Eggs!

I love eggs. There are times when I find myself at the end of a week only to realize I've eaten some kind of egg dish almost every day. Percolating somewhere inside my brain is the idea of a restaurant where eggs are the star of almost every dish. I think it could work!

Two of my favorite egg dishes are really easy to make: a frittata and an over easy egg on top of some kind of pesto. Here are the recipes:

Frittata:
~Preheat the broiler
~Saute 1 small onion until translucent, about 3-4 minutes, in a 10 inch, oven safe pan
~Add one bunch of whichever green you like. Chard works well, as does spinach. Remove the thickest part of the stems removed, and saute until soft, about 3 minutes
~While your green is cooking, whisk 9 large eggs, adding salt, pepper, and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese to them
~When the green is almost done, add the eggs to the pan. Cook until set
~When set, transfer the pan to the broiler and cook until the top is golden, about 3 minutes
~Slice and serve with crusty bread

Frittata

My other favorite egg dish, and the one I make almost every Saturday morning, is a simple over easy egg atop crusty bread and pesto. I like to make tomato or garlic scape pesto in the summer; in the winter, if I can find a nice bunch of basil that doesn't cost the earth, I'll make a batch of basil pesto, which is wonderful with eggs.

You can find my recipe for basil pesto and salmorejo, a Spanish tomato pesto, here, and garlic scape pesto here.

Egg and garlic scape pesto

The egg really is the perfect food, and so versatile. If you can find them, use organic cage free eggs, which make a big difference in the taste. Buon appetito!

Eating our way through Rhinebeck, N.Y.

It was a big birthday weekend for Ryan, so we spent it in Rhinebeck, NY, one of our favorite little towns on the Hudson. So much of any trip like this one, for us at least, is about the food, but what better way to begin the trip than to arrive at one of the oldest inns in the U.S., the lovely Beekman Arms.

The bar in the Beekman Arms

The Beekman is magical. It has all the trappings of a quaint inn -- the historic documents lining the walls, the bar with its regulars (including the wonderful Homer Knickerbocker Staley, whose family has been in Rhinebeck for 7 generations), and a bottle of port to welcome you to your room. Each night before heading out to dinner we'd spend an hour or so in the bar, where there are plenty of regulars who are happy to fill you in on the history and lore of the Beekman. The food at the Beekman is fun -- more refined in the restaurant and good old pub fare in the bar. It's well worth the trip, and by far the loveliest place to stay in Rhinebeck.

The first floor landing at the Beekman

Registry, Beekman Arms

A must see while in Rhinebeck is the home of FDR, just a short ride into nearby Hyde Park. Similar to Sagamore Hill, the home of Teddy Roosevelt, FDR's home is simple and lovely, quite unlike its neighbor down the road, the Vanderbilt Mansion. One of the highlights of the tour was this line from the guide: "When the Queen of England visited Hyde Park, Sara Roosevelt, FDR's mother, finally met someone of her social status. For that visit she changed the slipcovers on the furniture." Compare that to the new money down the road, who wanted to prove they were the new royalty by displaying a 15th century Medici family crest above their fireplace.

We ventured out into the 20 degree night to eat at the Catherine de Medici restaurant at the CIA, the Culinary Institute of America. Ryan ordered much better than I did, for a change, and was well chuffed with his pasta starter and lamb dinner. But meal aside, I think it was this that did it for him:

For breakfast the next morning and the morning after, we headed to Bread Alone, located on East Market -- great coffee and reliable fare, not to mention the beautiful loaves of bread to take away for your trip home. And even after a hearty breakfast and lunch, we found room for dinner at Terrapin, one of the best spots in town. Terrapin is located in an old church, with dark wood and vaulted ceilings and wonderful food. I had short ribs over mashed potatoes, perfect for a freezing New York night, and Ryan had a hearty dish of rigatoni. But one of my favorite places in Rhinebeck is Arielle, a little bistro also on East Market. The food is reliably good, Mediterranean at heart, inventive and fresh. These little beauties were served with a yogurt dipping sauce and topped with fresh lemon juice and sea salt.

Artichokes at Arielle

Rhinebeck is a lovely little getaway, close to Manhattan and quite the foodie's town as to make it well worth the ride up there. I didn't even mention the farmer's market on Sundays in Town Hall, the beer and cheese shop across the street from the Beekman where you can get a bit of local cheese and hundreds of different beers, both local and far flung, nor the wineries, trails and parks in the area. But I don't have time for that right now; right behind me on my kitchen counter is a raisin and pecan loaf from Bread Alone that's demanding my attention...


My history geek moment: George Washington visited Rhinebeck in 1796, and both Aaron Burr and Morgan Lewis used taverns in the area as their campaign headquarters.

Christmas Stuffed Peppers

When my brother and I were little, my grandmother, Nanny, used to make stuffed peppers every once in a while. It's likely she made them quite often, now that I think about it, but it was never enough for us. When we went to her house and saw the dish of peppers sitting on the counter, we were utterly thrilled! Now we only get them once a year, when my mother makes them for Christmas, so I decided to give them a try; happily, they were just as I remembered them.

Stuffed peppers

Ingredients:

2 jars whole cherry peppers, either hot or sweet (B&G are best)

1 onion

1 stick butter

3/4 package of firm white bread

1 apple, peeled, cored and grated

Salt and pepper to taste

Garlic powder to taste

10 leaves of fresh basil, chopped

Pinch dry oregano

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Olive oil

The peppers. I prefer the bite of the hot ones.

Saute the onion in one stick of butter until soft. Put aside. In a food processor, pulse the bread in batches and crumb until fine. Add salt, pepper, oregano, garlic powder, cheese, basil, apple and lastly the onion to the bread mixture. Dampen the mixture slightly with milk, one tablespoon at a time, and mix together using your hands. You will notice that as you get toward the bottom of the mixture it may be dry; continue to dampen with milk, as you want the mixture to be moist but not wet.

The bread mixture.

Core and stem the peppers and remove the seeds, leaving an opening large enough to stuff (be careful not to touch your eyes if you're using the hot peppers). Stuff each pepper with the bread mixture, packing tightly. In a large skillet, heat at least 1/2 cup of olive oil over medium heat and brown the peppers slowly, starting with the stuffing side down and moving to the bottom of the pepper. Fry the peppers until soft, turning the larger peppers on their side (for smaller peppers, frying the top and bottom will do). Drain on paper towel and eat at room temperature. 

Unstuffed

Stuffed and ready to eat

These little beauties take a long time to make, to be honest, but they're so worth it. They've been a part of my Christmas tradition for a long time. I introduced them to my new in-laws this year and they were quite the hit, though they almost didn't make it to the Christmas table as Ryan attempted to devour them in one sitting. Buon appetito!

More cold weather soup

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to go to a cooking class at Macy's De Gustibus Cooking School. It was run by my friend Sandra Lotti, master chef and owner of Toscana Saporita, a mecca for cooks and located in Tuscany. I was there in the summer of 2010 (see my earlier post about my time there), and let me tell you, there's nothing like cooking in the hills of Tuscany.
This week's class was a bit different in that Sandra was cooking wintry foods, not the summer foods I experienced in Tuscany in June. She made braised pork shoulder -- called stinko in Italian, if you can believe that -- that fell off the bone. For dessert there was a light olive oil cake with orange zest.

Braised pork shoulder with broccoli rabe and polenta

Orange zest and olive oil cake

But before this she made soup, a hearty white bean, which I made a few days after. It's perfect for a cold winter night, and incredibly easy to make. I will write about the method I used, which was a bit easier than hers in that I used canned beans -- perfectly good and much easier for the busy cook.

Cannellini Bean Soup with Crutons

Ingredients:
2 cans of white beans, with their juice
4 tablespoons olive oil
Panchetta, lardo or a piece of prosciutto rind (which you can get from a good meat store or deli)
1 large red onion
2 carrots, diced
1 celery stalk, diced

3 cloves garlic
1 cup canned tomatoes, with their juice and crushed by hand
4 leaves of fresh sage
Fresh rosemary
1 cup croutons, fried in a bit of olive oil
Fresh nutmeg (optional)

• Pour the olive oil into a pot and add the carrots, onion, celery, garlic, rosemary and panchetta. This is your soffritto, your base. Add the soffritto to the oil when the oil is cold, not hot; you're not sauteing, you're building a base for the soup. Cook until the vegetables are soft, about 15 minutes or so, stirring frequently.
• When the soffritto is done, add the tomatoes, beans and sage and cook for another 10 minutes.
• Transfer the soup into a glass bowl and puree it with an immersion blender. (If you don't have one, use a stand-up blender but puree it in small batches -- hot soup expands and will, literally, explode all over if there's too much liquid in the blender). You can puree the soup as much or as little as you like. I enjoy a few pieces of whole beans in the soup.
• Transfer back into the pot and add enough water to make the soup hearty -- about a cup or so, adding slowly. Make sure the liquid you introduce is hot; adding cold water will slow the cooking process.
• Bring to a boil and season with salt, pepper and freshly grated nutmeg. Serve with croutons and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

White bean soup

What I love most about this soup is the sweet and unexpected flavor of the tomatoes. This is easy to make and really delicious. Serve with a pinot grigio or another dry white wine...delish!



My history geek moment: Beans are some of the oldest cultivated plants in the world, and some of the most important. When ancient Egyptians buried their dead, they would sometimes add beans to the treasures left for them to take to the next world.

What to do with all those unfamiliar vegetables from the CSA....

One advantage about belonging to the CSA is that it's made me an adventurous cook. I've come across vegetables this season I never knew existed, and none of them have really scared me. That is, until I met celeriac. Poor celeriac! I can't imagine that anyone who knew nothing about this guy would ever pick it up and think, "this looks good." By far one of the oddest looking vegetables I've gotten from the CSA this season, not to mention one of the hairiest, I decided not to let it rot in my refrigerator; instead I began searching for ways to use it.

Celeriac peeled (left) and unpeeled

I happened upon this recipe, courtesy of Tiny Urban Kitchen. Thanks again to the CSA, I had all the ingredients for the soup. It was fast and easy to make, and the taste was surprising: sweet, earthy and savory all at once, and quite delicious. Celeriac, or celery root, has a mild, grassy, earthy flavor and is easy to cook with; much easier than it looks, that is to say!

Celeriac Apple Potato Soup, courtesy of tinyurbankitchen.com

Ingredients
1 celeriac root (peeled and chopped)
2 medium sized Idaho potatoes (peeled and chopped)
1 large apple (peeled and chopped)
1/2 onion, diced
1 Qt chicken broth
1 T butter
1 T oil
1/2 tsp dried Thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onions in butter and oil under medium heat for a few minutes until browned and translucent. Add the celeriac and potatoes.  Saute for about 8-10 minutes until they are cooked.  Add broth and apples.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes. Blend with an immersion blender or, if using a blender, blend in batches in the blender.  Garnish with toppings of your choice and serve.

All the ingredients simmering...wait until you smell this!

The finished soup has a rich, autumnal color

Delish!

Eggplant Parmesan

It's been a while, but I have an excuse. Well, two. One, school started up again, and that always means fewer hours in the kitchen. It also means about two months of trying to get used to waking up early again and being exhausted all the time. I've made some meals between summer and now that have really made me want to blog about them, but nothing as good as what I made last night: eggplant parmesan with ricotta cheese. And just to think, it all happened because of a mistake.

I've been thinking of making eggplant rollatini for some time now. It's something I love but only eat at restaurants, really. It never seemed like a hard dish to make, so I gave it a try last night. And it was all going well, until I realized that instead of cutting the eggplant lengthwise, so as to be able to roll it (hence, the roll in rollatini), I cut it width wise. What to do? Well, I had the eggplant ready, and the ricotta and mozzarella mixture was done too, so why not just make a classic eggplant parmesan with a twist? I've seen recipes for eggplant parmesan with ricotta, and when I was in Italy last year we made it with bechamel, so I gave it a try.

Here's the recipe for the ricotta and mozzarella mixture, which I got from Epicurious. Very simple, and do use the whole milk ricotta and mozzarella, preferably fresh.

• 3 cups (packed) coarsely grated whole-milk mozzarella cheese (about 12 ounces)
• 1 1/4 cups ricotta cheese (preferably whole-milk)
• 3/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
• Salt and pepper to taste

The sauce:
1 can whole, peeled plumb tomatoes
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
peperoncino (hot pepper flakes)
lots of fresh basil
handful of Parmesan cheese (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
~Saute the onion, garlic and peperoncino in good olive oil until golden. Start the onion a minute or so before the garlic, as the onions take longer to cook and you don't want the garlic to burn.
~Using a hand mixer or blender, blend the tomatoes without their juice until smooth.
~When the onion and garlic are golden, add the tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients, stir, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.

For the eggplant, I coated the slices in flour first, then egg, and then a mixture of parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs and baked them in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, turning them half through. Of course, you can fry the eggplant in olive oil too, which, in my opinion, makes for the tastier dish.

After the eggplant is ready, simply layer an oven safe dish with sauce, then a layer of eggplant, then the ricotta and mozzarella mixture, then sauce, repeating until everything is used up. Your last layer should be sauce and a bit of  just mozzarella, and then sprinkle it with parmesan. Cook for about 45 minutes, covered, on 350.  One trick to eggplant parmesan, at least something my mother always does when serving a dish like this, is to allow it to set for a few minutes after it's done baking.

I enjoyed a glass of sangiovese with this, and it was perfect. Buon appetito!

My history geek moment: Eggplant is native to India, and Arabs brought it to the Mediterranean region in the Middle Ages.

Things that make me happy...eggplant caponata

I love the history of food. I love to eat something Italian and recognize its North Africa and the Middle Eastern ingredients. At one time or another, Sicily was ruled by the Vandals, the Byzantines, the Arabs and the Normans, so Sicilian food is like a crossroads. My favorite thing about Sicilian food are those dishes that contain the ingredients brought by the Arabs: citrus, clove, eggplant, pine nuts, currants, to name a few. Caponata, which is an eggplant dish, is the kind of food where you can taste history in every bite.

I've had caponata all over the place, and many different cultures have their version of it. There are a lot of ingredients that go into this, and I've tried a few different recipes, but this one, by Mario Batali, is my favorite.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup virgin olive oil
• 1 large Spanish onion, chopped in 1/2-inch dice
• 3 tablespoons pine nuts
• 3 tablespoons currants
• 1 tablespoon hot chili flakes, plus extra for garnish
• 2 medium eggplant, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (to yield 4 cups)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 teaspoon
• 1/4 cup basic tomato sauce, recipe follows
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 5 sprigs mint, chopped

In a large 12 to 14-inch saute pan, over medium heat, heat the olive oil until hot but not smoking. Add the onions, pine nuts, currants and chili flakes and saute for 4 to 5 minutes until softened.

Add the eggplant, sugar, cinnamon, and cocoa and continue to cook for 5 more minutes. Add the thyme, tomato sauce, and balsamic vinegar. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Lower the heat and simmer the mixture for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature, garnish with mint and chili flakes. Serve the caponata spooned on crostini or in middle of table with bread on side to allow guests to help themselves.

Basic Tomato Sauce:

• 1/4 cup extra vergin olive oil
• 1 Spanish onion, 1/4-inch dice
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves, or 1 tablespoon dried
• 1/2 medium carrot, finely grated
• 2 (28-ounce) cans peeled whole tomatoes, crushed by hand and juices reserved
• Salt

In a 3-quart saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until soft and light golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the thyme and carrot and cook 5 minutes more, until the carrot is quite soft. Add the tomatoes and juice and bring to a boil, stirring often. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until as thick as hot cereal. Season with salt and serve. This sauce holds 1 week in the refrigerator or up to 6 months in the freezer.
Yield: 4 cups

 Sounds like a lot, but this is a very easy recipe, and the caponata gets better by the day. And the smell of sauteed onion, currants and pine nuts made it worth every step, believe me.

Onion, currants, hot pepper and pine nuts

Caponata

About to be devoured

 This made quite a large batch, but it only lasted for about 2 days in my apartment. And eggplant is in season now, so take advantage.

My history geek moment: Arab rule in Sicily only lasted a bit over 100 years. During that time, the Arabs introduced many foods to Sicily, such as oranges, lemons, pistachios and sugar cane, along with those mentioned above.