radish tips in the sink.

" I gave up working on my doctorate in gerontology to bake cookies in a restaurant basement (a job I was fired from) and thank my lucky stars I did. "

Dorie Greenspan.

A project from Marjory Sweet.

 

It's fall. Time for comfort food. On Sunday i made lasagne with roasted zucchini and eggplant, sausage, fresh spinach, a tomato mushroom sauce, parmesan, pecorino and mozzarella. It was (is, there are plenty of leftovers) deluxe  ...and little Harvey J. loves it.


Lasagne with Roasted Vegetables and Sausage

extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt
3 mild Italian (parsley and red pepper) sausages
1 large eggplant
2 medium zucchini squash
3/4 cup (a large handful) fresh basil
1 pound white or brown mushrooms
3 handfuls fresh baby spinach leaves, washed and dried
2 cups ricotta
3 onions, white, yellow or red
3-4 cloves fresh, plump garlic
1 small can tomato paste
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup good red wine
1 Tablespoon brown sugar or maple syrup
1 box oven-ready egg lasagne pasta
2 cups grated mozzarella
1 cup grated pecorino
1 cup grated parmesan

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Slice an eggplant into 1/4 inch-thick rounds, lay the rounds on the baking sheets and prick each round all over with a fork. Sprinkle with kosher salt and let them rest for 15 minutes to allow any bitterness to sweat out. While the eggplant rests, slice 2 medium zucchini into 1/4 inch-thick rounds and lay the rounds on the parchment as you did with the eggplant (if you have a lot of slices you may need to roast in 2 batches). Give everything a quick drizzle of olive oil and slide the pans into the oven. Set the timer for 20 minutes and check now and then to ensure nothing is getting too dark or crispy. You want the rounds to be shimmery, steamy and thinner but not too dark and certainly not papery-thin. Remove the pans from the oven when the vegetables are roasted and allow them to stay on the parchment until you're ready to assemble the lasagne.

Meanwhile heat a few big glugs of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pot set on medium heat. Finely chop the onions and garlic and add  them to the warm oil along with a few spinkles of kosher salt. Stir to coat. Finely chop the basil and 1 pound of mushrooms and add both to the onions. You may need to add more oil as the mushrooms are quite porous. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue cooking until everything is golden and almost translucent. Add the wine and tomato paste and continue cooking, allowing the vegetables to simmer in the wine-tomato mixture as it reduces, about 15 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes and the  brown sugar or maple syrup. Stir well and allow to simmer for at least 20 minutes.

Slice the sausage casings open and remove the contents into a heavy frying pan set on medium heat. Fry just until the pink is gone. Turn the heat off and then, using a small, sharp knife and a fork, thoroughly cut into pea-sized bits.

Assembly:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare another large baking sheet with parchment and place a 9x12 baking dish on top. Oil the pan pan and spread a layer of sauce on the bottom, then place a layer of lasagne noodles on top. Spread another, thinner, layer of sauce on the noddles, then a layer of sausage, a layer of ricotta, a layer of spinach leaves, roasted eggplant, roasted zucchini and a combined sprinkling of the 3 cheeses. Lay another layer of noodles, sauce, sausage, ricotta, vegetables, cheeses and lastly, noodles. Spread a last layer of sauce on top of the noodles and then a layer of the 3 cheeses. Spray a piece of aluminum foil with non-stick spray and cover tightly. Slide the baking sheet into the over and bake for 40 minutes (you'll be glad you used the baking sheet as the lasagne inevitably bubbles over). Remove the foil, increase the heat to 400 degrees F and bake another 20 minutes. Remove and let rest for 15 minutes before serving (with a simple green salad).

Strivers Row Home Tour in Harlem

and a video library of cooking techniques.

roasting vegetables and fruits (apricots!) for a party.

and here's the tart.

Tomato Mustard Tart
from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table

for the pastry:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
6 Tbsp (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 large egg
1 tsp ice water

Put the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl and stir briefly to combine. Drop in the bits of cold butter and, using your hands or a pastry cutter, work the butter into the flour until it is evenly distributed. You'll have some large and some small butter bits, and that's fine - uniformity isn't a virtue here. Beat the egg and ice water together, drizzle over the dough, and, using a fork, toss the dough until it is evenly moistened. Reach into the bowl and, using your fingertips, mix and rub the dough until it comes together. Gather it into a ball (if the dough doesn't come together easily, push it, a few spoonfulls at a time, under the heel of your hand or knead it some more) and flatten it into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 3 hours. (It can be refigerated for up to 5 days).

When you're ready to bake the tart, butter a 9-9 1/2 inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom (butter it even if it's non-stick). Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
It's easiest to roll the dough out between 2 sheets of plastic wrap or waxed paper. Just be sure to lift the plastic or paper often to prevent the dough from working in, and turn the dough frequently. The rolled-out dough should be about 1/4 inch thick and at least 12 inches in diameter. Transfer the dough to the tart pan, easing it in without stretching it (what you stretch now will shrink in the oven later). Press the dough against the bottom and sides of the pan. Chill or freeze the dough for at least an hour before baking OR press a piece of buttered foil against the crust's surface and fill with dried beans (which will be inedible after this but can be used for baking for months to come) to keep the dough flat. Line a baking sheet with parchment or lay down a silicone baking mat and place the tart pan on the sheet.

Partially bake the crust for 20 minutes, then carefully remove the foil with the beans and return the crust to the oven and bake for another 3-5 minutes until it is lightly golden. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and allow the crust to cool before you fill it.

for the filling:
Beautiful, ripe tomatoes: 1 super-large, 1 or 2 regular-sized, 2 or 3 plum tomatoes or 15-20 cherry tomatoes (the number really depends how big the tomatoes are)
3 large eggs
6 Tbsps heavy cream
3 Tbsps Dijon mustar
2 Tablespoons grainy mustard, preferably French
salt, preferably fleur de sel, and freshly-ground white or black pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. 
Whisk the eggs together with the cream. Add the mustards and the salt and pepper - mustard has a tendency to be salty so proceed accordingly - and whisk to blend. Taste and see if you want to add a little more of one or the other mustards. If you've got cherry or grape tomatoes, cut them in half.; if you've got round or plum tomatoes, cut them into slices about 1.2 an inch thick. Place the tart pan on the lined baking sheet and pour just enough of the egg mixture to cover the bottom of the shell. Arrange the halves or slices in the shell, and finish filling the shell around the tomatoes, taking care not to go over the edges of the crust.

Slide the backing sheet into the oven and bake 30 minutes, or until the tart is uniformly puffed and lightly browned here and there and a knife inserted into the centre of the custard coems out clean. Transfer the tart to a coooling rack and let it rest for 5 minutes before removing the sides of the pan.

Serve hot, warm, at room temperature, or lightly chilled.

Toad in the Hole

Toad in the Hole with red onion gravy and green beans.

Britain abounds with oddly-named dishes: bubble and squeak, jam roly poly, spotted dick, stargazey pie. The king of them all is Toad in the hole, a homely dish of sausages in a type of Yorkshire pudding batter. Toad in the hole was probably created no earlier than the first half of the 18th century, when batter puddings first became popular. The earliest “in the hole” dishes make no mention of frogs: in her 1747 book The Art of Cookery Hannah Glasse includes only a recipe for “pigeon in a hole”. The Oxford English Dictionary's first recorded example of the phrase "toad in the hole" isn't until 1787, though references to a dish that sounds rather like it can be found far earlier - in a diary entry for 1757, for example, the Georgian shopkeeper Thomas Turner notes a dinner of "sausages baked in a batter pudding".

Turner’s bangers are actually rather unusual for the time, as most early recipes for toad in the hole call for any meat that was available, most often beef. Alexis Soyer’s The Modern Housewife (1850) suggests using “any remains of cooked beef, veal, mutton, pork, roasted or boiled, salt or fresh, or game and fowl”, while a few years later Queen Victoria's cook Charles Elme Francatelli recommends buying the cheapest meat available – adding, rather unappetisingly, that cooks should check if they needed to “pare away some tainted part, or perhaps a fly-blow, as this… would tend to impart a bad taste to the whole, and spoil the dish”. (Presumably, he wouldn't have skimped so much for the monarch.)

My version of Toad in the Hole, which combines ideas from Jamie Oliver and Felicity Cloake, is a little way away from these meager beginnings. T in the H is really fall and winter food but I was inspired by a text from my friend Mark who's enjoying a late spring on Fogo Island, and since it happened to be chilly and rainy here I liked the idea of the oven warming up the kitchen. I used mild Italian sausages, courgettes and added more salt than the Brits would call for and some grainy mustard to the batter to deepen the flavour. I also used duck fat for the initial melt and heating of the pan, then added all the sausage drippings to that before pouring in the batter. 

Toad in the Hole
4 good quality sausages
4 small courgettes, sliced lengthwise
2 Tbsps duck fat

for the batter:
3 eggs
1 cup flour (i used half white unbleached and half spelt)
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp grainy mustard

for the gravy:
1 large red onion
1 beef bullion cube
1 cup boiling water
1 Tbsp flour
Tamari

Set the oven to 475 degrees F and position a rack in the centre.

Evenly brown the sausages on medium heat. While they're browning, sear the courgettes sliced-side-down on high heat in another large frying pan. Use a little olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt to encourage them to release some of their juices. Set both the sausages and courgettes aside.

Put the duck fat in a 9x12 heatproof casserole dish and slide the dish into the hot oven. While the pan heats to smoking, make the batter. Beat the eggs with an electric mixer until frothy. Add the milk and flour alternately, then the salt and mustard. Allow the batter to rest for 15 minutes. Bring the pan out and use a spatula to scrape as much fat as possible from the sausage pan into the duck fat. Pour in the rested batter (the hot fat may spit a bit), then place the sausages and courgette halves in the batter. Slide the pan back into the oven and set the time for 30 minutes. Don't open the oven! The key to a high-rise pudding is having a super hot pan and keeping the oven heat as high as possible.

While the toads are baking, make an onion gravy by sautéeing a large diced red onion in a few tsps of butter on medium-low heat. Add some sea salt and 4 tsps or so of good balsamic vinegar. Allow the onions to become melty and translucent. WHile they're cooking, boil some water and unwrap a beef bullion cube. Pour 1 cup of boiling water into a pyrex measuring cup and dissolve the bullion. Sprinkle a little flour into the onions and slowly add the bullion as well as a few shots of tamari.

Just before the toad in the hole comes out of the oven, boil up a big pot of peas or green beans. Butter them and serve with the pudding and a big boat of onion gravy.

A slaw:
savoy cabbage, empire apples and red radishes dressed with olive + almond oil, dijon, white wine vinegar, sea salt + black pepper.

yum.

supper for a summer evening: chilled melon soup with mint + quinoa salad with french radishes, green beans and chard.

Niçoise

We were watching Julia the other night and the next day decided it was time for salade niçoise.

Deviled Eggs Mimosa

It's been so beautifully warm here! The blossoms on the trees have popped: apple, crab, cherry, lilac, mayday, and the magnolias just finished. I've really been getting into picnics after that long winter we all endured and these two delights have made appearances: deviled eggs and jelly roll.

Deviled Eggs or Eggs Mimosa 

8 large eggs
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup plain thick yogurt
1 Tablespoon Dijon or Creole mustard (I like Zatarains)
a pinch of cayenne or a couple of shakes of Tobasco or Crystal hot sauce
finely snipped baby scallions, halved cornichons, pickled pearl onions and / or paprika for garnish

Boil the eggs for 15 minutes. Transfer the whole pot to the sink and let the cold tap run over the eggs  until the pot is cold. Let the eggs sit in this bath for 5 minutes. If you're assembling everything right away you can peel the eggs now or, if you're readying them for the next day, dry them with a tea towel, set in a bowl and refrigerate overnight. Once the eggs are peeled, slice them with a sharp knife lengthwise and gently remove the yolks, placing them in a medium bowl. Lay the white halves in a low-sided dish. Using a fork, mash the yolks, then whisk in the mayonnaise, yogurt, mustard and cayenne or hot sauce and beat until smooth. Spoon into the waiting halves and garnish. Cover with plastic wrap and chill up to 4 hours.

An exceptionally delicious herbal syrup formula for sore throat and sinus, made by E. and V. who gave me a jar full at Thanksgiving. They used:

- mint

- hibiscus

- sage

- rosemary

- thyme

- rose petals

- wildflower honey

Last weekend E. and I added hot water and the juice of a few lemons, heated it up and drank it through the afternoon as we worked. 

making grape juice with the concords that grow in the alley behind my house.

A Saturday night supper: gorgeous loin chops with herbs and olive salt, Russian kale and roasted cauliflower.