Beware of Chive Pods

Dear Cecily,

I saw chive pods in my favorite grocery store and was wondering--can I eat them? What do they taste like? I am always looking for interesting new ingredients to include in dinner party salads. Are they a good addition to an elegant salad?

Thanks so much,
Margery in Brookline


Dear Margery,

Beware of chive pods! The chive pods in the picture above look perfectly innocent in a vase with some spring daffodils, but they have an aftertaste that is more pungent than raw onions. Just one of those little pods at the end of the chive stalk packs the power of several heads of raw garlic. The first (and only) time I ate a chive pod, I couldn't get the taste out of my mouth for hours. You certainly don't want your guests to be breathing fire! My recommendation: use chive pods as decoration. Eat them only at your own peril!

But take heart, there is light at the end of the tunnel. In early June, chive flowers come into season. These flowers are lavender-pink in color, much less pungent, and pleasantly edible. Their mild onion flavor will be a perfect addition to any salad.

Happy Cooking,
Cecily

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, Everyone!

These are not your typical eggs-in-an-Easter basket. They are chocolate truffle eggs. Delicious chocolate truffles inside real eggshells. I cut one of the ones in the middle of the basket open to reveal its delicious inside--solid dark chocolate truffle. When I was a little girl, my mother used to put one of these outside my door each Easter morning. Yesterday, in a speciality store, I spotted the same kind of chocolate egg that she used to give me and memories came flooding back. This year I resolved to make my own and give them as little Easter gifts. After all, eggs on Easter are great, but eggs filled with chocolate truffle, now that's spectacular!

Email me if you want the directions for making these Easter eggs.

Happy Easter and Happy Cooking,
Cecily

Ginger Barley Risotto with Shiitake Mushrooms

Dear Cecily,

I have a family member who is a strict vegan (no meat, fish, poultry, dairy).
When we have family get-togethers she always brings a frozen entree to pop into the microwave. Do you have any suggestions as to what I can prepare for her to make her feel more at home?

Thanks,
Trish in New York


Dear Trish,

With this delicious Ginger Barley Risotto with Shiitake Mushrooms, no one at the table will know that you are all eating vegan (or a variation on vegan) food. Just imagine: the entree you serve your vegan family member will look almost identical to what the rest of you are happily eating. No frozen entrees, only a delicious meal. So, you can all get down to the real business of the evening--spending time with family.

The secret is that this risotto is very flexible--you can use it at multiple gatherings because you can put any fish or meat on top (for the non-vegans) and any vegetables inside the risotto for different flavors. You can substitute the salmon for steak, the mushrooms for green beans and celery, or anything else your family likes. Welcoming and versatile, the best of all worlds, including vegan!

Happy Cooking,
Cecily


Ginger Barley Risotto with Shiitake Mushrooms

3 cups pearl barley
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ cups onions, minced
2 teaspoons fresh grated garlic
¾ cup grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons ground dried ginger
1 tablespoon dried tarragon
Salt and pepper to taste
13-14 cups of vegetable broth
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese (only for the non-vegans)
3 cups dried and reconstituted shiitake mushroom slices (or fresh mushrooms lightly sauteed)

1) Pour barley into a very wide, shallow saucepan and turn heat to medium.
2) Stir barley in pan to toast for 7 minutes.
3) Pour barley into a separate bowl and let it sit while you prepare the rest of the dish.
4) Pour oil into your pan and let it warm. Turn heat up to medium-high and add:
a. Minced onion
b. Garlic
c. Fresh ginger
d. Dried ginger
e. Tarragon
f. Salt and pepper
5) Saute, stirring frequently, until onions are tender and flavors have marinated. (about 5 minutes)
6) Add barley and stir it into the ginger-infused onions.
7) Add 1 ½ cups of vegetable broth and reduce the heat to medium-low.
8) Stir as often as possible while the barley is simmering until all the liquid is absorbed. You can easily do other things around the kitchen as long as you don't forget to stir every 5-10 minutes or so.
9) Add another 1 cup of broth and repeat.
10) Continue adding the broth, simmering, and stirring until liquid is absorbed each time. The urge is to rush this process, but if you do then the risotto will not be as creamy and tasty.
11) You are done when you have used about 14 cups of chicken broth. The barley should be tender and a little bit chewy, and the dish should be creamy.
13) Stir in the shiitake mushrooms.
13) Add a little more ginger, tarragon or salt and pepper as needed.
14) Reserve enough for your vegan guests and then add Parmesan to the remaining portions and mix well.

A few substitutions if you are making this for a strictly non-vegan crowd:
1) Substitute butter for the olive oil
2) Substitute chicken or beef broth for the vegetable broth.

To Plate and Serve your Meal:
1) Saute individual portions of salmon in olive oil, salt and pepper, a hint of soy sauce and some white wine for the non-vegans (or whatever fish or meat you prefer).
2) Roast some asparagus in olive oil, salt and pepper and thyme as a side vegetable. Your extended family will love the colors and the tastes!
3) Most of all, enjoy your evening!

Moroccan Halibut Tajine

Dear Cecily,

We have a smaller flat and typically have just one or two other couples over for dinner at a time. So, I do my best to choose dishes that I can prepare ahead of time, take about the same amount of time to cook, and in general require minimal looking after so that I am not -- constantly, and noticeably, since it's a small group -- hopping back and forth between the kitchen and our guests. However, we seem to be stuck on just a few dishes, such as oven-baked honey-soy glazed salmon, steamed seasoned green beans, and pine nut cous cous. These work well because they can be prepped ahead of time, and take the same amount of time to cook. Can you suggest some other dishes to change things up for us, but that still work well in this situation?

Elizabeth in San Francisco


Dear Elizabeth,

It sounds like you are hosting wonderful dinner parties in San Francisco! And, how considerate of you to plan the evening in order to spend your time with your guests. No matter how good the food is, a dinner party where all your guests hear is you rattling around in the kitchen is no fun. They want to chat with the main attraction--you! Happily, fantastic meals can be prepped ahead of time and served with minimal disturbance to the flow of the evening. It sounds like you already have a delicious menu. Here's another one to try out. After all, nothing could be better than fabulous food that seems to appear out of nowhere!

Happy Entertaining and Happy Cooking,
Cecily

Menu:
Moroccan Halibut Tajine
Roasted Orange Peppers
Delicate Tarragon Pita Toasts

In Morocco, tajines are cooked--not surprisingly--in a special cone-shaped clay pot called a tajine. I have tried this dish in a real tajine and also in a large shallow saucepan, and can get almost the same result. If you can get your hands on a tajine, that's great, but this dish can be made equally well in a saucepan with lid over the stove. Also, the tarragon pita toasts are delicious, but a couscous also goes extremely well with this meal.

Moroccan Halibut Tajine
Olive oil
1 bunch chopped fresh parsley (about 1 cup, packed)
1 bunch chopped fresh cilantro (about 1 cup, packed)
2 medium onions, well minced
2 lbs. halibut (or any other thick white fish), cut in individually-sized pieces
6 oz. green olives, pitted and halved
2 teaspoons honey
1 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon dried ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried cumin seeds
1 teaspoon ground turmeric (careful--the turmeric will stain your hands yellow if you touch it directly!)
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh spinach (for serving)

Prepare ahead of time:
1) Sprinkle the bottom of a large shallow saucepan with 2 teaspoons of olive oil.
2) Spread the cilantro and parsley over the bottom of the pan.
3) Spoon the minced onions over the herbs.
4) Arrange the halibut pieces over the onions.
5) Sprinkle the olives, honey, three quarters of the lemon juice, salt and pepper, and about 2 more teaspoons of olive oil over the fish.
6) Mix the remaining dried herbs in a small dish and sprinkle the mixture over the top of the fish along with the remaining lemon juice.
7) Cover the saucepan with a lid and refrigerate.
8) This part of the dish can be prepared several hours before your guests arrive.

Roasted Orange Peppers
Prepare ahead of time:
3-4 orange peppers
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

1) Slice 3-4 orange peppers lengthwise (thick julienne) and remove seeds.
2) Place them on a cookie sheet and sprinkle generously with olive oil and salt and pepper.
3) Optional: sprinkle with feta cheese to add to the Mediterranean feel of the dinner.
4) Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours until guests arrive.
5) Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. just before your guests are due.

Delicate Tarragon Pita Toasts
Prepare ahead of time:
3 rounds of pita (the thinnest pita you can find is the best--most supermarkets and certainly gourmet food stores carry the thinner and more typically Mediterranean pita)
Olive oil
One bunch fresh tarragon

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2) Cut the pita into medium-sized triangles (or pie slices), just a little bigger than bite size.
3) Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper and arrange the pita on top. The side of the pita which is lighter should be facing up (it will be prettier to eat later on).
4) Place 4-5 leaves of tarragon on each pita triangle.
5) Sprinkle olive oil and salt and pepper over each triangle.
6) Roast in oven for about 5-6 minutes until edges just begin to brown.
7) Remove from oven and let cool.
8) These can be made a day ahead (although they are fast and making them the day of the party is ideal) but, careful, they are addictive and might be gone before the dinner party starts!
15 Minutes of Cooking When Guests Have Arrived:
1) Place your saucepan on the stove, lid on, and cook over high heat for 15 minutes until fish is opaque throughout and just cooked through. (The cooking time depends a little on the thickness of the fish, but 15 minutes should work well and the peppers are very forgiving of an extra minute or two.)
2) Uncover your peppers and place in the preheated oven, about 5 inches from the top heat source. Let them roast for the same 15 minutes as the halibut.

To Serve:
1) Place several leaves of fresh spinach (if not using couscous) on each plate and serve halibut over the top. Spoon some of the sauce from the pan over the fish.
2) Add the peppers and toasts and, voila, dinner is served and you can get back to the most important job of the evening--having fun with your guests!

Serves four generously.

Cherries Jubilee!

Dear Cecily,

What a wonderful dinner we had last week! The food was absolutely delicious and the dessert was fabulous. In fact, I would really appreciate it if you could send me the recipe for the Cherries Jubilee. I would love to see if I can do it too.

Thanks again for the invitation, we had a great time.

Sincerely,
Eric from Boston

Dear Eric,

It was wonderful to see you at our home. Thank you for adding so much to the evening. I would love to share my recipe for Cherries Jubilee with you. It is a favorite of ours. A flaming dessert is a wonderful way to end an evening. Enjoy!

Happy Flaming and Happy Cooking,
Cecily


Cherries Jubilee

2 cans high quality pitted black cherries
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/3 tablespoons cornstarch
4 peels of lemon skin (easiest to use a vegetable peeler)
1 ½ half teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
¾ teaspoon cardamom
¾ cup high quality warm cognac
vanilla bean ice cream

1) Prepare the stand for your chafing dish by putting it on the table in front of guests.
2) Pour the juice from the cherries into a wide, shallow saucepan over the stove.
3) Turn stove heat to medium.
4) Add the sugar, cornstarch, lemon peel, cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom to the saucepan and stir constantly until thick.
5) Let the mixture boil for about 3 minutes until flavors are saturated, stirring frequently.
6) Carefully remove the lemon peels and pour the cherries into the pan to warm.
7) Stir until the cherries are warmed through.
8) Pour Cherries Jubilee into your chafing dish and carefully pour warmed cognac over the top.
9) Bring to the table and use a match to light it on fire. (My husband loves this job!)
10) Place on chafing dish stand and let it flame beautifully.
11) Bring dessert dishes to the table with scoops of vanilla bean ice cream.
12) While the Cherries Jubilee is still flaming, ladle cherries and sauce over the ice cream and serve immediately. Enjoy!

Spectacular Cake Solutions for a Tiny Oven

Dear Cecily,

I live in England where everything is small. My kitchen has no room for an oven (my fridge is the size of one you would have in a college dorm room!), and all I have for baking is a microwave/convection oven. I'm not sure if I can bake anything other than spongey, dense cakes in it (since the heat doesn't get to the bottom of the pan or tray). Do you have any recipes that might work with type of oven?

Bonnie
Cambridge, England


Dear Bonnie,

Even though you can't bake thick cakes, your cake creation can still be spectacular! The solution is a bit of engineering ingenuity. Here is a recipe for a lemon-strawberry cake with dark chocolate ganache that is sure to delight. Better yet, this larger-than-life cake can come out of any kitchen (all the more impressive if it comes out of a tiny kitchen)! Three layers of cardamom lemon cake, a layer of strawberries (Chile is currently exporting yummy fresh strawberries), and rich chocolate ganache to top it off--- nothing could be better. Here's to small kitchens and big cakes!

Happy Engineering and Happy Cooking,
Cecily

Lemon-Strawberry Cake with a Dark Chocolate Ganache

For Cake:
3 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon lemon zest (packed)
1 teaspoon cardamom (optional)
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs

2 quarts fresh strawberries

For Ganache:
16 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
pinch of cardamom (optional)
1 tablespoon of lemon liqueur (optional)

To Make Lemon Cake:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2) In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, lemon zest, and cardamom with a fork.
3) In a separate small bowl, mix the milk and vanilla together.
4) In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until creamy and pale--about 4 minutes.
5) Add eggs and beat very well.
6) Add half the flour mixture and mix on low power or by hand.
7) Add the milk mixture and continue to mix on low power.
8) Add the rest of the flour mixture and mix until combined.
9) Spoon the batter into three greased and 9-inch round cake pans. If you have parchment paper, a round in the bottom of the cake pan can be helpful, but it's not necessary.
10) Spread out the batter with the back of a large spoon, so that it just hugs the sides of the cake pan. Also, these cakes tend to rise a bit in the middle, so the batter level should be slightly lower in the middle of the cake pan.
11) Bake for 17 minutes until the tops are slightly golden brown and the cake pulls away from the side of the pan. (I don't have a convection oven, so the time may vary a bit for you. If the cake is golden and the sides are pulling away then it is done.) I think you'll have to bake these cakes separately for space reasons, but the final product will be worth it!
12) Let cool for about 10 minutes in the cake pan and then remove to a cooling rack or a plate and continue to let cool to room temperature.

To Make the Ganache:
1) Melt the chocolate, butter, cream and cardamom in a double boiler (or a glass bowl set on top of a saucepan with a couple of inches of boiling water) to melt the chocolate without burning it. Stir vigorously as it melts.
3) When melted, take the chocolate off the heat and pour in the liqueur (if using) and stir again vigorously.
4) Let cool to room temperature.

To Assemble the Cake:
1) Cut off the tops and bottoms of the strawberries (reserving about 8 for the top of the cake) so they are about the same height (the cut strawberries will be holding up the cake) If some strawberries are too small, you can use two as the equivalent height of one larger strawberry.
2) Place one cake on a cake dish. If the top is curved, you can gently cut off the top part to make it level.
3) Spoon about one quarter of the ganache over the top of the cake. Place the strawberries in circles on top of the ganache.
4) Gently place the second cake over the strawberries and spoon another quarter of the ganache over the top.
5) Place the third cake layer on top of the ganache.
6) It's getting to be a big cake! Spoon the rest of the ganache over the top and let some run down the sides--it's meant to be beautifully uneven.
7) Arrange the remaining uncut strawberries on top of the cake and voila!
8) Refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour to set the chocolate and then enjoy the most wonderful part--the serving and the eating!!

A Kiwi Invention for Kiwis

Dear Friends,

I am back from New Zealand and back to Dear Cecily. New Zealand was a stunningly beautiful country with sporty, friendly people. It was wonderful to meet all my New Zealand (or, as they call themselves, Kiwi) relatives. One very smart human Kiwi invented a new way to eat fruit kiwis (not to be confused with the much-loved kiwi bird.) My husband found this little green gadget in a store in Christchurch, and we knew its potential immediately! One side of this creative implement cuts the Kiwi in half, and the other side scoops out the delicious innards. Kiwi eating will never be the same!

Happy Inventing and Happy Cooking,
Cecily