Such a tasty soup or stew, for a cool night. Easy to make, but it’s the fennel seed  – to me – that makes this special.

A few weeks ago I was driving somewhere, and listened to a Milk Street podcast. Chris Kimball was interviewing a gentleman from Burlap & Barrel, a small spice/herb company. In the interview he talked about how and where they harvest the very rarified herbs and spices they carry in their online store. I was so intrigued by the stories about the fennel (this blog post) that as soon as I was home I went online and ordered it, plus their cumin and cinnamon. Then to get free shipping I had to add a couple more items. So far I’ve tried the fennel (marvelous) and the cinnamon (the most fragrant and tasty I think I’ve ever-ever had).

So, this blog post is going to highlight their fennel, called Lucknow Fennel. Here’s what the store has to say about it:

Lucknow Fennel is a sweet, grassy variety known for having bright green, small, ridged seeds that can be applied to savory and sweet dishes alike. Ours is grown in the hot, arid northern state of Rajasthan in India on the family farm of our partner farmer, Negi. We love these seeds tempered in oil or ghee with cumin and chili flakes and poured over roasted root vegetables, added to a poaching liquid for fish or crushed and rolled into a shortbread dough.

When I opened the grinder-jar (pictured above) of this fennel, the fragrant scent just wafted over and over to my nose. Smelled so good, and more fragrant than any fennel I’d ever had – seems to me I recall the guy talking about the ridges on fennel seed – I’d never thought about it – ridges? Well, I guess they do have ridges.

Back to this recipe. I’d read about it at the New  York Times and since I make a lot of soups, I downloaded it and made it a few days later. The only unique thing about the soup/stew is that it had green beans in it – not a frequent veggie in chicken stew, I’d say. It did have some herbs, which I added, but then I decided to add fennel. Not only did I add it to the soup itself, but I grated some of this new fennel on top when served. In this picture it looks kind of red – that’s from the paprika. I added mushrooms to the soup also, just because I had them, and why not? Chicken stew should have mushrooms, right? I didn’t add potatoes (trying to make this dish lower carb). I didn’t miss them since the mixture is thick with other veggies.

The only other thing I changed was to use King Arthur Flour’s culinary thickener. KAF doesn’t have that product in their lineup anymore, so if you make this, use the flour listed in the ingredients.

What’s GOOD: to me, the fennel from Burlap & Barrel was the star of the show. The soup was delicious, but the fennel just put it over the top. I’m looking forward to trying the other things I bought from them – particularly the cumin, since I use a lot of it in my cooking.

What’s NOT: nothing, really. Mincing and chopping does take a bit of time, but it’s an easy soup/stew to make. Would it be good without the fennel? Yes, but the fennel just makes it better.

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Oh my goodness, is this salmon the best thing you’ll ever put in your mouth! Well, let’s qualify that .. . maybe you could say the same for chocolate  . . . but we’re talking salmon here.

This is a Mark Bittman recipe (New York Times). That I just happened to see one day last week as I perused the recipes at the newspaper. I’ve subscribed – mostly to be able to do the puzzles there (I’m a fan of the daily Spelling Bee), but with my subscription I also got the food section. This past weekend my good friend Linda joined me in the desert, and whenever we get together, we cook a lot. We made this salmon on Friday night with some fabulous thick salmon fillets she bought at a good fish market where she lives in San Diego. She brought enough that we had it again the next night. No, we didn’t want to do a different preparation. We wanted to repeat the same recipe it was SO, SO good.

MAKE THIS RECIPE!! It’s amazing, and I don’t say that about a lot of recipes here on TastingSpoons. I have a few thousand recipes here, and you should know that my favorites are listed on the right end tab (on my main home screen), called Carolyn’s Favs. This recipe is going on there, just so you know.

It’s such a simple recipe – really, there is nothing but salmon, butter, salt, pepper, herbs and some lemon wedges to serve. How easy is that? But it’s how you combine them and how you roast the fish that makes it special. First you make a little foil “tray” a bit larger than the piece(s) of salmon you have. Linda brought decadent, thick fillets, with skin. And Mark Bittman assumes you also have skin-on salmon fillets. The cold butter and some of the herbs (we used dill) go in that foil tray (put the foil tray in a small roasting pan) and that goes into a preheated 475°F oven. That’s one very screaming-hot oven. Watch it carefully as the butter melts. Then you place the salmon on that foil tray, on top of the butter and herbs, skin side up. Into the oven it goes for a few minutes  – he recommends 4 minutes at this point. Then you remove it, use a very sharp thin knife to pull off the skin (discard). Then you salt and pepper that side, turn it over very gently in the pan, salt and pepper that side, and back into the oven it goes for a few more minutes. We used an instant read thermometer (IMPORTANT) and roasted it until the fish was 125°F with the probe inserted into the side. That took about 7 more minutes because the salmon Linda had was really thick. Remove it, spoon some of that flavorful browned butter over the top, sprinkle on the remaining herbs, then garnish with lemon wedges and serve.

The first night we had it with steamed and buttered broccoli. The 2nd night I made a Hasselback Sweet Potato (recipe up soon) and a green salad. It was just magnificent. And so simple and easy. The recipe indicated 1 1/2-2 pounds of salmon serves 4-6. Linda bought 1 1/2 pounds, and we ate every morsel over 2 dinners (so it serves 4 people – that beautiful fillet you see in the above picture we split in half. If you’re serving 6 people, you might want more than 2 pounds. Just sayin’.

What’s GOOD: the flavor, the moistness, is just superb. Loved the fresh dill, but it’s the browned butter that gives this salmon the ultimate in umami flavors. For sure don’t forget to spoon that browned butter all over the top after it’s finished roasting. And for sure take it out of the oven when the salmon temp reaches 125°F. I think I could eat this fish twice a week for the rest of my life.

What’s NOT: there isn’t one single thing I can say negatively about this dish. I’ll be making this again, and again, and again.

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Think hummus (the texture) but instead of garbanzo beans, think of butternut squash (soft texture, almost sweet) with all the same flavors.

Recently I was able to borrow a library e-book of Damaris Phillips’ cookbook, called Southern Girl Meets Vegetarian Boy. It’s an interesting read (published in 2017), about her marriage and her valiant effort to find things that she enjoys (she eats meat) that he will eat (he’s vegetarian). And she’s been quite successful at it. I copied a bunch of recipes out of the book, this being one of them. Damaris has become good friends with Bobby Flay and they were on a show together, though I never saw it. She lives in Lexington, Kentucky.

I’m not eating beans mostly (forsaking carbs), but I think an occasional winter squash is perhaps better for me. Anyway, I spotted a package of Trader Joe’s already cubed butternut last week, and ding-ding, I remembered this recipe. I needed a new jar of tahini, and I had za’atar on hand already.

Into the food processor goes the caramelized squash (cooled), some salt, EVOO and tahini. Easy. I boxed it up in the frig to let it mellow a bit, and have served it several times over the last week. Yesterday I ate the remaining serving straight. When I served it to guests, I put out some lavash bread alongside, that I’d cut into triangles.

What’s GOOD: Oh my goodness, this is wonderful. Love the texture, much like bean-hummus, but maybe better. Squash gives it a sweeter taste, but there’s no sugar in it. Loved it on the lavash triangles. It keeps for about a week, or freeze if you have some leftover.

What’s NOT: not a single thing. This is a keeper of a recipe.

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Such an easy side dish  – for a brunch or dinner

Awhile back I’d downloaded a recipe from Ottolenghi for a salad much like this. But when I made it, I wanted to make a couple of changes. The “dressing” for this is nothing but plain yogurt and some horseradish. I had Greek yogurt on hand, but it’s not a very tart/sour type – it’s very smooth (Fage) which is why I like it so much for my breakfast. When I tasted the dressing – the yogurt, horseradish, salt and pepper – I knew it needed something. So I added some whole grain mustard and a tetch of red wine vinegar to it. That gave it the extra oomph of tart that I was looking for. Because when you mix potatoes you want/need some acid in it. If you’re using regular plain yogurt (not Greek) you may not need the vinegar. Taste it to determine. Certainly this ended up being different than Ottolenghi had in mind when he created this dish.

I’d also cooked up a couple of slices of bacon – because I thought I was going to  use it in the egg dish I made, but changed my mind. So, obviously, the bacon went into the potatoes. Easy.

What I had on hand were small Yukon gold, so I boiled them until they were just tender, and once drained I let them sit briefly to dry the outsides. Then I  used a potato masher and very gently mooshed each potato once – JUST ONCE – to smash it. So it left the potatoes in small chunks. Peel on. Then I mixed in the dressing and the bacon, then added some chopped green onions on top and it was ready to eat.

What’s GOOD: this was just delish. I’m not eating potatoes these days, but I did have one very small bite and my guests loved it. I loved that one bite I had and definitely wanted to dip in for more (but didn’t). It was so very easy to make and the dressing took not more than a minute to mix up.

What’s NOT: nothing, really. If you like a pristine look of a cubed-up potato salad, this rustic style might not meet your needs.

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Scrumptious breakfast dish sure to please the palate.

As it happened, daughter Sara and her husband John stopped by my house on their way home from a concert from the night before, so I decided to serve a lunch/brunch.

I did begin with a recipe I’d found online, but I changed it so much, it bears no resemblance to the original, so I won’t even mention it. I’d purchased some beef chorizo at Sprout’s. I’m very picky about where I will buy Mexican chorizo – grocery store blends end up being a gloppy red mess when you try to cook it, but I assumed Sprout’s would prepare something meaty and not loaded with fat. It was. I’d definitely buy it there again.

First I cooked the chorizo in a frying pan, chopping it up into smaller pieces as it rendered some. Once it was mostly cooked I added about 1/2 cup of red onion (chopped) and let it cook until translucent. Meanwhile I’d shredded a bunch of Monterey Jack cheese (more than 2 cups) and mixed up 6 eggs with some salt, pepper and half and half. The chorizo mixture went into the casserole dish, then I dotted the top with cottage cheese (optional), then added a bit more than half the cheese, then poured in the eggs and sprinkled the remaining cheese on top.

The dish baked at 350° for about 35 minutes until the center of the casserole was firm. I sprinkled the top with some fresh cilantro and served it. Alongside, I served a hot (lightly) smashed potato salad – I’ll post that in a day or two. I also served a green salad with lots of veggies in it and a sliced avocado on top.

What’s GOOD: Oh gosh, chorizo in anything is pretty darned good. Loved the combo of chorizo and Jack cheese. My family loved it and I did too. I’d definitely make this casserole again.

What’s NOT: not a thing. Be sure to drain any fat from the chorizo as it’s cooking. Chorizo is very rich; why, I don’t know, but it makes any dish taste particularly fat-forward. Delicious, however.

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Such succulence – tender pork shoulder in a soup with lovely crunchy toppings.

A couple of months ago my cousin Gary and I were visiting daughter Sara and on Christmas Day we were about to head home to my house and needed a little sustenance. Sara had made some pozole which she served to us. Oh my, so delicious. She forwarded the recipe to me and I’ve now made it twice. Each time tweaking the recipe just a little bit.

Basically, you simmer chunks of pork shoulder in broth (with some aromatics) until tender. You also rehydrate dried chiles in water and make a chile sauce with them that is also added to the soup, along with ground cumin, oregano and tomato paste and sauce.

If you’ve never made a chile sauce from dried chiles, you just don’t know what you’re missing – it has so much depth of flavor. See that dark brown broth in the photo – it’s from the chiles, not from the pork. And that dark brown color = unctuous flavor.

The meat needs to simmer for about 1 1/2 hours, and then with some more add-ins, another 20-30 minutes. Make it a day or two ahead and it’s an easy dinner with the garnishes – shredded cheese, shredded cabbage (a must for pozole), sliced radishes, sliced avocado, chopped cilantro and green onions. Altogether yummy.

What’s GOOD: everything single little droplet and bite of this soup is delicious. It should freeze well, can be made in advance, even good for company.

What’s NOT: nary a thing. A keeper.

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Lovely, tender coffee cake with toasted walnuts, and the hint of cinnamon and chocolate.

From Food52 I’d saved this recipe awhile back, intending to make it one of these days. It’s Maida Heatter’s recipe from her 1999 book, Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Desserts. And if you questioned it, this recipe has certainly has passed the test of time. And don’t think, oh, I’ll just pick up that cookbook – even a paperback is about $50. Obviously, it’s out of print.

The nut filling contains toasted walnuts, chopped raisins (I used currants because I had them on my shelf), cinnamon, unsweetened cocoa and dark brown sugar. The cake batter is relatively standard except it uses 2 cups of sour cream, that’s what makes the cake so tender.

Reading the Food52 comments, I noticed lots of people had some difficulty removing the coffeecake from the Bundt cake pan, so I made it in two bread pans instead. And I used those new loaf pan liners from King Arthur. What a fantastic product they are – I’ve used them several times. They’re $19.95, made from silicone.

I followed the recipe with a few changes – I added less sugar (based on comments), plus, after the batter and nut filling were in place in the baking pans, I used a plastic spreader to swirl the batter to help lock the filling and the batter in place. And I baked the a lesser time, too, since the Bundt cake suggested 40-50 minutes. And I reduced the amount of the filling too (because I thought there was too much). And I decided not to ice the cake, though I’ve left that in the recipe below.

What’s GOOD: what can I say – lovely, tender cake. I liked the swirl in the batter which gave it a different appearance rather than just straight lines of filling. The chocolate flavor was just barely perceptible (if you happen to not like chocolate, delete it). Yes, I’d definitely make this again.

What’s NOT: nothing really. I’m glad I made all the little changes I did (loaf pans instead of Bundt, less filling, less sugar).

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Who knew that starting with a cake mix you could make bars?

Certainly I didn’t. Recently I read one of Paula Deen’s cookbooks (from the library, an e-book) and this recipe sounded so interesting. It calls for an orange cake mix. Hmmm. None of my local stores had it, so I found it on amazon. I was having a bunch of my PEO friends over for a book review (we read Mrs. Van Gogh, a novel about Johanna Van Gogh, Vincent’s brother’s wife, who really is credited with bringing Vincent’s art to the world – she devoted her life to it. If you’re interested, I highly recommend another novel – maybe even better than the one above – about the same person, Secret Life of Sunflowers).

Anyway, our group meets in the mornings, once a month, so I needed to make a couple of things to serve. I also made a coffee cake, recipe up shortly. But, these bars – First you make the base layer – that’s the cake mix, mixed with an egg and a cube of melted butter. That’s pressed into a 9×13 pan. I used an offset spatula to make it easier.

Then you make the cream cheese layer – cream cheese, 2 eggs and another cube of butter, melted. Also juice and zest of an orange and 16 ounces of powdered sugar. I didn’t have orange extract and don’t know that I’ll ever use it even if I bought it, so I merely omitted it. Once mixed  – I added the zest in by hand since the mixer blades always seem to pick up lots of zest and I didn’t want to waste any of it. That’s poured over the base layer and then the cake/bars are baked for 40-45 minutes. I set Alexa for 42 minutes, and it was perfectly cooked. Paula said not to overbake it.

After cooling completely, I chilled it overnight, took it out an hour or so before my guests arrived, cut it into squares and served it. Since I’m not eating refined carbs these days, I took just one very tiny bite.

What’s GOOD: Ooooh. So good. Yes, ooey, gooey. The orange flavor predominates (a good thing). My guests LOVED these. I gave away about a third of the pan and the remaining I froze. I’d definitely make this again. It probably could be made with a lemon cake mix, with lemon juice and zest also. The layers are very visible – and the base is very flaky – like a pastry. Not like a cake. And the top is not like cheesecake – I thought it might be, but not really. It is soft and cream cheesy, but not quite the texture of cheesecake.

What’s NOT: not a thing. Very rich, I will say that! But it makes a bunch – probably 20-24 squares. I doubt anybody would eat more than one.

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Lemon flavored anything hits lots of flavor notes for me. Here’s a new recipe that is easy for a weeknight dinner, but would also be nice for a company meal.

Being in the mood for a chicken dish, for New Years’ Day I decided to defrost a package or two of chicken thighs (my fav). I’m watching my  carbs, so wanted a dish that accented flavor and didn’t contain pasta, grains or rice, etc. This recipe (the original) came from Food52, and it utilized a whole chicken, spatchcocked. It didn’t take a lot to adapt it to using chicken thighs.

What you see there in the photo is the baked chicken thigh (skinless, boneless), covered in a spice and herb mixture, and then that “sauce”  on top. No browning of the chicken is necessary. But first into a casserole dish you slice an onion and scatter it all over. Then add a couple of smashed and chopped garlic cloves, then layer on sliced lemon. Then the seasoned chicken goes on top. The seasoning has a bunch of different things in it – turmeric, thyme, oregano, sumac, paprika and ras al hanout. My DIL gave me a little jar of it recently, but you can make your own easily enough. Spruce Eats has a good, easy recipe for it if you don’t own some. It’s a Moroccan 13 spice mixture. You could easily just add pinches of those spices, and likely you’ll have all of them on your spice shelf.

Into the oven the casserole goes, for about 45 minutes (thighs). Breasts would be less time. A spatchcocked chicken would likely be  an hour. Until an instant read thermometer reads 160-165°F. Then comes the FUN part. Remove the chicken to a serving plate, then spoon out the onion/lemon/garlic mixture from the bottom of the casserole dish and put it on a cutting board (that has channels on the side  – because this is oozy). Use a big chef’s knife and chop like crazy until the mass is not quite mush. You want some texture, but be sure to cut up the lemon pieces well enough.

The original recipe had you serve that board sauce mixture on the bottom then place the chicken on top, but I wanted the “sauce” on top, so did it differently. And I didn’t incorporate much of the juice, either. If you used thighs with skin, it might look beautiful the other way, but I used boneless, skinless, so put the sauce on top. Your choice.

The originator of this recipe obviously came up with the title of a “board sauce” and that’s exactly what it is. Of course, with a spatchcocked chicken, it would go onto a cutting board too and ooze juices as well.

What’s GOOD: everything about this chicken was delicious. Love-loved the sauce with the tiny bits of lemon peel – just enough to know you were eating lemon peel, but not enough to make you think “sour.” Not at all. If you’re wanting a carb, I think rice would be good because that lemony sauce would be good with the rice. I made zucchini to go with it. Altogether wonderful lemony chicken. Just what I wanted. As I mentioned, this would make a great company meal too as it makes that wonderful sauce.

What’s NOT: not a single thing.

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What’s that, you ask? A pizza made with ready-made pizza dough, topped with various cheeses, a dash of truffle oil, then arugula and prosciutto on top.

A post from Taylor: Hi there! My name is Taylor and I am Carolyn’s second oldest grandchild, 27, (and most favorite, okay maybe don’t put that in the post). You may remember a few short years ago I was living with grandma while going to nursing school. Now, I have been a labor and delivery nurse for about two years and it is the absolute best career in the whole world! I recently purchased my first home (see the key in my hand?) in Northern California and my dad helped me with some pretty extensive updates to the house.

I love my new house so very much and I am so excited to have my own place to make home and have people over. Now, I will admit, I am not a lover of being in the kitchen but when it comes to bringing people together and being around people I love, I can usually force myself to follow a recipe. Recently I was invited to be a part of a group that some of the women at my church put together called “cookbook club.” It is a group of about 10 wonderful women from my church. We picked a cookbook, the first one being the Comfortable Kitchen by Alex Snodgrass. We all picked a different item from the book.

A few of us picked appetizers, a couple entrees, a few sides, dessert and a drink! We also all went along with the theme of “comfortable kitchen” and wore our Pj’s! I decided to make the Truffle Pizza. It was a big hit!

The photo at top was the only picture I got of it before it all got eaten up! I ended up making 2, one with a gluten free crust and one with a regular pizza crust. It was so easy to make and tasted so delicious! So cheesy and gooey!

Here are all of my friends. I’m on the far right, back row.

The best thing about the pizza is it tells you to use premade dough. Obviously, if you have a great recipe for your own homemade pizza dough you could do that as well. The recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of truffle oil and it seemed to be the perfect amount. It would be easy to add more or less of each ingredient depending on how you like it! When grandma came to visit a few weeks ago, I pulled out her cookbook and told her about cookbook club. I am so excited and honored to get to host the next cookbook club in my new home and I thought, how fun to use grandma’s recipes! I have grown up reading, getting featured on and sharing the blog with everyone I know. It is very special to me, even though I’m not a cooking extraordinaire like grandma. Everyone in the group thought that was so fun and I can’t wait to share what we come up with. I just adore my sweet grandma and am so excited to honor her in such a special way! My friends are thinking Grandma is a celebrity now and they want her to make a guest appearance.

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