Mussels with Fennel and Saffron

I love cooking and eating Italian food and was sure I already knew quite a lot about it. But, every time I read a cookbook, I find there’s always more to learn. And, who better to learn from about Italian cooking that Lidia Bastianich? Her latest book is Lidia's Celebrate Like an Italian: 220 Foolproof Recipes That Make Every Meal a Party: A Cookbook, and I received a review copy. It’s full of recipes and suggestions for serving crowds big to small at any time of day and in any season. The chapters include Aperitivi, Appetizers, Salads, Soups, Vegetables and Sides, Polenta Risotto and Pasta, Fish and Seafood, Poultry and Meat, and Desserts. Lidia shares how she likes to entertain with a spread of appetizers or stuzzichini from which guests can help themselves before the main meal begins. She makes suggestions for options with and without meat to suit any budget and season as well as any guest’s preferred diet. In the Appetizers chapter, I learned about a type of frico I’d never encountered before. I previously knew frico as a crisp, little round of browned, shredded parmesan cheese that is great on top of a salad or as a snack with a cocktail. Here, Lidia gives a couple of recipes for a larger, layered frico. This Friulian version involves par-cooking potatoes and then slicing them. Then, a mixture of polenta and grated cheese is spread in a large heated skillet; that’s then topped with some of the sliced potatoes; depressions are made and an egg is cracked into each; the remaining potatoes are added on top of the eggs; it’s then topped with more polenta and cheese. This frico is cooked like a Spanish tortilla to brown both sides in the skillet until the eggs are set. It’s cut into slices to serve. There’s also a second similar frico made with ditalini pasta, prosciutto, tomato paste, and peas. I can’t wait to try this kind of frico. Some other dishes that caught my eye include the Polenta Torta with Gorgonzola and Savoy Cabbage. It’s a layered savory cake with melted, lovely cheese within the stacked polenta. In the Vegetables chapter, Lentils with Butternut Squash and Portobellos Stuffed with Quinoa and Kale are on my to-try list. It’s clear that Lidia’s party guests never leave hungry. I had some local fennel and was in the mood for something a little lighter, so the Mussels with Fennel and Saffron was the first thing I tried. 

To begin, you want to make sure your mussels are clean. This time, the mussels I bought needed some debearding, but they often come completely clean. I soaked them in salt water while prepping the other ingredients. The saffron was bloomed by adding it to warming stock. I used a vegetable stock, but chicken stock is suggested. Then, in a Dutch oven, olive oil was heated and finely chopped onion and diced fennel were added. They were left to cook for a few minutes. I had an organic Italian Trebbiano d'Abruzzo I had heard good things about and was excited to use. So, that white wine, salt, and red pepper flakes were added followed by the mussels and hot stock with saffron. The pot was covered, and the mussels were cooked for a few minutes until opened. The mussels were served with the broth with fennel and topped with chopped parsley. 

I have a thing for saffron and always love a broth or sauce perfumed with it. It was delicious with the mussels and fennel. I served the mussels with big slices of focaccia to dip into the broth. For this meal, it was just the two of us. But, I’ll be looking back to this book for ideas and recipes for entertaining bigger groups throughout the year. 

Mussels with Fennel and Saffron 
Cozze con Finocchio e Zafferano 
From the book Lidia's Celebrate Like an Italian: 220 Foolproof Recipes That Make Every Meal a Party: A Cookbook by Lidia Mattichhio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali, copyright 2017 by Tutti a Tavola, LLC. Published by arrangement with Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. 

You can serve this fun yet elegant dish in individual portions, piling the mussels high on each plate with a ladle. Make sure you distribute the sauce evenly and have plenty of grilled bread on the table, as well as some bowls to collect the shells. Even without the saffron, this is a delicious dish, but the saffron adds a luxuriousness that I love. This recipe is easily scaled up; plan on a pound of mussels per person for a first course, 1 1/2 to 2 pounds for an entree. 

Serves 4 as an appetizer 

1 cup chicken stock 
1 teaspoon saffron threads 
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling 
1 small onion, thinly sliced 
1 medium fennel bulb, trimmed, halved, cored, and thinly sliced lengthwise, 1/4 cup chopped tender fronds reserved 
1 cup dry white wine 
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 
Pinch crushed red pepper flakes 
4 pounds mussels, scrubbed and debearded if necessary 
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley 
Crusty country bread, for serving 

In a small saucepan, heat the chicken stock to a bare simmer. Add the saffron, and let steep 5 minutes. Keep hot. 

In a large Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion and fennel. Cook and stir until wilted, about 3 to 4 minutes. 

Add the white wine, salt, and red pepper flakes. Simmer until reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Add the mussels and hot stock. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook about 3 to 4 minutes, until the mussels are done; discard any that haven’t opened. Stir in the parsley and reserved chopped fennel fronds, stir, and serve with bread. 

I am a member of the Amazon Affiliate Program. 
Tweet

Seafood Salad with Lemon-Garlic-Herb Dressing

As soon as we have a hint of summery weather, seafood salad is on my mind. I really believe it’s an ideal meal when it’s hot outside. In fact, if I could spend every day of summer sitting poolside with a supply of such a salad in a nearby refrigerator, I’d be extremely happy. Sadly, there’s no pool in my backyard, but whipping up more seafood salad every few days is definitely doable. I had just read about a lovely-sounding version in Tartine All Day: Modern Recipes for the Home Cook, and the time was right. During this late spring-not-quite-summer yet season, the local farms have fennel, celery, onion, and new potatoes. And, all of those things happen to be perfect elements of a seafood salad. For the main attraction, the seafood, you can pick and choose whatever combination you prefer. This time, I kept it simple with just shrimp and squid, but chunks of halibut, some scallops, and clams would have been great mixed in as well. What I really liked was the preparation method of the recipe in the book. 

You begin my making a quick and easy court bouillon with water, bay leaves, thyme sprigs, sliced lemon, chopped shallot, a few peppercorns, and some salt. The seafood was cooked in batches in the simmering stock. By cooking the shrimp by itself before cooking the squid by itself, you have better control of the timing and can pull everything out of the stock with a slotted spoon at just the right moment. As the seafood drained and cooled a bit, new potatoes were then cooked in the same court bouillon. This was a great idea for adding flavor to the potatoes and for making the process efficient by only using one pot. After the potatoes were tender but not mushy, they were drained and allowed to cool. The dressing was a mixture of lemon juice, olive oil, minced garlic, chopped oregano, minced shallot, and salt and pepper. I wanted to give it just a bit of thickness, and so I added some mayonnaise. In the book, the salad is just those items: the seafood, potatoes, and dressing. I added thinly sliced raw fennel and chopped celery and served it with dressed arugula on the side. 

Two lessons I learned from this were: always cook some potatoes in a court bouillon after poaching seafood; and, when you have fresh, local celery, potatoes, and fennel, put them in a seafood salad. I just need to work on getting a pool into my backyard, and I’ll be set. 

I am a member of the Amazon Affiliate Program. 
Tweet

Linguine con Sarde

I really love pasta. I could probably eat pasta for every meal every day. And, I love cooking pasta. I even love those hours-long processes involving making homemade pasta dough, rolling it, cutting it, drying it, and then cooking it while making a complicated sauce. But, the book I want to tell you about today is not about that kind of pasta-making. This book is about regular pasta cooking or the kind you can do every day. It’s full of go-to, quick meals made from a well-stocked pantry. This is Back Pocket Pasta: Inspired Dinners to Cook on the Fly by Colu Henry, and I received a review copy. The book is intended to inspire creativity with what you have on hand rather than serve as a strict set of rules. There are pasta dishes for every season, made with and without meat and/or seafood, and the options range from light to hearty. Following the pasta recipes, a section for Salads and Sides is included as well as a guide for drinks and wine. A couple of especially pretty recipes are the Scallops, Sun Golds, and a Mess of Herbs with bright, little tomatoes and seared scallops and the Frutti de Mare with Squid Ink Pasta with the black pasta strands mixed with shrimp, squid, clams, and mussels. The Tuscan Kale “Caesar” Pasta got my attention with the fried egg on top, and I like everything about the Mediterranean Cavatappi with artichoke hearts, Kalamata olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and feta. A couple of others I want to try are the Baccala and Green Olive Pasta with Almonds and Fettuccine with Crab and Jalapenos. The first dish I made from the book is a classic, but I had to make one little change. 

Linguine con Sarde is all about good pantry items like canned sardines, dried breadcrumbs, canned tomatoes, and olive oil. Traditionally, this dish includes some raisins for a sweet note. And, traditionally, I always skip the raisins in Sicilian dishes (including caponata) no matter how heretical. To start, the breadcrumbs were toasted in a skillet with olive oil, and then lemon zest and chopped fennel fronds were added. Next, the quick sauce was made by sauteeing chopped fennel and minced onion. Garlic and red pepper flakes were added followed by canned tomatoes. Meanwhile, water was brought to a boil for the pasta, and the linguine was cooked and drained. Be sure to keep some of the pasta cooking water before draining the pasta. I split the sardines into fillets and removed the backbone before adding them to the sauce, and then the drained pasta was added and tossed to combine. To serve, bowls of pasta were topped with golden, seasoned breadcrumbs. 

The lemony, crunchy breadcrumbs are a perfect companion to the chunks of sardines in the pasta as is the sweet, sauteed fennel. As much as I enjoy pasta, I often end up using the same ingredients with it over and over. This book has plenty of ideas for changing things up and trying new combinations. Maybe I really could have pasta for every meal every day. 

I am a member of the Amazon Affiliate Program. 
Tweet

Pickled Mussels with Radishes, Toasted Coriander Seed, and Fennel

What meaning comes to mind first when you hear the word gather? I thought of bringing people together, gathering a group around a table. The other way to think about gathering is in the act of obtaining ingredients for a meal. You go out to gather what you will prepare, and that might be from a garden, a farm, a forest, the ocean, or the grocery store. The new book Gather: Everyday Seasonal Food from a Year in Our Landscapes by Gill Meller is really about both uses of the word but he focuses on what’s available for gathering from the landscape at different times of year. For him, it’s not the source of the ingredients that’s as important as the experience of the time and place for the flavors they offer. He encourages taking a moment to enjoy the first taste of a dish that’s particular to a season. Of course though, he also points out that considering the journey made by the ingredients before arriving on the plate makes cooking and eating more rewarding. The recipes here aren’t complex, but there are some new and different combinations of flavors. The chapters are organized by places where the food might be found like Farm, Seashore, Garden, Orchard, Field, Woodland, Moor, and Harbor. There are simple compositions like Goat Cheese with Rhubarb and Lovage served on toasted bread, Spring Cabbage Salad with Honey and Sprouted Lentils, and Barbecued Little Gems with Cucumber White Beans and Tahini. There are salads, main courses, and sweets sprinkled throughout each chapter. There are tomato and zucchini dishes in the Garden chapter that I’ll be turning to as soon as those star ingredients appear this year, and the Harbor chapter had me marking almost every page. The dish I had to try first was something new for me: Pickled Mussels. The cooked mussels are quickly pickled in apple cider vinegar with coriander seeds, and they’re served with crisp radish slices. In the book, apple slices are included but I opted for fennel instead since it’s in season here. 

Like all the recipes in this book, this one is about subtle flavors that add just the right note to a dish. Apple cider vinegar was very specifically chosen as was coriander seed. In the spirit of gathering what is available at this time of the year, I brought home locally-grown purple daikon and watermelon radishes for their pretty colors and peppery flavors. The thinly sliced fennel added sweet, fresh, anise to the mix. To prepare the mussels, I always soak them first in water with a little flour to purge them and pull off any remaining beards or debris. After being drained and rinsed, the mussels went into a large pot with a half-cup of boiling water to which a couple of bay leaves and some thyme sprigs had been added. I was delighted to gather those herbs from my own yard. The pan was covered, and the mussels opened after a couple of minutes of cooking. They were removed from the pan, and the cooking liquid was strained into a bowl. When cool, the mussels were removed from their shells. Cider vinegar, coriander seeds, some of the cooking liquid, and salt and pepper were combined and poured over the mussels. This was left to sit while the other ingredients were prepped. The vegetables were all thinly sliced with a mandoline and scattered over plates. The mussels and dressing were added to each, and I placed a few frissee leaves among the arrangement. 

In a short amount of time, the mussels take on nice pickle-y flavor from the apple cider vinegar. And, the crunchy, fresh vegetables make great partners for it. This was surprisingly good for such a simple mix of things. I’ll be thinking back to this book as I gather what’s freshest and best in the coming weeks and truly enjoying the flavors.  

Pickled mussels with radishes, toasted coriander seed, and apples 
Recipe excerpted with permission from Gather: Everyday Seasonal Food from a Year in Our Landscapes by Gill Meller, published by Quadrille March 2017, RRP $35.00 hardcover. 

There is something of Normandy in this fresh salad: a bicycle ride down the Route du Cidre; a peppery-pink radish with delightfully fresh, cold butter; a bowl of plump, yellow wild mussels, cooked in cream on some beach off Gouville-sur-Mer. It’s almost like you taste it in French. This dish is about perfectly cooked mussels, sweet, crunchy apple, and the acidity of good cider vinegar—and how they all play out when they get together. I love the orangey air that toasted coriander seed brings to the delicate pickle—it’s well worth a try. You can prepare the mussels the day before, but I like them best once they have cooled and before they see the fridge. 

serves 2 

2 bay leaves 
2 thyme sprigs 
18oz [500g] mussels, cleaned 
1 Tbsp good-quality cider vinegar 
1/2 tsp golden superfine sugar 
2 tsp small coriander seeds, toasted 
1 dessert apple 
4 to 6 firm radishes, with tops, if available 
Salt and freshly ground black pepper 

Place a large pan over high heat. Add a scant 1/2 cup [100ml] water, the bay leaves, and thyme sprigs. When the water is boiling hard, add the mussels, and place a close-fitting lid on the pan. Cook, shaking the pan once or twice, for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the mussel shells are all just open. Turn off the heat, then drain the mussels into a colander set over a bowl to catch the cooking liquor. Discard any mussels that haven’t opened up. 

When the mussels are cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the shells, and place it in a bowl, reserving the drained cooking liquor. Add the cider vinegar, sugar, coriander seeds, and 2 Tbsp of the cooking liquor to the mussel meat, stir through, then season with a little salt and pepper. 

To serve, quarter and core the apple and then cut each quarter into 2 or 3 wedges. Divide the apple pieces roughly between two plates. Slice the radish into 1/16 to 1/8 in [2 to 3mm] rounds, and scatter them over the apple, along with any radish top leaves, if available. Finally, spoon over the mussels along with plenty of their coriander-spiked dressing, and serve immediately.

I am a member of the Amazon Affiliate Program. 
Tweet

Polentina alla Toscana

Cooking doesn’t have to be complicated. Everyone has favorite things to eat that are the simplest things to make. David Tanis’ latest book, One Good Dish, is a collection of some of his favorites. I received a review copy of the book. He writes in the intro: “There are many good reasons to stay home and cook. And, even though we may not always have the energy to invest in a complex meal, making one simple, delicious dish (maybe two) is certainly manageable. One good dish, carefully prepared and eaten with pleasure, is an end—and a delight—in itself.” Indeed, the book is full of dishes for snacks, small meals, soups, sides, entrees, sweets, and drinks that look delightful. The inspiration comes from childhood memories and food from all around the world. There isn’t a strict adherence to traditional approaches. Instead, these are dishes borrowed for flavors, possibly adapted for ease, and made simply delicious. For instance in the chapter for dishes made with bread, the Waffle-Iron Grilled Cheese was Tanis’ favorite childhood sandwich made by his aunt. Here, it’s shown in his current, preferred version with grown-up cheeses and good bread. The Vietnamese Vegetable Baguette is based on the concept of the bahn-mi, but this one is built with just the pickled vegetables and topped with avocado and hard-cooked eggs. In the snacks chapter, there’s a Tomato and Egg Salad that I can’t wait to make next summer. It’s just a thick slice of tomato topped with homemade mayonnaise and a quartered, medium-cooked egg. I already tried and loved the Mackerel Rillettes. I’ve seen many versions of similar spreads made with smoked salmon, but this was the first I’d seen made with smoked mackerel. It was buttery, lemony, and herby with great smoked fish flavor. I served it with crostini on Thanksgiving. One more dish I want to try soon is the After-Dinner Dates. There are two versions. One involves stuffing pitted dates with whipped creme fraiche flavored with orange and lemon zest and then sprinkled with chopped pistachios. The other version is made with almond paste. 

Since we seem to actually be having chilly weather this year, and it came early, another dish I wanted to try was the Polentina alla Toscana. It’s a hearty, vegetable soup thickened with polenta. It starts like a lot of soups with onion, carrots, celery, and fennel being cooked. Next, leeks and a bay leaf were added. Then, just a quarter cup of polenta was added before the stock was stirred into the vegetables. It simmered for about an hour. Separately, kale was sauteed with chopped garlic and red pepper flakes and was then used to top the soup after it was ladled into bowls. The final garnish was chopped rosemary and a drizzle of olive oil. It was perfect soup for a cold day. 

There’s an ease about these recipes that draws me straight to the kitchen. But, in addition to being straightforward to prepare, the dishes are also interesting and varied. It’s the kind of book that will make you think about your favorite dishes and how to make them even better, and it will give you several more dishes to add to your favorites list.

Polentina alla Toscana 

Recipe reprinted with publisher’s permission. Excerpted from One Good Dish by David Tanis (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2013. Photographs by Gentl and Hyers. 

Serves 4 to 6 

Some soups, once encountered, live on in both memory and a cook’s personal repertoire. This very traditional Tuscan soup impressed me when I first encountered it in Florence. I loved the way a little polenta could be used to thicken, ever so slightly, a vegetable soup. There was something special too about the deep, dark kale and fruity olive oil that were added to the bowl. My version is faithful to the original, so good that there was no need to embroider.  

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more (optional) for drizzling 
1 large onion, diced 
1/2 pound carrots, peeled and diced 
4 celery stalks, diced 
1 large fennel bulb, trimmed and diced 
Salt and pepper 
1 medium leek, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch squares 
1 bay leaf 
1/4 cup polenta 
6 cups chicken broth 
1/2 pound kale, preferably Tuscan 
1/2 teaspoon grated or finely chopped garlic 
Pinch of red pepper flakes 
Leaves from 1 rosemary sprig 

In a heavy pot, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery, and fennel, season generously with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or so, until barely softened. Add the leek and bay leaf and cook for 2 minutes. 

Add the polenta, stirring to distribute it, and raise the heat to high. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and allow the soup to simmer for about an hour; the broth should be just slightly thickened. Taste and adjust the seasoning. 

Meanwhile, wash and roughly chop the kale. Drain in a colander but do not dry. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a wide skillet over high heat. When the oil is hot, add the greens, stirring as they begin to wilt. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and season with salt and pepper. Turn the heat to medium, cover, and cook until the greens are tender, about 5 minutes more. Set aside. 

To serve, ladle the soup into bowls and top with the kale. Sprinkle with the chopped rosemary (finely chop it at the last minute), and drizzle with more olive oil if desired. 

I am a member of the Amazon Affiliate Program.

Tweet

Spelt Salad with Squash and Fennel

In a rare instance of Kurt noticing what’s been happening in the kitchen, he pointed out that I’ve been making a lot of salads lately. It’s true. There was the Crunchy Corn Tortilla Salad the other day, a sesame soba noodle salad with cucumbers that I haven’t posted yet, and we have a big lettuce salad with hard-boiled eggs for dinner about once a week. At least there’s been variety among all those salads. And, the one I have for you today might not even really be a salad. It could function as a whole grain, vegetarian main course or a side dish, and you can serve it at whatever temperature you prefer. So, I don’t think this counts in the nothing-but-salads-lately tally. Besides, we’re at that juncture at which we still have plenty of summer vegetables showing up at the markets, and the fall ones are just starting to appear. Why not use them in all kinds of salads and dishes that may or may not be salads? This Spelt Salad with Squash and Fennel is from River Cottage Veg, and it is a lovely way to move from one season to the next. I used two cute, little acorn squash from our CSA. Other than the spelt which is cooked on top of the stove, everything else is roasted in one pan. The ingredients are added to the pan in turn in order of needed cooking time starting with the squash. The cooked, chewy spelt was mixed with the roasted vegetables, toasted walnuts, lemon juice, and parmesan to finish the dish. 

The cooking time for the spelt will vary quite a bit depending on whether or not you’re using pearled spelt. I did not use pearled spelt, and so it needed to cook for a little over an hour. Pearled spelt will cook in about 20 minutes. While it was cooking, the vegetables were roasted in a 375 degree F oven. The acorn squash, tossed with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper, went into the oven first and roasted for about 15 minutes. Then, two fennel bulbs sliced into thin pieces and some chopped garlic was added to the roasting pan which went back into the oven for another 15 minutes. Last, walnuts were added to the pan for ten more minutes of roasting. The cooked spelt was drained and transferred to a large mixing bowl. The roasted vegetables and walnuts were added to the spelt with the olive oil remaining in the roasting pan. The juice of a lemon was added with chopped parsley and shredded parmesan. 

This was delicious with the vegetables still a little warm from the oven, but it was just as good served chilled from the refrigerator the next day. The spelt makes it hearty and filling, but the lemon and parsley keep the flavors bright. This recipe was just one of several that piqued my interest from the latest River Cottage book, and lucky for Kurt, they’re not all salads. 

I am a member of the Amazon Affiliate Program.

Tweet

Warm Fennel and Parmesan Dip

This is a great time of year to add another dip to your repertoire, especially a warm dip with cheese scattered on top that turns golden as it bakes. And, this is one of the simplest out there. Rather than mixing the primary ingredients with mayonnaise or sour cream as is customary, this dip is made up of pureed, roasted fennel and garlic. There are only four ingredients in this dip if you don’t count the salt and pepper, but those are four very flavorful ingredients that make the end result seem a lot more complicated. I saved this recipe from the Thanksgiving dinner story in the November 2010 issue of Living magazine. The dip was served as a starter along with kale chips with sea salt and lemon which were made in the usual way by chopping kale leaves, tossing with olive oil and salt, and then roasting until crisp. The twist was that when the kale chips came out of the oven, they were topped with lemon zest. I liked the idea of having crispy, lemony chips with the warm, rich dip. So, I served the dip already spread onto little toasted pieces of bread with a kale chip nestled on top and more chips piled in the middle of the platter of toasts.

You start by trimming and removing the core from three fennel bulbs and then chopping them into thick wedges. The fennel wedges are then browned in a skillet with extra-virgin olive oil. Four or five peeled, whole, and slightly smashed garlic cloves are added as the fennel browns. Then, the fennel is turned, seasoned, the skillet was covered with foil, and it’s placed in a 400 degree F oven for about 30 minutes. The fennel and garlic should become completely tender and sweet. Next, the roasted fennel and garlic was transferred to a food processor and pureed until smooth. Grated parmigiano reggiano was added and mixed in, and then you should taste for seasoning. The puree was scooped into a small baking dish and topped with more grated parmesan before it went back into the oven that had been turned up to 450. After about 20 minutes, the dip was warmed through, and the cheese on top was invitingly browned. I toasted some sliced, homemade, sourdough baguette as the dip baked, and popped the kale chips into the oven as the dip cooled a bit.

Mellow roasted garlic and fennel with the big flavor of parmesan makes for a delicious mix. With that much flavor, you'd never guess how short the ingredient list actually is. And, the hit of lemon on the kale chips was a nice, perky contrast to the savory dip. Since it’s easy to make the dip in advance, chill it, and bake it just before serving, this will definitely be a go-to recipe for holiday parties.

Tweet

Ricotta and Fontina Stuffed Shells with Fennel and Radicchio

I’ve always been a picky eater. When I was little, I could not abide onions in my food especially in spaghetti sauce. It’s probably the primary reason I learned to cook. Spaghetti sauce was one of the very first things I ever made by myself. From there, learning to make lasagna with homemade sauce was an easy jump, and stuffed shells were the same as lasagna only the cheese filling is spooned into the shells instead of being layered between sheets of pasta. So, stuffed shells and I go way back. I’ve been making this dish for years, and I’ve changed up the cheese stuffing at different times. I’ve added chopped herbs or spinach. I’ve even used silken tofu mixed with ricotta. I saw this version of stuffed shells in the October issue of Food and Wine, and this was a twist on the classic I’d never tried. Fennel, onion, and radicchio were sauteed and then added to ricotta with some grated fontina. As a kid, I never would have gone for this combination, but I’m a little less picky in some ways these days.

Oddly, this recipe starts with the instruction to pre-heat the oven. You won’t actually need to do that until you start stuffing the shells. First, you saute thinly sliced fennel and, in my case, minced onion in olive oil and melted butter. I still have an onion phobia and always mince them. Some things never change. Once the fennel is very tender and lightly browned, chopped radicchio is added. The quantities for fennel, onion, and radicchio seemed a bit too large to me. I ended up only using a little over half of the vegetables, and I stored the rest in the freezer for next time. Once the vegetables are sauteed and completely tender, they were left to cool and then added to a mixing bowl with two beaten eggs, some ricotta, grated fontina, and chopped parsley. Meanwhile, water was brought to a boil, and jumbo pasta shells were partially cooked. The shells should be pliable enough to stuff, but not completely cooked through. There’s a homemade marinara sauce recipe included in the article, and I had made the sauce in advance. Whole, canned tomatoes were used along with garlic, tomato paste, and basil, and thankfully, there was no onion. Some of the sauce was spooned into a baking dish, and as each shell was stuffed, it was placed on top of the sauce. More sauce covered the shells, and additional grated fontina was sprinkled on top. The shells were then baked for about 40 minutes.

It’s interesting to taste the radicchio as it sautes and the bitterness wanes. Pairing it with fontina also levels off any remaining hints of bitter flavor. I admit I still have a thing about onions. I like the smell and flavor of onions but have no appreciation for any noticeable chunks of onion in dishes. Hence, I always mince them. I’ve completely changed my mind about every other vegetable though and was thrilled with all the colors, textures, and flavors in this cheese stuffing. Besides, stuffed shells have always been easy to like.

Tweet

Grilled Quail with Savory Cherry-Zinfandel Compote and Kohlrabi, Fennel, and Bing Cherry Salad

Can we talk cherries? I go a little bonkers for them every year. Last year, it was Cherry Lambic Crisps and White Chocolate-Cherry Ice Cream and Cherry Sorbet Sandwiches. The year before, I couldn't get enough of Pickled Cherries. So, when Whole Foods asked if I'd like to help celebrate Cherry Fest by coming in for more fresh, lovely cherries and planning a special menu around them, it was an invitation to a kid into the proverbial candy store. Cherry Fest is taking place at all Austin Whole Foods stores this weekend, Friday through Sunday, with special events from 12pm until 5pm. On Friday, there will be a one-day sale on cherries. For a cherry-themed meal, I imagined quail would pair well with the fruit, and I set about hunting for sauce ideas. In Sunday Suppers at Lucques, there's a Savory Cherry Compote served with duck confit which I thought would work just as nicely with grilled quail. With the main dish decided, I started a search for a salad with cherries. Girl in the Kitchen had just what I'd hoped to find. It's a raw, crunchy mix of thinly sliced kohlrabi and fennel with fresh cherries, and it's made tangy and bright with chopped preserved lemon and fresh mint. 

I couldn't help making a few minor changes to the cherry sauce. Rather than making it with port, I opted for a Zinfandel on the fruitier side. Also, to keep this sauce firmly in the savory category, I added some minced shallot to the ingredients that simmered with the cherries. So first, spices and herbs were gathered in a cheesecloth bundle, and those included thyme, bay leaves, chiles de arbol, star anise, a cinnamon stick, and black peppercorns. A quarter cup of sugar was melted in one cup of water in a saucepan, that was brought to a boil, and then a half cup of Zinfandel, juice from two oranges, and the spice sachet were added. I added minced shallot at that point as well. The heat was reduced to a simmer, and one third pound of stemmed and pitted cherries was added and poached for about ten minutes. At that point, the sauce was strained into a heat-proof measuring pitcher to remove the cherries and sachet. The strained sauce was returned to the saucepan, and cooked until reduced by two-thirds. It was strained again, seasoned with salt and pepper, and just before serving, a tablespoon of butter was swirled into the sauce and the cherries were returned to the pan. I used semi-boneless quail which were cut in half, and I removed the wing tips. I marinated the halved quail in a mix of olive oil, minced garlic, sliced serrano chiles, chopped sage, oregano, and rosemary. Grilling the quail happens quickly. They only need a few minutes on each side over high heat on the grill. Then, I moved them to a cooler spot on the grill and basted them with some of the sauce. The grilled quail was served with more sauce including the cherries. The sauce is full of big, fruity, spicy flavors, but once it coated the quail, it seemed more subtle, like that was exactly where it belonged.  

The salad is a very quick preparation. Trimmed kohlrabi and fennel bulbs were cut in half lengthwise, and then thinly sliced on a mandoline. Cherries were pitted and sliced in half. Everything was combined in a large bowl, drizzled with olive oil, finely chopped preserved lemon was added, and it was seasoned with salt and pepper. You should taste before adding salt since the lemon adds a good bit of saltiness of its own. After tossing to mix well, chopped, fresh mint was sprinkled on top. It's a simple mix of well-coordinated flavors. Fruity sweetness, acidity, herbiness, and the floral anise of fennel were delightful in this cool, crisp salad. 

A dessert with cherries was easy to choose, and of course, I'm not done with cherries for this year. I've been having them for breakfast with Greek yogurt and homemade granola, and I still need to stock the freezer with a few bags after more have been pitted. And, more ideas for using cherries keep catching my eye: 

Cherry Tartlets 
Cherry Prosecco Granita 
Cherry and Rosemary Focaccia 

I received a $150 gift card from Whole Foods. I am a member of the Amazon Affiliate Program.

Tweet

Southwest Seafood Chowder

I’m not sure that this is a chowder. It might be a mix of Manhattan chowder, bouillabaisse, cioppino, and maybe chili if that’s even possible. But, that’s not what’s important here. This was one of those recipes that had me doing a happy dance in the kitchen as I tasted while I cooked. It's from the March 2011 issue of Food and Wine. A soup base was built from torn pieces of ancho chiles, onion, garlic, and fennel seeds that simmered in white wine before crushed tomatoes were added. Long before any seafood made its way into the soup, it already tasted like it was intended to be there. The flavor from the fennel seeds was like a splash of Pernod in bouillabaisse. The soup base was pureed and then potatoes, red onion, chopped fennel bulb, and corn formed the building blocks of the chowder before shrimp, halibut, and clams were added. The aroma from the stove was already fantastic from the earthy chiles, aromatics, and fennel, and then some smoked paprika made it even better. There was a lot going on in this soup, but all of those flavors were mingling very harmoniously. I was pretty sure I had a winner of a meal on my hands, and soon enough, that suspicion was confirmed. I should explain that Kurt doesn’t always freely offer his opinion of meals. Usually, I have to ask, and usually, his answer is that “it’s good” or “it’s fine.” Clearly, I have a more emotional attachment to food to say the least. This time, with no prompting whatsoever, he proclaimed his delight, saying something like “now this is great flavor,” and coming from him, that’s extremely high praise.

There are multiple steps to making this so-called chowder, but there’s a perfect stopping place if you’d like to start prepping in advance. You begin by cooking chopped yellow onion, some smashed cloves of garlic, torn pieces of ancho chiles, and fennel seeds in oil in a large pot. When the onion is browned, some white wine is added and simmered until reduced by half. Canned crushed tomatoes and water are then added, the mix is brought to a boil, and it is simmered again until the vegetables are very tender. You should allow the mixture to cool slightly, and meanwhile, whole milk is added for a touch of richness. This soup base is then pureed in batches, and after pureeing, you could stop here and store the soup in the refrigerator until you’re ready to continue. Next, clams are steamed in water and then removed from their shells and chopped when cool enough to handle. The clam cooking broth is then strained, added to the pureed soup base, and that is set aside. Chopped potatoes are cooked in oil until browned, and then minced red onion, finely diced celery and fennel bulb, and thawed, frozen corn kernels are added followed by smoked paprika. After the cooking the vegetables briefly, the soup base is returned to the pot and brought to a boil. Last, shrimp, chunks of halibut, and the chopped clams are added to the soup and simmered just a few more minutes.

It’s a little unusual to find a hearty soup with big, earthy flavors and lots of spice that includes seafood, and it’s just as unlikely to see Southwestern flavors mixed with fennel seed and chopped fennel bulb. Somehow, it all worked together beautifully. The potatoes made it hearty and substantial, the anchos delivered some subtle spice, and the seafood was fresh and light among everything else. This is one for the permanent file.

Tweet

Shaved Fennel and Bok Choy Salad with Ginger Vinaigrette

Sometimes cooking is all about tradition and following certain rules about what ingredients classically belong together in a given type of cuisine. Other times, cooking is about what’s delicious and creating new combinations based solely on great flavor. What I like about Girl in the Kitchen, the new book by Stephanie Izard of which I received a review copy, is that it follows the latter approach. Izard, the first and only woman to win the Top Chef title, strives to balance a mix of flavors in every dish to “make your whole mouth happy.” So, you’ll find miso used in dishes that aren’t otherwise Asian-inspired, truffle oil mixed with poblanos in a vinaigrette, and shrimp cooked with sambal paste for a mango gazpacho. The book offers a fun approach to cooking in that it’s suggested to be used as a guide rather than strictly followed. She encourages you to think about what each ingredient brings to a dish so that if you want to make substitutions, you can choose something else that will work similarly. I’ve marked several pages of recipes I plan to try. Those include the crispy chickpea fritters with salsa verde, seared duck breasts a l’orange with braised duck spring rolls, roasted radishes with blue cheese peanuts and cilantro, and the miso-marcona almond butter for sauteed scallops. Last weekend, I wanted a salad with zippy flavor to wake up one more meal of leftover turkey, and the shaved fennel and bok choy salad with ginger vinaigrette fit the bill.

Although it’s called a salad, the thick dressing is intended to coat the vegetables like a slaw. The vinaigrette is an emulsion with Dijon mustard and an egg yolk, but the flavor is all about the ginger. An entire half cup of minced fresh ginger is used, and don’t be afraid. It mixes into the vinaigrette nicely, and once it’s incorporated with the fennel and bok choy, the flavor is perfect. The salad also has basil and cilantro, and delightfully, I actually have both of those herbs in my garden in the fall. My basil is on its last legs, but I had plenty for this use. Thinly sliced bok choy and fennel shaved on a Benriner were tossed with chopped cilantro and a chiffonade of basil. The dressing was made in a blender with minced ginger, shallot, Dijon mustard, white balsamic vinegar, an egg yolk, soy sauce, maple syrup, and grapeseed oil. Of course you can add whatever amount of dressing you prefer, but a generous coating was lovely here.

There’s freshness from the fennel, ginger, and herbs, but this is no deprivation salad. The dressing’s richness prevents that. Next time, I might turn this into a meal in itself by adding some crunchy cashews on top. Radishes might be nice too for added color. This book already has me thinking creatively about how to use it, and I can’t wait to spend more time with it.

Shaved Fennel and Bok Choy Salad with Ginger Vinaigrette
re-printed with publisher's permission from Girl in the Kitchen

print recipe

Serves 8

Ginger Vinaigrette:
1/2 cup minced peeled fresh ginger (about 3 ounces)
1/2 cup minced shallot
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 cup grapeseed (half vegetable, half olive oil)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Salad:
1 fennel bulb
2 heads bok choy
2 tablespoons chiffonade of fresh basil
2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh cilantro
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

1. To make the vinaigrette: In a blender, combine the ginger, shallot, mustard, vinegar, yolk, soy sauce, and syrup. On low speed, slowly drizzle in the oil until the dressing is smooth and thickened. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until needed.
2. To make the salad: Remove the stalks from the fennel, cut the bulb in half, and shave it thinly on a mandoline, shaving around the core.
3. Cut off the bottom couple inches at the base of the bok choy and discard. Be sure to wash off any dirt and fully dry the leaves. Pile a few leaves on top of each other at a time and cut them crosswise very thinly.
4. Put the fennel and bok choy in a salad bowl with the basil and cilantro and toss with the dressing. Add as much as you like; I prefer this salad to be heavily dressed, like a slaw. Season with salt and pepper.

Drink Tip: Wit beer is pronounced just like wheat beer, and technically it is the same, but these Belgian-style wheats have less of the clove and banana notes you’d get out of German hefeweizens and more clean citrus notes that line up perfectly with fennel and ginger.

Tweet

Almond-Fennel Cocktail

Cold, refreshing beverages are an important part of my life right now and will be until the end of this hot, hot weather. So, I was thrilled to find some pages I cut from the April issue of Food and Wine that were full of cocktails and mocktails. This almond-fennel beverage was intended as a mocktail, but I couldn't resist adding some vodka. The flavors sounded intriguing, and since it's made with orgeat, I had to try it. Last year, I found myself in the middle of an orgeat search and learned that it's exactly the same as almond syrup. For the fennel flavor in this cocktail, a second syrup is made by steeping crushed fennel seeds in water and then dissolving sugar in it. The bubbles from club soda and the green, frilly fennel frond garnish gave it a cool, crisp look making it an inviting way to combat the heat.

You'll need to make the fennel syrup in advance since the seeds need to steep for about 20 minutes. A tablespoon of fennel seeds were crushed in a spice grinder and then added to a cup of water which was brought to a boil. It was removed from the heat, covered, and allowed to steep. Then, the seeds were strained as the water was poured through a sieve into a jar or measuring pitcher. One cup of sugar was added and stirred until it dissolved. The fennel syrup can be stored in the refrigerator for a month. To make the cocktail, combine orgeat, or almond syrup, fennel syrup, fresh lemon juice, and vodka if you'd like. Add ice, stir in club soda, and garnish with a fennel frond.

The mild anise of the fennel syrup blended nicely with the almond flavor. You should taste as you mix because I found I wanted a little more fennel syrup to be sure it didn't get lost behind the almond and lemon. It's true that I'm happy to see just about any beverage over ice these days, but the interesting flavors in this one made it particularly refreshing.

Tweet