Fonduta-Filled Gougeres

And so my Thanksgiving recipes begin.  First up: the gougeres that were the amuse for the meal.

For the past few years, I've made gougeres every year for Thanksgiving as part of the lineup of the snacks before our Thanksgiving feast.  But this year I decided to make them even better by filling them with a rich, gooey, cheesy fonduta.  Sort of like a cream puff, but savory and melty.

Grilled Peaches with Summer Greens

Here's yet another salad inspired by my CSA share.  Over the past year, I've gotten so much better about using each week's share more efficiently rather than attempting to make one dish with each ingredient and then buying a ton of stuff from the farmers' market or supermarket to supplement and support each ingredient.  A few weeks ago, I got all of these items (well, not the cheese or the dressing) in my share and I figured that since they're all growing at the same time, wouldn't they probably taste good together?  There was only one way to find out.

Chioggia Beet and Yellow Plum Salad

Well look who it is.  I'm back from my accidental hiatus, and I've got a ton of recipes to post courtesy of the cupcakes I made for Matt's brother's wedding and some excellent meals I've made courtesy of my CSA share.  I have no real reason for disappearing other than neglect and preoccupation with other things, but I've refocused and am hoping to get back into my regular blogging groove once again.

First up: this simple yet stunning salad.  It came together on a whim while I was searching my fridge for items to make into a pretty plated salad.

Super Bowl Six-Layer Dip

I’ve never been a big football fan, but for some strange reason, I’ve really gotten into it the past few weeks. And who have I been rooting for? None other than the Baltimore Ravens. Unfortunately, they lost their playoff game this past Saturday, which means I don’t really care about watching the Super Bowl for the game itself, but I’ll be tuned in to the commercials and eating good food during the game. Enter this dip for game time diversion.

Everyone loves seven-layer dip, but it usually involves ground beef, which I am obviously not cool with. And I’m kind of over meat substitutes (Trader Joe’s soy chorizo, I’m looking at you), so I just left out the seventh layer and made this a six-layer dip. Blasphemy, I know, but it’s tasty, I swear, and you’ll never miss that seventh layer.

Celery Root, Fennel, and Apple Salad

This salad is a miracle for me. If you had told me just last year that I would be eating raw celery root and fennel, I would have laughed (and then possibly vomited). There are really only two foods in this world that I ever say that I strongly dislike: fennel and, even more so, celery.

My aversion to celery goes all the way back to kindergarten, where I would get in trouble on a daily basis for scooping the peanut butter and raisins out of my ants on a log, leaving the gutted celery sticks behind. (In retrospect, I wonder why my teacher didn’t stop giving me this snack when it was very clear that I hated celery and nothing was going to make me eat it.) My distaste for fennel developed recently, but that’s because I never ate it until a few years ago. I’m not a fan of anise/licorice flavors in general and huge fennel bulbs taste really strongly of that flavor and I just can’t stomach it.

Super Simple Better For You Blue Cheese Dip

I'm  not really a football fan, but I do like watching the playoffs. For some reason unbeknownst to me, I feel the need to eat "traditional" foods while watching football - wings, blue cheese dip, hot dogs, and bad pizza.  Before you freak out, keep reading - I have not abandoned my vegetarian ways.

A few weekends ago, Matt and I (ok really just me) made Asian-inspired hot dogs (really veggie dogs) that were, let's be honest, a total ripoff of Asia Dog.  [If you live in NYC and haven't had an Asia Dog, then you obviously haven't been to two of my favorite places (the Brooklyn Flea and The Bell House) and you need to get yourself to one of them immediately.  They are insanely delicious and light years beyond the average dog.]

Baked Figs with Honeyed Goat Cheese and Walnuts

Here’s another one from Thanksgiving – I know I’m totally behind, no need to remind me.

Since I’m feeling lazy (which is not really news, I’m generally fairly lazy, I don’t quite understand how I can be both lazy and hyperactive, but I am), there’s no story on this. It just sounded like a good idea at the time, and it worked out really well (phew).

Thai Curried Butternut Squash Soup

My mom’s birthday was this past Sunday, so, of course, I was compelled to make her a great dinner. I admit that sometimes I get a little carried away and make elaborate four-course meals that take hours to make, but this time, I decided to make simple comfort foods that my mom loves, albeit refined versions of them.

First up: a butternut squash soup with a Thai inflection. 

Cherry Tomato and Caramelized Shallot Galette

This post is long overdue…I started writing it a few weeks ago and, of course, got sidetracked by a slew of other things. Given that the star of this recipe is sweet summer tomatoes, I figured I better post it soon before it really turns into fall (it was 80 degrees in Baltimore this past Monday…definitely not fall yet!)

When I was down in Baltimore a few weekends and ago, I did one of my favorite things – making an early morning trip to the farmer’s market with Matt and coming up with a menu for dinner for us on the spot. I hadn’t done so since June, and it was so much fun to be able to do so again.

Baked Vegetable Samosas

I love samosas, but it’s hard to find a good one in my neighborhood in Baltimore. Now, before you tell me that there is not just one, but four Indian restaurants (actually, two of them are Indian/Nepali) within a 10 minute walk of my apartment, let me tell you something first: I’ve had samosas from three of the places (the fourth opened just a month ago), and none of them have been good. They’ve either been really greasy or the filling was flat-out bad (or both). So, what’s a girl to do?

Well, of course, the answer is to make her own. But wait – said girl (that would be me) hates deep-frying. I decided that the way to get around that problem would be to use puff pastry as the wrapper for the spiced potato and peas filling, and then to bake the samosas. The puff pastry is rolled out a bit so that it doesn’t get too puffy (thereby more closely resembling a regular samosa), but it is still light, flaky, and moist. The best part is that these samosas are incredibly easy to make - there's no need to make your own dough, there's no deep-frying involved, and you can season your filling just the way you like it. The end result: an easy and delicious snack that's probably better than the ones at your local Indian restaurant.

Sanguine Salad (Roasted Beets, Blood Oranges, and Pomegranate)

I made this last week as part of dinner for Valentine’s Day because, although it is red, it is comprised of a variety of components that are all a deep, bloody shade of red – perfect for a dinner made by someone who hates Valentine’s Day!

Honey-Glazed Bartlett Pear, Gorgonzola, and Walnut Salad

This is the first course I served for my Thanksgiving dinner. It’s a salad I’ve been making for years, but this year, I made it a little better by using gorgonzola dolce, which is aged for less time than regular gorgonzola cheese, making it milder and softer; it goes especially well with pears.

South Indian White Bean Dip

I’m leaving for the UK tonight, so I haven’t been eating proper food the past few days because of the necessary pre-vacation cleaning out of the fridge. (Although I have to admit that I have been enjoying my dinners of black bean and pepper jack cheese quesadillas.)

 

Here’s another dip I made for last month’s cocktail party. I was originally going to make a Tuscan-style white bean dip, but I decided against that because the rest of my menu was Asian/Indian. I got the idea for this from my mom; we were eating at one of my favorite Italian places in the East Village and were served a bowl of whole white beans in oil with red pepper flakes, parsley, and garlic along with our bread. Apparently a similar dish is common in South India, except the garlic and parsley are replaced with roasted urad dal and mustard seeds. And so I decided to turn that into a dip.

The Minimalist's Zucchini Pear Soup

This is another one that I made a few weeks ago but never got around to posting.  Those of you who are regular New York Times readers might know that Mark Bittman aka The Minimalist writes a weekly column in the Wednesday Dining section. He usually takes seasonal ingredients and makes a simple dish with them, hence his title of The Minimalist. A few weeks ago, he provided us with a recipe for Zucchini Pear Soup.

I made the soup that night, but I threw in a few modifications. So while I can’t take credit for the recipe or even the idea to put these two ingredients together, I can take credit for sneaking in some wine and for cutting down the prep time by grating the ingredients rather than chopping them.

 

Chickpea, Leek, and Saffron Soup

Here’s another one that was conjured up more by necessity than creativity. I’m leaving for a 10-day vacation next Thursday (more on that later), so I need to use up all my perishables by then.  Today was a gray rainy day, so soup was definitely the way to go for dinner.

Mung Bean Chaat Baskets

A few months ago, I made a version of a chaat that I had eaten last summer at my favorite North Indian restaurant in New York, Devi. I served it to my mom when she was visiting and she loved it, which meant that it was a success; my mom holds Indian food to high standards, and why shouldn’t she – she’s been cooking it forever and makes the absolute best South Indian food ever (and I’m not just saying that because she’s my mom).

Marinated Tofu and Cucumber Skewers

These were also on the menu at my cocktail party last week. I stole the idea and flavors for these from the macadamia-crusted marinated tofu and coconut-coriander rice I made a while back. They require prior planning, but doesn't any good cocktail party require planning? They’re really easy to make, and, to my surprise, were devoured by everyone – carnivores and tofu-haters included.

Edamame Dip

Last summer, I had a serious obsession with guacamole. I realized that it was definitely not healthy for me to be eating it on an almost-daily basis, so something had to be done to quench my craving. For reasons unbeknownst to me, edamame seemed like a good substitute. I added all the other flavors of guacamole – lime, garlic, cilantro – and, although it is not necessarily a substitute for guac, it is nonetheless a really really tasty dip.

Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms

Almost two months ago, I bought quite a few (read: 12) vegetable plants at the farmer’s market on a complete whim. They were really cheap and I had to have them because I decided that I needed a summer project. I know, I’m kind of impulsive. They were supposed to be planted in the ground like a proper garden, but, for a variety of reasons, they ended up in pots on my balcony. Surprisingly, they are thriving – probably because it has been so incredibly hot in Baltimore this summer. 

Baked Corn Fritters with Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce

I've been buying lots of corn at the market lately – it’s so sweet and tender this time of year but I’ve grown tired of grilling it and slathering it with butter, cilantro, lime juice, and cayenne pepper. Don’t get me wrong, it’s delicious that way, but it gets tiresome after a while. This summer, I’ve run across a few recipes for corn fritters, but they all involve frying, which 1) I really do not enjoy doing (because hot oil + corn = spatters that cause burns, and also because it fills my tiny apartment with the not-so-nice smell of hot oil), and 2) is not particularly healthy.