sauced

Tamarind Shrimp with Avocado Cucumber Salad

By Liz:

OK, this is a bit of a cheat because it's not new. But I just rediscovered it this week and remembered how much I liked it, so file under re-discovered weeknight staples.

I'm having one of those weeks (months?) where life doesn't leave much time for cooking, and we've defaulted to takeout more nights than I'd like to admit. So in an effort to reclaim my kitchen, I skimmed the blog for my favorite recipes in the last year.

All this takes is a little chopping and a quick stir fry - 20 minutes tops - for tart citrus shrimp, cool cucumber salad, and the crunch of crispy shallots and peanuts. Delicious.

Tropical Tamarind Shrimp with Avocado Cucumber Salad

3 T. peanut oil
1 large shallot, thinly sliced and separated into rings 
3 cloves of garlic, minced 
1 inch fresh ginger, grated
2-3 Thai chilies, with seeds, minced
1 lb. large shrimp, peeled and cleaned

Sauce

2 heaping teaspoons tamarind concentrate
3 T. sugar
2 T. soy
2 T. Asian fish sauce (nam pla)
2 T. lime juice

Salad

2 avocados, cubed into 1/2 inch pieces
1 large cucumber, seeded, peeled, and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 half sweet onion, minced
3 T. lime juice
zest of one lime
1 t. sugar
1 t. Asian fish sauce (nam pla)
3 T. fresh coriander, chopped
1/3 cup roasted salted peanuts, chopped
steamed jasmine rice

Fry shallot and make tamarind sauce:

Heat oil in a 1-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat until hot but not smoking, then fry shallot, stirring, until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain (shallots will crisp as they cool). Reserve oil.

Combine all sauce ingredients – tamarind, sugar, soy sauce, fish sauce, and lime juice – and stir until well mixed. (If you can’t find tamarind concentrate, you can soak 4 T. tamarind pulp in 1/2 cup boiling water until dissolved, and then strain out the solids).

Make salad and cook shrimp:

Combine all salad ingredients, minus the peanuts, in a bowl. Cover and set aside.

Transfer reserved oil to a heavy skillet and sauté ginger, garlic, chilies, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds (careful not to burn). Add shrimp and sauté until barely pink, about 2 minutes. Stir in tamarind mixture and simmer until shrimp are just cooked through, about 2 minutes more.

Spoon shrimp and salad over rice, then sprinkle with peanuts and fried shallot.

Mexican Hot Chocolate

By Liz:

I take great pride in the fact that my great contribution to Karena and Dave's wedding day was the Bond-inspired martini. And so in return for the Vesper Lynd post, I'd like to call attention to a drink that I will forever associate with Karena and Dave - Mexican hot chocolate.

I have an eclectic collection of kitchen implements, but one of my most obscure is the molinillo, a wooden mexican whisk designed for the sole purpose of frothing hot chocolate. History has it that the Spanish colonists, totally taken by this New World chocolate business, invented it in Mexico in the 1700s.

Karena and Dave showed up in New York City a couple years back, equipped with this frother, some Ibarra chocolate blocks, vanilla paste and ancho chilies, and my conception of hot chocolate has never been the same.

Mexican Hot Chocolate

Makes 2 cups

2 cups whole milk
6 sections Ibarra chocolate blocks
1/4 tsp. ground chili (preferably ancho chili; do not substitute chili powder*)
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 vanilla fresh bean (optional, but so delicious)
whipped cream to top

Heat milk, chocolate, chili, cinnamon and vanilla until chocolate is dissolved. Top with whipped cream and sprinkle with chili. Serve hot.

*Chili powder typically as sold in the U.S. typically has other spices mixed in. Make sure to add pure chili. Another option is to grind your own, and strain out the pieces before serving.

Arugula, Shrimp & Roasted Potato Salad

March in New York is such a tease. It shows just enough spring to get your hopes up, and then turns the cold shoulder. 

I left the house today all pleased with my spring skirt and daringly bare hands, and then made the mistake of talking to my parents in southern California, who were welcoming the season with blooming wisteria and sun-heated pools. Suddenly, my spring coat didn’t seem so celebratory.

But what my mom lacked in seasonal empathy, she made up for in recipes. She reminded me of one of my favorite warm weather dishes, a light arugula and shrimp salad with lemon and roasted potatoes. 

It was one of the first meals I learned how to prepare, part of the inaugural cookbook we carefully assembled before I went off to college. (I also left for my Eastern education without winter boots, pants, or any semblance of a coat – in retrospect, it wasn’t the most practical packing job).

But there’s a lot to be said for the California approach to cooking – just a few simple, fresh ingredients. I may not be eating this salad poolside, but it definitely added a shot of California sunshine to my almost-spring dinner.

Warm Arugula, Shrimp and Potato Salad

1 lb. shrimp, unpeeled*
7 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 lb. small potatoes, scrubbed and quartered (best to get multiple colors)
2 small cloves garlic, grated
4 T. lemon juice
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 tsp. minced fresh rosemary
20 calamata olives, pitted and halved
1/4 lb. baby arugula (4 cups loosely packed)

Heat the oven to 425. Toss potatoes with 1/2 T. olive oil, half the minced rosemary, more salt and pepper. Pour onto another baking sheet and arrange in a single layer. Bake for 20 minutes, until tender and slightly crisp.

Toss the shrimp with 1/2 T. of the oil and season with salt and pepper. Pour onto a large rimmed baking tray in a single layer. Roast for 7-8 minutes. Peel shrimp.

Meanwhile. Add garlic and two pinches salt and smash to a coarse paste. Add lemon juice, zest, remaining rosemary, and a few grinds of salt and pepper. Whisk in 5-6 T. olive oil. Taste and add more lemon juice and a pinch of sugar, if needed.

Add all ingredients to large mixing bowl and toss with dressing. Serve.

*If you’d rather not roast the shrimp, you can just shell them when they’re raw, and quickly stir fry them with a little olive oil on the stovetop.

Zested: A New Blog

By Liz

One blog just wasn't enough - I now have two. Zested, the sister site to Sauced, has a more photo-friendly layout and will allow me to give my photo-nerdery free reign.

Sauced will still be my home for recipes; Zested will be a collection of images of all things foodie fun, from gardening to grilling to going out on the town.

Come check it out and say hi!  http://zested.wordpress.com

Garden Fresh Grilled Pizza

By Liz

There are few things that make me happier than firing up the garden grill for the first spring barbeque of the year. On Saturday the temperature skimmed 60 degrees and friends descended en masse, wine and sausage in hand, to bask in the jacketless dusk.

The tricky part about having a garden bbq in New York in March is there isn’t yet any garden. With a little improvisation and a few carefully arranged houseplants, I recreated the illusion of summer so successfully that I was asked more than once if my pizza toppings were fresh from the garden.

I attribute this in no small part to the dazzlingly fresh flavors of my grilled pizzas (ok, and a little bit to the wine). The thin, crispy dough is grilled quickly, drizzled with olive oil, and then heaped with garden goodness: arugula, cherry tomatoes, basil, shallots, onion slivers, cheese, and topped with a sprinkle of red wine vinegar.

Notice there’s no sauce. You can throw a dash on if you’re partial of course – this is a mix and match kind of operation – but there’s really no need.

The result is cheap and cheerful, and astonishingly good. So good, in fact, that I set a new personal best by eating my pizzas no fewer than three times over a 24-hour period. I’m not necessarily advocating this approach, but I do recommend you try it once. You’ll never look at pizza in the same way again.

Garden Fresh Grilled Pizza

Makes 2 pizzas

One package of Trader Joe’s prepared pizza dough*

1 cup cherry tomatoes, preferably assorted colors

1 small onion, cut in half and slivered

1 shallot, finely chopped

4 cups arugula

Large bunch of basil, roughly chopped

2 cups grated parmesan

2 cups grated mozzarella

Red wine vinegar

Olive oil

Salt, pepper

* Pizza dough is very easy to make, and I often make my own. But since it has to be done ahead of time, I find Trader Joe’s to be a simple, convenient alternative.

Prepare all toppings, and put them in prep bowls by the grill. Soak chopped shallots in a mixture of red wine vinegar and water, to take the bite out.

Preheat the grill to medium high, and brush with olive oil. 

Roll out dough into two 12-inch pies. You will want it to be fairly thin, but don’t exceed the size of your grill. I roll all my pies out at once and then layer them with saran wrap in a large, flat-bottomed fry pan.

Carry pies out to grill, and lay directly on the grill. After about a minute, rotate pies 180 degrees to make sure it’s cooking evenly. Dough will begin to puff in big bubbles, 2-3 minutes.

Slide off the grill and flip, reducing heat to low. Drizzle with olive oil, cover with cheese, herbs and vegetables, and sprinkle with red wine vinegar and salt and pepper.

Close the grill top to let the toppings warm, 1-2 minutes. Serve immediately.

Creamy Bean Soup with Fresh Herbs and Broccoli Rabe

By Liz

For me, cooking is like writing. You start with basic points, and assemble them into patterns.

Tonight, after a writing whiplash at work, a whirlwind where my talented colleagues saw patterns before I even saw points, I wanted a dinner built of simple flavors.

I was struck by two lovely flavors this week. First, broccoli rabe, whose slightly bitter bite gave a lovely crunch to our orechiette sauce. Second, a smooth white bean dip Nora made on Monday night, suffused with garlic, rosemary and thyme.

So I set out to combine the two. There’s no better balm for an intense day than simmering garlic and a glass of viognier.

I cooked down onions and garlic and stirred in thyme and rosemary, conveniently luxuriant on my windowsill. I simmered with chickpeas, white beans and chicken stock, stirred in some sage and blanched broccoli rabe, and dinner was done.

To add a touch of pizzazz, I topped my bowl with a grind of fresh salt and pepper, a drizzle of olive oil, and crispy fried sage. The resulting dinner was lovely, simple and subtle.

Creamy Bean Soup with Fresh Herbs and Broccoli Rabe
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
2 1/2 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 15-oz. can white beans, drained
1 15-oz. can chickpeas, drained 

1 bunch broccoli rabe, chopped and blanched
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh sage
Handful of whole sage leaves, for frying
Extra-virgin olive oil

Heat olive oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic and sauté until onions are golden, about 15 minutes. Add rosemary and thyme and stir 1 minute. Add all broth and beans. Bring soup to boil; reduce to medium-low and simmer until flavors blend, about 10 minutes.

Transfer soup to food processor and puree until smooth; return to pot. Mix in broccoli and sage. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle soup into bowls.

Heat olive oil in a small fry pan until nearly smoking; drop in sage leaves 5 seconds at a time until just crispy. Top soup with a drizzle olive oil and sage leaves. Would also be good topped with grated parmesan or fresh croutons.

 

Fresh Orecchiette with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe

By Liz

It turns out that it's not hard to make pasta; what is hard is making good pasta.

Judy and I set up camp on the living room table, poured delicious Old Fashioneds with St. Germain liqueur (more on that in a later post), and we to kneading in time with the music. Three songs and 15 minutes later, the dough was elastic and looked about right, given that we had no idea how it was supposed to look.

A few flicks of the knife and twists of the thumb and we had a mound of marginally ear-shaped pasta. Easy.

Meanwhile John, whose Italian ancestry makes him genetically predisposed to pasta sauce, whipped up a fragrant pot of spicy sausage and broccoli rabe. (Why have I never thought to add chopped broccoli rabe to sauces before? It seems so simple and tastes so right.)

The first sign of trouble appeared when we poured our precious pasta into the pot... and it floated, sparking pangs of self-doubt. Was it supposed to float? Did the ears look more like life rafts? Were they actually inflating as they cooked?

A few chewy bites confirmed our suspicions: the ears were way too big. Large enough in fact that the sausage could practically climb on board and paddle to away to safety.

Never mind, we devoured them regardless, the imperfect first attempt only fueling our appetite for future pasta.

Spicy Sausage with Broccoli Rabe
By John Goodwin
1 lb spicy Italian sausage
1 1/2 onions, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 T. dried sage
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 28–oz. can whole peeled tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
1/4 cup red wine
1 lb. broccoli rabe, chopped and blanched

Brown the sausage over high heat with salt and pepper. Add the onions, garlic and herbs, and cook until onions are translucent. Add tomatoes and wine, and simmer until flavors have come together. Add broccoli rabe at the very end, with the cooked orecchiette.

Fresh Orecchiette
2 cups semolina
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup lukewarm water

On a clean work surface, stir together semolina and flour and form a well in center. Add water and a generous pinch of salt to well and with a fork gradually incorporated semolina mixture until a dough is formed. Knead dough until smooth and elastic, about 10-15 minutes.

Cover with plastic wrap for 10 minutes. Roll dough between your hands to create even ropes 1/2 inch wide. Cut into 1/4-inch rounds with a sharp knife. Lightly toss cut pieces with a little semolina mixture.

Press each cut piece of dough with your thumb to form a depression. Cover so it doesn’t dry out, until ready to cook. Drop orecchiette in boiling water for four minutes, and then shock in a ice bath. Return to sauce pot, and stir until combined. Serve with grated parmesan.

Disclaimer: This is the way we made the pasta, but I don’t guarantee it would pass muster with an Italian grandmother. If anyone has a better recipe or technique, please let me know!

 

Tart Tamarind-Almond Buttons

By Liz

It's time to play Fill the Mason Jar. I’m joining John and Judy tonight for our Ambitious Orreciette Expedition, where we will attempt to make fresh pasta for the first time while drinking lots of wine (I don’t see how this could possibly go awry.)

On our regular cooking-drinking dates, one of us usually comes bearing a mason jar with this week’s sweet experiment. Tonight, the mason jar is in my court.

I am loving the tropical flavors of yesterday’s mango chutney, so I decided to look to Marcus Samuelsson for equatorial inspiration. The Soul of a New Cuisine has a sour tamarind-almond ball recipe that uses all my favorite flavors – ginger, vanilla and lime – plus the exotic tamarind, which I’ve only ever tasted in savory sauces. 

I found tamarind paste in the dusty Middle Eastern shops on Atlantic Avenue, a swirl of spices and impenetrable, rapid-fire chatter. I leave with what I hope is tamarind paste, given my inability to read Arabic.

On first glance, tamarind paste is rather revolting, with a tarlike consistency more suited to Road Runner cartoons than tasty treats. I followed the book’s recipe to the letter, but when I tasted my concoction, the sour hit me like a sledgehammer (which may be why Samuelsson named them sour tamarind-almond balls…)

At this point, I’m already so far out of my culinary comfort zone, it's time to throw caution to the wind and wing it. I seriously scaled back the tamarind, doubled everything else, and threw in a tab of butter for good measure. Better, but still Road Runner consistency.

I mixed in a cup of crushed almonds to add some crunch, but the balls I shaped quickly melted into pancakes. So I rolled the almond-tamarind paste around individual almonds, and then coated them in sugar and crushed nuts for good measure.

The final little buttons pack some serious flavor – a pop of tangy tamarind and lime. I’ll provide a real recipe once I fine-tune it, but if you’re looking for broad-brush inspiration, the final concoction ended up something like this.

Tart Tamarind-Almond Buttons
2 limes, zested and juiced
3/4 cup of sugar, divided
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 T. dark rum
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 T. butter
1/2 cup tamarind paste
1 cup roasted almonds, plus 30 more

Combine the lime juice, zest and 1/2 cup sugar in a small saucepan and stir until sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and add the ginger, black pepper, rum, vanilla and butter.

Place the tamarind paste in a bowl and stir in lime juice mixture a little at a time, until combined. Chop the almonds in a food processor, and reserve a quarter cup of the crushed nuts. Add the tamarind-lime paste mixture to the food processor and blend until well mixed.

Mix reserved crushed nuts with 1/4 cup sugar in a shallow bowl. Using two spoons, coat a whole almond with just enough paste to coat (about a teaspoon). Roll in sugar-nut mixture, and place on a waxed baking tray. Freeze until set, about 30 minutes. Serve chilled.

Samosa Cups with Mango Chutney

By Liz

My husband has many wonderful qualities, but holidays are not his strong suit. Like most men, he views Valentine's Day as an overwrought celebration created by marketers to sell flowers. He has a fair point… but unfortunately, it’s completely negated by the fact that I, like most women, love flowers.

So let us just pause for just a moment to appreciate the blossom bonanza, unprecedented in our four years together, that exploded in my apartment today (all the more impressive since Shravan’s in Rwanda at the moment):

What does this have to do with cooking? Well, the sudden transformation of v-day from a burden to a pleasure set me thinking about recipes that could use a similar reinvention.

Some of my favorite snacks are potato samosas, fittingly the first Indian recipe I attempted when I began dating Shravan. I was so proud of myself for painstakingly rolling out the dough, carefully shaping the samosas and deep frying them, smoking up the house and scorching a favorite pan in the process. The result was a huge hit at parties: after they disappeared, guests descended with spoons on the leftover filling.

Then I visited Shravan’s ethnically Indian family in Nairobi for the first time and realized that nobody actually makes their own samosas – it’s such a pain. How could I serve the popular potato mix in a simpler shape?

My quick and easy solution: baked wonton skins, shaped into cups. These bite-size cups lack the deep-fried decadence of the original thing, but they’re simple and they open up the option of additional toppings.

Cue the mango chutney. My obsession with mangoes is well documented, but I had never actually cooked with green ones before, which may explain why I knicked two fingers while trying to peel them. (Note: stand them on end on a cutting board and skin with a sharp peeler before dicing).

I set the mangoes on to simmer, and then turned my skeptical eye to the samosa filling, a departure from Shravan’s dash-of-this dash-of-that mix that I can never properly replicate. But this is about reinvention right? The end result was subtly spicy, with an unusual creaminess from the yogurt and minced tomato stirred in at the end.

And piled in the cup with the mango chutney and a sprig of coriander on top… holy cow (pun intended)! This is beyond good, its incredible, and a great first entry to Regional Recipes, conveniently featuring Indian food this month. I cannot WAIT to serve this at my next party – they’re going to be gone before you can say samosas. 

Samosa Filling
All recipes are loose adaptations from Epicurious.com

3/4 cup red onion, finely chopped
2 minced Thai bird chillies
1 1/2 inch ginger, peeled and grated
1 3/4 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large boiling potatoes (1 pound), peeled and finely chopped (1 cm cubes)
1 small tomato, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
2 tablespoons plain yogurt

In a large skillet cook the onion, the chilies, the ginger, the curry powder, the chili powder, the cumin, the cloves, the cinnamon, and the salt in the oil in a large nonstick pan over medium low heat. Stir frequently until the onion is softened, at least 10 minutes.

Add the potato cubes and a tablespoon of water, cover, and simmer until potato is very soft, about 20 minutes.  (Potatoes cubes can also be quickly boiled beforehand if time is an issue). Stir occasionally to make sure the potato isn’t sticking.

Stir in the tomato, the coriander, the yogurt, and black pepper to taste, cook the mixture, stirring, for 1 minute (do not let it boil), and let it cool. (The filling may be made 2 days in advance and kept covered and chilled.)

Wonton Cups

1 package (12 oz.) of frozen wonton squares, defrosted

Preheat oven to 325°F. Brush mini muffin tin with oil. Press wonton squares into miniature muffin cups. Bake until wonton cups are golden brown, about 10 minutes. Cool completely in tins. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Remove cups from tins and store airtight at room temperature.)

Mango Chutney

3 large, unripe mangoes
1/2 cup distilled vinegar
1/3 cup sugar plus additional to taste if mango is very sour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1/4 cup dried cranberries (or raisins if you prefer)

For seasoning paste
1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled
2 fresh Thai bird chilies
5 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

3-inch piece cinnamon stick
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Peel mangoes and cut into 1/2-inch cubes. In a small bowl toss mangoes with vinegar, sugar, salt and craisins.

For seasoning paste: Cut gingerroot into 4 pieces. For a milder chutney, remove seeds and veins from chilies. Puree ginger, chilies, and remaining seasoning paste ingredients in a food processor.

Heat a 4-quart heavy kettle over moderately low heat until hot. Cook seasoning paste and cinnamon stick in oil, stirring frequently, 10 minutes, or until very fragrant. Stir in mango mixture and simmer, covered, over low heat, stirring occasionally, until mangoes are tender, about 30 minutes. Discard cinnamon stick and cool chutney completely. Chutney keeps, covered and chilled, about 1 month.

Spicy Duck Ragu with Basil and Cinnamon

By Liz

I’m determined to make my own pasta. This weekend, a blissfully long one, Judy and I plan to tempt fate and embark on an ambitious orreciette expedition. Never mind the fact that neither of us has made pasta before… the potential for disaster only adds to the anticipation.

But on weekdays, as much as I’d love to be up to my elbows in flour, I spend my time writing about teaching, not cooking. So when 6 p.m. rolls around, I start toggling between reports and recipes until I hit upon my dinner inspiration.

Tonight I was consumed with visions of pasta, a hangover from the gorgeous pumpkin-artichoke gnocchi from last night at Sette, the happiest place on earth (or at least in Park Slope). It’s a casual, candlelit joint I visit weekly with girlfriends for cheap wine and homemade pasta.

But gnocchi is for pros, so I settled for a simple duck ragu – all of the class, none of the fuss. I only needed to purchase five ingredients on the walk home, and after I wheedled my way into the neighborhood butcher at closing time, I was all set.

I amped up the herbs because I’m a sucker for spice and because the mix of simmering garlic, thyme, cinnamon and red pepper was irresistible. The result was an exotic, slightly sweet ragu with a hint of cinnamon. Its definitely worthy of an entry to Pasta Presto Nights, a weekly pasta roundup celebrating its 100th post this week.

Spicy Duck Ragu with Basil and Cinnamon
Adapted from Amuse Restaurant/Epicurious.com

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 duck breast, skinned
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
28-oz. can of crushed tomatoes or tomato puree

12 ounces scoop-shapped pasta (orecchiette or chiocciole)
1 cup coarsely chopped arugula
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Sprinkle duck with salt and pepper. Add duck to pot and sauté until brown, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer duck to plate, and let oil cool slightly. Add basil, garlic, thyme, cinnamon stick and crushed red pepper to pot; sauté 3 minutes.

Return duck to pot. Add tomatoes; bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until duck is tender, about 1 hour. Remove cinnamon stick. Transfer duck to work surface. Shred meat with two forks. Return meat to pot. Season duck ragù to taste with salt and pepper.

Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite. Drain pasta, reserving cooking water. Return to pot with 1 T of cooking water. Add duck ragù, arugula, and Parmesan; toss to blend. Divide pasta among small bowls. Serves 2.

Note: This sauce only improves overnight. If you have enough patience, I would recommend making the sauce a day ahead of time for even richer flavors.