You Say Tomato, I Say Tomatillo

I've been searching for this recipe for a long time.

When I was in kindergarten my family moved from Los Angeles to a rural area in Sonoma. One of the many exciting things about our new home was the enormous garden that my parents grew. They were very serious about doing it right, and spent days (weeks?) clearing out the area of native rocks and building a tall fence to keep out the deer. Organic growing being a priority, green crops were planted in order to put more nutrients in the soil.

Their hard work was rewarded by bountiful cherry tomato plants (I think that some of the plants may have exceeded my small stature at the time), sweet and earthy home-grown carrots, and an abundance of strange sticky green tomatillos.

I remember being perplexed by the tomatillos. They felt weird, smelled funny, and I had no idea what their purpose was. In my memory we never made anything with them, although I'm sure we must have.

Around that time, my family began going to a mexican restaurant in Sonoma that is still one of our favorites: Juanita Juanitas. Every visit there begins with a bin of their delicious crispy salty chips, and a cup of their wonderful tomatillo salsa. I love that salsa. Whenever I visit my parents I crave it. I don't think that I ever made the connection between the salsa and the sticky green fruits from our garden when I was little, but lately I've been wondering if I could find the secret to the transformation.

Well, thanks to my new favorite cookbook, A Platter of Figs, I think I've figured it out. As I suspected it is very simple. Unfortunately, it's just not the same without those chips.

Tomatillo Salsa

Adapted from A Platter of Figs by David Tanis

This is halved from the original version. It made quite a bit of salsa.

1lb Tomatillos (look for small, fresh & firm tomatillos)

1/2 yellow onion (thinly sliced)

1 Garlic cloves (minced)

1-2 jalapeno peppers (depending on how spicy the peppers are and how spicy you want the sauce to be, Sliced)

Salt to taste

1/2 of a large bunch of cilantro (leaves and stems chopped)

Slide the husks off of the tomatillos and detach them by pinching off the stem. Once the tomatillos are prepared, place them, along with the sliced onion, garlic and jalapenos* in a medium sauce pan and cover everything with water. Add 1/2 tablespoon or so of salt, and bring the water to a boil.

Once the water has begun to boil, remove the pan from the heat and let the mixture cool (I fished all of the ingredients from the water at this point and spread them out on a plate so that they would cool more quickly).

Put the cooled cooked ingredients into a food processor, add the cilantro and whiz it until it is a uniform texture. It should be green, frothy and delicious. Taste it for spiciness and saltiness and adjust as desired. You can add a little bit of the cooking water if you want it thinner.

Scoop it up with chips and spoon it over tacos, burritos, fish, or chicken (or straight into your mouth).

*If you are worried about the spice you can put in part of the jalapeno at this stage and then add more to taste at a later stage.

Banh Appetit

I deeply dislike my Bon Appetit subscription. It was supposed to be my complementary Gourmet subscription, which came with their cookbook. Unfortunately, by the time I sent in my claim, Gourmet had gone under and Conde Nast tried to convert me by substituting Bon Appetit. It's free, and I have few other food magazine choices so I decided to give it a try. Actually, that may be an overstatement. I have resented every issue. I hate it. I hate the pictures. Why is everything so dark and shiny? The food looks greasy, severe, staged, stylized and extremely unappetizing. I loved the pictures in Gourmet, I wanted to try everything. While my old issues of Gourmet are a filled with post it notes marking the recipes I want to make, I have marked only two recipes in all of the Bon Appetit magazines I have received. To be honest, I was only really excited about one of them, a recipe for Pork Meatball Banh Mi.

Banh Mi are French-Vietnamese sandwiches, made with a baguette filled with sweetly pickled shredded carrots and daikon radishes, fresh sprigs of cilantro, crunchy slices of hot jalapeno peppers, a slather of mayonnaise, and some sort of meat (often pork). What's great about these sandwiches is that they are very flavorful and usually very cheap. What's not so great is that the meat inside is, in my experience, often not very good. Which is why I was excited to make banh mi myself. Fortunately, all of the ingredients for these sandwiches were inexpensive but the end result tasted delicious rather than cheap. The meatballs were especially flavorful: spicy and savory. Moist on the inside, browned on the outside.

There were a few little things I changed about this recipe. First of all, the amount of sugar for the daikon and carrots seemed overwhelming. I tried to trust the recipe as it was written, but after I had added the sugar, vinegar and salt to the vegetables I could not imagine the mixture somehow turning into something palatable, so I dumped the mixture into a strainer to remove as much of the sugary slush as possible and then I put the vegetables back in the bowl with a little more vinegar and salt. It ended up tasting perfect. To put the sugar/vinegar amounts into perspective, a recipe for chicken banh mi from Gourmet calls for about half as much of the vegetables mixed with 1/2 cup rice vinegar, and 1 Tbsp sugar. I think something closer to those amounts would be more reasonable then the 1/4 cup each of rice vinegar and sugar called for in the Bon Appetite recipe (I also found that I had much more of the pickled vegetables than I could have possibly used).

Another thing I balked at was the cornstarch in the meatballs, so I substituted flour. Last but not least, I made 1/2 a batch of the sriracha mayonaise, and 1/2 a batch of sriracha yogurt (I substituted plain yogurt for the mayonnaise). I really don't like mayonnaise, and I liked the yogurt mixture better. Kevin, on the other hand, ate the mayonnaise sauce and liked it.

Pork Meatball Banh Mi

Adapted from Bon Appetit

Makes enough for 4

Sandwich Components

Pickled carrots and Daikon Radishes

Sriracha Mayonaise or Yogurt

Pork Meatballs

Fresh Cilantro leaves

Thinly (or thickly) sliced jalapeno

Baguettes (4 small or two large)

Pickled Carrots and Daikon Radish (I recommend halving this)

2 cups carrots (the recipe says to coarsely grate them but I prefer to cut them by hand into matchsticks)

2 cups diakon radishes (again, coarsely grated or cut into matchsticks)

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup sugar (I suggest cutting this down a lot, try a tablespoon and see how it tastes)

1 tsp course kosher salt

Stir these indgredients together an hour or two ahead of time and let it sit at room temperature, stirring occasionally.

Sriracha Mayonaise (or Yogurt)

2/3 cup mayonaise (or plain yogurt)

2 green onions (finely chopped)

1 Tbsp Sriracha (this makes a pretty spicy sauce - you might start by adding a little at a time to taste to tailor its spicy-ness to your liking/tolerance)

Salt to taste

Mix all of the ingredients together. You can make this ahead of time, just cover it and put it in the fridge.

Pork Meatballs

1 lb ground pork

1/4 cup fresh basil (finely chopped)

4 garlic cloves (minced)

3 green onions (minced)

1 Tbsp fish sauce

1 Tbsp sriracha

1 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp cornstarch (or 4 tsp flour)

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp coarse kosher salt

1-2 Tablespoons sesame oil (to fry the meatballs in)

Gently mix all of the ingredients together, except the sesame oil. With moist hands, roll tablespoon sized balls out of the mixture.

Pre-heat the oven to 300.

Heat a tablespoon of the sesame oil in a skillet over medium heat. When the oil is warm, add half of the meatballs. Be careful of the hot oil, if it is sizzling too much you can turn the heat down a little. Saute the meatballs, turning occasionally, until they are cooked all the way through (slice one in 1/2 to check). They should have a nice brown crust. When the first batch is done, put them in a pie plate and place them in the oven to keep them warm. Add a little more oil to the pan and repeat this process with the rest of the meatballs.

When all the meat has been cooked, assemble your sandwiches however you like. You might taste the different components for spicy-ness first so you can get it just right. One of the cafes where we get banh mi always hides one HUGE slice of jalapeno in its sandwiches, which is always a very unwelcome surprise when you bite into it. (Actually, it is less of a slice than just a full half of a jalapeno.) Personally, I prefer a few slivers of jalapeno, plenty of yogurt sauce and lots of meatballs, cilantro, and pickled vegetables.

Everything keeps well in the fridge, so if you have leftover ingredients save them for later.

So, yes, this Bon Appetit recipe was good. Really good, in fact. But I can't imagine it being so good if I had followed the recipe exactly as printed, and I was especially glad to have the Gourmet version to help me alter it.

Peach & {Wild} Blueberry Cobbler

Except for a handful of stragglers, I have now used up the last of my wild blueberries. I made several batches of pancakes, a dud of a broiled-yogurt dish (we ate it but we did not enjoy it), and last but not least a cobbler.

Now I want to mention something that has been on my mind a lot lately: I don't like really heavy rich desserts (or savory dishes either actually). They make me feel bad inside and out. I particularly find that I don't like it when fresh delicious (and precious) fruit is suffocated in butter and sugar. Basically, I have been searching out recipes that show off my lovely produce, rather than stifle it.

This cobbler is very summery, and the fruit is very straightforward. The combination of blueberries and juicy baked peaches is sticky perfection. The cornmeal-buttermilk-biscuit topping is tender and rustic and neither too sweet or too heavy. Let's just say that we had firsts, seconds, and then polished off the leftovers for breakfast.

Peach and {Wild} Blueberry Cobbler

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen's adaptation from Simple Fresh Southern

Fruit*

4 cups peaches (1 1/2 lbs), pitted, peeled** and sliced

2 cups (1 pint) blueberries, rinsed and dried

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 Tbsp flour

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (I left this out)

1/4 tsp salt

Biscuit

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cornmeal

3 Tbsp brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 425°. Toss peaches with blueberries, sugar, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon (if you are using it), and salt in the bottom of a 2-quart ovenproof dish (because I halved the fruit I used a pyrex pie dish).

Make the biscuit dough. Stir together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix the butter into the flour mixture with a fork, pastry cutter or your hot little hands. Stir in the buttermilk until the dough comes together.

Drop spoonfuls of the dough over the filling. Bake until the juice from the fruit is bubbly and the tops of the biscuits are browned, 20-25 minutes.

Be careful: it's sticky, addictive, and I'm pretty sure it stains.

*I halved the amount of fruit so that it would be a better amount for two (just enough for seconds the night of, and maybe a little bit for breakfast the next day). The ratio would have been better with more fruit though.

**As smitten kitchen suggests, a simple way to peel the peaches skin off is to slice an X into the bottom of each peach and then submerge them in boiling water for 30 seconds.

Homemade Buttermilk Pancakes with Wild Blueberries

Blueberry pancakes may be unoriginal but they are very good. The way that the blueberries cook within the pancake batter so that they get hot and juicy and practically burst is reliably delicious. I was especially happy to find a recipe for buttermilk pancakes that is very simple. In fact, it is so easy to make and requires so few ingredients that it puts box mixes to shame.

The recipe I followed, from Gourmet Today, was for plain buttermilk pancakes--a simple base ready to be adapted in any number of ways. I added half a cup of blueberries, but if a plane trip to New Hampshire for fresh-picked berries sounds too indulgent, you can follow Gourmet's suggestion of sour cream and caviar. So versatile!

Buttermilk Pancakes (with blueberries)

From Gourmet Today

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 large egg (lightly beaten)

1 cup well-shaken buttermilk*

vegetable oil for brushing the griddle

1/2 cup blueberries (optional)

Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, egg, and buttermilk in a bowl until smooth. Gently stir in the blueberries.

Heat a griddle or a large heavy skillet over moderate heat until hot enough to make drops of water scatter over its surface. Brush with oil (It doesn't need much oil at all - I like to wipe the oil with a paper towel before each batch so that it is barely there).

Working in batches, using a 1/4 cup measure filled halfway for each pancake (I used about double this amount), pour the batter onto the griddle and cook pancakes, turning once, until golden.

If you like, you can place the cooked pancakes onto a heatproof platter, cover, and keep them warm by placing them in a 200° oven while you cook the remaining pancakes.

*Buttermilk is the only ingredient that I don't always have in the refrigerator. Luckily, there are several ways to come up with a substitution in a pinch. One way is to mix 1 Tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar to a cup of whole milk, which will make it curdle and thicken and sour. The other way, which I much prefer, is to thin 2/3 cup yogurt with 1/3 cup water. I think that the yogurt substitution is much tastier and the tangy plain yogurt is more substantial and appealing. The other versions are a little funky and often have a strong lemony (or worse) vinegar-y flavor.

Wild Blueberries

While visiting Loon Island during my recent trip to Squam Lake in New Hampshire, I lucked into a windfall crop of wild blueberries. Normally picking tiny wild blueberries is more for the fun of it then for any real expected bulk gains, but this time the bushes were so full that I ended up with a substantial quantity. Not only enough to actually make something, but in fact enough to make multiple things (more on that later).

The first thing I did with the pretty, tiny, dark blue berries, was to eat some right away. Plucked straight off the bush, still on the island. I guess this might not seem like a huge treat to people who live where blueberries grow, but for me this is something I only get when I go to Loon Island, which is not often. Regardless of how often you get to eat berries straight off the bush, you have to admit that nothing really can compare. Blueberries, blackberries especially -the fresher and the wilder the better. Nothing is more summery and delicious than hard earned berries that stain your fingers, lips, and teeth, eaten in the very spot where they grew. Of course, it doesn't hurt if that place happens to be very beautiful.

Hot Summer Days

The best thing about summer is the heat.  Scorching blue skies that beg for generous helpings of cool, refreshing ice cream, gelato, frozen yogurt, and sorbet.  While I know people who believe ice cream is a necessity all year round, I think that it would not be a stretch to suggest that it makes its strongest argument for existence during the hot summer months.  

I recently suffered my first sunburn of the season, and subsequently have been tirelessly searching for a ice cream recipe to make.  The search for the perfect recipe was as exciting as it was terrifying.  Salted butter caramel ice cream sounded equally delicious as it did deadly.  Overtly healthy recipes were also a nonstarter - ice cream is supposed to be a treat.  I was surprised to find a recipe in the ice cream section of Gourmet Today, for cherry gelato that called for a relatively small amount heart-stopping fats (it uses whole milk instead of 2 cups of cream, plus lots rich egg yolks that every other recipe seems to rely on).  Gourmet recipes by and large utilize butter and cream with delicious, if somewhat reckless abandon, so I trust that when one of their recipes uses lighter ingredients it is not due to a fear of fat. 

Plus cherries are so delicious.  Now that I think about it - aren't the juicy-ripe fruits the best thing about summer?  

Luckily, this recipe combines the two best things about summer, fruit and ice-y treats.  The result is sweet and satisfying, with the added bonus that it will not seriously compromise your health, and subsequently your enjoyment of the beautiful weather.  What more can you ask for?  Actually, I have one tiny little suggestion: chocolate.  I think that the addition of a little chocolate (some chips or sauce) would be very good.  

Cherry Gelato

From Gourmet Today

1/2 vanilla bean*

3 1/2 cups whole milk

pinch of salt (1/8 tsp)

1/2 cup turbinado sugar, such as sugar in the raw

2 Tbsp cornstarch 

1/2 lb (1 1/2 cups) fresh bing cherries (pitted)

2 Tbsp turbinado sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract 

1 tsp almond extract

Special equipment: Ice cream maker (remember to chill beforehand it if necessary)

Scrape seeds from vanilla bean into a small heavy saucepan.  Add the milk and salt and bring just to a boil; remove from heat.

Whisk together the sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl, add 1/2 cup hot milk mixture to sugar mixture, whisking until smooth, and whisk into the remaining milk mixture in the saucepan.  Bring to a simmer, whisking, and simmer, whisking, for three minutes.

Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl.  Refrigerate, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until cool, about 1 hour, then cover and refrigerate until very cold, 3-6 hours.

Meanwhile, pulse the cherries with sugar and extracts in a food processor until finely chopped.  Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate, covered, for 1 hour. 

Once everything is thoroughly chilled, stir the cherries, with their juices into the gelato base.  Freeze in ice cream maker.  Transfer gelato to an airtight container and put in the freezer to harden for at least 2 hours.

*I spent my discretionary funds buying almond extract, so I cheaped out on the vanilla bean and just doubled the amount of vanilla extract.  

Artichoke Opportunity

I have been eyeing an artichoke recipe in the Zuni Cafe cookbook for quite a while.  Recently, however, I found myself turning to the picture first, and then the recipe, very frequently.  Maybe a little obsessively.  I was just waiting for the right time to make it.  

That time was yesterday.  Let's just say I pounced on the opportunity.  Unfortunately, it was good enough that I am sure I will soon be back where I started: scheming for a chance to make it again.  

This recipe is really wonderful.  The artichokes are rich and meaty, the onions are silky and sweet, and the lemon imbues everything with it's bright flavor and fragrance.  

As a side I would suggest that 1/2 of a meaty artichoke is plenty for each guest.  I used three for 6 people and it worked well.  From start to finish the recipe took about 3 hours.

Baked Artichokes

with Onions, Lemons, Black Olives & Rosemary* 

2 lbs sweet yellow onions (sliced thinly)

3/4 - 1 cup olive oil

salt

4 garlic cloves (slivered)

1/3 cup nicoise or gaeta olives (rinsed)

12 mint leaves or 1 sprig of fresh rosemary (coarsely chopped)

1/2 lemon (cut lengthwise)

6 Tbsp dry white wine

4 bright green, tightly closed artichokes with big blooms, meaty bottoms and thick stems

A little water, as needed

Parchment paper & aluminum foil

Preheat the oven to 375

Toss the sliced onions with 1/2 cup olive oil & 1 1/2 tsp salt.  Add the garlic, olives and rosemary or mint.  Go ahead and put this mixture into the large, flameproof baking dish you will be using.  

Trim off the pithy end of the lemon and slice it as thinly as possible into half moons, removing the seeds as you go.  Toss the lemon slices with the onion mixture, add the wine, and set aside.

Trim the bottom of the stem of each artichoke and carefully peel the stalk (remove the tough outer skin).  Remove the damaged, dry, and tough outer leaves.  Trim the thorns (tops of the leaves).  Cut the artichokes in half, then use a spoon (a grapefruit spoon worked really well here), to remove the choke, leaving the meaty bottom intact.  Rinse in cold water (don't drain well, the water between the leaves will help cook the artichoke evenly).  

Sprinkle the artichokes with salt, try to get a little between the leaves as well.  Drizzle them with olive oil to coat the outsides, and also try to get some oil between the leaves.  

Nestle the artichokes cut side down in the bed of onions.  You may have to add some water if the liquid from the onions is not sufficient - it should be about 1/2 inch deep.  

Heat gently over a low flame until the liquid is bubbling, then cover tightly, first with parchment paper, then with foil (dull side out).  Bake until the base is tender, about 1 1/2 hours depending on the size of the artichokes.  

Once a test leaf is tender, remove the foil and paper, and raise oven temperature to 400.  Bake for another 15 minutes.  Serve hot, warm or cold.  They should be good (better even) the next day.  They can be reheated, loosely covered, at 300.

*the recipe calls for Mint, but suggested that the substitution of rosemary is also good (it was).