Fresh Tart

This is the same Creamy, Fluffy Hummus - The Way It's Supposed To Be recipe I posted a few months ago, except substituting black lentils for the garbanzos.  That's the thing with hummus - you can make it with whatever bean you have on hand and it will always be lovely.

As true as it was when I first posted it, the secret to fluffy hummus is to emulsify the tahini with the lemon juice before you start whipping in the beans.  I give a basic outline for the seasoning, but you can adjust it to you suit your own favorite flavors.

Make a meal of it by serving with warm pita bread and a big salad.  Spread the hummus on the pita, pile some salad on top of that, take huge bites - serious yum.  For those of you avoiding grains, the creamy garlicky goodness that is a properly prepared hummus makes a delicious dip for radishes, cauliflower, and peppers.

You could even saute the vegetables in a bit of olive oil first until tender-crisp, pile the warm vegetables on top of a simple green salad, finish with hummus.  You'll get an incredibly satisfying warm/cool, crunchy/creamy, sweet/salty thing going on.

(Also see Using a Pot of Beans Part I: Poached Egg Over Lentils, Bacon & Cabbage and Using a Pot of Beans Part II: Almost-Instant Vegetable Bean Soup.)

Creamy, Fluffy Lentil (or Any Bean!) Hummus
Makes about 2 cups

1/4 c. tahini
juice of one lemon, about 1/4 c.
1/4 c. water or more
1/2 of a whole preserved lemon, seeds discarded (I find jars of whole preserved lemons at Whole Foods), minced (optional)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 c. extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
2/3 c. cooked lentils (or other beans)
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. smoked paprika
1/2 tsp. ground chipotle chili powder (optional, if you like spiciness; if not, skip it)
salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Add tahini, lemon juice, and water to the bowl of a blender.  Blend on high until the tahini becomes very fluffy and pale colored.  Add the minced preserved lemon (if using) and garlic and blend until pureed.  Add some of the the olive oil and lentils, a little bit at a time of each, blending until completely pureed before adding more.  Add a little bit more water at any point if hummus seems too thick.  You want it to be creamy and the consistency of mayonnaise.

Heat a small skillet over medium heat.  Add cumin and toast for a minute or two, just until fragrant and toasty smelling.  Do not burn it.  Remove from heat and immediately scrape it into the hummus.  Add smoked paprika and chili powder (if using).  Blend to incorporate.  Taste and adjust seasonings and salt (you'll need less salt if you used the preserved lemon).  Grind in some pepper.  Blend again.

Scrape hummus into a serving bowl.  Drizzle with additional olive oil and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.  (Can be made ahead; cover and chill, bring to room temperature before serving.)

Recipe for Spiced Pork Stew with Roasted Vegetables & Gremolata - over Polentahhh! - at Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly Magazine.

I'm a salty girl, always, but I think my cravings are even more intense in the winter.  Lately I've been plucking little balls of fresh mozzarella cheese from their whey bath, sprinkling them with salt, and popping them in my mouth like cherries.  Good Lord they're good that way - who needs tomatoes and basil?

Sort of my way of saying screw you to winter.

Another way (other than devouring a multi-course feast, below)?  Have a party!  Nothing tastes better with salt than wine and chat with a room full of girls, especially foodie girls who blog:

Food For My Family/Shaina
I Had A Delicious Time/Kelli
I Am Baker/Amanda
The Snyder 5/Molly
A Farm Girl's Dabble/Brenda
Cafe Cyan/Crystal

All made their way through the cold and into my kitchen where we ate, drank, gossiped, and laughed our butts off because Molly Snyder and Amanda Rettke are two of the funniest people on the planet.

Yes, I served them plenty of salt - salami, egg salad, ricotta cheese, roasted tomatoes, bacon-wrapped dates, crostini, almonds, olives, and...bagna cauda.  Have you had it before?  It means "hot bath" in Italian and is a salt-lover's dream come true.  Bagna cauda is really nothing more than anchovies, butter, garlic, and olive oil, warmed together and served with raw vegetables for dipping.

I set out radishes, peppers, carrots, and cauliflower, but it was the cauliflower I hit the hardest, after everyone left, when the bagna cauda had been sitting in a warm fondue pot long enough for the butter solids, garlic, and anchovies to have toasted into an insanely delicious sludge at the bottom of the pot.  It turns out that cauliflower, with its lovely bumps, is a perfect sludge-delivery vehicle.

I might pay later for eating almost an entire head of raw cauliflower dipped in anchovy butter...

...but so far I'm feeling pretty good.

Bagna Cauda
From Bon Apetit, December 1992, via Epicurious.com
Serves 6

From the website: Literally translated as "hot bath," this dipping sauce for vegetables often appears in many Italian homes as part of the Christmas Eve buffet. Although cardoons (an edible thistle related to the artichoke but resembling celery) are traditional, celery makes a fine substitute and any combination of vegetables will do. In Italy, the routine goes like this: Vegetable pieces are dipped into the sauce (a fondue-style fork will help) and then eaten, with a slice of bread held underneath to catch the drippings. Once the bread is soaked with sauce, it's eaten, too. Then everyone starts over. It's fun for a party appetizer no matter where you live.

3/4 c. olive oil
6 Tbsp. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
12 anchovy fillets
6 large garlic cloves, chopped

Assorted fresh, raw vegetables, cut into bite-size pieces
1 1-lb. loaf crusty Italian or French bread, cut into 2-inch pieces

Blend oil, butter, anchovies, and garlic in processor until smooth.  Transfer oil mixture to heavy medium saucepan.  Cook over low heat 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  (Sauce will separate.)  Season with salt and pepper.

Pour sauce into fondue pot or other flameproof casserole to keep warm.  Serve with vegetables and bread.

Swedish meatballs make a scrumptious main dish or festive party appetizer - your call.  Tender, fragrant with allspice and nutmeg, and bathed in a lightly creamy sauce, everyone goes wild for them.  Only you need to know that they're not complicated to make, and as a bonus, they're pretty cheap eats, too.

If you serve the meatballs for dinner, make sure to offer a mountain of fluffy mashed potatoes alongside.  (I offer a gluten-free adaptation below - and pictured!)

If you serve the meatballs as an appetizer, make them no more than 1-inch in diameter.  I like them even a bit smaller so they can be neatly skewered with a toothpick.

For another New Year's Eve appetizer idea, see the gougeres (aka cheese puff pastry) recipe I posted at Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly magazine this week.  Easy, do-ahead, and utterly addictive!  Serve them hot and cheesy from the oven, or cool to room temperature - lovely with a glass of wine.

Swedish Meatballs
Adapted from a recipe by Alton Brown for Food Network
Serves 4 as a main course, or makes 30 1-inch meatballs

Stephanie's note: The original recipes calls for 1/4 tsp. of allspice, but I find 1/8 tsp. much more to my liking. I have also prepared the recipe with all beef, very tasty.

2 slices fresh white bread
1/4 cup milk
4 tablespoons clarified butter, divided
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
A pinch plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 pound ground chuck
3/4 pound ground pork
2 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups beef broth
1/4 cup heavy cream

To me, it's not Christmas without my mom's fabulous 1970s appetizer platter.  I use it all the time, this time for fondue vegetables.

The smooth, tangy cheese...

...and rich beef tenderloin fondue were both amazing.  Fried beef.  Yes.

But I think my very favorite were the crispy cauliflower fritters - ridiculously good.

I used two fondue pots - one for the cheese, the other for the oil.  We dipped bread and vegetables in the cheese fondue, then fried the beef and cauliflower in the oil and dipped them in tomato-truffle and horseradish sauces as we went along.  If you were feeling really decadent, you could dip the cauliflower fritters in the cheese.  We missed that marvelous little move.

Next time.

Any of these would be delicious fun for New Year's Eve!

Cheese Fondue
From The Book of Fondues by Lorna Rhodes
Serves 6

1 Tbsp. butter
1 large shallot, minced
1 c. light ale (I used gluten-free beer)
4 tsp. cornstarch
5 Tbsp. half & half
4 c. (1 lb.) freshly shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Serve with any combination of:
baguette cubes
small pickles
radishes
red bell pepper
mushrooms

Melt butter in a large saucepan and cook shallot until soft.  Whisk together the ale, cornstarch, and half & half.  Whisk ale mixture into the shallot butter until hot and thickened (do not boil).  Turn heat to low and gradually stir in the cheese.  Continue to stir and heat until mixture is hot and smooth (but again, do not boil).  Transfer to a warm fondue pot and serve with bread and vegetables.

Cauliflower Fritters
From The Book of Fondues by Lorna Rhodes
Serves 6

1 lb. cauliflower, cut into florets
1 c. water
2 1/2 tsp. salt, divided
3/4 c. fresh bread crumbs (I used gluten-free bread)
1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
freshly ground black pepper
2 eggs
peanut oil or other high heat oil

Serve with one or more dipping sauces:
Tomato-Truffle Sauce
Cheese Fondue

Combine water and 1/2 tsp. salt in a large saucepan.  Bring to a boil, add cauliflower, and cook for 3-4 minutes (tender-crisp).  Drain well and spread on a baking sheet to cool.  (Can be done up to 3 hours ahead.  Cover and chill.)

Combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, parsley, 1 tsp. salt, and several grinds of black pepper in a medium bowl.  In a pie plate or shallow bowl, lightly beat the eggs with the remaining 1 tsp. of salt.  Dip cauliflower florets in beaten egg, coat in bread crumb mixture, placing on a serving platter as you go.  (Can be done up to 1 hour ahead.  Cover and chill.)

Heat oil in fondue pot (amount varies according to your individual pot and instructions; I use an electric Rival fondue pot, half-filled with oil) to 350 degrees F.  Spear cauliflower florets and fry until golden brown, about 3 minutes.  Serve with dipping sauces.

Beef Tenderloin Fondue
Serves 6

2-3 lbs. of beef tenderloin, cut into 1-inch cubes
salt
peanut oil or other high heat oil

Up to two hours before serving, lay the beef cubes out on a large baking sheet.  Sprinkle with coarse salt and let sit at room temperature.  Before transferring to a serving platter, blot any moisture from the cubes with paper towels.

Heat oil in fondue pot (amount varies according to your individual pot and instructions; I use an electric Rival fondue pot, half-filled with oil) to 350 degrees F.  Spear tenderloin cubes and fry to desired doneness.  Serve with warm tomato-truffle sauce, horseradish sauce, or other dipping sauces.

Tomato-Truffle Sauce
Makes about 1 1/2 cups

3 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. dried oregano
1 14-oz. can imported Italian tomatoes
1/2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. Thai fish sauce or anchovy paste (optional)
salt & freshly ground black pepper
truffle oil or truffle salt

Heat a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add oil and when it's hot, stir in garlic and oregano.  Saute for a minute or two, then one tomato at a time, crush tomatoes with your fingers into the pan, adding all of the juices from the can as well.  Stir in sugar and fish sauce (if using) and bring sauce to a simmer, turn heat to low, and cook gently for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until nicely thick and rich-tasting.

Remove from heat and stir in truffle oil or salt to taste (intensity varies widely, so you'll have to taste to decide, depending on the type of oil or salt you're using).  Season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.  Sauce should have a nice amount of saltiness to it since you're using it as a condiment.  (Can be prepared 2 days ahead; cover and chill.  Reheat before serving.)

Horseradish Sauce
Makes about 1 cup

1/2 c. whipping cream
1/2 c. creme fraiche
1/4 c. grated fresh horseradish (or more, to taste)
2 Tbsp. minced fresh parsley
1/2 tsp. salt

Whip cream to soft peaks.  With mixer on low, add creme fraiche, horseradish, parsley, and salt.  Adjust seasoning to taste.  (Can be made 1 day ahead; cover and chill.)

The table is set.

The Alice Medrich chocolate souffles - not too rich, nicely chocolatey - are ready for the oven.  They're both gluten-free and do-ahead.  If they washed dishes, they'd be perfect.  (That giant one in the back is for John!)

Cauliflower is blanched.  It still needs a coating of breadcrumbs, then it will be ready for the fryer we fondly call "fondue."  (Recipes for fondues and sauces are here.)

It's kind of crazy how perfectly Christmas-y all this snow is!  After Christmas, it's just...a lot of snow.  But for now, it's lovely.

Yeah.

Ooh, here's another quick crowd-pleaser from the lovely blog Jenn Cuisine: Pan-Roasted Almonds with Thyme & Truffle Oil.  They take mere minutes to make and whoamygoodness, they are insanely delicious.  I'm putting these away now so there are at least a few left for my guests.

Yikes.

The skaters arrived!

And both sauces are now done: Softly whipped cream with freshly grated horseradish, minced scallions, and a generous pinch of salt folded in, as well as the tomato sauce from below.  (Recipes for sauce and fondues are here.)

I'm having fun - I hope you are too!  More to come...

If you're scrambling today, wishing you'd made Christmas cookies, I offer this fast and delicious chocolate almond coconut bark.  It takes 10 minutes to prepare!  And just try to keep your hands off of it.  If you hate coconut, or almonds, substitute crushed toffee, or peanuts, or whatever you do like - this bark is whatever you want it to be.  Recipe at Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly magazine.

So far this morning, the house smells of garlic and truffles after making a quick tomato dipping sauce for this evening's beef fondue.  Here's our whole menu, by the way, forgot to put it up yesterday.

Cheese fondue with radishes, peppers, pickles, and cubed bread

Escargot in mushroom caps with garlic cream sauce
Roasted asparagus with fresh lemon

Beef tenderloin and cauliflower fritters fondue
Dipping sauces: tomato-truffle, horseradish cream

Chocolate souffles

What are you cooking today?

Even I have to admit that the winter wonderland out my window is gorgeous.  We have a neighborhood hockey rink which one of my neighbors is kindly snow-blowing so everyone can skate today.  It'll be a Norman Rockwell painting of skaters as soon as he's done.  (While we enjoy this lovely view, exactly none of us skate...although we stopped feeling guilty about it years ago and now happily watch the fun.)

Merry Christmas Eve!

I asked my son what he would like for Christmas Eve dinner, something out of our ordinary, something that would feel special.

He requested...escargot!

How fabulous, right?  I immediately jumped online, ordered the snails, and decided I'd rather not deal with the shells.  The dish that inspired Nathan's request is Cave Vin's shelless version anyhow, napped in a garlic cream sauce, topped with fried parsley.  Mon Dieu, it is every bit as delicious as it sounds.

For him, I'm going to stick to just snails and garlicky herb butter, served sizzling from the oven, with plenty of crusty baguette slices.

For the rest of us, who love mushrooms as well as escargot, I'm going to place an escargot inside a mushroom cap with garlicky herb butter, ditto the sizzling, crusty deliciousness.

Recipe forthcoming, once I (s)nail it exactly down...

(Oh look, there just happened to be one extra mushroom cap, which found itself stuffed with cheese, and then in the toaster oven, and then in my stomach.  Cook's treat - I'm a big fan.)

You might have passed right by celery root (also known as celeriac) at the store, thinking it looked anything but edible.  I admit, it freaked me out the first time I shopped for it, but I trusted the description I'd read (pleasantly mild celery taste, texture similar to a potato, overall effect of savory, delicious with cream and/or cheese) and went for it.

I've been very, very glad ever since.

Despite its gnarly appearance, celery root is quite easy to peel, revealing a pale green interior and a lovely, celery-meets-tarragon fragrance.  Slice it thin and layer it into a gratin.  Or chop and simmer with leeks to make this creamy, luscious soup.

In addition to being delicious, celery root just happens to be a very low carbohydrate vegetable, making it a lovely stand-in for potatoes if you're mindful of such things (I am).  I topped the soup two ways for the pics - above, with sliced scallions and crispy bacon; below, with a drizzle of walnut oil and toasted walnuts.  If you're thinking cheese could be happy here, you're so right...

Did you notice that this recipe provides one more option for using creme fraiche?  Given that it's 1) magical with eggs, 2) dreamy with fruit, 3) heavenly as a pan sauce, and now 4) divine swirled into soup, let's make 2011 the Year of Creme Fraiche!

Celery Root & Leek Soup
Serves 4 as a main course, 6 as an appetizer

3 Tbsp. butter
1 leek, pale green & white parts only, sliced thin
2 cloves garlic, minced
Kosher salt
2 celery roots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
a few gratings of fresh nutmeg
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
6 c. water or chicken broth
1/4-1/2 c. creme fraiche
freshly ground black pepper

garnish ideas:
crispy bacon & sliced scallions
toasted nuts & a drizzle of nut oil (i.e. hazelnut, walnut)
shredded Gruyere cheese

In a large saucepan over medium-low heat, melt butter.  Add leeks and garlic, with a light sprinkle of salt, and saute until leeks are becoming tender, about 8 minutes.  Add celery root, nutmeg, and dried thyme.  Stir in the water and 1 tsp. of salt (if using chicken broth, add less salt, to taste).  Bring soup to a simmer, then turn heat to low and cover.  Simmer for 30 minutes or until celery root is very tender.  Puree soup in batches in a blender, then stir back into the pot.  Stir in creme fraiche.  Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.  Serve with your favorite garnishes.