Sasha's Kitchen: Turkish Mini Meatballs With Pomegranate Pearl Onion Sauce

Tonight's dinner was one of those perfect appetizers or main courses for presenting in martini glasses (a wedding registry gift that had gone unused) - which is one of the best ways to make any small-food look beautiful.  For tonight's meatballs, which are a Turkish inspired food, I used a recipe that I adapted from Marcus Samuelsson's new cookbook, New American Table.  My verdict on this cookbook after trying a number of recipes is loud and clear - it's a winner, one of the best new cookbooks of 2009.

As weird as the sauce sounds, it really turned out to be the perfect combination of flavors between the pomegranate juice, white grapes, pearl onions and red wine.  I made a few changes to the original recipe - I garnished using chives and a healthy amount of pomegranate seeds (about 1 T per serving).  The pomegranate seeds were my addition and frankly the recipe would be incomplete without them.  In addition, I added a diced shallot to the meatball recipe.  I also omitted the sumac and the basil - and didn't miss either one.

Thus, the recipe featured below is my adaptation of Marcus Samuelsson's original recipe.  The recipe served three people (myself, my husband and my sous-chef Alicia, who joined us for dinner tonight), as a light main course (after cheese appetizers).  However, it would easily serve two people with larger, more filling portions.  The sauce was the huge winner here, as the combination of flavors was quite exceptional.  This makes the perfect entree or small plate.

Meatballs (my variation from Marcus Samuelsson's recipe):
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground lamb
1 diced shallot
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 T chopped parsley
1 egg
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp coriander

Combine the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix together with your hands.  Form into small meatballs - this recipe made about 28 meatballs, about two inches in diameter.  Cook the meatballs in a couple of table spoons of canola oil in a saute pan until cooked through and lightly browned.  

Marcus Samuelsson's Grape & Pearl Onion Ragu Sauce (I cut the recipe in half and found the amount perfectly sufficient)
8 cloves garlic, diced
1 1/2 cups pearl onions, peeled and diced
1/2 cup red wine
2 T honey
1/2 cup pomegranate juice
1 cup white seedless grapes
1 T chopped fresh thyme
1 cup chicken stock
juice of 1 lemon
1 T butter
salt and pepper to taste

As Samuelsson instructs, combine the garlic, wine and onions and bring to a boil over medium high heat.  Reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes.  Then, add the honey, pomegranate juice, grapes, thyme, chicken stock and lemon juice.  Simmer to reduce for another 10 minutes or so.  Stir in the butter at the end and season with salt and pepper.  Coat the meatballs in the sauce and serve together.

Serve with chives and one tablespoon of pomegranate seeds for each portion.

Sasha's Kitchen: Turkish Mini Meatballs With Pomegranate Pearl Onion Sauce

Sasha's Kitchen: The Use Of A Molcajete In Preparing Guacamole

This post perhaps comes a bit late.  I am not the biggest football fan, and this year my husband (who is) and I watched the Superbowl from home, with our pug Dakota on the couch by our side.  I did, however, prepare my classic guacamole for us for the Superbowl, using a molcajete.  A molcajete is basically a mortar and pestle made out of volcanic rock, and is an essential kitchen tool for making high quality guacamole.  The molcajete was first used by the ancient Aztec and Mayan cultures (and might even go back further than that in different forms), and is most commonly used today (primarily in Mexican and South American cooking) to grind spices, and prepare salsas and guacamole.  It works because the basalt (the volcanic rock) provides an excellent porous grinding surface,  Basically, the guacamole acquires the perfect texture by grinding the avocado into the basalt.  You can get one at either Crate & Barrel (where I got mine as a wedding registry gift a few years back) or William Sonoma.

The guacamole was the perfect Superbowl dish as we watched the Saints bring the Lombardi Trophy to the City of New Orleans.  Here's how I make my signature guacamole:

2 medium sized avocados
1 tomato, diced with the seeds removed
1/4 of a small to medium sized onion, diced
2 T lime juice
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (this is not an especially spicy guacamole, if you prefer more heat, add more red pepper flakes or use cayenne pepper)

First, mash and grind the avocados using the texture of the molcajete.  Let the air bubbles in the volcanic rock do the work.

Dice the tomato and onion and mix both of those ingredients in the mix.  The season with salt and pepper, and add the red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper to add the desired heat.  Finally, my secret ingredient here, cumin, is actually an Indian spice - I always add about half a teaspoon.  This may sound strange with guacamole, but let me assure you that it tastes amazing and is well worth trying out.  I prefer my guacamole without cilantro (although I love cilantro in salsa).

Enjoy, for the next big game.  For Eric's chicken fajitas with guacamole, click here.  If you are reveling in the Saints victory and are ready for Mardi Gras to start early this year, check out my recipe for New Orleans beignets (creole doughnuts), or Matt's recipe for Cajun Jambalaya.

Sasha's Kitchen: The Use Of A Molcajete In Preparing Guacamole

Matt's Kitchen In D.C.: Cajun Jambalaya

In honor of the Saints' aggressive victory over the Colts, I am posting a recipe for jambalaya, which happens to be what I was eating during the game. This a cajun jambalaya, in contrast with a creole jambalaya (or "red jambalaya"), which includes tomatoes and seafood. This version contains smoked sausage, chicken and, ideally, tasso - a smoked and spiced ham. Creole jambalaya originated as an attempt by Spaniards to make paella in the New World (absent saffron). Gradually, this dish was introduced to the Cajuns in Lousiana's low country who adapted it the ingredients that they had available. Cajun jambalaya (or "brown jambalaya") is traditionally smokier and spicier than creole jambalaya. The beauty of jambalaya is, of course, that it can be made with a wide variety of ingredients- essentially, whatever is lying around and needs to be eaten. For cajun jambalaya, the smokiness is key so it is important to find some good smoked sausages, like andouille.

1 lb. andouille or other smoked pork sausage
1 – 1 ½ lbs. chicken thighs
½ lb. tasso, cut in 1 inch cubes (if not available, can substitute any smoked pork)
1 medium onion, chopped.
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tbsp. chopped basil leaves
1 tbsp. chopped fresh thyme
3 cups chicken stock
1 ½ cups rice

*This recipe should serve 6-8 people. If you are feeding a large crowd, you can double it, but be sure you have a pot that is big enough.

Three important notes concerning ingredients:

First, Tasso is a heavily smoked ham with a spicy, peppery rind. It is hard to find outside of Louisiana but it will take the dish to whole new level if you can find it. In the past I have ordered over the internet at comeaux.com or had someone visiting New Orleans bring me back some. However, if you can’t get some, don’t panic! Any smoked pork will do, and failing that you could add some other type of ham, which while admittedly not the same thing, will do in a pinch.

Second note: Use good quality sausage for this, fresh if possible. The sausages at the Whole Foods deli counter are a good bet. Keep in mind that the sausage ingredients are flavoring the whole dish, so you want them to be strong and good quality.

Third note: Use good quality, homemade chicken stock for this dish – it makes a world of difference. If you do not have stock stashed away in the freezer, just be sure you have a chicken carcass (or a bunch of chicken bones) saved, and a simple but strong stock can be made in a few hours with the addition of some carrots, celery, peppercorns and bay leaves.

Also, don’t use chicken breasts in place of thighs. There is a good chance they will dry out during cooking and toughen up, whereas thighs are much better suited for this type of cooking

1) put the sausages in pan with water to cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and let simmer for ten minutes.

2) In the meantime, chop the chicken things into large-ish bite size pieces. If they are boneless, great – if not, you will have to bone them. The easiest way is find the chopped end of the bone, strip the meat down the bone to the joint, then cut out the joint and remove the bone altogether. You will be left with a nice strip of meat. Set aside the chopped chicken.

3) Remove the sausages from the pan and cut into ¼ inch rounds with a serrated knife. They should be cooked enough to hold together, don’t sweat it if they are a little raw in the middle.

4) In a large pot or dutch oven, add a little olive oil and then the sausages. Saute them over medium heat until browned, maybe 10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

5) Without cleaning, add the chicken to the pot and sauté over medium heat until starting to brown. Remove and set aside with the sausage.

6) In the same pot, add the chopped onion and garlic and cook until the onion softens, maybe 7 minutes. Then add the tasso or smoked ham, basil, thyme, some salt and pepper and cook for a few more minutes. Don't be shy about stirring up the brown bits stuck to the pot, this is where the "brown" in "brown jambalaya" comes from, like the "fond" in french cooking. If you like it spicy, you could shake some cayenne pepper in it at this point. Remove all ingredients and store them with the sausage and chicken.

What you have at this point is the jambalaya “base,” which basically means everything except the stock and the rice. You can make it ahead of time and store it the fridge, even a day in advance if necessary.

7) When you are ready to finish the dish, put the "base" in a large pot and add the stock and the rice. Stir thoroughly to combine, then bring to a boil. As soon as it begins to boil, reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 25 minutes.

8) After 25 minutes, take the cover off and stir again to evenly distribute the rice and the meat. Season with salt and pepper if necessary, and serve with hot sauce on the side.

Matt's Kitchen In D.C.: Cajun Jambalaya

Margie’s Kitchen in Boston - Sesame Chicken with Orange Sauce

Photos by Lena

While I am preparing a blog on places to eat in Boston, starting with the Freedom Trail, I thought I might blog about a variation on battered-fried cooking. In general my successes with battered fried food is quite frankly, pathetic. The batter usually falls off during the frying stage. The result ‒ a greasy mess. I’ve experimented with an alternative batter-like substitute that involves simply dredging chicken in flour (shake off excess), then dipping floured pieces into a batter made up of several beaten eggs. I use a wok and cook with a mixture of olive oil and cannoli oil on medium heat (preheat 5+ minutes).

For the sesame chicken I use chicken pieces the size of chicken tenders. When the oil is heated place several chicken pieces in the wok. Don’t overcrowd the pieces. I use about 1 ½ pounds of chicken which I split into three batches.
When each side is lightly browned (3-5 minutes per side depending on thickness of chicken tender piece), place on oven-proof flat dish lined with paper towel, drain, then place in low oven 150°. Don’t layer; use more than one plate.
As for the sesame in the chicken, brown about 3-6 Tablespoons of sesame seeds on foil in the toaster oven, or regular oven at around 385°. Be careful; they burn easily after 5 minutes. The rest of the recipe is fairly simple: make the sauce recipe below and serve with browned sesame seeds. The photo includes basmati rice and grilled red pepper slices.
A word of attribution on the sauce and the recipe. I am using a modified recipe from a renowned Pittsburgh chef and cooking instructor (now retired) Anna Kao. Her cookbook is a classic, and I would highly recommend it, although it is in short supply.
Orange Sauce from Classic Chinese Cooking by Anna Kao:
1 ¼ cups orange juice
1 Tablespoon cider vinegar
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoons Cointreau
1 Tablespoon cornstarch

Mix ingredients and cook over medium heat, stirring until sauce thickens (88).

STAY TUNED FOR FOOD ON THE FREEDOM TRAIL……………………….

Margie’s Kitchen in Boston - Sesame Chicken with Orange Sauce

Sasha's Kitchen: Modern Art Themed Cupcakes

In this post, I am introducing some new cupcake art - a series of cupcakes that are intended to represent the works and styles of different modern artists.

I have always enjoyed art - painting, drawing, ceramics, pottery, jewelry making etc. . .  At every point in my life, I have always been involved in some sort of artistic endeavor.  In high school, I spent much of my free time pursing my art work in my AP Art Classes.  Since then, I have always enjoyed painting with acrylics, oils and watercolors when I find the time.  Last fall, I took a pottery class, as well, which I enjoyed (though I was not an especially skilled potter - I have more luck with painting).  What I enjoy most about art is color - especially bright colors and exploring the use of color in art.  For this reason, artists who use intense colors are some of my favorite artists - from Picasso to Matisse to Kandinsky.  One of my favorite rainy day activities is spending time in art museums here in New York, and in the places that I travel to.  In New York, my favorite museums are MOMA and the Guggenheim because the focus is on post-impressionism and early modern art, showcasing some of my favorite artists.

  Piet Mondrian - Red, Blue and Yellow

I believe that food can be an art form as well.  On one hand, food is often the subject of art - for example Paul Cezanne spent the majority of his career painting fruit.  However, I believe that creating beautiful food and showcasing that food visually and photographically is an art form.  I feel the same way about writing and my approach to writing about food.

As part of my ongoing exploration of the relationship between food and art, I created a series of modern art cupcakes showcasing the paintings and styles of some of my favorite impressionist, post impressionist and modern artists: Henri Matisse, Andy Warhol, Piet Mondrian, Jackson Pollack, Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne and Joan Miro.  (I love Kandinsky, Picasso, Chagall and Lichenstein too - but they didn't make it into this series).

  Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Pop Art - in Cupcake

I decorated these cupcakes using a combination of painting with rolled fondant, food colors, food coloring markers, and colored cupcake icing left over from previous cupcake recipes.  New to the mix for me were the Gourmet Writers (food markers) from New York Cake.  These were fabulous for writing on fondant - it was just like drawing with a fine-tip marker.  For the Jackson Pollack cupcake, though, I used a splatter technique and that required drizzling icing colored with food coloring using a toothpick.  For some of the cupcakes, I tried to do an entire image as a square.  Others, like the Cezanne and Monet cupcakes, I just did pieces that I thought were most distinctive of that artists (the fruit for Cezanne and the water lilies from Monet).

                        
Mondrian, plus two Matisse cut-outs - Icarus (Jazz) and another general cut-out in fondant

 Joan Miro - L'oro Dell' Azzurro

Monet's Water Lilies, Cezanne's fruit and a sideways view of Van Gogh's Starry Night (as best as I could pull it off)

Vincent Van Gogh's masterpiece starry night, turned into a cupcake

My interpretation of the Jackson Pollack splatter technique

I like to consider this my contribution to the ultimate Pop Art.  For another post exploring the relationship with food and art, check out my sushi cupcakes.

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Sasha's Kitchen: Modern Art Themed Cupcakes

Sasha's Kitchen: Valentine's Day Dark Chocolate Souffle With Raspberry Sauce

Dark chocolate souffles have long been one of my husband's favorite desserts.  So, when we had some guests over a month or two ago for a dinner party, and their contribution to dinner was making us four delicious chocolate souffles, he was thrilled.  I promised that I would replicate the feat at some point.  Since souffles are one of our featured recipes this month on A Kitchen In Brooklyn, I figured that now would be a good time to make him his favorite dessert with a bit of a raspberry twist.

I love raspberries and think that chocolate and raspberries make the perfect combination.  Coffiners (my husband's family) are the opposite.  Most (but not all) of them don't really care for raspberries at all.  However, my husband is the exception.  With a little prodding, I convinced him that he should eat his dark chocolate souffle with my raspberry Chambord cream sauce, and it worked.  He loved it!

When I decided to make a raspberry chocolate souffle, I was torn between preparing a chocolate souffle with a raspberry sauce or a raspberry souffle (yes, it would be that lovely pink color) with chocolate sauce. In the end, I decided to do both, but start with the former.  So, there will be a straight-up raspberry souffle coming your way soon.

The first step in preparing this recipe is to prepare a dark chocolate souffle.  Like Emily mentioned in her soup post yesterday, I am also not good at following directions; I never was.  As a kid when asked to color inside the lines in a coloring book, I never did - I drew my own picture.  I'm still that way - I prefer doing things my own way, which occasionally gets me into a bit of trouble.  However, souffles can be a little tricky, and unless you have made a lot of souffles, it's usually good to follow some sort of recipe, at least as a guideline - so even I am actually encouraging following directions here.  If you do things a little off (i.e. not enough egg whites, open the oven in the middle, fold in the egg whites too hard etc.), your souffle will not rise, or worse, will make a mess.

I looked at a number of recipes, before deciding on how to prepare the souffles.  A lot of the recipes I used made quite a bit more souffles than I was interested in, or had proportions I was not crazy about.  Based on all the recipes I looked at, I came up with what I consider to be a very basic dark chocolate souffle recipe.  I used the darkest (60% cocoa) chocolate pellets I could get my hands on at the grocery store.

Individual Dark Chocolate Souffles (Makes 4 servings in ramekins)

5 oz bittersweet dark chocolate (pellets or chips work best)

2/3 cup milk

1/2 T cornstarch

2 egg yolks

3 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1/6 cup of sugar; plus more for souffle ramekins

Raspberry Cream Chambord Sauce

4 oz raspberries, pureed

3T sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tsp cornstarch

2 - 3 T of Chambord Raspberry Liquor

First, spray 4 ramekins with PAM and dust with sugar.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and place the ramekins aside on a baking sheet.  On one burner, heat a large pot of water (to construct a double boiler - you could just use a regular double boiler if you have one).  On a second burner, combine the milk and the cornstarch over medium heat and bring to a boil, and stir until it thickens.  Once thickened, turn the heat off.  Melt the 5 oz of bittersweet/dark chocolate in your makeshift double boiler and combine with the milk mixture.  Transfer to  bowl and mix in the egg yolks.  Set this aside, and concentrate your attention on the egg whites.

Getting the egg whites right is key.  If you do not get the result that I describe here, you should discard the egg whites and start again until they are just right.  If they are not fluffy stiff peaks in the end, your souffle will not rise, and the entire experiment will be a waste of time.  It's happened to the best of us, but if you follow these instructions, it should work out.

Put the egg whites in the basin of your stand mixer.  Add the cream of tartar and beat for a minute or two until foamy.  Then continue beating, on the highest setting there is, while gradually adding the sugar (1/6 of a cup - fill a 1/3 measuring cup halfway).  Once the sugar is added continue beating for about three minutes, until shiny stiff peaks form.  The result should be nice and fluffy and it should form a stiff pointed peak when you test the consistency with a fork or spoon.

Next, gently fold the egg white mixture into the chocolate mixture.  Gently!  Don't beat it in, just fold gently with a spatula.  If you are too rough in doing this, the souffle won't rise as well.  However, fold enough to make sure the mixture is mixed in full.

Fill four ramekins.  Then place in the oven right away (it is really important to have the timing right with a souffle, so make sure the oven is fully preheated by the time you get to this point).  Bake for about 13-15 minutes (watch using your oven light) until they have risen fully.  Don't open the oven until you are ready to take the souffles out no matter how impatient you are (I did this once and the souffle collapsed and was a disaster).

Have the raspberry cream sauce ready when the souffles come out, because they will fall in a matter of minutes.  To make the sauce, puree the raspberries and mix with the cream, cornstarch and sugar over medium heat until it thickens.  Add the Chambord and mix on the heat for another minute or two.  Allow to cook before using, because the hot chocolate souffle tastes great with the chill raspberry sauce.  By the way, the sauce is featured in a bowl that I made in a potter course I took last year.

Serve the souffles immediately (they will fall in a couple of minutes, but still taste great) when they come out of the oven with the raspberry sauce, and some fresh raspberries. My husband happily devoured two of these in a matter of minutes (seriously)!

We should have more souffle posts coming up this month from everyone here, but if you are in the mood for a dinner souffle, click here for recipes for a spinach souffle and sweet potato/apple souffle.

Sasha's Kitchen: Valentine's Day Dark Chocolate Souffle With Raspberry Sauce

Sasha's Kitchen On The Road: Irish Guinness Stout Stew

About two years ago, my husband and I went on a family vacation to Ireland.  While we were in Dublin, a fun loving, carefree city, we visited, like most American Tourists, the Guinness Storehouse.  This was a highlight of our time in Dublin, which was a magical city to explore on foot (one of the other highlights was by chance catching a tiny R.E.M. concert at the Olympia Theater, which set us back a day or two in recovering from jet lag).  At any rate, while in Dublin, we tasted several excellent traditional Irish stews, prepared using Dublin's famed Guinness Stout.

Guinness is a popular Irish dry stout.  It has a deep, rich, heavy flavor (it's like a meal, really) that works well with a beef stew.  However, as guest writer Bryan noted to me last week, if you use too much Guinness, it will impart a bitter flavor to your stew.

I made this stew in a very impromptu manner.    I was unhappy with all of the recipes that I found online, so I started from scratch, and tried to create a hearty stew that would be enriched by the deep flavor of the Guinness.  I decided before I started that I was in the mood for a pretty unhealthy (but very tasty) version of this stew, which meant that I sauteed my ingredients using butter rather than my usual canola oil (I suppose Julia Child would be happy since I usually disregard her love for butter in favor of a healthier style of cooking with canola oil).

Here is the recipe that I used to make my version of this Irish classic:

Sasha's Irish Guinness Stout Stew

4 cups beef broth
4 sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 cups Guinness Stout
2 lb stewing beef
1 large onion
3 T butter
2 T canola oil
three large handfuls of baby carrots
4 T of flour
3 T tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste

First, I diced the onion, and sauteed the onion and carrots for a few minutes in the butter and canola oil, until the onion was soft in my Dutch Oven.  Then, I added the meat to the Dutch Oven, after tossing it in 2 T of flour.  I braised the meat in the butter and canola oil for about five more minutes, until it was browned on all sides.  Then, I added the herbs, beef broth, Guinness and tomato paste to the pot and brought the mixture to a boil.   After the stew was boiling, I reduced the heat to simmer and continued to simmer for quite awhile (about thirty to forth minutes or so) until the soup was thickened to a stew.

To thicken the stew, I used my mom's trick and added 2 T of flour (or, you could use cornstarch) to a half cup of the broth and mixed well before adding back into the stew.  This really helped the thickening process, while completing the process in the manner I suggested helps avoid clumping in the stew.

The end result was a delicious thick and hearty broth that had a strong thyme flavor, as well as the hearty deep flavor imparted by the Guinness.

Have some extra Guinness?  Make my Chocolate Stout Cupcakes next.

Sasha's Kitchen On The Road: Irish Guinness Stout Stew

Emily's Parents' Kitchen in Connecticut: Impromptu Soup

This is my first post for A Kitchen in Brooklyn! My kitchen is officially in Seattle, but I am writing from the Keeler outpost in Groton, Connecticut.

So, I am all about "intuitive" cooking. I like to taste my way around the kitchen, scouting out ingredients like a culinary bloodhound. I go around like this: Aha, apples, yes, and sweet potato, okay, hmm carrots, yes, curry? Cheddar cheese? Perfect.

After my mother came home annoyed with my father and me for not thinking about dinner (my father is retired and I work from home), I decided the next day to actually think about things in advance, and by advance I mean about 10 minutes. Here is the result of my kitchen scouting: an impromptu soup of beta carotene-rich vegetables sweetened with apples, topped with shredded sharp cheddar cheese and homemade roasted chickpeas (croutons or pumpkin seeds would also be nice). If New England had a regional dish, this would be one of them. This version fills about four regular bowls. Just up the proportions if you want more.

Please note: I typically do not measure things. My teachers used to comment to my parents that I was a good student, but I never followed directions. So this is nothing new. I am putting down suggested measurements, but I recommend honing your intuitive cooking skills and trusting your own taste buds. (I sort of went overboard with the cayenne pepper in my version anyway.)

Impromptu Soup - Harvest Vegetable Soup Accented with Cheddar Cheese

Serves 4

1 tbs. olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 medium sweet potato, chopped into small pieces
4 or so carrots, chopped into small rounds
2 apples (I used Gala but I imagine Granny Smith would be splendid), peeled, cored and chopped
About 6 cups water
About 1 tsp. curry powder
About 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
About 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
About 2 tsp. salt, or to taste
Optional: about 1/2 cup of soy milk or cream to soften things up a bit, especially if you've added too much cayenne pepper
Shredded sharp cheddar cheese - as much as you like
Croutons, roasted chickpeas or pumpkin seeds for garnish

-Heat up the oil in a soup pot, then add the onions and garlic. Stir and let sit with the cover on for 5 minutes or until you're tired of waiting!
-Add the chopped sweet potato, carrots and apples.
-Stir everything together and add the desired spices.
-Now add the water. Add just enough so that the water level is about even with the ingredients in the pot. Too much water will yield super soupy soup. You can always add more water, but it doesn't work the other way.
-Put the lid on, let it boil, and go watch a half hour of television. After the soup is at a boil, bring it down to a high simmer. Check it periodically (like during the commercial breaks) and pierce the vegetables with a fork. The carrots are the last things to get soft. After about 30 or 40 minutes you should be in business, but rely on the fork-pierce test to determine the readiness of the vegetables.
-Take the soup off the burner and get your immersion blender ready. Alternatively, throw the soup, in batches, into the food processor or your Magic Bullet. A potato masher also works, but things won't turn out as creamy.
-Blend the soup.
-Taste it and adjust the seasonings. Choose to add cream, milk, or vegan milk if desired.
-When you're ready to serve, ladle soup into bowls. Top with cheddar cheese and/or desired toppings. Serve with hearty bread.

Emily's Parents' Kitchen in Connecticut: Impromptu Soup

Sasha's Kitchen: Crab Couscous with Green Apple, Mango, Saffron and Lemon

Crab is one of the featured ingredients of the month for February here on A Kitchen In Brooklyn.  For the first crab recipe, I decided to use some fresh lump crabmeat from my local fish market (unfortunately, I was not able to obtain king crab) and decided to prepare a couscous dish.  The crab was not intended to be the star of this dish, but to be featured as one of several complementary flavors.  There are several foods that I think make spectacular food combinations with crab.  These include green apple, tamarind, lemon, avocado, beets, sugar snap peas, snow peas, mango and eggs (not all in the same dish, of course).  I look forward to experimenting with different ways of presenting crab this month.

For my couscous, I decided to complement the crab with some tang/tartness, so I selected green apple, lemon and mango, and also threw in the sugar snap peas.  I added the saffron because the couscous needed a bit of a pick me up, plus it made for a beautiful pale yellow color.  Saffron is very powerful, so you only need a little bit or else it will overpower the other flavors.  The balance of this dish is nice.  Don't forget the lemon at the end, as it adds an important complement and acidity necessary to balance the dish.  This might be one of my best recipes yet, and I'm sharing.

Sasha's Crab Couscous With Green Apple, Mango and Saffron (serves 4)

1 1/2 cups of couscous

1 cup of sugar snap peas (or snow peas, if you prefer)

olive oil (added as described below)

2 diced cloves of garlic

2 T mascarpone cheese

1 diced shallot

1 medium sized mango, diced

2 green apples, peeled and diced

1 lemon, cut into slices

1/8 tsp saffron

salt and pepper to taste

To prepare this dish, I boiled a quart of water and cooked the sugar snap peas until softened (I guess they no longer will "snap").  Then I removed the sugar snap peas and added the couscous to the water.  I cooked the couscous, as per typical instructions, until al dente, about seven minutes.  Then I drained the couscous from the remaining water and mixed with 2T of olive oil.

Next comes the fun part, deciding how to jazz up ordinary couscous to create a new recipe.  I sauteed the shallot and the garlic in a couple tablespoons of olive oil.  Then I cooked the diced mango and apple for a few minutes, until softened.  Next, I added the sugar snap peas and the couscous and cooked for a few minutes over medium heat, adding the saffron and seasoning with salt and pepper.

Then, I added the crab and the mascarpone to the hot couscous and mixed well, to melt the mascarpone.  (you could substitute butter if you prefer).  

Finally, for presentation, I used a small bowl to mold the couscous, and garnished with some of the purple cauliflower presented in last night's post.  (I don't suggest eating the cauliflower with this dish, its too bitter, but it looks to pretty).  When you are ready to eat, season with some of the lemon juice.  I used a Meyer lemon.

This dish is one I will make again and again.  An aside here, it really bothers me when people eat lousy food (that I have to be present to see or smell).  I don't mean foods I don't like, per se, just poor quality food - frozen meals, bad restaurant food, poor quality ingredients, lots of chemicals that serve no purpose, msg etc...  You're putting this stuff in your body so you should care too.  Food is an art and should be treated as such, without dumbing down our taste buds.  

For another dish with crab, check out my crabcakes prepared using Marcus Samuelsson's recipe from his new cookbook.

Sasha's Kitchen: Crab Couscous with Green Apple, Mango, Saffron and Lemon

Sasha's Kitchen: The Flavors Of Napa Valley (A Foodbuzz Contest)

When I decided to enter the contest to report on the finals of the Foodbuzz / San Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition in beautiful Napa Valley, the answer was easy for me.  Napa Valley is my favorite culinary spot in America, both because of the breathtaking natural beauty of its surroundings and because it is a foodie paradise due to its incredible local produce.  Napa Valley is a perfect place, given its rich culinary tradition and lovely scenery, for chefs from around the world to compete to present the most incredible and delicious dishes.  I couldn't think of a better spot on earth to inspire such culinary creativity.  I love watching chefs create their masterpieces, like works of art.  I would love to be there to watch the challenge of so many superb chefs.

Thus, am first presenting some San Pellegrino sparking mineral water with the flavors of Napa Valley, in this post.    I decided to pair the San Pellegrino with the Meyer lemon, Napa's distinctive lemon.  The Meyer lemon is thought to be a cross between a regular lemon and a mandarin orange.  It has a sweeter, less acidic taste than the ordinary lemon, and is, in my opinion, quite a star in itself.  The combination of the Meyer lemon and sparking water dazzles.

Next, I added another dish that I grew to love in Napa.  This is going to sound weird, but trust me with this one and just try it.  When I visited Round Pond Estate in Napa Valley, where they make their own limited production olive oils (and wine too, by the way), I had a marvelous buffet lunch all using local Napa produce (the best on earth).  They served vanilla ice cream with their Blood Orange Olive Oil.  I was skeptical at first.  Ice cream and olive oil?  Weird.  Bizarre.  And also amazing, especially with the blood orange complement.  Thus, this dish will alway be part of what I consider to be the distinctive flavor of Napa Valley.

To sum things up, I would love the opportunity to report live from the Almost Famous Chef Competition, and I'll have a glass of San Pellegrino, garnished with a wedge of Meyer lemon by my side, along with two of my other loves: food and writing.

Sasha's Kitchen: The Flavors Of Napa Valley (A Foodbuzz Contest)

Michelle’s Kitchen in Toronto: South American-Inspired Sausage and Vegetable Ragout

My cravings for meat continue with this dish inspired by the wonderful Columbian chorizo I bought at Segovia Meat Market (218 Augusta Avenue, Toronto, ON M5T 2L6
(416) 593-9904) in Kensington Market that’s been hanging out in my freezer for a few weeks. The ingredient list is long, but well worth the effort, another one of my food experiments gone right!

South American-Inspired Sausage and Vegetable Ragout

2 tsp olive oil

¼ red bell pepper sliced into short strips (or use a half if you don’t like the green peppers)

¼ green bell pepper sliced into short strips

1-2 carrots peeled and diced (use two if they are small)

1 sausage link diced (use chorizo or another Latin/Spanish-inspired sausage with lots of flavour)

3 stems green onion, chopped fine (this is again leftovers from the great Fish Fragrant Eggplants, but you could dice up half an onion and simply toss in the pan with the carrots if you prefer)

¼ c chicken broth

1 bay leaf

½ tsp coriander powder

¼ tsp cumin

¼ tsp garlic powder

1/8 – ¼ tsp chipotle powder

1/8 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp taco sauce (I used Old El Paso’s Mild version)

Heat the oil in the pan at a medium heat. As I don’t have the greatest pan in the world, I also used some cooking spray to help the oil. Once hot, add the carrots, bay leaf, and a little salt to bring out the flavour; sauté. If you are using diced onion instead of the green onions, add them at this point. Sauté until they start to lose their rawness and add the peppers. Sauté a few minutes and add the other seasonings while this is happening and stir. After a minute or two, add the diced sausage. Cook until it is mostly cooked and add taco sauce; stir. Add the chicken broth and scrap the flavour bits from the bottom of the pan. This creates a nice sauce and cooks the sausage. Serve with some nice basmati rice and enjoy!

I didn’t have garlic in the house today so I used the powder, however if you are using fresh and want to omit the powder, add the garlic about a minute before you add the taco sauce. This is a great dish to make just because, or to help clean out your fridge. I had some cooked leftover rice from a curry I made so I just stirred that right in at the end to warm it!

Michelle’s Kitchen in Toronto: South American-Inspired Sausage and Vegetable Ragout

Sasha's Kitchen: Tuna Burgers (And My Unrelated Discovery Of Purple Cauliflower)

The Food Network's Bobby Flay inspired me to create a burger that combined the flavors of tuna, chipotle and pineapple from his similar burger in his new cookbook, Bobby Flay's Burgers Fries and Shakes.  However, my recipe differs from Bobby's with respect to several of the key ingredients and the way that I prepare my sauce.  He certainly was my inspiration in creating this healthier take on the burger.  The original recipe that I started with can be found here.

To prepare the burgers, you will need:

1 lb tuna steak
1 T dijon mustard
2-3 tsp chipotle puree (depending on how much heat you want)
1/4 cup red onion, diced (Flay uses scallions, instead but I much prefer the combination of the red onion with the tuna and chipotle)
1/2 T honey
1 T canola oil
2 T pineapple juice (my addition)

Cut up the tuna into small pieces and pulse until pureed in your Cuisinart.  Then mix in the other ingredients and form into four burgers.  Cook the burgers using a grill pan (or a regular grill, if you are somewhere other than Brooklyn in the dead of winter) for about 8 minutes, total over medium heat, being careful not to burn the burgers.

To prepare my version of the pineapple mustard sauce, which I turned into a honey mustard sauce, mix 4 T of Dijon mustard with 4 T of pineapple juice and 2 T of honey.  Top with fresh pineapple before serving on a lightly toasted bun.

Picture shows my tuna burger with pineapple and the pineapple honey-mustard sauce

Apparently I didn't get the memo that burgers are supposed to be fattening and unhealthy.  This one made me feel as good as it tasted.

Finally, I wanted to include an unrelated note about a pretty cool organic vegetable I discovered today at my local organic market here in Park Slope . . . purple cauliflower (which I had heard about but had never seen).  I am going to have to do something fun with it this week, but wanted to include a picture of it here first, in all its purple beauty.  This begs the question - did nature really create cauliflower this purple?  The answer is absolutely, this is not created wtih food coloring.  Rather, the presence of the antioxidant anthocyanin (also found in red wine and red cabbage) gives it this beautiful color.  There is currently being research done, according to the Wikipedia page linked to above, that may support some use for anthocyanins with respect to cancer and apoptosis (programmed cell death).

I have some exciting recipes planned to prepare and write about in the next two weeks, including a crab couscous, turkish meatballs, scrabble tile cookies, some beer and food pairing, bread puddings and two new surprise cupcake recipes.

Sasha's Kitchen: Tuna Burgers (And My Unrelated Discovery Of Purple Cauliflower)

Eric's Kitchen in Jersey City: Guacamole & Chicken Fajitas (Super Bowl Special)

This post is really more about the Guacamole than the Fajitas as we were just trying to use up some leftover Grilled Chicken plus everyone seems to really like my Guacamole. It's a recipe that started as my Mom's but I have evolved it over the years a bit and I honestly think she likes mine more than her own now... I figured this is a good time to post my Guacamole recipe so that people can hopefully enjoy it during the Super Bowl!

These are the ingredients I use for my Guacamole:
2 ripe Avocados
1/2 medium to small tomato, seeds removed and diced
1/4 medium Vidalia onion, minced

1 clove garlic, minced
1 handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Some sort of hot sauce or red pepper flakes
Fresh lime juice

I find that if you don't remove the seeds of the tomatoes it get can a bit too watery. I also insist on mashing mine up with just a fork instead of a food processor since the flavors remain more in tact and the consistency feels more natural to me. As long as the avocados aren't under-ripe, this should never be a problem.

The lime juice is probably the second most important step since it also helps to keep the color of the avocado from going brown if you have to set it aside for a while. I've also heard that keeping bits of the rind in your guacamole helps but not sure how true this is...

When it came time for my fajitas I just reheated my leftover grilled chicken with some sliced Pepper Jack cheese and then sauteed some mushrooms and onions. We also added some roasted garlic Green Mountain Gringo salsa, which is by far my favorite salsa.

In the end we had a delicious meal that certainly didn't feel like leftovers.

Eric's Kitchen in Jersey City: Guacamole & Chicken Fajitas (Super Bowl Special)

Kelly's Kitchen in Chicago: Sprout Restaurant

I just had the chance to go to Sprout Organic Restaurant- a new Chicago restaurant run by celebrity chef Dale Levitsky (Top Chef season 3) and sous chef Sara Nguyen (also from Top Chef season 3)

Sprout is a cozy and intimate restaurant in the Lincoln Park neighborhood in Chicago. The menu is centered around an affordable prix fix 3 course menu.

We had reservations for Friday at 6:15. While it was a little bit of a rush, the atmosphere was warm and relaxing on a snowy 20 degree evening. Steve and I enjoyed some fantastic cocktails while waiting for our friends to arrive. I particularly liked the "Gingerdale" which was ginger and bourbon.

Here's the quick rundown:
At $60 for the courses, it's not outrageous but it also is more than we usually pay for a normal dinner.

The menu focuses on updating classic meat and potatoes with a playful touch.

For the main course- I enjoyed the lamb with potatoes and anchovies. Steve had a delicious short rib with truffled dumplings. Both were exquisitely well prepared and quite enjoyable.

The service was fantastic all the way.

The kicker- we even got to meet Dale!

You may ask why I don't have a picture with him . It's not because I'm shy. It's because I'm too polite, compassionate or something.

We asked if we could meet him before dinner. At the end of dinner the server said "he has like 5 tickets in front of him but he'll be out in a minute".

When he came out a few minutes later, he looked like he was working his butt off.

To that I say- Good job Dale! It's inspiring to see someone who obtained celebrity on TV bring it on in real life through hard work and creativity. The restaurant works and I'm excited we got to try your food! I can't wait until your patio opens in the spring!

Kelly's Kitchen in Chicago: Sprout Restaurant

Sasha's Kitchen: Classic Brooklyn Egg Cream

For this evening's post, I decided to prepare Brooklyn's signature drink.  The Brooklyn Egg Cream is probably one of the most memorable and distinctive foods to come out of Brooklyn's historic Jewish community.  It is quite simple to make, so I decided that tonight I would share the recipe for the Brooklyn Egg Cream, as well as discuss the history of this Brooklyn classic drink.

The Brooklyn Egg Cream does not, contrary to popular opinion, contain any raw eggs, and in fact does not contain any eggs at all.  The egg cream is, according to my research, exclusively a fountain drink - it is not possible to successfully bottle a Brooklyn Egg Cream.

There is actually considerable debate on the origins of the term "Egg Cream" to describe this drink, which is a mixture of seltzer, milk and Fox's U-Bet Chocolate Syrup (and you bet that you better use U-Bet syrup, or its not a real Brooklyn Egg Cream).  Some say that the origins of the drink are not known, while others say that it has its origins in the fact that many fountain drinks at the time the Egg Cream was invented (in the 1880s) actually did use eggs.  Another explanation is that the original version did use eggs and cream, but that eggs were dropped because of a shortage due to wartime food rationing.

Picture shows the U-bet syrups used to make egg creams, alongside a tradition Brooklyn Egg Cream and a New York Egg Cream, or Vanilla Egg Cream

My favorite explanation for the origins of the term "Egg Cream" is this popular explanation:  The Yiddish word "echt" means good cream and thus the term Egg Cream is based on the Yiddish word Echt, which sounds quite a bit like the term Egg.  Wikipedia presents a more complete view of the legend of the Brooklyn Egg Cream, as do other websites.  The legend of how the egg cream got its start here in Brooklyn is one of Yiddish folklore - the Egg Cream was invented by Eastern European Jews in Brooklyn in the 1880s (specifically Boris Thomashevsky), a founding member of one of the first Yiddish theaters in America, who, as the legend has it, had tasted a similar drink called a chocolate et creme in Paris.

Regardless of the origins of the term "egg cream" it is generally accepted that a Jewish candy shop owner named Louis Auster coined the term "egg cream" when he introduced the drink at his Brooklyn store.

To prepare a Traditional Brooklyn Egg Cream:

2/3 cup of milk
1 1/2 cup of seltzer
2 T U-Bet Chocolate Syrup

If you are not using seltzer under high pressure with a siphon or nozzle, and are just pouring it out of the bottle like I did, follow these steps - add the milk first (1 part); add either 2 or 3 parts seltzer depending on what you prefer (I did two parts seltzer) and mix in 2 T of the syrup.  You ideally want the egg cream to have a nice head, which takes a bit of practice, and can better be achieved by spraying the seltzer from a pressurized container.  Mine tasted amazing, but visually should have a bit more head.  That might be easier accomplished if I had used the 3:1 ratio of seltzer to milk rather than the 2:1 ratio.

The amount of the measurements do not matter at all.  What matters is the ration - for a creamier egg cream, do a 2:1 ratio of seltzer to milk, for a less creamy egg cream, do a 3:1 ratio.

Don't let Manhattan tell you the egg cream is theirs, because it's not.  Manhattan has its own variation though called the New York Egg Cream, which uses Vanilla U-Bet Syrup rather than Chocolate.

The Brooklyn Egg Cream is a classic Brooklyn drink that takes us back to the legendary days of the Coney Island Boardwalk.  This is a drink that is deeply rooted in Brooklyn's rich cultural and culinary history.

Sasha's Kitchen: Classic Brooklyn Egg Cream

Michelle's Kitchen in Toronto : Valentine's Special - Steak with Scallion and Barbeque Sauce

This weekend, I was having a major craving for red meat so I thought to myself: "What could be more perfect for Valentine's Day than a romantic steak dinner for two?" And so, the experiment began! I started with a top quality organic Ontario strip loin steak from my favorite organic butcher here in Toronto; Sanagan's Meat Locker in Kensington Market where everything is always organic and local. To my mind, a good quality steak is key to making it perfectly. I used the whites of the scallions that were left over from my great Fish Fragrant Eggplant experiment that I previously posted, however you could use the whole scallion, a sweet onion or a shallot if you prefer. I bought a steak that was about 8-12 oz and I found that I only needed half for myself along with a green salad, however you could certainly double the recipe if this is not enough for you and your guest. This is a nice recipe for those of us who do not have a barbecue, or live in sub-zero climates as all you require is a pan and an oven!

Steak with Scallion and Barbeque Sauce

For the steak:
1 8-12 oz strip loin steak
2 tbsp barbeque sauce (I used Gourmet Original Diana Sauce; my favorite!)
1 tbsp pomegranate barbeque sauce (I used President's Choice amazing Memories of Damascus sauce but you could omit this and add more Diana sauce)
1/2 - 1 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp olive oil
salt to taste


Rub the steak with the sauces and coriander powder. Ideally, allow to marinate for 30 minutes to an hour. Preheat your oven to 375F. Heat your pan with the oil so it's smoking hot. Just before you add the steak to the pan, sprinkle with salt to taste. Sear the outside until the steak has nice colour, but only flip once. Take steak from the pan and put in the oven on a foil-covered sheet pan, keeping the heat on in the pan as you will be making your sauce while the steak cooks. I cooked it another 8 minutes in the oven to get it to rare but you could try cooking it 10 minutes to medium rare or 12 minutes to medium-well.


For the sauce:
4 stems scallion whites (see my blurb about ingredients above)
1/4 cup red wine (I used Pelee Island Winery Merlot Reserve)
1/2 - 1 c chicken broth
2 tbsp barbeque sauce (again, I used Diana Sauce)
salt to taste


In the heated steak pan, add the scallions and cook until the rawness has just gone out of them but not burning them, about 30 seconds. Add the wine and allow the alcohol to burn off; scraping all the good steak flavour bits off the bottom of the pan while you do it. The alcohol is usually gone about 30 seconds to a minute after you start smelling the wine in the pan. To this, add the barbeque sauce and stir. Add the chicken broth and allow sauce to cook down to whatever consistency you want it. Adjust salt in the last minute or two of cooking as the broth has quite a bit of salt as well and you may not need more.

I added a nice green salad to my plate as well as my glass of Pelee Island Winery Merlot Reserve that I not only cooked with, but drank as well.


Gourmet Original Diana Sauce


Memories of Damascus Sauce


Pelee Island Winery Merlot Reserve

Michelle's Kitchen in Toronto : Valentine's Special - Steak with Scallion and Barbeque Sauce