A Good Dish

making food simpler

Dressing Spring Vegetables

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When artichokes and asparagus are as beautiful and fresh as they are right now, I want to make them often. A steamed artichoke is a treat with melted butter but is elevated to another state with a scrumptious dip. Hollandaise sauce, a traditional accompaniment to both artichokes and asparagus, has alway been too rich for me. Plus, unless I’ve met the chicken whose eggs I’m eating, anything with raw egg in it makes me feel squeamish.

dish by Kirk Mangus
dish by Kirk Mangus

Growing up, we dipped our artichoke leaves in a homemade mustardy vinaigrette with chopped, hard boiled eggs. My mother clipped vinrecipethe recipe from a monthly newsletter more than 40 years ago and still pulls it out out every spring to sauce artichokes. When I went to copy down the recipe decades ago, it was already worn and speckled with drops of oil and now my own copy looks much the same. The vinaigrette in the newsletter came from Paul Steindler, a Czech chef who ran La Popette restaurant in New York.

For years I made Mom’s recipe just as she had prepared it, but then it occurred to me that a few changes might suit me better. I swapped in apple cider vinegar for white distilled, replaced the white sugar with maple syrup and went back to the Dijon mustard that was in the original (not the bright yellow “French’s” hot dog mustard we used at home). The newsletter recipe called for half a cup of olive oil but that made the vinaigrette too rich for my taste and tolerance. I cut the oil to 2 tablespoons and instead of adding a chopped egg at the end, I added 2 hard boiled eggs and blended them completely to thicken it all into an unctuous and tangy dip, similar to but lighter than the original.

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We still celebrate spring with artichokes and asparagus dipped in this delicious mustardy vinaigrette and I feel good about making it. This combination of a vegetable with a protein makes it a meal, especially if you don’t want a heavy supper. If there is any sauce left over, it makes a pretty good dip for carrots or cold, cooked asparagus the next afternoon. You can prepare this vinaigrette ahead, as it will keep in the refrigerator a day or so, and just re-blend it while the artichokes or asparagus are steaming.

UN-HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

plate by Sabina Teutenberg
plate by Sabina Teutenberg

Blend well:

  • 3 Tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 Tbs apple cider vinegar
  • 2 Tbs Dijon mustard
  • 2 tsps maple syrup (or honey)
  • 1/4 tsp Worcester sauce
  • 2 Tbs olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper

Add and blend until smooth:

  • 2 hard boiled eggs, peeled

Great as a dip for artichokes (pour right into the center of a cooked and cleaned artichoke) or drizzled over steamed asparagus (or served in a small dish on the side). Store any leftover in the refrigerator for one day. Fills 4 large artichokes.

Silvia Granatelli – Animating and enriching our food with her pottery

Granatelli place setting photo by Molly Selznick
Granatelli place setting
photo by Molly Selznick

Color is the often the first thing that attracts me to Silvie Granatelli’s porcelain pottery – shiny, vivid turquoise or olive green interiors contrasting with satiny charcoal or deep mossy green exteriors. If it isn’t the color, it is the texture – repeating imprinted or raised linear patterning on the surface – that moves your eye and hands around the pots. This tableware beckons to be held. Sometimes the pots are pierced, sometimes stamped or appliquéd – decorated either by taking away or adding clay. Granatelli’s forms, whether straight-sided or undulating, are articulated and accentuated by both these surface markings and by her glazing choices.

Granatelli dinnerware photo by Molly Selznick
Granatelli dinnerware
photo by Molly Selznick

The functional results of her texture and color treatments are pots which are appealing to pick up and use and in which food looks great. Her dinner plates frame whatever is put on them just as her bowls work as a backdrop to flatter everything from plain old cereal to nuts. Granatelli is clear about her intentions. “My pottery is about food presentation. It is made to bring foods to light.” She pays attention to the details that make a pot more comfortable to use – the thickness of a mug’s lip, the position of a handle for ease of lifting, the width of a bowl’s foot to make it sit solidly on a flat surface. Her pieces are not just attractive but also they are well-crafted.

photo by Molly Selznick
photo by Molly Selznick

Granatelli thinks about these functional and physical details and about how her work fits into the larger theater of food presentation. “Currently, I am interested in hospitality. Hospitality, which means to give and to receive. I view pottery as a vehicle of hospitality, because a pot gives and receives simultaneously; it is both host and guest.”

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When plating food in my own kitchen, her small pots are some of the pieces I reach for most often. Some of my favorites are carved and stamped bowls lined with a shiny lime green glaze. Sweet potato chips, sesame sticks and even a dollop of hummus look alive in these pots. Other faves are a set of linearly carved bowls with dreamy turquoise interiors that I use for everything from olives to salsa. A side perk of the animated, textured exteriors is that they don’t slip out of my hands so easily.

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Granatelli lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains, near Floyd, Virginia. For many years she came north to sell her work at the annual Old Church holiday pottery sale (www.tasoc.org/node/871), one of the best places near New York City to buy pots. Now her pieces are for sale during semi-annual self-guided tours of studios in her area of Virginia (http://www.16hands.com), year-round at Troika Contemporary Crafts, a local Floyd gallery (http://troikacrafts.com) or by contacting her directly at her website (http://silviegranatelli.com).

To see Silvie Granatelli at work, check out this short video:

 

footed bowl by Silvie Granatelli
footed bowl by Silvie Granatelli

Riffing on Soba

 

Tossed Soba plate by Michael Hunt & Naomi Dalglish
Tossed Soba
plate by Michael Hunt & Naomi Dalglish

 

Traditional soba can be very simple – just cooked noodles, cold or warm, served with a dipping sauce. It is found all over Japan in soup, as a salad or with a thick sauce. In New York, we are just learning its culinary range as soba follows ramen as the new, trendy star in soba-centric restaurants and as making your own soba noodles outmodes preparing homemade pasta. A soba dipping sauce or soup base is often dashi, a broth made from seaweed and sometimes bonito (fish) flakes with soy sauce and may be fortified with vinegar, sugar, sesame oil, mushrooms or daikon.

noodlesI rarely have the patience to prepare dashi properly so I have a shorthand method for making soba. My sauce recipe (below) is similar to a savory salad dressing, in which you toss the cooked noodles. Soba noodles are made from buckwheat (which is gluten-free as it is actually a seed and not a grain) often with added wheat flour (because it contains gluten) to make the pasta less fragile. I prefer 100% buckwheat or buckwheat combined bottleswith sweet potato or wild yam (King Soba and Eden are two reliable brands). Why not exclude some wheat when it is easy and tasty? If you don’t care about gluten, any soba noodle will do. The noodles cook very quickly so please pay attention to cooking time and to rinsing with cold water, which is essential to stop the cooking process. You want to retain a firm texture rather than letting them turn to mush, which can happen quickly, so watch and test before you think they might be done.

Because this recipe is delicious cold or at room temperature, it may be prepared in the morning or the night before and refrigerated until dinner, especially helpful when you don’t want to cook in the heat of a summer day. It is good as a side dish to fish, served with a green vegetable like watercress or broccoli or holds its own as a main course with added tofu or tempeh (easy enough to make but if you are strapped for time, use a package of marinated – Nu Tofu makes a good one) plus a green vegetable. Leftovers hold up very well in a lunchbox and work well for a picnic.

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TOSSED SOBA

  • One 8 oz package of soba noodles
  • One strip of kombu/kelp

Bring a large pot of water (3-4 quarts) to a boil. Add the dry kombu (seaweed) and boil 3-4 minutes. Add the unwrapped soba and stir to break the starch bonds, as when preparing any pasta. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 4-5 minutes, checking to see when the noodles are done. Please don’t overcook them. Drain, discard the kombu (if you like it, you can cut up the cooked kombu and add it back in at the end) and rinse the noodles immediately in a colander under cold running water until they are cooled. Do this for 2 reasons – to keep them from sticking and to keep them from drinking up all of the marinade too quickly (hot noodles are hungry noodles – they soak up too much liquid and get bloated).

Soba sauce or dressing:

Mix together in a medium glass or stainless steel bowl:

  • 1/3 cup tamari (I use San-j reduced sodium, gluten-free)
  • 2/3 cup 100% apple juice (I keep a few small juice boxes around for this purpose so I don’t have to keep a whole bottle open in the fridge for only occasional use)
  • 1 TBs mirin (Japanese rice wine) or seasoned rice vinegar
  • 2 TBs toasted sesame oil
  • 2 TBs finely grated fresh ginger root (about a 2-3 inch knob or more if you like a lot of ginger)
  • Pinch of cayenne

Add cooled soba and mix well.  (You could serve the noodles by themselves with the sauce on the side for dipping)

Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, stirring occasionally to make sure all the noodles are coated.

Garnish with finely sliced scallions, finely sliced cucumber(skin and seeds removed) and a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds.

To serve as a main course salad, add slices of sautéed or baked tofu or tempeh.

Serves 4-5 as a side dish and 3 as a main course. The recipe is easily doubled or tripled if you are serving a larger group.

A Lighter Cocktail

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Porcelain tumbler by James Makins

Scotch. Bourbon, Rye. All delicious. But sometimes you want a lighter drink with lower alcohol content. There are days when even a glass of wine or a beer seems too heavy. In those moments, I reach for the sweet vermouth. Yes, sweet vermouth. What is usually thought of as an ingredient in a Manhattan or Negroni, makes a delightful drink on its own. I find it refreshing as the weather starts to warm up and a stiff drink would make me too woozy.

Vermouth, a fortified (added spirits) wine with botanicals, is made in many countries. It is thought to have originated in Turin, Italy. There are more and more brands of sweet red vermouth (as opposed to the dry vermouth used in a martini or the blanco I just read about which is white and sweet) marketed in the U.S. and the taste runs from syrupy sweet to medicinal. We bought several bottles to try since our local liquor stores have started carrying a wide variety of vermouths in a range of sizes and prices.

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The more aromatic varieties, like Carpano, which makes Antica Formula, and Punt E Mes (both Italian), are preferred in upscale bars and restaurants. My palette finds them somewhat bitter on their own but they are the most complex of the vermouths we sampled. Cinzano and Martini & Rossi (Italian) are more old-school and a bit sweeter and heavier. Dolin and Noilly Prat (both French) lie somewhere in the middle and are a little more sherry-like. The best tasting solution, for me, is to mix one of the traditional Italian sweet vermouths with any of the others. It’s fun to experiment and see which brand or combination you prefer. Let me know what you choose. My current favorite blend is Cinzano with Dolin.

In Italy, a sweet vermouth on the rocks is a classic aperitif. It is a lovely drink on a warm afternoon but I think it is made even better with a splash of seltzer and a squeeze of an orange. If you prefer your drink less sweet, squeeze in lime or grapefruit instead of orange juice and add a slice of lime or grapefruit rather than an orange. If you want to get adventurous, you can try adding a dash of sherry (it’s been sitting in your cupboard anyway, right?) or a few drops of bitters. My husband prefers it with both sherry and bitters (we used Angostura). A piece of mint in summer could be refreshing. Try naming your concoction – that is always a fun diversion. Hmm. Perhaps a  vermouth tasting would make a festive spring or summer get-together? Salute!

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CONTINENTAL DRIFT (or make up your own name!

  • 1/4 cup sweet vermouth
  • 2 Tbs orange juice or a squeeze of half a small orange
  • Splash (or 2) of seltzer or sparkling mineral water
  • Piece of an orange (I cut a medium orange in 6 pieces)

Stir together in a glass and add ice.

A Simple Green Salad

Any Season Salad Plate by Mary Briggs
Any Season Salad
Plate by Mary Briggs

I eat salad in some form almost every day. Eating salad helps me get in the daily minimum requirement of vegetables, fills me up and satisfies my desire for something crunchy, hopefully better than reaching for chips or crackers. Sometimes I make a generic tossed salad with whatever I happen to have in the crisper. Other times, I follow a recipe for a shredded cabbage, beet or carrot slaw (I will share these in future posts) or put together a composed salad from leftover cooked vegetables. What kind of salad I make depends on what is in season or available to buy.

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The following recipe is not extraordinary, just a simple, reliable salad based on ingredients that are almost always in stock at my local market (Mani Market on 94th and Columbus in New York) or at nearby chain stores like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods and will most likely be available at any good supermarket near you. I prefer to buy vegetables in season but in the northeast, that isn’t always possible. In summer and early fall, salad ingredients are abundant at our farmers’ markets but in other seasons, I depend on my local grocers. Bagged romaine (the 12 oz bag with 3 small heads), hothouse cukes, celery and fresh dill, all organic, are on their shelves year round. I think it is the dill that gives this particular salad its fresh taste while the rest of the vegetables provide crunch and textural variety.

This salad recipe is my go-to when I don’t have the energy to be creative. It comes together quickly so you can rely on making it in a pinch. It is a very basic recipe. Please vary it according to your preferences and the contents of your refrigerator. If you don’t like dill, use cilantro, chives or parsley. If you don’t have cucumbers, use green peppers or a leftover cooked vegetable such as asparagus or peas. And if you don’t have celery, use sliced daikon or jicama – something for crunch. If you don’t like sunflower seeds, use pumpkin or sesame or omit them completely. Finally, if you want to make this more of a main course salad, add a cup or so of crumbled feta cheese, cooked chicken or shrimp or cooked beans like kidney or cannellini. Fruit is a nice addition, especially orange or grapefruit sections. You can enrich the dressing, if you like it heavier, with a little yogurt or cream.

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ANY SEASON SALAD

Place in a large salad bowl:

  • 1 12 oz bag or 1 large head romaine lettuce, torn in bite sized pieces
  • 1 long hothouse cucumber (or 4-5 mini cukes), sliced in half moons
  • 4-5 stalks celery, thinly sliced
  • 1 generous cup chopped dill without the heavier stems (probably a whole small or half of a large bunch)
  • 1/2 cup toasted sunflower seeds (toasted adds flavor but raw is fine) – optional

For the dressing, mix together:

  • 2 TBs rice or apple cider vinegar
  • 3 TBs olive oil
  • Generous pinch each of salt, black pepper and garlic powder

Toss and serve. Feeds 4-6 as a side salad or, in our case, 2 with generous lunch leftovers. (Because the lettuce is romaine, this salad holds up well for the next day’s lunch).