Category Archives: Recipes (Savory)

Dressed Up Veggies

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Miso gives an unexpected boost to an array of fresh veggies.

Blanched and sauteed vegetables tossed with melted butter.

Been there. Done that.

Wake things up by mixing an equal amount of blonde miso into the butter first.

Voila! What you get is a really velvety sauce that clings beautifully to the veggies. The flavor doesn’t scream miso soup. Rather it just lends a subtle umami or savoriness to it all.

The recipe for “Saute of Market Vegetables with Miso Butter” is a cinch to make. Even better, you can vary the vegetables you use, according to what’s in season.

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Soup-Sational

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Soup so good, you'll yearn for it.

When my hubby gives me that look of longing, I so know what that means.

When he gets that glint of desire in his eyes, after five years of marriage I totally know what he’s after.

No, not that. Geeze, Louise.

Please, he wants soup. The heavenly Chicken Meatball Soup that he’s loved (well, not as much as me, of course) since I started making it six long years ago.

It’s by Mary Sue Milliken, one half of the culinary duo that oversees Border Grill in Santa Monica and Las Vegas. (The other half is Susan Feniger, of course.)

The recipe is from the cookbook, “Cooking From the Heart” (Broadway Books), a compilation of recipes and anecdotes from 100 chefs that was put together to raise funds for Share Our Strength, one of the nation’s most prominent anti-hunger agencies.

Why is this soup so incredible? Well, it has meatballs for one thing. And who doesn’t love meatballs? It’s also a super-simple broth of chicken stock, onions, carrots, green cabbage, and a couple of plum tomatoes (use canned if they’re not in season), that becomes so much more than the sum of its parts. One or two jalapenos give it just the slightest kick. Orzo makes it substantial enough to be a light lunch or supper. And the final drizzle of white vinegar somehow miraculously ties all the flavors together, while elevating them at the same time, too.

It’s a soup that soothes, comforts, nourishes, and puts a contented smile on your face.

One spoonful, and you’ll be hooked. One spoonful, and whomever you share it with will be giving you that yearnful look, too.

Chicken Meatball Soup

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A Four-Star Chef Lends His Expertise to Home-Cooks

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Roasted duck with red wine-braised apples.

I still remember when I first watched a Charlie Trotter cooking show on public television years ago.

The renowned chef of the eponymous gastronomic temple, Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, was prepping a big hunk of meat that was to be roasted in the oven. To ensure the meat turned out super moist, he was going to stud it with bacon. “Just take your larding needle and insert the bacon pieces into the meat,” he instructed.

Uh, my what?

That was one of my early clues that big-name chefs are not like you and me.

I don’t know about you, but the only needles I usually have around the house are for sewing loose buttons on my blouses.

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Absinthe in Soup; Say What? (Part 2)

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Manhattan scallop chowder with fennel -- with a dash of absinthe.

That was my first thought, too.

But here I had a big bottle of Absinthe Verte and no Pernod in the house when I spied a recent New York Times recipe for Manhattan Bay Scallop Chowder with Fennel.

The easy soup looked wonderful, but called for three tablespoons of Pernod. With its similar anise-flavor, I wondered if I could substitute my absinthe instead. ‘Course, absinthe is way more potent than Pernod, but that’s beside the point, right?

Well, when the nice folks at San Francisco’s Jug Shop got wind of my intentions after I broadcast my culinary plan on various social networking sites, they grew concerned. They told me to proceed with caution before passing “Go.” After all, Pernod is 40 percent alcohol; Absinthe Verte is a whopping 60 percent (120 proof).

So I stirred up my soup pot of crispy bacon, fennel seeds, fennel bulb, garlic, potatoes, plum tomatoes, and clam juice. The recipe called for 1 pound of bay scallops. I used what I had on hand — a 1-pound bag of larger Trader Joe’s wild Japanese scallops (20/30 count; just be sure to remove the tough small muscle on each scallop before using) — which worked beautifully.

Then it came to the moment of truth. I started conservatively, stirring in only 1 tablespoon of absinthe at first, then tasting. Mmm, totally fine, I thought. So I added another tablespoon, and tasted. Again, it didn’t seem too strong at all. So I added the final tablespoon.

The soup had tasted as if it was missing something before I added the spirit. But once that was incorporated, the absinthe really brought all the flavors together, and heightened the fennel taste.

This light, bright chowder was briny, anise-like, and sublty sweet from the tender scallops. The Green Fairy had done good.

Manhattan Bay Scallop Chowder with Fennel

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Meyer Lemons — The Salty

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The beginnings of preserved lemons.

I owe a debt of gratitude to Moroccan cooking expert Kitty Morse.

After all, she’s the one who taught me just how easy it is to make my own preserved lemons.

How easy?

So easy that you don’t even need a real recipe for it.

I took a cooking class at Draeger’s years ago that Morse taught. It was there that she turned me on to the endless wonders of preserved lemons.

They cost a tidy sum if you buy them already made in jars in fancy gourmet stores. They cost mere pennies if you make them yourself, especially if you have your own lemon tree.

I always use Meyer lemons just because I love the floral, complex, and less puckery taste that they have. But I also know that Mourad Lahlou, the Marrakech-born chef-owner of Aziza in San Francisco, likes both Meyers and Eurekas, but for different uses. At a cooking demonstration late last year at the Culinary Institute of America’s Greystone Campus in St. Helena, Lahlou said he favors the more delicate preserved Meyer lemons in salads, but preserved Eurekas in long-cooked stews because the rind is thicker and doesn’t break down so much.

Day One: Packing the lemons into the jar.

Whatever lemon variety you choose, I guarantee you will have a fascinating time making preserved lemons. If you have kids, they’ll have fun watching the lemons do their thing, too. Think of it as your own little science experiment.

Week 2: The lemons are softening, and exuding their juice.

Indeed, the first time I wrote about making preserved lemons years ago in the San Jose Mercury News, I admitted I couldn’t stop looking at my lemons as they transformed themselves. I wasn’t the only one. Many readers wrote back after making their own batch, confessing that if they woke up in the middle of the night, they’d sneak a peek at their lemons. Morse even laughed that my lemons had become my pets.

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