FOOD ON THE FOOD

A Fond Farewell to Leonard Nimoy

Watching Star Trek reruns with my dad was such a nostalgic part of my childhood. My little sister would smudge the TV screen with 4-year-old kisses whenever Captain Kirk appeared, but I was always more enthralled by Spock—his dignified charm, his cool-headed reason. Needless to say, no grandiose displays of affection were made.

While I know that Spock lives on (e.g., in the well-timed DVDs that Husband bought me for Christmas), I admit that I'm a little crushed that the man who gave Spock life is no longer with us, knowing that the beloved fictional character he created was surely infused with many elements of himself.

 

Buried Treasure

I just dug a waist-high path to my grill. The inspiration: these grilled pork and pineapple tacos al pastor. I’m going to try them out in the freezing cold tonight. Wish me luck!

Pining for Green

Okay, it’s official. I think I speak for everyone in the Northeast when I say we’re done with winter. Done with snow shoveling. Done with ice dams. Done with the wind and the freezing temperatures. Done with driving thru too-narrow streets and ripping the side-view mirror off my car. Done with arguing with college kids about parking. (This isn’t college math. There are six of you next door who are half my age. Go grab a shovel and dig out your own goddamn spots.) And we haven’t even gotten this weekend’s exciting freezing rain, yet, which will soak into all that snow like a sponge and collapse roofs and flood basements. Yay for arguments over insurance claims!

God, I can’t wait for spring. I’ve already placed my seed order for the school garden in anticipation. I even mapped out the whole rotation plan. Usually there is no plan. None at all. That’s how desperate I am to see some green.

And speaking of healthy food, it’s hard to get back on track with sensible eating during the winter doldrums, but here’s some salad inspiration anyway. You can make the dressing with that big jar of tahini in the back of the fridge that you bought to make hummus that time. This dressing really brightens up a winter salad and seems to make it heartier, which is something you need on these frigid days. Try it with mixed greens, some sliced cucumber, shredded carrots, a little chopped grilled chicken or pile of chicken salad, and some torn-up mint leaves or cilantro. You could even add some cubed avocado or sliced Asian pear.

Then enjoy while you dream of warmer days ahead.

Creamy Tahini Dressing  

The original recipe also called for 1 Tbsp. Asian chile oil, which I didn’t have, but I thought the dressing was plenty flavorful (and already had a decent kick) without it. Add back if you see fit.

1/4 cup tahini
3 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. tamari or soy sauce
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tsp. chopped peeled fresh ginger
1 tsp. sambal oelek or Sriracha
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine the tahini, vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and sambal oelek in the bowl of a food processor. Puree until blended. With the machine on, slowly drizzle in the oil until incorporated. Transfer to a half-pint jar and season with salt and pepper.

Source: Adapted from Stuart Brioza of The Progress and State Bird Provisions (San Francisco), as featured in Food & Wine

Valentine’s Day Blizzard of Love

I bumped today’s exciting salad post in favor of something sweeter. What can I say, Cupid wasn’t really feeling the greens. He tried to shoot a head of lettuce at my face with his bow, but it bounced right off.

Anyway, it’s snowing again here in Boston. Another day, another blizzard, and I’m going to need something more powerful than love to help me heave all of this snow over the existing 10-foot snow banks. Something that will give me the strength and agility to do so in subzero wind chills while simultaneously dodging all of those dagger-like icicles hanging from the rooflines.

So consider this toffee recipe my form of blizzard insurance. With any luck, it’ll get me out there and back inside in under three hours. That it might also pass for something Valentine-y is purely coincidental.


English Toffee  

Sometimes I add 1/2 tsp. of vanilla to the toffee if I want a stronger, more butterscotchy flavor.

1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted
Pinch or two of coarse sea salt

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter, sugar, water, and salt. Stir constantly until the butter and sugar melt, and then stir occasionally until a candy thermometer reads 300°F. Remove from the heat and pour the mixture into an ungreased 13x9-inch pan.

Let the toffee sit undisturbed for 3 to 5 minutes until it stiffens a bit (don’t touch it with your fingers—it’s hot; you just want it stiff enough to hold the weight of the chocolate chips—set one on top and see if it sinks). Once the toffee has cooled a bit but still radiates heat, scatter the chocolate chips on top. Let them sit for 5 minutes to melt, and then spread the chocolate evenly over the toffee, all the way to the edges. Scatter the nuts on top, pressing gently to adhere. Sprinkle with sea salt. Let cool completely for several hours.

To remove the toffee from the pan, stab it with a butter knife near the corner to crack it and remove a piece. Continue to break off irregular pieces with your hands or remove the whole slab to a cutting board. Store the pieces in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Danish Braid Tutorial

I’m putting together our latest family album, and while I was mercilessly eliminating photos, I came across this tutorial I had intended to share last winter. It shows how to make a Danish braid, which is probably the most time-consuming recipe in my cookbook. You make your own Danish pastry, for one thing, but then the process of shaping the dough is really hard to describe without visuals. I did my best to explain it with words, but if you think you might attempt a Danish braid on one of these (many!) snow days, here’s a little something to help you along.

Danish Braid Technique (to supplement the recipe in WINTERSWEET, page 204-7)

First, mix together your dough ingredients into a shaggy ball.

Knead it for a minute until it comes together into a smooth dough. Roll out the dough on a floured surface into a 16-inch (41-cm) square. Spread the softened butter over the bottom half of the dough, leaving a 1-inch (2.5-cm) margin around the edges. Or, if you’re like me and you forget to set your butter out to soften, you can slice the cold butter and arrange the pieces as pictured.

Fold the top half of the dough over the buttered bottom half, and pinch the edges closed.

Now imagine that the dough is a piece of paper. Fold the dough into thirds like a business letter.

Roll the dough up and down (not to the sides) until you have a rectangle about 16 inches (41 cm) tall.

Fold the dough into thirds like a business letter again, this time bottom to top. Then wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to relax the gluten.

Roll out the dough to about 12 x 16 inches (30 x 41 cm). Then cut the dough in half so you have two 12 x 8 pieces of dough. Gently transfer each to a separate baking sheet. Spread your cream cheese filling down the middle third of the dough as pictured, and top with your favorite jam.

Using a sharp paring knife, cut a slightly diagonal line from each of the top corners toward the filling, stopping just short of the filling. Continue cutting parallel lines beneath those lines about 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart, until you reach the bottom. Trim off the upper and lower triangles from each side (save them to make little crescent rolls!).

Starting from the top, fold one strip over the filling and gently tuck it underneath. Now take a strip from the other side and fold that one over the filling, criss-crossing the strip from the other side, and tuck the end underneath.

Repeat, alternating sides. Do the same for the second sheet of dough (or try making the other Danish shapes shown here).

Let the braids rise until nearly doubled in bulk. Then brush the pastry (not the filling) with beaten egg and bake 20 to 24 minutes at 375°F (190°C). Remove the Danish from the oven and brush with sugar syrup before letting it cool completely. Once cool, drizzle with icing if desired and serve.

If you look closely, you’ll notice that this isn’t the same braid as the one pictured at the beginning of this post. I’m notorious for eating the thing before I have a chance to take the money shot. But luckily I found another photo from a previous year.

If you attempt it, let me know how it turns out!

Pomegranate + Burrata = Love

I’ve been all about pomegranates lately.

My fling started with a salad disguised as dessert (my favorite kind). It had ripe slices of persimmon, creamy burrata cheese, crunchy homemade sesame brittle, and pomegranate seeds over arugula, dressed with a maple-balsamic vinaigrette. It was very tasty (you can find the recipe from Food & Wine here). We've been eating the leftover pomegranate seeds ever since: just plain, with Greek yogurt, and sprinkled over the remaining burrata.

A few words about burrata. I didn’t have a full understanding of what this Italian cheese really was before I bought a container from Maplebrook Farm. I knew it was a soft, mild cheese, one that was vaguely mozzarella-like, but apparently I was confusing it with bocconcini, the little balls of fresh mozzarella. So I was surprised when I opened the container to find one large ball of mozzarella.

When I removed it from the container with a spoon, it seemed to quiver like a water balloon. I was perplexed, but I forged ahead. I placed the cheese on a board and cut right into it, which caused an explosion of cream and runny cheese curds to spray forth all over the counter, running down my kitchen cabinets. Turns out it was a water balloon! Just one made out of cheese and filled with creamy goodness. (If you’re as interested in how they make it as I was, check out the process here).

I learned three things from this experience. One, maybe ease up on the stabbiness when it comes to portioning out burrata (and do it over a shallow bowl to catch all the exploding cheese). Two, that I love burrata. And three, that I love burrata with pomegranate seeds. The tart, juicy pop of the seeds against the soft, milky curds is just wonderful. It would make a totally indulgent Valentine’s Day dessert that’s very fresh and not too sweet.

 

How to Seed a Pomegranate: If you look at a pomegranate, you’ll notice it has fat ridges that run from pole to pole like thick longitudinal lines. If you cut gently just through the skin down one of those long ridges, and then again down another one of the adjacent ridges, you can pull a wedge of mostly intact seeds out of the fruit. Then you can just loosen the seeds gently with your fingers, pulling out the thin white membranes that enclose them. I store the remaining fruit in a sealed plastic bag in the fridge until I need to cut another wedge. If you need a lot of seeds at once, it’s often more efficient to submerge the wedges in a bowl of water so you can move a little quicker without the seeds squirting juice all over you. Then you can drain off the water and scoop out the seeds.