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

Iranian Jeweled Rice at the LongHouse Food Revival

September 14, 2013 by Mary Frances 16 Comments

My adventure at the LongHouse Food Revival last weekend was very interesting. It was different than what I expected based on the topic title – The Saffron Diaspora. Just a bit of time was spent on saffron and the saffron martinis I was so excited about turned out to be made with a homemade moonshine of 140 proof!! So only a tiny sip was given out, as it should have been. It wasn’t a pretty color but there were two versions, flavored with peaches and cinnamon. I preferred the cinnamon, as the peach flavored one was too sweet.

What was inspiring and the best part of the entire weekend was the ability to meet lots of new foodies in all different areas of the profession and to be able to have intimate conversations with them.

I was fortunate to have some private conversations with chef and well-known Persian cookbook author Najmieh Batmanglij, as she made her very famous Iranian Jeweled Rice. Isn’t this dish just so pretty? It’s very tasty too! I loved the explosions of candied orange rind with the crunch of almonds and pistachios and the tartness of the barberries (or you could use dried cranberries).

This is a labor-intensive dish and remember, in any Persian rice dish, the grains should be separate and long. It is traditionally made for Iranian wedding celebrations and the glistening pops of color truly look like jewels on your plate — orange peel, carrots and saffron for gold, barberries for rubies, pistachios for emeralds and almonds for pearls.

When we visited India several years ago, I brought home rice as it tastes so different and wonderful there. The same was true with Najmieh’s saffron rice. She said she has friends bring back bags for her. To make this without the direct import of rice, I suggest using Basmati white rice.

Najmieh gave me the scoop on saffron. She said you should grind the saffron to a powder (use a mortar and pestle) with half of a sugar cube, as the sugar removes the moisture from the saffron, and then store it in a tightly covered jar in the refrigerator, or make saffron water and keep in the fridge. To make saffron water, mix two tablespoons of hot water or rose water or orange blossom water with 1/4 teaspoon of saffron powder and store in a covered jar in the fridge. Both versions make the saffron ready to use and Najmieh obviously uses a lot of it, so she wants it always handy. The Iranian Jeweled Rice recipe calls for the saffron orange blossom water.

For the recipe, please check out Najmeih’s cookbooks on Amazon. They are beautiful and inspired and clearly written with LOVE.

Herons, horses and a lamb, oh my!

September 6, 2013 by Mary Frances 20 Comments

We are finishing up a week of vacation here in the country, before I head to the LongHouse Food Revival this afternoon, which I am very excited about! While we worked most of the time, due to new accounts coming in (yay!), it is still nice to sleep a little later, stay up and watch old movies and go for long bike rides in the afternoon.

We also have this gorgeous heron who has appeared right up the street from our house. He appears on either side of the road near these two ponds. I have been so near to him and damn it, no matter how quietly I stop, open my fanny pack and take out the phone, I can’t access the camera fast enough, and he majestically flies off!

He or she is so beautiful. I want to share him with you. But this is the best I can do from a distance, so the quality of the photo is not good. But I am so happy he has come so near to us. Several years ago there was another heron who had babies in a nest way up atop a dead tree trunk in the neighboring town of Gallatin. That area is also on one of my bike routes. But they have been gone now for two or three years.

Check out the beautiful horses in our area, and that magnificent Hudson River Valley light. This is late in the day, around 6 pm. No wonder many artists came here to paint. It is already getting chilly here, so they have their blankets on.

And then there’s Domino, the new baby lamb of our farmer friends, Ethel and Tom. This little guy is 7 days old!! He’s standing, walking, smelling, will let you pet him. Isn’t that amazing for 7 days old?

Life in the country. Ain’t it grand?!

AUGUST NEWSLETTER IS OUT TODAY!

I know it’s not August anymore, but sign up for the newsletter (in the upper right hand corner) if you don’t already receive it, because you won’t want to miss this exquisite meal. It’s perfect for the Indian Summer nights to come and complete with wonderful wine pairings for each course. Sent to you with LOVE – enjoy!

Leg of lamb and the best tomatoes

September 2, 2013 by Mary Frances 20 Comments

We love being invited to our friends Susan and Matt’s apartment for dinner. They are both great hosts. Susan always does a terrific job making special recipes, Matt always serves a wonderful single malt Scotch and our conversations are topical and stimulating, often revolving around politics. Susan worked closely for a state senator for many years and really knows the ins and outs of the system. This past week, we were invited there along with some old friends of theirs and Susan made the most amazing leg of lamb.

It was Herb and Honey Mustard Crusted Leg of Lamb from the September issue of Food and Wine magazine. But listen to this story – this is the great thing about living near an old fashioned butcher. The recipe calls for a boneless or butterflied leg of lamb, seasoned with the mustard paste, rolled and tied back up to form a roast, and then to put the bone back in the one end so it looks pretty. Her butcher, Frank at Ottomanelli on York Avenue and 82^nd St. would be happy to butterfly it, but then she was nervous about tying it back up. No worries, Frank told her to bring her herb mustard mixture in to the store and he would spread it all around on the inside, salt and pepper it, and tie it back up all pretty, making a gorgeous roast and putting the decorative bone back in. Isn’t that the sweetest? So she arrived home all set to put this baby in the oven. Done!

TIP: I have found that most butchers in independent shops love to offer to do this type of work. They take ownership in their work, have a lot of pride in what they do and want to be a part of your meal. So next time, let them know what you’re trying to do and just ask!

Now I stupidly neglected to take a picture of the whole roast but here’s one of Matt cutting Susan’s beautiful and scrumptious leg of lamb.

Here’s her gorgeous plate.

And here’s the recipe for the delicious tomatoes. You know I love anchovies!!

TOMATOES NICOISE – from The New York Times by David Tanis

1 small shallot, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, grated
Salt
Pepper
2 tbs. red wine vinegar
3 tbs. olive oil
8 anchovies fillets, 2 finely chopped and 6 for garnish
2 tbs. roughly chopped black nicoise or oil cured olives, plus olives for garnish
6 small red tomatoes
12 cherry tomatoes in assorted colors
1 tbs. small capers, rinsed
12 basil leaves

Make the vinaigrette: Put shallot, garlic, salt, pepper and vinegar in small bowl. Macerate 10 minutes, then whisk in oil, chopped anchovies and chopped olives

Slice red tomatoes thickly and place on platter in one layer. Season with salt and pepper. Season cherry tomatoes with salt and dress with vinaigrette. Spoon cherry tomatoes over tomato slices.

Top each tomato slice with half an anchovy fillet, sprinkle with capers. Garnish with basil leaves and whole olives.

Serve at cool room temperature.

LongHouse Food Revival promises to be pretty amazing!

August 30, 2013 by Mary Frances 24 Comments

I’m so absolutely excited to have been invited to attend the LongHouse Food Revival 2013, a gathering of 100 visionary thinkers and influential decision makers in food, which will take place next weekend, Sept. 7 and 8, at a historic diary farm in Upstate New York.

Every year, LongHouse Food Revival chooses a subject to explore and presents its discoveries in documentary film, radio, broadcast, spoken word, live cooking, interviews and visionary art. This year their focus is on the Saffron Diaspora — looking at the original Spice Trail and exploring the various religions and cultures that arrived to the United States on a wave of exotic spices, ingredients and dishes. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could promote tolerance with all of this.

And you all know about my love affair with spices!

On Saturday evening, chefs from across the country will come together to cook us a “live fire” feast from the Saffron Diaspora. I’ll be sure to share as much of that as I can with you in photos later. As they describe it, this year’s feast will be “a world tour of flatbreads, spiced ice cream, saffron martinis and music from Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road.” Doesn’t that martini sound amazing? And it must be a beautiful color – I’m so ready!

This year’s speakers include Los Angeles Times’s food critic Jonathan Gold, blogger Elissa Altman, author Naomi Duguid, NPR’s Kathy Gunst, Food Network’s Katherine Alford, NYU Food Studies Director Krishnendu Ray, cookbook author Molly O’Neill and many more. I’ll be going as a guest of The Daily Meal, this blog’s affiliate.

Another part I’m looking forward to is first annual Food Flea they’ve planned for Sunday, a marketplace of “ideas and innovation for individuals, media outlets, publishers, organizations, brands, start-ups, farmers and producers.” I’m sure I’ll be meeting a very special bunch of food people there.

If you’d like tickets to next weekend’s festivities you can go to the event website and purchase access to one day only, or the whole weekend.

It’s going to be a special event and I would love to meet you there!

OMG – the whole goat! Chef Magnus Duruji (aka The Nigerian BBQ King) in a trial run for the live fire feast. Doesn’t he look happy! Photo courtesy of Cook N Scribble, producers of LongHouse Food Revival.

Spinach salad with dates & almonds

August 27, 2013 by Mary Frances 14 Comments

This is the most fantastic and unusual salad! If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know I LOVE salads. I eat one every day for lunch and would love a salad for dinner too, IF I could only convince my husband the same. This spinach salad with dates & almonds was written up in the dining section of The Times a couple of weeks ago. It is adapted from Jerusalem: A Cookbook that was a big hit when it came out. The onions and dates, macerated in red wine vinegar, the toasted pita bread and almonds with the sumac, hot chiles, spinach and lemon juice all combine to make a really different dish that is just delightful. A little spicy, a little lemony, a little sweet from the dates and savory with salt, it’s a hit!

It was late when we got home last night so I convinced Steve to forgo a starch – meaning no baked potato with our broiled rib steak. “Let’s just have the steak and this salad and some sliced heirloom tomatoes.” Well that was more than enough and frankly, just perfect! I didn’t realize that there’s enough toasted pita bread in the salad to count for a light starch. Really, this was wonderful. And he had the leftovers for lunch today and said the salad was even still good. It held up! I didn’t use baby spinach. I used the fresh leaf spinach that is usually bundled together, stems down. Trim all the stems off and cut the leaves in thirds. This is probably why it held up the second day, better than baby spinach, with this heartier leaf. Whatever you use, I urge you to try this salad. You will LOVE it – and raw spinach is so darn good for you!

SPINACH SALAD WITH DATES & ALMONDS – adapted from Julia Moskin
– serves 4

1 tbs. red wine vinegar
1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
4.25 ounces Medjool dates, pitted and quartered lengthwise
Salt
2 tbs. unsalted butter
2 tbs. olive oil, divided
2 small whole wheat pitas (about 3 1/2 ounces), roughly torn into 1 1/2” pieces
1/2 cup whole unsalted almonds coarsely chopped
2 tsp. sumac
1/2 tsp. chile flakes
6 oz. baby spinach leaves or leaf spinach, stems removed and leaves cut in thirds
2 tbs. freshly squeezed lemon juice

Put vinegar, onion and dates in a small bowl. Add a pinch of salt and mix well with your hands. Leave to marinate for 20 minutes, then drain any residual vinegar and discard.

Meanwhile, heat butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat. Add pita and cook for 4 to 6 minutes, stirring all the time, until pita is golden. Add almonds and continue cooking until pita is crunchy and browned and almonds are toasted and fragrant, about 2 minutes more. Remove from heat and mix in sumac, chile flakes and 1/4 tsp. salt. Set aside to cool.

When ready to serve, toss spinach leaves with pita mix in a large mixing bowl. Add dates and red onion, remaining 1 tbs. olive oil, and the lemon juice. Taste for seasoning and serve immediately.

Bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches

August 24, 2013 by Mary Frances 22 Comments

Now is the time!! The tomatoes are magnificent! Go and visit your nearest farmer’s market and buy those amazing heirloom tomatoes. Get some nitrate-free bacon and whip up bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches! We had just that for lunch today with an ear of corn, leftover from last night’s dinner, and it was just so delicious. So flavorful, like eating sunshine. Can you eat sunshine? Well it felt like it because this was just so fresh and yummy. So simple, yet full of flavor but light at the same time.

Once again, it’s all about the ingredients. Our bacon, from a local farm, was delicious and crisp. Our bread was toasted and also crisp. It was whole wheat sourdough artisanal bread. The orange tomatoes were vine ripened and just picked this morning. The two red cherry tomatoes I grew and picked this morning. The lettuce was iceberg for the cold crunch and the mayo was Hellman’s, not even homemade. I sprinkled a little fine grind sea salt and fresh ground black pepper on the tomatoes, before closing the sandwich.

Don’t let summer come to a close without making this. You won’t be sorry.

BACON, LETTUCE AND TOMATO SANDWICHES – serves 2

4 slices of whole wheat sourdough bread, toasted and cooled
2 – 3 heirloom tomatoes, sliced 1/4” thick
6 slices of nitrate-free bacon, fried crisp, drained on paper towels and patted dry of top grease
3 – 4 leaves of iceberg lettuce, torn in half, folded to fit
Sea salt
Fresh ground pepper
Hellmann’s real mayonnaise

Spread a thin film of mayonnaise on each slice of bread, Top one slice with a double thickness of tomatoes. Salt and pepper the tomatoes, top with 3 slices of bacon, the lettuce and then close with the other slice of bread. Cut in half and serve.

Eat with gusto and enjoy the summer sunshine!! You will LOVE it!