Pan-Roasted Shitake Mushroom-Topped Bruschetta

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When guests come over for dinner, I usually like to give them something to nibble on while I am finishing up in the kitchen. Bruschetta is my preferred MO. First of all, bruschetta is always more impressive than a big bowl of olives — even very, very nice olives. Second of all, you can set up basically everything ahead of time, and assemble the toasts right before your guests breeze through the door.

Bruschetta is technically defined as any kind of grilled bread — brushed with olive oil and rubbed with garlic — with some kind of topping. In the flip-floppy way that we do things here, bruschetta has come to refer to the topping rather than the bread.

Ingredients:

One demi-baguette or small ciabatta loaf, cut into 1/2-inch slices

About one pound of shitake mushrooms, sliced

About 2 tablespoons of olive oil, plus one tablespoon

2 cloves of garlic, finely minced, plus one clove of garlic, smashed

2 tablespoons of fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped

The juice of one small lemon

Salt and pepper to taste

How to prepare:

1. In a large cast-iron pan, heat two tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat until the oil just begins to smoke. Add the mushrooms. Toss the mushrooms in the hot oil and spread them out evenly over the bottom of the pan. Cook them, stirring occasionally, for about 8 minutes. As the mushrooms cook, they will release a fair amount of water. Don’t worry, the water will evaporate as the mushrooms start to become golden.

2. When the mushrooms begin to brown, add the finely minced garlic to the pan. You want to make sure the garlic is evenly distributed throughout the mushrooms, but you don’t want it to burn. Cook the garlic and mushrooms together for about a minute.

3. Transfer the cooked mushrooms to a separate mixing bowl. Add the parsley and the lemon juice. Stir everything together to combine. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.

4. Brush the bread slices with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and toast them until they are golden brown. Rub the slices with the smashed garlic clove before topping each one with a heaping spoonful of the mushroom mixture. Arrange the bruschetta on a plate and serve.

Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée

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This was one of the first desserts that I learned to make in Paris. It’s quick, easy, elegant, and tastes better than anything you have ever tried in a restaurant.

The recipe will fill four 4.5 ounce ramekins.

Ingredients:

1 cup of whole milk

1 cup of heavy cream

1 whole vanilla bean

4 egg yolks

1/4 of white sugar

Enough butter to butter the ramekins

1/4 cup of light brown sugar

How to prepare:

1. Preheat your oven to 325°.

2. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise. Using a paring knife, scrape the vanilla beans from each half of the pod. Here is a good video to show you how if you haven’t done this before.

2. Heat the milk, the cream, the vanilla beans, and the vanilla pod halves over medium-low heat in a medium saucepan until the mixture just begins to boil. Turn off the heat and let the vanilla bean infuse the milk and cream mixture for anywhere between 10-30 minutes.

3. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the white sugar together until the mixture is pale and creamy, about 30 seconds. Remove the vanilla bean pod halves from the milk and cream mixture. Now you need to temper the egg yolks. This is important because if you add all the hot liquid to the egg yolks at the same time, you will be on you way to making scrambled eggs.

To temper, add a spoonful of the warm milk-cream mixture to the eggs. Stir quickly to incorporate the liquid into the egg and sugar mixture. Continue to add the liquid a little bit at a time, whisking everything until the mixture has become pale yellow and slightly foamy.

5. Carefully divide and pour the mixture into the buttered ramekins. Gently set the filled ramekins in a baking dish. Fill the dish with water until the water level comes halfway up the side of the ramekins. Bake the crèmes in the oven for about 45 minutes. The centers should be jiggly, but not watery.

6. Remove the crèmes from the oven and cool them on the countertop for about 10 minutes before chilling them the refrigerator for about 3 hours.

7. Before serving, heat your broiler element. Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the top of each crème. Broil the crèmes under the broiler until the brown sugar has become hard and crackly. Serve immediately.

Cavatappi with Pepperoni and Green Bell Pepper

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Hello Middle-America, how are ya’?

This recipe from Food and Wine was a good way to use up a pile of leftover pepperoni in the fridge. It was fast, it was easy, and it tasted almost exactly like a Supreme Pizza Hut pan pizza without the cheese. Whoo hoo!

Ingredients:

8 ounces of cavatappi

4 ounces of pepperoni, sliced in half

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

16 ounces of canned diced tomatoes

Salt and pepper

How to prepare:

1. Prepare the pasta according to directions. Make sure to reserve some of the pasta cooking water before draining the cavatappi.

2. While the pasta is boiling, heat the pepperoni slices in a large skillet over medium heat until they just begin to brown. Remove the slices from the skillet and transfer them to a paper towel-covered plate to drain. Wipe out the excess fat from the skillet with another paper towel.

3. In the same skillet, heat the tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onions and the green pepper. Sauté the vegetables until the onions are translucent and the peppers are beginning to soften. Add the minced garlic to the skillet and cook for about 30 seconds longer. Now add the diced tomatoes to the vegetables. Stir to combine everything before covering the pan with a lid. Lower the heat and simmer the sauce for about 10 minutes, adding some of the pasta water if the sauce looks like it needs it.

4. After the sauce has thickened, adjust the seasoning to your taste. Toss the pasta and the pepperoni with the sauce. Serve.

Penthouse View for the Heart

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This is not a post about food.

It’s a post about good friends.

Great friends, actually, who refuse to let you wallow and who force you to penthouse parties with West African musical superstars. The bar was cash, but the love was free.

Laura and Melanie, thank you for the smokes, the shoulders, and the shared käsespätzle. You’re the best.

And for all of you in NYC: the incomparable, the amazing, the joyful Amadou and Mariam will be performing for free every Sunday of this month in the penthouse of the Cooper Hotel. If you want to rsvp, please do send me an email and I’ll forward along the information.

Macaroni and Cheese with Sliced Hot Dogs

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Is it? Could it possible be?

Oh, yes. It’s macaroni and cheese. With hot dogs.

Don’t be a food snob. You know you want it.

Ingredients:

8 ounces of dry pasta

3 tablespoons of butter, plus 1 tablespoon

1/4 cup of flour

2 cups of milk

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

8 ounces of grated cheese (I used raw milk cheddar)

4 hot dogs, sliced into 1/4-inch wide coins (I used beef hot dogs from my meat CSA)

1/2 cup of breadcrumbs

How to prepare:

1. Preheat your oven to 350°.

2. Prepare the pasta according to directions, but drain the pasta just right before it’s al dente.

3. Now, while your pasta is boiling, prepare the béchamel. Melt 3 tablespoons of butter over medium-low heat in a medium saucepan. Add the flour and stir them both together to make a roux. Continue to heat the roux until the flour starts to just brown. Add the milk a little bit at a time, stirring constantly as you add it. It will seize up when you add the first little bit of liquid, but will relax the more you stir it. Add the nutmeg after you have added all 2 cups of milk. Continue to stir and stir and stir. Don’t worry about adjusting the seasoning; the cheese and hot dogs should add enough sodium. Once the béchamel has thickened to a nice, smooth white sauce, turn off the heat and move the saucepan off of the burner.

4. Combine the pasta, the cheese, the sauce, and the hot dogs in a large bowl. Pour the mixture into a good-sized baking dish.

5. Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter and mix it with the breadcrumbs. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs evenly over the top of the macaroni and cheese. Bake for 30-35 minutes until brown and bubbly. Serve with a good, heaping side of Midwestern nostalgia.

Cottage Pie (also known as Shepherd’s Pie with Beef)

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I like mashed potatoes on top of just about anything.

This dish is one of those great things that you can play around with, improvising with whatever you have around the house. Parsnips? Sure, throw them in. How about a turnip? Sounds good. Lamb? Change “cottage” to “shepherd” and you’re good to go. Beef? Beef is better than okay! Tomato paste? Some fresh chopped tomato. I say add whatever makes you feel warm and happy.

Just imagine whatever you would like to eat in your cottage if you had one (you might).

Ingredients:

3 medium Russet potatoes, cut into large dice

1 heaping tablespoon of kosher salt

2 tablespoons of butter

1/2 to 1 cup of milk

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 large carrots or 3 medium carrots, diced

2-3 cloves of garlic, finely minced

1 pound of grass-fed, lean ground beef

1 1/2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons of fresh rosemary, finely chopped

2 tablespoons of flour

1 cup of veal or beef stock (you could also use milk or chicken stock)

1/2 cup of frozen green peas

Salt and pepper to taste

How to prepare:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°.

2. Put the potatoes in a large saucepan and cover them with water. Add the salt. Bring the water to a boil and cook the potatoes until they are tender. You will know that they are ready when you can crush a potato piece easily against the side of the pan with a wooden spoon. Drain the potatoes. In the same pan, mash the potatoes with the butter. Add the milk a 1/4 cup at a time until you get the right consistency. You don’t want the potatoes to be dry, but you don’t want them soupy either. Aim for a texture that is loose enough to spoon on top of your beef filling, but not so loose that the potatoes add a lot of excess water to your pie.

3. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onions and carrots. You want to cook the onions until they are translucent and are just beginning to brown. At that point, add the minced garlic to the carrots and onion. Cook the garlic for about a minute until it is fragrant but not burning. Add the ground beef to the pan. Breaking up bigger chunks of ground beef with your wooden spoon, cook the beef until there is no longer any visible pink. Sprinkle the beef with the Worcestershire sauce and the rosemary. Cook everything for another minute or two. Sprinkle the beef with flour. Stir again and cook for a few more minutes to brown the flour. Add the stock to the pan and stir to combine everything. The sauce should begin to thicken. When the sauce has gotten to the point that you think it is ready (the mixture should be held together by a nice, thick sauce) , distribute the peas over the top of the beef and continue to cook everything together for about another minute before turning off the heat.

4. Spread the meat mixture over the bottom of a casserole dish. Spoon the mashed potatoes on top of the meat. You can even use a fork to rough up the surface if you like. Bake the casserole uncovered in the oven for 25 minutes. The potatoes will have just started to brown. Wait at least 15 minutes before serving.

NY Strip Steak, ATK-Style

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How do you cook a nice, thick steak in a pan? You sear it, right? On high heat to get that nice browned crust. Then you move it to a hot, hot oven to finish. “Sear and blast,” goes the standard mantra.

But what if you did the reverse? In pursuit of the perfectly cooked, medium-rare steak without that darned grayish band of overcooked protein ringing the outer edge of the meat, those pesky perfectionists at Cook’s Illustrated did precisely that: they started the steaks in a reasonably cool oven, and then moved them to a hot pan to sear.

The result? Very. Evenly. Cooked. Steak.

Of course, under the weight of all their test kitchen trials, you might be persuaded that this is the right way, nay the only way to cook your meat.

But it’s not.

It is fun to try it, though.

Ingredients:

2 New York strip steaks, at least 1-inch thick

Kosher salt

1 teaspoon olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon

Freshly ground black pepper

2 nice pats of butter

Special equipment:

1 half-size heavy-duty sheet pan

1 wire rack to fit the half-size, heavy-duty sheet pan

1 leave-in meat thermometer

How to prepare:

1. In order for this method to work, your steaks should be about room temperature before cooking. Be sure to take your steaks out of the fridge, or from wherever you are storing them, ahead of time.

2. Preheat the oven to 275°.

3. Using paper towels, thoroughly pat your room-temperature steaks dry. Season both sides liberally with kosher salt and rub the olive oil all over them.

4. Position the steaks on the wire rack that you have set in the sheet pan. Insert the meat thermometer probe into the center of one of the steaks. You will want the tip of the probe to be parallel to the steak, so the probe should go in the side of the steak instead of sticking straight up. Make sure not to position the probe tip too close to the wire rack or to the top of the steak. Set the timer to go off at 100°.

5. When the timer goes off, remove the steaks from the oven. Remove the probe. Heat the remaining olive oil over medium-high heat until the pan is nice and hot, and oil is not quite smoking. Sear the steaks on both sides. You should remove them from the pan when they reach an internal temperature of 125° for rare, or 130° for medium rare. While the steaks are resting, the internal temperature should continue to rise about 5 degrees.

If you feel like this is a bit fussy (those America’s Test Kitchen folks are really fussy!), you can just sear your steaks for about a minute or two per side and call it a night.

6. Place a nice pat of butter and a good grind of black pepper on each steak before serving. Serve and smile.

Tomato and Parsley Bruschetta

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I love this. I usually only ever make it when we have guests, but today I decided to spoil myself. It is so easy and so tasty. It will be even better once it’s summer and tomatoes are in season.

Ingredients:

1 pint of grape tomatoes

2 tablespoons of fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped

1 small clove of garlic, finely minced

Olive oil

Maldon salt

1 baguette or ciabatta loaf

How to prepare:

1. Preheat the oven to 450°.

2. Cut each grape tomato into eights. You can also dice up about a pound of any tomato that you want — just be sure to seed the tomatoes before dicing them.

3. Combine the tomatoes, parsley, and garlic in a bowl. Drizzle with very good extra- virgin olive oil. Shower with a generous sprinkle of Maldon salt. Toss everything together and let the mixture sit for about 5 minutes.

4. In the meanwhile, cut the bread into 1/2 inch-thick slices. Brush one side with olive oil. Toast the bread in the oven until the slices are golden brown. Remove the bread from the oven and let the slices cool.

5. Once the bread has cooled off, mound the tomato mixture on top of each slice. Serve.

Hamburger, Grape Tomato, and Red Onion Pizza

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I got this idea from Martha Stewart and it has become one of my favorite things to make with ground beef from our CSA. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s delicious. On the table in less than 20 minutes too.

Now that’s what I call good fast food!

Ingredients:

Pizza dough, about 1 pound of dough will make two 12-inch pizzas, or one really big pizza

Marinara sauce

Low-moisture mozzarella cheese or sliced provolone

1/2 pound of grass-fed, very lean ground beef

12-14 grape tomatoes, halved

1/2 a small red onion, thinly sliced into rings

Maldon salt

Special equipment:

A large baking sheet

Parchment paper

How to prepare:

1. Preheat the oven to 450°.

2. You can easily make your own pizza dough, but I rarely ever do it anymore since I can buy reasonably good, organic frozen dough at the market. In a hurry, I have also been known to run down to the nearest slice joint and buy their dough. Most pizzerias will sell it to you, you just have to ask.

I know. Gasp! I don’t make it from scratch? No. On special occasions, maybe. But if I’m tired and hungry, no. And that’s okay!

Once your dough ball is made, defrosted, or acquired, you need to stretch it out. Start by flattening your dough ball into a disk. By flouring both sides, you avoid having to flour your countertop. Any hard surface will do to stretch out the dough as long as it is flat, clean, and dry. Using your fingertips, start pushing down on the dough, roughly making the border that will become your crust. Now begin using the palm of your hand to pull the dough away from you and away from its center while turning it. At this point, you can try tossing it up in the air. But every time I try doing that, I end up looking like a fool with dough on the floor. Instead, you can position your knuckles under the dough and start stretching it out off of your flat surface. This super helpful video will give you a better idea what to do (contrary to the video, you don’t actually need a marble or stainless steel surface. And just flour is okay if you have no semolina lying around).

2. Now that your dough is nice and stretched out, position it on your parchment paper- lined baking sheet. Egads! No pizza stone? No tiles or bricks wrapped in aluminum foil lining your oven to achieve optimal heat?

No. When I can afford a real, wood-burning Neapolitan oven outside my villa then I will do things like they do in the old country.

3. Spread your marinara sauce around your stretched out dough. I buy this too. I really like the sauces from Sauces n’ Love. They’re wonderful. The pizza sauce is good. Very good.

4. Top the pizza with either the mozzarella or the provolone. I like the flavor of the provolone better with the ground beef, but I love the melty creaminess of mozzarella. Try one, or the other, or both. Maybe at the same time.

5. Scatter the onion rings, halved tomatoes, and RAW ground beef over the pizza.

6. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, longer if you want a more browned crust. I kind of prioritize though: absent the hardware and capability to get a really excellent crust, I aim for just really excellently cooked beef. Shower your finished pie with Maldon salt, slice, and serve.

Parchment Paper-Wrapped Salmon with Sliced Mango and Calamansi Juice

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“Why,” my friend asked, “Are you taking such a huge bag with you to San Francisco when you are only going for three days?”

She has a point, I thought, but she doesn’t understand what’s in sunny California: lemons. Big, shiny, juicy, fabulous lemons. Meaty, fragrant, unsprayed suckers growing like weeds in everyone’s backyard.

Oh, and I guess my new godson is in California too 😉

Living on the East Coast, we get wonderful apples, but zero good citrus. Limes from Chile arrive bright green on the outside, and dry as popcorn on the inside. Lemons smell vaguely like styrofoam and are mouth-puckeringly tart — not in a good way. Even the Meyer lemons we get are a little overripe and slightly smushy.

So was I going to miss out on my golden (state) opportunity to bring back some excellent fruit? No way!

Thankfully, my best friend and her warm, welcoming family were more happy to accommodate. Her parents raided her uncle’s lemon trees and came out with a great big bag of fat fruit. Hooray! I must have been quite the sight at the baptism running around with a fresh lemon stuck under my nose.

And as I was packing to head back to the frigid northeast, my friend’s mother palmed a handful of super tiny, but ultra-perfumed orbs into my hand.

Calamondin, or calamansi, are used a lot in Filipino cooking. I wasn’t sure what to do with them, but I certainly was not about to let that stop me from finding out!

This recipe is from a terrific cooking blog called Coconut & Lime. Instead of wrapping the salmon in aluminum foil, I opted for my preferred parchment paper. Salmon en papillote, southeast Asian-style.

I’m also testing out a brand new camera!

Ingredients:

2 individual portions of center-cut salmon, bones and skin removed

1 small onion or shallot, very thinly sliced

1 small ripe mango, cut into thin strips

1-2 small Bird’s Eye Chiles, thinly sliced

1 1/2 teaspoons of coconut vinegar

The juice from a handful of calamansi oranges

Olive oil

Salt to taste

Special Equipment:

Parchment paper

Baking Sheet

How to prepare:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.

2. Place the salmon portions in the center of a large sheet of parchment paper. Arrange the sliced onions evenly on top of the salmon, followed by the mango slices, and finally the sliced chiles. Sprinkle the salmon with the coconut vinegar and the calamansi juice. Drizzle olive oil over everything. Season with a shower of kosher salt to taste.

3. Pull the edges of the parchment paper up lengthwise. Roll the edges down together, making several folds as you go along. The paper should be snug against the salmon, but not too tight. Twist, or tie with butcher’s twine, the ends of each side so that you end up with a nice, neat packet.

4. Place the packet on your baking sheet seam-side up. Bake the salmon for 20 minutes. The fish should be fully cooked. When opening the packet, be careful to not burn yourself with the steam. Serve with steamed white rice.