Lingering in the Mediterranean: Spaghetti with Seafood, Almonds, Capers and Parsley

A host of Mediterranean flavors come together in this quick, delicious seafood pasta. Recipe below.

seafood-spaghetti

Since our recent Washington, DC visit and Mellen’s amazing seafood bourride, we’ve continued to think a lot about Mediterranean cuisine. So when we came across the sumptuous cookbook Olives and Oranges: Recipes and Flavor Secrets from Italy, Spain, Cyprus, and Beyond, we knew we’d be cooking more than a few things based on recipes we found here.

The authors of this beautiful cookbook know a thing or two about the region’s food. As the daughter of a foreign correspondent, Sara Jenkins had lived in Italy, France, Spain, Lebanon and Cyprus by the time she was a teen. She put her love of Mediterranean flavors to work as chef of New York City restaurants such as Il Buco, I Coppi, Mangia and Porchetta. Co-author Mindy Fox is editor of La Cucina Italiana and a former editor at Saveur. She has written for many magazines and collaborated on a number of cookbooks. Alan Richardson supplies the amazing photographs.

The book opens with what Jenkins calls “My Flavor Pantry,” a comprehensive description of oils, vinegars, olives, seasonings, herbs, spices, anchovies, cured meats, pastas, legumes and more, all crucial ingredients in the Mediterranean kitchen. Then she takes us from small plates and salads through pastas, risottos, fish and meats, right on up to sweets and cordials—more than 140 recipes in all, divided into quick-cook and slow-cook categories. Continue reading “Lingering in the Mediterranean: Spaghetti with Seafood, Almonds, Capers and Parsley” →

The 30 worst foods in America, 4 ways to boost vegetable nutrition and one good burger

A Blue Kitchen round-up: Eat This Not That—30 appalling foods and appealing alternatives, four ways to get even more out of the produce we eat and a great find for when you just need a burger.

Eat This, Not That is a long-running, practical feature in Men’s Health and Women’s Health magazines. It’s also been a successful book series, the latest edition being Eat This Not That! The Best (& Worst!) Foods in America!: The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution.

Both the columns and the books provide real-world solutions to the food decisions and dilemmas we face every day. As noble as packing an apple, a yogurt and bean sprouts instead of grabbing a fast food burger may be, for instance, we’re more often faced with choices between mall food court options or places at an interstate exit. One in particular that I remember compared two McDonald’s Egg McMuffins and a bagel with two tablespoons of cream cheese [a modest schmear by most noshers’ standards]. The Egg McMuffins were healthier! Fewer calories, less fat, more protein… And that was two of them.

Marion came across The 30 Worst Foods in America at the Women’s Health website. Among the scariest findings on the list: A children’s lunch with the sugar equivalent of 10 jelly doughnuts, a pancake breakfast with 4-1/2 times your daily limit of trans fats Continue reading “The 30 worst foods in America, 4 ways to boost vegetable nutrition and one good burger” →

Seafood Bourride: A delicious, creative mix of Mediterranean flavors

There are countless variations on bourride, a traditional Mediterranean seafood soup/stew. This one, prepared by our friend Mellen and served over Israeli couscous, was the best thing we ate by far on a weekend trip to Washington, DC. Recipe below.

mellen-seafood-bourride2

When I started Blue Kitchen way back in the fall of aught-six, I had great plans for having occasional guest cooks do posts here. So far, I’ve failed miserably. Aside from Marion [a co-conspirator here, really, not a guest], I’ve only had one guest cook, the lovely Patricia of Technicolor Kitchen, who made her delicious Brazilian Rice and Beans. When I smelled this wonderfully fragrant stew percolating in Mellen’s kitchen, I knew it was high time I made good on my plans.

Our friends Mellen and Steve live in a beautiful 1800s house in the historic, convenient and cosmopolitan DuPont Circle neighborhood of Washington, DC. The neighborhood is home to foreign embassies, ethnic restaurants, art galleries and shops—and is the center of DC’s vibrant nightlife. So when they invited us to come visit them for a long weekend, it took very little arm twisting to get us there. Mellen and Steve—and Mellen’s kids Madeleine and Taylor—were gracious hosts. Madeleine even gave up her room for us. The whole weekend, conversation flowed like wine. So did the wine, often on their rooftop deck.

In today’s second post, I’ll talk about some of the DC stuff we did on our visit, with a focus on food. But now I’m going to concentrate on this delicious seafood stew/soup. A bourride [boo-REED] is a Mediterranean fish soup, something like a bouillabaisse but with a consistency more like stew. There are probably as many variations on it as there are cooks who make it, and options vary wildly, from suspiciously quick and simple to complex and slow-cooking. Many use thick slices of toasted bread as a base, others call for potatoes. Mellen uses large, pearly Israeli couscous. One common thread among all recipes, though, is making the most of plentiful fresh seafood in the region. Continue reading “Seafood Bourride: A delicious, creative mix of Mediterranean flavors” →

Terry, Marion and Julia: Julia Child’s kitchen and other culinary treasures in Washington, DC

“America’s Attic” displays Julia Child’s entire kitchen and the dimestore lunch counter that served to further the civil rights movement; stellar food in a museum cafeteria [seriously] and our best flea market find—the fojol bros. of Merlindia.

julia-kitchen

Julia Child quite literally bookended our trip to Washington, DC. last weekend. On the flight out, Marion was reading Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously. And when we were preparing to board our flight home, I realized the book I was reading was in our checked bag. Fortunately, we found a copy of Julia’s My Life in France in an airport bookstore.

This double dose of Julia Child was perhaps less than coincidental. For one thing, the soon to be released film “Julie & Julia” has caused a resurgence of interest in the beloved American icon, and publishers and bookstores are only too happy to oblige.

But something else had Julia back on our radar. In planning our weekend trip, we had created a carefully edited list of must sees based on time constraints and sheer stamina. Our primary focuses would be Lincoln and art, as much of both as we could possibly take in. Entire Smithsonian museums were jettisoned from the list. The National Museum of Natural History, for instance [wonderful, but we’ve done that], and the National Air & Space Museum [um, no]. The National Museum of American History, as wonderful as it is [the Star-Spangled Banner, Dorothy’s ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz”], almost joined the reject pile. Then we read that it now houses Julia Child’s kitchen. Suddenly, we had a pilgrimage to make. Continue reading “Terry, Marion and Julia: Julia Child’s kitchen and other culinary treasures in Washington, DC” →

Spanish-inspired Chickpeas, Chorizo and Spinach, inspired by the written word

Spanish chorizo, chickpeas, spinach and sweet paprika create hearty, Iberian-influenced fare that comes together in just minutes. Recipe below.

corizo-chickpeas-spinach

Adam Platt has a way with words. His restaurant reviews in New York magazine almost always contain at least one turn of phrase that, even if I’m not interested in the restaurant in question, get me thinking about food in new ways. So when I recently read his review of George Mendes’ sophisticated new restaurant Aldea and came across the phrase chorizo nickels, I knew I would be doing something with this dense, paprika-powered Spanish sausage that included slicing it into nickel-sized pieces.

spanish-chorizo-small Spanish chorizo is made from coarsely chopped fatty pork and seasoned with Spanish paprika, salt and garlic. That’s pretty much it. Spicier versions will also include small dried hot chiles. In Portugal, they make a similar sausage called chouriço. Both are completely different from Mexican chorizo, which is made from ground pork.

Chickpeas [or garbanzo beans] are packed with nutrients and fiber, making them an ideal staple in many cultures. They play a big role in Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, European, African and Indian cuisines, for instance.

The Stanfords travel website calls chorizo and chickpeas “emblematic ingredients of Spanish cooking,” and you’ll often find them paired in Spanish recipes, especially for tapas dishes. Because chickpeas are so protein-rich, the chorizo Continue reading “Spanish-inspired Chickpeas, Chorizo and Spinach, inspired by the written word” →

“Paper or plastic?” Say “Neither,” stylishly.

blue-q-bags

These days, most of us carry reusable bags when we shop. [And if you don’t, get on it!] For everyday shopping needs, the compact, square-bottomed grocery-bag-sized jobs are perfect. They’re easy for baggers to pack and small enough to not get too heavy. But sometimes you want something bigger and, well, cooler. Blue Q to the rescue.

stuff_we_like_small Pittsfield, Massachusetts-based Blue Q makes a dazzling array of durable, commodious “shoppers,” as their site calls them. The bags are about 16″ x 16″ x 6″—plenty big for farmers market or flea market runs. Designs range from fun to quirky, stylish, retro, hippie/bohemian and downright girly pretty, most with a healthy dash of subversive smartass thrown in for good measure. Continue reading ““Paper or plastic?” Say “Neither,” stylishly.” →

Cool, creamy blank canvas for summer desserts: Ricotta-Vanilla Cream

Four basic ingredients—ricotta cheese, vanilla, milk and sugar—create a simple, silky, rich base for inventing your own desserts. Recipe and suggestions for experimenting below.

vanilla-ricotta

I almost overlooked the recipe that inspired this post. It was tucked quietly into the table of contents pages of the July Gourmet, before you get past all the opening ads and into the big, splashy four-color editorial meat of the magazine. Somehow, that seems appropriate. The ricotta-vanilla cream itself is delicious, but in a very quiet way. It’s made to team up with a host of other flavors, elevating them and offering a creamy counterpoint. Gourmet teamed them with nectarines and pine nut brittle, for example.

We experimented with a couple of different toppings: Fresh peaches and blueberries with lime juice and flavors inspired by one of Marion’s favorite desserts at mado, buffalo ricotta with honey. The fruit worked a little better for us—its slight tartness played against the richness of the cream. But other ideas sprang to mind, even as we sampled these. A slice of pound cake topped with the cream and fresh raspberries. Orange segments [with membranes removed] and shavings of dark chocolate. Even the balsamic peaches from last week, minus the shallots and the pork chops, of course. Continue reading “Cool, creamy blank canvas for summer desserts: Ricotta-Vanilla Cream” →

Five easy meals for summer

With the fourth of July weekend in the rearview mirror, summer is officially in full swing. And as much as we may like to cook, there’s no shortage of diversions ready to lure us from the kitchen. These five recipes run the gamut, from quick cooking to outdoor cooking to no cooking at all. Gathered from the Blue Kitchen archives, they’ll help you get great summer meals on the table with minimal time and effort in the kitchen.

tomato-basil-cruda

1. Tomato Basil Salsa Cruda with Pasta

Cooking doesn’t get much easier than this—salsa cruda is Italian for uncooked sauce. The only thing you cook for Tomato Basil Salsa Cruda with Pasta is the pasta itself. The hot pasta warms the salsa of raw, chopped tomatoes, basil, garlic and olive oil, filling the kitchen with a big, delicious fragrance. And the uncooked salsa slightly cools the pasta, making for a light summery meal.

spicy-turkey-burger

2. Spicy Turkey Burgers

In the days before air conditioning, a separate summer kitchen was sometimes added to homes to keep the heat of cooking out of the house. Today, the ubiquitous grill Continue reading “Five easy meals for summer” →

Making the most of a great year for peaches: Spicy pork chops with balsamic peaches

Heat is optional, big flavor isn’t, when sweet, savory and a host of spices get together in Pork Chops with Balsamic Peaches. Recipe below, with some variations on the theme.

balsamic-peach-pork

Summer has barely begun and we’ve already had some stellar peaches. Fragrant, sweet, delicious, juice-dribbling-down-your-chin peaches. Nothing local yet, but just picked up at random supermarkets. To me, that’s a sign of more great peaches to come this season.

So when Hannah mentioned balsamic peach pickles in her comment on last week’s wedding food memories post, we were immediately looking for recipes. Not so much for making pickles from peaches [they do sound wonderful, thought, don’t they?], but for tempering the natural sweetness of peaches with balsamic vinegar’s tartness. And when Marion turned up a pork recipe, my search narrowed considerably.

There’s something about the natural savory/sweetness of pork that plays beautifully with fruit. And I’ve certainly exploited it here, making everything from roast pork tenderloin with cherries or with pears and onions to pork chops with dried plums and even bacon marmalade sandwiches on pumpernickel.

These quick and easy pork chops not only make use of pork’s affinity for sweet flavors—they also take advantage of how well it works with big-flavored spices. In this case, chili powder, cumin and cayenne pepper. Continue reading “Making the most of a great year for peaches: Spicy pork chops with balsamic peaches” →

Healthy eating with your iPhone, grilling tips for the 4th and all the Blue Kitchen that’s fit to print

A Blue Kitchen round-up: Look and Taste launches an iPhone app for healthy eating, award-winning grill master Neil Strawder shares his secrets and a Blue Kitchen recipe is featured in the Chicago Sun-Times. How cool is that?

look-taste-iphone-app Okay, a Luddite confession here. My cell phone is a phone. It makes calls, takes messages and, when absolutely necessary, sends text messages. No camera, no Internet connection and certainly no “apps” [as in applications—the kids are crazy for them].

Apple’s iPhone is a veritable playground for apps, as my iPhone-wielding colleagues are only too willing to demonstrate. Essentially, Apple created a certain number of apps, then told independent Web developers to go nuts. And nuts they went. Continue reading “Healthy eating with your iPhone, grilling tips for the 4th and all the Blue Kitchen that’s fit to print” →