MITCH IN THE KITCHEN

cold soups

New favorite summer food: chilled soups. They’re like cold smoothies you drink with a spoon. Or out of a glass with a straw, I don’t see anything wrong with that. And they’re great when you feel like eating your fruits and veggies in something other than a salad.

Chilled Watermelon and Cucumber Soup
Kind of like gazpacho, but not completely. I blended chunks of watermelon, peeled cucumber, orange bell pepper, and red onion with salt, pepper, lime juice, and mint, then drizzled a little olive oil on top.

Summer Squash and Buttermilk Soup
Found this one on 101 Cookbooks. A nice way to get some extra squash and leftover buttermilk off your hands.

Cold Borscht
Classic! Simmer some chopped beets and onions in broth, then let it cool down. Add matchsticks of cucumbers and radishes, along with some yogurt or sour cream, fresh dill, parsley, and scallions.

vegetable paella

Because you know, Spain, World Cup, had some escarole, found some arborio rice in the pantry. Recipe from Epicurious.

cream cheese rolls with kiwi jam

I love cinnamon rolls, but I thought I’d improvise and make use of a lonely block of cream cheese whose bagel friends had already been eaten. And it’s like 100 degrees outside, so of course I felt like ripping the battery out of the smoke detector and cranking up the oven.

These little buns weren’t yeasty and gooey the way my favorite cinnamon rolls are. Instead, they were fluffy and biscuit-y and oh god do I love buttermilk in baked goods. A perfect accompaniment to yummy kiwi jam made by Jocelyn, Ashwin, and Hayes.

To make the filling, I combined 8 ounces of cream cheese (softened at room temperature) with 3 tablespoons of sugar, 1/8 teaspoon of salt, and a little bit of lemon zest.

For the dough, I followed this recipe from Cook’s Illustrated (favorite food magazine by the way, thanks Mom!), swapped in my cream cheese filling for the brown sugar cinnamon mixture, and omitted the glaze. I am currently fantasizing about a savory, cheddar-crusted version of these pull-apart rolls. Hang on to your pants people, it’s gonna be good.

ricotta and edamame crostini

I’m back, I’m married, and I’m not ashamed to say that I have the greatest friends and family (including husband, whoa) in the world. Thanks to them, I had a blast. Best day of my life so far.

Now that we’ve returned, we’re back to the usual cooking and cleaning and working and studying. Not as fun as planning the biggest party of my life, but it feels good to settle back in.

explanation of what is in that photo above, and how to make it:

sliced not-too-dense, not-too-soft bread (I used a baguette)
extra virgin olive oil

fresh ricotta cheese
lemon zest

fresh or frozen edamame, shelled and cooked in boiling salted water

for the dressing:
6 garlic scapes (found at CSAs and farmers markets)
2 handfuls of cilantro (basil would’ve been good too)
2-3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
salt and black pepper
3-4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

Toast bread in the oven or toaster oven until barely browned. Drizzle on some olive oil.

Combine ricotta with lemon zest. Smear on each slice of bread.

To make the dressing, combine garlic scapes, cilantro, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a food processor until finely chopped. Drizzle in olive oil. Add dressing to edamame. Top crostini with edamame. Finish with a sprinkle of salt.

potato and arugula salad with blue cheese and yogurt dressing

Last weekend I said goodbye to a grandfather who I will miss more than I ever imagined. Yesterday I took my last final of a semester that I should’ve earned higher grades in. Last night I had nachos and beers for dinner (Pavla would be proud). Today I’m playing frantic catch-up at work. Tomorrow my apartment will look cleaner and better than it does today, after we haul everything from one room into another. Next month I’m getting married (holy shit) to this dude I’ve been outrageously in love with for the past six years.

And all I really wanted for lunch today was this salad that I threw together while letting all of the above sink in.

a couple tablespoons of chopped red onion
a couple tablespoons of yogurt
salt and pepper
a dash of Worcestershire sauce
a drizzle of milk and/or olive oil
crumbled blue cheese

2 strips bacon
1 medium waxy red, yellow, or white potato, diced
handful of grape or cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
several handfuls of baby arugula, spinach, or other salad greens

Combine first 6 ingredients to make dressing. Set aside (I like to make it in the same big bowl that the whole salad will end up in).

Fry bacon in a pan over medium heat until crisp, turning frequently. Drain on a paper towel and set aside. Get rid of most of the rendered bacon fat, leaving just enough to coat the pan.

Add potatoes to pan and season with salt and pepper. Cook until potatoes are soft and slightly golden.

Crumble or chop bacon. Combine with potatoes, tomatoes, and dressing. Mix in greens.

pad kee mao (drunken noodles)

Most of you probably have a standard dish you like to order for dinner at your local Thai takeout joint. John and I robotically call in an order for one pad see ew and one pad kee mao, both with veggie duck, and no utensils please, whenever we’d rather not cook. While these are staples on the menu of pretty much every American Thai restaurant I’ve ever been to, stir-fried noodle dishes are more of a street-food thing in Thailand. There are carts (and clusters of carts in what resembles a food court) that sell boxes of hot, spicy, greasy, cooked-to-order noodles throughout the night for about $1.50. No waiters, no cocktail menu, and no impressively designed restroom fixtures, as you’d expect in New York City. Just free outdoor seating on the muggy streets of Bangkok (or Udon Thani, where I also got a chance to scarf down some pad thai a few years ago).

Pad kee mao translates to “shit drunk noodles,” or in more menu-friendly terms, “drunken noodles.” When done right, it’s very spicy (unfortunately mine weren’t, thanks to weak ass supermarket jalapeños). But there is no alcohol in the dish itself. There are a few origin stories about the name floating around (as there are for plenty of other dishes):

• You’ll get really drunk trying to soothe your burning mouth with that beer in your hand
• You’d have to be drunk to be crazy enough to eat something this spicy
• The dish is a favorite among late-night partiers
• The chef was drunk and added too many chilies
• It’s a great hangover cure

It seems like every other pad kee mao blog post out there notes that these noodles are good enough to eat while sober. I have to agree.

6 to 8 oz dried rice noodles (or the fresh, wide kind)
8 oz protein of your choice, sliced (chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, mock duck/seitan, tofu, etc. etc.)
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 jalapeño or serrano pepper, or a few Thai bird chilies, chopped
1 to 1 1/2 bell peppers, sliced
1/2 small white or yellow onion, sliced
2-3 heads baby bok choy (optional), chopped
2 small tomatoes (optional), chopped
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
juice of one lime
pinch of sugar
basil leaves (Thai basil if you can get it)

Soak dried noodles in a large bowl of warm (not hot!) water while you do all the other prep work. They should be pliable but not soggy.

Heat a saute pan or wok over medium-high heat with some canola, peanut, or vegetable oil. Add garlic and chilies and cook for about 5 seconds, then add whatever protein you’re using. Stir-fry over medium-high heat until protein is mostly cooked through. Add onion and bell pepper and cook until softened. Add remaining vegetables, if using.

Combine oyster sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, and lime juice.

Add noodles to the pan, and mix in with the vegetables. They should soften up a bit. Add sauce mixture and toss to coat evenly. Throw in some torn basil leaves.

grilled cheese with all kinds of things

You’re looking at cheddar, emmental, onion jam, baby arugula, and sliced apples piled in between slices of whole wheat bread. It was one of those fridge-cleaner meals with leftover odds and ends. A little bit messy, a lot delicious.

Here are my tips for how to make a decent grilled cheese sandwich:

• Let the butter soften to room temperature before slathering it all over the bread.
• Don’t use bread that is too thick; if you insulate your sandwich fillings, they’re not going to melt.
• Have some cheese touching each slice of bread. It’s like a savory glue that holds your sandwich together.
• Season veggie fillings (tomatoes, greens, etc.) with salt and pepper.
• Use low heat and put a lid on on the pan. Your patience will result in a buttery crunchy exterior and a hot gooey interior.
• Prevent sogginess! When the sandwich is ready to serve, put the “cold” side (the side that wasn’t touching the pan last) down on the plate, so that your sandwich doesn’t soak in condensation.

cream biscuits

I woke up this rainy Sunday morning and thought, “Let’s make oatmeal for breakfast.” When I discovered that we had only a scant 1/2 cup of steel cut oats left I thought, “Let’s make biscuits for breakfast. And then slather them with butter and honey.” Don’t be fooled by the whole wheat pastry flour; these biscuits are pretty fluffy and fatty (the whole batch has around 1900 calories, around 60 percent of which are from fat) and don’t really need extra butter slathered on top, in my opinion. You could also skip the whole wheat pastry flour and just use 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour.

(recipe adapted from Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Cooking)

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour*
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
up to 4 teaspoons sugar (optional. I used 2 teaspoons and the biscuits were just a little bit sweet)
3 to 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (I find that 3 tablespoons make them plenty rich, and 6 is just too too much)
3/4 cup cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar in a bowl. Add butter and combine using a pastry blender, until the butter is the size of small peas. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the cream, and pour the rest into the flour and butter mixture. Using a fork, mix just until combined. If the dough isn’t coming together and seems too dry, add a little bit of the reserved cream.

Knead the dough lightly in the bowl until it seems smooth-ish, then put it on a lightly floured cutting board or counter. Roll dough about 3/4-inch thick, then cut into squares or circles (I used a shot glass to make little biscuits). Arrange biscuits on a parchment-lined baking sheet, then brush the tops with reserved cream. Bake for 17 minutes (for my tiny-sized biscuits), or until tops are golden brown.

* Pastry flour contains less gluten (the protein component of wheat) than all-purpose flour. Gluten is what makes things like pizza dough elastic and bread chewy (which is why bread flour is on the other end of the spectrum from pastry flour: it has a higher gluten content than all-purpose flour). Gluten is also the thing in wheat that those with celiac disease react to. Okay fine, I guess I should save this for a wheat post someday.

arugula salad with hazelnuts and goat cheese

Full disclosure: I had a brownie and a glass of milk for dinner tonight, around 8pm. I’ve gone mad, I know. Thankfully, I also had a salad and some leftover rice and beans for dessert.

To make the salad the way I make my salad: Put baby arugula and thinly sliced shallot in a mixing bowl. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Add a drizzle of pomegranate molasses (or a mixture of vinegar and honey? I just thought of that) and a drizzle of olive oil. Toss gently with your hand. This is my favorite way to mix baby greens. Add chopped hazelnuts and crumbles of fresh goat cheese.

mushroom ragout

In the past, I’ve committed horrible culinary crimes against even the humblest of mushrooms. Bruising them. Letting them get all slimy in the fridge. Cooking them on heat that was too low. Adding salt to the pan way, way too early and watching the mushrooms simmer in their own extracted juice. At last, I think I may have gotten it right. Months ago, Diana and I showed up at a Whisk & Ladle dinner with some MilkMade goods to share. The guest chef from Studiofeast cooked up some crazy delicious trumpet mushrooms, served to guests with a consomme but perfect for snacking on with nothing but lickable fingertips. The secrets, he told me, were 1. patience (don’t move them around the pan and wait and wait and wait for them to get really caramelized), and 2. lots of butter and olive oil. And there was some sticky balsamic vinegar in there at the end. I’ve yet to re-create that night’s addictively delicious dish, but the advice got me back into mushrooms. I’ve been patiently preparing them here and there ever since.

This stuff is delicious on polenta, in a quinoa salad with more herbs and vegetables, smothered all over a piece of chicken, or maybe just about everything.

1 pound mushrooms, cut into bite-size pieces (any slice-able kind you want! or like, a mix)
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small shallot bulb, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
splash of white wine (optional)
about 1/2 cup broth (I used chicken broth, but vegetable works too if that’s your thing)
splash of balsamic vinegar
some thyme
salt and black pepper, as usual
a few tablespoons of heavy cream or creme fraiche (optional)

Add butter and olive oil to a heated pan. Add sliced mushrooms and leave them alone for a little while on medium heat (at least 5 minutes). When they start to brown, toss them around so the other mushroom surfaces can get brown. After 5 more minutes or so, add shallot and garlic. Let cook for another few minutes, or until everything is soft. Add white wine and scrape up all the slightly burnt pieces stuck to the pan. Add broth, vinegar, thyme, salt, and pepper and let simmer until liquid has reduced. Add cream or creme fraiche at the end.