Recipes: March 2008 Archives

There are two kinds of weekend breakfasts: the kind where you’re either up late enough, or hungover enough, that garlicky guacamole sounds A-OK, and the kind where you have to make do with a slice of avocado and a couple twists of black pepper. This past weekend we fell somewhere in between. We wanted morning guac that didn’t taste like lunch exactly. We settled on a fusion sauce that ended up making one of the squishier breakfast tacos ever: a fennel infused avocado whip, slightly sweet from being braised in liquor. You can spice-poach a couple cage-free farmers market eggs for an ovarian indulgence, but frankly the potatoes, favas and green whip make a fest on their own.

A.M. Tacos

(Serves 2)

3 Tbs. olive oil
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 shallot, peeled
4 small potatoes
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1/4 cup fresh fava beans
2 organic, cage-free eggs (optional)
4 corn tortillas
tomatoes for garnish
salt and pepper to taste

1. Start by cooking up some potatoes as a base for your tacos. Either bring a small pot of salted water to boil and add taters for 8 mins, or nuke ‘em in the microwave for about 2:35. Then heat olive oil in a skillet and add chopped garlic, shallot and potato. Stir and let cook for about 15 minutes or until crisping and browning. Add parsley and keep warm while the rest cooks.

2. Peel fava beans from their pod. Bring a small pot of salted water to boil. Add favas for about 4-5 minutes, or until tender enough to remove the second skin. Peel by holding between thumb and forefinger and gently tugging at outer shell. Set aside.

Avo Whip

1 fennel bulb
4 Tbs. vermouth
2 avocados
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 lemon
2 Tbs. parsley, chopped

3. Whip morning guacamole starting with roasting a fennel bulb. Heat oven to 375 degrees. In a shallow pan place fennel bulb, sliced in half, with open folds face down. Top with vermouth (white wine or sherry works too) and braise for 15-20 minutes or until all liquid evaporates and face down gets slightly crisped black. Remove. In a mixing bowl combine fennel bulb and excess juices, avocado, olive oil, zest the lemon and juice half of it into bowl as well. Add chopped parsley and mix with a handheld mixer or else use a food processor. Blend until thoroughly whipped.

4. If doing it non-vegan, prepare a bath for poaching your egg: 3 cups of water, 1 bay leaf, salt and pepper, 1 Tbs. of cider vinegar. Bring to a rolling boil, crack egg and let poach for about 5 or 6 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, bring egg to surface and inspect for cooked yolkage.

5. Serve with heated corn tortillas on bottom, potatoes, whipped avo, poached egg and finally fava beans on top.

Beverage: Cooper’s Sparkling Ale
Soundtrack: Lloyd & Michael’s “When the Morning Comes”

In the spirit of the first weeks of spring, that seasonal shred of time that all locavores, even us in L.A. share, here comes the asparagus. It's crack to Barbara Kingsolver and we agree. Here we nearly sliced the spears spider web thin and dressed 'em down for a cold salad.

Chilled Asparagus Salad

(Serves 4-6)

1 lbs. asparagus, thin
5 Thai chiles (red)
3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbs. red wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustrad
1 shallot, peeled
Kosher salt to taste
1 tsp fresh ground pepper

1. To parboil the asparagus: bring a large pot of water (about 4 cups) to a boil, salt until it tastes like sea water, trim the spears from the bottom by 1 inch, rinse and dunk in water. Let spears cook for roughly 15 seconds, remove and immediately rinse under cool water or dunk in an ice bath to stop from over-cooking.

2. Drain asparagus and pat dry. Cut each spear in half, or in thirds as needed, to create sleek, thin asparagus noodles. Put cut asparagus in a large metal bowl. Slice the red chiles into similarly sized threads and add. Toss with oil, vinegar and a dab of Dijon. Stir until thoroughly coated. (Dressing should be light.)

3. Mince your shallot and add as well. Chill all together in the fridge for one hour and serve cold.

Beverage: Koshihikari Echigo Japanese Lager
Soundtrack: Brian Eno’s “Big Ship”

Reserved for the swankest occasions, the tea party is a gilded gift of spring. We go goo-goo over few party precepts like the garden soiree (it's a celebration) that's all finger treats and fragrant spirits and such. Fragfile toasts, like "To accomplishing the winter, friend! To birthing the spring, traveler!"

Or in this case, a Happy Birthday to Hot Knives accomplice, Lake Sharp.

Last weekend, we whipped up cold pasta salads and celery root remulaude, but the biggest seller was finger sandwiches. We did a take on cucumber, but WITH crust, and with a Chilean pevre of oil and garlic, and a quasi-untraditional one with fresh Japanese hot-house tomatoes and lemon zest mayoanaise. And served it all garden-side with difficult teas, cheap champagne, challenging Mexican pineapple beer juice and olives cured in salt in Alex's basement. Chop Chop!

Chilean Cucumber

1 loaf wheat bread
2 Persian cucumbers
1/4 quarter cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 tsp. salt

1. Slice your loaf of bread length-wise. Place face up for stacking.

2. Wash your cucumbers and cut into thin slices. Lay cuke slices onto one side of the loaf.

3. Fix Pevre spread by combining oil, chopped cilantro, pressed or minced garlic and salt into a mixing bowl.

4. Spoon pevre onto the other side of the bread, spreading evenly. Press together and cut into 1-inch wide finger sandwiches.

Tomato-Mayo

1 loaf sourdough bread
2 large tomatoes
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup olive oil
1/2 Tbs. Dijon mustard
kosher salt to taste
1 lemon

1. Slice your loaf of bread length-wise. Place face up for stacking.

2. Wash and cut your tomatoes into thin slices. Lay tomatoes onto one side of the bread.

3. Whip up the lemon mayo by beating one egg yolk with the olive oil in a mixing bowl. Then add mustard and salt. Whip well. Finally, zest a lemon using a grater or micro-plane into the bowl. Then juice said lemon. Finish with another touch of olive oil, lemon-infused, or regular.

Beverage: North Coast's Merry Prankster
Soundtrack: Flaming Lips “She Don’t Use Jelly”

Sometimes kooky fusion combos are better, more soulful, when improvised on the spot rather than pre-meditated. This one was borne from us being too tired, lazy, brain-dead and starving on a weekday night to be pithy or political with our pairings.

Falatkas are, you guessed it, a cross between falafel and latkes. Shredded potato and zucchini are veggier than the dry-mouth grains and smushy garbanzos, but toasted cumin just happens to make anything taste like pure falafel. Rather than mess with a condiment that embodied the already weird pairing — like an apple-tsaziki sauce — we slopped together a red-pear mustard that surprised even us. We served these crispy critters on a bed of Israeli couscous and dry mixed greens with a drizzle of pomegranate molasses, but if you have the resources you could also pop ‘em in a pita. Or a bagel? See, we always go too far.

Falafel-ish Latkes

(Serves two)

2 small zucchini
2 small potatoes
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 Tbs. fresh cumin seeds
1/2 cup rye bread crumbs, fine (optional)
1/2 white onion
2 cups grapeseed oil (canola works)

1. Wash zucchini and potatoes. Shred both with the finest side of a grater to achieve matchstick pieces of each, but keep the two separate. Place grated zucchini in a colander and sprinkle with kosher salt. Let sit for about five minutes (this will bring out moisture and make the zuke super easy to compress).

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine potatoes and zucchini and cumin. Add bread crumbs if desired for extra bulk — it is not needed, however, as the zucchini makes it very workable patties as is.

3. Form mixture into small patties and set on a plate.

4. Heat frying oil in a small wok or medium sized frying pan. Once very hot (drop a cumin seed in, it should immediately sizzle) fry one or two patties at a time. Pat dry and cool on paper towels before serving.

Pear Mustard

(Makes 2/3 cup)

1 red pear, mostly ripe
2 shallots
1/4 cup Pedro Jiminez vinegar, or sherry vinegar
2 Tbs. sugar
1 Tbs. Dijon
sea salt and black pepper to taste

1.Partly peel your pear and slice into small chunks. Peel and dice your shallots. Add both to small saucepan and then place on medium heat.

2. Once they start to release liquids, about 5 or 6 minutes, add the vinegar and let reduce by half. Add sugar, salt and pepper and continue cooking on medium heat for another 5 minutes before tossing in mustard to finish. Stir and serve slightly chunky.

Beverage: Flying Dog’s Barley wine-style ale
Soundtrack: Kinski’s “Alpine Static”