I sometimes feel like I’m running perpetually behind. Is it 5:00 already? Is it February already? How am I suddenly six months pregnant? Remember that vacation we took to Paris last July? I never shared it with all of you because I just finished editing my photos in DECEMBER. Expect a post in about April.

The nice thing about being behind on things is that reminders can feel like discoveries. When editing my Paris photos, I found the pictures I took at a wonderful meal we ate in the Latin quarter at Bistro y Papilles. Located in a small wine store, with a different set menu every night, it was the kind of wonderful meals that makes you feel like you’re really in Paris. The menu that night started with a velvety cauliflower soup, served at the table in a big tureen. We were presented with shallow soup bowls that were garnished with a “salad” with lardons, croutons, cauliflower, herbs and creme fraiche, and the hot soup was ladled over the salad. All the garnishes brought a wonderful textural contrast to the soup, and it was one of the best things we ate that week.

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It’s very strange being pregnant in January. It seems like everyone is going on a diet, vowing to lose weight, committing to a high-intensity exercise plan. Me? I’m craving hamburgers, and trying to decide if it’s a good idea to go to a once a week yoga class. I do hope to lose weight this year, but not before I gain a bunch, and I’m just trying to keep up with my protein needs. Oh, and I plan to eat more vegetables.

This time of year has proven to be difficult, anyhow. My dad died a year ago, and while I steeled myself to face the date itself, I’ve found myself feeling a bit more fragile than I normally am. A year is the traditional period of mourning, but while there is a lot of happiness and even joy in my life, I haven’t stopped tearing up unexpectedly, and I still miss him fiercely.

So instead of salads and superfoods, I’ve been seeking out comfort. One of my favorite Friday night dinners is Toad-in-the-Hole — a British classic that’s basically a Yorkshire pudding with sausages. It’s not health food, but it IS comfort food, and it’s made from scratch (OK, I buy the sausages, but you COULD make them from scratch) and there’s a place for that, too.

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Does anything say “fall” more than apples? One of my favorite rituals when I lived in New England and New York was to hit the apple orchards every September, picking my own apples, sampling different varieties (my favorite was the New York empire apple) and filling my sacks (always multiple sacks) with dozens of sweet, juicy, crunchy apples. The aroma would fill my dorm room or apartment, and I would be supplied with snacks for weeks to come. Sometimes I would turn the apples into an apple cake, or applesauce, or baked apples, but mostly the apples were the perfect snack: sweet and crunchy and portable.
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Read the rest of Apple Cider Pulled Chicken Sandwiches with Apple Slaw {Sponsored Post} (592 words)

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Post tags: apples, chicken, sponsored, weeknight

I’ve lived in many places during my life, but at heart I’m an Angeleno girl. Los Angeles is my hometown, and the home of the taco. OK, bastardized home of the taco (and home of the bastardized taco). When I was in college and law school and paying flying visits home, I always made sure those visits included tacos. And when we’re talking about real tacos, there is no iceberg lettuce, no shredded cheese, and NO ground beef.

This is a taco: seasoned meat, steamed corn tortillas, onions, cilantro. Maybe a squeeze of lime, maybe a dab of hot sauce. Simple, perfect.

Now that I live here, although there are plenty of visits to the local taqueria, I can get all the ingredients to make fabulous tacos at home. The really good kind of corn tortillas. Cilantro for 25 cents a bunch, and limes for a dollar a dozen. The sweet white onions necessary to real Mexican food. And the meat. Any carniceria worth its salt will sell you carne asada — seasoned beef, ready for the grill. But I’d never attempted to make it myself, until I saw the recipe in the LA Times, in an article about the combining of Mexican and Armenian food traditions in one Angeleno family. It seemed almost laughably easy, so I picked up the ingredients at my local Mexican Armenian market — beef flap meat (though any very thin and flavorful cut of beef will do), cilantro, onions, and the ultimate authentic ingredient: Worcestershire sauce. (LA always has been, and always will be, a melting pot). A few whirls in the food processor, some quality time with the grill, and I had my tacos. No need for a taqueria run.

Recipe
Carne Asada
from the LA Times

1 bunch cilantro, cleaned and stemmed
3 cloves garlic
1/2 small white onion, peeled
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1-2 serrano chiles
Salt
2 lbs. beef flap meat, or any very thinly cut and flavorful piece of beef.

In a food processor, combine all the ingredients except the beef, and a teaspoon of salt, or to taste. Blend the ingredients until liquid and rub the marinade all over the beef. Marinate in the refrigerator at least 1 hour, or up to 24.

Preheat a grill to medium heat, oil, and grill the marinated meat until the edges are charred and the meat is cooked through — about 5 minutes on each side.

Slice into small pieces against the grain, and serve in steamed corn tortillas with chopped onions, more cilantro, and a squeeze of lime. And a Corona. And a nice view. And beautiful weather. And a lot of traffic. And the smell of flowers. NOW you’re in the City of Angels.

© Kate for Savour Fare, 2011. | Permalink |
Post tags: beef, LA Times, mexican, Tacos

I have a confession to make: I don’t grill.

I plan grilled meals. I prepare foods for grilling. I even bought the grills (we have both charcoal and gas). But I have no idea how to use the damn things. Every time I want dinner on the barbecue I have to bat my eyes and ask Ken to fire it up. (Southerners, do not freak out. Californians call grills barbecues. So do Australians, I think. We know it is not the same thing.) I would say this is a problem that should be fixed, except it IS kind of nice to say, “Here honey. You’re cooking tonight.”

Then I get hooked on recipes like this one. Meat and vegetables plus a few herbs and spices plus fire equals a super flavorful (and totally healthy!) meal. So I start to want to grill every night. And of course, Ken often works late, leaving my grilling urges unsatisfied. Maybe I should figure this out after all.

I threw this together one night and based it on the flavors from a summer in the South of France — saffron and garlic and fennel from Bouillabaisse, garlic and wine and oranges and herbs de provence from everything else. It takes no time to put together, and I wasn’t even planning to share it (hence the lack of carefully styled photography) but it was too good not to. This is going on the menu again and again this summer (and maybe into fall and winter too — there are advantages to living in Los Angeles.)

Now, if only I knew how to grill….

Recipe:
Provencal Grilled Chicken Breasts and Fennel

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 T Herbes de Provence
1 T Maldon salt or another flaky sea salt
1/2 tsp. saffron
3 cloves garlic
3 T olive oil
1/2 c. dry vermouth
zest from 1 orange
2 bulbs fennel
additional olive oil, salt, and herbes de provence

Cut the chicken in half lengthwise to make thin pieces of chicken — this helps them grill more evenly.

In a small bowl, combine the salt, herbes de provence and saffron. Rub the mixture all over both sides of the chicken breast.

In a dish, arrange the chicken breasts, then pour in wine and olive oil. Mince the garlic and scatter over the top, sprinkle on the orange zest. Let sit at least 30 minutes, but up to a day (in the refrigerator, natch.)

Remove the green parts from the fennel. Thickly slice the bulbs lengthwise, brush each piece with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and herbes de provence.

Grill the chicken and the fennel over medium heat (the fennel takes longer than the chicken and retains some crunch).

Serve with sliced fennel, brushed with evoo and grilled.

© Kate for Savour Fare, 2011. | Permalink |
Post tags: chicken, healthy, low-carb, low-fat

It’s far too cold in Los Angeles this week to even think of having a picnic, or eating a salad. We’ve had rain and fog and nighttime temperatures in the 40′s. I’ve been digging out my thick sweaters and my boots and thinking of building a fire in the fireplace. It’s MAY, people! I live in Los Angeles! Apparently Mother Nature didn’t get the message.

Regardless of the weather, Memorial Day is around the corner! Which means PICNICS! And POTLUCKS! Or mayonnaise slowly congealing in the hot sun until it becomes liquid death, and “I’m a vegetarian/lactose intolerant/in a neurotic relationship with pasta.” Well, given these parameters, have I got the dish for you. I got it from my friend Corrine (of the apparently departed casavillecooking) who deals with dairy and egg allergies in her family, and is therefore a great source of vegan and dairy-free recipes. This dish is a perfect potluck dish — it’s vegan (or not, depending on your additions), dairy-free, egg-free, and not too starchy. You can make it gluten-free by replacing the ramen noodles with rice noodles fried in a little oil. It’s also easy and quick to make, can be scaled up or down, and can be adapted to suit your tastes and your audience. With no mayonnaise, it will hold for a few hours without refrigeration (it also makes a great brown bag lunch dish). And did I mention it’s delicious? Flavorful, kid friendly — it even features healthy vegetables!

So really, what are you waiting for?

Oh yeah, the recipe.

Recipe
Japanese Ramen Salad
Adapted from Casaville Cooking
Salad:
8 green onions, finely sliced
1 lb shredded green cabbage
two 3 oz packages of ramen noodles, broken
1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
6-8 oz. firm seasoned tofu, cut into cubes OR 6-8 oz. cooked chicken, cut into cubes (optional)

Dressing:

Place chopped cabbage, green onions, sesame seeds and almonds in a large bowl. Toss with dressing and cover overnight. Toss before serving

Dressing

3 T sugar
1/3 cup olive oil or peanut oil
6 T rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

In a large bowl, combine scallions, cabbage, ramen noodles, almonds, sesame seeds, and tofu or chicken. Toss lightly to combine. Combine all ingredients for dressing, toss with salad. This can be made in advance.

© Kate for Savour Fare, 2011. | Permalink |
Post tags: Kid Friendly, lunchbox, potluck, vegan

Somehow, chicken has become the default American protein. It’s understandable, I suppose. We’re still a meat and potatoes culture at heart; the day is far away that we will generally wholeheartedly embrace legumes as the fallback. Eggs have too much cholesterol, dairy too much fat. Eating seafood involves navigating a minefield of ethical, environmental and safety issues, with buzzwords like “Mercury”, “Overfishing”, “PcBs”. Plus, a lot of (misguided) people just won’t eat fish, because it’s too … fishy. (Go figure.) Beef has its own issues with the environment and health issues, leading many people to “give up red meat” for unspecified reasons. And they usually lump in lamb, too. Pork is either too fatty or too lean, depending on who you’re talking to. And so we’re left with chicken. Preferably boneless, skinless chicken breasts, the completely inoffensive meat.

All of this is tongue and cheek of course, as I like a varied diet and believe in everything in moderation, but we do find ourselves eating chicken at least once a week, on average. And so I’m always looking for new and tasty ways to prepare what has become, for most of us, a staple. Without resorting to the use of ingredients like grape jelly, pandan extract or fairy dust, the application of “foam”, or freeze drying anything.

This pretzel crusted chicken is a perfect easy, weeknight meal. It’s an adaptation of a dish that I used to eat at the City Bakery in New York, where it was often part of their (excellent and ruinously expensive) salad bar. The ingredients are easy to find (and not ruinously expensive), the preparation is simple. It can be served hot or cold. And the result is just novel enough to break out of those chicken blues.

Recipe: Mustard Baked Chicken with a Pretzel Crust

1. 8 oz. hard pretzels (I used tiny twists)
2. 1/3 cup olive oil
3. 1/3 cup whole-grain mustard
4. 2 T Dijon mustard
5. 2 T water
6. 3 T red wine vinegar
7. Salt and freshly ground pepper
8. 4 large skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut in half lengthwise (to make 8 flatter chicken breast filets)

1. Preheat oven to 400 Degrees. Place a shallow rack over a baking sheet.
2. Place the pretzels in a gallon ziploc bag and run a rolling pin over them until they’re coarsely crushed but still identifiable as pretzels. Place into a wide, shallow bowl.
3. Add the mustards, water and vinegar to a bowl and whisk to combine. Whisk in the olive oil until the mixture is homogeneous. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Add the chicken to the mustard mixture and toss to coat. Lay each chicken piece in the crushed pretzels and turn to coat.
5. Arrange the pretzel coated chicken pieces on the rack set over your baking sheet. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until firm. Slice and serve.

© Kate for Savour Fare, 2011. | Permalink |
Post tags: chicken, weeknight

I was raised as a breakfast eater. Every morning before school when I was a kid, I ate breakfast – occasionally cereal with milk, often toast with cheese or peanut butter to add protein. But on important mornings, when I had a biology test, a school play performance, or the SAT’s, my mom made eggs. Scrambled, fried, in omelets, hard boiled. Eggs were my breakfast of champions.

That’s why when Kitchen Play and the American Egg Board asked me to participate in their SideCar event about eggs for breakfast, I jumped at the chance. The American Egg Board is also sponsoring a great contest for those of my readers who write their own food blogs – scroll to the end of the post for details. I’m writing this post and creating this recipe as part of a partnership between Kitchen Play and The American Egg Board. They have compensated me for my time and cooking expenses but my opinions and tastes are my own. I only like to write about products I wholeheartedly endorse, but eggs and I go way back. I always keep a carton of eggs in the fridge, knowing that I can whip them into a quick meal or snack at any time of day, but eggs have a special place for breakfast.
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Read the rest of Eggs for Breakfast: Eggs Toscana and a Giveaway! (877 words)

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Post tags: brunch, eggs, Vegetarian

Sometimes, I want to spend time in the kitchen. I want to smell and chop and stir and taste and really EXPERIENCE cooking. Sometimes, I want to go about my life. I want to watch the Superbowl, go to work, read to my daughter, talk with my husband, play with the new puppy. But just because I don’t want to spend time cooking doesn’t mean I want to eat bad food. I still want to eat good, homemade food, made from scratch.

If I want onion dip for a Superbowl party, I could use the classic recipe: open a packet of Lipton’s soup mix and a container of sour cream, mix them together and have a fat bowl of MSG, corn syrup and unpronounceable things with a side of my entire RDA of sodium. Or I could make onion dip from scratch, controlling the ingredients myself, adding the right amount of salt, and slowly caramelizing the onions to add depth of flavor. Of course, caramelized onions require a long period of cooking them in a skillet, stirring frequently to make sure they don’t scorch, waiting for those Maillard reactions to hurry up and happen. Or you could just use a crockpot.

A crockpot is the perfect vessel for caramelizing onions — it cooks long and slow and consistently, and it retains liquid so the onions don’t scorch. Best of all, you don’t have to babysit it — you just add the onions, turn it on, and walk away. It’s really only one step removed from opening a packet, and it tastes better and is better for you. A super bowl of dip for the Superbowl (OK, I couldn’t resist the pun.)

Recipe: Crockpot French Onion Dip

Summary: The easy way to make french onion dip from scratch is to caramelize your onions in the slow cooker.

Cooking time (duration): 8 hours

Meal type: snack

© Kate for Savour Fare, 2011. | Permalink |
Post tags: crockpot, Quick, snacks, Vegetarian

The night my father died, I made dinner. It was a new recipe I was trying, a salad of roasted root vegetables, topped with a salmon filet, broiled in mustard. It was in the oven when my mother called, asked my husband to head to their house – my father had fallen again, and she needed help getting him up. He had been in and out of the hospital this fall, with complications from the flu, all complicated by his emphysema. The long periods of inactivity had cost him strength in his legs and he had fallen – more than once – had got back up, and kept going. That night was no different. I finished making dinner, fed the Nuni. Ken called me, told me he was going to help my mom get my dad upstairs. I put the Nuni down, and waited for my husband to come home. And instead I got a phone call. That my dad had collapsed, that the paramedics were there. I raced over to my parents’ house, and held my mother’s hand. As the paramedics came downstairs with somber faces. As the funeral home took away my father’s body. As we drank many many glasses of scotch, in shock and in disbelief and in his honor.

I didn’t eat that dinner. Everything from before is before, and this is now, and everything is different. As my mother said, “How will I ever feel like cooking again?” Friends and family have come out of the woodwork, offering company and comfort and solace and meals. But we have found ourselves, my mother and I, slowly drawn back into the kitchen. Soothed by the solace of stirring, the rhythm of chopping and kneading. There is something so concrete about cooking. It is a task that requires active involvement, and concentration, so that your mind does not wander to other things, other images.

I was not prepared for the physicality of grief. It hangs inside you, like a small dense singularity. You feel like something is sitting on your chest. It is exhausting to carry around this weight, to struggle against being consumed by it, and every night I find myself collapsing into bed, worn out by the effort of grieving. I was not prepared for the fact that grief is a feat of endurance. That you need your resources to power through, that a night of lost sleep, or a day of poor eating, can be distastrous, and end in torrents of tears.

This dish, from Food and Wine, is nourishing. It takes the effort you want to put into it — whether that is the precision of cubes of squash, perfectly peeled sprouts, ora rough chop of unpeeled vegetables, blasted in a hot oven. It can be expanded to feed many or last for a week as leftovers. It is wholesome, with vegetables and chicken, yogurt and spices, and comforting, with the sweetness of onion and squash, the plain and unchallenging chicken resting atop. It offers the blessings of straightforwardness — there are no secret ingredients or tricky techniques. The chicken and vegetables shine on the plate, uncloaked by the platitudes of a rich sauce. It’s a dish that doesn’t make things better, but it does provide you the resources to keep on.

Recipe
Curried Chicken Pan Roast
Adapted from Food and Wine
You can use peeled and cubed butternut squash here, as the original recipe calls for, or kabocha or delicata with the skin still on, cut into chunks.
1 pounds winter squash in 1 inch cubes
1 pound brussels sprouts, halved
2 large red onions, peeled and root and stem ends removed, and cut into vertical wedges
1/2 cup neutral oil, such as grapeseed or canola, or olive oil if that’s what you have, divided
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons Madras curry powder
2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs
Pita bread or Naan, for serving

Preheat the oven to 450°.
Toss the squash, onion, sprouts and 1/4 cup of the oil. Spread onto a half sheet roasting pan lined with foil, and season liberally with salt and pepper.

Using the same bowl, combine the ginger, garlic, curry powder, yogurt and remaining 1/4 c. of oil and stir to mix. Toss the chicken in the yogurt mixture, and arrange on top of the vegetables.

Roast for about 45 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and the chicken is browned. Serve with pita bread or naan.

© Kate for Savour Fare, 2011. | Permalink |
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