The Cartoon Kitchen: Twice-Squeezed Eggplant
This week's Cartoon Kitchen features Serious Eats' cartoonist in residence Larry Gonick's spin on eggplant. —Ed Levine
June 2008
Dinner Tonight: Spinach, Pea, and Feta Cheese Salad
The sign at the market said "give peas a chance." Who can argue with that? Among all the vehement vegetable dislikes that have carried over from my childhood, a dislike of peas is the only one left. Beets? No problem. Brussels sprouts? Roast them with a little balsamic and give me a fork. Yet I still eat around the peas, whether they're suspended in a macaroni and cheese or on the side of a plate by themselves.
Still, the photograph for this recipe, in Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef (his fava bean and asparagus salad won me over earlier this week), was enticing: big casual crumbles of feta cheese, bright green peas, well-dressed leaves of baby spinach. Turns out, like many vegetables that I first encountered frozen or canned, peas taste a whole lot better when they're fresh! It took me 15 minutes just to slide them from their pods, but I put on a good album and found a rhythm, and actually kind of enjoyed myself. So there—I gave peas a chance.
Sack Lunch: Spicy Coriander Tabbouleh
One of the most exciting things about summer is how cheap herbs are at the Greenmarket. I spend the winter making mournful calculations when I read recipes: do I really want to spend $10 on fresh herbs for a single dish? Then comes summer, when the pressure I feel to use suddenly-affordable herbs all the time comes up against my not-so-improvisational cooking style. The weeks I bring home five bunches they tend to wither in the vegetable drawer, but the weeks I refrain from buying any I find myself desperately in need of rosemary or lemon verbena.
Last week I made an unconventional spicy coriander tabbouleh that may be the answer to my problem with herbs. From now on I’ll buy whatever herbs look tempting, and if I haven’t used them by the middle of the week I’ll chop them up, toss them with some bulgur wheat, and see what happens. Stir a drained can of chickpeas into this, maybe some feta if you have it, and it would make a mighty fine lunch.
The Cartoon Kitchen: Asparagus and Carrots
This week's Cartoon Kitchen features Serious Eats' cartoonist in residence Larry Gonick's spin on asparagus and carrots. —Ed Levine
Capers: What's Not to Love?
The olive and I have a loving and long standing relationship, but recently I've been having a little affair—a summer fling, if you will—with the caper. What started as a passing sprinkle atop a lox-laden bagel has become a downright infatuation: at the restaurant where I waitress I don't steal bread from the basket, or biscotti from the jar by the dessert wines; I sneak caper berries from the antipasti station.
Just what is a caper, anyway? Capers are the premature buds of a perennial bush native to the Mediterranean. Once picked, they are cured in a combination of salt and vinegar. Their briny flavor is similar to that of olives and anchovies, and the three ingredients are often used together in dishes such as puttanesca. If allowed to mature on the bush, caper buds grow into caper berries, which are much larger—about the size of cocktail olives—and can be served as a meze or antipasto on their own.
Given my obsession with these tiny morsels, I couldn't pass up the recipe for Grilled Chicken Thighs with Roasted Grape Tomatoes in the June issue of Cooking Light. The chicken thighs are marinated in a simple combination of olive oil, lemon, and garlic. Once grilled, they are served with a mound of roasted tomatoes stirred with parsley, more lemon, and a generous spoonful of capers. The results are fantastic: the smoky, meaty flavor of the chicken thighs (don't be tempted to substitute breasts!) is tempered by the sweet tomatoes and the tart, salty capers.
While I will prepare this dish again exactly as is, the tomato mixture would be equally good paired with a hearty fish, such as tuna.
North African Carrot Salad
- serves 10-12 -
Adapted from Jane Brody's Good Food Gourmet by Jane Brody.
Ingredients
For the salad:
1 pound carrots, peeled and julienned into 1/8-inch strips
1/4 cup dried currants (optional)
For the dressing:
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large clove garlic, peeled and finely minced
1/2 teaspoon or more sugar, to taste
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon dried mint leaves, crushed
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Salt to taste (optional)
Procedure
1. Place the carrots in a bowl with the currants (if desired).
2. In a jar or small bowl, combine the dressing ingredients.
3. About 1 hour or less before serving time, add the dressing to the carrots. Toss the ingredients to mix them well.
Dinner Tonight: Pear, Parmesan, and Cashew Salad
I guess I'm usually suspicious of nut and cheese salads. It doesn't take much for a salad to get out of hand—from fancy cheese to fruity vinaigrettes to imported glazed nuts. In my opinion, a tossed salad should always remain a simple affair resting on the quality and tastiness of the greens themselves. Often, you need nothing more than oil, acid, and salt.
Yet I've eaten this particular salad—loosely based on an old Jamie Oliver recipe—at least three times in the last week, thanks to a friend from Montreal who introduced me to the recipe. The essential green is arugula, which provides important pepperyness against the sweet pear, but to bulk out the arugula any good mesclun greens mix works. There's no need to mix a dressing, either; just add a few rounds of olive oil, the juice of a lemon, and a healthy pinch of salt. In go cashews, a sliced pear, and shavings of hard cheese like Parmesan or Piave.
Cook the Book: Iced Cantaloupe Soup with Jalapeño and Basil
My boyfriend's mother has the uncanny ability to choose flawless melons—perfectly ripe, luscious, and dripping with honey flavor. I, on the other hand, often end up with tasteless watermelons and mealy cantaloupes. My oh-so-professional method of selection? Tap lightly on the outside, pick one without any obvious bruises, and hope for the best.
Until now.
In this week's featured Cook the Book title, The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper, authors Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift reveal the secret to selecting a single, perfect honeydew from a mountainous market pile: it's all in the nose. Melons should smell sweet, like perfume. If a melon is odorless, it will likewise be tasteless. And here I spent all these years pressing them as you would an avocado.
Today's recipe is for Iced Cantaloupe Soup with Jalapeño and Basil. Paired with crusty bread and a green salad, it makes a perfect, light and easy meal after steamy commute home.
Win 'The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper'
This week we're giving away copies of The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper. Click here for a chance to add it to your collection.
