Menu Diary: Persian-inspired Autumn Supper

I seem to have dropped off the blogging tear in 2011! But I would love to start a diary of menus, to keep track of what I make and serve at different gatherings.

Tonight:

pomegranate-rosewater martinis

cashews with spicy pineapple dust

a big salad of green grapes, walnuts, parsley, pomegranate seeds, persimmon and pistachio-lemon oil 

a big steaming "zereshk polo" made with spaghetti squash instead of basmati rice, topped with pistachios, barberries, carrot strings, saffron, and onions caramelized in butter

roasted cauliflower served with four sauces (tahini-mustard, mint-cilantro, mango-chilli, tamarind)

lamb, salmon and shrimp seared with za'atar, Aleppo pepper, dried lemon
(and, in the case of the lamb, a little pomegranate syrup, too)

saffron panna cotta

Moroccan mint tea

Randy Mayor; Jan Gautro

Roasted peanut salad

Roasted peanut salad is a very easy, satisfying, high protein, vegetarian, tasty snack!

Finely dice a red onion into a large bowl, then squeeze the juice of 1 lime over the red onion. Top with 1/2 a bunch of finely chopped fresh cilantro.
Take 1 lb. raw Spanish peanuts and either pan roast them or roast them under your broiler until they darken and the peanut oils release and give your whole kitchen a peanut smell. Be careful not to burn them.
Toss the hot roasted peanuts with the red onion, lime juice, cilantro, and added salt and red chilli powder to taste.

Recipe by Miz Hummus: Grand Marnier candied pecans

Grand Marnier candied pecans

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.

2. Grate the rinds of 2 large oranges to create 7 tablespoons zest.

3. Melt together over low heat in a saucepan:
1/2 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Grand Marnier
2 teaspoons salt
Zest

4. Let cool slightly

5. Add mixture to a mixing bowl and cover 5 cups pecans in mixture

6. Butter two cookie sheets

7. Spread pecans evenly on cookie sheets and bake for 15 minutes

8. Let cool for 5 min and then sprinkle pecans with 1/8 cup Grand Marnier

9. Let cool completely and serve

Rosemary-lemon gremolata over broiled wild Alaskan salmon

We had a large filet (perhaps 2 lbs?) of wild Alaskan salmon, and marinated it for about 2 hours in a gremolata of extra virgin olive oil, chopped rosemary, crushed red chilli pepper, sliced garlic, lemon zest, salt and pepper, then roasted it covered with foil in a 350°F oven for about 20 minutes, then removed the foil and let it broil for a few minutes on high.

Ruby Salad

2 small beets

1 medium red onion

radicchio (1 head)

seeds from 1 pomegranate

2 blood oranges or 1 ruby grapefruit, supremed

Pomegranate vinaigrette ingredients:

3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses / reduced pomegranate juice / pomegranate syrup

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt

pepper

Wash, trim, and place beets onto foil squares, and top each with a teaspoon or so of olive oil, plus some salt and pepper; wrap in the foil and roast at 400°F for about 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

Peel and halve red onion, then slice crosswise. Put about 1/8 of the thin semicircular onion slices into a small bowl of cool salted water.

When beets are cool, peel them, and cut them into bite-size wedges (each wedge about 1/8 of each beet).

Rinse and pat dry radicchio. Quarter, then slice crosswise. Arrange in platter.

Top radicchio with beets. Top radicchio and beets with citrus segments.

Drain onion slices and scatter them over the salad. Scatter pomegranate seeds atop the salad.

Whisk vinaigrette ingredients and add salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle vinaigrette over salad.

An Oscar Potluck

Two of my closest friends work in media/entertainment, and I've been left with a rather large television, so they and some others came over for some noshing, dishing, and Oscars-viewing.

We had so much food! laid out - not like an etherized patient, more like the antipasti table at a trattoria. Everything we ate last night was light, refreshing, tasty, simple but high quality, easy to prepare. The floral honey, bright green parsley flavor and crunch in the chickpea salad, and raspberries felt like harbingers of a much-awaited spring, while the depth in the blood oranges and dark, woodsy, berry tang of sumac felt like a poignant last look at winter.

*Popcorn tossed with Sumac

*Queso de Murci Curado, a six months' aged raw goat's milk cheese from Murcia in Southeastern Spain (with unspeakably delicious raw Manoir des Abeilles honey mixed with freshly ground black pepper poured over it)

*Red Kardoula Peppers stuffed with Feta and marinated in olive oil, garlic, and basil

*Green-and-black Olive Tapenade (with pita chips): Simply, pitted green and black olives food processed with fresh parsley and thyme, red chilli powder, a small amount of capers, and a slice of preserved lemon.

*Stuffed Grape Leaves

7-layer Bean Dip

Steak Sandwiches a la Ina Garten courtesy of Miz SunDrop

*The Ratatouille from "Ratatouille"

*Blood Orange and Treviso Salad: I sliced two heads of treviso on the bias and laid supremed blood orange slices over that on a platter, scattered some sliced scallions on top, and dressed the salad with a vinaigrette of blood orange juice, pomegranate molasses, cider vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.

*Roasted Chickpea Salad: I tossed cooked chickpeas with olive oil, salt, sumac, red chilli powder, and cumin, and roasted them spread out on a baking pan for 45 minutes in a 350-degree oven, then tossed them with shredded red cabbage, lots of fresh chopped flat leaf parsley, and a simple vinaigrette of lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Farmers Market Quiche

*Raspberries with Honeyed Greek Yogurt

*Moroccan Mint Tea

* = organic

Food Poem Fridays: John Engels' CRANBERRY-ORANGE RELISH

Cranberry-Orange Relish
by John Engels

A pound of ripe cranberries, for two days
macerate in a dark rum, then do not
treat them gently, but bruise,
mash, pulp, squash
with a wooden pestle
to an abundance of juices, in fact
until the juices seem on the verge

of overswelling the bowl, then drop in
two fistsful, maybe three, of fine-
chopped orange with rind, two golden
blobs of it, and crush
it in, and then add sugar, no thin
sprinkling, but a cupful dumped
and awakened with a wooden spoon

to a thick suffusion, drench of sourness, bite of color,
then for two days let conjoin
the lonely taste of cranberry,
the joyous orange, the rum, in some
warm corner of the kitchen, until
the bowl faintly becomes
audible, a scarce wash of sound, a tiny
bubbling, and then
in a glass bowl set it out
and let it be eaten last, to offset
gravied breast and thigh
of the heavy fowl, liverish
stuffing, the effete
potato, lethargy of pumpkins

gone leaden in their crusts, let it be eaten
so that our hearts may be together overrun
with comparable sweetnesses,
tart gratitudes, until finally,
dawdling and groaning, we bear them
to the various hungerings
of our beds, lightened
of their desolations.

________________________________

P.S. What do you think of poem-recipes?

Pomegranate, Beet, and Blood Orange Salad

yield: Makes 4 first-course servings

4 medium beets
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup blood orange juice (from about 1 blood orange)
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses (I used concentrated pomegranate juice)
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar (I used cider vinegar)
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
3 blood oranges, peeled, cut into1/4-inch-thick slices
1 cup pomegranate seeds (from one 11-ounce pomegranate) (I used two)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Place beets in roasting pan and toss with 1 tablespoon oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Add 1/4 cup water. Cover pan with foil; roast beets until knife easily pierces center, about 50 minutes. Cool. Peel beets and cut into 1/3-inch-thick wedges. Whisk orange juice, pomegranate molasses, vinegar, and remaining 2 tablespoons oil in large bowl to blend. Season vinaigrette with salt and pepper. Place onion in small bowl; cover with cold water. Soak onion 1 minute, drain, and squeeze dry in kitchen towel. Add beets, onion, orange slices, and pomegranate seeds to vinaigrette in bowl; toss. Season salad with salt and pepper.

Urban Family Thanksgiving

My lovely guardian angel sister-friend Anne declared, "Let's have an urban family Thanksgiving dinner here!" And that is exactly what we did.

Here is what we served:

Lillet Blanc over fresh tangerine zest (on the rocks)

Assorted cheeses (an aged sheep's milk gouda, a garrotxa, a tangy blue, a creamy brie-like cow's milk cheese) with pumpkin butter, sunflower honey, fig-almond spread, sliced New York apples & crispbread

Butternut squash panna cotta

A red salad of pomegranate, beets, red onion & blood oranges

(A choice of Albariño or pinot noir with dinner)

Roast duck & cornbread dotted with dried cherries

Hazelnut, sage, & mushroom stuffing

Cranberry chutney

Shaved Brussels sprouts with pecorino romano

Gingered yams with mustard greens

Homemade pumpkin and cherry pies with mulled apple cider granita

Annie made pie crust from scratch!

Citrus-Fennel Salmon

I swear, this dish took all of 15 minutes to prepare. We coated the salmon with citrus-fennel salt and freshly ground black pepper, and seared it. I sliced a few endives and a bulb of fennel, reserving the fronds, and sauteed them in olive oil, citrus-fennel salt, and freshly ground black pepper. When the fennel softened, I turned off the heat and tossed in a bit of freshly squeezed lemon juice. We served the salmon over the sauteed vegetables and squeezed lemon juice over the whole dish, and topped it with the fennel fronds.

Light Summer Meals: Salmon Niçoise and Black-Eyed Pea Salad with Chipotle-Honey Dressing

Ah, summer. You don't feel like spending a lot of time in a hot kitchen and you barely feel like eating anything remotely warm. The tomatoes are delicious and everything seems more colorful. So we have been having simple dinners, basically salads topped with fish or shrimp:


Salmon "Niçoise" - Salmon poached in a pandan-galangal-lemon broth, over Satur Farms mache and endive salad dressed in a blood orange-mustard vinaigrette, with a few russet potatoes, steamed baby asparagus (which we had saved frozen from spring), heirloom tomatoes from New Jersey, and crumbled hardboiled egg.



Black-Eyed Pea Salad with Chipotle-Honey Dressing (with grilled shrimp glazed with the same chipotle-honey dressing). The salad has diced radish, diced yellow and red bell peppers, diced red onion, diced fresh bicolor corn, and cilantro. I soaked the black-eyed peas in the morning so they would cook more quickly, and boiled them with salt, two bay leaves, and the two dried chipotle peppers that I then made a salad dressing/glaze with (chipotles, a whole head of fresh baby garlic cloves that I lightly roasted, honey, lime juice, salt, a little bit of olive oil and some brown rice vinegar, blended with a hand blender).

Recipe: Moqueca de Peixe (Bahia Seafood Stew)

Moqueca de Peixe (Bahia Seafood Stew) for 6

• juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 pound white fish fillet(s), cut into strips or chunks
• 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 chopped red onion
• 1 chopped green bell pepper
• 1 chopped red bell pepper
• 1 bunch chopped green onions
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 large chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro
• 2 (8-oz.) bottles clam juice
• 1 (14 1/2-oz.) can low sodium broth
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 teaspoon ground red chilli pepper

Combine lime, salt and pepper, garlic, fish and shrimp in a large bowl; toss or turn to coat. Marinate in refrigerator 30 minutes.

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or stock pot over medium heat. Add onion, bell peppers, green onions, garlic, and bay leaf; cook 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Increase heat to medium-high; add tomato, and cook 2 minutes.

Add half the cilantro, clam juice, and broth. Bring to boil; reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Remove bay leaf.

Blend vegetable-and-stock mixture until smooth (I used a hand blender, but you could also transfer the mixture, 1/3 of it at a time, to a blender for pureeing). Add coconut milk and red chilli pepper to pureed vegetable mixture. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; cook 3 minutes.

Add fish-and-shrimp mixture; cook 3 minutes or until seafood is cooked. Sprinkle with the remaining cilantro.

We had this over brown rice, but it could also be served simply as a stew.

Recipe: Spicy Lemony Carrot Tahini

Spicy Lemony Carrot Tahini

We had a whole bag of carrots just crying out to be eaten in some novel way, and so I made this spicy lemony carrot tahini to keep around as a spread for sandwiches, crackers, or to dip other vegetables into. I think could also be good to plate a lightly prepared filet of white flaky Mediterranean fish into. The sweetness of the carrots comes into play with the nutty astringency of the sesame tahini, and you're left with a bit of a kick of an aftertaste from the lemon juice and chilli / cayenne.

1 lb carrots

dash salt

juice of 1 lemon

2 tbsp sesame tahini

red chilli powder / cayenne to taste
za'atar to taste

Peel and trim the carrots, rinse, and cut each in half. Put them in a pot with about two inches of water, cover, and bring to a boil, then let simmer and steam until the carrots are tender (about 10 minutes). Check on them to make sure caramelization isn't forming on the sides of the pot. When the carrots are tender, remove the pot from the heat, add the rest of the ingredients, and puree using a hand / stick blender (alternatively, you could move the carrots and cooking liquid into a blender and blend everything).

Recipe: Fruit-Ginger Summer Rolls

Fruit-Ginger Summer Rolls (for 12)
2 cups julienned fresh pineapple
2 cups julienned mango
1 cup sliced scallions
1 each red and orange pepper, cored, seeded and julienned
1/2" piece minced ginger and 1/2" piece julienned ginger
1/2 Cup thinly sliced fresh Thai basil
1/4 C fresh lime juice
1/4 C honey or sweet chilli sauce
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
4 oz cellophane noodles
12 sheets (8" each) rice paper (found in grocery stores' Asian
sections)

Boil rice noodles in salted water for 3 minutes; drain; set aside. Mix basil, minced ginger, lime juice, honey, and sesame seeds in a small bowl. Fill a bowl with warm water. Soak 1 piece rice paper until pliable, but not entirely soft, 10 to 15 seconds. Lay flat on a cutting board. Layer pineapple, mango, bell peppers, julienned ginger, scallions, and rice noodles to form a log-shaped pile. Spoon some sauce over. Fold bottom edge of wrapper up and sides tightly in against filling. Roll up to top edge. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Cut in half on the bias.

Recipe: Lobster-Mango Cocktail on Jicama Squares

Lobster-Mango Cocktail on Jicama Squares (serves about 15 as an hor d'oeuvre)

1/3 cup mayonnaise or classic aioli

1/3 cup plain yogurt

2 tablespoons whiskey

1 tablespoon ketchup

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, or to taste

about 1 1/2-2 lbs. cooked lobster meat or langoustine meat, cut into 1/2" pieces and rinsed and drained

3 firm-ripe mangoes, finely diced

1 cup finely diced celery

2 large or 4 small whole Belgian endives, trimmed and sliced twice lengthwise and thinly crosswise

3 tablespoons thinly sliced scallion greens

salt and pepper

Garnish: paprika

1 big jicama, peeled and sliced into 1" squares

In a small bowl whisk together the mayonnaise/aioli, yogurt, whiskey, ketchup, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. In a large bowl, toss the lobster meat with the mango, celery, endives, scallion greens, and the sauce until combined. Spoon the lobster mixture onto the jicama squares and garnish with paprika.

Recipe: Mango Guacamole

Mango Guacamole (serves 15 as an hor d'oeuvre)

4 large or 6 medium ripe avocadoes

1 cup finely chopped white onion

2 fresh green chillies, finely chopped

1/4 cup fresh lime juice, or to taste

3/4 cup diced peeled mango

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

salt and red chilli powder to taste

Garnish: lime wedges

Halve, pit, and peel the avocadoes, and coarsely mash them in a bowl. Stir in the onion, chillies, 1/4 cup lime juice, and salt and red chilli powder to taste (I used at least a teaspoon of each), then fold in the mango and cilantro. Season with additional lime juice.

(Because I had used pineapple in other dishes we served at the baby shower, I had the scooped out half of the pineapple and served the guacamole in it.)

Recipe: Roasted Vegetables with Grapefruit "Zesto" and Fennel Grapefruit Salad

For New Year's eve, we were at a friend's place for dinner and toasting 2009.  They were serving mainly seafood - cracked crab claws and lobster with a spicy, citrus-y dipping sauce, oysters, shrimp cocktail, and sushi and sashimi.  So we brought two vegetarian dishes in the hopes of complementing the seafood with some citrus flavors.

Roasted Vegetables with Grapefruit “Zesto” for 8

I call it grapefruit “zesto” because it’s kind of like a pesto of grapefruit zest : ).

3 medium Japanese eggplants, halved lengthwise, cut crosswise into 1/2” pieces
3 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2”-thick rounds
1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1/2”-inch pieces1 large yellow bell pepper, cut into 1/2”-inch pieces
1 large red onion, peeled, root end left intact, cut into 1/2”-thick wedges
1/4 Cup raw artichoke pate
1/4 Cup yuzu rice vinegar
1/4 Cup vegetable stock
1 bunch chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons minced grapefruit zest
2 teaspoons minced garlic
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 475°F.  Place eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers, and onion in a large bowl.  Season with salt and pepper and toss well with raw artichoke pate and yuzu rice vinegar.  Arrange vegetables in a roasting pan and pour vegetable stock over.  Roast until tender, about 30 minutes.

In the large bowl you were using before, toss the now-roasted vegetables with the parsley, grapefruit zest, and garlic; if needed, season with additional salt and pepper.  You can either serve the vegetables in the large bowl or transfer them to a platter.

---

Fennel Grapefruit Salad for 8

Dressing:
2 tablespoons Champagne vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Salad:
1 head Belgian endive, halved lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1" thick strips
1 head treviso - save 8 leaves for decorating and then halve lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1" thick strips
1 head butter lettuce, leaves torn
1 cup fresh fennel bulb, tough bottom stem portion and upper green portions trimmed, cut lengthwise into 3-4 sections depending on width, then sliced thinly using a mandoline
3 small pink or 2 large ruby red grapefruits, sectioned

Whisk the dressing ingredients in a large bowl, then add all the salad ingredients except for the grapefruit sections and saved treviso leaves and toss to coat. Top with grapefruit sections. Stick the treviso leaves lengthwise around the edges of the salad.  Optional: top with one ounce shaved parmigiano reggiano.