Herb? Vegetable? Both: Caramelized Fennel with Fettuccine and Goat Cheese

An Italian favorite, sliced fennel bulb is sautéed until lightly browned, then served over pasta with goat cheese, lemon zest and fennel fronds. Recipe below.

The idea for this dish began with two words on a restaurant menu. We were having dinner a few weeks ago at Telegraph Restaurant and Wine Bar in our neighborhood, and Marion chose seared escolar with stuffed cherrystone clam, uni butter, caramelized fennel, orange vinaigrette and tarragon from chef Johnny Anderes’s inventive, seasonally driven menu. Caramelized fennel. It was buried in the middle of the description, but a standout on the plate.

This wasn’t the first time we’d eaten fennel (yes, I got a bite too). In fact, Marion has occasionally used it raw in salads. But caramelizing it—cooking it in a skillet until it browns, bringing out its natural sweetness—was something we hadn’t tried. Over the next couple of weeks, caramelized fennel kept popping up in our conversations as we tried to figure out what to do with it. We thought it deserved more than its usual side dish treatment. Marion suggested pasta, and a meal was born. Continue reading “Herb? Vegetable? Both: Caramelized Fennel with Fettuccine and Goat Cheese” →

The corn-free challenge: My week without corn

My week-long corn-free challenge is at an end, and these are the things I learned.

The food was the easy part. That’s the first thing I want to say about my week trying to live without corn.

During my corn-free challenge, I did have to avoid a lot of food items. Among the foods I did not eat were chicken, pork or beef unless we were assured it was grass-fed and grass-finished. I didn’t eat eggs, milk and most cheeses because they came from animals that had eaten corn. Continue reading “The corn-free challenge: My week without corn” →

Baked + grilled = easy barbecued goodness with these Chinese Spareribs

Pork spareribs are baked with a simple spice rub, then quickly grilled, basted with a mix of hoisin sauce, sherry, soy sauce, chili paste, vinegar and peach preserves. Recipe below.

For carnivores, barbecued ribs are about as good as it gets. Meaty, fatty, smoky, chewy, salty and slathered in sauce that’s a mix of tangy, sweet and spicy cooked to a sticky, finger-coating lacquer. Unfortunately—for me, at least—they’re also a challenge to cook. Continue reading “Baked + grilled = easy barbecued goodness with these Chinese Spareribs” →

Step away from the corn: The Corn-free Challenge

This summer’s drought and its devastating effect on corn points up just how much we rely on this single crop. Today, I’m beginning an experiment to see how long I can go without it.

The other day, my sister and I were noodling through the neighborhood farmer’s market and passed a farmstand offering fresh picked ears of corn. Look how small they are, my sister said. Tiny.

Yes, they are. The table corn we’ve been seeing coming to farmstands and grocery stores here in Illinois is not like last year’s. The ears are tiny, and the price is high. And that is just a glimpse of what is happening more broadly across the country, as record-busting heat and drought do their ugly work. The corn crop, Reuters wrote today, is harmed beyond repair.

This does not mean only that the price of table corn will rise. The price of anything that involves corn is going to go up. Field corn is one of the basics of industrial food, and the uses we have put it to are breathtaking. If you eat beef that is not grass fed, you will see prices rise. In fact, ranchers out west have been sending cattle to market for weeks now, way ahead of schedule, because of the murderous heat—a move that will make future beef prices even higher. If you eat grocery store chicken, you are going to see prices climb. Continue reading “Step away from the corn: The Corn-free Challenge” →

Cook For Julia: Tarragon and French technique flavor Fish Stew with White Wine and Tarragon

Based on a Julia Child recipe, this delicately-flavored fish stew combines classic cooking methods and ingredients. Recipe below.

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Julia Child’s birth, PBS.org is inviting bloggers to cook one of her recipes, post it and share the link on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #CookForJulia. Here is my contribution.

Each generation stands on the shoulders of the one before it. Our children use our experience and our knowledge as a foundation to see further than we can. To see things in a way that we can’t.

The same is true in cooking. In looking at some of Julia Child’s cookbooks, it’s easy to see them as a little old-fashioned, right down to the recipes. Chicken Marengo. Ham Steaks with Cream and Mushrooms. But home cooking is only where it is today because we stood on her shoulders. Continue reading “Cook For Julia: Tarragon and French technique flavor Fish Stew with White Wine and Tarragon” →

The judges’ decisions are final: “Delicious!”

Announcing the results of the 2012 International Chocolate Salon Toffee Competition. In which Marion and I judge four pounds of toffee.

Last year about this time, we were invited to help judge the 2011 Chicago Luxury Chocolate Salon. We were soon almost as stuffed as the seven-pound FedEx package of chocolate that showed up when we said yes. This year, the competition hosts, International Chocolate Salon and Taste TV, wisely broke up the competition into four categories. I chose toffee, and the package we received clocked in at just under four pounds.

The category and I go way back. My first exposure to toffee, though, was inauspicious, to say the least. When I was seven or eight, my friend Susie’s mom took us to a Saturday matinee at a neighborhood movie theater. Rather than pay movie prices for treats, she smuggled in a candy bar for each of us in her purse. As the previews began, she slipped them to us. They were Heath Bars. In the darkened theater, I misread it as Health Bar; I’m sure I scrunched my nose at the idea of some weird, good-for-you “treat” being pawned off on us as candy. Continue reading “The judges’ decisions are final: “Delicious!”” →

Globetrotting flavors and history: Lamb Meatballs with Saffron, Lavender and Paprika

Lamb meatballs are seasoned with a global mix of flavors and served over pasta—or made smaller and served as a canapé. Recipe below.

Terry’s comment last week about always liking the flavors of a braise, whatever the weather, had me asking myself how to achieve that depth of flavor without several hours of stoveness. At the same time I happened to be reading Roger Crowley’s City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas, about the way Venice was a prime mover in the growth of global trade, “the first virtual city,” “the central cog that meshed two economic systems—Europe and the Orient—shunting goods across hemisphere, facilitating new tastes and notions of choice.” And reading about this adventurous time, when “Venice was the middleman and interpreter of worlds,” started me looking at medieval recipes that involved great wallops of flavors like saffron and combinations that are unfamiliar to us today.

This dish is about travel and the global economy. It is a hat tip to the Venetian merchants of the Middle Ages, when trading could mean being gone for years, at enormous personal risk; when the great empires, so long in isolation, were getting their first little views of each other; and when cooks boldly began mixing together newfound flavors, in part seeking cures and in part because they came to love these daring new tastes. These were the first fusion cooks, picking and choosing flavors from a lush global toybox. Continue reading “Globetrotting flavors and history: Lamb Meatballs with Saffron, Lavender and Paprika” →

Heat up flavors, not the kitchen: Spicy Grilled Pork Chops with Mango Cilantro Salsa

Grilled chops flavored with chili powder, cumin and cayenne pepper are topped with mango, cilantro, tomatoes, red onions and jalapeño pepper. Recipe below.

Harry S Truman famously said, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” I took the 33rd president at his word last week, although probably not as he intended. When the temperatures finally (and temporarily) dropped below dangerous levels last Friday, but were still high enough that I didn’t want to heat up the kitchen, I fired up the grill instead. Continue reading “Heat up flavors, not the kitchen: Spicy Grilled Pork Chops with Mango Cilantro Salsa” →

Happy Birthday, Julia: Celebrating the woman who changed how we cook

To mark the 100th anniversary of Julia Child’s birth, PBS.org recently invited a number of chefs and food bloggers to share tributes to Julia, to tell a little about how the seminal cookbook author, TV personality and larger than life person had influenced them. They were kind enough to include me on their list.

You’ll find Julia sprinkled throughout the pages of Blue Kitchen (and it’s interesting that we all feel comfortable enough with her to call her that, not Ms. Child—but that was the kind of warmth and comfort she always inspired). There are actual recipes, of course, starting with Potage Parmentier, the simple six-ingredient potato leek soup she made for her beloved husband and collaborator Paul almost every day. And there was Skate Meunière with Browned Butter and Capers, based on the life-changing sole meunière Julia ate on her first day in France with Paul. Continue reading “Happy Birthday, Julia: Celebrating the woman who changed how we cook” →

The heat goes on: Fight back, with Cold Cucumber Avocado Soup with Radish Garnish

Cucumber, avocado, potato, buttermilk, Greek yogurt, half and half, chicken stock and lime juice create a cool, creamy, tangy, refreshing summer soup. Recipe below.

Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot. Dry. Hot. Right now is a breezy, refreshing 98. We are crawling around on the surface of the planet like miserable bugs.

As Terry has sometimes mentioned, I used to address weather like this by making cold cucumber soup. The trigger for this was the legendary cold cucumber bisque we would have at the former Balaban’s in St. Louis. My versions varied tremendously, and they were always interesting, but they were never like Balaban’s. That recipe was a closely guarded secret—one of those instances when everyone who worked there would get all coy and diffident if you asked about the ingredients. “Oh, I don’t know, some people think it has summer savory in it,” they would say in a demure tone. “I’ve heard it might have yogurt in it.” Sometimes they would turn it into a question: “Sour cream?” Continue reading “The heat goes on: Fight back, with Cold Cucumber Avocado Soup with Radish Garnish” →