After roasting, grilling or braising a leg of lamb, I never seem to know what to do with the leftovers. One night we had the lamb shawarma in a sandwich (flatbread) as we’d prepared it for the dinner for 8 we did. But I still had about a pound of meat remaining. What to do. Aha! Soup.

Going to Eat Your Books, I quickly found a recipe in my copy of James Peterson’s soup book, Splendid Soups: Recipes and Master Techniques for Making the World’s Best Soups. Peterson, indeed, makes some splendid soups in this book. None of them 2-3 ingredients, however. But I like that. I used his recipe as my inspiration. A few ingredients I didn’t have, so I just punted. I changed a bit the way it was made because I believe that the vegetables you put into the beginning of a soup give out and off all the flavor and texture they have to the broth. And rather than starting with fresh meat (like shanks or stew meat) I wanted to use the leg of lamb bones (that did have a bit of meat attached, but I’d cut off most of the meat – it was added in at the end of the soup making, since it was all cooked). And I prefer soups with more than just beans or lentils – I want more veggies.

So I threw out all those soft and mushy veggies used to flavor the broth and added new ones (onions, carrots and celery). It called for fresh ginger in the beginning too. And some saffron, cinnamon and turmeric. I added curry powder also. I’d saved the broth and drippings from the roasting pan when I made the lamb shawarma, so that went into the pot as well. The shawarma seasonings were somewhat similar to this soup, so I thought they added just a bit more oomph to the flavor.

What I had were tiny yellow lentils, so they went in after the broth was created, but after I’d strained out everything from the broth itself (the bones, ginger chunks, onions, celery, etc.) so it was just flavorful broth at that point. I added beef broth (using my Penzey’s soup base. Then after the lentils were done I added a CAN of chickpeas (drained and rinsed) and new vegetables. I also added a can of chopped tomatoes including the juices. That simmered for a short time, then I added the lamb, all cut up into cubes and some parsley. Full-fat (Greek) yogurt was added. My pot was simmering a bit too vigorously if you examine the photo carefully – so it separated some. It didn’t look very pretty, so I added 1/4 cup of heavy cream to it. Hardly made much of a difference in the consistency, actually. It probably needed more, but that’s all I was willing to add. And it was done. All I did was garnish it and serve in wide bowls along with some home made no-knead wheat/rye bread I’d made, nicely slathered with unsalted butter. Yum.

What’s GOOD: first, it was a good way to use up all that leftover leg of lamb meat. I was happy to have a good use for it. AND, I’m glad I now have a great recipe I can return to in the future! I don’t much like just pieces of leftover lamb heated up as a dinner entrée. The soup freezes well too. I now have 2 ziploc bags (2 servings each) in the freezer for some night when I don’t feel like cooking!
What’s NOT: only the time you have to commit to the long, slow cooking – at least a couple of hours, but it happily simmered away while I did other things in between times.

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Is it an oxymoron to eat a (healthy) boneless, skinless chicken breast and then drizzle a decadent sauce (with some heavy whipping cream) all over it? It’s a dilemma I do think about now and then, and yet boneless skinless chicken breasts can be so boring and dry if they’re not cooked just right and/or served with something on the side that gives it flavor and moisture. And no, this probably isn’t a true oxymoron (it means combining 2 words that are contradictory) but in culinary terms, yes I think it is.

You’ll go through the usual steps here, buying boneless skinless chicken breasts, carefully trimming off any exterior fat, pounding them to an even thickness so they’ll cook evenly. After cooking them and adding some brandy, that gets flamed, then you make a decadent sauce. It contains some fresh tomatoes as you can see above. It has shallots in there too, some fresh tarragon, white wine, chicken broth and THEN, 1/2 cup heavy cream. Thicken it up some by simmering it until it reduces just a bit. You’ll want to have some kind of carb on the side to soak up the fantastic juicy sauce that will ooze all over the plate. I’d recommend rice.

If you have everything all ready before you start, it takes just a very few minutes to make this from beginning to end. It will make a lovely company meal. Yet it’s not so difficult you couldn’t make it easily enough for a family dinner.

What’s GOOD: it relatively easy to make. You’ll like the fresh tomato with it – gives it some nice texture and taste.You’ll definitely notice the tarragon and the hint of brandy too. A lovely presentation also.
What’s NOT: nothing really, except that all the work has to be done just before serving.

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That’s a huge leg of lamb (8 1/2 pounds to be exact) we made for our Israeli dinner recently. The darkened patches are the spices that were used in the marinade. It’s oven baked. Since it’s not roasted on one of those unique vertical spits, it’s not an authentic Shawarma, but it’s close enough for government work, as they say. I suppose I should call it Shawarma for the home kitchen.

As I just mentioned a few days ago, my DH loves-loves lamb, and would happily eat it about once a week if I’d prepare it. But lamb is a very saturated fat – and I don’t just mean because it’s a red meat – I mean that lamb in and of itself is a very fatty meat, comparing it with beef or pork. It’s hard to realize it unless you read the nutrition info on lamb recipes, or even when you look at those cute little lamb chops in the grocery store, or at the slices of lamb cut from the above leg. Even when I cut up the meat from this meal later (as leftovers) I could hardly SEE any fat in it. But it’s there. Hence I buy leg of lamb very rarely. And not only because of the high fat, but also because I never seem to be very happy using up the leftovers. But oh, this time, I’ve got a winner of a recipe to share – in a day or two – a soup I made with the bones and lamb meat.

The recipe for this came from Jerusalem: A Cookbook. The authors provide lots of details about the origins of the spice mixture ((Lebanese) and about ways to serve the lamb.

Aren’t the colors beautiful? Seeing this plate reminds me of our trip some years ago to Turkey (in 1997). We visited an underground ancient city in Cappadocia that provided a safe haven for Christians when the Romans were trying to arrest and kill them all. The Christians lived and hid there for months, some for years. There was even a morgue that could be sealed up with a stone (because of the smell, I suppose) because no one could go above ground during that time. Considering this was about 2000 years ago, they had a very sophisticated ventilation system too, so they wouldn’t be found from any little twists of smoke emanating through the rocks hiding the entrance at ground level. In one of the subterranean rooms was a kitchen and a big stone sat right in the middle of this room – the top was flat with a myriad of little 2-4 inch round indentations.  It was their kitchen spice cabinet, so to speak. When the underground caverns were discovered centuries later, there were still remnants of the herbs and spices in the little cups. At left you can see an example of one (from tryanythingonce blog). Those cups would have held all of the spices you see on the plate above. At right is a photo from the underground caverns (from the vagablond.com). The cavern we visited went down something like 8 stories below ground. It was an ever-winding spiral, down, down, down. Only the top 3 “floors” closest to the surface were open to the public and some of the connecting tunnels were very narrow and low. My DH, who is tall, got stuck in one of them as he bent over trying to move forward, and had to be pushed slightly from behind to get through the passage. Scary for him, as he gets claustrophobic. The picture here shows very wide and tall tunnels. Not so in the one we visited!

Anyway, back to this lamb. . . all those spices were toasted and ground up in my spice grinder. If you happen to look at the plate and wonder about the cinnamon – it’s from Penzey’s. They sell it in chunks like that – you can easily use a cinnamon stick – I just happened to have the chunks in my pantry. So the spices were combined with some peanut oil, salt, fresh ginger, garlic, cilantro and lemon juice. I spread it all over the outside of the lamb, puncturing numerous slits in the meat and pushing the mixture into them as well. Into a large plastic bag it went and refrigerated

overnight. Most of the marinade stuck well to the lamb, so once it went into a baking pan (on a rack, my turkey roaster actually) it was easy to go right into the oven. The lamb was roasted at a low temp for about 5 hours (part of the time covered with foil). I allowed a little extra time because the lamb leg was bigger than the recipe indicated. The meat wasn’t falling off the bone, really, as some commenters mentioned on other sites where I found the recipe online, but it was quite tender.

Traditionally this dish is served in either pita bread or some kind of soft foldable flatbread with condiments like chopped tomato, chopped cucumber, onions and definitely some sumac to sprinkle on top. I did the same.

We had fresh sangak bread on hand and I tore it up into hand-sized portions and placed the slices of lamb on the bread. The tray was passed at the table for people to add condiments of their choice. The recipe also mentioned a spread to put on the bread or pita – a mixture of canned tomatoes, harissa, tomato paste, olive oil, salt and pepper. So I spread some of that on each piece of sangak bread as it was served. The harissa added some heat – everyone noticed that. I liked it, actually. The only thing missing in my book was some fresh Greek yogurt to dab on the hand-sandwich. The recipe didn’t indicate it, so I didn’t put it out, but I think it would have been a nice addition.

What’s GOOD: loved the spices in this – warm and cozy. The lamb was not difficult, but was a bit time consuming and I needed to be near the oven periodically over the 5 hours to keep water in the pan below the meat (so it wouldn’t dry out). It made a gorgeous presentation. Meat was well done, obviously. Not dry, though and was still relatively tender. Made a very spectacular centerpiece of a meal.
What’s NOT: it’s a fair amount of work, as I mentioned above. If you have an Alligator 11-1/4-Inch Dicer with Collector, it’s quick work to make the condiments you see above. If you don’t own all the spices already, it could be a bit expensive to buy them all.

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The humble eggplant. Made in so many guises. This one’s a side dish, or it could be a vegetarian entrée (it does have Feta cheese in it) if you served just one of those per person. Prepare to be surprised at the flavors in this version.

When I was working on the menu for the Israeli dinner we did awhile back, I had fun going through Ottolenghi and Tamimi’s book, Jerusalem: A Cookbook. There are some gorgeous photographs of food, homes, kitchens, markets, families, street people, city views, floors,  walls, doors and everything in between. And ample explanations about some of the more unusual ingredients not known much to Western cultures. Like sumac, for instance, and date syrup.

Our dinner group is comprised of 4 couples. The hostess chooses the theme or menu, and can leave each cook to her own devices to find an appropriate recipe, or in this case, since I wanted us to cook a full meal from this cookbook, I chose the recipes myself and sent them out. Initially I thought this eggplant might be part of our first food – a mezze. As it turned out we had 2 mezze items already so the eggplant was cut into thirds and everyone had a nice-sized chunk of it with our dinner. Peggy made this dish earlier in the day. We served it at room temp.

The chefs wrote a fairly long introduction prior to this recipe, about the eggplant. I’m going to type it here because I found it so interesting (the emphases below are mine):

Few ingredients have reached the level of veneration achieved by the humble eggplant or have found their way to almost every table in Jerusalem, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Everybody loves to be associated with the eggplant – it’s like a little local celebrity. The number of people who claim to have invented baba ghanoush, or at least elevated it to the level of fine food, is extraordinary.

At the markets in the city, the eggplants come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, from the regular kind, elongated and uniform in size, to zebra – streaked on the outside and pure white on the inside, baby eggplants; globe eggplants; and the baladi, a local heirloom variety that is wide, flat and resembles an open fan.

Eggplants, depending on variety, lend themselves to pickling, stuffing, cooking in sauce, frying, baking, roasting, charring, burning, pureeing and even cooking in sugar and spice to make a festive jam (Moroccan) or fruit mostarda (Aleppine), a type of candied fruit conserved in a spicy syrup. They also marry beautifully with the flavors so typical of the city: tahini, pine nuts, date syrup, tomatoes, chickpeas, potatoes, lemon, garlic, lamb, fresh cheese and yogurt, olive oil, sumac, and cinnamon.

Arabs first brought eggplants to Italy and Spain, but it was the Jews who are said to have introduced them to these cuisines when moving and trading among the Arab, Moorish and Christian cultures in the 15th and 16th centuries. Sephardic Jews have always been identified with eggplants, as were Arabs, even when Europeans were quite suspicious of them and were reluctant to use them, believing that “mad apples,” as they were known, induced insanity.            . . . from Jerusalem: A Cookbook

This eggplant dish, really quite simple actually, has you roast the halved eggplant in a hot oven, scoring the open surfaces a little,  until they’re golden brown. Onions are cooked separately until they develop an almost caramel look and flavor, and they’re mixed with some mild green chiles and the spices: cumin and sumac. And lastly, some Feta is added in. This mixture is spread on the roasted eggplant and a topping is made using the fresh pulp and juice of a lemon, some of the green chile and garlic. That’s drizzled over the top and allowed to sit out until serving time. Can be served warm, or at room temperature. The only precaution mentioned in the recipe is that eggplant can dry out when roasted (probably because eggplants are not uniform in size) so they suggest you place a shallow pan of water in the oven to help keep the eggplant hydrated.

What’s GOOD: certainly this dish is different, but except for the sumac, it’s ordinary ingredients to most home cooks. I loved the combination – the soft flavorful eggplant with the browned onions and Feta. It has ample umami flavor. Also good that it can be made a few hours ahead of time – always nice if you’re cooking for guests.

What’s NOT: can’t think of anything. We liked it.

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You know pudding cake, right? That mysterious chemistry that happens when you combine certain baking ingredients and it makes its own sauce – like magic! I’ve had chocolate pudding cake and lemon pudding cake (here on my blog it’s called a Lemon Sponge Pudding), and count them as favorites of mine, but oh, this one. Wait till you try it.

Since it’s October, my thoughts turn to Fall. I love Fall. Here in Southern California, though, it comes late and doesn’t last long. My physical calendar says yes, October is Fall, but real Fall doesn’t arrive here, usually, until November. As I write this we’ve had a couple of beautiful cooler days, but we’re anticipating Santa Ana winds which usually come with very high heat (winds blow in from the hot deserts). Most people dread them – they blow like hell. They wreak all kinds of minor havoc. Light weight things get tossed around back yards, into pools, get hung up in trees. And leaves and debris blow just everywhere. Weak limbs on trees and even whole trees can fall and block roads and down power lines. Often my internet connection is shaky. Why that should be I don’t know since the cable is underground. But it happens almost every time. And no, none of this is related to a hurricane – there is no water/rain associated with the Santa Ana winds. Here where we live, on a western-facing hill, the winds come roaring up and over the peak of the hill behind us, then create a twist and roll back to our yard and particularly our side patio. Birds hunker down and try to hold on. I don’t know how they manage to eat when we have the winds. Our awnings are pulled in, all our summer umbrellas are stowed, our rolling cart that lives on our patio is tied down. We keep towels on our patio, covering cushions to protect them from sun damage – if we didn’t take those in they’d all be flying up the road, off to neighbors’ yards, or caught in bushes. It’s crazy. We get these winds during the Fall and Spring mostly. And now is the season. We’ve been told we’ll have 3 days of winds – that’s a long one. If we’re lucky they last just one day. Not this time, I hear.

But it’s a good day to stay inside and bake, if you’re so inclined! I am going to bake bread today (one of those overnight no-knead types that I mixed up a couple of days ago). If it’s successful, I’ll post it. It’s a whole wheat rye loaf.

We expected a big crowd for our bible study group last week when I made this. We had 9 people, I think it was, and am so glad I made a double batch of this – that way we did have a bit of left overs. A couple of conscientious people decided not to have any. I couldn’t resist. I made some sweetened whipped cream to put on top, but didn’t take the time to photograph one, so I created a photo-worthy version the next day with some cream poured over.

The recipe comes from fellow blogger (and friend) Marie Rayner, who lives in England. I started reading her blog many years ago, A Year from Oak Cottage. Some years ago when we visited England, we visited Marie and her husband Todd (and their adorable then-puppy Mitzie) and went out to dinner together. Marie’s recipes are posted at her 2nd blog, The English Kitchen. Marie loves pudding cakes and explains on the blog post about this recipe about several of her other pudding cakes. When I made this I didn’t have enough milk, but I did have buttermilk, so I adapted the recipe. That meant I reduced the amount of baking powder and added baking soda – I also added just a tetch more fluid – I had to do that because the initial batter was so thick it couldn’t hardly hold all the flour. Hence I added more buttermilk.

Now, let’s get to this pudding cake. I am very long-winded this morning . . . this dessert is SO easy to make. You create a cake batter first (it’s just a bit on the stiff side), then you create the sauce part (a lot of brown sugar, water and butter). The batter is spread into a pan, the sauce part is poured over, then you dot the top with fresh chopped apples and walnuts. That’s it. Into the oven to bake for nearly an hour and it’s done.

Here at left you can see the different steps. The top photo shows the fairly stiff batter in the pan. The liquid was poured in after that and when you do that the batter starts to separate some. Blobs of batter float to the top. Don’t be dismayed by the appearance (I should have taken a picture of it at that point). Just persevere. The 2nd photo shows it ready to go in the oven, then below that that finished cake. At first – when I snapped the photo of that step, you could not see or feel the pudding part.

The cake cools for awhile and when I scooped into the pan to serve it, there is all that delicious, brown sugary caramel-like sauce in the bottom. Do spoon some of that sauce over each portion.

What’s GOOD: oh my goodness, everything about it. I just loved this dessert. Do note that a 8×8 pan only contains 2 T. of butter – so it’s very VERY low fat. It’s not low sugar, however. I should have made it with some Splenda, but often the first time I make things I want to make it according to the recipe. Since this is one of those mysterious chemistry things, I was afraid to change it much.

What’s NOT: gosh, nothing. Definitely a keeper.

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The cooking class I went to recently was all about SAUCES. We had 4 sauces altogether: two on meats (pork tenderloin and this lamb), one on a chicken breast, another on salmon, plus a chocolate caramel sauce on a dessert. And none of them was ordinary. They all started from some basic sauce, but each had something unique or different about them. That’s why I took the class!

Do you ever eyeball those lovely lamb racks at Costco? Or the frozen ones at Trader Joe’s? They’re pricey, no question, but for a special occasion, I’ll splurge and get one. My DH really loves rack of lamb and I don’t fix it anywhere near often enough for him! Maybe twice a year. I think the ones from TJ’s already have a rub or herbs on them – you won’t want to buy that as this recipe has a light flavoring to put on it as well. But this recipe is all about the sauce.

Ancho chiles are a favorite of mine because they are mild. They impart lots of flavor, but not much heat. Now occasionally you may find one with some heat, but usually not. Anchos are dried poblano chiles, same thing. At left you can see the dried anchos (thanks to photo at Freida’s Produce). At right is a photo of a fresh poblano. We can buy them fresh at almost any grocery store here in California.

The lamb is rubbed with a mixture and allowed to sit out at room temp for about 45 minutes; otherwise, make it several hours ahead and just put it in the refrigerator until 30 minutes or so before you’re ready to bake. The lamb is browned well on as many sides as you can manage (they’re a bit awkward to brown, I admit), then place them on a parchment lined baking sheet and roast for about 15-20 minutes. They also need to rest for 5-8 minutes afterwards to let all the juices re-absorb before you cut them into little ribs and serve.

Meanwhile, you make the sauce. Have everything all ready to go – once you start the lamb browning and baking, you’ll want to be on a time line. Have your meal all ready (except plating) and do serve this with some kind of carb so you can soak up any errant sauce. You’ll want to get every bit of it! Anyway, the ancho chiles need to be soaked (do this ahead), then they’re whizzed up in the food processor with some of the soaking liquid. It makes a puree that gets added to the sauce later on.

The  usual flavor mixture starts with celery, carrots and onion, then peppercorns, port wine, red wine, cranberry juice concentrate (great flavor), the ancho puree, some brown sugar and chicken broth. You boil it until it’s reduced by half, then you season it and add fresh blackberries. At the very last minute you add a couple T. of unsalted butter and season it if needed. Serve with that carb, and garnish with at least one pretty blackberry. This makes a fairly thin sauce – if you want something thicker, remove a bit of the liquid, cool and add some flour. Do this after you’ve reduced the liquid by half.

What’s GOOD: Well, the sauce first and foremost. It has wonderful flavor. If you enjoy lamb, this will be a fabulous meal.
What’s NOT: the sauce does take a bit of time to make – this would be a special occasion kind of meal.

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Surely there will be some of you reading this who will scoff at beets, mashed up at that, standing in as an appetizer. I’m telling you it’s good. Very good, in fact. But then, I like beets! It’s cooked beets with yogurt mixed in, some garlic and spicy heat, a jot of oil and maple syrup, then decorated with toasted chopped hazelnuts, green onions and goat cheese.

Have you ever looked for something new and different to take as an appetizer to someone’s house? This might just be the one, providing the group is adventuresome. Some might be put off by the color, let alone the smooth creamy texture, but according to the cookbook, Jerusalem: A Cookbook this is a frequent visitor in a mezze meal. It could also be served as a vegetable, but I think it worked so very well as an appetizer. We had 2 appetizers the night we did this Israeli meal, and the 8 of us just didn’t dig into either of them much – not that both weren’t delicious – they were – but we got to talking and drinking our glasses of wine, and gosh, suddenly dinner was ready. I ate a couple of pieces of sangak bread with the beet appetizer and thought it tasted wonderful. I liked the crunch of the hazelnuts on top. A few days later I had some more, and I served it as a side vegetable, in a bowl, when we ate the left overs.

The beets are cooked (or buy the already cooked ones in the vacuum sealed pouches at Trader Joe’s and some other markets). They are mashed up with some yogurt, some garlic, a bit of red chile, some maple syrup (original recipe calls for date syrup, but who has that, I wonder?), olive oil and then some za’atar. If you don’t have za’atar, it’s probably no biggie. Za’atar, or Zatar is a spice mixture. Some American versions don’t contain herbs from the plant of the Middle East (in Lebanon, for instance, they grow a plant that they call a za’atar plant, related to the oregano) – the little jar I had (see photo at left) contains sumac, thyme leaves, white sesame seeds and salt. Other mixtures might contain marjoram and some oregano.

My friend Dianne, who made this, said the beet mixture was quite thin when she got done, so the recipe indicated to add some mashed potato (cooked, obviously). She did and that gave it a better consistency. Alternately, perhaps adding a bit less yogurt would do the trick too.

What’s GOOD: the taste – it’s slightly sweet, actually. But beets are sweet to begin with. The consistency is smooth and I particularly liked the toppings (green onions, crumbled goat cheese and toasted hazelnuts). It’s a very unusual appetizer – the color alone is startling!
What’s NOT: Nothing at all.

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Decadent! Rich! Sweet! Chocolaty! All of those things and more. If you crave an over-the-top kind of dessert, here’s your ticket to chocolate nirvana.

Right off the bat I’ll tell you, this dessert is really rich and sweet. Not the kind I’d serve after a rich 3 or 4 course meal. Maybe after a more simple meal, even soup, salad and bread, when you can handle the calories, fat and sugar! When you’re still hungry. Phillis Carey served this at a recent cooking class. She says that even though her class teaching subject could be something like meats, or even vegan, if she doesn’t serve dessert, her class sighs in sadness. So, usually Phillis prepares some kind of dessert in every cooking class. I have many-a-dessert in my repertoire that have come from her classes. She and I have many things in common when it comes to desserts.

The cake is fairly normal in that it’s a chocolate batter, using unsweetened chocolate, bittersweet chocolate and cocoa. It makes a relatively dense cake – this isn’t a light and fluffy kind of fare. More like a brownie, actually. You also make a caramel sauce – and at the end chocolate is added in, hence it’s a chocolate-caramel sauce. You absolutely NEED the vanilla ice cream to cut the richness and the chocolate. Don’t skimp on that ice cream.

What’s GOOD: Well, everything about the dessert is good – even in 2 parts (both the torte and the sauce) are delicious all by themselves. Put it all together, and it’s just decadent. What else can I say. As I mentioned, be sure to NOT skimp on the ice cream.

What’s NOT: If a complaint could be made, it’s that this dessert is ultra-rich and sweet. What’s there not to like about that, though?

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Folks from the Middle East, and in this case, Israel, do know their carrots. They prepare them in a multitude of ways. from raw to cooked, even to dessert. This, however, is just a side dish, a salad to serve with a full dinner. They were absolutely outstanding mixed with some arugula.

Our quarterly gourmet group gathered at our house recently for a fun evening of Israeli food. Since I was the hostess, I got to decide what we’d make, and this time I chose to have a menu from Yotam Ottolenghi’s newest book, Jerusalem: A Cookbook. I chose the recipes (based on a leg of lamb as the main course), scanned the recipes and emailed them to everyone in the group. Each couple brought 2 dishes and a bottle of wine. You’ll see all of the recipes here in the next week or so.

The first bite from our main dish plate was a carrot. I loved them. Often in a Middle Eastern restaurant you will find a small platter (a mezze) of tidbits to nibble on. Appetizers. And carrots are frequent. Here on my blog I have a fabulous carrot salad – it’s a favorite of mine called Algerian Carrots. They’re so much of a favorite that they’re on my list of Carolyn’s Favs you can click to with all my favorite recipes on my blog. Those carrots have a vinaigrette on them, but it’s mostly lemon juice and garlic that predominate. I could eat those carrots every single day.

These carrots were somewhat different – they contained different spices (cumin, caraway and harissa) and it used cider vinegar instead of lemon juice. Harissa is a red chile pepper condiment – many upscale markets carry it now. The jar I have I bought from Williams-Sonoma some years ago (keep in refrigerator). So the flavors were altogether different. But good. And this one has some arugula tossed in at the end. We decided that to serve these straight away, without the greens, would almost be too heavy. We liked the arugula which cut the oil and vinegar a little bit.  The recipe says that often in Tripoli (where this recipe originates, Ottolenghi says) it’s made with pumpkin or butternut squash – or carrots.

Nothing about this is difficult. You do have to cook the onion, combine the spices, and cook the carrots. But once combined, they can be made ahead at least a day and that part of your meal is finished. Toss with the arugula just before serving.

What’s GOOD: well, I love carrots anyway, so it was a no-brainer that I’d like them. Good carrot flavor, just enhanced with the spiciness from the harissa and the cumin and fennel. They’ll keep for several days – just toss in fresh arugula on subsequent servings, if you have any left.
What’s NOT: nothing at all. Delicious.

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If it were possible I’d be poising my fork or spoon right there in that sauce and poking a little piece of salmon to eat with it. So easy to make. So decadent. If you’re watching calories, read no further – just forget this one!

It must have been about 20 years ago that I first had “burr-blahnk.” (Please – do laugh at and with me here . . . ) Having never heard of it, I knew nothing of its spelling, let alone its origins (French) and it’s meaning (beurre means butter and blanc means white, and in this case it means white wine). Thus, a white wine and butter sauce. We were in a fish restaurant, with white tablecloths, and I know the waiter looked down his very long nose at me, that I didn’t know about it. I went right home and looked it up, only to discover that it’s just a butter sauce, but made very exactingly so it doesn’t separate.

Phillis Carey served this salmon dish at a recent cooking class I went to, and gosh, was that saffron sauce delicious. You can see a tiny strand of saffron down in the right front of the sauce in the photo above. She was very generous with the saffron when she demonstrated, so it came out a really gorgeous golden color, and you could taste the saffron.

First you need to prepare the achiote paste and flour mixture. What is it, you ask? The spice mixture (sold in a chunk as in the picture at left) usually includes annatto (they’re seeds, from an annatto tree), Mexican oregano, cumin, clove, cinnamon, black pepper, allspice, garlic, and salt. The annatto seeds dye the mixture red, and this gives the meat or vegetables it seasons a distinctive red hue. Some regular grocery stores carry it – if not, seek out a Mexican or South American market. The mixture is believed to be Mayan in origin. Anyway, you mix the achiote with flour and dip the salmon into it. Achiote gives a lovely red color to things, and it gives off a bit of heat as well. In my book, this version is a very mild amount. If you’re sensitive, you can leave it out.

The salmon fillets are seasoned with salt and pepper, then dipped into the achiote flour mixture, then briefly browned in a skillet, just 1-2 minutes per side. Onto a parchment-lined baking sheet they go and roast for about 7-9 minutes. In that time you make the butter sauce. White wine, shallots, rice vinegar and saffron go into a sauce pan and cook briefly. Then you begin adding the butter in small amounts, watching very carefully that the mixture doesn’t boil (if it does, the sauce will separate and you might as well throw it out and start over). Kept just below a boil, you can add the butter in several batches, and whisk it around to melt. Once you add enough butter (and yes, you add a LOT) the sauce thickens some. At the end you add some orange zest, chives and salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, everything else about your dinner needs to be ready (hot plates, salads plated, vegetables made, rice put onto hot plates) so when it all comes together you’ll put those salmon fillets right onto the plate and drizzle the slightly thickened butter sauce over the top. This would make a lovely company meal, but you might enlist help from someone else to help get everything plated and ready when the sauce is done. You can reheat the sauce, but it’s very, very difficult to re-heat a sauce without it boiling, and that sauce will separate if you do. Trust me – I’ve done it – so I know!

What’s GOOD: Well, the sauce is just lovely. Really tasty. And yes, very decadent. Serve some rice alongside so if you can’t scoop up all the sauce with the salmon, you’ll get all of it with the rice. Serve a green veg with it to give nice color to the plate.
What’s NOT: if you watch fat grams and calories, forget this one. But really, each person only gets a couple of tablespoons of sauce, so it may not be so bad after all! You also need to pace your meal carefully and have everything all ready when the sauce is done.

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