scallop gratin

this is a dish fancy enough to entertain, but is remarkably easy to prepare, especially if you have a two year old to do all the sprinkling for you. it's a barefoot contessa recipe that i've been meaning to prepare for ages. it looks very pretty in individual dishes, but the taste won't be in any way diminished in a larger dish.

i had to adapt the recipe to fit what i had in the fridge, which did not contain pernod - nor will it ever, because i don't appreciate anise-flavoured beverages - and so i used only a demisec romanian white wine, which worked quite well. i don't believe it suffered at all. also omitted the shallot and substituted the fresh parsley with dried herbes de provence. and i don't like to dirty up the mixer when the job is easily done by hand. the official dishwasher isn't home.

please use the link above if you care to see the recipe. scale it, adapt it, do what you like but do not give up the garlic, the prosciutto, the lemon, and do use panko. regular breadcrumbs will never work as well. i skipped the wine on the bottom, and i added an extra layer of panko mixed with parmesan on top. zhara had a ton of fun, and once the gratin was in the oven she refused to get down, saying she's not done cooking. so i finally could take a few pictures of her.

lemon veggie orzo

ever since she managed to land a sprinkle on a cookie and not on the floor, zhara has become very interested in what goes on in the kitchen. at first it was just about decorating, then also the making of cookies. after a while she demaned to attend the preparation of all desserts. now it's simply understood that we cook together. whenever i announce i'll be making lunch, or dinner, she pushes up a chair by the counter and gathers her plastic cutlery. then she asks what we're making and immitates my every gesture on her set of pans (aka spare measuring cups).

today we made this orzo, it's one of her favourite dishes and i'm sorry i don't have an extra hand to photograph her while she's working. she gets very focused, narrates everything she does and when she's pleased she smiles and her eyebrows go up in wonder of what she has achieved. i write off the state of my kitchen as collateral, and enjoy her having fun. plus she's more inclined to eat something she helped prepare.

i make this more than one way, sometime with pancetta or sausage, or maybe corn instead of zucchini. the method stays the same, the meat would be pan-fried first and the rest is the same. first sautee the onion and when it's soft add 3/4 cup orzo and cook, stirring often, until it's starting to color. add finely chopped red bell pepper, just a half if it's huge, and sautee a couple minutes. add 2 cups water, bring to boil and throw in 3/4 cup frozen shelled edamame. bring to boil again, cover and simmer 6 minutes. add one grated zucchini and cook another 2 minutes. the water should be almost absorbed, only a couple tablespoons left. add 1/3 cup grated parmesan, the zest of one lemon very finely grated and mix well to combine. correct seasoning. turn off the heat, cover and let it sit five minutes. serves 2 as an entree or 4 as a side.

zhara loves everything lemony, and while you can always add a squeeze of lemon juice to give it a more enhanced flavour, i like it with zest only. there's not a sour note, only wonderful perfume, a subtitle, an afterthought. and it's creamy, but not overly cheesy, and the orzo spends 10 minutes in the pan. sold.

baked potato millefeuille

i'm the kind of person who finds comfort in certain routines. our nights are set in stone: dinner, play/read, bath. one final cartoon. then zhara goes to bed, at eight. and then i have a few hours just for myself, even if sometimes that just means cleaning the house or other chores. i try hard to have dinner with zhara at 5:30 and to not eat late, but i rarely succed. today what did me in was these insane baked potatoes. i remember seeing them done on some show - tyler florence? emeril?  - a while back, but i managed to get it out of my mind, until today i saw them on alina's blog.

i have a terrible weakness for baked potatoes of any kind, little wonder i couldn't resist these! while zhara watched her cartoon i got them ready for the oven, and then no other chore for momma but to chow these down while watching a movie. as usual, i couldn't resist tinkering with the concept, so my version involves a sage garlic cream glaze and a topper of parmesan and chopped sage. i used prosciutto, both crudo and cotto to stuff these, and the only cheese i had - munchee, but i recommend something sharp(er). i believe firmly in using what i have on hand, so it's not a big deal. i wanted to try bacon as well, but by the time my excitement for the prosciutto-sage combo wavered down i was out of potatoes.

preheat oven to 400F. line a tray with foil. peel the potatoes and slice them thinly three quarters down so they're still attached at the bottom. fill the gaps between the slices, alternating, with pieces of cheese and meat. season with salt and pepper. place two thin butter pats on each potato and wrap thightly in foil.

bake 45 minutes. in the meantime, finely chop fresh sage - 1 leaf per potato. finely grate parmesan cheese - 1 tb per potato. measure 1 tb cream per potato and steep it with more sage and a crushed garlic clove. when the potatoes are ready, open the foil packets and paint cream all over the top. use a pastry brush to ensure you get every slice. sprinkle parmesan and chopped sage and bake again until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown. serve hot with a dollop of sour cream.

by 20 minutes in the oven, your house will be filled with the most tempting aroma. by 40, you'll be patrolling the kitchen, patience nearly gone, exhausted with the anticipation of the first bite. or at least i did. i did not have enough restraint to wait for them to brown, so i put them under the broiler. i burned my tongue. it was worth it.

p.s. in case you're less ocd than me: you don't have to alternate the meat/cheese, you can put both in each slice, or just cheese (i'm going to have to try that) and if you're going to try prosciutto cotto use oregano on top, i find that sage works much better with the prosciutto crudo. either way, but try it!

cauliflower mac and cheese

picky eaters or not, children have such an instinctive distaste for this vegetable and its relatives, it's like an international conspiracy is imbeded in their genetic code. i am one of the few spared. as i kid i loved it fried, in a light batter of egg and flour, and my mother's cauliflower gratin qualified as holiday. i tried them all, plus soups and stews for zhara, but i can beg till the cows come home. she just says no, in a voice very much prophesizing the teenager she'll be. well, she may be stubborn, but i have decades of practice on her.

the ideea is to make a fine cauliflower puree which then goes in your kid's favourite pasta sauce. i've made this a few times to get it right, and for zhara it only works if i use a sauce mornay made with munchee - it's the only cheese she'll eat. we also use miniature pasta, she's just more amenable especially if they have cute shapes, like animal or letters. 

i don't know if you can tell looking at the picture, but it's all bite size, the penne are less than 1 inch, and the meatballs are barely the size of a quarter. so first you break the cauliflower into small florets and you boil it until easily pierced with a fork. while it boils, prep your sauce and boil the pasta. you can either do a bechamel, by making a roux out 2 tb each butter and flour and then streaming in 1 cup milk, or you can use jarred alfredo sauce. either way, add to it 1/2 cup packed grated cheese. when it's melted add the cauliflower puree, season with salt and pepper and pinch of italian seasoning. i have to use equal quatities of sauce and cauliflower puree, any less sauce and she won't eat it. one cup sauce plus one cup puree is sufficient for 3/4 lb pasta. 

zhara enjoys it very much. she ate so much of it for lunch that she couldn't touch her usual second course of fresh fruit. the meatballs didn't fly, but i don't care, this is still such progress for her!

osso bucco with sour cherry gremolata

recipe adapted from tyler florence.

this is hands down one of my favourite comfort foods. i have made it with veal shanks for a long time, until one day my butcher only had beef shanks. nice guy, my butcher, thoroughly competent except for his tendency to ma'am people without cause. yes, ma'am. here you go, ma'am. a good day to you too, ma'am. what the heck?! made me feel like the patron saint of mothballs and wooden walkers. i smiled back and said nothing, cause he always cuts my meat exactly the way i ask for it, he trims everything, he even deveined shrimp for me. a good butcher is priceless.

4 beef shanks

4 tb all-purpose flour

2 tb butter

2 onions

1 carrot

2 celery stalks

3 garlic cloves

1 cup red wine

zest of one lemon, finely grated

2 bay leaves

1 14oz whole canned tomatoes, preferably san marzano

beef stock

gremolata:

3 tb chopped parsley

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tb orange zest, finely grated

2 tb dried sour cherries, diced

let the meat sit on the counter for half hour so it can come to room temp. give it a quick rinse in cold water to remove bone splinters and pat dry. season the flour generously with salt and pepper. heat 2 tb oil with the butter in a large pan. dredge the meat through the flour, on all sides. shake off excess flour and sear the meat until good and brown, on all sides. do not crowd the pan, do it in batches if you have to. remove the meat to a plate and add onions to same pan. saute a couple minutes and add carrots, celery, garlic, lemon zest and bay leaves. cook another 5 minutes, then pour the wine  - whatever red you have, so long as it's good enough to drink, never buy those labeled 'for cooking'. nest the meat back in the pot and cook the wine until reduced by half. crush the san marzanos by hand and add them to the pot, with enough beef stock to just cover the meat. [i've done it using water a few times, and it's just as good, so if you don't have stock it's no biggie.] bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer gently, partially covered for 2 hours. check every now and then, and taste the meat after 1 1/2 hours. you can also braise it in the oven, once you've got it boiling cover it and put it in at 375F.

for the gremolata simply mix all the ingredients together. serve the osso bucco hot over mashed potatoes, and about 1 1/2 ts gremolata sprinkled over the whole thing. it really is a thing of wonder how such a humble cut of meat becomes nothing short of exquisite, because that great marbling of connective tissue breaks down into sweet, melted comfort. the sauce has amazing depth thanks to the reduced wine and the quality tomatoes. eat, enjoy, loosen belt. do the dishes in the morning.

zucchini stuffed mushrooms

lately dinner with the princess involved games and tricks, begging and imploring, threats and tears, and enough bribery to make the sopranos look like innocent kittens. i'm concerned she's not getting enough nutritive elements, since all she wants to eat is yoghurt and fruit. and crackers. so i do what any good mother does: find a weakness and exploit its full potential. as it happens, my daughter has three: pickles, mustard and tortilla chips. and it turns out, she'll eat anything if it's perched on a chip or pickle slice or it's sitting in a blob of mustard. i made these stuffed mushrooms and she wouldn't even look at them, but when i put them on tortillas, that was a new story entirely.

typically i make these with spinach, but i wanted something new. i used zucchini instead, finely grated. you end up with about the same texture. first i panfried some bacon, and in the fat rendered i sauteed a mountain of onion. then i added a bit of garlic and some red and green peppers.

my mushrooms were medium sized portobellos, which seemed thick to me, so i parbaked them while this was happening. when the pepper was slightly softened i added the finely grated zucchini, gently drained, and seasoned with white pepper and very little salt. off heat i crumbled in the bacon and some feta.

i mixed in chopped parsley and after i stuffed the mushrooms i sprinkled grated parmesan over the top. since everything was half cooked it took no time at all to finish in the oven. and i must say, they go well quartered and balanced on tortilla chips. now the drama accompanying the dish, not so good for the digestion.

dark chocolate cake with goat cheese mousse and raspberries

a few nights ago i watched 'chocolat' again. it's one of my favourite movies, and each time i see it it puts me in a good mood. the actors are all among my faves - juliette binoche, judy dench, alfred molina. a village in southern france and all the chocolate you can carry makes for good entertainment in my book. not to mention the tastiest morsel - johnny depp and his chocolate skin. now i'm not the kind of gal who indulges idle infatuations on distant characters, real or imaginary, but when it comes to johnny depp i think everybody is entitled to a healthy dose of fanatic adoration. well. let's put that particular pot on the back burner so i can tell you about this cake.

i can't post the recipe yet cause it's not quite perfected and i know how dissapointed i am when i try to make a recipe and it's not all it promises. but i was so excited with the idea and the taste of it, i simply couldn't wait. i'm very happy with the cake, it's very moist, did not need any syrup, and i thought the taste very well balanced. the filling is a goat cheese-white chocolate mousse, and it requires some further tinkering, cause it was kinda soft set. now my fridge has been acting up, and it doesn't seem as cold as it should be, so i really must remake it to see where the problem is. but i was very excited with the taste.  i simply love it. the dark chocolate isn't overpowering, its bittersweet works great with the raspberries and the mousse! the mousse is lovely, not too sweet, with just a bit of tang from the cheese, very delicate and in total harmony with the dark chocolate. i tossed the raspberries in a little hot jam to coat, and i poured a thin layer of dark chocolate glaze over the top.

i'm happy to say it keeps well, even in my questionable fridge. the first picture was taken when the glaze was barely set, but by the time we cut it the light had gone, so i took the picture of a slice the next day. i didn't even cover it, and it was just as soft and moist as the day before, so it's perfect to make ahead.

only thing left to do is see if i need more gelatin in the mousse or a new fridge. either way, something tells me this will need several batches to perfect... and possibly new pants.

zhara loved it, today she got up from her nap and demanded it right away. and well, it's got cheese and fruit! so it counts as a snack. and dark chocolate has antioxidants. so there.