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Back to Bohemia

18 Jul

By 8:30 am on Saturday morning, it was already sticky and nearing 80 degrees. As I walked up the enormous hill near my house with a cabbage, lengthy French baguette, two pounds of bacon, a carton of eggs, two rolls of paper towels, a bottle of vinegar, two apples, three peaches, some kielbasa, a latte, and a red-eye (a cup of black coffee with a shot of espresso—the only real way to start a day), I wondered what on earth possessed me to stop for groceries on the way back from my morning run.

Oh yes that’s right, I’d woken up at 7 o’clock in the morning with a wild craving…for braised cabbage. What. The. Hell. This is what pregnant women must feel like, I imagine. For me it was just that since we came back from Prague, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the braised cabbage and smoked pork knuckle I had the first night we were there.

I’m sure that part of it was honeymoon bliss combined with exhaustion, but the food just tasted so good. As we kept cool and had a movie marathon day this past weekend, I put on a big pot of goodness to braise. This doesn’t happen often but it came out so right the first time. It’s a simple recipe too, which makes it even better. One bite and I was back in the Czech Republic. Now if only I could get that beer again…hmm…

Braised Cabbage of Happiness

  • 1 head of cabbage, cored and shredded
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 tbsp. butter (I used some bacon fat too!)
  • 1-2 slices of bacon, chopped
  • 1.5 tsp. caraway seeds
  • 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tbsp. sugar
  • Black pepper to taste
  • One small apple, grated

Melt the butter in a dutch oven or heavy bottomed saucepan over low heat. Add the onions and sauté very gently for 10 minutes. The onions should be soft, translucent and lightly golden. Add the bacon and cook five minutes more.

Add the cabbage and caraway seeds to the pot and mix well. Cover the pot tightly and cook for five minutes.

Add the vinegar, water, salt, and sugar. Stir everything together thoroughly and then increase the heat and bring the liquid to a boil. Boil for 1-2 minutes and then reduce the heat to low, cover the pot, and simmer gently for one hour. Stop by the stove and give it a stir every so often. Near the end, add the grated apple. I like to apple to stay crunchy, but if you like it soft go ahead and add it earlier.

If you want to make this into a meal, here’s a quick protein to go with it. Kielbasa is the most similar thing (that I’ve found) to the kranjska klobása served at the food carts in Prague, so that’s what I used. Making it from scratch is definitely in my future, but I digress.

Cut 3 oz. of kielbasa into half moon shapes and fry until lightly browned. Add 1/3 cup of chicken stock, 1/3 cup of beer, and a squirt of spicy barbecue sauce to the pan. Simmer until the sauce reduces to about 1/3 cup. You can also add a few tbsp. of milk if you like a sauce with a little bit more body. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Pour yourself a frothy beer and enjoy being in a Bohemian state of mind. Dobrou chut’!

Ciao for now,

Neen

Unexpected Favorites: Zucchini Lasagna

22 May

Creativity, in my opinion, is one of the most important assets any cook can have. It is always really interesting to me when I have a chance to exchange recipes with other RNY post-ops. Generally they’ve revamped favorite recipes into ones that fit into their new healthy lifestyle. People have come up with really interesting, delicious things like chocolate cakes sweetened and moistened with canned pumpkin, or protein-packed pancakes made from ricotta cheese and nut flour.

It was during one of these exchanges many years ago that someone first brought up the idea of using zucchini squash as a replacement for lasagna noodles. Although skeptical (I love pasta), I gave it a try and LOVED it. If, like me, you are currently being driven crazy by a project and just need something simple to heat up at lunchtime, this is the answer. You can use low-fat cheeses if you wish, but I prefer to use full-fat in this recipe. Even with full-fat cheese, it only works out to 8g of fat per serving.

Zucchini Lasagna

  •  1 lb. ground turkey breast
  • 2 zucchini, sliced thin on a mandoline
  • 2 cups tomato sauce
  • 1 1/2 cups diced mushrooms
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 16 oz. whole milk ricotta cheese
  • 3 oz. whole-milk mozzarella cheese, grated
  • 1 oz. parmesan cheese, grated
  • 1 egg
  • Thyme, salt, onion powder, and cayenne pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Brown the turkey in a large saucepan and season with salt and pepper. Add the mushrooms and minced garlic and saute a minute longer. Add the tomato sauce, herbs, and seasoning and simmer while preparing the filling.

Combine the ricotta, 2 oz. of the mozzarella, and parmesan with thyme, salt and pepper. Taste and re-season as needed, then add the egg and mix well.

Put a thin layer of the tomato sauce mixture in the bottom of an 8×8 in. square baking dish. Top that with a layer of zucchini, and then finally with a layer of the ricotta mixture. Repeat this process until you’ve used up the filling. I usually get about 8 layers.

Top with any remaining small slices of zucchini and mozzarella cheese.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until bubbly and cooked through. After removing from the oven, allow it to sit for 15 minutes before cutting into slices. Yield: 9 slices.

Want to get a bunch of meals out of this? Simply refrigerate the leftovers in the baking pan overnight so that they firm up. Then wrap individual servings in several layers of plastic wrap and then freeze. To reheat, either place in a baking dish and bake at 350 degrees F until warm, or in the microwave for 3-4 minutes.

That’s all for this healthy and happy recipe. But I’ll finish this post off with something even happier. Check out my face as I realize that I’ve just walked into a surprise bridal shower thrown by my wonderful family and friends this past weekend:

Then realized my sister-in-law flew in from New York to be there:

And ended up with a bouquet of bows from generous gifts for Joe and I:

Truly, I am the luckiest.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Ciao for now,

Neen

Beaches, Brahms and Brownies

25 Apr

What a busy April it has been! First we were off in the Bahamas with family for what was a wonderful, relaxing and awesomely fun vacation. There is nothing so calming to me as being by the ocean. Not to mention the glee I get from enjoying good seafood, freshly rolled cigars, and time to just be with the people I love the most.

Once I was back in town it was straight into a very tight rehearsal schedule. Choral Arts Society of Washington just performed our last concert at the Kennedy Center for the year, and it was Maestro Scribner’s final show as our director. “Ein Deutches Requiem” rang through the air just beautifully, and I felt truly privileged to be a part of such a fantastic choir. We got some pretty excellent reviews to boot:

http://www.examiner.com/review/scribner-s-final-performance-at-the-kennedy-center-filled-with-great-admiration

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/concert-review-norman-scribner-leads-choral-arts-society-in-swan-song-performance-of-brahmss-requiem/2012/04/23/gIQAgkNvcT_print.html

Our final concert of the season will be in June at the National Cathedral and is a tribute to the maestro for his 47 incredible years as Choral Arts’ director.

Joe and I get married two weeks after that concert, wow. Summer is going to be wonderful!

Still riding the adrenaline rush from Sunday, I finally had both the time and energy to do some baking last night. At the same time, since we’ve been getting home so late that I had very few interesting ingredients hanging around the house. A handful of this, a pinch of that, a few squares of chocolate…etc. But any decent cook knows that you just work with what you have.

And I had brownie ingredients.

I’m not into tooth-achingly sweet things when it comes to chocolate. I like decadent and rich, not too much flour, and little or no leavening agent. Brownies are not, in my opinion, mini-cakes and are best when creamy and a little bit dense.

Dark Chocolate Brownies with Toasted Coconut and Pecans

  • 3.5 oz. dark chocolate. I used 72% for this batch.
  • 4 oz. unsalted butter
  • ½-2/3 cup of sugar
  • ½ cup flour
  • 2 eggs
  • Handful of pecans
  • Handful of shredded coconut. Sweetened or unsweetened is fine.
  • 1 tsp. coconut extract
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extraxt
  • Pinch of salt

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F, and line an 8×8 in. square pan with foil. Grease the foil lightly.

In a dry pan, toast the coconut and pecans over medium heat until fragrant and lightly brown. I did them in separate batches since the coconut browns much quicker.

Melt together the butter and chocolate, stirring occasionally. When the chocolate is almost completely melted, remove from the heat and mix until smooth.

Add ½ cup of sugar and give the mixture a taste. If you want it a little bit sweeter, use up to 2/3 cup, but I wouldn’t go any higher than that.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly between each addition. Then add the salt and extracts.

Mix the flour into the wet ingredients and beat by hand until it is incorporated.

Pour the batter into the 8×8 in. pan and top with the shredded coconut and pecans. Bake 20-25 minutes or until the center has just set.

The only patience involved in this recipe comes at this stage. Let the brownies cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes and then remove (the foil makes this so easy) and rest on a wire rack until completely cool…or at least close to it.

I’ve cut this batch into as many as 24 small brownies, but you can choose your own destiny there. They’re hard to share, but when I saw how happy they made folks I gave them to, it more than made up for the fact that I only got to try a bite of one that broke when I cut them.

And I hope delicious chocolate makes up for my long absence from the blogosphere. There should be a bread recipe coming up soon once I finish getting the photos ready to go, so be on the lookout for that.

Ciao for now,

Neen

Blueberry Not-Quite-A-Pound Cake

13 Mar

Blueberries are not in season. Despite this undeniable fact, I couldn’t resist them when the grocery store had them for buy-one-get-one-free last week. I begin longing for berries long before the first ones roll around in June, so bear with me here. Obviously what we’re getting in the mid-Atlantic US right now aren’t the sweetest or plumpest berries, but the tartness does make them great for baking applications. That combined with a citrusy glaze make this humble loaf cake something special. Its texture and flavor closely resemble that of a pound cake, but the ratio of ingredients isn’t quite there, so let’s just call it something else.

Blueberry Not-Quite-A-Pound Cake

Cake:

  • 4 oz. butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup milk mixed with ¼ cup sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Glaze:

  • 1 orange, for zest and juice
  • ½ -3/4 cup powdered sugar

Grease and flour a 9×5 in. loaf pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, followed by the milk/sour cream and the vanilla extract.


Put the flour, baking powder and salt in a sifter. Gradually sift the dry ingredients into the wet and mix just until combined.

Gently fold in the blueberries. The batter will be quite thick.

Spread the batter evenly into the loaf pan and bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Once removed from the oven, let it cool in the pan for 15 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.

To make the glaze, squeeze the orange (I used a seedless navel orange) into a bowl until you have about 3 tablespoons of juice. Then grate 1-2 tsp. of orange zest and add it to the juice. Mix in powdered sugar until a consistency is reached that will allow the glaze to ribbon when poured. Drizzle this over the cake while it is still warm. I’d wait about 40 minutes to cut into the cake so that it is sturdy enough to slice evenly without smashing.

It’s really good. How good? I’ve made two in the last week at super-fiance’s request and he refuses to share it with his coworkers (sorry EAB, I tried!).

Ciao for now,

Neen

How to not be grumpy on Valentine’s Day

14 Feb

I’ll say it: I like Valentine’s Day.

It’s an easy holiday to loathe. Super-saturated with frilly pink hearts, unreasonable expectations, gender imbalance, and overpriced candy (the horror!), I can understand why it might lead to feelings of grumpiness. But like many things in life, it’s about changing perspective. Eight years ago, my now-fiancé was the first person to ever take me out on what some consider the world’s most frustrating holiday. I didn’t really date much before I met Joe, and so my view of Valentine’s Day developed outside of the narrow frame that greeting card companies would prefer you to acknowledge.

As with Christmas, I feel like you have to strip away the over-commercialization and remember that holidays are just extra reminders to acknowledge and thank the people in your life who make it brighter. Whether it be co-workers that help the workday go a little faster, friends and family that bring you joy, or that special someone who makes you feel like the coolest person in the world, just say “thank you.” Remind someone that he or she makes a difference. Heck, go to CVS and buy some Batman valentines if you want to be silly. It’ll make someone smile.

And isn’t that really one of the best things in life, making people smile?

This time last year, I wrote about being grateful for the people who have impacted my life in a positive way over the last decade. How they made it possible to heal, grow, and accept that while life is never perfect, it is always hopeful. As Mary Oliver writes in my favorite poem, “Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination…”

So if you’re feeling down today and you really need a boost, just say “thank you” and share a smile with someone.

Oh, and make banana bread! (Come on, it wouldn’t be Neen’s Notes without a good recipe). Here’s what I made for some of the great people in my life today. When life hands you overripe bananas and ricotta leftover from making lasagna—but not enough to make another lasagna—make banana bread.

Truly Lovable Banana Bread

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 3/4 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 4 tbsp. butter
  • 3 bananas, mashed
  • 1/3 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp. almond extract
  • 2 eggs

Method

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and spices in a medium sized bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugars together until smooth and then add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add the ricotta, bananas, and extracts and mix just until combined.

Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed or by hand just until a batter forms and there are no remaining dry spots.

Spoon the batter into a greased 9×5 or 8×4 1/2 loaf pans and bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Enjoy, my friends, and a happy Valentine’s Day to you all.

Ciao for now,

Neen

DIY Charcuterie Returns: Duck Prosciutto

21 Sep

First, a bit of shameless self-promotion:

The Choral Arts Society of Washington (of which I am a member) is performing Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Rafael Frübeck de Burgos and featuring soloists Nicholas Phan (tenor), Laura Claycomb (soprano), and Hugh Russell (baritone). The performances will take place at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on the evenings of September 29th, 30th, and October 1st. Also on the program is Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8.

Please come hear what is going to be a really spectacular show! Tickets are available through the Kennedy Center’s website here: http://www.kennedy-center.org/events/?event=NLCSV#blurb

Secondly, football season is at last in full swing, which is awesome, and also means the return of fantasy football. Let me tell you, team Merchant of Menace is looking pretty good so far (fingers crossed) aside from an injury or two. Here’s this year’s lineup so that I can look back at the end of the season and go “What was I thinking?” But hopefully not. The starters are in boldface:

  • QBs: Matt Ryan, Kyle Orton
  • WRs: Roddy White, Mike Wallace, Kenny Britt, Pierre Garcon, Hines Ward
  • RBs: LeSean McCoy, Tim Hightower, Ryan Mathews, LaDanian Tomlinson
  • TEs: Owen Daniels, Aaron Hernandez
  • K: Sebastian Janikowski
  • DEF: New England

I’ve been luckier than most the first few weeks. My only major downer is Aaron Hernandez going down with a sprained MCL. It could be anywhere from 2-6 weeks before he returns, but I’ll keep him on the bench until I absolutely need the roster spot. It’s a shame; he started off the season really strong.

Now let’s switch gears entirely and talk about duck. How is it that in all of my charcuterie posts from earlier this year that I never got around to sharing the delightful creation known as duck prosciutto? You can even see it hanging in the pictures of the pancetta and soppressata!

But honestly, it’s a good thing that I waited. Really. I’ve made the duck prosciutto from Charcuterie a few times now with my own little changes and have discovered a few things along the way that I think will make your first time trying it more successful. This is definitely the easiest charcuterie project to take on, so if you’re looking for a place to start, you’ve found it.

Duck Prosciutto, adapted from Charcuterie, by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn

  • One duck breast (I normally use a moulard duck breast weighing in around 20 oz.)
  • 2 cups kosher salt
  • Fresh sage and orange zest
  • Cheesecloth and butcher’s twine

First, find a lidded container that will snugly fit your duck breast. I use a small rectangular Ziploc tub, but a 1 qt. oval baking dish covered with plastic wrap would work well too.

Pat the duck breast dry and set aside.

Combine the 2 cups of salt with the herbs and zest to make a cure. You can use other flavors too. Some people like to add crushed juniper berries, herbs de provence, or a combination of hot pepper and brown sugar to their cure. Think about the kind of flavors you like. For my preference, nothing brightens up duck like orange zest and a few torn sage leaves.

Pour one cup of the salt cure into the storage tub or baking dish and place the duck breast on top of it. Pack enough of the remaining cure around and on top of it to just cover the surface on all sides. Cover the container and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Remove the duck breast from the cure and rinse it under cool water. Pat it dry once again and weigh it.

Wrap the duck breast in a layer of cheesecloth and hang it in a cool, dark, and mildly humid place to dry. Ideal conditions are around 60 degrees F. and 60-70% humidity.

Hang for 1-2 weeks, or until it has lost 1/3rd of its original weight. Store wrapped in butcher paper in the refrigerator or vacuum seal for longer-term storage. Serve very thinly sliced with peppery greens like arugula, and fresh tomatoes.

On slicing: To make it easier to slice thin, you can put the duck breast in the freezer for a half-hour or so prior to slicing to make it firmer. And just look at the beautiful color:

Happy Autumn to you all. I assure you that after the Carmina Burana performances, I’ll be back with more fall (football!) recipes.

Ciao for now,

Neen

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