Pasta with Fresh Peas, Herbs and Creme Fraiche

Pasta with Figs and Chilis

Yes, yes, it's another River Cafe recipe...

Cherry Ice Cream

Erik and I went cherry picking before I left town, and decided to make both ice cream and sorbet, as well as clafouti. We had leftover custard from the rhubarb, so we used that for an ice cream base, and then just added chopped cherries.

Borlotti Bean Soup with Papardelle

I have to admit that this River Cafe dish is probably the least appetizing-looking thing I have ever cooked. The picture really doesn't do it justice- it is sort of a vomit-gray paste with pasta. In order to make it more soup-like, we added a bit of pasta water, and have dressed it up here with some olive oil and herbs. In spite of its appearance, it was rather tasty. I think if I made it again I would fry the pancetta first (instead of boiling it and pureeing it), and leave the beans whole (instead of pureeing them with everything else), and serve everything tossed together as more of a pasta dish than a "soup" (which this was not exactly anyways).

Roasted Rhubarb with Custard

Another Jamie Oliver recipe, I'm afraid. The rhubarb was roasted with orange zest, ginger, and a little sugar, and was delicious with warm custard on top.

Chapati "Tacos"

Erik has been perfecting his chapati-making, so we decided to make "tacos" out of them. We used this recipe for shrimp tikka with mango chutney (which was realy more like an Indian salsa), and then Erik made a batch of extra-thick red lentil dal, plus some amazing raita to top it all off. Definitely a keeper!

Jamie's Nan's Lemon Poppyseed Cake

Recipe here.

Horseradish Potato Salad

From Jamie Oliver. Potatoes tossed in creme fraiche, horseradish, celery, parsley, tarragon, and lemon juice.

Slaw

Golden beets, cabbage, fennel, and carrots dressed with whole grain mustard, mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, brown sugar, celery seed, and fennel seed.

Cauliflower and Caramelized Onion Tart, Salad with Roasted Beets, Fava Beans and English Peas in a Mint Vinaigrette

Jenn came over tonight so Erik and I took it as an excuse to cook something we didn't want to eat all of by ourselves. The tart recipe comes from Bon Apetit, by way of Smitten Kitchen. It was insanely good. It's a good thing we had a guest, or I might have eaten the entire thing, and I don't even like cauliflower! (But let's face it: anything cooked with Gruyere, mascarpone and heavy cream is going to be good.) Erik threw together the salad with some leftover veggies we had in the fridge and lettuces from the garden. The mint vinaigrette was perfect with the peas, and the whole thing added a little brightness to our dinner.

Oatmeal Pancakes with Maple Roasted Apples

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Quinoa and Mozzarella di Buffala

Salad with Roasted Beets and Kumquats

Little Gems, Sunflower Sprouts, Golden Beets, Sunflower Seeds and Parmesan with a Lemon-Dijon Dressing

Inspired by a salad I had at Little Owl in New York.

Sea Scallops with Borlotti Beans, Arugula and Hot Chilis

Another River Cafe recipe, made with Rancho Gordo beans.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Pesto, Asparagus and Corn

Erik's been out of town, and I have had a lot of work and not much energy to cook, so I've been mostly living on leftovers, such as these gnocchi that we froze a couple months ago, and the pesto my mom and I made last week. I know corn isn't in season yet, but I had to buy some for work (long story) so I figured I may as well use it!

Pizza!

I am usually too lazy to make my own pizza dough, so I often buy it from local bakeries like the Cheeseboard and Arizmendi. I bought this dough from Jojo's Goodies at the Pop Up General Store last week. Using premade dough, whether you make it yourself ahead of time or buy it like I do makes pizza such a quick and fun dinner- not to mention a great way to use up the leftover bits of things in your fridge. I made these pizzas with my mom using some leftover asparagus from my fridge, and leftover prosciutto and mozzarella from hers, plus some quick pesto we whipped up, quick roasted tomatoes, and some ricotta I'd made that afternoon. Perfecto!


basil pesto, asparagus, and homemade ricotta cheese


prosciutto, roasted tomatoes, and mozzarella

Ricotta Cheese!

I took my first cheesemaking class earlier this week and let me tell you: ricotta is just about the easiest thing I know how to make. Well, maybe after sorbet. But really- you stir for 10 minutes and let it drain for an hour, and voila! Cheese!

1 gallon milk (can be whole, lowfat, skim, etc.)
1/4 C lemon juice
Salt, or additional seasoning

Heat milk to 175 degrees, stirring constantly. Add the lemon juice and continue to stir. The milk will curdle almost instantly and after a few minutes, drain it through cheesecloth set into a colander. Tie the corners of the cheesecloth to form a bundle and then hang it from a hook over a bowl (or the faucet on your sink) to drain. Once most of the whey has drained out (in about an hour), transfer the cheese into a bowl and use your fingers to crumble it a bit. At this point you can add a little salt to taste, or mix in chopped herbs and garlic, depending on how you want to use the cheese. If you're looking for a smoother cheese, you can run it through a food processor, or if you want it to be creamier, you can stir in some heavy cream. Pretty easy!

Manchego and Greens

This is my favorite bocadillo at César in Berkeley. I made it with some flowering mustard greens I found at the market.

Mung Bean Dal with Rice and Vegetables

Erik and I are doing an Ayurvedic cleanse this week, so aside from some toasted sunflower seeds and spiced yogurt drinks, this is what we are eating for all our meals: Mung beans soaked overnight and then cooked with rice, cilantro, coconut, spices, ghee and vegetables of our choice. Today we added beets, carrots, fennel and dandelion greens. Not too bad for medicine.

Logan and Olallieberry Sorbet

I picked these berries last summer and they've been sitting in my freezer waiting for the perfect moment. Today when my mother called asked me to bring dessert to dinner, I wanted to make something simple and easy, so I decided to make the berries into a sorbet. If you've never made sorbet before, it is incredibly simple: you just puree fruit, or use fruit juice, and churn it in an ice cream maker. That's it! I added a bit of sugar to these berries (which I pureed and strained to get the seeds out) as well as a splash of cherry liqueur to keep the sorbet from getting icy, churned the mixture and then stuck it in the freezer to harden for a few hours. The result was delicious and so pretty! I can't wait to go berry picking this summer so I can make more.

Cannellini Beans and Beet Greens with Breadcrumbs and Parmesan Cheese

This is another of Erik's creations.

Roasted Beet Salad with Tangerines, Mint and Honey

Salad with Mozzarella, Olives, and Fresh Garbanzo Beans

Made with lettuces from my garden!!! I can't wait until I can harvest my own garbanzos as well.

Spaghetti with Fennel, Currants, Capers, Anchovy, Pine Nuts and Breadcrumbs

There is probably a shorter name for this dish; all I know is that it was delicious! It was inspired by a recipe in the latest Jamie Magazine. We cooked down chopped fennel, onions and garlic with anchovies, capers, currants, chilis, and pine nuts. Then we tossed the pasta in it, along with some chopped lemon zest, parsley, and thyme, and toasted breadcrumbs.

Fennel-Rubbed Salmon with Caramelized Carrots and Poached Quail Eggs over Salad

Not our prettiest presentation, and maybe a little over-complicated, but everything was delicious together.

Buckwheat Pasta with Red Snapper, Roasted Tomatoes and Olives

This dish was inspired by a recipe from River Cafe Two Easy, and we broke the rules to make it, as tomatoes are not even close to in season. It was pretty tasty though, and I plan to make it again this summer when I have tomatoes coming out of my ears. The original recipe calls for Red Mullet, but since they are an East Coast fish, we substituted filets of Red Snapper instead. We just roasted the tomatoes with thyme and olive oil for about a half hour (I might give them an hour next time so they get caramelized), smashed the olives, and roasted the fish for maybe 10 minutes before tossing it all together with the pasta.

Brown Sugar Angel Food Cake with Candied Kumquats

The other day we bought three different kinds of kumquats at the market and candied them to put on ice cream. I had some left and needed to make another Passover dessert, so this recipe from Martha seemed perfect. I used matzoh meal instead of flour, so the cake came out more dense than a normal angel food cake... almost like a very light pound cake. But it was pretty tasty! I didn't have any creme fraiche so I made some brown sugar whipped cream and filled the center of the cake with it in addition to the piping you can see.

Flourless Chocolate Torte

This "Chocolate Valentino" comes from Alpine Berry and has become one of our Passover favorites. It's super rich so one cake is definitely enough for a large group.

Millet Cake

Erik made this one- I take no credit- but it was really tasty so I thought I'd share. I think this would be amazing with the addition of some parmesan cheese, or as Erik likes to serve it in the summer, with pesto. Recipe here.

Spaghetti with Anchovy, Hot Pepper and Breadcrumbs

This is a super simple recipe from Jamie Oliver. We made it with farro pasta, which I use for everything these days- it's a little bit sweet and has a really nice bite. We toasted some bread crumbs in a pan with olive oil, garlic, and some fresh thyme, and put them aside. Then we melted the anchovies with some minced garlic and hot pepper flakes, and tossed the pasta in it, adding the breadcrumbs on top.

Eggless Mayonnaise

This recipe was on David Lebovitz' blog yesterday and as we happened to have bought some lovely little artichokes at the market, we decided to whip up a batch to accompany them. It's amazing how close it is to a real mayonnaise, and a bit lighter for those of us who are trying to pay attention to these things. I made it without the chervil, since my plant is still pretty small, and I added about a half a teaspoon of Dijon mustard. I should add that this photo makes it look much more yellow than it really was, but I thought it was too pretty to color correct.

Salmon over Lentils with Caramelized Shallots and Kale

For the salmon, I chopped up a bunch of herbs from the garden and some lemon zest, mixed them with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and drizzled the mixture over the salmon. I baked the filets for about 12 minutes in a 450 degree oven.


Meanwhile, Erik sliced the shallots very thin and caramelized them slowly in a pan with some olive oil. Then he added the kale and let it cook down. We'd soaked the lentils overnight, so all we had to do was strain them, bring them to a boil, and season them before serving.

Strawberry Ice Cream Sandwiches!

It's almost strawberry season here and I thought I better use up the last of the berries I froze last summer. We used the basic vanilla ice cream recipe that came with my Kitchenaid attachment, and added chopped strawberries and a little strawberry puree to it as it was churning. For the cookies, we used this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. YUM!

Garbanzo Bean, Sunchoke, and Asparagus Risotto with Gremolata

There were fresh garbanzo beans at the market today! They taste like a cross between a pea and a fava bean, and we thought they'd go great with the yummy asparagus we've been getting. First we parboiled the asparagus and saved the water to cook the rice with. We roasted and then pureed the sunchokes and added them to the risotto once it was nearly finished cooking, along with the asparagus and beans, and then served it with gremolata on top.

Boudin Blanc and Beans

Since I couldn't make it to my home away from home, Camino, for the last of their Boudin Blanc Mondays tonight, I had to make do at home. I bought a beautiful sausage from the Cafe Rouge butcher shop (it's much more lemony than Russ') and sauteed it with some cannellini beans and fresh thyme. The leftover fennel in milk from the other night was the perfect accompaniment!

Sauteed Asparagus and Fava Bean Shoots

We found fava bean shoots at the market! They were bitter and sweet at the same time, if that is possible. Yum!

Braised Artichokes with Mint

And another Saveur recipe...

Broccolini with Garlic and Hot Pepper

Another Saveur recipe... we made it with broccolini and it was delicious.

Fennel Baked in Milk

This month's Saveur featured some fantastic recipes for Roman contorni, so Erik and I made a few of them tonight for some friends. The biggest success was this Finocchio con Latte al Forno, which was buttery and sweet and made us all want to lick our dishes. I will definitely be making this again and again.

3 medium bulbs fennel, fronds reserved
4 cups milk
4 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 tsp. fennel seeds, crushed
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
Heat oven to 475°. Remove tough outer layer of fennel. Halve bulbs lengthwise and cut into 1⁄2″ wedges. Combine fennel, milk, and 2 tbsp. butter in a 4-qt. saucepan over medium-high heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until fennel is just tender, 30–45 minutes. Add fennel seeds and season with salt and pepper.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer fennel to a 2-quart oval baking dish; pour 1 cup of the milk mixture over fennel. Sprinkle with Parmesan, dot with remaining butter, and bake until golden brown and bubbly, about 20 minutes. Serve fennel garnished with some of the fronds.

SERVES 4 – 6

Pasta with Asparagus, Mint and Ricotta Salada

Roasted Garlic Risotto with Toasted Almonds and Breadcrumbs, and Mascarpone Cheese

An old favorite!

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Kale, Caramelized Onions, Fried Sage, and Crispy Pancetta

Gnocchi recipe here. We found that it needed more flour (almost 2 cups more), but I'd say just use your instincts.

Chicken, Avocado and Cream Cheese

I know this sounds weird (or boring, or both), but I think it's a great and subtle sandwich. The creamy avocado and the tangy cream cheese mix together really well, especially on soft, fresh bread. I stole the idea years ago from a favorite sandwich shop in downtown Oakland- they add bacon, and I admit that adds some more interesting flavors, but I am usually too lazy to fry some up for my own purposes.

Citrus Salad with Preserved Lemon and Avocado Toast