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

Happy New Year 2015!!! Porchetta with a Persimmon, Pomegranate and Frisee Salad

January 2, 2015 by Mary 20 Comments

Lunch the next day with leftovers!

It’s been a whirlwind year. I feel very blessed to have all of you in my life. It would be so grand to meet you in person one day. Perhaps some day!! But for now, being “blog/pen pals” is just great too.

Thank you for your support of MARY’s secret ingredients. It is my dream to make MSI into a really big business to be able to feed folks on both ends of the spectrum. To inspire home cooks of all experience levels with exciting new ingredients to spice up their cooking and to be able to help eradicate worldwide hunger, as we will donate 10% of our profits to Feed The Children, is what this business is all about. I hope we can succeed.

We all want to eat great food and making it at home assures that we know exactly what we’re putting into our bodies. My boys, having been raised around home cooking from all sides, are now quickly surpassing and teaching me new things every day. You know, when you’re young, you’re totally fearless and that’s where they both are now. They text me pictures of what they’re making, what they’re eating, how to do something better. It’s exciting to be constantly pushed by them to do new things. Now one of them is deep into bread making and trying to teach me actual “tests” to see if the dough has risen enough, rather than my seat-of-the-pants “feel” I learned from my mother.

And then don’t forget that intentions are just as important as actions. If you make your food with loving intentions, it will always taste better. It’s a bit of magic. Try it and you’ll see.

Our Christmas day dinner was shared with Agata’s family (Zach’s girlfriend). Her father came here from Poland in the early eighties when breadlines were the norm over there. He speaks English, the mother, not so much, so Zach said. And my Polish is limited to a few choice curse words that Zach says I even pronounce those wrong too, along with a few common phrases, learned from my parents. Agata, kind as she is, says I speak “old Polish.” (Zach has learned to speak Polish fluently.) This was our first meal of both families together and nervousness was running high, which was all totally unnecessary. It was a delightful evening without a pause in conversation. Her mom understands (seems to me) everything and was totally engaged the entire evening. Her father loves to tell stories and was a fan of my cooking. Her sister has a five year-old boy, named Justin, who couldn’t have been better behaved. Angelic, (which I’m told is not always the case) and just delightful!! He spent some time on the floor by the Christmas tree, drawing, explaining that there are green emeralds and red emeralds and that he was drawing a red emerald. (don’t you love it?!) A great time was had by all!

I made a fake porchetta, somewhat following a Melissa Clark New York Times recipe, but my older son recommended this method of cooking – and you know what? He was right. This pork was tender, juicy and delicious!! Some of us had thirds!

PORCHETTA PORK ROAST – serves 12

One 9 lb. bone-in, skin-on pork shoulder roast
¼ cup chopped fennel fronds
¼ cup chopped fresh rosemary
2 Tbs. chopped fresh sage leaves
7 garlic cloves, minced and mashed to a paste with the salt
1½ Tbs. kosher salt
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1 heaping tsp. fennel seeds
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
½ tsp. black pepper
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Score skin and fat all over pork, taking care not to cut down to the meat.

In a food processor, combine fennel fronds, rosemary, sage, garlic, lemon zest, salt, fennel seed, red pepper flakes and black pepper. Pulse together. Pour in oil. Pulse again until it forms a paste. Rub all over pork, making sure it gets into all crevices. Cover the roast with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Remove pork from refrigerator 2 hours before you want to cook it. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Unwrap and transfer pork to a covered Dutch oven and roast for 2 hours and check on the moisture level in the bottom of the pan. You may need to add a little water. This method produced the juiciest meat! At approximately 4 hours, check with a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the meat. It should read 180 degrees, and the roast should be fork tender or check with a paring knife. Uncover the roast and place under the broiler to crisp the skin – watch carefully.

Transfer pork to a cutting board or platter and let rest 15 to 30 minutes before serving. Skim the fat off of the juices left in the pan. Taste and correct seasonings. Serve the juices warm with the meat. Make sure everyone gets some of the cracklings.

And then I served this salad with the pork, which was really divine. Persimmons are in season right now so find these flat bottomed beauties and be sure to make this soon as it will not disappoint. Different, with the bitter greens contrasting with the sweet sugared walnuts, pomegranate seeds and persimmons, this was an exciting alternative to sautéed apples with pork. This was also originally a New York Times recipe from David Tanis, but I have changed the greens to be mainly frisee replacing a lot of the chicory he calls for, as I thought that would just be way too bitter. Young chicory from the summertime might work, but not now – too tough and bitter for my taste. Everyone LOVED this salad so give it a go.

PERSIMMON, POMEGRANATE AND FRISEE SALAD – serves 10

4 oz. walnuts, about 1 cup
4 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. fleur de sel or other coarse sea salt, crumbled
2 shallots, finely minced
¼ cup sherry vinegar
Salt and pepper
6 Tbs. walnut oil
6 – 7 medium Fuyu persimmons, peeled
12 – 14 oz. frisee and radicchio leaves including a handful of chicory leaves, chopped into bite size pieces
1 cup pomegranate seeds

Make the sugared walnuts: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Put walnuts in a small bowl. Pour very hot tap water over the walnuts for 1 minute, then drain. Add sugar and fleur de sel. Mix to coat nuts evenly, then spread them on the parchment. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes, until crisp and caramelized. Cool, then break walnuts apart. (May be prepared up to 5 days ahead; store in the cupboard in an airtight container.)

Make the vinaigrette: Put shallots in a small bowl. Add a pinch of salt and the sherry vinegar. Let mixture steep for 10 minutes. Whisk in walnut oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Core and cut persimmons into 1/2-inch-thick wedges and transfer to a large platter with a well. Salt persimmons lightly, then dress with some vinaigrette. Add the frisee, radicchio and chicory leaves and gently toss with hands to coat leaves, pulling persimmon pieces to the top. Scatter pomegranate seeds over the top, along with any collected juices. Garnish with sugared walnuts and serve.

Our plate was rounded out with a sautéed polenta square.

We started with a bowl of Carrot Ginger Soup and finished with

a plate of Holiday cookies, Polish Poppyseed cake and Gingerbread. It was a great meal!!

Happy New Year to all!!!

Harmonian Orange Glazed Olive Oil Cake

October 20, 2014 by Mary 14 Comments

Harmonian is a wonderful company, based in Athens, Greece. Georgios, the owner, established it to promote harmonious ingredients – harmonious to the earth and for your body – all the things that MARY’s secret ingredients stands for. They say on their site, “taste approved; health improved.” This Harmonian Olive Oil is the fourth item in our fall box and we absolutely love it! It is light, flavorful and made with Kalamata Olives.

Of course you can use this to cook with or as a finishing oil. I think it’s so special that it should only be used as a finishing oil – or used in this fantastic olive oil cake recipe. As the oil is super high quality, extra virgin and silky in texture, you guessed it, this cake is too! It is light, fluffy and super delicious.

Here’s the recipe:

HARMONIAN ORANGE GLAZED OLIVE OIL CAKE – serves 10 – 12

2 cups all-purpose flour
1¾ cups sugar
1½ tsp. kosher salt
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
11/3 cups Harmonian extra-virgin olive oil
1¼ cups whole milk
3 large eggs
1½ Tbs. grated orange zest
¼ cup fresh orange juice
¼ cup Triple Sec or Grand Marnier

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 8-inch cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper. Butter the parchment paper too.

In a bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and powder. In another bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the olive oil, milk, orange zest and juice and Triple Sec or Grand Marnier. Add the dry ingredients in three batches and whisk until just combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 30 minutes, until the top is golden and a cake tester comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and let cool for 30 minutes.

Run a knife around the edge of the pan, invert the cake onto the rack and let cool completely, 2 hours.

ORANGE GLAZE

4 Tbs. unsalted butter
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
2 Tbs. fresh orange juice
½ tsp. vanilla extract

Melt butter in a small saucepan or microwave.

Sift 2 cups of powdered sugar into a medium size bowl. Add the melted butter to the powdered sugar. Add orange juice and vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy, adding a little more orange juice if necessary.

Frost the cooled cake between layers and the top (let drips down the side happen) with this glaze.

Bet you can’t eat just one piece.

Of course, use this wonderful olive oil on any vegetable, raw or cooked. Here is my favorite asparagus recipe. Roasted with the olive oil and then topped with a fresh drizzle compounds the flavor and just makes this so delicious. I bet this will become your go-to recipe for asparagus from now on. It certainly is mine!

OVEN ROASTED ASPARAGUS WITH OLIVE OIL AND LEMON – serves 4

1 1/2 lbs. medium asparagus, washed, air dried and broken at the point of tenderness and lower portions discarded
3 Tbs. extra-virgin Harmonian olive oil
Salt
Pepper, freshly ground
1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. finely grated lemon zest

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. In a baking dish, drizzle the asparagus with half of the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss to coast evenly. Roast for about 8 – 10 minutes, or until just tender when pierced with a fork. Drizzle the asparagus with the remaining olive oil and the lemon juice, and zest. Toss again. Serve hot, with LOVE. Enjoy!!

Sweet and Sour Coleslaw

July 1, 2014 by Mary 18 Comments

This recipe is SWEET! It’s both super easy and super delicious! You will LOVE it and get compliments to boot!

The day after I served it, requests for the recipe came rolling in. This Sweet and Sour Coleslaw is a terrific accompaniment to the Amazing BBQ Ribs and Grilled Potato Salad with Scallions recipes that I just published in the June newsletter. If you are not signed up for that, you can do so now by clicking on the blue box on the right hand side here. That will take you to a page to sign up, and I’ll make sure you get one.

This recipe is from a cookbook that was a gift to me from our lovely Bianca, who was visiting from Italy by way of South Carolina, it is a find! Her Italian boyfriend is working for a company based down there and she was visiting him before coming to visit us in NYC. She said she wanted to bring me a little bit of the South so she picked out this Farm Fresh Southern Cooking cookbook, by Tammy Algood. I had never heard of Tammy, but so far I’ve made about eight recipes from this book and they’ve all been terrific! All of them are relatively quick, easy and super delicious! And yes, of course I’ve made changes – just a little though.

I figure that people from the South know coleslaw and from this recipe, they really do. It is perfect for your upcoming July 4^th celebrations. And don’t forget to let me know if you want to receive the newsletter for the best ribs and a really different potato salad recipe.

SWEET AND SOUR COLESLAW – serves 8
(adapted from Tammy Algood and her Farm Fresh Southern Cooking cookbook)

1 medium head of cabbage, shredded
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 tsp. firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tsp. salt
1 rounded tsp. dry mustard
2/3 cup canola oil
1 cup cider vinegar
1 tsp. celery seeds

Remove the 2 – 3 outer leaves from the cabbage, wash and dry with a paper towel. Cut into quarters, and shred on a mandoline, avoiding the core. (I love to munch of the core while making this – something my mother used to do, giving me a piece, while I watched her shred.)

Place the shredded cabbage in a large bowl. Sprinkle with the white sugar and drizzle with honey. Do not stir.

In a small saucepan, over medium–high heat, combine the brown sugar, salt, dry mustard, oil, vinegar and seeds. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Let cool for 15 minutes. Pour over coleslaw, tossing and mixing well. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving.

Delish!

Asparagus Risotto

June 8, 2014 by Mary 48 Comments

With spring finally here and beautiful asparagus plentiful, I always want to make this dish: Asparagus Risotto. Years ago I never liked risotto, I actually never wanted to try it. Soupy rice? No way. My mother used to make this Polish meal of a hot soup made with milk and rice (gag – I hated it), potato pancakes and applesauce. Oh I thought it was AWFUL!!! My father loved it and even one of my brothers, David, asked for the rice soup once for his birthday. Fortunately I had left town by then. So this is why I never ordered risotto in a restaurant, thinking it was too close to that soup. But no, not at all.

And then there are the asparagus stories in my family. My father loved, loved, LOVED asparagus. And in those days when I was young, it was really only available in the spring and early summer. But it was still relatively expensive and we were a family of eight with six kids. So my father would buy two to three bunches, and actually count the spears and divide by eight as to how many spears each person got. This ran between five and eight, depending on how expensive they were. We would always tease him as he counted, while lovingly serving them to each of us. He liked asparagus so much, he even liked the canned white stuff (gag).

My father never cooked much, but he always made the asparagus. He would take each spear, hold it at each end and bend it until it broke at the point of tenderness, all the while, explaining to me what he was doing. Breaking at the point of tenderness was so important to him. After washing, he would then pile them all up with the ends together forming a flat bottom, and tie up the bundle with white kitchen string.

Using the double boiler, he would fill the bottom pan with about an inch and a half of water and stand the bundle of asparagus upright in it and then take the top pan and turn it upside down, covering the top portion and tips. He would then steam them for about 8 – 10 minutes, testing the tenderness of the stems with a fork. When they were done, he would carefully lift out the whole bundle and place it in one of my mom’s square Pyrex pans, cut loose and remove the white string, and proceed to put probably too many pats of butter on top. He would move those pats around, making sure all spears were covered, from stem to tip, and then count to serve. This is how I grew up on asparagus!

But back to risotto, this recipe is based on combination of Mario Batali’s and Mark Bittman’s recipes and was first printed in The New York Times back in 2007. I have changed it a bit. It is a family favorite in our household, the kind of dish you can just sink right into – real comfort food – with the spring accent of asparagus. You can even throw in some peeled raw shrimp at the end, (stir until done) to dress it up even more if you’d like. Serve as a first course or with your meal as shown here with broiled lamb chops. I hope you like this. Maybe it will become a family favorite in your house too!

Asparagus Risotto – Adapted from Mario Batali and Mark Bittman – serves 4 as a main course or 8 as a side

1+ lbs. asparagus, no less than ¼” thick, snapped at the point of tenderness, washed and cut into one-inch-long pieces, tips reserved
5 to 6 cups chicken or vegetable stock, preferably homemade
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 medium red onion, diced
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
Salt to taste
1/2 cup, heaping, grated Parmesan cheese.

Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Add half the asparagus stalks and cook until quite soft, at least 5 minutes. Rinse quickly under cold water. Drain. Put cooked asparagus in a food processor and add just enough water to allow machine to puree until smooth; set aside.

Put stock in a medium saucepan over low heat. Put oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a large, deep nonstick skillet over medium heat. When it is hot, add onion, stirring occasionally until it softens, 3 to 5 minutes.

Add rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is glossy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add white wine, stir, and let liquid bubble away. Add a large pinch of salt. Add warmed stock, 3/4 cup or so at a time, stirring occasionally. Each time the stock has just about evaporated, add more. You need to stir no more than occasionally. For example, stir after each addition of liquid and then once or twice more before that liquid evaporates.

After about 15 minutes, add remaining asparagus pieces and tips, continuing to add stock when necessary. In 5 minutes, begin tasting rice. You want it to be tender but with a bit of crunch; it could take as long as 30 minutes total to reach this stage. When it does, stir in the asparagus puree. Remove skillet from heat, add remaining butter and stir briskly. Add Parmesan and stir briskly, then taste and adjust seasoning. Risotto should be slightly soupy. Serve immediately.

Snow Peas with Ginger, Garlic, Shallots, Lemon and Mint

May 4, 2014 by Mary 18 Comments

snow peas, ginger, garlic, shallots Photo from Apr 12, 2014

For a vegetable dish bursting with flavors, and a perfect springtime meal accompaniment, try this Snow Peas with Ginger, Garlic, Shallots, Lemon and Mint recipe. Our oldest son’s girlfriend made this for dinner a couple of weeks ago and it was delicious! They paired this with braised short ribs and some good French bread. It was a fresh, crisp antithesis to the tender, melty short ribs.

Here’s what she did:

SNOW PEAS WITH GINGER, GARLIC, SHALLOTS, LEMON AND MINT

2 tbs. olive oil
1 shallot, chopped
2 tbs. minced ginger
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 lb. of snow peas, strings removed
Pinch of sugar
Salt
Pepper
1/2 of a lemon, juiced
Grated zest of a whole lemon
3 tbs. chopped mint

Heat a large sauté pan on high heat for 1 minute. Add the olive oil, shallots and ginger to the hot pan and sauté for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the snow peas to the pan, the pinch of sugar, salt and pepper and toss and cook for another 1.5 – 2 minutes. Then add the lemon juice and zest and cook for 30 seconds more. Off heat, fold in the mint and serve.

We have had so much going on here at LOVE. As perhaps you’ve noticed, we’ve redesigned this site so that you can see more posts at a glance on the home page. This makes more recipes immediately accessible and hopefully will provide additional inspiration for you to cook clean, healthy, delicious food, with LOVE.

Our MARY’s secret ingredients boxes were all mailed on the 25^th of April, as scheduled! They should be in everyone’s hands, including those of you on the west coast, by tomorrow. There has been so much excitement surrounding them! Many of you have already posted your very enthusiastic comments and shared photos on Twitter and Pinterest. I will reveal everything here tomorrow and post recipes and serving suggestions for all of the ingredients in the coming two weeks. I’m very excited about that!

We’ve also had a rush of people coming back and ordering more boxes after receiving this spring box. So if you are interested, I urge you to place your order now for the other seasons as they are selling fast and we will only have 100 boxes each season.

So stayed tuned and visit often or sign up for an email notification (on the right rail here) when I post a new recipe, and remember to cook with LOVE. Your food will always taste better!

Our Easter Dinner

April 24, 2014 by Mary 35 Comments

This year was unusual for us.

We celebrated a lovely Easter Sunday dinner on . . . Saturday night! I was originally planning on having a Sunday dinner, but then my sister-in-law pointed out that people would have to leave so early, or couldn’t be there at all due to the travel time needed to be back home for work on Monday morning. I thought this solution was genius. It accommodated some of our guests and worked out so well. I think I might do this every year! Last year I complained about Easter Monday not being a true holiday so I’ll just go at it from the other end and celebrate our Easter dinner on Saturday!

An added benefit for us hosts was that this left Sunday to be truly a day to relax, take a walk in the park, and enjoy leisure time. It was a gift!

The dinner I made, I must say, turned out really, really well. After a workout in the gym on Saturday, I got started on prepping all the vegetables, enlisting my husband to help. As long as I didn’t balk at listening to the baseball game, he was willing to be an able sous chef.

Vegetables that cooked with the elephant beans.

There were 10 of us. We started with an asparagus soup topped with crème fraiche and snipped chives – a recipe from the HayDay Country Market cookbook. This soup was delicious, however I must confess that when I was pureeing it, I had my doubts, as it smelled just awful – like Del Monte canned asparagus – eew! I was near gagging and then thinking, how could I possibly serve this? And by that time, it was too late to throw it out and make something new. Fortunately, the smell didn’t last and the soup tasted delicious – whew!

Our main course was a delicious 10 lb. organic, free range, no nitrate ham from Herondale Farms in upstate New York and it was amazing!! Just look at this beauty. My glaze was a homemade mustard, honey, rum and cloves number, no sticky pineapple and awful cherries for me! This type of ham almost looks like a fresh ham, because there are no dyes to make it pink, but it is smoked. It is so different and so good!!

Here’s the full dinner plate: the ham, chrzan (our Polish red beets and horseradish dish), Greek elephant beans baked in a tomato sauce that were so creamy and good (I’ll have to make that again and measure, so I can give you the recipe) and sauteed spinach with garlic. It was certainly colorful!

We ended the meal with this totally yummy sour cream topped cheesecake – an Amanda Hesser recipe that was in the New York Times years ago, with fresh figs and raspberries on the side.

A totally satisfying, delicious dinner! But what always happens at these big dinner parties is that I’m rushing and take crappy pictures or forget to take them at all! With all the excitement and all the people, it’s just not foremost in my mind, so I apologize for that.

As I said before, our big bonus was a totally enjoyable, lazy Sunday with a walk down to Central Park drinking in the sunshine and sights.

Aren’t they just so cute?