this corn is like candy

Just in time for Halloween, this is the perfect alternative to candy corn.  It's the infamous New York corn on the cob from La Palapa.  Or at least my replication of it.  I tracked down a copy of Barbara Sibley's Antojitos cookbook, and quickly made the recipe that night. And then the next night.  And then the next night.  I mean, if you have a whole package of cotija, are you just going to stop making delicious corn treats?  I think not. I also tried this recipe without the cotija, with just lime, mayonnaise, cayenne, paprika and cilantro, and it was equally delicious. Enjoy!

ELOTE DEL MERCADO

Ingredients:
6 ears of corn on the cob, husked
3 quart water
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoon salt
2 limes cut in half
1/4 cup of mayonnaise
1/4 cup grated cotija
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Directions:
In a shallow bowl mix the cotija, cayenne, paprika and cilantro. Remove the husks from each ear of corn, and bring 3 quarts of water to boil. Add the sugar and salt. Boil the corn in the water for approximately 8 minutes or cooked. Rub a lime over the kernels. Then using a pastry brush, brush the ears of corn with mayonnaise. Roll the ears of corn in the queso, pepper and cilantro mixture.

Have a lemon soup

Every year since we first moved to Seattle in 1994, we've gone to the fall Greek Festival at Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church.  After sixteen years this festival draws us in with the dancing (little kids dress up and perform traditional Greek dances on stage), food and a Greek market that will knock your socks off.  It's the ideal place to stock up on blocks of feta, kalamata olives, fresh-pressed olive oil, salty capers and fresh baked breads and baklava.  And the ladies at the checkout will pinch your cheeks and sweetly ask if, "you want another loaf of bread, honey? God bless you." It's a marvelous experience, and I'm always amazed at the camaraderie between the people at the festival, it's like a big family and they welcome you in with kindness and their delicious cuisines. This year was the 50th anniversary of the Greek festival, and we were there again with our tokens, and after a stop at the market, sat down and enjoyed a few favorites - avgolemono soup, lentil soup, Greek salad, and mini donut holes.  Everything I tried made me want to master the art of Greek cooking, and promptly pick up some books and spices to do so.  Until then, here's a recipe for their lemon soup, that requires only a few basic ingredients - eggs, rice, chicken broth and lemon. When all mixed together a heavenly combination is created.  I'm still trying to figure out how they season their lentil soup, it's the most flavorful I've ever tasted, I'll keep you posted on that quest.

AVGOLEMONO SOUP (GREEK LEMON SOUP)

Ingredients
6 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup long-grain rice
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup lemon juice
Salt and pepper
Chopped parsley

Bring the chicken stock to a boil in a large sauce pan. Toss in the rice, and reduce to a simmer. Cook until rice is tender, about 25 minutes. While you wait, whisk together the egg yolks and lemon juice.

When rice is done, turn off heat. Remove about a ladle full of the hot broth, and whisk it into the egg-and-lemon mixture. When combined, take this mixture and whisk it into the sauce pan. Return the pot to medium heat, and cook until soup is hot, but not boiling.

Garnish with parsley and a slice of lemon, and serve.

bunting flag birthday cake

lily and I made these fancy little flags to spruce up this birthday cake.  all you need are some bamboo skewers, a couple different colors of craft paper and a hot glue gun.  Cut out different sizes of paper flags and glue them to the tops of skewers, and your cake is all dressed and ready to party.

green bean salad with apricots, almonds and tarragon

GREEN BEAN SALAD with APRICOTS, ALMONDS & TARRAGON
1 lb. haricot verts (or green beans), trimmed
3 apricots, cut into chunks
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup feta

FOR DRESSING:
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
1 shallot, chopped finely
3-4 sprigs of tarragon, remove leaves from stems and chop 


Prepare an ice water bath; set aside. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a generous amount of salt and the green beans. Cook until bright green, about 2 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer to the ice water bath to stop cooking. Drain, shaking off excess liquid; set aside.


Mix dressing ingredients.  In a large bowl, toss together green beans, apricots, almonds and feta. Pour desired amount of dressing over mixture and toss to coat evenly.  

blackberry pie

this is another delicious morsel from Labor Day Weekend. we picked blackberries both days for dessert, and made one cobbler and one pie. here are the details on the pie.  we experimented with the thickening method, since fresh fruit pies can tend to be a little soupy.  for this one, we cooked a little cornstarch and water on the stove until it thickened, and then added it to the fruit with a little more dry corn starch. It seemed to be the perfect amount of thickness without make the fruit filling stiff or gelatinous.

BLACKBERRY PIE

FOR THE CRUST:

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
2/3 cup vegetable oil
6 tbsp. cold milk

FOR THE FILLING:

6 cups fresh blackberries
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup corn starch, divided
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp. butter, cut into small pieces
2 tsp. milk

1. Preheat oven to 400°. For the crust: Sift together flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Measure oil into a measuring cup, then add milk, but don't stir together. Pour oil and milk into flour mixture. Stir until dough just holds together. Divide dough in half, shape into 2 balls, and flatten slightly. Roll out each ball between two sheets of wax paper into 12" rounds. Transfer one pastry round (discarding wax paper) into a 9" pie plate, and set other pastry round aside.

2. Mix half of corn starch and 1/4 cup water in a pan on the stove, set to medium head and stir until it has thickened and clumps are stirred out.  Pour sugar and dry corn starch over berries and stir and then pour cooked corn starch mixture over berries and stir. 
3. Fill bottom crust with blackberry mixture and scatter butter on top. Cover with remaining pastry round (discarding wax paper) and crimp edges together to seal. Score top to allow steam to escape, brush with milk, and sprinkle with remaining 2 tsp. sugar. Place pie on a baking sheet and bake until crust is golden and filling is bubbling, about 50 minutes. If edge of crust browns too quickly, cover edge with a strip of aluminum foil to prevent burning. Allow pie to cool for 1 hour before serving.

Serve with vanilla ice cream.

SERVES 8

fish in a package, fish en papillote

this is a snappy way to cook fish, veggies and grains all in one step. it's called en papillote, which is a French cooking method that means "in paper" and all you do is wrap your ingredients in parchment paper and cover with a little liquid: broth, wine, coconut milk or water and bake. the liquid in the package will slowly steam-cook all the veggies, couscous and fish.  I used a plain couscous, white wine, lemon juice, tomatoes, red onions, zucchini, carrots, red pepper, dill and halibut. but the combinations are endless and it's a good one to experiment with, because you really can't go wrong.

couscous, veggies and halibut.

couscous and veggies.

the finished product.  

FISH EN PAPILLOTE
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 red onion, halved and sliced
1 cup thinly sliced carrots
1 zucchini thinly sliced
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 red pepper sliced
1/4 cup fresh dill
juice of one lemon
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 six-ounce halibut fillets


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut two large pieces of parchment (depending if you want 1 or 2 servings) - about 24 inches in length, fold in half and unfold. Stir couscous with liquid as recommended on box, and place on the bottom of the parchment, dividing evenly between packages.  Cover with veggies, cover the veggies with the fish fillet and dill, pour oil, lemon juice and wine over the top of the ingredients and season with salt and pepper.  Fold edges of paper over to create rim, and staple edges of parchment paper to seal.  Place packets on cookie sheets and bake for about 20 minutes, until packets have puffed up.

Keep Clam and Carry On

for a little Labor Day celebration we headed to Anacortes to relax with friends and keep up with the tradition of "living off the land". It was a great time, and we ate almost exclusively stuff that we foraged: crabs, clams, crawfish and berries (blackberry pie recipe to come), and it was fantastic. The first night we had a 15-crab feast, which we ate almost all of, we used the leftovers for crab dip the next day. The second night, after cleaning buckets and buckets of clams, we had a clam linguine with tomatoes, basil and lemon. Here are some labor of love recipes. 

crab feast and laughter.

cooking the crawfish.

linguine with clams and other goodness.

Crab Dip
5 garlic cloves chopped, and cooked in a little olive oil
1/2-1 cup crab
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 cup cheese (we used Brie and mozzarella)
Paprika for sprinkling on top


Mix all ingredients, minus the paprika, in an oven-safe bowl or baking dish.  Bake for 25 minutes in a in a 350 degree oven. Serve with French bread or crackers.


Linguine with Clams, Lemon and Tomatoes
Salt
1 pound linguine (I used Trader Joes chive and another cracked pepper flavor)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 lemons, zested and juiced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1-2 cups heirloom cherry tomatoes (halved or quartered)
1 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
1/2 cup (10 or 12 leaves) fresh basil, very thinly sliced
1 cup of cleaned clams, cut into bite-sized pieces

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water and drop the pasta into the pot. Heat a large deep skillet over low heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil and garlic and crushed red pepper flakes.

When the pasta has been cooking about 5 minutes, add lemon juice, a ladle of the cooking water from the pasta and the wine to the garlic and oil. Raise heat a bit to bring sauce to a bubble, and cook until wine has reduced a bit.  Add clams.

Drain pasta when it still has a good bite to it, al dente. Add lemon zest and half of the cheese to the sauce. Season the sauce with salt, to taste. Add pasta to pan and turn off heat. Toss the pasta with sauce a minute or 2, allowing it time to soak up the sauce. Add the herbs and toss.

Top the plates of pasta or platter with remaining cheese.