The other day I was archiving my photos (I’ve finally developed a system for saving my food photos on CDs) and when I got to this one I was puzzled. I didn’t remember posting it. Sure enough, I hadn’t. It was from a cooking class with Phillis Carey. A class from several months ago, actually. And I’d written EXC on the recipe (meaning excellent) and a note saying “dressing is really good.” So, there you have my few-word synopsis of this recipe.

It starts, though, with some really good heirloom tomatoes. This one calls for cherry tomatoes, but if you don’t have those, regular sized will do. Try to buy the multi-colored cherry tomatoes if you can – the salad is ever-so pretty that way. You also need some soft goat cheese, a little bit of buttermilk, arugula and fennel. If you have all that (as well as usual kitchen staples like olive oil, lemons, mayo and chives) then you’re in business.

You could also make this an entrée type salad – just add some nice, big, plump shrimp on top. If you can’t find arugula, you can use baby spinach or watercress too.

Phillis showed us a really clever trick

So, here you have a simple collection of cherry tomatoes. I’ve put them on a Tupperware lid. To keep them contained, it’s good to have a short lip on the lid.

In the below picture, I’ve placed a second lid, the white one, turned upside down on top of the cherry tomatoes. So you see there’s a little “window” in the middle.  In the bottom photo you can see the edge a bit better on the bottom lid.

I took my long serrated-edged knife, and holding the lid (and the tomatoes) fairly firmly in place, I sawed back and forth until I’d cut all the cherry tomatoes in half. A whole bunch of them in one fell swoop. If you have all one type, they’ll all get cut the same. If you’re really a – – l retentive, you’ll very carefully place each tomato with the stem end up. I didn’t bother. The idea came from one of the chefs at Great News, the cooking school I go to more often than not. It was Phillis’ class, but the chef-helper knew of this great trick. It’s a good one.

What I liked: the dressing. For me, salads are almost always about the dressings anyway. But when you have superior ingredients (like arugula, for instance, which I just love) and fennel (another veggie I really love), then it’s a salad marriage made in heaven. This isn’t a tart, vinegary kind of dressing (the only acid comes from a bit of lemon juice), but more creamy type from the soft goat cheese.

What I didn’t like: nothing, really. Be sure to toss the salad just before serving because the dressing will wilt the greens soon. That’s why arugula is used, because it can stand up to that kind of a creamy dressing. The dressing also doesn’t keep too long, so use it up in a day or two if you can.

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Two years ago: Tiramisu (an America’s Test Kitchen recipe, my favorite)
Three years ago: Zucchini Pancakes (a delish dinner side dish)

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Am sure I’ve mentioned before that I Tivo all of Ina Garten’s new episodes. And even though it’s summertime and the weather is warm and muggy, when I watched Ina make this easy-easy Bolognese sauce, I was hooked. I went online to download the recipe and noted a few comments from others who had made it (suggesting cooking a little longer than the 10+ minutes and reducing the salt). So I added a quarter of an onion to the sauce (sautéing it first), greatly reduced the salt in the sauce, and I also added a little dollop of beef soup base (my Penzey’s favorite flavor enhancer) to the sauce also.

Using orecchiette pasta was different – usually I opt for linguine – but I’m very glad I used the orecchiette because it did exactly what Ina said – it provided little “cups” to hold sauce. The only other unusual thing in this is 1/4 cup of heavy cream. What a great idea – and wow, did it ever add a delicious richness to the sauce. She also has you add 1/4 cup of the red wine toward the end – it does simmer off the alcohol in the 10 minute cooking then – but she said it added lots of good flavor. Some sliced basil was added in at the end also. Oregano and a pinch of red chile flakes are all the herbs that flavor the dish.

My DH loved it. I mean, he nearly licked the bowl. He raved about it. And raved about it. I thought it was delicious. And I mentioned above how EASY it is. If you don’t want to, or can’t add wine, use good, flavorful beef stock instead. I’m looking forward to the leftovers, for sure.

What I liked: how easy it was to make, beginning to end about 45 minutes; liked the added flavor from the heavy cream – it’s just 4 T. of it; really liked the orecchiette pasta too – would definitely do that again. It should freeze well, too. Next time I’ll make a double batch and freeze half.

What I didn’t like: nothing at all. Would and will make it again, sooner rather than later.

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Two years ago: Red Pepper and Walnut Spread, with pita bread
Four years ago: Chicken Bamako (very easy baked chicken breast and bacon dish)

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Do you know about Hatch chiles? I didn’t, really, until some years ago when I visited Santa Fe, New Mexico, and learned about this unique variety of chiles, grown only in the hills and plains in New Mexico, from an area in and around the town of Hatch. It’s a hybrid, developed in 1912 by a local farmer who combined some of his favorite chiles and created the Hatch. They’ve become a huge success, a favored chile by most everyone who lives in New Mexico. Santa Fe even has an annual chile fest over Labor Day weekend that’s all about the Hatch chile. People drive from all around, to buy them – when the chileheads have big roasting baskets so you buy them already roasted. They’re a mild chile, about 1,000 to 2,500 on the scale. Less hot on the scoville scale than a jalapeno chile which is about 5,000 scoville units.

You have an opportunity, if you live in L.A. or Orange County, to buy some fresh or roasted Hatch chiles. This is a first – I’ve never been able to buy Hatch chiles here in California. Freida’s Produce has hooked up with Ralph’s grocery stores to sponsor some chile-roasting events this month.

If I’ve read the information correctly, you have to buy 10 pounds or 30 pounds of Hatch chiles (raw) and they’ll roast them at no charge. Or you can buy a smaller quantity, but then you’ll need to roast them yourself. People from Freida’s will be available at these events to discuss the chiles, recipes and helpful hints about handling and preparation. We’re going to go to the local one closest to us, so I’ll tell you all about it.

This Saturday, August 13, 2011, 10-4 or until they run out: Ralphs Costa Mesa, 380 E. 17th St. and Ralphs La Canada, 521 W. Foothill Blvd.

Next Saturday, August 20th, 2011, 10-4 or until they run out: Ralphs Los Angeles, 11727 Olympic Blvd and Ralphs Huntington Beach, 5241 Warner

And the following Saturday, August 27th, 10-4 or until they run out: Ralphs Tustin, 13321 Jamboree Rd and Ralphs Pasadena, 3601 E Foothill Blvd

New Mexico had a tough growing season this year, so prices are probably up (according to some info I read online). This venture won’t be cheap, but so far I have two friends who will share the bounty with me. It should be fun watching them being roasted.

Here’s a link to Freida’s Hatch site, with info and recipes.

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Until a few months ago I’d never heard of Bob Kramer. First I read about him in one of my cooking magazines. And then I noticed he was teaching a class at Sur la Table. My DH is the one who carves meat and sharpens the knives most of the time. Though, I’m the one who bought the Furi knives a few years ago – stainless steel ones – and also purchased a knife sharpening system from Furi too. Those I use in my everyday cooking. But we – neither one of us – seem to have perfected the sharpening process very well. Some months ago Dave spent an hour or more with all the equipment out on the kitchen counter trying to get a good edge on my most favored knives. Unsuccessfully.

So, when I saw the Bob Kramer knife and sharpening class at Sur la Table, I signed us up for it. This was not a cheap expedition, I’ll tell you. The class was $100 apiece, so we decided to make that our birthday presents to each other.

Also, I’ll tell you that I have lots of knives in my kitchen. Years and years ago (this would have been the early 1970’s) I’d acquired a full set of Cutco stainless steel knives. They’re very good knives, and they’ve been a sturdy go-to group all these years. I have nearly every knife they make. Once you have Cutco knives, you can send them back to the factory to be re-sharpened (no charge except for the shipping to them). But it takes a couple of weeks to get them back. A nuisance, for sure. I try to remember to do it when we’re about to leave on a vacation. That way I won’t miss them so much! In the meantime, though, I mentioned above, I bought a couple of Furi knives too – the Santoku style. And those have been my day to day knives for mincing and chopping.

This Bob Kramer class, though, was fascinating. I was riveted to his every word (he’s a great story-teller) as he shared his life history and how he came to be a knife maker. A custom knife maker. But he also (now) has contracted with Henckels to make a specialized line of knives, using his lifetime knowledge of how to construct a knife (including the forging aspect of it) and sells them at Sur la Table. Some years ago he even spent time at a steel forge so he would really understand the composition of steel and the process of hand forging. He came to the conclusion after years of work that carbon steel is the only way to go to make a knife and keep it sharp.

He didn’t disparage stainless knives at all; he just doesn’t use them. He finds them much harder to hone an edge, and the edge doesn’t hold as long as knives made with carbon steel. The only problem is that carbon steel will stain and discolor. He suggested that whenever you’re using a carbon steel knife keep a dry cloth next to your cutting board and use it frequently to keep the knife dry. Even water will stain a carbon steel.

Kramer also sells a line of stones (sharpening stones). His are water stones (not oil, as some are), and you can buy several types. We bought one. I learned a lot about stones during the class. I remember watching my dad sharpen knives for my mother when I was a child. He’d spit on the stone and use the same round motion Bob Kramer uses. The trick is the angle. We learned that most knife sharpening units (the free standing types you pull a knife through) are set to sharpen at about 20° tilt. He recommended about 12-15°. He also explained that to get an edge you need to exert about 4-6 pounds of pressure on the knife. How do you know? Simple! Get out your kitchen scale, set a soft surface on it (like a towel), zero out the weight, then press the knife blade onto the scale until you reach 4-6 pounds. It’s a whole lot more pressure than you think. It’s clear to me that whenever I’ve sharpened knives before I’ve never exerted enough pressure on the blade.

He also talked about testing the burr. That’s the little tiny edge (bend) that develops from using your knives on a hard surface (cutting boards). The chopping motion eventually curls the edge over slightly. And as long as there’s a burr, you’ll never get the knife sharp. I knew that part – from another class I took some years ago, and at that time I bought a Chantry which I’ve used with regularity ever since. Successfully. But now that I know more about better sharpening methods (using the water stone) I’ll probably retire my Chantry.

In the process of sharpening he tested each blade periodically – he did the magazine test, he calls it – you take a page out of a magazine, or a piece of newsprint and cut with the knife. If it doesn’t slice right through it, it’s not sharp enough. Back to the stone it went. And he tested it at several places on the knife edge – you want that sharpness the full length of the blade. If you use a larger, longer knife for chopping, and you  use the pivot method (leaving the knife point down, just picking up the back end and moving it over to continue chopping) or something close to it, you know that the bulk of the cutting action is done toward the rear – nearer the handle end of the blade. And all the way to the rear end of it too.

In demonstrating the sharpening process (with the wet stone he’d soaked in water for about 20 minutes), after he’d finished sharpening each knife, he took them a couple of feet away where he had taped down a regular, ordinary piece of cardboard. Probably about 6 x 14 inches long, approximately. He gently massaged the knife on the cardboard – just like he was honing with the stone. That smooths out the edge. Cleans it, too, of any steel shavings. Then he wiped it very clean with a cloth. All of his knives are stored with a knife guard too. Good thing since they were razor sharp when he got done! You can buy those at Sur la Table also.

The knives he manufactures have a few unique characteristics. All things he learned over the years of professional cooking he did, and during the years he ran a knife sharpening business (mostly for restaurant chefs) in Seattle (he doesn’t have time for that anymore). He makes all of his knives with wider blades, because he (like most cooks) uses the flat side of the blade to carry mounds of food to a bowl or cooktop. He also rounds the top of the blade (the non-cutting edge) because he learned that most professional chefs develop a mean callus from constant pressure on that part of the blade. Made sense to me! He also constructs a heftier handle. He does make custom knives (now he does an auction on his website for them – you don’t even want to know how much they sell for – but they’re stunningly beautiful) and makes different shapes of handles with different woods. This line of knives at Sur la Table, though, all have the black handles as you’ll see in the photo above.

There were lots of questions at the end, which he was happy to answer. One was meaningful to me – he recommended using an end grain wood cutting board.  Here’s a photo of the Boos brand available at Williams-Sonoma, although you can find them at numerous kitchenware stores.  You can tell they’re an end grain because it has a checkerboard look to it – each square is an end cut of wood. The point is that chopping is what’s hard on a knife, obviously. An end-grain board is softer because the knife blade will be cushioned slightly by the grain itself. He also said that bamboo boards are inherently soft, so they’re okay too. He particularly discouraged us from using the type of boards I use all the time – I have several of them, the Epicurean line (I bought them because they have a very tight grain, they’re actually some kind of wood composite, can go in the dishwasher and supposedly inhibit bacteria growth). Unfortunately, for just those reasons, the surface is extremely hard, so it’s hard on knives. I don’t own an end grain board, so guess that will need to be added to my wish list in the future.

My DH had said before we went to the class, that he thought we should buy one of the knives. We did. I’d really liked to have purchased two of them, but they’re pricey. Beyond pricey, so one will be fine for now. If you want to learn more about his sharpening techniques, he has videos with better explanations than I’ve given you. Click on over to the sharpening page on his website for that.

If you have a Sur la Table store near you, you might look to see if Bob Kramer is teaching there. I’d definitely recommend the class. You’re going to want to buy one of his knives, though, so take your checkbook or credit card!

Two years ago: Sizzling Rib Eyes with Red Pepper Sauce
Four years ago: Goat Cheese Chive Muffins

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With a glut of fresh peaches on my kitchen counter, and having made a couple of peach desserts already, I decided to make a chutney that I’d serve with a grilled pork roast dinner we were going to have a few nights later. It used up 3 of the 8 peaches, 2 onions and a few raisins. The rest of the ingredients are normal kitchen shelf staples.

Finding the “right” recipe was the trick. I went to my favorite resource – Eat Your Books – that online listing I’ve made of most of my cookbooks. It told me to look in about a dozen of them. I discarded a few and was surprised to find this one in my cookbook, The Thrill of the Grill. It’s an old cookbook of mine (published in 1990) but one I turn to often when I’m going to barbecue.

I chose this particular chutney version because it wasn’t loaded with spices or herbs. The pork roast I was making was covered in herbs and I didn’t want the chutney to take away anything from the grilled pork.

The chutney itself is very easy to make. Onions are cooked, peaches are added, some salt and pepper, brown sugar and molasses plus some vinegar and lemon juice and it stews away for a short time. You don’t want to overcook this as the peaches would turn to mush, but cook just enough to soften the peaches. Raisins are added (I only had golden) and it was done. I chilled it for a couple of days, although you could use it immediately, I’m sure.

If you have some peaches you need to use – make this and freeze it for a later date. I’m going to need to do that with what I have remaining – even after a dinner for 6, I still have about 2 cups left. It may not get used in time, so freezing is a good option. It will keep for about 6 weeks, according to the recipe.

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Two years ago: Cocoa Crème Fraiche Cupcakes
Three years ago: Wellesley Chocolate Chip Cookies
Four years ago: Spinach Salad with Mango

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Periodically I mix up a batch of turkey sausage – the breakfast sausage type. When I want to feel a bit more virtuous. When I want to watch calories and fat. Usually I freeze them, 4 little patties to a package wrapped in plastic wrap, with plastic in between the layers. Will I say they taste just like pork sausage? Well no, they don’t. But they’re good enough, and certainly better for us. My DH and I have one little patty each with our breakfast of yogurt and fruit and a half a piece of whole grain toast.

They’re really simple to make – it’s just some fresh ground turkey (do use some dark meat otherwise the sausage will be very, very dry) – and add in the herbs. A couple of years ago I posted a recipe for some very spicy turkey breakfast sausages. They’re really highly seasoned with not only herbs but a lot of heat-spice too. These are different – they’re quite mild – similar to the kind of spice you’d find in store-bought pork breakfast sausage. My friend Sue made these for us when we visited her recently. A friend of hers had given her the recipe. It’s a good one.

My only advice is that when you sprinkle in the herbs, sprinkle them all over the meat. Turkey meat is harder to mix up (like when you’re making meatloaf with ground beef) and you may end up with one part of the meat with all the herbs. Form into patties and fry up them or freeze as I mentioned above. The photo at top is the raw patties.

What I liked: that it’s turkey, not pork; that it’s lower in fat; and the mild seasonings in it.

What I didn’t like: nothing really. Just know that it’s not trying to substitute for pork.

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Two years ago: Plums – everything you want to know about them
Three years ago: Summer Shrimp Salad
Four years ago: Green Beans with Shallots and Balsamic Vinegar

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As usual, it’s difficult photographing brown food. It was dinnertime with waning sunlight coming in through the kitchen window, so I finally took the bowl there and snapped this photo. It doesn’t begin to do justice to the dish. It’s hard to see the meat – I did prop up one piece (at 11:00 in the photo) so you could at least see a piece of the meat that wasn’t completely enveloped in the milky sauce. But with the shadow, it’s hard to tell, isn’t it?

It’s not really the season for stews and braises, but I had a 2 1/2 pound chunk of leg of lamb in the freezer that needed to be used. We’ve agreed to buy 1/4 of a Berkshire pig this summer, through our friend who has 4H boys and girls using her farm pens. So I need to make room in the garage freezer. I have some room, but perhaps not enough, so I need to get busy using up some of the larger type pieces in there.

Actually I have a 6 pound pork roast in there and it needs to be used too. Soon, since the Berkshire pig will go to slaughter this next week. They’ll deliver it probably at the end of next week (I’m writing this a couple of weeks ago . . .).

Anyway, back to lamb here. I’d copied off a recipe over at Simply Recipes a couple of years ago. Elise said it was based on a Mario Batali recipe, and she raved about it. Indeed, this dish IS really delicious. For a summer evening, it was coolish as we sat outside having dinner, so it ended up being a great night for a lamb stew. I made farro also, which Elise recommended. All I did to that was add in salt and some broth (rather than straight water) to the cooking water. The lamb I made according to the recipe with no variations. It’s quite simple – I actually made it in my crockpot, but am not sure I’d do that again – FYI: 6 hours on low was too long. So, just use the recipe below. The use of milk (and a little bit of cream) makes a fantastic creamy sauce to go with the lamb, and gives it lots of luscious stuff to go along with the farro too. Kind of like mashed potatoes and a milky chicken gravy, except this was farro and lamb.

The lamb cubes need to be browned sufficiently to generate some good flavor, then everything is put together for the braise. After the meat is done, remove it and boil down the juices. They’ll look kind of awful – most things made with milk will separate – but boil it down anyway, then puree in a blender to smooth it out. Add back into the pot with the lamb and heat through. And serve!

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Three years ago: Vinaigrette
Four years ago: Grandgirl’s Fresh Apple Cake

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Regularly in the summertime we eat corn ON the cob. But, I do dislike how corn gets stuck in my teeth – and you just hope somebody tells you you have some corn messing up your smile – so when I can remove the corn and make something wonderful, I’m usually happier. I’d had a corn “thingie” I bought a couple of years ago. Oxo’s, to be exact. I’m usually  happy with their products. But no, I really wasn’t. It didn’t zip off the corn as easily as I thought it should. And it had big teeth on the underside that scared me to wash it! Although my DH does 99% of the dishes in our house, so I was worried about him scraping a hand.

So, when I saw somebody at a cooking class using this one, by Kuhn Rikon, I grabbed one in a flash. It has a plastic protector for storing in a drawer. It removes several rows of corn at a time too. Don’t confuse this with their other two corn zippers – this is a new one, made of plastic except for the blades. It’s dishwasher safe, also.

What can I tell you except you need to have one of these, that’s all. It makes removing corn from the cob as easy as slicing soft butter, almost. Maybe not quite, but close. I zipped 5 ears of corn in about 2-3 minutes, maybe less.

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Oh, how I love this stuff. I swear, I could eat it 3 times a week and never tire of it. In case you haven’t read my other posts about calabacitas (cal-ah-ba-SEE-tus), it’s a southwestern veggie dish that ideally you’d make in the spring and summer when corn and summer squash are at their peak. But you can make this year ‘round if you use frozen corn. We’re able to buy summer squash twelve months a year here. Use any variety of squash – this one above happened to be a mixture of zucchini and yellow pattypan. I prefer the yellow crookneck, but couldn’t find any the other day when I needed to make this for dinner.

Making true calabacitas requires you to roast a poblano chile, peel it, chop it up, etc. Well, I just decided to detour there and use chopped raw poblanos instead – no roasting or peeling. Just chopped up (seeded, of course). Once cooked, the poblano becomes very mild with no heat at all. Then, of course, we had locally grown white corn. I’m going to write up a separate post just about the newest gadget I bought that makes instant-quick work of removing corn from the cob. I love this new thing. Check in tomorrow . . . about that.

So here’s what I did – I chopped up an onion, all the squash, garlic, piled up the fresh corn off the cob, minced the poblano. First I sautéed the onion, then the garlic, then the squash, the poblano, cooked that for awhile (not long, maybe 5-6 minutes) then added the corn, salt, pepper and a dash of heavy cream. And some dried thyme. Thyme isn’t native to this dish in southwestern cooking, but I just decided it should be in there. Every single time I serve this, I get raves. I guarantee you will too. Try it before corn is out of season.

What I like about it: how easy it is to make – works well for a weeknight dinner or for guests – they’ll be impressed – and the taste. Oh gosh. So very good.

What I don’t like: nothing, nada. Could eat it often. Could even be happy with this as a main dish.

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A year ago: Cauliflower Gratin with Tomatoes and Feta
Two years ago: Blueberry and Ginger Salsa (for grilled meat – wonderful!)
Four years ago: Peppered Pecans (an all-time favorite – great in salads or nibbling)

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