the loaf can be shaped into a round or long loaves

I took a bread baking class at a virtually unknown cooking school in Saratoga, California, tucked away in a small mall, long gone and forgotten now, with my mother in the 1980s. We learned this Italian whole wheat bread. It is called a traditional pane integrale. Italian breads were becoming very popular with foodies with the publication of Carol Field’s Italian Baker and the Williams-Sonoma backed Il Fornaio bakery, with bakers trained in Italy working here in San Francisco.

We both went home and immediately made it. We had never used the food processor, which was just coming into its own, for bread dough. Bread was made by hand or in the Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I have never seen this recipe any place. It has a short starter sponge, which makes for great texture and flavor.

baguette frame for 2 loaves-even if you can't shape yet, the loaf will be great

My mom and I still comment on this bread; it is that good. Even the most timid bread baker can make this. If you want to make the jump to using whole grain flour, try this recipe. It is a great transition loaf with lots of technique. It is one of the best breads I make and it is sooo fast with minimal mess and clean up.

This recipe can be shaped into a round or can also be shaped into two long thin loaves and baked in a baguette frame for 20 to 25 minutes.

Serve this exceptional bread with Marinated Goat Cheese (recipe follows), a recipe that is too good to miss. Make the goat cheese a few days ahead and let them feast on bread and cheese.

dough shaped into 2 baguette long loaves

Makes 1 round loaf or 2 baguettes

Ingredients

• Sponge

• 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast or 2 teaspoons instant yeast (SAF)

• 2/3 cup warm water (90º to 100º)

• 1 cup cool water (80º)

• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

• Dough

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 2 teaspoons salt

• Yellow cornmeal, for sprinkling

Instructions

1.  In a 4-quart container, whisk together the yeast and warm water.  When the yeast is dissolved, add the cold water and flours.  Whisk until smooth.  Cover loosely and let stand at room temperature 4 hours to overnight to bubble and ferment.

mixing the dough ball in the food processor

2.  In the work bowl of the food processor fitted with the metal blade, combine the sponge, 1 1/2 cups unbleached flour, sugar, and salt; process 15 seconds.  After the dough forms a soft, elastic ball and clears the sides of the bowl, process 60 seconds more to knead.  If the dough is too sticky, add flour by the tablespoonful; if too dry, add water by the teaspoonful.

3. Using a plastic dough scraper, transfer the dough ball to a work surface; give a few kneads by hand to “feel” and even out dough consistency.  Place into a lightly greased container, turn once to grease top, and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rest at room temperature 30 minutes.

4.  Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface; shape into a tight round.   Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let rise again at room temperature until almost triple in bulk, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Alternately, place the dough rectangle and shape into a long thin loaf, seam side down into a cornmeal dusted baguette pan. Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450º, placing a baking stone on the lower third shelf.

folding over the dough to create surface tension

5.  Using a sharp knife, slash the surface once down the center, no deeper than 1/2 inch.  With the quick action of the wrist, slide the loaf onto the baking stone, or place the baking sheet directly on the stone. The baguette pan can go right on the rack. Reduce the oven temperature to 425º.  Bake 35 to 40 minutes, until golden brown and the top sounds hollow when tapped.  The loaf will not be very dark brown due to the wheat flour and small amount of sugar.

Cool on a rack at least 20 minutes before slicing and serving spread with hot goat cheese, dipping slices into the warm olive oil.

pinching the bottom seam

Baked Marinated Goat Cheese

This is one of those amazing little recipes. Once you are turned onto those logs of soft, snowy white French goat cheese, you will want to know this recipe. This is the perfect hors d’oeuvre to tote along. Just add a cute spreading knife and you’ve got a crowd-pleasing hors d’oeuvre in just a few minutes.

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves

• 1 teaspoon dried savory leaves

• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves

• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

• 11 ounces French Montrachet or domestic chabis log

• 1/2 cup good Italian olive oil

Ingredients

1.  Mix the herbs and pepper together and press into the surface of the cheese log, covering the entire surface.  Place in a plastic container and pour the olive oil over the cheese.  Cover tightly and refrigerate 5 days to 1 week to meld flavors.

2.  To serve, Remove the log from the oil and slice into 6 equal pieces.  Place in a small  shallow gratin dish.  Cover with the oil.  Bake in a preheated 400º oven for 5 to 8 minutes, or until just hot.  Serve immediately out of the baking dish.

Recipe and text copyright Beth Hensperger 2012

Please enjoy the recipe and make it your own. If you copy the recipe and text for internet use, please include my byline and link to my site.

The traditional way to serve hummus is to spread it on a plate and drizzle it with flavorful olive oil. That’s fine for spreading, but if you are going to dip veggies into the hummus, it’s more practical to pile it into a bowl. I used to make hummus for small catering jobs, especially lunchtime, setting the platter in the center of the table as an appetizer. It was an all out success every single time.

The secret to the flavor of a good hummus is the addition of the peanut butter-like almost bitter sesame paste known as tahini or tehina. You can find it shelved with the health foods next to the peanut butter or with the kosher foods (some brands are imported from Israel). Every hummus recipe calls for a different proportion of tahini. As with unhomogenized peanut butter, the oil separates when it stands and should be stirred back into the tahini before using. Tahini is some strong stiff stuff when cold. For easy mixing when the jar is full, stir with a table knife instead of a spoon to portion out what you need. If the tahini is too stiff to stir easily, and is in a glass or other microwave-safe container, warm it in the microwave first, removing the lid first. About 15 to 30 seconds on medium-high power should do the trick. I just take out the amount I need (approximate is okay), put in a microwave safe bowl and give it the quick zap. Problem solved. Tahini will keep for months, but it must be refrigerated after opening.

The hummus epiphany is upon us, so I will post different hummus recipes from time to time. I read some place there even used to be a blog in the early days of the net devoted to just hummus recipes, a different one each blog. This recipe is ever so delicious and it is adapted from the Prado Restaurant, which is in Balboa Park, San Diego, California.

This recipe starts with dried beans, cooks them in the slow cooker, then mashes it with the rest of the ingredients, including some chipotle en adobo, which will add a hint of heat. It is luscious.

Makes 4 cups hummus

Overview

Cooker: Medium or large round or oval

Setting and Cook Time: HIGH for 3 1/2 to 4 hours

Makes 4 cups beans

Ingredients

• 1 cup dried chickpeas

• 5 cups water

• 2 cloves garlic, peeled

• Juice of 1 small lemon

• Juice of 1 lime

• 1 1/2 tablespoons canned chipotle en adobo sauce

• 1/3 cup tahini

• 1/4 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves

• Pinch of cayenne pepper or chili powder

• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, or Canola Balance, a blend of canola, soy, and olive oils

• Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Place the chickpeas in a colander and rinse under cold running water. Pick over for any damaged beans and small stones. Transfer to the slow cooker along with water to cover by 3 inches. Soak 6 to 12 hours.

2. Drain, add the 5 cups water, cover, and cook on LOW, until the beans are quite tender and the transparent skin that covers each bean slips off easily, 3 1/2 to 4 hours.

3. Drain, reserving the cooking liquid. Place the beans in a blender

4. In a food processor, pulse the warm cooked chickpeas to mash them.  Add the garlic, lemon and lime juices, chipotles, tahini, cilantro, and cayenne and, with the machine running, slowly add the oil until you get a fluffy, smooth consistency.  Season with salt and adjust the consistency with more oil as necessary.  Scrape into a serving bowl and refrigerate, covered, until serving, up to 3 to 4 days.

Excerpted from Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Recipes for Entertaining, by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann. (c) 2007, used by permission from the Harvard Common Press.

Text copyright Beth Hensperger 2011

Please enjoy the recipe and make it your own. If you copy the recipe and text for internet use, please include my byline and link to my site.

Preparing seafood with lime and pounded (usually with the handle butt of a large knife) mashed garlic (fresh dug, which tastes mild) is a standard in Baja. Memorable meals include a restaurant on Thanksgiving, rolling up the shrimp in fresh made tortillas with pickled chiles and I even had it grilled outside on a requisitioned-from-the-deep iron manhole cover over an open fire by local fisherman at the Bay of Conception. That was a memorable meal watching the men cook, sipping their cold cervezas. Eating a seviche, or just dunking in an ice cold tomato cocktail sauce under a palapa on the beach was equally enjoyable and satisfying. Street-style shrimp tacos are now a north of the border fast food.

the iconic shrimp cocktail

Sweet, succulent, and slightly briny, shrimp is America’s favorite seafood. Delicious cooked all kinds of ways—poached in shrimp cocktail, battered and deep fried, sautéed, broiled, and grilled—this crustacean is quick-cooking and incredibly versatile. Most of the shrimp available in the continental US is frozen right on the boat to preserve the freshness and for convenient shipping, so fresh is rare unless you live on the Gulf or on the coast of Mexico. So how to know what to eat and what not? Here is some information to help you decide.

With the massive Gulf oil spill of April 2010, there has been a lot of press about the availability of Gulf of Mexico wild shrimp, which is sold fresh. Shrimp is by far one of the most popular shellfish by foodies, but how much do we really know about shrimp and how they live?

First off, the terms shrimp and prawns get used interchangeably in foodland. So if you get it mixed up in your mind, you are not alone.

live white shrimp swimming..shrimp swim backwards and feed off the bottom of the ocean floor/white shrimp catch in the Gulf is down 80 percent in 2011

Technically prawns are referring to freshwater forms and shrimp are the marine seawater forms. The live in schools and a female lays an astonishing 50,000 to 1 million eggs which mature in a mere 12 days. Hence the great success of farming for human consumption. But shrimp are also one of the great food sources of the sea, an important food source for larger animals from fish to whales. They have a high tolerance to toxins in polluted areas and are known as bottom feeders for living on the sea floor, which translates to passing toxins into the predators and humans who eat them. They eat everything from algae to decaying plants. Shrimp is one of the more common food allergies along with garlic, milk, and peanuts.

White shrimp and tiger shrimp are two widely available varieties. Size ranges from

"Fairy" comes from fairy shrimps' delicate, almost transparent bodies and graceful movement. They swim upside down.minute fairy shrimp are the bay shrimp on your salad...they are an endangered species

smaller than a pinky to colossal, which can be as big as a hand. Because adjectives that describe the size, like “jumbo” or “large,” aren’t used consistently, a better way to buy shrimp is by the “count,” a pair of numbers divided by a slash, which refers to the number of shrimp in a pound. For instance, shrimp labeled “21/25″ means 21 to 25 shrimp in one pound (in general, the lower the number of shrimp per pound, the larger the shrimp). 16 count are considered the biggest you will usually find. I always specify the size count in my recipes so that the recipe will turn out correct.

Colossal – 10 or less (like a lobster tail)
Jumbo – 11 to 15
Extra-Large – 16 to 20 (for shrimp cocktails)
Large – 21 to 30
Medium – 31 to 35
Small – 36 to 45 (popcorn shrimp)
Miniature – about 100 (bay shrimp)

Most shrimp are sold frozen and marketed based on their categorization of presentation, grading, color, and uniformity. Don’t freeze shrimp that you buy fresh at the grocery store; it’s likely already been frozen and thawed once, and refreezing will hurt quality. Look for firm meat and a pleasant odor telling you it has been recently thawed. Use fresh shrimp within a day or two of buying. For longer-term storage, buy frozen shrimp and defrost it as needed. 1 pound of raw shrimp will yield ½ to ¾ pound cooked meat.

When buying bags of shrimp, keep them frozen until ready to use; thaw under cold running water. Store thawed shrimp in the refrigerator in a loosely closed plastic bag on a bed of ice in a large bowl or dish with sides. Refresh ice as it melts and use within a day.

To prepare a shrimp for cooking, usually it is shelled and deveined, that is having its digestive tract removed, which runs down the entire back side of the body. You can buy bags of what is referred to and P and Ds, or already peeled and deveined.

To de-shell a shrimp, hold the the tail while gently removing the shell around the body; it will slip off. The tail can be detached completely at this point, or left attached for presentation purposes. The shell accounts for approximately half the weight of the whole shrimp.

deveining a prawn

To thaw: Let frozen shrimp thaw overnight in the fridge, or for faster thawing, take the shrimp out of its package, put it in a bowl of cold water, and let a trickle of cold water run into the bowl while excess water goes down the drain. The shrimp should be ready to cook in about 15 minutes.

How to devein shrimp: The vein in shrimp won’t hurt you, but it’s sometimes unsightly and a bit gritty. If the vein is still intact, it’s easy to remove yourself: just use the tip of a paring knife to slit down the back of the peeled shrimp, then lift the vein out of the shrimp and wipe it on a paper towel. You can also rinse it out under cold running water.

A quick guide to some of the varieties of shrimp you might encounter on a menu:

raw shrimp is grey

Imported farmed shrimp: The cheapest and most abundant shrimp on the market. It’s also the most environmentally destructive, says Megan Westmeyer, who runs a sustainable seafood program at the South Carolina Aquarium. Most shrimp sold in the U.S. is imported from countries in Latin America and Southeast Asia, where environmental regulations are often lax or not enforced, according to the Environmental Defense Fund, (EDF), an education and advocacy non-profit. The EDF classifies shrimp imported from these regions as “eco-worst” for the environmentally destructive ways in which they are often farmed.

Most imported shrimp comes from South and Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Bangladesh), where shrimp farms have replaced the mangrove that once served as a natural barrier between the coastline and the ocean. Brazil is the main exporter for Latin America. Shrimp farms are also notoriously dirty: waste from the farms is often pumped into the ocean, and pesticides and antibiotics are both in heavy use. Sometimes these substances leave the farm with the shrimp. “Very often inspectors find chemicals that are banned for human consumption by FDA on imported shrimp,” says Westmeyer.

Greenpeace took aim at Costco’s seafood sustainability practices in 2010 with an aggressive campaign called Oh No Costco. While Costco seafood buyer Bill Mardon says his company has entered into a partnership with the World Wildlife Fund to set global standards for shrimp farming, the specific objectives are still being discussed.

“Costco gets credit for starting down the road,” says Tim Fitzgerald, senior policy analyst for oceans at of the EDF, “but they are still very early on.” In the meantime, you’re better off buying shrimp at Trader Joe’s, which is much further along on the same path. After Greenpeace launched its Traitor Joe campaign in early 2009, Trader Joe’s pledged to remove all non-sustainable seafood from its stores by the end of 2012, and it’s already taken concrete steps in that direction.

Wild shrimp: In general, domestic wild shrimp, which accounts for about 10 percent of all shrimp consumed in the US (of that, about 75 percent comes from the Gulf), is considered significantly more sustainable than farmed shrimp. Still, it’s not perfect: one of the major criticisms of wild shrimping in the US coastal waters is its high rate of bycatch—other species (like sea turtles and large finfish) end up dying in the nets along with the shrimp. There is an estimated 5 to 20 pounds of bycatch per pound of shrimp netted. That is a staggering amount, considering the bycatch usually dies and with extensive trawling in the area, this can upset an entire ecological system of an area.

Two simple net innovations have dramatically reduced bycatch in recent years: The Turtle Exclusion Device (TEDs), a kind of trap door in the net that allows turtles to swim out, is about 97 percent effective, says Westmeyer. Bycatch Reduction Devices (BRDs), which allow small fish to swim out through a small hole at the top of a net, are about 20-30 percent effective. The Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board is currently working with scientists at Louisiana State University to develop a sustainable shrimp certification program, which “will certainly include a close look at bycatch,” says LSU fishery researcher Mark Schexnayder.

just off the boat wild louisiana gulf shrimp

So what is the situation in the Gulf? While over 1,000 square miles immediately surrounding the BP oil rig wellhead that spewed over 200 million gallons of crude oil into Gulf Waters is still closed to all fishing, the FDA and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)  re-opened 4,213 square miles of Gulf of Mexico federal waters to deep sea shrimping last February. State officials with LDWF and the Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) examined the levels of contaminates associated with the BP oil spill, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), being found in Louisiana seafood that have been collected throughout the spill. And they determined that the levels were so low that they do not pose a risk to consumers, so spring shrimping season opened with great delight to not only the fishermen, but restaurants. Surprise surprise. One of the great consumers of Gulf shrimp is Taco Bell for their shrimp tacos, not just fancy restaurants. But domestic sales are down, there have been a number of hurricanes, and fuel prices are high, all contributing to a downturn in the industry. By this fall, the shrimpers have been out of work and say the season is the worst in history. L.S.U. research is finding signs of cellular damage to fish in the Gulf, a sign of exposure to oil.

Domestic farmed shrimp: Only a very tiny amount of US shrimp comes from domestic farms,

cooked shrimp is pink

though freshwater prawns grown in “closed loop” systems get the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s stamp of approval, and some sustainable farms in Central America seem promising as well. Thankfully, environmental regulations in the US prevent people from setting up cheap farms like those abroad, so sustainable shrimp farming is still very expensive. Researchers at South Carolina’s Waddell Mariculture Center are experimenting with environmentally friendly and economically viable shrimp farming models.

Trap-caught shrimp: Larger Pacific shrimp species (most commonly spot prawns) are sometimes caught in traps, which pick up significantly less bycatch than nets. Trapping is hard work, though, and these shrimp simply aren’t as abundant as the varieties in the Gulf, so they’re harder to find and more expensive.

shrimp provencal

Shrimp Provençal

Frankly speaking, Shrimp Provençal is a dazzling little dinner made in about 30 minutes and when I was catering, it was the most popular fast entrée in my repertoire. It was not only delicious, but beautiful with the green pasta and red sauce. I would make the entire dish right on site. I even typed up the recipe and carried it with me I had so many requests for it. I have also made this with monkfish in place of the shrimp, which was also luscious, but monkfish is only occasionally available anymore. Serve with green salad, crusty French baguette, and a steamed veggie like an artichoke. No cheese, please–cheese is not traditionally used with Italian fish dishes.

Overview

Cooking Method: Stovetop

Cook Time: About 30 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup olive oil

• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped

• 2 medium shallots, chopped

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 15 leaves fresh basil, chopped

• 1 teaspoon crushed dried thyme

• Two 28-ounce cans Italian plum tomatoes, drained and chopped

• 2/3 cup dry white wine

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

• 16-ounces fresh spinach fettucine

• 1-pound medium to large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined (23/30  count)

Instructions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil for the pasta.

Heat the oil in a large, deep skillet over medium to medium-high heat.  Add onion and shallot; sauté until just soft, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic for 30 seconds.  Add the basil, thyme, tomatoes, and wine; simmer uncovered 15 minutes.  Season to taste.  Meanwhile cook the pasta according to package directions.

Add the shrimp to the hot tomato sauce and cook 2 to 3 minutes, until pink, stirring a few times.  Drain the pasta and divide between 4 shallow plates.  Ladle over the prawns and sauce.  Serve immediately.

shrimp scampi

Scampi

Scampi is probably the best known pan-sautéed prawn dish and it has that Italian flair for economy, ease of preparation, and flavor. While we associate the word scampi with all large shrimp, it is the Italian word for the specific tail portion of certain small Mediterranean lobsterettes also known as Norway lobster. Scampi is the plural, meaning a nice portion of scampos, the word for a singular prawn. There is no substitute for the dry sherry; it is integral to the success of this dish. Also, don’t skip the bit of parsley at the end just because it looks like a small amount. Every ingredient adds to the final dish. This recipe came from a flyer that sat on the top of the counter at my local fish market some 25 years ago. Serve with fluffy steamed rice and a green salad.

Overview

Cooking Method: Stovetop

Cook Time: About 5 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

• 2 cloves garlic, pressed

• 1-pound raw large shrimp, peeled and deveined (21/25 count)

• 3 tablespoons seasoned dry breadcrumbs (I use Progresso)

• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• 1/2 cup dry sherry

• Juice of 2 lemons

• 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley

• Salt, to taste

Instructions

Heat the oil and butter in a large skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook for no more than 30 seconds. Do not brown or burn. Add the shrimp, breadcrumbs, and pepper; simmer 1 minute. Add the sherry, lemon juice, and parsley; simmer 1 to 2 minutes to thicken. Taste for salt and serve immediately.

Excerpted from Not Your Mother’s Weeknight Cooking, by Beth Hensperger. (c) 2008, used by permission from the Harvard Common Press.

Text copyright Beth Hensperger 2011

Please enjoy the recipe and make it your own. If you copy the recipe and text for internet use, please include my byline and link to my site.

A well-made combination salad is an irresistible delight. Especially on a hot night. It is healthy eating at it’s best and appeals to all types of eaters, fitting all palates (those on special diets appreciate lusty main dish salads they can dig into with abandon as well).

A main dish salad often combines the commonplace with exotic ingredients–artisanal cheeses, olives, tropical fruit, fresh lemons, fruity first press olive oil, and fun pasta shapes with the wide availability of good produce. Slice the bit of onion right before you plan to serve it so it is sweet-hot.  A recipe is just the start; here is a place with the freedom to create your everyday fare into something a little bit special. These self-contained meals that can be expanded or contracted to serve any number of people.

I had a girlfriend whose favorite meal, almost every night of the week, was Greek salad and sautéed snapper. Need I say this is one popular salad, both in restaurants and in the home kitchen? Hearty, robust, soul-satisfying, Greek salad is a rustic and simple garden salad. And iconic in the salad world.

Pick up some special olives at the olive bar in the supermarket. Kalamata are the usual choice, but you can use any variety you like. Canned black olives are fine if you like a mild, buttery taste rather than some of the more assertive salty ones. Some tangy, bright green extra-virgin olive oil. Check out the supermarket olive bar for your favorites or a new one to try. Fresh or dried oregano, which goes into the vinaigrette. Ice cold crisp leafy greens. Summer tomatoes. Very ripe, dripping with juice. Add half a can of rinsed garbanzo beans if you want the salad to be a bit more filling. A small block of feta at the Middle East market.

Feta is a brined medium-soft cheese made from sheep’s milk that is characteristic of Greek cuisine. There is no substitute flavorwise. Since it is brined, rinse it off with cool water before crumbling it into your salad. Many deli sections with a cheese selection have a low fat feta. To store in the refrigerator, cover with water in a covered container.

Serves 2 to 4

Ingredients

• 1 large cucumber, partially peeled if preferred, seeded, and sliced into thick half rounds

• 1 large head romaine lettuce, washed, dried, and torn into bite-sized pieces

• 3 large ripe tomatoes, diced

• 1/4 medium red onion, thinly sliced

• 6-ounces feta cheese, crumbled to make about 1 1/2 cups

• 1 cup pitted and sliced black olives, such as Kalamata

• Pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Greek Dressing

• 1/3 cup olive oil

• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

• 2 tablespoon lemon juice

• Pinch dried oregano or 1 teaspoon fresh chopped oregano

Instructions

Combine the cucumbers, romaine, tomatoes, onion, feta, and olives in a serving bowl. Take your time cutting everything nice. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper.

Combine all the dressing ingredients in a small jar with a screwtop lid; shake well. Makes about 1/2 cup.

Drizzle with the dressing; toss to combine. Serve immediately, letting diners serve themselves.

summer is here when the tomatoes are ripe...

Excerpted from Not Your Mother’s Weeknight Cooking, by Beth Hensperger. (c) 2008, used by permission from the Harvard Common Press.

Text copyright Beth Hensperger 2011

Please enjoy the recipe and make it your own. If you copy the recipe and text for internet use, please include my byline and link to my site.

photo of three rissani women with bread by irving penn/1971/I am told they look exactly the same today

There are an entire world of rustic ethnic breads that are easily reproduced in your modern home kitchen. These are breads that were once only available regionally, tasted by the adventurous traveler. But no more. The invisible family boundries are down and the light is rushing in. What is old is now new. What was hidden by geography and religion, is now open to interpretation. Bakers are pushing the envelope. They want to master the techniques.

For your Moroccan-flavored meals, make a loaf of kisra with the flavors of sesame and anise, adapted from Paula Wolfert, an expert on the foods of Morocco. While this recipe can be fully baked in the bread machine (and come out in the bread machine loaf shape), traditionally it is shaped and baked in thick, flattened discs like pita, but ends up without the pocket, for which I give directions here. If the dough is baked on an earthenware griddle over an open fire, it is called khboz.

Be sure to use a coarse grind whole wheat flour, preferably stone-ground, to obtain the proper texture, and use fresh aniseed and sesame seeds (store in the freezer please-you want fresh fresh fresh).

Serve with a salad of grated carrots with dates, a tagine stew of chicken or lamb or vegetables, and couscous with olives.  The bread is meant to be dense in texture, to use for scooping up the tagine cooking juices, or with an appetizer of hummus chickpea dip (look for some great recipes soon this summer) and hot mint tea (recipe follows), conveniently made in the slow cooker for a crowd.

Makes 2 round flat loaves

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup water

• 3 1/3 cups bread flour

• 2/3 cup whole wheat flour (a nice coarse grind)

• 4 teaspoons vital wheat gluten

• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds

• 1 tablespoon aniseeds

• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt

• 2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

• 2 teaspoons light olive oil, for rubbing on the dough

• 2 tablespoons medium-grind yellow cornmeal, for sprinkling

Instructions

1.  Place all the ingredients in the pan according to manufacturer’s instructions.  Program for the Dough cycle; press Start.

2.  Turn the dough out of the pan onto a work surface and divide into 2 equal portions.  Knead each into a ball and let rest for 10 minutes covered with a clean tea towel.  With your fingers, moisten the surface of each ball of dough with some oil; press with your palm to flatten each into a disc 1 inch thick and 6 inches in diameter.  Dust the work surface with a bit of flour  to keep the breads from sticking to it and cover the discs with the towel to rest 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until puffy. When you poke your finger into the dough, the depression will remain.

3.  Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal. Prick the surface of each loaf 6 to 7 times with the tines of a fork to gently release the gas.  The loaf will flatten and immediately transfer the loaves onto the baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 400º.

4.    Immediately place in the hot oven (the pan won’t be hot yet) and bake for exactly 12 minutes.  Reduce the oven temperature to 300º and bake for an additional 35 to 40 minutes, or until the breads are browned and hollow when tapped on the bottom with your finger.  Remove to a rack to cool before cutting into wedges to serve.

Excerpted from The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook, by Beth Hensperger. (c) 2000, used by permission from the Harvard Common Press.

Moroccan Mint Tea

When I used to cater, there was invariably a hostess that requested fresh mint tea, Moroccan style, for after dinner. Posed with the problem of serving 2 to 4 dozen guests and given two small teapots, here is the perfect answer–the slow cooker.

Atay bi nahan uses common backyard mint; I use fresh spearmint that is easily available in the produce department.  The essential oils of the Mentha plant are concentrated in glands in the leaves, so the hot water releases them.  Green tea is very popular now and this is a great variation for entertaining. The tea is traditionally drunk very sweet, but you can make it less so and add the sugar to taste.  You can use granulated sugar cubes if you like, but since the sugar is usually shaved off a cone, so I prefer a raw sugar cube with a tad of molasses still left in. Moroccan mint tea is legendary for being killer sweet; I let you control that since you might like it only mildly sweet.

While in Morocco the tea is made in silver or brass teapots of variable sizes and served with great ceremony in glass mugs, this adapted version also makes a satisfying and indistinguishable mint infusion.

Overview

Cooker: Large Round or Oval

Machine Setting and Cook Time: Low Heat: 3 to 6 hours

Makes about 2 dozen 6-ounce drinks

Ingredients

• 20 cups water

• 5 bunches fresh mint, long stems trimmed, but leaves attached to the stem

• 20 to 35 raw sugar cubes, to taste

• 5 tablespoons Chinese Gunpowder green tea (or 10 to 15 green tea bags, such as Lipton decaffinated (which is what I use, if desired)

Instructions

Place the water and mint in the cooker, pushing the mint down into the water.  Add the sugar cubes.  Cover and bring to a boil on HIGH.  Reduce the heat and simmer on LOW 3 to 4 hours.

Wrap the green tea in two cheesecloth bags and tie with kitchen twine, or use a metal spice ball.  Add the tea bags to the mint infusion and simmer, covered, another 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending when you want to serve the tea.

Discard the tea bags and the mint.  Taste for sugar, adding more if you like a sweeter tea.  Serve hot, ladled into mugs, or rinse a large teapot with hot water, stuff the neck with fresh mint, and fill with the hot tea out of the cooker to serve, refilling as needed.

Excerpted from Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Recipes for Entertaining, by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann. (c) 2007, used by permission from the Harvard Common Press.

tea in Morocco/photo by irving penn for vogue magazine/I just love this photo

Main dish salads are good all year round and yet reflect seasonality by their components. There are many exceptional main dish salads and you only need to know two and you are a wiz in the kitchen. Here is a very special main dish salad with spring in mind and its source of protein is duck.

While once duck was reserved for special occasions, the availability of frozen duck breasts makes it a delightful poultry alternative. I was served this salad at a lunch party after one of my private cooking classes. It was really a hit since it was so different and satisfying with the savory use of the tart blueberries, which go so remarkably well with the flavor of the rich duck. This needs to be served in blueberry season, both summer and winter which has the berries imported from Chile in staggering amounts (my market had buy 1 get 2 free-when do you see that anymore-oh well so much for eating local), hence the fresh blueberries. I cannot resist fresh blueberries at all. While blueberries are a first choice, in the fall I have used fresh figs and in early spring used sliced apricots.

The delightful surprise vinaigrette is a unique combination of fruit jelly and dried currants; the currants will plump and soften as they sit in the dressing. The pan-seared duck breasts are done in minutes and taste really fantastic. You will feel like a master chef making this salad.

Overview

Cooking Method: Stovetop

Cook Time: About 8 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients

Currant Vinaigrette

• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

• 2 tablespoons red currant, plum, or blackberry jelly (definitely jelly not jam)

• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 1/4 cup dried currants

Salad

• 4 boned duck breast halves with skin (each about 6-ounces)

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

• 6 cups mesclum (mixed baby salad greens)

• 4 cups baby spinach leaves, stemmed

• 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed

• 1 cup walnut pieces, lightly toasted on a clean baking sheet in a 350º oven for 6 to 8 minutes

• 4 green onions, white and green, chopped

Instructions

Place the vinegar, mustard, jelly, and thyme in a food processor or with an immersion blender. Pulse a few times. With the machine running, drizzle in the olive oil until thickened. Taste for seasoning and add the currants. Set aside or refrigerate until needed. Makes about 1 cup.

Invest in a quality 8 to 10-inch saute pan. If the pan/fat are not hot enough, the duck breast will not sear properly, will stick, and will absorb some of the fat.

Sprinkle the duck with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil and butter in a 12-inch heavy sauté pan over medium heat. Add the duck breast and sauté until browned, about 4 minutes per side (8 minutes total) for medium-rare. Do not overcook or they will be tough. Remove and cut each breast crosswise on a diagonal into strips, but keep the breast together. Set aside.

Combine the mesclum, spinach, blueberries, walnuts, and green onions in a bowl. Toss very lightly with some vinaigrette. Divide between 4 dinner plates. Top with the duck breast and drizzle with dressing. Serve immediately.

Excerpted from  Not Your Mother’s Weeknight Cooking, by Beth Hensperger. (c) 2008, used by permission from the Harvard Common Press.

Granola certainly has become one of the most touted of healthy breakfast cereals and what we are experiencing now commercially has grown straight out of its roots in the hippie whole grain oat-nut-and-seed kitchen of the 1960s. There are so many different brands of granola these days, it can be made as rich and decadent, or spare and low fat, as you wish.

The name granola is a take on granula, a toasted wheat cereal touted by whole grain movement of Sylvester Graham in the 1900s. Since it is tremendously versatile, it takes to all sorts of additions and variations on the basic recipe.

Whenever you think of making homemade granola, you probably think of large vats of cereal you have to make and baking it in the oven for up to an hour. The microwave makes spectacular granola and in a small few cup batch, an amount similar to what you would get with a box of commercial granola. I was really surprised at the quality and ease of making granola in the microwave.

I buy fresh rolled oats out of the bulk section, which smells delightfully grain-sweet, or Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Oats. Boy, are they good. And so darn fresh. Do not use quick- or instant-cooking oats; you want the real thing.

Light olive oil is one of the best substitutes for other flavorless oils and a secret ingredient. That bit of olive oil every day is like cash in the bank of health. Always stir in any dried fruit, along with the wheat germ and flax seed, after cooking or else they will harden and the grains lose some of their nutrients.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. Serve as a cereal with plenty of milk poured over, in a crisp topping, munching out of hand, with applesauce, or for a change especially nice for that special touch, crumble it over yogurt like in a granola fresh fruit parfait (recipe follows), or over ice cream and other fruit desserts to add flavor and texture. Good granola is such a treat.

Overview

Cookware: Wide 2-quart casserole or 11-by-7-inch Pyrex baking dish

Microwave Wattage: 1,100 to 1,300

Total Cook Time: 6 minutes

Standing Time: 30 minutes

Makes about 3 1/2 cups

Ingredients

• 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

• 1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds or slivered almonds

• 2 tablespoons firmly packed light brown sugar

• 2 tablespoons unsweetened dessicated coconut flakes

• 1 tablespoon raw sesame seeds

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/4 cup light olive oil

• 1/4 cup honey or maple syrup

• 1/2 cup moist golden raisins ( or combination golden raisins and tart dried cherries)

• 1/4 cup toasted wheat germ (such as Kretschmer’s)

• 2 tablespoons ground flax seed (which we all have on the fridge shelf these days)

Instructions

photo courtesy of Journey Into Unschooling

1. Line a 10- x 17-inch sheet pan with foil or parchment; set aside. Mix the oats, sunflower seeds, brown sugar, coconut, sesame seeds, and cinnamon in a wide 2-quart casserole or baking dish. Stir well.

2. In a 1-cup measuring cup combine the oil and honey or maple syrup. Microcook on HIGH, uncovered, for 30 seconds or until just warmed and liquefied (for easy pouring). Drizzle the oil-honey over the top of the oats and mix with a large spoon, coating all the ingredients evenly. Smooth into an even layer in the dish.

3. Microcook on HIGH for 2 minutes; stir well and smooth into an even layer.

4. Microcook on HIGH for an additional 1 1/2 minutes; stir well and smooth again. Check for degree of browning in case you like your granola very light.

5. Microcook on HIGH for an additional 1 minute more. You will be able to smell the degree of browning. If you need more cook time, do so at 30 second intervals. The granola will still look moist. Remove from the oven and stir in the raisins, wheat germ, and flax seed while hot.

6. Pour onto the prepared sheet pan and, with an offset spatula, spread out to the edges to make an even layer. Stir every 10 minutes until completely cooled. You can also spread only ½-inch thick, not stir, and let it cool into a granola bark. The granola will crisp up quickly as it cools. If you make the bark, lift the foil or parchment and break into pieces.

Granola Fruit Parfait

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 to 3 cups mixed berries in summer–any combination of sliced strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and/or raspberries-or mandarin orange segments and chopped apple or pear in winter

• 3 cups vanilla yogurt

• 1 1/2 cups granola

Instructions

1. Use 12-ounce wide-mouth drinking glass tumblers, such as French jelly jars, or deep dessert dishes. Set the 4 glasses on the counter. Spoon 1/4 cup of yogurt into the bottom of each glass.

2. Add a layer of berries then sprinkle with 2 tablespoons granola. Make 2 more layers, topping each with a tablespoon of granola. You will use a total of abut 1 cup of berries, 1 cup of yogurt, and 1/2 cup of granola for each parfait. Serve immediately or cover loosely with plastic wrap and chill up to 4 hours.

Head over to the deli section and get some imported feta, one of the best salad cheeses. If I am driving by the Middle Eastern market, I will stop in just for the feta; they slice a piece off a big block sitting in milky liquid. Who could have known there are so many fetas from which to choose? And bacon is IN in the culinary universe. There is barely a soul who will quibble with that after years of being so careful not to eat bacon and adore it.

So here is a classic, spinach with bacon tossed with feta and after you cook the bacon, you quickly cook the vinaigrette. Pour over, toss and eat immediately. Good as a side to your main dish or for lunch with a bowl of soup without a care in the world.

Ingredients

• Two large handfuls fresh baby spinach, washed and dried

• 1 tablespoon olive oil of choice

• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

• 1/2 teaspoon finely minced shallot

• 1 strip meaty bacon, cut in thin crosswise strips

• 1 to 2 tablespoons crumbled Feta cheese

• 1 tablespoon dried cranberries (optional but yummy and a nice counterpoint to the bacon and feta)

Instructions

Put the spinach into medium bowl, big enough to toss salad in. Combine olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and shallot in small bowl and whisk together.

Heat small 8-inch frying pan, add bacon and cook 2 to 3 minutes, until bacon crisps. Remove pan from heat and blot the bacon with paper towel to remove fat.

Put the pan back on heat, pour in the oil-vinegar-shallot combination and heat until just starting to bubble, then pour immediately over spinach and toss.

Serve out of the bowl or arrange salad on a serving plate, crumble feta and cranberries (if using) over, and serve to eat immediately.

On my first visit to France so long ago in 1977, I was invited to dine in a 200 year old country house of hand-cut stone in a truffle-oak orchard south of Albi. I had just left Paris in August, the month Paris is virtually empty with the natives all

Crowds of French civilians stand on tanks in front of the Hotel de Ville during the celebration of the liberation of France, late August 1944

abroad or in the country to escape the heat. I spent the day at the Louvre meditating before the life size paintings of Napoleon (almost slipping in the rain on the dangerously wet marble stairs leading up to the museum on the way out), then dashing around I. M. Pei’s glass pyramid, which was new so quite the showpiece for both tourists and locals at the time. Then I crossed the Louvre’s Cour Napoleon to get a good spot to stand on one of the old stone bridges over the Siene to watch the VE-Day fireworks. These are set off over the palatial Hotel de Ville (City Hall) that looked like it was built during the Napoleonic era it is so imposing. The streets and bridges were jammed. VE-Day, commemorating the liberation of France during WW2, still means a lot in France. People were even crying with joy like it was yesterday that DeGaulle paraded under Napoleon’s Arc de Triomphe (The modern-day Arc de Triomphe is a nightmare to drive as you are surrounded by a circling vortex of madcap speeding French drivers going this way and that spilling in and out the 12 radiating avenues. I got caught there for what seemed like hours not being able to get off on my proper street. Oh Paris.). The next day I motored straight south into the heart of rural France.

If you really want to experience the villages of France, you have to go by car (or bicycle, but please….). Many villages are so small you have driven through before you know you were there and you can never find them on a map. The sign would say “entering so and so” and about 500 feet and 3 buildings later, the next sign would say “leaving so and so.” I could never get over it. Even if you don’t speak the language, you can have an out-of-the-ordinary visit to the French countryside replete with fortified towns and castles, incredible outdoor markets, narrow canals, and of course, really great little restaurants and bakeries no one is ever going to write about, filled with excellent food and country charm. I even loved the little epiceries, the grocery stores, where the stacks of fresh crepes are next to the register. I would shop there in every town to get the little French yogurt cups, never big enough, with the best yogurt you have ever tasted.

Nestled halfway between the west part of Languedoc (Pronounced “Lanhng-dawk”–the name flows once you know how to say it), the Pyrenees  to the south, and eastern Gascony border, this is the land of fois gras, the Toulouse-Lautrec museum, Tarn river gorges, Cathar medieval castles, and Perrier mineral water. The drive was often shady tree lined two-lane roads through late summer flowering fields of tobacco, maize, and lavender once we left the main autoroute. I was fascinated by the oversized wine barrel structures that lined the road every few miles offering glasses of local wine and Armagnac, just like our old fashioned root beer stands of my childhood. Just the thought of hopping from one barrel to the next, wine tasting, and then driving on those two lane roads, well, it still kinda makes me stop and take a deep breath (remember the episode of the Absolutely Fabulous comic relief gals on holiday in France driving ridiculously intoxicated after an afternoon at one of the local wineries and they couldn’t find the steering wheel for the cars drive on the opposite side than in Britain. Yippee.).

I was heading to the out-of-the city family weekend destination where brothers, sisters, their children, and grand aunties would meet to get away from the hot summer temperatures and city bustle of Toulouse. It was incredibly rustic and kinda run down, situated in a scrubby woodland meadow, built of a soft white stone which is locally excavated on the Quercy Limestone Plateau. It was the original home of their late parents and grandparents who were truffle farmers, that potent black fungus which grows elusively on the roots of the oak trees. It was an incredibly restful area, and very quiet, still in the 70s very agricultural, nothing luxurious in sight.

Steep external stairs led to a small landing then directly into a main room with the large open fireplace and rectangular dining table set in front of it (the architecture with a high pitched stone tile roof and cave on the ground level is typical of the area). The room was quite dark, as there were no electric lights.  This quite small main room was the hub of the farmhouse; there were some small bedrooms, but no living room. I was seated at the end of a long, rough-hewn plank table for a hearty family-style Sunday midday meal.  I sat in outright amazement at the makings of a true country feast and certainly one of the most memorable meals I have ever eaten.

A gigantic rump of Auvergne beef encrusted with coarse sea salt and Dijon mustard was roasting over an open hearth fire in an even more gigantic lidded cast-iron kettle. Certainly the largest Dutch oven I had ever seen or have seen since, about 14-inches in diameter and almost just as deep. In the far corner stood a small four-burner gas range with two ancient oversized pitch-black cast-iron frying pans pushed to the rear of the stove; both contained vegetables waiting to be sautéed in sweet butter.  One was heaped with the ubiquitous French-cut green beans, and the other held a mound of sliced fresh brown mushrooms known as cèpes, a member of the Boletus family and the fresh porcini, gathered locally in the oak forest.  My mind’s eye can still see the handles of these huge black pans with their handles at offset parallel angles in the dark corner with the sloping pyramid of vegetables rising up out of each of them.

In the center of the table was coarse homemade duck  pâté de campagne in a glass spring top jar with crisp sticks of crust-shatteringly fresh baguette to start, and a salad glistening with a pungent Dijon mustard and le midi golden olive oil vinaigrette to follow the roast. Unlabeled dark wine bottles were filled with the fresh wonderful Langued’oc red wine, decanted by hand from large bulk drums kept in the cave; we always drank the wine out of squat tumblers not stemware. An immense cut-crystal bowl was filled to the rim with the legendary tiny fraises des bois to accompany the cheese course of a Roquefort (which aged in the local limestone caves) and a young Brie, of which I was hopelessly addicted to. Pastries from the town bake shop were last, along with small, acrid cups of strong coffee the French hold so dear to finishing their meal.  Strangely enough, that crystal bowl of berries is the main visual element that sparkles in my memory of that afternoon.  The hinged wooden shutters opened to let in the only light, which reflected the bountiful sunlight through the crystal and sent fragments of rainbows onto the clay walls while we ate.  That, and the conversation, was the entertainment.

Later in the afternoon we filled an ancient perambulator with baguettes, cheese, apples, and cold cassoulet (basically a dried haricot bean stew with any sort of sausage and meat in it) and headed off for a picnic on blankets under the oak trees. Envision little more than a dirt path leading to an open field spotted with the truffle oaks, rather dry since it is the end of summer, and almost two dozen laughing and noisy chattering people of all ages trampling down the road pushing a baby carriage. If you have ever sat in a field of fallen oak leaves, you will remember their spiny leaf borders, which can prickle you right through the blanket and stick to the bottom of your shoes. No babies were going barefoot in that. The French truly know the art of the family picnic that is one of the rites and rhythm of country life…enjoying being together.

The next day I set off for the coast and port of Sete. But that is another story…

Recipes

Vegetarian Cassoulet

Cassoulet

One of the best marinades for lamb ever concocted. You won’t need another one–ever. From Julia Child’s most wonderful tome, The Way to Cook, which is the go-to gift for any cookbook lover you need a gift for. Julia considered this her best book. Good for chops, leg of lamb, kabobs; grilling or roasting. Recipe can be multiplied as needed.

Makes about 1/2 cup, enough for 1 pound meat

Ingredients

• 2 cloves garlic

• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

• 1 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

• 1/4 cup olive oil

Instructions

In a small food processor, toss in the garlic and thyme and finely chop. Add the Dijon, lemon juice, soy sauce, and olive oil; process until emulsified and the garlic is pureed. Alternately you can press the garlic and whisk the ingredients together in a small bowl. Place the lamb in an appropriate side bowl or plastic container with lid, or in gallon freezer bags. Cover and seal or use the lid. Marinate the lamb a few hours to overnight. Lift the meat out of the marinade and cook as desired. Discard any excess marinade. You can also set some marinade aside to paint on the lamb while cooking.

Marinating Time: 2 hours to overnight

Cooking Time/Doneness Temperature: 5-6 minutes per side; 145°F for medium

composed asparagus vinaigrette

Salads are divided into three main categories: The tossed garden greens include baby lettuces and spinach salad; many salads feature one type of lettuce, like the Caesar and a wedge of iceberg with thousand island or bleu cheese dressing. Mesclum, a popular bagged salad mix, refers to a mix of seasonal greens including arugula, butter, frisee, limestone, mâche, radicchio, and mizuna; there are various young and baby lettuce mixtures now available from different growers. Marinated salads, often made with one type of vegetable, can be made with a vinaigrette or mayonnaise-based dressing, like celery root remoulade, mushrooms a la grecque, leeks vinaigrette, potato, rice,

mixed beans vinaigrette

bean salads, and pasta salads, coleslaw, and Waldorf. Composed salads are more substantial, containing multiple ingredients. Here is your Salade Nicoise, Cobb, shrimp or crab Louis, Layered Fajita Salad, Chef’s Salad, and Hearts of Palm.

The sauce techniques are all derived from two main mother sauces–the vinaigrette (oil and vinegar) and mayonnaise (an emulsion with eggs or soft tofu). The vinaigrette is the most common dinner salad dressing, which can be mixed up in minutes. The type of oil used depends on the dish and style of cook. Olive oil is the most common for its nutrition and delicious taste, as well as heart-healthy mono-unsaturaed acids. Extra virgin is the strongest in flavor, the first pressing, is always recommended to be used in an uncooked state, especially vinaigrettes or drizzled. Other oils are nut oils (especially walnut or macadamia), avocado oil, corn oil, grapeseed oil, sunflower oil, and organic canola oil.

Here are two famous simple salads I love that will serve you well. One is the basic tossed green salad, poetic in its recitation of technique, and a now classic salad with warm goat cheese rounds served on top, which I served countless times for catering on butter lettuce.

Mixed Green Salad a la Vincent Schiavelli

The late actor and surprisingly adept gourmand Vincent Schiavelli wrote the most wonderful first cookbook, Papa Andrea’s Sicilian Table (Citadel Press, 1993).  In it he records his grandfather’s recipes and, to my delight, he has written down how to make a great simple tossed green salad.  He remarks that “a salad is more art than science, and not difficult to master.” It is a great accompaniment to your braise or stew, or as its own course to serve after.  If you use one of the premixed bitter lettuce combos that have become chic and are available now at many supermarkets and farmer’s markets, use in combination with at least 50 percent regular green leaf lettuce to balance the sweet and bitter to make the salad most enjoyable.  One pound of lettuce will feed 4 people a heaping two-cup serving.  This is an adaptation of Vincent’s insalata mista, the mixed green salad. If you use lemon juice instead of the vinegar, use equal parts of juice and oil.

Ingredients

• Any mixture a la momento of sweet and bitter salad greens, such as butter or romaine lettuce, red leaf lettuce, Cos lettuce, iceberg, radicchio, watercress, fennel, endive, baby spinach, màche, or arugula, washed and well dried, and torn by hand into pieces (not cut, which will discolor the leaves)

• Thin sliced red onion, grated or sliced beets, parcooked green beans, grated carrot, sliced tomatoes, avocado dipped in lemon juice, edible flower petals like nasturtiums, baby zucchini slices, sliced mushrooms, sprouts, olives, cucumber, etc, as desired (optional)

• Fine sea salt, which will open the lettuce to receive the vinegar

• Red or white wine vinegar, such as Zinfandel or Merlot vinegar, Sherry vinegar, Cabernet vinegar, Champagne vinegar, fig vinegar, rice wine vinegar, or a good apple cider vinegar

• Olive oil, extra-virgin, virgin, or light, as your palate and purse dictate

• A pepper mill with black or white peppercorns

Instructions

Place the lettuces in a large bowl.  Sprinkle lightly with the salt, a few pinches are all that are needed even for a large salad.  Toss with your hands or tongs.  Sprinkle with the vinegar until the aroma rises gently from the bowl.  Toss again.  Drizzle with the olive oil, about three times as much oil as the vinegar.  Toss again.  Keep a light hand; you can always add more.  Toss in any other ingredients, like cucumbers, etc, or arrange on top.  Grind some black pepper over the top and serve.  Never add too much of anything, “you don’t want a vinegary or oiling salad, but ingredients enhanced by the dressing.”

Salad of Greens with Goat Cheese

Once upon a time, an architecture student who was sleeping on the couch at a friend’s apartment ate at a small, local hangout and helped in the kitchen one day when the staff was shorthanded.  He ended up staying and working in the kitchen, helped owner Alice Waters create a legendary food scene, and in the process, became a chef.  The man is Jeremiah Tower, one of the most lauded chefs of the last three decades on the West Coast, and the restaurant was Chez Panisse in Berkeley.  Before he owned his own restaurants, Tower taught cooking classes in San Francisco.  The Salad of Greens with Goat Cheese is one of his most famous creations and the signature plated salad of a new generation of foodies, made with a domestic cheese (little known at the time) called chèvre from Laura Chenel in Marin County.  The recipe I share here was on a piece of faded paper with his letterhead from one of those classes long ago.  This composed salad has had many transmutations through its popular life, but this is the original, and it is as fabulous and fresh as the day it was created.

Serves 4

Ingredients

Vinaigrette

• 1/2 cup olive oil or walnut oil

• 2 tablespoons Champagne wine vinegar

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Croutons

• 4 slices country or French bread, about 1/2 inch thick, cut in fourths on the diagonal

• 2 cloves garlic

Cheese Rounds

• 4 (1 ounce each) firm Crottins, or a log of Montrachet, cut into 8 rounds

• About 1/2 cup olive oil, divided use

• 1/2 cup coarse fresh bread crumbs, made by whirling chunks of fresh bread in a                  food processor

Salad

• 4 heaping cups or handfuls mixed salad greens (bitter greens, endive, chicory, sorrel, baby dandelion, watercress, arugula, celery leaves, baby hearts of romaine), or butter lettuce leaves, washed, dried, and at room temperature

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, combine the oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.  Set aside.

2. Rub the slices of bread with the whole clove of garlic on both sides; discard the garlic.  Set aside.

3. Pour some of the olive oil in a small, shallow dish.  Dip the rounds of cheese first in the oil, then in the bread crumbs, coating both sides.

4. Place the 1/4 cup of the olive oil in a medium skillet and heat to medium.  Place the coated rounds of cheese, in a single layer, in the skillet and cook until golden on the bottom; carefully turn with a metal spatula to brown the other side, 1 to 2 minutes.

5. Place the greens in a bowl and toss with the dressing.  Divide between 4 salad plates.  Place the warm cheese round in the center of the plate of greens.  Quickly place the bread slices in the remaining hot oil and brown on both sides.  Tuck two croutons onto each plate of salad.  Serve immediately.

Both recipes excerpted from Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook, by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann. (c) 2005, used by permission from the Harvard Common Press.

Recipe: Homemade French Vinaigrette with Dijon and Shallots

photo courtesy of David Lebovitz

Invite anyone from France to dinner and they will be horrified if you take out a bottled dressing for the salad. Ohhh mon dieu! It is part of the dinner preparation ritual to have someone at the counter mixing the vinaigrette. Here is the homemade all-purpose vinaigrette, or oil and vinegar salad dressing with classic ingredient proportions, that should be one of the first things a cook learns to make. It is the alpha and omega of oil and vinegar dressings. It has nice concise proportions, perfect for one salad. It is not refrigerated, which changes the flavors, so you make it a la momento. You can vary the flavors by what vinegar or brand mustard you use, as well as what olive oil you use. A tip about the shallot: Madeleine Kamman, the esteemed French food teacher and writer, teaches the technique to place your shallots in a thin, clean dishtowel and wring it to squeeze out the juice. This mellows the sharp flavor of the shallot. Also play with the different sea salts, each which has a distinct flavor and give more character than plain iodized salt. Freshly ground black or white peppercorns–a must. After a while you wont have to measure anymore; you will toss this together by feel. I used to have a small flexible metal whisk which was perfect just for making the vinaigrette, now I just use a fork. You can mix with an immersion blender and use the narrow plastic beaker that comes with it rather than mix by hand if you wish; the vinaigrette will be more creamy looking. Just pulse a few times.

Makes about 1/4 cup, enough for one large green salad

Ingredients

• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt (a pinch or two)

• 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar, champagne vinegar, apple cider vinegar, rice wine vinegar, or red wine vinegar

• 1/2 small shallot, peeled and minced (about 2 to 3 teaspoons)

• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

• 3 tablespoons to 4 tablespoons olive oil of choice

• Chopped or minced fresh herbs, if desired (a pinch or two at most basil, tarragon, parsley, or chives are favorites)

Instructions

1. In a small bowl with a wooden spoon, fork, or small whisk, mix together the salt, vinegar, and shallot. Let stand for about ten minutes.

2. Mix in the Dijon mustard, then add 3 tablespoons of the olive oil. Stir well, then taste. If too sharp, add the additional olive oil and more salt, if necessary. If you wish to add fresh herbs, it’s best to chop and mix them in shortly before serving so they retain their flavor.
Storage: This dressing will keep for about eight hours, covered with plastic wrap or lid, at room temperature. If you want to make it farther in advance, it’s best to add the shallots closer to serving so they don’t lose their verve.

baked focaccia with fresh rosemary and coarse sea salt

Sometimes you want fresh bread, but don’t have time to make it from scratch.  So this the opportunity to use commercially made Ready-Dough packaged by Bridgeford, easily found in the supermarket freezer department.  Using the three 1-pound loaves that come in one package, you can make the best Italian flatbread focaccia.

Defrost the dough on the kitchen counter in the package, about 7  hours (too long and it will over rise), or overnight in the refrigerator.  Be sure to leave it in the bag or else the dough will dry out and develop a thick skin.  If you can’t prepare the flatbreads right away, leave the package of dough in the refrigerator for a few hours until you are ready.

The use a metal or ceramic rectangular baking sheet is 12-x-15-inches with a shallow 1/2-inch sloping edge.  Sprinkle with cornmeal, and then take one section of dough, pressing it into an uneven, flat oval on the pan.  After letting it rest 10 minutes, use your fingers to dimple the slightly puffy dough and sprinkle on the toppings.

You can use any combination of ingredients that you want. First the dough is moistened with some oil.  It is okay that the oil pools into the indentations. Then a bit of vegetables or nuts for flavor and color, then cheese.  It is a balance of layering the ingredients.  It is even good with just oil and sprinkled with some coarse salt.

What emerges from the oven, hot and savory, is a beautiful, rustic flatbread.  It is ready to be served immediately, cut with a serrated knife, for an appetizer or with your minestrone soup or stews.

Makes 1 large flat loaf, serves about 6 to 8

Ingredients

• 1 loaf (1 pound) frozen bread dough, thawed in the refrigerator 12 to 24 hours or at room temperature 6 to 8 hours

• 2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal or farina, for sprinkling

• 2 to 4 tablespoons olive oil

• Topping of choice (see below)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350º.  Use a baking stone if you have one, but it is not essential. Sprinkle a baking sheet heavily with cornmeal or farina.

Place the soft dough on the pan, and using floured fingers, press and push to make an evenly flat loaf about 10-x-8-inches.  Let rest a few minutes, then press again to stretch the dough a bit further.  Cover dough with a clean dish towel and let rest 10 to 15 minutes at room temperature (double the time if your dough was refrigerated and still cold).  Assemble the topping ingredients.

raw dough pressed into the baking pan

Using your fingertips, press into the dough to make impressions that dimple the puffy dough.   Drizzle with oil, arrange the topping of choice, and sprinkle with cheese, if using.

Immediately place in the center of the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes, until puffed and dark golden brown.  Serve warm or room temperature.

Cheese and Herb Focaccia

Drizzle the dough with olive oil.  Sprinkle the dough with about 3 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into small cubes.  Sprinkle lightly with some dried marjoram or basil leaves, and some garlic powder.

Focaccia with Goat Cheese and Walnuts

Spread the dough with 2 tablespoons of soft butter, sprinkle with 1/3 cup of walnut pieces, and dot with 2 ounces of fresh goat cheese.  Drizzle with a tablespoon of walnut oil over the top.

Olive Focaccia

pitted black olive foccacia

Knead 1/3 cup pitted and sliced kalamata black olives and 1/3 cup pitted and sliced green olives into the bread dough.  Let rest 10 minutes.  Press into a flat shape.  Drizzle with olive oil, letting it pool in the indentations. Or just press the whole olives into the dough, as in photo.

Tomato Focaccia

Sprinkle the dough with 3/4 cup salsa fresca, fresh chopped tomatoes, or drained canned chopped tomatoes.  Sprinkle with 2 ounces grated plain or smoked Monterey jack cheese.  Drizzle lightly with olive oil.

Garlic Focaccia

Brush the dough with some olive oil.  Sprinkle with 3 to 4 cloves of chopped garlic or pierce with slivered garlic.  Drizzle liberally with more olive oil.

Herb Focaccia

Drizzle the dough with some walnut, hazelnut, or pecan oil, letting the oil pool in the indentations.  Sprinkle lightly with a tablespoon of a dried or fresh herb, such as rosemary, oregano, basil, or marjoram.  Sprinkle with coarse kosher or sea salt.

Roasted Red Pepper Focaccia

Brush the dough with some olive oil.  Lay four 1/2-inch strips of teleme cheese over the dough and some strips of roasted red peppers crisscrossing over the cheese.  Drizzle with some more olive oil and sprinkle with some garlic powder.

Excerpted from Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook, by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann. (c) 2005, used by permission from the Harvard Common Press.

ceramic baking stone positioned on the lowest oven rack

greasing the crock

Overview

Cooker:  Medium or large round

Setting and Cook Time: HIGH for 2 1/4 to 2 3/4 hours

Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar

• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/3 cup light olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup grated raw carrots – packed (I just do an overflowing cup)
• Cream Cheese Whipped Cream (recipe below), for icing or garnish

Instructions

1. Line the bottom of the crock with a round of parchment paper; A 4- to 6- quart round works best. Coat the paper and one third of the way up the side of the crock with butter-flavored nonstick cooking spray.

2. Prepare carrots by peeling and grating. Set the grated carrots aside.

3. In a mixing bowl with an electric mixer on medium high speed, cream the sugar, eggs, water and oil together until creamy, 3 minutes. On low speed, add the flour, vanilla, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt just to combine. Add the grated carrots and mix until evenly distributed. Spread evenly in the crock.

4. Place four or five paper towels over the top of the crock and cover. Cook on HIGH until puffed and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 2 1/4 to 2 3/4 hours. The cake is done when firm in the middle. Check by inserting a toothpick or cake tester into the center at 2 hours. When done, the toothpick should come out clean.

5. Uncover and let stand for 30 minutes to cool before cutting small wedges to serve warm or at room temperature straight out of the crock. To remove, run a knife a round the edge inside the crock and lift out in one piece with a large rubber spatula. Cut into wedges or squares to serve. Top with cream cheese whipped cream in a dollop or spread with a nice thick layer.

Cream Cheese Whipped Cream

Makes about 3 cups

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups chilled heavy cream

• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened

• 2/3 cup granulated sugar

• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

In a chilled bowl with an electric mixer and whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form.  Remove to another bowl and set aside. Without washing the bowl, switch to the paddle attachment and whip the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.  On low speed, fold in the whipped cream. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to use. You may have leftovers if you ice the cake instead of serving dollops on top of the pieces.

carrot cake has its own particular texture