combustication

Fiddleheads are not people obsessed with fiddles, although it could happen. Fiddleheads are young fern leaves of the ostrich fern. How they got fiddleheads from ostrich is beyond me (ah, it refers to how the leaves look like the end of a fiddle), but I’ve been reading about them on many a food blog and got curious. Why are they so special? For starters, they are a very season-specific item, which gets foodies all in a twitter. They’re also super-expensive, which is funny because you can apparently just pick them from the side of the road in Maine (see Millwhistle for some Maine/Brooklyn sassiness). The Coop had them for about $4 a pound, which is a lot cheaper than $8+/lb (at the farmer’s market too). Another seasonal and very expensive item is ramps. Ramps are a member of the leek and onion family and are another foodstuff I’ve been hearing a lot about. The Coop also had them at a much more reasonable price then elsewhere, so I got some. Not a lot (because they were almost all out), but some, and they are awesome.

Cleaning the fiddleheads well can be a pain in the butt, but it’s not as bad as some people make out.

Once clean, the fiddleheads and ramps are a snap to prepare – just sauté them in a bit of olive oil and butter and a dash of salt. I made a very light sauce to go with them for dinner and the whole meal was pretty great. The ramps were really flavorful – a mix between onion and garlic and a little bit of bitter greens all at once. The fiddleheads were okay. They tasted like the ends of asparagus and looked really cool, but I wouldn’t pay a gazillion dollars for them.

Fiddleheads, Ramps and Onions – oh my!

Ingredients:

1/2lb fiddleheads
as many ramps you can get your hands on
½ red onion, very finely chopped
olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
salt
pepper
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
2 tablespoons water
½ tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon tahini
juice of 1 lemon
brown rice or couscous or some nice grain
cooked lentils (optional)

To Do:
Start off by boiling a large pot of water. Clean the fiddleheads by trimming the ends off close to the coil and placing them in a large bowl of cold water. Swish ‘em around and rub off any brown bits. Drain and repeat the swishing and rubbing. Drain again and place in the boiling water for 10 minutes – this is to guarantee against any harmful bacteria. Drain and plunge into ice-cold water to shock them. Set aside.

Trim the ends of the ramps and take off and leaves that are inedible. Roughly chop the leaves, but keep the bulbs intact. Sauté ramps with a bit of olive oil and salt. Place them on a plate and keep any oil in the pan. Add some butter and then sauté the red onion on low heat until it caramelizes. Throw in the fiddleheads and sauté with the onions for about 5 minutes on medium heat.

Make the sauce by whisking the yogurt, water, tahini, lemon juice and some salt and pepper to taste. The sauce should be on the thin side, so add more water if necessary.

Assemble a plate by placing brown rice (or other grain) on the bottom. Place lentils on top of the rice (did this for protein, but you don’t need them) and then add the ramps on top with the fiddlehead mixture. Drizzle with sauce and serve.

For those of you interested in cooking news, recipes, tips and general fun, Serious Eats is a great website. A bit NYC-centric (which is fine by), they’re trying to branch out and definitely have a friendly vibe. How friendly? They have cookbook contests like crazy! In fact, I won a cookbook from Serious Eats! WHOOO! I really like cookbooks. Sometimes I don’t use them as much as I feel like I should because I like to improvise, but I love looking at recipes and pictures and imagining flavor combinations…

Anyways, I managed to win a copy of The 25th Anniversary Silver Palate Cookbook and I am pretty psyched to try some of the mousses - Lime Mousse and Ginger Pumpkin Mousse to be precise. Updates will be posted.

In other fun recipe news, if you’re a Harry Potter fan and always been intrigued by Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes and other delicacies that haven’t been co-oped by JellyBelly, check out this website that has a whole bunch of crazy Potter recipes. I kinda dig her Peppermint Toads.

Food in books has always been interesting to me. I’m trying to think back about books that have made me want to get up and make something, but I can’t think of anything offhand. A high tea is something I’ve always wanted. Ideas people?

There is actually a book that compiles recipes from literature. Anyone want some Dump Punch from Pride and Prejudice?

I remember reading about this recipe quite a while ago from Clothilde’s awesome blog Chocolate and Zucchini (she’s also just come out with a cookbook that looks fabulous) and never quite got it out of my head. Apparently, yogurt cake in France is to chocolate chip cookies over here - a simple childhood recipe. I tweaked the recipe a little bit and added some berries and fresh whipped cream (see below) for a quick and summery dessert. The cake was perfect. Super moist with a lovely crumb and a slightly crisp top makes for good nibbling. It’s pretty much a one bowl affair and takes less than 10 minutes to prep and only 35 minutes to bake. Perfect for summertime!

Yogurt Cake w/Blackberries and Whipped Cream

Ingredients:

For cake:

2 eggs at room temperature
1 cup of lowfat vanilla yogurt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup walnut oil (or vegetable oil)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons dark rum
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or just use a total of 2 cups AP flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder

For whipping cream:

1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tsp vanilla

blackberries

To Do:

Preheat oven to 350F and grease a large tart pan or 9-10″ cake pan. Mix the flour and baking powder together in a two cup measuring cup and set aside. Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a large bowl and then throw in all of the other wet ingredients (vanilla, oil, rum and yogurt). Once combined, add the flour and baking powder mixture to the wet ingredients, stirring slowly until just incorporated. Do not overbeat. Pour batter into pan and bake for about 35 minutes. The top should become a golden brown (emphasis on golden). Insert a toothpick in the center to make sure the cake is set. Put the cake aside to cool.

In the meantime, if you want whipped cream, chill the bowl and beaters of a mixer for about 10 minutes. Place cream in the chilled bowl and mix on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Add sugar and vanilla and mix until you get your desired whipped cream consistency.

Serve a slice of cake with a dollop of whipped cream and some berries. Summer on a plate.

Israeli couscous may be the perfect way to punch up a typical pasta salad for the summertime. Also known as pearl couscous, this couscous is slightly larger than you might be familiar with and tastes more like pasta - think orzo.

You can cook it quickly in some boiling water like a pasta (only leave it in for a few minutes, you want it al dente), steam it like traditional couscous or use it in a risotto recipe. The recipe for a quick and summery recipe below is pretty easy and delicious, but try experimenting with different vegetables or nuts or just substitute Israeli couscous in your usual pasta salad.

Israeli Couscous w/Caramelized Onions, Eggplant and Feta

Ingredients:

1 cup Israeli Couscous
olive oil
1 Vidalia onion, sliced into slivers
2 cloves garlic
juice of one lemon
1 tablespoon of tahini
5 baby eggplants (3-4″ in diameter) or 1 large eggplant, chopped
2 sprigs of mint, leaves cleaned and chopped
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
salt and pepper to taste

To Do:

Boil a pot of water and place couscous in the water with a pinch of salt. Cook until couscous is al dente (3-5 minutes). Drain couscous and rinse with cold water. Set aside.

Heat up the olive oil and sauté the onions in a small pan. The trick to getting them caramelized is keep cooking the onions over a very low heat so its sugars are released. Stir them a bit every once in a while and keep an eye on them while you move on to the eggplant.

In a large frying pan, heat up a splash of olive oil and then add the garlic. Lower the heat to medium and add eggplant and cook until it gets a bit crispy. Set aside.

Once the onions and eggplant are done, add them to the couscous in a large bowl. Whisk up the lemon juice, tahini, some salt and pepper to taste and a tablespoon of olive olive oil. Pour over the couscous, onion and eggplant mixture and mix. Add the mint and feta and mix it up some more. Serve warm or cold.

When the weather gets steamy, there is nothing better than a mint julep. I missed the Kentucky Derby festivities last Saturday (Cinco de Mayo and margaritas triumphed), but last night was sufficiently humid enough to warrant a frosty julep.

Super easy and extremely delicious. It’s easy to have more than one.

Mint Julep

Ingredients:

12 mint leaves
2 tablespoons simple syrup (to make simple syrup, boil 1 cup of water and add 1 cup of sugar, stir to combine and let it boil a bit to make sure sugar is dissolved, store in fridge for future use)
crushed ice
bourbon (Maker’s Mark is a good choice)
old fashioned glass
sugar

To Do:

Moisten the top of the old fashioned glass with a damp paper towel and rim with sugar. Tear the mint leaves and place them in the glass. Pour the simple syrup on top. Use a muddler to bruise the leaves (if you don’t have one, use the back of a spoon or something). Add crushed ice to almost the top of the glass. Pour in enough bourbon to cover the ice. Garnish with a mint leaf and sip with pleasure.

Homemade granola is really freakin good. I’ve become a bit obsessed with it after reading a Minimalist article in the NYT’s in January, but never thought to take a picture or even describe the recipe because it’s really just too easy. As Mark Bittman points out “there are two good reasons for making your own granola. One: it tastes better. Two: it contains better ingredients.” Couldn’t have said it better myself. I used his recipe as a starting off point, but as the article goes on to say, you can do whatever you want. I really like dried cranberries. Bittman really likes dried coconut. I kept it out of this recipe, but if you want to use the coconut, add it in with the nuts. You can make a great tropical-type granola with some coconut, crushed Brazilian nuts and dried pineapple and papaya. Yum. The Bittman recipe is a Times Select article, so you’ll have to be a member of the Gray Lady in order to access it, but if you just want to make granola…

Homemade Granola or Tina’s Take on Bittman

Ingredients

5 cups rolled oats
1/2 to 1 cup nuts and seeds of your choice (this granola was made with cashews and pecans)
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, or to taste
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dash salt
1/2 to 1 cup maple syrup
½ tablespoon of walnut oil or other neutral oil
½ cup raisins (you can use pretty much any type of dried fruit)
½ cup dried cranberries

To Do

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover a large sheet pan with tinfoil or parchment paper. In a large bowl, combine oats, nuts and seeds, cinnamon, vanilla, salt, oil and maple syrup.

Place mixture on the baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, stirring and flipping the granola around a bit. Turn the heat down to 275F and bake longer, until the granola browns evenly. If things are looking to crispy or smelling a little burned, turn down the heat of the oven a bit more. I really like my granola crunchy, so after a while I turn the oven to about 250 or so and just keep an eye on it.

Remove pan from oven and add raisins or cranberries. Let it cool to room temperature and then transfer to a sealed container and store in refrigerator. This will keep for a while, but you’ll probably eat it all. I suggest using it to top yogurt or ice cream or just eating it plain with some (vanilla) soy milk or regular milk and berries.

p.s. The new Combustication header is courtesy of the Farm in Mercersburg, PA. Lovely bunch of a grass, no?