Like Buttah!

I had almost a full bottle of buttermilk left over after making my Fried Chicken Salad and still had butterbeans on my mind after my D.C. friend wrote me about the Brunswick Stew he had concocted. 

So, I searched keywords buttermilk and butterbeans, et voilà, I found this delightful recipe for Buttermilk White Beans with Eggs & Greens. 

As a shortcut, I opted for canned butterbeans, although I realize many folks would balk at the idea of not using dried. But it was a weeknight and I couldn’t linger as long in the kitchen as I might have liked, so what the hell—my creamy buttermilk butterbeans were quick and delicious. With the tender greens, a good, fruity olive oil and rich, liquid gold yolks it was all just like buttah, but I did feel the proposed preparation needed a little clarity: my comments below are in italics.

And I would be completely remiss if I didn’t mention my all-time favorite band The B-52’s and their paean to the virtues of the butterbean in the fabulously fun song, Butterbean! 

*BONUS* Click here for a recipe for Italian Style Soba Noodles that band member Fred Schneider was gracious enough to share on Evenings with Peter.

Buttermilk White Beans with Eggs & Greens
Food52.com
Ingredients
Extra-virgin olive oil (or unsalted butter). Use a really good oil for this.
5 sprigs thyme
1 yellow onion, sliced thinly
10 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 pound dried white beans (such as cannellini, gigante, or great northern) Or two 15.5 oz. cans of butterbeans!
2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
2 cups buttermilk
1 bunch (10 leaves) hearty greens (such as kale, chard, or rapini), cut into ribbons. Rainbow chard worked very nicely. To make ribbons, strip the leaves of their stems, roll up several stacked leaves like a cigar and slice them on the bias. 
1/4 teaspoon chile flakes (optional)
1/2 cup white wine
4 large eggs
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Step 1
In a medium to large saucepan, heat several glugs of olive oil or knobs of butter over medium heat. Add the thyme sprigs and fry until fragrant and the leaves have stopped making the popping sound, about 1 minute. Add the onion and half the garlic, then reduce the heat to low and sweat until tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the beans and enough water to cover by 2 to 3 inches. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook until the beans are completely tender and creamy, and the water is mostly absorbed. This should take 45 to 75 minutes, depending on the variety and age. This goes much quicker with canned beans, about 10-15 minutes—and don’t rinse; add bean juice to the pan.

Step 2
When they’re done, remove the beans from the heat and add the rest of the garlic, the salt, and buttermilk. Stir to combine, cover, transfer to the fridge, then allow the beans to cool in the buttermilk—at least 30 minutes, but ideally overnight.

Step 3
Before serving, remove the sprigs of thyme (don’t worry if some leaves break up into the broth) and gently warm the beans over low heat. When the beans are warm, taste and adjust the seasoning as desired. Remember the beans will take some time to warm up. Allow for that, then move on to Step 4, which goes very quickly.. 

Step 4
In a large frying pan, heat a glug of olive oil over high heat until almost smoking, then add the greens and a big pinch of salt. Sautée the greens until they are bright in color and starting to soften. Add the white wine and chile flakes (if using) and allow the wine to evaporate by half.

Step 5
Reduce the heat to medium and make four divots in the greens. Drizzle more olive oil into the greens and crack an egg into each divot. Season the eggs with salt and black pepper. Cover the pan with a lid to steam the eggs—5 to 6 minutes, checking frequently toward the end so they don’t overcook. Poke with spoon to check that the white are firm. 

Step 6
Dish the beans into serving bowls. Scoop a nest of greens and an egg from the pan and nestle on top of the beans. Drizzle with a bit more olive oil and serve on its own, or with a thick slice of toast.

A Friend Writes...Brunswick Stew!

 

In a fit of culinary pique laced with a dash of nostalgia, my D.C. correspondent (otherwise known as my old pal of 30 years) set to work in the kitchen and emailed me about his exploits!

“I’m making Brunswick Stew tonight and cornbread. (My Southern childhood came calling yesterday.) This dish used to confuse me growing up because we had a neighbor from Emporia, Virginia who made something similar called Chicken Muddle. Even though some folks also called it Brunswick Stew, our neighbor insisted that was something a little different—you eat Brunswick Stew with a spoon and Chicken Muddle with a fork.

“I looked at both of the recipes. They are not that different, just the thickness. Call it whatever you want—I’ve called it satisfying and delicious for years!”

So then, here’s a recipe for Brunswick Stew...or Virginia Chicken Muddle: 

Ingredients
1 whole chicken (around 3-4 lbs)
Several quarts water or enough to cover the chicken
1 quart butter beans, canned and drained (or fresh if in season)
1 quart canned whole or crushed tomatoes (plus their juices)
1 quart chopped potatoes
1 quart or 1 pint onions, chopped (depending on preference)
1 pint corn, canned or fresh
1 pound fatback or smoked meat (optional, for added flavor)
1-2 sleeves saltine crackers, crushed (for thickening)
Salt, pepper (black and red), and sugar to taste
Optional: Paprika, poultry seasoning, hot sauce

Instructions
Boil the Chicken: In a large iron pot, place the whole chicken and cover it with water. Boil until the chicken is tender and the meat easily separates from the bones.

Shred the Chicken: Remove the chicken from the pot and let it cool. Shred the meat, discarding the bones and skin.

Add Vegetables: To the pot with the broth, add the butter beans, tomatoes, chopped potatoes, and onions. If using fatback or smoked meat, fry it until the fat is rendered, cut it into pieces, and add it to the pot along with the fat.

Simmer and Stir: Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook for several hours, stirring frequently to prevent sticking and to ensure all ingredients break down and blend together. The goal is for the ingredients to almost melt into a thick, hearty stew.

Thicken and Season: When the muddle reaches the desired thickness, add the corn and stir. Add crushed crackers to thicken the stew further, if needed. Season generously with salt, black pepper, red pepper, and a little sugar to taste. You can also add other desired seasonings, like paprika or poultry seasoning, at this stage.

Serve: Serve the Virginia chicken muddle hot, with additional crackers and hot sauce on the side if desired.

Sea Bass with Cockles and Leek Broth

Summer may be nearing its end, but the good news is now that we’ve returned to ‘R’ months, we can at least resume our consumption of oysters, clams, and other shellfish with impunity (if you believe the old wives’ tale)!

This simply elegant dish is suitably summery enough to still share with friends on your patio, city rooftop oasis, or even as a fond farewell while closing up your vacation home. And although the original recipe called for springtime garlic scapes, I think most any allium-based broth would work this time of year, such as leeks or a mixture of garlic and scallion greens. If cockles aren’t readily available, see if your fishmonger can assist you in finding them—the sweet, briny devils are well worth the search.

And do enjoy!

Sea Bass with Cockles and Leek Broth
Ingredients
4-8 to 10 oz striped bass fillets or similar white fish
2 lbs cockles
One bunch scapes (or leeks), sliced
Half cup dry white wine
Half bunch asparagus
5 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper

Method
Prep your seafood: Rinse cockles in cold water to wash away any sand. Pat dry sea bass fillets with paper towels, cut in half, and season with salt and pepper.

Blanch asparagus in boiling salted water for 30 seconds. Drain and chill.

In the dutch oven or large sauté pan, over medium heat, add olive oil and scapes (or leeks). Sauté for a minute. Nestle fish in pan and add cockles. Pour the white wine into the pan and cover.

After a few minutes, turn heat down to low and simmer for a total of 10 minutes, shaking pan occasionally. Carefully fold in asparagus and allow to rest covered for a minute.

Remove fillets and place in a large serving platter. Arrange cockles and vegetables on platter and add broth from pan to the platter.

Steamed Sweet Potatoes with Tahini

I had the pleasure of discovering Zou Zou’s delicious roasted sweet potato with miso butter-tahini and Egyptian dukkah when I happened to stop by the chic Mediterranean restaurant for a quick bite. It was such a taste sensation, with exotic flavors bursting out of its skin. Although relegated to a side on the menu, I felt this uber root tuber creation could have been brought to the fore! 

When New York Times Cooking posted the following recipe for sweet potatoes with tahini butter, I hastened to make it straightaway—the list of ingredients brought me right back to my experience at Zou Zou. Carla Lalli Music, the creator of this dish, insists upon steaming the sweet potatoes however, instead of roasting them. She suggests that steaming imparts a flavor roasting can’t compete with and notes that the process also makes your sweet potatoes as fluffy as clouds.

Try the method, taste for yourself, and do enjoy!

Sweet Potatoes with Tahini Butter
Recipe from Carla Lalli Music
Adapted by Samin Nosrat

Ingredients
Yield:4 to 6 servings

2½ pounds sweet potatoes of any color (about 4 medium), washed
6 tablespoons unsalted butter (¾ stick), at room temperature
¼ cup well-stirred tahini
2 to 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice, plus lime wedges, for serving
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 clove garlic, finely grated or pounded smooth with a pinch of salt
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons white sesame seeds
Flaky sea salt, for serving

Preparation
Step 1
Bring a few inches of water to a boil in a medium pot fitted with a steamer basket or footed colander. Place sweet potatoes in the steamer. Cover, reduce heat to medium and steam until potatoes are completely tender, 35 to 40 minutes. (Use a skewer or paring knife to check for doneness; the potatoes should be soft all the way through.)

Step 2
Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk butter, tahini, lime juice, soy sauce, sesame oil and garlic until smooth. It might seem as if the butter and liquids will never fully combine, but they will — just keep stirring! Taste, and adjust seasoning with salt, pepper and more lime juice as needed.

Step 3
Set a small pan over medium heat. Toast the sesame seeds, swirling the pan continuously, until seeds are golden. They’ll give off some oil and start to clump together, so if needed, stir with a wooden spoon to keep them moving so that they toast evenly. They’ll turn a nice deep-golden shade just as they dry off a bit, about 4 minutes. Transfer seeds to a small bowl to prevent them from overcooking.

Step 4
When the sweet potatoes are tender, use tongs to transfer them to a large plate or platter. When they are just cool enough to handle, split potatoes in half lengthwise, and season with flaky salt. Spread tahini butter generously onto the flesh, and top with sesame seeds. Serve immediately with lime wedges.

 

Ricotta Gnocchi with Roasted Tomato

It’s time for tomatoes! An August tomato is like a lover you’ve been waiting for all season to embrace you at last with a kiss as ripe as summer.

Take advantage of the bounty this month when tomatoes are at their ready-to-burst best. This recipe calls for plum tomatoes but I think you should seek out farmer’s markets for huge heirlooms in all their infinite shapes and glorious colors. Then roast them for a summer-sweet sauce to pour over your golden brown, plump and pillowy gnocchi. Use fresh ricotta, if available!

As a part of my summer rotation for years now, I love this dish from my head to-ma-toes.

 

Ricotta Gnocchi with Roasted Tomato

From epicurious.com
Makes 4 (main course) servings

Ingredients
2 lb plum tomatoes, trimmed and halved lengthwise
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
3 large eggs
1 (15-oz) container ricotta
1 cup all-purpose flour

Preparation
Roast tomatoes:
Preheat oven to 400°F.

Put tomatoes, cut sides up, in 1 layer in a 13- by 9-inch baking dish. Dot with 2 tablespoons butter and season well with salt and pepper. Roast in middle of oven until skins are wrinkled and beginning to brown, about 45 minutes. Cool in baking dish.

Make gnocchi while tomatoes roast:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

Beat together eggs and ricotta in a large bowl with an electric mixer until blended. Stir in flour, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper until combined. (Batter will be soft.)

Use 2 teaspoons (flatware, not measuring spoons) to form gnocchi: Scoop up a rounded teaspoon of batter, then use second spoon to scoop mixture off spoon and into boiling water. Make 9 more gnocchi.

Simmer briskly until gnocchi are just firm in center and cooked through, about 5 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a platter and cool, covered with damp paper towel. Continue making gnocchi in batches of 10.

Make sauce and sauté gnocchi:
When tomatoes are cool enough to handle, peel and seed them over roasting pan. Slice tomato flesh lengthwise 1/4 inch thick and put in a medium saucepan. Scrape skins, seeds, and any juices from roasting pan into a fine sieve set over saucepan with tomatoes and press on solids in sieve to extract juices. Discard skins and seeds.

Stir 1/4 cup water into tomatoes and bring to a low simmer over low heat. While tomatoes are coming to a simmer, melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderate heat, then cook gnocchi, turning gently, until heated through, 4 to 5 minutes.

Season gnocchi with salt and pepper and serve with warm tomatoes.

BOOK/A TABLE - Davey's Cheesecake

My fella had a birthday recently, but we’d been celebrating here and there with scattered presents (a backgammon set, a dan dan noodle kit!) and a few special dinners since June. We figured looking forward to a birthday celebration in August results in leaving the bulk of summer too swiftly behind. But you know what? The summer flew ferociously past us just the same.

I surprised David with a table at The View in Times Square’s Marriott Marquis, the only revolving restaurant in Manhattan. They reopened several months ago after undergoing extensive renovations and we felt as though we’d booked passage on a Cruise Ship Time Machine dialed back to the 1980’s. Now, we loved the retro-ness of all of that (and the food is decent, by the way), but the real surprise was that most of the other patrons seemed more interested in their cell phone screens than the view of the city landscape unfolding below.

We also went to D.C. for a long weekend where we caught up with old friends, visited Julia Child’s kitchen at the Smithsonian, and bent elbows at The Willard. 

And then we came home to cheesecake!

I’d been thinking of making a cheesecake for David’s birthday since the spring when I borrowed my mother’s copy of Murder By Cheesecake. It’s a cozy mystery by Rachel Ekstrom Courage based on The Golden Girls series. I prefer the television series frankly, but the recipe for cheesecake with a lingonberry drizzle (in honor of Norwegian Golden Girl Rose Nylund) in the back pages of the book is a sweet touch. It also served as a lovely finale for all our festivities.

“Then Rose spent the afternoon making enough cheesecake to feed an army. She’d invented a new recipe infused with the traditional flavors of her beloved hometown to celebrate the lovebirds. Saint Olaf’s Kiss was a creamy vanilla cheesecake surrounded by an almond-and-graham cracker crust and topped with a sweet lingonberry drizzle.”

There needn’t be any particular celebration in order to make this cheesecake, though—sitting down with a nice drizzled slice to watch an episode of The Golden Girls is reason enough!

Murder by Cheesecake with Lingonberry Drizzle
Recipe developed by Sandra Ekstrom and Rachel Ekstrom Courage

Crust:
2 c. graham crackers (about 12 full-size crackers), crushed
½ c. slivered almonds
½ c. melted butter
⅓ c. sugar

Filling:
4 8-oz. pkgs. cream cheese, room temperature
1 c. sugar
1 T. flour
1 t. vanilla extract
4 whole eggs, room temperature
1 egg yolk, room temperature
½ c. cream

Lingonberry Drizzle:
1 jar lingonberries
Water (as needed)
Sugar (as needed)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray or butter a 10-inch springform pan.

Crush graham crackers and almonds in a food processor until fine. Add melted butter and sugar, processing until combined. Press mixture evenly onto the bottom and up the sides of the prepared pan.

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, and vanilla until smooth. Gradually beat in eggs, egg yolk, and cream until fully combined. Pour filling into the crust. Bake for 15 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 250°F and bake for 1 hour.

Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

To prepare the drizzle, slowly heat the jar of Lingonberries in a saucepan over low heat. Add water, one tablespoon at a time, to thin the sauce to the desired consistency. Add sugar, one teaspoon at a time, to achieve the desired sweetness. Gently spoon the sauce over the cooled cheesecake. Refrigerate to set.

To serve, dip a knife in water and wipe between cuts.

Enjoy your Murder by Cheesecake with a tangy and sweet lingonberry drizzle!

 

Pete's Dragon Bowl

Oh! How I used to love getting a Dragon Bowl from Angelica Kitchen! Chockablock full of vitamins, it wasn’t just a healthy meal after going for a run—it was also such a simple treasure to eat, rooting through all the tasty vegetables and seaweed dressed in a delicious tahini sauce.

Angelica closed some years ago, most unfortunately. While I realize that things must change, I nevertheless mourn the loss of my favorite Manhattan places (along with the memories they held), especially when they are replaced by something less memorable.

While the recipes for my beloved chimichangas from Bandito’s and Croque Monsieurs from Café de Bruxelles have been lost to time, I did find the recipe for the Dragon Bowl they used to serve at Angelica.

Be inventive and use your favorite greens, beans, and root vegetables to fill the bowl. I hope you enjoy this little time capsule! Per usual, my comments below are in italics.

Dragon Bowl

From the kitchen of Jules Dirsa originally adapted from a recipe in The Angelica Home Kitchen by Leslie McEachern.

Ingredients
1 bunch of steamed greens (ex: collard greens, mustard greens, kale, Swiss chard, or bok choy)
1 cup rice or other grains
1 cup beans or tofu (adzuki beans or garbanzo beans, pinto beans, etc.)
4 cups root vegetables or seasonal steamed vegetables (ex: carrots, beets, summer squash, rutabaga, parsnip, or zucchini)
1 oz or 1 cup sea vegetables (arame, sea palm, or hijiki, etc)
2 tbsp. tamari (wheat-free) or shoyu (brewed soy sauce)
1/3 cup julienned carrots
1/3 cup of onion sliced into thin crescents
4 cups of water

For the Dressing
1/2 cup firmly packed fresh parsley, washed, dried, and chopped
1 whole scallion/green onion, rinsed and sliced
1/4 cup tahini

1 tablespoon umeboshi paste (can be hard to find, also expensive; try subbing with brown rice vinegar or red wine vinegar with a dash of salt)
1/2 cup of water

Method
1. Prepare the rice and protein of choice, steam the greens and veggies. 

2. If using sea veggies: Soak for 30 minutes, then simmer in water for 25 minutes with julienned carrots, onion, and tamari. 

3. Assemble the bowl by layering each component into a colorful pile. 

4. Combine all the ingredients for the dressing in a blender and puree until smooth. 

5. Pour dressing on top of assembled dragon bowl.