Green Beans with Toasted Walnuts and Dried-Cherry Vinaigrette

I made this for Passover this year, and enjoyed it. I used toasted pecans rather than walnuts, and a mostly-rice-vinegar-some-red-wine-vinegar mix instead of sherry vinegar. The green beans I got at the Rochester Public Market were really slender and cute.  From Bon Appetit Nov 2010, via Epicurious.

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/3 cup minced shallots

3 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons Sherry wine vinegar

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon black pepper plus additional (for sprinkling)

1/3 cup dried tart cherries

1 1/2 pounds trimmed slender green beans (such as haricots verts)

1/2 cup walnuts, toasted , chopped

Whisk first 6 ingredients and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in small bowl. Mix in dried cherries; set aside. DO AHEAD: Vinaigrette can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill. Bring to room temperature; rewhisk before using.

Fill large bowl with water and ice; set aside. Cook green beans in large pot of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Drain. Transfer to bowl with ice water; cool. Drain. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Wrap in paper towels; enclose in resealable plastic bag and chill. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before continuing.

Toss green beans, walnuts, and vinaigrette in large bowl. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature. Transfer to platter and serve.

Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake

Made on recommendation of S., for her birthday.
This method is a hot sponge, I believe, which reliable sources have called unreliable.
But I made this in a bundt pan, and (thanks, S.) really liked it. Its texture and flavor are quite like that of a boxed chocolate cake, and, dash it all, I like the texture and flavor of boxed chocolate cake.

1/2 c vegetable oil
1 c boiling water
2 eggs
1 1/2 t baking soda
1 1/2 t baking powder
1 3/4 c AP flour
2 t vanilla
1 c milk
1 t salt
3/4 c cocoa
2 c sugar

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans. 

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans. 

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. 

VARIATIONS:
ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.

THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost. 

BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.

CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.

Spicy Pork Meatballs

Mom made these for our family holiday, and I thought they were delicious.  The recipe was published in the Star Tribune (a Twin Cities area newspaper); they got it from "The Meatball Shop Cookbook."  I need no context -- no sauce, no starch-- to enjoy a meatball.  But I think these would be good served on cheesy grits for a Louisiana flare.

Spicy Pork Meatballs


2 lb pork shoulder, ground
1 T + 1 t salt
4 jarred hot cherry peppers, minced (leave out seeds)
1/4 c hot cherry pepper pickling liquid
4 slices fresh white bread, in fine crumbs
3 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 450 F.
2. Mix all ingredients by hand till thoroughly blended. Roll into golf-ball-sized meatballs, packing firmly. Place in a lightly oiled 9x13 dish.  They will touch.
3. Bake until firm and cooked through, 20 minutes.  Cool 5 minutes in the baking dish.

Per 3 meatballs: 312 Cal; 19g fat (7 sat); 8g carb; 25g protein; 43mg calcium

Maple Freddo. or Maple Semifreddo or Maple Mousse

Sister S. just moved back to the states after a chapter in Nova Scotia. To commemorate her birthday this year, we had a meal of recipes from The Taste of Nova Scotia Cookbook by Charles Lief and Heather MacKenzie. This included a main dish of pork with-- get this-- a savory blueberry sauce AND a topping of scallops.

For dessert, we had a blueberry grunt (must be why they have such high life expectancies in Nova Scotia-- all those antioxidants from blueberries) and a maple mousse (pg 112). I was quite taken with the maple mousse. The whole affair is frozen, which makes serving it and enjoying it quite like eating ice cream. However, it is a mousse-- a custard folded into whipped cream. Then perhaps it is a semifreddo? But it is entirely frozen, so I want to just call it freddo. So I will.

Maple "Freddo"

6 egg yolks

3/4 c (175 mL) pure maple syrup

dash of salt

2 c (500 mL) whipping cream

Combine egg yolks, maple syrup, and salt in top of a double boiler set-up. Cook until thickened, stirring constantly (approximately 10-15 minutes). When custard coats the back of a spoon, remove from heat. Pour into a large bowl and beat with a wire whisk until cooled-- custard will appear light and frothy. Set aside. Meanwhile, place the whipping cream in a large bowl, and whip until thickened, but not stiff. Fold gently into custard until blended. The recipe suggests pouring it into 8 individual serving dishes or molds; we just poured it into a couple larger containers. Freeze for at least 6 hours. The recipe also suggests serving with whipped cream and fresh mint leaf; I probably won't. It's plenty whipped cream-y enough.

It also occurs to me that it might be fun to make a "baked Nova Scotia," with the egg whites leftover from harvesting the 6 egg yolks.

Lemon Clam Pasta

I do not think I like clams. Clam chowder is much better, for me, as simply chowder. But my friend Betsey posted this recipe to her blog and facebook at least four times, and, because I trust Betsey, I finally wrote it down and decided to make it. Turns out I really liked it when fresh, but not as leftovers. When fresh, it was delicious and didn't have any tinny, fishy flavors. Those came with just a day of leftoverdom. My friend who came over to make and eat it with me really liked this recipe and ate tons.

Lemon Clam Pasta

1/2 c butter

3 T olive oil

1/2 c finely chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 8 oz cans clams, drained; save liquid

3 T lemon juice

1 T chopped parsley

2 t grated lemon peel

1/4 t pepper

1 bay leaf

1 lb spaghetti, cooked, drained

6 lemon wedges

2 green onions, chopped

Parmesan cheese

Heat 3 T of the butter and the olive oil in a heavy pan. Cook onion and garlic until tender. Add the clam juice, the lemon juice, parsley, lemon zest, pepper, and bay leaf. Simmer till reduced to about 1 cup. Remove the bay leaf. Stir in clams and heat through. Add the rest of the butter and stir it in. Pour over the spaghetti. Serve with Parmesan cheese, green onions, and lemon wedges.

A Tea Party Bridal Shower

Last Saturday was (hopefully) the final bridal shower of the year. If I could do it again, I would have changed a thing or two, but the food was a resounding success. It got eaten, every crumb (even though I thought I had way over-planned), and praised so much I felt awkward.

The menu was the flourless chocolate cake and lemon curd pavlova I've made before, plus two kinds of tea sandwich and some gluten free financiers. (The bride does not eat gluten; some of the tea sandwiches were even made on gluten-free bread). I will post the recipes for the tea sandwiches, as they might be useful in the future, but not the financiers. I knew the financiers were a bit of a risk. The brown rice flour I used was gritty and made for a gritty pastry, and I messed up and only used half the amount of egg whites. The were terribly ugly and had to be redeemed with spots of jam in their middles. But the funny thing is: they were the favorite thing there. They are what people are still mentioning. Why, world, why? I suppose I should learn to make a proper financier... it could be the new cupcake/macaron/whoopie pie trend in New York!

This menu, of course, was selected to be tea-partyish: the 'main event,' I suppose, was the selection of herbal teas and fancy flavored honeys. Or was it the decoration scheme, with flower arrangements in tea pots, doilies, cake stands, and tiered dessert trays?

A note about the tea sandwich recipes: recipes for sandwiches are funny things, aren't they? The proportions did not come out the way they said they would in the recipe. I made fewer sandwiches, which I suppose means that I filled them more fully (in the case of the chicken salad); on the other hand, I had tons of smoked turkey left over.

Chicken Salad Tea Sandwiches with Smoked Almonds

3 c chicken broth or water

2 boneless chicken breasts, halved, about 1 1/2 lbs

1 c mayonnaise, plus extra

1/3 c minced shallot

1 t minced fresh tarragon

24 very thin slices of white bread

1/2 c finely chopped smoked almonds (I used much more than 1/2 c)

Poach chicken 10 minutes (Boiling meat gives me the heebie-jeebies, and I told my helper, Amy, to feel free to cook it in a different manner. But boiling doesn't give her the heebie-jeebies, so this is how she did it. I suppose it does give it a good shredding texture). Cool in liquid 20 minutes.

Discard skin, if present, and shred chicken well. Stir together chicken, mayonnaise (perhaps not the whole cup-- as little as 1/2 c), shallot, tarragon, and salt and pepper to taste. Do not make it as salty as you might otherwise; the sandwiches will have smoky, salty almonds on them. Of course, the chicken salad should still taste good.

Make sandwiches, and press the bread together gently. Trim off crusts and cut into triangles. (The recipe says to cut out rounds with cookie cutters, which creates more waste. This is probably why I used way more almonds.) Spread the edges of the sandwiches with mayonnaise and coat the edges with chopped smoked almonds.

Smoked Turkey Tea Sandwiches with Arugula Mayonnaise

1/2 c mayonnaise

1/3 c packed coarsely chopped arugula, plus whole arugula leaves

1 T (or a little more) minced shallot

1 T fresh chopped parsley

1/2 t fresh grated lemon peel

12 slices thinly sliced white bread

10 oz thinly sliced smoked turkey

Mix mayonnaise, chopped arugula, shallot, parsley, and lemon peel; season with salt and pepper. You can fridge it a while to blend the flavors. Make sandwiches with both sides spread with the arugula mayonnaise, smoked turkey, and arugula leaves. Trim crusts and cut diagonally into quarters.

A Simplex Food: Orange Julius

This past Saturday we celebrated Reija's upcoming wedding with a shower at The Simplex. The party was fun (we made Bob puppets!), the company was delightful (they made really funny Bob puppets!) and of course it was great to celebrate Reija (the Reija puppet was the best!). I also think that the food fulfilled the measure of its creation.

The idea was to do a springy, pleasant brunch. The menu included French Toast casserole (I found the recipe in a Cook's Illustrated), a Boursin/Potato frittata (epicurious), bacon, milk, huge marshmallows, fruit from the market, and what has become something of a Simplex tradition: orange julius. All the food got eaten and enjoyed and complimented, so I feel great about that, but I personally didn't love the recipes enough to post them. The french toast casserole had a yummy praline topping, but that didn't really overcome the essentially weird concept for me. The frittata was pretty yummy, but I could invent one I liked better. Probably sans potatoes.

Anyway, that leaves the orange julius, which I always manage to enjoy. I'll post the recipe as given to me, but note that I always find it too sweet and would use the least amount of sugar called for or even less.

Orange Julius

6 oz frozen OJ concentrate

1 c milk

1 c water

1/3-1/2 c powdered sugar (granulated ok)

1 t vanilla extract

8-9 ice cubes

Combine all ingredients except ice cubes in blender. Blend for 1-2 minutes, adding ice cubes one at a time.