Egg Salad

My fixation with egg salad started when I was just a little girl. My family would go on long road trips (say, to the mountains up north, or to the seaside) and my mom would prepare a variety of sandwiches for the ride. The egg salad was my favorite.

I remember savoring each small square (she would slice each sandwich into two), biting a bit at a time, chewing slowly, pausing between bites, attempting to make it last as long as possible. My mom would pack a lot, but I dared not eat too many for fear I would receive one of those stern looks she reserved for when I overstepped my food boundaries (ah, childhood food issues…let’s not traverse that dark road for O, that way madness lies!). My father however, knew no food boundaries (and still continues to be unaware of such) and would dip his hand into the sandwich bag many times on one trip. I would sit and hope that, when the proper amount of time since my last sandwich passed, and I reached for another, there would still be an egg salad left. There usually was, owing to my dad’s penchant for cheese pimiento, but it was always a dodgy moment, that second when I would rummage through those neat squares of white bread.

That little girl has since grown up, and now makes her own egg salad – which she happily consumes whenever, and in whatever quantity, she wishes. AND she does it with bacon :)

My Favorite Egg Salad

• 6 hard boiled eggs (prepared as your preferred hardboiled egg procedure dictates – I know there is much debate on this)
• 60 grams bacon
• 2 tablespoons chopped green/spring onion
• 1 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
• 4 tablespoons mayonnaise
• Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper

- Chop the bacon and fry in a dry non-stick pan until crisp and golden. Drain cooked bacon on a plate lined with a paper towel (fold it into two for double thickness and extra oil-absorbency).
- While the bacon is cooking, chop the hard boiled eggs into chunks, no need to be exact, and place in a bowl.
- Add green/spring onion and dill to the bowl with the eggs. Add bacon (well drained of residual oil) and mayonnaise.
- Sprinkle with salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste. Toss gently (Gently now…the eggs will break, there’s no avoiding this, but you don’t want to pulverize them) to mix. Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Store in a jar in the refrigerator.

This egg salad is based on the egg salads of my childhood, perked up with some fresh herbs, and tailored to suit my love for bacon. Bacon and eggs go together so well don’t you think? :) I like my eggs in not-too-small chunks and the mayonnaise to coat every piece…not too much but not too little either because, as horrible as this makes me sound, I love mayonnaise (trust me; I have tried to cure myself of this affliction to no avail). Pile onto a greens-lined slice of wheat bread…I love this with either arugula or alfalfa sprouts, but all I had was the romaine you see in the photo.

My mom doesn’t make much egg salad anymore. If we go on a long road trip together we are more likely to stop for coffee somewhere along the way (now that coffee shops abound and her daughter can drink it with her) than take along a bag of sandwiches. I think however, that the time is ripe to bring back this old tradition. We will now have a little non-coffee drinker on our trips after all. And I can make the egg salad :)

Apple Galette

I love having a stash of all sorts of food items squirreled away in my freezer. Not just any old things, but homemade edibles safely packed and put down for a chilly nap, to have on hand for any emergency, and to be woken up when needed. Different kinds of stock and soup, cookie dough, small batches of béchamel, meatballs and burger patties already formed, apportioned tubs of slow-cooked meat sauce, pie dough, and anything else homemade and freezable.

Oh the smug contentment of knowing you have these nourishing provisions at the ready! Set to be whipped out at a moment’s notice. Perhaps when you are too busy to get a proper dinner on, or you have sudden surprise visitors….or you are just in the mood for some pie.

Apple Galette
(pie dough recipe adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours as adapted by Cenk of Cafe Fernando, filling adapted from Cenk’s recipe)

For the pie dough:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3 sticks of butter, cut into small chunks and chilled in the freezer for about 20 minutes

1/3 cup ice water

For the filling:

2 – 2 1/2 apples (approximately 500 grams – I used Fuji apples), peeled, cored, and cut into eighths

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling

Juice of half a lemon

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 egg, slightly beaten (for assembly)

- Pulse flour, sugar and salt in a food processor using a metal blade.
- Remove butter from freezer, add it in the processor, and pulse until it resembles a coarse meal. Do not over mix! The pieces don’t have to be uniform. Dorie says some can be the size of fat peas and some the size of barley.
- Add ice water little by little, pulsing once in between each addition, until the dough forms clumps and curds (I lessened the water from 1/2 cup to 1/3 due to the moisture already present in my air). Again, do not over mix! Chunks of butter in the dough are fine (yum!) :)
- Turn the dough out onto a work surface and very lightly and sparingly, knead just to incorporate dry ingredients.
- Divide the dough into two even balls. Flatten balls into disks and wrap individually in plastic.
- Refrigerate dough for at least an hour (at this point you can stash one disc in the freezer for future use if you are not going to use all the dough).
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough between two sheets of baking parchment (you can roll dough directly on a floured work surface or between two sheets of plastic wrap but parchment works best for me) into a rough 11-inch circle. When rolling, turn dough over frequently and lift the parchment so it doesn’t form creases. Trim the edges to form a clean circle (I didn’t, oops!).
- Place your flattened dough (covered in the parchment) back in the fridge for about 20 minutes to chill again.
- Remove dough from fridge, peel of top layer of parchment, and transfer the dough, on the bottom layer of parchment, to a sheet pan or pizza pan (I used one of those pizza pans with holes on the bottom).
- Mix 1/2 tablespoon of the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of the sugar in a bowl and spread on the bottom of the dough.
- Toss apples with the rest of the cornstarch, sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon.
- Arrange the fruit on the bottom of the dough, leaving 2 inches of dough left outside.
- Fold up and pleat the dough (as best you can) over the top of the fruit, leaving the center uncovered.
- Lightly brush the top of the pastry with the beaten egg and sprinkle both the dough and the fruit with sugar (I used Demerara sugar with large crystals).
- Place the galette in 400F oven and cook for 40-45 minutes until golden brown and bubbly.
- Remove from oven and transfer to a cooling rack immediately.

This isn’t a pie per se but a free-form tart, or galette if you want to sound cute and French (which I must admit I sometimes do). Unlike a pie you don’t need a special tin or even a top crust to make this. Just roll out the dough, nestle the fruits in the middle, pull up the edges (as neat or as messily as you want), and place on any flat baking pan. Pop in the oven and that’s that!

I have made this before using plums and nectarines and it is just as charming with apples, although of a different charm altogether. While the plums and nectarines were bright and tart and cheery, the cinnamon-perfumed apples are pure cozy comfort. I like both and I’d be hard-pressed to choose one over the other but I think it does say something that both C and my mom liked this one better.

I didn’t peel the apples when I made this as I thought it would add some color, and, truth be told, I was lazy. I do recommend you peel them though (and have indicated peeled apples in the recipe) as it can be a bit awkward when trying to cut your slice with a fork.

I used the Good For Almost Anything pie dough from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours, as I did in the plum and nectarine version. I have typed out the recipe again here because this pie crust is truly so wonderful that I do believe it deserves repeating. For this galette I used some dough that had been sitting in the freezer for (the shame!) months. Aside from its old age, it was extremely hot in my kitchen making the dough too soft…I was sure it would be a disaster. But Dorie’s crust must be imbued with magical powers because from less than promising conditions it still emerged golden and flaky and absolutely delicious!

One batch of dough will give you enough for two galettes, so you can store one in the freezer for the future. And as far any homemade-goods-freezer-stash goes, this is definitely an excellent addition!

Pickled Japanese Cucumbers

A couple of Japanese cucumbers followed me home from the market. They lay in my crisper all slender and green. They seemed to be taunting me, and all other tubby cucumbers out there, with their lean taut bodies. So smug they sat, unblinking, secure in the knowledge of their perfection.

I made short work of them. Oh yes I did. Now they are pickled for me to enjoy at my leisure…their crisp tart deliciousness.

I used to strongly dislike pickles. Once upon a time, when I was just a little girl, and all the pickles I knew of were sweet pickle relish (which I can’t eat to this day) and sad dill pickles that had sat too long on a supermarket shelf. When I started cooking however, I discovered a whole other world of pickles. Pickles that were far afield from the sad specimens of my childhood. Pickles you made yourself with ingredients carefully chosen and infused with all kinds of different flavors. Pickles from all over the world – Japan (I love Japanese pickles!), Slovakia, and right here in my beloved islands.

I don’t have an actual pickle recipe, as I’ve mentioned here. Since my pickles are done in small batches and stored in the refrigerator (as opposed to long-term storage for my non-existent winter) I don’t go through strenuous sterilization procedures. I usually use a base of vinegar, salt, and sugar, then add whatever else, by way of herbs and spices, that suit my present mood. With these Japanese cucumbers I used rice vinegar (delicious for pickles!) and a lot of freshly cracked black pepper (which I love with cucumber pickles). Some salt, some sugar, and a short nap in the fridge to chill, and they are ready! Excellent side for fish or grilled pork, or tucked into a ham sandwich.

Now I love pickles. I still avoid sweet pickle relish and those ages-old jars of dill pickles on the supermarket shelves, but I have embraced the rest of the pickle world with much affection and fervor. Not only are they, I’ve found, delicious, they are also an excellent way to preserve vegetables…if perhaps you have a bit too much on your hands, or if you are simply tired of looking at a couple of skinny cucumbers! ;)

***check out the lovely pickles here! This will be next on my list of pickle recipes to try...

Smoky-Spicy Bacon Pasta

There are recipes we get from books and there are recipes we get from life. These are recipes that are cobbled together over time, perhaps never really settling into what one might call a fixed “recipe”. These are recipes that reflect what we love most, or what’s almost always available in our pantry, or what is easy and good…or any combination thereof.

This is the kind of pasta dish that is often made in our home. It evolved over the span of our marriage (still a young one at that), not consciously moving towards an actually recipe, more often just coming together when we were busy, or hadn’t been to the grocery in a while, or hadn’t really thought about what to have for dinner. It is made with ingredients that we (almost) always have on stock and can be prepared with minimal effort and fuss.

That is not to say that this is some sort of second string meal without thought or care. When we sit down to a bowl of this pasta it is still with much eagerness, and its consumption is met with many mmm’s of pleasure and contentment.

Smoky-Spicy Bacon Pasta

• Olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley (leaves only…but don’t toss the stems!)
• Chopped parsley stems (from your chopped parsley leaves above)
• 130 grams chopped bacon
• 1/4 teaspoon pimenton de la vera (or to taste…depends how smoky you like it)
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste…depends on how spicy you like it)
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 400-gram can crushed or chopped tomatoes
• 1/3 cup green olives, pitted
• A pinch of sugar (optional)
• Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
• 300 grams macaroni or penne, or any pasta you prefer

- Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add garlic, onion, and parsley stems and sauté until the onion is soft.
- Add the bacon to the pan, toss and cook until bacon begins to curl and get golden around the edges but is still soft.
- Add pimenton, cayenne, and Italian seasoning. Toss to coat the bacon and cook a bit just until the aroma of the herbs and spices wafts up and makes your mouth water.
- Add tomatoes and simmer slowly until the tomatoes start getting thick and pulpy, and melting into a sauce and the oil starts to separate. You can help out by crushing the tomato chunks with the back of your spoon.
- Prepare your pasta as per package directions while the sauce is simmering.
- Taste your sauce and season with salt and pepper as you see fit. Add just a bit of sugar to bring out the tomatoes sweetness (I do not have the privilege of vine-ripened toms). Taste again and add dashes of cayenne or pimenton if you’d like to up the heat and /or smokiness.
- Serves two.

As this is quite an easygoing dish, you can adapt and alter as you see fit. We often do depending on what we have on hand or what our fancy happens to be at that particular time. Tomatoes for C, bacon for me. The smoky heat we both enjoy. Leave out the olives if you don’t have them (we usually have a bottle as C insists we always have one on stock for “pasta”). Use more fresh herbs if you’ve got them. Adjust the pimenton and cayenne to your liking. Add some wine that was leftover from the night before. Make it your own.

Although I love pouring through my cookbooks, ticking recipes to try, shopping for the ingredients and pulling them together, and then eventually (or not) posting them here, it is dishes like this pasta that make up the building blocks of our table and our life.

Greek-Style Patani/Lima Beans

Here’s a secret. Sometimes I crave fabulousness and excitement. I want towering stilettos, preferably patent and pointy and liable to break your feet in three places. I want dresses that look like songs were written for them. I want late nights of dancing. And flashbulbs. And drama. And dishes that take many days and a fairy godmother to make.

Sometimes.

Then there are times when I want simple and straightforward. Tranquil contentment. Good bread with butter and salt. Staying home with newly laundered sheets and a good book. I want flip flops and my pink flats with the rubber sole. And freshly squeezed orange juice. And sensibility. And simple ingredients put together in a simple way.

Which ultimately become fabulous.

When it comes to simple yet fabulous dishes that highlight an ingredient to its utmost best I turn to Molly of Orangette. Look at what she has done to Brussels sprouts (a dish I fell in mad, mad, crazy love with). And chickpeas. And shallots. And mushrooms.

It is to her blog’s welcoming doorstep that I eventually found myself when searching for something to make of the bag of patani (lima beans) I had picked up at the market. I usually have them with bacon or prosciutto, but I was ready for something new. But simple. But fabulous. And I found it.

Greek-Style Patani/Lima Beans
(adapted from Orangette)

• 250 grams fresh patani
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
• 1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh Italian parsley
• 1 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• Sea salt to taste

- Blanch the fresh patani in boiling water for about 5 minute. Drain and peel.
- Combine the peeled patani, water, olive oil, parsley, garlic, and salt in a saucepan. Place the pan over medium heat, and cook, covered but stirring occasionally, until the beans are tender, about 15 minutes.
- Transfer to a serving bowl, and serve, drizzled with more olive oil, if you like.
- Serves 2.

I don’t know how close patani is exactly to lima beans, perhaps they are one and the same…or perhaps siblings grown in different climes thus possessing slightly different traits. In any case, this recipe worked beautifully with patani as I’m sure it did with Molly’s lima beans. I love these beans, so their flavor and texture ringing true and clear in this dish won my heart. That and the unrepentant pungency of the garlic, for which I am also a fan. I’m sure this would be amazing as a side with some delicately prepared fish. Or as Molly (and I) had it with some crusty bread. If you have leftovers I imagine they would do well as a dip or spread – either whizzed in a processor or chunkily smushed with a fork, perhaps with some goat’s cheese or Greek yogurt mixed in.

Simple. Fabulous.

Breakfast #30: Maple Steel Cut Oats with Cinnamon Apples

There is nothing both so soothing and so promising in the early morning light than melting a pat of butter in a hot skillet.

Well, except for listening to my espresso machine sputter out its dark liquid treasure while being enveloped by its hypnotic aroma – but that’s not happening anytime soon lest I inadvertently pass some caffeine to Little C, which I will ultimately end up paying for come bedtime!

So for now…butter. Golden and sunny and smelling of only good things. A little yellow island in your pan slipping and sliding and melting into the beginnings of deliciousness. If you were industrious and made some pancake batter the night before, you can lay ladlefuls of it in the pan, letting them cook in the hot butter. If you were up for most of the night feeding your little one while sneaking in some dvd watching (on the laptop with headphones!) with your other half, then maybe you can manage some French toast, likewise slipping them in to cook in the butter. Or, if you’ve snuck out of the room while everyone else was still asleep, and there hangs a lovely silence in the air (even in the middle of a busy city), perhaps you’d like to stir a pot of this while you count those blessings that seem to leap fresh in your mind in that early morning air.

Maple Steel Cut Oats with Cinnamon Apples

• 1/2 cup steel cut oats
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 – 1 cup water
• 1-2 tablespoons raisins
• 2-3 tablespoons maple syrup (depending on your taste and your maple syrup)
• 1 apple, peeled, cored, and cut into chunks (I used a Fuji apple)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoon brown sugar
• A couple of dashes of cinnamon

- Heat the milk and water in a saucepan. When hot and small bubbles begin to form on the sides of the pan, stir in your oats. Let this cook over low heat for about 10-15 minutes then add the raisins and the maple syrup. Cook further, about 10-15 minutes more, stirring regularly, until oats are done to your liking. If it starts to dry out before the oats are done add a splash more milk.
- In a hot skillet melt the butter. When the butter starts to bubble, add the apple and sprinkle over the sugar. Stir gently until all the apple pieces are coated evenly. Add a couple of dashes of cinnamon (I give it two shakes) and stir again to make sure everything is distributed evenly. Swish the pan around – this helps! Cook for about 5-10 minutes or until the apples are starting to soften but still have a crunch and the butter/sugar mixture is bubbly and coating the apples.
- Divide the oats into two bowls. Top with some of the apple – don’t forget to drizzle some of the caramel-y sauce onto your oats as well!
- Serves two.

You may have some apple left (or maybe not). If so, save them to top your mid-afternoon yogurt.