Tradition!

 What’s cooking? Fruit Compote 1 a.m.

So many traditions this year have been tossed by the wayside, hit-and-run victims of COVID-19. For us, I’ll especially miss the trips to NJ that include Christmas dinner with our gang of relatives living in the Northeast, the Christmas Eve candlelight service at the church we’ve attended for so many years, and the drive afterward through the Summit, NJ neighborhoods where luminarias line the streets.

But not all traditions have been flattened into the asphalt.  A group of Austin friends – all wives of guys who golf together – met for our annual Christmas lunch in one woman’s backyard on Friday, because that’s what you can still do in South Texas at this time of year. And the absence of travel has spurred the Kitchen Goddess to make a truly ridiculous number of cookies for shipping around the country, including a tin to the doctors and nurses who work with my son in the ICU. And almost everyone is either lighting a menorah or defiantly putting up a Christmas tree.

Speaking of Christmas trees, Austin folk have their own tradition that’s alive and kicking even in a pandemic. On Loop 360, which has a long stretch of nothing much but spruce trees, Austinites annually have taken to decorating those trees at Christmas. Tinsel, Christmas ornaments, ribbons, and paper plate designs – nothing is too much or too little. You pick out a tree and go for it. It’s a little bit of Austin weirdness at Christmas, and special crews of volunteers take it all down after the holidays. Now how much fun is that?

One of the Kitchen Goddess’s traditions is to give away jams and preserves that she made from the summer’s bounty in NJ. No NJ fruits this year, and she didn’t think far enough into the future when her Sungold tomatoes were on the vine. Also, she was eating them almost as fast as they showed up.

But there is something even you can do, from what’s in your grocery store right now. At our house, it’s called Fruit Compote 1am, because it’s usually about that time that the Goddess looks around at the fruit she has and realizes it won’t all get eaten before it goes bad. In that case, there’s nothing better to make than fruit compote, regardless of the hour.

Pretty much any combination of fruits will do, so if you have strawberries instead of blackberries, or you used up all your cranberries, or you could only find frozen rhubarb,  just cobble together what you have– or check the frozen fruit aisle for substitutes, because if you only have apples, what you get is... applesauce. And compote is more fun.

A plain Rhubarb Compote (from a previous blog), on grilled apricots.

What you can do with this compote is never-ending. One friend put some of mine on a rice pudding that hadn’t turned out as well as she’d hoped. She said it saved the day. I put it on yogurt, ice cream, waffles, pancakes, or French toast. The Kitchen Goddess has softened vanilla ice cream and swirled compote into it for a dessert that looks like it took hours. Or put a bow on a jar of it and call it a Christmas gift.

The Kitchen Goddess often has Fruit Compote 1 a.m. over Greek yogurt for breakfast.

So here it is – my holiday gift to you.

Fruit Compote 1 a.m.

Kitchen Goddess note: It’s a good idea to have at least some fairly tart fruit – like rhubarb, cranberries, or plums – as these keep the compote from being too sweet. And I recommend using apples with a good flavor, that don’t fall apart completely in the cooking. Most recipes recommend Honeycrisp, Gala, Granny Smith, Jonathan, or Cortland, but many others will probably do. Pretty sure I used Gala. In total, you want almost 3 pounds of fruit.

Makes 3 pints.

Ingredients
1 pound rhubarb, cut in ½-inch dice (fresh or frozen)
½ cup blackberries
4 ounces fresh cranberries
1 medium pear, cut in ½-inch dice 
2-3 apples (about 1½ pounds total), cut in ½-inch dice
3 strips of lemon zest, about ½-inch wide and 2 inches long
1-inch knob of ginger, grated
1 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
¾ teaspoon salt, or to taste
2 tablespoons Calvados (or whatever alcohol sounds good to you: ginger liqueur, white wine, champagne, Grand Marnier, brandy, sherry)

Directions
In a large (4-quarts) saucepan, stir together everything but the alcohol. Keep stirring every few minutes until the sugar dissolves and the juices from the fruit emerge in enough volume to give you a stew-y consistency. Bring the fruit to a boil, then reduce the heat to get the fruit lightly bubbling. Simmer about 15 minutes, then add your alcohol of choice and simmer another 4-5 minutes. Taste, and if it seems too sweet, add another ¼ teaspoon of kosher salt.

Spoon the compote into pint jars and refrigerate. Or preserve as with jam.

Happy Holidays! Stay safe and be kind to others. Tip lavishly, and give as much as you can to your local food pantry. It’ll raise your spirits in ways that will surprise you.

A Wonderland of Flour and Sugar

What’s cooking? Best Cookies from the Goddess

Who are we kidding? It’s actually all of the cookies from the Kitchen Goddess, because I couldn’t decide which not to include. A little like choosing which of your children you like best. Although I do recall that when our younger son would grouse about not being able to do something his brother could do, my usual response was, “Because we love him more.” It was character-building.

I’ve been baking cookies at Christmastime as far back as my second apartment in NYC. In the first, I had two roommates  – in a one-bedroom apartment! – for much of that time, and it was hard to ask their indulgence to take over the place with flour and sugar. Also, we lived above a grocery store and had way more roaches than we deserved.

My second apartment was third-floor walk-up studio – tiny, but all mine. The kitchen was... small, with a half-size fridge and an almost full-size oven. The room could hold two people if they kept their arms to their sides. The best thing about it was that it had a window – only about 4 inches wide, and it didn’t open – which in my mind, qualified it as a luxurious separate room. If you know Manhattan apartments, you understand.

And in that tiny space, with my “dining table” as a flat surface, I made dozens of cookies for the holidays.

Marriage introduced me to my mother-in-law, who introduced me to rolling out cookies using wax paper, and life was never the same after that. This holiday season, because I can’t cook a Christmas dinner for my East Coast relatives, I’ll be making – and shipping – some 272 cookies. And then I’ll shoot myself. But in the meantime, I’ll be having fun.

So here are links to the Kitchen Goddess’s cookie recipes. I had hoped to add a new one, but I have all these cookies to decorate...

These Molasses Cookies are great on their own, and spectacular as ice cream sandwiches.

If you like a cookie that’s got a savory note, try this Rosemary Shortbread Cookie with Tomato Jam. No tomato jam? Any sweet or savory jam will do.

.

My friend Barbara introduced me to these Chocolate Star Cookies with Pistachio Stardust, and they are perfect for the holiday season.

If you like a sweet/salty mix, these Caramel and Potato Chip Cookies are divine. And fun to make.

For your gluten-free friends – or anyone who likes a meringue-type cookie, Greek Almond Cookies are very good and fast. You make the dough in the food processor!

I do love a chocolate-and-coffee combo. Chocolate Espresso Italian Wedding Cookies are a classic, and very pretty. Served here with Lemon Panna Cotta.

Another savory-ish cookie is this Lemon-Basil Butter Cookie -- simple, and simply delicious. Shown here in a terrific combination with Plumcot Sorbet.

Finally, my faves, though I highly recommend not going overboard, as I am doing. First up are Painted Rollout Cookies, which are great fun with little kids who aren't really old enough to keep from spraying your kitchen with sprinkles. Then my Best Rollout Cookies with Powdered Sugar Icing, which are just fun for anyone to decorate, and make a great gift.

Painting cookies is serious work for a 3-year-old.

Happy baking, everyone!

Something Old, Something New, Something Turkey

 What’s cooking? Turkey Sliders with Cranberry Sauce

In a world where many of us will be cooking Thanksgiving dinner for two, it seemed unnecessarily drudge-y to make myself perform the turkey ritual just for the sake of tradition. Nothing else about this holiday has been traditional, and the Kitchen Goddess needed a challenge to her ingenuity.

We had a similar moment when, a few years ago, my son and his wife and their children were arriving the day after Thanksgiving. Not wishing to mess the house up, I served us a version of a Cuban sandwich, using turkey instead of roast pork. It was quite good and had the right amount of ease in the assembly as well as the clean-up. But it lacked imagination... inspiration... fun. So this week, I thought about turkey meatloaf, a roast turkey breast, turkey soup,... nah.

I got excited when I read in The New York Times about a place in NYC that was selling confit turkey legs – cured, then slow cooked in duck fat – and all you have to do is reheat them. Taste buds salivating, I called the store, Dickson’s Farmstand Meats at Chelsea Market. Yes, they ship them, ...but they were sold out. Apparently, I was not the only NY Times reader to see confit turkey legs as a great idea.

Finally, my brain barked, and I thought about turkey sliders. A bit of research determined that I was not the first to imagine such a treat, so I had several thoughtful presentations to consider. I most liked the one that suggested basting the burgers with cranberry sauce. And in lieu of the canned cranberry sauce suggested by Valerie Bertinelli, of all people, I knew I could make the Kitchen Goddess’s famous Cranberry Sauce with Pinot Noir. OMG -- the smells wafting from the kitchen will be enough to drive you mad.

On its own, turkey is a relatively tasteless bird, so I figured I’d goose up the savory aspect of the burgers to balance the sweetness of the cranberry sauce. I sautéed some shallots in a tiny amount of olive oil and stirred dried thyme into the shallots while they were still warm. A little ground ginger for sharpness, some garlic powder because... well, garlic. And for the pièce de résistance, a dash of fennel pollen. Oh, my. The basting kept them from drying out, and the arugula in the sandwich itself makes a real difference. I started with fresh spinach, which was quite good, but the pepperiness of the arugula really adds to the final product.

I’ll be serving mine with sweet potato fries and cole slaw, and we’ll finish the meal with Pumpkin Chiffon Pie, of course. A few traditions are really important.

Kitchen Goddess note about panko: You may already be familiar with panko breadcrumbs, which are a staple of Japanese cuisine (think tempura). These breadcrumbs are made from a crustless white bread which is processed into flakes and then dried. They have a dryer and flakier consistency than regular breadcrumbs, and as a result they absorb less oil.

Turkey Sliders with Cranberry Sauce

Makes 8 sliders.

Ingredients
½ cup panko breadcrumbs (or regular breadcrumbs, if that’s what you have)
2 tablespoons half-and-half
1 teaspoon olive oil
½ cup finely chopped shallots (no more than ¼-inch dice)
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
1 pound ground turkey (light/dark mix is more flavorful, IMHO)
2 tablespoons finely chopped Italian parsley (leaves only)
¼ teaspoon (rounded) ground ginger
¼ teaspoon (rounded) garlic powder
¼ teaspoon (rounded) fennel pollen (use ground fennel seeds if no pollen, but you really should get             some fennel pollen)

1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
PAM cooking oil spray (or a teaspoon of oil) for the pan
⅔ cup cranberry sauce (canned or homemade – try KG’s Cranberry         Sauce with Pinot Noir)

8 slider buns (I bought Pepperidge Farm)
Arugula (you’ll need at least 2 cups – it’s worth piling on)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 450º.

In a small bowl, mix the panko with the half-and-half until the liquid is evenly spread among the breadcrumbs. Set aside.

In a small skillet (non-stick is ok), heat the oil over medium-low, and stir in the shallots. Sauté, stirring often so the shallots don’t burn, for 8-9 minutes, until the shallots turn soft and transparent. Remove from the heat and stir in the thyme for about 30 seconds, to warm the herb. Let the mix rest for a few minutes to cool.

In a large bowl, mix the turkey, the panko/half-and-half, the shallots/thyme, and the parsley, ginger, garlic powder, fennel pollen (if using), and the salt/pepper. Using your hands, mix the ingredients just enough to get an even distribution of everything without overmixing. As with any ground meat, overhandling the meat will compact it and make your burgers tough.

Divide the mixture into 8 portions, and form into patties 2½-3 inches wide (which is almost exactly the width of the buns). Arrange the patties in a lightly oiled quarter-sheet pan (9x13 inches), and bake 5 minutes. The Kitchen Goddess lines her pan with baker’s parchment and sprays that with oil, and even that didn’t stop the cranberry liquid from running around and making a burnt sugar mess. But we must suffer for art.

Meanwhile, heat the cranberry sauce just enough to get it loose. Then, after that first 5 minutes of baking, remove the pan from the oven and ladle a couple of spoonfuls of the warm sauce over each burger. Return the pan to the oven and cook for about 20 minutes more. If you test with a meat thermometer, the center of the patties should be at least 165º.

Remove the pan from the oven and flip the patties. Spoon a little more warm sauce on them while they’re hot. Let them sit in the pan – not in the oven – for another 5 minutes, when they’ll be ready to serve.

I like to toast the buns, which takes less than a minute in a hot oven, but it’s not necessary. Pile a small bunch of arugula on the bottom of the bun, and top it with a burger. (The greens on bottom is a technique I got from one of my many foodie podcasts. The theory is that the greens keep the bread from getting soggy.) Spoon on some cranberry sauce (get some of those nice fat berries into the act), and add the top of the bun. Serving them warm is lovely, but I had one of my leftovers straight from the fridge for lunch today and it was still good. Mmmm...

We had the test batch with spinach, but the one I had today with arugula was much improved.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. Despite the many traumas of the year, we have made it this far and for that we can be extremely grateful.

Still Thankful

What’s cooking? Side Dishes for Two

Last year, in my traditional marathon of sides for Thanksgiving, I made so many veggies that I had to invite all my friends over to help eat them. That won’t be happening this year. In fact, a lot won’t be happening this year, but we still have many things to be thankful for. Frankly, one of those, for me, is that I don’t have to cook a turkey.

I cooked a turkey last year, and it was terrific. In usual fashion, the Kitchen Goddess took over – starting with spatchcocking the bird. (In which you split open the carcass along the backbone, allowing you to flatten it for more even cooking.) A dry brine for a couple of days, followed by a day without any covering in the fridge, followed by an herb butter that she shoved under the skin of the damn thing. It was an exhausting procedure, which produced an excellent turkey, flavorful and all parts cooked to the right doneness. A triumph, in fact, but it left the KG in... well, a foul mood, if you’ll pardon the pun, and a desire to sleep for a couple of days straight.

This year, my hubby and I are left to ourselves. We’ve got friends coming over for dessert on the porch, but the main meal will be a duet. One son let me know that his girlfriend is researching recipes that are specifically for two. So I thought I’d help out.

Recognizing that many of you will also be doing a Thanksgiving duet, I’ve waded through the past 6-7 years of my “sides marathons,” looking for the ones that – while still tasty – can be easily ramped down to serve 2 or 4. (If you click on the name of each dish, it will link you to the relevant post.)

I start with one potato dish:

Crushed Potatoes with Spiced Oil – notable for the excellent and unusual texture and the speed of the whole process.

More than any other type of dish, salads are easily scalable, up or down. Here are two I really like, and they're both festive:

Fennel-Celery Salad with Lemon and Parmesan – light, fresh, and so lovely I think it belongs on my own table next week. But this year, I’ll take my advice (check the recipe) and add matchstick pieces of pear.

Mâche, Watercress, and Endive Salad with Honey-Lemon Vinaigrette – another gorgeous salad, with more traditional ingredients. This time of year is good for watercress, and if you can’t find mâche, just throw a little more watercress in. Don’t forget the pomegranate seeds – I found gorgeous pomegranates at my grocer this week, and the seeds are perfect for a dash of color.

Two yellow/orange veggie dishes – this is starting to remind me of the 12 Days of Christmas...:

Butternut Squash with Royal Trumpet Mushrooms  – The recipe says it serves 6, but it’s easily halved, and if you have a little left over,... sounds like lunch the next day.

Smashed Carrots with Feta and Mint  – You won’t want to have both the crushed potatoes and the smashed carrots, or your family/friends will think you have a lot of pent-up hostility. Even if you do, it’s better to have more varieties of texture on the plate. But if you aren’t interested in the crushed potatoes, check this out. One of my hubby’s faves.

Two green veggies...

Lemony Green Beans with Frizzled Leeks – fun to say, easy, easy, easy to make; and the frizzled leeks add a nice bit of sweetness to the dish.

Spinach and Sautéed Mushrooms – a classic, dressed up with umami-laden mushrooms, which are in high season.

And a partridge in a no, no, no – a Pumpkin Chiffon Pie. You can’t really make this just for two, but I’ll be layering it in balloon wine glasses for easier, safer serving, and, as I mentioned, sharing it with another couple who’ll be joining us for dessert. I’m also gifting a neighbor with a couple of servings, which leaves the last two for us on Black Friday. This pie is nothing less than amazing, and never fails to please. And I’ll be updating the recipe – with any luck – this weekend. After reading the original post, which was an early one for this blog, I realized that the instructions could be considerably more helpful.

I really need to get a photo of a piece of the pie with whipped cream on it, sprinkled with bits of candied ginger... some day soon.

And now, you may be wondering what the Kitchen Goddess and her prince will be having. Well, ... [drum roll] turkey sliders with cranberry sauce condiment. Using ground turkey. I’ll be testing them this weekend and will let you know on Monday how they turn out.

Stay safe and keep cooking!

 

Hahahahaha! – In Case You’ve Forgotten How

What’s Cooking? Pasta with Clams – Two Ways

Today’s image is from a Shannon Martin greeting card, the full and hilarious collection of which –

 including note pads, luggage tags, and cocktail napkins – can be found at this website. 

Are you tired of worrying or obsessing about the election – from either side? The other night, after watching another episode of Jeopardy and contemplating our choices of the various series we’ve followed, my sweet husband said, “I’d just like to watch something light. Without a murder.”

As we browsed our collection of Roku channels for a movie, I spotted Moneyball. Which, even though we’ve both seen it, seemed just right: no one dies, there’s no violence (unless it’s when Billy Beane throws a chair through a window), a few players get traded, the divorce in it seems amicable, and the story is true and actually interesting. About halfway through it, my mate said, “You know, I’d forgotten how much fun this one is.”

I think we’re all in need of a break – from Covid-19 news, election news, climate change news, Supreme Court news, .... As an antidote to reality, since March, the Sunday New York Times has been running a section called At Home, with puzzles, craft ideas (mostly for making things out of newsprint), recipes, and thoughts of what to do each week to take your mind off whatever. This past week, that included an essay on the health benefits from laughter.

The article quotes Dr. Michael Miller, a cardiologist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, who says that laughter causes the body to release nitric oxide, a chemical that relaxes blood vessels, reduces blood pressure, and decreases clotting. Other salient research notes that laughter improves short-term memory – as well as the capacity to learn – in older adults; it reduces the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline, and increases life-affirming endorphins. Most relevant today, it helps people stay resilient in the face of troubling circumstances.

Also, if you laugh more, the “mirror neurons” in the brains of those around you kick in and they will also laugh. A win-win – improving your environment and your health at the same time.

If you’re having a hard time getting started, here are a few suggestions:

■ Watch the 1963 original production of The Pink Panther (streaming on Max Go, Cinemax Amazon Channel, DIRECTV);

■ Read A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson;

■ Call your 6-year-old grandson and have him tell you his latest knock-knock jokes.

* * *

Now that you’re at least smiling, here are a couple of fast and nutritious paths to a delicious pasta dinner with canned clams and without a lot of work. I see that look -- keep reading.

One of my mother’s specialties – and there weren’t too many – was what our family always referred to as Clam Spaghetti. It seemed exotic – probably because clams aren’t much of a Southern dish, and in those days, fresh clams were generally NOT something you could get at your grocery store. And even though you can now find them at many grocery stores and fish markets, buy them only if you know you’ll be cooking them by tomorrow.

What if you just decided that’s what you want for dinner? Maybe you’re just looking for something fast yet not fast food. Try the canned version. After a bit of research (the KG’s fave activity), I’ve learned that:

■ The canning process cooks the clams, so all you really have to do is heat them.

■ Like tuna, canned clams keep forever – ok, maybe not forever, but my sources say 3-5 years is the general guideline, and even longer if the can hasn’t been damaged.

■ They’re impressively cheap – in a cursory survey online, I found whole clams at 21 cents/ounce, and chopped clams for 26 cents/ounce.

■ Also like tuna, canned clams are a terrific source of lean protein, rich in vitamins, minerals, and Omega-3 fatty acids. They promote sexual health (!); and have been found to have cancer-preventing properties. So... no cancer and lots of sex -- what’s not to like?

My mother kept cans of chopped clams in her pantry, and that’s what I’ve used for years. But in shopping for these recipes, the Kitchen Goddess found canned whole baby clams, which she likes a bit more for the texture. And let us be honest -- anything with the word “fancy” on the label is a draw for her.

What you’re getting in the can are generally Atlantic surf clams – sweet in flavor and with a firm texture, and you can find chopped clams in almost any grocery store. Look for products from the U.S. Tinned whole clams are brinier and more delicate than chopped clams, so salt your dishes accordingly. Apparently, you can also find jarred whole tiny clams from Italy, but they have thus far eluded the KG. 

The original authors of the two recipes that follow both claim to need less than a half hour. But remember: they have minions. The KG needs a good 10-15 minutes just to get the garlic peeled and chopped. Nevertheless, both dishes can be accomplished in an amazingly short time, including the search through your pantry. And they’re both well worth the effort. Just add a salad and some garlic bread.

Kitchen Goddess note on the ingredients: (1) Both of these recipes called for 1 pound of pasta in the original version, but the Goddess thinks that’s way too much pasta, so she has scaled back both recipes to 12 ounces. You, of course, are free to use as much as you like. (2) And both original recipes called for red pepper flakes (a.k.a, crushed red pepper). As frequent readers will know, the KG much prefers Aleppo pepper for its more complex flavor profile. It’s not as hot as red pepper flakes, but you can always add more, or even add red pepper flakes; and in the meantime, you will have a huge difference in flavor. The KG has purchased Aleppo pepper from Burma Spice and Penzey’s, and there are lots of other places. Bon Appetít calls it “about half as hot as ...crushed red chile flakes... and easily twice as flavorful. Like salt, Aleppo-style pepper is a flavor enhancer. It marries slow-building heat with earthy, cumin-y undertones and a little hit of fruity tang..., with a super-savory finish reminiscent of sun-dried tomatoes.” The Kitchen Goddess has been at the forefront of this wave and hopes you will all jump on so she can stop explaining it.

Spicy Clam Pasta With Bacon, Peas and Basil

Adapted from David Tanis in The New York Times

Who doesn’t like bacon or pesto? So bacon and pesto are bellissimo together. And the peas? Why not?

Serves 4.

Ingredients

1 cup basil leaves, loosely packed, plus some pretty ones reserved for garnish

1 cup Italian parsley leaves, loosely packed

2 small garlic cloves, minced

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

6 ounces (6-8 slices) bacon, cut into ½-inch pieces [KG note: Even better, if you have thick-cut bacon, slice it into lardons, which are ¼-inch pieces]

2 (10-ounce) cans baby clams, drained

½ -1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper, or for more heat, ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 cup frozen peas, thawed

12 ounces spaghetti

Lemon wedges

Directions

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the basil, parsley and garlic together to a grainy consistency. Wipe down the sides of the bowl and add ½ teaspoon kosher salt, 8-10 grinds of black pepper, and ¼ cup oil. Process until you have a bright green purée.

Start the pasta water with about 4 quarts of water and 2 tablespoons kosher salt. [Another KG note: No iodized table salt, please – it gives the pasta a bitter taste. If you use Diamond Crystal kosher salt, use the 2 tablespoons noted above; if you have Morton Kosher salt, use only 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon. Why? Because Diamond salt is flaky, irregular crystals, while Morton’s is round and pebbly, so is saltier by volume. Isn’t knowledge wonderful?]

Cook the bacon without extra fat in a high-sided skillet over medium heat for 5-8 minutes, until browned and crisp but not hard. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Pour off all but 1-2 teaspoons of the fat – just enough to coat the bottom of the pan.

Increase the heat to medium-high and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the Aleppo pepper (or red pepper flakes). Cook for about a minute to let the Aleppo pepper bloom, then add the clams and the peas for another 30-45 seconds, stirring and coating the clams well with the flavored oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then turn off the heat and, if the pasta is not yet al dente, cover the pan with a lid.

I added the clams before the peas -- this time. Next time, will add them together.

Boil the pasta until slightly underdone (al dente), then drain it and add it to the pan with the clam sauce. Turn on the heat to medium-high and stir all together. Add 2-3 tablespoons of pasta water, if the dish seems dry. Stir in the basil-parsley purée and toss well. 

Serve topped with the bacon and the reserved basil leaves. Include lemon wedges.

* * *

Linguine with Lemon-Butter Clam Sauce

Adapted from Colu Henry in The New York Times

Fast in the making, also light and flavorful. Lemon and butter are a classic combo.

Serves 4.

Ingredients

Kosher salt

12 ounces linguine or other long pasta, such as spaghetti or capellini

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving (optional)

5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper, or ½ teaspoon red-pepper flakes

½ teaspoon dried oregano

½ cup dry vermouth or dry white wine [KG much prefers vermouth]

2 (10-ounce) cans whole baby clams, drained*

10-12 ounces clam juice*

freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

lemon zest (from 1 to 2 lemons – okay, more like 2 lemons)

½ cup chopped Italian parsley

Lemon wedges, for serving

*A 10-ounce can of clams contains 4 ounces of clams and 6 ounces of brine. If you have no clam juice, you can use the can’s contents without draining, but the Kitchen Goddess – no surprise here – prefers to use clam juice, which contains actual clam broth, for a richer flavor you can’t get with just the brine. The most widely recommended brand is from Bar Harbor. And yes, the bottles are 8 ounces, so you’ll have half a bottle left, but you can add it to any other seafood dish or a Bloody Mary (bonus!). Or freeze it for as long as you want.

Directions

The author of this recipe says “While the pasta cooks, make your sauce.” That's so you know how fast/easy it is to do. But the Kitchen Goddess’s blood pressure goes up just thinking about having to get the sauce done before the pasta finishes cooking. If you haven’t got everything for the sauce ready to go, at least get the water to a low simmer and add the pasta when the sauce is ready.

Bring a large pot (4 quarts) of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook according to package instructions until not quite al dente (about 2 minutes short – it will finish cooking in the sauce). Reserve ½ cup pasta water, then drain the pasta.

For the sauce, heat the oil in a deep-sided 12-inch skillet over medium. Add the garlic, Aleppo pepper (or red-pepper flakes), and oregano, and cook for 1-2 minutes, until the garlic turns pale golden. Add the vermouth/wine and clam juice and simmer until reduced by half, 3 to 4 minutes. The sauce will be slightly syrupy. Remove from heat and stir in the clams (they’ll also get heated by the pasta). Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.

You can tell the sauce is syrupy when you can draw a line across the bottom of the pan

 and it stays open for a few seconds.

Add the butter and lemon zest to the skillet, stirring until the butter is melted, then add the pasta into the skillet as well. Toss the pasta in the skillet until it is glossy with sauce. If needed, add ¼ cup reserved pasta water. Stir in half the parsley.

Serve pasta topped with a thin drizzle of olive oil (I found this unnecessary, but the recipe author included it, so I offer it as optional), and the remaining parsley. Serve lemon wedges along side or at the table.

Mangia!

 

Who Knew Grocery Shopping Could Be Such an Ordeal?

 What’s cooking? Skillet Meatballs with Nectarines and Basil

My first time ordering after the “shelter in place” advisory, I used a service called Favor. It’s online, and once you enter your grocery list, they send an eager young person to the store with it, and the packages get delivered to your house. Because we were all in a fog about the virus and how you could catch it, I was so grateful for the service that the first couple of times, I tipped the young person $20 for a $30 order. Within a couple of weeks, though, the young people got a little less eager and the quality of the delivery started slipping – once, the eager young person actually decided he/she wasn’t interested in my order and I had to start over. When they did deliver, I’d get some of what I ordered, and sometimes an off-brand of what I ordered. You can imagine that when the Kitchen Goddess requests a brand, she expects to get that brand.

I tried going (masked) into the store, at “senior” hours, but the proximity to other people made me so anxious that the minute I walked back into the house, I’d have to take off all my clothes and put everything into the laundry. And shower and take a nap, followed by wiping down every item I bought. The process took pretty much the full day.

So I switched to a curbside pickup that my usual store offers, and even now, I am very grateful for that option. But – not surprisingly – the store likes to sell their house brands more than anything else, and I notice that they’ve gradually shifted the online offerings to skew in that direction. I know they have that other stuff – my beloved national brands – because I’ve purchased them in that store pre-Covid.

But I stuck with it until they started bagging things according to where they came from around the store: dairy, one bag; cookies/chips, one bag; cleaning supplies, one bag. And on and on. One curbside delivery I got had 36 items and they used 14 plastic bags! No matter how hard I try, I can’t get them to use paper and bag more efficiently.

Then one day, the Kitchen Goddess admitted to herself that she yearned – actually yearned – to touch the fruits and veggies she was buying. And it turns out that if you wear a mask and shop at off hours and are careful about the way you move around the stores, it’s not nearly as stressful as it once was. Of course, we’re still wiping down the packaged goods and rinsing the fruits (except the berries) in soapy water, but we’re happy to pay that price for safety. It’s a learning curve.

*  *  *

Even with all this shopping anxiety – and yes, the KG is still having shopping anxiety – I’ve been thinking more about what’s seasonal in this transition between summer and fall. I’m still seeing stone fruit in the bins at my grocery store. I bought some nectarines last week and they were a bit hard, so I put them on a plate in the window of my kitchen, where they got nice and ripe. Then, of course, I liked the look of them on that plate so much that I left them a bit too long for eating out of your hand. That didn’t stop me, though, because I’d found this very nice recipe that cooks them. So the fact that some of the diced pieces were a little less clean cut looking wasn’t a problem.

Stone fruits are really good with pork. Ok, lots of fruits are good with pork. But this recipe, which you can also make with any other ground meat, pulled together a perfect umami/sweet/savory combination of the pork and the nectarines and the basil in my garden. In fact, the original called for peaches, but you have to peel peaches, and the Kitchen Goddess likes to avoid peeling peaches. Nectarines don’t need peeling. Neither do plums, which would also be good in this treatment. Take a look at what’s available at your grocer. And in a pinch, the KG believes that frozen peach slices would work equally well. Once they get cooked, there’s not much difference in the flavor or texture.

I served this dish over rice noodles because it seemed like a fun idea. Having never made rice noodles, I just threw the whole package into the water, and ended up with way more than I needed. Really, a one-cup portion will do just fine per person. The dish would also work well over egg noodles or rice. Regardless of what you use, there’s a definite need for something to soak up that amazing sauce.

Kitchen Goddess note: Rice noodles have about 192 calories per cup; egg noodles have 221. So not much difference, and not much fat in either one, but rice noodles have less. And the fat in rice noodles is unsaturated, which is healthy for you.

Skillet Meatballs with Nectarines and Basil

Adapted from Melissa Clark in The New York Times

Serves 4.

Ingredients
1½ tablespoons fresh ginger, finely grated or minced
3 garlic cloves, grated or minced
1¼ teaspoons of ground cumin
1¼ teaspoons kosher salt
1 pound ground pork (or turkey, or chicken, or beef)
⅓ cup panko or other plain bread crumbs*
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil, plus small leaves for garnishing
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons wine (dry white, rosé or red – KG used a dry white), or broth
2 cups diced ripe nectarines (3-4), or peaches, plums, or frozen peach slices
¼ cup thinly sliced shallots (can substitute white onion or scallions)
1 lime
White rice, rice noodles, or egg noodles, for serving

*Kitchen Goddess note: Panko are Japanese-style breadcrumbs, which are made from crustless white bread in a process that produces a flakier crumb than regular breadcrumbs. If you don’t have any, use regular breadcrumbs, but know that the panko absorb less oil, so they produce a lighter and crunchier end product. Unused panko will keep for 6 + months in a Ziploc® bag in the cupboard. The KG loves panko.

Directions
In a small bowl, mix together the ginger, garlic, cumin and salt. In a large bowl, combine the pork, panko, and basil, and add the spice mix. Using your hands, gently mix everything together, trying not to squeeze or overwork the meat, to keep it tender. Form the mixture into meatballs about 1¼ inches in diameter.

Heat a large (not non-stick) skillet over medium-high, and add the oil. When the oil begins to shimmer, add the meatballs in one layer. Yes, they will stick to the pan at first, so place them carefully. After a minute or two, a browned crust will develop and the pan will get hot enough that you can turn the meatballs... to a position where they’ll stick again! Don’t try to turn them immediately after they stick. Wait a minute or two, then turn again. Once the meatballs have developed a sort of crust over most of their surface, you can easily shake the pan a few times to move them around, further developing a nice evenly crusty exterior. (This shaking the pan while you cook produces for the KG a cool feeling that she really knows what she’s doing. Maybe it will do that for you, too!) Cook the meatballs, turning and shaking the pan, until they are browned all over, 5 to 7 minutes.

Kitchen Goddess note on cooking protein in a skillet/sauté pan: The best way to cook any protein in a pan is to let it sit for a bit after you place it – even though there’s oil in the pan. Here’s what Cook’s Illustrated says about that: “Meat sticks during cooking when the sulfur atoms in the protein react with the metal atoms in the pan, forming a strong chemical bond that fuses the meat to the metal. Once the pan becomes hot enough, the link between the protein and the metal will loosen, and the bond will eventually break.” So now you know.

When the meatballs are sufficiently browned, pour the wine into the skillet and move the meatballs over to one side of the pan, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom (known as the fond – remember fond? It’s the magic ingredient in the sauce, and you don’t get it with a Teflon pan.)

To the empty side of pan, add the nectarines, a pinch of salt and 2 tablespoons of water. When the fruit reaches a simmer, cover the pan, lower the heat to medium, and let it all cook another 5-10 minutes, until the meatballs are no longer pink at their centers, and the peaches are juicy and tender.

Uncover the pan. If there appears to be more liquid than you like, let it cook down for another 1-2 minutes. The fruit should break down into a chunky sauce. If your fruit was less than fully ripe, you may need a few extra minutes.

Stir the shallots/onions into the pan for another 1-2 minutes, until they’re visibly soft. Squeeze the juice from half the lime over everything, then taste and add salt and/or lime juice, as needed. (Tart fruit will likely need less lime juice than sweet.)

Serve the meatballs over rice or noodles (or rice noodles!) with a wedge of lime, and garnished with small or torn basil leaves.

Bon appétit!