Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Creamy, dreamy…

September 19, 2012 by Mary Frances 6 Comments

…parsnips!! Yes, parsnips! Who would have thunk it? This dish, in the newest October Food and Wine magazine, appealed to me. I had parsnips and I had chicken thighs. I always have white wine that can be used up. If not that, use dry vermouth and feel very French. And the rest of the recipe I just improvised and changed.

Yesterday, my day was challenging. Our refrigerator and freezer went kaput in the middle of the night and I had to work from home while waiting for the repair men to come. Meanwhile I had the bright idea to call the super and ask if there were any empty apartments that had a refrigerator and could I please store all my food there? Yes, there was one on the third floor. Bingo! So here I am, hauling bags of food down there and then I’m trying to work at our kitchen counter and our darn refrigerator keeps on beeping to tell me that the temperature is below where it should be. Duhhh!!! Do you know how annoying that is?

Meanwhile, I’m dealing with two very inexperienced clients and I am frustrated. After the repair guys finally fix the refrigerator, I had to go to the Bronx for a meeting with the new board president at the school I volunteer at and I am not in a pretty mood. I tell them what I really think about their name at this meeting and leave. I am nice about it but firm.

I get back home and decide I need to sweat all this meanness out so I go to the gym and ride a bike for over 5 miles and come back up to cook this dinner which was so delicious and creamy dreamy that I am now a nice person again.

You see how food has the ability to comfort and soothe, curing all that ails you? When you cook with love, you only magnify that tenet.

Parsnips are in season now. Buy only fresh young ones — no big fat woody ones allowed! This really is a must-make dish. We served a Vouvray and some steamed Jasmine rice with this and all was well and back to normal in our household!

CHENIN BLANC BRAISED CHICKEN THIGHS WITH PARSNIPS AND SAGE
– serves 4

2 tbs. unsalted butter
2 tbs.extra-virgin olive oil
8 medium chicken thighs, with bones and skin
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 large shallots, peeled and quartered
1 lb. parsnips, peeled and cut into 3″ lengths and then quartered or halved
1 large sage sprig with numerous leaves
1 cup Chenin Blanc or other dry white wine
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth, preferably homemade
Chopped fresh sage leaves and chives for garnish

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a large, deep ovenproof skillet, melt the butter in the oil. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and dust lightly with the flour, tapping off the excess. Add the chicken to the skillet skin side down and cook over high heat, turning once, until browned, 6 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

Add the shallots, parsnips and sage sprig to the skillet and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the wine and boil until reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Nestle the chicken skin side up in the skillet, tucking it between the parsnips. Transfer the skillet to the middle rack of the oven and braise the chicken uncovered for about 25 minutes, until cooked through.

Turn the broiler on. Broil the chicken for 3 minutes, until the skin is crisp. Return the skillet to high heat and boil until the sauce is thickened, 3 minutes. Discard the sage sprig, if you like. Transfer the chicken and vegetables to bowls, garnish with chopped sage leaves and chives and serve with steamed Jasmine rice.

Fig Clafoutis

September 16, 2012 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

We were invited to our friends, Nikki and Todd’s house, back in our old hometown, Summit, NJ, for Sunday dinner tonight. It’s so great to get together with old friends. We met when our oldest boys were in first grade. They had just been at our apartment for dinner a couple of weeks before and I had served a blueberry crisp with crème fraiche for dessert. When I asked if I could bring anything, Nikki said a resounding, “Yes, please bring a blueberry crisp, just like the one you made.”

Well, the blueberry season here is over and the ones in the stores look terrible, come from far away and are really expensive to boot. So after hemming and hawing, I decided to do something completely different. The black mission figs are in full season now and after going to three stores looking for nice blueberries and consistently seeing lovely black mission figs, I decided to go for it, hoping she’d like it. I had just read a recipe for a clafoutis in the latest issue of Food and Wine magazine that sounded great. I would have died if she hated figs, particularly when someone asks you so specifically to make something for them. I called her on the car ride there and broke the news. She seemed excited about it. Whew!

So now, I have never made a clafoutis. Doesn’t scare me, I’m always willing to try something new. I got up at 8 am and starting prepping for it. (Only because I wanted to fit in a long bike ride today too!) This recipe is in the October issue of Food and Wine and just look at how pretty it turned out!! I served it with crème fraiche and the port sauce separately, rather than the heavy cream sweetened with the sauce. It was elegant and delicious! I love the way it looks in the cast iron skillet.

Black Mission Fig Clafoutis

Nikki and Todd’s dinner was delicious! A whole grilled salmon fillet with spicy shrimp, a beautiful salad and a yummy pasta dish with vegetables and Pecorino Romano cheese. They told the story of Todd’s mother who apparently was a fantastic improvisational cook. One of Todd’s brothers was in Washington state and his mother asked him to bring back a salmon. He brought back a huge whole fish, much too big to put in any pan she had in their apartment in the West 40s. And she was insistent to not cut up this beautiful being. So, she poached it in the dishwasher!! Nikki said she ran the dishwasher three times to get all the soap out, wrapped the fish in cheesecloth and put it in the top rack and cooked that baby on a wash cycle. (We asked if it was crystal, economy or pot and pans – she didn’t know and the dishwasher probably only had one cycle.) They said the fish was delicious. But isn’t that the greatest story?!

Eggplant Parmigiano

September 12, 2012 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

My good friend, Margaret, has graciously shared her recipe of that wonderful dish we had on Labor Day weekend at her house.

The weather is getting perfect for a homey dish like this. Makes you want to crawl right into it … and eat it forever … pure yumminess! Hope you all enjoy.
THANK YOU MARGARET!!!

EGGPLANT PARMIGIANO
-serves 6 – 8

Eggplants, 8 small
Mozzarella, 2 balls
Parmigiano reggiano
Large bunch of basil
Tomatoes [maybe 3 to 3.5 lbs? cored and chopped]
Garlic
Olive oil

Select eight smallish eggplants. I suggest eggplants that are slightly smaller than your hand. Slice into ½-inch rounds and sauté in olive oil until golden. Salt and pepper lightly, turn and continue to sauté until golden and tender. Add additional olive oil as needed. Drain on paper towels.

Slice two balls of mozzarella. Grate parmigiano reggiano. Chop a large bunch of basil. Set aside.

To make the tomato sauce, core and chop whatever ripe to over-ripe tomatoes you have at hand. Add sliced garlic and olive oil (about 1/4 cup for an 8 cup potful). Cook at a low boil until most of the water has evaporated, stirring as needed.

To hasten the process, use a potato masher to loosen the “meat” of the tomato chunks. Blend in a food processor until smooth. Preheat oven to 375 – 425 degrees, depending on your oven.

Layer in a baking dish: half of eggplant slices, half of tomato sauce, half of parmigiano (should cover all of the surface “thickly” but not too much), mozzarella, basil, and then the remainder of eggplant, tomato sauce and parmigiano. Bake covered for 15 minutes, then uncover and bake until the dish is bubbly and the cheese has browned.

Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes. Then cut into squares and mangia, mangia!

A September Sunday morning

September 9, 2012 by Mary Frances 4 Comments

After the huge storm last night, including tornadoes in Long Island and parts of Connecticut, we awoke in the country to a most spectacular day today! Blue sky, billowy clouds, and a downed, huge, heavy tree branch that just missed one of our cars were the first things we saw this morning. Yikes!
This was our breakfast, an absolute favorite of mine. Smoked salmon, Ben’s homemade cream cheese, tomatoes from the garden, thinly sliced red onion, capers and toasted bagels. We finished it off with a fruit salad of black mission figs, mango, red grapes and banana. Can’t beat that!

Although there is nothing here that I made, except for putting together the fruit salad, I just had to share it with you because it was all so pretty in the dazzling sunlight this morning.

See the view from our dining room window below. Hope you had a great weekend!

Labor Day weekend!

September 4, 2012 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

Eggplant Parmigiano and farm stand salad on a white plate.

Margaret’s Eggplant Parmigiano with a farm stand mesclun salad

Ah, the end of summer. Sad to say good-bye, but beautiful autumn is just around the corner. I love every season and I am glad I live in a place that experiences all four of them.

How was your holiday weekend? Ours, upstate, was filled with gorgeous weather with some sprinkles of rain just as we were driving back to Manhattan in the early evening on Monday.

This time also celebrates our one-year birthday for this blog! LOVE now has close to 3000 followers with additional monthly exposure across the globe in South Africa via Spice4Life.

On Saturday, we got together with our dear friends, Margaret and Wayne. They had us over to their house and Margaret made a fantastic dinner. Starting with delicious fresh summer corn crab cakes – a recipe from Mark Bittman – she moved us into Fall with the most amazing Eggplant Parmigiano with a beautiful mixed green salad. She used farm stand organic mesclun with scallions, heirloom tomatoes and avocado. But the Eggplant Parmigiano, oh my, was divine!!! The eggplant was not breaded beforehand, but sautéed on its own, the mozzarella was dreamy and the tomato sauce (homemade) was perfect. It was scrumptious pure heaven. She has promised the recipe, an old one from The New York Times, that she had lost but put back together from memory.

We need that recipe soon, Margaret!!!

Here’s her beautiful meal.

You voted!

September 1, 2012 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

Roasted cauliflower with cumin and tomatoes in a green bowl.

Cumin roasted cauliflower and tomatoes

We’ve gotten lots of responses to “what’s your favorite spice?” What came back? Mint, rosemary, cinnamon, curry, saffron and cumin. Cumin was hands down the winner, receiving the most votes.

Cumin is so versatile. You can use the plain seeds, toasted seeds or the seeds finely ground into a powder. I love to sprinkle ground cumin on cauliflower before roasting it. When sprinkled on store-bought hummus, with a little drizzle of olive oil, that hummus perks right up. People will think it’s homemade, but it’s just adding a little love to a store bought brand! Cumin works on pork, yummy on grilled skirt or hanger steak and chicken. I have never tried it on fish but you know, I think it’d be great on roasted tilapia fillets. One reader wrote that her husband even sprinkles it on his eggs and omelets! Recently I made a steamed rice recipe with cumin, mustard seeds and butternut squash and it was heavenly! I love the smell of it roasting and steaming. I’ll have to share that recipe later.

Our lovely Project Manager, Caitlin, told me about the favorite Mother Goose nursery rhyme that her parents rewrote for her and her 3 sisters, because they were all girls. (I LOVED hearing this story coming from a family of five boys and me!) Here it is.

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, bakers’ women
Bake me a cake with spices and cumin
Pat it and roll it and mark it with a “C”
And put it in the oven for baby and me!

Isn’t that great?