Ladies Who Lunch

I'm taking advantage of the last few days of summer break to catch up with friends I don't often have time to see during the school year.  Today it was luncheon al fresco with fabulous Alicia.  I decided to keep things simple: soup and salad.

The soup was creamy cauliflower (deceptive because no cream is actually involved).  Sauté some chopped onion and garlic in olive oil until just golden, then add head of cauliflower, roughly chopped, and sauté that for a few minutes longer.  Then add enough water just to cover.  Add salt, white pepper, a bay leaf and fresh thyme leaves.  Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the cauliflower is very tender.  Remove the bay leaf, puree until smooth (I use an immersion blender), adjust seasonings.

The soup has a rich and velvety texture; if you really want to gild the lily, you can use chicken broth instead of water, or finish the soup with a drop of cream, but honestly, it is so luxurious that it doesn't need it.

I served the soup hot, but it's also good cold -- reminiscent of vichyssoise (another one of my favorites).

I whipped up a pesto to garnish the soup (despite its loveliness, it wants a little color and texture contrast).  Toasted almonds, parsley, parmesan cheese, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Of course no soup-and-salad meal is complete without home-baked bread.  (My go-to recipe calls for all-purpose flour; I usually use two parts AP and one part whole wheat for a heartier loaf. Today's loaf uses the same "white whole wheat" flour I used in the cobbler recently; it definitely works better in bread than in pastry, but for some reason it didn't rise as well as my usual mix.)

The main dish was a Niçoise salad, one of my summertime staples.  It's very easy but it has so many components that I rarely make it just for myself.

I usually use canned tuna (oil-packed, to be sure) when I make this salad.  But a few weeks ago I got my hands on some beautiful fresh albacore; I bought more than I could use and froze some of it.  So I decided to try poaching it in olive oil, following these directions.  It was very simple and the fish was moist and flavorful.  And the oil won't go to waste; strained and refrigerated, it should keep some weeks and can be used to poach a new batch of fish.  (At least that will be my experiment!)

Dressing: Dijon mustard, lemon juice, olive oil, minced shallot, salt and pepper.

Tomatoes, green beans, potatoes, niçoise olives, hardboiled eggs (from Fogline Farm), tuna, anchovies on a bed of lettuce.

Alicia brought dessert, which is always a treat -- not only is she an accomplished cook and serious all-around foodie, she used to be a professional pastry chef!  She made a luscious lemon pound cake and topped it with fresh strawberries made extra decadent by a splash of stravecchio balsamic vinegar (the real stuff from Modena; the balsamic that every other "balsamic" wants to be when it grows up).  Simple but extraordinary.

A lovely meal on a lovely day.

Labor Day Desserts

I went to a barbecue over Labor Day weekend and volunteered to make dessert.

One of my neighbors has an overabundant peach tree, and was kind enough to give me several pounds of beautiful ripe fruit while it was in season.  My favorite thing to do with excess peaches is to cook them into cobbler filling (add a squeeze of lemon juice, a bit of sugar, and some cornstarch, simmer for about five minutes) and then jar them for later use.  You can have a taste of summertime even in the middle of a freezing winter!

The real genius of this cobbler recipe, though, is the crust.  I use a recipe published in Gourmet Magazine (dear, departed, well-beloved Gourmet Magazine!) in the early 1990s.  It was the first cobbler I learned to make, and though I've tried other versions, none has approached this one in texture, flavor, or ease of preparation.  The secret:

The crust is made with whipped cream.  No butter, no shortening -- just heavy cream that has been whipped to stiff peaks.  Fold it delicately into the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder) and you're done.  It comes out beautifully light and fluffy.  It also works beautifully for making sweet biscuits or strawberry shortcake.

I normally use all-purpose flour for this, but when I went to the grocery store they had run out of my preferred unbleached AP. This is King Arthur's "white whole wheat" -- it is, as you can see, darker and wheatier than AP, but light enough for baking and very tasty.  It is also drier and heartier than AP so I had to use extra cream to get the texture right.

hot out of the oven

There was a last-minute request for a gluten-free dessert, so I also whipped up a simple but delicious fruit crisp:

Sliced plums and blueberries tossed with raw sugar, ground ginger, cinnamon

Topping: rolled oats, ground almonds, ground walnuts, brown sugar, cinnamon, melted butter

The finished products!  Both served with vanilla ice cream.

Foodie Year in Review

Of course the year is not quite over -- 2012 still has a good few months left in it -- but I might as well get these up now, while I have time and am thinking of it and before the school term starts up and things get crazy again.  Here are some of my favorite things since the start of the year:

New Year's menu at my parents' house. This is how we roll. (Once a year, at any rate.)

Easter brunch: just-picked asparagus, baby beets, crumbled ricotta salata.

I found a cardoon at the market! Look how enormous it is!

After pulling off the leaves and cutting the stalks into manageable portions, this is what was left.

And after trimming away the spongy outsides and getting down to the tender, edible heart, this is all that was left. I braised it in chicken broth, with garlic and fresh herbs; delicious.

My dad's university offers a cooking class for undergrads, and my mom is one of the instructors. One of my visits coincided with the Italian food class, so I checked it out. Project of the day: breaking down an ENTIRE WHEEL of Parmiggiano-Reggiano cheese. Fantastic!!

If only blogs could convey smell...when the wheel was cracked open, the whole room filled with that delicious, nutty, creamy Parmesan aroma. It was glorious.

A gift of plums from a coworker's tree: baked into a tart with frangipane. A big hit at the 4th of July picnic.

On my last visit to my parents I got to raid their garden for all this spectacular summer produce...

Several varieties of tomatoes and peppers, squash blossoms, every kind of herb...

The rainbow chard and new potatoes went into this lentil soup (a favorite family recipe). Seasoned with lemon juice and mint, also from the garden!

Delicious white nectarines from mom and dad's tree -- they made a killer sorbet.

One of my favorite tricks, which I learned on my last trip to France about six years ago: use a vegetable peeler to make "noodles" of tender young zucchini. These are tossed with toasted pine nuts, garlic, thyme, parsley and olive oil.

I'll try to update this thing on a more regular basis from now on.  Buon appetito!

Party Time. (Excellent.)

I don't cook just for myself, of course; in fact, I prefer to cook for other people.  Preferably large groups of other people.  Here's some of my favorite party food from the last couple years:

Writers' Summer Luncheon
I used to work as an assistant to an author; when she threw a thank-you / meet-and-greet party for contributors to her latest book, I got to do the catering. Some of the produce came from the author's own lovely garden, the rest from my local farmers' market.

Crostini of smoked duck with spiced apricot chutney, green goddess dip, homemade tapenade, crackers and crudités.

Sandwiches. Left: Roast beef with arugula, blue cheese, caramelized shallots. Right: roasted veggies (eggplant, bell peppers, zucchini), basil pesto, goat cheese.

Orange chiffon cupcakes with dark chocolate ganache and golden raspberries.

I also collaborated with two friends to throw a very elegant baby shower.  (The baby will be a year old in October, which tells you how long overdue this post is!)

Cheeses platter

Seckel pears poached in moscato and spices.

Our gracious hostess, C. opened up her beautiful Craftsman-style home and provided the gorgeous vintage linens and table settings. (Check out the amazing punch bowl and her adorable apron!)

Salumi plate. I made the pâté and pickled red onions and C. made the smoked duck breast; the rest came from my friend Rachael, chef/owner at The Compass Star.

Dark chocolate truffles -- pure decadence!

Two kinds of cookies: almond crisps; shortbread with currants and candied citrus peel.

Mini fruit tarts (vanilla pastry cream, berries). No need to get a fancy set of teeny tart pans for this; I used a mini muffin tin to shape the crusts.

A tower of decadence!

 

 

 

And finally, I got to throw quite a lovely party for myself to celebrate a milestone birthday in early 2012.  My Fabulous Sicilian Landlady let me have the shindig in her gorgeous house because my studio is so teeny, and my glamorous friend Joyce created some spectacular cocktails and loaned me the beautiful marble serving platters you see in the photos.

the grand spread of hors d'oeuvres

 

Yes, I did decorate my cake with a tiara and pink polka dots. (Red velvet with cream cheese and mascarpone icing.)

My hair almost matched the cake.

La Buongustaia is back! (sort of)

The other day my cousin asked me if I had a food blog. Of course I did! Then I realized that I hadn't updated it since I got back from Italy...almost TWO YEARS ago. Oops. What can I say? Life as a grad student doesn't leave a whole lot of spare time for blogging, unfortunately.

By way of excuse, let me tell you what exactly has kept me so busy:
- PhD qualifying examinations (I passed! yay!) and dissertation prospectus
- performing in a music ensemble
- the usual assortment of coursework and teaching, going to conferences, serving on committees, and other delights of academic life
- a couple of part-time jobs
- a summer internship with a Shakespeare festival
- a social life (no, really!)

But I have managed to find time to cook on occasion, despite all this, and sometimes I even manage to remember to take pictures.  Here are some of the greatest hits from 2010-11:

French-style fruit tart (vanilla pastry cream, topped with strawberries, plums, raspberries and apricot glaze)

apple tart -- from apples grown in my backyard!

Trifle (at Christmastime). I think it may have involved sour cherries and almonds.

Cassoulet, with homemade sausage and duck confit.

Fried chicken; carrot and cabbage slaw (mustardseeds and lime juice).

Homemade pumpkin ravioli with brown butter and sage. Not as ethereal as what I ate in Mantova, but still pretty good!

Involtini of zucchini and eggplant, filled with herbed ricotta cheese, baked in tomato sauce.

Braised baby artichokes. (Some of the best artichokes in the world are grown a few miles from where I live...lucky me!)

Pumpkin and carrot soup with fresh corn, chives and creme fraiche.

Seafood pasta.