Tagliatelle with Maitake Mushrooms, Pickled Chilies & Egyptian Dukkah

TAGLIATELLE WITH MAITAKES, PICKLED CHILIES & EGYPTIAN DUKKAH

Winter and pasta for me go hand-in-hand, and, as always, I love to get a little experimental with flavor combos.

Maitake mushrooms are such a favorite – they are meaty and nutty (and have actually replaced my weekend bacon, if you can believe!). I did a pop-up dinner at a little store in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, and I created this dish for the dinner. Hard, pan-roasting the mushrooms and finishing them with butter and salt make them irresistable and is a key step in the recipe. They need a proper sear to bring out what’s best in this dish.

The sauce is super thin and easy and gets an extra hit from the pickled pepper juice. I top up the pasta with some of the actual pickled peppers, chopped cilantro, and Egyptian dukkah, a gorgeous nut and spice blend with coriander that complements the mushrooms beautifully.

This can be as homemade or not as you want. You can use my fresh pasta recipe or store-bought. You can pickle your own cherry peppers or grab a jar at the grocer. And the spice blend, Egyptian dukkah, can be bought from a specialty store, or you can use my recipe below - it stores for a month, so have fun sprinkling it on salads, a nice, seared piece of fish or on your next rice bowl. Enjoy!

Serves 6

1 pound fresh or dried tagliatelle

1-2 tablespoons canola oil

4-5 tablespoons unsalted , divided

2 (8 ounce) maitake mushrooms, hand torn into bite-sized pieces

1 shallot, finely chopped

3 cloves fresh or roasted garlic, minced

¼ cup white wine

¾ cup chicken broth

1/3 cup heavy cream

¼ cup pasta water

scant ¼ cup pickled cherry peppers, juice reserved

small handful of fresh cilantro, finely chopped

2 tablespoons Egyptian dukkah

salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Bring a large pot of water up to a boil and season generously with salt until the water tastes salty. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still a bit firm to the bite, about 8 to 10 minutes if dry or according to package directions if fresh. Drain pasta reserving ¼ cup of the pasta cooking water.

While the pasta is cooking, heat a large skillet over high heat. Add the tablespoon of canola oil, and when the oil starts to smoke, add the maitake mushrooms in a single layer. If they don’t all fit, you may need to repeat the process depending on the size of your skillet. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes. The cooked side of the mushroom should be golden brown and crispy. Flip the mushrooms and throw in 2 tablespoons of the unsalted butter. Season the mushrooms generously and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove mushrooms using tongs to a paper towel-lined plate. If repeating, use the other tablespoon of canola oil and only 1 more tablespoon of butter.

Lower the heat to medium-low, add another tablespoon of butter and the shallots and garlic with a bit of salt. Let cook for 3 to 4 minutes until the shallots are translucent. Increase the heat to medium-high and pour in the white wine. Reduce until most of the wine has evaporated and the shallots are almost dry. Then, add in the chicken broth, heavy cream, and pasta water. Reduce in half. The sauce should coat a spoon but shouldn’t be too thick.

Remove the sauce from the heat and swirl in a final tablespoon of butter along with 2 teaspoons of the pickled cherry pepper juice. Taste and adjust seasoning. Throw in the pasta, maitakes and chopped cilantro and toss to coat.

Serve immediately garnished with a few pickled cherry peppers and about 1 teaspoon of Egyptian dukkah per plate.

Egyptian Dukkah

Yields approx 1 ½ cups

¼ cup hazelnuts, roughly crushed

¼ cup pistachios, roughly crushed

½ cup white sesame seeds

¼ cup coriander seeds

2 tablespoons white cumin seeds

2 tablespoons fennel seeds

2 tablespoons dried mint

pinch of chili powder

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 ½ teaspoons salt

Preheat the oven to 350° F. As opposed to toasting in the skillet, I like to toast this blend up in the oven so the nuts and spices toast evenly.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Add the hazelnuts, pistachios and all of the seeds and make sure they are in a single layer. Toast for 8 to 10 minutes – you should smell a really nutty fragrance.

Transfer toasted nuts and spices to a mortar and pestle or a spice / coffee grinder. I like a slightly rough texture for this, so grind until there are still bits and pieces and it’s not completely powder.

Combine with the dried mint, chili powder, black pepper and salt. Store in an airtight container, preferably in a cool spot – it will keep for about a month.

7 Whole Grains To Get You Healthy for the New Year

7 WHOLE GRAINS TO GET YOU HEALTHY FOR THE NEW YEAR

Starting off the New Year, everyone vows to eat healthy and workout more (as evidenced by the surge of gym goers I’ve been seeing lately at mine!). But instead of focusing on that new and improved juice cleanse (because, honestly, there’s no way I am just drinking juices for 7 days straight! and let's not even discuss the sugar content....), I’d rather search for REAL food that's healthy(ish) and tasty. It's a game of inches! One area with which I loooove to experiment is with new, delicious grains that are a healthy alternative to your everyday rice, quinoa, or even breakfast oats. There are so many more varieties with different textures to choose from than we think, so some of these you may not have heard of! Below are just a few I wanted to highlight.

FREEKEH

Freekeh is a roasted green wheat that's found throughout the Middle East (and your local Whole Foods!). It’s harvested young and then roasted in the fields over an open fire, giving it a smokiness. It's often referred to as a “new” ancient grain (ha!) and has slowly been taking the spotlight away from quinoa because it is far more nutritional (low in fat, high in protein & fiber!). I love the nuttiness and bite of this grain, and it takes on spices beautifully. This recipe is a pilaf with roasted squash, spices like cinnamon and coriander, and a hint of brown butter (I did say healthyish..)..

TEFF

Teff is a grain the size of poppy seeds that’s usually ground into flour to make breads. It's a key ingredient in Ethiopian cooking, primarily to make injera, a fermented, spongy flatbread used to serve and eat Ethiopian stews and dishes. Teff has become popular because it's gluten-free, a complete protein and can sustain just about any climate and region. It's great for baking - banana bread, brownies, you name it. It's also delicious, whole, added into soup, stews, or a winter chili.

AMARANTH

Amaranth dates as far back as the Aztecs. It was their staple food and an integral part of their culture. This little grain is a gluten-free complete protein powerhouse, just like teff. It can be used in both sweet and savory dishes and is super easy to cook: boil water, add the amaranth, cook 10-20 minutes and drain. Seriously, that simple. Once cooked, amaranth is amazing added to salads, incorporated into desserts or stirred into soups. I love it in lieu of morning oats, with some almond milk, cinnamon, and fresh berries. Also, little known fact, it can be popped like popcorn! So good!

RYE BERRIES

Rye is one of those grains that has mainly been grown as a cover crop by farmers to bring back the nutrients to the soil that was lost to a previous “cash” crop. It wasn’t until recently that cooks have been using up these grains, so they don't go to waste in feed slash farmers can make a profit on these previously not-so-popular crops. Rye berries can be ground into flour for breads or boiled like rice. I’ve been cooking them in my rice cooker using a 3:1 ratio of water to berries. This cooking method gives the berries such a nice, popping texture and the grains are perfect to mix in with whatever ingredients you like (avocado, roasted peppers, corn, etc…).

WHEAT BERRIES

Wheat berries look similar to rye, but are a bit shorter in length. It's a common side dish in France, taking the place of the rice or corn, and these little berries are where whole wheat flour comes from. Some say that soaking these berries before cooking (like overnight) will speed up the cooking process (it takes about 45-50 minutes to cook). I personally like to toast the berries in the oven or in the pot to be cooked in before I add the water to give a little more flavor.

FARRO

Cooked similarly to amaranth, farro is really popular in Italian cuisine. It's actually a group of 3 wheat species (emmer, spelt and the lesser known einkorn). Farro is really hearty, and is on menus all over NYC, mainly in salads and in soups. But I personally love it cooked like risotto with mushrooms, shallots and garlic...it's very similar to barley, so it makes a great substitute for those recipes.

BUCKWHEAT

Buckwheat is super trendy, but it's a good thing it has the great flavor it does to back it up! It's, hands down, my new favorite topping on salads when it's been toasted - totally replacing my love of croutons, which is kind of a big deal. This is another one of those hidden gems of a cover crop that farmers use that are now becoming popular in the kitchen. This grain can also be cooked in water (similar to farro and amaranth). You can drain the water and create a loose grain for salads or you can keep some liquid and also serve it almost “risotto” style. Either way is delicious and obviously using stocks is tastier than just plain water. I also personally love using buckwheat flour to make crèpes, like in this recipe.

Enjoy and happy cooking!

My Pantry Essentials

MY PANTRY ESSENTIALS

Ok, so admittedly this isn't your typical pantry! While there are definitely elements of what you need to cook great food - fat, salt, acid, spices - my essentials here are what I personally use to take my food to the next level. Some of these are basic building blocks (roasted garlic, cultured butter), others are my preferences to the traditional (harissa for chili paste, sherry vinegar rather than, say, balsamic) and then some are unique ingredients that have extreme versatility and use (pomegranate molasses, za'atar). So let me do a little explaining to share why when you come to my kitchen, you will always find these ingredients, and how they can add to your own culinary arsenal...

POMEGRANATE MOLASSES

The word "molasses" always brings to mind the dark, sticky, by-product of the sugar process, but, in other parts of the world, the flavor of peak season fruit is captured as fruit molasses. Fruit molasses (pomegranates, figs, grapes, dates, etc) is made by cooking down fresh juice until it reduces to a syrup - I actually show how to make your own in my cookbook. Pomegranate is one of my favorites because it has that beautiful sweet flavor coupled with a nice tart bite. For me, a good pomegranate molasses is like a great balsamic vinegar - fantastic in vinaigrettes, a beautiful marinade and sauce for chicken or ribs, and just as delicious drizzled over berries or ice cream. I never run out of ways to use this stuff (pom martini anyone?) and always have a bottle or two on hand.

HARISSA

Harissa is my absolute, go-to chili paste, though I still have love for sriracha! I make a homemade version myself, and it has my ideal heat level (not scorching) and flavor. This North African sauce has gotten really popular, and you can pretty easily find a bottle at most specialty stores and gourmet grocers. The uses are endless - incredible as a roast chicken marinade, mixed with honey as a sweet and spicy salad dressing base, perfect for a spicy mayo, mixed with cheese and stuffed into olives, and any other way you usually use hot sauce. Each version of harissa has its own unique spice blend, so what's nice is it adds complexity to simple dishes (without much work).

ROASTED GARLIC

I'm like literally giving away all of my secrets. I roast garlic every week and use it wherever I would normally use raw garlic. It's just garlic, only waaaay better. Roasting garlic (which is as simple as cutting off the tops, slathering with oil and sprinkling with salt, wrapping in foil and roasting at 400° F for an hour) takes garlic to another level - another deeper, nuttier, less sharp, caramelized level. You could eat the cloves as they are, and they can be mashed right into a paste. So rub them onto a steak before grilling, make the best garlic bread of your life, give your soups or stews new depth, throw them into mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, rice, your morning eggs...you get it.

SHERRY VINEGAR

If I were to have a house vinegar, this would be it. I'm pretty sensitive to extremes of flavor - too salty, too sweet, and, in the case of vinegars, too acidic. Sherry vinegar has acidity, but it's not overbearing. It's balanced with a honeyed sweetness and complexity of flavor, so it adds more than face-puckering tartness. There are three types - vinagre de Jerez, vinagre de Jerez Reserva and vinagre de Jerez Gran Reserva (in order of how long the vinegar has been aged). The middle one is what I use day-to-day - to deglaze my pan-roasted brussels, drizzled on my spiced, butternut squash soup, for a crazy beurre blanc. The Gran Reserva is perfect to finish a piece of fish or for a cheese plate - it's a bit more expensive but you only need a few drops to add incredible flavor.

ALEPPO CHILI FLAKES

Aleppo chilies are my all-around favorite chili flake for cooking, and I've talked about them in depth in the past. Aleppo chilies come from Syria and are comparable in heat and flavor to ancho chilies - they're fruity, moderately hot, with smoky undertones that come from a process of being sundried. The heat is immediate, and it lingers a bit.

CULTURED BUTTER

What IS the deal with cultured butter you may be asking? What you generally find in the refrigerator aisle of the grocery is basic butter, cream that has been churned into a solid, sometimes with the addition of salt. But back in the day, that cream used to sit a bit, ferment, grow a bit of bacteria before being churned, and the result was slightly tangy, nutty, rich cultured butter. Some small companies are now producing this old-school butter (sometimes called "European-style"), and it's just, frankly, better butter. The flavor is amazing (kind of like that ideal, butter taste), but also, it's a bit higher in fat, which is what you want for baking to produce tender, fluffy cakes and biscuits.

ZA'ATAR

Za'atar is my stuck-on-a-desert-island-and-can-only-bring-one-spice-blend choice. To me, it's like a more interesting Herbes de Provence - the basic blend has dried za'atar (or thyme), sesame seeds, and sumac, and because of these, it is at once herbaceous, nutty and tart. I make my own blend, the simplest version (the one in this compound butter), because it allows me to layer in other flavors as I see fit, but the store-bought stuff is still amazing. Again, you will always see a jar of this in my pantry because I go through it - for my weekly roast chicken, on my garlic bread, sprinkled on a salad or roasted veggies, mixed with a bit of oil as a dip for flatbread, in my aioli. Once you start using za'atar, you kind of start to wonder how you seasoned food before you had it. It's that good.

TAMARI

Tamari is your upgrade to soy sauce. Both are made from fermented soy beans, but soy sauce generally comes from a mixture of soy beans and roasted wheat. Tamari, on the other hand, is the by-product of miso and little to no wheat is used in the process (making it a great, gluten-free option). The main differences are in texture and taste, with tamari being a bit thicker, richer, smooth and less salty. This is an easy switch.

MEXICAN CHOCOLATE

Yet another ingredient I keep in my pantry is Mexican chocolate - thick, sugary-cinnamon tablets of sweet dark chocolate. That should be reason enough for why this chocolate is included on my list because it is sooo easy to snack on this stuff like it's going out of style. But beyond straight consumption, I also love cooking with it - for killer hot chocolate or a mocha, in a simple pot de crème or chocolate sauce, for a chocolate bread pudding, shaved on top of ice cream, baked into a cake. It's a bit drier than traditional chocolate, so it works well when combined with a liquid like cream, and when baking, make sure to up the moisture factor with sour cream, buttermilk of crème fraiche.

TRUFFLE SALT

There are not too many things that rival the flavor of truffles. When my husband and I first met and we went grocery shopping, he nearly fell over when he saw what truffle oil costed. But after one truffled meal, I caught him on his own truffling take-out!! I certainly don't advise that, but I will say that as of late my taste buds have been preferring truffled salt over the other methods. It's expensive, but a little goes a long way here. It's great to finish a piece of steak or fish and adds that truffled flavor without the synthetic flavors you can often find in the oils and butters. When my girlfriends come over, I put this to great use and make a homemade, truffle-honey butter popcorn...

MAPLE SUGAR

Lately, my cooking sugar of choice has been maple sugar. It's a sugar from the maple tree that tastes a lot like the syrup; it's also unrefined, full of antioxidants and minerals and has a lower glycemic impact. I use a bit less than white or brown sugar when I'm baking, and I think the flavor is out of this world.

PIMENTÓN DE LA VERA (SMOKED SPANISH PAPRIKA)

Cooking requires a skillful layering of flavors, and this spice gives heat, smoke and a bit of bitterness. Peppers from the La Vera region in Spain are oakwood-smoked and dried before being milled, and the spice comes in three heat levels so you can choose what works for your palate. When I want to add smokiness without going through the effort of physically smoking something, this ingredient gets thrown in - to almost all of my dry rubs, to amp up a gratin, my shakshouka, and even pasta (bacon-less carbonara!).

Hope you guys enjoy this exotic pantry - would love to hear from you what makes your list!

Peruvian Purple Corn

The other day I stumbled across some Peruvian purple corn in a local, ethnic market and had to share it with you guys. I nabbed a big stash of it, since it’s dried and will last for a minute in my pantry. Peruvian purple corn is a variety grown in the Andes and is used to make a popular drink called chicha morada and a dessert called mazamorra morada, both of which I had in Peru a few years back.

I’ll start with the fact that there are a bunch of studies that show that purple corn has incredible health benefits. Rich in antioxidants and with anti-inflammatory properties, it’s thought to treat everything from high blood pressure to obesity. Doesn’t it always seem like foods some cultures have been consuming for years for its health properties we are just discovering?

Now, mazamorra morada is a sweet corn pudding, thickened with potato or cornstarch and scented with spices like cinnamon and clove. But my favorite way to use this is chicha morada, which is a great warm or cold weather drink. It’s extremely easy to make, and you really don’t need much of a recipe. You basically want to steep the dried corn in water with a few sticks of cinnamon, some allspice berries, a few cloves, a bit of apple or quince, maybe some dried cherries, and pineapple rind. Let that simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, sweeten with sugar or honey, add a bit of (key) lime juice and that’s it!

It’s served cold, and in many places, chopped fruit is added at the end, much like sangria. A big secret is to let it stand in the fridge for a few days. That fermented taste is signature to a great chicha morada. Enjoy!

Banyuls, My New Obsession

In cooking for my cookbook, I went through a slew of different ingredients and techniques, played a lot, and intensely focused on flavor for my dishes. I had used fortified sweet wines like Port and Sherry in the past, but Banyuls was a new experiment for me, and I had to share with you guys. It’s a wine from the southeastern portion of France, called Banyuls-sur-Mer, very close to Spain, and it adds ridiculous flavor and depth to sauces, stews and marinades.

The wine is made primarily from Grenache grapes, harvested in the fall during peak sweetness, and result in wines that range in color from blond to red (most common). It’s aged in oak barrels for at least 12 months. What makes a wine “fortified” is that a spirit is added during the wine making process. Here, alcohol is added to stop the fermentation process of the grapes, a process called mutage.

But really – how does it taste? For me, the flavor is reminiscent of baked stone fruits, with chocolate, caramel and even tobacco notes intermingling. It’s complex and sweet, and is the type of dessert wine you’d pair with a foie gras or a caramel tart. The vinegar made from the wine, Banyuls vinegar, is equally intriguing – a delicate, deeply flavored concoction that falls somewhere between a balsamic and sherry vinegar.

Chicken or pork recipes that call for a bit of deglazing with wine are beautiful with Banyuls – I used it in a chicken and biscuits recipe in my cookbook where the stew had meaty mushrooms in it. It’s delicious to marinate steaks and to poach fruit for a chutney or even a dessert – think: Banyuls poached figs with ice cream (yum!). Let me know if you’ve ever cooked with it and what you made!

White Sapote

I stumbled across this fruit at my local grocer, and the produce guy was so convincing of this fruit’s deliciousness that I had to pick up a few. It’s called white sapote, a member of the citrus family that comes from Central America and Mexico. It’s somewhere between a peach and an apricot in size and has a soft, fleshy pulp similar to an avocado with multiple pits.

The fruit starts off green and firm and ripens to a yellow color. This can happen pretty quickly, so if you leave it out to ripen, watch it so it doesn’t go over. When ripe, unlike other citrus, there is no acidity. It’s sweet and custard-y with notes of vanilla, pear and banana – if there is any tinge of bitter, it’s still unripe (I learned this the hard way!). It’s unlike any other fruit except possible the custard apple or cherimoya, which also have a sweet, custard-like texture.

Interestingly enough, the fruit was referred to in a Mexican dialect as “sleep sapote” because it has soporific (sleep-inducing) effects. Although the fruit is harmless, the seeds apparently contain narcotic compounds, so don’t eat them!

Finger Limes and a Superstorm

I am writing this one week since Hurricane Sandy took center stage in New York City – a sandy, watery, windy whirlwind leaving some of us lucky and merely power/internet/cell service-less and others devastated. The week was a suspension of normal life and while some of us have gone back to work, others are still dealing with the after effects of the storm.

I have to share ways to help. Edible Manhattan sums up some ways to eat for a good cause, and Gothamist does a fundraiser round up of its own. Huffington Post has an updated list of organizations that are helping and ways to get involved, and, of course, the Food Bank of New Yorkis a great way to start.

Now, on to a much less important but still very interesting discovery I had this week: finger limes. Although I’ve read about them for quite some time, I’ve never gotten an up close and personal look at them until recently. Finger limes are mainly grown in Australia, though there are a few growers in the U.S. selling them as well. They are indeed limes in the shape of fingers, but the quirkiness extends beyond that.

Crack open one of these little luscious fruits, and instead of traditional citrus pulp, there are tiny bubbles of citrus juiciness. Think: citrus caviar. The little balls burst in your mouth – it’s like nature’s original spherification (without the molecular gastronomy part). A girlfriend of mine described it as a burst of zesty freshness in her mouth!

The flavor to me is very much like the scent of kaffir lime – lemon-limey with grassy and floral notes. I love the texture and could easily see layering this on a tiradito or crudo dish or in lieu of caviar with crème fraiche for a quick, crostini appetizer. It would be gorgeous with desserts – I’m just hoping we see more of this in the markets, so I can make a recipe to share with you all!

Half Manuscript Deadline and Playing with Ingredients

This week I have been a complete catastrophe! Half of my manuscript is due, and I am writing my booty off to make the deadline (broken finger and all). I spent the entire week cooking and writing….and revising and writing again! Being a stress basket aside, I did experiment a bit with some ingredients and wanted to share my findings with you all.

In this photo on the left is sumac, in its whole, dried berry form. I use sumac all the time in za’atar and have only really seen it already ground. I had some thoughts about using it whole but after biting into it I changed my mind. It has a small pit, not unlike a pomegranate, but much tougher since it’s dried. The flavor is incredible though – tart and floral, and I’m happy to grind it and keep it moving.

On the left is hibiscus, and I have been on a full-on West Indian kick this week! Dried hibiscus is called sorrel there and used to make a tart soft drink of the same name, spiced with cinnamon and clove and usually served around the holidays. I played around with it for my dessert section of the book and am pumped about how it all came out.

I also cooked up some oxtail for a pasta dish and killer peas and rice. I have never used a recipe to make nor given much thought about how much of anything goes into these dishes. I’m on automatic when I cook them, so it’s really been interesting for me – translating my body’s memory of cooking into measurements and finite amounts. Does it taste the same? I don’t know!! I’m being crazy – they do….they came out full-flavored and I can’t wait until I see them in the book.

I’m throwing this photo in because I love the stuff and have been messing with it in all sorts of recipes. I’ll just say – you’ll never look at French dressing the same!

Tristar Strawberries and a Broken Finger

I’m going to start with the good news. Recently, a little European-style market called All Good Things opened up in the heart of Tribeca – think little cheese stand, my fave meat purveyor, incredibly fresh seafood and farmstand produce along with a little bar to eat your freshly opened oysters with a glass of wine.

Amongst the produce this weekend were some gorgeous Tristar Strawberries, and I hadn’t seen them before so I wanted to share with you guys too. They are miniature, super sweet with an intense strawberry flavor, and they fruit throughout the summer and even into the fall. Anyway, if you can get your hands on them, grab ‘em. These little guys are going into one of my recipes for the cookbook, an end of summer berry bread pudding of sorts….

As for the bad news, it’s all right in this photo. And, no that’s not an oversized bandaid (what most people think and then don’t give me the just sympathy!). It’s a cast on a broken finger…done, not during some dire cooking incident, but actually when I was playing football and trying to impress a little girl and teach her how to throw and catch. Yep.

Needless to say, trying to cook, not get the cast wet or completely coated in chocolate (which happened day 2 of having it on), and type when half of my manuscript for my cookbook is due in 2 weeks (ahhh!!) is turning out to be a tall order. The silver lining is I narrowly missed having to get surgery, which would have totally set me back – now, it’s just a lot of right hand compensation and some serious typos! Wish me luck as I cook (and write) on!

Swiss Chard "Leaves"

Grape leaves have to be one of my all-time, favorite Middle Eastern snacks (and something I deemed impossible to make at home for many years). When I visited Turkey a few years back, I learned a nifty trick for how to make them using a more common green to the West, swiss chard. This would actually work with a number of different greens, but I do have to say the flavor of swiss chard works great – it’s mild and verdant and lets the flavor of the stuffing pop.

Grape leaves are often stuffed with ground meat and/or rice and flavored with mint and lemon. They are part of a group of stuffed vegetables made throughout the Middle East, Greece and Turkey called dolmas.

I kept these guys vegetarian – I feel like they are a bit more delicate that way. A few other things: in lieu of long-grain rice, I used a short-grain one, Egyptian rice, which is one of my favorites! It’s fluffy, rounder, has a great toothsome texture and absorbs flavor beautifully. Also, in lieu of steaming them the traditional way – I lay the leaves on top of stacked lemon slices and let the juice from the lemons steam and infuse them with even more flavor. These are not the most speedy hors d’oeuvres to make, but they are well worth it! And I guarantee by your 48th folding, you’ll be a lot faster…Enjoy!

Ingredients

24 Swiss chard leaves, washed and stems removed (approximately 3 bunches)

2 tbsps unsalted butter

1 small shallot, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

½ tsp dried mint

¼ tsp ground allspice

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground black pepper

pinch chili flakes

pinch ground cloves

¾ cup Egyptian rice

1 cup vegetable stock or water

2 tbsps pine nuts, toasted

1 tbsp lemon juice

½ tsp lemon zest

2 tbsps chives and parley, finely chopped

3 or 4 lemons, cut into ½ inch rounds

olive oil

salt

Procedure

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Bring a large pot of water up to a boil and prepare a large bowl with ice and water. Add enough salt to make the boiling water taste like the sea. Place the chard leaves in the boiling water for 60 seconds and then shock them in the ice bath. Let dry on paper towels.

In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add shallot and garlic and sauté for 3-4 minutes until shallots are translucent. Add spices and then the Egyptian rice and toast for about 1 minute. Add stock or water and bring up to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook partially covered for 15 minutes. Let cool slightly and add pine nuts, lemon juice, lemon zest and herbs. Season to taste, though note that the rice will not yet be fully cooked.

Cut chard leaves down the middle on either side of the seam. Place one leaf rib-side up, vertically in front of you. Add about 2 teaspoons of the rice mixture about an inch up the leaf. Start by rolling the end closest to you away from you to cover the rice. Tuck each side of the chard leaf in and roll the entire parcel. If the leaf is too long, you can cut the other end a bit short. Repeat until you’ve finished the chard leaves and rice mixture.

Layer lemons in a dutch oven or pot with ¼ cup of water. Layer the dolmas on top and drizzle them with a little olive oil. Cover and bake for 30-40 minutes until the rice is fully cooked.

Serve warm or cold.

Ras El Hanout

Today I’m sharing with you one of the spice blends that is a key part of my cooking arsenal….ras el hanout! This blend hails from Morocco and is used throughout North African cooking. Ras El Hanout quite literally means “top of the shop” and is supposed to represent the most coveted blend the spice merchant has to offer….I like to think of it like a Moroccan curry.

And, like curry, there are countless variations of this North African specialty. My chicken thighs from earlier this week feature one version of this spice blend, but each shop, family, and region has its own list of ingredients sometimes reaching upwards of 40 spices! The flavor is nuanced and complex, a heady mixture that’s difficult to describe. It tastes to me like the smell of walking into a spice shop! Rosebuds may be added for a floral touch, grains of paradise for a peppery note, lavender for aromatic purposes; some spice merchants go so far as to add spices, herbs or other extractions that have aphrodisiac effects…clearly trying to get repeat customers.

That said, my shortened blend from this week is an easy one, and I keep a big batch on hand for summer grilling, to spice up a rice dish or flavor a quick pot of lentils. Ras el hanout is the basis for many a Moroccan tagine and lends itself to a slow braising process. I particularly like it with chicken, pork and certain hearty fish – it benefits from pairing with a meaty base but not one that will overwhelm the combination of delicate flavors. It’s also beautiful with starchy vegetables – particularly squash and corn – where it highlights the vegetables’ own natural sweetness.

Chia Seeds

Ok, so if you follow these posts, you’ve read about me toting around green juices and coming up with natural replacements for certain desserts out there. Let’s not get too crazy – I’m not going full-on natural (note the butter and crème fraiche in my dish earlier this week…), but I am acknowledging my health a bit more now that I’m in my 30’s and want to take a bit better care (slash vanity wants me to hold back the aging process!). My parents’ obsession with Dr. Oz adds fuel to the fire, and it seems like every week they are sending me tips on what to incorporate into my diet. My mom the other day went OFF about chia seeds, and I won’t say I was skeptical(particularly if you are reading this, mom) but I wanted to dig a bit deeper…

As always, she was right. It’s like beyond a superfood, a super-super-superfood if you will! A member of the mint family that is mainly grown for its seeds, this food has history – native to parts of Mexico and Guatemala, the Mayans and Aztecs used to grow it as a staple, using it to increase their stamina and energy levels, and knew what they were doing. It’s a complete source of protein, has more calcium than skim milk on a per ounce basis, and is the richest plant source of Omega-3 (even higher than salmon!).

Soaking these little guys in water, the seeds swell up and become gelatinous (like basil seeds) actually holding 9 to 12 times their weight in water. What this means is that they help prolong hydration and retain electrolytes in the body. Before I get completely off my soapbox…they also prevent blood sugar spikes, help clean out the intestinal tract (a huge source of fiber) and are very high in antioxidants and other minerals. There, I’m done.

They do have fat, fyi, for all you naysayers, so I’ll just give you that to criticize, but most seeds are rich in oils (think: flax). And they can be eaten a number of different ways – ground into a flour to include in breads or sauces, sprouted like alfalfa, bloomed in water or liquids (think rice pudding-esque) or merely by themselves.

I personally have been adding them to my water with a bit of chlorophyll in the mornings as a pre-workout booster. And I will be including them in next week’s recipe, so I thought I would brief you before you look at the recipe like “what the heck is that.”

Anyway, would love to hear if any of you guys have been eating this stuff…

Seasoning Peppers!

Earlier this week, I mentioned the St. Lucian version of salsa, souscaille, and this is an ingredient that’s sometimes included in it: seasoning peppers! Such a practical name for these little guys as that is precisely what they do. It’s true, they look a lot like the habanero or scotch bonnet pepper, and I had to do a double take when I first saw them. But these don’t even come close to the heat level of one of those peppers and truly season food with an incredible flavor.

These peppers are grown throughout Latin America and the Caribbean and are, more formally, aji dulce peppers. The flavor is straight habanero without the heat – that tangy richness and sweetness and just a slight touch of heat. The photo below was taken on the farm I visited where they grew them, and it felt insane to bite into a pepper that looked and smelled like a habanero and not flinch!

Aji dulce means “sweet pepper” and is a key ingredient in Latin American sofrito, some cultures’ peas and rice (or rice and peas depending on where you’re from), Cuban black beans, Brazilian jams, and countless other West Indian and Latin dishes. They aren’t the easiest to find, and I’m going to be exploring Latin markets until I find a supplier. But my other plan is to look for a plant in the farmers’ market this summer when they come into season.

I would add these to…basically everything! As it is, I cook with habaneros for the flavor, scraping out as much of the seeds and ribs as possible to reduce the heat level. If I could achieve that flavor without the painful heat? I’d be in heaven! Thought I’d still use habaneros here and there… Salads, crab cakes, stir fries, morning eggs, macaroni pie….I’d lose my mind.

Green Almonds

I stumbled across these beauties the other day and had to share them with you fast! Green almonds are one of the (fleeting) joys of spring available for somewhere between 4 and 8 weeks between April and June. And they are exactly what you think: almonds that are not yet ripe, picked before the shell hardens and before they are traditionally ready to harvest, which usually happens in late summer or early fall.

The first thing that you notice about green almonds is their teardrop shape and that they have this lovely, soft, fuzzy exterior, which resembles the feel of peaches and apricots (they are actually related). The inside houses a skinless, white, baby almond, that varies in texture with its maturity; when picked very early, the texture is more gelatinous, and, later, it begins to firm up and have more of a bite. These can be eaten whole, as is, or shelled. Whole, eating a green almond reminds me of biting into a more tart and meaty pea pod with that herbaceous, tannic and slightly fruity flavor. Shelled, it’s more delicate, lacking the traditional almond flavor and with a milder, less tart flavor than the whole guy.

Almonds are native to the Middle East, so people there have been snacking on green almonds for centuries. Oftentimes, they are simply sprinkled with a bit of salt, but I’ve also seen them incorporated into rice dishes. In Europe, these little guys get tucked into fruit preserves during the jarring process. Here, chefs have been using them in a myriad of ways – in soups, pestos, on greens. They can be shaved over a salad or even fish – their mild flavor pairs beautifully with seafood. I love them fried (who wouldn’t!) and sprinkled with a nice, flavored salt; smoked Maldon is amazing here.

I plan to veer away from savory this year and try them in a cream-based dessert. Like on top of a budino or in a clafouti. The main thing is to experiment with them and see how you like to eat them, but act fast before they disappear from the market…

Medjool Dates

I feel like dates have gotten a bad rap – conjuring thoughts of trail mix (not that there’s anything wrong with it…) and other dried fruit and nut products. The image is a super dry, chewy nugget, indiscernible in true taste other than a vague sweetness – not really special or noteworthy. I think this notion of date needs to be cleared up, particularly when it comes to one type, medjool dates…

A few months back I stayed with a friend in Bahrain who has 3 or 4 different types of date palm trees lining her pool and backyard, including medjool (dates are indigenous to the Middle East fyi). Every year, she harvests the dates and goes through the preserving process. For afternoon coffee, we’d sip strong Arabic coffee and have a serious, homemade date tasting! It’s a longstanding tradition there. Each one had a nuanced flavor and a soft, succulent texture….heavenly.

Medjool’s are prized for being the largest and most flavorful of the bunch. They have a tender, melt-in-your-mouth character and are in no way reminiscent of the dried, tough dates in trail mix. The flavor is sweet with overtones of caramel and chocolate. A good date should be like dessert, albeit a bit healthier since it’s high in fiber and minterals (so healthy it’s often used to break fasts).

I have made many a date-doubting friend a believer! I once removed the pit, stuffed them with chestnut cream and topped with bacon crumbles and pomegranate molasses for a party. I didn’t make a ton of them thinking people would be anti-date…I was wrong and got cleaned out! Although they are amazing on their own, they are also lovely in chutneys, broke into pieces as an ice cream topping, in a bbq sauce…the list goes on.

Tamarind

I grew up eating tamarind chutney all the time (and living in Florida, occasionally sipping a tamarindo from the corner store). I realize that not everyone knows what tamarind looks, tastes, or feels like, and I wanted to give it a little shine. It’s a fantastic ingredient for the enthusiastic cook and keeps for like ever in your fridge.

One amazing thing about tamarind is that it’s found in so many different cuisines! It’s indigenous to Africa and eaten throughout the continent but has made its way into South Asian, East and Southeast Asian, Australian, Mexican and other Latin American cuisines. The tamarind chutney I grew up eating is similarly prepared to the tamarind pulp in Mexican food that’s used in marinades, sweets and even soups.

The pods in the picture are ripe tamarind, and, within these is the sticky, reddish brown pulp that surrounds seeds and contains large, sinewy threads. The flavor is somewhat like a date but far more sour and acidic and with less sweetness. This is not the easiest stuff to find, so I’m also showing you the wet, seedless, Thai tamarind blocks that are my preferred tamarind to cook with and that I get from the Asian stores. To extract the pulp, juice, or make a chutney, knobs of this block may be soaked in boiling water and then squeezed (with your best cooking tools, your hands!) and passed through a strainer. You want to use a spoon or something to press the pulp against the strainer to get the most you can out of it. You can then resoak the strained pulp to get a second juicing if you like.

If you cook the resulting liquid down, you’ll get the concentrate form of tamarind, which I haven’t shown and which is also in stores. To me, it doesn’t have quite the same flavor as the home-extracted version but is completely legit to cook with. Whether home-done or store-bought, this concentrate makes a fantastic base for a vinaigrette, adds tartness and depth as a marinade for grilled chicken breasts (a nice alternative to the balsamic versions out there), makes a killer version of lemonade, and generally adds a complex, sour quality to anything to which you add it.

Poha or Flattened Rice

I thought I would show you guys an ingredient I’ve been messing around with this week calledpoha. Indeed, it does look like fish food, but it’s actually raw rice that has been flattened to a thin, flake texture. What this does is make it easy to digest, so you don’t really have to cook it! Simply adding water or milk, whether cold or hot, will do, and the flakes will swell absorbing the water (and whatever flavors you add to it). Think of it like instant mashed potato flakes for the South Asian diaspora

I learned about poha from a Nepalese friend, and it’s eaten throughout his home country as well as parts of North India and Bangladesh. The rice is an easy, “fast” food and is often sold by street vendors, though many families use it as their staple breakfast food. It’s super versatile – from a breakfast porridge reconstituted with water or milk (the end of the cornflakes bowl comes to mind) to lightly fried with mustard seeds, curry leaves, chilies, onions and potatoes.

What I love is how poha can be sweet or savoury. Why slog for, okay, like 30 minutes or so making sweet, creamy rice pudding when you can make it in under 5 minutes with this stuff? Simmer heavy cream and milk with sugar, raisins, cinnamon, vanilla, whatever spices you like – pour over poha, a few minutes soak time and voilá! It also makes fantastic weeknight rice dishes (I’d make it like this pulao) in a fraction of the time. Kind of genius. And I’m also a bit fixated with deep-frying them and sprinkling them over foods as a crunchy garnish.

Have you ever cooked poha? What’s your favorite dish with it?

Sacred Lotus

No, I am not referring to the gorgeous flower (as you can see in the pic)! It’s the stem of the plant, the lotus root that has recently shot up on my list of favorite ingredients to experiment with. This is what grows underneath and up out of the water, which results in the beautiful lotus flower at the end of it, an extremely edible and very popular vegetable in Asian countries.

As it suggests, lotus root is a root vegetable, with a hard exterior that must be peeled and with a crunchy, white interior. The cross section of the vegetable is beautiful – snowflake-like, and the flavor is mild and sweet – somewhere between jicama and a water chestnut. The flower and vegetable are grown throughout India, parts of tropical Asia as well as Australia, and the entire plant is edible, from the stamens to the leaves to the seeds.

The thing about them is that they are incredibly versatile! You can slice them thin, fry them and give potato chips a real run for their money. Steamed they are delicious – crisp, yet tender. They can be pickled, steeped in heavy cream or broth and puréed, braised, roasted, or stir-fried. They are very forgiving, take on flavors extremely well and maintain a great texture.

Although I believe you can find these canned, I like to pick these up fresh in NYC’s Chinatown…

Huacatay

Ahhh….the last of my stash of huacatay (pronounced wah-kah-tie). This is the dried form of the herb I brought back from Peru and luckily still retains some of that signature flavor. I usually avoid buying spices in plastic like this because the plastic has a tendency to “breathe” and basically that translates into deterioration of the aroma and flavor of the spice before you even bring it home…but desperate times call for desperate measures, and I just had to bring this herb home.

Huacatay is a staple herb in Peruvian cooking – it’s from the Andes (the word is in the local quechua language) and is used in signature dishes out there like pachamanca (an underground bbq of sorts). It’s often ground to a paste before it’s used – mixed with fresh cheese and milk for a sauce for potatoes or with peanuts and chilies. I actually watched a woman make an old school version of the peanut / chile / huacatay paste with a super cool mortar and pestle and have it on video! And whenever I figure out how to edit it all, I’ll share it with you.

What does this herb taste like is the million dollar question? To me….it honestly tastes like mint mixed with bubblegum flavor and is often mistakenly referred to as black mint. I know! That doesn’t sound particularly appetizing, but I swear it is nothing short of alluring in a dish. I literally couldn’t get enough of its unique flavor while I was there. I’m sure the other question is where can I get it? THAT, I am still working on – I’ve seen the paste in specialty stores but not yet the dried form (forget fresh). I’m sure the some of the Latin stores carry it and will update when I find out!

Green Walnuts in Syrup

Although I’ve eaten my way through Greece and Turkey and have seen many, many types of preserves, this one took me by surprise. Walnuts picked before they are ripe, in their green state where there’s only a soft covering and not a hard shell, are peeled, soaked, boiled, reboiled, and simmered in sugar syrup to produce this beautiful gem, which deceivingly looks a bit like an olive from the outside…

This preserve is a tradition (as I implied) of Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Romania, the Republic of Armenia, and, I’m sure, other European destinations. Fruits and nuts are preserved throughout these countries, and, much like green walnuts are gathered early in the season (spring/summer) to make nocino, or walnut liquor, these little green guys are soaked and make a beautiful preserve where the syrup is almost as tasty as the nut itself.

And, yes, I know they don’t look green anymore! The preserving process turns them dark and removes almost all of the bitterness a young walnut can have. They take on a maple-like quality. I would liken them to candied chestnuts – a bit firm but with a honeyed and nutty bite. Their texture is a bit dense and has a softened version of that crunch of a walnut.

My go-to would be vanilla ice cream drizzled with the syrup and dotted with quarters of this gorgeous confection. Obviously, a cheese plate now requires these little guys; I can only imagine these paired with Bayley Hazen Blue. And although I think baked in a muffin or bread would be another great option, these preserves are so stunning that I would always opt for them in their most natural state – showing off their unique texture and flavor….

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