Tag Archives: Food!

Austin Eats at #ACL

Posted on by

Austin Eats header text

Hey, sorry for falling behind for a couple of days! We had some houseguests and related excitement, and since I’m trying to blog for #31days by the seat of my pants, I got a bit behind. The comeback starts now.

On Saturday we went the Austin City Limits music festival and overall we had a great day. One of the fun things about ACL is always the food. There’s an Austin Eats food court where all the vendors are locals–some are brick-and-mortar sites and some are food trucks. This year is the first time I’ve had to be super-careful about which foods to eat, and fortunately the festival organizers did a great job of noting which menu items were gluten-free. I’m not sure how the GF designation was made, but it turned out that there were other dishes not marked GF that were just fine and super delicious. My only complaint, and I know it’s a festival, is that the prices were so high relative to either the quality or the portion size. The best thing I put in my mouth all day was a sample of the Salt Potatoes from The Best Wurst. We only got one and devoured it, but when I tried to get some for dinner the line was so long I just didn’t have the patience. Which was the wurst decision I made all day. The small Yukon Gold potatoes are boiled in a salt brine and then slathered with butter and a sprinkling of green onions. It’s a veritable mouth party.

Austin Eats Highlights:

Daily Juice
Daily Juice had three different beverages on offer, including my favorite: watermelon. I love watermelon juice more than just about any other beverage and it took restraint to get only two servings throughout the day.

Daily Juice edited

The Peached Tortilla
The PT has several food trucks and they do a lot of catering, too. Their food is a bit of fusion with an Asian twist. Chinese, Japanese, and Thai flavors inform many of the dishes. Their GF offering at ACL was a Thai Summer Salad. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting in terms of flavors, but for $7 I was expecting a larger portion. The salad base was shredded cabbage and other vegetables topped with what seemed to be a peanut sauce dressing, with a sprinkle of sesame seeds and maybe a few bits of peanut. I’m not a huge fan of peanut anything, so I probably should have asked when I ordered. Overall it was pretty tasty, but the size : price ratio was disappointing.

Hat Creek Burger Co.
Hat Creek is a local chain with a location just down the street from me. I’ve never eaten there because they serve burgers and I don’t really eat beef. So I was pleased to see that they had non-beef gluten-free options on the ACL menu. I had the Chicken Flashers (which sound kind of dirty–is it just me?) and the sweet potato fries. Great portion size, and though the fries were pretty standard, the chicken nuggets were quite good. I almost got over the fact that I couldn’t have a Mighty Cone.

Coolhaus
The ice cream sandwiches from Coolhaus melted too quickly to get a photo, but the gluten-free coconut-almond cookie was a perfect base for the salted chocolate ice cream. The cookie was similar to a macaroon (a real one, not those weird Manischewitz rocks) and I’m insanely grateful that Coolhaus had such a fantastic gluten-free option.

My dinner choice was incredibly disappointing, so much so I’m not even going to share it here. I wouldn’t patronize the vendor again, either at a festival or in the real world. But I did very happily snarf down another watermelon juice.

In case you were wondering how the omnivore husband did at ACL, he happily inhaled a bratwurst with all the fixings from The Best Wurst and some of my Hat Creek fries followed by a chocolate chip/salted chocolate Coolhaus ice cream sandwich. And for dinner he had a Chopped Beef Sandwich from The Salt Lick.

I know I should be writing about the music. We liked Haim, enjoyed Lissie and The Joy Formidable, had a nice hangout while jamming to Wilco, enjoyed our dinner to the sounds of The Mavericks, and relived our high school romantic angst to The Cure.

Sadly, our tickets were for the rained out weekend, which is having a terrible impact on the food vendors. There may be some pop-up events, but a full day’s prep for 75,000 expected attendees is potentially going to waste. If you’re in Austin and any of these food mentions tickle your fancy, consider visiting these vendors at their trucks or restaurants as they try to make up the losses from this weekend.

My Best Recipe: Honey-Flax Granola

Posted on by

Honey-Flax GranolaMy Best Recipe is definitely becoming a series! If you haven’t read my original post, the idea of a “best recipe” is one that is consistent, uses just a handful of staple ingredients, is easy to remember, and comes together with a minimum of fuss. This granola recipe fits nearly all those requirements, but it does take a bit of attention to make sure it doesn’t go from toasted to roasted while you weren’t watching.

As I mentioned yesterday, when I first started making this recipe it was kosher for Passover, made with matzo farfel, which is essentially rolled oat-sized bits of matzo. The original recipe came from Streit’s Matzos, and it’s terrifically flexible for Passover and any time of year. For the record, the other recipes on the Streit’s site look a bit…odd, but the mandel bread recipe is gold standard.

Once I started making granola on a regular basis in Uzbekistan, I became a frequent customer on the honey aisle in our local bazar. Vendors there had honeys collected from various parts of Uzbekistan and other countries in the region. Last year I had the great fortune to visit a beekeeper’s association in the Ferghana Valley where I purchased a liter of honey directly from the beekeeper and found this little guy when I opened the jar:

Bee spoon

I haven’t encountered any stowaways in my local Good Flow honey yet, but there’s a first time for everything!

This recipe is what I’d call a base recipe–it’s one you can build on and modify with any mix-ins you like. To prevent any nuts and dried fruits from burning I add them all at the end, after the granola comes out of the oven. It’s hard to say how many servings this makes–that all depends on how many mix-ins you add to the base recipe.

Finally, I’ve recently started making the granola with coconut oil. I haven’t tried a blend of oils, but I suspect it would work pretty well. My only hesitation in using 100% coconut oil is the expense, but it is super delicious and so far it’s been worth it. If you’re gluten-free and can eat oats, just be certain to use certified gluten-free oats.

Honey-Flax Granola

6 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup ground flax meal
Ground cinnamon and ginger to taste
Pinch salt
Mix-ins of your choice (I usually add about 1 cup total of nuts and fruits, and toasted seeds and coconut would work well)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a half-sheet pan or two cookie sheets with sides with foil or a silicone baking mat. Spread the oats evenly over the baking sheet. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until lightly toasted, stirring 2-3 times while baking. Remove oats from oven and reduce heat to 325 degrees.

Combine oil and honey and heat until bubbly. Carefully pour oats into a large, heat-resistant mixing bowl, reserving baking sheets. Pour oil/honey mixture over the oats and mix until the oil and honey are absorbed. Add the flax meal, salt, and a generous sprinkle of cinnamon and/or ginger. Stir to combine and taste to adjust seasoning. Return the mixture to the reserved baking sheets.

Continue baking at 325 degrees for 15-20 minutes longer. Remember to stir every 5-7 minutes to prevent uneven baking, taking care to make sure the edges don’t burn. When nicely toasted, place in a large bowl and the mix-ins. Let the mixture cool and then store in an airtight container.

NOTE: This recipe will go from just perfect to overdone in a flash. Be very vigilant in the last 5-7 minutes of baking to make sure it doesn’t burn.

Honey-Pecan Granola

Posted on by

Honey Pecan granolaOr honey-almond granola. Or honey-coconut granola. Or honey-cranberry granola. Or honey-flax granola. Basically, you can add almost anything (and everything) you like and this granola is divine.

I won’t post the recipe right now, but I’ll add it in the next few days, so you’ll just have to come back.

I made this granola all the time while we were in Uzbekistan because the ingredients were plentiful and relatively affordable. While pecans aren’t locally available there, walnuts, almonds, and pistachios are widely available (though pricey), and they frequently found their way into the mix. Dried apricots, too, were common additions. And the honey. Oh, the honey. More on that to come.

When I originally found this recipe I was looking for a Passover-friendly granola recipe since most breakfast cereals aren’t permitted during the holiday. For several years I only made it at Passover, and then one day I realized I could make an everyday granola using the same principles and ratios.

More to come when I post the recipe, but my current mix involves gluten-free oats, coconut oil, toasted slivered almonds, dried cranberries, local honey, and flax seed. We just picked up a giant bag of pecans, so I’m already concocting the next combination in my head. You can trust it won’t be pumpkin spice.

Weekend Home Cooking

Posted on by

a lolivierI had hoped to share a gluten-free version of my favorite oatmeal cookies today as part of the Cookie Bites series, but time got away from me and I wasn’t able to test out the recipe with a gluten-free flour blend. I promise a recipe for these in the near future, no matter how experimental it might be.

In the meantime, over the last few days we’ve had some nice home-cooked meals, a welcome change from all the eating out we did last week. Every two weeks we get a large veggie box through our CSA Johnson’s Backyard Garden, and all the vegetable dishes mentioned in this post are full of their produce.

Friday night, before a late evening trip to the new Austin Trader Joe’s (which technically isn’t in the city of Austin, but that’s beside the point) we had:

  • Roasted golden beets with toasted pecans and Provencal vinaigrette over red lettuce
  • Creamy polenta with Grana Padano
  • Rainbow chard sauteed with garlic

I don’t have a recipe for any of those–I just make them by taste and feel. A big pile of chard? Two cloves of chopped garlic. A pot of polenta for two? A small handful of grated cheese. But my vinaigrette is a pretty traditional combination of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, a drop of dijon mustard, salt and pepper. To make it extra special I substitute a bit of plain olive oil with A L’Olivier’s herbes de provence infused olive oil. It gives an extra lift to the standard vinaigrette recipe.

Saturday we celebrated my sister’s move to Austin with:

  • Roasted chicken with crispy skin
  • Bok choy sauteed with ginger and garlic
  • Soy-glazed sweet potatoes

Both the bok choy and sweet potatoes required soy sauce, and many brands are made with wheat. I use San-J’s gluten-free tamari. This is the brand I’ve used for years, so I was pleased to see that it’s gluten-free, too.

And for a quick Sunday night dinner Paul made black bean tacos with sauteed peppers and onions.

And by the way, if your kohlrabi freezes in the back depth of your refrigerator and then thaws, it will smell horrible. Word to the wise.

Cookie Bites (Part 2)

Posted on by

Cookie CollageToday’s cookie recipe was given to me by a baker friend who took pity on my total lack of gingersnaps while we were living in Uzbekistan (pictured bottom right). Most of the key ingredients for gingersnaps are easily available there, with the exception of molasses, and fortunately we squirreled a couple bottles away when we headed overseas so we could make a few of our favorites.

I love ginger cookies of all sorts. Commercially, Trader Joe’s Triple Ginger Snaps and the old-school Mi-Dels are my faves. Of my own recipes, my favorites are the triple-ginger biscotti I developed about ten years ago. There’s another one I like from an old cookbook, but they tend to bake up chewy rather than crispy. To date, though, I haven’t tried a GF version of either of those recipes.

This recipe from Cook’s Illustrated makes small, crisp snaps not unlike the Mi-Dels and the TJ’s cookies. I’ve since made a gluten-free version of these cookies using Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour. When I made the dough and tasted it, as I usually do with any cookie dough, I was shocked by the bitter flavor. It turns out that the Bob’s blend has a fair amount of garbanzo and sorghum flour in the blend, which have a very strong taste in raw batter, and I was scared that I’d just made something pretty gross. However, once the cookies baked all trace of bitterness disappeared and I ended up with beautiful and spicy crispy gingersnaps.

The list of ingredients is impressive and the baking rotation always confounds me. But they are worth the effort to get the depth and spiciness that makes them such a favorite. Also, about a dozen-and-a-half of these beauties crushed into roasted banana ice cream is amazing.

Cook’s Illustrated Gingersnaps

For the best results use freshly opened packages of dried spices.

2 ½ cups (12 ½ ounces) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
½  teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups packed (8 ¾ ounces) dark brown sugar
¼ cup molasses
2 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger
12 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Pinch cayenne
1 large egg, plus 1 large yolk
½ cup granulated sugar

Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together in bowl. Place brown sugar, molasses, and fresh ginger in second bowl. Heat butter in 10-inch skillet over medium heat until melted. Lower heat to medium-low and continue to cook, swirling pan frequently, until foaming subsides and butter is just beginning to brown, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, and cayenne. Cool slightly, about 2 minutes. Add butter mixture to bowl with brown sugar and whisk to combine. Add egg and egg yolk add whisk to combine. Add flour mixture and stir until just combined. Cover dough tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. (Dough can be refrigerated for up to two days, or frozen for up to a month.)

Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 300 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Place granulated sugar in shallow baking dish or pie plate. Divide dough into heaping teaspoon portions; roll dough into balls. Working in batches of 10, roll balls in sugar to coat. Evenly space dough balls on prepared baking sheets, 20 dough balls per sheet.

Place one sheet on upper rack and bake for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, transfer partially baked top sheet to lower rack, rotating 180 degrees, and place second sheet of cookies on upper rack. Continue to bake until lower tray of cookies just begin to darken around edges, 10 to 12 minutes longer. Remove lower sheet of cookies and shift upper sheet to lower rack and continue to bake until beginning to darken around edges, 15 to 17 minutes. Slide baked cookies, still on parchment, to wire rack and cool completely. Cool baking sheets slightly and repeat step 3 with remaining dough balls.

Yield: 80 1 ½-inch cookies

Cookie Bites (Part 1)

Posted on by

Cookie CollageOver the next couple of days I’m going to share some awesome cookie recipes, starting with my all-time number one favorite cookie in the world.

In 1998 I moved to San Antonio and became addicted to Central Market‘s Chocolate Crispy Cookies. For nine months I bought one package of six cookies for $4.99 each week. I was working at the McNay Art Museum as a graduate intern and my tiny stipend meant that my splurges had to be modest and meaningful. Since I ate every meal at home and took my lunch to work most days, my chocolate crispy cookies were a guilty pleasure and indulgence.

After my internship ended I moved back to California and left the chocolate crispy cookies behind. I missed them terribly and every so often I would try to suss out the secrets of the gooey inside, the crispy outside, and the rich chocolate flavor. I usually ended up with some version of a chocolate-chocolate chip cookie or a brownie bite. The cookies were fine, but they weren’t my beloved Central Market sweetness.

In 2004 I bought the New York Times Jewish Cookbook in preparation for the upcoming Jewish new year, Rosh Hashana. As I sat on the sofa leafing through the book, admiring the depth and breadth of the recipes, my heart started pounding when I saw it: Chocolate Chewies. The recipe was contributed by Joan Nathan, one of the grand dames of Jewish cuisine, and adapted from the cookbook Gottlieb’s Bakery–100 Years of Recipes. I knew immediately that this was the recipe. With only 4 (or 5, depending on if you use the flour) ingredients, it remains a mystery how they can be so tremendously delicious.

You can double this recipe, but since these cookies are very susceptible to drying out so I prefer to make the small batch unless I know I’m baking for a crowd.

Chocolate Chewies (or Chocolate Crispy Cookies)

3 c. powdered sugar
1/2 c. good quality unsweetened cocoa
2 Tbsp. flour
3 egg whites
2 c. chopped pecans

Heat oven to 350 degrees, and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Place sugar, cocoa and flour in bowl of an electric mixer, and beat until well blended. Beat in egg whites one at a time, scraping bowl as necessary. Beat at high speed for 1 minute. Stir in pecans.

Drop heaping tablespoons onto cookie sheets, leaving 2 inches between cookies. Bake 15 minutes on center rack, turning sheet halfway through baking time. Remove from oven. Cool, then peel cookies off parchment.

Store in airtight container or freeze.

Yield: approximately 10-12 cookies

As printed in the New York Times Jewish Cookbook

Where to Eat–Early October Edition

Posted on by

Where to Eat Austin 102013This last week has been super busy and as a result we’ve eaten out a bit more often than usual. While I normally love trying new places, this gluten-free thing means I have to do a fair bit of research before heading out for a meal. I’m starting to learn (and remember) which restaurants have gluten-free menus and a heightened awareness of the needs of diners with gluten intolerance or celiac.

Maudie’s Tex-Mex

ATX Gluten-Free has been a good resource for GF friendly restaurants, and that’s where I learned that Maudie’s has a special gluten-free menu. Maudie’s has long been a favorite of mine–we used to go there about once a week, either after my Jazzercise (don’t laugh!) class on Thursdays or before Paul’s D&D game (okay, laugh!) on Fridays.

While my usual favorite isn’t on this menu because a flour tortilla is involved, pretty much everything else I like in on it. By which I mean chips and queso. Okay, I do like more than that, but chips and queso is a requirement. I think nearly all of their sauces are GF, including the chili con carne, which I’ve noticed is not GF at all restaurants. The staff are clearly educated about the menu and the needs of diners. My tortillas even came to me marked “gluten-free” on the foil. Good stuff, and glad a favorite can still be standby.

Tärka Indian Kitchen

Tärka is one of the newer places near our neighborhood, and it’s affiliated with one of our favorite “grown-up” restaurants, Clay Pit. They also have a special gluten-free menu that offers a huge number of their usual dishes.

Our go-to dishes are almost always channa masala and saag paneer. And let’s talk about pakoras, because I’ve been missing fried stuff a lot and pakoras dipped in chutney are so crispy and salty and spicy and delicious. Again, the staff are knowledgeable about the gluten-free menu and make sure that gluten things are packed separately from the GF dishes.

East Side Pies

Pizza is another thing I’ve been missing, and I’ve woken in a cold sweat having nightmares about the loss of pizza from my life. Maybe not really, but it’s been close. I’m writing about East Side Pies this time for two reasons: I literally just discovered them this week, and their GF pizza is affordable. There’s another nice GF pizza I’ve tried, Via 313, but it’s cost-prohibitive on a regular basis.

You may think I’ve been living under a rock. I haven’t, but I was living in Uzbekistan, so I deserve a bit of a pass for not being on the East Side bandwagon until now. East Side is known for their large thin-crust slices and creative toppings, including special sauces such as spinach curry and hummus. They use tons of produce from local farms, including our CSA Johnson’s Backyard Garden. But back to the gluten-freeness of it all. East Side gets its crusts from a local company called Smart Flour Foods and I was happily surprised by the texture, flavor, and quality. It’s a thin crust and it bakes up very crispy. As GF bread products go, this one uses mostly whole-grain flours, so it’s a more nutritious alternative than many GF products. The crusts are available in a few local markets, so I’ll be looking for them. Can’t wait to try some grilled pizzas on these!

Do you like this feature? Let me know if I should keep it up periodically!

Mad Fauxtoshop Skillz

Posted on by

Last weekend I was lucky enough to win free admission to the Austin Food Blogger Alliance‘s Photocamp thanks to Mad Betty, who ran a drawing on her site. I learned a few new skills that I’ve been trying to put into practice over the last several days, skills I now call fauxtoshopping. I think that term usually means spotting or making obvious fakes. In my case it means using easy-to-understand apps to edit photos and create collages for this here blog.

Cupcake Snapseed Collage

What, pray tell, does this have to do with anything gluten-free? The workshop organizers were pretty thoughtful when it came to the special diets crowd, and during the morning break we were treated to tea from Zhi and these amazing vegan and gluten-free cupcakes from Better Bites Bakery. I had a good chat with them about their flour blends and look forward to getting more information to help me hack my favorite recipes over the next month.

I have to say that Melissa Skorpil‘s sessions were amazing. She is a fabulous teacher and I learned so much from her about how to set up a photo shoot. My kitchen is somewhat dark and my over-cabinet lighting is fluorescent, so all my photos turn out green. Now I know how to fix that!

Jane Ko‘s session focused largely on iPhone-ography, but as an Android user I still found some good tools and apps. My photos above of Better Bites’ delicious chocolate-mocha cupcakes started with my phone’s regular cam set for HDR. This “one weird tip” for phone photography is a great one. The photo starts out in richer tones than a regular pic on Auto or similar. I then used the Snapseed app (on iPhone and Android) to crop and edit just about everything from color correction to contrast to brightness.

So after fauxtoshopping it’s time to collage. I have never used Photoshop, and try as I did to follow along in Mary Helen‘s session, I found myself gravitating back to my old favorite, Picmonkey. Smartly, she showed the analogues in Lightroom and Picmonkey for just about every feature she showed in Photoshop. I had NO idea how much Picmonkey could do, and I’ve since sprung for the full version, which costs about $36 a year.

So back to those gluten-free cupcakes. They were divine. They weren’t divine for gluten-free. They were just straight up damn good chocolate cupcakes. I am pretty picky about frosting, so I had to try the grasshopper ones, too, and they were even better. This is what gets me excited about this new foodstyle–finding truly delicious foods that fill a niche in my new diet.

Because everyone needs cupcakes.

Sunday Brunch at The Steeping Room

Posted on by

Sunday brunch at The Steeping Room

Sunday we met up with with our longtime friends Mitch and Donna and their darling two-year old Zella. It was great fun to hang out and catch up after a few busy months of not seeing each other. Zella brought her giraffe mask and we played a bit of peekaboo. Only later did I realize I’d been holding the mask upside-down so the giraffe horns were more like fangs. Oops.

Austin is booming with restaurants, and our neighborhood scene exploded in the three years we were away. I’ve nearly had accidents rubbernecking all the new businesses on the main road in our ‘hood, and they just keep coming. We decided to meet at the new-to-us nearby location of The Steeping Room, a place that’s quickly becoming a go-to staple. When The Steeping Room first opened in another part of town it was a wonderful addition with its offerings of scores of tea blends, traditional tea service, and a varied menu with choices from healthy to decadent. Now that it’s closer to our house I suspect we’ll be there with even greater frequency.

One of the reasons I love this place is because the menu is easy to navigate for people with dietary restrictions. I wrote a bit yesterday about the mentality of living without, and what I enjoy about restaurants like The Steeping Room is how they use more than the average amount of kitchen creativity to create beautiful meals that are delicious whether they are meat, vegetarian, or dairy or gluten-free.

While we waited for our friends to arrive, Paul and I started with spiced apricot scones served with jam, fig and port compounded butter, and clotted cream. I’m just starting to learn my way around gluten-free baked goods, and while the flavor of the scones was excellent, they were very crumbly, making it tough to spread the delicious spreads. We made do and polished them off. Paired with a pot of strong Earl Grey, it was a perfect start to our Sunday morning.

On Donna’s recommendation I got the latkes and gravlax, served with sour cream and berry gastrique. Sounds very fancy, and it looks pretty fancy, but it was super comfort food on a drizzly and chilly (by Texas standards, anyway) late September morning. As I sit here I’m thinking about how easy it would be to make a similar dish at home, though I’m not quite sure I’ll replicate the jasmine tea-cured gravlax.

When we eat tempting and delightful foods like this I don’t feel like I’m living without. I feel happy and lucky to have so many fabulous options just down the street.

Day One: E&W Goes Gluten-Free

Posted on by

31 days buttonI haven’t talked about it here yet, but about a month ago I had to change my diet because of a health condition and begin eating gluten-free. In some ways it has been a radical shift, and in other ways it’s not noticeable at all.

My friend Kelsey, who blogs at Heart Knit Home, encouraged me to join the 31 Days Of… blog challenge, and after some hesitation I agreed. I don’t blog here terribly often, but I always have intentions of doing more. This seemed like a good way to get in the habit of writing here more frequently while also sharing some of the exploration I’m doing into this new way of eating. I also want to give a shout out to Kelly and Angela who helped me get my lovely button and banner for this challenge.

I try very hard not to think of this foodstyle as having to live without something. That negative spin on it gives me pause. Instead I’m just trying to embrace the difference. While I don’t miss bread too much, especially since there are some good gluten-free option, I do miss being able to eat foods at restaurants that should be safe, but because of cross-contamination of cooking oil they aren’t.

The foods I’m referring to are french fries. And tortilla chips. But mostly french fries. Sigh.

Excuse me while I go saute some potato wedges in schmaltz, mmmkay?

Marcella Hazan is Dead

Posted on by

Goodbye, Marcella

I was working all day, building a site for a wonderful event in San Diego called Cake Bake, and I missed the news earlier in the day that Marcella Hazan passed away today at the age of 89. Hazan was a force in the kitchen, and her influence on Italian cuisine in America is impossible to overstate. Her lasting influence in my kitchen will her Tomato-Butter Sauce, another of my so-called best recipes. I didn’t know Mrs. Hazan, but if you can know a person through her perfect recipes, then I suspect she was uncomplicated on the surface and delightfully complex inside.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I only started making this sauce about two years ago. We had huge #10 cans of tomatoes in our cupboard, and with only two of us I worked hard to find new ways to use them after I’d exhausted some of our traditional repertoire. A good, dependable tomato sauce had always eluded me. Mine always came out strangely sweet or bitter, and I struggled with whether I should make a quick-cook sauce or do a day-long simmer. At its best my sauce was slightly worse than an average store-bought marinara.

Where I first found the recipe I’m not sure. Most certainly it was on a blog, possibly on Smitten Kitchen. But once turned on to it, I couldn’t seem to get away from it–Hazan’s Tomato-Butter Sauce kept popping up everywhere. Mention-itis, as Bridget Jones would say. Was it possible that this sauce of beautiful simplicity had been right under my nose for years, but I’d overlooked it?

Last winter, when there wasn’t an abundant variety of vegetables available in Tashkent, we slowly worked our way through about ten of those #10 cans, making a pot of sauce each week. I had planned to make some today, but the day got away from me. It would have been a fitting eulogy.

Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onion

28-ounce can peeled plum tomatoes, no salt or herbs added
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 small white onion, peeled and cut in half
Kosher salt

Add the tomatoes, butter, onion halves, and a pinch of salt to a 4-quart saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, then lower the heat. Crush the tomatoes lightly with the back of a spoon as they cook, and stir occasionally. Simmer very gently for 45 minutes, until much of the liquid reduces and the butter droplets separate from the tomatoes. Remove and discard the onion.

According to Giuliano Hazan’s version of his mother’s recipe, “The sauce is done when the butter has separated from the tomatoes and there is no remaining liquid.”

Serve over hot pasta with Parmesan, if desired.

Note: this sauce freezes beautifully, but making a double batch takes much longer than 45 minutes, based on my experience. Also, you don’t have to discard the onion. I think it’s delicious, so I usually save it and separate off a few rings to nibble on while finishing dinner.

My Best Recipe: Butternut Squash Risotto

Posted on by

Squash blog

If ever asked, I would be hard-pressed to say what my very best recipe is, but this would be one of the handful that would leap to mind. In our foodie-obsessed culture it sometimes seems that the more retro or the more avant-garde a dish is, the more respect it commands. For me, the idea of a best recipe is one that is consistent, easy to remember, uses a handful of staple ingredients, and can be whipped together for weeknight dinner or easy weekend meals.

That’s exactly what risotto is for me. I’ve been making versions of this dish for about twenty years, adding flourishes to the basic recipe. This recipe is a best friend–it never lets me down, and picks me up when I need comfort. It’s hearty, savory, and there’s a zen to the process of making it.

One of our household favorites is pumpkin or butternut risotto. They both use the same basic recipe and take the same amount of time to make, but pumpkin from a can save a few prep steps and if you’re like us, there’s usually some in the pantry or freezer. This is a perfect fall recipe that can be made vegan or not, depending on your choice of stock and cheese.

Risotto with Butternut Squash or Pumpkin (adapted from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant)

5 cups stock, vegetable or chicken

2 Tbsp. olive oil or butter, or a combinations of both (or sub some schmaltz for butter if you have it)

1 small yellow onion, finely chopped

1 1/2 cups arborio rice

1/2 small butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2″ cubes or 1 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

  1. Bring the stock to a boil in a medium saucepan. Lower the heat and maintain a simmer.
  2. Heat the oil and/or butter in a large, heavy saucepan on medium heat and saute the onion for 2 to 3 minutes, until translucent but not browned.
  3. Add the rice and stir for one minute to thoroughly coat the rice with oil, taking care not to break the grains.
  4. Add the wine and stir constantly until it is absorbed.
  5. If using squash, add the cubes followed by 1/2 cup of stock and stir until the liquid is absorbed.
  6. Ladle in the simmering chicken stock, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring after each addition until it is absorbed. It should take about 18 to 20 minutes to cook the rice. Reduce the stock added toward the end and increase the frequency, tasting for the point where the rice is tender but al dente.
  7. If using pumpkin puree, add the puree at the halfway point.
  8. Remove the risotto from the heat and stir in the grated cheese.

If you are vegan, this recipe is still delicious without the cheese, but will likely need a bit more salt to taste.

Either version is really lovely with a bit of sage or herbes de Provence, as well.

Figgy Fun with Confituras

Posted on by

Fig Collage Text final

Last month I met Stephanie McClenny, founder and creator of Confituras, at a class she taught on preserving peaches. Stephanie is the creative force behind the stunning array of jams, preserves, chutneys, and pickled fruits on offer at Austin’s farmers’ markets and specialty food stores. She uses only the freshest local fruits in her confitures, and the flavors are both traditional and unique.

As excited as I was to attend the peach class, I mentioned how sorry I was to have missed her earlier class on figs since I’ve always wanted to learn how to make fig jam or preserves similar to the ones my grandmother made from the figs that grew in her yard in Galveston. A few days later Stephanie turned me onto her upcoming class in concert with Jackie Letelier of Pâté Letelier, focusing on fig preserves and chicken liver pâté. I was sold in a minute. The results of our class were delectable–Paul and I ate them up in just a few days–and I reminisced about the homestyle versions of those foods made by my grandmother.

My Jewish grandmother, Gertrude Plantowsky, was a great cook, and her fridge was always stocked with schmaltz. Despite her kitchen aplomb, she wasn’t a patient teacher, so assisting her was a rare opportunity and I never really had a chance to learn some of her most special recipes. Despite being raised in a kosher home, one of her best dishes was crab and shrimp gumbo. At some point the Gulf seafood trumped her traditional upbringing.

Two others that were special and delicious were her chopped liver and her preserved figs. I did help out with the chopped liver once: my job was to grind the cooked livers and onion through her table-mounted meat grinder and it seemed like it took ages. But I never did get an insight into how she made her figs. I have trouble remembering exactly how they tasted, but my vague recollection is of figs preserved in syrup with lemon. I think they were sliced, or maybe halved. They were sort of jelly-like so you could spread them on toasted challah, but they weren’t chunky and seedy like preserves. One day I hope to figure them out.

Last weekend I tried, using the preserving experience from Stephanie’s peach class and the details I learned about figs from the pâté and preserves class, and set to work in the kitchen to preserve about two-and-a-half pounds of figs in syrup scented with lemon, cinnamon, and cardamom. The result was six half-pints of beautiful figs, and even though they aren’t quite like Gert’s, they are delicious.

Dinner at Eden East

Posted on by

eden East 2 edited

 

A few weeks ago Paul and I went to dinner at Eden East at Springdale Farm. Springdale is one of the urban farms on Austin’s eastside, and it’s well-known for the fantastic produce that comes from its tiny plot of less than five acres. We were enchanted by the picnic tables set under the huge tree, the creative menu that changes weekly, and the ducks wandering around the vegetable beds in the gathering dusk. I rather failed at getting beautiful photos of our food, but I hope I captured the ambience of this lovely place.

When I first saw the menu I was a bit concerned we’d be rolling out of the clearing, stuffed from so many courses of good food. A wonderful aspect of dining at Eden East is that your meal is self-paced. If you want to get up and walk around the farm for bit, feel free. If you want to spend a while enjoying the wines or beers you and your friends brought (there is no liquor license, but bring your own is welcome), indulge and sip away. The kitchen is accommodating of special diets, as noted by the special preparations for a vegan diner in the party next to us.

As we proceeded through the courses we kept saying, oh this is my favorite! In the end the Prickle Duck was our joint favorite, and while Paul loved the Smoky Wild Pig, I have to put the Weed Salad in second place. It seems that Deep Eddy is often on hand, creating a special a cocktail to go with the meal. The night was so warm, and their refreshing creation was most welcome. The peach crostata for dessert was a perfect seasonal way to end the meal, made extra special with a prickly pear popsicle served in a shot of vodka. I look forward to visiting Eden East again in the fall, when cooler temperatures and autumn produce will offer a completely different experience.

My First Food Publication! (umm, five years ago)

Posted on by

About five years ago I had my first piece of food writing published in the magazine PresenTense, put out by the innovative Jewish organization of the same name. The piece was part of an issue that looked at the ways young Jews were exploring issues concerning food in a day and age very different from that of our bubbes’ and zaydes’. My article focuses on the increasing inclusion of Sephardic (or Mediterranean) flavors into the standard American Jewish diet, and it seems especially timely now that the whole world has been swept under the influence of Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s amazing cookbook Jerusalem. I didn’t have a food blog back then, so I couldn’t easily share it with everyone, unlike today.

It was a fun trip back in time to find this piece, and I hope you enjoy reading it, and maybe even eating it. I’m including the full recipe for Moroccan Salmon since the creative photo doesn’t quite capture all the ingredients. We make this recipe with some frequency, since we usually have all the bits and pieces in the house. It’s bright, flavorful, and it makes a stellar dinner party centerpiece if you double the recipe for a side of salmon, cooked whole.

Moroccan Salmon* (adapted from Cooking Light)

This recipe is filled with Mediterranean flavors. It’s easy to prepare if you have a good kitchen knife or a small food processor. This is beautiful for a holiday dinner, but easy enough for a weeknight if you use shortcuts.

1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley or cilantro

1 Tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne works well)

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

4 garlic cloves, minced

4 (6-ounce) wild-caught salmon fillets (about 1-inch thick)

Cooking spray

1 lemon

3 cups thinly sliced red bell pepper (frozen mixed bell peppers will work well)

2 tablespoons water

1 large plum tomato, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices (or 1 can diced tomatoes, drained)

*other firm-fleshed fish works well in this recipe—let your taste buds and budget be your guide

Preheat oven to 400°.

Combine first 10 ingredients in 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Do not use an aluminum pan—it will react with the acid in the dish. Add salmon, spreading paste thickly over the fillets. Cover and let stand 15 minutes while you prepare the other ingredients. Remove salmon from dish, reserving paste in a medium bowl (you may need to scrape it gently off the fish). Rinse the 13 x 9-inch dish and coat with cooking spray. Place the salmon, skin side down, in the dish.

Cut lemon in half lengthwise; cut each lemon half crosswise into 1/8-inch-thick slices. Add the lemon slices, bell pepper slices, 2 tablespoons water, and tomato slices to the spice paste; stir gently to coat. Arrange lemon mixture in an even layer over salmon; cover with foil. Bake at 400° for about 20 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness.

Top each fillet with about 1/2 cup vegetable mixture, and drizzle each serving with pan juices.

For an easy weeknight pairing, make a quick pot of couscous and toss some toasted pine nuts, almonds and pistachios on top.