Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake with Candied Pistachios

Early March is generally pretty dreary here in NYC - as evidenced by the past few days of horribly grey and wet weather - but there is something that comes around every year at this time to (temporarily) lift the doldrums: citrus. Sure, you can get navel oranges and pink grapefruits year-round, but it's only for this brief period in the late winter that we New Yorkers can readily get our hands on Meyer lemons, blood oranges, Cara Cara oranges, and Key limes.

There's something about these ephemeral citrus species that just works wonders in lifting my mood. Maybe it's their exotic flavors or their fleeting nature, but it always is such a treat to be able to indulge in the sweet, bright, and not-too-tart flavor of the aforementioned fruit. Of them, I'm particularly fond of blood oranges - aside from their wonderful flavor, their ruby red flesh is so dramatic and there's something amazing about a fruit that can stain your hands and your cutting boards.

Blueberry Ricotta Tart

At long last, here’s the recipe for my entry for the Brooklyn Beer Experiment.

When I decided to enter, I came up with a shortlist of things to make. My first thought was Beeramisu using a coffee porter (specifically, Sixpoint’s Gorilla Warfare, which is SO GOOD) instead of Marsala + espresso, but, unfortunately, I was too late, as the organizers of the event informed me that someone else had already entered it. (And Johnny Iuzzini, who is one of my favorite pastry chefs, deemed it the best dessert. Note to self: stop procrastinating.) I am, however, undeterred, and plan on making this at some point in the future using the original tiramisu recipe, which, as I mentioned last fall, was created in Baltimore.

Pumpkin Tiramisu

Although my mom cooked our Thanksgiving lunch/dinner, I made dessert. Of course I had to make something pumpkin, because there’s some law somewhere that states that at least one Thanksgiving meal item must contain pumpkin, and since nothing my mom made contained pumpkin, the responsibility fell to me.

I was thinking about making pumpkin pie, but pumpkin cheesecake (actually, a kabocha squash cheesecake) is on the menu for our big gather in Saturday, so I didn’t want to eat the same (or similar) dessert twice in three days. At first I was planning on making pumpkin soufflés with bourbon whipped cream, but after running across a recipe for pumpkin zuccotto, I got an idea: pumpkin tiramisu.

Risotto with Asparagus and Morels

Yep, I’m obsessed with asparagus. This time I paired it with another springtime treat, morel mushrooms, and put the mixture on top of a simple risotto – it was a last minute lazy Sunday supper whose flavor belied its simplicity.

I love mushrooms of all kinds, and morels are no exception. They’re available fresh for a short time each spring, and their rarity and elusiveness means, unfortunately, that they’re pricey (the bf was shocked at how much I shelled out for a small container of them). They’re available dried year-round, but there’s nothing like a fresh morel sautéed in butter – the flavor is earthy and rich and the texture is slightly chewy but not quite as spongy as other mushrooms. Make sure you cook them, though, because morels are toxic when raw, and the toxin is broken down by heat.

Fresh Ricotta and Spinach Gnocchi

Because I am the kind of person who doesn’t easily accept failure, I set out again last weekend to make the spinach and ricotta gnocchi that I had first (and successfully) made for my friend in NYC last month and again a few weeks ago (which didn’t make it to the table for reasons that have been sworn to secrecy ;)

 
I’ve probably said this a million times already, but I think one of the basic rules of cooking is that dishes that require a few ingredients require that those ingredients be the absolute best you can get. It makes sense – if there are only 4 ingredients in something, you’re going to be able to taste each and every one of those ingredients. So, for example, if you use store brand ricotta cheese in these gnocchi, you will definitely taste it. And that won’t be a good thing, because store brand ricotta is grainy and tastes funny. I learned that lesson a few years ago, and never again will I be so cheap as to buy the store brand – I’ll at least spring for the Polly-O or something.

Fresh Ricotta: Remnants of a Failed Dinner

I’ve lived in Baltimore for nearly two years (I have?!??!) and this past Saturday was the first time I went to the Waverly farmers market. I’ve been to the Sunday Baltimore farmers market (the bigger one under the JFX) many times, but that one only runs from mid-May to mid-December.

The Waverly market is much smaller than the Baltimore market, and it also has a few stands that sell produce that is definitely NOT local (Florida corn, North Carolina strawberries – which were SO good, and bananas from who-knows-where). But one thing they have that the Sunday market doesn’t is a stand run by South Mountain Creamery, a dairy located in Middletown, MD. (You can buy eggs at the Sunday market, but I’ve never seen any purveyors of milk or butter).

Baked Eggplant Parmesan

One of my early memories of helping out my mom in the kitchen is making eggplant parmesan once a month on Sunday evenings. As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to help in the kitchen. When I was really little, I was allowed to stir things (initially ones that weren’t on the stove, but as I got older, the stove was no longer off-limits) and I beat eggs on Sunday mornings for omelettes and stirred in seasonings, but I think that this dish was one of the first things with which she really let me get my hands dirty – both literally and figuratively. My mom would slice up the eggplant and prepare the bowl of dredging liquid (she used a thin batter made of chickpea flour and water), and she did all the frying. But I was completely in charge of everything else.

I loved dipping my hands (oh, and the eggplant slices, too) into the dredging solution and then coating them in breadcrumbs. My hands would always end up a huge, sticky, crumby mess after completing a few slices, but some vigorous scraping and washing was all I needed to get back to next batch. I always laid out the finished slices on a few plates so that my mom could get them into the hot oil and not have to wait too long between batches. While she was frying the slices, I made sure to have paper towel-lined plates ready for her on which the eggplant could drain. I always used to sneak a few slices – fried eggplant is so good, and you all know how I feel about eggplant, so how could I resist?

Spring Risotto: Risotto with Asparagus, Peas, Parsley, and Lemon

When my mom visits me (which she is currently doing), I love to cook meals for her that she would normally never make for herself. Being that it is supposedly spring (it was 50 degrees in Baltimore on Thursday despite the fact that it was 75 degrees on Tuesday…what is going on???), I decided to make a spring risotto.

I had bought a few pounds of asparagus a few days ago in a fit of spring fever, so some of it was definitely going into the risotto. (I bought way more asparagus than I needed for the meal I made a few days ago…sometimes I get carried away.) To further springify the risotto, I added a few things that I always have on hand but are springy nonetheless: peas, parsley, and lemon. Oh, and sauvignon blanc. There’s always New Zealand Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc in my fridge; I have a slight (read: major) obsession with it.

Linguini with Vegetarian Puttanesca Sauce

I had no idea that last post would generate such a strong reaction! Maybe I should just stick to posting recipes…

I was in NY this past weekend visiting my parents (and celebrating my brother’s birthday), which means that I came back to Baltimore with some of my mom’s awesome food, which also means that I’m not doing much cooking this week. So I’m posting something I made a week and a half ago and saved for a time just like this (i.e., when I’m not doing much cooking).

Mushroom Risotto

I was in a blah mood yesterday – the cold, gray, rainy day certainly didn’t help – and I wanted something creamy and comforting for dinner. What I really wanted was linguini with mushroom carbonara sauce (hold the bacon), but I was out of eggs and had no intention of going out into the rain to more. I had my mind set on something creamy and mushroomy (and no, cream of mushroom soup was not even close to what I wanted, I've never even eaten the stuff), and then it came to me: risotto!

Risotto is totally easy to make, it’s just a little time consuming because of the slow addition of the liquid to the rice, which is why I think people are afraid of it. Normally I wouldn’t make risotto for myself (I’m really lazy when it comes to cooking for myself and frequently resort to frozen veggie burgers and strange foods which I dare not mention on here for fear of sullying my good name), but it was the perfect comfort food for a dreary day.

White Bean, Kale, and Butternut Squash Pizza

I’ve always liked the combination of white beans, kale, and butternut squash, but I’ve only seen it as a stew – kind of boring. My recent culinary solution to everything is pizza, so I figured that these ingredients would be great on a pizza.

I made a version of this a few weeks ago, and while it was good, it wasn’t quite right. I thought about it for a while, came up with a solution, and, being the easily distracted person I am,never got around to it. Well, I finally did the other night, and this second version of it is really really good. All of the flavors shine – nothing gets lost like it might in a stew. And it’s a pizza. Who doesn’t like pizza? (Weird people, that’s who.)

Penne alla Vodka

The 7th annual Baltimore Marathon took place yesterday, and the streets of Baltimore were taken over by about 12,000 runners, one of whom was yours truly. I ran the marathon as part of a four-person relay team that was made up of myself, my brother, the bf, and the bf’s very tall friend. The 26.2 miles of the marathon were divided into 4 legs, the shortest of which was 6.0 miles and was very hilly, and the longest of which was 7.3 miles and had a long downhill stretch. My leg was 6.1 miles, the last two of which were uphill.

Pizza Melanzana

OK, back to the savories. And, of course, it has to feature my favorite, eggplant, and its summertime partner in crime, the cherry tomato.

Yellow Zucchini and Taleggio Risotto

Today is another one of those days on which I feel completely uninspired to write. Between after-hours meetings for work and planning an amazing cocktail party, I’ve been really busy and haven’t cooked that much this week. I made this risotto a couple of weeks ago because I had a good-sized chunk of taleggio left over from my pizza and I also had yellow zucchini in my fridge (I always have zucchini in my fridge in the summer). This was also an uninspired dinner; I didn’t have the energy to come up with anything innovative so I just stole the flavors from the aforementioned pizza and turned it into risotto. Is it meta if I steal my own recipes? 

Zucchini Blossom and Taleggio Pizza

Summer is winding down and that means saying goodbye to, amongst other things, my pseudo-garden. My zucchini plant hasn’t given me any flowers in the past week, and I think that zucchini blossoms will shortly be gone from stands at the market.

I came up with this recipe one afternoon a few weeks ago when I was trying to figure out what to do with all the blossoms my zucchini plant was sending my way. I had already stuffed and fried some of them, but I didn’t know what to do with the rest. I had seen recipes for fritattas and tacos, but none of them appealed to me or seemed as if the blossoms would even be discernible amongst all the other bold flavors in the recipe.

I have also recently become obsessed with making pizza after my recent purchases of a pizza stone (at the Ohio State Fair, of all places) and a peel, which I learned is essential when you bake pizza on a stone – try pulling a pizza out of an oven that is 500° F and a stone that is even hotter with just a spatula and you will be met with disaster and possibly burns. The stone makes for an incredibly crisp crust, but you could just as well cook your pizza on a baking sheet.

Roasted Eggplant and Tomatoes with Penne

I don’t think I need to reiterate that eggplant is my favorite vegetable. As I previously mentioned, there are so many lovely ones available at the market this time of year, and I always buy lots of them. Of course, there’s also a plethora of tomatoes at the market; I end up buying a few pints of different cherry tomatoes in addition to heirlooms and romas. Of course, at this point, I find myself with too many tomatoes and eggplants (amongst other vegetables) on my hands. Although I love being in the kitchen, trying to use up all this produce sometimes tires me out, which is why roasting has become my preferred method of dealing with much of my summer produce. Not only is it incredibly easy, but I find that it really brings out the flavor of the vegetables.

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. 

Classic Pesto

Pesto is one of my favorite condiments. It makes everything taste better and can be used a thousand different ways – tossed with pasta, as a sandwich spread, as sauce on a pizza, mixed into mayo (great with frites!), and the list goes on and on. Because you need lots of basil to make a small amount of pesto, summer is the time for making lots of it. Huge bunches of basil are incredibly cheap at the farmers market right now, so I buy lots of basil and make pesto, which I then freeze so that I can unearth it in the dead of winter when basil is expensive. (Tip: freeze it in an ice cube tray, then put all the cubes in a Ziploc bag so you can take out just a little bit at a time without having to defrost the whole container.)

Marinated Zucchini with Basil

This past Sunday at the market, I noticed that the stand next to my tomato purveyor of choice had tons of zucchini and squash on the cheap: they were selling baskets of 4-6 of them at 3 for $5, so I got one basket each of green zucchini, yellow zucchini, and summer squash. I had a lot of zucchini on my hands; actually, they were technically on my boyfriend’s hands because he was kindly serving as my shopping cart. (Side note: do not expect your boyfriend to be amused when you hand him a 3-ish-pound bag of zucchini when he’s already carrying well over 10 pounds of produce and it’s 90 degrees outside and you’re at the insanely crowded Baltimore Farmer’s market.)