Aroma Cucina

Arichoke and Anchovy

Artichokes and Anchovy Salad
It was one of those ah-ha moments. When you find two flavors that completely compliment each other. Here it was the crunch and freshness of thinly sliced raw artichoke, brought into focus by the salty earthiness of the anchovy. Match made in heaven.

Make a lemon vinaigrette dressing: 3T olive oil, 1T lemon juice, 2 whole salted anchovies, one small chopped clove of garlic, dash of salt and pepper.  Chop up the anchovy, then mash it together with the garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. 
I like the salt packed anchovies, they seem to hold their flavor better over a longer period of time.

Remove all the outer leaves from the baby artichokes. You need to use the little baby artichokes because the big ones that you find in the U.S. are usually too tough to eat raw.
After you’ve taken off all the tough leaves and you’re down to the tender green ones, very thinly slice the artichokes and toss them in the vinaigrette.  Let marinate for at least ½ hour before serving.

Great with a crisp white wine like a Grechetto or a Vouvray. And a crusty piece of bread.

Artichokes and the 1st day of spring

You know spring has sprung when you see the first baby artichokes in the market. I love artichokes, and all the wonderful things that you can do with them.  Two things that you should know about artichokes: they are really flowers and the plant looks like it’s from outer space, and they will turn your hands black when you cut them up so latex gloves will help if you don’t like dirty looking fingers. Ok, that’s three things.
Last night we celebrated the beginning of spring with a side of artichoke chips.

Baby Artichokes
1 Lemon
2-3 sprigs of fresh mint
Oil for frying
Flour for dusting
Salt 

Clean the baby artichokes by tearing off all the tough outer leaves and making a clean cut on the stem. It’s looks like a lot of wastage, and it is, but you can’t really chew through those tough leaves.  Slice the artichokes as thinly as you would like and then place in a bowl of acidulated (lemon) water.

Drain well and pat dry, or spin dry in a salad spinner.

Dust with flour and a dash of salt. You can do this by placing ½ cup or so of flour in a plastic bag, with the sliced artichokes, and gently shaking the bag. Then pour the artichokes into a strainer and eliminate any excess flour.

Fry the slices in abundant, hot (350F) vegetable oil. Work in batches so that you don’t lower the oil temp too much. Keeping the oil hot is key; this way you don’t have greasy, soggy artichoke chips, so resist the temptation to dump them all in the oil at once.  Remove when brown, and drain on absorbent paper.  I like to line a metal mixing bowl with paper towels, toss the finished artichoke slices into the bowl with a tiny sprinkle of salt, and keep warm as I cook the rest of the slices.

When you are done frying and ready to serve, add a little more salt if necessary, remove the paper towels, add some finely chopped mint, and give everything a toss in the bowl to distribute the salt and mint. Pour into a serving bowl, garnish with some fresh lemon and you are good to go.

Happy Spring to those of us on the North Side, and Happy Fall to those of us “Down Under”!

Red Beets

Red Beets
Is there a more pain in the ass tuber? Probably not, and yet, they are still worth the trouble and the red hands and the stains on the cutting board. (And if you eat a lot of them, you pee red, which in the middle of the night, when you’ve forgotten that you’ve eaten the beets, can give you quite a scare.)  But, I digress.

Here’s a flavor match made in beet heaven.

Roast Beet, Blue Cheese and Walnut Salad
2-3 fresh, smallish red beets
1 chunk of good blue cheese, firm and sharp
1 handful of walnuts
2 bowl sized portions of salad greens
Olive oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper

You’re making a salad, ok, so you really don’t need exact quantities here. You like a lot of blue cheese…add some more. You prefer goat to blue, go for it.

Turn the oven on to 350. Wash the beets, don’t go crazy, and just get off any obvious dirt lumps. Pierce the skin of each beet a few times and put them in the oven, directly on the rack. Roast until soft (not falling apart soft, just resilient soft). When they are cool enough to handle, peel the beets, the skins will just come off without a lot of struggle.  Slice into ¼” thick slices, then cube.  Place the cubes in a bowl with 2T olive oil and a dash of vinegar. Coat the beet cubes and let stand at room temperature until you are ready to serve the salad.

The walnuts. Here you have some more options. You can use half walnuts, or roughly chop the walnuts and serve them like that. You could also melt a small amount of butter to a pan, melt it, add some sugar and then caramelize the walnuts, coating them in the melted sugar and butter.

Crumble the blue cheese.  Make a simple vinaigrette dressing: 4 parts olive oil, 1 part good red vinegar and a little bit of mustard. Some people like a little salt and pepper added to the vinaigrette.

Throw the salad into a bowl and add the dressing, toss well and divide the salad into two serving bowls. Add the beet cubes, cheese and walnuts on top of the bowls and serve. The reason that you need to serve this in individual bowls instead of family style is that you just know your dining partner is going to snitch all the walnuts, or the beets, and this eliminates any bickering at the table. See, I think of everything.

Baked Sweet Potato Puree

Baked Sweet Potato Puree
This recipe is for my young friend Katherine who has just discovered that sweet potatoes can taste good! 

For 2 people
1-2 sweet potatoes, they come in different sizes so you figure out how much you want to make
2-3 T butter
¼ cup heavy cream
1 egg
¼ T roasted, ground cumin
salt, pepper

Individually wrap the sweet potatoes in foil and bake at 375F until tender. This takes about an hour, you want the potato to be soft and yielding when you give it a poke, but not total mush.

When the potatoes are done, unwrap and when they are cool enough to handle, slip the skins off.

Place in a mixing bowl along with the salt and pepper and cumin. Now start whipping those potatoes, you want as much air incorporated as possible to keep the potatoes fluffy. Be careful because this is when you get carried away and lift the beaters out of the bowl while its still running and you get potatoes everywhere!  When the mixture has cooled down a bit, so that you can comfortably stick your finger into it without getting burned, add the cream and continue whipping, then add the egg.  It will go from a sort of lumpy dark orange, to a smoother, more pumpkin color.

Place in an ovenproof dish and bake at 375F until hot. Meanwhile, make some brown butter. Place 2-3T butter in a pan, and over medium heat, let the butter melt, bubble and turn brown (not scorched black, just brown, take it off the stove when you hit brown and it smells really good).

When the potatoes are done, and you are ready to serve, pour the hot brown butter over the top of the potatoes and serve.  You could make this slightly less decadent by using milk instead of heavy cream, but life is short and cream tastes better.

Brown Butter and Parsley Potatoes

Brown Butter and Parsley Potatoes
Simple math: butter + parsley + garlic + potatoes = bliss

I fell in love with boiled potatoes this summer. I know, it sounds silly, but I was reintroduced to the blank slate that a boiled potato represents. Think of a woman who has an OK body, and then she puts on this fabulous dress and all of a sudden….she’s a goddess.  I know, it happens to me all the time.  In my dreams!  Back to potatoes, a boiled potato is just that…an ok, humdrum affair until you put a bit of sauce on it, and then the potato comes alive and wants to go dancing.

10 small potatoes (adjust quantity according to size and hunger)
2-3 T sweet butter
2 T finely chopped parsley, do not be lazy, finely chop
1 clove of garlic, also finely chopped. First chop the parsley, then the garlic, and then chop them together to be sure they really know and understand each other.

Boil the whole, unpeeled potatoes in salted water until tender.
Drain, and when cool enough to handle, cut in half.

Melt the butter and let it cook until it turns light brown, using medium heat, we’re making brown butter, not scorched butter.  Choose a flat sauté pan that will hold all the potatoes, arranged flat, cut side down.  When the butter is a light caramel color, add the potatoes to the pan, face down so that the cut part is in contact with the butter.  Sauté on medium heat for 2 minutes, then add the finely chopped parsley and garlic to the potatoes and cook for one more minute. Done! Add a little sea salt after you’ve plated the potatoes if you feel like it. You don’t have to pour the remaining butter over the potatoes, unless you are feeling decadent and luscious.

Smashed Potatoes

Smashed Potatoes

1 pound small red potatoes

Lots of basil
1-2 cloves finely chopped garlic
¼ cup olive oil
splash balsamic vinegar
½ t sea salt

Wash and pierce the potatoes. Roast in a 375 degree oven until the potatoes have a crust under their skin.  Usually about 1 ½ hours.  I like to roast the potatoes directly on the oven rack so that as much air as possible circulates.  If you roast the spuds in a pan, toss and turn them from time and time and add a little bit longer roasting time.

In a bowl that will be big enough to contain the potatoes, combine the oil, basil, garlic, salt and vinegar and let this sit while the potatoes are roasting. You want to tear the basil leaves, not cut them, so it will be shredded basil. Use as much basil as you want, be generous!

When the potatoes are done, remove from the oven and with a cloth or hot mitt on your hand, smush the potato open.  These potatoes are HOT and they make STEAM…so be careful.  You want to crack open the potato and expose some of the interior.

Combine with the basil –olive oil mixture, check the salt level and serve. Great hot. Great at room temperature. Great for parties because you can make them ahead of time. Make more than you think you need, these go really fast.

Butter Poached Fava Beans

Butter Poached Fava Beans

Why should Thomas Keller of The French Laundry have all the fun? He may have created the famous butter poached lobster, but I’ve created butter-poached fava beans.
Fresh fava beans are a wonder, they taste green, and they have snap and crunch and flavor. They should be the new ‘it’ ingredient, under valued, un-recognized wonder.
There is a catch. They are tedious to peel, and they must be double peeled. Once you remove them from the pod, you then have to slip off the other casing around the bean. It’s a simpler process if you steam the pods before shucking. Throw a handful of beans into a strainer that is over a pot of boiling water, or toss the pods into the boiling water for a minute. Then shuck the buggers, it is worth it. I promise.

Place the tasty green beans in an ovenproof dish; add some butter, place in the oven at 300 for about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and eat.
The butter absorbs the flavor of the fava, so if you have left over butter in the dish, save it and use it somewhere else. Don’t let any of that hard-earned fava flavor go to waste!

Avocado Creme

Now this is a ‘foam’ that I know works. I’ve made this lots of times, usually as a foil for spicy shrimp, but last night this crème was delicious, just eaten on a piece of Belgian Endive.
And you know I’m eating avocados now, because when I go back to Italy….no more guacamole fore me. The Umbrians don’t believe in avocados.

Here’s the recipe for avocado crème:
1 ripe avocado
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
Pinch of salt, pinch of smoked adobe chili and a few squirts of lemon juice
½ t chopped shallots, marinated in red wine vinegar

Make the whipped cream.  Start with a chilled bowl, a chilled whisk and very cold cream. It will all whisk up in a med-firm cream in just a few minutes of whisking. Quit your whining, it’s a quick upper body workout. 
Cut the avocado in half, remove the pit (there must be something that you can do with those pits, there are so nice and smooth and round, but yet, they don’t bounce very much).
Mush ½ of the avocado into the cream and whisk together.
Squirt the lemon juice on the other half of the avocado and mush it into the pulp, then add it to the cream and whisk everything all together.  I worry about the lemon juice and the crème not getting along, so that’s why I combine it with the avocado pulp first.
Add some salt, little chili powder, give it a mix, garnish with the marinated shallots, and you are good to go.
If you want to try this with shrimp, combine some bay leaves, garlic, hot chilies, salt, pepper, and whatever other spices are talking to you at that moment. Leave the shrimp in their shells.
Heat a cast iron pan, with out oil. When it’s hot, add a small amount of oil, then the spices, then and the shrimp. Quickly toss and coat the shrimp with all the spices. Serve them in their shells, with the avocado crème on as a dipping sauce. It’s cools down the spices and just is an addictive combination.

Creamy Cauliflower

Creamy Cauliflower
(Also called: Glad Curtis isn’t home cauliflower)

1 head of cauliflower
Heavy cream
Grated parmigiana cheese
Butter

Wash the head of cauliflower, then separate all the florets from the core.
Boil in lightly salted water until the florets are soft, drain.

In the still warm pot, combine a small handful of cheese, a pat of butter and a splash of cream.  Return the drained cauliflower to the pot, mix thoroughly and serve.  Look carefully over your shoulder to make sure no one is watching as you snitch a bit for yourself before sharing.

**Curtis has been known to gobble large amounts of cauliflower. You have to pretty quick at the table if you plan on getting your share!

Crunchy thyme and garlic potatoes

Crunchy thyme and garlic potatoes

3-4 medium potatoes, Yukon Golds are good, scrubbed and cut into smallish cubes
1/4 tsp of dried thyme
5-10 little cloves of garlic or slivers of garlic, unpeeled,yes, unpeeled
Salt
Olive oil for frying.

Boil the potatoes in salted water for 3-5 minutes, drain and run cold water over the potatoes to stop them from cooking. Pat dry.
For the garlic, use those little bitty cloves that are the center of the head of garlic. Don't peel them. They just crisp up and sort of disappear.  If you don't have any little bitty guys, take an upeeled regular clove and slice into slivers. If like garlic, use more, if not, use less. You can figure this part out, I'm sure!
Heat the olive for frying, not too hot, you don't want the oil to smoke and scorch.

Add the potatoes and thyme and a little sprinkle of salt. Turn or toss frequently in the pan so everybody gets a chance to get golden and crunchy.  About a minute before the potatoes are done, add the garlic and cook until everything is nice and golden.  Finish with a little more salt, and serve immediately.