Lunch For Two

Lady Marmalade

I love, love, love marmalade but had only made it once until recently.  I made it in England with my stepfather Dennis and I recall it taking forever.  First we had to locate Seville oranges, the citrus of choice for true English marmalade.  Then we had to soak something overnight.  Could it have been the peel?  Then we chopped peel forever.  And finally we stirred the contents of an enormous vat on the stove until we had marmalade.  I figured marmalade always took two days to make, but I realize now that I was making gobs of the stuff with Dennis and that, for him, it was as much about the ritual as about the final product.

Marmalade is actually very easy to make and takes about one hour from start to finish.  Yes, there's the fussy job of cutting the peel but if you get yourself a good vegetable peeler (like the OXO Good Grips Swivel Peeler) you've licked half the trouble already.

The first recipe is from the New Basics Cookbook.  (Have I plugged this cookbook already?  It's one that I use constantly as a reference and I think it deserves to be in everyone's collection.)  I improvised the second recipe using the principles of the first.  Neither of them is for orange marmalade as Seville oranges, which are higher in pectin than regular oranges, are nearly impossible to find in the United States.  Both recipes take some time to cook on the stove, so think about making them when you're going to be in the kitchen for a while already; you don't have to watch the marmalade constantly, but you do have to be nearby.

Lemon Marmalade

8 lemons
1 1/2 cups sugar

Using a vegetable peeler, remove all the lemon zest.  You will have many strips of varying lengths that are all approximately an inch wide.  Working with stacks of three strips at a time, use a very sharp knife to cut the zest into very fine slivers.

Juice the lemons, and combine the juice, zest, and sugar in a large saucepan.  Cook over low heat, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon once a simmer is reached, until thick and syrupy, about 30 minutes.  Keep a chilled plate next to you and as the marmalade is thickening, test it by placing small drops on the plate to see the consistency.  (The hot marmalade is runnier than chilled marmalade and placing small drops on a chilled plate will give you a better idea of the final consistency than just looking inside your saucepan.)

Allow the marmalade to cool before serving or placing in glass jar for storage.  It will keep, refrigerated, for 1 to 2 weeks.

This recipe yields about 1 cup.

Pink Grapefruit Marmalade

4 pink grapefruits
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon rose flower water (optional)

Use the zest of 2 grapefruits and follow the instructions in the lemon marmalade recipe for zest removal and cutting.

Juice all 4 grapefruits, and combine the juice, zest, and sugar in a large  saucepan.  Follow the cooking instructions for the lemon marmalade.  The grapefruit marmalade will take longer to reduce and thicken than the lemon marmalade, about 1 hour.

Allow the marmalade to cool before serving or placing in glass jar for storage.  If you're adding the rose flower water, do so after the marmalade is cool.  It will keep, refrigerated, for 1 to 2 weeks.

This recipe yields a little over 1 cup.

Would you like to sniff the cap?

It turns out that Kermit the Frog was right when he ordered screw-cap wine on his dates with Miss Piggy. Consumerist.com reports that:

"More and more wines are coming with screwcaps instead of corks.  Good.

Why you should care: A sizable minority of natural corks can introduce a nasty chemical (TCA) into the wine, giving it a musty, dirty flavor. Longer-term, corks also let in more oxygen, which causes the wine's flavors to deteriorate. Screwcaps keep far more oxygen out, don't inject TCA into the juice, and result in a more consistent product.

Proof?  How about a taste test of the same higher-end wines, bottled at the same time, but with different closures:

The difference was shocking. With screwcap, the 2002 Chablis St. Martin (about $25; find this wine) was still a youthful, flinty Chablis without a whole lot of intrigue but solid and fresh. The cork closure for the same wine, by contrast, was older tasting with more signs of oxidation. Everyone save one person at the tasting preferred the screwcap.

So what's stopping the global takeover of screwcaps?  Tradition.  A misguided impression that corks equate with quality. Don't buy into that. Opening a bottle of wine by turning the cap might feel like opening a Miller Lite, and you won't get the satisfaction of a good "pop!" but you're paying for what's inside, after all.  Get the best quality for the money, we say!"

Coming soon: recipes for the best ever sausage rolls, and a new roast chicken recipe that will knock yer socks off...

The Dirty Dozen

I have read so much advice about what produce to buy organic and which veggies are especially steeped in pesticide that every time I get to the supermarket I panic and forget. A wallet card! I'll probably forget to bring this with me, but you never know. Check out www.foodnews.org/walletguide.php to download your very own guide. In the meantime:

Avoid the "Dirty Dozen"

Always buy organic when shopping for the following fruits and veggies which tend to retain high levels of pesticides when treated. Listed in descending order, worst first:

Peaches, Cherries, Apples, Pears, Bell peppers, Imported grapes, Celery, Spinach, Nectarines, Lettuce, Strawberries, Potatoes

Love on the "Delightful Dozen"

The following grocery items are generally lower in pesticides than the ones above and are usually considered safe when they're not organically produced:

Onions, Bananas, Avocados, Cabbage, Sweet corn (frozen), Broccoli, Pineapples, Papayas, Mangoes,  Asparagus, Sweet  peas (frozen,) Kiwifruit.

Also, the original wallet card, the which-fish-not-to-order-because-they-are-steeped-in-mercury is available from blueocean.org. That's a great wallet card and really, truly worthwhile thinking about their recommendations. The most important not to order in terms of your health, (if you are a woman) your future children's health, and world fisheries are: Chilean sea bass, Atlantic bluefin tuna, (you shouldn't eat or let your children eat more than 1 [one] can of tuna per month in order not to have excessively high levels of mercury in the body,) orange roughy, swordfish, or Atlantic cod. Choose the abundant and sustainable options of: farmed clams, mussels and oysters; American-farmed tilapia, mahi-mahi and yellowfin tuna.

Think about taking a pass on the octopus next time you go to the restaurant or fishmonger: they are the most intelligent, sensitive, strange and beautiful creatures. The octopus is your brother.

The Thirty Minute Cassoulet

I have suffered, chopped, agonized, confit-ed, coaxed and cajoled the mysterious combination of flavors and ingredients in a cassoulet, while pouring over Larousse and searching through the outer banks of the internets for advice, concern, lore, and myth concerning the famous dish of southwest France. I believed, with all my soul, in the suffering=delicious cassoulet trope. Until I stumbled on a recipe from the great Jacques Pepin for a 30-minute cassoulet. Dubious, highly dubious, I made it. It's delicious. And involves only slightly more effort than a frittata and not as much as a stew. One caveat: I deliberately bought as high quality ham, sausage and bratwurst as I could, since when you are only cooking something for half an hour the taste shines through (as opposed to stewing for 2 or 3 days when flavors develop, mask, and wreak alchemical changes on cheap cuts of meat.) I highly recommend you do the same: search out organic, nitrite-free, woodsmoked etc from your butcher. Anyway, here it is, pain-free cassoulet:

Thirty-minute cassoulet

serves 4 generously

1 Tbs olive oil
1 lb ham (may be called shoulder, daisy, "Boston butt")
3/4 lb spicy Italian sausage, or best quality spicy chicken or turkey sausage (I used organic, spicy chorizo chicken sausages)
1 lb bratwurst (4 sausage links)
1 cup diced button mushrooms
3/4 cup diced onion (1 large)
2 Tbs crushed garlic (3-4 large cloves)
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
2 15.5 ozs cans of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup diced tomato (1 large, I used drained, canned plum tomatoes)
1/2 cup water
freshly ground pepper
3 Tbs coarsely chopped fresh parsley (for serving)

Heat the oil in a large skillet and add the ham, cut into bite-sized pieces, and the Italian sausage.

Cook over high heat for 7 minutes, turning occasionally. Add the bratwurst (whole,) mushrooms, onion, garlic, thyme and bay leaf. Mix well and cook for around 6 minutes. Add the beans, tomato, water, and pepper, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and boil gently [simmer] for 5 minutes.

When you are ready to eat, throw out the bay leaf, cut the Italian sausage into pieces. I leave the bratwurst whole and serve one per person like they do in France, but if you want you can cut it up at this point, too. Either put the whole thing onto a platter or serve it onto individual plates, sprinkle with parsley and serve hot. I put out a crusty baguette to mop up the sauce and Le Pepin suggests serving it with Tabasco sauce and Dijon mustard.

I could just cry over how easy and delicious this recipe is.

Mussels with Saffron and Mustard

This is an amazing recipe from Thomas Keller; the mussels come out delicious and swimming  in a bright yellow beautiful-looking soup. The one thing that is typically Kellerian and somewhat tricky about the recipe is that you need to make garlic confit first. (You can make the confit up to a week before you will need it.)

To make garlic confit: Take two heads of garlic, peel the cloves and put them in a single layer in a pot. Cover them by about an inch with canola oil. Turn the heat on very low (if you have a diffuser use one.) Cook the garlic cloves for 45 minutes. Tiny little bubbles should float up in the oil, nothing more. The cloves should be tender when poked with a knife. Turn off the heat and store the oil and garlic cloves in the fridge. You will be able to use the garlic-infused oil to cook with later.

If you are having people over, make the soup about 3 hours before you'll be eating and leave it, covered on the stove. Just before you eat put the (cleaned, bearded) mussels in the pot and cook them up. Throw out any mussels that don't cook in 5 minutes. Be sure to serve crusty, thick bread to mop up the soup, and sprinkle the mussels with chopped parsley.

Mussels with Saffron and Mustard
(serves 4 as a main course, 8 as an appetizer)

12 Tbs unsalted butter
1/4 cup minced shallots
24 cloves of garlic confit (see above)
1 Tbs plus 1 tsp minced fresh thyme leaves
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
1/4 cup dijon mustard
2 cups dry white wine
4 pinches of saffron threads
4 lbs small, fresh mussels
minced parsley

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the shallots, garlic, thyme, salt and white pepper, reduce heat to low and cook about 2 minutes until fragrant. Add the mustard and wine and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about two minutes. Add the saffron, cover the pot and take off the heat. You can leave the broth to steep from a minimum of 5 minutes to 3 hours. To Complete: Rinse the mussels under cold water and take off the beards. Bring the broth to simmer, add the mussels and stir to combine. Cover and cook for about two minutes until the mussels have opened. Stir so that all the delicious broth covers the mussels.
Sprinkle with parsley, grind some black pepper on top and serve in low-lipped bowls.

The Beauty of Asparagus

Even though it just turned back into Arctic-style winter here in Brooklyn I am determined to think about spring. I just saw a magnificent pile of thin, pale green asparagus looking like sunlight at the grocery store. Returning to the theme of bistro cooking this is an exquisite traditional Parisian bistro/wine bar/ brasserie recipe for asparagus, and it works especially well with the new, young, skinny kind that is just starting to arrive here on the East Coast. The more passionate the lover of fresh seasonal asparagus, seemingly the more simple the recipe. This one involves a poached egg on top, some garlic-rubbed baguette and thin serrano ham (prosciutto works just as well.) This is a perfect light lunch with a glass of prosecco or rosé. A lemon tart for desert, some strong coffee et voila!

apserges a la vinaigrette, oeuf poché mollet, et jambon serrano or, as we say in Brooklyn, steamed asparagus vinagrette with poached egg and ham:

serves 4 (or 2 hungry)

1 1/2 lbs aspargus, trimmed
1 Tbs + 1 tsp sherry vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
2 tsp chopped, fresh chives
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
ground black pepper
1 Tbs white wine vinegar
4 eggs
4 slices serrano or prosciutto
1 baguette, sliced and toasted
2 garlic cloves halved
2 drizzles extra virgin olive oil

1. Steam the asparagus until bright green and tender, 4 minutes maximum if it's thin and young. Be careful not to overcook the asparagus as you will lose the beauty of this dish. Alternate preparation: if you have a grill pan, heat it up and grill the asparagus on it (without oil,) turning them until they are dark green and soft. They will have brown grill marks on them and a nutty, roasted flavor.

2. Prepare the vinaigrette: combine sherry vinegar, mustard, chives and salt. Mix with a whisk. Slowly whisk in the olive oil and then season with pepper.

3. Poach your eggs. If you have a poacher use that, don't overcook them. The groovy, yummy factor involves being able to have the warm, runny yolk on the asparagus. Unless you are cooking for someone who doesn't like runny yolks. Sigh. If you don't have a poacher: Pour about 2 inches of water into a large saucepan, add white wine vinegar and season with salt. Break egg into a cup (do this one by one) and slowly lower into the boiling water. Let cook for about 3 minutes and remove with a slotted spoon, trim off any rough bits of white with kitchen scissors and gently place on paper towel to drain.

4. To serve: remix your vinaigrette, divide cooked asparagus on plates, drizzle with vinaigrette, top with poached egg and sprinkle with a tiny bit of fluer de sel or kosher salt and a grind of pepper. Serve with serrano ham on the side and baguette, which you have toasted, rubbed the garlic on and drizzled with olive oil. Yum.

Save The Date: Cooking With Color

Another fascinating (& scrumptious) sounding afternoon is brewing at NYU, this Thursday March 8 at 4pm in the Elmer Bobst Library at NYU (70 Washington Square South)

Cooking With Color: World Influences in American Foodways
with:

Jessica Harris, Beyond Gumbo: Creole Fusion Food from the Atlantic Rim
Scott Peacock, The Gift of Southern Cooking
Krishnendu Ray, Assistant Professor, Food Studies, NYU
Marcus Samuelsson [!!!], Soul of a New Cuisine: Discovery of the Foods and Flavors of Africa and the chef of Aquavit

Suggested donation is $10, there's a reception afterward. Innerested? Call 212-992-9018/rsvp@bobst@nyu.edu

Here's a delicious recipe from Chef Samuelsson who runs one of my favorite restaurants in New York:

LAMB SAUSAGE WRAP

These sausages of ground lamb were inspired by the foods of the Turkish community in Sweden. The patties are rolled up in flatbreads that have been spread with garlic mashed potatoes and sauerkraut.

Makes 4 sandwiches.

2 tablespoons olive oil 1 roasted red bell pepper, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped 1 shallot, finely chopped 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1/2 pound ground lamb 1/4 pound ground pork 1 teaspoon fresh marjoram, oregano or thyme leaves 1 teaspoon kosher salt Freshly ground black pepper 1 cup Garlic Mashed Potatoes (see below) 4 sheets Norwegian lefse, small sheets lavash, or flour tortillas 1/4 cup Spicy Sauerkraut (see below)

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add the roasted pepper, shallot, and garlic and cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes, until the shallots have softened. Transfer to a medium bowl.

2. Add the lamb, pork, marjoram, oregano, or thyme, salt, and pepper to taste and mix well with your hands. Shape the mixture into 8 oval patties about 3 inches long by 11/2 inches wide.

3. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sausages and cook, turning once, for 4 minutes on each side, or until cooked through. Remove from the heat.

4. Meanwhile, reheat the mashed potatoes in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally (add a little cream or milk if necessary).

5. Spread a layer of mashed potatoes over each flatbread. Top the potatoes with the sauerkraut. Put 2 sausages on each flatbread, roll up in the bread, and serve.



NOTES

To roast bell peppers, grill them over a hot fire, or directly over a gas flame, turning occasionally, until blackened all over; do not allow the flesh to char. Transfer to a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap, or put them in a paper bag and seal tightly, and set aside to steam and cool for about 10 minutes. Then remove the core and seeds and slip off the skin; don't worry if there are a few little bits of skin left. Don't rinse the peppers, or you will lose some of their flavor.

Lefse, a traditional Norwegian flatbread made from potatoes, flour, butter, and cream, is available at markets specializing in Scandinavian ingredients or some bakeries, but you can use any soft flatbreads for these wrap. Sandwich-sized flatbreads are available in many supermarkets, as well as in Middle Eastern markets and other specialty markets. Look for Damascus flatbreads, also called soft lavash, or other soft flatbreads sold specifically for sandwich wraps.

You can also grill the sausages on a charcoal or gas grill.

Is Chocolate a Drug?

Probably you've heard by now that dark chocolate is extremely good for you in terms of cancer-fighting properties. Dark Chocolate is way, way ahead of all the other good-for-you foods on the "top anti-oxidant foods" list. In fact, the next best thing to dark chocolate? Milk chocolate, then prunes, then raisins, then blueberries. Kale has 1/13th the anti-oxidant fighting power of dark chocolate. ah hem.

I've also heard that chocolate has mood-improving chemicals but listen to this: scientific studies have discovered chocolate contains theobromine, phenylthylamine (PEA), anandamide and cannabinoids which are similar to the mind-altering chemicals in the drugs Ecstasy (MDMA) and marijuana. Chocolate's high levels of magnesium, serotonin, and tyramine are also in anti-depressant and anti-psychotic prescription medication. You probably didn't need anyone in a lab coat to tell you that chocolate makes you feel better, but now you know.

Some more fascinating facts from your brothers and sisters in white coats:

• Fertility in women is linked positively with eating full fat dairy products – you know, cream in your coffee, ice cream, butter, mozzarella. If you are trying to get pregnant check out the news. And then throw out the no-fat cottage cheese!

• Be careful with all the vitamins. Very worrying information, which has been available in Europe for years, but suppressed here in the U.S. by the very powerful "supplement" lobby, is being published now that vitamins can severely damage your internal organs and may not even help that much. It's much, much better to address your vitamin needs through your diet. You know, ice cream, dark chocolate and a side of kale.