Okay, listen up, folks. If you like risotto, this one’s a winner. It’s going onto my “favorites” list, if that gives you a clue as to how delicious it is! It’s the lime juice and lemon juice that “make” this, in my opinion.

We had invited friends over for dinner a week or so ago, so I decided to fix this new recipe I’d acquired at a cooking class recently. I took photos of it at the time, intending to share it here, but then accidentally deleted all the photos. Duh! So I just had to make it sooner rather than later, that’s all.

This recipe does take a bit of prep, but once you have everything ready to go, it’s easy enough to start the risotto itself. You can do all that prep a few hours ahead. I made the marinade but didn’t put the shrimp in it until it was near to dinnertime. I’d prepped all the salsa mixture and I cut up the avocado too. One of the quick tricks Phillis Carey shared with us was about rinsing avocado in water. I guess I’d not heard that one before – if you rinse avocado in cold water, it will sit for a few hours without turning brown. Very simple, eh?

The risotto on its own, without the salsa part is fairly bland. But you add in the tomatoes, green onions, avocado pieces AND the lime juice (a must) it transforms this rice dish to spectacular. The Parmigiano doesn’t hurt, either. The raw shrimp slumber in a citrus marinade for about an hour, then are briefly grilled (you could do this on a stovetop grill too – or even do it in a frying pan if that’s easier). The risotto is like lots of other recipes – uses chicken broth, stirred a lot, then at the very end, when the Arborio rice is almost done (al dente is how you want it – with just a little bit of bite) you add in the colorful stuff – the tomatoes, avocado (and I added in some corn cut off the cob because I had some and remembered how good another of Phillis’ recipes was that included corn in a risotto). I added just a little more lime juice because I loved the tartness of it – be careful and don’t use too much.

Once it’s ready, have everything in place to portion out, garnish and serve before it gets cold. You’ll hear raves at the table, I promise. Even my DH commented to me the next morning how delicious this was. Phillis also said the recipe works equally well with salmon, halibut or sea bass instead of shrimp. I loved the shrimp, though.

Our friends brought a very simple baby arugula salad with a sweet lemon juice dressing that was a perfect foil to the risotto. And just because it was so good, I’m also showing you a photo of the dessert I made – it’s already on my blog – a very special dessert since plums are in season these days. This dessert, Purple Plum Torte,  is on my favorites list too – an all-time, highly-requested recipe from the New York Times. If you haven’t made this dessert yet after reading my blog about it, you’re missing a great addition to any menu. I served it with almond-flavored whipped cream.

What I liked: the piquant taste in the risotto (from the lemon and lime juices, I’d guess). I love everything in it and about it.

What I didn’t like: gracious . . . nothing at all. So worth making.

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This is a post about the late M.F.K. Fisher, a renowned food writer of the first order. If you’re not interested in the biographical part, skip down to the bottom and at least read the indented paragraphs, quoted from one of her books, about How To Un-Seduce [a man]. I found the quote very witty.

Some of you who are considerably younger than I may not have ever heard of M.F.K. Fisher. Her full name was Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher, and just “Fisher” to her friends. She was born in 1908 and died in 1992 from Parkinson’s Disease. What she was, was a venerable food writer of a couple of generations back. I own most of her food related books (well, almost all her books are food related but there are some I don’t own and a few that aren’t really essays about food). She was more a writer than a cook, although she certainly was a good cook in her own right. Photo credit unknown.

M.F.K. Fisher didn’t work in restaurants, but wrote books for herself (including an English translation of Brillat-Savarin’s tome), for magazines (both food and travel) and lived in many places around the world – mostly France – before finally, in her later years, settling in Glen Ellen, California (wine country, a few miles north of Sonoma). She was married three times. The first time (Al Fisher) to a man who, some years later, developed intimacy issues (both physical and relationship types, so she was quoted as saying many years later), so when she had an affair with someone else he was hurt, but he couldn’t do or say much about it. She divorced him and married the other man (Dillwyn Parrish). They had many good years together, but while living in France he developed a very debilitating illness and eventually commit suicide in 1941. She wrote more books and some movie dramas. In 1944 she had a child and never revealed the father’s name. Later on she met and after a whirlwind romance married yet another man (Donald Friede), but that marriage didn’t last. She spent the rest of her days without any further husbands, but I suspect she wasn’t lonely for companionship. She continued to write clear into her 80’s. I tried to research anything I could about her daughter, but didn’t find sufficient info.

In the late 1980’s I recall reading an article in one of the food magazines (either Gourmet or Bon Appetit) about Fisher’s retirement. I’d read a couple of her books at that time and really liked her writing style. About then I began looking for her books in used book stores. She writes prose but with a lot of food relationship stories and with lots of food jargon thrown in. Her essays graced the pages of numerous magazines, many of them not food related. Sometimes her essays included a recipe; sometimes not. In any case, as I looked at the 1980’s photos of her in this article, in her charming-looking little house in Glen Ellen, I remember the writer was particularly taken with Fisher, and happily shared a light lunch with her. And particularly how he savored the fresh fruit she served for dessert (one of her favorite things for dessert anytime). I wished that I could have met her – especially since she died just a few years later.

So, you wonder where this story is going? Well, I got an email from one of my readers (thank you, Donna) who told me about a marinade she has used for years, but originally was from M.F.K. Fisher. (More on that in another post – I’m going to have to try it and then I’ll tell that story.)  She told me which book, and I was surprised to find that I did have the book, but had never read it. In doing so – after reading the chapter about the marinade – I kept going. And came across such a hilarious couple of paragraphs I decided I should share it with all of you.

It’s in her book, An Alphabet for Gourmets. Or, if you’re interested in the book, you might try reading the 5 best of M.F.K. Fisher, contained in the compendium The Art of Eating (the other 4 books are: How to Cook a Wolf, Consider the Oyster, Serve it Forth, The Gastronomical Me). Used copies are very inexpensive if you’re so inclined. Anyway, in the Alphabet book she writes in her chapter called W is for Wanton, about the art of using food for seduction. And she tells one story after another, including one about what she would serve if she were trying to seduce a man. But the one that tickled my funny bone was the section about what she would serve to a man if she were trying to stem, or totally deflate desire (she suggests among others to serve kidneys, okra or avocado, for example), or as she suggests the title at the end of it, HOW TO UN-SEDUCE. Here it is:

[This is the preface to this small bit of the essay, which you need to read to set the stage for the paragraphs that follow]: I myself, imagining one man I would like to woo, can easily invent a menu that would floor him like a stunned ox, and turn him, no matter how unwittingly on his part, into a slumberous lump of masculine inactivity. It is based on what I already know of his physical reactions, as any such plan must be.

I would serve one too many martinis, that is, about three. Then while his appetite raged, thus whipped with alcohol, I would have generous, rich, salty Italian hors d’oeuvres: prosciutto, little chilled marinated shrimps, olives stuffed with anchovy, spiced and pickled tomatoes – things that would lead him on. Next would come something he no longer wanted, but could not resist, something like a ragout of venison, or squabs stuffed with mushrooms and wild rice, and plenty of red wine, sure danger after the cocktails and the highly salted appetizers. I would waste no time on a salad, unless perhaps a freakish rich one treacherously containing truffles and new potatoes. The dessert would be cold, superficially refreshing and tempting, but venomous: a chilled bowl of figs soaked in kirsch, with heavy cream. There would be a small bottle of a Sauterne, sly and icy, or a judicious bit of champagne, and then a small cup of coffee so black and bitter that my victim could not down it, even therapeutically.

All of this would be beautiful fare in itself and in another part of time and space. Here and now it would be sure poison – given the right man. I would, to put it mildly, rest inviolate.

What a hideous plan [she writes]. . . . . M.F.K. Fisher in The Alphabet for Gourmets

Can you see why I enjoy reading her words? She had a true gift of writing, a delightful wit, a gift of story-telling, a gift for the turn of phrase and particularly the judicious use of words. Most of the above biographical information about M.F.K. Fisher came from wikipedia. Another source I used (from Harvard University) had some different information, including a different birth date of her daughter which said she was Friede’s. The daughter had several children, so hopefully the author’s gene will have been preserved and will reappear sometime. And again, the image I used at top, obviously one taken at her home in Glen Ellen in her library or maybe her living room, has no credit because I couldn’t find one, although I saw similar images on the web credited to the New York Times. Over the years I’ve learned something about myself – that when I read a book (and enjoy/love it) I’m intrigued with the how and why. How did the author come to write it, why did he/she write it. Where did he/she write it. You know, that kind of thing. So finding the different birth date of her daughter and the fact that her birth certificate did not include Friede’s name was intriguing. More factlets worth pursuing if I were a true researcher. Anyway, to sum up, I’m a great admirer of M.F.K. Fisher and I need to read all of her most well-known books for sure!

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Summertime is about the only time when I’ll make potato salad. And when we’re having a big group over to our house to help eat it up. I enjoy it very much, but know that it’s probably not the healthiest thing to eat these days. But oh, if you like P.S. then you’ll love the addition of chipotle and corn in this version.

Did you know that chipotle (cheh-powt-leh) is a smoked jalapeno? That’s all it is – but chipotle has deep-grained character, umami, and will add something to nearly any savory dish. I have dried chipotles in my pantry and I have powdered chipotle. And I have canned chipotle, which is the same thing except the manufacturers can it with some tomato type sauce – and when it’s processed it, the sauce is just as hot as the peppers. So it goes a looooong way. In this dish, you’ll only want to use a couple of teaspoons of it – maybe 3 if you like it very spicy. But it adds so MUCH flavor – you’ll be amazed!

The rest of this potato salad is like many others – except it has some lime juice, cilantro, CORN, and pickled jalapenos. Well, you’ll want those pickled jalapenos to add to this salad. They’ll keep forever and ever, I’m certain. The recipe is from my favorite food guru, Phillis Carey.

What I liked: the chipotle flavor, obviously. It’s subtle, but adds just a little bit of heat. And I loved the addition of corn to this.

What I didn’t like: nothing at all – if you’re a potato salad fan, you’ll love this version.

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A fool – mostly it’s whipped cream and fruit. This one has white chocolate in the creamy part and some crème de cassis in the blackberries. It’s very easy to make. Photo from the Food Network.

A fool is a British concoction. Sorta, kinda, like Eton Mess, except it doesn’t have any meringues crumbled up in it, nor does it have ice cream. The Brits are experts at these kind of creamy, fruity desserts, and this one is no exception. I got it at a cooking class with Phillis Carey, but it looks like it’s from Bobbie Flay, on the Food Network. And their photo was ever so much better than mine, so I’ve used theirs.

How easy is this? You whip up heavy cream with sugar. Meanwhile you melt some white chocolate and add that into the whipped cream (once it cools). The fruit – the blackberries – are mixed with sugar and crème de cassis and allowed to macerate, which brings out the juice. A few hours before you’re ready to serve it, you’ll just spoon layers of this into serving dishes and garnish with chopped almonds and fresh mint. Bobbie Flay used hazelnuts instead of almonds – that’s the only difference. Chill this a bit and serve. Very delicious.

What I liked: the combo of the creamy layers and the blackberry layers. Very soothing dessert. Easy too. Just make sure you’ve got good blackberries to start with.

What I didn’t like: gee, nothing, really.

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In our markets lately there have been bunches of fresh mangos, and they’re very inexpensive. They make a wonderful combo with black beans, lime juice, and sheep’s milk Feta. Serve it alongside a lovely piece of grilled meat – chicken, fish, pork chop or lamb even.

The photo was taken with my little point-and-shoot camera. It’s just not quite as bright or clear to me than using my big honkin’ Canon DSLR. I’ll have to make this and take another photo. Make it I will because it’s so delicious. Perfect for a barbecue. Here in Southern California we’ve been having some lovely, warm days. Most mornings it’s May Gray lately – I heard the term the other day. Usually in CA we have June gloom but I’d not heard of May Gray before. But anyway, we’ve been eating dinner on our patio every night for the last several. Along with the baby flies that have hatched and are very anxious to share my dinner. They drove me crazy this evening.

Anyway, back to the recipe – it was from a cooking class with Phillis Carey. And it’s just perfect – I mean perfect – with a piece of barbecued fish, or a lamb chop, pork chop, even a grill chicken breast. Any of the above. Even some grilled sausages. The ingredient list is short: mangos, black beans, red onion, cilantro, serrano chile, garlic, sugar, lime juice, olive oil and sheep’s milk Feta. That’s it. You need to make this – it’s nothing but tossing those ingredients together. I used canned black beans. Phillis did too, and she explained that if you want to buy really black-black beans, buy what’s called turtle beans. They’re blacker than some of the canned black beans out there. Anyway, you just combine all those items in a bowl and chill for a few hours. Serve. How’s that for easy?

What I liked: the lime juice just accents all the flavors in the salad – and I love sheep’s milk Feta (I buy the little tub of sheep’s milk Feta from Trader Joe’s all the time). Cilantro is another favorite for me – can hardly get enough of it. Make this, okay?

What I didn’t like: nada, nothing at all. I wrote “fabulous” on the recipe. Does that tell you anything?

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If I tell you that this or the traditional zucchini style calabacitas is one of my very favorite side dishes, you’d believe me, right? I don’t say those things often. And indeed this dish was so good I swear I could just eat that for dinner.

As I’m writing this up, it’s an hour or so after dinner, and I just had some of that dish, and my mouth is watering even now as I look at the photo. Even though I’m full and don’t want any more food. But just remembering the slightly bitter taste of the poblano chile, and the corn. And the mushrooms. Oh my goodness. It is SO delicious. I think I could eat calabacitas once a week all year ‘round. But I like it with fresh corn, and that’s not always possible. We bought fresh corn the other day, 3 ears for $1, which was a really good deal. It was fresh and tasty. I’d intended to buy some green zucchini, but the market we visited only had yellow zucchini (not crookneck) and the light green bulb type zucchini. I didn’t want either of those. But I did have some mushrooms in the refrigerator, so I decided to substitute, and I used the basic calabacitas con crema recipe as my guide. Took no time at all to make – just had to cut up the mushrooms, shuck the corn, chop the poblano and onion. Grind a bit of dried thyme between my palms (I love thyme, so I used lots), and lastly a few tablespoons of cream, salt and pepper and it’s done.

Going online I looked up the word calabacitas and discovered that it means little squash. So, technically this dish isn’t calabacitas. Another website said it just means mixed vegetables, and yes, it is that. So I hope any Spanish-speaking readers will forgive my using the word incorrectly, if I am. As I tasted it tonight I rolled the ingredients around in my mouth and decided that it’s the poblano chile that makes this – it has a distinct flavor – on the edge of bitter – but it’s nothing like a green bell pepper. I don’t know what it is about the poblano that makes it different. Gives the dish an edge somehow. So if you’ve never made calabacitas, and you like all of the ingredients in this – you’ve just got to make it. Either this one or my original one (link is just below the photo) you’ll also find on my blog.

What I liked: how do I love you, calabacitas? Let me count the ways: corn, mushrooms, poblano chile, thyme, gosh – all of it. Let’s have another date next week, okay?

What I didn’t like: abso-posi-tutely nothing, as my dad used to say.

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This could be an appetizer if you tore the flatbread in smaller pieces, but in the above they’re a small open-faced sandwich, of sorts. It’s topped with some home made hummus (so easy to do), then some eggplant that’s tossed with a balsamic vinaigrette,, then topped with some pine nuts and sheep’s milk Feta.

This was dinner the other night. It was so good. So incredibly good. I knew it would be tasty because I’ve made something similar before. I just decided to rearrange it as an open-faced sandwich. What got me thinking about it was a visit to a new Middle Eastern market in our near neighborhood called Aria. And I was thrilled to find out recently that they make sangak bread. Since many of you won’t have the availability of sangak bread, just use any kind of soft flatbread instead. But thin. It’s gotta be thin. Pita bread won’t work – it’s too stiff and dry. Sangak is stretchy and springy and very thin and moist.

One of my favorite recipes is the original of this, Layered Hummus and Eggplant. It’s a dip, of sorts, with the hummus and eggplant on top and you spread it on crackers or crispy pita or whatever. Sangak if you have it. I knew my DH wouldn’t think that was a meal if he had to dip or spread stuff onto some bread. But it doesn’t hurt us any at all to not have a meat protein once in awhile. So I made the hummus (about 5 minutes of work in the food processor) and made the eggplant – that took more time as the thick pieces have to be sautéed lightly in oil and it took about 15-20 minutes with each batch. The balsamic vinaigrette took no time at all.

To serve it I just slathered the chilled hummus on the stretchy pieces of sangak (about 2” x 5” or so), then spooned on the eggplant that had been tossed with the vinaigrette, and topped it with pine nuts, Feta and cilantro (or use parsley). Onto a pretty platter they went (2 apiece) and made a lovely green salad to go with it.

After dinner I got to thinking about this dish, and decided that it would also make a very good rolled up sandwich. So the next day I made one of those with more of the same ingredients. Here’s a photo of that. I made them small so you could easily hold them in your hand. I won’t say they’re a perfect sealed-up envelope – some of the hummus dripped out, but it was do-able.

As I write this, I still have leftovers and I froze a few pieces of the sangak, which will keep for a week or so, and in that time we’ll have some for lunch one day. This dish is very healthy. Truly it is.

What I liked: I just adore the flavors of the hummus (home made please) and the dressing-enhanced eggplant. The Middle Easterners knew what they were doing when they combined hummus and eggplant. It’s a match made in heaven.

What I didn’t like: oh my, nothing.

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Is a Greek salad so ubiquitous that you/we don’t need a recipe? Maybe so since Greek salad to me means lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, kalamata olives and a lemon juice-heavy dressing. Oh, feta cheese too. And oregano for sure! I added some left over cold skirt steak.

Last summer we visited with our friends Sue & Lynn, who live near Denver. Out on Sue’s coffee table was a very pretty new cookbook I leafed through, then decided I really needed to have, Festival of Greek Flavors; A Mediterranean Culinary Adventure. Since I didn’t have any Greek cookbooks, I added it onto my Amazon wish list, and got it as a gift for Christmas! The book is a compilation of recipes by a group of Denver women, all members of a Greek Orthodox church, and part of a group called Ladies Philoptochos Society. It’s a very pretty hardcover cookbook – color pictures accompany most of the recipes, but not all. Some recipes come with interesting stories about the recipe origin, too. I need to put little bookmarks or flags in the book on recipes I’d like to try.

Since Christmas I’ve looked at it a couple of times, considering a recipe I’d try, but it wasn’t the right fit for whatever I was planning. But when I got the hankering for a Greek salad, it was the first place I looked.

As I read the ingredients, I had tomatoes (check), cucumber (check), Feta (check), peppers (check), red onion (check), Kalamata (check), and fresh basil (check). I wanted to make this a green salad type, so I added lettuce, although it’s not in the original recipe. It also called for peperoncini too. I didn’t have any, and really didn’t want to buy a whole bottle, so that one element was omitted. I had a fresh lemon, oil, garlic, etc. to make the dressing.

We were in a hurry that night so I had to throw it together at the last minute, but it worked. The dressing was the only thing that didn’t taste quite right – I had to add more lemon juice, and I added some wine vinegar as well. The dressing for a Greek salad needs to be tart – the recipe in the cookbook was too oil-heavy. So I changed the recipe below for that. Maybe it’s a typo. Don’t know.

What I liked: just the combo of flavors – there’s something about Greek salad – the word that comes to mind is bright and clean. I made it with some lovely grilled red and orange bell peppers I had and didn’t add fresh peppers. And I also added the thin slices of skirt steak, but that’s not a necessity. It’s the salad that it’s all about.

What I didn’t like: once I fixed the dressing, it was great. Loved the fresh flavors.

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You know, don’t you, that brown-ish food doesn’t photograph well. Period. And pictures don’t look very nice if you move the camera when you press the shutter. Da—! But that doesn’t detract one whit from the TASTE of these guys. Oh so delicious. Loved this stuff. Worth making.

If I’d read this recipe in a magazine I’d have slid right on by. If I’d seen it on one of the tv food shows, I might have changed the channel. But when it’s served to you at a cooking class and you taste it, well, that puts these in a whole new category! Shrimp sliders didn’t SOUND all that good, but if Phillis Carey was making them I really thought they’d be good. Indeed!

It’s not necessary to use huge shrimp in this, since it’s all pulsed in the food processor. But you do need RAW shrimp, not cooked. And tails off, too. The shrimp (cut up into smaller chunks) is whizzed up lightly with an egg yolk, green onions, Dijon, lime juice, cilantro and some seasonings. A little bit of panko crumbs go into the shrimp cakes too, and they’re dipped into more panko before frying in vegetable oil. Meanwhile, you make a very simple mayo based aioli (with garlic, lime juice, Dijon, sugar, hot sauce and green onions). A bit of that is spread on each bun, the shrimp cakes are put on, a bit more aioli and a nice-sized fresh spinach leaf and you’re done. Easy. And delicious. You can make the raw shrimp cakes several hours ahead of time, and the aioli. At dinnertime, all you’ll need to do is cook the shrimp cakes, toast the buns, and you’re done. Phillis says she makes these often for catered parties she does – she does them in much smaller form as an appetizer and folks dip them into the aioli. She used to have to cut little bread rounds to put them on, but now most stores carry slider buns. Makes it super easy!

What I liked: well, how much I even liked mushed-up shrimp in a cake/burger form. It was really, really delicious. I like the bit of chewiness to shrimp anyway. And I liked the garlicky aioli Phillis put with it. These are easy.

What I didn’t like: nothing, really. I liked it all. Worth making as I mentioned at the top.

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Coleslaw isn’t foremost on my brain when I think about salads. Not that I don’t like them – I do – but I seem to associate them only with summer barbecues. That’s a shame, really, as they’re quite good with a lot of different meals. This one combines one of my favorite tastes – Caesar – with regular cole slaw ingredients. But the dressing is a mayo style with capers.

My apologies about the photo. Not as good as it should have been. Too many shadows. But don’t let that deter you from trying this – if you like Caesar dressing, you’ll like this version of an easy coleslaw. I was at a cooking class with Phillis Carey, and she made this to go along with a ground chicken burger with Caesar components. I wasn’t so crazy about the burger, but I loved the coleslaw. Phillis made it very easy because she used ready-cut coleslaw mix (a 1-lb. bag), some green onions, a little bit of grated Parm and the caper-enriched mayo dressing (mayo + sour cream + lemon juice + Worcestershire + garlic and capers). VERY easy to do. She told us we could also use those packages of broccoli slaw (mix) too – and mentioned that salad as a big favorite of hers. She feels quite virtuous when she gets in lots of healthy veggies (the broccoli) and enhances it with the Caesar style dressing.

You’ll find a Caesar dressing here on my blog already – actually there are several – but Phillis’ version (Mayo Caesar Salad Dressing) using mayo as the base is one of my real favorites because it’s so easy (no blender needed). This dressing here is slightly different, but you could likely use either of them.

What I liked: the Caesar flavoring was wonderful. Add just enough dressing to suit your own tastes.

What I didn’t like: nothing at all!

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