A Page from my Book...

... and  one of my favorite things.  This is a super simple and amazingly delicious way to start a morning. I created an illustrated cookbook for my niece's bridal shower gift last year, a compilation of my little kitchen faves. 

This quesadilla eventually morphed into what I call a tacodilla (a hybrid of these two recipes) inspired by my two favorite blogs 101 cookbooks and smitten kitchen.

Kuri Curry Coconut Soup & A Day on the Farm

This pretty pumpkiny thing is a Kuri squash. I picked it right out of the patch with my own two hands along with the butternut and a whole bunch of onions. I'll get back to this.

Photographing pureed soups is just best left to the experts. I lacked the werewithal to come up with photo friendly garnish strategies because this soup was so damn good that I couldn't bear to let it sit around while I noodled around with what?...chives? fried shallots? squeeze bottle drizzle art? No. None of that because I realized that this soup was not about that particular destination. It's the farm to table journey that bears note.

I went to Sonoma last week to get my first gander at the Bi-Rite Farm. I did more than gander. I harvested. I traveled up the afternoon before with a small caravan of co-workers. We spent the night at my boss Sam's gorgeous weekend home, cooking a lovely meal together in a true chef's kitchen around a ginormous island. 

After our meal of chili & cornbread, a few beers and a round of Cards Against Humanity, we hit the sleeping bags and got out to the farm early the next morning.

I picked this crazy lemon cucumber.

This was really overgrown, at first I thought a melon snuck it's way into the cucumber patch. I'd never seen a lemon cucumber until last year when I started working at Bi-Rite. They are ready to harvest when they are the size of a fat lemon, speckly pale green with a blush of yellow. 

We picked the last of the red beans, then pulled up the plants and mashed them into the compost heap. Amaranth weeds were yanked and  fed to the cows next door, one of which was destined for our market shortly and carrot tops were fed through the fence to the donkeys at the other next door farm. There is virtually no waste here. The pretty stuff goes to the markets and the rest goes to the kitchens.

A new crop to the farm... hops. I was invited to tear into one of these buds and rub it around in my hands. It was like perfume. These are destined for a limited edition Bi-rite brew. I've renewed my love of beer since working at the market. I've had the opportunity and great good fortune to be able to taste a vast array of amazing small craft brews and after 15 years of bloaty beer banishment, I am back and truly in love with all manner of hoppy beers. IPA all the way.

I came home with a couple of squashes, a bunch of red torpedo spring onions and fistful of rosemary. I didn't want to get greedy, thinking of what I was capable of using soon and carrying along with my sleeping bag and other gear once we got back to the city.

The very next day I got this going:

I caramelized most of the onions & roasted up the kuri squash. The great thing about the kuri squash is that you can eat the skin. Here's how this all went down:

Kuri Curry Coconut Soup

1 medium Kuri squash cut into 1" cubes
3 spring onions-caramelized
1 teaspoon of Penzey's Sweet Curry Powder
1 teaspoon cumin
olive oil
salt & pepper
2 large cloves of garlic
4 cups water
1 heaped tablespoon Better than Bouillion Chicken broth base
1 can coconut milk

Cook down the onions first. In general it takes about an hour to get a good caramelization if you go with the low and slow method. These farm fresh onions took even longer because they were so juicy...not like the drier supermarket/produce market onions I'm used to that have been sitting around for god-knows-how-long. It took me a while to figure that out. I cooked the first batch within 8 hours of picking. I was seriously thinking "What is wrong with these onions? Why are they taking so long?" City girl. It was really hard to resist turning up the heat to get them to go faster. I refrained. I'm not sure what difference it would have made to the soup, but I like to think a world of...

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees.

Toss the squash with big glug of olive oil, curry, cumin, salt and pepper. Spread onto parchment lined sheet pans, using as many as needed so as not to crowd the pan. Roast for 15 minutes, toss and roast for another 15 minutes.

I had caramelized the onions the night before, so I reheated them in the bottom of the pot with some chopped garlic. Heat up a pot of water and start a broth with the innards of the squash, cooking for about 30 minutes. Strain and add the chicken broth base and dissolve. Add more water if needed to reach 4 cups of broth. Bring to a boil. Add the roasted squash and...it wasn't until this moment that I realized I could have roasted a bunch of garlic with the squash...next time. Maybe. This soup turned out so great that I seriously had to resist over thinking it.

Anyhoo...let the soup simmer for 30 minutes. Puree (carefully-it's super hot). Return to the pot and stir in the coconut milk. Done and Delish!

This soup is killer with a grilled cheese sandwich to dunk into it.

Chevre and Roasted Tomato Toasts with Fresh Za'atar

A while back, I spent a rainy "weekend" in the little kitchen cooking up my favorite condiments -The Three Amigos - slooowww roasted tomatoes, caramelized onions, & roasted red peppers. I then cooked up big batches of barley and white beans for the freezer,  hard boiled some eggs, and made a batch of fresh za'atar, (a Middle Eastern herb & spice blend of thyme, oregano, toasted sesame seeds, salt & sumac),

A day in the little kitchen makes the work week meals a breeze.

Simple omelets and grilled cheese sandwiches take on a whole new level of flavor, a quick blitz of  white beans and roasted peppers or slow roasted tomatoes (along with olive oil & lemon juice) in the food processor make up a lovely spread - the perfect snack with some toasted pita chips. Spread all over a big flour tortilla + egg salad + fresh herbs, or sliced lunch meat + caramelized onion + a generous sprinkle of za'atar, roll it up and you're good to go or slice it into pretty pinwheels.

My favorite quickie meal is a tartine or open-faced, loaded toasts. This one consists of slices of crusty country loaf which were brushed with olive oil and toasted in the oven, then rubbed with garlic, next spread with a mixture of chevre & za'atar, topped with slow roasted tomatoes and another sprinkle of za'atar.

Mr. Crispy

Lunchtime, originally uploaded by michele wynne.

I can noodle away hours and hours searching for that next best recipe, seeking inspiration and making list upon list of new ingredients to try, cook books to reserve and peruse, restaurants and food shops I want to check out. I hit up my favorite foodie blogs and make more lists. I love lists...making them and then crossing things off them.
A few weeks ago I came across Smitten Kitchen's post about her recent vacation in Italy and I've been thinking about it ever since. She posed this question:

"Where are you going this summer and what can't you wait to eat when you get there?"

I'm not going anywhere, sometimes I think I'll never go anywhere again. But I started a list anyway. Things I would eat in Paris which morphed into Places I would like to eat in Paris. I Googled and Google mapped my way through Paris' eateries.
I couldn't stop thinking of all the travelling I used to do and all the food I didn't eat. I was not an adventurous eater. I dug out the journal from a 1997 trip to Paris that I unearthed during my latest Feng Shui purge. 

I subsisted on a diet of baguettes, brie and beer. There was the occasional addition of  salami (if I came across something that resembled the super-thin slices found in a package of Gallo) when I felt like a splurge. The ultimate indulgence was the rare Omelette Fromage. It's embarassing now to think how delighted I was with myself and my travel saavy resourcefulness, when one day I wandered into a little bistro in the Bastille, later writing, "Where else can you get a sandwich and beer for $4.00!?!?!" Yes, part of it was frugality but I was also the pickiest eater ever. That was my biggest challenge when I travelled. In the Greek Islands, when all of my friends were gorging on calamari, I was eating French fries dipped in Tzatziki sauce.

 What I wouldn't give now to be able to eat my way through Paris. Trying as many classic dishes as I could.  As things stand now I'd have win the lottery or charm a wealthy patron. I have this ridiculous illusion that one of my moneyed chums would be so desirous of my personally tweeked guidance through the arrondisements of Paris that they would insist on our funding a gastronomic assault on its bistros and brasseries.
I would start simply. My current obsession with the Croque Monsieur would be my jumping off point.

#1 Croque Monsieur and Croque Madame: I wouldn't have touched either of these with a ten foot pole back then because I didn't like ham and the whole egg deal in the Croque Madame grossed me out...and the béchamel sauce? What the hell was that all about? Sheeesh!

#2 Boeuf Bourguignon: It was probably out of my budget range back then but even if it weren't I would have been afraid of biting into big fatty hunks of meat. That would have totally grossed me out.

#3 Coq au Vin: see #2
#4 Ratatouille-well...the eggplant.
#5 Yes! I would eat Escargot now! I've never eaten it but if I were ever to get to Paris again, I would do it.

I have been inspired to prepare some of these classic French dishes. First up:

Le Croque Monsieur
(this translates as the Crispy Mister)
It's still a work in progress (I've yet to attempt the béchamel version I've bookmarked in The Barefoot Contessa in Paris) so far, it goes a little bit like this:

2 slices of bread

butter

1/2 cup cheese (gruyere, emmentaler, gouda-anything flavorful that melts well) grated

2 slices of smoked ham-I've also used smoked turkey

caramelized onions

Dijon mustard

Turn on the broiler and on the stove top heat up a skillet on medium high heat. Butter  a couple of slices of bread and place the slices butter side down onto the hot skillet and pile on some grated cheese and cook until the underside of the bread is toasty and golden brown. Transfer the cheesy toasts onto a broiler proof pan and broil a few minutes until the cheese is all melty and bubbly.

Toss a couple slices of cooked Virginia ham into the still hot skillet to heat through then lay the slices on one side of the sandwich and caramelized onion on the other half, just as you remove the pan from the broiler. Spread a little or a lot of Dijon mustard on the ham side and sandwich your two melty slices together and slice in half and you're good to go.

I've made this a couple of times now and it's off-the-hook good. So good I failed to get a decent picture of it. The meal in the photo is a simple grilled cheese sandwich. The Scallion Ramen soup was a concoction I came up with when cleaning my pantry and discovering 3 packages of Top Ramen. I tossed out the flavor packet and made my own starting with a base of Chicken Better Than Bouillion and adding miso, fish sauce, caramelized onions and scallions then tossing in the noodles to absorb all of those great flavors.
The Orzo Salad is topped with a brilliant Salad Booster from 101 Cookbooks.

 

 

brown rice with toasted chickpeas and fried onions

brown rice with toasted chickpeas and fried onions, originally uploaded by riptideredsf.

I get a lot of satisfaction from multi-tasking, especially if it doesn't feel like it. Like riding my bike to work. I get my daily work out whilst I commute. There's only one other thing that makes me feel even more accomplished and smug: cooking in my sleep. I ALWAYS cook beans overnight in the slow cooker. It always used to be black beans I'd cook with the most frequency but I've been on a chickpea bender of late. They are just sooooo freakin' good. I cook them in chicken bouillon seasoned water with either a big sprig of thyme or rosemary. In the wee hours of the morning, I'm momentarily disoriented by the amazing aromas wafting through the room, wondering which evil neighbor tortures me with their enticing feats of cookery. I love that!

This  is a riff on a recipe I found in Jerusalem, the new and brilliant cookbook from London Chefs/Restauranteurs Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi.

I usually cook off a big pot of rice on Sunday to have on hand through out the week so I can make fried rice--my favorite and off-the-hook delish, refrigerator rescue.

This is where that jar of caramelized onions comes in handy-- you know, that one you made yesterday.

Toasted breadcrumbs are another great make-ahead.

Ottolenghi uses a combination of basmati and wild rice (much more attractive and I'm thinkin' much more flavorful in the finished dish) but I didn't have any on hand. He also finishes with fresh dill and oregano-didn't have any of that either, so I used dry. I truly believe that my sub-par substitions were off-set by the brilliance of the caramelized onions-the link below will take you to my method of preparation. You're going to want to make these onions ahead of time, in fact everything here can be made ahead and then tossed together and warmed in the oven or tossed in a skillet to heat everything through.

Brown Rice with Toasted Chickpeas and Fried Onions
adapted from Jerusalem

2 cups of cooked rice

Caramelized Onions
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 large onions, sliced about 1/4 inch thick
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

Toasted Chickpeas
2 cups of cooked or canned chickpeas
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon za'atar
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
a few grinds of pepper

Toasted bread crumbs
4-5 slices of day old bread
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tsp salt
fresh ground pepper-about 4 turns of the grinder
2 teaspoons za'atar

Fried Onions
1 medium onion sliced thinly
2 teaspoons flour
2/3 cup vegetable oil

2 cups cooked rice

1 tablespoons chopped flat leaf Italian parsley

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees.

Tear up the bread and pulse in the food processor 4-5 times until the largest crumbs are about the size of a large crouton. Transfer to a medium sized bowl and drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat, sprinkle the salt all over, grind the pepper all over and sprinkle the za'atar all over and toss. spread the crumbs onto a large baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes, toss and redistribute the crumbs on the baking sheet and bake for another 3 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the crumbs cool on the sheet pan. Transfer the crumbs into a bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, toss the cooked chickpeas with olive oil, salt, za'atar, cumin, paprika and pepper then spread them out on a large sheet pan, being careful not to crowd them or else they'll steam and not crisp well. Bake for 10 minutes, shake the baking sheet to move the chickpeas around a bit and bake for 10 more minutes, until they're slightly crispy. Remove from the oven and let them cool on the baking sheet.

In a medium bowl, toss in your sliced onions and sprinkle flour over top and toss lightly. Heat up the oil in a medium sauce pan over high heat. Drop a piece of the onion in. It should sizzle and bubble vigorously. Working in batches cook the onion until it browns, 3-4 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate and sprinkle with salt.

In a large bowl, add the warm rice, chickpeas, caramelized onions and fried onions. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons of za'atar over the surface and mix in. The za'atar can also be added after the rice is served.

Top with toasted breadcrumbs.

caramelized onion and mushroom tart

caramelized onion and mushroom tart, originally uploaded by riptideredsf.

Two years ago when I started educating myself about cooking, I knew nothing about caramelized onions. I didn't know what "caramelized" even meant. Sure, I'd cooked onions until they were brown, blindly following recipes without any analyzation of the process or result. Sugar in onions? Who knew? A few french onion soups had been produced throughout a lifetime of sporadic cooking, rarely processing the process. It was a  means to an end, satisfying hunger as quickly as possible, or occasional entertainment, and as long as the result wasn't burnt or raw or oversalted and tasted good (which meant edible) , the task was deemed a success, tagged with a bookmark or stuffed into a binder and I moved on.

I discovered a recipe for Onion Jam  in Kim Boyce's Good to the Grain last year. It was only then that  I fully understood the process. Suddenly, all of that browning and caramelizaton talk from Americas Test Kitchen finally made sense. If I had to choose my biggest kitchen AHA! moment, that would be it.
It takes about 90 minutes to cook the onions down their jammy consistency. Onion jam on a BLT is the most amazing thing ever. I mixed some into a tuna salad today that was off-the-hook. Even on a fork, all by itself, it's the ultimate marraige of sweet and savory in one bite. Caramelization is a beautiful thing and shouldn't be rushed. Onions for this tart don't have to be cooked this long though, you want more structure.

I came across this article at Slate.com this morning that was dead-on, humourous and an eye-opener about writing recipes. The writer accuses recipe writers of lying about how long it takes to caramelize onions, because the long cooking time is a deterrent to a recipes appeal. 

The article concludes: "The best time to caramelize onions is yesterday".

Earlier in the week I caramelized about 3 pounds of onions in a dutch oven. I was left with about 2 cups of gooey good onions. It keeps in an airtight jar for a week, though rarely lasts that long. I use caramelized onions in all kinds of ways, the breakfast tacodilla is it's most frequent destiny.

 I've been in  pastry mode for a couple of weeks now, so when I scored  giant bag of button mushrooms from the Chinese market I knew a tart was in my immediate future. This is a hybrid of recipes adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Dorie Greenspan's Around my French Table.

caramelized onions-again, way more than you need for this recipe and do this ahead of time. A dutch oven is great when cooking a large batch because the cast iron has great heat distribution, there's a lot of surface area to promote browning.

2 tablespoons oil
3 large yellow onions (sliced 1/4 thick)
1 teaspoon salt
black pepper
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

Heat the oil in dutch oven on medium-high heat and then add the onions. Toss until the onions are coated and cook until they start to brown, stirring infrequently, just to redistribute the onions so they come in contact with the surface of the pot. Once the browning starts (it take's about 20 minutes to get there), add salt, lower the heat and cover the pot and cook for another 20 minutes so the onions release their moisture and get really soft.

Remove the cover and continue to cook for another 30 minutes until the water evaporates and the onions become brown. De-glaze with red wine vinegar at the end.

Pastry
from smitten kitchen

1 1/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, diced
1 egg

In the food processor pulse the dry ingredients to combine. Pulse butter until it's in bits the size of small peas. Pulse in the egg until the dough forms.

On a floured work surface roll the dough into a 12 inch circle, carefully roll it over the rolling pin to lift it off the counter and into the tart pan. Press the dough into the corner of the pan and trim off the excess. If you're using a fluted tart pan with a removable base lift the tart pan by the edge and put it onto a plate. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

filling:

2 tablespoons butter
1 pound white button mushrooms-stems removed, sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1 cup of beef stock ( or vegetable stock)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1/2 cup caramelized onions
2 eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup fontina cheese (or gruyere)
salt
pepper
nutmeg
1 teaspoon dijon mustard

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Remove the chilled tart shell from the fridge. Line with foil or parchment and weight the pastry down with pie weights, dried beans or rice. I keep a jar of white beans labeled For Pastry and re-use.

Bake for 10 minutes, remove the weights, foil or parchment and bake for another 5 minutes, until the pastry appears dry, but not browning.

Remove from the oven and brush with dijon mustard. Set aside

While the pastry is par-baking (also called blind baking) heat up a  large skillet over medium high heat, melt the butter until it stops foaming. Add the sliced mushrooms and toss to coat, then let them cook undisturbed, about 5-7 minutes until they start to brown. Toss again to redistribute and continue to brown. Add the salt, pepper and tarragon. The mushrooms will release their water. Cook uncovered until the water evaporates and a fond  (the browned bits) forms on the skillet. Add the beef broth and de-glaze the skillet. Continue to cook until the broth reduces. Remove from the heat and stir in fresh thyme.

In a small bowl or a large pyrex measuring cup, wisk the eggs, cream, salt, pepper and nutmeg together then stir in the grated cheese.

Place your par-baked tart shell on a sheet pan, spoon in the caramelized onions and spread it evenly over the bottom. Then add your mushroom layer spreading it evenly over the onions. Pour the egg mixture over the surface.

Place the sheet pan on th middle rack of the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes until the center is puffed and brown. Let it rest for about 10 minutes, remove the fluted ring from the base. Slice and enjoy with a big green salad.

This tart re-heats nicely and I pack it for lunch.