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0 June 24, 2014 Breakfast

Ingredient of the Week: Strawberries // Black Pepper Buttermilk Biscuits with Strawberry Pinot Noir Jam

The first thing I did with our strawberries was make jam. I know that for many people, jam is sort of a last resort thing, something they turn to when they’ve run out of ideas and their fruit is on its last legs. But I’ve been dreaming about filling my pantry with jars of strawberry jam, made from our very own strawberries, since the middle of winter, so for me getting a batch of jam on the shelves was my first priority. Canning still makes me a little nervous, but with every batch of preserving I get a bit more confident. This time around, I veered ever so slightly from the recipe I was using (Paul Virant’s Strawberry Pinot Noir Jam recipe from The Preservation Kitchen), adding a little bit more sugar (which, from what I understand, is basically always safe to do), and a whole vanilla bean. The resulting jam is sweet but not saccharine, loose but not runny, and very elegant. I only wish 2 pounds of strawberries made more than 3 little pint jars! It’s going to be torture to wait until fall to open the others, even though I know I’ll appreciate them much more when the prospect of meals based mainly on kale and sweet potatoes starts looming.

Of course, as delicious as jam is out of the jar, it’s still a condiment, and you typically need to serve it on something. As I waited for my canning jars to seal, my mind wandered off somewhere along the lines of “If you give a moose a muffin…” until it settled on black pepper buttermilk biscuits as the most appropriate companion for my strawberry pinot jam. Upon comparing a number of different biscuit recipes, I determined that the basic, accepted buttermilk biscuit recipe uses approximately the following ratio: 2 cups flour + 2 tsp baking powder + 1/2 tsp baking soda + 1 stick butter + 1 c. buttermilk, with a bit of variation from author to author. I followed this general guideline, used the frozen grated butter trick and added a few hefty teaspoons of freshly ground black pepper, and the resulting biscuits nearly stole the show from my poor jam. But really, they’re best together – cold and sweet strawberry jam filling in the nooks and crannies of hot and flaky buttery biscuits. And if for some strange reason you get tired of that combo, my next recommendation is to use these biscuits as a vehicle for bacon-egg-avocado sandwiches, with vanilla ice cream and strawberry jam for dessert, of course. Really, you can’t go wrong.

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Strawberry, Pinot Noir, and Vanilla Jam

Adapted from The Preservation Kitchen. Makes 3 half-pint jars.

2 lbs fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered
1 1/4 c. plus 2 TBS sugar
1/2 (750ml) bottle of Pinot Noir
juice from 1/2 lemon
1/2 vanilla bean

In a wide, heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the strawberries, sugar, wine and lemon juice. Split the vanilla bean down the middle, scraping the seeds into the berry mixture, then adding the bean pod. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat slightly and simmer for 10 minutes, until the sugar is dissolved and the strawberries have released some of their juices. Cool to room temperature, cover, and refrigerate overnight or for up to 3 days to allow the berries to continue macerating.
On the day you will can the jam, fill a large pot or canner with water and bring to a simmer. Scald 4 half-pint jars in the hot water to sterilize, leaving them there and a gentle simmer until you are ready to can. Soak your lids and rings in hot water to soften the seals, and sterilize your other equipment.
Strain the juices from the berries into a large pot, reserving the fruit on the side. Place the juices over medium high heat and cook until they have reduced by half and have reached a temperature of 215°F, about 25 minutes. Add the fruit back to the juices and continue to cook, skimming any foam off the surface with a ladle, until the mixture has reached 212°F, another 15-20 minutes. If you don’t have a thermometer, test the consistency of a jam by dropping a few drops of liquid on a frozen plate – if the chilled liquid gels, then your jam is ready.
Drain the hot water from your jars, and place the hot jars on the counter. Use a funnel to fill the hot jars with the hot jam, leaving a 1/2 inch space between the top of the jam and the rim of the jar. Wipe the rim with a clean paper towel, then place the lids on the jars, and screw the rings on until snug but not tight. Use canning tongs to transfer the jars back into the simmering water, increase the heat to a boil, then boil the jars for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the jars in the water for a few minutes, then remove the jars from the water and let cool completely. Listen for a pop as you remove the jars from the water – that indicates a seal has properly been formed. Note: Do not process any jars that are only partially full – it is only safe to process full jars. Any partially full jars should be stored in the fridge and eaten within a few weeks.

Black Pepper Buttermilk Biscuits

Makes 12-15 biscuits.

2 c. AP flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 stick salted butter, frozen
1 c. cold buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 425°F. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pepper. Grate frozen butter over the coarse holes of a box grater, then add the grated butter to the flour mixture. Use your fingers to gently toss the grated butter with the flour, fully coating the butter.
Pour the buttermilk into the flour mixture, and use a fork to gently mix them together, just until the dough is moistened. Don’t overmix. Lightly flour a work surface and turn the dough out onto it. Knead the dough 2-3 times, just until it comes together, then flatten into a disk that is 1/2 an inch thick. Use a round cookie cutter (about 2-inches in diameter) to cut out biscuits, pressing the scraps together when you’ve run out of room to create a smaller disk. Place the biscuits on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Chill the biscuits in the fridge for 20 minutes, then transfer to the preheated oven. Bake until puffed and golden brown on the top and sides, about 15-18 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

0 June 23, 2014 Current Feature: In Season

Ingredient of the Week: Strawberries // Strawberry Gazpacho with Grapes and Goat Cheese

It’s been ages since I’ve done an Ingredient of the Week series, mostly because it’s been ages since we’ve had any hint of life in our garden. But even though the garden is several weeks behind where it was last year, thanks to the weirdly cold spring we had, it’s finally starting to move out of that frustrating stage where everything’s tiny and you use all your time weeding and waiting, into that lush, productive stage I dream about during the depths of winter.

The first crop to really come into its own this year was the strawberries. We planted 75 little plants last spring, and although it was torture to pick off the blossoms last summer, allowing the plants to establish themselves but forgoing the chance of fruit, we’ve been rewarded several times over for our patience, with pounds of fruit ripening on an almost daily basis this summer. In just a little over a week we’ve already picked over 8 pounds of gorgeous berries, which is a lot for just two people. I’ve done a little canning, a little baking, and a little drink-making, but we still have a lot of berries to work through, so we’re going to do strawberry week – i.e. I’ll be posting new strawberry recipes here every day this week, until you all are completely sick of hearing about them.

Although strawberries are usually recognized for their sweetness, we’re kicking things off with a savory recipe. Strawberry gazpacho is not a new idea, but it is certainly a good one, as the balance of acid and sweetness in fresh strawberries is actually pretty similar to the balance in a very ripe tomato. I did a little research on strawberry gazpacho recipes, but ultimately decided that none of the recipes out there had quite the mix of flavors I was looking for, so I came up with my own. Fortunately, I was really pleased with how well it turned out. It has a little bit of everything red in it – strawberries, tomatoes, red pepper, red onion and red chilies, plus a bit of cucumber, garlic, and basil (not red, but very necessary). Marinated in olive oil and champagne vinegar, then pureed into a smooth and frothy soup, it’s well-balanced and refreshing. I topped it with red grapes, for sweetness, a goat cheese cream, for richness, and a handful of toasted pine nuts. I liked it so much I had some for breakfast yesterday – it definitely meets my serving of fresh fruit or veggies at every meal requirement, so that’s an added bonus. It’s also super easy, so I imagine we’ll be blending up several more batches of this before the summer is over.

Past Ingredients of the Week

Rhubarb: Rhubarb-Prosecco Spritzer; Rhubarb Custard Fool; Rhubarb Recipe Round-Up; Persian Rhubarb and Beef with Rice; Rhubarb-Ginger Bars

English Peas: Smashed Pea, Dill, and Feta Crostini; Green Pea Fritters with Herbed Creme Fraiche; English Pea Recipe Round-Up; Green Pea Rum Cooler; A Salad of Bacon, Peas, and Fennel

Carrots: Savory Carrot, Feta, and Almond Baklava; Carrot Cake Crepe Cake; Carrot, Grapefruit, and Mango Smoothie; Moroccan Carrot Panini with Olive Tapenade

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Strawberry Gazpacho with Grapes and Goat Cheese

A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe. Serves 4-6.

3/4 lb. fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced (about 2 1/2 c. sliced)
1/2 medium red onion, chopped (about 3/4 c. chopped)
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and chopped (about 2 c. chopped)
1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 large heirloom tomato, cored and roughly chopped (about 3/4 lb.)
2 medium cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1-3 tsp red fresno chili, seeded and finely chopped (taste for heat and adjust amount accordingly)
1/2 c. packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 c. olive oil
1/4 c. champagne vinegar
1 TBS sea salt
2 oz. goat cheese
1/4 c. heavy cream
1 small bunch grapes
2 TBS pine nuts, lightly toasted in a dry skillet

Combine first 11 ingredients (strawberries through salt) in a large bowl and stir to coat all ingredients with the oil and vinegar. Cover and let marinate at room temperature for three hours. Transfer to a blender and blend on high until smooth and frothy. Serve at room temperature or chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Just before serving, whisk together the goat cheese and heavy cream until smooth. Pour the gazpacho into bowls and top each with a swirl of the goat cheese cream, a handful of grapes, and a few toasted pine nuts. Serve with crusty bread.

0 June 21, 2014 Cookbook

Book Club: The Vibrant Table // Peach and Avocado Summer Rolls

The Book: Even before I got to the recipe section of Anya Kassoff’s new book, The Vibrant Table, I knew I would like it. Discussing her healthy eating philosophy in the introduction, Anya writes that she creates “recipes that utilize the most nourishing ingredients in the tastiest ways possible… without feeling confined or making too many rules.” I sometimes struggle with my feelings about diet labels – vegan, raw, gluten-free, paleo, whole 30, etc. On the one hand, at their most basic level, they all encourage eating more whole foods and vegetables, a principle that’s hard to argue with. But move beyond the basic principles, and I get really frustrated with the focus on excluding “bad” things instead of eating more “good” things, as well as by the diet-shaming communities that unfortunately seem to pop up around popular diets (loved Shanna’s post about that a while back). Personally, I like to think I’m of the “everything in moderation” camp, and I would never sacrifice flavor for health, so it was refreshing to hear those feelings echoed in a book with the tagline “Recipes from my always vegetarian, mostly vegan, and sometimes raw kitchen.”

Anya and her daughter Masha are the writer/photographer team behind the popular blog Golubka, and they’ve managed to translate the same helpful and friendly tone and gorgeous photography that have mad their blog a success into this cookbook. The Vibrant Table will inspire you for every meal of the day, with as many healthy breakfast recipes and snacks as savory lunch and dinner ideas. Since I’m a bit of a Russophile, the dishes with a strong Russian influence hold special appeal to me, and I loved getting glimpses of Anya’s memories into summer days at their dacha, foraging for mushrooms and berries. Most of the recipes require a medium effort level: they’re not extremely simple, nor are they overly complex. There also aren’t too may “out there” ingredients (by which I mean the dairy and meat replacements and weird alternative powders that some vegetarian/vegan recipes rely so heavily on, and really turn me off as an omnivore). Instead, the focus is on whole foods and natural flavors you’ll be able to find fairly easily. True to the title, the food really is vibrant, and I love that the photography, which is light-filled and richly colored, compliments the bright and healthy feel of the food so gorgeously.

The Food: I cooked dinner from this book the same day it arrived in the mail – I was so inspired by it that I went out to the store just so I could make the Chickpea Crepes with Mango Salsa that night. I later adapted that recipe to have more Indian flavors and served it with grilled curried chicken (recipe here!), and I’m sure it’s one of many recipes inspired by this book that will enter my regular dinner rotation. For this post, I’m sticking to a recipe that I didn’t feel the need to adapt in the slightest – these beautiful, refreshing Peach and Avocado Summer Rolls. These summer rolls are packed with an astounding number of bright, juicy flavors. Even though they’re one of the main ingredients, the peaches feel unexpected with each bite, when gorgeous little bursts of peach juice mix with the creamy avocado and toothy rice paper. The sauce, too, is intense and delicious, with both the sourness of the tamarind and the saltiness of the soy making it mildly addictive. I will certainly be making these again – they make a filling summer dinner that’s not heavy in the slightest – but I’ll definitely need to practice my wrapping technique (i.e. please excuse the messy styling in these pictures).

Recipe Shortlist: Cacao Buckwheat Granola; Apple and Carrot Breakfast Salad; Zucchini, Chocolate, and Blueberry Pancakes; Marinated Stuffed Poblano Chiles; Golden Gazpacho; Lazy Sweet Potato Dumpling Soup; Beet and Buckwheat Gnocchi; Zucchini Spaghetti with Nectarines and Pumpkin Seed Pesto; Fresh Fig Cupcakes; Earl Grey Poached Pears with Hazelnut Panna Cotta

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Disclaimer: I received a review copy of The Vibrant Table from Roost Books, but I was not otherwise compensated and all thought and opinions are my own.

Peach and Avocado Summer Rolls

Recipe from The Vibrant Table. Makes 15 rolls.

4 TBS smooth almond butter
2 TBS tamarind paste
1 TBS maple syrup
1 TBS grated fresh ginger
1 tsp soy sauce [Note: I used 3 TBS to get the sauce to a good consistency, and the flavor was still good]
2 medium ripe avocados, peeled, pitted, and sliced
1 lime
3/4 c. pistachio nuts, chopped
1 TBS plus 1 tsp hazelnut oil
sea salt
3-4 oz. baby spinach
15 rice paper wrappers
3 medium peaches, pitted and thinly sliced
1 c. mixed fresh basil and mint leaves

To make the sauce, whisk together the almond butter, tamarind paste, maple syrup, ginger, and soy sauce until smooth. You may need to increase the amount of soy to get a thinner sauce if using very thick almond butter. Taste, and adjust balance if necessary.
Place the avocado slices in a shallow dish and squeeze the lime juice over them. In a small bowl, mix the pistachios with 1 tsp of the hazelnut oil and a pinch of sea salt (only if using unsalted pistachios) and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the spinach leaves with the remaining 1 TBS of hazelnut oil and toss gently with your hands to coat the spinach.
Fill a large flat dish (such as a pie plate) with slightly warm water. Soak the rice paper wrappers in the warm water one at a time, submerging each wrapper evenly and soaking until soft. As you remove each wrapper from the water, fill it immediately: place 1-2 peach slices in the middle, top with 2-3 avocado slices, a handful of spinach leaves, a few basil or mint leaves, and a small spoonful of pistachios, followed by 1 more peach slice. Don’t overfill the wrapper, as it will be difficult to roll. To roll it, fold the bottoms of the wrapper up over the filling on both sides, then roll to close. Repeat until all your filling is used. Serve immediately with the dipping sauce.

2 June 18, 2014 Food

The First Harvest // Garlic Scape Tempura with Goat Cheese Dip

Saturday was our first harvest, the first of many moments that I’ve been longing for since burying our seeds in tiny pop-up pots in the depths of February. The moment I daydreamed about while stabbing at still-frozen ground with my turning fork in March. The moment I finally believed might happen this year when the first tender sprouts poked their heads out of the ground at the end of April. Summer is really coming.

This week’s haul was modest – a few handfuls of the sweetest green peas, a world away from the starchy peas that even the best grocery stores carry; the twisty turny garlic scapes that shot up in a matter of a few days; and 3 pounds of the most beautiful bright red strawberries, the result of two years of patience as the plants developed their roots and spread across the ground. This week we came home with a few snacks, but from here it only gets better, until it’s the end of August and we’re hauling home more tomatoes than we can even imagine eating, begging friends to take our extra cucumbers and squash, and sweating over the stove as we can jar after jar of tomato paste and pickles, trying to save it all to brighten our winter shelves.

I’m saving the strawberries for next week (hint hint), so this week we’re talking scapes. For those of you who have never seen one, they look like curly, flexible scallions that come out of the middle of garlic plants. If you let them grow, they eventually flower, but most farmers and gardeners clip them to send the energy that would otherwise be used to create flowers into creating bigger bulbs. Since the scapes themselves are edible, trimming them off seems like a win-win. The most common thing to do with them is make pesto, although pickling them, grilling them, and using them in soup come in as close seconds. Since there are already tons of recipes for those things out there, I decided to try something less common – giving the scapes a quick dip in a seltzer batter and frying them to make garlic scape tempura. Even a little bit of heat mellows out the garlicky bite in these, so don’t worry that munching on them whole will be too intense. There are two tricky parts to making tempura – one, getting the consistency of the batter just right, and two, keeping the oil at a temperature that is not so hot as to burn your tempura, but hot enough to cook it quickly and keep the coating airy. After a little trial and error, I got the hang of it, and you will too. I served these with a goat cheese and sour cream dip flecked with chives – it was intense and delicious, but it overwhelmed the delicate flavor of the tempura a little bit. Go light with the dip, or try something thinner or less salty if you’re looking to change it up.

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Garlic Scape Tempura

Serves 3-4 as an appetizer.

8-10 garlic scapes
vegetable oil, for frying
2/3 c. flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
2/3 c. + 2 TBS seltzer
sea salt, to taste

Wash your scapes and cut into 3-4 inch pieces. Some people choose not to eat the flower bulb end, but if your scapes are young and tender and the bulb is small, it won’t make much difference.
Pour vegetable oil into a wide heavy-bottomed pan, filling to a depth of about 1 1/2 inches. Heat over medium heat, to a temperature of 375°F.
Whisk together the flour and baking soda. Immediately before you begin frying (i.e. when your oil is hot enough), whisk the seltzer into the flour until a light smooth batter forms. Dip your scapes into the batter to fully coat, then carefully place in the hot oil. Only put as many scapes as can fit with plenty of room between them in each batch – you don’t want to crowd them. Fry for 1-2 minutes, until just beginning to color, then remove from the oil with a skimmer and let drain on a paper towel. Immediately shake sea salt over the hot tempura. Repeat until you have used all the scapes. Serve immediately.

Goat Cheese and Sour Cream Dip

Makes about 1/2 cup.

2 oz. goat cheese
1/4 c. sour cream
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp minced fresh chives
salt, to taste

Put the goat cheese in a medium bowl and beat with a fork until mostly smooth. Add the sour cream and mix together until evenly combined. Stir in the black pepper and chives. Taste, and season to your liking.

2 June 15, 2014 Cookbook

Book Club: Ample Hills Creamery // Peanut Butter and Fluff Ice Cream

The Book: Now that we’re in the thick of ice cream season (although, who am I kidding, it’s always ice cream season in my house), it’s time for me to share the first of this summer’s crop of ice cream cookbooks – Ample Hills Creamery. Ample Hills is an ice cream shop in Brooklyn, where the owners, Brian and Jackie, churn out whimsical flavors like Breakfast Trash (Cereal Milk and Froot Loops), Drunken Thanksgiving (Pumpkin Bourbon with Molasses Cookie Bits), and “I Want to Marry This!” (Maple with Chocolate-Covered Bacon Bark). Like the flavors, their new cookbook is playful, filled with cartoons of the three Ample Hills mascots, hand-lettered picture annotations, bright colors, and even bingo boards and instructions for drawing Walt the Cow (one of the mascots). The end result isn’t corny at all, just fun and well-integrated into the overall design. Brian and Jackie’s story is also woven into the pages of the book, and it’s an inspiring story – they took a big risk, followed their dream, and are now enjoying huge success. And their ice cream flavors are great. I love ice cream (like, really love it) and you’d be hard-pressed to find a flavor in most shops that I wasn’t excited about, but some of the inclusions in this book have me just itching to clean out the ice cream that’s already in my freezer to make room for more. There are also recipes for homemade cones, toppings (mmm whiskey butterscotch!) and mix-ins like brownies and cookie dough.

The Food: Most of the recipes in Ample Hills use a basic sweet cream ice cream recipe (called “Walt’s Dream”) as their starting point. This base is different from others I’ve used, as it includes skim milk powder, which apparently helps keep the ice cream creamy by reducing the water content you have when using regular milk, and ultimately allowing you to use a lower cream to milk ratio. I followed all the instructions, even buying the (pricey) organic cane sugar and (pricey) organic skim milk powder that it called for, but I can’t say the base turned out more creamy than others I’ve tried. Before freezing, the base was very thin, and even after churning it was pretty soupy and needed a solid 24 hours in the freezer to firm up. They do recommend using a hand crank machine, as they get colder faster, but that seems like a lot of extra work to me. Personally, I think I prefer using base recipes with more egg yolks and cooking them to the point of a custard. So, I’m not sure if I’ll use the base recipe again, but I’ll certainly be using the flavor combinations as inspiration for future batches, as they go above and beyond in an effort to cram as many delicious ingredients as possible into one flavor. Our first batch was called “PB Fluff’n’Stuff” – a mix of peanut butter ice cream, nutter butters, and fluff. I opted not to make the homemade fluff (after all, the home of fluff is right here in Somerville… so it’s local?), and oh man is it good. This stuff will not be lingering in our freezer. There’s nothing subtle or elegant about this ice cream – it’s the kind of flavor that would be the highlight of the day at a seven year old’s birthday party, hitting you over the top of the head with simple sugary sweetness, It’s delicious, all sweetened creamy peanut butter, crunchy cookies and airy fluff. If you like peanut butter desserts, you will love it.

Recipe Shortlist: Raspberry Blonde (White Chocolate Ice Cream with Raspberry Jam and Malted Blondie Bits); Sweet as Honey (Sweet Cream with Honeycomb Candy); Monkey Bread; Daddy’s Sundae (Bourbon Ice Cream with Brownies and Salted Fudge Caramel); Salted Crack Caramel; Four More Years (Beer Ice Cream with Honeycomb Candy)

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Disclaimer: I received a review copy of Ample Hills Creamery from Stewart, Tabori & Chang, but I was not otherwise compensated and all thought and opinions are my own.

Peanut Butter and Fluff Ice Cream

Recipe from Ample Hills Creamery. Makes about 6 cups of ice cream.

3/4 c. organic cane sugar
1/2 c. skim milk powder
1 2/3 c. whole milk
1 2/3 c. heavy cream
3 egg yolks
1/2 c. natural peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
12-oz. box of peanut butter sandwich cookies
3 c. marshmallow fluff (store-bought or homemade)

Prepare an ice bath in a large heatproof bowl. Set aside. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, milk powder, and whole milk. Whisk until smooth, making sure the skim milk powder is fully dissolved. Stir in the cream.
Place the saucepan over medium heat and heat the milk mixture, stirring often, until it reaches 110°F, which will take 5-10 minutes. Once it reaches this temperature, remove it from the heat.
Whisk the egg yolks together in a medium bowl. While whisking, slowly pour 1/2 cup of the hot milk mixture over the eggs, beating them vigorously to temper the eggs. Repeat with another 1/2 cup of hot milk, then pour the eggs back into the remaining milk mixture, still whisking to prevent any scrambling. Return the pan to heat, and cook until it reaches 165°F and forms a thin film on a wooden spoon, about 5-10 minutes longer.
Remove from the heat and stir in the peanut butter and vanilla, then pour the ice cream base through a wire mesh strainer into a bowl, and cool in the ice bath for 15 to 20 minutes. Chill the ice cream base in the fridge for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight, until it is completely cold.
Churn the ice cream according to your ice cream maker’s directions. While it is churning, break up the peanut butter cookies into bite-sized pieces. Transfer the churned ice cream to the storage container, and quickly but gently fold in the cookies and the marshmallow fluff. Don’t overmix, or the fluff may dissolve. Freeze ice cream for at least 4 hours before serving.

1 June 13, 2014 Meat

Guava-Glazed Grilled Ribs

Hi friends. This one’s a guest post from my better half, who’s the grill-master in our relationship. I did do some quality testing though, so I can confirm that these are worth making. And definitely worth eating if someone else makes them for you!

Growing up, ribs were something my father worked on perfecting over infinite summer afternoons. Along with your other excellent suburban traditions, early morning soccer and football in the backyard, grilling was a must during weekends in the summer. We’d absolutely crowd the grill with racks and racks of market-cut beef ribs, trimmed up and spiced with an ever-improving rub. It was always, and still is, an eternity to wait for ribs to be done perfectly. So we’d stand in a circle on his porch and make giant indian smoke signals every time the grill cover came off, checking on coals barely glowing through the supreme pile of meat. Dad would admire the Boston skyline, just visible from his back porch in the neighborhood-on-a-hill, and I can remember needing to sprint around the yard, just to diffuse my excitement. I’m personally ready to eat ribs at the first sizzle of meat on grill, and to this day, I’m not entirely sure how long it took to cook those massive cuts. But in the end, I’m grateful it helped stretch out those Saturdays in summer.

Both my brother and I had our roles in the process; I’d tackle the sauce, while Andrew would handle the rub, and we’d trade off working on sides. My dad would trim up the ribs and handle the art/science of developing the long slow fire, which got perfectly smoky when the fat started dripping. The smells are incredible, and tasting the tenderest bite through a layer of crunchy, smokey caramelization to me is unparallelled. The result was always a consistent, falling of the bone, sweet tender and smokey feast.

I recently spent a very nice long weekend with my dad and my brother and my stepmom, in my dad’s own childhood hometown for a family reunion. Over a bottle of Noah’s Mill and a fair few cigars, the men got down to a little reflecting. Andrew is great in the kitchen and regularly cooks from this website (often providing unsolicited feedback). My stepmom and dad are vegetarians and super accomplished crossfitters, and stronger than I’ll ever be. But, we equally enjoyed those memories of summer Saturdays, and we each were sure it was perfect.

At any rate, now that Katie and I have a grill, I’m making my own attempt at perfection. With the old tricks still fresh in my mind, I’ve been working a rib recipe that’s good enough to share. I’m definitely using some non-traditional flavors, but the philosophy is the same. So this probably isn’t the final product, but I think it’s a pretty good effort, and a good place to reflect on the way.

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Guava-Glazed Grilled Ribs

A Katie at the Kitchen Door original. Serves 2-3.

Note: Ribs are like an art project. All times, ingredients, implements and instructions are approximate. This is simply what has been working for me.

1 rack untrimmed pork or beef ribs, about 4-5lbs. (increase cooking time for larger racks)

For the rub:

2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 Tbsp sumac
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp garlic powder

For the sauce:

14 oz guava paste
½ cup soy sauce
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup water
1 Tbsp Sriracha
salt and pepper to taste

Trim any loose bits from the inside and edges of the rack.
Mix together all seven rub spices in a bowl. Completely cover the rack (and trimmings) with the rub and refrigerate for at least 3 hours and up to 12.
Light grill, maintaining medium heat (300-350°F). Sear ribs on both sides for 5-10 min a side.
Move ribs to the perimeter of the fire and grill for about 2.5 hours, flipping every 30 minutes.
While the ribs are cooking, mix together all the ingredients for the sauce, until smooth. If the guava paste is lumpy, heat sauce gently over medium heat while stirring to help smooth it out.
Just before you are ready to take the ribs off the grill, brush the ribs liberally with the sauce, then allow the ribs to cook for 2-3 minutes a side, monitoring carefully to ensure the sauce does not burn. Remove the ribs from the grill, let rest for 5-10 minutes, then serve.

4 June 9, 2014 Dessert

Chocolate Stout Affogato

We currently have a very large supply of beer in our house. Six cases plus four extra 22-oz bottles, to be exact. And it’s all a very dark, very fresh, very rich Russian Imperial Stout that we brewed ourselves at a place in New Hampshire called Incredibrew (their tagline is “Make beer, wine, and friends!” And they mean it, the other customers are the friendliest). My parents went there years ago with friends, and this year their Christmas gift to Trevor was a gift certificate to cover one batch of beer. It took us several tries to schedule a time where all four of us could go (my parents made their own batch, so we could swap some bottles after), but we eventually made it a few weeks ago. It’s a really fun little operation, very well organized and a pretty good deal. You pick one out of dozens of recipes to make, gather your ingredients, get assigned to a copper kettle, and then they walk you through the brewing process. It takes about 2 hours, then your beer sits around for 2 weeks fermenting before you come back and bottle it. The fact that you’re carefully supervised means you end up with very good results, and I never realized how much more flavor and zing really fresh beer has.

So it’s really good, but like I said, we have a lot of it. And while we’re excited to be pouring out something so high quality when friends visit, I got Trevor to agree that a few bottles could be spared for cooking projects. Part of the reason I wanted to go with a stout is that it’s a great beer for cooking and baking – the sweet chocolatey undertones can really amp up the flavor of a batch of brownies or braised ribs. I have a long list of recipes that I’m going to make with it, but first, I wanted to share a really quick and easy cocktail/dessert from Winter Cocktails – a Chocolate Stout Affogato.

This is a very adult dessert. Besides the fact that it has all kinds of things you’re not supposed to give to kids in it (espresso, beer, liqueur) the flavor is rich and mature, not overly sweet and certainly not simple. Both espresso and stout are strongly flavored and have a fair amount of bitterness to them, and when paired with the simple and syrupy sweetness of chocolate liqueur and coffee ice cream, it’s a gorgeous mix of sweet and bitter, with the coffee and chocolate undertones of all four ingredients connecting all the flavors together. The temperature and density contrasts – hot thin espresso, cold creamy ice cream, cold frothy beer – add another element of complexity, at least for the first few bites, before it all melts into one delicious mixture. Since the effort in throwing this together is absolutely minimal – brewing a pot of espresso is the most time consuming task – these are the perfect dessert to end your next dinner party. I promise, they’re so elegant and delicious your guests will have no idea that your copping out on hours in the kitchen to bake that perfect layer cake.

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Chocolate Stout Affogato

Adapted from Winter Cocktails. Serves 1.

1 scoop coffee ice cream
1 shot (2 oz.) hot espresso, freshly brewed
1.5 oz. chocolate liqueur, such as Godiva Mocha
1/2 c. stout beer, preferably chocolate stout

Place the ice cream in a glass. Pour the espresso, chocolate liqueur, and stout over the top. Serve immediately.

2 June 7, 2014 Food

Arugula Salad with Burrata, Shaved Mushrooms, and Truffle Oil

This is my favorite salad, and I have a difficult time imagining the salad that will ever replace it as such. It’s something I order every time I go to Via Matta, an upscale Italian restaurant near my office in Boston, and I’ve gotten many of my coworkers addicted to it as well. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to share it with you – I’m sorry to have been depriving you all this time. The only excuse that I can offer up is that I only recently acquired my first bottle of truffle oil – the key ingredient. During my quick business trip to Rome a few weeks ago, I loaded up on Italian food products that are really pricey in the states and only sort of pricey in Italy: Myrtle liquor, candied kumquats, truffle sauce, dried squid ink pasta, and a treasured bottle of truffle oil.

Something about the mix of the ultra-rich burrata, zippy arugula, super thinly shaved mushrooms (that are almost creamy in texture), salty capers, and pungent truffle oil in this salad is absolutely intoxicating. Trevor thinks it’s just the fact that anything made with truffle oil and/or burrata (a super luxurious cream-filled fresh mozzarella, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it) is delicious, but I maintain that this is a special combination. The raw mushrooms soak up the truffle oil so that it’s almost like you’re eating a truffle itself when you bite into them, too. I really can’t get enough. I should note that a little bit of truffle oil goes a long way – you only have to use one or two teaspoons of oil per salad – so although it is certainly rich for a salad, it’s not over-the-top indulgent.

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Arugula Salad with Burrata, Shaved Mushrooms, and Truffle Oil

Inspired by Via Matta. Serves 1.

2 or 3 large handfuls of fresh arugula
3 mushrooms, shaved or sliced as thinly as possible
1 TBS very finely chopped red onion
2 tsp capers
2 oz. fresh burrata
2 tsp truffle oil
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt

Toss the arugula, shaved mushrooms, red onion, and capers together in a large bowl. Place the piece of burrata on top of the salad, drizzle with truffle oil, and sprinkle with sea salt. Serve immediately.

1 June 5, 2014 Food

Monthly Fitness Goals: June // Chickpea Crepes with Grilled Curry Chicken and Mango Salsa

Even though January, February and March felt never-ending, I find myself very surprised that it’s already June. Is this what it feels like to get old, the weeks seemingly disappearing into months like it’s nothing? Oi. It’s not a bad thing, but my life feels full, in a good way, and time is flying by. Given that I might have to spend the better part of August and September in Malaysia for work, I feel like I really have to make the most of summer in June and July, including, of course, sticking with my monthly fitness goals – it is bikini (or at least one-piece?) season after all.

I did a good job with exercise in May, even though I had a ten day, three-stop business trip that could have potentially thrown a wrench in my workout schedule. Not only did I complete my May goal of getting 180 minutes of strength training in (although it came down to the wire, with my last Nike Training Club session just squeezed in on the 31st), I also kept up with the running, clocking over 55 miles at an average pace that was 6 seconds faster than April. I feel good, and now I just have to maintain both components even as the weather gets hotter and working out becomes a sweatier proposition.

However, I did not do so well with my eating habits last month. Business trips are rarely good for my eating habits – too many three-course meals paid for by our hosts, an especially difficult thing to turn down in a world-class food city like Rome – but even when I was at home, I found myself eating out or resorting to cheese and crackers for dinner all too often. This month, I want to be better organized and prepared, bringing healthy lunches to work whenever I can, planning ahead for wholesome dinners, and, if I can really commit myself to this, kicking the daily latte and muffin/cookie habit I seemed to have developed over the past month (it used to be a less frequent habit, but I have somehow slipped into a pattern where I run downstairs to grab one on a daily basis now). Besides planning ahead, I want to rely more on fresh fruits and vegetables for my meals, especially since we’ve finally arrived in the season where a variety of local New England produce is available (beyond radishes and rhubarb, that is). So, the official goal? Have at least one serving of fruits or veggies at every meal (ideally fresh, but I’m not going to fault myself for having a bowl of vegetarian chili at dinner or lightly sauteed spinach in my omelets). I’m also going to try and make most of my afternoon snacks fruit or veggie based – replacing cookies and pretzels with apples and crudités. We’ll see how that goes in practice, but I swear I’ll try.

In that vein, this month’s recipe is packed with flavor, color, and freshness, while still being filling and balanced. I recently received a review copy of Golubka’s The Vibrant Table, and the very first night I flipped through it, I ended up making the Chickpea Crepes with Mango Salsa for dinner. Of course, once I’m inspired, just leaving recipes the way they are is very difficult for me, so I tweaked this and that and ended up with a recipe that’s a perfect dinner for me. The biggest change is obviously the addition of grilled chicken marinated in a curry yogurt sauce – I felt like I needed some more bulk to make this a stand-alone meal – but I also swapped out some of the flavors for a more Indian profile (cumin seeds instead of sesame seeds in the crepes, mint and basil instead of cilantro in the salsa), played with the consistency of the crepes to make them more pliable, and added a bunch of sweet red pepper to the salsa for even more color and freshness. The resulting meal is bursting with flavor, and just the kind of thing I need to get me excited about eating fresh vegetables.

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

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Chickpea Crepes with Grilled Curry Chicken and Mango Salsa

Inspired by The Vibrant Table. Serves 4.

For the chicken:

1 c. plain Greek yogurt
2 TBS olive oil
2 TBS curry powder
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 tsp sea salt
4 medium boneless skinless chicken breasts

For the crepes:

2 c. chickpea flour
2 TBS whole cumin seeds
2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp sea salt
2 1/2 to 3 c. water
1 large egg
vegetable oil for frying

For the mango salsa:

1 large ripe mango, peeled, pitted, and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1 red bell pepper, cored and diced into 1/2 inch pieces
1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1/3 c. very finely chopped red onion (from about 1/4 of a large onion)
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely minced
juice from 1-2 fresh limes
1/2 tsp sea salt
small handful of mint leaves, sliced into chiffonade
small handful of basil leaves, sliced into chiffonade

To make the chicken: Mix the yogurt, olive oil, curry powder, crushed garlic, and 1 tsp of salt together in a large bowl until evenly combine. Add the chicken breasts and rub the curry marinade all over them to fully coat. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, and up to overnight.
To make the crepes: Whisk together the chickpea flour, cumin seeds, turmeric, and salt. Add the water 1/2 cup at a time, whisking until as smooth as possible between batches. Resulting batter should be runny but not watery. Add the egg and whisk to blend with the batter. Cover the batter bowl and let rest for at least 30 minutes, and ideally 1 hour.
To make the salsa: Mix together all salsa ingredients in a medium bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning (lime juice, salt, jalapeno, and herbs) to your taste.
When you are ready to eat: Fire up your grill and preheat. Grill the chicken for 6-8 minutes on each side, until cooked all the way through with no pink left in the middle (grilling time may vary significantly depending on the temperature of your grill and the thickness of your chicken – always check that they are cooked in the middle before serving!). Set cooked chicken aside.
Heat 2 tsp of vegetable oil over medium heat in a large frying pan. Once hot, add half a cup of the crepe batter and quickly swirl the pan to allow the batter to run into a large circle. Cook crepes for 30-60 seconds on each side, until golden brown and bubbly, then flip. Stack cooked crepes on a serving platter. Slice cooked chicken and serve over the warm crepes alongside the mango salsa. Serve as soon as possible after cooking, although leftover crepes can be wrapped in tinfoil and stored in the fridge if necessary.

1 June 2, 2014 Asian and Indian

Book Club: Thailand, The Cookbook // Drunken Noodles with Pork

The Book: I want to open this review with a statement that’s much stronger than those I usually make in these posts: if you like Thai food (and who doesn’t), and you like to cook, you should buy a copy of Thailand: The Cookbook. With 500 traditional recipes, absolutely stunning photography, and the gorgeous design typical of Phaidon books, I already know it will be one of my favorite books this year, even if I mostly use it for daydreaming about the jungles and coasts of Thailand and colorful plates of Pad Thai and Papaya Salad. I wish I could let all of you flip through my copy, because I’m having a difficult time communicating how gorgeous the pictures are. They are certainly given pride of place, taking up full pages and even multi-page sections, and are drenched in rich colors that show up beautifully on the luxe matte paper. It’s mostly food photography, and an impressive portion of the 500 dishes are represented, but the landscapes and portraits are jaw-dropping. There’s not very much in the way of narrative here, but the recipe section is encyclopedic and decidedly authentic, meaning you will find, in all likelihood, hundreds of new-to-you recipes – I certainly don’t have any other cookbooks with recipes for Fried Crickets with Herbs or Spicy Dried Buffalo Skin Salad. Recipes within sections are often variations on a theme and are organized in a very logical progression, for example, moving from Spicy Vegetable and Fish Soup to Spicy-and-Sour Tilapia Soup to Spicy Eel Soup to Spicy Shrimp Soup. Given this, I’d imagine that if you cook enough different recipes from this book, you would develop a sort of intuition for Thai cooking and flavors.

One of the beauties of Thai cooking is how fast it is. Sourcing the ingredients will easily be the most time consuming part of preparing most of these recipes, with many prep and cooking times under 15 minutes total. Many of the recipes are also scaled to serve 2 or 3, which is convenient for a couple like us. There will definitely be recipes that are impossible to make outside of Thailand – I doubt I’ll be coming across banana blossoms or giant water bug eggs in my local market – but don’t let that scare you away from this book, as there’s more that’s accessible than inaccessible, especially if you have a good Asian grocery nearby, or even a well-stocked Asian Foods aisle in your Wholefoods/Kroger/Shaw’s. In short, for anyone with a love affair with Thailand and its sweet and spicy food, this book is a must buy – personally, I’m so excited to finally have an authentic Thai cooking resource in my collection.

The Food: The first recipe I tried out from Thailand: The Cookbook was Drunken Noodles with Pork, because, well, who doesn’t love drunken noodles? I was looking for a recipe for lunch that would be filling but not too heavy, quick to prepare, and for which I could find the ingredients at the small specialty butcher around the corner, as I only had about an hour before we needed to leave the house. Whipping up these noodles was dangerously easy – a handful of chilies and garlic pounded into a paste, a few thin strips of pork tenderloin, a bowl full of Chinese broccoli and mushrooms, and a quick sauce of soy sauce and sugar, stir-fried one at a time over high heat, and in 10 minutes I had a steaming bowl of sweet and spicy noodles, just as good as the ones from the takeout spot down the street. These noodles are definitely going into my “quick and craveable” dinner rotation. I’ve barely cracked the surface of this book, but after my first foray into authentic Thai cooking, I’m even more excited to delve further into these recipes.

Recipe Shortlist: Thai Pork Fried Rice with Fried Eggs; Chicken Curry Puffs; Thai-Style Hot Pot; Dragon Fruit Frappe; Spicy Strawberry Salad; Chicken and Coconut Soup; Beef Massaman Curry; Green Chicken Curry; Grilled Duck with Tamarind Sauce; Coconut Custard with Fried Shallots; Sesame and Sugar-Coated Peanuts; Jasmine Flower Flan

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Disclaimer: I received a review copy of Thailand: The Cookbook from Phaidon, but I was not otherwise compensated and all thought and opinions are my own.

Drunken Noodles with Pork

Recipe from Thailand: The Cookbook. Serves 2.

Note: There were a few items I had to substitute based on what I could find at the store – 2 serranos for the bird’s eye chilies, broccoli rabe for the Chinese broccoli, chopped red pepper for the baby corn, and baby shiitakes for the straw mushrooms. I tried to keep the substitutions very close in flavor profile to the original ingredients. I’ve included both the original ingredients and my substitutions below.

7 oz. flat rice noodles
2 TBS vegetable oil
3-4 cloves garlic, pounded to a paste
5-7 red and green bird’s eye chilies, pounded to a paste (OR substitute 2 serranos)
3 1/2 oz. pork tenderloin, sliced into thin strips
5 oz. Chinese broccoli, stems removed, leaves chopped into 1 1/2 inch pieces (OR substitute broccoli rabe)
7 baby corn, halved lengthwise (OR substitute 1/2 c. of chopped red bell pepper)
5 straw mushrooms (OR substitute 1/2 c. baby shiitakes)
2 TBS soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 handful of Thai basil leaves

If the noodles have been kept in the fridge, wrap them in cheesecloth and steam in a steamer for 2-3 minutes until warmed through. Alternatively, heat in a microwave for 1 minute. If noodles are dry, prepare according to package directions. Set aside.
Heat vegetable oil in a wok over medium high heat. Add the pounded garlic and chilies and quickly stir-fry for 30 seconds, until sizzling and fragrant. Add the pork slices and stir fry for 1 minute, or until cooked through. Add the broccoli and baby corn and stir-fry for another 1-2 minutes. Add the prepared noodles, soy sauce and sugar, and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes until the noodles are soft and fully flavored. Remove from heat, stir in the basil, and serve immediately.