I have been eating for the last seven months.

I have. Really. I just haven't been telling you about it. What I've been eating has not been strictly low- or no-carb. Nor has it been particularly interesting. 2009: a year of nearly windless culinary sails, so far (this is a theme). There have been a few choice baking adventures, like the croquembouche assembled for a friend's birthday. That was fun. But mostly I've been throwing together mid-evening pantry dinners. Eggs, many ways. Pasta with anchovies and cauliflower. Mustard pork chops. Arugula and pine nuts. Did I mention eggs?

Anyway. That last post was so uninspiring I figured I should provide a brief (if perhaps equally wanting) update on what's cooking. Summer usually gets the fires burning around here, but not this year: here it is already the middle of August and have I made one fantastic dish with tomatoes, wax beans, basil, peaches, corn or blueberries? Not. A. One. Okay, that's not true: I did make a honey caramel peach pie back in July. It was the most perfect pie crust I've ever made and that's no lie. It made me ridiculously, heart-swellingly happy. (I did, however, skimp on the cornstarch for the filling which made it all kind of a runny affair. That was too bad.)

I hope my kitchen apathy is not here to stay. Help a lady out. Give me a cooking challenge, any challenge. I'll take it. And tell you about it.

Croquembouche. It's supposed to be more like a pyramid or tower. This is a well. But delicious all the same.

Honey caramel peach pie.

Egg muffins.

I realize that, as much as I love my Kashi in the morning, it may be a good idea to give this low-carb thing a try. In the spirit of living lighter, I offer you my first foray into low-carb/no-carb cooking: the egg muffin.

These look like muffins (not oh-so-pretty, so that's why no picture) but they're all egg. I just gave one a quick taste-test and they're not bad at all. Eggy. Mushroomy. You know, like an omelet! Better than no breakfast at all.

You could mix up the vegetable quotient in any fathomable way, I just happened to have mushrooms on hand. E-Z P-Z. Let's just hope I don't get sick of them too quickly!

Egg Muffins
makes 6 jumbo or 12 standard

2 cups of mixed fresh mushrooms, diced fine (I just dumped them in the mini-chopper)
1 shallot, minced
1 small clove garlic, minced
1-2 TB extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp fresh thyme
1/2 cup low-fat shredded cheddar
1 dozen eggs, egg whites, or combination thereof (I used whole eggs), beaten
butter or cooking spray for greasing muffin tin
salt & pepper

*Preheat oven to 375.

1. Heat olive oil in saute pan over medium heat, add shallot and garlic and a shake of salt, saute until softened and translucent, about 3-5 minutes.
2. Add mushrooms and thyme and stir to combine. Cook over medium heat until soft and fragrant, about 5-7 minutes.
3. Beat eggs until they begin to look frothy.
4. Portion mushroom mixture among muffin tins, sprinkle with a bit cheese, and pour egg batter over the filling until it reaches about 3/4 up the side of the muffin cup.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes until puffy and golden (might be even shorter than this if you're using a standard 12-cup tin--just keep an eye out after about 15 minutes).
6. Cool on a rack, then store in the fridge for up to a week or freeze for up to a month.
7. To reheat: I'm going to guess pop in the microwave for about a minute. (Will advise tomorrow if it takes longer!)

Neiman Marcus cookies.

There's nothing like Thanksgiving to put an end to blog hibernation. Last week I pulled my November issues of Saveur and Gourmet from their stacks and started flipping through looking for inspiration. Along the way I came across an article about Neiman Marcus cookies and their fabled high price tag. You remember getting those email chains, don't you? About the department store's cookie recipe that cost one unwitting customer $250? Of course it's not true, and in fact is just one example in recent memory of a certain brand of recipe lore that's been going around since the 1940s. I do love little sidebars like this. I also happen to love chocolate chip cookies and these sounded like a good spin on the Toll House variety. I made a few changes of my own but nothing revolutionary--I've noted these below in case you want to play by the book.

What surprised me the most about these cookies how light they are. When I picked one up I thought it must be nearly as light as a meringue. There's so much grain in them (equal parts flour and oatmeal) that I thought they'd be a lot heavier. That said, I had two small cookies and felt rather full (there's that oatmeal!), so be careful: you're eyes will be bigger than your stomach. They're crispy on the outside but they have a nice chewy bite. Just the way I like 'em!



Neiman Marcus Cookies (makes 4 1/2 dozen)

1 c unsalted butter, softened
1 c sugar (I used 2/3 c)
1 c brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 c all purpose flour
2 c Quaker oats, ground fine in the food processor
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon (my addition)
1/2 tsp espresso powder (my addition)
2 c semisweet chocolate chips
4 oz Hershey chocolate, grated (I used 4 oz bittersweet chocolate ground fine in the food processor)
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (I ground mine instead, since I was already doing so much grinding)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

1. Cream butter with sugars until smooth, about 3-4 minutes in the mixer
2. Add vanilla and 1/2 tsp of salt.
3. Add eggs one at a time and beat until incorporated. Then scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat batter until the eggs are well mixed and the mixture begins to look fluffy.
4. Blend flour, oatmeal, soda, powder, remaining salt, and seasonings with a fork in a separate bowl, then add to the batter gradually, mixing on the lowest speed until incorporated.
5. Stir in chocolate chips, grated chocolate, and walnuts by hand.

Chill dough while your oven preheats to 375 degrees.

When the oven's ready, pull out your dough and using a teaspoon to measure, form dough into small balls, about an inch or so big. Make them as big as you want, just make them all roughly the same size, and if you decide to make them bigger, you'll just need to leave them in a bit longer.

Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes until nicely domed and slightly golden brown.

Remove to a rack, cool, and enjoy with a glass of cold milk or a mug of tea. Mmm!

Black cod, two ways.

Woah! Two posts in one night? (Note that this one had its genesis almost a month ago.)

Tonight we talk about black cod. It's a pretty damn good fish. It's richer in texture than the Atlantic cod & haddock I know and love. It has more flavor, and yes you could say that flavor is fishy, but in a good way. Now, I love a strong-flavored fish but a lot of people prefer milder ones, so when I say "in a good way" I mean it's lovely and luscious and not overpowering at all. Better yet, it will complement most side dishes very nicely and pick up a lot of flavor from any additional seasonings you decide to use.

In both dishes, I pan-seared the cod. I wanted to get the skin nice and crispy. The skin isn't thick like salmon, it crisps up pretty quickly and provides a welcome crunchy bite to the fish but is still pretty light and melt-in-your-mouth. Pan-searing is an easy method. Put your pan on medium high, add a knob of butter and a bit of olive oil, heat until the foam from the butter subsides, then add your fish (seasoned well with salt & pepper) skin side down. Bring the heat down a touch and then let it cook. You can use a big spoon to baste the skinless side of the fish with the liquid in the pan, this will help it cook faster. Turn the fish after about five minutes. If you've left it long enough, it won't stick and the skin will have a nice edge to it. Cook for another five minutes or so, depending on the size of the fillet. The ones I cooked were between 6-8 oz. You'll know when it's done, the fish will be white and opaque and tender but not falling apart.

In the first dish, I prepared the cod with a mix of black lentils and kale and topped it with a lemon vinaigrette. (Juice and zest from half a lemon, salt, pepper, a little olive oil.)

(Silly date stamp. Fortunately I have since found out how to get rid of this.)

Next dish was black cod with a squash & vegetable curry, inspired by cooky's Autumn Hellfire Pumpkin Curry. Mine was more Purgatory than Hellfire. Earlier posts notwithstanding, I don't really love the spicy pepper. Here is cooky's recipe lineup, adapted for those who like me are also in Spicyland Limbo. She made hers with chicken, which would work just fine in this version too, as would pork, tofu, or any other vegetable you might want to add. You could put fish in here, too, but I would probably opt for prawns or a lighter white fish like haddock or cod. Seared black cod is a really nice way to top this dish.

This is not the most artful picture, but it's also not the most blurry!

2 T thai red curry paste
1 can light coconut milk
1 quart chicken or vegetable stock
1 medium onion, julienned
1 clove of garlic, smashed
1 medium or two small butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced into uniformly sized chunks
1 small head each of cauliflower and broccoli (use 1/2 head if they're big)
5 stalks of thai purple basil, including buds
1/2 cup diced tomatoes or one fresh tomato seeded and diced
Fish sauce (nam pla)
Lime wedges for serving

1. In large saucepan, saute onions with salt and pepper in a little vegetable oil until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
2. Add red curry paste and stir, then add coconut milk and chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and stir until the curry paste is dissolved.
3. Add squash, cauliflower, garlic, and a few sprigs of thai basil. Stir and bring back to a simmer, check seasoning, and cover for about 15-20 minutes until squash is almost tender. *If you are making this with chicken/pork/tofu, you would add that at this point.*
4. Add broccoli and tomato and continue cooking until squash is cooked through and broccoli is steamed/simmered to your taste (I like to try and keep it sort of crunchy.) *If you want to make this with shrimp or haddock, you would add it at this point. Cooks quick!*
5. Finish with fish sauce to taste ("for salty")
6. Slice some basil into ribbons, serve curry in a bowl with a sprinkle of basil and a lime wedge (and that black cod if you're making it).

Stuffed peppers, who knew they could be so good?

So there's this stall at the market called Tonnemakers. They have a huge variety of produce--apples, melons, cherries, pears and peaches, tomatoes and corn, you name it--but it seems like peppers and apples are among their specialties.

See?

When I was at that market a few weekends ago, I decided to get a bag of peppers. I'd been eyeing them for awhile but kept deciding against them because I had no idea what I'd make. I practically never cook with peppers and really don't know how. Truthfully, they are not one of my favorite foods. My good friend Hans* said to me once, in college, that when she ate peppers, she ate them all day. Also true of doughnuts. I'm paraphrasing. The point is, they make you burp, and that's not something I can get behind. Can you? Spicy peppers are a breed apart and I think my next pepper project will involve these. Historically my tolerance for heat has been pretty low but it's getting better and I like a good spicy dish every now and again.

Maybe cooky will post again one of these days and tell me how to make it spicy. *hint*

I got a mix of sweet peppers, the names of which I can't entirely recall, but most of them were recommended as good for stuffing or frying. The long curly frying ones I still have and they are beginning to shrivel up, so what their fate will be is anyone's guess. The others, however, were either diced or stuffed in a haphazardly conceived but otherwise well-executed Sunday supper.

Stuffed peppers did not excite me as a prospect, initially. I kept thinking of the those frozen Stouffers peppers, which I remember making for my grandmother. They always looked sort of watery and mushy and as such are not among my favorite food memories. (However... homemade applesauce? Kitty Dukakis?** Hot milk sponge cake? Now we're talking.) But then I considered my other options--sausage & peppers, some kind of stir-fry, a roasted pepper sauce for pasta--and figured they were worth a shot.

Getting to supper was something of a journey. All the recipes I could find for stuffed peppers--online and in print--were very uninspiring. Beef, rice, ketchup or tomato sauce, breadcrumbs and cheese cropped up in most. Those could taste pretty good, but I didn't have those ingredients on hand. (As an aside, leftover risotto or a really nice ragu or chili might make an amazing stuffed pepper, too.) What I did have was some ground lamb and a pantry, so I worked up a kind of middle-eastern mix for the stuffing. Since the peppers were red and sweet, I think this was the right call flavor-wise. I ended up producing a fragrant savory-sweet heap of delicious.

And when I say heap, that's what I mean. Since my peppers were an odd shape, I had to cook them on their sides instead of standing, as you'd do with a traditional bell pepper. It was a little more messy that way, but I don't lose sleep over this kind of thing. I had a lot of stuffing leftover and topped with a quick egg poached in olive oil, it's been a great quick supper.


Moral of the story: stuffed peppers are much better than you may think! If you try these, let me know how they turn out. For vegetarians, you could easily substitute chickpeas for the lamb and add some chopped olives, too.

Stuffed Peppers a la Chefty

4 peppers, bell or otherwise--they just need to be big enough to accomodate a filling
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 or 2 small sweet peppers or 1 medium bell pepper, diced
3/4 -1 lb ground lamb
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tb cumin
1 tsp caradamom
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger (you could also use the same amount of fresh ginger, peeled and grated)
1/4 cup black currants
6 oz of feta cheese or paneer, diced
1/4 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted (optional to toast, I just like to)
1/2 cup brown rice or rice pilaf, dry (I used a packet of this Kashi pilaf, yum)
1 cup diced tomato, canned or fresh
olive oil
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly oil. If you're using bell peppers and want to stand them up all pretty, you can lightly oil a bundt, angel-food, or 9x9 square baking pan so they keep their form while they cook. Otherwise, if you have irregularly shaped peppers, you can just cook them on their sides and sacrifice aesthetics.

1. Slice tops off of peppers, remove core and seeds, and blanch peppers in boiling salted water for about a minute. Remove peppers to drain on a paper towel until you're ready to stuff them.

2. Using blanching water, cook brown rice or rice pilaf according to packager's instructions. You won't need to use all the water, just measure out what you need for 1/2 cup of dry rice. Of course, you can make as much rice as you want and save the leftover for something else. For the stuffing, you'll need about 1 cup of cooked rice.

3. Saute onion and pepper with salt and pepper in olive oil over medium heat until soft and beginning to color, about five minutes. Add ground lamb and cook through until brown but still juicy. Check for salt.

4. Add garlic, cumin, cardamom, coriander, ginger, and red pepper flakes and stir to combine.

5. Add tomatoes, cheese, and currants and stir to combine. Now's a good time to take a nice big whiff of the steam rising from the pan--guaranteed to make your stomach growl. Check again for seasoning.

6. Remove pan from the heat, add pine nuts and cooked rice. Taste.

7. Fill peppers to just shy of the top (not overflowing), you'll probably have stuffing leftover. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until peppers have softened slightly and filling has begun to sizzle.

8. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and serve with salad greens or just by themselves. If your peppers are on the small or skinny side, you could probably eat two (I did).

*Name changed.
**"Kitty Dukakis, you say? Is that code for rubbing alcohol?" Shame on you. No, it's a recipe by Kitty Dukakis that was printed one year in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette (or maybe the Boston Globe) around the holidays and has since become a family favorite of ours. I don't remember exactly how you make it, but it's basically cranberry jello with sour cream and walnuts. Like stuffed peppers, much better than it may sound at first.

Everyone's favorite Parisian pistachio and chorizo cake

Warm and sliced open. So pretty! This is probably a good party conversation piece.

Baking chemistry pleases me in a way I can't really describe. I love nooks, crannies, flaky layers. Leavening, it's cool.

This is definitely one for the recipe box, all credit due to two favorite Parisians.

A vegetarian version might be good with olives instead of chorizo and maybe some parmesan cheese. The cake delicious just by itself, but I also bet it would be nice sliced thin with a bit of goat cheese, or toasted with some olive oil, tapenade, or butter.

Oh, and I did not end up having any eggs or salad with this. Instead I munched on some more string beans with pesto while the cake was in the oven. And because I know how scintillating this is-- how suspenseful, even!--let me tell you: these particular beans, which were purchased from the same stall that gave me last week's amazing beans, were not nearly as good as that first batch or as tender and sweet as the ones I had last night.

Change really is the only thing you can count on.

Update: people at work *hated* this, in fact someone spit it out! But my supperclub friends seemed to really like it so... who knows?

A rare but happy occasion.

I just came across this recipe (thank you David Leibovitz--he of the amazing salted caramel ice cream) and realized I have *all* the ingredients at home to make it. Well, except for the sun-dried tomatoes, but those are easy to pick up.

I think I'll have this tonight with some poached eggs and a salad. Sounds good, doesn't it? I have no idea what to expect from this curious mix of ingredients, but I'm hoping it will be sink-your-teeth-in delicious.

More to come...