seal the seam of the wonton paper) and then make the cannellonis:

Step 1: Scoop 2 heaping tablespoons of filling along one side of the wonton paper, careful not to let any get too close to the edge.

Step 2: Pull the wonton over the filling.  Pressing your fingers flat on the cutting board, tug the wonton paper back (think how the guys at Chipotle wrap burritos).  This will ensure that filling is tightly packed into the wonton paper.

Step 3: Once the filling is snug,  roll the wonton paper once and wet the top edge with water.

Step 4: Finish rolling the wonton paper by sealing the wet edge to rest of the cannelloni.

Step 5: Line the bottom of a large glass dish with pasta sauce, place the cannelloni seam-side down.

Step 6: Cover with the remaining pasta sauce and mozzarella cheese, bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, until the top is bubbling.

Summer Dinner Party

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Last week after realizing it’s been way too long since we’ve had a dinner party, Ray and I had some friends and their +1s over for a Monday night cocktail/dinner party.  Of course, fitting ten people into any New York apartment is challenge so I kept it really casual and served dinner in the living room around our retro coffee table.

Hosting dinner parties is one of my favorite things in this whole world to do, and I’m finally establishing some good entertaining rules and formulas to keep myself un-stressed, out of the kitchen and in the mix with my guests.  While I don’t follow them all the time, here they are:

1) Make absolutely everything you can the night before, including the cocktail.  (I didn’t follow my own rule and did not have drinks immediately available for my guests upon their arrival, which leads to #2)

2) Have something to eat and drink on the table 30 minutes before your guests are supposed to arrive, even if it’s just some radishes and a bottle of wine or a pitcher of water. Someone is always likely to show up exactly on time.

3) Make sure the night of the dinner party works for the rest of your week. I chose Monday night so I had all of Sunday to shop and cook. It allowed me start off the week with my friends when the rest of the week was filled with business dinners. Friday nights are impossible because you’re tired and there’s no way to shop, cook and clean in time for guests to arrive at a reasonable hour.  Saturday and Sundays night are of course great too.

4) Get the 411 on food allergies and check the menu over with them beforehand.  Ray doesn’t eat meat and I have another friend who’s, well, allergic to everything so instead of getting really creative, I kept it simple.  I made sure my one-pot dish could be easily adapted to serve (almost) everyone. For my friend, I made a “hypoallergenic” pork chop- seasoned with sesame oil, Dijon mustard, rice wine vinegar served with white rice.

5) You must have a co-pilot/extra Indian/Sous-chef.  I don’t care if you’re Martha Stewart, you need an extra host. Ray always does an amazing job setting the mood with music, candles and lighting. For this party he had the genius idea to pull a Charlie Chaplin film off of Netflix to play in the background while we ate. Thanks, babe!

6) Candles and music are a must.  Films noir and cats to entertain your guests are a plus.

7) When you’re friends ask if you need help…say yes! I am very verbal and eager to have my friends help me in the kitchen when I am in the weeds, even if they just stand there and give me the latest gossip on their lives while they completely assault a tomato.

8) Eva’s (generally fool-proof) Food Formula: 2 appetizers (at least 1 vegetarian option) + 1 signature cocktail + 1 one-pot dish (that can be made the night before) + vegetable + 1 dessert = dinner party success.

Here are some highlights after implementing the formula for last week’s dinner party:

The Coconut Crusher

The Coconut Crusher

As my signature cocktail, I served a drink I completely made up: Coconut Rum, Vodka, pomegranate and blueberry juice with a mint garnish. It’s possible that I subliminally  stole this idea from a photo my brother’s girlfriend posted on my sister’s Facebook wall, but I think it’s safe to say, I made it completely my own. My original recipe called for white grape juice, but the pomegranate was an awesome substitute.

To make this divine cocktail: tear 6 mint leaves and put at the bottom of a glass, fill to the brim with ice, then add 1 oz vodka, 1 oz coconut rum then top it off with some slammin’ juice–pomegranate, raspberry lemonade, peach, white grape juice, surprise me. Stir. Sip. Smile. Ah.

White Bean, Prosciutto and Arugula Crostini

Smashed White Bean Crostinis with Arugula and Prosciutto. This is a riff on a crostini served at our local Italian restaurant. My interpretation involves 1 can of rinsed, smashed white beans with 2 cloves of garlic, a squeeze of lemon, salt and pepper. I spread a little salted butter on the sliced baguette before  spreading the white beans.  Top it with prosciutto and/or arugula and then the party is in order!

Arugula, Radish and Pecorino Salad.

Arugula Salad

My formula calls for a vegetable, this salad is by far the easiest most delicious solution to a large group: washed arugula, shaved Pecorino, sliced radishes. Add tomato and/or hearts of palm if you have them handy.  For the vinaigrette I simply squeezed the juice of one lemon over the lettuce with a hefty splash of good olive oil, salt, pepper. I could eat this salad everyday.

Chocolate Flourless Cake, Black Cherries and Fresh Whipped Cream

Chocolate flourless cake with black cherry coulis and fresh whipped cream. Normally I use this recipe for the cake and jazz it up with a berry sauce.  Last week I chose black cherries, so I heated them on the stove with 2Ts of sugar, 1t of vanilla extract and reduced it until it was a syrupy sauce.  Served with homemade whipped cream, it’s divine!

Two Coudies Archive: “Corn on the Cob”

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Happy 4th of July! Everyone is surely out grillin’ and chillin’ in celebration of this great nation.  I pulled this Two Coudies post from our 4th of July party from 2009 where I made a disastrous (but precious) batch of cupcakes decorated to look like corn on the cob.

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This is by far my most amazing food feat: cupcakes in the guise of corn on the cob. Too cute for words, I know. I found the idea in this cupcake book I stumbled upon at a specialty bookstore. It was as if the gods had heard my prayers and gifted me with this totally useless but equally precious cupcake decorating book. I was saved and it only took me $ 16.95.

 I made the cupcakes from a box of cornbread muffin mix, jazzed up with a can of creamed corn, a half cup of sour cream and one cup of cheddar cheese baked according to the instructions on the box. The frosting was two packs if cream cheese and powdered sugar and a teaspoon of lemon juice. For the kernels I used yellow, white and butter flavored jelly beans. The “pad of butter” is actually a yellow saltwater taffy candy and the “parsley flakes” are green sugar crystals. I put three each in corn trays and pierced the ends with corncob handles.
My only advice if you decide to do this is to make sure you do it in an air-conditioned house. I did in my Cape Cod kitchen with no AC and everything was sliding off the frosting. I almost lost my marbles over that one. Oh, and don’t drink coffee that day either because when I finally finished them, my hand twitched and I dropped the cupcakes face down on the table. I died. Cute though, huh?