Posole

Mom's posole all dressed up with shredded cabbage, radish, onions, cilantro and lime.

There are a few dishes that both my parents make where I definitely, on the downlow, prefer my mother's version hands down. Unfortunately for us kids, neither mom or dad ever write their recipes down. And like most recipes passed down from generation to generation, a lot of our family staple meals were made from learned recipes and never measured. It's a palmful of this, a pinch of that to taste, a teacup of that... all feel and guestimations. But mom's was always consistently spot on! And this is basically her recipe (as much as I can "guess"! LOL). When it's cold and breezey and sprinkley, this is the soup I crave with corn tortillas fresh from the tortillaria. 

Posole (or Pozole) is a peasant dish from Mexico traditionally made with pork neck bones, chili and hominy (dried maize – or corn – that has been treated with an alkali making it not only more digestible but significantly increases the nutrient value of untreated corn). If however, your local ethnic grocery store doesn't have neck bones, you can easily substitute it with a cubed pork roast or my preference, country style pork ribs (bone-in). 

I made this soup for lunch during our tamalada and it was a huge hit. At that time I made enough to nearly feed an army. This is a much more scaled down version but still enough to feed about 8 -10 people as an entrée. As with most soups and stews, flavors will concentrate overnight making this a great budget-conscious recipe as the leftovers can easily be frozen or saved for lunch the next day.

Posole - unadorned - nice and steaming! Yum!

POSOLE

2 pounds pork neck bones

2 pounds country style pork ribs (w/bone), cut into large pieces

48 oz prepared chicken stock (I prefer to make my own but when I'm feeling lazy I use Progresso)

1/4 cup ground California chili powder

1 tsp ground cumin

2 to 3 tbs, or to taste, Knorr's chicken bouillon

2 (12 oz) cans of hominy

In an 8 quart stock pot, add first 6 ingredients starting off with only 2 tbs of the bouillon. Simmer on medium to low flame for an hour, occasionally skimming off any foam or fat off the top. After the first hour, taste the broth adding more bouillon or chili to taste. Continue simmering on low for another hour and a half. Add the hominy and simmer an additional half hour to 45 minutes. Meat will be falling off the bone when ready. 

Serve with any combination of the recommended condiments. Some people like to add the oregano in the cooking process. Our family preferred to add it last over the condiments to preserve the oregano taste. I find it gets lost when adding it to the soup too early but if you aren't particularly fond of oregano as my family is, I do suggest adding it during the cooking process. About a palmful. :)

CONDIMENTS:

shredded cabbage

sliced radishes

chopped white or spanish onions

lime or lemon wedges

chopped cilantro

diced avocados

dried oregano

Petitchef, how cool is that?

I got a message from Vincent over at Petitchef.com inviting me to join their network. Wow, the pressure's on to get back to posting here regularly again! Since I'm also posting regularly to my photo blog , as well as creating art to sell on my Artfire and two Etsy sites (here and here), my goal will be to post at least once a week. I'm thinking I'll aim for weekends. Stay tuned!

Thanks again Petitchef for the honor!

Happy cooking everyone...until our next bite.

Roasted Baby Vegetables

For an upcoming food story on roasting vegetables, I volunteered to cook and photograph the recipe myself since having the reporter cook them at home, then transport them to the office so we could photograph it in the studio would result in very sorry looking wilted veggies! And I had a very clear idea of how I wanted the photos to look -- bright and saturated!

I made these twice now. The first following the recipe exactly as found here. I found the that the vinegar was VERY over powering and drowned out the delicate flavors that the roasting brought out in the veggies. Also, there wasn't enough salt or oil for the amount of vegetables. Of course, taking into consideration that this recipe is originally from Cooking Light, it made sense that they were being a bit stingy with the salt and oil.

Here's my modified version:

Roasted Baby Vegetables

1 1/2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons of finely chopped shallots
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 pound of baby carrots with tops
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 1/12 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
12 fingerling potatoes, halved
6 radishes, halved
2 cups of asparagus sliced on the bias
1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon chopped fresh chives

1. Preheat oven to 500˚
2. Combine vinegar, sugar and 1 1/2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a small bowl and whisk well to combine.
3. Trim green tops off the carrots and discard the tops. Place the carrots, potatoes and radishes in a metal roasting pan. Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the vegetables and sprinkle in the salt and pepper. Toss to coat.
4. Bake for 20 minutes checking in ever 5-8 minutes to stir the vegetables to help brown them evenly. Remove the pan from the oven, add the shallot mixture and asparagus; toss. Return to the oven and bake an additional 5 minutes or until the asparagus is fork tender.
5. Transfer to a serving dish and toss in the parsley and chives.

Tamalada

The Tamalada Girls, toasting with some yummy sparkling wine from South Coast Winery.

Everyone was so busy! Look at that concentration!

It's no secret by now, that food is the center of our family gatherings at least 90% of the time. Our family, especially when I was  young, would spend days preparing for them. There are so many foods from my childhood that I eat now that are associated with wonderful familial memories.

One of those family food traditions was the annual tamale making marathon every Christmas. As an adult, I've long since given up trying to find prepared tamales that rival my family's. And try as I might, I have never been able to duplicate my folks tasty treats – Dad doesn't write down his recipes. He never has. So I've come up with my own versions that come close to my parent's tamales and over the years I have periodically shared them with friends through tamaladas – or tamale-making parties.

A couple of weekends ago, I held the first one in more than 5 years. We had a great time. I brought together a couple of gals that don't often see each other and everyone had a chance to learn, make their own tamales and take part in a tradition that's been in my family since before I was born.

TAKE SHORTCUTS WHEN APPROPRIATE: I do take some shortcuts, not because of a lack of knowledge but rather a lack of time. I'd much rather spend the time making delicious molé. To that end, I buy prepared masa from a great local authentic Mexican restaurant. If you live in San Diego proper, I highly recommend buying it from El Indio. You just need to call 24hrs in advance to order it. They sell red masa (masa that has chili powder added) or white (plain masa) and they come in 5 and 10lb tubs. 10 lbs is what I recommend if you are making both of these recipes. It should yield you at least 60 tamales. I buy the white for sweet tamales but for regular meat tamales I prefer the added depth of flavor that comes from using the red chili infused masa. Make sure you request PREPARED masa as they also sell the unprepared ground masa which has no shortening and no leavening in it. If you've never made tamales before, you wouldn't know what to look for between prepared and unprepared masa. Spending hours making these tasty morsels only to mistakenly use unprepared masa means you'll end up with unedible rocks for tamales. A huge waste of time, money and effort! I've done it by accident. Learn from my mistake! :)

BUT IF YOU PREFER: I'm also including my recipe for the masa if you choose to make it from scratch. I seriously recommend a stand mixer such as a KitchenAid rather than using a hand mixer or – heaven for bid! – mixing by hand. Alas! I've seen so many recipes that say 'mix the dough until it forms a thick paste like peanut butter.' No, no, no. It should be light and airy like whipped butter or whipped cream cheese. The secret to a great tamale is in the masa first and foremost. It's the first thing people see and cut into, the first thing they taste. If the masa is tough or hard like a tortilla, you'll lose your audience. It should be like a slightly dense but still very moist artisanal bread when steamed properly. And it shouldn't be too thick. When assembling the tamale, lay the masa down no thicker than a 1/4". Trust me, it'll expand. Any thicker than that and you get a masa tamale with a little meat instead of a tamale balanced in flavor and texture. The former will chase people away, the latter, convert those who weren't previously fans of tamales. 

My family makes 3 kinds of tamales every year: chicken, beef and pork. For my event, I chose to make chicken and pork. I showed the girls how to assemble then left them to it while I kept washing husks, keeping the ingredients flowing, steaming and bagging the fruits of our combined efforts.

If your local grocery store doesn't have some of the ingredients, you can order them online from MexGrocer.com. They even have tamale making kits!

You'll need plenty of corn husks. Most grocery stores sell them in the ethnic foods /mexican foods aisle but if you can't find them at yours, you can check them out at MexGrocer.com as well. About two hours before you're ready to start assembling, boil water, place the husks in a large tub or ice chest (I use my large igloo cooler) and pour the boiling water over them to cover. This might take several pots of boiling water to cover. This will make the husks pliable. When you're ready to use them, take a handful over to the sink, and working in batches as needed, rinse the husks under warm water removing any leftover silk.

Also, I highly recommend NOT  substituting the California chili powder for the spice jars merely labeled 'chili powder' or 'chili powder blend.' This mole, as most moles and red chili (chili colorado) that aren't made from whole dried chili's, should only be made with the distinct flavor you get from California chili powder. It has the right blend of regional chili found in Mexican foods. You can get relatively inexpensive packets from your grocery store where they have the Mexican spices packaged in small plastic bags or you can get it from most bulk food stores (I buy mine at Smart & Final).

In addition to the items in the masa and filling recipes, you'll also need
• 4 green bell peppers, sliced thinly
• 4 medium sized russet potatoes, peeled and cut like french fries
• 2-3 cans whole pitted olives 

• 1/2 lb Monterey Jack cheese, cut french-fry style.

Masa Harina Tamale
6 cups Masa Harina 


3 ½ cups warm chicken broth


2 cups lard


2 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons paprika

1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon California Chili powder
1 tablespoon New Mexico Chili powder

In a bowl, mix masa harina (you can also use this style of masa harina), baking powder, paprika, cumin and chili until well blended. In a separate bowl, beat the lard and salt using an electric mixer at medium speed until combined. It should be light, airy and fluffy. Using a KitchenAid is preferred to a hand mixer because you can get more air incorporated into the mixture. Slowly add broth and Masa

 Harina a few cups at a time. Beat at medium speed until dough is a smooth like whipped butter. You can test the masa by dropping a spoonful into a glass of water. If it's done, it will float. You don't want to over beat as this will result in tough, hard masa. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.

Pork Filling

 

7 lb pork butt roast, prefer boneless

For mole:
 1/3 cup California chili powder

 3 tablespoons New Mexico chili powder
 96 oz. chicken broth
 2 tablespoon. plus 2 teaspoons ground cumin
 2 heaping tablespoons garlic powder
 1 teaspoon sea salt
 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon
 half a disk of Ibarra Mexican chocolate
 6 heaping tablespoons flour
 ¾ cup cold water
 vegetable or olive oil for frying as needed

Seasoning Mix for frying pork:
 1 cup flour
 3 tablespoons sea salt
 2 tablespoons black pepper
 3 tablespoons ground cumin
 2 tablespoons California chili powder
 2 tablespoons New Mexico chili powder
 1 tablespoon and 2 teaspoons garlic powder

Cut the pork into 1 inch or so cubes trimming off as much fat as possible.

Place a large skillet on medium heat. Add vegetable oil to cover bottom of pan.

Add all the ingredients for the seasoning mix into a Ziplock baggie and mix well. Working in small batches, add a couple handfuls of the cubed pork and shake well. Using your hand, pick up the flour covered meat and shake off excess flour, place carefully into the frying pan and brown. Pull out the browned pork and drain on paper towels. Continue until all pork is browned.

While meat is browning, fill a stock pot with the broth, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, salt, chicken bouillon and chocolate. Heat to boiling then cover and simmer on low. Before adding meat, taste the mole and adjust seasoning if needed.

When all meat has been browned, carefully add to the boiling sauce. Partially cover and cook for 3 hours on low stirring occasionally.

After 3 hours, combine the 3/4 cup cold water and the 6 tablespoons of flour with a whisk until well blended. Turn the heat up on the meat and when it's boiling, slowly add the flour mixture whisking as you add it to avoid lumps. When all the flour mixture is added, stir the pork well to incorporate making a nice thick gravy. Continue a slow boil while stirring for 5 minutes. Then turn off heat.

When meat is cooled, refrigerate until you are ready to make the tamales or proceed to the tamale making so long as the meat mixture is completely cooled.

For the Chicken tamales:

Rinse a whole chicken removing the giblets. Stuff three peeled garlic cloves and a half onion into the cavity. Place in stock pot, add water to cover. Place the other half of the onion in the water along with 2 bay leaves, 3 tablespoons salt, 3 garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon black pepper, 1 chopped carrot, 1 chopped celery stick. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low. Cook until the meat falls off the bone, about 1 hour. Remove from broth and let cool. Once cooled, de-bone and shred the chicken.

Assembling the tamales

For the chicken tamales:

Lay the husk in the palm of your hand, wide end towards you. Place a heaping tablespoon or tablespoon and-a-half of masa on the husk and smooth to cover the middle. Layer some chicken, an olive, a slice of green pepper, a potato and the cheese onto the masa.

Wrap the tamale by bringing up the sides and rolling them like you would if you were making a burrito. If the sides don't quite over lap, grab a smaller husk and, add a dab of masa to act as "glue" over the "seam" and place the extra husk over it to seal. 

Gently squeeze the ends so that you create a nice fat tamale. Careful NOT to twist. You're just squeezing the contents towards the center freeing the ends so that you can tie them.

Tie the ends with culinary grade string and trim so that you have nice short, neat ends.

Repeat the process for the pork tamales omitting the cheese. Be sure to put enough of the mole "gravy" onto the tamale so the tamale isn't too dry. Usually enough room for 3 or four chunks of the pork. 

Once you're ready to steam, get a nice big steamer (like this one), put a several inches of water to just touch the steaming rack (or steamer insert if using a regular stock pot with a deep steamer insert). Place the tamales standing up into the steamer and pack them fairly snugly. Cover with a damp dish towel, then cover with the stockpot lid. Steam on medium heat for 40 minutes to an hour and-a-half depending on the size of your steamer. Remove one tamale, let stand on the counter for 5 minutes then test for doneness by gently removing the husk. The tamale should come away from the husk with relative ease and the masa should be moist and firm and not wet and soggy. If it's not quite firm, then continue steaming checking every 10 minutes for doneness.

Let the cooked tamales rest for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Variations and serving suggestions

• Try adding a large jar of salsa verde to the shredded chicken and omit the cheese. These are heavenly.

• Use this same mole recipe substituting stewing beef for the pork butt. 

• Serve the tamales with refried beans, spanish rice, chunky pico de gallo (or your favorite salsa).

• For a Tex-Mex variation, try serving the tamales slathered in chili beans. Yum! This is my dad's favorite way.

• The day after Christmas, we always had this yummy Mexican-style breakfast: fry up the leftover cooked  tamales in some Mazola Corn Oil and serve with fried eggs and salsa and some runny refried beans. I love the crisp, crunchy crust the frying forms on the tamales. 

• Tamales can be reheated in the microwave but for a truly freshly made tamale, I prefer to reheat them by steaming them in a small 3 quart stock pot like this one from ikea with this steamer insert.

YOUR TURN:

Do you have foods that bring back childhood memories? 

Cauliflower Mash

OK Kleopatra... You are most correct: It has been too long since my last post and it's time for something new...

Life has kept me quite busy these last few months and I've been living mostly on these wonderful frozen meals I blogged about on my other site. There simply hasn't been much time for trying out or creating new recipes.

Tonight I was prepping my terracotta roasting pan for a lamb roast (already rubbed and marinated courtesy of one of my favorite grocers, Trader Joes) when I was struck with the dilemma of what to serve with it. I opened the fridge and stared at it's contents. Hhhmm, been a week since I did any shopping and my choices were limited. I did have one russet potato and a whole head of cauliflower that definitely needed to be used soon. Then it came to me. Cauliflower mash. Now, I've never made cauliflower mash before. My use of cauliflower was limited to either steaming and serving as a side dish with butter or my most favorite way to serve it, lightly blanched and then tossed in with eggs, onions, cilantro and chopped tomatoes for a yummy scramble on Sunday mornings.

No finished photo as my poor digital camera battery was quite dead from non-use. But the experiment proved quite tasty and I will most certainly use this approach again soon... Maybe next time I'll even subject guests to it! :)

Enjoy!

CAULIFLOWER MASH

1 large russet potato, peeled and rough chopped
1 whole head of cauliflower, rinsed, leaves trimmed off
1 tsp pasilla chile powder (to add a hint of smoky flavor -- it isn't a "hot" spice)
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cp parmesan
1 stick unsalted butter
1/3 cp nonfat milk (or heavier milk if you prefer like whipping cream or even buttermilk; I only ever have skim in the house)
kosher and/or sea salt

Place the chopped potato into a pot with a steamer insert. Add cold water to cover the potatoes. Add a pinch or two of sea salt. Boil on high for 15 minutes.

Quarter the cauliflower and break into florets. Chopped the core and stems a little finer so they will cook as fast as the flower portion of the vegetable. When the 15 minutes for the potatoes are up, drain the water out of the pot to just below the steamer insert. It's important that the water NOT touch the cauliflower or the mash will wind up being too watery. Toss in the cauliflower over the potatoes (potatoes will still be just slightly underdone at this point). Toss a pinch of kosher salt over the cauliflower, cover the pot and let steam for about 10-15 minutes. Keep an eye on it. You don't want it mushy but fork tender.

While the cauliflower is steaming, place the milk and butter in a microwave safe measuring cup and warm for 60 seconds. Remove and stir until butter is no longer solid. Set aside.

When the vegetables are ready, pull them out of the steamer basket and place in a large serving bowl. Working quickly so as to not let the veggies cool, pour the milk in and sprinkle the pasilla, garlic, pepper, parmesan. Using a potato masher, gently mash stopping occassionally to stir the mixture. Add kosher salt to taste.

Tortilla Española

My tapas cookbooks have been on my coffee table for the last six months. I'm dying to throw a tapas party again. Up until three years ago, I would host a yearly White Elephant party every December. Yes, it was about celebrating Christmas, about friends gathering and laughing and seeing who got the biggest gift and who brought the funniest White Elephant. But most importantly, it was about the FOOD! The parties were themed -- a different cultural experience every year. By far, my most successful was Spain and tapas!

Last Saturday morning, I was sitting on my sofa sipping my nice hot quad-shot nonfat latte made with my lovely, still newish Kitchenaid Pro Line Espresso Maker (more on that lovely another time) and the tapas cookbook was sitting there. Staring at me. Taunting me. You see, I hadn't had breakfast yet and here it was already 11am.

I picked up the cookbook, flipped it open and it landed on the gorgeous photo of a Tortilla Española. Now, being from Southern California and just a hop, skip and a jump away from the Mexican border, I grew up thinking that the tortillas I had been eating all my life were Spanish in origin. "Tortilla" to me was the flatbread – made of stone ground corn or flour – that we ate at every meal. But my first tapas experience taught me otherwise as I found that the Spanish tortilla was actually an omelet much in the same vein as an Italian fritatta.

Even the casual reader of my blog can tell by now that a) I love eggs and b) that I've never met a potato I didn't like. Tortillla Española is three ingredients: eggs, potatoes and onions. Can you say "Heaven?"

The recipe in my cookbook is enough to serve 12, tapas style. Since obviously I was eating alone and whatever I made would most likely be lunch and quite possibly dinner as well as my breakfast, the thought of that much egg and potato was a bit frightening. Yes, even this egg and potato lover has her limits. But the recipe was easily modified as basically 3 eggs to a potato. So that's what I did. Making the entire recipe should create a lovely 1/2" thick tortilla. Mine, as you can see, was about 1/3" in thickness. But being short on thickness didn't mean it was short on taste. A simple, uncomplicated, yummy eggy potatoey goodness (Ohmy! I'm making up my own words now! That's how much I loved this recipe!)



TORTILLA ESPANOLA

5 large peeled potatoes, thinly and evenly sliced
2 large onions, thinly sliced
15 eggs
olive oil
salt

Heat a large skillet with olive oil until nearly smoking. Starting with the potatoes place a single layer down, then the onions alternating until all of the potatoes and onions are in the pan. Lower the heat to medium and cook them until tender flipping occasionally and being careful not to brown. While they are cooking, whisk the eggs together in a large bowl. When the potatoes and onions are ready, remove from the pan and wipe it clean. It's crucial that there is no residual bits in the pan that might make the tortilla stick (I had to scour mine quickly). Place the cooked potato mixture into the eggs and toss well to coat. Let stand for 15 min. Put olive oil in the pan and heat. When pan is ready, pour egg mixture back into pan, using a spatula to push the potatoes down into the egg throughout the cooking process. Use a knife to keep the tortilla loose and away from the edge of the pan. Constantly shake the pan to keep the tortilla from sticking. When the the bottom of the tortilla is golden brown and set, place a large plate on top and flip the tortilla onto the plate. Quickly wipe the pan clean, add a little more oil and carefully slide the tortilla back into the pan to finish cooking off the top of the tortilla. Cook for no more than 3 minutes at this point. You don't want it overly browned like the "crust" side, you just want it a bit of crispness. When ready, place plate back on top of the pan and flip it out. Let stand. Traditionally, this is served at room temperature and sliced into pizza-like wedges. I enjoyed mine with a raspberry mimosa. OK, so not traditional for tapas fare but damn good combination anyway!

Heaven.

YOUR TURN: What's your favorite theme for entertaining?

Let's hear it for peanut butter!

College, as I imagine it is for most, was not easy on the wallet for me. Especially once I transfered to an art college in the Bay Area... Oakland, California to be exact. So, aside of having to buy tons of art supplies weekly for various projects on a full 15 unit schedule, I had to eat.

Peanut butter became my best friend. I'd have it on corn tortillas (yes, I still do!) sometimes with strawberry jam, on toast in the mornings with a cuppa joe, used to thin out a can of chili beans and tossed with spaghetti... and in peanut sauces over whatever pasta was on sale that week.

The latter is what I was in the mood for a few days ago. Of course, I'm not on such tight budget constraints these 22 years later but I still find ways to work in peanut butter to many a meal.

Peanut sauce recipes vary from culture to culture and chef to chef. I don't have a hard and set recipe myself. I use what's on hand and whatever I'm in the mood for.

This particular night, the sauce started with organic creamy peanut butter, a little coconut milk, tamari, Asian chili oil and a couple dashes of chicken stock to thin it out a bit. Because I have to limit the amount of soy I eat, I also added some kosher salt to taste in place of adding lots of tamari (I use soy sauce and tamari sparringly -- mostly for color and a hint of taste as soy and I aren't friends). I tossed it with spaghetti and left over rotisserie chicken that I chopped and topped it with crushed salted roasted peanuts and chopped scallions. (Tip: I put a handful of peanuts into a snack or sandwich sized ziplock bag and give the bag a couple of good whacks with my rolling pin or kitchen mallet -- whichever I find first. Less trouble than pulling out a food processor for such a small amount of chopping.)

What's great about this dish is that it tastes equally delicious as a cold or room temperature pasta "salad" so it's perfect for packing for lunch for work or a lazy Sunday afternon at the park with a good book. Which is what I did with the leftovers.

YOUR TURN: Do you have food "obsessions" from your youth that still make appearances at your dinner table?

Cafe with a view

When the weather gets warm and the sky as clear and blue as the ocean, I crave the outdoors and views and the sea 'breeze'...

A few weekends ago, I met my friend Michelle for a late breakfast at Pacifica Breeze Cafe in Del Mar. It's the casual breakfast and lunch cafe attached to Pacifica Del Mar Seafood Restaurant. Even with the packed house and longish wait, we nonetheless had a great visit and a wonderful meal. I had the Arugula Mushroom Omelet with a cup of their Pacifica Blend house coffee and Michelle had the Caramelized Pecan Waffle with a mocha.

I love eggs. I don't love them overcooked so it's a little iffy for me when I order eggs at restaurants as they tend to be browned. But this omelet was perfectly cooked. No brown outer crust just a light, soft and perfectly cooked egg.

The sauce had a light mushroom flavor but with 'mushroom' in the name of the dish, I expected chunks or slices of earthy mushrooms peppering the omelet. Besides a teeny bit of chopped mushroom here and there, they were virtually non-existent. I also would have preferred a bit more arugula in the omelet or perhaps even a few freshly chopped leaves dressing the plate. The accompanying potatoes were perfectly crisp and well seasoned.

Michelle loved her waffle. Not being in the mood for sweet, I didn't taste it but it did look great. It was golden, topped with chopped apples and a maple flavored whipped butter that I did taste and found it fluffy and tasty. But an entire waffle spread with it would definitely tire my taste buds. I'd use it quite sparringly myself.

Our time there certainly left me with a craving for a little more.

So, I played hooky on Monday and invited my mother out for breakfast. She doesn't go out for meals much and I wanted it to be fun and special for us both. I told her I was taking her to Del Mar which is about 30 min north of downtown San Diego (that is, if there isn't traffic!) and she exclaimed, "Yay! It'll feel like a vacation!"

Del Mar was almost as buzzing at it had been on the weekend. I forget that it's summer and San Diego is definitely a summer vacation destination. Our beach communities get bombarded. But luckily for us, the cafe had a few empty tables so we grabbed menus and sat down to decide.


Independently, mom and I both settled on the same dish, the Chef's scramble. It's ground beef scrambled with mushrooms and onions served in a pastry shell.

It was a definite winner. The eggs were lightly scrambled and there were plenty of large mushroom chunks. The pastry was light and golden and was a nice change from the toast and eggs which is the normal pairing at my house. The dish also provided nice fodder for my own future experiments with puff pastry.

After a leisurely breakfast with gorgeous views what else to do but go to the beach and dip our footsies in the wonderfully warm Pacific Ocean?


Ah, the joys of living in this wonderful beach town...Outdoor cafes with views of a seemingly endless expanse of crisp blue water.

Great suggestions guys!

Since I received such wonderful suggestions via comments to "YOUR TURN: What's your favorite way to salvage fruits or veggies that are slightly past their prime?" I've decided to make them a post for anyone who hasn't gone back to read the comments.

Anyone who especially enjoys stone fruits as I do, see Michelle's suggestion for peaches. I especially like the balsamic grilled suggestion!

Enjoy!

Darlene said...
To answer your question about salvaging veggies, I usually incorporate them into a stir fry. Fruits, mostly bananas, go into a banana bread recipe.
But if they're turning watery (you know what I mean), I pitch them into the canyon at night so they can decompose naturally!

Patricia Scarpin said...
"Old" veggies go in omelets and fruit go in cakes and muffins.

KleoPatra said...
Hmmmmmm... fruits and veggies past their prime in my fridge either end up as compost, mixed with my dog's food (she's mostly vegetarian) or sneaked (snuck?) into some sort of batter for muffins (i.e. soft zucchini, limp carrots), liquified and added to cake mix (i.e. mushy bananas) or mashed up and put into cookie batter (the most convenient way i've found to use most "on-their-way-out" fruits!).

Anh said...
I normally use leftover fruits in baking. For veg, I throw them into stir-fry or soup.

Michelle said...
Veggies usually end up as pizza toppings, in a stir fry or sauteed and tossed with pasta. Slightly mushy tomatoes will end up as a pizza or pasta sauce.

One of my favorite things to do with abundant fruit is to use it as a dessert topping, especially on ice cream. This is really yummy with bananas (think Bananas Foster) as long as they aren't too soft. I also love to just slice up some apples or peaches and saute for just a few minutes with brown sugar, cinnamon and sometimes a splash of liquer. It's quick and fabulous over ice cream.

Another favorite is what my Mom used to make growing up in England -- a fruit crumble. I've never quite seen the same thing here, but it's somewhere between a cobbler and a crisp. Excellent to use up extra fruit and also quick.

I know this is getting long, but I have to say something about peaches before I go. I LOVE peaches, but tend to have too many around the house in the summer. That's because I refuse to buy them at the grocery store any more. They're as hard as hockey pucks when purchased and often do not ripen into the juicy delicious fruit that I love. I bought them at Costco once and they were perfect. I now buy them there every summer and have never been disappointed. The trouble is you get 12 really large peaches. I'm the primary peach eater in our household and there is no way I can get through all of them before they spoil so I incorporate them into dinners and desserts a lot. Here are some of the things I like best:

Cut them in half, remove the pit, then fill the center cavity with balsamic vinegar. Grill on the bbq or bake in the oven. Yummy with fish, chicken or pork, or even as dessert.

For a yummy dessert, do the same thing as above, but fill the cavity with some brown sugar and your favorite spices. After grilling dinner, turn the heat to low, put the peaches on, close the lid. They'll be done when you've finished eating and ready for a scoop of ice cream and fresh berries on top.

One more word on the bananas, definitely banana bread if they're beyond edible. My husband is the expert there. I especially like it when he adds a little Ibarra Mexican chocolate (chopped into small pieces) to the batter. It's out of this world!!

Pesto use #1::Eggplant Imbottiti

I love eggplant. I recently found out that it's related to potatoes. No wonder I love it so! I've never met a potato I didn't like...

But the weird thing is that eggplant is one of those veggies I rarely think to make.

Why is that?

Eggplant is at every market I frequent and inevitably my hand passes right over them for asparagus or zucchini.

I blame food ruts.

When I get busy, cooking becomes less therapeutic and creative. Instead, it's a means to an end: it's simply easier to throw something on that you don't have to think about or fuss over because you've done it a hundred times before.

But this weekend, I was in an aubergine mood. I was cooking for a friend Saturday night and I wanted to make something that would be light, would look gorgeous plated and of course, taste yummy. Holding the big beautiful eggplant in my hand in the middle of the aisle at the market, I knew immediately what it was going to be.

A few years ago, I dined at Trattoria Fantastica in the heart of Little Italy just north of Downtown San Diego. I discovered an eggplant dish there that just about made me swoon! It's called Imbottiti: thin slices of eggplant rolled with pasta and cheese and topped with tomatoes.

I have since spent some time trying to recreate the recipe from memory and although my version doesn't taste exactly like theirs (I don't use the mozzarella), I do like what I've come up with. It's a great alternative to the heavier eggplant parmigiana found on most Italian restaurant menus.

It was a hit this weekend. I hope it is in your home too! Oh, and of course, it's one of my favorite ways to use the pesto I posted about last month.


STUFFED EGGPLANT

2 large firm eggplants
4 oz. angel hair pasta
1/2 cp prepared pesto
1/2 cp ricotta
1 egg, slightly beaten
4 large tomatoes, chopped
1 cp of your favorite pasta sauce (I LOVE the sauces from Coppola Vineyards called Mammarella Sauce and for this dish used the Puttanesca Sauce)
fresh basil leaves
1 tbs capers
2 large garlic cloves, minced
olive oil
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper

1. Cut the tops off the eggplants. In order to keep the eggplant stable when slicing, cut the bottoms off as well. Stand the eggplants bottoms down and carefully slice as evenly as possible from top to bottom. From a large eggplant, you should be able to get eight slices not counting the first and last thin slices that are pretty much all skin. (I find mandolins cut the eggplant too thin so they burn during the roasting stage. I like the control of using a good sharp 8" chef knife.) Sometimes, eggplant can be a bit bitter. I salt mine to draw some of that bitterness out. In a colander, put a single layer of eggplant down and generously salt. Continue layering and salting until all of the eggplant is in the colander. Place a paper towel on top and cover with a bowl or plate with a little weight. Leave the colander in the sink or in a shallow bowl for 20 minutes or so. In the meantime, preheat oven to 425º.

2. While waiting for the eggplant, boil and cook the pasta to al dente. When ready, immediately rinse with cold water to stop cooking. Transfer to a bowl. Add the pesto (minus 2 tbs) and toss to coat well. Set aside.

3. Place the tomatoes, capers, garlic and basil in a bowl. Toss with a 2 count pour of olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add about 1/2 cp of pasta sauce. This will be to top the rolled eggplants. Set aside

4. Rinse the eggplant throughly. Pat dry. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Place the eggplant in single layer on the baking sheets. Drizzle olive oil over the slices. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Flip the eggplant slices and repeat. Roast for 10 minutes. Remove the sheets from the oven and carefully so as to not tear the slices, flip the eggplant. (Any slices that are starting to brown and are tender, remove from the sheets and set aside so they don't burn.) Place the baking sheets back in to the oven for another 5 - 8 minutes until tender. Remove when ready and set aside. Lower oven temperature to 350º.

5. While the eggplant is roasting, place the ricotta in a small bowl and whisk in the egg and the reserved 2 tbs of pesto. Season with a little salt and pepper. Set aside.

6. Spread some pasta sauce (not the one with the fresh tomatoes) on the bottom of a lasagna pan. On a plate, take a slice of eggplant and starting on the big end, spread a tablespoon of the ricotta mixture stopping about a 1/3 of the way to the small end. Fingers work best so use your hands to get about a tablespoon or so of the pasta, bunch it up and place at the large end of the slice. Carefully roll the eggplant, catching whatever pasta spills out and push it back into the roll. Place end down in the prepared lasagna pan to help keep te roll from unrolling. Repeat with all the slices. Put a tbs of the fresh tomato mixture atop each roll. Bake for 15 minutes. Let stand for five minutes before serving.

Serves 4 as an entré or 8 as a side dish.