Use Your Noodles!

I live to serve my little vegetarian.

And I'm getting good at it.

You won't even miss the meat here.

I had assorted vegetables in the fridge.

I had linguini in the pantry (artisanal at that).

And I had the makings of a highly flavorful sauce.

For the noodles:

Cook linguini according to package directions.

You want al dente.

And save some of the pasta water.

For the sauce:

2 tsp sesame oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 1-inch cube fresh ginger, minced and juiced

(I run mine through a garlic press, scraping the pulp into the pan.)

1 shallot, minced

3 TB sriracha suace

1/4 cup Tamari sauce

1 TB rice vinegar

2 tsp sugar

2 TB mirin

1 TB cornstarch 

 1 cup vegetable stock

In a small saucepan, heat sesame oil over medium heat.

Add in garlic, ginger, and scallion

and cook, stirring for about a minute.

Add in sriracha, Tamari, vinegar, sugar, and mirin.

Dissolve cornstarch in a little of the stock

and pour into the pan.

Cook, stirring, until thickened,

then gradually stir in the rest of the stock.

Heat through and let thicken.

For the vegetables:

The vegetables here are up to you.

I happened to have broccoli, zucchini, and snow peas,

so that's what I used.

 You could go with carrots, bok choy, celery, squash,

to name a few.

Cut broccoli into florets and cube zucchini.

Trim snow peas.

In a medium skillet over medium high heat,

 heat about 2 TB sesame oil.

Add in the broccoli and cook, stirring,

about 2 minutes.

Add in zucchini and snow peas

and cook another minute, stirring.

Salt to taste.

For the assembly:

Add the linguine (with a little of the pasta water)

to the vegetables.

Pour in the sauce and heat through.

Serve with a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds.

Now, about that pasta.

 I’ve made my own pasta for years.  I don’t like boxed pasta.  It tastes like the box – like cardboard.  It’s amazing how four simple ingredients – flour, water, eggs, and salt – can somehow combine at home and then at a factory and produce two entirely different results.  That said, let me introduce you artisanal pastas.  I used the imported artisan Italian pasta from Fresh Market.  It is vastly superior to domestic, factory-processed pasta.  This pasta is not made by individual artisans by hand, but it is made in small batches in a semi-mechanized way using high-quality ingredients.  In the manufacturing process, the pasta is extruded through bronze dies, as opposed to the modern, faster, and cheaper method of using slick Teflon plates. Bronze die-cut pasta produces a pasta with a more textured, rougher finish, making the pasta superior at gripping the sauce. The pasta is also very slowly dried, again resulting in a coarser surface to which the sauce can better adhere. All this gives the pasta a more complex flavor.   One is able to cook the imported pasta to that perfect degree of toothy tenderness – al dente.  In addition, the pasta swells considerably, meaning it will go farther, pound for pound, than domestic, American-made pasta.  Plus, there’s the flavor!

When you cook pasta, if you’ve been straining it into a colander and letting the pasta water go down the drain, then you’ve been doing it wrong.  Stop immediately!  Save that liquid gold.  By liquid gold, I mean the pasta water.  Do not drain the water into the sink.  Save that starchy, salty, cloudy liquid.  When you cook your pasta, stop just short of al dente.  Add a bit of the pasta liquid to the sauce in which you’ll be finishing off your pasta and it will combine luxuriously to create a silky, smooth emulsification.  The starch in the water allows the pasta to absorb the sauce as it finishes cooking, infusing the pasta with flavor.  It’s a beautiful marriage between the noodles and sauce - a sauce that your pasta will eat up.

This was delightful.

Got a thumbs up from my little vegetarian,

so Rosie is happy.

Enjoy!

Hummus!

 You should make your own hummus.  I'm here to tell you how.

One day, one of my little Hawthornelets showed up with a tub of grayish matter from one of the local supermarkets.  And he proceeded to...eat it.  It was "hummus," he said.  Well, I guess it was and it wasn't.  Sorta like Schrödinger's Cat.

I tried it.  I didn't like it.  Then, like so often, I started thinking, which in and of itself is not all that bad a thing - only when I start acting on it can it go south.  But I digress.  So's I said to myself, "Self?  You can do better than this.  You can make this ...  palatable!"  So I did.

Since then, I've made hummus many times.  And, like so many things I make, there is no set "recipe."  I never measure any more.  And it's never quite the same, but it's always good.  I can give you guidelines and tips, but you've got to take it from there and run with it.

First, what is hummus?  Hummus is a Middle Eastern dip/spread made out of:
chickpeas
sesame seeds
lemon juice
garlic
olive oil
All done up in a food processor.  Start with the basics, then add in your seasonings.  It can be bland as white bread.  Or it can be amped up to, dare I say, sophisticated levels of flavor.  It's up to you.

First, I want to talk about the chickpeas AKA garbanzo beans.  This is the main ingredient, so don't skimp here.  Use DRIED beans.  NOT CANNED.  (I never use canned beans, so don't even get me started down that road.)  To get a velvety smooth, creamy consistency in your final product, you need to try two little tricks:
  The first trick is baking soda.  Soak your dried chickpeas in water with baking soda added to it.  If you have time, soak the beans overnight.  If not overnight, a few hours is better than nothing.
  My second trick - peel the chickpeas.  Every last one.

For the garbanzo beans/chickpeas:
Yield:  1 cup cooked beans

 1/4 cup dried garbanzo beans
 baking soda
 kosher salt

 Rinse beans, then cover with an inch or so of water and add a teaspoon of baking soda to the pot.  Stir to dissolve.  Let sit overnight or, at least, for a few hours before cooking.

What does the baking soda do?  It raises the pH, making the beans more soluble.  That means they're going to cook quicker.  The baking soda helps in breaking down the pectin in the beans, softening the skins, giving you a head start on the peeling.  Actually, a lot of the peels will disintegrate and be sloughed off during the simmer, so you just need to give the beans a thorough rinsing.  It all works to yield a creamier hummus.

After the soak, rinse the beans again and return to the pot.  Cover with water and stir in a teaspoon each of baking soda and salt.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer.  Watch the pot, skimming off any of the scum that rises to the surface.

Simmer for about 30-45 minutes, then drain beans, rinsing off any skins.  The beans are not done yet, but they're ready to be peeled.  Peel each and every chickpea.  I use a paper towel and squeeze gently to pop the bean out of its skin.  The skin will adhere to the paper towel.  You want to do this peeling BEFORE the beans get too soft from cooking.  If you simmer too long, you'll get mushy peas and they'll be impossible to peel.

Put the peeled peas back in the pot, cover with water, and continue simmering until the peas are very tender.  About another 30-45 minutes or more.  I don't think you can overcook at this point, so don't obsess over it.
Drain chickpeas.

This is what the peas look like after the first simmering.


You can see that the skins are already starting to slough off.



Individually peel the rest of the garbanzo beans.
Those are cooked chickpeas on the left, dried beans on the right.
Now, set the cooked and peeled chickpeas aside and start on the tahini paste.

For the tahini paste:
The next ingredient in hummus is tahini paste, which is simply toasted sesame seeds processed with a little olive oil and some kosher salt to perk it up.

Evenly spread out about 1/2 cup sesame seeds on a baking sheet.
Toast until lightly browned. 
I left the packet of raw seeds in there so you can see the difference in color.

Now, about those sesame seeds.  You can go to the baking aisle and buy them in the spice rack, but don't do this.  You'll be paying way too much, as in 2-3 times more than necessary, depending on brand.  Go to the Hispanic section and buy the little plastic packets - 1 1/2 ounces - for 79¢ each.
1/2 cup is 2 of those little packets.

In a mini-processor, process the toasted and cooled sesame seeds with a neutral olive oil until the mixture is smooth.  I used about 1/4 cup of Extra Light Bertolli Olive Oil.  I don't want the olive oil flavor to overpower the sesame seeds so I use a neutral oil.  Also, I want more of a pourable tahini, not a paste, so I ended up using 1/4 cup of the oil.  Add a tablespoon of oil at a time, processing as you add, until nice and smooth.

I'm making more tahini than I need for the hummus.  I'm only using 1/2 for the hummus, but I made extra just in case.  Remember to taste test!  You can always add in more tahini if you like. It's up to you and your taste buds.

 And I have an idea for the leftover tahini, so don't worry about it.

Process toasted seeds with a neutral oil until smooth.

Like this.

Now make the hummus:
1 cup cooked and peeled garbanzo beans/chickpeas
1/4 cup tahini paste
1/4 cup+ liquid (I used both some water from the drained peas and some neutral olive oil.)
2 garlic cloves
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp cumin
kosher salt, to taste

Process the garlic cloves and lemon juice.
Add in the chickpeas and keep processing.
Add tahini and process.
Add olive oil and water and process until super smooth.  There's always a little water left in the bowl with the cooked chickpeas after I've drained them.  I use that along with enough olive oil until I get the consistency I want.
Add cumin.
Taste test and season with salt and more cumin, if desired.
Process.                                                      yt

Take your cooked and peeled chickpeas.
1/4 cup dried chickpeas = 1 cup cooked
Those are the dried on the left, cooked on the right.  They plump up a lot.

You want the texture smooth and scoopable.
This looks good.

For processing with the hummus, I always use a neutral olive oil, my go-to oil being Bertolli's Extra Light.

When I'm serving the hummus, I always make a well in the middle and pour in a really flavorful oil for dipping.  My current favorite is Corto extra virgin olive oil.  
I don't think this particular oil is available in stores on the beach, so I'd recommend going to an olive oil store, like Outer Banks Olive Oil, and taste test before you buy.
 



Now comes the fun part - the tarting up.
Make a well and pour in some really good extra virgin olive oil.
Then grind some pepper in the well.
Some toasted sesame seeds if you like.
Then sprinkle on some cumin.  Some red pepper flakes.  Some togarashi, which is a spice blend of red chiles, black and white sesame seed, nori, poppy seed, and orange and lemon zest.

Now, there are lots of other accoutrements you can serve this with.  I'll get into those later.
But first, you've got to have something to scoop the hummus up with.
I like to make my own scoops.

Stack flour tortillas and cut into wedges.

Pour some oil onto two large baking sheets and put a couple pats of butter on each.
Place in oven and heat to 300°.
When the butter is melted, take the tortilla triangles and dredge through the oil/butter mix, both sides, and place on the sheets.  Cover the sheets with the wedges.  Sprinkle with cumin and cayenne and/or togarashi seasoning.  Bake for 12 minutes, then rotate trays and bake about 10 minutes, until wedges are crisp and lightly browned.
Cool on racks.

And serve!

Now that you have the basic recipe for hummus, use it as a starting point for your take on this Middle Eastern staple.  If you prefer more or less garlic, lemon, or tahini, then simply adjust.

After you've got your hummus, there are all sorts of toppings to consider:

tomatoes
feta cheese

Kalamata olives 

jalapeno peppers

caramelized onions
artichoke hearts

pine nuts
pomegranate arils and walnuts

sundried tomatoes and basil

cayenne peppers

cilantro

curry

roasted garlic

parsley

mint

chives

tarragon

It's like a smorgasbord!
 Pick and choose your flavors.

 Remember I said I doubled the tahini sauce?

Here's what you can do with the leftover:

 

 Steamed Broccoli with Tahini Dip

2 TB tahini paste

2 TB lemon juice

1 TB apple cider vinegar

2 TB extra virgin olive oil

kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Combine first three ingredients, then whisk in olive oil.  Season to taste.  Top with additional toasted sesame seeds.

Serve with steamed vegetables.

Rosie Makes A Watermelon And Tomato Salad.

It's late summer

and I still have tomatoes and watermelons,

just waiting to be picked.

It's time to combine the two in a watermelon and tomato salad.

There's a quote out there about tomatoes.

Something about,  

"Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit;

wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad."

Well, I'm pushing the limits today.

I'm making a tomato and watermelon salad.

Before you turn up your collective noses and say,

"What? Watermelon and tomato?

Together?

That just doesn't sound right,"

I have to say, "Trust Rosie on this."

Have I ever led you astray?

Go out into your garden

and pick a gloriously ripe watermelon

and some vine-ripened tomatoes,

bursting with juice and flavor.

It's even better if your watermelon and tomato plants 

are volunteers.

That's natural selection at work.

Now, go make this salad.

Watermelon and Tomato Salad
1 personal-size watermelon (8-inch diameter), 

chilled, with melon balls scooped out (approximately 4 cups)
1 cup assorted tomatoes, chopped
½ cup sliced Kalamata olives
1 cup pistachios, toasted
1 cup finely diced cucumber
6 radishes, sliced paper thin
1 cup feta, crumbled
2 TB each chopped mint and basil
Zest of two limes

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. 

Slice watermelon in half. 

Using a melon baller, scoop out melon. 

Cut a small sliver on the bottom of each half 

so halves sit evenly, 

then carve a decorative edge along the top.

Dressing: 

Juice of 2 limes 

2 TB balsamic vinegar
2 tsp sugar
6 TB extra virgin olive oil (preferably fruity)
Whisk all together.
Season to taste with freshly ground pepper and kosher salt.

Pour dressing over salad. Gently toss to coat.
Scoop salad into watermelon bowls and serve.

This is one of those salad conglomerates

where you keep ladling spoonfuls into your mouth,

trying to get all the flavors and textures simultaneously.
It's that good.

Oooh.

I need more sweet watermelon.

Ooooh.

I need more salty feta and briny olives.

Ooooh.

I need more herbaliciousness.

Gimme more mint.  More basil.

Ooooh.

I need more tartness.

Where's that balsamic vinegar.

Ooooh.

I need more spicy kick.

Gimme some radishes.

Ooooh.

I need more nutty.

Gimme pistachios.

On top of all that toothsome palatability,
 this is also a visual feast.

Just look at how I painstakingly carved the jagged edges.

I love it when food serves as container.

And would you look at that?

In the background?

Watermelons growing in the garden.

Thirty-plus-pounders!

Enjoy!

Summer Tomatoes. Caprese Skewers.

 

There are few things more perfect than a summer tomato - a Southern summer sun-ripened tomato fresh out of your garden.  There is no match.  Forget those imposters that have been masquerading as tomatoes in the produce section throughout the winter.  Those ain't 'maters.  I wait all year for the real deal and it's totally worth the wait.

It's a fact - Southerners do tomatoes better than anybody.

A just-picked, still warm-from-the-sun tomato, preferably the first pick of the season, is a thing of beauty.  Slice that tomato and put those slices, lightly salted and heavily peppered, in between some  white Wonder bread with a slathering of Hellman's mayo (Don't start on the Hellman's vs Duke's feud!) and you have a Southern phenomenon - the exquisite tomato sandwich.  So simple, yet so intense.

And then there's the fried green tomato, another Southern delicacy.  Dunked in buttermilk or an egg bath, dusted in cornmeal and flour, and then lightly fried, it's part of our heritage.

Let's not forget the old-fashioned Southern sweet tomato pie - tomatoes picked at their peak, slices of Vidalia onion, garden-fresh herbs, mounds of cheese, and don't forget the mayo(!), all piled into a pie crust and baked until bubbly, golden-brown perfection.



All this is leading to somewhere  -  It's leading to the classic combination of tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil, the building blocks of a Caprese Salad, or in my case, Caprese Skewers.  "Caprese" means "in the manner of Capri,"  Capri being an Italian island off the coast of Southern(!) Italy in the Tyrrhenian Sea.  See, it is a Southern thing!

 "Caprese" refers to a salad consisting of tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, and olive oil. All simple ingredients, but you end up with what I call culinary synergy, where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.  I'm taking the basic ingredients and giving it a little kick with the addition of a balsamic vinegar reduction.

Don't skimp on ingredients here.  Go pick tomatoes and basil out of your garden (or go to the farmers' market if you're garden-impaired).  Get the freshest, best mozzarella (preferably made from buffalo milk) you can find.   Do NOT use the ubiquitous block mozzarella chosen for pizzas.  Use fresh mozzarella, which is a whole different animal.  And pick out a lovely extra virgin olive oil and a good balsamic vinegar. 



To pick out a good extra virgin olive oil, try visiting a specialty shop.  Here on the Outer Banks, I frequent Outer Banks Olive Oil.  They have an impressive assortment of olive oils and vinegars and you can taste test first before you buy.

As for vinegars, you have your distilled white vinegars, your cider vinegars, your rice vinegars, your Chinese black vinegars, your malt vinegars, your red wine vinegars, your white wine vinegars, your champagne vinegars, and your sherry vinegars, among others.  Balsamic vinegar, however, is in a league of its own, so how do you pick out a quality balsamic vinegar?   Buying balsamic vinegar is akin to buying wine.  You check out the label.

True balsamic vinegar is always labeled "Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale" and has a D.O.P ("Denominazione di Origine Protetta") stamp, which guarantees the quality, production, and place of origin.  It is only made in either Modena or Reggio Emilia, Italy, using traditional methods.  If expense is not an issue, go with this.  By the way, balsamic vinegar's origins date almost 1000 years ago and the name comes from the Latin Balsamum, meaning a "balm" or restorative, as it was originally valued for its curative and therapeutic properties and assistance in digestion. 

The production of this traditional balsamic vinegar is governed by a special certification agency, the Consorzio Produttori Aceto Balsamico di Modena, a consortium of producers which administers very strict regulations and procedures.  Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale vinegar is made with Trebbiano or Lambrusco grapes, grown in the Modena and Reggio Emilia regions of Italy.  The grapes are boiled until reduced and the resulting concentrated grape juice mix (containing the skins, seeds, and stems) is called a "must," (from the Latin vinum mustum meaning "young wine") The must is aged and fermented for a minimum of 12 years.  The volume is reduced by about 10% each year through evaporation, which concentrates the flavors and enhances the complexity, and the vinegar is stored in a "batteria," a series of five or more progressively smaller barrels of different type woods (juniper, chestnut, oak, cherry, ash, mulberry, acacia), with each wood making its own contribution and imparting a different, nuanced flavor into the liquid.  Once a year, the vinegar from the smallest cask in the sequence is bottled and each barrel is topped with vinegar from the next barrel, with the largest barrel getting filled with the new yield.  Balsamic Vinegar of Modena is bottled only in distinct, bulb-shaped 100 ml bottles. Balsamic Vinegar of Emilia is bottled only in 100 ml bottles shaped like an inverted tulip.  The bottles are wax-sealed and have unique identifying numbers. The color of the label will indicate the level of aging:  red for 12 years (affinato or fine); silver for 18 years(vecchio or old); gold for 25 years (extra vecchio).


The I.G.P (indicazione geografica protetta or protected geographical indication) label is your next best bet.  The production criteria here are not as rigorous as those of tradizionale vinegars, but the geographic designation confirms that the processing takes place in the region of Modena, although the grapes can come from most anywhere.  The aging process is a minimum of two months and not necessarily in wooden barrels.  Ingredients are usually wine vinegar with coloring, caramel, and thickeners.  This is likely what you'll find in the supermarkets - a mass-produced, industrialized product that still maintains some controlled quality standards.

 The final category of balsamic vinegars is "condimento" which is not supervised as closely or didn't age as long as a D.O.P. or was made by producers located outside of Reggio Emilia and Modena.  These vinegars do not meet the DOP or IGP standards. Since the production process and origin are not guaranteed by the label, you'll get a wide range of quality here.

Before you buy, check the ingredients list.  Cheap balsamic vinegars have added sugar, caramels, xanthan gum, or preservatives added to mimic the sweetness of aged balsamic.  The best quality vinegars (the Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale)  have grape "must" or mosto d’uva cotto as the only ingredient.  Always check for the "must."

Now that I've probably confused you and you know more than (or less than) you want to about balsamic vinegars, lets make Caprese Appetizers.

Simply alternate sliced garden tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cubes, and just-picked basil leaves on a skewer and arrange on a platter.  I like to use an assortment of heirloom tomatoes, for both color and flavor.  Next, sprinkle a bit of kosher salt, give it a good grinding of pepper, drizzle some extra virgin olive oil, and dribble some balsamic vinegar reduction to tart it up.  You can use a high quality balsamic vinegar for dribbling and forget about the reduction, but if you want to make the reduction, don't use the real expensive stuff.  A moderately priced balsamic vinegar will do just fine.



For the balsamic reduction:    Basically, what you're doing here is evaporating the water and concentrating the sugars over slow and gentle heat to make a syrupy balsamic glaze. Pour a cup of  vinegar into a small pan and I always place this pan in an iron skillet before putting it over heat.  The skillet serves to diffuse the heat and allows a gentle reduction.  Otherwise, it's quite easy to burn the vinegar and ruin it.  Simply bring the vinegar to a bare simmer over low heat and continue cooking until it's reduced by approximately half and has a thickened consistency, like pancake syrup.  You'll end up with a sweet and tart complex syrup that can be used in both sweet and savory dishes.

Enjoy!

 

 

    

 

  

Brownies!

 Everybody needs a good brownie recipe.

This one is more than good.

It's G-R-R-R-R-R-E-A-T!!!!!

 

I thought I already had the "ultimate" brownie recipe.

Not so sure now.

I think this one surpasses it.

It's dense.

It's fudgy.

It's decadent.

That's my brownie trifecta and this recipe 

satisfies all three criteria.

Plus its super simple and easy.

It's win-win.

Outstanding Brownies

 2 sticks unsalted butter

8 oz. bittersweet chocolate

1 cup sugar

1 cup dark brown sugar

4 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

1 TB vanilla

1 cup flour

 Heat oven to 350°.

Butter a 9 x 13-inch baking pan

and line with buttered parchment paper.

Combine butter, chocolate, and sugars and melt,

either in microwave on low power

 or in double boiler set over simmering water.

Cool slightly.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs until light and foamy.

Whisk in salt, vanilla, and chocolate mixture.

Fold in flour until just combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake 35-40 minutes.

Cool in pan on rack.

When cool, evenly spread frosting over top.

For the ganache frosting,

I found opened bags of both semi sweet and bittersweet chocolates

and decided to use them up.

Bags are usually 10 ounces,

so you could use all of one or the other.

It doesn't really matter at this point.

Ganache Frosting

4.2 oz. semi sweet chocolate

6.4 oz. bittersweet chocolate

1 TB butter

1 cup heavy cream

Combine all ingredients and heat until melted.

Mix thoroughly, then pour over cooled brownies.

Oh yeah.

Smooth it out.

Slice and crown with a pecan.

Nuke it and get that molten chocolate.

Perfection.

Sublime.