Savory French Toast Breakfast

This is a nice brunch dish, and could also make a light lunch. Just soak thickly sliced sourdough bread in an egg, milk/sour cream/yogurt, cayenne pepper mixture. Then lightly fry, as you would french toast. Top with heirloom tomato, fresh mozzarella, basil and arugula. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar & olive oil.

Cranberry Beans, Sausage, and Arugula

This is an easy meal with a lot of flavor -- nice meatiness from the sausage, spicy-sweet bite from the peppers and arugula, offset by the creamy cranberry beans. You can eat it like a chili or serve over a grain; we served this over Israeli couscous.

Cook the beans first (we used fresh cranberry beans). In the meantime, brown the sausage; saute onion and garlic, add tomato paste, some cumin and cayenne...

add chopped fresh chilies (we used sweet Jimmy Nardellos and mild habaneros). Add the beans when they're al dente, and cover with chicken broth so the beans cook until creamy and absorb the rest of the flavors.

Just before serving, stir in a few handfuls of baby arugula. Stir just until it wilts. Season with salt and pepper before serving.

Tuna Tartare Salad

This salad turns a delicate tuna tartare into a full meal. It's really, really good.

You'll need (serves 2 hungry people):

tartare:

1lb sushi-grade tuna

1 inch piece of ginger

1/2 bunch cilantro

1 avocado

3T roasted sesame seeds

1/4 red onion

1 lemon cucumber

salad base:

1 large peach (mango would be fine here too if peaches aren't in season)

3 radishes

2 large handfuls arugula

dressing:

rice wine vinegar

mirin cooking wine

soy sauce

sriracha

chopped thai chile, optional

Mix dressing ingredients, adjusting quantities to taste.

Cut peach into small cubes and slice radish. Toss with arugula and set aside.

Slice the tuna into very small cubes, removing any white connective tissue as you go. Peel, de-seed, and chop cucumber into cubes of similar size. Peel and mince ginger. Mince red onion. Chop cilantro. Combine all in a bowl and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Pour 2/3 of dressing on tartare and mix to coat. Toss the arugula salad with remaining dressing. Serve tartare in a scoop on top of arugula salad, garnished with more sesame seeds.

Caramelized Garlic Pasta

This has to be one of the easiest, cheapest, tastiest things I've ever had. (Ok, some of you know I am prone to exaggeration. But still. Try it yourself.)  All the ingredients are things you probably have on hand, except for the arugula, which you can omit without losing the main flavor of this dish, which is the garlic.

You'll need (per person):

cooked pasta (you can use leftover pasta)

scant 1/4c olive oil

5 cloves garlic, minced (do not use a garlic press)

4 anchovies, chopped

red pepper flakes to taste

1t tomato paste (optional)

fresh breadcrumbs from 1 slice bread

large handful of arugula

In a large skillet (non-stick is fine here), add olive oil, garlic, anchovies, tomato paste and red pepper. Heat over low heat, stirring, until garlic turns pale golden, about 5 minutes (be careful not to let the garlic brown). Add breadcrumbs and stir to combine; add pasta and toss to coat.

Now turn off the heat and add arugula. Stir gently until leaves barely wilt. Serve!

A Shabbat Feast

This feast, generously subsidized by Birthright, was a wonderful opportunity to make something I normally cannot afford: veal shoulder. This beautiful five pound roast is stuffed with herbs and garlic, rolled in porcini dust, and cooked slowly in my homemade chicken stock, red wine, and tomato paste, with some marrow-filled veal bones tossed in to beef up the sauce.

the herb & garlic stuffing

the bones & the roast

adding liquids

After cooking, you refrigerate the roast overnight, scrape off all the fat, carve the meat and reduce the sauce, sneaking a bite of marrow on toast as you remove the bones. I adapted my recipe from Epicurious's, adjusting things like the balsamic and porcini (I added more).

I served this with a barley and roasted vegetable pilaf-- I roasted the butternut squash and parsnips with balsamic vinegar and fresh thyme, separately so each cube would get creamy on the inside and caramelized on the outside...

combined in one pan for easy cooling

...then tossed them with the cooled cooked barley, reheated the pot, and added lemon zest, toasted almonds and mint.

As an appetizer, I made a salad of arugula, julienned apple & celeriac (celery root) soaked in lemon juice & olive oil, smoked trout, warm goat cheese and spicy-sweet walnuts with a dill-pomegranate (thanks Maia!) cream dressing.

J, of the Green Kitchen next door, made dessert: dried cherries soaked in reduced sour cherry juice, served over Haagen Daaz vanilla ice cream with Chessman cookies.

Roasted Mushroom & Tomato Pasta

This is an intensely flavorful dish that involves minimal work-- just chop the veggies, stick them in the oven, cook the pasta, and toss it all together. It helps to use really good tomatoes because, roasted, they lend a slightly smokey sweetness to the finished dish that goes really well with the sharp arugula. I used Early Girl tomatoes, which were only 59 cents/lb at Monterey Market last week. Also, use bunch arugula if you can find it-- it's cheaper and much more strongly flavored than baby arugula, and won't wilt as quickly when it comes into contact with the hot pasta.

You'll need:

5 medium tomatoes
15-20 mushrooms
1/2 onion
5 cloves garlic
olive oil
basil
arugula
fettucine or whatever pasta you want
pecornio romano
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 400.

Halve and core tomatoes, squeezing them gently to remove some liquid. Then roughly chop them and place on baking sheet.

Quarter mushrooms and add to baking sheet.

Quarter onion, separate pieces, and add to baking sheet. Add peeled garlic cloves too.


Drizzle everything with olive oil (I use a great olive oil spray from Trader Joe's). Sprinkle with kosher salt.

Place veggies in oven and heat water for pasta.

In the meantime, chiffonade basil and separate the arugula leaves from their tough stems.

When veggies are almost done (soft and golden), cook pasta; toss it all together, stir in basil, arugula, and a glug of good olive oil. Top with shaved pecorino and ground black pepper.

Super BLTs with Watermelon Salad

These BLTs are super not just because of the ingredients-- Fatted Calf bacon, heirloom tomatoes, and wild arugula-- but because the olive bread is fried in bacon fat, and gets all toasty and crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. This sandwich was really unspeakably delicious. The watermelon salad is a nice bright counterpart to the rich sandwich. This would make a great brunch-- the salad's easy to make a lot of, and you can just set out the sandwich ingredients for people to make them themselves. We made open-faced sandwiches to get the most stuff-to-bread ratio but you can arrange yours however you want.

Super BLTs

You'll need (4 servings):

1 long loaf olive bread or baguette, cut into four 6-inch pieces, then sliced lengthwise
8-16 slices thick cut bacon
3-4 heirloom tomatoes, sliced
2 handfuls wild arugula (the tiny leafy kind)

for the aioli:
1 egg yolk
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 garlic clove
1t mustard
1/4c canola oil
salt


Place bacon in a cold cast iron skillet and gently heat to medium. Cook, turning often to cook evenly. You'll probably have to do this in batches. You can drain the bacon grease but don't drain the fat from the last batch, or save the grease in a glass jar.


In the meantime, make the aioli. Beat egg yolk with lemon juice, pressed garlic, salt and mustard. Whisk in oil very slowly until you achieve a mayonnaise-like consistency.


When the bacon's done, drain it on paper towels. Raise the heat and fry the bread in the bacon fat, cut side down, until golden; flip and fry a bit on the other side too.


Stack ingredients on the bread in any way you'd like, but if you're making open-faced sandwiches, don't put the arugula on top or it will fall off.

Katie put her bacon on top

Watermelon Salad

This may sound weird but it's a really good combination. Watermelon and feta is a common pairing in Israel; it's tasty and refreshing. We used a yellow watermelon, which was beautiful and unusual. Just cut up a watermelon into cubes and toss it with crumbled feta and chopped mint. Leftovers will last in the fridge for a day or two.

Figs with Cheese

We were supposed to caramelize them but couldn't handle it after eating all that bacon, so we just ate them halved with a bit of mild, milky cheese.

Seared Scallops on Caramelized Corn with Arugula and Tarragon Butter

This is remarkably easy and can (and should) be done at the last minute, though you can caramelize the corn earlier and just heat it up before serving. Unfortunately, we all dug in before I could take a picture-- what you see above was all that was left by the time I remembered this blog. This was the appetizer for my veal cheek pappardelle.

I thought this wine went really well--
it was crisp and slightly fruity.

You'll need (4 appetizers or 1 main course):

4 scallops
2 ears of corn
2c wild baby arugula or other microgreen
3T butter
1/4c vermouth
2T chopped fresh tarragon

Holding corn on its end (big end down), slide a large knife down the ear, angled slightly in, so kernels come off whole and fall onto a cutting board (some will jump away. catch them).

Melt 1T butter in a heavy skillet. When butter foams and turns golden brown, add corn, salt, pepper. Distribute in a single layer and don't stir. When corn starts to pop, stir and taste: the kernels should be golden and taste sweet. Remove from heat. (You can do this part ahead).

Rinse and dry scallops well. Season with salt & pepper.

In the same pan (wipe it clean with a paper towel if there's black bits), add 1T butter and melt over high heat until golden. Add scallops; once they're in the pan, don't move them. In about 45 seconds, a brownish crust should form on the bottom and creep up the sides; flip them at this point and cook about 45 seconds more on the other side. Remove from pan.

Clean out pan if necessary. Deglaze with vermouth. Let simmer until it loses its alcohol smell, about 45 seconds. Add remaining butter, swirling to create a creamy sauce. Add corn and tarragon; toss to coat.

Arrange arugula in a circle on a plate. Fill circle with corn; top with a scallop.

Eggs, Pancetta, and Greens on Toast

This is a quick and delicious breakfast. Just heat a heavy skillet and fry the pancetta (in its own fat) over medium heat until crispy, about 3 min/side. Place on a piece of toast. Fry an egg or two in the pancetta's rendered fat, leaving the yolks runny. (Don't add salt; there's enough in the pancetta.) Place the egg on top of the pancetta. Wilt some arugula or spinach in the same pan and place on top.

Smoked Herring and Roasted Broccoli Salad

This sounds like a weird combination, but I had this great smoked herring that I was dying to put on matza (with butter, of course); this was the next best thing. It really came together well-- I made a similar one yesterday with feta instead of broccoli, which was delicious but very rich. This has a nice buttery smokiness from the fish, a sweet tang from the pickled red onions, and a crunchiness from the broccoli and walnuts; the spicy arugula brings it all together. I also tossed in a medium-boiled egg and some chopped olives, and dressed it with the last of my fig balsamic vinegar and some good olive oil.

Lamb, Eggplant, and Feta Pasticcio; Seared Scallops with Arugula Walnut Pesto & Balsamic Drizzle

Seared Scallops with Arugula Walnut Pesto
& Balsamic Drizzle

Wine: 2005 Domaine Talmard
Macon-Chardonnay

Lamb, Eggplant, and Feta Pasticcio

Wine: 2006 La Vieille Ferme
Cotes du Ventoux

Or: The dinner Suzanne & I made to celebrate our temporary culinary freedom from certain picky eaters.

To make the scallops:

Sprinkle them with salt, pepper, and a little sugar. Heat some oil. Sear them on both sides. Deglaze the pan with balsamic vinegar; stir in a pat of cold butter; drizzle on top of scallops. Serve over arugula walnut pesto-- a puree of arugula, toasted walnuts, 1 small shallot, and olive oil.


To make the pasticcio:

Saute 1 chopped onion & 5 cloves chopped garlic; add 1lb ground lamb and spices (cumin, cayenne, etc). When the lamb's brown, add some red wine and let it cook away. In the meantime, roast an eggplant and then mix the soft eggplant flesh in with the cooked lamb. Make a basic 2-3c bechamel and stir in 1/2 lb feta. Mix the feta bechamel with the lamb & eggplant and 2 beaten eggs, and then mix it all with some slightly undercooked pasta. Pour it into a gratin dish; sprinkle with breadcrumbs & parmesan. Bake at 425 degrees until set and golden & crispy on top.

Winter Salad with Spiced Turbot and Caramelized Sweet Potatoes

This is insanely good. Don't take my word for it-- make it yourself. It's satisfying, tasty, and light. Because you can't eat short ribs every night.

You'll need (serves 2):

mixed greens-- we used baby spinach and arugula
4 small sweet potatoes (use the orange-fleshed kind; I like Garnet), peeled, cut in half lengthwise, and sliced into 1/4"-thick half-moons
toasted sliced almonds (any toasted nut would be good)
1 avocado, cubed
fresh thyme
good olive oil
2 filets of Turbot, or any white-fleshed fish
whatever spices you want to put on the fish

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Toss potato slices with olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper. Roast until caramelized, about 20 minutes. The smaller your slices are, the faster they'll cook (duh).

Preheat broiler. Coat fish in spices (cayenne pepper, cumin, etc). Rub with olive oil. Place under broiler for 5 minutes per side, until just opaque. Do not overcook!

Toss greens with vinaigrette of your choice (preferably balsamic-Dijon), salt, and pepper. Add cooked potatoes with the oil and thyme left on the baking sheet. Add almonds.

Serve, topped with avocado and fish filet.

New Years Day Feast

Nori-wrapped salmon, avocado,
and arugula rolls served with
seaweed salad and pickled ginger

Every New Years Day, my family has a feast. It wasn't always this elaborate. When I was younger, I'd come home in the morning and find my parents drinking champagne and eating caviar in the living room (well, it was late morning). I didn't like caviar, but I liked champagne, so I'd join them. Over the years, as I learned to like caviar, they were forced to add other things to combat my more inclusive appetite. Soon we were eating smoked scallops and creme fraiche; after a few years, we added smoked fish, and after taking a sushi class with my mom, raw fish. There was, of course, cheese as well. Last year I tricked my parents (not really, but they still think I did) into both buying cheese, so we had an endless cheese course (an additional meal of its own). Needless to say, as we added more elaborate foodstuffs, the feast was pushed to later in the day, and became an early dinner.

Tuna Poke with Sesame Seeds


Salmon Rolls on Fennel Salad

Tea Smoked Scallops with
creme fraiche and caviar

Smoked Salmon

Four kinds of Caviar

BBQed Unagi

Smoked Trout with
Egg and Potato Salad