Long ago, before I moved to New York, I would hear stories from Jenna about all the cheap and tasty food that she missed in NY when she got homesick. There were the big fat quesadillas and burritos at Benny’s Burritos, the Hijiki-Tofu Patties from Dojo, the Chinese food from House of Vegetarian, and most of all the Falafel Sandwiches from Mamoun’s in the West Village. Coming from a part of the country that used to lack authenticity in certain culinary genres, I always got jealous. And hungry.

We’ve been making efforts to eat less meat in our diet again lately, so I made falafels last week, using a recipe someone gave me a long time ago when I decided I should just cook the foods I craved if I couldn’t get them where I lived. The chickpeas are not cooked before frying, only soaked in water overnight. They should be ground up in a food processor until they just start coming together, but not too much so that they might become a paste. Easy enough to make, as long as you don’t mind the deep-frying.

Falafel (makes about 15-18 patties)

1 cup dried chickpeas
1 small onion, chopped
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon ground cumin seeds
1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
1 large clove garlic, peeled
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
juice of 1/2 lemon

Soak the chickpeas in plenty of cold water overnight. The next day, drain them well, then put them into a food processor. Grind them until they will hold their shape, but not enough that they become a paste. Add the remaining ingredients and process until well ground and fully incorporated. Form into balls or patties about 2 inches across and refrigerate while the oil heats up.

Begin heating about 6 cups of vegetable oil in a large saucepan. When it reaches about 350°F you should start frying the falafel. Carefully drop them in one at a time, and cook them for about 4 minutes, or until they are golden brown on the outside and fully cooked on the inside. Repeat until they are all cooked. Serve immediately. They can be made into pita sandwiches, or served with other middle eastern items (tabbouleh, tzatziki, hummus, etc…) as part of a mixed platter.

Pancakes around our house are always considered a “special occasion” breakfast, maybe because it’s something that involves actual cooking as opposed to sticking something in the toaster or pouring milk over cereal.  The girls always get excited for pancakes. The thing about pancakes for me, however, is that they can be a little heavy and dense. If you have the time to prep the batter for breakfast the night before, you can try this pancake batter recipe which rises overnight in the refrigerator.  They end up lighter and fluffier than regular pancakes and they have a light yeasty flavor. 

Yeast-Raised Pancakes (makes about 10 medium pancakes)

1-1/2 cups warm milk
2-1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Mix the milk, yeast, oil and egg together in a large bowl until the yeast is fully dissolved.  Add the remaining ingredients and stir only until everything is incorporated.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, heat a griddle or heavy frying pan over medium heat (we always use a cast iron pan).  Add a little oil to the pan. Spoon in pancake batter to make pancakes of your desired size.  Cook for just about 1-2 minutes per side until golden on both sides and cooked completely through.  Serve immediately.

Every once in a while we’ll see kumquats at the grocery store and toss them in our shopping cart. It’s usually Mia who will spot them first and it’s no wonder…they are small and cute. But the problem with buying kumquats is that we’ll usually never go through a whole pint before they start to shrink and shrivel. One or 2 kumquats at a time is pretty much enough to satisfy and they’ll often be left forgotten in the fridge after awhile. The other day I decided to make candied kumquats. They’re sort of like sweet condiments and you can toss them in salads or on top of desserts as a garnish. Or you can do what Jenna does…and pop a one in your mouth every time you walk pass the refrigerator.

Candied Kumquats (makes about 1 cup)

1 pint kumquats
2 cups sugar
1-1/3 cups water

Slice each kumquat into 3 or 4 slices, and remove the seeds. Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the sliced kumquats and turn the heat to low. Simmer gently for about 15 minutes, or until the kumquats are translucent. Remove from the heat, transfer to a heatproof storage container, and cool in the syrup.

We love Mexican food in our house. Normally we eat it at least once a week, although it usually comes in the form of simple tacos or fajitas (and always pickled jalapeños, which Jenna seems to have become addicted to). Last week I felt a bit ambitious and decided to make enchiladas with a homemade mole sauce. There are many versions of mole, the most famous ones being molé poblano and mole negro. I made neither of those, and ended up making an approximation using what I had on hand. As many Mexicans I know will be quick to point out, a traditional mole can use more than 40 ingredients. The most essential ingredients are the dried chilies, and I’m lucky to have a wide variety at my local supermarket. I chose a mixture of guajillo and mulato chilies, but ancho or pasilla chilies are also good choices. Just make sure to allow plenty of time to make the mole, or even make it the day before – it is quite a process, but well worth the effort. I’m going to try to have some of this in the fridge all the time.

Homemade Mole (makes about 4 cups)

4 ounces dried chilies (see above)
10 tomatillos, husks still on
8 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1 large vidalia onion
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 to 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/3 cup date sugar (brown sugar may be substituted, but less will be needed)
salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Remove the stems from the dried chilies and shake out the seeds. Put them on a foil-lined baking sheet along with the tomatillos and garlic. Roast them all together. Remove the chilies when they have darkened considerably. Remove the tomatillos when they have become noticeably soft, and remove the garlic when it is golden. Put the chilies in a bowl and cover with warm water. Let them soak for at least 30 minutes. Peel the tomatillos and garlic, and set them aside.

Peel the onion and cut into 3/4-inch thick slices. Preheat a grill pan on high heat, then grill the onion on both sides until nicely charred and softened throughout. Drain the dried chilies, and put them in a blender or food processor with the tomatillos, garlic, onion, cumin, oregano and tomato paste. Blend it all together, adding enough stock to reach the desired consistency. Add date sugar and salt to taste. Transfer it all to a saucepan and simmer on medium-low heat for about 20 minutes. Use right away, or refrigerate and use later.

We aren’t one of those Nutella worshippers who make sure that a jar of the stuff is around the house at all times in case of a chocolate or dessert craving emergency, yet this is what Mark brought home from the grocery store Thanksgiving eve to make bread pudding with. Can’t even remember the last time we bought a jar of Nutella – must have been before the girls’ time which make it at least 7 years ago if not more. But yes, it was good and there was barely any leftover dessert. The pumpkin pie – one of the 90 that Mark baked Wednesday for the restaurant – didn’t fare too well with its journey from Central Park to Brooklyn to Long Island, but that is all gone too. My dad picked the last of the persimmons that were still hanging on like little miniature pumpkins off the leafless tree and we ate that too.

Mia likes having a lot of family around for the holidays. The immediate family isn’t enough. Good thing my grandmother, a few of my aunts, uncles and cousins came by for dinner. These are some of the same cousins who I grew up getting together with for big family holidays, but unlike me, the girls only have 1 baby cousin (so far) who lives far away in California. After they had left, Claudine and Mia treated my parents, Mark and I to a half hour dance recital which involved them taking turns and dancing different styles including disco and the robot.

On black Friday we went bowling (ok, we went to Ikea in the morning too. PS, I am having an after Thanksgiving sale on posters and calendars in my etsy shop). My dad had read my bowling blog entry and had a hankering to go. It had been about 15 years since he had bowled. He reminded me that the bowling pin I remember being in the house was high up on the shelf in the family room. Right before we left, he spent 15 minutes digging around in the garage for his old bowling ball, but it wasn’t found. Didn’t matter. He bowled a spare the first 4 times he was up. He didn’t bowl his 175 average, but it wasn’t too bad for being out of practice for 15 years. Mia was still really into the whole bowling thing, giving out high fives every time someone took a turn, but Claudine was just content eating 2 plates of fries this time, just like I did at that age. But the air hockey! Oh, she found something at the bowling alley that she really liked, so much so that she hogged that table up and didn’t even let me play. The girls even had a crowd of 7-9 year old boys cheering them on, which I thought was sweet.

Oh, but the bread pudding…you didn’t think we weren’t going to give a recipe to you, did you?

Nutella Bread Pudding with Dates (serves about 8, less if you’re a bread pudding hog like me)

2 cups water
2 cinnamon sticks
1 cup dried dates
2 cups heavy cream
3 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
5 cups of challah or brioche, crusts removed and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup nutella

Bring the water and cinnamon sticks to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the dates and simmer for one minute, then remove from the heat. Set aside and let the dates cool in the liquid.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl mix the cream, eggs and sugar together. Add the bread and gently stir until well moistened. Set it aside to soak for a few minutes. Now, remove the dates from the liquid. Peel the skins off the dates and remove the pits. Cut each in half, then mix into the bread mixture. Layer one third of the bread into a buttered 8-cup casserole dish. Spoon one half of the nutella over the bread. Layer another third of the bread over that, followed by the remaining nutella, and finally the remaining bread. Bake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes to one hour, depending on the shape of your baking dish. Serve while still warm with fresh whipped cream.

I finally made a visit last weekend to a friend’s restaurant. It’s in Bushwick, a neighborhood as close to the middle of nowhere as you’ll find in Brooklyn. They serve some delicious seasonally inspired food that definitely makes it worth the trip. One of the appetizers I tried was paired with a watermelon radish salad that inspired me to make a nice salad for dinner the next night. Too often salads in our house consist of merely lettuce, cherry tomatoes, dressing and croutons. Making a truly special salad requires a little more effort and adding these candied walnuts are always just the thing. The nuts are tossed in a hot sugar syrup infused with spices, then baked in the oven until crisp. While they’re baking I like to give them a stir or two, to encourage the sugar to form crystals which form an extra crisp coating. These went into a salad along with some thinly sliced tart apples, watermelon radish, golden beets, pomegranate seeds, and fresh lettuce with a sherry vinaigrette. Other nuts will work with this recipe, but walnuts and pecans seem to work best.

Candied Walnuts (makes about 2 cups)

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
2 cups walnut halves or pieces

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Bring the sugar, water and spice to a boil, then stir in the nuts. Stir them together for a few seconds, turn off the heat, and remove the nuts from the syrup directly onto a baking sheet lined with lightly oiled parchment paper. Bake in the preheated oven for about 12 minutes, or until they are crisp and any syrup on the pan is bubbling. Stir the nuts once or twice while baking if desired. The more you stir the nuts during baking, the thicker the sugar coating will be. Remove them from the oven, give them one last stir, then let them cool completely. They can be used in salads, desserts, or just for a snack. Different spices may be used as well – try cayenne or chipotle pepper for a spicy version.

Sherry Vinaigrette (makes about 1/2 cup)

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 Tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 small garlic clove, pressed or grated
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon Tabasco

Whisk all ingredients together. Dress the salad as needed and refrigerate any unused dressing.

I went on quite the shopping spree last week at the Union Square Greenmarket. Among the goodies I picked up were these nice zucchini flowers and a loaf of fresh ciabatta bread. Stuffed zucchini flowers are one of our family’s favorite summertime treats, but the dilemma, as always, is what to stuff them with. This time I chose the ciabatta bread, dicing up the crispy ends of the loaf and cooking it with onions and herbs. The mixture ended up resembling, well, stuffing, like the kind you put in a turkey, only without the heavy flavor of sage. This filling worked surprisingly well and would also work well with other things added (cheese, seafood, etc…). Just get the zucchini flowers while you can, the season doesn’t last long!

Bread and Onion Stuffed Zucchini Flowers (serves 4, or really 2 because you will want to eat them all)

12 zucchini flowers, washed well
2 tablespoons butter
1 small onion, diced
2 cups crusty bread (ciabatta, baguette, etc…), cut into very small cubes
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
Approximately 1-1/4 cups flour

Melt the butter in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the diced onion and cook until soft. Add the bread, thyme, salt and pepper. Stir well and cook for about 2 minutes. Add enough water to the mixture to bind the bread pieces together, and continue to cook for another minute. Remove from the heat and cool for a few minutes. Stuff each zucchini flower with the bread mixture, taking care not to tear the sides of each flower too much. Now, heat the vegetable oil in a clean frying pan over medium-high heat. Coat each stuffed zucchini flower in some buttermilk, followed by a nice coating of flour, then put it in the frying pan. Cook for just 1-2 minutes on each side, until they are crisp and golden all over. Drain on paper towels, then serve.

We ate the flowers with some fresh heirloom tomatoes and some homemade ricotta that I made earlier that day. Drizzle some olive oil, sprinkle some coarse sea salt, and you have a perfect bite of summery goodness.

Summer fruits are finally in full season now and that opens up so many dessert options.  But still, what to make?  I love pie, but don’t actually enjoy making it all the time.  And I also love a fruit crisp with a nice streusel topping, but I prefer that in the fall.  Shortcakes can be good, but too often the biscuit is too clunky and heavy.  What about a cobbler?  You know, that often neglected dessert that bring to mind the unrecognizable mush in one corner of a TV dinner?  I’ll be honest, I have never made one before precisely for that reason.  But when you think about what it is – a fruit mixture topped with biscuit dough – it actually combines the best elements of those previously mentioned desserts.  So for a BBQ at a friend’s house recently I used some super-fresh nectarines and blueberries and my favorite shortcake biscuit recipe to make my first cobbler.  It will not be my last.

Nectarine and Blueberry Cobbler (serves 8-10)

1-3/4 cup flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup half & half
5 nectarines, pitted and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup blueberries
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons flour

Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and butter together in an electric mixer with the paddle attachment on low speed until the butter is mostly incorporated into the flour.  Pour in the half & half and mix just until a dough forms.  Roll the dough on a well-floured surface to about 1/2-inch thickness.  Cut into 2-inch shapes (I did squares, but anything will do, or even just tear the pieces by hand into random shapes) and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix the remaining ingredients together in a large bowl, then pour into a baking dish just big enough to comfortably hold all the fruit.  I used a 10-inch round, 1-inch deep ceramic dish, but anything else will do.  Arrange the cut biscuit dough on the top of the fruit, leaving a few small spots uncovered.  Put the dish on a baking sheet (it will most likely bubble over) and bake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes, or until the biscuits are golden and the fruit is bubbling.  Let cool a bit before serving.

Hard to believe, but I bought my first sour cherries ever from the farmer’s market last week.  There are two main reasons I haven’t bought them before.  First, their season is very short so the chances of finding them are slim.  And second, they are very fragile and do not keep for more than a few days so you need to have time to use them if you don’t want to waste your money (and they can be expensive).  I bought these cherries without any clear plan on what to make, but decided on a pie when I got home.  I soon realized I didn’t have nearly enough for a full size pie, so I made a few mini-pies in a couple of individual tart pans.  The sour cherries had a wonderful flavor (they are the traditional pie-making cherry after all, but most recipes usually use canned cherries) and I don’t think I’ll be so hesitant to buy them again.

A note on making individual pies:  Roll the pie dough as thin as you can or else the filling to crust ratio will be off and it would be too much like eating the crust by itself.  To roll the dough extra-thin, make sure it is cold and try rolling it between two sheets of parchment paper to prevent it from sticking to your rolling pin.

As for the kids, Mia found a way to eat all the cherries first so there was a hollowed out pie shell before eating most of the crust.  And maybe Claudine didn’t like the cherries as much as everyone else because everything else was gone from the plate except for the cherries, which looked like all the juice had been sucked out of them.

Fresh Sour Cherry Pie (makes 4 individual 4-inch pies)

Crust:
2-2/3 cups flour
14 Tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cold water

Filling:
2 cups fresh sour cherries, pitted
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch

For the crust, mix the butter into the flour and salt with your fingers until mostly incorporated.  (You can use a food processor for this step if you like.)  Mix in enough cold water to make a dough.  Roll the dough as thin as you can (see note above), cut into 8 circles about 2 inches larger than your small tart pans.  If you need more dough you can just re-roll some of the scrap pieces.  Chill the dough until ready to use.

Meanwhile, make the filling.  Toss the pitted cherries with the sugar and let it sit for about 20 minutes.  Drain and reserve the juice.  Put the juice in a small saucepan along with the cornstarch and bring to a boil.  When it has thickened, remove it from the heat and stir in the reserved cherries.

To assemble the mini-pies, press one circle of dough into a 4-inch tart pan.  Fill almost to the top with some pie filling.  Place another circle of dough on the top, pinching at the edges so it is completely sealed.  Trim any excess dough and crimp decoratively as desired.  Cut a short slit in the top of the pie to allow steam to escape.  Repeat with the remaining pies, then bake on a parchment-lined cookie sheet in a  preheated 375-degree oven for about 40 minutes, or until the crust is cooked on the bottom and the filling begins to bubble out of the top.  Allow to cool slightly before eating.

I’m very happy that we didn’t miss the pick-your-own strawberry season this year and I’m equally as happy that I actually had time to make something with them.  The kids were sold on the idea of a strawberry pie while we were still picking the berries, but I realized that I had never made one. I ended up improvising this recipe right down to the pie pan – my glass pie pan broke months ago so I was forced to use a springform pan.  The fresh, whole, uncooked strawberries are bound together inside a graham cracker crust with a mixture of sugar, gelatin and strawberry puree.  The strawberries looked a little rough after I filled the pie so I covered them with a layer of stabilized whipped cream.  If you try this recipe, only use the best berries you can find because the flavor depends entirely on that.

Strawberry and Whipped Cream Pie (makes one 10-inch pie)

Crust:

1-1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

6 Tablespoons melted butter

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Mix everything together by hand, and press firmly into a 10-inch springform pan.  The crust should also go up the sides of the pan about three inches.  Bake in the oven for about 12 minutes, until it has firmed up a bit.  Let it cool while you prepare the filling.

Filling:

5 cups strawberries, washed and stems removed.

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon gelatin powder, soaked in 1/4 cup cold water

Roughly chop one cup of the strawberries and place in a small saucepan with the sugar.  Cook until reduced to a puree.  Remove from the heat, then stir in the soaked gelatin.  Mix with the remaining strawberries, then immediately pour into the cooled crust.  Spread the out so the top is level, then prepare the whipped cream topping.

Topping:

1-1/2 cups heavy cream

1 Tablespoon powdered sugar

1 teaspoon gelatin powder

2 tablespoons milk

Whip the cream and sugar to stiff peaks.  Soak the gelatin in the milk for two minutes, then heat gently until dissolved.  Gradually fold the whipped cream into the gelatin, then spread on top of the strawberries.  Chill for several hours before removing from the pan and slicing.