What we're eating: Red, white, and green

Sometimes you like a vegetable just for its name.

For example, the French Breakfast radish. It gives me visions of breakfasting at a leisurely hour on a warm crusty baguette, a slice of cheese, and a few fresh radishes while gazing across my cottage porch to endless fields of lavender and planning out my day of wine tasting and a visit to the local farmers market to . . . buy more radishes, of course. This radish is milder than others in flavor, such that I think of it as a child's radish.

But back to reality. Sophie grows these in our garden most of the summer, and one of our favorite ways to enjoy them is in the June issue of Bon Appetit's Green Bean Salad with Radishes and Prosciutto. It also features one of my favorite cheeses these days, Ricotta Salata. It's less aggressive than feta, which I love on salad, and therefore perfect for this salad that has a mix of delicate flavors you would not want to overwhelm. Everything can be prepped well in advance, and the finished salad is fine assembled an hour or so before serving.

We eat it for weeknight dinners.

We eat it for Sunday dinner. And Sophie is happy to take the leftovers in her summer camp lunch.

That's what we're eating over here.

Early summer appetizers

Because we turned the corner from spring this past weekend.

I've been so inspired by my new cookbook, A Platter of Figs, and of course by the new produce that marks this time of year.

Melon and prosciutto is a summer time appetizer staple at our house, but Figs included the great idea of adding a third flavor.

Melon, prosciutto, and mint.


Baguette topped with smoked trout pate and French radish.

SMOKED TROUT PATE

6 oz. smoked trout, skin removed
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon onion, finely diced
2 teaspoons chives
lemon juice to taste

Combine and pulse in a food processor.

For this appetizer, I used a thinly slice baguette and a French radish vertically sliced.

I'm still waiting for the dry-farmed organic tomatoes, but these make me happy in the meantime.

What's cooking: Pad Thai, take 2

After my previous Pad Thai meltdown goop-out, it took me a while to work up the nerve to tackle this one again. And I probably never would have done so had not the wonderful Pim—proprietor of Chez Pim, a most amazing food blog, and author of the recipe I used—not answered my plea for enlightenment. And what a thrill that was in its own! Pim! On my blog! Seriously, if you're at all interested in food, you should check it out. Pim travels the world in search of what is good to eat and what is interesting about food and culture. And like that genius at use real butter but unlike me, she can actually operate a camera. Really well, in fact.

But I digress. Pim explained that not all rice noodles are created equal. The ones I used did not match the ones she had in mind for the recipe in soaking time. Pim recommended soaking the noodles until almost soft enough to eat rather than adhering to a specific soaking time. She also recommended the local Berkeley Bowl as a potential source for noodles labeled as Pad Thai noodles. But whereas the Bowl had about seventy kinds of tofu, they did not have the noodle I was seeking. I'm absolutely sure of this because I stood in front the noodle section for about half and hour surely looking like a total idiot.

But the Bowl did have several other ingredients that I had not been able to find elsewhere.

Pim recommends pickled turnips. I couldn't find those but thought that pickled radish would be close enough. I liked it, and it added a nice bit of color.


And instead of the standard green onions that most American versions of this dish include, Pim recommends garlic chives. I know: I really should learn to focus my camera, but in the meantime know that if you can ever get these they are absolutely worth buying in a bunch as large as this. Their taste is somewhere between garlic and chive, and they would be good chopped in a salad or on top of almost anything.

Because Sophie is a little fussy about green plants sprinkled over her food, I served the radish, garlic chive, and cilantro as optional toppings, along with sliced lime.


They added both color and flavor to the finished dish, which was finally a success!

I'm convinced that the key is Pim's sauce. Many American recipes for this dish include catsup, which is wrong, wrong, wrong. Pim recommends nearly equal parts of tamarind pulp, fish sauce, and palm sugar, adjusted for personal taste. I love the Thai combination of sweet, sour, and salty, and Pim's recipe hits it right on the head.

Thank you, dear Pim!

Easter with the Figs

So I'm a little behind on things in just getting my Easter post up, but as long as I get it in before the weekend, it's all good, right?

I delighted Husband by not having a big brunch and inviting everyone we know. He always enjoys these events but works himself into a big fuss beforehand. I had just finished taxes and am still working on our school auction and just lacked the energy to deal with either him or a big event. We had just a slightly fancier version of our regular Sunday dinner with the MIL, which I always enjoy.


We start off with appetizers and a fancy cocktail, a lemon drop martini this time—we've been working through a batch of my homemade limoncello and so have been drinking a lot of these on Sundays. Husband, Sophie, and the MIL play dominoes or cards at the kitchen table while I (who hates playing games) work on dinner.

I borrowed this clever idea with the radish from over here. If you ever need ideas or inspiration for table settings, this is the place to go.


We had roast rack of lamb, mint apple jelly, lemon roasted potatoes, and grilled asparagus, with rose geranium-white chocolate ice cream garnished with pine nut brittle for dessert.

These potatoes are a modification of an old Martha recipe. Her's are good; mine are better. They're very easy but take quite a lot of baking time, which can be a problem if you only have one oven. I always serve them with a main course that can be done on the grill.

LEMON ROASTED POTATOES

8 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and diced into bite size

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 teaspoons salt

Heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine ingredients in roasting pan large enough to hold potatoes in a single layer.  Toss to coat potatoes and bake, uncovered for nearly an hour. Halfway through baking, slide a metal spatula beneath potatoes to loosen from bottom of pan and turn for even browning. Do this several more times before potatoes finish baking. 

And in case you're wondering if the Figs have gone and found religion on Easter, rest assured it's not true. We celebrate Easter as a turning of the season, where we move from skiing and root vegetables to hiking and fava beans. Sophie did accompany the MIL to church in the morning, but we had a little talk about this first. I told her the traditional Easter story, which for me is one of the most problematic parts of Christianity. A birthday of a good person we want to remember is something I can be down with. I'm fine with repressive governments and prostitutes—these things really exist. Bodies disappearing, dead people coming back to life, gods in the air—not so much. I warned her "You know all that stuff they will be talking about at church—it's not true. Just like things in some of your books. They may be fun to read about and imagine, but they didn't really happen." "Right!" "But Grandma thinks the Easter stuff did happen, which is fine. You don't need to make a big point of the fact that we don't believe these things. It might make her feel badly." "I will just smile." "Good. Sometimes that's the right thing to do." 

But it's not like we don't believe in anything. In fact, we spend a good deal of time talking about what we do believe in. It's mostly love. We believe in love. And you don't need a god for that. 

What's cooking: Thai beef

I made this the other night when I was fresh out of inspiration and with only limited ingredients on hand. Imagine that. I let my inspiration be how sorry I'm feeling for my self these days since we're heading in on the school auction I am co-chairing (thank the gods for my ass-kicking, totally competent, good-at-talking-off-the-ledge co-chair whose is also just a damn good friend: I'd be toast without her). Pasta has always been a comfort food for me, but I had made that the night before, and things weren't quite bad enough to justify consecutive nights of it. So I went to my comfort food runner up: rice. Brown rice is nice, but when I'm bumming, it's just got to the good old white stuff.

I've modified this recipe from one for Thai beef salad, where the beef is served over romaine lettuce. I'm not a huge beef eater, but when I eat it I prefer it lean, not too rare, and well-seasoned. I had a flank steak but didn't have time to marinade it. The vinaigrette in this recipe provides an effective cheat and works just fine.

Preheat the grill and get the rice going first. 

THAI BEEF WITH LEMON VINAIGRETTE

Rinse, pat dry, brush with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt a flank steak. Grill, let rest, and slice thinly against the grain. Or thinly slice any leftover roast beef you can find in your fridge.

While the meat is grilling, make the vinaigrette by combining

3 tablespoon Asian fish sauce

3 tablespoons fresh Meyer lemon juice

3 tablespoons water

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon sugar

lemon zest from above lemons (might as well use it, right?)

a couple stalks of green garlic, minced (or use a single clove of mature garlic)

small bunch of fresh mint, minced

Pour marinade over sliced beef. Add

carrot cut with a zester (you've still got it out from zesting the lemons, right?)

sliced green onions

 Let this sit while you make a salad. I was too lazy to make a vegetable side dish, so I just upped the veg. content on my salad by adding carrots, turnip, radish, green onion, and jicama to add to my standard romaine with balsamic vinaigrette. Did I mention I find chopping thing up very therapeutic? Must be the carbs.

Serve the beef over rice. It really did make me feel better. 

What's cooking: Some spring side dishes

New produce is appearing in the markets and in my weekly produce box. And once again, the wheels in my head that turn out recipes and menus have been kicked into gear. This last week it was radishes and fava beans, out of which came these two spring sides:

RADISH SALAD

Coarsely grate radishes using box grater or food processor with shredding attachment.

Add chopped fresh mint.

Drizzle with sesame oil.

Salt to taste.

Wasn't that easy? It adds a nice bit of color too. Alright, on to the next one.

ORZO SALAD WITH FAVA BEANS AND TOMATOES


Boil in salted water, drain, and cool about half a pound of orzo pasta

Soak sun dried tomatoes in hot water for about five minutes. Chop coursely and add to pasta. When good tomatoes are available in the summer, I use fresh ones of as many different colors. Cherry or small pear ones work best because they contain less water.

Shell fava beans. 

Prepare a bowl of ice water. Add  fava beans to boiling water and cook for a couple of minutes (time will depend on the size of the beans). Drain into a colander, and set the colander in the ice water to stop the cooking and cool the beans.

Remove the skin on each bean by nicking the end with your nail and squeezing gently.

Add to pasta. 

Then add the following to taste: 

• garlic (I used fresh green garlic, but regular is fine too)
  
• grated cheese (I used asiago, but any type of parmesan will do)
  
• fresh oregano, chopped (I use basil later in the year)
  
• olive oil
  
• fresh lemon juice
  
• salt (I used black flaked, which adds another color and a little crunch)

Are fava beans really worth all the trouble? Yep. Aside from their lovely color, they taste like a little bite of springtime. And while they require some labor, it's not exactly brain surgery. You can do many other useful things while shelling and peeling. I shelled sitting in the yard listening to Husband go on about something (I was in bean-shelling zen state, so I didn't really hear him) and peeled supervising violin practice. But sometimes I try to let go of the multitasking and just enjoy shelling and peeling. And try not to think of Hannibal Lecter enjoying them with someone's liver and a nice chianti.

Both of these sides are great with roasted chicken (what isn't?) and are a welcome change after winter sides of potatoes, squash, greens, greens, and more greens.  And both are nicer to take on a picnic than mashed potatoes. 

Happy spring eating.