Brussels Sprouts Are The Best

First off, please excuse the photo. Our real camera's battery was out of juice, so Noah took this picture on his Blackberry. I'm guessing the above photo isn't exactly the best way to persuade people that Brussels sprouts are, indeed, the best.

I honestly don't think I'd ever eaten them until a few years ago - both of my parents loathe (or I should say loathed) them. Until Brian made them for us one Thanksgiving. One bite and I was convinced, as were mom and dad. Perhaps it was the added bacon (or was it pancetta), because as we all know, PORK MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER. And Noah actually liked them, too, which is crazy since I still can't get him to let go of his broccoli phobia and broccoli is a million times less intimidating than Brussels sprouts. I guess that's how good a chef Brian is. Hmm, note to self - have Brian make something with broccoli next time we're in town...

Sunday I picked up some sprouts at the farmers market and had to make them, stat. They just looked that good. Plus Sunset magazine had a recipe for them in the October issue that I'd been dying to try. However, being the cooking tweaker that I am (does that make anyone else think I huff glue and bake cookies? I don't) I had to add in some of my favorite twists from Suzanne Goin's recipe in her "Sunday Suppers at Lucques" cookbook. Namely balsamic vinegar and some of the awesome bacon from the pork guy at the farmers market - think nice thick rashers, not that crappy stuff in the supermarket aisles.

It was perfect for the cool-ish evening (we've been having crisp nights, despite our 90 degree days in LA). Noah and I made it our main course, along with some leftover sourdough, fresh mozzarella, garden basil and tomatoes that we turned into a grilled panini. Yum!

Brussels Sprouts with Parmesan and Pine Nuts
Sunset magazine, October 2008

Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Add 2 tsp. minced garlic and 3/4 lb Brussels sprouts, trimmed and quartered; cook, stirring often, until softened, 8 minutes. Add 1/4 c. vegetable broth; cook until sprouts are just tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Add 2 tbsp. toaste pine nuts. Season to taste with kosher salt and black pepper. Sprinke with grated parmesan cheese.

London Angeles

This is stop two on the "neighborhood tour" I started in yesterday's post.

About three blocks down and three blocks west of our little house in Hollywood you'll find these guys parked. Crazy, huh? It's like the UK came to town and nobody told me. Bastards!

I'm guessing they're parked in a prop car storage facility or some such place. Obviously not in the best working order, probably just available for background rental or something. Either that or there's some kind of wormhole that transported me to York (which is the stated destination on the closer bus).

For some reason when I was messing around with this picture the effect I used decided to give it rounded corners. It seemed appropriate with the tatty bus. Like my parents took the picture on a trip to England in the '70s. It reminds me of a bunch of photos they have of me as a child. Aww.

So, welcome to my crazy world - tropical gardens to double decker buses in less than six blocks. I wouldn't live anywhere else.

Next in the neighborhood tour... Amsterdam?

Tropical Southern California

Noah and I went for a walk in our neighborhood the other day, twelve blocks or so, and only in looking back at the photos I took do I realize that those twelve blocks have no less than four distinct styles.

These pictures are from the first few blocks near our house. These bananas grow in front of a house less than a block away, one that's tumbling down and Craftsman in style. Not exactly where you'd imagine planting some banana (or are they plantain) trees.


This cool flower was growing at the base of the bananas. Looks tropical and a little alien at the same time. A less threatening version of the plant in Little Shop of Horrors.






















Another block after that and we're in the heart of "newly built, vaguely Mediterranean" condo central. Yep, those places are going like hotcakes in this real estate market.

At least they have pretty flowers in the mini-courtyard outside. Like these:

Stay tuned for the next neighborhood style - '60s London. Aren't you, like, dying from curiosity?

Squashin' Good Time

Recently I wanted to make a quick bite, something that would use up some yellow squash I had and wouldn't take forever to make.

I found a zucchini recipe in Alice Waters' "The Art of Simple Food", which happened to already be open and on my kitchen counter when the hunger struck. It called for five ingredients - zucchini, garlic, oil, salt and marjoram (which we grow in our garden and I never remember to use). The most difficult thing to do in the whole recipe was grate the squash. I substituted the yellow squash for the green zukes and 15 minutes later I was enjoying the dish. You sprinkle the squash with salt in a colander and let it sit for 10 minutes, so most of that was waiting time.

It worked out pretty well. In retrospect I would probably have used less garlic (I used two cloves and I think the recipe only called for one) and sauteed it with the squash instead of turning the cloves into a paste and mixing it in raw.

Grated Yellow Squash with Marjoram
adapted from Alice Water's "The Art of Simple Food", her recipe is Grated Zucchini with Marjoram

2 yellow summer squash
1 clove garlic
1-2 tbsp. olive oil
salt
marjoram

Grate the squash into a colander and sprinkle with salt. Let it sit for 10 minutes, then press to remove excess water.
Use a mortar and pestle or food processor to turn the garlic into a paste. In a bowl, mix squash, garlic paste and as much oil as you feel the dish needs.
Heat a saute pan on medium, then transfer the mixture into it. Saute until cooked, about 5 minutes.
Turn off the heat and mix in a tablespoon or so of marjoram leaves. Add salt, if needed.
Serve.

More Crisps and Cobblers

It's almost October! Which is awesome and sad. Halloween and tiny children in costumes and candy = super fun. Cooler weather = pretty nice change, if/when it happens. No more summer fruit = very, very sad.

And so I'm trying to make the best of it by whipping up some desserts that taste like rays of summer sunshine. A week ago I found a bunch of just-on-the-edge-of-overripe plums lingering in the kitchen and decided to turn them into a plum crisp. I got the recipe (to follow) out of one of my go to cookbooks - The Santa Monica Farmers' Market Cookbook. It was incredibly easy to assemble, required minimal ingredients and tasted delish. The leftovers were even better when I had them for breakfast the next day.

The crisp topping incorporated some candied ginger, an ingredient I've often turned to when using stone fruit in desserts this summer. It was good, although I think I should've gone with my initial instinct and used some of the almond paste I have in my cupboard instead. I am a slut for anything almond paste/marzipan related.

Check out the finished product:

And then this weekend it was Abby's birthday and I wanted to make her something yummy. She's not a fan of cake-centric desserts so I decided to go with another summer sunshine fruit treat. But I was a little crisp/crumbled out.

Which left cobbler or shortcake as my main options. I didn't have any cream on hand and cream is what makes a good shortcake, IMHO. Hello, cobbler!

For the recipe, I turned to yet another trusty cookbook companion, Alice Waters' "The Art of Simple Food". I got this one a few months back from KCRW's Cookbook Club. I LOVE IT. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT.

The recipes are so easy and taste soooooo good. I find her Chez Panisse and even the Chez Panisse Cafe cookbook recipes a little too time consuming, but this book has brilliantly done away with all that fuss (don't get me wrong, fuss is damn tasty, just something I don't have time for most days).

The cobbler ended up being a melange of peaches and nectarines, since I didn't have enough of either alone. I don't think you could really tell, in baked form they taste pretty similar.

The cobbler was consumed during the viewing of an OU football game (don't ask me how we managed to befriend so many Okies, I have no clue). I think the birthday girl (not an OU fan) was pleased. If she wasn't she did a fine job of faking it.

Plum Crisp with Cornmeal Topping

adapted from "The Santa Monica Farmers' Market Cookbook" by Amelia Saltsman

3 1/2 pounds plums, one kind or a mixture, halved, pitted and large plums quartered (I sliced them into eighths)

1 to 2 tablespoons honey, warmed

2 tablespoons dessert wine, such as muscat

1 c. flour

2/3 c. cornmeal

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 c. granulated sugar

1/4 c. packed light brown sugar

2 tbsp. chopped, crystallized ginger

grated zest of 1 lemon (I was out of lemons and substituted some dense lemon marmalade that I had)

3/4 c. (12 tbsp.) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (I only used 6 tbsp. and thought it was gobs)

Heavy cream, creme fraiche or vanilla ice cream for serving

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Arrange the plum pieces, cut side up, in a shallow 3 qt. baking dish. They should be somewhat vertical and overlapping slightly. (I had smaller pieces and just kinda jumbled it all together). Drizzle honey over the fruit, sprinkle with wine. Bake the fruit for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the topping. In a bowl, stir together the flour, cornmeal, salt, granulated and brown sugars, ginger, and lemon zest. Add the butter and work it in with your fingertips, a pastry blender or a fork, until the mixture resembles coarse sand with some larger lumps and bumps. Remove the plums from the oven and sprinkle the topping evenly over the fruit. Continue to bake until the fruit is syrupy and the topping and the edges of the fruit are browned, about 40 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature, accompanied with cream.

My note: I think you could substitute the granulated sugar and some of the butter with 3-4 tbsp. almond paste and make a killer alt. crisp topping.

Peach Cobbler

adapted from "The Art of Simple Food" by Alice Waters

Peel:

4 lbs. ripe peaches

Dip the peaches in boiling water for 10 to 15 seconds, then slip off the skins. Cut the peaches in half, remove the pits and cut into 1/3 inch thick slices. There should be about 7 cups of fruit.

Taste and toss with:

1 tbsp. sugar (if needed)

1 1/2 tbsp. flour

I added:

2 tbsp. good balsamic vinegar

Pile the fruit into a 2-qt. baking dish and top with 8 unbaked Cream Biscuits (recipe follows). Bake in a 375 degree oven for 40 to 55 minutes (rotate once or twice while cooking for even browning) or until the cream biscuits are a golden brown and the fruit is bubbling in the dish.

Variations (per Alice):

Use three pounds peaches and toss the slices with 1 or 2 cups raspberries, blackberries or blueberries.

Use white peaches and yellow peaches mixed together, or nectarines.

Serve with whipped cream, a pitcher of cold cream, or with ice cream.

Cream Biscuits

from "The Art of Simple Food" by Alice Waters

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Stir together in a large bowl:

1 1/2 c. all purpose flour

1/4 tsp. salt

4 tsp. sugar (optional)

2 tsp. baking powder

Add:

6 tbsp. (3/4 stick) cold butter, cut into small pieces

Cut the butter into the flour with your fingers or a pastry blender until they are the size of small peas. Measure:

3/4 c. heavy cream (I used non-fat milk and it was just fine)

Remove 1 tbsp. and set aside. Lightly stir in the remainder of the cream with a fork until the mixture just comes together (you may need to add more flour, I did). Without overworking it, lightly knead the dough a couple of times in the bowl, turn it out onto a lightly floured board and roll out about 3/4 inch thick. Cut into eight 1 1/2 inch circles or squares. Reroll the scraps if necessary. Place the circles or squares on top of the peaches and bake following the above instructions. (Note: Once the mixture was formed, I just spooned out nine individual dollops onto the top of the peaches, rather than rolling and cutting it.)

Les Poissons

I've been meaning to post about these dinners for over a week. What can I say, I'm lazy sometimes.

Both dinners started at the weekly Farmers Market, where I love to buy fish - if the line isn't too long. Which really only happens if I manage to get out of bed by 8 and head up to the market stat. Have I mentioned the market is on Sunday?

The first dish was dinner two Sundays ago. The fish is opah, which is really one of my favorites right now. I believe it's also called moonfish, in case you're looking for it in your local market. We've made it before using a great marinade of pineapple juice, limes, chiles, oil and salt. But this time we went very basic - oil, salt, pepper.

To play off of it, I roasted up some small eggplants and tomatoes in oil, salt and garlic (1-2 hours at 250 degrees farenheit) and plated the fish on top of it. The two went together brilliantly, if I do say so myself. The eggplants and tomatoes were almost like a chunky, hot marmalade with a nice, sweet flavor.

I'd also gotten some scallops that day and did them as an appetizer. Again we just went salt, pepper, oil and seared them quickly in a pan. We served them with a lemon butter sauce that didn't go well with the scallops - too bitter for my taste. Noah liked it more.


Now here's the nice thing about our fishmonger - she always throws in something tasty for free. This week it was a nice chunk of ahi tuni. She's kind of awesome, right?

I've never loved seared ahi the way some people do, but this made a great light protein with a big salad for dinner that Monday night.

In case you're wondering, the weird blue light on the fish is probably reflection from the TV as we watched Gossip Girl. Oh, Chuck Bass, you delightful schemer you.

Fingers crossed for an early trip to the market tomorrow and some more fun with fish.

Transitioning the Garden

Lots of stuff going on in the garden right now. First off I walked out a few days ago and found the above guy growing. My first sunflower! I've been planting sunflower seeds for years to no avail. And just when I'm about to give up/run out of seeds I finally get one. Woop woop!

And there's also this melon:

He(?) (Do melons have genders?) just showed up out of nowhere when we first did our summer plantings back at the end of March. We had no idea what he was going to be, since melons look kind of like cucumbers and we eat/compost lots of them. Squash was an option, too. But apparently it's a melon. Anybody have a clue as to type? Guess we'll find out when we finally cut him open.

It's also time for the last of the summer tomatoes. Like this honkin' Marmande:


We had zero Marmandes for months, then we got three. But somebody (our back neighbor, we suspect) stole both of them just as they were hitting their peak of ripeness! You have not met two more bitter gardeners when Noah and I discovered that tragedy. This one is finally ready (the pic is about a week old, I picked an almost fully red tomato this evening, before it got stolen).

And the Riesentraubes! Oh, the Riesentraubes... how I love thee. You just keep giving and giving and I know you'll do so up through October and into November. Check these pretties out:

They're great for roasting whole with some eggplant (as I did with the eggplants from the Farmers Market on Sunday night) in olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic.

But this weekend it was time to start buying and planting the fall/winter garden. It'll be our first non-summer garden and I'm kinda psyched. I picked out two kinds of Brussel sprouts, purple asparagus (which Jimmy the Plant Dude assured me are so awesome you can eat raw) and some scallions.

I still want to plant some spinach (gotta wait 'til it's a little more consistently cool during the days), lettuces, maybe a butternut squash. I put in some dumpling squashes about a month ago. Maybe I'll get kale and chard, if there's room. I've got a Black Krim tomato going that I planted about a month ago, he'll be our winter tomato. One of the awesome things about living in LA, you can get tomatoes nearly year round if you're strategic in your planting.

Any other suggestions?