Fire Roasted Tomato Stew with Farro and Eggplant

I’ve always liked the idea of eggplant, but – you know there had to be a “but” coming – eggplant and I have never really gotten along. For a long time it has officially taken a spot right next to cilantro on the “foods that I find absolutely repulsive” list. And I have found, just as I have with cilantro, that there are eggplant lovers and there are eggplant haters. But I want to like it so much. People who like it completely rave about it. You can use it as a meat substitute in certain dishes, grill it, bake it, fry it, and turn it into baba ghanoush. I feel like I’m missing out on something big but each and every time I’ve attempted to make eggplant for myself I find it to be what I would imagine slimy sponges would feel like in my mouth. 

The most depressing thing is to come across a recipe that sounds like it would be so good except for the fact that eggplant plays a major role. I find this with a lot of Ottolenghi recipes and that has to be my only serious complaint about his books. I usually pass those eggplant recipes by, never to return to them. At least, that is, until now. I was skimming though Maria Speck’s Ancient Grains for Modern Meals and got excited when I stated reading a recipe for Fire-Roasted Tomato Stew with Farro and…ugh. Eggplant. There would have to be eggplant. But the rest sounded so good, a hearty vegetable and grain stew with warming Moroccan flavors; if only it didn’t have that one ingredient. But then I started reading through the recipe and noticed that the eggplant had a special preparation, microwaving it to “remove some of the moisture for a more supple outcome.” I was getting more tempted by the minute, and I am certainly glad that I followed through.

So I did microwave the eggplant, and took an extra step of squashing it between two plates with paper towels between to get out even more moisture, and found that the result reminded me quite a lot of mushrooms. I salted the eggplant beforehand too, having heard that this removes moisture and the bitter flavor. I can’t totally attest to any proven science with these methods here but all I know is that it produced palatable eggplant and that is good enough for me.

The eggplant joins the stewpot with loads of onion, carrots, three types of tomatoes (fire-roasted, sun-dried, and paste), and an interesting addition of cinnamon and raisins to create an intensely flavored, slightly sweet broth. Chickpeas and loads of cooked farro add body and thickness making a completely stick-to-your ribs stew great with a loaf of crusty bread. It just so happens that I got a nasty cold shortly after making a big pot  of this and I have been certainly glad to have a fridge full of stew around this week. So, for all of the eggplant haters out there, I have found the solution though, it’s not totally off the hated-foods list yet but perhaps a little further back in line.

Fire Roasted Tomato Stew with Farro and Eggplant
Adapted from Ancient Grains for Modern Meals
Serves 6

Ingredients
½ cup uncooked pearled farro
1 eggplant, about 1 pound
¼ pound pancetta or bacon, cubed
1 onion, diced
1 glove of garlic, minced
½ tsp salt
½ pound carrots, quartered and diced in ½ inch pieces
¾ tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbs. tomato paste
1 (28-ounce) can of fire-roasted tomatoes
2½ cups vegetable broth
½ cup dark raisins
½ cup chopped oil-packed sundried tomatoes
¼ tsp. cracked black pepper
1 can chickpeas, drained
1 tsp. sugar

To Finish
chopped parsley
olive oil
whole-milk yogurt

Begin by cooking the farro. Bring about 2 cups of water to a boil with a pinch of salt. Add the farro, stir, and reduce to a simmer. Cover the pot and let cook for 20-25 minutes until tender but still a little chewy. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, prepare the eggplant. Cut the eggplant into eighths lengthwise and cut each strip into ¼ inch pieces. Arrange half on a place and microwave for 2 minutes. Remove, place 2 paper towels overtop and press another plate firmly down on top of the eggplant. Transfer eggplant to a bowl and repeat the process with the remaining eggplant.

To prepare the stew, add the pancetta to a Dutch oven and cook over medium until crispy. Transfer to a plate and discard all but 2 Tbs. of the fat. If you want to make this vegetarian, skip this step and just start with 2 Tbs. of olive oil. Add the onion, garlic, and ¼ tsp. of salt to the pancetta fat and cook over medium for about 8 minutes until the onion is golden. Stir in the carrots, eggplant, cooked pancetta, and cinnamon and cook, stirring, for a minute. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for another minute. Add the canned tomatoes and scrape any burnt bits from the bottom. Add in the broth, raisins, sun-dried tomatoes, chickpeas, pepper, and the remaining ¼ tsp. of salt. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and cook, covered for 25 minutes or until the carrots are tender.

To finish, stir in the farro and the tsp. of sugar. Season with salt and pepper for taste and add a little water if its too thick for you. Serve a heaping bowlful with a drizzle of olive oil, the yogurt, and parsley with buttered bread on the side.

My Favorite Chopped Salad

Happy New Year everyone! It seems to have come around so fast and here it feels like it was just yesterday that I was writing my last New Year’s post. Not much to report about 2013 though. It was definitely a good year but at the same time it was rather uneventful. I am, however, about to celebrate my 1-year work anniversary on Tuesday and will probably be moving into a new place soon so already I’m looking forward to what this year has in store.

Thinking back on the past year, however, remember way back in July when I went on a trip to Boston and told you about this amazing salad I had at a place called Area Four? No? Though so…It had a very brief mention, no photo, and came with a promise that I was going to figure out how to make it myself and give you the recipe. And I did make it for myself over the summer, quite a lot actually. It appeared so many times that banana peppers became a mainstay in the home. Yet every time I always forgot about taking a picture until my plate was totally empty. But guess what? It’s here now!

So yes, here I am giving you a salad recipe in January. I’m sure the last thing you think you need is yet another salad recipe in the midst of resolution season. But I think you’ll find that this one is different than what is probably floating around right now. I’m not about to bombard you with the benefits of raw kale and convince you that salad dressing is the devil. In fact, a good portion of the ingredients of my salad comes straight from either the deli or from a can/jar.

And yet, despite the fact that it is essentially the makings of an Italian sub chopped up and served on a plate, there is still something quite special about it. Could it be the contrast of piquant banana peppers with the salty tang of aged provolone and the fatty sweetness of salami? Perhaps. Maybe it is the nutty warm chickpeas interacting with the herby earthiness of za’atar and bitter radicchio. Or it might just be the fact that it’s a damn good salad despite not being remotely fancy or original or complicated. It’s an Italian chopped salad, take it or leave it, but I think you may find a certain degree of addictiveness once you give it a shot.

My Favorite Chopped Salad
Makes 1 very generous serving or can serve two as a starter
adapted from this recipe

Note that my ingredient measurements and directions may be a little vague. I find that writing a recipe for salads it really difficult since salads really depend on the preference of whomever is making it. I, for one, like to go a little heavy on the cheese. So try not to pay too much attention to the specific rules and just add whatever amounts look good to you and really cater it towards your tastes. Also, this salad would be good with red onion, cucumber, or blanched green beans, if you have them.

Ingredients
1 can of chickpeas
1 romaine heart
½ small head of radicchio
3 slices Genoa Salami, cut into thin strips
2 oz aged provolone cheese, cubed
6-7 cherry tomatoes, halved
3-4 banana pepper rings, chopped
3 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. white wine vinegar
Juice of half a small lemon
1½ tsp. za’atar spice (you can use dried oregano if you can’t find za’atar)
salt and pepper, to taste

Add a drizzle of olive oil to a medium skillet and heat over medium. Drain the can of chickpeas and toss them into the skillet. Add a generous pinch of salt, pepper, and ½ tsp. of the za’atar. Cook for about 10 minutes, tossing occasionally, until slightly crispy and browned on the outside.

While the chickpeas cook, prepare the rest of the ingredients. Coarsely chop the leaves of the heart of romaine and cut the radicchio into ribbons. Dump them into a large mixing bowl. Add the salami, cheese, tomatoes, and banana peppers. Make your dressing by whisking together the olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, the rest of the za’atar, and salt and pepper. If it’s a little too tangy for you, add a drizzle of honey. Pour 1/3-1/2 of the chickpeas into the bowl with the rest of the ingredients, saving the rest for another time. Pour over the dressing and toss together with tongs. Serve alongside good crusty bread and maybe a grilled chicken breast if you want to turn it into a heartier meal. 

Snickers Caramel Corn

One of the most special aspects of the holidays is that they conjure up the craving of very specific foods that are really only allowed this time of year. Well, I guess not technically but can you really imagine eating peppermint bark in the middle of July? By restricting certain foods to once-a-year status, it seems to make them more special and I enjoy it all the more when it I know that its only around for a short while. So bring on the eggnog, the pannetone, the peppermint chocolate and, my favorite, caramel corn.

For me, caramel corn is one of those treats that I could “accidentally” eat a whole batch without getting sick of it (but probably getting literally sick along the way). With that said, I’ve actually never made caramel corn myself until about a month ago. It way overshadows the other stuff that I used to find so addicting and found it to be much easier than I could have imagined…though maybe this isn’t a good thing. My curiosity for making my own began with this recipe for dark and stormy caramel corn over at Lottie and Doof. I made the exact version and it was delectable. It has a thin crispy shell of caramel coating with just the right bit of saltiness and a good kick from the lime and ginger. A then realized that by taking the base recipe for the corn (without the additional flavorings) I could adapt caramel corn to any combination of flavors that I wanted. Oh, the possibilities!

So, in honor of today being National Chocolate-Covered Anything Day, I give you Snickers Caramel Corn. It’s peanut, it’s chocolate, it’s caramel…how much better could things get? I also topped it with a sprinkling of Maldon Sea salt for that perfect sweet and salty contrast. It literally tastes like a super fudgy and crunchy Snickers bar in Popcorn form. Make this caramel corn for all of your friends this Christmas and you are sure to start a new tradition that keeps everyone waiting eagerly all year long for more. Merry Christmas everyone!

Snickers Caramel Corn
Adapted from this recipe
Makes about 12 cups

Ingredients
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
¼ cup light corn syrup
½ tsp. kosher salt
¼ tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cups coarsely chopped lightly salted peanuts
12 cups plain popped popcorn (using about ½ cup of kernels popped according to package instructions)
4 oz. dark chocolate, melted (I used 70% cacao scharffen berger)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Also get all of your ingredients measured out and ready because the process goes a little quickly.

In a large heavy-bottomed pot, melt the butter, sugar, corn syrup, and salt over medium-high heat. Stir with a rubber spatula until everything is incorporated. Once the mixture starts boiling, stop stirring. If the caramel begins to turn brown in the center of the pot before the edges, however, it is ok to gently swirl the pot itself to evenly distribute the mixture. Let the caramel continue to boil until is reaches a nice amber color overall and lets off a caramel smell.

Remove the pot from the heat and whisk in the baking soda. Add in the vanilla (stand back, it will sputter) and keep whisking until smooth.  Dump in the peanuts and the popcorn and fold it into the caramel using a rubber spatula, coating the popcorn evenly. Spread the popcorn out onto the sheet pan and place in the oven for 20 minutes. Take the pan out about every 5 minutes and give everything a bit of a stir to ensure that it is all well coated with the caramel.

While the corn is cooking, melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Remove the popcorn from the oven and drizzle the melted chocolate overtop. Sprinkle a bit of Maldon sea salt on the chocolate. Set aside until the popcorn is cool and the chocolate is solid (a cold garage is a good place to do this). Once completely cool, break into bite-size pieces and watch it disappear.  

My favorite food(s), a recipe, and a must-have for your kitchen

Whenever anyone finds out that I have this little blog here or that I’m into food and cooking and stuff I am always asked the same question: “What is your favorite food?” It’s a question I used to dread, one that I think many people find difficult to answer. If I really like cooking generally that means that I like to eat most things (a much easier question would be about my least favorite foods…I’m looking at you cilantro and eggplants).

With the prevalence of the question I had to come up with a standby answer instead of hemming and hawing every time it was asked and usually responding with something along the lines of, “it’s too hard to choose, I couldn’t possibly pick a favorite.” However I do choose to answer in two parts – I give my favorite flavor and my favorite dish. That makes sense, right? A favorite flavor more often has to do with desserts or something, the flavor your choose when you go out for ice cream or pick out your birthday cake. Your favorite dish is that last thing you would want eat before you die or what you always seem to pick for an appetizer or entrée at a restaurant. It only seems natural that a “favorite food” question is divided into two categories. So here is goes.

What is my favorite flavor? Coconut. Always coconut. Ice cream, chocolate bars, cakes, thai iced tea, whatever. If it has coconut I generally like it. It can be paired with rich flavors (coffee, chocolate, vanilla, caramel), fruity ones (lime, pineapple, berries) and savory applications, like curry. Coconut for the win.

What is my favorite dish? Pizza. Good pizza, that is. I like the classic Neapolitan style with the blistered crust that is chewy yet light. With the simple tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil. But I love unique toppings too. Maybe that’s why I like pizza so much. Its so customizable yet always ends up with a perfect balance of salty, sweet, and tangy. A good pizza is perfection and never fails to make me the happiest person alive. (P.S. You all know my weakness now…you are free to take advantage of this and take me out for pizza anytime you need a favor.)

I would gladly eat pizza for every meal but luckily I have enough self-control and enough proximal distance from any really good pizza shops to keep that from happening. But naturally I have experimented with my own pizza-making quite a bit, not to mention I worked as a pizza-maker in my little hometown pie-shop for 3 years during high school. The earlier attempts were okay, certainly edible but nothing to brag about. I tried different dough recipes and different cooking surfaces but nothing really quite blew me away until I did find the absolute best of each. Together, they create what is arguably the closest thing to wood-fired oven pizza without the wood-fired oven. Let me introduce Jim Lahey and his book “My Pizza” and the Baking Steel.

Jim Lahey’s dough recipe falls right in line with his other famous no-knead methods. You simply mixt up a little flour, yeast, water, and salt, let it sit overnight, and the next day you have stretchy and supple pizza dough. It has a slight bit of tang, a nice chew, and makes a perfect fluffy crust filled with little air pockets. The Baking Steel is a relatively new piece of cooking equipment out there. It started as a kickstarter project but turned into something huge. Essentially its nothing more than an enormous slab of steel that you cook pizzas on but there is science behind it that makes it the best home oven pizza-baking option.  Essentially, the steel may not get as hot as something like a pizza stone but steel is an excellent conductor of heat so the pizza get a perfectly crispy crust in minutes. I definitely recommend it for the pizza enthusiast who wants to empress their friends and family with the best pizza they’ve ever had. It comes with a cool carrying case too made from old recycled billboards (mine has a piece of The X-Factor in it). So, without further ado, here’s how I make my pizzas.

The Best DIY Pizza Dough
-Jim Lahey’s no-knead pizza dough from “My Pizza”, found here. Each batch make 4 pizzas. The rest of the book has excellent sauce and topping ideas too.

Sauce
– a can of whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes, crushed with your hands until smooth and seasoned with salt and olive oil.

Toppings
– get as creative as you like. For the pizzas in the pictures above I used fresh mozzarella, kalamata olives, Italian sausage, and marinated garlic cloves.

To assemble and bake
– Place the Baking Steel or other baking surface in your oven and preheat to 500 degrees. Allow the oven to heat at 500 for 45 minutes then reduce to 475. Take a piece of your prepared dough and stretch it out on a pizza peel in a circular shape with a little cornmeal on the bottom so it doesn’t stick. Add your sauce and toppings. Slide it onto the Baking Steel and let cook for 4-5 minutes. Then turn the broiler on and continue to cook for about 2 more minutes. Slide onto a cutting board when it’s done. It should have a few black, blistered spots around the edges. Don’t forget to turn off you broiler and reset the oven to 475 degrees after taking out each pizza. Cut into 4 pieces and eat immediately. The most important step is to take your time and don’t try to bank out all four pizzas a quickly as possible. Serve salads, olives, and other finger foods in between each pizza and enjoy the whole experience.

Chai Tea Ice Cream

One of the few redeeming features of colder weather is the excuse to spend the evenings and weekends hidden somewhere under a blanket, lost in a book and with a constantly replenished hot drink in hand. My usual drink of choice is vanilla rooibos tea but I’ve also always been a fan of hot chocolate. I used to go for the classic packet of Swiss Miss, dehydrated mini marshmallows and all, but have favored the Aztec style “drinking chocolate” in the more recent years, those teeny cups of almost entirely melted chocolate with a tad bit of milk to thin it out and sugar and spices to sweeten and flavor it. However, the one drink that I’ve always loved the idea of but never really liked once I was drinking it is chai tea. It seems so perfect in concept; you can’t go wrong with warm frothy milk infused with a mild black tea and warm spices. Yet, the store-bought chai tea bags are always so tannic and the spices totally overwhelm the delicacy of the tea. There are also those cardboard cartons of chai tea concentrate but they are so loaded with sugar I feel like I’m drinking syrup. I am aware that I could have easily looked up a recipe and made it myself, but with so many disappointing experiences with chai tea, I guess I never really felt inspired to pursue it.

Recently, however, my mom and I went to brunch and got one of the best yet simple desserts I think I’ve ever tried. It had an apricot vanilla panna cotta with white chocolate shortbread crumbles, a bruleed apricot (yes it did have a crispy sugar crust on it) and a quenelle of 5-spice ice cream on the side. One spoonful containing a little bit of each of the 4 components together was nearly magical but each separate component by itself was quite good as well. I was especially intrigued but the 5-spice ice cream. It was delicious, yet I’ve always found 5-spice to have a little bit too much anise flavor for my taste. This reflection of course then led to the idea that maybe I should make my own spice ice cream but a little more geared to my own preferences, which then led to the light bulb moment of, “Hey! I should make chai tea ice cream.” Maybe I never had much luck with the drink but things could be different when translated into frozen form, right?

So, when temperatures soared to a very unseasonable 90 degrees this past weekend and the last thing that I had on my mind was burrowing under the covers with a warm cup of tea, my ice cream plan seemed just like the right idea. I used the basic ice cream base from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home and played around with it to get the chai tea flavor right. The flavor that resulted is just how I’ve always dreamed that chai tea would be like but of course in cold solid format. The stand out flavor is the tea itself. It imparts very delicate rosy floral notes and an even stronger caramel, honey-like flavor. After the taste of tea comes the sweetness of the cream itself and finally, standing in the background, the flavor of the spices. The cinnamon and clove are warming, the peppercorn and anise add a slight savoriness to offset the sweetness, and, my favorite, the cardamom, adds a smoky floral essence. The texture is lovely too; it’s more so like gelato in its dense creaminess that becomes almost custardy when it begins to melt, despite not having in eggs in it. Though I wont be giving up on my rooibos anytime soon, I think that my success in the chai flavor department has convinced me that I’m finally ready to give hot chai tea a try again, totally made from scratch this time…at least once it actually starts to feel like autumn around here. Anyone have any recipe suggestions?

Chai Tea Ice Cream
makes about 1 quart
adapted from Jenis's Splendid Ice Creams at Home

Ingredients
2 cups whole milk
1 Tbs + 1 tsp cornstarch
1½ oz. softened cream cheese
1/8 tsp sea salt
1¼ cups heavy cream
2/3 cups white granulated sugar
2 Tbs light corn syrup
¼ cup English breakfast tea leaves
2 cinnamon sticks
10 black peppercorns
10 whole cloves
2 cardamom pods, crushed open to expose the seeds
¼ tsp 5-spice powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix 2 Tbs of your milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to form a slurry. In a large glass bowl, whisk the cream cheese with the salt until smooth. Set these aside.

Combine the remaining milk, heavy cream, sugar, and corn syrup in medium sized saucepan. Heat on medium, while stirring, until steam starts to rise from the milk and it is warm to touch. Add the cinnamon sticks, peppercorns, cloves, cardamom pods, and 5-spice powder. Cover with a lid and set aside to infuse for 45 minutes.

Once you are ready to continue, fill a large bowl with ice water and set aside. Remove the lid to your saucepan and set it on medium high heat. Bring to a boil. Once boiling let it continue to rapidly boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the tea, cover and set aside to steep for 10 minutes. Strain the mixture using a fine sieve to remove the tea and spice from the milk. Return the milk mixture to the saucepan and bring back to a boil. Once boiling, whisk in the cornstarch slurry and boil for 1 more minute.

Carefully whisk the hot milk into the bowl with the cream cheese and whisk until smooth. Stir in the vanilla extract. Pour the mixture into a gallon zip-lock bag, and place the sealed bag into the bowl of ice water. Let chill in the water for 30 minutes, replenishing ice if needed.

Once chilled, snip a corner of the bag and pour the ice cream base into your ice cream maker, churning according the manufacturer’s instructions. Once frozen, pack in a freezer safe container and freeze for at least 4 hours before eating.