i love the sweetness of summer tomatoes paired with the earthiness of beets, topped with tangy but creamy chèvre, floral thyme, and drizzled with adams’ olive ranch balsamic vinegar + their lemon infused olive oil.
absolutely fresh and scrumptious! summer you will be missed, and your tomatoes even more so.
adams’ olive ranch products are sold at the santa monica and hollywood farmers markets, fairs, festivals and gourmet shops.
as you may have noticed from my top 5 favorite sandwiches post, i am a big fan of the croque monsieur. they may seem daunting to make just from the name, but actually, they are really quite easy to make.
you will need:
first, toast the bread.
then, layer the ham on the toasted bread, top with the cheese, and put in the oven until the cheese melts and the ham is warmed. about 5 minutes at 350º.
in the meantime, make your béchemel. for one sandwich: scald about 1/4 cup milk in a small pan. melt 1/2 tbsp butter in another pan, add an equal amount of flour and whisk together to make a roux. then gradually add the milk on medium-low heat while continually whisking until it starts to thicken. if it gets too thick whisk in a little bit more milk. add a pinch of nutmeg, and s+p to taste.
drizzle the sauce over the open-faced sandwich, and sprinkle with parsley.
it’s not quite like the one at mignon, but it’s close enough in a pinch.
mignon is a wine + cheese bar in downtown los angeles @ 128 east sixth street, la, ca 90014 • phone: 213-489-0131 • open 5p-midnight daily.
if eminem can clean out his closet, and make a single go platinum…
…i figure the least i can do is clean out my fridge, and make a quick delicious meal. i often find myself at the end of a week with not necessarily no food in my fridge, but an odd assortment of things. tonight i found these things in my kitchen:
i defrosted the shrimp quickly by running under cold water. then drained and blotted them well with paper towels, and tossed them in cornstarch. i sliced the garlic thin, cut the pepper and flower chive into bite-sized pieces. i heated some coconut oil in a pan, and sautéed the garlic until fragrant, added the shrimp and cooked for a couple of minutes. i added the pepper, cabbage and chive and stirred to mix for a few minutes. squirted on some sriracha, tamari, and honey to taste, and tossed to coat. finally, i sprinkled in some sesame seeds and put over rice.
i might switch up the veggies, or condiments a bit, but it usually takes on an asian flare.
note: this post is dedicated to my dad who introduced me to lots of great music (including eminem), was an inspiring improvisational cook, and would have been 70 on august 28, 2011. happy birthday pops!
i received a lovely card from my friend dana recently that had a recipe for roasted beets and peaches. not only did i think it was a wonderful gesture, the recipe intrigued me.
i decided to take it one step further and add goat cheese and nuts. i chose pecans for this attempt, because it was what i had on hand, but i think walnuts might be a better option in the future. also, it called for golden beets, which i couldn’t find at the hollywood farmers market this past weekend, so i decided to do a mix of red and purple. the red one’s actually turned out to be more golden on the inside anyway, and the purple ones complemented the deep red flesh near the pit of the peach.
ingredients:
serves 4-6
prepare the beets by trimming all but 1-2 inches of the greens, clean the beets throughly with a vegetable brush if needed. dry them and coat them with olive oil. place them in a roasting pan and season with salt and pepper. pour in 1 cup of bubbly.
cover tightly with aluminum foil and roast at 375º for about 1 hour. you can check for doneness with a knife. let cool enough to remove the remaining stems, and tails of the beets.
while the beets are roasting, cut the peaches in half and remove the pits. rub the flesh with 1/4 cup of the bubbly, place in another roasting dish, and drizzle with honey. season with some salt, and roast uncovered for 20-30 minutes.
once both pans are out of the oven, turn on the broiler. slice the beets and peaches into large chunks and combine into one of the roasting dishes.
toss in the nuts, crumble the cheese over the mixture, and drizzle a little more honey over the top.
put it under the broiler until the cheese is melted slightly and a little golden brown, about 3-5 minutes, keeping an eye on them so as not to burn.
serve warm.
this would go well as a side dish for pork or beef.
i prefer to make my own salad dressings. i toss some oil, acid and herbs in a mini blender and purée. today i decided to use a lemon infused olive oil from adams’ olive ranch that i had picked up at the santa monica farmers market several weeks ago when i was following the farmers market fairy around for the day. i added some fresh lime juice, a little bit of avocado for creaminess, fresh cilantro leaves, and a touch of s+p.
it was really tasty tossed with all the fresh greens and colorful vegetables that i picked up yesterday at the hollywood farmers market.
it’s tomato season! that, and our national heat wave, makes me think of delicious and refreshing gazpacho. i can’t remember how old i was (probably early teens?) when i first learned of cold soup. i was with my dad in nyc during an especially hot summer, and gazpacho was on the menu. he told me that it can vary depending on the freshness of the tomatoes, ingredients used, and done wrong will just taste like salsa, or worse, like cold campbell’s soup. i was intrigued. i ordered it, and it was amazing.
as a cook’s illustrated recipe tester, i made their authentic spanish gazpacho last year and fell in love with the recipe. it reminded me of that first time. they have adjusted it a bit from the test version, and it can be found on the america’s test kitchen website as creamy gazpacho andaluz. there is also a video.
i have made a couple of minor changes:
ingredients:
roughly chop 2 pounds of the tomatoes, half of the cucumber, half of the bell pepper, and half of the onion. put them in a large bowl with the garlic, chile and 1 1/2 tbsp of the salt. toss until mixed well. set aside.
cut up the remaining tomatoes, cucumber, and pepper into 1/4 inch dice. mince the remaining onion and add to the diced vegetables. toss them with 1/2 tbsp of salt and transfer to a fine-mesh strainer set over a bowl to collect the juices. set aside for 1 hour.
transfer drained diced veggies to a medium bowl and set aside. add the bread pieces to the exuded liquid and let soak for 1 minute. add the soaked bread and any remaining juice to the rough chopped veggies. toss to combine.
transfer 1/2 the veggie-bread mixture to a blender, or food processor, and process for about 30 seconds. then, while blending, slowly drizzle 1/4 cup of the olive oil into the mixture. strain the soup through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl, or container you are able to cover. using a rubber spatula press the soup through the strainer, until you are basically left with any left over veggie chunks or skin, and discard.
repeat with the remaining veggie-bread mixture and 1/4 cup olive oil. stir in the vinegar, minced herb, and 3/4 of the diced veggies. season to taste with more salt if needed, and black pepper.
cover and refrigerate preferably overnight (or at least 2 hours) to allow the soup to chill completely, and let the flavors develop. serve with remaining diced veggies, avocado, and sour cream as garnish.
i have had bad gazpacho, but nothing as bad as cold campbell’s soup. though, i have to wonder if you have good ingredients and a good recipe, how can it be bad? really.
enjoy!
www.good.is has a contest to revive your leftovers, and i succumbed (succame?) to it, not only because i made a dish from my leftovers that was delicious, but also because i hate waste. a while back i made a cook’s illustrated test recipe for bolognese sauce that unfortunately i am not able to share until it is in print, but i must say it is one of the best i have had. there are 7 different kinds of meat used in the recipe…how could it be bad? well, after eating pasta a couple of nights in a row and freezing the rest, i found myself one morning with just a small amount left. i thought to myself ‘how would this be on eggs’? turns out…AMAZING! so much so, that the next time i make batch, i will reserve some just to have for breakfast.
ingredients:
(note- you’ll have to play with amounts, but this is based off a single serving)
1/2 cup bolognese sauce (even though i recommend the cook’s illustrated recipe…that i can’t provide [yet], i bet this would be almost as delicious with your own version…probably not, but you can try)
2 eggs
splash of milk (1 tbsp?)
butter (1/2 tbsp?)
parmesan cheese, grated fine, to taste
s+p, to taste
instructions:
heat the leftover bolognese sauce in a pan til hot.
in a bowl, whisk your eggs well with a little milk. meanwhile heat your pan hot enough to melt your butter til it bubbles, and then swirl it around the pan.
add your eggs and use a rubber spatula to continually mix your eggs over medium-low heat. eventually they will be fluffy, and not browned.
plate the eggs, top with the sauce, and sprinkle with parmesan, and s+p.
enjoy!
i know it’s shocking, but i don’t actually make any money writing this blog, and there are only so many hours in the day, so i need to find out a way to continue to post things of interest regularly. i’ve decided to add guest bloggers. to no surprise i have many friends who have an interest in food, and because my hope is to expand this blog into other areas than just my experiences, i am going to integrate submissions from other people. i want this blog to be more than just recipes and restaurant reviews, so i hope this is a way to further the scope of wild, fresh + tasty. my first guest blogger is my good friend elia. she has traveled the world, lived in many places (including italy, vietnam and mexico), has a great palete, and is an amazing cook. i look forward to more from her in the future.
dinner party menu by elia (recipes by peter hoffman)
my dearest gretchen (greta to me), author of this blog, has been my friend since college. i’m not going to tell exactly how long it has been, but suffice it to say—a while. we have seen each other through cross-country moves, overseas moves, love and heartache. greta has always inspired me. she is fearless, fun, and as all you readers know a fantastic cook.
our eating days began in college when greta worked at al’s breakfast, where i was the beneficiary of her breakfast griddle skills. i’ve watched with awe as greta has developed into a true gourmand, and while i have always liked cooking, i have poor knife skills and my timing doesn’t always work out. imagine my surprise and honor when greta invited me to be a guest blogger on her site.
at the moment i live in mexico city, but for this blog however, i’ve chosen a sephardic menu, inspired by morocco. the recipes are tried and true favorites of peter hoffman, chef extraordinaire. i made his zucchini and spicy harissa, and for the first time i made the harissa at home, opposed to buying it store-bought. the zucchini was roasted, then once cooled, chopped and warmed again on the stove with the harissa. i will say it was awesome. a word of warning: it wasn’t too spicy for my mexican friends, but i would guess it would be too spicy for my minnesota friends. this is not a pejorative statement, just a statement on who is used to spice and who is not. i also made the wonderful carrot dish, the mushrooms with the walnut herb paste, and of course the most amazing chicken dish. i will say that this chicken dish is something i’m famous for making…thank you peter hoffman.
i am my mother’s daughter and my mom always set the table the night before. i didn’t do it the night before, but i did set it first thing this morning. i have to say this is a great way to get that out of the way and you start to feel like the dinner party is well in hand.
next i headed to mercado medellin. this is one of my favorite local markets, and one of the reasons is that they carry caribbean products.
carribean section
nuts + spices
pile of ancho chiles + other ingredients
squash blossom + other produce
smiling chicken man
the dishes don’t really take that much time, but there is a good amount of prep. i will say that this menu of peter hoffman’s is one my favorites. it was originally part of a food & wine passover recipe collection… and it is awesome for pesach, but i make it all the time, all year round.
roasted carrots and zucchini with spicy harissa
sautéed mushrooms with walnut herb paste
chicken with olives, raisins + onions
the only thing wrong with this meal is that i didn’t get to share it with my darling greta. i just hope that one of these days we’ll get to cook together again.
buen provecho.
my sister kate made me one of the best grilled cheese sandwiches i have ever had, and i’ve been trying to repeat it since. i have reason to believe it didn’t really have anything to do with her sandwich making skills, though they do run in our family, but more because of our dad’s toaster oven. it also helped that she used good bread, and extra sharp cheddar cheese. i found some of my dad’s hot tomato jam in the refrigerator and slathered some of that on it as well. for today’s meatless monday lunch, this was my attempt to recreate it:
good rustic sourdough bread from two bits market…
sliced.
slice sharp cheddar and gruyère thin.
brush or spray a little olive oil on the outside of the bread, and layer with cheese on the inside.
carefully place on a rack in a 350º oven for 5 minutes. turn over for another 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted.
remove from the oven. open up the sandwich, and spread some tomato jam on the inside.
i like to have a little extra to dip it in too.
it was close, but still not as good at the one kate made me. damn it.
danny’s hot tomato jam:
scald the skin the tomatoes in a large heavy pan. cut tomatoes into small pieces and crush fine. cover with the sugar, stir. add 1 tsp pepper flakes (or more to taste). add cinnamon stick, zest and juice of lemon, grated ginger to taste. let stand in the fridge overnight 8-10 hours. Drain juice from pulp and cook down. add pulp and cook down until jam begins to pearl and thicken. while cooking prepare jars and lids by boiling them for 10 minutes. let jars cool. if you use paraffin, fill jars to within 1/4″ with hot jam and let cool a bit. then cover with paraffin and seal with lids. or, fill jars close to full, cover with lids and tighten slightly. when jars have cooled seal them tight.
(wf+t notes: i found a whole clove in the jar i just opened, so they may have been mistakenly omitted from his recipe. personally, i wouldn’t mind a little more heat, but because he doesn’t state the amount of tomatoes he used for the 1 tsp of red pepper flakes, that will have to be experimented with. also, even though i would have liked to talk to him about his recipe while he was still alive, because there are a few things left unclear, they will have to be left up for interpretation, which is how he liked to cook anyway, so it seems fitting.)
thanks pops! miss you + love you.
i grew up eating mostly store bought potato salad that was basically mayo flavored light yellow mush. blech. the potatoes were overcooked and so drenched in mayonnaise, or worse… miracle whip (the horror!), that you could hardly taste any of the other ingredients. so, a few years ago for a 4th of july potluck bbq, i wanted to make a potato salad that you could actually taste the ingredients, including the potatoes, and not just the salad dressing.
weiser family farms at the farmers markets here in los angeles have great potatoes, and a wide assortment. for my patriotic potato salad i chose chilean reds, russian banana fingerlings, and all blues. i like to leave the skin on the potato, which i feel gives the salad more texture and color. i find if you simply use quality ingredients you don’t need much else to make something taste good, so i kept mine to the basics:
begin by cooking the potatoes, because they will take a while to cool, but just like the eggs, they can be done ahead of time and cooled in the refrigerator overnight. cover the potatoes with cold water and bring to a boil. as suggested by america’s test kitchen on their blog for week 3 of the “dish it your way” blogger challenge,
“start boiling potatoes in cold water so they come up to temperature slowly and cook evenly. don’t be tempted to start potatoes in already boiling water to speed up the process- it will damage the texture. we also found that the potatoes started in boiling water actually had a longer cooking time than those started in cold water.”
from the time i turned on the heat until they were done was about 20 minutes. to make sure not overcook them i started checking them with a fork at about 15 minutes, remembering that they will continue to cook once off the heat. strain, and let cool completely.
while they are cooling, prep your other ingredients. place the celery, onion, garlic, celery seed, and s+p in a large bowl and mix to combine.
cut up the hard boiled eggs into chunks, and mix them in with veggie mixture.
once completely cooled, cut the potatoes into bite sized chunks, and add to the bowl.
add the mustard and 1 cup of mayo. mix to combine well. add more mayo to your taste. i prefer my potato salad a little on the dryer side rather than swimming in dressing. stir in the fresh dill.
garnish with additional dill and chives.
even though there is nothing fancy about this recipe, i did have two friends remark how they didn’t even like potato salad until they had mine. i think perhaps that they were just accustomed to eating the same mushy light yellow crap i was given growing up, but i’ll take the compliment just the same. enjoy! serves 10-12.
wild, fresh + tasty 