One of the great food-related gifts I received from my parents was an early appreciation for Asian food. As the story goes, they would make stir-fries and wash the spicy bits off, until I was about 3 or so and demanded to eat everything fully spiced. I'm not sure of how accurate this story is, but I do know that I love pretty much all types of Asian cooking, the spicier the better.

Back then, of course, Chinese was the big thing-- easily accessible outside urban areas, and very much Americanized. Now there's a Thai restaurant on every corner, and Vietnamese, Malaysian, Japanese, Cambodian, Korean, and many more... and in many places you can get Chinese that consists of more than Chop Suey, and is acually accurate for its region. (Supposedly there are eight main Chinese cooking traditions, although I believe that is debated.)

(A note to mollify my parents, if they are reading-- they certainly never prepared or purchased anything as prosaic as chop suey or egg foo yong.)

Now, my favorite flavor profile is the salty-sweet-fishy-yummy taste of Thai and Vietnamese food made with lots of fish sauce. It's all part of the greater taste sensation of umami, which in context can make my mouth water like nothing else.

But sometimes I want those flavors to be easy to come by. I don't always want to go out to dinner, or get take out, or work too hard for any sort of cultural or culinary authenticity.

Faux Thai Pasta fulfills this need. Basically, it's pork meatballs over rice noodles in a spicy peanut sauce. It's got lime, fish sauce, peanut, chili paste, cilantro, and vegetables, and only takes about half an hour to prepare. Click the link to check out the recipe.

When I was in law school in Michigan, and I lived in the dorm for the first summer, I had a little electric wok and a teensy fridge, and I ate a version of this almost every day, made with a packet of ramen noodles, a lime, p.b., soy sauce, and chopped scallions. (I was very poor. I don't necessarily recommend it as an everyday meal!)

The Portland Press Herald ran a story over the weekend that featured various Jewish families getting ready for the Passover holiday. Reading about all of the cleaning, and cooking, and removing of chametz, I found myself wondering when they were going to get to the point of Passover-- the food! There's a brief mention at the end of the article of gefilte fish, never my favorite traditional food (in a word: blech), but so much was left out. I'd wager that for most American Jews, like those in my family, Passover doesn't actually include any wall-washing or sink-bleaching, or even abstaining from leavened bread. What it does include is a celebration of friends, family, and freedom.

But most importantly, it's a celebration of food.

When else do we have the opportunity or reason to prepare those recipes our grandmothers and great-grandmothers brought over from whatever 'old country' they called home? When I was a child my family spent every Passover on Long Island with my paternal grandparents. Under normal circumstances the fare at "Nanni and Grandpa's" was as American as it comes--my grandpa Gerry was a particular fan of pork chops, if I remember correctly. But come Passover my grandmother became the quintessential Jewish grandma--she made her own horseradish by grinding the roots by hand; her matzoh ball soup featured both soft and hard matzoh balls; her chopped liver was the highlight of the meal for my dad (again: blech).

This year, inspired by our on-again, off-again Sunday night dinners we enjoy with some dear friends, a group of us came together and created our own seder, complete with haggadahs cobbled together from the internet (I particularly enjoyed the Open Source Haggadah). Only two of us of the six at the meal were raised Jewish, but I think that everyone who attended got the flavor of the traditions, and had a great time. Not to mention got to eat some phenomenal food.

The menu included a beef brisket smothered in caramelized onions (adapted from a recipe in the Hannaford Fresh magazine), carrot-leek soup, my own charoset, a vegetarian faux-chopped liver made with green beans (can someone send me that recipe, btw? not blech), potato kugel, carrot/prune tsimmes, and a salad. And, of course, the symbolic foods: salt water, matzoh, horseradish, a piece of paper that was supposed to be a lamb shank, a roasted egg, and a piece of lettuce. If you're interested in all of these symbolic foods and what function they serve in the seder, look here.

Everything was delicious, we all drank a bunch of red wine (not Manishevitz), and we ended the night with an intense debate about Ironman triathlons, and whether people who do them have issues. (It's a fairly sedentary group, so our conclusions were undoubtedly biased.)

Here's my recipe for charoset. And a note to the Press Herald: writing an article about Passover and only interviewing people who either clean out the chametz, create special kitchens, or eat off paper plates is sort of like writing an article about Christmas and only interviewing people who go to midnight Mass--you're missing a lot of peoples' perspectives!

Ingredients

3 apples, chopped into 1 cm pieces (I like to use a mix of apples; this year I used gala, granny smith, and fuji)
2 t ground cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 T honey
Zest of 1 lemon, grated
Juice of 1 lemon
Splash sweet vermouth

Mix everything in a bowl. Let sit at room temperature at least an hour so the flavors can meld.

Easter is traditionally one of those food holidays, probably growing out of its roots and connection to Passover. It's also always been one of my favorites, especially because it usually features ham, one of my favorite meats. (There was some paranoia in my household when I was a child about nitrates or nitrites or something like that, which lead to me being unjustly denied my rightful amount of ham. I've been spending the rest of my life trying to make up for that early disappointment. Sniff.)

Under normal circumstances, Otis and I head to Chicopee, MA, where his Gramma lives. However, this year I just felt spent-- starting a new job, a lot of wedding-related activities coming up for my friend Alysia, and and overall case of the 'spring' blahs-- so I played the bad wife and stayed home. At the last minute, my friend Kendall invited me to an Easter dinner hosted by her BFF, the lovely Leslie of Aurora Provisions.

And what a lucky Easter ducky I was! An incredibly diverse and fascinating group of 20+ folks came together to feast, toast, and chat. A lot of the attendees are active in the Slow Food Portland group. Some were farmers, including John and Stacy of Broadturn Farm and their daughters. Some were restauranteurs, including the couple who are opening Bonobo Pizza, a brick oven pizzeria, in the former Supreme location on the corner of Pine and Brackett. (Otis wants to know the connection between sex-crazed monkeys and pizza. If anyone knows, please advise.) Tom and Sarah Flanagan of Flanagan Fine Art were there, along with their charming children. I also met Karl and Margaret Hathaway Schatz, and got to learn about her upcoming book, the Year of the Goat, and meet their sweet baby Charlotte.

All in all it was a lovely afternoon. Not to mention the delicious, delicious food, most of which was kosher for Passover and chametz-free...morroccan spiced lamb roast, savory matzoh brie, fish balls, roasted asparagus, chicken with preserved lemon, potato kugel, and much more. I rolled on home about 5 with a full belly and the glow of having had a day of great conversation. I still feel a little bit guilty about missing the Baron family Easter, though. I hope they'll forgive me.

Unfortunately, since I didn't do any of the cooking, I have no recipes from Easter. But, Kendall came over for chicken curry on Tuesday, and suggested I share that recipe since she enjoyed it so much.

Here it is!

The past week has been so full of deliciousness I don't even know where to begin. Friday night was Tu Casa with Ron and Diane. Otis and Ron both destroyed enormous Plato Montaneros (steak, rice, beans, plantain, avocado, fried egg) while Diane had some taquitos and I attempted, and failed, to eat an entire burrito. As usual, everything was delicious, cheap, and the hot sauce flowed like water. Mmm.

Sunday was the wedding shower for my dear friend Alysia, at her parents' house in Falmouth. The spread was incredible, with fruit salad, shrimp salad, bagels, cream cheese, and lox, pound cake, pineapple walnut cake, and the two quiches and a strata thing brought by yours truly. The quiche was a big hit-- it's the same recipe my mother has always made, and it's absurdly easy and completely non-authentic (no custard needed!). I'm going to include that recipe below. The strata/baked bread is my mother-in-law Jane's recipe, and it's delish, with lots of cheese and linguica.

Luckily for us, we never lost power during the crazy storm, although the wind was blowing so hard it was hard to hear the dialogue on the James Bond movie we were watching. Oh, the humanity! It was such a nasty day even the dog didn't want to go outside. Which made it perfect for comfort food: roasted garlic mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus, and chicken breast with a black-pepper/balsamic reduction pan sauce. Even though I overcooked the asparagus (bad Marya! Shocking!) it was a delicious and cozy meal to enjoy while the wind howled outside.

On Tuesday we met Ravinder and Katey for burgers at Wild Willy's in South Portland, on a tip that they serve the best burger in town. I wouldn't go that far, but they were tasty and pretty cheap. My main complaint was that my medium-rare was more like medium, which is pretty damn annoying.

And finally, last night Otis prepared mustard-crusted wild salmon, adapted from Mario Batali's wonderful Babbo Cookbook, with scallion quinoa and fennel salad.

We are so spoiled.

I'll try to get it together to include more recipes later. For now, here's my mom's quiche. The fun thing about this recipe is that you can do whatever you want with it, and it's practically impossible to mess up. (Once I forgot to add the eggs. It ened up pretty watery, but still tasted pretty good.) It doesn't rely on a traditional custard base, so it's not going to break. I like it vegetarian, but you could toss in some ham or cooked bacon lardons. Or use a mix of cheddar and monterey jack, use red and green peppers for the vegetables, and add some minced chipotles in adobo.

We were lucky enough to have our first BBQ of the season be glorious. Jenn and Matt invited us over for the Survivor finale and burgers. And oh-- what delicious burgers they were. Juicy, rare, perfectly cooked, with grilled onions, and slabs of blue cheese.

We offered to bring sides, which Otis executed because I was lazily napping away the afternoon in the living room with the windows open and the curtains swaying in the breeze. Zeke was nice enough not to lick me to wake me up, as he was in the kitchen watching anxiously lest any pieces of cabbage or green bean fall to the floor. He takes his responsibility as floor cleaner very seriously.

As Otis takes his BBQ responsibilities very seriously. First he made green bean salad-- a simple enough preparation, green beans roasted with garlic oil & S&P, then chilled with a touch of balsamic.

He also made a fabulous yellow cole slaw, adapted from the book Peace, Love and Barbeque. (If you've never seen this book, check it out. In addition to some amazing recipes, it's a wonderful narrative, full of stories and anecdotes from barbeque culture.)

We've been eating the slaw all this week. It just gets better. Here's the recipe:

1/8 cup pickle juice
3/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 T annatto oil (optional. this is what makes it yellow.)
1 t pepper
1 t salt
1 t celery seed
1 t mustard powder
1 t sugar
1 clove garlic, pressed
1 1/4 cup mayo
1 cabbage, shredded (we use our glorious cuisinart. thanks mom!!)
4 carrots, shredded
1 small onion, shredded.

Mix everything together and chill.

Enjoy the spring and summer! We've had a little weather setback here, and it's back down to the 50s during the day, and rainy. I'm sure it will turn around soon. Plus, the rain is good for the garden. Our azalea is getting ready to flower!

My mom was nice enough to bring up a copy of Mark Bittman's article in the New York Times about grinding your own burger meat, and how a) that's the new trend, and b) it's way better.

All I can say is, Otis and I were wayyy ahead of that trend. I asked for, and received, the kitchenaid food grinder attachment for one of my holiday gifts a couple of years ago. For about six months it sat in its little box, languishing away.

But then! We began grinding here, grinding there, grinding thither and yon! I think I mentioned in my previous posting about Thai meatballs that grinding the meat for those is the way to go. Well, the grinder also makes incredible meat for loaf, and, (coming to the point of this post) makes some damn tasty turkey meatballs.

I was especially pleased to learn when I returned home from work today that Otis is planning on making tortellini with turkey meatballs for dinner tomorrow. (Tonight is leftover bbq pork and corn on the cob with garlic oil. Hey, there's that garlic oil again...))

Anyway, coming to the point. Turkey meatballs! You need a grinder for this, obviously.

Ingredients:
1 lb boneless turkey breast, very cold
2 stale dinner rolls, torn into pieces
S&P
Basil, oregano, other herbs to taste
2 eggs, beaten

To Prepare:
Grind the turkey and the bread through the grinder on coarse
Mix in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients
Form into small round balls
Fry in a small amount of olive oil until cooked through

OK. That was not a very exciting recipe, especially if you don't have a grinder. How's this for a teaser... we bought four thai chile plants this weekend, each of which should yield 200+ hot-as-hell chiles. Coming soon: lots of hot stuff!

Until I was about 27 I had a visceral horror of all thing mayonnaise related. Something about the combination of creaminess, blandness, and viscosity really grossed me out, and it was extreme-- I would send back sandwiches that had even a trace of mayo on the bread, and forget about pasta or potato salad with mayo-based dressing.

Slowly, however, over the past few years, I've begun to appreciate mayo as a flavor vector. I still couldn't stomach just plain mayo on a sandwich, but with the help of garlic aeoli and other complementary sauces, I've realized that a mayo-based sauce, as long as it has a lot of other flavors, can be really delicious.

Due to a variety of work and personal factors I've been an extra-lazy cook lately, and Otis has been picking up the slack, but this Tuesday I decided to make up for it by making a quintessential summer supper: shrimp salad for the main course, and blueberry crumble for dessert.

Against all weather-man odds, it turned out to be a gorgeous summer day, so my hour in the kitchen with a hot oven wasn't ideal. But the supper turned out to be absolutely delicious.

I adapted the shrimp salad recipe from Cook's Illustrated.

Shrimp Salad

1. Boil 1 lb shrimp in 2 cups of water with the juice of three lemons, the lemon rinds, 1 tablespoon sugar, and 1 teaspoon each black peppercorns and salt. (About 5-10 mins, depending on the size of the shrimp.)
2. When the shrimp are done (pink and opaque) remove them to an ice water bath to stop the cooking. Remove and dry.
3. Drain and reserve the shrimp stock, and place in the freezer, never to be seen again. (That's what I did. Hopefully I'll actually remember it's there and do something with it.)
4. Whisk together 1/4 cup mayo, the juice of 1 lemon, 3 tablespoons minces chives (I used chives from our container garden! whoopee!), and 2 tablespoons chipotle mustard. Season to taste.
5. Cut shrimp into appetizing bite-sized pieces and mix into the dressing.
6. Serve over watercress dressed with a quick squeeze of lemon juice.

That's it! Although if you're hungry, I might double the recipe...Otis ate about 3/4 lb of the shrimp. I think he spent all day working outside on a deck or something, so he deserved it. (He also ate 2 sourdough dinner rolls.)

For the blueberry crumble, I also adapt a Cook's Illustrated recipe. It's really easy:

1. Macerate the blueberries with sugar and lemon zest for about 1/2 an hour.
2. Process together flour, sugar, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and sliced almonds. Bake on a parchment-covered cookie sheet until light brown.
3. Mix 1 T of cornstarch in with the berries (mix with a little water 1st to avoid clumping)
4. Put the blueberries in a square pyrex, and cover with the crumble, crumbled.
5. Bake for about 1/2 hour.

Serve warm, with a dollop of whipped cream if you have it. Or, do like the Brits and just pour some cream or half-and-half over it. Best thing to come out of English cuisine since the fish finger.

When Otis read my turkey meatball entry he was shocked to see I didn't include his turkey meatball recipe, which is much better than mine. So here are the ingredients-- I think you can figure it out from there.

1 1/2 lb ground turkey
1/3 cups grated parmesan cheese
1 or 2 small dinner rolls, toasted and processed
1 beaten egg
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1/8 t white pepper
1/4 t crushed red pepper
2 T garlic oil
1/4 t oregano
1 T parsley flakes

He makes these up and serves them with pasta and a yummy cream sauce. They're also good in sandwiches.

After a fabulous week in Montreal (why we didn't make it to San Francisco is a long story), full of good food and lots of walking, we returned for a crazy week of BBQ and work.

The CSA for the fourth included lots of yummy vegetables, many of which are our favorites.

1 head romaine
1/4 lb mixed greens
1/4 lb lettuce mix
1 bunch parsley
.3 lb sugarsnap peas
2 kohlrabi (yum! more on that later)
10 garlic scapes (also yum!)
1 head Chinese cabbage
1 bunch swiss chard

Last night I made some egg rolls with this week and last week's Chinese cabbage. They're a great way to use a lot of Chinese cabbage and make a few meals.

Egg Rolls

1.5 lb ground pork (I used boneless pork loin and ground it myself)
2 heads Chinese cabbage
1 bunch scallions
3 cloves garlic
1/3 lb sugarsnap peas
1 T cornstarch
Water
1 egg
Soy sauce
Rice wine vinegar
Sesame oil
1 package egg roll skins
Oil

1. Thinly chop the cabbage and sugarsnaps
2. Mince the scallions and garlic
3. In a wok, saute the scallion, garlic, and sugarsnaps until slightly soft
4. Add the ground pork and saute until white
5. Add the cabbage, about 1/4 cup soy sauce, a splash of rice wine vinegar, and sesame oil to taste
6. Mix the cornstarch with a splash of water and add to the mixture
7. Cook on high until the cabbage is soft
8. Remove from heat and add 1 egg, beaten
9. Let cool
10. Follow the directions on the egg roll skins for rolling
11. Fry in oil until brown (I used about 1 inch of oil and flipped, but you could easily deep fry for extra yumminess.)

Serve! I made a nice dipping sauce with soy sauce, hoisin sauce, chili paste, sesame oil, and rice wine vin. Otis likes hot mustard and duck sauce, but we didn't have any, so he lost out.

We've also been eating a lot of salad, of course. So, current veg status is as follows:

1 head romaine
1/4 lb mixed greens
1/4 lb lettuce mix
1 bunch parsley
.3 lb sugarsnap peas
2 kohlrabi (yum! more on that later)
10 garlic scapes (also yum!)
1 head Chinese cabbage
1 bunch swiss chard

More on garlic scapes in the next entry! I think we'll see the return of charmoula, and possibly some kohlrabi chicken salad.

I can't believe I haven't posted anything for almost a month. Time has been just zipping by; I've been working like a dog at USM, freelancing, and getting ready to start school on Tuesday.

We also had a fabulous long weekend in Wellfleet earlier this month, visiting Otis's parents and brother, complete with a fish fry, bbq, a day at the flea market, delicious crab dip, and lobster. And, of course, drinks at the Bomb Shelter.

Whenever we go to Wellfleet we make sure to pick up a tub or two of the crab dip they sell at Hatch's, along with our fish or lobsters or whatever. Ironically, the dip is produced downeast somewhere, and so it theoretically available in Maine; but it is so decadent and delicious, it's probably better for our waistlines and cholesterol levels that it stay a special-occasion food. I don't have a tub here (thank goodness; otherwise I'd be eating it for breakfast), but I think the ingredients include mayo, crab, ketchup, french onion soup mix, and other seemingly random ingredients that, when combined, end up as delicious, addictive, ambrosia.

Our other Wellfleet summer visit tradition is to pick up boiled lobsters from Hatch's and eat them at Jane and Walter's house, along with fresh corn, bread, and the onions in vinegar that Jane's dad used to make.

A word about Hatch's. Otis and Nick (his brother) both worked there, starting at about age 13, for many summers-- about 8 in Otis's case, I believe. The place is fabulous, and Rob, the owner, is a very funny guy who simultaneously takes his job very seriously and not at all. Otis has a host of wonderful stories about providing fish to various demanding New Yorkers-- many of whom were and are eminences of some note. My favorite story is of the day when Diana Trilling first came in, and requested lobsters, "split entirely in half," live o
of course. (There's more to the story, and I am probably mangling it, but the gist is there. Otis is still sleeping so I can't verify.)

Anyway, back to the lobsters. Normally, we get small lobsters, about 1-1 1/2 lbs, one for each person. This trip, however, for some reason smaller lobsters were not available, so we each had half of a 4-ish pounder. During dinner, I realized that this was the largest lobster I had ever eaten! I think that's what comes of growing up in Maine, where they tend to be on the small side.

The flavor and texture was actually a little bit different. Normally, the claw meat is my favorite, but in the larger bugs it evidently tends to get slightly overcooked, so it's not as tender. This time, the tail was outstanding, and better than in the smaller ones, I thought. (I also appreciated the lobster being pre-split, so I didn't have to wrestle with it, or ask Otis or Nick to do so. Yes, I am lame.)

Regardless, it was really a delicious meal, and a wonderful visit, as usual. Otis brought a jar of his dilly beans, which were a big hit. The recipe is from Putting Food By, the classic food-preservation tome. I'm going to include the ingredients but not the recipe because I really recommend you buy the book if you're planning on doing food preservation. (He modified the recipe somewhat-- I don't think the original includes Thai chiles.)

Dilly Beans

Brine:
5 cups vinegar
5 cups water
1/2 cupl + 1 T pickling salt

For each jar:
2 dried thai chiles
A goodly amount of dill
1 clove garlic
1 T mustard seed
1/2 T peppercorns
1/4 T dill seed

Before I go start my homework (yay!) I shoudl give a shout-out to Margaret Hathaway Schatz, author of Year of the Goat...you may remember her from such entries as Passover Eating. Her book just came out, and we had the pleasure of attending the release party: Goatstravaganza! It was great to see such a huge crowd come to celebrate Margaret, and of course, all things goaty. (You can see the back of Otis's head in the top photo on the left.)

The party was held at Rabelais Books, a really wonderful bookstore on Middle Street, and featured a tasty spread from Aurora Provisions, and photos by the talented Karl Schatz (Margaret's husband). And, yours truly won the door prize, an adorable t-shirt.

Good luck on your book tour, Margaret!

(Note, I haven't started the book yet, but it's on the top of my pile. I just finished Heat by Bill Buford, for the Slow Food book group meeting this month.)

I suppose that's all for now. If I can pull it together I'll post my recipe for Law School Ramen Noodles. They'll blow you away!

Oh yeah, vegetables. Well, suffice to say they are delicious. I'm making quiche for dinner tonight, but you already have that recipe, so that's that. Seriously, I haven't been doing that much cooking, since I've been working on The Website that Must Not be Named, and it's always so hard to extract recipes from Otis.

I did make some Artichoke basil pesto, actually, with some of the CSA basil and some from Jane's overflowing planters. So here you go.

Artichoke Basil Pesto

Enough basil to fill a 14-cup cuisinart
A large jar of marinated artichoke hearts, drained
1/2- 3/4 cup grated parmesan
4 cloves garlic, minced, sauteed very quickly, and splashed with wine (I don't like the really strong raw garlic flavor)
EVOO as needed
S&P to taste

Put all ingredients in Cuisinart and whir until chopped and very slightly chunky.

No nuts! The artichokes provide that nutty unctuous mouth-feel.

Yes, it's been a long time. No, I am not going to make excuses, except that the past two weekends have been not-so-fun, and the weeks are pretty full with work and school. Otis has been doing most of the weeknight cooking, including another fabulous soup-- this one with tomatoes, kale, and chicken-pork-sage meatballs. I've gotta say, there's something about a meatball in soup that just feels so homey.

He tells me that since we're often out of eggs, he's been using mayo as one of the ingredients of the meatballs. Odd, but it seems to work-- they're fabulously light and fluffy.

Last night, however, it was my turn to finally make an effort in the kitchen. Our friends Rebeccah and Pete came over, and we had a great time hearing about their (soon to be) new house-- they're closing in November. It sounds like an amazing place-- horribly decorated, but enormous, structurally sound, and in a great spot-- South Portland's Ferry Village.

In honor of fall, I decided to make a roast chicken and roast veg. Of course, it was 70 yesterday, but in comparison to the 90-degree weather we enjoyed earlier in the week, it felt positively crisp. We've been accumulating root veggies from Wolf Pine for a while, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to throw them all in the bottom of the roaster and have fun.

Under the chicken, we had carrots, turnips, and celeriac, and in a separate pan in deference to Pete's beet-phobia were some beets. I tossed the veg with s&p and olive oil, and added a couple of heads' worth of whole garlic cloves.

For the chicken, I chopped about a quarter cup of our homegrown summer savory with half a stick of butter, and rubbed that under the skin. Then I cut up a couple of lemons and threw them inside the chicken.

Roast at 425 for about an hour and voila-- yummy dinner. (I also made some chicken gravy with the drippings, flour, some vermouth, some red wine, s&p, a squeeze of lemon, and some chicken broth. Yummmmmmer. Nothing like gravy.)

There's a reason why comfort food is so comforting, at least for me-- it makes me think of family holidays, and helping out in the kitchen when I was a little girl, and lying on the couch reading while dinner makes itself in the oven.

I'm hoping that the sudden drop in temps heralds the real start of fall. It's been odd to be back-to-school in the heat!

(We sadly missed the Common Ground Fair last weekend, because of my darned cold, but heard it was wonderful. Next year, hopefully.)

Jeez louise, I have been the The Worst Blogger Ever™ lately. In my defense, there were a few family health issues (everyone is fine) and then , suddenly, it was the end of the semester. I try to avoid talking about Real Life in here, under the theory that nobody cares, but I am going to marshal the fact that I work full time and take 10 credits in law school as an excuse for poor blog maintenance. Happily, finals are over (pray for As, everyone!) and I have a little bit more time on my hands. Just a tiny bit, though, because I have to go to work today and then jet out to the Old Port to do some horrifically belated Christmas shopping-- I am leaving tomorrow morning for the holiday trip.

So, although I haven't been writing, I have certainly been eating. Here are a few short takes from the last month and a half.

Japanese Overview

Like Thai restaurants, Portland is 'blessed' with an overabundance of Japanese/sushi restaurants. (Note: these are not necessarily synonymous, although here they seem to be.) These include Miyake, Yosaku, Sapporo, Fuji, Benkay, King of the Roll, and Ginza Town. All of these places have specific strengths and weaknesses (with the exception of Fuji, which has only weaknesses), but for the freshest, most unique uses of 'special' fish, I consistently vote for Benkay. When Otis's parents were here in November, they took us out for a delicious dinner there. We had some incredible toro; delicious tuna; and a few really unusual fish I had never had before. I especially love the appetizer they make with their freshest fish and a soy/yuzu sauce. I've only had noodles from Miyake, once, and I wasn't that impressed, but I have been hearing lately that their sushi and sashimi is phenomenal. Evidently the chef came from Yosaku. Oh, Yosaku. It used to be fabulous but the horrible service and intermittently low quality of their fish (there's no excuse for mushy tuna) have made me resolve never to go there again. King of the Roll is fun-- don't go there for the best fish, but go for the deep-fried tempura-battered spicy tuna roll with wasabi sauce. Mmmm. Be prepared for incompetent waitservice, though, which can sometimes be amusing and sometimes make you want to pull your hair out. Ginza Town is 'eh.' If I were French I would shrug my shoulders eloquently. Sapporo is very good but I never feel thrilled with a meal I have there.

So, soon we'll be checking out Miyake. But in the meantime if I want great sashimi I'll go to Benkay and ask what's fresh.

The Eternal Dinner Made Short

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while may remember the Eternal Dinner: a Puerto-Rican style chicken and rice dish Otis made from the New World Kitchen cookbook by Norman Van Aken, which took hours and hours to prepare. Well, I was craving those deliciously complex flavors, so I set out to simplify the dish. It came out incredibly well, and only took about an hour. Here you go:

Marya's Stewed Pork and Rice, Van Aken Style

Ingredients:
Pinch Saffron
About 6 Cups chicken stock (we use Imagine foods organic when we don't have homemade)
About 1 T each dried oregano, cumin
S&P
Annatto oil (if you have it. Since the eternal dinner, we usually do have some prepared.)
2 lbs pork chops, cut into large cubes
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 head garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
2 cups white rice (long grain)
1 1/4 cups grated parmesan
1/2 large can chopped tomatoes (we use Muir Glen fire-roasted)
1/4 cup capers
1 cup green olives with pimentos, roughly chopped
1 small bag frozen peas

1. Heat the annatto oil on medium in a large Dutch oven, and add the garlic and onion, cumin, oregano, s&p, bay leaf. Saute for a bit, and add the pork. Get it brown on the outside.

2. Add the rice and mix well.

3. Add the saffron and chicken broth. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to low.

4. Cook for about 10 minutes. Add more stock if it seems low.

5. Add the parmesan, tomatoes, capers, and olives. Stir well. Cook over low for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding more stock if necessary, until rice is tender. (You'll want to make sure the pork is cooked through too, obviously.)

6. Add the peas, stir.

7. Serve, with an array of hot sauces. Cholula goes especially well.

That's it! Now, isn't that easy?

I hereby make a vow that I will be a better blogger in the future. We're going to Fore Street soon, so I will report back on that. And of course, the holiday meals...oysters rockefeller, baked bread, ham, pierogis, etc....I can't wait.

Otis and I took an extra day off MLK weekend and jetted off to San Francisco. It's was a fairly long trip for such a short visit, but due to our schedules (school started for me on Jan 22) it was really the only viable time we could go; plus, my mom was visiting at the same time, and it turned into a big family weekend.

My grandfather, Moe Haber, lives in SF, in the Jewish Home for the Aged. He just turned 93, and I hadn't seen him in 2 and a half years. (The actual birthdate is a matter of some internal family debate, since he always said his birthday was Dec 25. It now seems that was a dramatization, and his real birthday is Dec 29. Part of this also stemmed from the fact that his parents were named Mary and Josef. He is a character.)

So, we flew out of Boston early Friday morning (6:10) and had a whirlwind weekend visiting the city and my family. We had gorgeous, sunny weather, and had the chance to see my grandpa, my cousins Leila and Damon and their respective spouses and adorable children, my uncle Merrill and aunt Nancy, and my mom. We also got to visit Otis's old high school friend Seton, his wife Patty, and their adorable little toddler Eva.

Part of what makes spending time with my family amusing is the constant food-related talk. (Hey, I come by it honestly!!) This is a group of people who plan their dinner while eating breakfast. We basically arrived, went to visit my grandpa in the home, and then went out to dim sum, without a pause.

So, there was a lot of delicious food to report on:

- Friday dim sum at Mayflower Seafood
- Friday dinner at my cousin Leila's house, which featured a delicious warm shrimp salad which was prepared from a recipe Merrill and Nancy learned at a cooking school during their recent trip to Vietnam
- Irish breakfast at O'Reilly's in North Beach
- Burritos at a restaurant in Alameda with Seton (I forget the name of this one, I'll have to check with Otis!)
- Pastry and coffee at Caffe Trieste
- Sunday brunch with bagels, lox, some insanely cheesy hash brown casserole, and mimosas at Leila's house
- Dinner at Cafe de la Presse

I think that's it! A lot of food in one short weekend! It was a wonderful time, and if I have a chance I will post restaurant reviews. And, as a special treat, here is the warm salad recipe from Vietnam. The recipe calls for squid, but you can make it with anything, really.

Also, there are comments written on my copy by my uncle Merrill... but I can't read them, his handwriting is so bad. Hopefully there's nothing important! (This recipe is from the Red Bridge Cooking School in Hoi An, Vietnam. If you're ever there, it sounds like a fabulous day of cooking and eating!)

Warm Squid Salad in Half a Pineapple

100 grams sliced squid
2 t vegetable oil
1 t garlic, chopped
1 t ginger, chopped
1/2 t sugar
1 t light fish sauce
1 T tomato puree or tomato sauce
1 T sweet and sour chilli sauce (recipe below)
1/2 cup chopped hot pepper
1/2 cup chopped pineapple
1/2 cup chopped tomato
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 T water
Few pieces cilantro

Add vegetable oil to wok with ginger and garlic. Add squid, fish sauce, and sugar, and stirfry 1 min. Add vegetables and tomato puree, and stirfry 3 minutes. Add water. Serve in hollowed-out pineapple sauce and top with cilantro and hot pepper.

Sweet & Sour Chilli Sauce

1 T water
1/2 t sour chilli sauce (super sour sriracha is probably what they mean here)
1/2 t tomato puree
1/2 T finely chopped white onion
1/2 T finely chopped pineapple
1/2 T finely chopped tomato
1/2 t crushed ginger
1/2 t veg oil

Heat oil in wok and add all ingredients except water, sour chilli, and tomato puree. Fry for a few seconds, then add reserved ingredients. Bring to simmer, simmer until cooked.

I've been spending the week crunching numbers, which makes a girl crave something a little more crunchy and tasty. How about...bacon cups? What a brilliant idea. There is a 100% chance I will make these for our next party. The possibilities for filling are endless!

In other news, the continued battering from Ye Olde Man Winter is starting to get me down. However, last week I invented a speedy way to make creamy and delicious chicken pot pie in a remarkably short period of time.

Short-Cut Chicken Pot Pie

1 grocery-store rotisserie chicken (I got the herb-rubbed chicken from Whole Foods)
1 bag frozen peas
1 bag frozen carrots, or whatever other veg you want. (I used mixed carrots & green and wax beans, which Otis didn't like that much. I thought the beans were tasty.)
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup butter
2 cloves garlic
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
Splash white wine
1/2 cup half-and-half
s&p and herbs and spices (I used thyme and marjoram)
Drop biscuit dough

a. Preheat oven to 350.
1. Make a roux with the flour and butter. add the garlic. Sautée in heavy pot until brown.
2. Slowly add chicken broth, stirring, so as not to form lumps
3. Add herbs, spices, s&p, any other seasoning you desire
4. Add wine
4. Simmer on med-low for 5 minutes
5. In the meantime, pull all the meat off the chicken and put it in a bowl.
6. Pour the drippings from the chicken into the sauce.
7. Snack on some of the chicken skin. Give some to the dog. Give some to Otis.
8. Add the half-and-half to the sauce, simmer for another 5-10 minutes until it seems the right creamy texture. Remember to stir once in a while!
9. Remove from heat, stir in chicken and frozen vegetables
10. Pour into large flat pyrex pan.
11. Make biscuit dough* and drop in large spoonfuls onto top of pot pie mixture
12. Bake in oven until biscuits are nice and brown and pot pie mixture is bubbly and hot, about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. In the meantime, catch up on your law school reading while drinking a Pabst.

* A note on biscuits. There is no need for bisquick. Seriously, people. Cut 1/4 cup butter into 2 cups flour, 1 T baking powder, and 1 t salt, add a cup of milk, mix with a fork. Ta dah!!

That's it! A nice cozy dinner requiring less than half an hour of prep time. I wonder if chicken pot pie would be good in bacon cups. I guess the filling would run out the holes...

I'm a creature of ridiculously boring habits. Until this week when I vowed to give up soy products I've been eating the same breakfast every day. Now, unfortunately, I'm going to need to find a replacement for my much-beloved Morningstar Farms fake sausage patties. It's fairly tragic. If anyone has any suggestions I would much appreciate it!

Breakfast is such a balancing act. I want to have enough food to keep me satiated until lunch, but not too much-- I'm often just a touch queasy before 8 a.m., but since that's when I get to the office I need to eat around 7. I've been trying cereal (Barbara's hippie brand) but I start getting hungry at 11, which is inconvenient. I love eggs on the weekend, but I don't have the energy or time to cook in the morning. For a while I had wasa with peanut butter and cottage cheese on the side, but for some reason that's just not satisfying me lately either.

If I could afford it I would get a breakfast sandwich from the OhNo every morning on the way to work, but the cost would add up quickly, and I would feel too guilty about being extravagant.

Weekends are another story. There are so many options for a breakfast out in Portland it's crazy! (Erin of TypeA is doing a poll at the moment-- head over there and vote for your favorite.)

Depending on how we feel and what we're in the mood for, Otis and I will head to Ruski's, Local 188, the Porthole, the Bayou Kitchen, Hot Suppa, or the Front Room. All of these are great for what they are-- obviously you can't expect gourmet food at Ruski's but it's always well cooked and yummy. (Note; I like weird fake hollandaise sauce. If you don't, don't order the benedict.)

One restaurant I don't enjoy is Bintliff's. When we first moved here about four years ago we went there frequently... but the quality of the food was very inconsistent, and the prices are astronomical. The last straw came when I ordered huevos rancheros and got a pile of unseasoned canned black beans and white rice with eggs on top and a teaspoon of bland salsa. It was so nasty I sent it back to the kitchen...and still got charged the $12.95 or however much it cost. It's just not worth it, especially when you factor in the long waits for a table.

I'm excited to try a new option Mothers' Day weekend-- Caiola's is opening for weekend brunch! It will be wonderful, I'm sure, and once the sun warms us up again we'll be able to sit outside on their lovely patio. When I was growing up the West End Cafe was in that location and I loved going to brunch there with my parents.

The one restaurant that developed my love of brunch, though, was the Magic Muffin on Congress Street. When I was in high school I'd go there with friends all the time. They had the best little glass/ceramic coffee mugs that they'd eternally fill with coffee, and the coffee cake muffins were phenomenal. It was a long time ago, but I think the special breakfast, which included 2 eggs, coffee, meat, and a giant muffin, was around $4. I loved that place. The waiters were always great to a bunch of degenerate teenagers, and let us nurse our coffees forever.

I wasn't living in Maine when it closed. I wonder what happened to it?

Edited: As I was posting this, evidently Erin was posting the results from her poll. Bad timing. Regardless, I think it's interesting that her results, and opinion, diverge so dramatically from mine. That's why there are practically as many restaurants as people in Portland, I suppose.

Edited again: The Breakfast Club (which I was not aware of and just added to the blogroll; I found them courtesty of the Portland Food Map) just re-reviewed Bintliff's.

The sun is shining, the bees are buzzing around the garden, and it's time to grill.

Around our house, there's a shamefully sexist division of labor-- Otis does all the grilling and barbecuing while I make salads and such. Or sometimes, just stand idly by and drink beer. Regardless, he is a master of the Weber, so I am happy to leave it up to him.

This being Memorial Day weekend, we were invited to our friends Jenn & Matt's for dinner last night, and were treated to some lovely jerk chicken by Matt. We and the rest of the guest brought side dishes, and without any discussion managed to overlap perfectly: Zeynep made rice salad, Trent and Rebecca made pasta salad, and I made potato salad.

Oddly, I have never made potato salad before. I'm not sure why. Partly I suppose it's because of my historic but now abandoned refusal to eat mayonnaise. But I did feel inspired yesterday and came up with this recipe. It was actually quite delicious, if I say so myself!

Made-Up Potato Salad

2 lbs potatoes, cut in cubes
2 onions, chopped or thinly sliced, whichever you prefer
1/2 cup mayo
1/4 cup dill relish
1/3 cup mustard (I used Otis's homemade beer mustard. It's grainy.)
1 t celery salt
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 garlic powder
s & p

1. Boil the potatoes with some salt for about 12-15 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water.

2. Whisk together the mayo and the other dressing ingredients.

3. Add the onions and potatoes and stir.

It's late November... a chill is in the air... and the student loans are running out. In honor of my hungry and fiscally challenged friends, I give you a ramen noodle recipe that is guaranteed to be warming, tasty, and most importantly, cheap.

Law School Ramen Noodles

Ingredients

1 package ramen noodles. I use Koyo Mushroom Flavor, which costs about 95 cents at Hannaford, but if you're really feeling the pinch go for one of the non-organic brands. Seeing as how ramen's not tax-deductible, even for food bloggers, I frequently hit the Hong Kong Market for cheap options as well.)
1 T peanut butter (smooth, any brand is fine. I like Teddie.)
1/6 of a lime
2-3 scallions, chopped
1 T cilantro chopped (if you have it. If not, not a big deal. The scallions are crucial though. Seriously.)
1-2 T soy sauce, to taste
Sriracha or chili garlic hot sauce, to taste (OK, fine, you can choose your own hot sauce. But what could be better than those two?)

Preparation

1. Prepare the ramen noodles according to the directions on the package.

2. Drain out almost (but not quite) all the water.

3. Add 1/2 of the sauce packet, and all of the other ingredients.

4. Stir well. If the peanut butter isn't distributing, put the pot back on the heat for 30 seconds or so to get it to melt.

5. Eat & enjoy.

by Ravinder Kingra

Friends, I've just returned from Texas and the news is not good. Fear not, the Alamo is still intact and alarmingly much smaller than I remember it being in Pee Wee's Big Adventure. And so too is the Tex-Mex machine still ably churning out chalupas, fajitas, and taquitos as the mariachis charge you $6 for some tacky song you mistakenly assumed was on the house.

No, the bad news is that it seems one must give up on finding a well shaken, and thoroughly chilled cocktail in the great state that brought us Whole Foods and the assassination of JFK.

I must confess that my sphere of experience was geographically limited to the San Antonio/Austin/Johnson City triangle. But within that small wedge of Texas my traveling companions and I sampled sidecars, old fashioneds, whisky sours, and margaritas; the overwhelming majority of which nearly compelled me to throw the offending drinks, for lack of a better word, into the faces of the barkeeps who were non compos mentis enough to offer them to me in the first place. At one establishment (a modern and stylish Tex-Mex eatery) I ordered its famous "Hand-shaken Margarita" while standing at the bar, thereby having a front row seat to the perplexing show that was to come. Had one blinked at any point during the preparation of my drink one would miss what was surely the loosest interpretation of the words shake, shaken, and while we're at it, hand and margarita. It is true that the cocktail shaker was in the gentleman's hand and it is also true that his hand (and said shaker) did move imperceptibly in the upwards direction and then downwardly the same imperceptible distance, but one wonders how on Earth that twitch could constitute shaking. Had the menu read "Hand-twitched Margarita" I would have perhaps thought nothing of this spectacle. Indeed, I would most likely have turned on my heels and left the restaurant in search of something more in keeping with my standards, however fruitless that search might (did) turn out to be.

What surprised this writer most was the prevalence of such negligent barmanship. I dined at establishments of every stock and strain--from the lowly delivery van-cum-taqueria parked by the roadside in a questionable neighborhood to the award winning palais du gastronomie stuffed to its gills with crystal goblets brimming with Château Haut-Brion, bejeweled socialites tucking into foie gras and lobster, and wheelers and dealers wheeling and dealing while a waiter flambés some sweet treat at table-side. One restaurant had no problem cooking to perfection my $40 steak, yet when it came to my sidecar, all concepts of quality and taste had presumably been dumped into the toilet; the resultant mixture then finding its way into my cocktail glass with a few chips of melting ice. At the boutique hotel where we were to lay our heads my sister and I sauntered into the hotel bar (where the see and be seen see and are seen) expecting our troubles and worries to be driven from our minds with exquisitely executed beverages. "Two whisky sours, my good man," I spoke. Hindsight being what it is, I realized upon taking the introductory sip that I should have instead made the request thusly: "Two good whisky sours, my man." I couldn't help thinking it was no wonder the Alamo fell. Had D. Crocket and Jim Bowie had nothing more to revive the spirits than these sorry bartenders mixing watered down sidecars and neglected margaritas that we had encountered, the defense of the future tourist trap must indeed have seemed an unnecessary venture.

Now, at this point one might feel that all hope is lost, for I'll admit that I've painted a rather gloomy landscape. One might ask aloud, why bother searching for a tipple lest it be a shot and a beer while in Texas? Well, let me pass along to you the final act of our story: Our second to last night in The Lone Star State found our party at a hip eatery in Austin, named Lambert's. As if the cocktail follies to which we'd been subjected had preceded us (and the management felt it their duty to right the wrongs visited upon our thirsts up to that point) we were served margaritas and Pisco sours that would have made the angels sing--or is it weep? I can never remember which is the good one. Perfectly mixed, icy cold, expertly served. At last the stars at night were big and bright, deep in the so on and so forth. So think not of the failures, the disappointments. Remember instead the glorious satisfaction of finding that holiest of grails--a well made cocktail. Remember the moments when you come upon that treasured restorative; when it all works out.

And with that, this week's prescription, The Lady Bird (named for Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson, native Texan, and First Lady of the United S. of A.)

THE LADY BIRD

4 oz bourbon
2 oz orange juice, freshly squeezed
1 oz lemon juice, freshly squeezed
2 dashes orange bitters
2 Tablespoons simple syrup
2 pieces orange zest, optional.

Add all ingredients, except zest, to a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake for 20 seconds. Strain into chilled glasses and garnish with zest, if using.

Yields 2 cocktails

I must admit that I am a serial pie crust philanderer. I'm never quite satisfied with the crust I've made in the past, and always feel the need to experiment with a new recipe, just in time for the holidays. This year, I found an overly complicated recipe that went along with another pie recipe in Saveur Magazine. Boy, was it horrible. It turned out to be the toughest pie crust I've ever had. Poor Walter, who was serving the pies at our otherwise flawless family Thanksgiving, had to saw, saw, saw just to cut off slices. Just awful.

Happily, however, the pumpkin pie filling I made was so delicious, so sublime, that it almost made up for the hideousness of the crust. I combined a few ideas and recipes I found on the web and those that were sent to me by friends, notably one recipe that featured fresh ginger. Yum.

Another fun thing to mention is that the pumpkin I used for the pie was a Long Island Cheese Pumpkin, an heirloom variety that's excellent for baking, which we got from our CSA over a year ago. It's been sitting on our kitchen table ever since. I was somewhat apprehensive to use it, but once I cut it open it was clearly fresh and ready to eat. I guess that's why squashes are considered storage vegetables!

The below recipe will make enough filling for two pies. Use a store-bought crust.

Ecstatic Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

1 medium sized baking pumpkin, or 2 small [or 2 cans-- I think-- pumpkin puree]. Should be about 4 cups.
2/3 cup light brown sugar
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
2/3 cup white sugar
4 T white flour
1 t salt
4 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground cloves
3/4 t ground ginger
3 T ginger, pureed or minced very fine in a garlic press (for reference, I used about 2" worth of ginger root to get that much)
2 T molasses
1 1/2 t vanilla extract
6 eggs
1 1/3 cup heavy cream

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Cut the pumpkin in half or thirds and scoop out the seeds.
3. Lightly oil a baking sheet and put the pumpkin parts on it, with the skin side up.
4. Bake for abut 40 minutes, or until the flesh is very soft.
5. Remove from oven and let cool slightly.
6. Scoop out the flesh into your food processor (if you don't have one you could use a blender. You want the pumpkin to be well-pureed and smooth. I made the whole recipe in the food processor but you could easily just do the pumpkin in batches in the blender and then do the rest in a large bowl.)
7. Pulse in food processor until smooth.
8. Add the sugars, flour, and salt, and pulse until well blended.
9. Add the spices, including the ginger, and the vanilla, and pulse until well blended.
10. Add the eggs 2 at a time and pulse until well blended.
11. Transfer to a large bowl and add the cream, and stir well.

-- here's where I popped it in the refrigerator overnight and made the pie in the morning after letting the mixture come up to room temp. Or you could just proceed directly to the next step.--

12. Turn the oven up to 450 and put a baking sheet in to preheat.
13. Once up to temp, fill the pie crust ((sigh)) and place onto the sheet in the oven.
14. Bake for 10 minutes, then lower the oven temp to 350 and bake for 45ish minutes, until the center is set and it's a bit puffy.
15. Cool on a cooling rack and serve with fresh whipped cream.

Here's a photo of my father-in-law, Walter, just before his heroic pie-cutting efforts.

by Ravinder Kingra

Whilst preparing for a Christmas cocktail party this week, I took it upon myself to clean the bar. I had barely trotted out the cleaning tackle and set to work when I noticed that a disturbing majority of the bottles where obscured beneath a layer of dust and debris. And then out of the corner of my eye I noticed that a select and happy few of the vessels arrayed before me were as clean as whistles. The innocent parties in this dusty rebellion were the gin, the bourbon, and the triple sec.

Realizing at once that these are the most often used spirits in the bunch, it became clear that the dust was not the result of polluted living conditions. A surer sign of disuse I could not envisage. It was time to act. No, no. I didn't dust. Heavens, no. I invented a new cocktail. It was high time that I expanded the repertoire, as it were. One can think of it as an alcoholic feather duster, if one is so inclined.

THE AMBER SPYGLASS

Black pepper syrup will add a very subtle kick and some sweetness. Maraschino liqueur, a clear liqueur made from Marasca cherries, is a little tough to find. But it's worth the effort. Cherry schnapps is not a substitute; neither is maraschino cherry juice.

4 oz. gin
2 oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 oz. maraschino liqueur
1 oz. sweet vermouth
1 tbsp black pepper simple syrup
2 cherries, fresh or maraschino (optional)
1 pinch of coarsely ground black pepper (optional)
1 tbsp sugar (optional)

If rimming the glasses, mix together black pepper and sugar on a plate. Rub a piece of lemon around the rim of a glass and holding the glass at a 45° angle to the plate, twist the glass around, coating the whole rim with the sugar-pepper mixture.

Pour all ingredients into cocktail shaker and fill with ice. Shake for 20 seconds.

Strain into chilled martini glasses. and garnish with cherries, if using.

yields 2 cocktails

by Ravinder Kingra

A Happy New Year to you all, dear readers. I trust that those of you so culturally, religiously, or consumeristically inclined received just what was asked for from a certain Mr. Kringle. The resolutions, too, I presume are proceeding apace.

Oh, how kind of you to ask. It was an uncharacteristically low-key Christmas for me. My mother had decided to be in charge of a majority of the cooking for the week's festivities. All I can claim credit for is manning (rather ably, if I do say so myself) the bar and also making a sublime lobster bisque for Boxing Day dinner, as well as a quiche which, if given the chance and with the necessary legal obstacles hurdled, I'd happily marry. However, I digress.

I wish to discuss with you something else entirely. The missus and I decided to host a Christmas cocktail party back in mid-December. We had decided on the hors d'oeuvres that we'd serve (home-made shrimp toasts, Indian zucchini cakes with cashew sauce, white bean and cilantro dip) and we felt that equal time and effort should go into deciding on a drink to make the visitants feel it had been worthwhile dressing in their finery and venturing out on a cold winter night.

A refreshing, elegant, not too boozy tipple was the quarry. Usually I'd serve a Manhattan or a Simpatico (see the November 13th missive below). Perhaps a whisky sour. But my better half and I were hoping for spirited conversation and fun times, not a house full of drunkards. And since our guests may have likely just finished dinner and drinks before making it to our soirée, we thought a lighter cocktail would be appropriate. And since nothing says Christmas party like punch, I had a starting point. The word "punch" comes from the Parsi word for five and traditionally contained five ingredients: a spirit, sugar, lemon juice, water, and spices, herbs, or tea. Here, I chose two spirits, lemon juice, and vermouth and black pepper simple syrup (the sugar, herbs, spices). That's the punch. Playing the role of the Judy is the seltzer.

THE PUNCH & JUDY

2 oz gin
2 oz light rum
1 oz fresh lemon juice
1 oz sweet vermouth
2 tablespoon black pepper simple syrup
Club Soda or seltzer
Ice
2 lemon wedges
2 Maraschino cherries

Combine first five ingredients in an cocktail shaker. Fill with ice and shake for 20 seconds. Strain into two ice filled Collins glasses. Top off with soda water or club soda. Garnish each with a lemon wedge and a cherry.

yields 2 drinks

NOTE: For the party I mixed up a few large bottles of the first five ingredients before hand. Then all I (or a thirsty guest) had to do was add some pre-mixed punch to the shaker, shake it, add it to an ice-filled glass and top it off with seltzer. Easy, peasey, lemon squeezy.

Maine shrimp (also known as pandulus borealis by you Latin-lovers out there) are, put simply, incredible. Sweet, tiny, and soft, their flavor beats any of the big ol' prawns available the rest of the year, hands down. The beginning of Maine shrimp season is always a time for celebration in our household-- we've enjoyed them in shrimp etouffee, seafood Newburg, and most recently (last night) Maine Shrimp Scampi Pizza.

Marya's Maine Shrimp Scampi Pizza

Ingredients:

Small amount olive oil
5 cloves garlic, minced fine
1/2 lb Maine shrimp, shelled
Salt & pepper to taste
Dash dried red pepper flakes
Dry white wine
1 T butter
1 T tarragon, minced or chiffonaded
Pizza dough
1 large ripe tomato, sliced thin.
2 cups grated mozzarella (add additional grated parmesan, romano, or other Italian cheese at your preference)
Small amount cornmeal, and white flour

To Prepare:

First, heat your pizza stone in a 500 degree oven. If you don't have a pizza stone, get one.

1. Heat olive oil in pan over medium-high heat until hot; add minced garlic and sautee until fragrant, taking care to not allow it to burn.

2. Add the shrimp and salt and pepper, and sautee until almost no longer pink. Add a dash of dried red pepper flakes if desired.

3. Add a splash of dry white wine (about 1/4 cup or less) and cook for an additional 15 seconds. Removed shrimp with slotted spoon.

4. Turn heat up to high and reduce wine until almost gone. Remove from heat and add butter and tarragon. Pour on top of shrimp.

5. Brush a large cutting board or surface with flour.

6. Take pizza dough (I buy the premade dough at Hannaford) and lay out on cutting board, pushing out and stretching until the size of your pizza stone. (I also toss it around in the air but I expect that's something you have to learn, so don't do it if you don't feel like it.)

7. Remove pizza stone from oven, and dust with cornmeal.

8. Place dough onto stone.

9. Spread shrimp mixture evenly over dough.

10. Sprinkle with 2/3 cheese. Add tomato slices, and sprinkle with the rest of the cheese.

11. Bake in oven until brown and bubbly on top. Remove from oven and let rest 10 minutes before slicing.

Voila!

I made some Maine shrimp tacos for dinner earlier this week. They were damn good.

Crema:
1/2 cup light sour cream (or regular, whatever you prefer. I like the light.)
Juice of 1 lime
2 T chopped cilantro

1. Combine and put in the refrigerator.

Cabbage Slaw:
1/2 head red cabbage, shredded
2 T chopped green onions
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup (or less) olive oil

1. Combine and put in the refrigerator.

Shrimp:
1 lb Maine shrimp (you can use other shrimp of course. If they are large chop them into smaller pieces.
Juice of 1 clementine
3 large cloves garlic, chopped roughly
2 T olive oil

1. Combine and marinate for about 15 minutes.
2. Fry in a pan over medium-high heat until shrimp are opaque.
3. Set aside.

Assemble and make tacos:
Corn tortillas. We like the gorditas, the extra fat tortillas. You can buy them at La Bodega Latina, where you can also grab a snack for later. Win-win.)
Additional cilantro
Lime wedges
Hot sauce (El Yucateco is good on these)

1. Fry each gordita dry in a hot pan.
2. Place on plate. Cover with layer of slaw.
3. Dollop shrimp on top.
4. Dollop crema on top.
5. Garnish with cilantro and lime wedge.

Perhaps it was the grey, overcast skies, or the chill in the air yesterday, but I suddenly had the urge to make Jamaican Beef Patties. (Perhaps I was secretly nostalgic about my years at Sweetwater's in the 90s?)

Anyway, these are a curry-tasty treat that's basically a turnover. Very easy to make-- don't be thrown off that you have to make dough, it's a very simple recipe!

Semi-Authentic Jamaican Beef Patties

Ingredients

-- for the dough --
2 c flour
1 t curry powder
1 t turmeric
1/4 t salt
1/4 cup butter (cold, cut in pieces)
1/4 cup shortening
1/3 c ice-cold water

--for the filling --
1 medium onion, chopped fine (you can also add scallion in addition or instead)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb ground beef
1/2 t salt
1/2 t curry powder
1/2 t turmeric
1/2 t ground allspice
1/2 t dried crushed thyme
1/2 t ground black pepper
1 t ground aleppo or other hot pepper (I would like to note here that you should probably use a fresh scotch bonnet and add it to the onion mixture at the front end. However, I have a lot of aleppo that I got as a Christmas present so I am trying to use it!)
Chopped parsley, if you like green stuff
1/3 c beef stock
1/4-1/3 c panko breadcrumbs (or other breadcrumbs without seasoning)

Also, 1 egg, beaten, for assembly.

To Prepare

Make the dough:

1. Whirl the dry ingredients in your food processor to mix.
2. Add the butter and shortening and pulse until crumbly.
3. Add the ice water and pulse until mixed. (Will still appear somewhat crumbly.)
4. Turn onto floured surface and press to mix together, then roll out to about 1/8" thick.
5. Let rest until the filling is done.

Make the filling:

1. Add the chopped onion and garlic to a hot pan with some fat (1 T butter, whatever)-- fry at medium-high until soft. Don't brown.
2. Add the beef and spices through the parsley (if you're using it)and mix well; allow beef to brown slightly on the outside.
3. Add the bread crumbs and stock and mix well.
4. Cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes, until reduced to the point where there is just a small amount of "sauce."
5. Remove from heat and set aside for 15 or so minutes to cool. Now might be a good time to open a beer.

Assemble:

Preheat oven to 375 and cover baking sheet with parchment paper (or silpat).

1. Cut a piece of dough into an about 6" circular piece.
2. Put about 1/4 c filling onto the middle. Brush edges with beaten egg, and close up.
3. Use a fork to close the edges.
4. Brush the outside with beaten egg.
5. Repeat.
6. Bake for about 30 minutes, until outsides are slightly brown.

I have to admit, it is very hard to get the dough into the right size, and the right amount of filling, so as not to have the patties leak a little, or have too much dough at the edges. I also didn't really cut circles, more like ovals. It doesn't really matter, honestly, so don't stress. You can see from my photo:

Serve these with some hot sauce. They're also good with beans and rice on the side. I made salad.

The holiday weekend has come and gone; the leftovers are eaten; and it's now time for me to start studying for finals.

Overall we had a fabulous (and delicious!) Passover and Easter. Saturday night we dined with the Melnick family, and enjoyed a seriously abridged seder. My favorite part was singing "Dayenu" and clapping, which completely freaked out their adorable Newfoundland so that he started barking along. Very cute.

Otis and I brought a faux chopped liver, which is essentially a veggie pate that visually mimics chopped liver, but (thankfully, to me at least) doesn't taste like it.

On Sunday we enjoyed another wonderful meal hosted by Leslie. The group was amazing, and the food was fabulous. The babies are all grown up-- welll, at least walking around and not really interested in being held-- but happily there are now smaller babies to hold, although the minute I got hold of Bea she started crying. Sorry I forgot to take photos!

There was also a lovely family with the most adorably hip pre-teen boys-- one of them modestly told us that he met David Bowie! So cool.

I made a very complicated but insanely delicious potato kugel recipe-- except I used non-dairy spread instead of schmaltz for kosher-related reasons. I really cannot say enough about the recipe-- everyone loved it. A++++ I would make again!

Here's the veggie chopped liver. It's a little different from the one my friend Jamie makes.

Faux Chopped Liver

Olive oil
3 large onions, chopped medium
3 cloves garlic
1 cup green beans
1 large can lentils, drained
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted
1 matzah
2-3 t salt (depending on saltiness of can of lentils)
1-2 t black pepepr
2 hard boiled eggs
Splash balsamic vinegar (I swear!)

1. heat the oil in a pan; fry the onions and garlic until soft and light brown.
2. In the meantime, steam the green beans until soft but not too soft. (You'll know it when you see it.)
3. Place the matzah in the food processor with chopping blade and pulse to break up.
4. Add the green beans, onion & garlic mixture, lentils, walnuts, salt & pepper.
5. Pulse until well chopped. How chopped will be your preference.
6. Turn into large bowl. Add splash balsamic to taste to bring up acidity. (Seriously, just a little. You won't taste the balsamic, it will just heighten the dimension of the flavors.)
7. Chop the hard-boiled egg and fold in.

Enjoy!

by Ravinder Kingra

Apologies, fellow cocktail devotees, for the lack of postings from yours truly. I trust no one's been standing empty-handed and parched-mouthed at the bar waiting for a new recipe lo these many months.

I've waited to put pen to p. until I could be certain that we wouldn't wake up to find ourselves under a blanket of late season snow. Hopefully I'm not welcoming the wrath of Mother Nature (or Gaia, if one is so inclined) by taunting her like this but I think we're safely in the throws of Spring. So, now that the Sorels and snowsuits are safely stashed in the attic one can concentrate on adding some spring to one's cocktail menu steps, as it were.

Nothing says spring like rhubarb. So that's where it all began; well, there and also with a tipple I'd had at 555 as inspiration. Infusing gin with rhubarb imparts the former with the slightly bitter, astringent, herbal and, not to put too fine a point on it, pink qualities of the latter. The red wine gastrique adds tartness and acidity that balances the sweetness of the simple syrup. The black pepper adds spice and warmth; and the walnut oil contributes a luscious mouth feel and appearance in the form of glistening droplets of oil on the surface of the drink.

I'll insert a disclaimer here for those of you eager to shake up a pitcher tout de suite. The main ingredient requires some planning, namely a one to two week steeping of gin and rhubarb. If you must, simply must have a drink right away, you can muddle a few slices of rhubarb in the shaker before adding the rest of the ingredients. You might need to increase the amount of simple syrup if you follow this route, since the bitterness will be slightly harsh (or forward, in today's wine enthusiast parlance.)

So let us celebrate the thawing of frozen soil, the budding buds on the trees, the tweet and/or twitter of song birds, and so on and so forth, with the Resurrection. Thus, it is risen.

THE RESURRECTION

4 oz. rhubarb-infused gin*
2½ oz. fresh lemon juice
1½ oz. red wine gastrique
1 oz. black pepper simple syrup (or plain simple syrup and a few grinds of pepper)
⅛ teaspoon (a dash) walnut oil
freshly ground black pepper (optional)
sugar (optional)

If using, combine sugar and black pepper in a shallow dish. Rim two martini (or other cocktaily) glasses with the mixture and set aside.

Combine remaining ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake for 20 seconds.

Strain into prepared glasses.

Serve.

Yields two cocktails.

* To make rhubarb-infused gin add two cleaned stalks of rhubarb, diced, to a 750mL bottle of your favorite gin. Let it sit in a cool, dark place for a week or two. Strain rhubarb out of gin and return gin to bottle. Use in your favorite gin recipes, not just in the Resurrection. Note: If you don't have rhubarb-infused gin or the time to make it, muddle three of for slices of rhubarb in the cocktail shaker before adding the rest of the ingredients. You may need to increase the amount of simple syrup by a teaspoon or two since muddling the rhubarb will bring out more bitterness.

Inspired by this recipe from Gourmet, we made chipotle cheeseburgers for dinner on Sunday. I forgot to take photos, and then again Otis ate his two (yes, two) in about two seconds flat. I guess I could have done something timelapse... that would be cool.

Anyway, I modified the recipe (slightly). They were very delicious.

Ingredients

4 chipotles in adobo
2 T parsley
3 cloves garlic
3 shallots
1 lb ground pork
1/2 T salt
4 slices Hoffman's Super Sharp (get at the deli counter)
onion rolls
1/4 cup mayonnaise
juice of 1 lime

Preparation

1. Chop the chipotles, parsley, garlic, and shallots finely (I used my mini-food processor)
2. Mix with pork and salt in a large bowl. Let sit for an hour or so in the fridge.
3. Form into 4 patties.
4. Grill until cooked through; add cheese and melt on top.
5. Mix the mayo and the lime juice.
6. Toast the rolls.
7. Spread the mayo on the rolls and top bit cheeseburgers.

Hey all, it's actually been a whole MONTH since I have posted here, which makes me feel a wee bit guilty. The truth is, I have been working so hard on my various jobs, classes, and projects, that's I've barely had time to keep my head above water.

Today I am taking the MPRE-- the Multistate Professional Responsibility Test--if you don't know, you probably won't care what it is!-- and then my "to-do" list will be happily much shorter. (Only revising law review paper, finishing clerkship applications, preparing for legal writing, and of course work. Whew!)

Sometimes when I am super busy it's hard to get meals made. But I did whip up this quickie sauce for pasta the other day that you might enjoy. The prep takes about 5 minutes, and because the flavors are so big, it really only needs to cook for about an hour. You could probably even do half an hour. It's a kind of puttanesca but I use fish sauce instead of anchovies.

Quick "Puttanesca" Sauce

Ingredients

Olive oil
1 small/med onion, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, minced fine
1 cup black olives (I used kalamata), rough chopped
2/3 cup capers, drained and rough chopped
Salt & pepper
Red pepper flakes, to taste
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 small can chopped tomatoes (for both I like Muir Glen organic brand)
Splash balsamic vinegar
Splash fish sauce (I swear!)

Make it!

1. Heat a splash of olive oil in a pan, and add the onion and garlic. Saute until clear and just starting to turn brown.

2. Throw in the olives, capers, salt, and pepper. Saute for about 30 seconds.

3. Add the tomatoes and red pepper flakes.

4. Add the balsamic and fish sauce.

5. Cook on low heat, stirring and tasting occasionally and adjusting seasoning and flavoring as necessary, for about an hour.

So make a tasty salad...

So, summer has arrived in Maine, much belatedly. I personally don't hold with those who complain that it is 90 degrees, but I won't submit too much criticism. One thing I do agree with is that eating hot food in hot weather is sometimes not so fun.

So, somewhat inspired by this piece in the illustrious Portland Press Herald, I made a pretty tasty light one-meal salad. My main miscalculation was cooking the chicken at the same time I was preparing the dressing and other ingredients. Ideally that should be done while you're in the other room so the heat off the oven doesn't make you feel like you're going to keel over.

Cilantro Lime-Dressed Chicken Salad with Other Stuff

Good title eh?

Ingredients

1 1/4 lb boneless chicken breast
Chipotle powder
Powdered cumin
Oil (light olive or veg, or whatever you have is fine)
S & P

1 bunch cilantro (washed well)
juice of 2 limes
Chipotle powder
Powdered cumin
1/4 cup mayo
1/2 cup sour cream
S & P to taste

Corn kernels off 3-4 ears of corn, blanched for 1 minute, drained and rinsed with cold water
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 poblano chile, diced fine (remove the seeds)
5 radishes, sliced into half-rounds (or really whatever size you prefer)
Greens from 4-5 scallions, chopped fine
[I threw in about 3/4 cup cooked white rice, but only because I had some leftover from Thai takeout earlier in the week. Rice or no rice is fine.]

Greens (I used mesclun mix)
Grated cheddar cheese
Blue corn chips
Lime wedges

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Place chicken in pan. rub seasoning and oil on it.
3. Bake for about 30 minutes or until cooked through.
4. Remove from oven; cool and cut into 1/2 size chunks.

5. Place the cilantro in your blender or food processor and chop fine.
6. Add the other ingredients and whirl around until mixed.

7. Place the third group of ingredients, plus the chicken, in a large bowl. Add the dressing and mix well.
8. Chill for 10 minutes.

9. Place chicken salad over bed of greens.
10. Garnish with a pinch of grated cheddar and lime wedge.
11. Surround with corn chips.
12. Eat.

Hi all! Wow, what a fall. I've been, quite simply, exhausted. Now that my finals are over I have a little more room to breathe, thankfully.

Over the weekend I got to a little of the holiday prep I've been dreaming of... in this case, I made some lovely jars of pecans to give as gifts. This was the first time I made these-- I cobbled together some recipes I found online with my own ideas, and they came out great. Be careful, they are kind of addictive.

Candied and Spiced Pecans

Ingredients

4 cups raw pecans
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 t salt
1 t ground cumin
1 1/2 t ground aleppo pepper
1 t cinnamon
1 t ground nutmeg
ground chipotle pepper, to taste (I used about 1/4 t in deference to those who don't like spicy, like Otis's grandmother)

Preparation

1. Mix the nuts, maple syrup, and brown sugar together in a large cast iron pan over medium high heat on the stove. Stir constantly as the sugars melt and cover the nuts.

2. After about two minutes, add the spices, stirring constantly.

3. Continue stirring over medium high heat for about 6 minutes.

4. Spread onto prepared sheets of wax or parchment paper and let cool completely before placing in bags or jars.