Summer Bean Salad with Lime Vinaigrette

I've been making a variation of this salad all summer. I don't think I've ever actually made it as directed below, but it's the kind of thing that lends itself to variation. I love the crunch of cucumber, the sweetness of fresh corn, and the sweet-tartness of fresh summer tomatoes. The part that pulls the recipe together is the yummy lime vinaigrette. The proportions are spot on and this is a great way to use up limes if, like me, you bought 15 one day when they were on sale at 15/$1.


Summer Bean Salad with Lime Vinaigrette

Salad
3/4 cup uncooked small macaroni
1 1/2 cups halved grape tomatoes
3/4 cup diced peeled avocado
1/2 cup chopped seeded poblano chile
1/2 cup chopped cucumber
1/3 cup chopped red onion
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained & rinsed
Vinaigrette
2 tsp lime zest
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic (3/4 tsp), minced
3/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground red pepper

• Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and cool completely.

• Combine the tomatoes, avocado, poblano, cucumber, onion, cilantro, and beans in a medium bowl, stirring to combine.

• Combine zest, juice, vinegar, oil, garlic, salt & pepper in small bowl, whisking well. Add pasta and lime vinaigrette to veggie mixture; toss to combine.

*From Cooking Light magazine

Fresh Peach Ice Cream

For my birthday a very smart man got me David Lebovitz's book The Perfect Scoop. It's a compendium of amazing ice cream recipes, varying from chocolate and vanilla to basil and avocado. For my inagural taste test, I decided on fresh peach, which seems like a great way to eat in season. I've never been a big fruit ice cream person, but maybe with my tastes changing in other ways, ice cream is not far behind?

This recipe was really delightful. It has tangy, sour notes but tastes strongly of fresh peaches, too. It was pretty foolproof to make (especially compared to some of the recipes in the book) and uses less cream than many ice creams. It was certainly better than some of my invented creations, though I have to say that I thought of malted milk ice cream before I saw the recipe in the Lebovitz book! I'll be interested to see if his version beats mine (probably).

I stuck to this recipe pretty closely. I didn't have sour cream so I substituted cream cheese and half & half. I also used two peaches and one nectarine -- perhaps these substitutions are why my ice cream tasted rather tangy. A bit more cream cheese, and I would have had Peach Cheesecake ice cream -- not altogether a bad idea.

Fresh Peach Ice Cream

1 1/3 lbs peaches (3 or 4 large)
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
a splash of fresh lemon juice

- Peel the peaches, slice them in half and remove the stone. Chop them into small-ish chunks and cook them with the water in a saucepan over medium heat, covered, stirring once or twice, until soft and cooked through, about 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat, stir in sugar, then cool to room temperature. You can use an ice bath to speed this process up.
- Puree the cooked peaches and the final four ingredients in a blender or food processor until almost smooth but still piecey. Alternately, you can mash the cooked peach with a potato masher or similar.
- Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator or over an ice bath (the colder the mixture, the quicker and better the ice cream will freeze), then freeze in your ice cream maker.

Double Chocolate Souffles with warm fudge sauce

A few Christmases back, I got a souffle pan, but the prospect of making a souffle always seemed so daunting, so I never used it. Then I saw a long article in Cooking Light a while back, all about how to make the perfect souffle. Included were several recipes for unique and low-fat dishes. Armed with a good recipe and new, adorable candy-colored ramekins (the Christmas souffle pan is in storage, alas), I tried my hand at my first souffle.

I halved this recipe and it fit into four little ramakins. I think this recipe would also work as-is for a normal souffle pan. The resulting desserts turned out rich and very chocolatey, which is great considering they're pretty low-fat (about 9 grams of fat, 300 calories each, including 2 tablespoons of sauce). For a chocolate souffle, I'd say that's pretty good. The souffle is better than the sauce, though, which tasted too flour-y to me. If you didn't mind a few extra calories, I'd make a regular chocolate sauce and maybe add a dollap of sweetened whipped cream on top. I'm leaving out the chocolate sauce recipe as it wasn't so good; you'll have to substitute your own.

Souffle:

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar, divided
3 tbsp flour
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups fat-free milk
3 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
6 large egg whites

- Move oven rack to the bottom of the oven, and remove the middle rack. Preheat oven to 425.
- Lightly coat 6 eight-ounce souffle dishes with cooking spray or a little butter. Sprinkle evenly with 2 tbsp of sugar.
- Combine remaining 1/2 cup sugar, 3 tbsp flour, 3 tbsp cocoa, and salt in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring with a whisk. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly with a whisk; bring to a boil. Cook 2 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring constantly; remove from heat.
- Add chocolate and stir until smooth. Cool to room temperature, then stir in vanilla and egg yolk.
- Place egg whites in a large non-reactive mixing bowl and beat at high speed with a mixer until stiff peaks form (but don't overbeat!!). Gently fold 1/4 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold in remaining.
- Sharply tap dishes2 or 3 times on counter to level. Place dishes on baking sheet; place sheet on bottom rack of oven. Immediately reduce temperature to 350. Bake 40 minutes or until a wooden toothpick insterted into the side of the souffle comes out clean. Don't peak while they're cooking or they won't rise properly!
- Serve warm, straight from the oven when possible, with a drizzle of chocolate sauce.

Roasted Eggplant with Yogurt Sauce

After a long hiatus of few cooking adventures, some exciting things are happening in the kitchen. Most thrillingly, I bought an ice cream maker at a thrift shop in the West Village. It's your standard we-got-married-twenty-years-ago-and-haven't-used-this-thing-once-let's-finally-get-rid-of-the-clutter ice cream maker; I think it's the same model my dad and I had back in the late 1980s for girl scout ice cream chemistry projects. It's never been used, so at $8.00, quite the bargain. For quite some time now I've been ready to spend $30 or $40 for the priveledge of making my own delicious frozen confections.

My first attempt at making mocha frozen yogurt tasted like, well, yogurt that was cold. The book is wrong when it says, "Just pour in any flavored yogurt, turn, freeze, and voila!" What I made did not taste at all like any frozen yogurt I've had anywhere. I think the key is to add sugar, and maybe to use Greek yogurt, which is milder and creamier. In any case, I'm moving on to regular ice cream tonight or tomorrow, and hopefully that recipe will yield better results.

I've also been thinking for a while now about an eggplant dish I had at an Afghan restaurant while I was in California last Christmas. It was soft eggplant smothered in a creamy sauce, and it was delicious -- unlike any eggplant I've ever had. This week I found myself in possesion of a few little Chinese eggplants, so I decided to try to replicate the dish as best I could. I think it turned out lovely, though not quite what I had in California. I roasted the epplants with a few chopped onions in the oven, then made a variation on a yogurt sauce from a cucumbers-in-yogurt recipe. Finally I added some chickpeas to the mix to make it a full dinner (I guess I would have used lamb if I ate that) and served over brown rice. While I doubt this dish is authentic to Afghan, Moroccan, Turkish, or any kind of Middle Eastern cuisine, it was my own take and pretty good in the end.


Eggplant in Yogurt Sauce

For the Eggplant:

2-3 small Chinese eggplants or 1 large European variety, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/2 large onion, roughly chopped
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cracked pepper

- Preheat the oven to 375.
- Toss the vegetables with the oil and seasoning. Scatter in one layer on a baking sheet.
- Bake for about 15 minutes, then flip the veggies and bake another 10-15 minutes, until they are soft and crisp at the edges. Remove from oven.

For the Yogurt Sauce:

1 1/2 cups plain yogurt (preferably Greek)
Juice of one lemon (2 tbsp)
1-2 large garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cracked pepper
3/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp dried seasoning (I used sage but dill or parsley is preferable)

- Mix all ingredients. Let sit for at least 10-15 minutes to meld flavors.
- Pour over the eggplant and onion.
- You will use only about a third of the sauce; the other two-thirds can be mixed with cucumbers for a side salad or with warmed chickpeas for a main course. This dish should be served at room temperature or slighly warm but not hot or cold. Serves 2 with leftovers.

*Yogurt sauce recipe adapted from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant.

Roasted Winter Vegetables

Lovely as a side dish with chicken or lentils, roasted vegetables hit the spot on a cold winter's night. But they don't have to be limited to side dish status -- I piled mine into a goat-cheese omlette. The creamy cheese is a wonderful foil for salty, strong-flavored veggies. Serve for lunch in your Northern California backyard, with a crisp beer and a little side salad, on a sunny March day!



Use any combination of root vegetables or squash that takes your fancy... The cooking time won't vary too much. By cooking hard roots like beets the same length of time as tender squash like zucchini, you guarrantee the same relative texture; that is, the roasted beets will still be firmer than the roasted zucchini, but none should be over or under-done.

Vegetables:
1 medium sweet potato
1 large zucchini
1/2 large onion
2 large carrots
2 medium beets

Dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp dried sage
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 450 F.
Wash and peel vegetables, then roughly chop them; it's good if the pieces are relatively uniform in size. Put vegetables in a large bowl. Whisk together dressing ingredients and pour over vegetables, then toss so all are evenly coated with dressing.
Spread in a single layer (or as close as you can get) on an unoiled 11x17 baking pan, or use two baking sheets (Pyrex glass pans work fine as well). Bake for 40 minutes, stirring after 20 minutes, until crispy, browned, and tender.

Recipe adapted from Moosewood Restaurant New Classics

Candy Making 101

I am on a quest to learn how to make candy. I have the thermometer. I have the pastry brush. Lord knows I have the sugar. But I'm a little scared; I can't imagine a more ironic death for the sugar obsessed than spilling a pan and being burned alive by molten sugar. So I'm easing into the process by practicing with two very easy, no-fuss, no boil candy recipes. Both turned out great, so I am encouraged to move on to marshmallows and caramels!


Chocolate-covered cornflakes. How deliciously kitchy. In the article where I got this recipe, the author claimed she first had them at Jacques Torres chocolatier here in NYC, but I imagine they were cooked up by a bored housewife or a General Mills food promotions exec back in the '50s. In any case, chocolate-covered cornflakes are malty, crunchy, sweet, and spectacularly easy to make.

Recipe

* 1/2 lb. Semi-sweet or Bittersweet Chocolate, chopped
* 2 Cups Corn Flakes (fresh is best)

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler until almost melted. Take from heat and stir chocolate until smooth. Pour half over the corn flakes and quickly stir with rubber spatula. Add remaining chocolate and fold gently until all of the corn flakes are generously coated with chocolate. Using two teaspoons, scoop the chocolate-covered corn flakes onto a waxed-paper-lined cookie sheet, shaping into clusters. (Alternately, spread out on cookie sheet into individual flakes - or as close as you can get.) Let set. Makes about a cookie-sheet full. Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.


Rocky Road Fudge. Having been a candy fiend for most of my life, I've sampled many different types of fudge from many different places - maple fudge from Vermont, chocolate fudge by the seaside in Santa Cruz, and peanut butter fudge in the unparalleled fudge hotspot of Mackinac Island. Most fudges are sweet and rich. The recipe I chose to make is rich indeed, but with a more sophisticated and grown-up chocolate taste. Its flavor depends on using quality ingredients - really fine chocolate is a must. But for such sophisticated taste, this is really simple to throw together.

Recipe

16 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup walnuts
1 cup marshmallows

Line an 8x8" pan with a piece of greased aluminum foil, folded over to create a double layer (or use a single layer of heavy-duty foil). In a medium, heat-proof bowl or the top of a double boiler, toss together chocolates, soda, and salt. Stir in condensed milk and vanilla. Place bowl over a pan of boiling water, taking care that the water does not touch the pan (same with double-boiler). Stir mixture for 2-4 minutes, until most but not all of the chocolate has melted. Remove from heat and stir two more minutes, until all the chocolate has melted. Stir in the walnuts and marshmallows. Spread the fudge into the prepared pan and chill until set, about 2 hours.

As a note, these taste much better at room temperature than straight from the fridge. It's worth taking a piece out 20 minutes before you want to eat it to let it come up to room temperature.

These will keep about 2 weeks in the fridge or a month in the freezer.

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated.

Chocolate Raspberry Sandwich Cookies

This is what I made for my sweetheart for Valentine's Day: obscenely good chocolate raspberry sandwich cookies. Seriously, the picture doesn't demonstrate how brilliant the raspberry flavor is with the chocolate. I guess you'll just have to imagine.

The recipe for the cookies is adapted from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion. The only changes I made were to add some wheat flour (as is my wont) and to add half brown sugar (mostly because I ran out of white, but the flavor compliments the chocolate, I think). The recipe for the filling is from Moosewood Restaurant New Classics. It's actually a vegan frosting for chocolate cake, but it worked wonderfully as a filling here.

Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1/4 tsp(heaping) salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
2 cups semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips

- Preheat oven to 350F.
- In a large bowl, beat together the cream and sugar until well combined. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the salt and the vanilla.
- In a seperate bowl, wisk together the flour, cocoa, and baking powder. Gradually blend this mixture into the butter mixture until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Drop the dough by teaspoonful onto parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving about 1.5 inches between each. Bake for 11 to 12 minutes; they'll feel soft on top and will have spread out. Transfer to a rack to cool.
- When the cookies are completely cool, you can fill them. Instructions below.

Filling

1/3 cup raspberry jam
1 cup semisweet chocolate

- Combine jam and chocolate and melt in microwave: try 20 seconds, then stir. If chocolate is not yet completely melted, microwave again in 5 seconds increments. Don't overheat!
- Scoop about a teaspoonful of filling onto one cookie and spread with a knife or offset spatula. Top with another cookie and leave an hour or two to set. Repeat with remaining cookies.