The Best of 2014: Winter to Spring

2014 Roundup: January, February and March

Favorites from the internets:

- Melissa Clark's Roasted Broccoli with Shrimp as interpreted by the Wednesday Chef is a winner of a sheet pan supper for a busy weeknight

- This Thai baked salmon in a lime-coconut cream sauce from She Simmers is absolutely addictive

- This is the Hungarian Bean and Ham soup of my childhood (Csülkös Bableves)

 and it is soooo good, a perfect winter dinner. Thank you Saveur!

- This spicy pork and mustard green noodle soup from Bon Appetit is the perfect use for farm box mustard greens in the dead of winter: I decrease the soy sauce, increase the fish sauce, and use white pepper in place of Szechuan peppercorns when I'm out of the real stuff.

- Or use your mustard greens in the Hawaiian Ginger-Chicken Stew from Eating Well

- Eating Well also created a hit with this Green Vegetable Minestrone -- even better with a Parm rind simmered in the broth

- Serious Eat's radish salad is a great option with arugula, radicchio, or another chicory

- This Splendid Table recipe for cauliflower or broccoli rabe with sausage and orecchiette is a great skillet dinner

- This Persian Chickpea and Noodle Soup from the LA Times is a great Sunday Soup dinner

- These Ham and Cheese Quinoa Cups from Iowa Girl Eats can be cooked in baking pan and reheated by the slice for an easy, delicious weekday breakfast. I used the whole eg and addd 1/4 c milk for a more solid texture

- Serious Eat's Arugula Pesto* is a great topping for salmon, grilled meats, or steamed vegetables

- Here is the BEST way to make steel cut oats, toasting them adds a nutty flavor -- Orangette adapts this recipe is adapted from Whole Grain Mornings**

From my cookbook collection:

- The Caramel-cooked tofu from Herbivoracious

- For the Best Oatmeal, be sure to toast the oats first, from **Whole Grain Mornings

Recipes to keep track of...

- My shredded collard salad with black-eyed peas and spiced peanuts was a great way to start the year 

- Bake a ham with a glaze of soy sauce, mustard and honey, not too sweet 

- Make a kale salad with thinly sliced radishes and carrots, with dried cherries, toasted pepitas, and a vinaigrette from that *arugula pesto

... and in the Meh category:

- Bon Appetit's Vietnamese Pork chops (serves me right, with so many Vietnamese cookbooks to choose from)

- Eating Well's pinto bean and andouille sausage stew was unexpectedly bland and watery

The Best of 2013: Summer

Recipe Roundup 2013: July, August, September

There were some good late summer finds this year...

On the way out the door for the July 4th holiday, I made Smitten Kitchen's pickled vegetable sandwich slaw with a mess of leftover vegetables -- 1/2 cabbage, onions, carrots, and some red peppers. An easy pickle (especially if you have a mandoline) that's great on sandwiches and especially burgers and sliders.

This Vietnamese flank steak with cucumber radish salad from Melissa Clark via the Times was outrageously good on a warm evening.

If you get kohlrabi in your farm box, or you seek it out, don't forget about this recipe, which appeared in the Mariquita Farms newsletter, the Ladybug Postcard: Roasted Kohlrabi with Crunchy Seeds

This Smitten Kitchen recipe for one-pot farro is a keeper! I used my summer farm box bounty: roasted roma tomatoes and shredded zucchini.

August tomatoes are perfect for panzanella and the Barefoot Contessa recipe is a good one!

Make this Zucchini and Green Chile Breakfast Casserole for a casual brunch or to eat for the week.

A really good Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

This spicy Moroccan carrot salad from the LA Times

Chickpea of the Sea vegetarian "tuna" is great for sandwiches or on toast for breakfast

These Japanese Stuffed Peppers from Just Hungry are a great technique for a cute app or easy dinner, but the filling needs punching up a bit

From my cookbook collection:
- I adjusted the zucchini bread recipe in the America's Test Kitchen healthy family cookbook to great effect: use coconut oil, sub out full cinnamon for 1/4 t cinnamon, 1/8 t each allspice and cardamom, and 1/4 c shredded, unsweetened coconut

- A refreshing smashed cucumber salad with garlic and ginger from Ottolenghi's Plenty

- the Moroccan Green Bean Tagine from Splendid Table How to Eat Supper

- Many moons ago, when our kiddos where very small, two amazing moms in our neighborhood produced a community cookbook, Bernal Eats, and a third contributed a recipe for a tasty ground pork and longbean stirfry that has become a family favorite.

Recipes to keep track of...
I made up a recipe for curried grated kohlrabi with yogurt, which was a great vegetable side with grilled meat and chapati. I used a mandoline to cut the kohlrabi, which I sauteed with chopped onion, garlic and ginger as well as curry powder, and finished it with some nonfat yogurt.

Zucchini risotto was hit, the zucchini was almost undetectable and my family ate this up -- I just added 4 medium grated, salted and vigorously squeezed zucchini to my basic risotto recipe, and finished it with lots of parm.

... and in the Meh category:
- The Kohlrabi Salad in Ottolenghi's Jerusalem cookbook

The Best of 2013: Spring into Summer

2013 Roundup: April, May, June

--> April
Turkish-spiced Halibut Skewers with Yogurt Sauce: Another winner from David Tanis' City Kitchen column, a 3-generation favorite.

Salmon Cakes with Capers: I used the Cook's Illustrated salmon cake recipe for a quantity of leftover grilled salmon, adding capers in place of pickle relish. Finally, a fish cake that meets with MZ's approval.


Smitten Kitchen Carrot Salad with Harissa, Feta and Mint tasted as good as it looked, and held several days for a great addition to packed lunches.

Another winner from the Times, this time Lox Chowder from the estimable Russ & Daughters.  I made this with my dad's hot-smoked salmon, delicious!

Cod Steaks in Spicy Tomato Sauce (Timatar wali macchi) from Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking.

Pork Neck Gravy, a long-cooked Italian style tomato sauce with pork neck bones from Linda's Tasty Pork.  I combed several recipes to come up with this one: Saute two diced yellow onions, 1 shredded carrot, 6 minced cloves garlic, oregano, thyme. Add 1 c red wine, reduce by half, stir in 1/4 c tomato paste, 1 c chix broth, 2 large cans roma tomatoes, crushed, and 2 bay leaves. Simmer to taste and serve over pasta or polenta.

Mark Bittman's Miso-Ginger (carrot) Dressing, a marvelous way to use a glut of carrots and excellent on salad, rice, summer/lettuce rolls or grilled fish.

I saw this recipe for a beet green and rice gratin in the Times and brought it to a school potluck. It was a great use of the Portuguese kale from my farm box, and a filling and tasty dish with the addition of 1.5 c cooked flageolet beans, if a bit too Moosewood for 2013.

And to welcome Spring, I made a variation on this soupe a pistou from the Kitchn, using leeks, snap peas, new potatoes, asparagus, and baby turnips, topped with arugula pesto.

May
Sarsong ka Saag: This Indian mustard greens dish from the Indian Slow Cooker Cookbook was delicious, one of the best greens dishes I have ever made. And that's saying something.

A friend made Roasted Lemon Chicken with Zucchini and Feta and it was delicious. She gave me the recipe, I can share it with anyone who wants it, but it's a photo of the page, so let me know and I'll email it.

Dinner a Love Story's Macaroni and Cheese: MZ generally despises homemade macaroni and cheese but she enjoyed this one, as long as her serving was completely breadcrumb free.

Okonomiyaki from Mark Bittman's Best Recipe in the World cookbook was enjoyed by all.

And the discovery of the month: Brining beans. Who new? It results in lovely tender beans. Brine 1 lb. dried beans in 6 T kosher salt mixed with 4 quarts water for at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours. Drain, rinse and proceed with preferred cooking technique. Wonderful!

June
A Little Yumminess Curry in a Hurry: This recipe can be adapted to virtually any protein/vegetable combination. I am particularly crazy about this dish with thinly sliced new potatoes

Sumptuous Spoonfuls Candied Kumquats: I found myself with more kumquats than I could use and recalled a panna cotta recipe from a Splendid Table podcast that had my mouth watering on my commute home. This recipe was perfect with the addition of a split vanilla bean and two cardamom pods. I inadvertently cooked it nearly to the jam stage, but no matter, I'm enjoying it stirred into Greek yogurt and drizzled on ice cream, and maybe I'll even make that panna cotta before it's gone...

Cook's Illustrated recipe for Pan-Seared Scallops: Perfection.

Pioneer Woman Onion Blue Cheese Sauce: Decadent.

Pasta with Yogurt, Peas, and Chile: This is an Ottolenghi recipe riffed on the Orangette blog. The pine nut/Aleppo oil combination is delicious! I used edamame because I had them, and since they are more bland than peas, I added a handful of basil to the sauce, as well. This was unusual, delicious and made great leftovers for lunch. A keeper.

Japanese Cucumber Salad with a new vegetable from my farm box, oshiru uri, or Japanese pickling melon.  Since the melon has a more mild flavor, I added spring onions and ginger, and a teaspoon of dashi miso instead of the dashi granules. I might maintain all these changes for a straight cucumber salad.

Martha Stewart's Gnocchi with Quick Meat Sauce: A friend made this for dinner and it was definitely a keeper.

Smitten Kitchen Pickled Vegetable Sandwich Slaw: I made this with the random vegetables I had in the produce drawer before we left on vacation. I can't wait to try it with pulled pork or a fish taco!

Kale Salad with Chevre Dressing
Made this up with what I had in the vacation kitchen, based on a memory of a recipe I couldn't find anywhere. Here it is:
2-3 T red wine vinegar
3-4 T EVOO
1/2 t sugar
1 t mustard
2 scallions, sliced thin on diagonal
4 oz chèvre
1/4 c chopped salted roasted cashews
1/4 c dried cranberries, pomegranate seeds or diced cherries

Combine kale with 2 T vinegar, 3T EVOO, mustard, sugar and a generous grinding of salt and pepper. Massage leaves to tenderize them. Taste and adjust vinegar and oil as needed. Add goat cheese and scallions and combine until both are worked into kale mixture. Toss with cashews and choice of fruit and serve. 

The Best of 2013: Winter to Spring

2013 Roundup: January, February, March

I can't believe I never posted a recipe in 2013, but I did a lot of cooking and here's what I would cook again broken into the four seasons of the year.

January
This New Year's Day I diverged from the normal ham-rich collards and black eyed peas and instead made the Goan black-eyed peas from Ruta Kahate's 5 Spices, 50 Dishes, adding q bunch chopped collards and doubling the spices.

I had leftover peas, so I made the hot and cheesy Zannie's black eyed pea dip from the Pioneer Woman, which was delicious but a bit muddy to look at.

Serious Eats' shrimp scampi with artichokes is a quick and delicious pasta option for weeknight dinner or anytime you want dinner on the table in ~20 minutes.

The dandelion and pumpkin seed pesto from the Kitchn was a perfect use for my farm box dandelion greens.

Turkey keema needs to be on regular rotation -- so easy with ground turkey, and a complete meal with the addition of some brown basmati rice.

The napa cabbage salad with buttermilk dressing from Smitten Kitchen was so good I made it over and over again, and enjoyed it with fennel, too.

"Lively Up Yourself Lentil Soup" with saffron yogurt from 101 Cookbooks -- yes, please.

The Spanish chorizo, prawn and clam stew from the SF Chronicle Cookbook, Vol. II is reason enough to keep this book on my shelf.

America's Test Kitchen's oven fries were a hit, and so easy to make.

Cook's Illustrated Lightened Scallop Potatoes were delicious -- somewhere between a light gratin and the real thing, but with lots of flavor.

This is the year I rediscovered ricotta salata, and loved it especially grated on broccoli di cicco sauteed with garlic and chile and tossed with lemon juice

Dinner a Love Story always comes through with family favorites, and their stromboli was the perfect thing to take along to a friend's to enjoy with a football game -- just don't stretch the pizza dough too wide or the roll will split when baking -- and be sure to line your baking pan with foil for easier clean up.

February
Smitten Kitchen's Buttermilk Roast Chicken thighs were a huge hit -- need to make these again and again.

Button Mushrooms a la Creme: David Tanis writes an excellent weekly column in the New York Times called City Kitchen. I bookmark most of his recipes, and they're usually keepers. This one is so simple, I made it over and over all winter.

A colorful and delicious salad of radicchio, shredded carrot and blue cheese with a tangerine vinaigrette.

Cook's Illustrated's red beans and rice, as well as their country potato leek soup, to which I added a celery rib, diced, and a dash of cayenne pepper.

There were two notable recipes that I would not repeat, both from Smitten Kitchen which is unusual since I generally love her recipes: the sausage lentil soup was simply bland, but the tantalizing clementine cake was disappointing in every way: odd flavor, unpleasant texture and not terribly enticing to look at.

March
My farm box included spigariello and I sauteed it with a lot of garlic and finished it with Meyer lemon juice -- so good I hope we get more in 2014.

We also got puntarelle a few times, the vegetable requires a fair amount of prep but is absolutely delicious with a lemon garlic anchovy vinaigrette, or sauteed with fish sauce and finished with lime juice.

I got better about prepping lunch items in 2013, and this miso lime vinaigrette was a winner on roasted vegetables.

Smitten Kitchen's egg salad with pickled celery is so good that I now maintain a jar of pickled celery in the fridge at all times.

This SW Chopped Salad with Creamy Cilantro Lime Dressing is irresistible -- and the dressing itself is a condiment worth keeping around for easy, delicious lunches.