Lunch For Two

Summer Salads: Part I

My friend Carol loves fennel so much that she eats it like an apple sometimes. Her love of fennel has made me think alot more about the yummy, licorice tasting vegetable than I did before. I really love it fried and baked, but I'm starting to realize that the zen in fennel is achieved when you eat it raw. This is a delicious, summery salad that's full of fennel and ridiculously good with a glass of rosé. It's also easy enough to make for yourself in about five minutes when you get home from work.

Fennel & Parmesan Salad

1 red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup x-v olive oil
2 Tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice
fine table salt & black fresh ground pepper
1 fennel bulb (medium sized, organic if you can find it), thinly sliced
2 cups Italian parsley, roughly chopped
1/2 -2/3 cup Parmesan, shaved (use a peeler if you don't have a slicer)
1 cup shredded radicchio leaves

• Place the sliced onion in a small bowl, cover with boiling water and soak for five minutes
• Drain and cool the onion
• Whisk the olive oil and lemon juice together in the bottom of your salad bowl. Taste to make sure your oil-lemon proportion is good and then add salt and pepper. For salad dressing it's better to use fine ground salt rather than kosher or fleur de sel as it disperses and flavors more evenly.
• Toss the cooled red onion in the dressing then add all the other ingredients and toss lightly so the parmesan doesn't get all mushed up.

Grilling potatoes

I know people have issues with potatoes but I don't. I love them without guilt, reserve, fear or tumbling down the well of darkness that so many people seem to when contemplating the luscious little tuber. And one of my all-time favorite ways to serve (and eat) potatoes is when I  find myself with a grill at my disposal. Potato and garlic kabobs are just so yummy and really pretty easy to make. If you take a few extra minutes to par-boil your potatoes before you grill them you will find yourself with the most amazing morsels that are crispy with a slightly carbonized taste on the outside (remember the chevre cheese that came rolled in ash? similar taste sensation) and fluffy with an almost woodsy-truffle flavor on the inside. The roasted garlic are delicious spread on the potatoes or whatever else you are cooking (grilled chicken, fish, beef...)

To serve about 6 people as a side dish: get bamboo kebab skewers and soak them in water for 30 minutes or so before you use them or steel kebab skewers. Buy 3-4 pounds of organic russet potatoes, and parboil them for 5 minutes. During the last 60 seconds or so of boiling throw in an entire head of garlic. Drain the potatoes and garlic in a colander, pat the potatoes dry. Wait until they are cooled down and then cut them into halves if they are smallish or quarters if you have large russets. Then thread the potatoes onto the skewers, alternating with the un-peeled garlic cloves and sections of fresh rosemary twigs.

Brush them with canola oil and pop them on top of your hot grill. (you can make them before you cook the meat/protein/main part of the meal and carefully arrange them on the grill's edges to stay warm if you don't have two grills at your disposal.) Turn every few minutes or so for about 15 minutes in total, being careful that you don't burn them (or your fingers.) When they are done and/or you are ready to serve drizzle them with a green, fruity extra virgin olive oil (try Californian or Australian,) fluer de sel or kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper.
These are great with grilled salmon, lamb, beef or marinated chicken. Stay tuned for how to cook seriously gourmet sea scallops in a tiny motel room kitchenette by Nelle G....

Pistachios and Roses

I've been getting jiggy with the rosewater lately.  This olfactory pleasing liquid has an affinity for a whole peculiar range of foods.  I used it recently in a crab salad.  It was equally at home in a grapefruit marmalade I cooked up one weekend.  This past Saturday I adapted a recipe from Joyce Goldstein's Back To Square One cookbook and made a killer pistachio cake.  The original recipe, for an almond cake, called for citrus zest and a blend of vanilla and kirsch to boost the flavor.  I used vanilla alright but I opted for Tahitian vanilla extract which has an exceedingly floral scent to it that I thought would go nicely with the pistachios.  And instead of kirsch I dumped in a bunch of rosewater.

Rosewater, which is almost never used in American cooking, is ancient and important.  It has been used in Middle Eastern and Asian cooking for millenia.  It also plays an important role in certain Hindu and Islamic holy rituals.  In ancient Rome people bathed in the stuff.  Rosewater is actually a by-product of the production of rose oil, made for the perfume and cosmetics industries, which is derived from the damask rose, an old variety that originally grew in Persia and did not even make it to Europe until the 13th century.

Pistachios and roses.  This is a favorite flavor combination in Turkish and Middle Eastern sweets.  It's one of my favorites too.  Whenever I walk by Fabiane's, on Bedford Avenue in  Williamsburg, I am impelled, through the door and straight to the pastry counter, by the thought of their pistachio cake.  And when I am feeling particularly decadent, I go for their luscious pistachio creme brulee.  Both are liberally dosed with rosewater.

Pistachio Cake

12 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
11 ounces pistachio paste*
1 teaspoon Tahitian vanilla extract**
2 teaspoons rose flower water***
5 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup apricot or black currant jam
1 Tablespoon of Irish whiskey (like Jameson)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Lightly butter a 9-inch springform pan and line it with a circle of wax paper.  Butter the wax paper as well.

Beat the butter with the sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Add the pistachio paste, vanilla and rose flower water.  Beat until blended.  Add the eggs a couple at a time, mixing until combined each time.  Sift in flour and baking powder and fold into batter with a spatula until just combined.  Pour into the prepared pan and smooth the top.  Bake until cake shrinks back from sides of the pan and springs back when touched, about 1 hour.  Let the cake cool completely in the pan and then turn it out onto a serving plate.  Melt the jam in a small saucepan over low heat with whiskey.  Brush over the top of the cake.

*I bought my can of pistachio paste at Sahadi on Atlantic Avenue.  It can probably be found in the baking section of any well-stocked supermarket.

**I buy my Tahitian vanilla extract from The Spice House in Wisconsin.

***I bought my rosewater at Sahadi too.  Look for it in specialty food stores, especially ones specializing in Middle Eastern, Mediterranean or Indian foods.

Fabiane's Cafe & Pastry Shop is located at 142 North 5th Street (at Bedford Avenue) in Brooklyn, (718) 218-9632.