July 2008

I think I’ve spoken before of my fondness for Rhode Island-style calamari, but did you know that most of the squid served in restaurants in this country is actually from the waters off little Rhody? I didn’t until I read an article about it in the Spring 2008 issue of Edible Rhody magazine, and since then I’ve happily indulged in this local treat whenever possible.

I’ve lamented the fact that, to my surprise, fresh local seafood can be difficult to find in stores around here, but our nearby Whole Foods often has plenty of Point Judith squid available. It’s inexpensive and plentiful, and I picked up a pound of it recently hoping to make it the focus of a meal.

I had originally planned to go in a slightly different direction here, but I settled on a salad infused with Spanish flavors, mixing up a smoked Spanish paprika and sherry vinaigrette to dress the smoky grilled squid and warm potatoes. Chopped shallot and celery added some crunch, and plenty of fresh celery leaves and parsley provided an herbal bite. The finishing touch was a few slivers of fresh red chile pepper, which imparted a gentle heat and pop of color.

Every time I think the market can’t possibly have more beautiful summer produce to offer, I’m proven wrong – it’s almost too much of a good thing. It’s hard for me to exercise restraint with so much bounty before me, and when I bring it all home it’s important not to let it go to waste.

Luckily, we love our veggies, and this time of year it’s easy to load up on them. This salad was the first of many main dish versions I have planned for the week, and it features two southern favorites: fried green tomatoes and fried okra. I did a basic dredge, first in a mixture of buttermilk and beaten egg, then coated the tomatoes and okra in seasoned flour and cornmeal, and fried them in batches until crisp and golden. I arranged them on a bed of young, peppery arugula leaves, drizzling them with a buttermilk-Tabasco vinaigrette. A smattering of halved yellow and red grape tomatoes came next, and to gild the lily a wee bit more, I topped each plate with a poached egg.

One of the things we both loved about this salad was the interplay between the tart and crusty green tomatoes and the sweet fresh ones. The dressing was a total experiment, but a successful one, providing a little bit of heat and becoming creamier as it mixed with the egg yolk.

Oh, what a weekend…

I even made dessert.

(Mike’s latest contribution to MxMo is here; and as always you can click the photos for a bit more info.)

Incredibly fresh pieces of wild striped bass, a puree of potatoes and sorrel - I was so excited about this meal, but I forgot that as bright and lovely as sorrel tastes, it turns kind of grey-green when cooked.

Oh, well. At least it tasted good.

No, this was not dinner. And I’ll get back to the dinners, I promise, but I’m woefully behind on my photos, and I’m still not feeling up to snuff, and I’m trying to catch up with my husband, and besides, so many of you asked about this pickle photo I figured this would be a good chance to give you the lowdown.

I made my first batch of pickles a few years back, in an attempt to deal with a bumper crop of cucumbers in our Brooklyn garden. They turned out so well, and were such a hit with friends and coworkers, that even though we no longer grow our own, in the years since I have started making batches of pickles as soon as cukes show up at the farmers’ market.

The recipe I started with first appeared in Bon Appétit magazine, though I’ve made a few modifications. For starters, I wasn’t able to find pre-packaged pickling spice way back when I made that first batch, so I mixed up my own, using equal amounts of brown mustard seed, black peppercorns, allspice, juniper berries, coriander and fennel seeds. Next, as a person who likes her pickles really sour, I cut the amount of sugar called for in half. Finally, for a little extra kick, I add extra garlic and place a few dried whole chiles in each jar. The end result are pickles with great crunch, good garlic flavor, and a little bit of heat at the finish.

These pickles are quick to make, they are incredibly easy, and they are, dare I say, addictive. Do try this at home.

Spicy Dills (adapted from Bon Appétit)

12 pickling cucumbers (I like Kirbys)

for the brine:
2 cups tap water
1¾ cups distilled white vinegar
¼ cup sugar, preferably superfine
8-10 fat garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
1½ tablespoons Kosher salt
1 tablespoon pickling spice
1½ teaspoons dill seed
½ - 1 teaspoon red chile flakes

for jarring:
4 pint jars or containers with tight-fitting lids
fresh dill sprigs
12 small whole dried chile peppers

Cut the cucumbers into spears, chunks or rounds and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients for the brine, stirring well to dissolve the salt and sugar. Add the cucumbers to the bowl and let sit at room temperature for 2 hours.

After the cucumbers have soaked for 2 hours, divide them between the four jars. Place a few dill sprigs and three dried whole chiles in each jar, and add brine to cover the pickles. Lid them up and refrigerate for 10 days before eating.

The pickles will stay good in the refrigerator for up to a month.

It’s still about a million degrees here, so I went with another salad: black-eyed peas, yellow wax beans, radishes, purple scallions and basil with mustard vinaigrette. I served it on a bed of baby mustard greens from Arcadian Fields.

Sorry so brief, but I’m feeling a bit rough after a mostly sleepless night. Long story. Anyway, I’ll catch up with you all next week. Be safe and well, everyone.

I got home from work yesterday and walked into a house that was empty but for two quiet and very confused kitties. I had come up with all sorts of ideas about how to spend my alone time while Mike is away at Tales, but in the end, a very quiet evening was what was in store for me last night. And my husband wasn’t the only one knocking back a cold drink.

After my lunch of sushi and soba yesterday, I stopped at BRIX to pick up a bottle of wine, and spotted some 4-packs of Press cucumber soda (which of course I had to try). Their suggested pairing, obviously, was with Hendricks gin, but we were out. Aviation worked just fine, and the combo made for a darned fine tipple on a sticky evening.

My cooking efforts were minimal. I cubed up a couple of heels of multigrain from Bread Alone, tossed them with salt, olive oil and Herbes de Provence and toasted them until crunchy, then served them on top of a Very Big Salad:

A few big handfuls of Arcadian Fields’ “Teenage Lettuce Mix,” carrots, celery, cucumber, roasted red peppers, one of our homegrown patio tomatoes, a diced up grilled chicken breast (I had Mike cook a couple for me when he grilled our pork for Sunday’s dinner), and the rest of my buttermilk blue cheese dressing (an adaptation of Grace Parisi’s version, subbing creme fraiche - which we always have on hand - for sour cream), and dinner for one was served.

I’ll admit it – I’m a sucker for bar food. Rings, wings, Buffalo-style anything, if it’s deep-fried, salty, gooey and generally bad for you, it’s probably something I love. I indulge on occasion, but more often, I think of ways to make those treats at home, preparing them in a way that is more in line with our typical way of eating.

Generally, when I roll out an interpretation of this type of food, it’s for one of our cocktail parties, or for a small gathering of friends - I generally don’t think to make a meal out of it. But I wanted to do something a little different for our meatless Monday dinner, and when I thought of the things we had around - the extra ears of grilled corn from Sunday night, the corn tortillas, radishes, cabbage and salsa from the farmers’ market, some leftover cooked rice, the beans we’ve always got on hand, and of course cheese – my general direction was clear, but none of my usual preparations were sending me. But then I thought: nachos.

Deep-fried, salty, gooey nachos. Oh, yes. Cutting the tortillas into wedges and frying them would be simple, and we had an abundance of good stuff to top them with, but I didn’t want to turn on the oven to melt the cheese, so I decided to make a cheese sauce, instead – a little butter, a little flour, a little milk and a variety of odds and ends of cheese which were lingering in the fridge, spiked with cumin and Tabasco. It would be pourable, dribbling into all of those nooks and crannies and layers of toppings, so much nicer than plain old melted cheese, and a lot more flavorful than that microwave-in-a-jar cheese “product”.

The nachos were built on a base of homemade chips, with layers of black rice and beans reheated with a bit of salsa, then the grilled corn, cut off the cob and tossed with diced roasted red pepper and some of my pickled chiles, the cheese sauce, shredded cabbage, sliced radishes, and a little salsa and creme fraiche on top.

Now tell me you don’t want a bite of that.

This was one of those weekends that was kinda perfect. We had beautiful weather, great times with friends, and of course, great food.

There was so much to choose from at the farmers’ market Saturday morning, with corn, blueberries, potatoes and hardneck garlic all making their first appearance, and an abundance of favas, heirloom tomatoes, and other summer goodies, that it was very, very hard to exercise restraint, but we tried.

Okay, maybe we weren’t terribly successful, but hey – a good friend from New York was coming to town, so rather than meeting somewhere for dinner, we invited her over to help us work through some of our bounty.

This was one of the best things I ate all weekend. I love fava beans, and I’ve had my eye on a recipe in Sunday Suppers at Lucques for a while now – a puree of favas, served with feta and olives and garlicky toasts – so I put my own spin on it.

As Suzanne does, I gently stewed my shelled favas in olive oil with garlic and chile and summer savory in place of the rosemary in the original recipe, then I whizzed them in the food processor. My twist was to add a dollop of fresh ricotta in place of some of the olive oil, and instead of serving an olive-feta salad on top of the puree, I spread the mixture on grilled slices of Seven Stars’ olive stick and sprinkled a bit of flaky sea salt on top. Bliss.

Our main course was grilled lamb skewers with a lemon-garlic scape sauce for dipping, creamy white beans and heirloom tomatoes with feta and mint, all washed down with a smoky Spanish red.

Mike’s gearing up for Tales of the Cocktail later this week, and as such he has been mixing a lot of the classics, one of which was this delicious and incredibly refreshing Ramos Gin Fizz to go with our Sunday brunch of steak and eggs.

The thing about egg white drinks, though, is that you’re left with leftover yolks. But I couldn’t very well let these beauties go to waste. What to do…

I whisked those yolks and olive oil into an aioli, which became the base for a dressing for coleslaw, which as a general rule, I don’t like.

This time was different.

As Mike reminded me, cole slaw doesn’t *have* to be bad, it’s really all about using super fresh ingredients and making sure the veggies and dressing are in balance. Which I think I achieved. The slaw had a nice amount of crunch, and the dressing had a bit of richness from the aioli but was still light and zippy from the addition of fresh garlic, dijon mustard and champagne vinegar. It was good - surprisingly so - and as a matter of fact I just polished off a big helping for lunch. Yum.