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5 November 25, 2016 Current Feature 2

Tunisian Lamb-and-Eggplant Stew with Farro, Parsley, & Harissa

Well, Thanksgiving went off without a hitch. It was lovely, actually. We managed to squeeze everyone around a long skinny table, and we had almost enough matching place settings, although it was a bring your own chair affair. The turkey (brined in maple, with rosemary-butter under the skin) came out beautifully, and we had far more side dishes than we could eat thanks to everyone’s generosity. The wine was good, and my mom brought four glorious, enormous pies for the ten of us. There’s still half an apple pie and two cups of freshly whipped cream in my fridge, calling my name pretty much every time I walk by.

And then today? I did almost nothing. I mean, I finished cleaning up the kitchen, I did some online furniture shopping from the comfort of the couch, I wrote, and I worked my way through a pile of Bon Appetit magazines, so not nothing. But, it was cold and gray and rainy and for the most part I indulged in a full day of sloth (with a short, one hour exception for a bracing run that actually felt really good). After this year (and let’s be honest, last year too), I could use about two weeks of days like this. But the next two days are a good start, and I’m going to use the pause to share a few recipes here, starting with this Tunisian Lamb-and-Eggplant Stew.

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1 November 21, 2016 Asian and Indian

Japan Part 2: Ise Travelogue // Ginger Chicken Miso Ramen

I had originally meant this recipe to be for my book review of Simply Ramen, a lovely new(ish) book with a great mixture of traditional and non-traditional ramen recipes by Amy of Easy Peasy Japanesey. But then I opened a bottle of sake to steam the chicken, and poured a few glasses, and Trevor and I sat down to these steaming bowls of ramen, and I couldn’t stop thinking about our time in Ise. So instead of a book review this post is the much overdo second part to our Japan travelogue, dedicated to our time in Ise, and a true review of Amy’s book will come later. (Warning: this is a long post, so if you’re just here for a delicious ramen recipe, skip to the end!)

After our magical introduction to Japan in Kyoto, we wandered a bit off the beaten track, to the Ise peninsula, a coastal area about 2 hours southeast of Kyoto. Ise is the home of the Grand Shrine complex Jingū, one of Shinto’s holiest and most visited sites. Trevor had learned about the shrine and its architecture in college and it was at the top of his list for things to see in Japan. There were plenty of other visitors in Ise, but I would guess that 99% of them were Japanese, pilgrims coming to visit the shrines. English speakers became harder to find and we became more of a curiosity.

When I think about Ise, I think about sake, and blonde wood rooms, and strangely deserted beach resorts, and 500 year old sacred Cypress trees, and our ever-smiling pink-pajamaed Ryokan room attendant. I think about getting caught in a rainstorm in the middle of a frustrating and misguided walk from one shrine to the next, somehow finding ourselves in an Italian restaurant in one of those travel moments where everything feels like it’s going wrong, only to emerge to find the sun shining and realize that we were only 10 minutes from where we wanted to be. I think about sitting in the small basement-level restaurant in our hotel, using Google Translate to attempt an interpretation of the Japanese-only menu, and somehow successfully ordering two bowls of ramen. And I think about sitting alone, naked, in a steaming, outdoor Ryokan bath late at night, with icy cold winter winds whipping around the trees and the sound of the ocean pounding below.

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0 November 17, 2016 Dessert

Latin Thanksgiving: Chocolate Mousse and Passion Fruit Pie

This year Trevor and I are hosting Thanksgiving for the first time. It’s my doing – even though our house is small and unfinished and we’ll need our guests to bring their own chairs, I really wanted to do it, to bring our families together in our home. It will probably be a little bit stressful and uncoordinated and messy, but I’m still thrilled we’re doing it.

I was thinking, on the morning of Election Day last week, how great Thanksgiving is. How it is something truly American and something to be proud of. Two days for the entire country to be with their families, a holiday with no religious element, no political element, just a time reserved for being thankful and being with family. What a nice thing! A holiday designed to celebrate gratitude! I know that sentiment can get lost amidst the planning and family squabbles and food and excitement for the start of the “holiday season,” but let’s try to bring it front and center this year, at least for a few hours next Thursday. In the midst of a busy season, let’s use Thanksgiving as the bright spot that it is – a time to rest, to take a break from our busyness, to slow down and focus on the people and things that matter most to us.

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0 November 12, 2016 Current Feature 2

Curried Pumpkin Bisque with Prosciutto and Sage

I’m so happy that I’ve had this week at home. I expected fall to be over by the time I got back from Portugal last Friday night, but instead, I woke up early Saturday to find a brilliant, glowing fall morning. I went for a walk at sunrise (jet lag problems) and reveled in the pink sky, the orange leaves tinged with sunlight, the blue-green frost on the grass, the smell of woodsmoke, even the cold, which is still exhilarating and festive feeling, and not yet the menacing cold of January and February. All week I’ve been marveling in the outdoors, as well as in the simple pleasure of being home. It’s weeks like this that make me think I will always end up back in New England, no matter how far afield my adventures take me.

This week was also a bit of a roller coaster, for many. In my circles at least, there was a lot of negative emotion being dumped into the world – shock and anger and frustration. No matter what your political opinions are, it’s difficult to be surrounded by people who are upset. We all absorb each other’s emotions – empathy is a critical component of being able to function in our society – but when that emotion is overwhelmingly negative sometimes I feel the need to withdraw. So this weekend I am taking things slow, taking care of myself, fighting off the beginnings of a cold before I get on a plane again tomorrow night. And part of that care is this soup, into which I crammed as many autumnal flavors as I could. The base of this soup is roasted pumpkin and carrots tossed with curry powder, then pureed into a light and creamy bisque and topped with fried prosciutto and sage. I’m glad to have gotten at least one pumpkin recipe up this fall before we transition into holiday flavors (is it possible that there are only 7 weeks left this year? How absurd). I hope you enjoy the soup and these last few days of autumn!

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Curried Pumpkin Bisque with Prosciutto and Sage

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

1 medium (3 lb.) sugar pumpkin or acorn squash
2 carrots, peeled and cut into one inch pieces
4 TBS olive oil, divided
1 1/2 tsp curry powder, divided
sea salt
2 TBS butter
1 large onion, peeled, halved, and sliced into thin half moons
8 sage leaves, divided
1 TBS minced fresh ginger, from a 1 inch piece of ginger
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
4 cups chicken stock
1/3 cup heavy cream, plus more for garnish
3 thin slices prosciutto, torn into pieces

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Cut the top off the pumpkin and set aside. Carefully slice the pumpkin in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and pulp and discard or save for roasting. Cut the pumpkin halves into thick wedges and place on a large rimmed baking sheet, along with the carrot pieces.
In a small bowl, whisk together 3 TBS of the olive oil, 1 tsp curry powder, and about 1/2 tsp sea salt. Drizzle over the pumpkin and carrot, using your hands to rub the oil onto both sides of the vegetables. Roast until the pumpkin and carrot are tender, about 30-40 minutes, flipping once halfway through. Use a spoon to scoop the soft roasted pumpkin flesh away from the skin, saving the flesh and discarding the skin.
In a large soup pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the sliced onion and saute until translucent and tender, about 5-7 minutes. Roll 4 of the sage leaves into a cylinder and thinly slice, then add the slices to the onions and butter. Add the minced ginger. the remaining 1/2 tsp curry powder and the cumin seeds to the pot as well and saute until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add the roasted carrots, roasted pumpkin flesh, and chicken stock to the pot and bring to a simmer. Simmer for for about 10 minutes, then remove from the heat and add the heavy cream. Transfer the soup to a blender (or use an immersion blender) and blend until very smooth and creamy. (Always be careful when blending hot liquids! If your blender is not designed to blend hot liquids, wait for the soup to cool to room temperature before blending). If necessary, thin out the soup with more cream or chicken stock until it reaches the desired consistency.
Before serving, heat the remaining 1 TBS of olive oil in a small frying pan. Roll the remaining 4 sage leaves into a cylinder and thinly slice, then add to the olive oil. Fry sage until crispy, about 3-4 minutes, then add the prosciutto pieces and fry until prosciutto is crispy, another 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat.
To serve, divide the soup between bowls. Drizzle with a little cream and top with the fried sage and prosciutto. Serve immediately.

1 October 27, 2016 Fall

Hoegaarden Seafood Dinner: Popcorn Shrimp, Ale-Steamed Mussels, and Salmon B.L.A.T.s

Wheat ales are hands down my favorite beers, and I particularly love Belgian ones. I love the hints of sweetness and citrus, the light body and easy drinkability. I know you all see a lot of wine around here, but there are days when a beer is so much more refreshing and casual and somehow just better. And on those days, nine times out of ten I am reaching for a Belgian wheat ale, and I’m never disappointed with my choice. So partnering with Hoegaarden (pronounced “who-gar-den”!), a brewery that has been brewing wheat ales in Belgium for almost 600 years, was an excellent chance to spend time working with a beer made by true experts of my favorite brewing style.

Light, citrusy wheat ales are a great match for seafood dishes, and since I’ve been building my seafood recipe repertoire after a lifetime of avoiding eating it at all costs (you can read more about that particular piece of my history here and here if you’re curious…), coming up with a few new recipes to pair with Hoegaarden was a fun challenge. When I think of seafood and beer, my thoughts immediately skew to summertime – images of seafood shacks lining long sandy beaches, the scent of just-greasy-enough fish sandwiches and French fries wafting over the dunes, frosty brown bottles brought to your lips while you survey the ocean through sunglasses, everything sparkling and blown out in tones of blue and blonde. But it’s October, and October in New England is all coziness and sweaters and crunching through leaves. How could I take that easy breezy summer beach feeling and make it appropriate for fall?

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2 October 24, 2016 Asian and Indian

Korean-Inspired Dinner: Red Bean Paste Filled Sesame Cookies

I’ve been working with La Crema for a while now, and we recently seem to have found a groove in a series of internationally-themed dinners to pair with their Chardonnays, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Noirs. In July we did an al fresco Italian seafood feast, for Labor Day we had a Greek-American cook-out, and now, as the weather turns colder, we’re looking to the other side of the world to find the inspiration for this Korean-inspired dinner. I say Korean-inspired because, well, I’m not Korean, and I’ve never even been to Korea, and I don’t want to call these recipes something they are not. Because they are definitely not traditional, authentically-prepared Korean recipes, the kind of recipe that gets passed down from generation to generation and takes a lifetime to learn. What they are are a collection of delicious recipes that attempt to incorporate some of the influences and flavors of Korean cooking into the way I cook and eat at home.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s get to the food! The appetizer here is Vegetarian Lentil and Mushroom Mandu, Korea’s stuffed dumpling. Trevor walked in the door just as I was frying these up. “You’re just in time,” I told him, and he grabbed one (one of the ugly ones that I would let him eat before photos) straight from the frying pan. He bit into one and sort of grunted appreciatively before I said “they’re vegetarian.” At which point he looked at me with a mixture of anger and confusion, so upset because he didn’t even notice they were vegetarian. (Also when we eat vegetarian food without me telling him in advance he feels like I’m tricking him.) Because lentils and mushrooms and cabbage can taste as good as ground pork when wrapped up in a dumpling and fried. Not that I have anything against pork, I just love being able to create vegetarian food that’s as satisfying as meat. You can find the Mandu recipe here on the La Crema blog.

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3 October 15, 2016 Current Feature 2

Heirloom Tomato and Sweet Onion Spaghetti

I have the perfect recipe for your last heirloom tomato – I hope you’ve been saving it. When all of our beautiful, Striped German tomatoes ripened seemingly simultaneously at the end of September, I was sort of at a loss for what to do with them all. I like tomatoes but I don’t love tomatoes, at least the way some people do. You will probably never catch me eating a tomato like an apple. I’m a little bit embarrassed to admit it but you might actually find me picking the tomato out of a sandwich now and then, if it’s a particularly bad tomato. So I was a bit stressed by the idea of using up 12 pounds of beautiful homegrown tomatoes before they went bad.

I was flipping through my favorite cookbooks, looking for tomato-inspiration, when I came across a recipe for Spaghetti with Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil and Bottarga Breadcrumbs in Sunday Suppers at Lucques, which is my very favorite cookbook, at least currently (all of Suzanne’s recipes are so spot on, and seemingly timeless, given that the flavors still sound incredible over 10 years after the book was published). While I wasn’t looking for anything as complicated as making homemade breadcrumbs flavored with cured tuna roe on this particular evening, the other flavors in the recipe sounded just right, so I made a few quick modifications and tried it. It was good, but not mind-blowing. But I loved the idea of the dish, and there were elements that were really strong – I loved the mellow sweetness of the onions melding with the tangy-sweet tomato, the way the rosemary fried in olive oil seemed to perfume the whole dish, and the process of cooking the spaghetti in the sauce so it would soak it up. It just needed more body and more salt. So I kept trying the recipe, adding a spoonful of capers here, toning down the chile heat, and finally, the move that sealed the deal, stirring in a generous spoonful of mascarpone cheese, which transformed the sauce into something silky and luxurious that coated every noodle.

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2 October 7, 2016 Recipe

Grilled Radicchio, Corn, and Roasted Tomato Salad

Summer seemed to depart all at once this week. Suddenly, or at least it seems sudden, there’s a hint of frost on the grass in the mornings, and the sun is setting at 6:15. Sweaters and scarves aren’t a luxury but a necessity and the air has taken on that brilliance that only comes with cold. September is the month where summer lingers, sweetly, warmly, with just a few hints that she’s on her way out. But in October, summer evaporates, tucking her head away under the covers of autumn leaves, settling in for a long rest.

I still have a handful of summery, tomato-heavy recipes to share with you, and I feel as though I’m running out of time to post them. Are you still eating tomatoes? Can you even still get corn at the farmer’s market? I meant to check this week, to snap up whatever summer produce was still lingering, but I didn’t make it to the market. Next week. Today I’m going to clean up the garden – pick the last melon and a few tomatoes, pull up the cucumbers and the zucchini (which would probably keep growing until December if I let it, but I’ve had my fill of zucchini for this year), chop up the leaves for compost. It may be the final farewell to the vegetables of summer, although I’m sure the tomatoes will linger on my counter for another week or so before they are really, truly gone.

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16 September 30, 2016 Breakfast

Cucumber-Avocado-Lime Green Smoothie

I didn’t do a very good job taking advantage of my jet lag this morning. I woke up early to gray, heavy skies and thought – what a perfect morning to make a cup of tea and take a blanket to my desk and write. But it turned out that it was also a perfect morning to lie under a pile of down comforters and waste an hour on various forms of social media. And I was only in Europe for a few days so it’s probably my only morning of jet lag. Oh well.

I’ve been wanting to get this post up before it comes irrelevant – I’m sure many of your gardens are winding down, and personally, my morning cravings have turned more towards baked apples and oatmeal than bright green smoothies. But I know we still have a few hot days ahead of us, and there are still 3 cucumbers hanging on the vine, so smoothies it is.

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0 September 24, 2016 Cookbook

Book Club: Around the Fire // Grilled Maple-Brined Pork Chops & Grilled Sweet Onion with Buttered Beets and Blue Cheese

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

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

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