This post is sponsored by La Crema Wines. All opinions here are my own. You can find the companion recipes over on the La Crema blog. 

Way back in 2013 (seems like ages ago now, doesn’t it?) I spent a lot of time in Russia. I’ve written about those trips a little bit, here and here, but never in great depth. I studied Russian throughout high school and college, so getting the chance to travel there for work was a dream. My primary destination was St. Petersburg, a glamorous, coastal city of old-world charm. I was there frequently between July – when the beauty and midnight sunsets of the white nights kept the whole city feeling celebratory – and December. And in December, it is very dark.

The dark is more shocking than the cold. In fact, at least in coastal St. Petersburg, it’s not much colder than New England. This week, for example, lows there are a balmy 29°F, while here in Boston we’re bracing ourselves for a week of -3°F nights. The dark, however, is a real challenge. For most of December, the sun rises at 10am and sets around 3:30. It never quite feels like daytime. The sun arcs low across the sky, resulting in sort of a 5 hour-long sunrise/sunset. In the context of all this darkness, it’s not hard to understand how New Year’s Eve became the bright spot of a Russian winter. It celebrates light and warmth, and requires feasting with friends long into the dark night.

For my final La Crema post of the year, I put together a celebratory menu of Russian-inspired New Year’s treats. A typical Russian New Year’s Eve spread consists of lots of small plates, salads, pickles, breads, and plenty to drink. A few years back I did a Russian-inspired end-of-year post, with recipes for rye blini, hot-smoked salmon dip, beet dip, and a pink vodka cocktail. This menu builds on those recipes. Taken all together, you could put together a pretty serious New Year’s Eve spread.

The first dish – Potato Bites with Caviar – is one of the easiest holiday appetizers I’ve ever made. All they require is boiling a pot of small potatoes, slicing them in half, scooping out a bit of the center, and dolloping each potato half with sour cream, a few pearls of caviar, and a tiny sprig of dill. That’s it – that’s the whole recipe in one sentence. And they are delicious! I was surprised by how addictive each little bite was.

The next dish is a bit strange to the American palate, but it’s super traditional. Herring Under A Fur Coat is a classic layered salad consisting of pickled herring, potatoes, carrots, onion, mayonnaise, beets, and hard-boiled eggs. I attempted to modernize it a bit, with the goal of making each layer taste good on its own. The changes I made were to cut out the mayo, add grated apple to the carrot and onion layer, and use smoked salmon in one half and pickled herring in the other. I also served them individually, for easier party-consumption. They were pretty good, although arguably still an acquired taste. Check out the recipe over on the La Crema blog if you’re feeling adventurous!

Last in the menu is a party friendly version of my favorite Russian recipe – Mushroom Pirozhki. These are a bite-sized, vegetarian version of the Rabbit and Mushroom Pie I posted a few years back. These little guys are addictive, and the perfect party food (warm, carby, easy to carry, and great with wine!). The filling for these Mushroom Pirozhki is a tasty mixture of wild mushrooms, sour cream, wine, and dill.

With all these recipes, you probably don’t need much dessert. If you must have something sweet, put out some Russian chocolates (like Alenka if you can find them!) and fresh fruit. And of course, we can’t forget the drinks. While vodka is the traditional drink at a Russian New Year’s party, there’s plenty of room for other libations. I’m definitely more of a wine girl than a vodka girl, and I opened a bottle of La Crema’s Monterey Chardonnay and one of the Monterey Pinot Noir for this menu. The potatoes and herring salad are both best with the Chardonnay. Mushrooms are deeply earthy, so the pirozhki pair well with the Pinot Noir – but if you’re only opening one bottle, the dill and sour cream in the filling also make them a good match with the Chardonnay.

Enjoy, and don’t forget to head over to the La Crema blog via the links below for all the recipes:

• Potato Bites with Caviar
• “Herring Under a Fur Coat” Salad
• Mushroom Pirozhki

The post Russian New Year’s Recipes and Celebration Menu with La Crema appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

The Book: Grilling is not my strong suit. Nor, for that matter, is cooking large cuts of meat. I find both intimidating – partly because the idea of ruining an expensive piece of meat is so stressful, and partly because working with fire makes me jumpy. But I very much want to be good at grilling – at cooking over a flame, at coaxing beef and lamb and fish to a charred but juicy perfection, neither overcooking or undercooking them. And the only way to get better is to practice, and to learn, for which I turn to the grilling, meat-centric cookbooks in my collection like Around the Fire, the newest addition to that collection, and a gorgeous book by the team at Ox in Portland.

This book really wowed me. In my opinion, it has everything a cookbook needs – thoughtful, well-written words, inspiring photographs, and most importantly, creative but accessible recipes that work. I love cookbooks where the words themselves add something, where they are not just trite filler text surrounding the recipes, and Around the Fire fully meets that criteria. It is beautifully written, both evocative and informative. The story of the authors’ first Argentinean asado that fills the introduction is the perfect invitation into the book – it so clearly portrays the beauty and excitement of live fire cooking. There’s a big difference between a book that states “this is my favorite version of chimichurri” and this one, which includes a 6-paragraph love letter to the condiment while giving you a peek into it’s culture and history.

The inspiration for the book is primarily South American, but occasionally veers East to Italy, North to Portland, and West to Hawaii, to incorporate flavors from other cuisines and cultures into a unique, creative cooking style. The recipes are mid level as far as difficulty – many have long ingredient lists and multiple components, but are not overly complicated or so esoteric as to be inaccessible to the home cook. They certainly aren’t “grilling 101,” but if you know your way around a kitchen they won’t leave you overwhelmed, either. Recipes range from the expected, centerpiece meat dishes like grilled short ribs or whole grilled crabs, to chilled seafoods like poke and ceviche, to a collection of gorgeous grilled vegetable dishes and salads (that might be the highlight of the book for me). There are even a handful of intriguing and very of-the-moment cocktail recipes, like the “Things Done Changed,” which features pisco, smoked lemon, and jalapeno oil. As a collection, they’ll keep you busy at the grill all through summer and well into fall.

The Food: When we took this book for a spin a few weeks ago we went a little overboard, choosing three different recipes and loading the grill up with a pile of meat and veggies that lasted us for a full week in various forms. Maple-Brined Pork Chops were the star, a dish that couldn’t be simpler or more flavorful. Soaking the chops overnight in a salty-sweet maple brine before charring them on a hot grill made for the tastiest, juiciest pork chops I have ever tried. They will definitely be making more appearances on my table (and I might start brining all kinds of other meats in the maple brine as well). As a side, we served a warm vegetable dish of Grilled Sweet Onion with Buttered Beets, Blue Cheese, and Walnuts. For me this one was just OK – I can’t believe that I’m saying this, but I thought there was too much butter and richness – but Trevor loved it, so to each their own. The dish is what it sounds like from the title, with the roasted, diced beets sauteed in a generous amount of melted butter until they are completely and luxuriously coated. The sweet, roasty flavors of the onions and beets did make a good pairing for the maple chops – together, it made for a delicious September dinner, perfectly hitting all the notes I want in “between seasons” cooking.

Recipe Shortlist: Grilled Corn Empanadas with Poblanos and Gruyere; Shrimp Ceviche with Chiles and Avocado; Grilled Whole Chicken with Figs, Manouri Cheese, and Lentil Chimichurri; Cast Iron Grilled Trout with Potatoes and Capers; Grilled New Potato and Onion Skewers with Bacon-Sherry Cream; Salt Crust Roasted Tomatoes; Grilled Peaches with Maple-Corn Panna Cotta

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Disclosure: I received a review copy of Around the Fire from Ten Speed Press, but I was not otherwise compensated and all thought and opinions are my own.

Grilled Maple-Brined Pork Chops

Recipe from Around the Fire. Serves 4.

• 1/4 c. kosher salt
• 1/4 c. pure maple syrup
• 2 TBS sugar
• 2 TBS dried thyme
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 head garlic, sliced in half crosswise
• 6 c. water
• 4 bone-in pork loin chops, about 1 1/2 inches thick each
• 2 TBS olive oil
• sea salt for seasoning

1. To make the brine, combine the salt, maple syrup, sugar, thyme, peppercorns, bay leaves, garlic, and water in a medium pot. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 1-2 minutes, stirring once or twice to help fully dissolve the salt. Remove from the heat and let steep for 30 minutes, before straining the brine into a large bowl. Let the brine cool completely.
2. Arrange the pork chops in a baking dish or storage container and pour the cooled brine over them to cover them completely. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours and up to 48 hours.
3. When you are ready to grill, prepare your grill to medium-high heat. Remove the pork chops from the brine and place on a plate or platter (discard the used brine). Drizzle the pork chops on both sides with olive oil and sprinkle sea salt on top. Grill the pork chops for 4-5 minutes per side, until the exterior of the pork is colored and the chops have reached an internal temperature of 145-150°F for medium doneness. Use tongs to hold the pork chops on their sides to quickly sear the fatty edges, then remove to a plate and let rest for 4-5 minutes before serving.

Grilled Sweet Onion with Buttered Beets, Blue Cheese, and Walnuts

Recipe from Around the Fire. Serves 4.

• 10 walnut halves
• 2 whole sweet onions (such as Walla Walla or Vidalia)
• 2 TBS olive oil
• sea salt and fresh black pepper
• 3 oz high quality blue cheese, crumbled
• 2 c. diced, roasted beets
• 1/4 c. water
• 1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 3 TBS saba or balsamic vinegar glaze
• 1/4 c. minced chives

1. Toast the walnuts – you can do this either by spreading them on a baking sheet and roasting them for 8 minutes in a 350°F oven, or by adding them to a dry frying pan and toasting over medium heat, stirring frequently, until they just begin to brown and are fragrant. In either method, be careful not to burn them. Once they are toasted, let cool and coarsely chop them, then set aside.
2. Prepare a grill to medium heat. Quarter the onions lengthwise, keeping the root attached so the layers don’t separate, and remove the peels. Drizzle the onions with olive oil and season with sea salt and pepper. Grill, 3-4 minutes on each side, until they are charred and softened. If the onions char before they are tender, move them to a cooler part of the grill and continue cooking until they are tender all the way through. Transfer the onions to a plate and set aside.
3. Put the beets and the water in a small frying pan over medium heat. As soon as the water begins to simmer, turn the heat to low and add the butter a few pieces at a time. Swirl the pan until the butter melts and fully coats the beets. To serve, place a few pieces of onion on each plate, top with several spoonfuls of the buttered beets, and sprinkle with the blue cheese, walnuts, and minced chives. Drizzle with the saba or balsamic glaze, and serve.

The post Book Club: Around the Fire // Grilled Maple-Brined Pork Chops & Grilled Sweet Onion with Buttered Beets and Blue Cheese appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I’ve somehow let over three weeks go by since the last time I wrote. Before our trip, I prepped and photographed six recipes to share with you while I was away, approximately one per week. It was good planning on my part, but I arrived home a few days ago and I seem to have only managed to post three of them. Whoops. In reality, I decided that this trip wasn’t the time to be fretting over my blog schedule and unanswered email inquiries – and I’m glad I did. It was nice to let go of some of it for a few weeks, to focus my energy each day on where we were and what we were doing. That’s not to say I traveled anxiety-free or without letting thoughts of home occasionally slip into my mind, but I let go of a lot more than I usually do, especially during our time in Japan, and I enjoyed the trip so much more for it.

I had originally intended this recipe for my February fitness goal post, but fitness goals are another thing I’ve let slide. I’m not too concerned about it – we spent 6 weeks walking 10+ miles a day, not sitting on a couch. Still, this is the kind of food I am very much looking forward to eating now that I am home – simple, light, and nourishing. We had fairly few “Western” meals during our 6 weeks in Asia – a few hamburgers in Hong Kong, a pizza one night. Both Hong Kong and Japan have such incredible food cultures, we were never bored with or tired of the local offerings. I wasn’t particularly anxious to get home, but walking through the door Monday night I was surprisingly happy to be here. And there are things that I’m looking forward to now that I’m back – yogurt and berries, real avocado toast, affordable wine and brie, giant grain salads. Planning for our garden this spring and getting back into decorating the house. Probably most of all, seeing my friends and family. And it’s almost spring! I might skip winter every year.

Now that I’m home, I’m also excited to be back in the kitchen (or at least I will be once we’ve managed to get some groceries). I’m full of inspiration for soups, noodles, dumplings, and street food – don’t be surprised if this blog takes a decidedly Asian slant for the next few months. But before we get to all that, I have this Nordic-inspired, healthy salmon and rice bowl for you, with pickled beets and dilled sour cream. It is super quick and easy to put together, and satisfying without being heavy. It’s also seasonally appropriate, beets being one of the few vegetables we New Englanders can get locally in the middle of winter. In fact, revisiting it now, I’m thinking this might be a good one to go on my grocery list this week. Enjoy!

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Scandi Salmon Bowl with Pickled Beets and Dilled Sour Cream

Pickled beets adapted from Gourmet. Serves 4.

• 2 beets, boiled until tender, peeled, and thinly sliced
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. water
• 1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 tsp mustard seed
• 1/4 tsp dill seed
• 1/2 c. sour cream
• juice from 1/2 fresh lemon
• 2 TBS minced fresh dill
• 1 shallot, peeled and finely minced
• sea salt, to taste
• 3 c. prepared brown rice, farro, or other nutty whole grain
• 8 oz. hot-smoked salmon, flaked into bite-size pieces

1. Place thinly sliced beets in a heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan, stir together sugar, water, cider vinegar, mustard seed, and dill seed, and bring to a gentle simmer over low heat. Simmer for 5 minutes, then pour over the sliced beets. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 24 hours before serving.
2. To prepare the dilled sour cream, mix sour cream, lemon juice, dill and minced shallot together in a bowl until evenly combined. Season to taste with sea salt.
3. To serve, fill 4 bowls with a few scoops of cooked rice or farro. Top the rice with the flaked salmon, a few pickled beets, and a dollop of sour cream. Best served when rice is still slightly warm.

The post Scandi Salmon Bowl with Pickled Beets and Dilled Sour Cream appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Just a quick hello today to share with you a series I’ve been working on over the past few months. I’ve been collaborating with La Crema Wines to come up with three winter salads – salads that are healthy and fresh dishes but still hearty enough to make a filling meal on a cold night.  It’s tempting to eat comfort food all winter long – it’s what we crave! – but I find that keeping my diet balanced (e.g. following that bowl of cheesy, comforting pasta at lunch with a lighter salad at dinner) can help me stay feeling energized and motivated.

The first salad in the series is an all-white stunner. Roasted cauliflower, crunchy Belgian endive, sweet pears, grapes, and toasted pine nuts all come together with a blue cheese and buttermilk dressing to hit all the notes a salad needs: savory, bitter, sweet, and rich. I served this one with a glass of La Crema Monterey Chardonnay, which has a buttery richness that complements the funky blue cheese and bitter endive really nicely. Find the recipe here.

Sticking with the monochrome theme, the next salad is a festive mix of red fruits and veggies. With Russian red kale, beets, red cabbage, fresh pomegranate seeds, and balsamic vinaigrette, it’s tangy, juicy, and really good for you. Served alongside a glass of La Crema Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, it makes a light lunch or dinner that will leave you satisfied without feeling bogged down by heavy carbs and dairy. Find the recipe here.

The last salad in the series, and my favorite, celebrates sweet, juicy January citrus – such a welcome relief in the middle of the winter. This salad, featuring grapefruit, blood orange, fennel, and white-wine poached shrimp, is super simple, but still very flavorful, light, and satisfying. The rich and buttery shrimp offset the fresh tang of the citrus and the faintly sweet crunch of the fennel. Serve this salad with a glass of La Crema Monterey Pinot Gris. Its clean brightness and slight acidity are the perfect match for the tangy flavors of the salad. Find the recipe here. 

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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of La Crema. The opinions and text are all mine.

The post A Trio of Winter Salads appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

As has sort of become a tradition for me (and so many other bloggers – I secretly love reading everyone’s year end reviews and getting a little glimpse into their highs and lows), I wanted to take a little time and a little space here to reflect on last year and look forward to the next. I’ll try to keep it relatively short and sweet, but if you’re just hear for the food (no shame in that), skip down to the end for some delicious Russian-inspired zakuski from our New Year’s Eve festivities.

2014, A Year in Review

It was a pretty big year for this blog, especially in the last few months. There were a few months where revenue from this space was actually enough to cover my rent (!), Trevor and I wrote and photographed our first in-print article (I can’t wait to share it with you when it’s published), I worked with a number of great new sponsors and brands, and I created some content I’m pretty proud of. Although sometimes it’s hard to feel progress when you’re working on something day after day, taking a minute to look back at how it has grown over time highlights all the changes.

Personally, this year felt mixed. It may be that I’m letting the stress I’ve been feeling for the past two months represent too much of the year, but like any year, 2014 definitely had its highs and lows. I actually ended up having 3 different jobs this year, all with the same company, which was exciting, but not without its transition stress. I traveled a ton – this was certainly my biggest year yet as far as travel is concerned. I made trips to 6 countries – Ecuador, Hong Kong, Canada, Italy, Malaysia and Ireland – and all of them except for Italy were places I’d never been before. I wrote detailed travelogues of my family’s trip to Ecuador (Quito, The Amazon, Baños, and Cotopaxi) and shared some pictures and memories of our over-the-top dinner at Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal, here. The rest of the trips were for work and were mostly documented through Instagram, but in short: Hong Kong is incredibly vibrant and alive and I would love to spend more time wandering through it’s crowded streets; a long-weekend spent solo in Rome in May is just about the loveliest thing there is, for the unhurried bowls of fresh cacio e pepe eaten al fresco, long runs through the Villa Borghese, and afternoons spent poolside; the best part of Malaysia was undoubtedly the food, which was abundant at every meal and convinced me that I would be perfectly happy eating sweet and creamy curries for breakfast for the rest of my life; if someone asked me to move to Dublin I would be happy to go, for the friendly people, the twisty streets, the lively pubs, and unlimited quantities of amazing Irish butter.

Besides travel and blogging, there were a few other things that defined this year for me. I definitely got back into a solid fitness routine over the course of the year, which I documented through these monthly “Fitness Challenge” posts. I started from a place that I was very unhappy with – heavy, tired, and a complete stranger to my old running habits. Getting back in shape was a slow process, but by springtime I was running regularly and eating better, and I managed to keep those habits going all year. And of course, there’s the stuff that really matters – family and friends. I love how much time I was able to spend with my family this year, and being able to drive over for gardening and Sunday dinner almost every week is something I really treasure. I perhaps could have done a little better in prioritizing some of my friendships last year, but it’s something I hope to focus on more in 2015. And finally, Trevor is still the best, I love sharing my life with him, and I love that even after 7 years together I still feel excited to be with him. So that’s a big fat plus sign for 2014.

On to 2015!

Although I’m still reflecting on how I want to shape 2015, there’s a few things that I already know will be focus areas. One thing that I want for myself is to be less stressed. This is probably easier said than done, but I’m trying to think about what habits and routines I can change to allow myself to be more flexible and less likely to end up in a stressed-out, to-do-list-dominated state. I also want to find ways to build more joy and spontaneity into my life, to be more flexible, and to forgive myself and others more easily. I’ve been toying with the idea of some sort of gratitude journaling or instagram project, to keep myself in a positive and thankful frame of mind, but am a little worried that I’ll turn it in to one more thing I stress out about getting done every day. Have any of you tried something like this? What did you think? On a lighter note, I want to read more books, take better advantage of my travels, have more regular date nights with Trevor, and maybe learn to dance on pointe (I have no idea if this is even within my reach, but I’d like to think it is!). What are your resolutions and thoughts for the new year? I’d love to hear about them.

And if you’ve read through all that (not as short-and-sweet as I promised, huh?), then it’s time for some New Year’s eating! We had a fairly mellow New Year’s that was just right – movies and drinks with my brothers, then Veronika came over for snacks and champagne, before we headed with her and Scott to a late dinner in Harvard complete with fun party hats and free champagne. The snacks were sort of a last minute decision, but once I’d gotten the idea of a little Russian-inspired blini spread into my mind, I couldn’t get it out again. New Year’s Eve is a much bigger holiday in Russia than Christmas is, and the evening is filled with lots of zakuski, a buffet of hot and cold appetizers, and vodka toasts. So I whipped up a batch of rye and caraway blini and two easy dips: one made from hot-smoked salmon and cream cheese, and the other from chopped beets, honey, and vinegar. Both got generous helpings of dill and red onion, and spooned onto hot blini for a delightful mix of flavors. For drinks, I went with a sparkly pink number inspired by this Bon Appetit recipe, with fresh grapefruit juice, vodka, campari, and prosecco. Everything was delicious and all together it made for a festive spread.

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Rye and Caraway Blini

Recipe adapted from Food & Wine. Makes 30-40 blini.

• 1 1/2 c. buttermilk
• 3/4 c. AP flour
• 1/2 c. rye flour
• 2 eggs
• 3 TBS butter, melted
• 1 TBS brown sugar
• 1 tsp whole caraway seeds
• 1 tsp coarse kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 c. seltzer or club soda
• canola oil, for brushing the pan

1. Place the buttermilk, both flours, eggs, melted butter, brown sugar, caraway, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a blender. Blend on high until a smooth batter forms, stopping to scrape excess flour down the sides with a spatula if necessary. Let batter sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, or in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
2. When ready to cook the blini, stir the seltzer into the batter. Heat a little canola oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, then pour tablespoon-sized drops of batter into the prepared pan. Cook until bubbles on top of pancake have popped, then flip. They should cook for about 60 seconds on each side. Remove to a plate, and repeat until you have used all the batter, adding more canola oil to the pan whenever it runs out. Best served warm.

Hot-Smoked Salmon Dip

Makes about 1 cup.

• 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 2 TBS creme fraiche or sour cream
• 2 TBS finely  minced red onion
• 2 TBS finely minced fresh dill
• 1 small wedge preserved meyer lemon, finely diced
• 4 oz. hot-smoked salmon

1. Beat the cream cheese, creme fraiche, red onion, dill, and meyer lemon together until the mixture is even. Use a fork to flake the hot smoked salmon out of its skin in bite-sized pieces. Gently stir the salmon pieces into the dip. Serve chilled.

Russian Beet Dip

Recipe inspired by Cooks.com. Makes about 2 cups.

• 2 medium beets
• 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 TBS finely minced red onion
• 2 TBS honey
• 1 TBS cider vinegar
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh dill
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Remove the greens and tails from the beets and place the beets in a large saucepan. Cover with water and bring to a boil, boiling until the beets are tender when pierced with a fork, about 25-40 minutes, depending on their size. Remove the beets with a slotted spoon and run under cold water, rubbing the skin off with your hands as you do so. This works best when the beets are still warm.
2. Dice the beets into 1/4 inch cubes. In a medium bowl, stir together the cream cheese, red onion, honey, vinegar, and dill until evenly mixed, then stir in the cubed beets. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve cold.

Pretty in Pink

Inspired by Bon Appetit. Serves 2.

• 2/3 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, from one large grapefruit
• Two 1.5 oz. shots of vodka
• One 1.5 oz. shot of campari
• Chilled prosecco or champagne

1. Add grapefruit juice, vodka, and campari to a cocktail shaker with a few cubes of ice. Shake vigorously, then strain into two coupe glasses. Top each glass off with prosecco and serve immediately.

The post 2014 – A Year in Review // Rye Blini with Smoked Salmon Dip and Russian Beet Salad appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

The Book: Full of Flavor: How to Create Like a Chef is a book that was released back in the spring – I’m not sure how I missed it the first time around, since the author, Maria Elia, is one of my favorite chefs. Her first book, The Modern Vegetarian, was one of the first cookbooks I purchased, and it’s still one of my favorites. But I’ll try to keep this post about this book, instead of my mini-chef crush on Maria. Full of Flavor attempts to capture and teach you Maria’s creative recipe development and cooking process, not only the final output. Each of the 18 ingredient-focused chapters opens with a cartoon “mind map” that associates different flavors and textures with the main ingredient of that chapter, and for many of her recipes she offers variations and ideas for making the recipe your own. I love the spirit of the book – open, passionate, sharing – and that she doesn’t take on that braggy tone that some chefs do when talking about their own recipes. Also, I’m a big fan of the flavor profiles that Maria uses in her recipes – they’re creative and exciting and slightly exotic without being too difficult or “out there.” I think it’s telling that she can write a great vegetarian cookbook, and then turn around and write a book where the first 8 chapters are all about meat and fish. As icing on the cake, the design of this book is a fun mix of drawings and photos, and the lovely pictures are straightforward, uncluttered, and richly colored, truly showing off the brilliant recipes.

The Food: The first recipe we made from this book was the Duck, Pineapple, and Coconut Curry. I’ve experimented quite a bit with homemade curry recipes, and it’s really difficult to achieve the depth and balance of flavors that most Thai/Indian/Vietnamese restaurants do. This recipe, which uses a fresh, homemade curry paste made from Thai chilies, lemongrass, ginger, and whole spices, is a really good one. The spiciness of the curry paste, richness of the coconut milk and the duck, and sweet acidity of the pineapple play really well off each other, resulting in a thick and balanced curry that will make you proud of your new-found international cooking skills. Maria offers two shortcuts here – buying pre-cooked Chinese style duck, and using homemade curry paste. I think the pre-cooked duck is a good idea if you’re short on time, but definitely make the curry paste yourself. It’s worth it. Scroll down for the recipe.

Recipe Shortlist: Italian Sausage, Red Wine, Chestnut, and Cabbage Risotto; Moroccan Lentils with Salmon and Avocado Cream; Butternut Squash Falafel; Carrot, Dill, Almond, and Feta Baklava; Green Olive Gnocchi; Bircher Muesli with Grated Apple; Pear Beignets with Rosemary Sugar and Creme Anglaise

Vedge

The Book: Vedge is the new cookbook from the chefs of the vegan Philadelphia restaurant of the same name. Like the restaurant, the book is full of creative and elegant vegan recipes, but the chefs urge you to think of it as “vegetable cooking,” making the recipes about the food, instead of the diet or ethics. There are a range of cuisines and flavors represented, many dishes clearly having been inspired by their travels, and I really like the little themed menus that pop-up throughout the book. Although I’m not a vegetarian or a vegan, I did find it a little bit disappointing that so many of the recipes called for vegan dairy substitutes – vegan mayo, vegan sour cream, vegan butter, etc. I would just make these recipes with the real versions, but there must be other non-dairy ways to add richness to recipes. It’s also worth pointing out that a handful of novel, sophisticated, and intriguing cocktail recipes – like the “Elder Sage” martini and the “Sherry Temple” – are included in the book. I’m guessing that vegans and vegetarians will find this book truly inspiring – and all the rest of us will find ourselves with an exciting new repertoire of healthy vegetable side dishes.

The Food: Trevor and I used this book to cook dinner for his dad and his dad’s wife a few weeks ago. They are both vegetarians, and are moving to a mostly vegan, mostly gluten-free diet as part of a cross-fit challenge as well, so this book was a bit of a blessing in terms of finding recipes that would still be delicious and interesting but would satisfy their dietary requirements. For dinner, we made Salt-Roasted Golden Beets with Dill, Avocado, and Capers (a visual play on cured salmon), and “BLTs,” with the last of our beautiful heirloom tomatoes from the garden, and crispy fried mushrooms in place of the bacon. Both dishes went over really well, and we liked the beets so much that we made them again at home to share here. There’s a ton of flavor and texture in this recipe, and while I suppose it’s possible that I mostly like it because it has mayo, avocado, and capers in it (three very craveable foods in my book), I think that all of the elements go really well together. The bright, contrasting colors also make it a very pretty appetizer. Scroll down for the recipe.

Recipe Shortlist: Saffron Cauliflower Soup with Persillade; Squash Empanadas with Green Romesco; Portobello and Celeria Shepherd’s Pie with Truffle; Parsnip and Chestnut Bisque with Mulled Wine Onion Confit

Duck, Pineapple, and Coconut Curry

Recipe from Full of Flavor. Serves 6.

For the curry paste:

• 1 TBS whole coriander
• 1 tsp whole cumin
• 4 red bird’s eye (Thai) chilies
• 2 shallots, peeled and finely sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 1/4 in. piece of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 sticks lemongrass, tough outer leaves removed and interior finely sliced
• 2 lime leaves, finely chopped
• 6 cilantro roots, finely chopped, or 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 tsp cardamom pods
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp whole green peppercorns, or freshly ground pepper

1. Add the coriander and the cumin to a dry frying pan and toast over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until fragrant, shaking the pan to prevent them from burning.
2. Add the toasted seeds and the next 10 ingredients (chilies through green peppercorns) to a food processor and blend into a smooth paste. Set aside.

For the curry:

• 4 duck breasts (about 2 lbs.), fat lightly scored
• sea salt and black pepper to taste
• 2 cans (14 oz. each) of unsweetened coconut milk
• 2 whole lime leaves
• 2 TBS palm sugar or brown sugar
• 1 lb. 2 oz fresh pineapple, diced
• 2 TBS fish sauce
• leaves from 1/2 bunch cilantro
• 1 red chili, thinly sliced
• handful of Thai basil leaves
• 1 or 2 limes, cut into quarters

1. Season the duck with the salt and pepper. Heat a large saute pan (that has a lid) over medium heat and add the duck to the pan, fat side down. Sear on high heat until browned all over. Pour off extra fat and set duck aside.
2. Scoop the coconut cream off the top of the cans and add to the pan along with the curry paste. Cook for about 2-3 minutes or until fragrant, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Add the rest of the coconut milk plus 1 cup of water, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add the seared duck. Cover and cook over low heat for about 15 minutes or until the duck is tender. Uncover and add the lime leaves, palm sugar, and pineapple. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Skim the fat from the dish and discard, and finish the curry with the fish sauce and cilantro. Remove the duck breasts from the curry and slice them, then return to the sauce. Serve over rice, with the sliced chilies, basil leaves, and lime quarters.

Salt-Roasted Golden Beets with Dill, Avocado, Capers, and Red Onion

Recipe from Vedge. Serves 4 to 6.

• 2 c. coarse kosher salt
• 5 lbs. golden beets (no greens)
• 2 TBS olive oil
• 1 TBS sherry vinegar
• 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper, divided
• 1 1/2 c. peeled, seeded, chopped cucumber
• 3/4 c. vegan mayo
• 1/2 c. loosely packed dill fronds
• 1 TBS Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 avocado, pitted, peeled, and diced
• 1/4 c. capers, drained
• 1/4 c. finely diced red onions

1. Preheat the oven to 300°F. Place the kosher salt in an even, thick layer on a large baking sheet. Arrange the beets in a single layer on the salt. Roast until fork-tender, about 2 hours. The skins will look very dark, almost burnt. Let the beets cool until you can comfortably handle them, then peel the beets. Slice the peeled beets as thinly as you can. Toss the beet slices in a large bowl with the olive oil, sherry vinegar, and 1 tsp of the black pepper. Let marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, and up to 24 hours.
2. Place the cucumber, mayo, dill, mustard, 1/2 tsp salt, and the remaining 1 tsp of black pepper in a food processor. Pulse into a smooth sauce, then set aside.
3. Fan the sliced, marinated beets out on a large platter. Garnish with the avocado, capers, and diced red onion, and a spoonful of the cucumber sauce.

Disclaimer: I received review copies of Vedge from The Experiment and Full of Flavor from Kyle Books free of charge, but was not otherwise compensated for writing this review.

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Don’t tell anyone, but I’m taking tonight off from my cleanse to go out and celebrate my friend’s birthday. We’re going to Masa, and I’m so excited to a) drink margaritas, and b) eat cheesy, meaty, gluten-y things that are decidedly un-cleanse-worthy. I promise I won’t go too crazy – I don’t want to undo all my hard work thus far! – but I am looking forward to the meal.

To make up for tonight’s planned splurge, I made my other main meal today a super satisfying and healthy salad. With loads of spinach, roasted beets, hard-boiled eggs, pomegranate seeds, oranges, goat cheese, and a delicious honey-almond vinaigrette, it’s fresh-tasting and filling enough that it doesn’t need any accompaniments. I made extra hard-boiled eggs and roasted beets so that I can easily make it again throughout the week. I’ll probably bring some to work Monday… having a lunch that I’m looking forward to always makes Monday morning a little easier!

I’ll be back tomorrow with a healthy and delicious brunch recipe (got to ease back into healthy eating after a night out, right?). I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Roasted Beet and Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese, Eggs, Pomegranate, Orange, and Almond-Vinaigrette

Adapted from Serious Eats. Serves 2 as a main.

• 2 medium beets, greens removed
• 4 TBS olive oil, divided
• sea salt
• 1/4 c. blanched whole almonds, toasted and roughly chopped
• 1 TBS honey
• 1 TBS sherry vinegar
• 1 TBS minced shallot
• 1 navel orange
• 1 blood orange
• 4 large handfuls of clean baby spinach
• 3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and cut into quarters
• 1/4 c. pomegranate arils
• 2 oz. fresh goat cheese, crumbled

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Scrub the un-peeled beets and place in the center of a large sheet of tinfoil. Drizzle with 1 TBS of the olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Fold the edges of the tinfoil up to make a sealed packet. Place the packet on a baking sheet, and roast for 1 hour, or until a toothpick can easily penetrate the center of the beets. Let cool for ten minutes, or until they are cool enough to handle comfortable. Slip the beets out of their skins, then thinly slice them and set aside.
2. Whisk the toasted and chopped almonds, honey, sherry vinegar, shallot, and remaining 3 TBS of olive oil together to form the dressing. Season to taste with sea salt.
3. Cut the peel and pith from the oranges. Supreme/segment the oranges to remove the membranes. Set the orange segments aside.
4. Divide the spinach between two plates and drizzle each generously with dressing. Top each plate with orange segments, one and a half hard-boiled eggs, roasted beets, pomegranate arils, and fresh goat cheese.

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I’ve been on a bit of a beet kick lately – I made beets for Thanksgiving, I’ve made this incredible beet and chickpea salad twice in the past week, and I have recipes for beet keftedes and beet soup and beet-bulghur pilau shortlisted for the next two weeks.  This isn’t such a bad thing – beets are packed with health benefits.  I mean, their vegetable family also includes spinach, chard, and quinoa – superfoods much?  Beets are full of something called betalains, which have got all that antioxidant, pro-eyesight, anti-cancer stuff going on.  Plus, they’re filling and delicious and even eating them roasted in large amounts of olive oil makes me feel good about myself.  However, I suppose there can be too much of a good thing, even when that good thing is related to lots of superfoods.  So if there’s any blame to be laid for the perhaps excessive amount of beets in my diet recently, I’m laying it on the Somerville Winter Farmer’s Market and the super gorgeous, super sweet, potato shaped beets they have every week.  They’re so pretty and pink and shapely, I just can’t help myself!

This salad is, as Trevor would put it, “flavor-exciting.”  There’s a lot going on in this dish, and all of it is good.  Roasted beets, chickpeas cooked in spiced broth and fried with cumin, ricotta cheese, kalamata olives, parsley, and a simple dressing of red wine vinegar and lemon juice give you pretty much every flavor and texture you could want in a single dish.  For me, the chickpeas are the star element of this dish, and the key to getting them just right is patience.  Now, I’m not usually that patient in the kitchen – think slightly undercooking the pasta, turning the heat up on an omelette to get it to cook faster and burning it in the process, etc.  But these chickpeas are worth the wait.  After cooking to a firm-tender bite in the beautifully spiced broth, you have to wait even longer for them to fry.  And fry.  And fry.  It takes a long time (a good 15 or 20 minutes) for these little beans to get to that golden-brown chewy-crunchy magic spot, but don’t let yourself toss them into the salad until they’re just right.  With under-fried chickpeas the salad will be good… but with perfectly fried chickpeas you won’t be able to stop eating it.  Promise.

Roasted Beet and Fried Chickpea Salad

Recipe adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques.  Makes 3-4 meal-sized servings.

For the chickpeas:

• 1 c. dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and drained
• 2 TBS oilve oil
• 1 small onion, diced
• 6 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 aji amarillo chile or chile de arbol, crumbled
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp sweet Hungarian paprika
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

For the salad:

• 4-5 large beets, peeled and cut into wedges
• 1/4 c. + 2 TBS olive oil
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 TBS red wine vinegar (optional)
• 1 TBS lemon juice (optional)
• 1/2 c. kalamata olives, halved
• 1/2 c. fresh flat parsley leaves, chopped
• 1/2 c. fresh ricotta

1. Make the chickpeas: In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add onion and smashed garlic and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until starting to brown.  And chile, bay leaf, spices, and chickpeas and cook for 2 minutes, stirring to coat chickpeas with spices.  Add just enough water to cover chickpeas and cook at a low simmer for 1/2 an hour.  Add 1 tsp salt, then continue cooking until chickpeas are tender, another 15-30 minutes.  Take off heat and set aside, leaving in cooking liquid.
2. Preheat oven to 425°F.  Place peeled beet wedges in a 9×13 glass baking pan, toss with 1/4 c. olive oil and salt and pepper – beets should be well coated with oil.  Cover pan tightly with aluminum foil and roast for 40-50 minutes, until tender when pierced with a fork.
3. In a large frying pan, heat remaining 2 TBS olive oil over medium heat.  Add cumin seeds and toast for 1 minute.  Add chickpeas (drained of their liquid but including chile and onion bits – I use a large slotted spoon to scoop them from the saucepan to the frying pan) and fry, stirring every 2 minutes or so, until golden-brown and crunchy on the outside, about 20-25 minutes.
4. Mix roasted beets, fried chickpeas, kalamata olives and parsley leaves until combined.  Drizzle vinegar and lemon juice over salad if using and toss to combine.  Serve warm, and dot with fresh ricotta after plating.

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Remember when I competed (and won 2nd place!) in Duke’s Iron Chef competition and got a fancy pasta machine and went on and on about how I was gonna use it all the time?  Well, if your definition of all the time is approximately once every two months, then I guess you could say I was telling the truth.  And even if I don’t frequently have the opportunity to spend a few luxurious hours rolling out pasta dough, I do really enjoy it when I get the chance.  Kneading, stretching, cranking, folding, and re-cranking the dough is just an activity that really focuses me.  When Trevor and I went to the pasta class with Terrence, we used a food processor to mix and a KitchenAid to roll out the dough, but, while efficient, it really wasn’t the same.  Maybe it’s just that I’m so entranced by the idea of moving to Italy and living in a Tuscan farmhouse and growing my own perfect tomatoes and walking barefoot across the stone floors while singing (in Italian of course) and kneading pasta dough that I feel like practicing the kneading part now will leave me in good stead when I inherit an Italian estate.  Or maybe I was an Italian grandmother in a past life.  Or maybe I’m just trying to snag an Italian lover.  Who knows?

In any case, last weekend Trevor visited and it was a completely rejuvenating 3 days.  It was sunny and 70 degrees every day, I pushed aside all thoughts of work, I slept more than 8 hours each night, we went mushroom picking in the Duke Forest with Justin and Clark, Trevor made his debut at shooters… all in all, pretty good stuff.  And of course, we had to play around in the kitchen just a little bit.  What better to occupy a few hours in the kitchen than fresh pasta?

Ever since I had been totally awed by the beautiful color of these beet ravioli they had been in the back of my mind, so I decided to go for it.  They were incredible!  While the beets made the dough a bit more challenging to work with than an egg-based dough, they also lent a wonderful tenderness to the finished pasta.  Stuffed with a goat cheese, ricotta, and parmesan filling that melted out of the ravioli with every bite, they were a total win.  Last weekend we simply served them with some caramelized onions, a bit of melted butter, and grated parmesan cheese, and this weekend, for round 2, I mixed up a blood-orange and fennel butter sauce, based on a combination in The Flavor Bible.  Neither sauce was perfect, although I think I enjoyed the simple crunchy-sweetness of the onions more.  However, the blood orange sauce definitely won out in terms of sophistication and presentation.  If you try either preparation or think of something new, definitely let me know.  Either way, if you feel like spending a little time working with your hands and/or pretending your a five year old with the largest, tastiest quantity of purple play-dough you’ve ever encountered, definitely try this recipe.

Don’t forget to vote for my entry in Marx Food‘s Ridiculously Delicious Challenge, March 1st – March 4th!

Beet and Chevre Ravioli in a Blood-Orange and Fennel Sauce

Beet ravioli recipe adapted from Martha Stewart via Madeline’s Adaptations. Three beets makes about 2 pounds of pasta, probably enough for 80-100 ravioli.  Extra dough can be frozen, wrapped in plastic wrap, for several months.

For the ravioli:

• 3 beets
• 1 TBS olive oil
• 3 eggs
• 5-8 cups flour
• 1 tsp. salt

For the filling (makes enough for 3-4 servings of ravioli):

• 1/3 c. ricotta cheese
• 1/3 c. goat cheese
• 1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• kosher salt and pepper to taste

For the Blood-Orange and Fennel Sauce (makes enough for 3-4 servings of ravioli):

• 3 TBS butter
• 1 tsp. fennel seeds, lightly toasted and coarsely ground (can leave whole if desired)
• juice of 1-2 medium blood oranges
• zest of 1 blood orange

For the pasta dough:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.  Chop off beet greens, wash beets, and wrap in foil.  Roast in foil for 45 minutes to 1 hour (beets should be tender).  Allow to cool enough to handle, then peel off skin, and puree beets in blender.
2. Mix beet puree, eggs, olive oil, and salt in a large bowl.  Add 3 cups of flour, and incorporate fully with a wooden spoon.  Add remaining flour 1 cup at a time, kneading by hand between additions, until the dough is elastic, does not stick to hands, and has been kneaded for at least ten minutes.  I ended up using about 8 cups of flour to balance the amount of liquid that 3 beets added to the dough.
3. Allow dough to rest for 30 minutes.  Roll out using a pasta machine, or with a rolling pin as thinly as possible.

For the filling and ravioli:

1. Mix all ingredients together until smooth.  Season to taste.  Place a teaspoon of filling inside a 3 inch square of pasta dough.  Fold one edge over and seal edges, pressing together firmly with fingers.  Trim with a ravioli cutter for presentation.  Boil ravioli for 2-3 minutes in a gently boiling, salted pot of water.

For the sauce:

1. Melt butter in a small saucepan until beginning to foam.  Add fennel and sautee until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add blood orange juice and reduce to desired consistency.  Season with salt as necessary.  Serve over ravioli; top with blood orange zest.
   

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