The best thing about cooking locally is that there is always something to look forward to. I remember eating melons every morning when spending the summers at Camp Comfort (my grandmother’s home on the Withlachoochee River). Melon and ham would have been far too sophisticated for those days (paired with burnt toast and bacon!) – but it is a wonderful treat I’ve learned to appreciate and look forward to.
I bought Smithfield Country Ham sliced very thin at The Fresh Market. It was the only place in town that would cut it that thin – and this was less-expensive trick (everyone thought it was proscuitto). I actually prefer melon with country ham because it is saltier and dryer than proscuitto. Make this for guests or for yourself while melons are in season – they are all over the Greensboro Curb Market these days.
This recipe is an adaptation from the Roasted Potato, Caper and Olive Salad in How to Roast a Lamb. There are times when you need to skip a couple of steps for the sake of time and expense – this was one of them. I skipped boiling and frying the potatoes for the sake of time and energy and omitted the caper berries and olives because I thought the salad could do with out them. I was right. This “salad” was delightfully different and delicious. Nothing beats the outer crunch of a tender potato that has soaked up a salty and fresh Anchovy Vinaigrette. I added more parsley at the end for freshness (perhaps that inched it closer to a traditional salad?).
We liked this recipe so much that we bought more potatoes and made it again the next night for Sunday Supper. That night, we had leftover sautéed bell peppers and onions so I threw them in too. Undoubtably, I think anything drenched in Anchovy Vinaigrette will be finger licking good.
Roasted Potato & Caper Salad with Anchovy Vinaigrette
Small Roasting Potatoes, cut into equal sized pieces
olive oil
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons capers
parsley
Anchovy Vinaigrette (will make a plenty)
4 white anchovies
2 shallots, sliced
1 tablespoon, chopped dill
1 tablespoon, chopped parsley
8 fresh mint leaves
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon dry Greek oregano
1 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper
Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Wash and cut the potatoes in to bite size pieces. Dry the potatoes and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. At this point, make sure not to salt the potatoes too much – the dressing and capers will add much saltines. Roast the potatoes in the oven until crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.
Meanwhile, add the anchovies, shallots, dill, parsley, and mint to the food processor. Pulse until minced but not pureed (I like a bit of crunch from the shallots in the dressing). Move the mixture to a jar or dressing container. Add the mustard, oregano, vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Shake or whisk to combine.
Once the potatoes are roasted. Allow to cool just a bit. Then dress with Anchovy Vinaigrette, add capers to your liking and throw in a handful of roughly chopped parsley for freshness. Serve immediately.
How to Roast a Lamb is full of elaborate sauces and spreads that can seem daunting to the average foodie. Michael Psilakis’s recipes sometimes include flipping back and forth across the book up to three or four times to other recipes – adding a teaspoon of another time-consuming confit or dressing. To me, it is the fun of the book. Navigating around it takes some time but once you conquer a dish – it is well worth the time and energy. The same feeling came about when completing his recipe for Roasted Lemon Puree. This sauce was surprisingly simple – only a handful of ingredients that you’ll most likely already have in your kitchen. It takes a couple hours but is a perfect weekend activity. Of course, it is even more fun when you have a friend by your side (a big thank you to Debbie who worked with me on this recipe!).
I love the way this puree is the consistency of a mayonnaise but only has whipped olive oil within a rich and flavorful roasted lemon concoction. We used the puree as a sauce for grilled lamb chops and a marinade for chicken kabobs. This would be amazing on a pita sandwich (or a BLT!), any grilled meats or veggies – or spooned out of the jar straight up.
Roasted Lemon Puree, by Michael Psilakis
4 scrubbed lemons (scrubbing removes any wax on the lemons)
about 1/3 cup kosher salt
2 tablespoons fresh lemon or orange juice
1 tablespoon dijion mustard
2 crushed and pressed garlic cloves
1 cup olive oil
pinch of sugar
cracked pepper
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Roll each lemon in aluminum foil. Place on top of a mound of salt with the seam side down. Roast until packages are soft – about 1 and a half hours. Allow to cool. Cut the lemons in half and scoop out the roasted flesh into a sieve (removing any seeds). Using a spoon, scrap the white pith off the remaining lemon peel. Discard the pith and chop the remaining lemon peel.
In a food processor, combine the chopped zest, strained flesh and juice, mustard an garlic. Process into a smooth puree. Add the olive oil through the feed tube. Taste for sweetness and seasoning. Add any salt, sugar or pepper needed.
A couple of weeks ago I embarked on a mission to make my own tortilla chips. Ok, it wasnt that much of an adventure, but I wanted to test out making homemade chips before I attempted it at a party. Like most things homemade – these tortilla chips are 100 times better than the store bought ones. They are more dense and sturdy for dipping. While it takes more effort to heat the oil (and more work discarding the oil afterward), you can make smaller batches of chips. And, it is very economical too.
I used corn tortillas, cut them into wedges and fried them until golden brown in canola oil. Salt them as they are coming out. Serve with your favorite salsa or homemade guacamole. I served these along with shrimp tacos – a delicious evening of culinary experimentation!
I was the luckiest host on earth when I found out that all I had to prepare was green beans and drinks for our Chinese Cooking night. After hosting a party the night before at Elsewhere, it was a much-needed break for shopping and chopping. Considering the overall arching theme of modern cuisine, I went straight for a recipe in Sara Forster’s cookbook for Hoisin Green beans. I’ve made a variation on this recipe before but liked the addition of orange juice in the sauce. The beans are sweeter than you would imagine but a really unique dish to serve with any dinner – authentic or not!
Sara Foster’s Hoisin Green Beans:
1.5 pounds of green beans
1/3 cup hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
juice of 1 orange
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
sesame seeds for garnish
Heat the over to 400 degrees. Combine the hoisin, soy, oil and orange juice. Coat over the green beans. Season with salt and pepper (be mindful of the sodium in the soy sauce). Roast for 15 minutes or until cooked though. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Without a doubt, Wendy’s dumplings took center stage at our Chinese Cooking Dinner Party. Yes, these little pockets of goodness were delicious, but there is something really magical about making this type of food. It is a labor of love and takes a great deal of patience (or good friends and Ginger Gin & Tonics in our case) to make enough to satisfy our serious dumpling craving (which was doubled if you include Jacob’s). As we stood around the kitchen filling the pockets of frozen dough with the pork mixture, we realized this practice is universal. Masha, Wendy and I grew up from all parts of the world and still laughed about learning to wrap/fill/mend various traditional family recipes. We agreed that is no fun to do this alone. So find a friend and bond over Wendy’s dumpling recipe as soon as you can!
Wendy’s Take on Chinese/Cantonese Dumplings
We boiled and fried the same recipe for dumplings. My favorite was the boiled dumpling. It easier to wrap these and easier to cook – so I easy start. But, both are delicious. Don’t me intimidated – it much easier than you think.
Ingredients
1 package of wonton wrappers
2 tbsp chopped spring onions
Wonton fillings: 150 g pork mince (or 75 g pork mince and 75 g chopped or minced prawns)
Or chicken/turkey mince, basically any type of meat you want.
(Vegetarian option: chopped firm 5-spice tofu to substitute for the meat)
(optional: chopped shitake mushrooms, chopped baby bok choy – the white part works best, chopped cooked glass noodles, chopped water chestnuts, chopped dried shrimp. The first 4 also go into the vegetarian option) 1 tbsp chopped spring onions
1/2 egg, lightly beaten
1.2 tsp grated ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp Shaoxing wine
Dash of white pepper
(at this stage, dont worry too much how much salt and pepper because the sauce is soy-sauce-based, which is already salty.)
Dipping Sauce: 3 tbsp Szechuan chilli oil
2 tsp minced garlic
5 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Chinkiang black rice vinegar
1/2 tsp ground Szechuan pepper
1 tsp castor sugar (optional: thinly julienned ginger and garnish with chopped spring onions)
* And if you don’t want to buy new things for the pantry just to make this dish, you could use regular rice vinegar, chili oil and white pepper.
Either boil these dumplings or pan fry them in a bit of oil and then top with a splash of water to steam the rest. Here is a great tutorial on how to wrap the fried dumplings.
The idea for our Chinese cooking class sprung from the concept of a lunchtime field trip to the Super G. In menu brainstorming, Wendy declared Jacob “THE Sichuan food expert” when he recommended his favorite Spicy Eggplant Dish. We never ended up going to Super G but Jacob surprisingly recreated this authentic dish from ingredients from the Harris Teeter. He used black pepper instead of Sichuan peppercorn and regular seasoned rice vinegar.
After a couple of trips for forgotten ingredients (ginger) and equipment (I don’t own a wok), Jacob put together this tasty dish with out much effort at all. I had zero expectations on what this would taste like and was impressed with how tasty it was! Wendy was impressed by how authentic it was (although she says it is traditionally has meat in it). And our friend Aaron, who has a serious distaste for eggplant (and French wines), actually loved this dish too! So build up that courage you eggplant haters!
2 teaspoons Sichuan peppercorn, or 1 teaspoon ground Sichuan pepper
1 teaspoon cornstarch, dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
Scallions, thinly sliced, for garnish
Slice each eggplant in half lengthwise, then slice each length into quarters.
In a small bowl, mix together chicken stock, chili bean paste, soy sauce, rice vinegar, rice wine, and sugar. Set aside.
In a wok, heat oil until just smoking. Add eggplants and stir-fry until outsides become golden brown and insides begin to soften, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, and Sichuan peppercorns and stir-fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Pour in stock-sauce mixture and mix well. Allow sauce to simmer for 2 minutes and eggplant to absorb sauce. Stir in cornstarch mixture to thicken sauce. Remove from heat, plate, and garnish with scallions.
I was planning on roasting cauliflower in just lemon juice, olive oil and salt until I took a guess that a recipe might be online for Moroccan Roasted Cauliflower. Of course, there are rarely any new ideas out there – and another blog (which happens to be gorgeous) had already posted a recipe for the very thing. Check out Snails View when you can. Luckily, I had all the ingredients on hand except ground ginger – but I did have fresh ginger. I made this recipe using half butter and half olive oil and substituting fresh ginger for ground. It was delicious and came together without anytime or energy. And, it is totally addictive. You must try it. Check out her recipe here.
My good friend Jeb recently bought a new home with a spacious kitchen and a even more spacious refrigerator (you could hide at least two bodies inside it). If you know Jeb, you know that the only thing inside that big ole fridge of his – are pizza boxes and beer. So for his birthday I decided to have him over for a little cooking lesson. Jeb’s favorite foods are ginger and potato chips, so I thought a lesson in stir-fry would be fitting. And while we were chopping chili peppers and ginger root, I realized that Jeb probably needed a quick lesson in rice before we got any farther.
I can only make two points about rice. Both are important to me – only one is crucial.
1. The secret to good rice is – buying good rice. I buy long grained special basmati rice in bulk at Costco – and I think it makes all the difference. I recommend sharing it with a friend – as 20 pounds of rice can last you nearly a lifetime (and is completely insane plus embarrassing for a single person).
2. When I told Jeb that if he wanted one cup of rice he needed two cups of water. He asked, “what if I want two cups of rice?” It is a 2 to 1 ratio – and I tend to be scant on the water so it isnt too wet.
I made this risotto on Sunday night and have been eating the leftovers for lunch and dinner all week. It is delicious re-heated with a crisp salad right on top (with fresh lemon vinaigrette). I also mixed in the leftover garlic butter roasted mushrooms into the risotto – and the capers and garlic added an amazing kick. The original recipe only called for only 6 cups of chicken broth and I needed around 8 cups.
Bring broth to simmer in large saucepan over medium heat. Reduce heat to low; cover to keep warm. Melt 1 1/2 tablespoons butter with oil in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add shallots and sauté until tender, about 6 minutes. Add rice; stir 1 minute. Add wine and stir until evaporated, about 30 seconds. Add 1 1/2 cups hot broth; simmer until absorbed, stirring frequently. Add remaining broth 1/2 cup at a time, allowing broth to be absorbed before adding more and stirring frequently until rice is creamy and tender, about 35 minutes. Stir in cheese and remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Stir in parsley, lemon juice, and lemon peel. Season risotto with salt and pepper. Transfer to bowl and serve.
I was planning on roasting cauliflower in just lemon juice, olive oil and salt until I took a guess that a recipe might be online for Moroccan Roasted Cauliflower. Of course, there are rarely any new ideas out there – and another blog (which happens to be gorgeous) had already posted a recipe for the very thing. Check out 
