It’s time for the (slightly belated) final post for fava bean week. It’s another recipe inspired by Italy – homemade ravioli filled with a fava bean, mascarpone, and ricotta mixture and served in a two-ingredient truffle butter sauce. Because it turns out that when one of your ingredients is truffle butter, you don’t need much else.

While fava beans are abundant in Italy and Portugal, they aren’t particularly common in the US, even at the height of their season. They occasionally make an appearance at Wholefoods, and some people have found them frozen at Trader Joe’s, but I couldn’t find any near me. We are growing a long row of them, but they won’t be ready until late June, about the same time that Bostonians will be able to find them at local farmer’s markets.

So what’s a fava bean lover to do? I’ve basically been rabid for them in anticipation of the series, knowing it would be difficult to get my hands on enough for several recipes. I’ve started harassing the staff at Wholefoods, begging for them to go back into the stock room and bring me a few pounds. I made my friend Veronika walk through all of the Wholefoods in Cambridge with me – surprisingly, the little Wholefoods had some and the big one didn’t. It doesn’t help that you need about 1 pound of pods for every cup of beans, so what may look like a lot of beans disappears surprisingly quickly.

And then, unexpectedly, I found fava bean nirvana – Eataly. While out shopping for  wedding shoes with my mom, we stopped in at the new Eataly in Boston. I needed truffle butter for this recipe, and figured it made more sense to pay a little more at a store that I knew would carry it than to schlep all over looking for it. If you’ve never been, Eataly is like the Ikea of Italian food, except everything is expensive. You have to wind your way through the massive store in a certain order.  You’ll pass the gelato and pastry counters, a case full of beautiful seafood, a deli counter with dozens of prosciuttos, and rows of dry and canned goods. After weaving my way through the tempting rows filled with jars of fancy tomatoes and olive oils and capers,I found the produce section. There, next to a beautiful basket of morel mushrooms, were all the fava beans I could want. So now I know. And if you’re in Boston, New York, or Chicago, you know too.

Back to the ravioli. Every once in a while Trevor and I break out the pasta machine and make a batch of homemade pasta. I find it quite therapeutic to make, although our pasta is never quite as tender as I want. It’s fun to customize, though, and this filling is really lovely. The sweet mascarpone and ricotta really mellow out the fava flavor. We tossed the ravioli with a quick burro fuso – truffle butter melted and whisked with a bit of warm water. Simple, elegant, and springlike, a homemade pasta worth the effort.

More Fava Bean Recipes…

Spanish Fava Bean Salad with Tomatoes and Prosciutto

Avocado Toast with Fava Beans and Pecorino

Fava Bean Soup with Mascarpone, Mint, and Pancetta

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Fava Bean and Mascarpone Ravioli with Truffle Butter Sauce

Homemade Ravioli with a Fava Bean, Mascarpone and Ricotta Filling. Served in a simple Truffle Butter burro fuso sauce.

Adapted from SPQR. 

• Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door
• Yield: 4

Ingredients

• 1 cup blanched, peeled fava beans (from 1 pound of fresh beans)
• 1 TBS chopped fresh mint (from 10–12 leaves)
• 1/4 cup mascarpone
• 1/2 cup ricotta
• 1/4 – 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 recipe homemade pasta dough
• 2 oz. truffle butter
• 3 TBS warm water (preferably the pasta cooking water).
• grated pecorino cheese, for serving

Instructions

1. Add the fava beans, mint, mascarpone, and ricotta to a food processor. Process until smooth and fluffy. Season to taste with sea salt. Transfer to a bowl, cover, and refrigerate.
2. Use a pasta machine to roll out the pasta dough in thin sheets. Target the third or fourth thinnest setting as your ultimate thickness of the pasta.
3. Lay the pasta sheets flat on a lightly floured surface, covering the sheets you aren’t using with a piece of plastic wrap. Use a knife to score the pasta sheets into 2 inch squares. Place 2 teaspoons of the chilled filling in the center of half the squares. Wet your finger with water and run it along the edge of each square, then cover the squares with filling with another sheet of the pasta. Press the sheets firmly together around the edges of each filled square, forming ravioli. Use a ravioli cutter or knife to cut the ravioli apart, then firmly press the edges together again to ensure there are no air bubbles. Repeat until you have used all of the pasta dough, re-rolling any dough scraps as needed.
4. Bring a large pot of salted water to a gentle boil. Gently place the ravioli in the boiling water and cook just until al dente, about 2-3 minutes. They should be floating at the surface of the water when they are ready. Remove them from the water with a slotted spoon and place them on a large plate. Drizzle the ravioli with just a little olive oil to keep them from sticking.
5. Add the 3 TBS of the pasta cooking water to a small frying pan, and bring to a simmer over low heat. Whisk in the truffle butter one piece at a time, allowing the butter to melt between additions. When you have incorporated all of the truffle butter, add the cooked ravioli to the frying pan and toss gently to coat with the butter sauce. Divide between plates, sprinkle with the grated pecorino, and serve immediately.

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I’ve been making homemade chicken stock pretty much since I started cooking. In college, it was just an economical way to stretch a $5 rotiserrie chicken. The problem is, I never graduated from my original technique: take all of the meat off a rotisserie chicken and reserve for another use; toss chicken carcass into giant pot with a halved onion, a carrot or two, and a stalk of celery; fill giant pot with water; simmer for hours; strain and freeze. The result of that method is certainly broth, it’s just not that good. Cloudy, thinly flavored, and a little gray – it’s fine for adding to a stew or sauce but certainly not something I would sip on it’s own.

It wasn’t until I spent six weeks in Asia last winter that I discovered that good stocks and broths aren’t only the backbone of a soup or a sauce, but culinary achievements in and of themselves. Of course, I knew this before going to Asia – I consume enough food literature to know that a good broth should stand on its own, needing no other embellishment to be enjoyed. But I didn’t really internalize how good a broth could be until I’d experienced the dumpling soups in Hong Kong, which consisted of broth, dumplings, maybe a few noodles, and that was it. No veggies floating around in these soups, or creams to thicken them, or salty slices of kielbasa. Then we moved on to Japan and consumed ramen for basically every other meal. There, broth took on another dimension of deliciousness – although for ramen it’s not so much about clarity and purity as it is about richness and salt.

Since coming home, over a year ago now, I have been pouring my heart and soul into making a perfect homemade chicken stock. I know precisely what I want to achieve: a stock that’s golden, clear, richly flavored, with just enough fat to lightly coat your mouth after a spoonful. I’ve been doing lots of research, and experimenting, and taking detailed notes on each batch.

After a recent batch, which I always seem to be putting away boiling hot at 10pm on Sunday night, Trevor looked and me and said “I can’t believe you make stock every weekend.”

“Not every weekend,” I corrected him. “But often,” he said. “It’s not like you tried it once and said ‘yep, I’ve made stock.’ You’re more like a Russian grandmother: ‘on Sundays I make stock, to feed the family and use up the chickens'”

That’s pretty much the long and the short of it.

Despite Trevor’s teasing, I persevered, and after a year of testing, I think I have it down. I’ve learned a lot of lessons on the way, helped by the notes and trials of more experienced chefs. Serious Eats taught me to cut my vegetables into small pieces instead of throwing them into the pot in chunks. Vietnamese Home Cooking taught me to blanch and rinse the chicken before starting the stock itself and to keep it at a low simmer to prevent cloudiness. I learned through trial and error that a 50/50 mixture of chicken backs and drumsticks or legs makes for the best balance of flavor, body, and affordability.

As far as aromatics, in my opinion, it’s the more the merrier. I always use 5 core vegetables: onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and one hot chile pepper. Beyond that, I’ve experimented with rosemary, parsley stems, shiitake mushroom stems, ginger, lemongrass and leeks. I find that the flavor only gets richer and more interesting the more I add. I always salt the broth at the beginning, which some experts say is a no-no, but I think it makes a big difference in the final flavor. And I use about 1 1/2 pounds of chicken for every quart of stock I want.

How I ever got any flavor out of a skimpy, already roasted, 1 pound chicken carcass without any meat beats me, especially since I was drowning it in a giant stockpot of water. I suppose I’m just glad that now I know better! Do you have any tips for making great homemade chicken stock? Although I’ve come a long way, I’d love to hear them. I’ll keep the recipe below updated as I find new tricks, but a year’s worth of testing went into it so far, so I can vouch that it’s a very solid recipe.

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Perfect Homemade Chicken Stock

Makes 3 quarts of stock.

• 2 lb. chicken backs or carcasses
• 2 lb. chicken drumsticks or legs
• 5 quarts of water
• 2 onions, skins on, chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 3 carrots, chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 3 stalks of celery, rinsed well, chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 1 dried hot chile
• 6 cloves of garlic, cut in half
• 1 bunch of parsley stems
• Optional additions: handful of clean shiitake mushroom stems, 1 inch peeled and sliced fresh ginger, 2 sprigs rosemary, 2 tsp whole black peppercorns
• 1 TBS sea salt

1. Place the chicken parts in a large stockpot. Add cold water to the pot just to cover the chicken. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and boil for 2-3 minutes – white foam should float to the top of the pot. Remove from the heat and drain the water out. Rinse the chicken with cold water two to three times, draining after each rinse. The goal is to get as much of the blood and foam out of the pot and off the chicken as you can.
2. After blanching and cleaning the chicken, add the 5 quarts of cold water to the pot with the chicken. Add the chopped onion, carrot, celery, hot chile, garlic, parsley stems, and sea salt to the pot. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Keep the stock at a low simmer until it is golden and color and the liquid has reduce by about half. This should take 3-4 hours. If the stock reduces too quickly without turning golden, add another 2 cups of cold water. Keeping the stock at a low simmer instead of a boil will help prevent the stock from getting cloudy.
3. When you think the stock is done, taste it to see if you are happy with the flavor and body. If it is done, let the stock cool for about 20 minutes, before straining it through a fine-mesh strainer into a large bowl, mason jars, or other storage containers. I like to ladle the stock out of the pot through the strainer as it gives me more control. If you disturb the vegetables too much while ladling or straining the stock, it may become cloudy.
4. Refrigerate or freeze the stock and use as needed for soups and sauces. Use the refrigerated stock within 3 to 4 days.

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It is well and truly summer in Boston, at least for now. Today it’s 91° and hazy hot (91! In May! My coworker in Madrid says its hotter here in Boston than in Spain, which almost never happens). The trees have gone from the pale green of spring to the deep green of mid-summer. The zucchini plants are growing by inches every day, and the tomatoes could not be happier (although the delicate foxgloves flop over in the midday sun). The other morning I walked out of the subway station to find a group of 3rd graders on a field trip and the smell of sunscreen hit me full force. It made me smile – the idea of being outside all day, hot and steamy, running through sprinklers and guzzling cold lemonade. The smells of summer are the best – freshly mowed grass, hot pavement, salty sea air. I get tired of summer fast, but for now, it’s a novelty, and I love it.

Last weekend, I was at a beach house on the Jersey Shore for my college roommate’s bachelorette party. Friday the weather was absolutely perfect, and we spent the morning and early afternoon sitting out in the sun, drinking shandies, walking on the beach, and playing cornhole. Around 2, someone had the idea of walking to the ice cream parlor about a mile away and my heart lit up. An ice cream cone with homemade ice cream, eaten on the boardwalk looking out at the beach? The definition of happiness.  The definition of summer. So we put on our shoes and walked the mile to the store – only to find that it wasn’t open until the next day! And of course Saturday was cold and rainy and no one wanted ice cream anymore (except secretly, I did). So I’ve spent all week thinking about that lost ice cream cone, and then it got hot and sunny in Boston and my ice cream fantasies morphed into ice cream float daydreams (inspired by last year’s Bon Appetit article), and here we are, Memorial Day Weekend, and I have boozy, dreamy, Tahini Caramel Ice Cream Floats for you.

This ice cream is an evolution of my favorite recipe, which started with the NY Times Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream, morphed into Blackberry Goat Cheese Ice Cream, and here takes the form of Tahini Caramel Date Ice Cream. The custard is almost as thick fridge-cold as it is frozen, which is just the way I like it. For the floats, pour a splash of bourbon in the glass, top with cream soda, add a scoop of ice cream, more cream soda, then finally top with whipped cream and a drizzle of extra caramel and you will be in instant ice cream heaven. For kids, just skip the bourbon. This combination of flavors – dates, tahini, caramel, cream soda, and bourbon – went above and beyond what I was dreaming of. Now I just have to make the ice cream last the whole weekend.

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Tahini Caramel Ice Cream Floats

Serves 2. Inspired by Bon Appetit.

• 2 oz. Bourbon
• 1 bottle cream soda
• 2 scoops Tahini Caramel Date Ice Cream, recipe below
• whipped cream
• Tahini Caramel Sauce, for drizzling

1. Add 1 oz. Bourbon to the bottom of two glasses or sundae dishes. Top each with a splash of cream soda and 1 scoop of ice cream. Pour remaining cream soda over ice cream until glass is almost full. Top floats with whipped cream and tahini caramel sauce.

Tahini Caramel Date Ice Cream

A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe, originally inspired by NY Times. Makes 1 1/2 quarts ice cream.

• 7 egg yolks
• 1 c. sugar, divided
• 1 1/2 c. heavy cream
• 1/2 c. whole milk
• 10 whole pitted dates
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 oz. neufchatel / low-fat cream cheese
• 1 cup of Tahini Caramel Sauce

1. Whisk the egg yolks and 1/2 cup of the sugar together in a large, heatproof bowl, until yolks are pale yellow. Set aside.
2. Add heavy cream, whole milk, dates, and remaining 1/2 cup of sugar to a large saucepan. Whisk briefly to combine, then heat over medium-low heat, whisking occasionally. When the cream mixture comes to a gentle simmer, remove from the heat and immediately transfer to a high-powered blender. Blend on high until dates are fully incorporated into the cream (always be extra careful when blending hot liquids!). Pour the hot cream mixture directly over the egg yolks, whisking the egg yolks vigorously as you do so to temper the yolks. Then return the mixture to the saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until custard is thick, about 5 minutes, then remove from the heat.
3. Strain the custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean bowl, discarding any solids that are left behind. Stir the vanilla extract into the strained custard. Add the cream cheese to the custards in small pieces, and whisk until cream cheese is fully melted into the custard. Cover the custard tightly and refrigerate until cold, at least 3 hours but ideally overnight.
4. Freeze the ice cream according to the directions of your ice cream maker. Just before the ice cream is done churning, drizzle the caramel sauce into the top of the ice cream maker so it swirls into the ice cream. Alternatively, you can transfer the churned ice cream to a loaf pan, drizzle the caramel sauce on top, and use a spatula to swirl the caramel into the ice cream. Transfer the ice cream to a container, cover tightly, and freeze until firm enough to scoop.

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I think maybe I overdid it on cherries this year. For me, cherries are the epitome of the “get ’em while you can” mentality that comes over me every time some new type of produce comes into season. Cherries just seem so fleeting, and they’re really at their best eaten fresh, unadultered. They can be expensive, but usually there’s a week or two when stores are trying to clear out their supplies before they go bad when you can get better prices. Long story short, a few weeks back, when Wholefoods announced a one-day sale on cherries for $1.99 a pound, I went a little crazy and bought 7 pounds. On top of that, I still had 3 pounds in the fridge from a previous grocery store shopping spree. I can tell you from personal experience, 10 pounds is a lot of cherries, even for the most rabid cherry consumer.

So I got out my cherry pitter and went to work. Plenty of the cherries got put aside for eating fresh and several pounds got simmered in brandy and red wine and packed away in jars for holiday eating. After this, I had about 2 pounds of cherries left, all of them a little sadder and more bruised than their fresh-eating counterparts. I toyed with the idea of making more jam to add to the pile of newly-filled ball jars that has been slowly building on our shelves, but really, the thing I couldn’t get out of my mind was fresh cherry soda. So I turned to my copy of True Brews and quickly whipped up a batch of Cherry-Vanilla Soda. If you have cherries to spare, please make this soda – it is so sweet and fizzy and refreshing, and it’s a gorgeous clear cherry-red color. Just a little glass feels like a special treat. And it’s even more of a special treat if you add a dash of bourbon and chocolate extract, like we did for this cocktail. The mixture of cherries and bourbon and chocolate feels very Southern and indulgent, a drink for sipping slowly on your porch at twilight, when the heat finally begins to fade.

Ingredient note: I’m not sure you can still buy the Taza Mexican chocolate extract we used for flavoring – I looked for a link to direct you all to, but learned that it was only produced from 2010-2013. You can read about it here, but I couldn’t find any online vendors selling it. It’s more similar to a chocolate baking extract than a chocolate bitters – something like this might work in its place.

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Cherry-Chocolate Bourbon Soda

Serves 1.

• 3/4 c. homemade cherry-vanilla soda (recipe below) or other cherry soda
• 15 drops Taza Mexican chocolate extract
• 1 oz. Bourbon

1. Add the soda, chocolate extract, and bourbon to a glass with several ice cubes in it. Stir gently, then serve immediately.

Homemade Cherry Vanilla Soda

Recipe adapted from True Brews. Makes 8 cups.

• 2 lbs. of pitted fresh cherries
• 4 limes
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 c. water, plus more to fill the bottles
• 9 TBS sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp dry champagne yeast

1. Place the cherries, lime juice, and vanilla in a large bowl. Bring the cup of water to a boil, then stir in the sugar and salt until dissolved. Pour the mixture over the cherries and let macerate for 10 minutes.
2. Place the cherries and their liquid in a blender and blend until smooth. Strain the puree through a fine mesh strainer, catching the juice in a bowl. Pour the cherry juice through a funnel into a clean 2-liter soda bottle (do not use glass, as it may break under the pressure of the fermentation process). Add water to the bottle to fill almost to the top, leaving at least 1 inch of headspace between the top of the juice and the cap. Taste and add more lime juice, sugar, or vanilla as desired.
3. Add the yeast to the bottle. Screw on the cap and shake to distribute the yeast. Let the bottle sit at room temperature out of direct sunlight until the bottle feels rock solid when you press against the sides. This carbonation process usually takes 12 to 48 hours: check the bottle periodically to avoid overcarbonation and a potentially bursted bottle. Once the soda is carbonated, place it in the fridge to slow the carbonation process. Open very slowly over a sink the first time you serve it, to avoid bubble-ups. Serve cold. Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

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I struggled a bunch to come up with the right goal for July. I knew the problem I wanted the goal to address: backsliding. I’ve made so much progress this year – I hit the ten pounds lighter mark at the end of June, something that has felt vaguely impossible for the past few years – and I’m worried about losing that progress. I feel really good about how I look, and I’ve been feeling energized and even excited about working out. But last year, July was the month I pretty much stopped working out, partly because of the heat, partly because it was the month we moved, and partly because my work travel schedule became really busy. Although we’re not moving this year and my work schedule is lighter, the memory of last year is looming large over me. Coming up with a concrete goal to address this, that would also continue forcing forward progress, was challenging.

Eventually, I settled on this: do 8 different types of workouts during the month of July. My regular workout routine has 3 components – running, Nike Training Club weight training, and ballet. Those are the easy ones. Hopefully, adding 5 other things will keep me engaged, excited, and active – and maybe I’ll even find something new to add to my regular routine. I have lots of ideas for the types of activities I can try: hip hop, biking, roller blading, swimming, rock climbing, yoga, boot camp, hiking, tennis, jump rope… anything else you guys would suggest? I plan to continue running and lifting on a regular basis, as well, so of course I’ll work out more than 8 times in total.

Now, let’s talk about food. I think a big part of the reason I’m feeling so healthy and strong coming into July is because of how well my goal for June went. Forcing myself to include fruit or vegetables in every single meal was weirdly eye-opening for me. After only about a week or two, my afternoon cookie cravings had significantly diminished, I was eating light meals and feeling satisfied, and when I did feel like indulging, it was easy to stop after a bite or two of whatever overly decadent thing I was eating. The most successful days were the ones when I was able to bring a healthy breakfast, lunch, and snack to work – instead of running to the cafe downstairs for an afternoon treat, I’d reach right next to me and munch on raw peas or blueberries.

Now, there are plenty of days when I do not have my act together enough to even get one of these meals in my bag, let alone all three, so this month’s recipe is a portable, make-ahead, healthy lunch that I can throw in my bag on those super-harried mornings with very little forethought. Wraps aren’t on my normal grocery list, but my mom always has some in the fridge, along with some easy salad-based fillings for them, and it’s a great way to have a quick and healthy lunch. Since the ingredients in store bought wraps and tortillas can be a little suspect, I decided to make my own spinach wraps for easy grab-and-go sandwich lunches this month. They’re surprisingly easy to make – the dough is extremely elastic and fun to work with – and I like knowing exactly what’s in them, including lots and lots of spinach. I filled my first batch with chopped Greek salad, tzatziki, and roasted chickpeas – they were so tasty and zingy and crunchy, a very satisfying vegetable-focused lunch. Because the chopped salad has a lot of liquid, it’s best to serve these immediately after assembling, so if you’re bringing them to go, throw the salad in a tupperware, bring a wrap, and assemble when you’re ready to eat.

Past Fitness Challenges

January: 10 Visits to the YMCA; Recipe: Gluten-Free Olive-and-Feta Corn Muffins
February: One vegan meal every day; Recipe: Pakistani Chickpea Pulao with Sweet-Hot Date-Onion Chutney
March: Run 40  miles in 20 days; Recipe: Chocolate-Dipped Almond Butter Cookie Bites
April: Walk 8,000 steps a day; Recipe: Herb-Flecked Spring Couscous
May: 180 minutes of Nike Training Club; Recipe: Warm Arugula Salad with Maple Mustard Dressing
June: Fresh fruit/veggies at every meal; Recipe: Chickpea Crepes with Grilled Curried Chicken and Mango Salsa

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Homemade Spinach Wraps

Makes 10-12 wraps.

• 3 c. flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 TBS vegetable oil
• 4 oz. spinach
• 3/4 c. milk, warmed in the microwave or on the stovetop

1. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt until evenly mixed. Add the vegetable oil and stir until crumbly dough is formed. Set aside.
2. Place the spinach and warm milk in a blender, and blend on high until the mixture is smooth. Pour the spinach into the flour and stir to combine. If mixture is too wet, add a little bit more flour. Knead the dough with your hands for about 5 minutes, until smooth. Form the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Lightly flour a work surface and a rolling pin. Break the chilled dough into 10-12 golf-ball sized balls. Roll each ball out into a very thin circle about 8 inches in diameter. The thinner the dough is, the more pliable the wrap will be. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat. One at a time, cook the wraps in the dry frying pan, for about 30 seconds on each side or until wrap has stiffened slightly and is golden brown in spots. Let cool, then wrap in plastic wrap and store in the fridge until ready to use.

Chopped Greek Salad

Serves 3-4 as a wrap filling.

• 1 1/2 c. cooked chickpeas
• 2 TBS + 1 TBS olive oil
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 medium tomato, cored and roughly chopped
• 1 small red pepper, stemmed and seeded and roughly chopped
• 1 small cucumber, peeled and seeded and roughly chopped
• 1/3 c. feta cheese
• 12-15 kalamata olives, pitted and halved
• 1 TBS red wine vinegar
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• tzatziki, for serving (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Toss the chickpeas with 2 TBS of the olive oil and the smoked paprika, and spread out on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper. Roast until crispy, about 30 minutes in total, stirring once about halfway through. Remove from the oven and set aside.
2. Combine the tomato, red pepper, cucumber, feta, and olives in a large bowl. Add the red wine vinegar and the remaining 1 TBS of olive oil. Stir to coat vegetables with oil, and season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Just before serving, mix in the roasted chickpeas.
3. To serve as a wrap, spread a layer of tzatziki on the inside of the wrap, then place several spoonfuls of the chopped salad on top. Roll up and enjoy immediately.

The post Monthly Fitness Goals: July // Homemade Spinach Wraps with Chopped Greek Salad appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I’m so thrilled to be back on Cup of Jo today. When Joanna and her team first reached out to me last year about contributing a recipe, I had heard of her blog but only glanced at it once or twice. Since then, I’ve become a loyal reader – and I mean I actually read all her posts, not just skim through the pictures like I do with so many blogs. It’s almost always the first blog I click on when I open up my reader, and reading her posts makes me feel like I’m chatting with a slightly older, slightly wiser, really sweet girlfriend. Making strangers feel like that over the internet takes a whole lot of talent. But enough with the fangirling – on to the food! Last year I shared my favorite recipe for guacamole with Joanna and her readers, and I’m flattered to be returning with a super simple, three ingredient pasta dish that’s perfect for summer eating.

July is really the perfect time for quick dinners – less time in the kitchen means more time outside soaking up the sunshine, or laying on the floor in your underwear as close to your AC unit as you can get, depending on where you live. Of course, I took my three ingredients – smoked salmon, creme fraiche, and capers – and decided that I should make two of the three from scratch, defeating the simplicity point a little bit. Creme fraiche is super easy to make at home – all you need to do is add a few tablespoons of buttermilk to a cup of heavy cream, stir it up, cover it, and let it sit on the counter until thick, usually about 24 hours. Smoking your own salmon takes a bit more effort, but it’s a fun project and totally doable. Trevor did most of the hard work, stoking and tending the fire and keeping the temperature just right as the fish smoked, so I can’t take too much credit here, but the end result was really delicious. The pasta gets well coated with the tangy creme fraiche, the salmon is incredibly rich and slightly sweet from a maple syrup brine, and the capers add some much-needed piquancy. Even with all store-bought ingredients, this recipe is a winner for summer nights. Head over to get the full recipe on Cup of Jo.

Thanks to both Joanna and Caroline for featuring this recipe!

Note: we used the following three sources for info on hot-smoking salmon at home. We’re still perfecting our technique, but once we do, maybe we’ll have our own recipe to share.

Alton Brown
Hunter Angler Gardner Cook
Epicurious 

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The Book: Although we’re smack in the middle of winter, Summerland: Recipes for Celebrating with Southern Hospitality, is helping me daydream my way back to a place where winter means a short break from sundresses – Georgia. This book, written by the owner of Summerland Farm and chef-owner of a number of prominent Southern restaurants, is organized into themed menus by month, starting with September, “From Pasture to Plate: A Celebration of the Pig,” and moving right on through the holidays, the spring, and ending in August with “The Dog Days of Summer: A Fig Feed.” Because it’s written from a farm, it falls very naturally into the farm-to-table ethos, without seeming like it’s trying to be something it’s not – each menu is seasonal, in a Southern way (i.e. there’s no winter) and based around the rhythms of farm life. I’m a sucker for themes, and for full explorations of a single ingredient, so I like that everything goes together in each chapter. The “Fig Feed” in particular sounds amazing – if only our fig tree would produce enough figs for something like that! The menus and recipes manage to be both elaborate and “back-to-basics” at the same time, making it a book that I’ll turn to for special occasions, but not so much for everyday dinner recipes. And as for the look and feel of the book, it’s a large format cookbook with high quality paper and design, and a beautiful, atmospheric photography style that I really love. The photographs manage to bring each season to life – the winter photos are dark and moody, while in spring and summer they’re bright and outdoorsy. It’s a beautiful book.

The Food: Our test recipe for this book was this Italian Wedding Soup, made with homemade noodles, spicy mustard greens, and big lamb meatballs. We actually made this back in December, in the middle of feasting season, so the simplicity and homeyness of this soup is what appealed to us. Most of the recipes from the December section of the book were designed for entertaining, as they’re all part of the “Holiday Retreat” menu, so we skipped ahead to March (“The Rites of Spring: A Lamb Fete”) to find this one. It was just what we needed at the time. Although I’ll happily gobble down homemade noodles and meatballs in any form, I think my favorite part of this soup was the spiciness of the mustard greens – it was the perfect counterpoint to the rich and gamey flavor of the meatballs. Next time, I think we’d make the extra effort and use homemade stock, as the broth is a prominent feature of this particular soup.

Recipe Shortlist:  Meyer Lemon Gelato; Warm Pumpkin Pudding with Hard Sauce; Broccoli Soup with Sabayon and Shaved Perigord Truffle; Breakfast Sausage; My Bloody Valentine Cocktail (Blood Orange Nectar, St. Germain, Prosecco); Squab with Beets and Beet Green Pesto; Lamb Pot au Feu; Charred Pomegranate Popsicles; Slow-Roasted Porchetta; Korean Beef Jerky; Sweet Tea Cocktail; Peach Semifreddo; Gazpacho Salad; Branzino Steamed in Fig Leaves with Fig Butter and Pecans; Yogurt Parfait with Fig Gelee and Peanut Brittle

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Disclaimer: I received a review copy of Summerland free of charge from Rizzoli, but I was not otherwise compensated and all thought and opinions are my own.

Italian Wedding Soup with Lamb Meatballs

Recipe from Summerland: Recipes for Celebrating with Southern Hospitality. Serves 4-6.

• 1 lb. lean ground lamb
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1/4 c. unseasoned bread crumbs
• 2 TBS chopped fresh mint
• zest from 1 Meyer lemon, finely grated
• kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 c. flour
• 1 c. vegetable oil, for shallow frying
• 1 TBS olive oil
• 1 sweet onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 sprig fresh thyme
• pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 c. fresh or frozen field peas or pink-eyed peas (we substituted cannelini beans)
• 1 bunch mustard greens, torn
• 4 c. lamb stock or chicken stock
• 3/4 lb. fresh pasta dough, rolled out and cut into wide noodles (or substitute 3/4 lb. of egg noodles, pre-cooked to al dente).
• leaves from 3 sprigs fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped, for garnish

1. For the meatballs: combine lamb, egg, bread crumbs, mint, and lemon zest in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper, then mix well by hand. Form into balls about the size of golf balls (you should have around 18, 1-oz. balls). Place the flour in a shallow bowl, and roll the meatballs in it, tapping off any excess. Heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Fry the meatballs in batches until golden brown on all sides, about 7-9 minutes total. To test to see if they are done, stick a metal knife into the center of a meatball – if the blade comes out hot, they are done (but don’t burn yourself  checking!). Drain the meatballs on a paper-towel covered plate and set aside.
2. For the soup: Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute until translucent, about 4-5 minutes, stirring to prevent them from burning. Reduce the heat to low and add the thyme and red pepper flakes. Add the peas or beans and cook over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the mustard greens and stock and bring to a simmer. Add the fresh pasta and cook over low heat until tender, 2 to 3 minutes (if using pre-cooked noodles, cook just long enough to heat through). Place the meatballs in the saucepan and cook until heated through, another 1-2 minutes. Adjust the seasoning with salt, and serve, garnished with the parsley leaves.

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I’m teasing you a little bit with this headline: you don’t get recipes for all three home brews in this post, only the soda. For the other two, you’re going to have to go out and get a copy of Emma Christensen’s True Brews. And it’s not because I don’t want to share, I do. It’s just that I couldn’t make the daunting process of brewing your own beverages at home seem nearly as clear and easy as Emma does, so I want to leave most of the explaining to the expert. Because that’s exactly what Emma is, and True Brews is a fantastic (and fun) resource for anyone looking to get their hands dirty with fermenting their own soda, kombucha, kefir, cider, beer, mead, sake, or fruit wine. Certainly, you could find much larger tomes dedicated solely to the science behind brewing any one of these beverages, but for someone who just wants an easy introduction or who likes to dabble, True Brews is the perfect starting point.

This review has been a long-time in the making. For three months there have been buckets of brews bubbling away in our new house, turning rice into sake, blackberries into blackberry wine, and homegrown watermelon into fizzy soda. Now that all three recipes are finished, it’s time to have some friends over for a tasting party – that is, before we get started on our next project! (Cranberry mead, if you’re curious).  Like most DIY food projects – cheese-making, charcuterie, bread-baking, canning – home-brewing takes time, practice, patience and a small investment in the necessary equipment. I have to say, so far, brewing is a bit more rewarding than the other projects we’ve tried – it’s less labor-intensive and the results are faster and more consistent. Plus, drinking a glass of mead that’s a little too dry is a lot more enjoyable than trying to eat a piece of cheese that didn’t cure properly.

True Brews both clearly covers the basics for all kinds of brewing, and provides a number of appealing recipes to get you started. I’m really impressed by how not-daunting this book makes the whole process. Any questions we’ve had have been explicitly answered, and all three of our recipes worked out, even though Trevor wanted to start with the “advanced” sake recipe, which requires feeding the sake a little specially prepared rice every few days for almost two weeks. I started more simply, with the watermelon-mint soda, which was a snap to make – 24 hours after cutting up the watermelon, I was sipping a super fizzy, refreshing, slightly sweet soda. I can’t wait to make a few more varieties; it’s really the best soda I’ve ever tried. And the blackberry wine was enjoyable too, in a completely different way – it’s sort of thin and has a bit more tang than most wines, but with a pleasant aroma of ripe berries and a uniqueness that makes you want to finish the glass. Not to mention, it’s a gorgeous, gorgeous color, and completely translucent. I’m not really a sake drinker, but the sake is OK too – it’s breadier than sake is supposed to be, but a chilled glass is still good, if not craveable. Because the first three recipes were successful, I’m eager to try more recipes – besides the cranberry mead, I have my eye on the Sweet Spiced Apple Cider, the Jamaican Ginger Beer, and the Apricot Wheat Ale. I feel like my drinking choices just got a whole lot more awesome.

The bottom line: True Brews is an excellent primer on fermenting your own home-brews, both alcoholic (cider, beer, mead, sake, wine) and kid-friendly (soda, kombucha, and kefir). Emma covers the basics clearly and succinctly, making home-brewing accessible, appealing, and fun. The recipes are diverse and turn out impressively, and the enticing photography and clean design make this book the complete package. This may be a little light on new and detailed information for a seasoned brewer, but for someone just starting out, it’s perfect.

Disclaimer: I received a review copy of True Brews from Ten Speed Press, but was not otherwise compensated for writing this review. All opinions are my own, as always.

Watermelon-Mint Soda

Recipe from True Brews. Makes 2 liters.

• 4 pounds seeded, cubed watermelon (from a 6 pound watermelon)
• 1/2 c. packed fresh mint leaves
• 1/2 c. freshly squeezed lime juice (from 4-5 limes)
• 1 cup water, plus more to fill the bottle
• 9 TBS white sugar, plus more to taste if needed
• pinch of salt
• 1/8 tsp dry champagne yeast (purchase at your local home-brew store)

1. To make soda you will need a clean, 2-liter plastic soda bottle, a blender, a fine-mesh strainer, and a funnel. Make sure all of your equipment is clean before you start.
2. Combine the watermelon, mint, and lime juice in a large bowl and set aside. Place 1 cup of water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat, add the sugar and a pinch of salt, and stir to dissolve. Pour the hot syrup over the watermelon, stir briefly to coat all fruit in the syrup, and let stand for 10 minutes.
3. In batches, blend the watermelon mixture into a smooth puree, then strain the puree through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean bowl, stirring the puree to allow as much juice as possible to run into the bowl without pushing any of the solids through the strainer. If you want a very smooth soda, line your strainer with a piece of cheesecloth.
4. Pour the juice into the the clean 2-liter soda bottle. Add water to almost fill the bottle, leaving around 1 inch of headspace at the top. Taste, and add a little more sugar or lime juice if desired.
5. Add the yeast to the bottle. Screw on the cap and shake the bottle to dissolve and distribute the yeast. Let the bottle sit at room temperature out of direct sunlight for 12 to 48 hours – the soda will ferment more quickly in a warmer room. When the bottle feels rock solid, with very little give, the soda is ready. Place it in the fridge overnight or for up to two weeks. Open slowly over a sink to release the pressure (sodas can easily overcarbonate). You can transfer to pretty glass bottles to serve the soda, but always store it in the plastic bottle to prevent explosions.

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Last weekend I finally had time to put together another Sunday Dinner menu. I’d been mulling over this one for almost a month, the inspiration coming mainly from the beautiful (if slightly challenging) modern Italian cookbook SPQR. While planning the first round of ingredient of the week (starring rhubarb!), the recipe for Ricotta Bavarese with Verjus-Poached Rhubarb caught my eye. It ended up being too complicated to make (and photograph and write about) on a weeknight, but I made it a few weeks later, and proceeded to plan a menu around it. SPQR is organized into regional sections based on the eight major thoroughfares in Ancient Rome, and the bavarese recipe came from the Trentino-Alto Adige section, focusing on recipes from the Northernmost part of Italy. Since I loved the idea of making a coherent, regionally-specific meal, I chose two other recipes from the same section that also utilized spring ingredients to complete the menu – Chilled Asparagus Soup with Meyer Lemon Yogurt and Fish Roe, and Mustard Spaetzle with Mushrooms. Of course, then I went and served a Mexican drink where a glass of white wine would probably have been more appropriate, but hey, it was really hot.

In contrast to the first Sunday Dinner I posted, this menu is quite elegant, the trade-off being that it’s a bit time consuming to prepare if you’re ambitious enough to make everything. Of course, everything except the spaetzle can be made ahead of time and served chilled, so it actually might make a wise choice for a dinner party. The thing I love about this menu is that it stars so many of my favorite spring foods – strawberries in the agua fresca, English peas in the crostini, asparagus in the soup, mushrooms in the spaetzle, and rhubarb in the dessert. Each dish is flavorful and elegant in its own right, and all together they make a luxurious and impressive meal. Since I’ve already written about the agua fresca, the crostini, and the bavarese, a few notes about the soup and the spaetzle: the asparagus soup is both refreshing and filling at the same time. The cream lends it a rich sweetness, and the asparagus flavor is not overwhelming. The lemon yogurt is essential – it provides a much needed acidic counterpart to the rich soup – so don’t skip it! The spaetzle is surprisingly easy to make, once you’ve got the hang of grating it into the boiling water. It feels both fancy and rustic, and it becomes extremely luxurious with a spoonful of cold creme fraiche stirred into the hot pasta just before serving – like the most grown-up mac and cheese you can imagine. Whether you only try one of these recipes, or you try them all together, I hope you enjoy them!

The Menu

Strawberry-Lime Agua Fresca (adapted from Tacos, Tortas, and Tamales)
Smashed Pea, Dill and Feta Crostini (adapted from The Modern Vegetarian)
Chilled Asparagus Soup with Meyer Lemon Yogurt – see below (adapted from SPQR)
Mustard Spaetzle with Mushrooms – see below (adapted from SPQR)
Ricotta Bavarese with Red-Wine Poached Rhubarb (adapted from SPQR)

Chilled Asparagus Soup with Meyer Lemon Yogurt

Adapted slightly from SPQR. Serves 4-6.

• 2 lb. asparagus
• salt
• 4 c. spinach
• 2 c. flat-leaf Italian parsley
• olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 1 medium leek, roots and dark green parts removed, thinly sliced
• 2 stalks spring garlic or 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 c. plus 2/3 c. of heavy cream, divided
• 1/2 packet of gelatin (3.5g or 1/8 of an oz)
• 1 c. whole-milk plain yogurt
• zest of 1 meyer lemon
• 1/4 c. fresh meyer lemon juice (from 1-2 meyer lemons)
• 1 oz. fish roe

1. Cut the tips from the ends of the asparagus stalks. Prepare an ice bath, and bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Blanch the asparagus tips in the salted water until bright green, about 1-2 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon and immediately plunge into the ice bath. Let chill completely, then remove from the ice bath, place in a covered bowl, and refrigerate until ready to serve.
2. Add the spinach and the parsley to the boiling water. Blanch for 1-2 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon and plunge into the ice bath. When chilled, remove from the ice bath and squeeze the greens to remove excess water. Set aside. Dump the boiling water from the pot.
3. Remove the bottom half inch from each asparagus stalk and discard. Slice the remaining stalks into rounds about 1/4-inch thick. Add a thin film of olive oil to the bottom of the pot, and heat over medium-low heat. Add the onion, leek, and spring garlic and saute until translucent, about 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently. Do not let the vegetables begin to caramelize. Stir in the asparagus and cook until softened, about 5 minutes longer. Turn off the heat and pour in 3 cups of the heavy cream and the blanched greens. Season with salt and pepper and place in a blender. Blend until smooth, then strain into a large bowl through a fine mesh strainer, pressing on the pulp to remove as much liquid as possible. Discard the green pulp. Taste the soup, season with salt and pepper, then cover and refrigerate until ready to serve, at least one hour.
4. To prepare the meyer lemon yogurt, dissolve the gelatin in 1/3 c. of the remaining heavy cream, whisking to combine. Heat the other 1/3 c. of the cream in a small saucepan over low heat, until just beginning to simmer, then pour over the gelatin. Whisk to combine and dissolve fully. Whisk in the yogurt, meyer lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour. Once chilled, yogurt should be semi-solid.
5. To serve, pour the soup into 4 to 6 chilled bowls. Dress the asparagus tips with the meyer lemon zest, a drizzle of olive oil, and a sprinkle of salt. Top each bowl of soup with a scoop of the meyer lemon yogurt, a few asparagus tips, and a small spoonful of fish roe. Serve cold.

Mustard Spaetzle with Mushrooms

Recipe adapted from SPQR. Serves 6.

• 2 c. whole-milk plain yogurt
• 6 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 egg white
• 3 TBS Dijon mustard
• 2 1/3 c. flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• olive oil
• 8 oz. sliced mixed mushrooms
• 2 TBS butter
• 2 c. baby spinach
• freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. In a large bowl, stir together the yogurt, eggs, egg white, and mustard until mixture is smooth. Add flour in three additions, whisking until smooth between additions. Stir in the salt and pepper, then cover spaetzle batter and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to 6 hours.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Use a spaetzle maker or a large-holed box grater to grate the spaetzle batter directly into the boiling water in batches. Cook each batch for 2-3 minutes, or until the spaetzle float to the top, then remove with a slotted spoon and place in a large bowl with a little olive oil to keep them from sticking. Repeat until all the batter is used.
3. Heat a thin film of olive oil in a very large saute pan. Add the sliced mushrooms and saute until golden brown, 4-5 minutes. Add the cooked spaetzle and cook, stirring occasionally, until spaetzle are golden brown in places, another 4-5 minutes. Add the butter and stir to melt. Add the spinach and stir it into the spaetzle, cooking until wilted, about 2 minutes.
4. Remove the spaetzle from the heat and scoop into bowls. Top with the grated Parmesan and serve hot.

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Justin Fox Burks and Amy Lawrence, the folks behind The Chubby Vegetarian, do some seriously creative things with vegetables. Think Baked Potato Skins with Smoked Coconut Bacon, BBQ Eggplant, Tomato Pie and Pimento Cheese, and  Italian-Style Eggplant Sausages to get your mind moving in the right direction. The Chubby Vegetarian was one of the first blogs I stumbled upon back in the day and it is continually a source of inspiration, so when I saw that they were publishing a book, The Southern Vegetarian, I knew that I’d have to check it out.

The food served up in The Southern Vegetarian is loaded with classic, All-American appeal. Not every recipe is particularly Southern – sloppy Joes, meatballs, and bran muffins all fall pretty solidly into the general American food category in my mind – but the ones that are bring me straight back to the rich, saucy, flavorful dishes I enjoyed while living in North Carolina. Except, all the meat has disappeared – and I don’t think you’ll miss it. Need proof? How does this menu sound to you: Bourbon with Basil and Lemonade Granita, Okra Fritters with Creole Mushroom Sauce, Vegetarian Red Beans and Rice with Andouille Eggplant, and Grilled Peach Ice Cream? Southern through and through, packed with spice and flavor, and fruits and vegetables are doing all the hard work. Plus, as you flip through the book thinking about whipping up a menu like this, you’ll find a photograph with every single recipe – always a good thing!

Unlike many of the vegetarian cookbooks I find myself gravitating toward, The Southern Vegetarian is not about keeping vegetables raw or barely processed and making them the only thing on the plate – i.e., you’re not going to find a lot of veggie and whole grain salads or gluten-free vegan raw breakfast bowls. Much more frequently, you’ll find that vegetables have simply infiltrated a dish where you would be expecting meat, and all the other rich flavors are still in play. In some cases, this means using tofu, seitan, and other meat substitutes as a replacement for the main component of a classic dish, like using seitan in a Vegetarian “Chicken” Pot Pie. Since I’m not a vegetarian, but simply enjoy cooking with vegetables, this is not my favorite type of recipe – if I want chicken pot pie, I’m just going to have chicken pot pie. However, other times, the way they accomplish meat replacement is genius, like using sausage spices to give eggplant that same smoky flavor, or using liquid smoke, hot sauce, and Worcestershire to make a convincing vegetarian gumbo.

Although they aren’t particularly Southern, I made these crispy eggplant sandwiches as a test recipe and they were seriously delicious, in a very satisfying, comfort food sort of way. I also made some (much more Southern) savory cheddar-pecan cookies with spicy pepper jelly, which were great as well, but for now let’s focus on the sandwiches. I chose to go the super homemade route with these – homemade tomato sauce, homemade breadcrumbs, even homemade ricotta (out of necessity!) – and they came out amazing, but I have the feeling they’d be just as good using mostly store-bought ingredients. And if that were the route you chose, you’d have an easy, satisfying, flavorful and balanced dinner to serve in under forty minutes. The eggplant really does get quite crispy, and the roasted garlic and ricotta spread makes the meal feel richer than it really is. As a bonus, making this recipe taught me a new, quick way to roast garlic – dry roast individual cloves in a hot skillet while still in their papery skins. Worked like a charm!

A quick note about the ricotta – when I opened the fancy high-end ricotta I had in the fridge while making this recipe, I gave it a whiff and quickly tossed it in the trash. Going back to the store wasn’t an option, but I happened to have all the ingredients you need to make ricotta (milk, heavy cream, vinegar, and salt) on hand, so I decided to go for it. It came out better than the cheap stuff I get at the store but not as good as the expensive stuff I get out the store – it was sweet and mild but a teeny bit rubberry. Although making ricotta from heavy cream and milk feels a little bit wasteful (ricotta is usually a byproduct of making a different cheese – it is made from the leftover acidified whey), it was definitely a great quick fix.

The bottom line: The Southern Vegetarian turns vegetables into serious omfort food. The recipes included here are rich, saucy, and flavorful, and will be definite crowd pleasers, especially in true vegetarian households. Non-vegetarians looking to increase their vegetable intake will also find recipes of interest, but they may not appreciate the classic meat recipe “re-dos” as much as vegetarians will.

Disclaimer: I received a review copy of The Southern Vegetarian from Thomas Nelson. I was not otherwise compensated and all opinions are my own.

Crispy Eggplant Sandwiches with Roasted Garlic Ricotta Spread

Adapted slightly from The Southern Vegetarian. Serves 4-5.

• 3 c. torn pieces of fresh French bread
• 1 TBS Italian seasoning mix (or 1 tsp dried parsley + 1 tsp dried oregano + 1/2 tsp garlic powder + 1/2 tsp salt)
• 1 medium globe eggplant
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 c. flour
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• olive oil
• 4-5 ciabatta rolls
• 1 c. arugula
• 1 c. warm tomato sauce (homemade or store bought)
• 1/2 c. freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 1 c. roasted garlic and ricotta spread (see below)

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Place French bread pieces and Italian seasoning in a food processor and pulse until the bread has broken down into fine crumbs. Pour onto a dinner plate and set aside.
2. Wash the eggplant and remove the stem ends. Slice into 1/2 inch thick slices. Sprinkle each slice with salt and pepper.
3. Set up two bowls next to the breadcrumb plate – one with the flour and one with the beaten eggs. Dredge each eggplant slice in the flour, tapping off the excess, then dip in the eggs, then coat with breadcrumbs. Place on a baking tray. Drizzle with a small amount of oil (about 1/8 of a teaspoon per slice).
4. Bake eggplant for 15 minutes, then flip each slice over and drizzle the opposite side with olive oil. Bake for another 15 minutes then remove from the oven. Coating should be golden brown and crispy.
5. To assemble the sandwiches, place a handful of arugula leaves on top of the bottom bun, then cover with 2-3 slices of eggplant. Drizzle a spoonful of the warm tomato sauce on top of the eggplant and sprinkle 2 TBS of parmesan cheese on top. Spread the garlic and ricotta mixture on the top bun, then close the sandwich and serve.

Roasted Garlic Ricotta Spread

Recipe adapted slightly from The Southern Vegetarian. Makes about 1 cup.

• 5 cloves of garlic, skin left on
• 1 c. whole milk ricotta, homemade (see below) or store bought
• 1/4 c. freshly grated parmesan cheese

1. Place the garlic cloves with their skin on in a dry skillet over medium heat. Toast, flipping occasionally, until skins have started to blacken and garlic is fragrant, about 10-15 minutes. Let them cool, then remove the skins – the inside of the clove should be soft and roasted.
2. In a small bowl, mash the roasted garlic cloves with a fork, then mix with the ricotta and the parmesan. Taste for seasoning and serve.

Easy Homemade Ricotta

Adapted from Anne Burrell via The Food Network. Makes about 1 cup.

• 2 c. skim milk
• 1 c. heavy cream
• 1 TBS distilled white vinegar
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt

1. Mix the milk, heavy cream, vinegar, and salt together in a large saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring infrequently just to ensure that nothing is sticking to the bottom or sides of the pot. Once the milk has reached a simmer, simmer for 1-2 minutes – curds will form continuously as you simmer the milk.
2. Place a sieve or strainer lined with damp cheesecloth over a large bowl. Pour the curds and whey into the strainer, and let drain for 15 minutes. After it has drained and cooled to a point where it is comfortable to touch, gently squeeze out any remaining whey from the ricotta. Unmold from the cheesecloth and serve, or store in the fridge.

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Update: Giveaway now closed! Congrats to Andrea on winning the book (sorry, Mom, maybe next time!). Thanks to everyone for entering and leaving your favorite dishes – I have so many great Japanese recipes to try now – sounds like katsu curry and okonimyaki are must tries.

I don’t cook a lot of Asian food.  Sure, your occasional super-Americanized stir-fried rice, or a little chicken cooked in soy sauce, but rarely anything traditional.  It’s out of my comfort zone.  I have a lot of friends who are enamored with various Asian cultures, or who are part of an Asian culture and still very much tied to their family’s traditions and roots, but I’ve always been more drawn to Western food cultures – Italian, French, Irish, Polish, Czech.  It’s more accessible to me – closer to home.

This is precisely why Nancy Hachisu’s beautiful new cookbook “Japanese Farm Food” was such a wonderfully eye-opening book for me.  Just the introduction is full of new information – the best type of miso to buy for everyday use, how to grind tofu, and what, exactly, a suribashi is (it’s basically a grooved mortar and pestle for grinding seeds and nuts, if you’re wondering).  In fact, there were so many new words and ingredients and techniques in the opening chapter that I was almost a little intimidated.

I shouldn’t have worried – simplicity turned out not to be a problem.  Many of the recipes are simple, some shockingly so – like “edamame and sea salt,” or “raw egg on hot rice,” both of which are exactly what they sound like.  This level of simplicity is typically not my cup of tea in cookbooks – as someone who spends a lot of time cooking and thinking about cooking, I don’t need a book to instruct me in truly simple preparations.  However, in this book it seems appropriate.  Japanese food is simple by nature, and it is in preparing the simplest meals that technique truly counts.  There are also plenty of recipes a bit more complicated, like Chicken and Miso Meatballs or Egg Custard Squares with Crab and Spinach.  Some ingredients, such as yuzu, miso, and fresh wasabi, may be hard to find, but once you’ve sourced them, they’re used over and over again.

For anyone who grows their own vegetables or frequently finds themselves with an abundance of produce, you will find many new ways to prepare them in this book – a major plus.  Between Fried Eggplant Halves with Sweet Miso, Smashed Cucumber Pickles with Garlic, and Zucchini Coins with Roasted Sesame, I’ve taken plenty of notes on what to do with next year’s end-of-summer produce.  I should also note that the recipes in this book are intrinsically healthy, as much of traditional Japanese cuisine is.  Very few recipes call for dairy or wheat, the majority are vegetable based, and the techniques are such that the ingredients maintain most of their nutritious qualities.  If you’re looking to change your diet and lifestyle (and you like Japanese food, of course), this book may be a great source of inspiration.

But this book is not just about the food.  A big part of its charm are the short vignettes, little glimpses into Nancy and Tadaaki’s life in their Japanese farmhouse.  At first it seemed strange to me that the stories were somewhat disconnected, and not a continuous tale of Nancy’s integration into Japanese life, but I think they ended up being my favorite part.  The wannabe farmer buried inside me loved imagining the first taste of a fresh pecan grown from seed 20 years earlier, or of midsummer edamame just pulled from the bush, served hot and salty with a cold beer, the way Americans might enjoy corn on the cob.  I think any armchair traveler with the slightest interest in Japan will revel in this book.

This is a book that was very clearly assembled with a lot of thought and love.  It is not haphazardly thrown together, nor is it repeating material and recipes that those of us who consume food literature at a rapid pace have seen a hundred times.  But before I can truly condone any cookbook, I have to test out a few recipes to see if they’re worthwhile.  In this case, I started with the homemade ramen.  Ramen is a food so steeped in mystique and tradition, I was curious to see how it would turn out at home.  The answer?  Worth every minute of the 3-hour preparation.  The long-simmered chicken broth is clear and nourishing, the home rolled noodles puffy and tender, the half-boiled egg creamy and full of the broth’s flavor.  It is exactly what I want to be slurping on any cold and dreary afternoon. It definitely takes some planning ahead, and the noodles were a little bit tricky to work with, but I would absolutely make it again on a lazy Saturday.  I still have a few more recipes to test, but so far, this book passes the recipe test.

The bottom line: Japanese Farm Food is a ground-up introduction to traditional Japanese food, packed with simple, technique-focused recipes.  Nancy’s voice is strong and her stories intimate – resulting in a beautiful book that is clearly a labor of love.  I’d strongly recommend it to anyone looking to expand their repertoire of healthful (or vegetarian) recipes, learn new methods for cooking fresh produce, or to anyone with any interest in the culture and food of Japan.

Giveaway:  Thanks to the folks over at Andrews McMeel Publishing, I’m giving away one copy of Japanese Farm Food.  To enter, leave a comment below, answering the question: What is your favorite Japanese (or generally Asian, if you’ve never had Japanese food) dish?  Have you ever made Japanese food at home?  (P.s. I loved hearing your answers about your favorite winter dish – seems a lot of you love beef stew and chicken pot pie!)  For one additional entry, you can subscribe to Katie at the Kitchen Door via email or RSS, and leave a separate comment letting me know you have (you can also do this if you’re already a subscriber).  One winner will be picked at random at midnight on Friday, November 2nd.  Be sure to include your email in the comment form so I can get in touch with you!  If the winner doesn’t respond to me within 48 hours, they forfeit their winnings and I will pick a second winner.  US only, apologies to my international readers! Giveaway now closed!

Disclaimer: I was sent a free review copy of Japanese Farm Food by the publisher, Andrews McMeel, but all thoughts and opinions shared here are honest and my own.

Ramen at Home

Recipe from Japanese Farm Food, by Nancy Hachisu.  Serves 4.

For the broth:

• 2 carrots, cut into 1 inch lengths
• 2 small Japanese leeks, or 4 scallions, trimmed and cut into 1 inch lengths
• 1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
• 4 bone-in chicken thighs (or 8 wings)
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 TBS rapeseed or sesame oil

For the noodles:

• 2 TBS sesame oil
• 2 c. flour
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 2 egg yolks, at room temperature

For the toppings:

• 4 eggs
• 1 small bunch chopped bitter greens, such as bok choy or kale
• 3 TBS finely chopped Japanese leeks or scallions
• 1 sheet nori, cut into eights
• Soy sauce, miso, or sea salt (to taste)

1. Make the broth.  Preheat the oven to 450°F.  Place carrots, leeks/scallions, ginger, and chicken thighs in a roasting pan, and toss with salt and oil.  Roast for 40 minutes.  Pour chicken, veggies, and all the juices into a large stockpot, and cover with 16 cups of cold water.  Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer, covered, for 1 hour.  After 1 hour, remove the lid.  Take out 2 of the chicken thighs and place in a small bowl.  Cover the thighs with hot broth and let cool to room temperature, then shred.  Continue simmering the remaining broth for another 30-60 minutes, until it is reduced to about 8 cups.  Strain broth into a clean pot and keep warm over low heat.  Discard vegetables and remaining chicken thighs.
2. Make the noodles: mix 2 TBS of the sesame oil into the flour with your fingers until it is crumbly.  Add eggs and egg yolks and stir with your hand until incorporated, then knead on a flat, clean surface for 5 minutes until the dough is pliable but stiff.  The dough takes some force to really work it into a pliable piece.  Let dough rest 10 minutes.
3. Roll out the noodle dough to a thickness of about 1/8 inch using a pasta machine or a heavy rolling pin.  Cut into noodles by hand or using pasta machine.  Nancy recommends skinny linguine-shaped noodles, but we made thick ones because the dough wasn’t workable enough to make the smaller noodles – the thick ones worked great for us!
4. Prepare the toppings: bring a large pot of water to a boil over high-heat.  Add the eggs and boil for exactly 7 minutes, then remove with a strainer and place directly into a bowl of ice-cold water.  Let cool, then peel.  In the boiling water, blanch the bitter greens until just tender, then add to the cold water with the eggs.  Keep the water boiling – you will use it to cook your noodles just before serving.
5. Once the broth, noodles, and toppings are ready, prepare the bowls: add a small amount of miso, soy sauce, or salt to each bowl (according to diner’s preference) and pour a ladelful of hot broth over the seasoning.  Stir the broth into the seasoning.  Divide the shredded chicken amongst the bowls.  Drop the noodles into the boiling water and cook for 2 minutes – they will float up to the top when they are done.  Remove the noodles with a strainer and divide among the bowls.  Top off each bowl with a few more ladlefuls of hot broth, 1 egg cut into halves, a handful of the cooked grens, some of the nori pieces, and a sprinkling of scallions.  Serve very hot, with extra seasoning as desired.

The post Cookbook Review and Giveaway: Japanese Farm Food appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

It’s been a while since I’ve managed to publish one of these things in the month that it’s supposed to be in, but I’m ready this time, and with a few days to spare before we move into September (September!  Already?).  Perhaps I’m more on top of things because this month’s book, Sunday Suppers at Lucques, is one of my absolute favorites, and cooking from it all month has been anything but boring.  It’s up there with Antojitos and In the Sweet Kitchen as a cookbook that I turn to again and again, always producing great results, always exciting and inspiring.  I get the feeling that I could cook every single recipe from this book and be amazed by the results every time.

Written by Suzanne Goin, owner of the prestigious California restaurant Lucques, Sunday Suppers at Lucques is the ultimate entertaining cookbook for an ambitious home cook.  Organized into seasonal menus with 4 dishes per menu, the recipes are not simple or quick, but they are certainly inspired.  The five or six recipes I’ve tried have all been jam-packed with flavor, color, and texture.  Each menu tends to have a lot of different elements in it, but as long as you’re not in a hurry and you go into it ready to enjoy the process, the techniques are simple and rewarding.  And even though this book was published almost 7 years ago, none of the menus are tired or overdone.  For example, one spring menu has you start with an Endive, Meyer Lemon, Fava Bean, and Olive Salad, followed by Hawaiian Snapper with Green Rice and Cucumbers, a Leg of Lamb with Chorizo Stuffing, and finished off with Vanilla Semifreddo and Rhubarb Compote.  In the winter, you may find yourself itching to try the menu that starts off with a Broccoli, Burrata, and Pine Nut Salad and ends with a Meyer Lemon and Chocolate Tart.

I thought it was only appropriate to share the first recipe I made from Sunday Suppers at Lucques, a dinner I made over two years ago when my aunt and cousins were visiting us in Maine.  Now, making homemade gnocchi for 8 is not necessarily something I would recommend unless you really like making gnocchi, but making this meal when you have a little bit of extra time on hand and someone to impress is definitely recommended.  If you’ve never tried them before, ricotta gnocchi will be a delightful change from traditional potato gnocchi – they are incredibly light and fluffy, a little bit sweet and rich from the cheese, and not too difficult to work with.  Sauteed with some mushrooms, sweet corn, and a bunch of summer herbs (as well as a copious amount of salty butter), they make the perfect late summer meal.

I’m far from done experimenting with this book.  In fact, I’m planning on putting together a full menu from the summer section of this book this weekend – if it’s successful, I’ll be back with more recipes.  Come fall, I’ve got a bunch more recipes flagged to try, including Tunisian Lamb-and-Eggplant Stew with Farro, Cranberry-Walnut Clafoutis with Bourbon Whipped Cream, and Grilled Duck Breasts with Roasted Grapes and Potato-Bacon Gratin.  Sounds luxurious, doesn’t it?  In the meantime, give this one a try, or check out some of the other ones I’ve shared in the past.

More from Sunday Suppers at Lucques:

• Roasted Beet and Fried Chickpea Salad with Ricotta and Olives
• Molasses Chews and Plum Sorbet (for ice cream sandwiches)
• First-of-the-Season Summer Succotash

Ricotta Gnocchi with Mushrooms, Sweet Corn, and Sage Brown Butter

Recipe adapted slightly from Sunday Suppers at Lucques.  Serves 6.

For the gnocchi:

• 2 eggs
• 2 c. flour
• 1 lb. whole milk ricotta, drained of excess liquid
• 3 TBS olive oil
• salt and pepper

1. Beat the eggs together in a small bowl.
2. Whisk together flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper in large bowl.  Add the ricotta, and use two butter knives to cut the ricotta into the flour.  When they are evenly mixed, make a well in the middle of the bowl and add the eggs.  Use a fork to slowly incorporate the eggs into the flour/ricotta by dragging a small portion of the eggs out into the flour, mixing gently, then returning to the center.  Once eggs are fairly well mixed in, use your hands to briefly knead the dough, just until it comes together into a ball.  If it is too moist to work with, add a bit more flour (careful, too much flour or kneading will make it tough).  Turn dough out onto a lightly floured cutting board, cut into eight equally sized pieces, and cover with a kitchen towel.
3. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  One at a time, take dough pieces out from under towel and roll out into a 1-inch thick rope on a floured work surface.  Gently cut the rope into 1 inch slices and sprinkle with flour.  If you’re feeling fancy, roll the gnocchi over the tines of a fork, but this step is purely decorative.
4. In batches, cook the gnocchi in the boiling water for a few minutes.  Once they rise to the surface, they need to cook for about 1 minute more before they are done.  The whole cooking time should be less than 5 minutes per batch.  Transfer the gnocchi to a large baking sheet and toss with olive oil.  You may make the gnocchi ahead of time and refrigerate or freeze if using later in the week.

For the sauce:

• 1 recipe gnocchi, see above
• 1 1/2 c. fresh breadcrumbs
• 4 TBS olive oil
• 7 TBS butter
• 1 lb. mushrooms, preferably wild, cleaned and sliced into uniform pieces
• 1 TBS thyme leaves
• 1 TBS sliced sage leaves
• kernels from 4 ears fresh corn
• 2 large shallots, finely diced
• 1.2 c. chopped flat-leaf parsley
• salt and pepper

1. Heat 2 TBS olive oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat.  Add the breadcrumbs and stir to coat with oil.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until breadcrumbs are toasted and golden brown.  Remove from pan and set aside.
2. Add remaining olive oil plus 1 TBS of the butter to the pan, and heat until the butter foams.  Add the mushrooms, thyme, 1/2 tsp salt, and pepper.  Saute the mushrooms about 5 minutes, until golden brown and beginning to crisp.  Don’t move them around in the pan too much – let them begin to caramelize on each side before turning.  Remove mushrooms from pan and set aside
3. Add remaining 6 TBS of butter to the pan and cook until the butter begins to brown and smell nutty.  Scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan, then add sage, cook for 1 minute or until it sizzles, then add corn, shallots, 1 tsp salt, and pepper.  Saute quickly, stirring the whole time, until corn is tender, about 2-4 minutes.  Add prepared gnocchi to pan and toss to coat gnocchi with butter.  Add mushrooms, parsley, and breadcrumbs, and heat the whole dish through if necessary.
4. Remove from heat and season to taste.  Serve hot.

The post Cookbook of the Month: Sunday Suppers at Lucques appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Once upon a time, Trevor and I spent two weeks in France.  It was three entire years ago, which makes me think we must have barely known each other, but then again, we did a lot of flirting in high school – that had to count for something in the getting-to-know-you department.  We stayed in a little Ikea-furnished apartment on Rue Tiquetonne in Paris, where we mainly walked and ate baguettes and croissants and went to museums right when they became free for the evening and soaked it all in.  Then we headed South, to the town of Cassis, where we swam at deserted beaches and climbed through the calanques on hot dusty days.  We also discovered Cassis, the drink, early on in the trip, and didn’t stop drinking it once we’d started.  The sweet, musky liqueur came with us from Paris to Cassis and back again, upgrading our €4 bottles of white wine to elegant Kir cocktails.  Ever since, the drink has been a bit special for us – a memento of a time and a place.

[Before I move any further with this post, I would like to share that looking for pictures of that trip has had two unusual effects on me: 1) the immediate and unbidden singing of “Paris, paris combien, Paris tout ce que tu veux” which we used to sing ad nauseam with Dr. Odjo.  A surprisingly effective French-teaching method. And 2) browsing through a lot of memories from that year and kind of wishing I could do junior year again and move back to Prague.  Also wishing I was still that skinny.]

After returning to the U.S. and learning that it’s almost impossible to get fresh black currants in New England, I of course decided that I had to have some.  Specifically, I had to have some to make my own homemade cassis.  At the time when I decided that this was one of my goals, I think I was operating under the assumption that it would be cheaper than buying the store-bought kind, and also infinitely hipper.  Two and a half years later, I’m definitely sure that it’s not cheaper, and hipness has lost some of its importance to me, but the idea stayed with me and I was determined to accomplish it.  I was unsuccessful in locating black currants last year, so I added it to my summer bucket list this year, just to hold myself a little more accountable.

Enter Wilson Farms and my extremely amazing boyfriend.  Trevor took me to Wilson in early July, just when all the stone fruits were starting to get good.  We were there mostly just to wander around and debate buying more fruit trees, but while we were there, Trevor asked them if and when they might be getting some black currants.  They told him that they would be getting a shipment, and that it was likely to arrive in about a week.  This was both good news and bad news – good in that they would be there, bad, because I was just about to leave for a 10 day vacation in Maine.  Trevor immediately offered to check back for them every day on his way home from work.  I assured him that this was overkill and that I could live without black currants.  Still, about a week later, he called me at 5 in the afternoon, sounding urgent:

“Katie.  I’m at Wilson.  There are 8 boxes of black currants here and they’re only getting one shipment this year.  There’s several other people on their ‘call when black currants arrive list.’  They’re $7 per box.  How many do you need?”

And that, my friends, is the sign of a boyfriend you should hang on to.

With black currants acquired, I proceeded to wash, stem, and sugar them, before pouring them into pint jars filled with vodka and setting them on a sunny windowsill for a month.  A lot of anticipation for one drink, no?  But after opening and straining the jars this weekend and tasting the fruity, boozy, cinnamony liqueur, I’ve decided it was worth it.  Maybe next time I will use the much cheaper, frozen currants sold here, but I can definitely see there being a next time.

Of course, to be thorough in my consideration of how worthwhile this whole thing was, I had to do a little side-by-side taste test between my homemade version and a decent $25 bottle I got at the store.  I was actually expecting to like the store-bought version more, but to my surprise, I liked them both equally.  Both were sweet, slightly syrupy, and delicious on their own or in a Kir, but the tastes were quite different.  The homemade version was fruity, bright, and summery, while the store bought brand was much muskier, darker, and wine-y.  I would use them at different times, for different things.  Of course, by the time I had drawn all of these conclusions, I’ll admit I was a little drunk.  In fact, I was tispy enough that I decided spur of the moment to throw the leftover vodka-soaked currants in a saucepan with some of the cassis and fresh blueberries, and eat it over a bowlful of vanilla frozen custard – a perk of the homemade variety being the boozy leftover fruit.

So – the cassis experiment has been accomplished, and deemed a success!  Another item crossed off the bucket list, and another delicious ingredient added to my pantry.

Homemade Creme de Cassis

Recipe from Figs, Bay & Wine.  Makes a little less than 1 quart.

• 1 1/2 lb. fresh or frozen (and thawed) black currants, washed and stemmed
• 3 c. vodka
• 2 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick, cracked in half

1. In a large bowl, crush the black currants with your hands, the back of a spoon, or a pastry cutter, until most of the berries are releasing juice.  Add the sugar, cinnamon stick, and vodka and stir to combine.  Pour the mixture into clean mason jars and seal.
2. Place the jars in a warm, sunny place and let sit for a month, gently shaking the jars once or twice a week.
3. After the month has passed, strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer.  If you want a really clean liqueur, line the strainer with a cheesecloth.  Catch the juice in a bowl, then pour into a bottle and enjoy!  Reserve the vodka-soaked fruit in your fridge or freezer and enjoy over ice cream, or in blueberry-cassis sauce.

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Well, after 12 days of sunbathing, swimming, running, cooking, drinking, and catching up with family and friends, vacation is officially over.  This morning, at the very gray hour of 4:30am, we climbed into the car and made the long drive back to the hot and humid city.  I even had to go to work this afternoon.  Sigh.  But vacation ending isn’t all bad: I missed Trevor a teeny-tiny bit plus it’s good to be back in the garden – while I was gone the watermelon plant grew at least 3 feet, set out its blossoms, and is now covered in tiny watermelons.  The cherry tomatoes started ripening, there’s two baby figs on the tree, and we harvested our first summer squash this afternoon.  And it’s really nice to no longer be the whitest person in my office.  The bright side.

I’m not going to lie, I’m starting to nod off as I type (getting up that early is not really my jam), but I wanted to wrap up a wonderful vacation with a super summery treat – homemade ice cream sandwiches filled with Bailey’s Fudge Ripple ice cream.  Some ice cream recipes – like this one – are super simple, stir it together and throw it in the freezer types… this recipe does not fall into that category.  Making the ice cream itself is a bit time consuming, and when you throw in making the cookies and assembling the sandwiches it’s definitely only the sort of thing you’d do on vacation, or when you really felt like tackling a kitchen project.  However, the rich, slightly boozy, intensely coffee-flavored ice cream with a dense oreo ripple sandwiched between two soft chocolate cookies that is the result?  Worth the effort.  Even if that effort includes scraping off and reassembling your perfectly shaped ice cream sandwiches after not quite closing the freezer door overnight, not that I’m speaking from experience or anything…

Anyways, if you’re also getting back from a blissful vacation, I’d recommend looking at these and then buying a pint of Ben & Jerry’s to fill the void.  If you’re lucky enough to still be on your blissful vacation, enjoy every second of it, and take the time to make yourself a little treat.

P.S. 100% disclosure?  I think I enjoy the classic $1.00 ice cream sandwich a tiny bit more than these (although maybe I’m just a purist).  But the ice cream recipe itself is totally worth making – serve it over  a brownie with a little bit of boiled down Bailey’s syrup for a real treat.

Bailey’s Fudge Ripple Ice Cream

Adapted from The Red Spoon, with a little inspiration from Tasty Kitchen.  Makes about 1 quart, or enough for 6-8 ice cream sandwiches.

• 1 1/4 c. Irish cream liquer, such as Bailey’s, divided
• 1 1/2 c. whole milk
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1 c. whole coffee beans
• 1 tsp instant espresso
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 c. heavy cream
• 5 egg yolks
• 2 c. oreos or other chocolate cookie

Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies

Adapted from The Cookie Dough Lover’s Cookbook via Brown Eyed Baker.  Makes 24 cookies (12 sandwiches).  Note: although I pretty much always make baked goods by hand (I don’t own a stand mixer), this is one recipe where I’d recommend using a mixer if you have one – the dough is very stiff and hard to work with, and I ended up kneading it by hand to get the best results.

• 1 stick (1/2 c.) salted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 c. light brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 c. cocoa powder, sifted
• 1/2 tsp instant espresso powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 c. flour
• 4 TBS room temperature water

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a large bowl, cream together softened butter and brown sugar until fluffy.  Add vanilla and stir in.  In a separate bowl, sift together cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and instant espresso.  Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until fully incorporated.
3. Add 1 c. of flour to the dough and mix until incorporated.  Add 2 TBS of water and stir until dough is even in color and moisture.  Repeat with the remaining 1 c. of flour and 2 TBS of water.  If necessary, knead by hand until dough is smooth and workable.
4. Lightly flour a work surface and rolling pin.  Roll half of the dough out into a rectangle 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick, and use cookie cutter to cut out rectangles.  Transfer to a baking sheet and freeze for 10 minutes.  Repeat with remaining dough.  Bake cookies for 7 minutes until just done.  Don’t overbake!  Let cool for 3 minutes on pan, then transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely.  Freeze cookies for at least 1 hour before assembling.

Ice Cream Sandwich Assembly

1. Remove the cookies from the freezer.  Tear out 6 medium-sized rectangles of plastic wrap, and lay two cookies side by side on each square.
2. Working as quickly as possible, remove ice cream from freezer and use rectangular cookie cutter to cut through ice cream.   Slide a large spatula under ice cream rectangle, holding cookie cutter in place as you work, and transfer the ice cream to one of the cookies.  Immediately sandwich the cookie, pressing down gently, wrap in plastic wrap, and put in freezer.  Repeat with remaining cookies and ice cream.

The post Bailey’s Fudge Ripple Ice Cream Sandwiches appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

This past Sunday was good for me.  Actually, 70 degree days in March are pretty much always good for me, and probably everyone else as well, but this one felt particularly rejuvenating.  It started off with a Boston Brunchers‘ brunch hosted by The Farm School, which was a. totally delicious, and b. inspiring.  Many of you know that I kind of really want to be a farmer some day, as evidenced by cheesemaking, lemon-tree growing, and random farm visiting.  Since I’ve been feeling a little bit… I don’t know, bored?  Uninspired?  Angsty? … in recent weeks, a morning of listening to some pretty cool people talk about a pretty cool program that they’re obviously excited to be involved in was exactly what I needed.  The candied maple bacon, maple-mead glazed pork belly, soft-boiled egg with dill hollandaise on pork schnitzel, and maple bread pudding didn’t hurt either (yes, it was a very maple and pork-product filled event).

I wish we had gotten to hear a little bit more detail about some of their programs, but from the testimonials of our host (whose children have all attended their camps and who has been a CSA member for almost 10 years), what they’re doing is awesome.  Really awesome.  And their pigs taste delicious, which is my own personal testimonial to their work.  If you have school-aged kids, their summer camp program sounds like a totally wholesome and educational alternative (or addition) to more traditional camps.  Personally, I’ve added their year-long learn-to-farm program to my ten-year plan.  (I’m actually being serious.  It comes in between getting my MBA and buying a farmhouse to renovate.)  They also run a veggie and meat CSA, and you can even pick out your vegetables, market-style, at their pick-up location in Fresh Pond (Cambridge).  Pretty cool stuff, IMHO.

So,  this was a good start to the morning.  Then, I walked outside and realized that it was possibly the best weather of all time.  So I met Trevor in the park, where we spent a few peaceful hours people-watching and sun-bathing and arguing about whether our hypothetical farm-dog would be allowed in the house or not (it won’t) and what ironic hipster name we can name our farm (jury’s still out on that one).  It was just wonderfully relaxing and worry-free and kind of perfect.

As I was walking back from the park, feeling all happy and relaxed and everything, I really wanted some ice cream.  Like, really.  But, in an uncharacteristic move, I walked right past JP Licks, into my house, and made myself a cranberry-blackberry smoothie instead.  How disciplined am I???  But I decided that since we’re having such beautiful weather this week, and I just picked the (only) two meyer lemons from my tree, I’d make some ice cream of my own.  This ice cream is another recipe from/inspired by Radically Simple, March’s cookbook of the month, and it really is wonderfully easy.  All it takes is some buttermilk, cream, lemon juice, and sugar – mix, chill, then freeze.  No cooking a custard, no complicated techniques, just simple, refreshing, creamy-lemony ice cream.

Disclaimer: I should note, with regard to The Farm School brunch, that they made us brunch free of charge (all from their own products!), but that we were not required to review the event or their program, and all opinions here are my own.

Lemon-Buttermilk Ice Cream

Loosely adapted from Radically Simple.  Makes 1 quart.

Note: I changed the proportions a bit from the original Radically Simple recipe to reflect this other recipe I’d seen, reducing the sugar to 1 1/2 c. and replacing half the buttermilk with cream based on what I had in the fridge.  The original recipe calls for 2/3 c. lemon juice, 2 c. sugar, and 4 c. buttermilk, if you want to try it that way!

• 2/3 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 4-7 medium lemons)
• 2 c. buttermilk
• 2 c. heavy cream
• 1 1/2 c. sugar

1. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar and lemon juice until sugar is dissolved, pour in buttermilk and cream, whisking briskly to incorporate into lemon juice.  Cover bowl and chill for several hours, then freeze according to ice cream maker.

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